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: The beginning of this chapter goes back to a flashback from chapter 2. Zack and Kunsel are sitting at the table at lunch while Cloud and Harding are kissing off and on. It starts close to the end of that flashback and goes more into what happened when Zack got up to talk to Cloud after he made an ass of himself. No you aren't seeing things, some of the dialog from the previous flashback are in there, it kind of ties it together. The title of this chapter is from the old song of the same name by Tammy Wynette. I love that song, especially when the Blues Brothers sang it in the movie!

I have to say the more drama that is said about me, the more I write. I can't say that it doesn't make me want to leave this site, but I have a feeling that where ever I go, that other "author" will just follow me with her false accusations, but the darker my writing gets. What I'm trying to say is that this chapter and the next chapter are pretty dark.

Also XamreiKH97 has illustrated another picture for this story and I added the link in my profile. I was unable to get the link to work for tumblr. Be sure to check out her other works and leave comments, she has some pretty awesome stuff! Thanks so much!

SubZeroChimera isn't available to beta for a short time so I am going naked and beta-less for the time being. *frowny face*


"Strong women don't play victim, don't make themselves look pitiful, and don't point fingers. They stand and deal." –Mandy Hale

To You I Give My Heart

Chapter 31

~Stand by Your Man~

Sitting at lunch and having to watch as the woman he loved kissed another sent him into anger-filled jealousy. Zack hated this feeling, hated the way it ate at his heart and threatened to turn him into a brooding mess. He heard his own voice before he registered what he was saying, questioning the man in front of him, "Isn't that against protocol? I mean you're her doctor, Jacob, which is against ethics, am I right?"

Leaning forward on the table with his weight on his elbows, chin hovering over his clasped fists, Zack dropped his fork into his mashed potatoes, wanting to intimidate the smaller man. Both Harding and Cloud froze and she glared at him. Getting Cloud's warning look didn't stop him from becoming the asshole that wanted to come out and have a fit like a spoiled child, "That is unless you're having her repay you in sexual favors." Hearing Kunsel choke on a mouth full of water, Zack sighed and internally kicked himself for his inability to keep his inner child from having a temper tantrum.

When Cloud's beautiful eyes changed into a storm of hurt and tears gathered and threatened to fall down her cheeks, Harding stood up and leaned across the table, "Listen you ass, I'm not like that and I suggest you apologize to her!" A daring move on the part of the other man. Did Harding know how dangerous a Soldier could be? Did this un-enhanced man care for his own safety?

'Freakin fantastic,' talking and acting like the jealous dick head that he was right then, just drove her farther away. Instead of her running to him, she was now being held and comforted by the other man. Sorry for his words, Zack reached out to touch her arm, she recoiled and said softly, "Of all the people I know, you are the last person I thought would say something like that."

Watching as she left and Harding following her, Kunsel's words sunk in, "You can either let her be happy with someone else, or you can fight for her."

Catching up to her and Harding, Zack heard them talking from around the corner, "I don't understand why he would say that to me!"

"Cloud, just put that out of your mind. He's just a jealous asshole."

"He's my best friend. Why would he be jealous of you? He wants me to be happy, he said so himself."

"Cloud, don't be so naïve. Can't you see?"

"See what? I spend time with him, but we are just friends and he knows that! We train together, we eat lunch together, we hang out together… and we're fixing to go a damn mission together in a couple of days to my hometown. So it isn't like we don't spend any time together."

"It isn't the time you spend with him that is the problem, it is that he doesn't have you in the way that I do."

"Me and him together? That's ridiculous!"

"Is it so ridiculous to think of the two of you together? I've seen the way he looks at you, he loves you Cloud." Lowering his voice, Harding swallowed a hard lump, "Maybe I'm not enough for you anymore."

"What are you saying Jacob? Do you want to break up with me because of him?!"

"That isn't what I'm saying." Just when Zack wanted to interrupt, Harding spoke again, changing the subject, "I'll miss you while you're gone on that mission." Peeking around the corner, Zack watched as Jacob put his arm around Cloud's shoulders and started walking down the hall. The tone in Harding's voice changed, like he was fighting tears from his wounded heart, broken and in pain. A pain that the Physician's Assistant would never mention to the blond, "Let's go out tonight, have some dinner and maybe go see a movie, have some fun before you leave for your mission." Zack could hear the ache, a pang in the other man's voice, because he felt it in his own heart.

