Chapter Sixty-Two:
He'd forgotten he was surrounded by people who wanted him dead as much as they wanted her to live. He'd forgotten that the spell might not work and he'd be alone in a world without her. He'd forgotten all of that, when she'd touched him.
Touched. Him.
She could touch him, and he could touch her. Even now he kept a firm grasp on her hand absorbing the enormity of that fact.
He could touch her. He could hold her and love her, if only she survived the next few hours.
"Her vitals are stabilizing." Aeva said, pulling him back to the moment. A collective sigh of relief traveled around the room. Sephiroth could only nod, before his gaze sought Elio. Still safe. One hour left. He discreetly assessed the threat in the room. Cid had joined them, standing with ramrod stiffness by the door, Barret had never lowered his gun all the way and Cloud stood with clenched fists on Caia's other side.
"Stable?" Cloud asked and Aeva nodded.
"I'm not saying we're completely in the clear, but she's no longer seconds away from death. I'll monitor her closely."
"Elio?" Sephiroth said, ignoring Cloud's scowl. Nothing was moving him from this room.
"He's stable too." A small smile from his brilliant daughter. "We have a few minutes to breathe."
"Good." Cid said. "Explain."
No one spoke, unsure where to begin. But before they could decide, Caia's flesh pebbled and she began to shake.
"She's shivering." Sephiroth said, standing. And she was. Violently.
"No, that's good! Blankets." Aeva said and began opening cupboards until Cid took pity and told her where to look.
While she was doing that, Sephiroth began to turn Caia onto her side, making sure she could still see Elio when she woke.
Cloud was on him in a second, grabbing his wrist to stop him. "What are you doing?" he hissed.
Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. "Turning her. If she's on her side, she can curl her wing around herself. Feathers are very insulating."
Cloud didn't move for several long seconds. If he kept clenching his jaw like that, it was going to cramp. Finally, he nodded and helped support her wing as they turned her. Aeva met them with blankets and they draped them over her body, tucking them tight. When they were finished, Caia curled, tucking her wing tight around herself and slept on.
"Vital check?" Cloud insisted and Aeva complied, assuring him they were still improving.
They'd started talking again. Cloud's friends. Demanding answers and insisting Sephiroth leave the ship.
He ignored them, wetting a washcloth and kneeling by Caia's face. She couldn't meet her son with blood on her face and hair. Aeva knelt beside him as he cleaned her with gentle strokes. She bumped him with her shoulder.
"Just so long as you know you owe me a hug when we're alone," she said so low that only he would hear her over the voices.
She made him smile. He'd missed her so much. He was so proud of her. "Deal. And I owe you about ten years of birthday gifts."
A soft laugh as she pointed to a blood drop on Caia's ear. Then her voice grew serious. "Dad. You're alive. You're here. It's the greatest gift you could have ever given me." And she stood abruptly, or as abruptly as her pregnant belly would allow, and began to check momma and baby's vitals again.
He pulled one hand out of the blanket cocoon at a time, cleaning the blood off, then tucking her back in. She was no longer shivering and her breathing was slowly returning to normal.
He rinsed the rag and started on her hair. It was mostly clean, but a few curls around her face had blood on them. He cleaned the blood out, then twirled the curl around his finger like she always did. It was soothing and he savored the contact with her. He was so lost in her, it took him a second to realize she'd opened her eyes.
Sephiroth was playing with her hair. He was so focused on twirling and scrunching, it took him a moment to realize she watched him. There were angry voices behind her, but she ignored them. Who knew how long he could stay? She finally wasn't so cold, maybe she could say more than a few words now.
"What are you doing?" She asked. Was that her voice? She could barely hear herself, but Sephiroth didn't have any trouble understanding her.
A slow, playful smile she'd never get tired of seeing.
"You have blood in your hair. I'm cleaning it out."
Strange man. "But why?"
"You shouldn't have to hold your son with blood in your hair."
Her eyes found Elio behind him, safe and alive, but still suspended in mako. She couldn't see the timer from here.
"I won't live long enough to hold my son again," she said, the sorrow of that reality taking her breath away.
