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: When I picture Zack singing, I think he would sound like Jared Leto from Thirty Second to Mars. This is the last chapter from my burst of creativity that I had, and as soon as finals are over, I will get to work on the next chapters and get them out.
Don't forget about the poll on my profile, please take some time and vote!
Also, one of the fans of this story, XamreiKH97, illustrated a couple of scenes from this story. I have the links on my profile at the top of the page. Thank you so much!
Grins and giggles to my beta SubZeroChimera!
"Don't be scared of the monster lurking outside, instead, look to your own heart, where the monster already dwells within." –Me, Disturbed Turtle
To You I Give My Heart
Chapter 30
~Flirting with Disaster~
Zack sighed, staring at the blond, who looked defeated as she sat across from him with her head leaning into her palm, nervously stabbing at her food with her fork.
"I promise it's already dead," Zack's joking nature lifted the corner of his mouth in a half grin.
A shy smile lit her face, "I know, I'm just tired."
"Why don't you go ahead and turn in, I'll take care of Charlotte," Zack puckered his lips at his daughter as she lay in one of his arms, making her lips curl up and her mouth open in a wide smile, her first, and Zack hoped it wouldn't be her last, he wanted her to have a life full of smiles and laughs, "Are you smiling at me?"
With a quiet scoff, Cloud muttered, "Yeah, until she gets hungry again."
Puckering his lips again, he baby-talked to Charlotte, "Don't listen to your sour-puss mommy, she just doesn't like being a chuck wagon." Zack's baby-talk earned him another smile from the baby.
An unenthusiastic raspberry from Cloud got Zack looking at her from under his eyebrows. With a smile, he looked at Cloud and baby talked again, "What's the matter with yoooo?" Cloud only rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair, leaving the fork upright in the roasted bird.
Zack dipped one of his fingers in his cold and almost untouched mashed potatoes, the starchy concoction was only made worse because they had no butter. He touched the full lips of the oddly, overly alert infant, "Let's see if you like my cooking, because your mommy sure doesn't."
"If I wanted burned or tasteless food, I would have stayed with my mother," Looking up from the infant, he saw a smile that he missed seeing, the quirky and sarcastic Cloud that he was beginning to think was gone.
Leaning forward as Charlotte sucked his finger dry of potatoes, he grinned, "Well, this dinner should make you feel right at home then." A dark cloud played across his features, he had forgotten that she didn't remember her mother and best friend were dead, along with her entire village. Glancing down to his daughter as she fervently worked at gumming his finger into a soggy mess, he fought to think of something to change the subject, but thankfully, the blond spoke first.
"You know, you shouldn't feed the baby that," Cloud began picking at her food again, while she still leaned back in her seat.
"Oh, she'll be fine," Zack tugged his hand, and the baby held on tightly to his fingers, "How about we take a walk tomorrow, I'll show you some of the weird stuff that this equally weird forest has."
Pushing her chair back, she sighed, "That sounds fine."
Watching Cloud leave the room, he looked back at his little girl, "How about I read you some of those really boring files that were left here? That should put us to sleep in no time."
Early morning sunlight poured through the windows, waking Zack slowly. Laying there a few moments, he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and remembered that Charlotte had only woken up twice so she could be fed during the night. Thankfully, both times she had interrupted his nightmares that seemed as though they were getting more frequent since her birth.
Throwing the blanket off and to the side, he swung his legs over the side of the couch and peeked over the side of the bassinet. Bright luminescent light blue eyes met his as she actively chewed on her fist. He thought back to all the babies his mother had babysat while he was growing up and Charlotte acted a bit different, more mature than her week old counterparts, but Bugenhagen had said that the baby was special.
"G'mornin beautiful," Rubbing his head, he'd felt similar sleep deprivation when he was in the lab and he watched after Cloud. "Give me a minute little Charlotte-bug," Standing and stretching, his back popped several times and he heard a tiny squeal, "Was that you squealing?" With an excited gurgling giggle, she mouthed at her fists. "All right, calm down." Picking her up, he needed to get her to Cloud so that she could eat before they went on their walk.
Taking the baby, Cloud reluctantly fed her as Zack made breakfast and they readied for a day-long walk.
"I'm leaving a note for Red, if he comes back and we're not here," Zack laid the note down on the table and picked up Charlotte and asked Cloud, "You ready?"
With a nod, she adjusted the reddish sundress that complimented her complexion, especially when she would blush. The little yellow flowers and green ivy embroidered all over and the top that tied at the back of her neck made her a sight with her hair braided tightly. The best part that had him grinning widely was, instead of the sandals that he'd been putting on her after they'd gotten to Cosmo Canyon, she'd chosen her combat boots.
