A/N: Oh dear, you are in luck, I just managed to get another chapter out…Grey Edwards and Aki Ross from "Spirits Within" make an appearance here if you didn't notice…not sure what a lot of people make of that movie though, but I find adding them to the story to be useful at times…do read and review would you kindly?

Dr. Gregory "Grey" Edwards sat in his office looking at his patient's clinical chart…his surgery came out well enough to stabilize him, but for how long? Like he told Mrs. Valentine, this is the first sort of case he had ever seen…but that was not what surprised him…years of experimentation at the hands of Professor Hojo? The man should by all means have been dead by now, if not to the hands of time, but by his own. What made him cling so much onto life? It's no wonder this is the first case he's ever seen…the man is an involuntary guinea pig. JENOVA implants? Mako injections? Infused demonic spirits? Hell, he would have committed suicide the moment he woke up after all that, and he was a hardened member of the Shin-Ra Medical Corps without any suicidal tendencies…the only thing that would have saved him was his wife.

Ah, speak of the devil, the door opened to reveal the beauty that was his wife…oh just seeing her made his day even better, and just hearing her voice tended to help him out in situations like this. "Grey, are you okay honey?" This medical genius from Wutai was Dr. Akiko "Aki" Ross, the head and chief surgeon of the radiology department. Her specialty was in the use of the mako laser scalpel…even today, he had never seen such speed and precision with that instrument, and he uses the standard stainless steel scalpel.

Grey simply sighed after putting down the clinical chart on his desk. "This particular case is baffling me. I've never seen such a chart before. Geostigma patients, I have saved once or twice, and I've even been able to save a few from mako poisoning. But this case, this Vincent Hayate Valentine, has too many cases I've never seen before…so far, all I can do is to keep him stable, but no matter how I look at it, there's nothing I can do for him."

"You're not talking about Vincent Valentine, as in one of the members of AVALANCHE are you?"

He nodded. "And what makes things worse is that apparently, he has a daughter on the way…I met his wife last night—I think she was the princess of Wutai. Anyway, you should have seen the look on her face when I told her that there was a good chance that there's nothing we could do."

"Is that why you've locked yourself in here since last night?" Grey's silence told her all she needed to know. She looked like she was on the edge of tears. "Is it really hopeless to save him?"

"I've looked over his charts. That Professor Hojo was really one sick and twisted, perverted, disgrace of a human being…in fact, he is more a monster than anything else in the world. It's like an extreme form of a cancer symptom that's making him weaker while tearing up his body inside-out without those lumps. There's nothing I can do…the only thing I can suggest at the moment to keep him stable is to keep him from anything overly exciting—the damage so far is limited to his lungs and his heart, and so long as he stays calm, he won't be coughing up blood as often."

Aki didn't know what to say when she noted that her husband bent forward…he was shaking in rage aimed at himself and the tears that were hidden in his eyes had already started breaking out. She knew that feeling…when she failed to save her mentor and adopted grandfather…she was angry at herself for not being good enough to save him from that brain tumor on time…and so ever since that day, she got better with her surgeries to the point that her success rate had increased, and she vowed to never let it go down for the sake of all the patients that entrust their lives to her. She didn't know what else to do but to walk towards Grey, and gently pull him to lock him in a reassuring hug—he returned the gesture by grabbing her in a bear hug and letting his tears flow out…there was nothing that either of them could do to help this family, and Grey has to go tell her the bad news…

Yuffie sat next to Vincent's bed after crying herself to sleep on his lap. Reeve and Red had left early to see if they could find any way to help…Barrett and Cid both offered her a place at their respective houses to stay should Vincent die earlier than expected…Cloud and Tifa had to go home as they had work to attend to, and Denzel had school with Marlene, but they reminded her that if she wanted someone to talk to, they were always around. As she lay there with her head on his thigh, she dreamed of another moment in the past that she remembered…

Flashback…roughly four or five years ago…

Yuffie was ashamed of herself after seeing the look of anger on everyone's faces after they learned that she stole all their materia. For now, she was assigned to work with Cid and Vincent on gathering supplies. She couldn't blame them—she'd hate anyone for stealing from her too. It was no surprise then that she found herself sitting alone away from the campfire…the only people not showing her hostility at the moment were Aeris, Tifa, and Vincent for some reason. Although Aeris seemed to understand why she stole their materia in the first place…Tifa on the other hand was only disappointed, and so there was not much hostility for her…that and the two of them were with Cloud at the moment, and so that left one last person who wasn't openly hostile with her…Vincent, she didn't know why, but she felt especially ashamed when he showed up next to her.

"Why did you do it?" he asked, taking the spot next to her, looking at the moonlit sky, "You are Wutainese Royalty. You shouldn't need to steal for yourself when you've already a family. So why?"

"I was trying to get enough strong materia so that Wutai would be restored to its former glory. After the war with Shin-Ra, Wutai was plunged into the status of a tourist town—the city has become more of a slum than anything in my eyes. With the materia I was trying to steal, I was hoping to at least boost the economy such that we wouldn't need to rely on tourists for money—we could be self-sufficient."

"Are you sure that's the only reason? Because knowing your father, I doubt he would have let you go out into the world where he could have possibly lost you."

Yuffie then looked at Vincent with a curious look in her eyes. "How do you know my dad?"

"Believe it or not, I actually grew up in Wutai. My mother was a doctor—you know her as Li Xiao Long Nu."

Upon hearing that name, Yuffie was bombarded with questions. "What? Your mom was the 'Dragon Princess of Wusheng'? The leader of the 'Twelve Tigers of Wutai'? And you said that she was an acupuncturist? How is that so?"

