(Chapter 5)
A Trip to the Doctor
A week passed by before Yuffie's clothes arrived. Vincent thought he may have been more excited than Yuffie to see the new outfits. Or maybe he was just relieved that he wouldn't have to see Yuffie in anymore creative forms of clothing.
"Can I see your phone, Vinny? Mine's dead and I wanna call Tifa and thank her." Yuffie said skipping into his bedroom wearing her knew red tank top and very short, red and white plaid shorts. He gave up on trying to lock her out as she'd just pick the lock and let herself in anyway. He sat in the far corner of his room near the window staring outside. He didn't even grant her with a glance as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed to her.
"Thanks a bunch, Vincey." She took his phone and jumped up on his bed, falling back against his velvety pillows. Vincent winced mentally. Had she honestly forgotten that my real name is indeed Vincent? He sighed and returned his attention to the scenery outside. He looked down and saw that there were about four cats in his yard. He could only recall there being one cat that hung around the yard. His eyes widened as he saw that there were now nearly eight cats in his yard. What the? He turned to Yuffie to ask her if she'd been putting food out, but at the same time it seemed Tifa had answered the phone and Yuffie began her conversation with her. So, he politely remained quiet.
"Hey, Teef! Thanks for the clothes! For not seeing me in so long, I'm surprised you still know my style!" Yuffie beamed. She sat up on the bed and played with her toes as she continued chatting with Tifa. The conversation was completely lighthearted and fun until the topic was mentioned.
"So, have you chosen a doctor yet? You need to be visiting one regularly. Because if you're serious about giving it up for adoption, its that much more important that your baby is especially healthy." Tifa said. Yuffie's smile faded and it was as if a dark cloud had entered the room.
"No…" Yuffie answered. She hadn't suffered any of the symptoms of pregnancy such as morning sickness or anything, and hadn't gained any weight as far as she noticed so it had been fairly easy pretending as if she wasn't pregnant at all.
"Let me talk to Vincent." Tifa said suddenly.
" 'kay." Yuffie said scooting off the bed and nudging Vincent's shoulder with his phone. "Tifa wants to talk to you."
Vincent took the phone. "Tifa."
"Vincent, you should be looking around for doctors in the area that can examine Yuffie regularly." She said.
"Where do you suppose I search for such a person?" Vincent asked in his normal calm voice. Yuffie stood behind him watching him. He sat stiffly in his chair, eyes fixed the window, his claw gently
scraping at the armrest. Her eyes traveled all the way down to his feet. She stifled a gasp. It was the first time in her life she had seen Vincent's bare feet. She giggled softly. It was funny how the simplest things could distract her from even the most serious topics.
"Try a phonebook." Tifa said as if that should have been the most obvious thing in the world. She forgot it was Vincent she was talking to.
He glared as if she could see him. "Very well." He grumbled. He sent a glance at Yuffie wondering what in the world she was giggling about.
"Ok then, get to it. See ya later!" Tifa quickly hung up on him. He hung up as well and looked at Yuffie then looked down at his feet.
"What?"
"Vinny, you need to clip those things! You could stab someone to death with toenails that long." Yuffie said pointing and laughing. He rolled his eyes and stood from his chair. He walked out of the room and Yuffie followed closely. "Where ya goin?"
Vincent didn't answer. He walked with her close behind all the way to his library where he found the most recent phonebook he owned which was still 3 years old. Yuffie hovered over his shoulder as he flipped through the yellow pages.
"No! Vincent! I'm not going to a male doctor!" Yuffie shrieked once Vincent pointed out a suitable doctor that travelled to Nibelhiem.
Vincent picked up his cell phone again ignoring her. Yuffie, with her quick reflexes, snatched the phone out of his hand and threw it. Vincent stood up quickly glaring down at Yuffie. "He's the only one in the area." Yuffie could sense he was seriously getting angry so she decided to shut up. He sent her one last hard glare before picking his cell phone up off the floor checking to see if it still functioned properly. It did and he called the doctor making Yuffie's first official appointment for the following week in the afternoon.
"Meanie!!" Yuffie stormed out of the room, but not before pulling a random book and throwing it off the shelf as if that was supposed to highly offend Vincent. Hmph, forget about happiness! I hope he dies of depression!
Yuffie spent the rest of the week ignoring Vincent and continuing to feed the stray cats outside. She became especially close with one female calico cat and started letting her inside. Vincent wasn't exactly paying too much attention to Yuffie either so she was able to sneak out and into town to buy some real cat food and a litter box.
"There you go, " Yuffie blanked noticing she didn't have a name for the cat. The cat purred as Yuffie stroked her looking over her body for something unique that she could use as a name. She noticed that all four of the calico's feet were black. "Bootsy"
Bootsy rubbed her head against Yuffie's leg and continued to purr before prancing off to her bowl full of cat food and eating.
There was a knock at her door. Yuffie frowned.
"What?!" It could only be Vincent, she thought.
Sure enough there stood the tall stoic man, dressed in his familiar get up.
