Disclaimer: I don't own FF7 or anything related

Warnings: Consensual Sex... between minors

Chapter 13

They sat at a small cafe quietly. The people around them didn't seem to notice her and that helped her relax, but not much. She glanced at Angeal every now and then, she was thankful that he wasn't trying to talk to her. She pulled at the sleeves of her coat, covering her hands as much as she could. She missed her own coat, it was comfy and pretty. This one served its purpose but it wasn't the same. Her mother hadn't gotten it for her.

She looked up as Angeal placed a slice of cake in front of her. She thanked him but didn't move to eat it. She was still too nervous and she wasn't even sure how much she could eat at the moment.

"Aerith, stop looking around, there's no one here." he said calmly, "We need to discuss a few things. I'm not sure if you heard most of what we talked about in the car." She hadn't heard most of it, she had dosed off and had just barely heard of Zack's plans to leave her alone.

"Okay." she grabbed the cup of water, noticing that her hands were trembling. She could drink water, at least, without feeling sick.

"From what Zack has told me, you're staying pretty far from town. I'll pretend to be a house keeper." she nodded and he continued, "I'll tell him that I simply saw you kids with all your groceries and decided to give you a ride back. Then i'll ask if he needs any help around the house."

"What if he says no?" she asked.

"I'll find another way. I'm not really expecting him to agree to this, it just happens to be an easy way to find out your location since Zack didn't bother to get an address." Angeal explained, "I have tickets for the two of you, The flight leaves in a week so I really just want to keep an eye on things until I can get you to the airport."

"That's it?" she asked quietly. It seemed simple enough, maybe too simple, "What if none of that works? He could call someone and send them after us."

"I've done this before, trust me. I'm being careful with this." he sighed, "Zack told me what Don was like, so i'm doing the best I can with that information." Angeal glanced out of the window, "There he is now." she looked over and Saw Zack loading the groceries into Angeal's car. Relief flooded through her and she looked away, maybe it was wrong for her to be happy about him coming back. After all, him returning meant that they were going back to Don's mansion and that was the last thing she wanted.

"He wasn't gone too long." Angeal said, "But you must have missed him a lot."

"No." she shook her head, "Why would you say that?"

"I've been sitting with you for the last 30 minutes," he raised an eyebrow, "All you've done is look around nervously and play with your coat. But when you saw him, that all stopped. You're happy to see him."

She wrinkled her nose at the word happy. She couldn't even remember what happy felt like anymore, but she was sure that wasn't what she was feeling. "No, i'm not."

They watched as Zack entered the shop and spotted them. He waved and came over to them, "You smell horrible." Angeal sighed.

"Yeah, I ran all through that place so I could get back here as soon as possible." Zack said, "And this guy who worked there stopped me, but he didn't speak english so I had no idea what he was saying!" He wiped his forehead, "Hey! You guys have cake." he picked up Angeal's fork and tried to eat his cake.

"Zack..." Angeal stopped him, "Shouldn't you get back to the mansion now?"

"He's not expecting us back, he thinks we walked. We'd still be walking now if you hadn't showed up." Zack said. He attempted to get Angeal's cake again and pouted when the man moved it further away. This was different from the Zack she knew. He was too happy and playful instead of caring and responsible.

"You can have mine." she said quietly. Zack looked at her and shook her head.

"No, you should eat it." he said, "We can go back after she eats her cake, Angeal."

"No, I don't want it." she said, "I mean, i'm not hungry."

"You have to be, you didn't eat last night and after what happened... you need to eat something." he said, "And what better then cake? It's got cream cheese in it, when was the last time you had cream cheese?"

She picked up her fork, "Fine." she mumbled. She poked into the cake, suddenly aware of the fact that both Angeal and Zack were watching her. Why did they have to watch her? She put a forkful in her mouth and didn't even try to chew it. The moment it hit her tongue, she wanted to spit it out, but she forced it down and set her fork down. "I'm not feeling well, okay?" she sighed.

"Right, I guess I shouldn't be-" he didn't finish his sentence because she threw up. The clear liquid was all over the table... all over Angeal's cake too.

