The Echo
Chapter 4: Sand

I watched as she hopped off one of the hovers that were returning from the Northern Expanse, distracting me from my reports. She had a bag slung over her shoulder, and was scowling. She had a piece of rough cloth wrapped around her forearm. I frowned with concern when I saw that part of the cloth was bright red and wet looking under the sun. She made her way slowly to the piles where we separated the parts that had been found on the digs and pulled open her bag, pulling parts out and analyzing them critically, blowing her bangs out of her eyes moodily.

"Gippal? You okay?" Nhadala pulled her goggles down and stared at me for a few minutes.

"Do workers often come back from the field bleeding?" I asked, grinning cheekily. "That could cost me a lot of money, you know…"

She followed my gaze and looked toward where Rikku was tossing parts around. "No… but then again, Rikku's a bit more adventurous than your typical digger, isn't she?"

I nodded. "Yeah, she is. I'll finish all the paperwork up later, okay? I need to get started on interviewing the candidates for transfer." Nhadala nodded and turned swiftly, yelling at the hover operators. I walked over to where Rikku was standing, my hands in my pockets.

"You're hurt." She glanced over at me with a sigh.

"I know… it's not a big deal, I'll take care of it once I'm finished getting everything done…" She turned back to the piles and tossed some more parts into a pile.

"C'mere, Cid's girl. You can do this later." I grabbed her hand and pulled her off toward the medical tent, not allowing her to protest. "What got you?"

"One of those annoying little wolf things… I didn't even see it coming! I kicked its ass, of course, but… it got the first strike." She sighed and winced as she pulled at the makeshift bandage, before looking up at me confusedly. "Why didn't you tell me you were going to be on the island today?"

I shrugged with a grin, holding the flap of the medical tent open for her. She went in and sat in one of the fold-out chairs, poking at her wound as I fished around for a first aid kit. "Didn't wanna."

I sat next to her, opening the lid of the little box that held basic medical supplies. I carefully untied the cloth and pulled it away from her sticky wound, whistling. She sighed heavily. "I can take care of it, Gippal, don't worry about it."

I shook my head and soaked a cloth with a cleansing solution. "Just… just let me take care of you for a minute, okay?" She rolled her eyes at me and held out her arm. "Sit still," I warned, before pressing the cloth into the wound. She whimpered, but she'd been healed enough in all her travels to know what not to do. Once the initial sting was over, I began to clean it more thoroughly. She didn't seem surprised at my gentle touch; then again, she looked too distracted to notice.

"Hey, can I ask you a question?" I asked quietly, rubbing ointment gently into the wound.

"You just did." She smirked quietly, staring at the opposite wall.

"Shush. I'm serious." She sighed and nodded, grimacing slightly from the ointment's fresh sting. "Why didn't you send in a transfer application to Djose?"

"Because, I haven't been here that long. Why would you transfer me to Djose so quickly?" She glanced at me, looking subdued.

"First, because you are one of the best mechanics I've ever known. Second, I know you want a pay raise." She grinned at me as I placed a bandage over the bite mark, careful not to touch the broken skin. "And third… because I want to be able to see you whenever I want." I grinned at her and she grinned back.

"… I guess those are good reasons." The two of us stood, and I took her hand, pulling her to me. She closed her eyes willingly, all of her moodiness gone. I smiled as our lips met, and kissed her sweetly before giving her a warm hug.

"Of course they are. And that's why I'm taking you back to Djose when I leave, whether you want to go or not!"

She laughed and hugged me back. "You know I want to go, Gippal…"

"Of course you do!"

I shook my head, and averted my gaze from the medical tent that it had come to rest on. After a full day of sorting through the workers to find those who deserved to be moved up in the ranks, or those who deserved a pay raise, or those who needed to join my team in Djose, and even for those who needed to be fired, I was exhausted. Nhadala hadn't been any help; sandstorms had been rolling through Bikanel for the past few days, and power to key dig sites around the island was continually failing. Nhadala was running around like a crazy chocobo trying to keep things on schedule.

"Gippal, sir… Nhadala is on the CommSphere, she says she needs you at the Southern Expanse base camp. All her mechanics were injured during the sandstorm this morning, and she can't handle the power outages alone with a bunch of novices." I sighed heavily and waved the worker off with a nod.

I sighed heavily. I want to go home… I was miserable here. But then again, I was miserable and lonely back in Djose, too. As I started one of the personal hovers and strapped myself in, I glanced back at the medical tent, trying not to remember how simple things had once been, and how complicated they were now.

