Just Like Old Times

Serah opened the front door and stepped inside. She was worried, real worried. It had been a couple of days since Lightning had ridden out north to the Cocoon place outside of Bodhum and she still hadn't heard from her. Normally, she wouldn't have let it get to her because Lightning was tough, the kind of tough that could get through just about anything, but last night she'd seen and heard the explosion from up north.

With a sigh, she set her things down on a table in the sitting room and took a seat. She had a whole lot of papers to grade, projects that her students had done, along with some report cards to write. That she wasn't much looking forward to. Parents didn't usually take too kindly to being told anything bad about their kids, even if it was true. It was times like this she was really glad that Lightning was the sheriff. As angry as some folks got over their kids, there wasn't a single person who wouldn't think twice before getting nasty with her, not with how protective everyone knew Lightning was.

Still, she could mark the papers later. Right now, she just wanted to lie down and take a nap. On her way to her room, she stopped as she heard a muffled groan come from the bathroom. Feeling a little nervous, she went back to where the fireplace was and picked up a heavy poker before she crept back to the bathroom door. It was only when she looked down and saw the boots propped against the wall that she relaxed. She'd know those boots anywhere, they were Lightning's.

Serah opened the door and looked into the tub. Lightning was there and for a moment, Serah couldn't see what the problem was. Then she moved and she had a clear view of Lightning's body. She gasped. There were bruises, lots of them, and all over the place. Looking up, she saw that Lightning's face hadn't been spared either. Her lip was busted open and her jaw was looking a little purple. But worse than that, were the bruises along her arms and side. They went right up along her ribcage and all the way up her arms. Someone had hit her sister, had her hit her a lot, and had hit her hard.

"Claire…" Serah whispered before Lightning's eyes flicked over to her and narrowed just a fraction. Serah sighed and corrected herself. "Lightning, what happened?"

Lightning looked over at Serah and the younger woman couldn't help but quiver. It was easy sometimes, to forget just how dangerous Lightning was. This was a woman who had the fastest draw in the West, who could drop a man from fifty paces just as easily as Serah might write something up on the blackboard. Just because Lightning had never directed that cool, lethal deadliness at her didn't mean it wasn't there.

"I rode up to the Cocoon place," Lightning said softly and Serah could see that just talking hurt her. "I had a run in with the Bahumut Bandit. We were fighting when the whole place went up. Her partner must have done it. Last I saw, the place was rubble."

"Did… did the Bahamut Bandit do that to you?" It scared Serah a little to see her sister hurt like this. Her sister had been sheriff for a while now, and it had been a long, long time, since she'd come back looking the worse for wear.

Lightning's gaze sharpened as she ran one hand along the bruise on her jaw. Just looking at it made Serah wince and though Lightning was careful to hide any sign of pain, Serah was pretty sure it hurt something awful.

"She did," Lightning said at last. "But I gave as good as I got."

For a moment after she'd spoken, Lightning's gaze was glazed and a thousand miles away and Serah couldn't help but wonder if maybe something more had gone on, something that Lightning wasn't telling her. It wouldn't have been the first time that Lightning had hidden things from her, probably because the older woman thought that Serah wouldn't be able to handle knowing.

"What else happened?" Serah asked.

Just like she'd expected, Lightning shook her head. "It doesn't matter now. Just… just let me stay in here a bit longer."

Serah nodded and went back into the sitting room. She could tell that her sister wanted to be alone, and maybe that was for the best. Whatever had happened to Lightning up there wasn't something she was ready to talk about. Given time, she might open up, and of course, Serah had her little ways. Yes, Lightning was all kinds of stubborn and trying to force something out of her when she wasn't willing was a recipe for disaster.

Still, as she went over to one of the cabinets to fetch some bandages and salve for Lightning's wounds, her mind wandered back to another time her sister had come home all beat up and with a thousand mile stare.

X X X

Thump.