She felt her face heat up as she looked away, " I'm so sorry..." she knew that people were watching now. She even heard a few people gasp.

"I shouldn't have made you eat." Zack said quietly, "Really, calm down." She took a breath and looked at him. He'd placed his hand on her shoulder and was smiling softly.

"I'm sorry, Angeal." she said. The waitress who had taken their order returned.

"Oh, We can have someone do the cleaning." she said, "Don't worry." She could have held it in, she didn't even try.

"I guess we'll be giving her a big tip." Zack said quietly. She sat back and nodded, people were still watching and she felt horrible.

"Zack, I don't feel good..." She felt something rising in her throat and she covered her mouth. She couldn't throw up again, not while everyone was watching, not while the waitress was standing next to her, not while Zack was rubbing her shoulder and trying to calm her down... But she did anyway and it spilled through her fingers and onto the table. There was a pinkish tint to it that only got worse as more came out.

"She's bleeding." Angeal stood up and said something to the waitress in Italian. She nodded and rushed off, "Zack, she'd bleeding internally, that's why it's pink. We have to take her to a hospital."

"No!" she said a little louder then she'd wanted, "We have to go now... Zack, we need to go back to Don." She had to go back or she'd be in so much trouble. She could just go, Zack would follow her if she ran and she wouldn't even have to worry about convincing him. Without another word, she ran out of the cafe.

"Aerith, wait!" Zack rushed out after her. He was much faster then she was and he caught up easily. She stopped before he could grab her and leaned onto a wall. Her back burned and her lungs did as well. Running wasn't a good idea. "Hey, let's go back to the cafe-

"No! Don will find out and... we weren't even supposed to be there!" she coughed closed her eyes, "We're going to be in so much trouble..." He would kill her, she was sure of it. Last night he'd hit her so much that she thought she would have died, and that was because she had been in the kitchen with Zack, there was nothing that would stop him now.

"Aerith, you're really sick." Zack said quietly, "And you need a doctor."

"He'll find out..." she coughed again and Zack grabbed ahold of her, "Please, let's just go back."

"No, he's the reason you're like this." Zack said, "We can't go back there."

"Zack..." he legs went limp and she fell onto him, "He'll find out..." The next moments were a blur, they went back to the cafe, they were in a vehicle, there were so any people and it hurt her eyes just to try and look at them all. She kept her eyes closed and she was sure that she passed out a few times.

She woke up in Don's bed...

"Your daughter?" it was Angeal.

"My wife actually." Don corrected.

"Of course." Angeal nodded, "I've been dispatched by the hospital. Since you insisted on bringing her home, they've sent me to check on her."

"What's wrong with her?" Don asked. The mock concern made her want to throw up again.

"She's sick, as you can see." Angeal went on to explain some lengthy diagnosis, probably what the doctors at the hospital had told him. His accent was better then the one he'd first used when he saw Zack walking along the street, but maybe that was because he'd been joking around. "There is also an infection coming from one of the scars on her back. Now, these scars, they are recent. And they were self maintained, but not properly."

"Scars?" Don asked, "What scars? Her body is unmarked." It wasn't an he knew that. She was covered in bruises, sure there were no longterm scars... yet, but it made her sick to hear him playing innocent. "I left her alone last night, she was with that servant boy." Don said, "He must've have done something to her, ill see that he is punished accordingly."

"No..." she managed to speak up. Don wouldn't go easy on Zack, even though he hadn't actually done anything wrong, she was sure the man would punish him anyway.

"Aerith, sweetheart... You had me scared." Don walked over to her and leaned down next to her, "This is Dr. Hewley. He's here to take care of you." His fingers began to comb through his hair and he began to whisper in her ear, "If you tell him anything, you and that boy will be punished." the whisper was sharp and maybe a little louder then he'd planned it, but he stood up and smiled at her anyway, "I'll be leaving now, you know where your servant is if you need anything, Dr. Hewley, please follow me."

She waited for them to leave the room before forcing her eyes open. She wouldn't get in any trouble about the hospital while Angeal was here and that lifted a load off of her. "Aerith? Are you up?" someone had entered the room but she hadn't really been paying attention.