Watching as Cloud leaned her head into Harding's jaw, he heard her say with a sniffle, "Okay, that sounds good."

It was true, there was a scheduled mission to Nibelheim and he would have her to himself, but it wasn't the first time that they'd been on a mission together. While they were on missions or while they were training, she talked to him and he would listen, he was her best friend, but it just wasn't enough for him anymore. Unknowingly he had wedged himself into her life, but he didn't know how to change it or if she would completely hate him for ruining what she had with Harding.

Somehow, during their mission, he had to find some time to tell her how he really felt. It was an easy mission and they would undoubtedly have enough time to talk and he could tell her what she meant to him.

…Nothing, deep, dark and full of loneliness. Rising out of the darkness, the weight of his body didn't lessen as he left the recesses of the emptiness that covered him like a cold blanket. Memories rose, pain built up, pain in his heart at his loss, but it filled with hope… hope that Cloud and Charlotte weren't caught. However, Zack swore that he saw Genesis just before he fell into the deep darkness of tranquilized sleep. The former Soldier Commander had the ability to find them, would he hurt them? Would Red be able to protect them both? Worrying about it in his present circumstances seemed ill-advised, so he centered his thoughts to his surroundings.

His arms ached, shoulders cinched back as his wrists were tightly bound behind him. A screaming pain made itself known in his hips and knees as he felt his wrists, tied to his bindings at his ankles. Unable to move, he willed his eyes open slowly, not wanting to see the monster that he'd run from, the scientist without a conscience would surely punish him and for that he feared meeting those dark empty eyes.

His surroundings were not familiar, they were darker; instead of the walls of the lab he was used to, in this different room the white tiles that covered the walls went to a dark brown tile that covered the chilled floor. With a wince, he looked around at the bare room, no bed, no chair, no table or bathroom, just a simple metal bucket in one corner. The wall he lay against, and chained to, was a series of four vertical heavy mako enforced metal bars that went from ceiling to floor and bolted to the tile wall.

A single light bulb hung from the ceiling like a scene right out of a noir film, the metal hood swung lightly in a gentle breeze from the air conditioner vent and cast shadows high on the walls as the light moved.

The dryness in his throat caused him to forcefully try to swallow the small amount of saliva that was in his mouth. Clearing his throat, he took a better look at the door to his cell, a solid metal door, with a very small re-enforced window perched at face level. A mechanical sound caught his attention and he focused at the corner, high up on the opposite wall from the door and there a camera and a red blinking light flashing as it zoomed in on him, most likely it was the man he wanted to see dead more than anyone else.

Just as he was willing himself to yell at the camera, he heard a clink of the lock on the door and it slid open with a loud squeal, "What did you do with my specimens?"

The man stood there, hands behind his back, glaring at Zack over his glasses with those beady eyes. Since the scientist was asking about Cloud and Charlotte, he barely kept his excitement down at a confirmation of their escape from the same military and Turks that caught him. Narrowing his eyes, Zack glared with a half grin, "What… no hello?"

Stepping forward, Hojo took his hands from behind his back and the brunette saw that he held something small in his hands. Zack couldn't help but jerk back at the man's approach, "First that female killed my son, then you took my newest and greatest work. I want to know where my pregnant female specimen is, or did she give birth yet?"

Hojo stood close to Zack's face and the brunette could almost see his reflection in the scuffed black shoes of the scientist. Cutting his eyes up, Zack asked with a hint of ignorance, "Who?"

Squatting down, Hojo held a small stuffed animal, "This was Sephiroth's once, it appeared in his crib with him one day and he grew attached to it. At first I couldn't understand why, but with human emotion, comes feelings of loss and I kept it out of curiosity of how he would want something so insignificant. However, with this thing, this toy, I taught him that things like this could bring about nothing but pain and suffering for him, and now for you." With his long fingers, Hojo set a cool fingertip on Zack's forehead and held his eye contact and pointedly asked, "You took something from me and I want it back and I will do what is necessary to get it back. Where are they?"

