Tengoko: Told you I'd update sooner. Sorry about the cliffhanger in the last chapter. I did it because I knew this chapter would be up fast. Even though it was difficult to right. Feedback would be greatly appreciated for this one. It is 1:30 in the morning, and while it looks good now, it could be very different at noon tomorrow. So, please review. Thanks. Enjoy the chapter.
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Rated M for language and romance
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Chapter 10: Severed Trust

It had been such a trying night. He knew the moment the helicopter had landed and Tseng was waiting for him and his partner that the evening was off to a horrible start. They'd approached him quickly and told them that they'd succeeded in their mission and then handed themt he package that they'd acquired. But Tseng didn't seem to care about any of that. It didn't surprise them. He usually seemed disinterested about their missions unless he was personally involved in them.

No, he'd come for different reasons. Well, at least one reason. Bad news. He was used to being the bearer of bad news. But for some reason, this one was tough. It took him nearly a moment to get the words right in his head, even though they'd been in order before the helicopter had landed. And in the end, all he got out was her name. Reno and Rude naturally drew conclusions from that. The tone of his voice and the nature of his carriage were enough to tell them that something horrible had happened to Elena.

Tseng told them that she'd been taken to the hospital, and that doctors were operating on her as they spoke. He blamed it on her and Justus for not having enough sense to take along a cure materia or a potion, not even one. And now, it was too late for that. The wound was serious, and she'd slipped into unconsciousness just as they'd arrived in Midgar. The bullet had still been inside of her, too close to her heart for Justus to tryit get out on his own.

The whole night had been touch and go. Twice, Elena had gone into cardiac arrest. Twice, they'd all been on their feet, fearing the worse. Fearing that they'd be told that Elena had died. And nobody had taken it harder than Reno. He hadn't said a word all night. Hadn't moved except for two times. And when the doctor came out and told them that she could now receive visitors, Reno was the first to his feet and was in the room before anybody else could object.

"Let's just give him time alone," Rude said, holding his hand in front of Tseng to prevent him from following Reno. "You can begin your investigation afterward."

Meanwhile, Reno stood on the other side of the door and tried to take in the sight in front of him now. Elena was asleep on the hospital bed, covered in white blankets. There were all sorts of wires connected to her. And the only sound was the continuous beeps fromt the heart monitor. Reno closed his eyes. He couldn't stand seeing her like this.

He walked slowly over to her bed and took a seat in the chair next to it. He took her hand into both of his and put her fingers to his lips, staring at her as though he could will her to wake up. When she didn't move, though he didn't expect her to, he found himself beginning to worry. And it was a strange feeling. He'd never in his life been scared for somebody, scared of losing somebody. But Elena had changed so many things for him. He cared about her. Damn it, he cared about her, and he wasn't going to let her die.

"Reno," Rude said, as he opened the door and walked into the hospital room. "Tseng wants to talk to you."

Reno didn't turn around to look at him. His blue eyes were fixed on Elena. "Then you can tell our boss that if he wants to have a word with me, then he can come and here and say it. I'm not leaving." He didn't hear Rude answer. Probably because he didn't. But he did hear the door close, and then there was silence; silence and the droning beeps of the heart monitor.

"…Reno?" Her voice was so soft, he wasn't sure if he'd actually heard it at first. Rising a little from his seat, he put his hand on her forehead and noticed that her eyes were opened partially. He smiled, his spirits suddenly soaring and his heart leaping for joy. "Reno, what happened?"

"You don't remember, Laney?" he asked just as softly as she was speaking. He gave her a moment to try, but suddenly, she started crying. Reno stood up and leaned over her, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her forehead. "Hey, hey. It's okay."

But she kept crying. Not tears of pain, but tears of guilt. Though, there was no way Reno could possibly know that. "Oh Reno, I'm so sorry."

He looked down at her, his face showing just how confused she'd made him. "Sorry for what?"

What 'what' was, though, had to wait, because before Elena could answer, the door flew open and suddenly, every single Turk was in the room. "She's awake?" Tseng asked, walked towards the bed. "Good. Now I can get some answers."

"What are you talking about?" Reno asked, holding her tighter, as if ready to protect her from their seemingly furious boss.

"Are you in a lot of pain, Elena? Of course you are," he answered himself offhandedly. "The doctors have just told me that they can't give you morphine. It seems, that it was what was responsible for you going into cardiac arrest when you got here, and again a few hours later."

"What are you getting at?" Reno stood up straight and looked at him. "I could be wrong, but I didn't think morphine could do that?"

"Not on its own," Tseng said. "At the most, an overdose would induce a coma, but they gave her the standard amount. So, it had to be because of something else."