I leaned back in my old chair, relaxing as Brother steered us toward Bikanel. The sun was shining down inside the bridge, and I felt as if it were the old times, when Brother, Buddy, Shinra, and I had been the only people on the Celsius, wandering Spira as the newly formed group called the Gullwings. The only thing that was new was the fact that it was just Brother and I now… and Telan, of course.

It was strange to listen to the quiet calm that had settled over the bridge. The hum of the engines was lulling me to sleep, slowly but surely. Brother continually glanced at me, a strangely protective look on his face.

"Isn't it lonely without all of us onboard?" I asked him, quietly, staring out at the endless sky in front of us.

He shrugged and pressed a few buttons, putting the ship on autopilot. "I suppose. Most of the time I have a few odd crew members around, but… I dropped them off before I came to get you."

"Oh…" I took a deep breath, looking curiously up at him. "Why?"

"I thought you could use the quiet." He made his way out of the pilot seat and sat on the floor next to me, watching the clouds zip past.

I smiled and sat up slightly, gently cradling Telan as I did so. "Dryhg oui, Brother."

He held out his hands and nodded to Telan. "May I hold her?" he asked, hesitant.

I blinked at him, surprised, before handing her to him. "Of course you can."

It was strange to see my brother holding a baby, especially since she was mine. I'd always thought that he'd beat me to becoming a parent. He was gentle with her, and he smiled as she sleepily wrapped her hand around his index finger. "She's still so little," he sighed, glancing up at me.

I nodded. "Yeah… was she… was she really quiet back in Luca? While I was still in the coma?"

He nodded. "I thought she was. I haven't been around babies much, but everyone else said she was the quietest newborn they'd ever seen. With you and Gippal as her parents… I was expecting her to be loud."

I grinned and sighed softly. "She's loud when she wants to be." Brother's eyes were questioning as I met them. "She won't stop crying for me, Brother, and it's driving me insane."

"Noise has never bothered you before."

I stared out the window at the sky. "It's not the noise. It's the guilt and the feelings of failure I get when I can't make her feel better. I'm her mother, I'm supposed to be able to make her feel better. But… sometimes it feels like she just doesn't want me."

"Of course she wants you, Rikku…" My brother reached over and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. I took a deep breath.

"Sometimes, yeah. But other times, she wants Gippal… and it's my fault he isn't there."

"Rikku, she's an infant, you can't possibly know what she wants."

I poked a few buttons on the little navigation screen in front of me before looking over at the two of them. "I'm her mother. That's my job."

He sighed heavily and stood, gently taking Telan with him back to the pilot's seat. "It sounds like an impossible job to me."

Leaning back in my chair, I sighed heavily and closed my eyes. "Yeah, me too…" I whispered.

Once the Celsius landed outside of the main camp in Bikanel, I stepped off the ramp and into the comforting sands of home. Nothing had changed, really, except that the dunes nearby had shifted. Brother had offered to watch Telan while I went to search for Gippal, and I'd taken him up on it. For a moment, I simply stood and breathed in the hot desert air, letting the sun beat down upon me. Then, I gathered my courage and I began to walk towards Nhadala's tent. I was sure that Gippal was out doing inspections, and Nhadala would know exactly where I needed to go.

Hesitantly, I walked inside, glancing around. Nhadala was nowhere to be seen; instead, a blond man sat in the chair behind her desk. "Can I help you, miss?"

I tentatively sat in the chair in front of the desk. "Is Nhadala in the camp?"

He shook his head and pointed to the map. "She was called down to the Southern Expanse yesterday, actually. They're having a big problem with sandstorms right now." He looked at me a bit more carefully. "Rikku, isn't it?"

I nodded absently. "You wouldn't happen to know where the Machine Faction leader is at the moment, would you? I'm here to see him… I just thought Nhadala might be able to help me locate him."

He grimaced and shrugged. "He got called down there this morning to help Nhadala fix everything up. All the journeyman mechanics out there were caught in the storm this morning, and Nhadala was having some problems that the novices couldn't help her with."

I sighed heavily and stood. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He began to shift through some papers on the desk as I left the tent.

Brother stood on the ramp of the Celsius as I walked back to it. "Vydran called. He'll be here in a while, apparently he and Buddy are on the way back from the Eastern Expanse. He wants to see you and Telan."

I shook my head. "I don't know if the two of us will still be here. Gippal is in the Southern Expanse."

He sighed and pointed across the camp; a man stood near the hovers, talking to a group of diggers. "Go and talk to him. Try and get a transport to the Southern Expanse."

"Okay… can't you take us there?" I looked at him questioningly.

"No, the sandstorms are already bad enough. They don't want any airships going overhead to make it worse." I groaned and walked toward the man. It was strange to be back here, in the desert. Everyone I'd known while I worked here seemed to be gone.

