Disclaimer: I do not now or before and most likely not in the future, own Final Fantasy, Square Enix or any of the characters.
A/N: So far, I have gotten really awesome reviews, favorites and followers. That makes me feel really great and gives me more motivation to write more. If that sounds cheesy, its supposed to be...I have pretty much finished U Bonds and was writing the author's note. In that note, I started sounding fantastically cheesy-fied! *Yes cheesy-fied is an actual word in surban75's world*
I have been told that some of you have favorited my stories, but they aren't showing up on your favorites list. That happens to me too on some of the stories or authors that I have favorited. I am guessing that it is a glitch or something on the site.
I do not have a beta, so forgive any mistakes and just enjoy them, I do!
Also, I had a wonderful time writing this chapter, especially the flashback! I pulled out all the stops and let my own smart ass part of my personality shine through. My friends like to call me the insult queen. I'm not bragging or anything... well yeah I am. So anyway, away we go...
"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." –Harold R. McAlindon
To You I Give My Heart
Chapter 7
~So Many Lessons in One Day~
Not long after noon, Zack decided to stop for some lunch, "Well, it's not exactly the best spot for a picnic, but it'll do." Finding a clear spot next to a tree, he propped Cloud against it, "Now let's look at what Harding packed for us." Pulling open the larger of the two bags, in one side of the divided inside, there was several protein bars, toaster pastries, cereal bars, beef jerky and some protein drinks.
With a roll of his eyes, he sarcastically noted, "I think he's a man after my heart Cloud." Seeing the bank bag, curiosity got the better of him, "I wonder how much is in here. There's only one way to find out." Upon opening it, a large amount of gil billowed out from its original neatly folded place, "Good Gaia! What kind of car was he trying to buy?"
Despite the surprise that Zack felt, he figured that they would be able to get by traveling for a while. Hopefully though, he would be able to set up somewhere first and maybe get a doctor to check Cloud over. Just then, a thought jutted out, how was he going to feed her? Could she even eat in the state that she was in?
Opening one of the cereal bars, he lifted her limp hand and wrapped her fingers around it, "Come on Cloud, wake up and eat." She gave him no response, no movement and no noise. With a defeated sigh, he took the bar out of her hand and broke a little piece off and parted her lips but she clenched her teeth together.
Fighting tears, he begged, "Cloud open your mouth, please." With her eyes still closed, he took her chin in his hand. With a gentle pull, he was able to get her teeth separated enough to slip the small amount on to her tongue. Still he got nothing, no flicker of life except for her steady breathing.
"Cloud, please baby," Taking a seat next to her, he made a place for her in his arms, "You need to eat something, you know, get your strength back." When he took his hand off of her shoulder, she slid down to his lap. Alarm filled his heart thinking that she had choked, "Cloud!"
When he turned her head to look at her face, she still kept her eyes closed. Hearing a soft noise from her throat, he noticed that she swallowed the piece of cereal bar, "Hey, let's try this again."
Repositioning her, he got in a more comfortable sitting spot. Laying her against his chest, he broke another piece off of the bar and slipped it into her mouth and within a few seconds, she swallowed slowly. She wasn't chewing the food, but if he broke off small enough pieces, she was able to handle that. Little by little, he got the entire bar down her and then he tried a little drink of the protein shake. Sitting her up a little more he poured just a little of the beverage between her lips.
It didn't work as easily as he had hoped, in fact she scared the shit out of him. At first, it looked like she was going to swallow it, but that was when it went to hell. When she coughed, she took in a breath, not only did she inhale some of the beverage, she sputtered out the remnants that she hadn't inhaled.
Flipping her over, he did his best to clear her airway and as soon as her breathing began to steady itself, he turned her back over and wrapped his arms around her. Burying his face in her upper chest and lower neck, her limp body rocked with his movements. A slim arm that was furthest from him flopped out and then down with a tiresome flutter.
"Oh Gaia, please don't do that again. I don't know what I would do if something happened to you."
Not wanting to try getting her to drink anything else right away, he ate a couple of protein bars and downed an energy drink, "We need to get a move on. Harding said that we had a few hours until they realized that we were gone and that was almost six hours ago."
