A Day in the Life

Collection of drabbles.

l l l Part 13 l l l

After a night of hard drinking, Reno wasn't surprised at all by the ringing in his ears or the steady pounding in his head. It was so loud to his sensitive ears, he could almost hear it echoing through his apartment. He groaned painfully and rolled over, burying his head underneath the pillows to muffle the sound. The soft cushion provided no shelter for the alcohol abuse. Instead, the pounding was louder and this time, however, it was accompanied by the sound of Elena's grating voice, also muffled, he noticed thankfully.

Suddenly, he sat up, but then cursed as he clutched his head to keep the room from spinning. Realizing the pounding, which he took to be knocking, was not going to subside, he got to his feet and made his way to the door, glad he had decided to leave his pants on the night before.

Wrenching open the door, he growled, "What the hell do you want?"

Elena pushed past him and into the apartment. "If you'd answer your damn phone for a change, I wouldn't have to be here."

Before he could answer, she continued into the bedroom, and Reno almost choked.

"Get the hell out of there, lady!" He rushed to catch up with her, but his hangover kept him at a slow pace, his attention focused on keeping himself from falling. She returned from the bedroom holding a crisp white button-up and a suit jacket in her left hand while she fumbled with his shoes in her right. She shoved them at him while making her way to the kitchen.

"Put them on. We need to leave."

Reno just stared at her as she rifled through his fridge. Noticing his distraction, she looked up him. "Now."

Reno was confident arguing would only fuel her need to voice herself, and at this point, her voice was already hampering his ability to think clearly, loud and irritating as it was.

After he'd put the articles on, he returned to his room to find his belt. Looping it through his pants, he idly wondered if they were presentable enough. Elena sure as hell wasn't telling him where they were going.

She reappeared behind him and handed him a glass of water and some pills. "Take these and let's go."

They arrived at Shinra Headquarters in record time, Reno holding his head during the entire ride to offset the constant throbbing, and Elena's driving didn't help at all. They rode the elevator to the 66th floor and then Reno followed the other Turk into the briefing room. Tseng was already seated at the end, poring over a standard blue mission file, but to his right there was a red personnel file. He looked up when they entered.

"Have a good time last night?"

Reno grinned. "As a matter of—"

"Where's your phone?" Tseng cut him off.

Reno shrugged, "Rude has it."

He watched as Tseng exchanged a look with Elena—and it made him feel very uneasy. She turned and quickly left, leaving a confused Reno standing in the middle of the room.

"What?" He questioned.

Tseng gestured to the table, "Have a seat and we'll get started." He pulled open the personnel file and slid it over to Reno.

"Rude went missing this morning at 0600 while on his way to Junon on mission 41276."

The redheaded Turk read through the report in Rude's file, then looked up. "He didn't tell me he had a mission this morning."

Tseng nodded while pulling out several sheets from the mission file in front of him. "That's because it was Level A."

Reno's eyes widened, "Level A clearance?" Damn.

Tseng handed him the papers, then leaned back. "What we know is that the GPS in his phone went black this morning at 6 AM. That wouldn't be enough to worry Shinra—you guys go through phones like they're candy. But, he didn't make the rendezvous point either."

Reno considered the senior Turk's words carefully, mulling them over.

Suddenly, Elena reappeared in the room holding a remote GPS tracker and she placed it on the table between the three of them.

"I was able to get a lock on Reno's phone," she stated.

"Is it moving?" Tseng asked.

"No," she explained.

"Good," Tseng reached for his phone and dialed quickly.

"What do you mean? We have to go get him," Reno argued. Elena gave him a look at clearly said 'be quiet' but he ignored her. "Tseng, I can ready the helicopter in under three minutes."

Tseng only raised his hand and spoke evenly into the phone, "Dispatch team one to these coordinates," and he read the location off the GPS.

"What? No! He's my partner!" Reno protested as he stood to his feet.

After hanging up, Tseng cleared his throat and nodded at Elena, who then stood up and left the room, leaving the GPS tracker on the table. He then turned back to him, waiting for the younger Turk to sit back down. Reno sat down with a scowl.

"Rude has never given us any doubt of his ability as a Turk," Tseng began. "But he was in possession of Level A information this morning and we cannot take any chances."

Reno stared at Tseng for a moment before his mind caught up with what he was saying.

"What the hell does that mean? Rude's the best Turk you've got," he pointed out.

Tseng nodded, "I know that, though I'm surprised to hear you agree," Tseng closed both files and moved them to the side so he could address the redhead directly.

"If I were to send you, do you realize how out of hand this situation will become?" He didn't wait for a response. "If it came down to it, would you be able to kill him?" Tseng asked, though they both knew the answer.

"So you would send a SOLDIER to kill him?" Reno said.

"No. I sent a team of SOLDIERs to retrieve him, knowing that they would get the job done any way necessary. That information can't fall into the wrong hands." Tseng pushed back from the table and stood up, then reached over and picked up both files. "Now," he continued, "You are ordered to stay here until this situation is resolved, or I will shoot you myself." With a final look toward the redhead, Tseng left the room as well.

Reno took one look at the closed door before hopping to his feet and grabbing the GPS tracker off the table. Like hell, he thought.

l l l

to be continued.