A/N: Well the worse part of Palumpolum is over...now comes the even worse part in Bodhum. We all know Lightning's in a bad condition cause of Cain's poison attack. Will she survive? How will Hope and Serah handle this?

It's sunset at Bodhum. Nighttime takes over the skies as the sun begins to vanish over the seas, turning the crystal blue waters into burning red.

Serah, Fang, Vanille and Snow are still doing some work around the house from Vanille's dumbnesia rampage. Serah takes a break and sits on the chair out on the front porch, watching the last light of day. Serah smiles, it's a beautiful sight. If she could, she can sit out here for hours.

Serah suddenly become surprised when Sazh's airship lands out on the shores of the beach. Serah stands up and rushes towards it. As soon as she's in front of it, the door opens and Hope walks out, with Lightning leaning against him.

"Lightning? What are you doing here? You're early." Serah didn't bother to notice Lightning's condition.

"Serah, Lightning's not feeling good. She's been poisoned." Hope says.

Serah can tell from that worried and fearful tone that it's serious, like life threatening even. "Oh no. Come on, let's get her in."

Serah helps Hope carry Lightning into the house. When they're inside, they rush to the couch and lay her there. Fang, Vanille and Snow are confused at what's happening.

"What's going on?" Snow asks.

"Lightning's in serious trouble." Hope says.

Serah sits beside Lightning, she looks directly at Lightning, trying to get her attention. "Lightning? Light...Claire. Speak to me."

Lightning just stares into space, directly at Serah. Weird sounds are all that comes out of Lightning's mouth, sounds that are clearly a bad sign, and her body is twitching as well.

"Oh no, this is bad." Serah stands up. "We have to get her to a hospital."

Serah zooms to the nearest phone there is. Snow and Vanille gathers around Lightning, looking down at her. "Oh dear, she doesn't look good." Vanille says.

"No kidding." Snow says.

"Guys, this is serious!" Hope yells.

Serah puts the emergency number. She waits for a moment, getting more worried with each passing second, then someone finally answers.

"Ambulance...My sister, she's in need for medical aid...Well, she's staring off into space, making strange noises and she's twitching uncontrollably...I don't know how this happen, can you please please please get here? ...Okay." Serah hangs up and she storms into the kitchen.

Serah grabs a piece of cloth. She wets it in the sink and hurries back to Lightning. Serah pats the damp cloth on Lightning's face. "Claire, Clare. Stay with me."

Lightnings head lays to the side, nearly facing Serah. "S-s-s-se...S-s-s...Serah?"

"Yes, yes. It's me. You're going to be okay." Serah says.

Sazh walks right in, he notices everyone gathering around the couch, he seems pretty confused. "Uh...did I miss something?"

The sounds of sirens and flashing lights approaches. The ambulance arrives and parks outside, two paramedics rushes right in. Serah notices they're here and waves at them to come. "Over here." Serah and Hope moves aside for the paramedics to get a look at Lightning.

"Oh damn. This is bad." The first paramedic says.

"Let's get her to the hospital." The second paramedic brings in the gurney. Both of them lifts Lightning and lays her on it, then they pull her outside.

"Come on, let's go." Serah, Snow and Hope follows the paramedics outside. Fang and Vanille are being left behind.

"Hey, what are we suppose to do?" Fang asks.

Serah, Snow and Hope ignores them, didn't bother to stop and give a quick answer. Sazh walks up to them. "Well, you two ladies can help me unload the kid's stuff. I gotta return the airship to base and head home to take care of my son."

The ride to the hospital is a bit uneasy. The ambulance is running pretty fast, Serah could hardly keep up with them. Whatever's wrong with Lightning, it seems pretty critical. Hope and Serah are pretty worried, Snow's even more worried cause Serah's worried while driving. He knows it's a bad idea for a worried person to take the wheel. Why not?

