Authors note: Update!!! Well, I'm not too sure about this chapter. I think Cloud is waaaaaaaay OOC, but hey, who cares? Anyhoo, Please let me know what you think, and any suggestions/requests are welcome!
Chapter 22 – Recovery

Reno opened his eyes; he was in room decorated completely white, which hurt his eyes slightly. There was a dull ache through his whole body. He looked ahead of him where three people were standing, realising one of them was holding his hand.

"Welcome back," Elena said, smiling. The whole room had come into better focus, then he realised where he was.

"What are you scowling at?" Tseng said

"Fucking hospital…you know I hate them." He replied weakly. Elena laughed. "Can I go now?"

"Reno… you probably can't even get out of that bed, and I don't think the hospital would let you leave this room. There's a children's ward next to here, you might scare them." Tseng said, slightly smiling.

"What? Why?"

"You've looked better." Elena put her hand back into his. It was pale and cold, like that of a person close to death. Elena shuddered at the thought. But he really had looked better, his skin was pure white, and his eyes looked strangely dark.

"Well, its 11pm, we better get going." Tseng said.

"Yeah." Elena said quietly, "You gonna be ok?"

"Of course." Reno said cockily

She smiled and followed Tseng and Rude out of the room.


He didn't know what had woken him up, but he knew he hadn't been asleep long. He lifted his head, and his heart jumped when he saw two figures standing in the doorway. One of them licked the light switch.

"Reno?" the two people who met his eyes were the last he expected.

"What the fuck?" he shouted.

"Shhh! Be quiet!" the first figure hissed. Tifa's red-brown eyes didn't show any anger, which surprised Reno.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he whispered

"We wanted to tell you to get well soon!" Yuffie smiled widely at him.

"No seriously, when do I get murdered? You could at least wait till I can fight back, or is that the point?" he asked

"Nobody's here to kill you." Came a voice from outside the door.

"There you are, Cloud!" Yuffie said loudly. Reno raised his eyebrows at Tifa.

"I'm only here to get one thing straight. You don't mention a word of this to anyone outside this room, ok?" Cloud said seriously.

"Yeah, or that's when you get murdered." Yuffie piped up

"Shut it." Reno said angrily. Yuffie stuck her tongue out at him.

"Anyway, I think it's fair that you know exactly what happened, as you were so involved."

"Happened with what?" Reno asked.

"Claudia." Reno nodded. "A couple of weeks ago, I was shot, I didn't know who did it, but now I know it was Claudia."

"You were shot by your own sister?" Reno said with disbelief

"Yeah. See, she didn't care about me, she only wanted to get back at you. So she used me, and hoped I would do it for you. You can only imagine how she felt when you showed up at her school."

"So, she used that little chip thing on you, too?" Reno was beginning to understand.

"We only just figured out what had happened." Tifa said, "We found out about the bullet, but the needle…"

"So you don't actually care that she's dead?"

"To be honest, I think the world is better off without her. I know she's my sister, but she never acted like one."

"Cloud, we'd better get going."

"Yeah." Cloud nodded and together they left the hospital room.