Disclaimer: Not mine.

Author's notes: AVALANCHE makes an appearance and the plot is thickens. Once again, thanks for the reviews!

All hell broke loose when the bar patrons saw three people in intimidating dark suits walked in.

Years after Meteor, the Turks still strike a chord of fear in the hearts of the citizens of Midgar.

Today, the Turks looked particularly murderous as they strode up to the bartender who was too busy wiping up some mugs to look at the commotion in the bar.

It is a weekend night in a bar after all – there is bound to be some form of disturbance.

Unknowingly, the brown haired bartender turned around and greeted her customers with a cheery smile, "Hello. What can I get you?"

Her face fell when she saw the familiar dark suits.

Tifa Lockheart was not one to be easily intimidated. She'd had her share of maniacal mad men hell-bent on destroying the universe.

So, when faced with three of the most dangerous people in Shinra, she could only feel indifference.

"Oh. It's you people. What do you want?" she questioned coolly.

The red-head with the messy attire, Reno, grinned at her and took a seat onto a bar stool. "Why so cold? Shouldn't you be serving us drinks? This is a bar isn't it?"

His two comrades, the bald man, Rude and the blonde woman whose name Tifa couldn't remember followed suit and took the seats next to him.

Crossing her arms on her chest, Tifa said angrily, "Quit the small talk and tell me what you are here for."

"Well," Reno said seriously, "First, someone tried to shoot us at a bar and then, they blew up Elena's car."

The blonde woman, Elena, grimaced and Tifa noticed that she had bandages on her face and hands.

Realisation dawned Tifa. "And you think it's us?"

"Well, is it?" Elena asked sternly. Tifa could see the menacing glint in her eyes.

"Of course not!" Tifa shouted defiantly, angry that the Turks would make a leap to assume that it was them.

After Reeve had rebuilt Shinra into a more legitimate company, AVALANCHE and the Turks had fallen into an uneasy truce; Tifa had even seen Rude and Reno in her bar a couple of times having a quiet drink.

"But," Tifa said in a softer tone, much to the surprise of the Turks, "I understand where you are coming from. If something like that happened to any of my friends, I would do the same thing."

Reno nodded in understanding and flashed a charming smile at her; much too charming for her liking.

"So how about that drink now huh? And maybe afterwards, we could…," Reno wriggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Tifa had already anticipated his attempt to pick her up and crushed a beer can with her bare hands with the most cheerful smile she could muster.

"Don't even think about it."

By the time the Turks walked out of Tifa's Seventh Haven, Reno could feel the effects of Tifa's 'special drink' but he shrugged it off easily. Behind him, he sees Elena stumble out of the bar unsteadily and while Rude stands beside her impassively.

"Right," Reno announced to the drunken Elena, "We should probably smuggle you back to your room before anyone notices that you are missing."

The doctor looked at Elena's chart with a raised eyebrow and then turned his gaze at her.

Reeve fidgeted as he waited for the doctor to pass his judgement on Elena's current condition. The deathly silence was making him nervous.

"This is strange…," the doctor muttered, flipping over the pages on the clipboard.

Reeve was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet now. "What is it?"

"For some reason, the liver function tests this morning show abnormalities."

"Eh? What sort of abnormalities?"

The doctor, an old man in his fifties, took one look at Elena and shook his head in a disappointed fashion. "Abnormalities normally seen in recovering alcoholics."

Looking at Elena's bloodshot eyes and processing the doctor's diagnosis, realization dawned on Reeve. "Have you been drinking?"

Elena remained indifferent but her face was pale.

Reeve turned his attention to the redhead sitting by Elena's bed angrily, "Did you bring her out drinking?"

"Nope," Reno replied, face completely straight and Reeve seemed to buy into his lie.

Reeve questioned Elena sternly again, "Did you…or did you not ingest alcohol last night?"

She remained silent; her face was turning paler by the minute. Reeve tapped his feet on the floor impatiently.

"Actually," she finally said; voice shaky but clear.