Gathering up their things, he picked her up and she began to flail, "What's wrong?!" When the screaming started he almost dropped her, but got her to the ground before that could happen. She acted completely terrified, just like in the car. This time when she stopped screaming and her crying started, she opened her eyes.
"Cloud!" Not focusing on anything, she looked right through him and the look told him that there was something amiss. Looking closer at her eyes, there were flecks of green where before it was her normally dazzling blue, "What the hell is going on?!"
Once he got her calmed, he picked up where he left off, picked her up and began walking, "You know babe, that shit scares me when you do that." Searching his memories, he remembered an exchange between Hojo and his lackeys. He wondered if that was what was happening with her now, however, even with the seriousness of the situation, he couldn't help but smile at the memory.
Strapped to their respective tables, Cloud and Zack watched Hojo interact with his assistants.
"Listen up because I am only going to go through this once. For over a year I have worked on this project with these specimens, and I am on the verge of a break through. I need you to do your jobs, only you need to do them better," Hojo stepped to his computer monitor and turned it slightly so that all three men who were enraptured in his words could see it.
"This is the current status read outs and we need them on the increase. You morons have it going in the opposite direction," Turning to his desk, he picked up a stack of papers that was at least six inches thick, "Each of you take some of these and go over them with a fine tooth comb and figure out exactly what it is that you are doing wrong."
"Yes sir."
"For now though, Mr. Burton, I want you get these tests done and bring me the results. Mr. Wolfe, take these samples to the other lab and get them in the liquid nitrogen for preservation. Mr. Harper, you are to work on the Jenova cell injections to find the tipping point at which we can increase the overall blood levels combined with the mako."
Zack lay there, listening to every word and trying to get closer to the truth. As usual, they got treated as though they were the lab rats that the Professor pictured them as. Zack's only other form of entertainment that didn't include squats was antagonizing the greasy haired, beady eyed man, "Hojo! Hey are you gonna talk to me?"
The Professor typed away on his keyboard and ignored him. One thing that Hojo did well was ignore them both. However, Zack saw that as a challenge so he aimed to break his record that he had previously set by Angeal.
Zack stared at Hojo and in a sing-song voice he made his presence known, "Yoo Hoo… Hello there!" Formulating every question, he asked them slowly so they could sink into the Professor's thoughts, thus disturbing his concentration, "What are you doing? Why are we here? When are you going to let us go? What was your mother thinking when she named you, cause Hojo is a weird name." A vein throbbed in the forehead of Zack's target audience so he continued.
"Did you have friends when you were a kid? Where you even a kid, I mean were you born a baby or were you hatched? Do you ever wash your hair? When you do wash your hair, what do you use, because it isn't working very well," Another vein popped up on the other side of his forehead. An added bonus was when he shifted in his office chair.
Zack grinned and winked at Cloud, "Do you look like your mother or the dark dragon that got her pregnant?" Harper hid his grin behind his hand and Burton lowered his head, Zack continued, "Are you always this uptight? If you are, maybe you should just get some lube and treat yourself on your next trip to the bathroom." Cloud attempted to stifle her laughter, but ended up snorting instead and Burton's shoulders revealed his restrained amusement.
"Enough!" Slamming his hands on his desk he pointed to Harper, "Put a gag in its mouth now! I can't concentrate with that incessant gibberish. If I don't have the right combination of Jenova cells and mako, it could unbalance everything and cause a chain reaction and possibly cause coma like symptoms."
During Hojo's short tirade, Harper came over, holding the gag. Zack turned his head away from him as he asked, "Hojo! Hey man, what's up with the not talking to me? I mean what the hell?" Dodging again he had Harper basically chasing him while he was still strapped to the table, "Oh, come on! Don't be like that! I thought we could be friends. You know, my mom always told me that I had to be nice to the ones that were weird, friendless, evil-looking, liked to eat dirt and sniff glue." Cloud's unabashed laughter rang in his ears and if Zack wasn't mistaken, he heard muffled laughter from Burton and Harper as well.