In about five minutes, they arrived at the hospital. Lightning is rushed into the emergency room while everyone else waits out in the lobby. Snow is hanging by the wall, Serah is pacing around, worried, Hope sits down, in a mix of both worry and guilt. Can you blame him?

After a while of waiting, the doctor walks in and approaches the group. Serah approaches the doctor and Hope stands up. "What's the diagnosis, doctor?"

"I'm afraid her condition is far worse then we thought. It seems your sister is infected with Svarog Vemon." The doctor answers.

Serah gasps horrified hearing that, that's a deadly condition. Hope, on the other hand, is confused. "Uh...what is that?" Hope asks.

"It's a very deadly poison." The doctor answers. "Frankly, I'm surprised she's still alive. Most people would have died when injected. Would you guys mind telling me what happened?"

Serah and Snow looks at Hope, they both know he can answer that question.

"Well, Lightning and I were in Palumpolum. I was at home packing up my stuff when...her ex-boyfriend, Cain O'Neil, kidnapped me." Serah seems surprised hearing about Cain. "Lightning came to save me, but during her fight, a dart shot her. That's when she was poisoned."

"Hmm...I see." The doctor says.

Serah looks at Hope. "You're serious? Cain is alive?"

Hope nods. "That's right. And he wants to kill Lightning now."

Serah's not surprised. Serah turns her attention back at the doctor. "Please, can you save her?"

The doctor looks at his charts. "Well...I'm not sure, I've never seen anything like this. We can do our best, but I can't make any promises she'll live."

The doctor makes his leave. Serah, Snow and Hope just watches the doctor leave. "Lightning had a boyfriend?" Snow asks.

"It's a long story, Snow. I'll tell you later." Serah says.

Hope sits back on the down, looking down. Serah and Snow notices Hope's depression. "This is all my fault. If I haven't gotten kidnapped, none of this would have happened."

Snow puts a hand on Hopes shoulder. "Don't blame yourself kid."

Serah seats next to Hope. "Snow's right. It's not your fault. It could have happened anyway."

Hope doesn't say or react to Serah's words. Hope looks up at Serah. "But...what if she doesn't make it? Lightning might be stubborn and tough but...still."

Serah says. "I don't know, Hope. I'm not sure if she will." Hope doesn't say anything. He looks down a little. Serah reaches for his hand and gently squeezes it. "But the least we can do is pray."

Hope looks up at Serah and nods a little. They both held hands, look down with their eyes closed, muttering a quiet prayer. Snow just stands aside watching those two.

Two hours have pasted, Serah and Hope still wait and pray for Lightning to make it. No word has been received about her condition. During that time, Hope went out to the flower shop down the road and went to get some 'get well' flowers for Lightning. A dozen roses of every color: Red, white, pink, blue and so on.

Serah thought it's sweet of him to give her these, apparently roses are Lightning's favorite flowers. That kind of surprised Hope, even since it pretty much answered that his gift for Lightning's birthday was indeed perfect for her.

Finally, the doctor arrives. Serah and Hope stands up and approaches the doctor, worried. "How is she, doctor?"

"Well, I can honestly say we've done all we can. But we're still not sure if she'll make it." Doctor says.

"She is going to be okay, right?" Hope says, hopefully.

"We did however engineer an antidote that might work. Right now, we're putting it into her system, but it's up to her if she wants to live." The doctor says.

Serah and Hope doesn't say anything for a moment, then Serah speaks. "May we see her?"

The doctor takes Serah, Hope and Snow to Lightning's room. Down to 4E: 231. As they make their way, they just worry. They are afraid to see how Lightning's gonna be.

When they arrive at the room, they find Lightning is resting on the bed, in nothing but a white hospital gown. They can see that she's hocked up to a heart monitor, and a ventilator, which goes to the mask that's covering her mouth and nose, and some tube on the back of her left hand that's injecting the antidote.

When the doctor leaves, the group walks in. Hope sets the roses on the table next to the bed. Lightning is soundly asleep in bed, and the group just stands by watching her as if they're waiting for her to awake.