Serah heard something banging about in the sitting room and tightened her hold on her blankets. The fifteen year old couldn't help but be a little scared. Her sister and old man Amodar were doing their best to get Bodhum cleaned up, but there were still plenty of troublemakers and her sister had been pretty clear about what to do if anyone ever came around looking to harm her. Fill them full of holes. Lightning had even taught her how to shoot, and Serah had done her best to get at least decent with a gun, even if the sound of it and the way it rattled her body when she fired made her want to run and hide.

With her breath coming in sharp, quick little gasps, she climbed out of bed and reached for the gun at her bedside. It was a small thing, with nowhere near the power of Lightning's pistol, but it was accurate and easy to use. As quietly as she could, she opened her door and crept toward the sitting room. As she stared into it, the gun dropped from her hands and clattered onto the floor.

Lightning was there, slumped across one of the chairs and there was blood all over her.

"Lightning!" Serah cried as she ran over to her sister. Half crazy with panic, she grabbed a cloth off a nearby table and began to try and dab some of the blood away from Lightning's face. The whole time, Lightning just kind of flopped there, her eyes glazed and unfocused. "Lightning!" Serah cried again. "Oh, Lightning, come on!"

And finally, finally, Lightning responded. She sort of shuddered and blinked and some of the haze in her eyes seemed to fall away as she slowly turned to meet Serah's frantic gaze. "Serah," she croaked, "Shouldn't you be in bed?"

"In bed?" Serah choked the words out, laughing almost crazily and sobbing at the same time. "I don't care about bed. What happened to you?"

Somehow, Lightning stood and almost gently, she pushed Serah away and staggered toward the bathroom. "Just go to bed, Serah. I'll be fine."

"No you won't!" Serah said as she darted over to grab her sister's arm, half certain that the older girl was about to collapse. "This is what you always do! You always say you're fine, but you're not, Lightning, I know you're not!"

Lightning stopped and stared down at Serah, but Serah refused to look away. Most times, Lightning's movements were all silk and velvet, but right now she was sluggish, her feet almost dragging as she fought to stay upright. "Let go of me, Serah."

"No!" Serah tightened her hold. "Why won't you let me help you?"

"I don't need your help!" Lightning shouted, raising her voice for the first time as she pulled out of Serah's grasp and staggered away. She lost her balance and stumbled into the wall before she managed right herself and push away. It didn't escape Serah's eyes that Lightning had left a pretty big red mark along the wall, or that she was clutching at her side. "I don't need anyone's help," Lightning muttered, more to herself than to Serah, as she fumbled with the bathroom door.

Serah followed Lightning into the bathroom and watched with a heavy heart as her sister began to fill the tub, one bucketful of water at a time. By the third bucketful, Lightning's hands were shaking, and by the fifth, she could scarcely get her arms up.

"Oh, Lightning…" Serah whispered. "Why do you have to be so stubborn?"

And with that Serah, gently took the bucket from Lightning, ignoring the older girl's glare, and started to fill the tub herself. It was messy work, and her dressing gown quickly got soaked, but she paid it no mind, instead ushering Lightning to strip down and then climb into the tub.

When the tub was full, Serah again took the time to look over her sister's injuries. Beneath all the blood, she could make out bruises and cuts all over Lightning's body. Lightning's left arm was dangling too. It didn't look dislocated, but from the way Lightning's face screwed up every time she tried to move it, it must have taken some awful punishment. Unbidden she felt tears prickle at her eyes and scrubbed at her face to ward them off. Lightning needed her now and being a weak, simpering little girl wouldn't be any good at all.

"You've done enough, Serah," Lightning said as she began to wash herself as best she could with just her right arm. "Go back to sleep."

Serah shook her head and watched as Lightning began to wash the blood away. Only now, as the blood began to clear, did Serah realise that almost none of it was Lightning's. Serah's eyes widened at the realisation and she tasted bile in the back of her mouth as her mind ran over all the different reasons that Lightning could have so much blood on her, blood that wasn't hers. Just how many people had she killed, and how had she killed them?

Lightning's voice was almost a sob. "Don't look at me, Serah. Please, just look away."