Out if defiance, Zack fell back to his military training and what he was trained to do while under any type of interrogation, "Zackary Fair, Soldier First Class, 871-623-167."

"Tell me where you took that pregnant specimen and where they are now."

"Zackary Fair, Soldier First Class, 871-623-167."

Raising his voice, Hojo asked, "Did the female give birth to a live specimen?"

Again, Zack refused, "Zackary Fair, Soldier First Class, 871-623-167."

With a loud sigh as he rose, Hojo signaled to someone outside the door, "Maybe this will help loosen your tongue."

The light went off as Hojo exited but Zack was unable to get his eyes to adjust quickly to the sudden darkness and he didn't have to strain to hear as the door slid closed with a squeal as loud as it was when it opened. He could easily hear breathing in the room with him, and the sound of movement caught his attention, it moved quickly, first on one side of the room and then the next exhale, it was on the other side of the room.

Zack struggled to follow the movement as his eyes slowly adjusted to the low light and the now cowering creature on the other side of the room. Evidently, Hojo let an animal of some sort in the room with him. So it was torture that he was going to suffer? Regardless of what the mad scientist intended for him, he wouldn't tell him anything.

Studying the creature, Zack tried to wiggle, but he was held fast to the wall and stuck laying on his side. Two glowing mako eyes stared at him and shaped like a human's. Straining his eyes, he tried to see more of it but in the corner it sat in, it was hidden by complete darkness. Raspy and even breathing is the only thing that told Zack that it is was alive and there, as it was completely still. The smell that filled the room was almost indescribable. Filth and waste mixed together with body odor making a gag-inducing pungency.

Sudden light assaulted his vision when the light came back on and he winced as his eyes adjusted again. In the corner sat what could only have been human at one time and when the light came on, it flinched and grabbed at its head. A mewl of pain was let loose from its mouth. A curt nod of the head then it froze, like confirmation of orders.

The nude body had pale skin as it sat squatted in the corner, dirty knees pulled up to an equally dirty chest and the dirty hands went palms down to the floor. Under the smeared dirt and grime, scars were visible on various places on its side, along its ribs. Wild, unkempt shoulder length brown hair hung over the face, but didn't hide the haunting eyes that stared with unknown intent.

Keeping his eyes glued on the eyes that stared back at him, Zack asked, trying to sound friendly, "Can you talk? What's your name?"

Without warning, the creature bolted over to him and got in his face with a grunt. Curiosity quickly turned to horror when Zack realized out loud, "Jacob?" Harding's kind brown eyes were gone, replaced with savage glowing eyes and a feral feel jerked a response to Harding's tilted head. "What did he do to you?"

Filth covered fingers reached out and ran down the side of Zack's face, ending at his mouth. Harding jabbed a finger between the restrained man's lips, feeling of his teeth. Wiggling his head, Zack gagged at the taste of dirt and waste, jerking back, he yelled, "Harding!" Jacob's other hand went to the side of Zack's head, holding the side of his face to the floor with more force than was necessary, getting a groan of pain from the former Soldier, "What the fuck did that psycho do to you?"

Still holding his head to the tiles, Jacob began sniffing at him and Zack could feel the breaths as he sniffed his neck up to his ear. Was the Harding he knew gone? When Jacob suddenly released his head and the man grasped one of his fingers on one of his restrained hands and pulled it painfully backward, Zack swore he heard Harding giggle when his finger broke.

"Fuck! Gaia-dammit Harding, what the fuck are you doing?!"

Broken language gurgled in the man's throat, "Dooo-ing."

Grabbing another finger had Zack grunting in anticipatory panic, "Harding it's me, Zack!"

"Zzza-ck."

"Yeah, Z-" Snap went Zack's second finger, "-ack! Fuck!"

Perched on Zack's legs, Harding stopped breaking fingers and froze. Slowly he crawled over the restrained man's side and laid over his shoulders and poked lightly at Zack's skin on his face. Harding's weight on his arm set his hands to throbbing as his body began trying to repair the damage from the broken bones. The former Physican's Assistant toyed with Zack, poking and moving him around like a child playing with a new stuffed animal.

Zack's original fears for the man's safety were warranted, Hojo had turned the man into a child… a very dangerous child.


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."

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