"After the civil war, she was promoted to the imperial guard, but she chose to trade in her sword for acupuncture needles and other medicines in order to save and protect lives. However, she still stayed somewhere in the capital, and formed the militia known as the 'Twelve Tigers of Wutai'. Galian Beast's 'Berserk Dance' was based on my memories of her teaching me the Drunken Fist style that put her on tier with her rival Zangan. Now where was I? Ah yes, your father…I knew your father when we were children…in fact I knew both your parents as we were all friends. My mother befriended the emperor at the time and was also his doctor, and so it wasn't any surprise that the three of us became friends. We knew each other for several years until my mother died, and I was taken into custody of my father. I never saw them again, but I kept in correspondence with them…but once I turned 18, I was drafted into the Shin-Ra special operations unit to quell a terrorist attack before I was recruited into the Turks. After what happened with Hojo, I lost contact with them…what happened during the war that caused you to steal for your country?"

Yuffie looked away from Vincent…she didn't want to recall this memory, but she felt that being a friend of her parents, she at least owed him the truth. "Sometime late in the war, Shin-Ra managed to besiege the capital. Supplies were getting scarce, and our guerilla advantage was dropping low because we couldn't leave the city. It was clear that we needed to raid the SOLDIER camps for food and supplies; nobody else dared to go, but mom volunteered. I was there—I helped mom with the raid by following her along the underground tunnels with a supply wagon and digging our way up to steal what we needed. As we were getting away, we heard the sound of a sword unsheathing. Mom brought out her tessen, and told me to run—I told her no, and that I would fight with her. Before I could say anything more, she gave me a chop to the neck with her left hand and I blacked out while she sent the chocobo out to run away. When I came to, I found out that dad surrendered, and that mom was killed by Sephiroth. After that, our relationship as father and daughter went to hell…I never told anyone else about this."

His gaze then turned to the lake in front of them as he heaved a long and heavy sigh. "I don't believe that your father was being harsh to you deliberately—from what I remember of him, he sincerely loved your mother even though they were betrothed at the age of ten. I think he still loves you…he simply has trouble showing it at this point because you remind him so much of her. My only regret is that I couldn't stop Lucrecia from experimenting on herself and Sephiroth—if I had done that, maybe my friend would still be alive, and you would still have a mother. Whatever you wish to do to me Yuffie, if you even want to hit me, I won't stop you…if you want to curse me, then so be it…it's the least that I deserve for letting your mother die like that."

She turned to look at Vincent before turning her view to the horizon. "Don't be sorry. You didn't know, so there's nothing that I could hate or forgive you for. But then again, I suppose you're right…maybe I was a bit of a jerk to my dad the last few years…he did of course try to fix up our relationship many times, and now that you mention it, I've not been fair to him."

"What will you do?"

"I don't know…and that really scares me Vince…I don't know what I'm gonna do when I see him again. I'm not sure how he cannot be angry with me after all those years I've been treating him badly. I really don't see how he doesn't hate me now."

"He's your father—to hate you would be like hating your mother…I guess he knows this, and so he tries his hardest to keep you close because despite the amount of anger he has for you, he still loves you. But if you do have to confront him, then I'll be there with you if you like."

Yuffie's eyes looked at Vincent with something in her eyes she couldn't explain…but something in her was bringing her in close to him…and gripping his hand in hers, and feeling a sort of electric feeling surging around her heart as soon as she made contact---she found herself wanting to do this again. The two of them said nothing as they watched the moon together from across the lake.

The next morning, Cid woke up alone, and in a horrible mood. "FUCK!" ah, the first word of the day… and as usual, it was a profanity as he stomped his way around looking for both Yuffie and Vincent. "Shit! Those two fuckers left without me! I swear, if it's over some little fucking thing, I'm gonna…" before he could finish off that sentence with another string of cursing, he paused to see a strange sight before him…Vincent was sitting up against a tree with Yuffie covered in his cape in between his legs in a fetal position while he ran his right hand through her hair gently with his left arm around her. Of all the things that Cid had seen Vincent capable of, this was the first time he had ever seen the man doing anything remotely soft as he caressed the young girl like something precious. And the slight glare he received from him seemed to say, 'wake her up with any more filth that comes from your mouth and you will be rewarded with a bullet to your head'…oh he was daring him to wake Yuffie while threatening him to not say a word. With that, Cid left—looking for his pack of cigarettes…that scene he just saw was just downright disturbing and mushy and he needed one of his so-called cancer sticks to clean the taste of bile rising from his throat; although he couldn't help but feel that when they were together like that, they looked so…right.

Present time…

She awoke to something going through her hair. "I never thought I'd awaken to see my angel like this now." Yuffie looked around to find the source of the weak voice only to see Vincent looking back at her with a weakened smile on his face—one of the few smiles she's seen, but this one still carried the same sincerity within it as those few smiles he gives out. "Yuffie…what happened at the party?"

Before Yuffie could open her mouth to speak, the door opened, and in walked Dr. Edwards. "I have some bad news."

A/N: I based Vincent's mom on a Chinese hero—he was not exactly an imperial guardsman, but he was most certainly influential in the world of both medicine and kung fu; this hero's name in Mandarin was "Hwang Fei Hong", who was leader of the "Ten Tigers of Canton"…and yes, he was also a doctor, but a generalist of Traditional Chinese Medicine from what I've heard. And there could be a possible lemon flashback in the next chapter…and it's right after the death of Sephiroth…

Songs Played:

"Obokuri Eeumi" by Ikue Asazaki—Yuffie and Vincent in the moonlight, talking about the past.

"Departure" by Noriyuki Asakura: Grey and Aki talk.

Vocabulary:

Li Xiao Long Nu—this is Mandarin for Vincent's mom…literally, it is read as "Li, Little Dragon Girl".