"Yes..." she said quietly, "What happened?"

"After you ran out of the cafe? Or after you passed out?" He waited for her to clarify and sighed when she didn't. "Okay, um... we took you to the hospital, don't be mad. And then after we heard your diagnosis, I called Don to explain why we weren't home. He came up there and insisted that we come back here."

"And Angeal is pretending to be a doctor?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah." Zack nodded.

"Okay... I'm sorry for running out like that." she said after a moment, "And for throwing up." that had been embarrassing for her, but she wasn't really sure how he felt about it.

"Don't worry about that, it's not your fault." he said, "And Don left, so please calm down." She didn't even realize how tense she was until he started rubbing her arm. She relaxed, although she didn't know why, and he smiled, "Want something to eat? We have a lot of food down there."

"No..." she groaned, "I can't eat right now."

"But, you have to try at least." he said, "And if it doesn't stay down, then that's fine." Angeal came back into the room.

"You didn't tell me about the scars." he sighed, "I wouldn't have had her sitting in a cafe if I knew she needed medical attention."

"I bandaged her up... I thought she would be okay." Zack scratched his head and looked away, "But hey, at least she got to the hospital eventually."

"Zack, you aren't a doctor." Angeal said, "You can't just decide that she'll be okay."

"Geez, give the man a white coat and he thinks he's a freaking expert." Zack muttered in her ear. She smiled and turned away from him.

"We're supposed to change your bandages every 12 hours." Angeal said.

"Oh yeah, how long has it been? An entire day, right?" Zack said, "Can you help me get her to the bathroom?"

"I can get there myself, Zack." she said.

"No, you can't. I know you don't like it when I tell you what to do, but you need help."Zack said. Aerith covered her eyes with her arm, he was right, he usually was, but she didn't want to move yet.

"Can't it wait?" she asked, "I'm tired."

"You just slept for an entire day." Zack said.

"We need to changed your bandages now, you're overdue and the infection will get worse if you don't do it soon."

"Fine." she sat up and sighed. She felt light headed and hot, if her mother was here, she'd figure out a way to change her bandages without having her move. But of course, her mother wasn't there...

Zack helped her out of the bed and she cooperated until he expected her to stand on her own. Her muscles were too weak and she almost fell, but he caught her. "She can barely stand." he said.

"Yes, keep holding on." Angeal said. They began to lead her down the hall, passing several bathrooms because they weren't clean enough, "Zack, don't et her fall." Angeal warned every now and then.

"I'm not going to fall." she mumbled. They reached a bathroom and Zack set her down on the toilet. Angeal left the room, saying something about medicine and Zack began to take off her shirt. She slapped his hand away, "I can do it myself." she didn't mean to snap at him, really, but she did and he sighed in defeat.

"i'll wait outside." he left the bathroom and Angeal returned.

"He's trying to help." Angeal said, as if he knew what she'd just done. His voice was calm and free of judgment, but she felt judged anyway. She felt guilty and angry because really, he was only trying to help. There was no reason for her to snap at him but she did anyway and she was sure that she would keep doing it... But she had every right to... she hated being touched but he wouldn't stop touching her! She was violated by so many men, me who touched her without her permission and she figured that with Zack, she could at least say no. She had that right, didn't she?

"He's trying hard, he forgets sometimes that you haven't recovered from any of this just because you're in a different building." Angeal said, "But you have to try too, be nice to him." he left the bathroom and closed the door after him.

It was hard to be friends with Zack, and Angeal just didn't understand. She slowly pulled her feet up onto the toilet and hugged her knees. Zack was going to come back eventually, because he knew very well that she couldn't change her bandages herself, but until then she was going to sleep.

She woke up in Zack's arms and unwillingly, she tensed up. "Shh, it's okay." he whispered.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"To Don's room..." he said cautiously, "You were asleep when I came back and I changed your bandages for you."

"Right, sorry."

"No need for that, Aerith." he said, "I understand why you're bing like this, I should have realized that I was crossing boundaries, so i'm sorry too."

"No, i'm really sorry." she said, "I'm comfortable around you, Zack. You're the only guy I trust right now and I keep being mean to you."

