Disclaimer: you know the drill by now.
"Is that a car?" asked Tifa furrowing a brow as her ears detected wheels on the driveway.
Shelke looked out of the window, "Yes, Reeve is here. He has that woman with him."
"Who? Yuffie?" Tifa dried her hands on a towel and made her way to the front entrance of the bar.
They were closed for business while they waited for news on Vincent.
The Barmaid opened the door and was shocked to find Reeve carrying an unconscious Yuffie.
He turned sideways so he could fit through the door without bumping her head.
"What happened? Were you in a battle?!" Tifa gasped.
"No, no, it's not that, can I put her upstairs?" Reeve shook his head fiercely.
Shelke watched with mild curiosity.
"Sure, take her up and put her in the spare room." Tifa directed, she waited patiently for Reeve to return.
"I tranquilized her." He said simply as sat down in the booth across from Shelke.
"For what purpose?" the ex-deep ground soldier queried.
"Yes, exactly! Explain yourself Reeve." Added Tifa.
Yuffie had left the bar early that morning so she could start investigating Vincent's where abouts, Tifa had to admit that the ninja had looked sickly when she left but she had come to the conclusion that she would be far better off taking action instead of just waiting.
Reeve rubbed his beard with hand and glanced up towards Tifa. "She hasn't slept since the Omega incident, you do know that?"
Tifa slunk down next to Shelke, who had resumed staring out over Edge, This conversation did not concern her.
"I know, she told me that she had slept like a log, but I could tell she was lying. I just thought she'd be better off at WRO head quarters." She said quietly swallowing her guilt.
"Yuffie is so stubborn, she would have made herself ill if she had been allowed to carry on."
"Was drugging her really necessary? I'd have gone berserk if any of you had tried that after Cloud fell into the life stream."
Reeve gave a ghost of a laugh, "She will probably be angry, but it's not the same."
"How so?" asked Tifa failing to follow his logic.
"We all knew that you were madly in love with Cloud, so we understood."
Tifa blushed furiously.
"I do not understand? How is it different?" Shelke turned back to them.
Reeve and Tifa gave her matching blank expressions
"You must see it? It's really quite clear and ...well rather sad." Shelke almost laughed.
"Surely you don't think Yuffie is "in love"?" Tifa laughed softly.
Shelke expression remained static, "You are right, how should I know what "Love" is?"
"Shelke, she didn't mean it like that." Reeve explained, but the young girl had turned away and was giving them the cold shoulder and the silent treatment. They let her be.
Marlene came down the stairs and bustled into the room, interrupting the silence.
"Is Yuffie okay? She keeps thrashing around and crying out?" the little girls face was stricken with fear.
"Sweetie, Yuffie isn't very well, but don't worry because she will be fine after a little rest." Tifa smiled warmly as she reassured the child, her expression became one of stern scorn as she looked back to Reeve.
"What else could I have done?" he asked her quietly, "We need to look out for each other."
"I know, but it doesn't seem as if she's getting a very peaceful rest."
"She was like that in the car, murmuring all sorts of nonsense about "being afraid of getting lost in the darkness" and the like." The head of the WRO bit a nail.
Tifa was feeling even more concerned now.
"Nero, she is talking about Nero's ability, he must have attacked her." Shelke said quietly, not making eye contact.
Marlene made her way back up the stairs and crept into the room where Reeve had laid down Yuffie.
The curious child climbed up on to the bed and stroked Yuffie forehead.
Her face was pale and she appeared completely drained of energy, her arms flailed weakly.
"You are supposed to be the happy one Yuffie." Sighed Marlene as she wiped away the tears that had fallen across Yuffie's cheeks.
Yuffie awoke late morning the next day; she climbed out of bed and stumbled sleepily to the shower.
She washed and freshened up; colour had returned to her cheeks, you could no longer tell that anything was bothering her.
The Ninja joined the other girls down in the bar.
"Yuffie, how are you doing?" Tifa put the plate of pancakes down on the table and turned her attention to her friend.
"Am I late for work? Is Reeve mad? How did I even get home?" she asked rubbing her head.
"No, Reeve isn't mad; he thinks maybe it would be better if you took a few days off. He bought you home yesterday...you had...um...passed out."
Yuffie remained unconvinced, she sat down next to Marlene who smiled up at her, and Yuffie returned the gesture.
"Have some pancakes, I just cooked them." Tifa gestured.
"Tifa, do you think I maintain a hot body like this by eating pancakes and sleeping in late?" Yuffie laughed.
"Oh come on, one little treat won't do you any harm."
"They taste delicious, you should try them." Recommended Shelke as she took another one for herself.
They did look tasty; Yuffie took a pile and dumped them on to her plate. She hadn't had much of an appetite recently; with a sudden cold rush through her body she remembered why that was.
"Have you heard anything!" she asked quickly.
"No, not yet." Tifa answered sadly.
Yuffie nodded and took a few bites from her breakfast. Her shoulders slumped
The morning dragged slowly into afternoon. Marlene took leave to her room for about half an hour and then returned carrying an assortment of papers in her hands.
"What have you got there 'Lene?" Questioned Yuffie.
"Some drawing paper and pens."
"Going to do a nice picture?"
"Something like that, um, Yuffie can I talk to you about something that we did at school?" Marlene looked up expectantly.
"Yeah, sure." Yuffie gave Marlene her full attention.
"Well you remember that very sad time when a lot of people got very sick?"
"Yes, I remember. Cloud, Shera and Denzel got very sick at that time didn't they?"