But Serah didn't look away. She couldn't, not, when her sister was hurting so badly. Instead she bent down, and not even caring about the fact that she still had her dressing gown on, she took the sponge away from Lightning and began to, very gently, scrub the blood away.

"Serah…"

"It's fine," Serah whispered, not trusting her voice to get the words out without breaking. "It's just fine, Lightning."

Lightning's eyes widened and there was a glitter in them that Serah hadn't seen for so long, not since… not since the day they'd lost their parents. Swallowing thickly and trying her best to smile, Serah leaned forward and wrapped her arms around her sister and pressed her face into Lightning's hair, not caring that there was still a fair bit of blood there.

"You'll get blood on you, Serah," Lightning said softly and Serah knew she was talking about more than just blood and more than just this moment. "Let me go."

"No," Serah growled. "Never. You're my sister."

Lightning smiled softly, heartbreakingly, and closed her eyes. "Thank you."

Serah shook her head slowly. "No, thank you. Now stay still Lightning and just this once… just this once, let me look after you."

Lightning's eyes opened and for a moment Serah thought she might refuse, but almost as quickly as it had come, the fire in Lightning's eyes faded, banked, and was gone. In its place there was only a bone-deep weariness. "All right. Just this once."

Serah worked as quickly and gently as she could to get the blood off and it wasn't too long before the water was a light pink. It didn't help her nerves either, that each time she touched one of Lightning's bruises, the older girl would bite her lip and clench her jaw. For her part, Serah couldn't hold back a hiss as she took in one particularly nasty cut along Lightning's stomach.

"That'll need stitches," Serah murmured. "I'll do it once we're finished here."

Once Lightning was all cleaned up, Serah helped her dry off and slip into a loose pair of pants and an equally loose shirt. Then the two of them walked over into the kitchen and she had Lightning draw up a chair as she went off to fetch some needle and thread.

Lightning must have been getting her wits back, because when Serah came back with the needle and thread, Lightning tried to take them from her. "I can do this myself."

Serah snatched the needle and thread back. "You're not much good with a needle and thread, Lighting, it'll scar if you do it. Let me handle it and you'll be fine."

Lightning sighed and nodded slowly. To get the needle clean, Serah lit a candle and let the needle heat. When she was sure that it was clean, she got to work, doing her best to block out the grimace on Lightning's face and the occasional hiss that escaped her lips. If it had been her, Serah thought, she'd have been crying something fierce, but Lightning had always been too brave for her own good.

"There," Serah said at last. "We're done. Now get to bed."

Lightning nodded and stiffly got to her feet. Refusing to take Serah's arm, she stumbled back to her room and somehow made it onto the bed. Serah followed her into her room and stood, unmoving by the door.

"You can go now, Serah," Lightning said.

Serah paused for a moment and then looked, really looked, into her sister's eyes. Most people thought her sister didn't have too much in the way of emotions, but Serah knew better. Lightning felt just as much, maybe more, than anyone, she was just better at hiding it, but Serah had gotten good at reading her. There was a look of muted horror in Lightning's eyes, like she was afraid that if she went to sleep she'd see something, something she wished she could just forget. Serah had seen the look a couple of times before, like when Lightning had first shot someone. It was the look of someone who'd seen, really and truly, what they were capable of and maybe, just maybe, been a little frightened of it. That time, Serah had turned away, had been too scared to stay, but not this time. No, she thought as she squared her shoulders, this time, she wouldn't run away, not when Lightning needed her.

"Can I stay with you tonight, Lightning?" Serah asked. Lightning might not ask for help, might not accept it even if it was offered, but Serah knew that she'd give it if she thought that Serah needed it.

Lightning's expression shifted almost too quickly for Serah to follow, but in the end, she nodded. "All right."

That night, as Lightning slept the deep, exhausted sleep of someone who'd done far too much, Serah stayed awake. Moonlight spilled in through the windows and each time she saw Lightning's brow furrow, or her fists clench, Serah tightened her hold a little, let Lighnting know that she was there, that she wouldn't leave, no matter what. Finally, when the dawn came, Serah pulled away and got dressed. She needed to know what had happened to Lightning and there was only one man who could tell her.