"What the doctors are thinking," Rude began, his arms crossed, "is that there's another drug in her system that didn't react well with the morphine. And you know," he looked at Reno knowingly, "I have a good feeling that I know what drug they are talking about, though they don't know what it is."

"Why's that?" Tseng asked, now the one out of the loop.

"Because nobody knows about it," Reno said, comprehending Rude's meaning right away. "Nobody knows about it because it's not on the market yet." He tensed up and turned around to look at her. "You promised me, Elena."

"What's going on?" Tseng looked back and forth between Rude and Reno, and when nobody seemed in a hurry to answer, he finally shouted. "I'd better get some answers, and fast!"

"Nothing that can't be handled, Tseng." Rude seemed quite confident of that. Elena looked at him, glad that he wore his dark shades, sure that his eyes conveyed a deep disappointment. But, she wasn't left to wonder about that for long. Rude did take off his sunglasses, and stared at her. She was right. Disappointment. "Isn't that right, Laney?"

"And if it isn't," Reno added, "you'll be the first to know. Unfortunately, however, it seems that Elena will have to deal with the pain. It'd be best for her if her system was kept clean."

"Meaning that there's something already in her system?" Tseng asked, never able to just leave well enough alone. "Are you taking drugs, Elena. Because if you are, you'll have no choice but to place yourself in rehab or you'll face termination."

"Don't worry Tseng. It's nothing that serious," Reno said. Luckily, Tseng couldn't see through the lie.

"I'm lost," Justus said, making his presence known to Elena. Gods. She wished he hadn't. Him being in the room broke back an unwanted memory that she'd just as soon get out of her mind. Yet, she knew that it'd be a long time before she did any such thing. Especially since she knew that Rude and Reno were probably about to find out.

"When'd you get here?" Reno snapped. Apparently, he didn't know that Justus was there either. "Why are you here?"

"I'm a Turk, you ass!" he countered. "And besides, I care about Laney."

Rude practically growled before saying, "what did you call her?" He balled his hands into a fist and glared at him maliciously. "You can't call her that. That's our name for her. Got it?" Elena smiled appreciatively at him. Always protective. If she ever had a big brother, she'd imagine he'd be like Rude.

"I have her permission to call her that," Justus said haughtily. "And, while we're on the subject of nicknames, I'd say I have more right to call her 'Laney' than anybody here."

"And why's that?" Tseng asked out of curiosity, though he didn't really care who called who what.

"Because I know her better," he said simply, looking at Reno as though daring him to challenge that.

But, it wasn't Reno that jumped at it. "Bull shit," Rude grumbled.

"Rude, you and Reno may have known her longer…but trust me…I definitelyknow her."

Nobody missed the insinuation there. Elena groaned loudly, but that was the only sound in the room. Everybody else had gone eerily silent. Tseng looked as if he'd been spat at and slapped in the face. Rude looked as if he'd been socked in the stomach. But she couldn't read Reno. Though, she was sure that he'd paled. In truth, Reno felt as though all of those things had been done to him.

It couldn't be true. Elena wouldn't do that. She had more sense to sleep with a man that he'd warned her about. A man so dead set against Reno and Rude. Surely, their friendship meant more than that. But, there was something else. It was like he'd been kicked in the groin. Just when he was beginning to admit that he had feelings for her that were more than friendly, leaning towards affection, she went and gave herself to a man that he hated. It would have been better if she had just kicked him.

"Gods, is it true?" Tseng asked in disbelief. "Is it, Elena?"

"For your sake, Justus, you'd better hope it's not," Rude warned.

"It is," Elena affirmed. She looked at Reno. He seemed to have shrunk at those words.

"I don't believe this," Tseng said, looking back towards Justus. "How did this happen? How is it that you both managed to get to Great Glacier, infiltrate and enemy base, get Elena shot and still find time to make love?"

"There was a blizzard," Justus explained. "And we had to stay in a tent for a little while, and with no other way to keep warm…well, you know…"

"No. I can't have this on my team, not in the Turks. I believe that I told you my policy on interoffice, dating, did I not? And on your first mission, you disregard it all. And you, Elena," he turned to face her now. "I expected better from you. More restraint, especially from my most dedicated Turk. What possessed you to do this?"

She could have cried from shame at that point. "I wasn't thinking, Tseng."

"No, you weren't," Reno agreed. "Of all people, it had to be him. You don't even know him."

"I don't believe this," Justus groaned. "I kiss Elena and I'm suddenly breaking company policy. Reno kisses Elena and nobody gives a damn. How's that fair?"

Tseng's eyes widened and now his attention was on Reno. "You kissed Elena?"

"Yes," he said quietly. "But, you have my word that I won't be doing that again."