"Of course you will." The Sephiroth apparition set down the rag he'd been using, and cupped her nape, threading his fingers through her hair. It felt good, and for a moment she allowed herself to believe it was real. "You're not dying today wildcat and in—" he glanced over his shoulder "—an hour and twenty minutes you will hold Elio again."
Oh how she wanted to believe that. But she knew better than to hope. Maybe, just maybe, she'd live long enough to hold him one more time.
"How long can you stay?" The room was getting dark again. She was so tired.
"As long as you want."
"Joke's on you, general. I never want you to leave." Had her voice slurred a bit?
"Then I never will."
Caia fell back asleep and Sephiroth watched her with a smile. She would be okay. He had no doubt of that now. Next to him, Aeva performed another scan, and gave him a nod. She was sleeping peacefully, her body temperature and blood pressure slowly returning to normal.
The arguing voices had died down when Caia had awoken and they stayed silent now. He glanced around the room, but did not move from his position by Caia's bed.
"Why isn't she afraid of you?" Barret demanded.
"Caia's never been afraid of me," he said, realizing it was true. She'd been angry, annoyed, and determined when they'd first been thrust together, but she'd never been afraid.
"What he means," Cloud began. "Is why isn't she surprised to see you?"
"She thinks we're speaking mind-to-mind, that I'm projecting to her from the Lifestream."
"She told you that?" Tifa asked.
"She didn't have to. I know how she thinks."
Cid snorted, crossing his arms. "You're the soul that's been sharing her body this whole time. And here I thought she was just losing her marbles." He jutted his chin. "There. She's alive. You did your job. Now get off my ship."
"And chase him all over the continent again? Forget it. He stays." Cloud said, with a shake of his head.
Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. The only people he'd ever cared deeply for were in this room. He wasn't going anywhere. He let them talk, let them think they had control. Meanwhile, he kept a hand on Caia's hair, and a watchful eye on Elio's countdown timer.
"How are you here?" Tifa asked softly, not looking at him directly. She'd been willing to meet him halfway when he'd been with Caia, but having his own visage must be more difficult. Not that he could blame her.
Still processing the event himself, he didn't particularly feel like sharing something so private with so many people. He shrugged. "Long story."
"We've got time." Cid insisted.
"I lack the inclination," he said, earning a scowl from Cid, a frown from Tifa, and a coughed laugh from his daughter.
"I remember you being more chatty." Barret said with narrowed eyes.
It was apparently one comment too far, because Aeva stormed around the gurney and shook a finger at him.
"You remember Jenova being chatty," she snapped. "My father has always been a man of few words."
If the situation weren't so fraught with tension, the looks on his and Cid's face would have been funny. Cloud dropped his forehead into his hands with a sigh.
"Father?" Barret stuttered. "And the mother? DId he kill her too?"
"Barret—" Cloud began, but Aeva wasn't done.
"Shinra," she spat the word with all the hatred that was in her heart. "Killed my parents. They mattered so little to them, they didn't even bother to record their names before wiping them from existence!" Her chest heaved. Sephiroth stood.
"Aeva." He said her name gently, but his stubborn daughter ignored him.
"When I finally escaped, they sent their best to retrieve their "asset". But he didn't take me back. And I will not stand here and allow you to speak to him like this! No matter what you think he might have done to you."
"Aeva." He switched to the tongue of Wutai, hoping she still remembered it. "They have a right to be angry."
She turned towards him, eyes shimmering with unshed tears. "We all lost something. Their anger is at the wrong person." She answered in the same tongue. That she still cared for him, after what he'd done to her. It was enough.
"I can assure you it isn't." He held out his hand. Too much stress wasn't good for her and the baby. He switched to the common tongue. "Want me to check your vitals?"
A wet laugh, and she slid her hand into his and let him pull her into a hug. Alive. He was alive. They could figure out the rest later.
Aeva pulled away a minute later with a hand on her belly. "Just Braxton Hicks," she said, like they all knew what that was. "Crying can cause them. I'm fine. Be right back." And she waddled stiffly to the bathroom at the back of the med bay.
