~ Watch Me ~

Return of the Suit

Reno had been calling insistently for the better half of the day. Rose's phone ringing almost every half hour, she had been forced to switch her cell to silent.

"Go away!" She hissed at it, when the screen lit up for what felt like the thousandth time.

She knew what it was about, there was only one thing that could have made Reno this insatiable.

Ben. The boy from the warehouse.

When Rose had uncovered that Barbara was Ben's sister, she had worried about the repercussions visiting his house would incur. Obviously it must have had some kind of effect, because Reno had been trying to get hold of her all day.

Maybe he's just following up on that date?

No. She knew it was more serious than that. To call every every thirty minutes was bordering on stalker, even for Reno. Rose had taken to hiding in the Shinra visitor's museum, her room clearly being too obvious a shelter. She'd have ventured outside of HQ, had it not been for the fact she needed to prepare for her deployment to Wutai the following morning. The museum offered some rarely found quiet within the Shinra building, and as Rose didn't have the patience to deal with one of Reno's mind numbing interrogations, she'd deduced it was the best place for her – for the time being. It was easy to distract herself amongst the memorabilia, and advancing tech.

Unfortunately, fate had a different idea.

"You know, princess, you're not exactly the easiest to pin down. It's almost like you're trying to avoid me or something."

Rose shot up from the newspaper article she'd been reading. Disappointment clear on her features.

She sighed. "Hello, Reno."

The Turk smirked, his smile spreading eagerly from ear to ear. He looked around. "Enjoying the Shinra experience?"

"I was." She said pointedly, following his gaze to the giant gold statue of President Shinra himself. She quirked a brow. "That' a bit much though."

Reno shrugged. "I dunno. If I ruled the world, I'd probably have a gold statute of me made too."

"Thank the heavens for small mercies." Rose replied flatly, dragging her feet as she moved subtly towards the exit. "President Reno doesn't exactly have the same ring to it."

She'd almost made it passed him, when a thin metal rod shot out in front of her face.

"Hold it." He ordered. "We haven't had a chance to talk."

Rose smiled darkly. "We can talk by your hospital bed, if you don't get your little stick-thing out of my face."

A flash of white cut across Reno's features. "It's not the size, princess, it's how you use it." He sneered, but ultimately did as she asked, leaning the rod back casually against his shoulder. He sighed. "Y'know what I might want to talk to you about?"

She shrugged. "I can hazard a guess."

"Well, I'll give you a clue. It's not because you didn't get in touch after the heart warming 'Get Well Soon' card, I sent you. I've moved on."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Oh good."

He ignored her. "But it does have something to do with a little mutual friend of ours. You think you're with me yet?"

"The boy from the warehouse?"

Reno clicked his fingers. "Got it in one."

Rose folded her arms. "What's happened, you lost him or something?"

Rose knew she was probably pushing her luck, but the whole thing had been forced upon her in the first place, there was no way in hell she was taking any responsibility for anything that had gone wrong with it.

"Oh no-no." Reno laughed darkly, dramatically shaking his head. "We haven't done anything. You and your SOLDIER big bro put the spooks up him, and now the kids gone AWOL."

Rose levelled her gaze. "So you have lost him."

"Because you interfered."

"Interfered?" She scoffed darkly. "First of all, I had no idea he even lived there. Second of all, if you guys hadn't fucked up your job in the first place, you wouldn't have had to bring me and Zack in on this at all. Far as I'm concerned, this is your problem."

She turned on her heels.

"And if he gives himself away to his informant?"

Rose froze, glaring back over her shoulder. Reno looked very pleased with himself.

"What do you mean?"

Reno shrugged dismissively. "I mean, if his informant finds out that he's on our radar... A person like that... what do you think they'll do?"

Rose stared. "You don't know that they'll hurt him."

"Why not? Would be the smartest thing to do. The kid could identify them if we bring him in."

She frowned. "You said yourself, there's every chance he doesn't have a clue who he's even getting his intel from."

"But is that a gamble you're willing to take?"

Rose hesitated, torn. Reno wasn't playing fair, he was coaxing her to feel culpable. Why couldn't he just fix this mess himself?

"I'm shipping out to Wutai tomorrow morning. I don't know what it is you think I can do?"

"I'm glad you asked." He steered forward, wrapping his arm eagerly across her shoulders. "We need you to talk to the sister – she might know where he likes to hide out. Makes things real easy for us."

Glaring, Rose shrugged him off. "Talk to her yourself."

