Refresher: Fang didn't even bother to try and respond, she just tugged Lightning closer to her and examined her bloody fist. There were red-streaked shards of glass embedded into her knuckles. Fang sighed a deep sigh, and turned around to shut off the hot water of a shower that had been wasted. She turned back to her left facing the medicine cabinet, and pulled out several gauzes along with rubbing alcohol.

-The Living Room-

There was a knock at the door, Vanille quickly leaped off the couch and opened it to find Hope standing with his case of emergency medical gear in his hand.

"I believe you called?", He almost jokingly questioned.

Vanille could barely contain herself anymore. She and Serah had been waiting in the living room for almost an hour. Tears poured from her eyes for what felt like the hundredth time that day and embraced Hope into a rough hug.

"Hey, hey, it's all right, I'll try and fix her up as best I can okay?", Hope was gently patting Vanille's back as he tired to comfort the young woman. "Can you just tell me where she is?", he questioned, finally prying Vanille's reluctant body off of his own.

Serah then stood up and tried guiding Hope away from the door to her sister's bedroom. "She's in here with Fang.", She said gesturing to the locked door after she finally limped her way to its entrance.

Hope took instant notice of the limp she had as she directed him. "Would you like me to fix that?", He asked nodding his head downwards to Serah's ankle.

Serah had almost forgotten about her injury, she looked down almost ashamed. "If.. It's not any trouble for you.", Serah stuttered out.

"It's no trouble.", Hope smiled going down onto his knees, setting his suitcase down beside him, and gently taking Serah's ankle into his hands. A small green light erupted from his hands and there was a quiet crack in Serah's foot, then nothing. "That should do it.", Hope stated as he rose from the floor, picking up his case and smiling towards Serah's foot.

"That's it?", she asked still standing on only of her feet.

"A simple fracture. You may feel some stiffness for a couple hours, but please don't be afraid to put weight on it.", Hope smiled again, turning around and knocking on the door.

-Lightning's Bathroom-

Fang heard knocking at the entrance of the door and rolled her eyes, irritated that her quiet time speaking with the solider was interrupted. She was just starting to calm down, damn it.

In the hour that had passed Fang had yanked tiny shards of glass out of Lightning's hand and cleaned out the gashes with the rubbing alcohol roughly a dozen times. The longer Fang had sat there listening to sharp breaths and moans of pain, the more she realized it wasn't really necessary to put the pink-haired woman through this, but it had kept her calm and inside the house.

"I'll be back in a second okay? Please just sit right there?", Fang begged rubbing Lightning's arm as she walked away. "You better hope you have a good reason fo-", Fang began shouting clearly irritated, stopping mid sentence as she opened the door to reveal Hope standing outside.

"I hope medical services count as a good enough reason.", he chuckled shaking her hand.

"Oh thank Etro.", Fang sighed as she grabbed Hope pulling him into the room then shutting the door behind him and locking it again. "She's just in here.", she motioned her hand towards the bathroom walking in first.

Hope followed her slowly walking behind her but standing at the entrance of the large bathroom as Fang blocked his view from his next patient. He inhaled quietly, waiting to see what was hidden behind her. He felt as though all of his breath had been knocked out of him when Fang's body was gone and he found himself staring at Lightning's bruised and pained face.

"Light-…", He attempted to utter her name, but his shock proved enough to close his vocal chords.

"It's just her hand and back. I tired to fix it a little bit before you got here, but I'm no medic. Feel free to examine her for anything else that might need to be healed.", Fang tried to sum up the condition as best she could.

Hope still could barely believe what he was seeing. The last image he had of Lightning, was her smiling at her wedding with Vanille. That day was the first in many that anyone had seen the woman smile. She had finally found something that made her happy after her parent's death four years before. Her body was still toned and glowing with health, and her flawless skin was gleaming in the sunlight. She was strong, and rarely allowed herself to be seen at a weak moment. His memory ended abruptly when saw the women shiver. All those memories had been roughly a year ago, and it was horrifying how much things had changed. The strong soldier he once knew was trembling before him. She did not hold that beautiful smile he remembered. Her skin was pale, bruised in multiple places. She was broken, and weak.

Claire closed her eyes for a second, and felt the presence of unrelenting eyes on her. She opened them and glanced at Hope briefly allowing him to see her bruised face, her swollen eyes, her sick demeanor. The look on Hope's face was too much for her, she immediately averted her gaze. Her arms had hand prints bruised into them from where Snow had yanked her body around. The woman's thin neck was the scene to dark red and purple hickeys, and deep black bags hung under her left eye. She kept one hand clutched in her lap and the other one hung limply at her side. Hope stood there examining the features. The hand in her lap held crooked broken fingers, shards of glass, as well as an irritated wrist.