He might as well have just plunged a knife in her heart. That's what if felt like. He hadn't even looked at her when he said it. He hadn't said it coldly, viciously or as a joke. No emotion was put behind it. And that's what hurt the most.

"Furthermore, I didn't go as far as having sex with her either, so his argument is baseless anyway."

Tseng sighed. "Well, there's nothing we can do about this now. Elena needs to get better first. Now, I'm going to report back to the president. He's very interested to hear how the mission went. And it's a good thing Justus got his hands on Havre, or he'd be very upset with all of us right now."

"If that's a hint to go easy on him, Tseng, I'm afraid we aren't going to take the bait."

Tseng laughed and said, "No, I suppose not. I didn't think it would work. But, it was worth a shot. In that case, you'll be coming with me Justus. I would hate to return only to find my newest Turk in another hospital room hooked up to an artificial lung."

It took a few seconds for Justus to move, but he willingly left with Tseng. Another moment of silence ensued. Nobody moved. It seemed as if nobody breathed. Elena could have died. And she probably would, seeing how Rude looked ready to commit murder. Though, she couldn't be sure. He'd already put his sunglasses back on.

He cleared his throat before talking. "So, we've been betrayed twice today," he said. "First, we find out that you lied to both of us. Done with ArgusinDSA are you? Won't take it again will you? And then we find out that you slept with a man that we both warned you about. So, not only do we find out that you don't give a damn about what we say, but we also know that your word is worth shit."

"No. It's not like that. Giving up Argusin isn't as easy as I thought it'd be."

"Nobody said it was going to be easy," Reno said. "That's why you should have come to us if you were having problems with it. But, I have a question, Elena. Did you even try to quit?" She didn't answer. "Yeah. That's what I thought."

"Do we really mean so little to you?" Rude asked. "Have we not proved time and again that we'd risk our lives for you? We can't say that about just anybody, Laney. We've done so much for you. And when we ask you to do something for us, you don't even try."

"I'm sorry."

"It's too late for that," Rude said.

"What do you mean?" she asked, beginning to become a little unnerved now.

"We're going to help you with this addiction. We're going to make you quit, like it or not. And then, we're going to kick Justus' ass."

"But after that," Reno continued, "we're back to square one. You're going to have to earn our trust back, and that's not going to be easy, Elena. But, even harder, you're going to have to earn our respect and our friendship back."

She was crying now. "Are you saying that we aren't friends anymore?"

"Yeah. Pretty much," Rude said easily. It killed her. The man that she'd come to revere and admire. The man she'd come to look at as her big brother. He no longer cared about her. No longer looked at her as a friend, as family. "Have a good rest, Elena. See you at work. That is, when you're up to it." That was his by your leave. He used to hug her good-bye. But, she guessed those days were over.

"Stop crying, Elena," Reno said, straightening his jacket. "Stop pretending as if this is the worst thing that's ever happened to you."

"But it is," she insisted through her tears. "Nothing can possible be worse than this. I lost both you and Rude."

"That's your own fault," he said, turning to finally look at her. His eyes were expressionless and his face was neutral. It only made her cry harder. "Gods, Elena. Stop it!"

"I can't! Look, you can tell me that I'm never going to take Argusin again. You can tell me that I can no longer go on missions, that I'm no longer a Turk. You can tell me that this bullet wound in my chest is going to kill me in a week. None of that would matter to me. Because none of it would hurt as much as this. Don't you get it? I need both of you. But mostly…I need you."

At that, Reno tore his eyes away from her and up towards the ceiling. "I wish I could believe that, Elena. But, I find it really difficult to do that seeing how only yesterday you were lying under Justus."

"Reno…"

"Trust me, Elena. As much as this hurts you…it's hurting me even more. You lied to me. You betrayed our friendship, and for what? Pills. For fucking pills!" he screamed. "I don't know if you and I will ever be square again, Elena. And for that matter, I don't even know if I want to put forth the effort to fix us. It's not worth it."

"Reno, please. You don't mean that."

"Care to put money on that," he said harshly. And he left it at that. Even as she called his name out, trying to stop him, he walked towards the door and stepped into the hallway. The door closed behind him, making her voice sound distant. Ironic. She was distant. She'd fallen away from him. And now, Reno wasn't sure if he wanted to reach out and pull her back.

Inside the room, Elena felt an enormous pressure in her chest. She felt as though she'd just been hit with an anvil. If she ever needed ArgusinDSA, now was the time. But, there was no way to get her hands on it. And she was certain that Reno and Rude would be heading to her apartment to get the last few bottles. She grunted angrily. If they took her Argusin away, she'd have nothing. She definitely didn't have them anymore. So, it only meant one thing. She'd need to find another outlet...another means of attaining a sense of normalcy...a substitute for ArgusinDSA.