Holding the baby in one arm, Zack bounced down the stairs and headed for the chocobo, "Marshy! You wanna go for a walk?" Keeping the chocobo in a pen wasn't necessarily to keep her from running away, but to keep predators from getting to her, Zack still wanted to take her with them in case Cloud needed to get off her feet. Marshy lowered her head and allowed the one-handed Zack to harness her and in the process, she sniffed at the baby.
Tiny hands reached out and took a rough hold of the bright orange beak and tried to put her mouth around it, in a baby's version of a slobbery kiss, but really it was how baby's tested out their world, everything went to their mouths. Taking a chance, Zack allowed the contact, he had introduced the two of them days ago, but this was the first time they had touched. With a soft 'wark,' the white chocobo nuzzled closer, showing her instant affection for the infant.
Turning to lead the chocobo out of the pen, Zack turned to see Cloud waiting at the edge of the yard, looking out at the trees, "You ready Choco- Uh, Cloud?"
"Yeah," She responded and followed Zack out to a path that he had worn into the tree line. Along the way, he showed her the large pink flower that had almost swallowed him the day she went into labor. Her laugh was contagious, it had been so long since he'd heard it.
At some point during their leisurely stroll, Cloud had taken the reins of Marshmallow, as Zack walked behind them, he still held tightly on to the little baby in his arms. He watched Cloud walk with a small stick in her other hand, swinging it lightly at passing bushes as she looked up at the birds above their heads. A halo of light brightened her when it fell on her bare shoulders and her shiny wheat-colored hair. This was almost more than he could stand, his happiness bound in his chest, warming him throughout, like little fires of joy lit him up from within.
When the baby got a little fussy, without even thinking, Zack started to sing…
"Every time our eyes meet
This feeling inside me
Is almost more than I can take
Baby when you touch me
I can feel how much you love me
And it just blows me away
I've never been this close to anyone, Or anything
I can hear your thoughts, I can see your dreams…"
"Hey, that song sounds kinda familiar."
Looking up from the baby, Zack saw that Cloud had stopped, "Um."
"Your voice, I've heard you sing before." Tilting her head, she asked, "Haven't I?"
"Yeah-"
"But that song, it sounds… Did you ever sing that?" Remembering that the only time he'd sung it to her was when she was comatose, he thought that maybe some of her memories were coming back, but before he could answer, she said, "Oh, well maybe not, I think that song was on the radio at my house in Nibelheim."
Dropping his head, defeated before he could even battle, he fell back into stride behind the chocobo again.
Stopping for lunch, they sat in the shade, with a few birds flocked around, waiting for scraps that might be dropped, but thankfully they stayed far back enough that they didn't crowd them. From under the small blanket that draped over Cloud's shoulder, Zack could hear the hungry baby grunt as she filled her belly. Cloud on the other hand leaned her head against the tree, looking up as though she was completely disinterested. The small stick still in her other hand, she tapped nervously on the ground.
Zack finished eating and took over burping Charlotte so that Cloud could eat. Holding the baby girl up on his shoulder, her head resembled a bobble-head doll, but her eyes took in every sight, everything that she could see, it was like she absorbed all the knowledge that the object contained.
"What do you see Charlotte?" Zack asked softly right next to her ear. With tiny, but sharp and uncoordinated movements, she turned her head in the direction of his voice. Her dark soft hair lightly blew in the breeze. Nuzzling his nose to her neck and his forehead to the side of her head, he smelled her and closed his eyes, reveling in her distinctive and sweet smell. Raising his face just a little, he left a tiny kiss on her extra soft cheek. Zack's reward was a squeal and a big, open mouth smile. While looking at Charlotte, he said with a low reminiscent tone to Cloud, "We make beautiful children."
Immediately his smile dropped and his eyes went to the blond. He knew he had just made a huge mistake. Large blue eyes widened just before her voice broke and she jumped to a fighting stance, "What?!"
Standing quickly, he got between Cloud and Charlotte, making sure that the woman's wild flailing didn't accidentally get the baby. Swinging a hard punch, she hit him in the arm, "Cloud wait! I can explain-"
"I knew it! You son-of-a-bitch! Did you rape me?"
Looking at the tears as they welled up in her eyes, he couldn't find his voice suddenly. Charlotte began to cry in a scream that was different than any he'd heard from her yet, soon she added a fist in her mouth that dampened the noise a little. He tried to speak, but Cloud spoke instead, "Why didn't you say something before?"
Again she waited for him to say something, but he didn't know where to start, "Cloud- I, uh-"
"Zackary!"
