(sorry for the delay in posting this, I had some personal stuff come up (and I got distracted by a new smartphone))
Tseng's POV
It's been a few days since I sent them out to Midgar and, thankfully, Reno's been giving me regular updates on their status though I didn't ask him to. Every few hours I get a text letting me know exactly how pointless Reno thinks the assignment is and that they're doing just fine. He doesn't say that they're fine, but the messages he sends lead me to believe that that is true.
I knew that they were safe, albeit bored, when Reno sent a picture of a skeletal hand he'd rearranged into a 'thumbs up' position. While I disapproved of the morbid manipulation, I still found myself smiling a little. That was the first afternoon.
The next night, while I was trying to cook dinner, I got another message. This time, Reno had taken a picture of Avery asleep in a pew of the church. They'd made fairly good progress to be on the outskirts of Sector Five by their second night, but I wondered if they were looking hard enough while I ate.
Today,I get a call from Avery. I had been getting a few pictures and messages from Reno throughout the day that had me believing everything was going just as smoothly as it had been since the outset.
Now, when I flip my phone open, I assume that Reno's taking a selfie with another corpse and that she's finally going to tell me her thoughts on the matter.
I don't expect to hear her hiccupping and sobbing on the other end.
"Avery, breathe. What's going on? I need facts, not hysterics." I keep my voice calm and even manage to remain in my seat, though I've cracked the pen in my hand with the effort.
"I-I sh-shot him!"
She's still sobbing and bawling on the other end, but through the static and tears, the message is received. I grit my teeth together, trying to keep any panic out of my voice. "Is he dead?"
There's a rustling on the other end and Reno's voice interrupts the sobbing. I sigh in relief as I hear him begin chewing her out and my grip on the pen relaxes, pieces of cracked off plastic falling onto my desk.
"Dammit, Avery! I told ya not to call him!" His voice comes through a little louder when he's won the phone. "Hey, bossman. How's the weather?"
"What happened?" I haven't got time for his nonsense and, if he's bleeding, he could be short on time as well.
"Well, we caught the guy. Can we leave it at that for a minute?"I don't answer and he gets the hint, sighing into the receiver. "We found a dude who thought we were comin' up to buy, he was high as hell, I tried to cuff him, he started runnin' and pulled a gun, I cast Pyramid, Avery's bullet ricocheted and hit me and his bullet ricocheted and he hit himself. It's just a graze, man."
I hear Avery in the background, her voice high pitched and irritating. The girl is obviously still panicking. "The whole bullet went into your arm you asshole! Don't lie!"
"Fine, fine, she got me good. An inch to the left and I wouldn't be bleedin' right now, but that's just my luck I suppose. We'll be home in time for dinner, Tsengy-poo, bring pizza! Kisses!"
The line goes dead and I know better than to try and call back. Reno won't answer either phone now, not with one arm bleeding and his hands full of Avery and a captive. I think for a moment about going into Midgar myself to bring them out, but I know better. I have no idea where they are in there and I would just end up causing problems by getting lost myself. Instead, I gather a small medical team from the WRO and we make our way to the closest entrance to Midgar. I lean on Reno's car, arms crossed over my chest, and take a brief moment to wonder over how I should receive them. Avery might still be unprofessionally sobbing, but I doubt that Reno will still be bleeding. He has Restore materia on hand and he'll have improperly sealed up the wound, I'm sure of it.
I'm worrying a little bit more when it starts getting dark with no sign of them. My phone hasn't rung at all, so I know that Reno is still conscious enough to keep Avery from their cells, but that doesn't make me feel any better. My Second has a bad habit of blowing serious injuries off like they're nothing. If he gets a papercut, he's going to let the entire world know about it and he'll whine like a brat, but if I stabbed him he'd probably try to shrug it off.
The medical team is getting restless, if their whispers and shifting is any indication, but I don't budge. Reno's car is going to have an imprint of my ass on the hood if he doesn't hurry up and come back.
About the time the sun has set, we hear movement and shouting in the rubble in front of us. I breathe a sigh of relief and straighten up, walking forward to help the strange, multi-legged shape that's stumbling down the poorly lit path. The med team turns on their headlights, illuminating the odd group.
"Dammit, ya prick, I said to quit fuckin' kickin' me!" Reno's swearing and shouting, tugging their captive along behind him with one arm. Avery is trying to help, but their captive is thrashing quite a bit and, after her friendly fire, she seems deflated and unconfident in her assistance. All three are bloody and haggard looking, though relatively sound.
I approach and grab their captive by his free arm, glad to see that they managed to get cuffs on him after all. "Both of you go to the medics. I'll get him the rest of the way."
Reno shoots me a look that's a mixture of relief and wounded pride, but he releases the man into my care. Avery scrambles past the two of us to get to the medics, her hands shaking violently. I grab the brunette by the neck, placing a gun to his temple, and he walks a lot more cooperatively after that. I get him into the back of the med truck without any more troubles and surrender him over to sedatives and tie downs.
"Reno, I said go to the medics." He is fumbling with his keys, trying to get into his car.
"I'm fine, man! I already healed it up!" He's favoring his left arm, despite his attempts to make it seem like he's perfectly alright.
"You get the bullet out?"