As the group of diggers walked away dejectedly, I approached the hover-man. "Hi, um, I need to get to the Southern Expanse."

He shook his head gruffly, reaching for a clipboard. "Sorry, lady, no can do."

"…excuse me?"

"No."

I took a deep breath, counting slowly to ten before I spoke to him again. "I used to work here, you know, I was a digging supervisor. I was also a journeyman mechanic out at Djose, and… I happen to be Cid's daughter. So you might as well just let me through. I'm not just some digger, trying to get through to the site that actually pays off."

The man glanced down at me impatiently. "Yeah, I know who you are. And I also know that if I let you take a transport out in the middle of a level 4 sandstorm, Nhadala would have my head. All traffic toward the Southern Expanse is being held at this point in time. Once the storm dies down, I'll be more than happy to let you through, but for now… no."

He walked away from me, and I stomped my foot angrily, something I hadn't done for quite awhile. "Fine… be that way… idiot."

I stormed back onto the Celsius and into the bridge. Brother looked back at me with an amused look on his face. "Trying to break through the floor?"

"No… well… not on purpose." I slumped and sat in Shinra's old chair. "So much for that plan."

"You'll get to him sooner or later. Just be patient. Hang out on the Celsius tonight, it'll be fun."

I sighed and looked over at him, pouting slightly. "Just like old times?"

He grinned and laughed. "Yes, sister, just like old times."

I grinned as I sipped from one of the glasses of… something… that Barkeep had set in front of me. My father had asked Buddy to watch Telan for a few hours. Then he'd asked Barkeep for a shot.

The three of us, Cid, Brother, and I, sat around one of the little tables in the cabin of the Celsius. Cid slammed his hand down on the table, laughing heartily as Brother told us a joke he'd heard from a man in Guadosalam. It was a stupid joke… but at that moment, it was hilarious.

"Rikku, what's that you're drinking?" my father asked, peering closely at my shot glass. I held it up to my lips and winked, shrugging, a funny grin on my face.

"Ask the blue dude…" I said, pointing over at the bar. "It's good stuff, whatever it is."

Brother grabbed the shot from my hands and took a little sip. I pointed and laughed as his face screwed up. "Sour…" he whispered, grimacing as he set the glass down.

I couldn't help but think about those nights when all of us (except Shinra) would come down to the bar and have a great time together. Yuna and I would take turns making ourselves look like fools on the little wooden stage in the corner… Brother would get so drunk that he'd stand up and pretend to be a back-up dancer. Picking up one of the other glasses in front of me, I looked over at him and snorted down into my drink.

"What?" he asked, laughing at me. I just giggled hopelessly into the glass, slumped forward on the table.

"You look ridiculous… you're falling off your chair…" He looked down and slipped off a little further, and I slapped my hands on the tabletop, laughing loudly.

"Well, you're no better! Rikku… you're drunk!"

"I know!" I cried loudly, laughing even harder.

Cid, who apparently had taken my suggestion and gone to 'ask the blue dude' about the drink, came back with a bottle of vodka and more clean shot glasses, and set them down in the middle of the table. "Nothing like liquor to take your mind off your troubles…"

Once he'd handed over the little shot glasses, full to the brim with the finest vodka money could buy, he lifted his own. "Cheers!" The first little shot was fun. The fourth was even more fun.

By the end of the night, the whole of the airship rang with our drunken laughter… it was the first time I'd felt 'just like old times' in a long, long while.

The next afternoon, the sandstorm (and my headache) had finally cleared. I'd taken Telan and found a suitable transport vehicle, and by sundown, we made it to the Southern Expanse.

Carefully, I plucked my daughter from her carry seat in the back of the enclosed transport. Looking around at the campsite, I knew the man had been right not to let us through the night before… the place was trashed. I was worried.

Nhadala stood just ahead, talking to a group of novice mechanics. I recognized a few and grinned before approaching her.

"Nhadala!"

She turned and smiled widely. "Rikku? What are you doing here? And with the baby, no less?"

"I'm looking for her father, actually…" I sighed, holding my child tightly, looking around the camp. "They told me he was here…"

She frowned. "You… you just missed him, actually. He took a transport to the dock not two hours ago. He should be on board the ship already, and it'll dock at the Moonflow by midnight, if all goes well."

I stared at her for a moment, not believing my ears. "Why… why did he leave?"

"He said he wanted to go home." She shrugged, her face apologetic. I nodded my thanks and walked back to my transport, cuddling Telan close.

"Looks like we're going to have to chase Daddy a little longer, sweetie…"

Thanks so much for reading and reviewing! Thanks to FairyIce for beta!

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