"Your appointment's in an hour." He said not yet noticing his new housemate. He stood in the doorway arms crossed, face half buried in the collar of his cloak.
"Whatever." Yuffie said standing up and looking at herself in the mirror. She fluffed up her hair and smoothed down her shirt. Good to go. Since it took about a half hour to walk into the town, they'd be leaving pretty soon. Plus, you never know when you might run into a fiend or something on the way. She turned around to see Vincent frowning down at her new friend.
"Yuffie, what is that?"
"She, is Bootsy. A lot more company than you are." Yuffie said tossing her head up arrogantly and walking over to the corner of her room where her shoes were.
Vincent didn't respond. He couldn't exactly argue with that. He stepped aside as Yuffie approached the door and followed her out of the mansion only to take the lead again once they hit the road.
"You really need to think about getting a car or something or at least a bike like Cloud's." Yuffie said. Vincent sighed as he knew this would be the beginning of her complaints and they had only been walking for half a minute.
"Normally I have no need for transportation."
"Yeah well… you need to start getting out more." Yuffie crossed her arms and looked in the opposite direction. Vincent ignored her once more, keeping his eyes ahead.
They finally arrived at the doctor's office a bit early. Thankfully for the both of them, there was only one couple in the office and neither of them paid much attention to the famous hero that had just stepped into the room. Yuffie took a seat next to Vincent and twiddled her fingers nervously.
"Yuffie Kisaragi." A came a polite voice. Yuffie looked up and saw a female nurse standing there with a clip board in her hands. Yuffie tapped Vincent's gauntlet. He looked at her, dumbfounded.
"Come on." She said as she stood
"Yuffie, this has nothing to do with me." He said receiving an odd glance from the couple that sat across from them. It was then that the man recognized him and began to whisper to his girlfriend about it being 'Vincent Valentine.' The assistant that called Yuffie's name even gave him a bit of a rude look.
Usually when a man and a woman come in here together it means they are the parents of the unborn child.
Yuffie kicked his gold boot receiving a harsh glare from the dark man seated before her. "You made me come to this male doctor!" she whispered through gritted teeth.
Vincent gritted his teeth just as hard but nevertheless found himself sitting in the doctor's office with Yuffie, bandana pulled down over his eyes as Dr. Balthier ordered Yuffie to remove her pants and underwear. The nurse had previously advised Yuffie to do so before the doctor entered the room, but she refused.
"Uh…why! The baby's in here!" Yuffie said pointing to her stomach. Vincent sighed in annoyance.
"Yuffie do what the man tells you to do so we can get out of here." He said quite rudely.
"The father?" Dr. Balthier asked in his accented voice.
"No!" Yuffie shrieked before finally removing her pants and underwear and lying down properly on the table.
"The tests show you are a few days over a month into the pregnancy. Therefore, we should be able to get a bit of an ultrasound. But of course at this stage, to get a clear picture..." The doctor trailed off as he organized his tools. "We must record from inside."
Yuffie looked down at the doctor with wide eyes. She had already felt violated showing him her privates and now he was going to stick objects up there!? She turned to glare at Vincent who appeared to be asleep with his bandana down over his eyes. A flexing of his gauntlet showed otherwise.
Vincent was actually feeling guilty and worrying about what he would say to her after this. He wasn't good with words period especially not the apologetic kind. He honestly hadn't searched that hard, he could have probably found a female doctor for her, if it would have really made Yuffie feel more comfortable. He sighed softly, forgetting himself, and pulled his bandana up just in time to catch Dr. Balthier inserting an instrument inside Yuffie.
"Vinny, don't look!!" Yuffie shrieked again. Vincent winced. The sound of her screech was a millions time's worse than noises Chaos used to torment him with. After a few minutes of total silence he heard Yuffie's voice again.
"Cool!" she said staring up at a very tiny moving thing on the screen. "What's it doing?"
Dr. Baltheir chuckled. "Full of energy already, isn't the little one?"
Yuffie grinned momentarily realizing the child was taking after her, but her happiness only faded knowing that there was no way she could keep the child. The doctor caught her saddened look and raised an eyebrow.
Yuffie laughed softly. "I'm planning on giving it up for adoption. I guess that decision is gonna be a little bit harder than I expected.. hehe."
Vincent knew better than to believe that laugh. There was no way he could understand her feelings, but he was good at sensing sadness (an emotion he knew all too well). He lifted his bandana again and scooted the chair to the side so Yuffie's private area was out of his view. He glanced up at the screen as well and saw the tiny human. Though if someone hadn't told him what he was looking at he wouldn't have known what in the world it was. Yuffie looked over at him.
"Cool isn't it, Vinny?" Yuffie tried to hide the pain in her voice, but failed.
Vincent only smiled at her.
Yuffie knew he wouldn't understand, but his rare smiles warmed her heart and gave her the reassurance that everything would be ok. Because if he could smile again after all the hell he's been through, than no matter what she went through she could come out of it smiling again too.