There's a bit of silence before he answers me with a grumbling sigh. "Fine, I'll go with the damn parasites. Make sure my baby gets home." For a second I think that he's talking about Avery and I raise an eyebrow, but he tosses me his keys and I catch the message.
"I'll drive her back to HQ safely. Promise." I can't help but smile because he's stubbornly trudging to the med truck, dragging his feet in the dirt like a toddler going to bed early. He even has his lower lip sticking out. It's ridiculous, to be sure, but not an unexpected response.
"Alright, so what's the full story of this one?" I ask, arms crossed over my chest. We've made it back to HQ and I've pulled both of them into my office.
Reno is temperamental and slightly loopy after having the bullet removed from his arm and field dressed. He acts like stitches and a sling are the worst thing that has ever happened to him. "I already told ya on the phone!"
Avery is still struggling not to cry, her knees pulled up to her chest. She's sitting on the couch and sniffling occasionally. I want to slap her everytime I hear the snotty sounds. They're disgusting. She's contributed nothing to the story at all since they got back.
"So you approached the man, he tried to sell you drugs, and then you tried to apprehend him? That's it?" I find that hard to believe. Reno doesn't work that way.
He shuffles a little and sits, running a hand through his hair. "Okay, so maybe there's a little more detail than that." I steeple my fingers in front of me, waiting for elaboration. He sighs and starts spilling his guts.
"Aight, here's what went down. Ave and I were wanderin' through Sector Four and finally found some damn signs of life that didn't just turn out to be a bunch of rats or hedgehog pies. We followed them and found the dude we brought back in some rundown as shit house smokin' weed or somethin'. He saw my tatts and thought I was part of the gang he was sellin' to and so he tried to sell me the Fantasy. Apparently someone from Cressida's little gang was scheduled to come buy it off him-"
"I thought Cressida was dead?" I interrupt, raising an eyebrow.
"That makes two of us, man. Didn't think I'd hafta deal with that tramp again." He shakes his head, rubbing his cheek lightly. Reno had been working for Cressida years ago when Legend brought him in and I was content to let the two of them handle our dealings with her at the time. Since her base of operations was in Midgar, it was assumed that she had died under plate like most everyone else. It's a little surprising that an old problem like her would surface again without our knowledge.
He continues with the story, letting his hand drop back to tap his fingers against his thigh. "Anyways, he thought I was Cressida's so he was gonna sell it to me. I agreed and tried to cuff him when he turned around, so he thought I was tryin' ta steal it from him and started runnin'. Avery and I chased him and he pulled a gun. I cast Pyramid so he'd hit shoot his own damn self, but Avery had already pulled out her piece and shot at him. I got hit and so did he. I think he was too high to notice though. Who the hell gets hit in the hip and then fuckin' kicks like a mule all the damn way out of Midgar?"
Avery had started crying again at the mention of her friendly fire and I resist the urge to snap at her. It'll only make it worse, if she's anything like Elena used to be, which so far she has been. "Alright, so it was entirely friendly fire. That's good to know. Once your man sobers up, we'll interrogate him. Avery, you haven't seen an interrogation yet, so I need you to sit through it with us quietly." I glare at her and her sniffles stop immediately. I stifle a sigh of relief, turning back to Reno. "Is there anything else? Besides the fact that you went through Midgar mishandling corpses and writing swear words on every piece of paper you came across?"
"I didn't write swears on all of them. Only the ones too far gone to be folded into airplanes, man." Reno smiles and Avery giggles a little. I wish he were lying, but I know he probably shot airplanes off of every building he could crawl onto. He's a five year old at heart. In some ways that is endearing; in other ways it's damned annoying.
"Answer the question, Reno." I can't help but smile a little at his childishness.
"Nothin' else to report. It's the same as we left it, just more rat filled and less Deepground-ey." He stands, pointing to his arm. "Have I got permission to heal this over now, bossman? I hate stitches. I don't wanna be out till this fucker heals."
"No, Reno." I shake my head, wondering if I'll have to order him to let it heal naturally. "You can't just magic away every injury you ever get. It isn't good for you and you know it." He groans loudly and sits back down with a loud plop and a creak of protest from my chair. It's unhealthy to keep the body from utilizing its natural defenses to pain and sickness. If I have to, which I hate to admit but I probably will have to, I will let him heal it, but I'd prefer not to. I can't afford to have one of my best Turks out for a few weeks, especially since I only have six Turks on hand at all. It's been hard to recover from the damage of the past few years and any recruits we've had have all been sent to the WRO unless they show extreme promise in their training, like Avery and Lee did.
"Do I still get pizza?" The puppy dog eyes he tries to shoot me with are going to get him slapped someday.
"Buy your own pizza, Reno." With our haphazard little triumph of catching the perp, we got back to business as usual. Avery's tears dry up and are replaced with giggles and Reno keeps pestering me about damn food until I order them both out of my office.
They are talking loudly when they leave, Reno trying to get Avery to buy him pizza as recompense for having shot him in the arm. He'll probably get her to agree to do it for him, though we all know he's got more than enough money to buy his own damn pizza. Once their voices have trailed away, I pull out my phone, dialing Rufus' number to fill him in on everything that has happened.