He glanced at Elio, fifty-five minutes, and Caia, still sleeping peacefully, before facing the rest of the room again.
Barret had finally lowered his gun. He looked at Sephiroth. Really looked at him and spoke in a daze. "You adopted an orphaned girl."
It hadn't been a question, but even his poor people skills told him something unusual was happening here, so he nodded. "Yes."
Minutes stretched, then Barret nodded. "Right. Cloud, I'll be in the hallway, if you need me." He brushed past Vincent, who still leaned in the doorway, and vanished from sight. Vincent straightened and followed him out the door.
Cid pulled a cigarette from his pocket, but didn't light it. "You good?" He said to Cloud.
"No. But I'm good with you leaving the room."
Cid didn't waste words arguing, just nodded and said, "Where to? Edge?"
"Ye—"
"Wait. Caia had several trackers when we escaped. We need to assume Elio does too."
"Trackers? What kind of person puts trackers on a baby?" Tifa asked, horrified. Sephiroth raised an eyebrow. "Oh, no, I heard it." Tifa added, leaning her head back against the wall. "The kind who kidnaps and experiments on a baby to begin with."
"So you want me to fly lazy circles around the ocean until we know? Can I refuel in Wutai? Or would that mess everything up too much?"
"It's logical we would refuel in Wutai. Someone tracking us wouldn't need the trackers for that. But we shouldn't linger." Sephiroth said.
Cid looked at Cloud and left when he received a nod of confirmation. It was just him, Cloud, and Tifa now. Aeva joined them a few moments later, and checked Caia's vitals again.
"She's doing really well." She said, as Sephiroth came back around the bed to Caia's front. "If this continues I can wake her up when we wake Elio."
"And if she doesn't?" Cloud asked.
"I'll still tuck Elio next to her. He needs to be close to his mother."
"She'll wake." Tifa said. "I'm sure of it. She's waited for him so long." She looked at Cloud. "In all the confusion, we never heard what happened. What did you find out?"
Cloud spoke quietly, with no wasted words, and detailed the basics of what Gray had told them. Thankfully he left out the part about Elio's patronage, and how long they'd tortured the doctor. Tifa could piece that part together herself.
When he got to the part about Niro finding a buyer for the baby, Tifa gasped and Aeva let out a scream of outrage.
"Tell me someone killed that asshole!" Aeva said.
"Yes. Did Caia kill him after I was gone?" Sephiroth added.
A tight nod. "Oh she killed him all right."
"You're sure?"
"She stabbed, eviscerated, and beheaded him, so, yeah. Pretty sure."
Sephiroth looked down at Caia sleeping peacefully and couldn't help his smile. His wildcat was a feral thing.
"You're impressed." Cloud said, with a roll of his eyes.
"You aren't? What wouldn't you do to a person who threatened your family?"
Cloud inclined his head.
"But with Niro dead, we won't know who he was trying to sell Elio to." Tifa said.
"No. But we figured Rufus Shinra to be a solid lead."
Tifa opened her mouth, then closed it. None of them had any doubt of Rufus Shinra's morals.
"Rufus Shinra? He's still alive?" Aeva said. She gave her father a pointed look. "Maybe you should remedy that."
"If he tries to hurt Elio, I won't have to." Caia would take care of him, and they'd never find his body. Stabbed, eviscerated, and beheaded!? Rufus didn't stand a chance if he thought for even a second of taking Elio from her. "He probably doesn't know the baby in question is Caia's baby, though, so we have time."
"I don't get it. Why would Niro want Elio in the first place? And why did he think he could sell him?" Tifa said, stretching her legs out and crossing her ankles. She looked at him, then at Cloud. Caia's brother met his eyes, the silent question there surprising Sephiroth. He was surprised Cloud hadn't revealed all Gray told them already.
He gave a slight shake of his head in answer. He wasn't certain he believed Gray anyway. Or at least, he didn't hope to believe her. If it was too good to be true…it usually wasn't.
Even with his superior hearing, he almost missed it. The slightest change in breathing, he looked down at Caia with a frown, but she was already moving.