Reeve waited for her answer but it never came, instead, she'd turned to the side and emptied her stomach contents on the hospital floor.

Sometimes Reeve really hated his job.

"I told you so," Reno said in a sing-song voice, his leg placed comfortably on her bed, much to Elena's annoyance, "You know that your tolerance for alcohol is pretty much close to zero."

She turned her nose up haughtily and retorted, "It's the antibiotics that they are making me take. If it weren't for that…"

"Excuses…excuses."

After finding out the true cause of her abnormal test results, the doctor had subjected her to a couple more days of bed rest, much to her horror. She had been looking forward to moving out of the sterile hospital environment.

Pushing his legs off her bed, Elena shooed him out. "Get the hell out of here, Reno. You are driving my blood pressure up and if they lock me up for another day because of that, I am going to kill you."

"Aw…," Reno cooed mockingly, "And here I thought that you were enjoying some company."

She glared at him. "You are only here because Reeve told you to keep an eye on me. He now thinks that I am a closet alcoholic."

"You couldn't say no to the drink that Tifa offered, couldn't you?"

"…Because you force-fed me the drink!"

"You could have spat it out," said Reno with a cheeky grin.

Elena placed pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes resignedly, "Ugh. This can go on all night."

Leering at her, Reno opened his mouth to say something but the words came out muffled as Elena had covered his mouth with her palms angrily. "Don't say it, Reno. I can't deal with your sick jokes right now."

"Fuhn…", he said against her hands and she removed them.

"Fine," Reno repeated to make sure she heard him the first time, "But only because I don't want you to kick it before we settle everything."

"Settle what?" she asked, raising a quizzical eyebrow.

Pretending that he didn't hear her, Reno got up and stretched his weary limbs. "Boy, I am tired," he yawned unconvincingly, "I am going to hit the bars now. See ya'."

"Hey! You haven't answered my question, you sneaky bastard," Elena called out but he already had his back turned and halfway out the door.

Without meeting her eyes, he gave her a mock two finger wave and answered her cryptically, "Oh you'll see…"

Pain-killers and antibiotics always gave her odd dreams ever since she could remember. This occasion was no different.

Elena had dreamt about chasing a purple dragon all through the night and when she got sick of doing that (her dream-legs were dream-sore) so she willed herself to wake up.

She woke up feeling groggy and more tired, as though she have not slept at all. Her eyes widened in surprise when she noticed the dark shadow leaning against the wall behind her room door.

"Hello," the deep, masculine voice greeted her and she instinctively went for her gun under her pillow. The voice was unfamiliar and had a dangerous edge to it.

Shit!

She had forgotten for a moment that she was in a hospital and hospitals don't normally allow guns.

"Reno? Is that you? I am going to kick your ass for scaring me like that."

The figure did not answer her. He shut the door quietly and locked it before turning back to her. She could see the almost maniacal glint in his eyes.

"Hey…what are you…?" before she could get her full question out, she felt the cool surface of a pillow covering her face.

Warning bells went off in her head and her Turk training kicked in. She kneed the man in the groin and he hollered in pain.

Elena could feel his grip on the pillow weakening significantly. She rolled out of her bed and hit the floor with a thud. When she regained her bearings, she quickly got up to her feet and surveyed her room with a trained eye.

Her assailant was still rolling around on the floor with agony and Elena saw that as an opening. Grabbing the lamp beside her bed, she ripped the plug out of the wall roughly and slammed it against the assailant's head with all her might.

He went still.

Reaching for her PHS in the drawer, she hit '1' on her speed dial and waited impatiently for someone to pick up the phone.

"Hello?"

Elena had never been so glad to hear the voice over the phone.

Before she could get a word out, she heard someone groan and saw her assailant getting up on his feet. He didn't seem fazed by his injuries at all as he dove to tackle her.

Her reflexes were still slightly shot from her injuries and the painkillers she took so she could not avoid him on time.

Everything went black when she hit the ground.