Breathing hard, Quistis burst open the door between her and the parking garage, which had been shut. She ran out in front of a rental car that was speeding away and made the driver slam on his brakes and turn the wheel to barely miss her. She didn't care as long as he stopped. She ran and got into the passenger's side and yelled at the bewildered driver that this was an emergency.

"Go!" She shouted as he stared at her. The driver put his foot down so hard the tires squealed as they accelerated to eighty miles per hour in seconds, peeling out of the garage so fast that they left the skid marks smoking. Squall glimpsed the car flying away as he ran out of the same door after her. He grabbed a key from the booth and jumped into a car to the protests of the garage manager.

The first car was racing down the road and Quistis was giving instructions to the frightened driver.

"Start slowing down." She commanded him. He complied.

"Stop!" She told him, flinging open the door and jumping out while the car was still in motion. "Wait there!" She yelled, not bothering to turn around, leaving the door hanging open as she sped into the gates of the cemetery. She wove in and out of the tombstones, not stopping to rest. She ran along the aisle where she knew she'd find what she was looking for...

And there was Kelsey's limp body, facedown, only feet away from Lisse's grave, her lifeless hand around a candle. Quistis ran over to her and turned her pale figure over. She was freezing, not moving.

"Oh wake up. Wake up, please wake up..." But her attempts were fruitless. Kelsey's white face seemed dead. Quistis hoisted up her body and began running back to the car but Kelsey was a lot heavier than Quistis had imagined and her body was in shock from all the sudden exercise she was getting. She was concentrating so hard she wasn't realizing someone was running up to her...

Squall's hand touched her own and their eyes met as he took Kelsey's body into his own arms and ran her to the car. Quistis helped him situate her so her head was in her lap. He was grasping her hand. Quistis was stroking her head as Squall told the driver to get back ASAP.

They rode in silence, both of their hearts wishing, praying for her to be okay. He put his ear down on her heart to hear its beat. He breathed easier. Quistis was wringing her hands, glancing around as though she'd forgotten an important tip to give to her class in a lesson.

Without realizing it, they were back at the school. He held Kelsey's body in his arms, sprinting to the infirmary with Quistis not a step behind him. Quistis and Squall burst the doors open where Dr. Kadowaki was wrapping gauze on a boy's singed hand. She looked up through her thin glasses.

"Oh my." She jumped up, instructed them to lay her on the bed and did a quick examination of the body, opening and closing her eyes and feeling her face and hands.

"She collapsed from fatigue, it seems. She's just resting now. She should be awake soon." Both of them let out sighs of relief. "You say you found her at the cemetery by Balamb?"

"Yes."

"Is it possible she ran the whole way? That would certainly give any person a reason to collapse of fatigue." Dr. Kadowaki said, guessing at what had happened.

"That's very possible." Quistis said. She wasn't looking at Squall. Dr. Kadowaki was now examining her arms and glanced at the watch on Kelsey's wrist.

"Quistis, don't you have a class?" Asked Dr. Kadowaki. "If you need to be somewhere, I'll look after her and alert you when she wakes up."

"My class!" Yelled Quistis jumping up and running to the door but Squall cut her off.

"I'll look after them for you. Be here when Kelsey wakes up. She needs to understand and she's not going to want to listen to me." She still didn't look at him.

"I'll stay." She said, sitting next to Kelsey's bed.

"Thank you." Squall said to Dr. Kadowaki before running out of the room.

"You're welcome." She said, even though he was gone. "I don't know why he thinks I would stop taking care of him now." She told Quistis, laughing a bit. She examined Kelsey again and sat down at her desk to write a report.

"I'm sure he's probably been in here more times than everyone else in Garden combined." Quistis said, laughing with her.

"Even more." She told Quistis.

He ran to the classroom and threw himself in the door. Xu jumped up.

"Where did you go? Where's Quistis? What's going on?" He was out of breath but he didn't know why. He had undergone far worse physical training than that to get his SeeD rank. He pulled Xu aside, to whisper away from the class but their voices dropped in unison so they could listen in.

"Quistis just had to clear up some...stuff." The whole class was listening intently and his voice kept dropping.

"Stuff?"

"Ya."

"Well, is she almost done? I have my own class in five minutes."

"She won't be done for a while so she sent me back." Xu eyes scanned him suspiciously.

"You sure you can handle them?" She asked, throwing him a disbelieving look.

"Uhhh...I think I'll be fine." He told her looking at the class. They looked positively frightened at the thought of not having Quistis in the classroom. Or maybe it was him being their new teacher that scared them.

