Zack was in the IC unit for quite a while, he had physical therapy in the mornings and the rest of the day to watch TV. Honestly, the lack of being able to do something was driving Zack up a wall with boredom. He sat in bed rubbing his legs, they were sore from the lack of movement and now that he was putting them back to work he had to relearn how to walk. It wasn't hard for him to remember but it hurt when he did, he also didn't like the slowness of his therapist so he decided that he would do a squat while she wasn't looking and found it incredibly difficult. Life was going to be extremely hard for him until he could be back into SOLDIER fitness, and from the looks of it, it was going to take a while for that to happen.
The months past and the routines continued, it wasn't long till Zack was jogging on the treadmill. Some of the therapists were amazed at his recovery, it had been a long time since they had to take care of a SOLDIER. Zack was happy that his stamina hadn't decreased much since he was admitted to the hospital, he looked at the therapists from time to time and could see the look of amazement on their faces. They monitored his pulse, respirations, and speed. They even tried to see if inclining the treadmill would do anything and nothing still happened, only one therapist had noticed that Zack was slowly increasing the speed of the treadmill. He wanted to know how much he could take before it was too much, it wasn't until he reached the max that he started to break a sweat and loose the ability to breath. He simply pulled the safety key from the machine and slowed down with the machine, he placed his hands on his knees and caught his breath which didn't take long.
"Well, how am I doing? Can I leave yet?" Zack looked at his main therapist with his hands on his well defined hips and gave her a cocky smile.
"You are doing remarkably well and should be able to leave soon. You can't just sign yourself out Zack, we have to call someone to come get you so we know that you will have somewhere to stay to finish recovering." She looked at him, his hair had grown a lot compared to his SOLDIER ID photo. That was also 5 years ago she thought.
"Who are you going to call? My parents don't live anywhere close and for all I know they think I am dead. Cloud and Tifa both think I am dead and I don't even know about Aerith. I have no one but myself." Zack shook his head.
"We will call the Strife residence and see if they would be willing to come pick you up and care for you for a little while. Who is Aerith? We can always give her a try as well." The therapist gave him a look as she wrote down a few things.
"Aerith Gainsborough, she lives in the Slums last I knew." Zack wasn't pleased with what he was hearing.
"We will see what we can arrange. For now you should go back to your room." She smiled and left to go make her phone calls. Several nurses came and escorted Zack out of the PT room, he hated being babysat but apparently it was needed. He found out that he was the only SOLDIER left besides Cloud, and Cloud didn't even make SOLDIER so he didn't really count.
He looked out his window and watched some of the other patients playing in the yard, they wouldn't let him do that either cause his eyes would give him away. He let out a big sigh before turning and beginning his squat routine.
Mean while with Cloud
He sat at the dinner table with Tifa and the kids, it wasn't often that they were able to do this but for once it was really nice. The bar opened in a couple hours and Barret was coming to take the kids to his place for the weekend. Cloud sadly had some deliveries that he had to make, he needed the money badly and what he was going to make wasn't going to be enough to cover some expenses.
It wasn't long till Barret showed up and took the more that excited kids, he smiled and waved goodbye to Cloud and Tifa before following after the kids. Soon it was going to be Cloud's turn to leave, he didn't like leaving Tifa behind for such a long time but it had to be done. He grabbed the keys to Fenrir just as his phone began to ring, he gave a sigh thinking the call was going to be either another delivery or Reno.
"Strife Delivery Service, Cloud speaking." His voice was irritated and seemed a little short.
"Mr. Strife? Hi, I am I am Diana one of the Physical Therapist here at the Hospital, I would just like to ask if you know a Zack Fair?" He voice was pleasant but seemed to wanting to get the introduction out of the way quickly.
"I use to, he is dead now. I watched him die." Cloud lightly snapped at her, he could feel the memories flood back as tears welled behind his eyes.
"Actually, that is something that I would like to talk to you about. Would you mind coming down so I can explain in person? I think you are going to want to see this for your self. My patient is getting rather restless and I would like to know that he is in good hands to keep him from re injuring his wounds." Diana's voice was soothing and a little worried about what the blondes answer was going to be.
"I have deliveries to make, I don't have time to come look at someone who claims he is Zack Fair reincarnated. Remember the Kadaj/Sephiroth incident?" Cloud's voice was extra sharp this time as his thumb rested on the 'end' key on his cell.
"It will take 5 minutes." She stated, she knew it would take less than that to see this was the real one.
Cloud sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He gave Tifa a gentle unknowing look as she stared at him trying to figure out what was going on. She hadn't admitted to Cloud that she fell in love with his best friend back in Nibelheim, she didn't think that she was ever gong to have to. Cloud looked at his keys once again before answering. "Fine, I'll be there in 5." with that he hung up before the therapist could respond.