Reno sighed loudly. "C'mon, Rose. It's one little phone call. If we go in, she'll clam up, or it'll make the situation worse. She trusts you."

"Yeah, and you want me to break that trust." Rose growled darkly, folding her arms, and sizing him up with narrowed eyes. She was angry he was putting her in this situation, but she also didn't want any harm to come to the kid, especially when it was her fault he'd fled, intentional or no. She shook her head defeatedly. "This is the last time I'm getting involved in this."

Reno put his hands up in mock surrender. "The very last."

Rose took her phone from her pocket. "I mean it, Reno."

She dialled Barbara's number, switching it onto loud speaker. After several rings, she thought it wasn't going to connect, and then finally she heard an answering click.

"Hello?" It was Barbara. She sounded like she'd been crying.

"Hi, Barb. It's Rose. I just called to say, um..." She hadn't thought this far ahead. "To say that I'm sorry we couldn't stay longer the other night. Angeal had to get back. Are you... are you okay?"

Barbara was definitely sobbing now.

"R-Rose? I'm sorry, n-now's not a great time."

"Why, what's happened?"

More sobbing.

"It's my Dad. He's been taken ill, they think it's a h-heart attack."

Rose wanted to kick herself. Could this situation possibly get any worse?

"Oh god." She breathed. "Barb, I'm so sorry. Is there anything I can do?"

The words were meant, and they were out before she could stop them, even if the weren't entirely appropriate for the situation.

"N-no, thank you, Rose. It's very kind of you." She paused to sniff. "It's just all so unexpected. Dad really looks after himself, he won't even touch red meat. He was just eating lunch at work, and he suddenly keeled over."

Tears. Lots more tears. Rose had no idea what to say. Luckily, or unluckily, depending on how you looked at it, Barbara carried on.

"To make things worse, we've been trying to get hold of Ben – my brother, y'know, the boy in photo you pointed out – and we can't even reach him to let him know. We know roughly where he is, but Mom and I aren't allowed into the slums. Dad says it isn't safe. Anyway, we can't exactly go running around Sector 5, at a time like this, can we?"

Rose shook her head. "No. No you can't." She looked toward Reno, miming an impolite gesture in his direction, and then, hating herself, she added. "I know some people who could find him for you. Let him know to get home?"

A pause. "You can do that?"

"Of course." Rose smiled kindly. "They don't have anything better to do. Lazy asses spend most of their time sat on their butts."

Reno had the nerve to look mildly offended, but Rose waved him off, focused on deciphering Barbara's sniffles.

"Rose, thank you so much. That's really so nice of you. Thank you."

"No worries. Take care. I hope your Dad's okay. You should hear from Ben soon."

Rose ended the call, a slow daunting sensation, tunnelling it's way into her belly. She looked at Reno.

"Strange her Dad should fall ill so suddenly like that." She said, a frown twisting her pretty features. "It's enough to scare any family."

Reno shrugged. "If you say so. Often handy though, y'know, when you need to bring people together."

Rose stared at him outraged. Were there no depths to which Turks wouldn't sink to?

"Did you poison Barbara's Dad?"

Reno shook his head. "Princess, princess, what do you take me for? It was Rude."

"What! Do you have no line you won't cross!?"

Reno suddenly looked very uncomfortable. Rose's scrutiny clearly doing nothing good for his conscience. He waved her off.

"Look, we needed to give the kid a reason to slither out of the cracks, or we were never going to find him. We knew he'd be in the slums, but we didn't have time to hunt him down sector by sector. We just don't have the resources. Now, thanks to you, we know where to find the little worm, and can go under the guise as messengers."

Rose shook her head in disbelief. "His Dad could die, Reno."

"Naaa." He sighed dismissively, yet suddenly very keen to head towards the exit. "He'll be fine in a few days – probably."

Rose felt her mouth drop open. Kunsel was right, you couldn't trust a Turk. She bristled angrily, glaring daggers into his back.

"You better not make this situation worse while I'm gone, Reno!"

"I thought you wanted nothing more to do with it?" He called back over his shoulder. His reply was met with stern silence, and he laughed triumphantly. "See ya later, princess! Have fun in Wutai. Try not to get yourself killed."

R&R!

I am so sorry for the delay! I've been suffering with seriously bad headaches all week, and I had to just force myself to get this chapter up. Thank you for your patience. Bit of a bridging chapter I know, but I'm excited to send Rose to Wutai! Thank you for all the follows, favs and reviews! I'm off to reply to them now. Take care x x x