"Okay everyone listen up. Squ - er - Instructor Leonhart will be taking over the class from here on. You can talk quietly for the rest of the class." After she was out the door she called back, "Good Luck."

Not one student spoke. Not one word echoed in the classroom. One girl raised her hand slowly.

"What?" He barked, sitting on top of Quistis' desk.

"Is Instructor Trepe all right?" She girl whispered.

"Yes."

"Will she be back tomorrow?" A boy in the back asked.

"Yes."

"What happened?" Someone else yelled. He sighed.

"It is Quistis's busi-"

"Who's Quistis?"

"Instructor Trepe. It's not my place to say." After the class heard this they became considerably more friendly. Maybe it was because their instructor was all right or perhaps they had deemed Squall worthy of protecting her privacy and they felt safe because of it. Squall definitely began to notice the flair in the class.

"What weapon do you use?" Someone asked.

"The gunblade." They oohed and aahed.

"Is it hard?"

"Not for me." He said, being honest.

"When did you come to Garden?" He withdrew a little bit before regaining his composure and decided to answer honestly, for once.

"I've lived here my whole life." He said meekly but the class didn't seem to want to give Squall room to breathe. They erupted into a frenzy of questions and it seemed they were demanding answers.

"Your whole life?"

"What about your parents?"

"Didn't you live somewhere else before that?"

"Did you have a totally major head start against everyone else?"

"Do you like it here?"

"Actually my parents were both SeeDs. When it came time for the Garden to release them, when they reached the age of 20, my dad stayed here as a SeeD instructor while my mother worked in Balamb."

"And your parents wanted you to stay here while they worked?"

"Well, sortof. Both of my parents wanted me and my sisters to grow up in the Garden so when they decided to divorce I just stayed here. My father moved to Trabia with my younger sister because she was too young to come. My mother lives in Balamb. This was the only place I knew. I love it here." He found himself having a conversation with a class of wide-eyed students who were hanging on his every word. He smiled. They were absorbed in him. He was such a strong leader and here he was, talking more than he had in years, to a bunch of kids. He found that he liked it.

"So were you like a pro before everyone else even started at Garden?"

"Well, I really did have a big head start against everyone else. Most kids were totally clueless when they got here. But I knew everyone and everything about this Garden."

"How old were you when you first started training?"

"I was six." They all started jabbering.

"Was it hard?"

"At first but then I got used to it. Waking up at 5:30, running around the Garden ten times before the morning was over. I knew the "War Ticket Address" before I was eight." He said laughing.

"So you never grew up in a normal home?"

"Nope. I'm 100% a home grown SeeD." They laughed.

The swirling stopped...all was dark. And then - light. Bright brilliant white light. She put her hands up to stop the light. It got dimmer and dimmer until she saw a face.

"Morning sunshine." Quistis' voice said. Kelsey laid back against the pillows.

"Is Squall angry?" She asked. Quistis continued scanning over the paper she'd been reviewing.

"I don't think he's mad."

"I didn't want you to give it to me sugar-coated." She told her crossly.

"I didn't." She said, not looking up.

"He's not mad?" Kelsey asked, almost hopeful.

"No, I think he's confused."

"About what?" Quistis looked over the top of her glasses over the top of her paper.

"You. You've brought back a lot of memories he's been trying to forget. All this time, he's been hiding it. He hasn't even told Zell, his best friend. I mean, for eleven years to go by and for him to be thinking about it everyday, suffering alone and for you to suddenly deepen that pain that's been enduring silently - he was just...infuriated."

"Eleven years?" She asked, looking sorrowful.

"Mhm."

"That's a long time to hold it in."

"And you just happened to be the first person he released all of his heart onto, that's all." Quistis told her gently.

"Why did it have to be me?" She closed her eyes, crying a little.

"He forgets. He's just been using his GFs much more than he should and he knows it will make him forget it all."

"Maybe that's what he wants." Kelsey shot out fiercely. Quistis blinked.

"I truly hope not. Not Lisse anyway."

"Why?"

"Why would you want to forget your best friend? Even if they are dead, wouldn't you want to remember the good times? The fun you had?"

"Not if it hurt."

"But it doesn't. Even if it did, the joy would overcome any pain. I think of Lisse everyday - God she was beautiful. She looked a lot like you when she was your age." Quistis said, nudging her chin fondly. "Well, I mean she would have, if she'd made it to thirteen."

"How old was she?"