Turning to see Red running up to them, he wondered why the beast seemed panicked, "What? Do you want to yell at me too?" Cloud angrily pushed at his arm, causing Zack to lose his footing and stumble a step, and the baby got louder, begging to be heard in her distress. Cloud angrily stomped off down the path, away from them.
"Zackary, it is Shinra, they have found us."
All the blood fell from his face. He suddenly felt like the world was ending and everything they had gone through was for nothing now. Worst case scenario, they would all be re-captured and experimented on until death, and he couldn't let that happen. Trying to release the breath he held, he blinked as all the sounds of Cloud yelling, Charlotte crying, and his own insecurities screaming at him, were drowned out because of the sound that the blood rushing though his veins made.
A kick to the knee got his attention, "Did you hear me? Shinra is coming! We must go now, they are right on my trail."
He had a decision to make, and there was way more at stake than he felt ready for, but this was what he had to do. Shaking his head, he said quietly, almost too quietly to be heard over the screaming baby, "No."
Red asked, confused, "What?"
Turning and running after Cloud, Zack grabbed her arm and dragged her back toward the grazing chocobo.
"Get your hands off of me!" Screaming in desperation, she fought him, scratching at his hand and biting his arm.
"Oww, damn it Cloud! Shut up and listen to me," Pushing her forcefully at the chocobo, she had no other choice but to mount the back of the large bird, "You need to go."
Cloud's eyebrows slammed together and her tear-stained face asked, "What?"
Meeting her eyes, he stopped everything, "I said you need to go!" Putting her foot in the stirrup of the saddle, he added, "Take Charlotte."
Cloud shook her head, "No, I can't."
"Yes, Red will take care of you. The only chance you have is if I head them off," Holding the baby up, he waited until Cloud finally took her in her arms, "Take Charlotte and go!" Handing the reins to Red, he firmly said to his four-legged friend, "Take care of them. I'm trusting you."
"Zackary."
"Red, go. Get them out of here," Raising up to his tip toes, he kissed the top of the infant's head and he looked deeply in Cloud's eyes, he said softly, "Stay safe."
Cloud screamed, "Zack wait!" The look in her eyes was different, knowing and mournful, but he didn't have the time or convenience to ask about it, instead, he turned and left. Pulling his sword off of his back, he raced back the way Red had come from.
It didn't take long for him to find the first patrol of infantry, and he took them out fairly quickly, but the next wave he faced was made harder when he felt a pinch in his neck. Reaching up, he pulled a tranquilizer dart from his skin, "You aren't fighting fair you sick fuckers…"
Swinging his sword, he willed the mako in his blood to counter the effects of the sedative, and he was able to slice through several more infantry. He could feel his muscles weakening and the feeling was familiar, it was the same kind of stuff they used on him in the labs. He had to fight.
Gunshots rang out and as he dodged, he swung his sword up, deflecting all the bullets. A helicopter rose above the treetops and into the wide clearing that Zack found himself in, he was an open target. Diving behind a large dead tree that lay on it's side, he peeked over it and saw the helicopter hover in the clearing and Reno was at the controls, a short blond Turk at the side door.
More infantry approached him when he heard a feminine voice over the bullhorn in the blonde's hands, "Just surrender or we will have to use deadly force."
"Like hell I will!" Jumping out and attacking the soldiers, he swept out and killed three in one strike, then he felt three more pinches, two in his arm and one in his thigh, "I'm not giving up that easy-" Wiping his hands over the tranquilizer darts out of his skin, he staggered and swung again before he fell to his stomach.
Opening his eyes, he saw tall grass, the taste of dirt flying in his mouth and the feel of his arms being forced behind him as reinforced restraints got placed around his wrists and ankles. He hoped that his diversionary attack had given Red enough time to get Cloud and Charlotte away.
A crystal clear tear shimmered in the bright sunlight as it fell over his nose and to the ground at the thought of never getting to see his daughter grow up as she would never know him since Cloud didn't even remember him. So who was left to tell her about her father? Never getting to hold Cloud again, the life he wouldn't have, not getting to grow old with the woman he loved… It was over, he belonged to Hojo once again.
Just before the darkness that crept from the sides of his vision, he saw the flap of a red leather coat in the wind caused by the helicopter, high up in the tree tops, there was a glimpse of a dark wing. With a jerk of his body and a rising panic, Zack tried to yell out, but a pinch from a syringe in one of the veins in the crook of his elbow had him falling into the darkness that embraced him in nothing but cold comfort.
A/N: I promise that this is not the end of the story, just another one of my cliffhangers that I love!
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