"You don't need to explain yourself." they entered the room and he set her down on the bed, "Now, we gave you a hot while you were asleep. The doctor said that was the best way to give you the medicine since you cant keep anything down."

"Mhmm." she said, "And?"

"I started some soup for you, rest up and i'll bring it to you later." Zack tucked her into the bed. It wasn't the same blanket that Don slept under. In fact, he'd gone through the trouble of removing any trace of the man from the bed.

"Thanks." she said before nodding off again.

0.o.0.o.0

He didn't know why he was even bringing her the soup. She wasn't going to eat it, maybe a spoonful or too, but that's it. "Aerith?" he called as he entered the room. She was asleep, he always fell asleep after she left the room. He set the soup down on the nightstand and woke her up, "I have your soup." She whined and he rolled his eyes, "Come on, sit up."

"I'm not even hungry." she sat up anyway, "Can't it wait." He really didn't want her to throw up again, but she wouldn't get any better if she didn't eat.

"Just have a little, and if you feel like you're going to throw up, then stop." he said. He picked up the bowl and held it out to her, "Do you want me to feed you?"

"Zack," she warned with a glare.

"Calm down, I was kidding." he gave her the bowl and waited while she ate, 'They wanted to give you liquid medicine."

"I hate that stuff." she said, "It tastes funny. It always says grape, but it;s never grape."

"Maybe it tasted like grape once, but then they added medicine?" He shrugged, "Do you like it?"

"Yeah." she said. She'd eaten more then a few bites and that was good. He heard someone coming and assumed it was Angeal.

"Zack? What are you doing in here? Shouldn't you be cleaning?" Don snapped. Zack turned around and kept a straight face.

"I was just bringing her something to eat." he said, "And i've cleaned most of the house."

"But not all of it?" Don sneered, "How sloppy." Don walked over to the front of the bed and began watching Aerith. She's stopped eating and was now stirring the soup lazily. "She's still sick?"

"well, the doctor said it could be a few days." Zack said.

"Is she contagious? They said she wasn't."

"Well, i've been with her all day. I don't feel sick." he had a feeling that he should have lied. Don had something planned, maybe he wanted to rape her and was worried about getting sick. "But I'm no doctor."

"Take off your clothes." Don said.

"huh?" it caught him off guard, "Why?"

"Don't question me." Don's gaze moved to him, "Just do as I say."

"No." he said, "Why?" He crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes, what was the man planning?

"Zack," Aerith said quietly, "Do what he says..."

"i want you to have sex with her." Don said. He kept his face straight and shook his head.

"No." Now was as good a time as any to be defiant. Aerith was sick and hurt and the order was outrageous.

Don rolled his eyes and pulled a gun from his coat, "Honestly, I didn't think I would have to threaten you with a gun. With the way you've been drooling over er, I figured you were just waiting for your chance to jump in bed with her." The gun wasn't pointed at him, but at Aerith. "She needs practice, usually I take control, but I need to see her I action."

Aerith pushed the bowl of soup into his hands and he put it on the nightstand. "Just do it." she said, "You have too."

"I'm sorry." he whispered.

"Aerith, you know what to do." Don said, "Get to it." She took in a breath and got out of bed. Her knees wobbled but she didn't fall over. He grabbed her when she reached for him and they locked eyes.

"Just pretend he isn't here." she whispered. She began to get undressed, "Let me do everything." He nodded and looked away as she stripped down. He'd never wanted to see her naked, they were just friends. But looking at her now, he could tell that she was would be beautiful if she didn't look so sickly. He wanted to punch himself for that thought but Aerith had begun to strip him.

"You don't need to-

"I do." she said. He looked back at Don and saw the man watching with an amused smirk.

"She's sick." he tried, "She can barely stand and I don't want to do this to her."

"You dick says differently." Don smiled. Zack didn't look down, he already knew what was happening. Aerith was touching him and he was reacting. Her hands were on his thighs, rubbing circles and slowly making their way to his penis. He took a breath and tried to control himself. He would have to ignore Don, that's what Aerith had told him to do.