Rising from his chair, and in Hojo's haste to get up, it rolled across the room and hit Burton in the back of his knees, "Mr. Harper, I am going to need that information as soon as possible. I don't want my specimens in comas, but the male just might get surgery to remove those vocal chords." Hojo headed for the exit.
Undaunted, Zack asked just before Harper got the gag placed right above his lips, "Leaving so soon? We were just getting to know each other!"
Remembering what Hojo had said about the Jenova cells had him wondering. Had Cloud been purposefully overdosed with mako, but to what end? Since that conversation had happened before Harding got there, he wouldn't have been able ask about it, not that he remembered it until right then anyway.
Walking until it began to get dark, Zack found a small clearing with large boulders that created a smaller enclosed area between them. After feeding her until she quit swallowing, he noted that she had eaten five bars, "Hungry?" After he ate a little, only three bars, he rearranged so he could make a pallet to sleep on, "I guess I wasn't as hungry as I thought."
"You know, your pretty hair is getting tangled and yucky," With a smile, he propped her up against his knees and pulled out her hair brush that Harding had gotten from their shared cell, "You know Chocobo, I think this is the first time that I've brushed a girl's hair. I'm going to try and be gentle," Pulling the brush through a little at a time, he hit the first tangle and her head jerked with the motion, "Oh, sorry babe. I guess you have a few more tangles than I thought."
Gently getting her hair smoothed out he separated it into three parts, "I'm going to try braiding your hair. It won't win you any beauty contests, but hopefully I can get it to look passable."
All the times that he had been around her, eating, walking, working out and even getting together to watch a movie, he had always loved the way her hair looked. Sometimes she would have it braided and hanging over one shoulder, while other times, she let it hang loose. There were times that a breeze would catch it and small wisps would float around her, weightless.
Once he finished braiding it, he leaned back and looked over his work, "Well Cloud, I hate to tell you, but my momma didn't make no hairdresser." The wave of blond flowed down to her waist in a broken braid that had strands of hair sticking out in all different directions. He could see where he had skipped a part of a twist and then there was the holder that held the mess together. Somehow, he had gotten it twisted and it folded over on itself and bent the end of the braid where it stuck straight up.
"I guess it will work for now. At least it will keep you from getting such bad tangles," Lifting her to the pallet, he laid her down gently and covered her with a blanket, "I'll be right back, call of nature and all." Kissing her warm forehead sent a shiver through him. There was a part of him that wanted to just drop everything and curl up with her and die together and spend eternity with her in the life stream. However, his instinctual side told him to get his ass in gear and start finding the solution to their problem.
Stepping out from between the boulders, he glanced around and hefted his sword and began a perimeter check and in the process, relieving himself. This part of the journey would be the most difficult, having to leave her alone to deal with the necessary evils of being on the run.
Once satisfied that there was no immediate threat, he got back to their makeshift camp. In the same place that he had left her in, she dreamt of something as her breathing increased. When she began to cry, he slipped under the blanket, facing her and draped his arm over her. Pulling her to his chest he attempted to calm her, "Shh, its okay, don't cry." As he lifted his hand to her face, he caressed her cheek as he whispered soothingly to her, "We're going to find some place that will be just ours, away from Shinra, Hojo and everything else."
Looking down to the side of her face as it nestled in his neck and chest, he began to tear up as the words slowly crept from his heart, "Cloud, I want to tell you something," Laying a gentle kiss on her temple, he continued, "I know now, I've always known, I… I think… no, I know, I love you and… I want to have a family with you one day," Shifting so his cheek rested on the side of her forehead he sighed in contentment and closed his eyes, "I just wanted you to know."
A/N: Thanks to everyone who reads, favorites, subscribes and/or reviews, I appreciate your time and I dedicate all of this to you. To quote another author, "Getting reviews makes me feel all warm and squishy."
Please send me your reviews if you want. It is really easy. Just click your arrow in the little box, write what you thought or felt about the chapter and then click right down there, just below the box. A little lower… a little to the right… yeah, right there! Click it! *grinning*