It took her an hour to ride over to old man Amodar's place. He must have been expecting her, because he was out on the porch and for the first time she could remember, he really did look old.

"Why don't you sit down, Serah?" Amodar said softly and as she took in the sad, world-weary look on his face, she was reminded once again that long before he'd come to Bodhum, he'd been a marshal of some renown.

"What happened to my sister last night, Amodar?" She cut straight to the point. Politeness was one thing, but this was neither the time nor the place.

Amodar chuckled quietly and she noticed that he had a glass in front of him, along with a bottle of whiskey. He poured himself a glass and then looked down into the whiskey as if it could tell him the answer. "I didn't mean for things to go like they did. She wasn't supposed to stay. She was supposed to run."

"What do you mean?"

Amodar shook his head slowly. "We ran into trouble. There weren't supposed to be that many of them. I got pinned down and we were both pretty much out of ammo. I told her she needed to run, to go get help."

Serah closed her eyes. "But she didn't. No, that's not right. She wouldn't, she wouldn't because she's Lightning."

Amodar lips curved into a bitter smile. "That's exactly right, Serah. One of those bandits had an old sabre. She went after him, took him down and took the sabre from him. After that… well… after that, she went after the others."

Serah felt ill. All that blood…

"She should have just left me," Amodar said. "I never wanted… I never wanted her to have to do what she did. It's one thing to shoot somebody, but…"

Serah clenched her fists so tight they hurt. Lightning had cut those men down, had run them through, had cut and slashed and stabbed and…

"You stay away from her!" Serah shouted as she drove to her feet. The glass of whiskey nearly toppled, but Amodar got a hand to it and downed the whole thing in one gulp. "She shouldn't have to do things like that!"

"Serah…" Amodar kept his voice low and gentle, but Serah wouldn't have any of it.

With a growl, Serah stalked off and then rode away. She had an older sister to take care of.

Alone again on his porch, Amodar poured himself another whiskey. "You're right, Serah, she shouldn't have to do it." He closed his eyes and downed the whiskey. "But someone has to, and she might just be the only one strong enough." He laughed mirthlessly. "Damn, I wish I were twenty years younger."

X X X

Shaking her head to clear her mind of the memories, Serah waited for Lightning to come out of the bath. The bruises still looked pretty awful, but now that she'd had time to clear her head, Serah could see that they weren't quite as bad as she'd first thought. Certainly, she'd seen Lightning come back with worse. Once she'd rubbed some salve onto the bruises to help them heal and bandaged everything up, she helped Lightning into her bed.

"I'll stay with you," Serah said softly as she slipped in beside Lightning.

Lightning just nodded and the two of them lay there together. Only when she'd heard Lightning's breathing even out into the slow, deep pace of slumber, did Serah let herself fall asleep.

X X X

Author's Notes

First of all, I neither own Final Fantasy, nor am I making any money off this.

To begin, my apologies to anyone expecting a chapter with a great deal of humour. However, I felt that I needed a bit more on Lightning and Serah's relationship and while I probably could have done something humorous to show that off (think Lightning catching Serah and Snow in a compromising position), I felt that this would be best. Certainly, I think that despite Lightning's overall level of awesomeness as a sheriff, it couldn't have been easy at the start. Rest assured, however, that this story is not going to become overwhelmed with angst (although there isn't anything wrong with stories that are). Besides, one of the things I've always liked about Westerns is that despite how incredible the heroes often are (e.g., one guy shooting about fifty guys on his own), they are often depicted as very human, particularly with regards to their pasts.

As for how badly Lightning is beat up, trust me, if you're ever in a fight, you really feel it the next morning. When the adrenaline's pumping, it's okay, but after… not so much. Don't worry though, Fang didn't exactly get off lightly either. As for why I know what it's like to have been in a fight… see some of the author's notes in my other stories. I've broken an arm, a hand, and severely damage a knee before.

As always, I appreciate feedback. Reviews and comments are welcome.