"Another "Zack"?" Tifa dried her hand as she slowly approached Cloud.
"Probably. I probably shouldn't even go down there." Cloud sighed and he headed for the door.
"I'll come with you. The bar can wait a little bit." Tifa quickly caught up to him grabbing her own keys before locking the door behind her. They both didn't know what they were getting themselves into but they hoped the hospital got it right this time.
When they arrived at the hospital and went to the ICU floor, they didn't know why they were actually doing this. Zack had been dead for 5 years there is no way that he is alive. Diana came out and seen Cloud and Tifa, she gave them a gentle smile and walked over to them.
"He is down in the PT room. Follow me." She lead the way to where Zack was, they walked by a set of one way windows. All Cloud and Tifa seen was a man performing squats, his black spiky hair bounced with his movements and seemed a little unruly. The man who claimed he was Zack was built a lot like Zack, his arms were huge and his body was perfectly toned. Possibly too toned to be Zack. "This is the one room he hasn't really left for the past couple months, I haven't ever seen a man go from not walking in 5 years to sprinting on the treadmill with out breaking a sweat and doing over 100 reps of squats. His stamina is amazing and inspiring. I've never seen a SOLDIER recover from what he went through with only a few Mako injections a year and completely healing." She silenced herself realizing that they probably didn't care.
Tifa slowly approached the one way window and looked at him, Diana was right he wasn't even breaking a sweat and was performing like someone who hadn't been injured at all. She watched as Zack removed his shirt and they both could see the scars that coved his torso. They both looked at each other and then back at Zack. "He's alive" They said at the same time, this caused Zack to snap his head toward their direction and unintentionally make eye contact with Tifa. The brunet slowly swallowed as the ravens bright violet blue eyes stared a hole straight into her, the same way they did back in Nibelheim.
It wasn't long till Zack gathered his shirt and headed for the exit to go back to his room. Diana stopped him from completely leaving.
"Now what are you wanting me to do? Talk to the deaf, doesn't work." His voice was irritated as he rounded the corner and practically walked straight into Cloud and Tifa. His eyes increased in size as he stared at them in disbelief.
"Holy shit!" Tifa shouted as she looked Zack up and down, she had to admit that she was admiring what she was seeing but she was also surprised to see him.
Cloud was speechless, he couldn't think or move or do anything. Zack gave Tifa a cocky smile before looking at Cloud.
"Hey spikey, this isn't infantry anymore and I'm not 1st class any more. Relax buddy." Zack shook Cloud's shoulder trying to snap him out of his trance.
"Y-y-y-you're a-a-alive?!" Cloud didn't know how to approach this at all. He looked at the therapist. "Is Aerith alive too?! If you can bring Zack back you must be able to bring her back!" Cloud officially showed Tifa who he really loved, she had her suspicions but she wasn't 100% clear.
"No, Cloud. Aerith could not be saved. We tried but there was nothing we could do to save her. We didn't even think Zack was going to make it and he was worse off then she was." Diana tried to explain to a freaking out blonde.
"Wait! Aerith is dead?! Cloud I told you to protect her! You let her die!" Zack snapped at Cloud, the betrayal was too much for Zack to handle.
"Sephiroth killed her. Yes, she is dead and it wasn't all my fault!" Cloud shouted back.
"Zack! Calm down. There wasn't anything anyone could do to save her." Tifa tried to place a reassuring hand on Zack's shoulder only to have it shoved away and disregarded. She didn't know how to feel, she knew he was pissed and had more strength than the three of them combined if he were to attack from anger.
"Get them out of here!" Zack demanded and he tried to exit.
"No!" Tifa punched his face. "You are coming home with us. There is a lot that you need to be caught up on, and a lot that you need to know." Tifa's face was serious, her hand screamed in pain as she kept it in a fist prepared to hit him again. She was pretty sure she broke her hand on his face, guess it was a good thing she was in a hospital but she would rather use the materia at home to fix her hand.
Zack glared at her, his cheek did hurt and he was going to give her credit for being able to even hurt him. Only he feared that she was hurt more than he was. He noticed the shaking in her fist, he could tell it was in an extreme amount of pain so it had to be broken. "I guess if it gets me out of here I shouldn't complain."
"Exac-ctly." Tifa's voice cracked as she spoke again, she didn't expect her voice to betray her like it did. She watched Zack as he seemed to be carefully examining her hand.
"Cloud scribbled his name on a piece of paper. "Common Tifa, lets go." Cloud turned and walked in the direction that they came. Tifa followed and cradled her arm the whole way, Zack followed behind watching the two. Cloud didn't seem to really care that Tifa had just broke her hand against Zack's face, Zack felt horrible that he made her do it. He hated seeing her hurt and this time it was his fault not Sephiroth's.