"Eleven. It hit us both so hard. I came here because my parents wanted me to have some discipline after she died because I wouldn't do anything. I just cried in my room. I wouldn't eat or sleep. I became so thin you could see all my bones and I would just pass out after a few days. I didn't want to come at first. It was where me and Lisse were supposed to come together. And it seemed to me so empty without her. And then I met Squall and we would just sit on the roof and cry and cry. It was the most peaceful thing - to cry for hours and hours. And he would just hold me." She said, remembering. "And now he's forgotten."

"Because of the GFs?"

"Because I am a SeeD Instructor."

"So?"

"I taught him when he was in third year." Kelsey laughed.

"You taught Squall?"

"Yes. I was an intern for the lower classes. He is a year younger than I am. We were not permitted to be friendly. I always had to be hard on him but he knew that. We were still friends. Sometimes though…I would forget we weren't in classes. I would yell at him for doing something wrong or sloppy when he was the best in the class and I could hardly have done better myself. And he hated me for it. We grew apart. We would talk every once in a while. And he uses those GFs… even after everything, it became hard for us to remember what we've been through together. And then last week, I yelled at him again - just because I was the commander of the mission. And then I took you to see Lisse, maybe it was because I was so mad at him…mostly for forgetting that I loved Lisse just as much as he did."

"You sound like you love him." Kelsey said. Quistis said nothing.

"Are you an instructor?"

"Nooo," Squall told the class laughing.

"Why not?" They all complained but he laughed more.

"I suck at teaching." He admitted but they rebelled again.

"No you don't."

"You're teaching us right now!"

"You're doing as good as Instructor Trepe does!"

"Hey, don't dis Quistis."

"Have you known her long?"

"Are you guys friends?"

"Isn't she the best?" Squall laughed at their questions. They were quite amusing to him. Their faces were beaming and happy, just listening to the sound of his voice advising them.

"Yes, I've known her for a very long time."

"Did you ever train with her?" Someone asked.

"Actually, she was also my SeeD instructor."

"WHAT?" They all shouted in unison.

"Aren't you guys the same age?

"Did you guys do your training missions together?"

"Instructor Trepe was your SeeD instructor?"
"Did you graduate together?"

"It's actually quite hard to explain. She was a year ahead of me but we graduated at the same time. Since I was so much more advanced than my class, they let me take Year Three courses and Year Four in the same year. While you're in your Fourth Year, you are observing your career selection and since I was just training to be a commanding SeeD, I could train after my classes. Quistis was interning to be a SeeD instructor so she interned in the teaching of the Third Year Class, which I was in. Since we both completed Year Four at the same time, we graduated in the same class."

"So she taught you everything you know, huh?" One of the students blurted.

"Actually," said a voice from the doorway. "He taught me a lot more than I ever taught him." The class' heads turned to see Quistis in the doorway. Squall smiled, almost apologetically. The class' voices erupted.

"Are you okay?"
"What happened?"

"You taught Instructor Leonhart!"

"You're back!"
"Do we have homework?"

Quistis smiled at them and told them to clam down.

"I'm fine. I just had to take care of something. Thank you all for waiting. And, no, you don't have homework, Ricky." She told a boy with his hand in the air.

"Did you all learn a lot while I was gone?" They all agreed they had. She smiled again as she turned and whispered to Squall.

"Were they okay?"

"They were fine. How is she?" Quistis took him aside.

"She's scared you'll explode again. I told her you wouldn't, so don't. Kaye is looking after her. She'll be back in class tomorrow." He let out a sigh of relief.

"That's good news." He said. The bell rang and the class filed out slowly, all pleading with Squall to become a teacher and slapping him high fives. When the door shut behind the last student, Quistis grabbed his hands.

"I should have said it before" She blurted. "I should have said it a thousand times to you. I'm so sorry." The tears were coming now, down like a flood. "I'm so sorry." She continued. "I treated you like you were something less than a friend." He embraced her.

"And I'm sorry for forgetting what you'd done for me." He pulled her off him suddenly.

"Squall wha-" But pulled her into a kiss before she could say anything else. They stood together, one in their sorrow.

Quistis helped Squall to let go of Lisse's death and to love her in her death. He confronted Kelsey and told her that he loved her and that he was sorry for everything. They went to her grave and placed lilies and daisies on it the next day, lilies being Lisse's favorite flower and daisies being Kelsey's. He confessed to Zell (and helped Zell remember Lisse again) and everyone else what had happened and thanked them for loving him. Kelsey returned to class the next week.

Squall was the happiest he'd ever been.

In spite of everything that had happened, the war was still raging. And Squall's battalion was still going.