"I'm sorry." he mumbled again.

"Shh." she closed her mouth around him and he moaned. He wasn't expecting it at all.

"What are you doing?" he hissed and she glared up at him, he wasn't making this any easier for either of them. He said nothing else and let her work. He was enjoying it, he couldn't deny that, but he didn't want to enjoy it. When it was all over he wanted to be able to say he hated it as much as she did... but this was different, he'd never done anything like this before.

"enough of that, you clearly don't need practice in that department." Don said, "up on the bed, both of you."

"She's still sick..." He said, "If Dr. Hewley finds out-

"You won't be telling him." Don said, "Not while I have Aerith, and he's asleep. I made sure of it." Aerith pushed him towards the bed and climbed on top of him.

"Zack, calm down. I... I want to do this." she said quietly. She began kissing his neck.

"Why?"

"I want to see, what it's like to do this with someone you... like." it wasn't a declaration of love, she'd just told him how comfortable she was with him, how she trusted him. Maybe this was the same then. She was trusting him not to hurt her like the other men did. She wanted to know what consensual sex was like and she'd chosen him for a reason.

"Okay." he nodded and kissed her. On the lips, she deepened the kiss and they fell back onto the pillows. He was sure he would have enjoyed himself more if the entire situation wasn't so odd. He could forget from time to time that Don was watching them, but every time Aerith's body moved down, every time he pulled her in for a kiss, he saw the man staring and pointing his gun.

When Aerith positioned herself over him, he paused, looking at her again to see if this was really what she wanted. She gave him a small smile before sinking down onto him. He moaned and closed his eyes, "Aerith..." He's never had sex before. It was something he'd always imagined he'd do, but he never thought about it. Not while there were girls being forced into sex acts all around him. He didn't want to be like any of those men, and even when one of the workers had brushed against him, shooting him a wink, he simply ignored it and pushed down his urges.

He was supposed to be letting her take control, but he didn't. He grabbed her hips and thrust upwards, pulling a moan from her throat. She didn't stop rubbing his body, she seemed to know exactly where she should be touching him to keep him happy. "Aerith." he whispered in her ear. She looked at him, eyes half closed and smiling, "Is this... okay?"

"Yes." she kissed him and he smiled. Sure, he should have ben paying attention to him instead of getting caught up in the pleasure. He was losing control, thrusting into her as slowly as he could manage and kissing her every time she moaned his name.

"Zack..." she breathed in and he moaned. He was getting closer... He stopped his thrusts and she opened her eyes, confusion on her face.

"We have to stop, i'm..." she began to bounce and he found he couldn't talk. He knew what was about to happen and he definitely didn't want to come inside of her, "Aerith, please... You have to-" she put a finger to his lips, her eyes suddenly pleading and he allowed her to work. He really should have been watching Don, if he had been, he would have noticed the man's frown deepening until it was a maddening scowl. He would have notice his fingers twitch, and he would have moved Aerith away before the bullet hit her. But of course, he didn't he allowed himself to get distracted and when the bullet burst through her shoulder, all he could do was gasp.

"Aerith..." he sat up quickly. It took him a moment to realize what happened and once he did, he was filled with anger. "You.. You bastard!" he shouted, ready to jump up, "You shot her!" Don's scowl eased into a smirk.

"You'd think she'd have that kind of response with me." he said, "I'm her lover, not you."

"You... You aren't her lover!" he shouted, "You're her rapist!"

"If she didn't want it, she'd just say no." Don shrugged. He put the gun away and walked out of the room. Zack wanted to chase after him, but Aerith was bleeding out on the bed.

"Aerith?" he took a breath, "Hey, i'm going to put pressure on this." She was unconscious, he knew that, but he still walked her through the process as he had when Don had whipped her. He sat for a moment, holding his hands against her wound, trying to calm himself. Where was Angeal? Would Don be coming back? What was he supposed to do? It took another minute or so before he realized that her injury was serious, that a few bandages and what not wouldn't help. Aerith was going to bleed to death on the bed if he didn't do something.

0.o.0.o.0

This has been done for a while, I forgot to upload it... sorry?