Marlene nodded. "At school our teacher gave us some paper so we could write down things we wanted to say to people who were so ill that they returned to the planet, things that maybe we didn't get to say when we could."
Yuffie swallowed a lump in her throat, "Oh, did you write one?"
"I was lucky because all the people close to me got better, so instead I wrote a letter to the flower lady. I was sorry because when she walked me to her house she bought me a candy bar and I was so scared about what was going on that I forgot to say thank you to her. So I put that in my letter and papa and I took some flowers and the letter up to the place where she died and put them in the water so it could get delivered to her." Marlene explained, with wide eyed enthusiasm.
"That was a nice thing to do." Yuffie smiled down at the child.
"Sooooo...I was thinking perhaps if you wrote a letter to Vincent you wouldn't feel so sad." Marlene spread the paper out on the table and placed a pen in front of Yuffie. "I know it's different because Vincent is going to come home soon but maybe it could help while you are waiting, I'm going to do one too. Shelke you can do one as well."
"I already wrote a text message to Vincent Valentine." The red headed stated.
Yuffie broke out laughing, "Vincent gets confused by text messages, he'll never be able to open it to read it."
Shelke took a pen and scrawled "Thank You." On to a small piece of paper.
"That is all I have to say."
"I think that nice Shelke. Come on Yuffie, write something." Marlene encouraged.
Yuffie stared down at her blank piece of paper, "I'm not sure what I should write?"
"Don't write what you should write; write what you want to write." Marlene advised.
Yuffie could help but feel touched by the little girls attempt to help her, she felt like maybe she understood what she was feeling. "Okay, okay, give me a break, my brain is a little slow today."
Marlene giggled, "Don't write what's in your brainy dummy, write what's in your heart."
Yuffie turned a little pink and focused her attention on writing to try and cover it.
"Finished!!" announced Marlene after 15 minutes.
"What already?" Yuffie put down her pen for a moment. Shelke had gotten tired with sitting in the bar and had gone to assist Tifa with the washing up.
"Ahem. Okay, here it is...
To Vincent,
I really really really hope that you come home very soon. I miss you lots and lots and everyone else does too. You are funny because you think you are scary and you are not. You are a very nice man and you make me feel less scared because you let me hide in your cool cape, it's like a super hero would wear. You are like a superhero because you saved the world again! When you are gone Yuffie acts like the sad one and she is usually the happy one. Thank you for being such a goody even though bad things have happened to you.
Love from,
Marlene Wallace.
Then can you see I've done a picture of a grumpy faced you, it doesn't look right does it."
Yuffie chuckled, "No I guess not, you are very good at spelling you know."
"I'm good at reading too, but I can't read that because its Wutain isn't it." Marlene pointed at Yuffie's letter.
"That's right, maybe I'll teach you someday."
"Aww no fair, you got to hear my letter." Marlene pouted.
Yuffie couldn't deny such a sweet face, "Grrr, Fine but don't tell anyone else. I just have a bit more to do."
Marlene grinned in victory while Yuffie scrawled the last few characters on to her paper.
"You can't laugh okay?"
Marlene nodded and made herself comfortable, Yuffie checked there was no one around to overhear.
"Dear Vince,
Right now I'm pretty scared, I know you are mysterious but you are taking the Mickey. Last time I saw you you were in your Chaos form flying into this freaky monster thing, then it's like you vanished. So you can understand why I'm freaked out. The time before that you saved my life by pushing me out of the way of that wild Mako, and the time before that you saved me from that horrible darkness.
I thought I was going to lose my mind and it was frightening, and you know me I don't scare easy, I am the white rose of Wutai after all. I didn't get a chance to say thank you. You said thank you to me when I saved you, you said it so nicely and I want to do the same, so come back! Please come back! Stories aren't supposed to end with missing heroes and depressed princesses.
You are my hero, and I need a second chance. I need a day where I don't fall on my ass or get sick on your shoes. I need a day to show you who I really am, but I have a feeling that you already know cos it's like you can see through all the facade. Everyone else has only ever seen me in the light, you saw me in the dark and you held me to you. So come back right now!! What I'm trying to tell you is that... I love you... and if you don't come back I'll be depressed forever and Marlene will have to draw more "grumpy Yuffie" pictures.
Your Yuffie,
Now and always,
X
Is that too lame?"
Marlene shook her head, "No, I think it's just right."
They collected messages from all off their friends and put them all together in an envelope. Yuffie bought a huge bunch of white roses and they set off down into the ruins of Midgar. Yuffie carried Marlene on her back so she wouldn't hurt herself on any of the rubble.
They left the letters and the flowers at a flat spot and returned to Edge.
A few days later Vincent came back, he looked tired but all in all he looked better.
Everyone turned up at the bar to celebrate. Vincent had travelled through Midgar on Shelke's instruction that there were some letter's waiting for him. He thanked everyone for their kind words personally, especially little Marlene who had instigated the whole movement.
"There is just one problem?" said Vincent as he caught up with Yuffie outside the bar; she was alone, staring up at the stars.
"And what's that?" she asked smiling widely as she turned to face him.
He had her letter in his hand, "I don't understand Wutain."
Yuffie held out her hand and touched the side of his face; a melancholy look tainted her grey eyes.
Vincent gave her a slight smile.
"Perhaps by the time you have translated it you will be ready to read it." She spoke softly, brushing her thumb over his lips.
"I hope so." He replied.
"So do I Vince, but for now I'm just so pleased to have you back in one piece. Come here." She stood up on her tip toes and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Vincent folded up her letter, slipped it in to his pocket and returned her embrace.