"Well? Get to it please.", Fang demanded crossing her arms behind Claire.

Hope kneeled again after walking into the bathroom a little more. He had tears swelling up in his eyes. "Lightning.. What..", he was lost for words in trying to ask her how this tragedy had happened.

"We'll save that story for late aye? Just fix her up, I'll explain.", Fang tried to rush, seeing more anguish in Lightning's eyes as Hope pitied her.

Hope only nodded his head and grabbed Claire's hand in his own. She flinched, sucking air in quickly through her teeth. The man almost retracted his grip, but thought twice.

"It's going to hurt Lightning, I'm sorry. Just hold on for a little bit okay? I promise I'll make it better.", Hope explained his actions and tightly closed his eyes in concentration.

The green light that emitted from between his hands was so bright that Fang had to look away. There was the sound of bones cracking and painful moans escaped from the pink-headed girl's lips as she tried eagerly to yank her hand away from the medic. The light continued shining for what felt like ages. Lightning was beginning to scream for Hope to stop, and just when she was about to rip her hand from his grip the light disappeared and her pain was gone. Hope took his hands off of hers as pieces of glass fell to the floor.

Lightning examined her hand, now only slightly bruised and small raised scars where her former cuts were she opened a closed it quickly. No more glass shards embedded into her skin. No more pain. "T-thank you Hope.", she said, getting up, but quickly wincing and gripping to the counter for support as she staggered away. Hope turned quickly and slaw blood splotches forming on the back of her white shirt.

"Lightning, wait.", He demanded stopping the woman again. With gentle hands he lifted up the back of her shirt, to see more glass, more blood, and even more bruises.

"Those.. Are my fault.", Fang guiltily admitted from behind. "We had a bit of a fight before you showed up.", The Pulsian shamefully confessed.

Hope shook his head gently and pressed his palms tightly against Lightning's toned back, repeating the same process as before. After a few grunts, and another bright flash of light, Hope took his hands off the older woman's back. The glass shards once in her skin fell out again, and hit the floor with light clicks.

"I apologize for the discomfort. I'm not used to so many broken bones and intrusions. The glass made things a little more difficult, but everything's healed to the best of my ability.", Hope explained.

Lightning sighed in relief, pulled her shirt down and walked out, leaving the two standing there in the bathroom. She walked into the bedroom and grabbed her gun blade from her bed post along with a black jacket and walked out of the back door in her room slamming it shut behind her.

Hope was beginning to run towards her when he felt a light grip on his arm.

"Don't. Let her go. You know how that woman is. She just… needs her space right now.", Fang explained dropping her grip from Hope's arm. I can't keep trying to control her.

He stopped his attempt to run after Lightning, and starred at the Pulsian woman. "Is this all you needed me for?", He asked trying to make sure there was nothing more he could do.

"Maybe you should stick around until she decides to come back. I'd hate for you to get all the way to Cocoon, and have to turn back because she decided to get herself into more trouble.", Fang bargained.

"I'd be more than happy to. Would you… care to explain to me what happened?", He questioned sitting on the futon Lightning and Vanille had in the corner of their room.

"Well, short story short, Serah's husband and she had a… uh.. a disagreement. I don't know too much about that, but Light went to go talk to him and he.. Raped her. She shot him dead, and now she's just having a hard time coping I suppose.", Fang summed up the events.

"Shit…", Hope sighed, pondering for a moment. "Wait, you said Snow was dead?", He questioned.

"Yes sir, Unless you know someone who can take a shot from Lightning and manage to save himself.", Fang countered, making it seem impossible for him to be alive.

"Snow Villiers?", Hope questioned, clearly taking the conversation somewhere.

Fang scrunched her eyebrows curiously at the young boy and slowly nodded her head in response wondering why it mattered.

"He isn't dead Fang.", Hope declared standing up.

"That's impossible, I saw his body myself.", Fang tried to justify her reasoning.

"I got called to the hospital early this morning, there had been a gunshot victim. The bullet had penetrated his body fairly close to his lungs and he was barely alive when he showed up. All I caught of his name was Villiers. I didn't think much of it, I couldn't make the call.", Hope explained.

Fang placed a hand on her forehead and fell back against the wall, letting out a heavy sigh. What the hell did that women get herself into?

A/N: Well, I figured it was about time to put in a plot twist. Get pumped for chapter 10!(: Review please? I love you guys .