Hope feels a little sick to his stomach. To him, it's like he's living his mom's death all over again. In replace of Lightning's body, is her mother's bloody injured corpse that's laying to waste in Jagd Woods. If it gets any worse, the kid may faint.

Lightning moans as she slowly opens her eyes, only a little. Her vision is pretty blurry. She takes a moment for it to adjust. After that, it's still a little blurry, but under all that, she can still see her sister, Hope and Snow.

Lightning manages a small smile. "Hey." Her voice was weak, it could barely be heard over the sounds of the heart monitor.

Serah stands ahead of the group, bending down and grabbing Lightning's hand. "Hey sis. You doing okay?"

"I'm...doing fine." Lightning answers.

"You had us worried." Serah says. "You're going to be okay, Claire. We're all here for you."

Lightning gives a tiny nod. It's barely noticeable. "Thank you, Serah."

Serah and Lightning says nothing else. Serah stands aside as Hope walks up to Lightning. Hope opens his mouth, but no words come up. He honestly doesn't know what to say. Lightning can tell from just looking into his eyes, he's upset about what happened to her. She know's it's because he's worried about her just like Serah is and he feels guilty cause this whole thing happened because he was kidnapped.

She can't exactly tell which is the main reason, until he speaks. "Lightning, I..." Hope looks at Lightning with tears in his eyes, nearly escaping. "I'm sorry...I'm so sorry."

Lightning shook her head a little. "It's not your fault." Lightning says.

"Yes it is. If I haven't gotten kidnapped, then...you wouldn't have to come and then Cain wouldn't have..." Hope stops talking when Lightning slowly places a hand on top of his.

Lightning manages a small smile, just to comfort him. "Don't blame yourself, Hope...Cain, he's...it could have happened anyways." Hope doesn't say anything, he wonders if that is true, if Cain would have ambushed her like that if Hope wasn't around.

"But...why did you came?" Hope asks.

"Because I promised..." Lightning weakly raises her hand, places it on Hopes cheek and wipe away his tear. "I promised...I would keep you safe. To your mother...and to you."

Hope realizes it's true, Nora did asked Lightning to take care of him, and that's what she did. But that's not all. He remembers that night, the first day at Lightning's house. The image plays in his head again, when Lightning took him to her room and she hugged him as he cried on her shoulder. Even the words echoed in his head:

'I'll keep you save'

Lightning closes her eyes and her hand drops. Hope gasps a little, worried. He thought she died, but he reminds himself, she's hooked up to a heart monitor, if she's dead, it would make a flat line sound. And it didn't.

"Come on, guys. Let's leave her to rest." Snow says.

Snow and Serah leaves, Hope looks back to see the two of them leaving. When they're gone, Hope looks back at Lightning. He's worried that she's not going to make it at all.

Hope gives Lightning a stroke on her hair, leans in and kisses her on the forehead. He wasn't sure if she would feel it or not, or that she's okay with it or not, but he didn't care. After the kiss, he whispers in her ear, not caring if she couldn't hear him.

"Hang on."

Hope makes his leave. Now Hope, Serah and Snow wait out in the hallway. They all talk about if Lightning's gonna make it. Serah and Snow does most of the talking, Hope is just lost in his thought, thinking about what'll happen if she doesn't. How will he live with it? Lightning's all he has left. Sure, he'll still have Serah and Snow and Vanille too, but Lightning's special to him.

"Hope, you okay?" Snow's talk snaps him out of his thoughts.

"Y-yeah." Hope answers. He's lying, he's not okay. "I just...I was just thinking."

"You sure you're okay?" Serah asks.

Hope looks down, sighing. "I don't know...I'm just worried."

Serah stands in front of Hope, putting her hands on his shoulders. Hope looks up at Serah. "How about you go home? Get some rest and try to relax. I'll stay here and watch over Lightning."

Hope hesitates to answer, then nods. "Okay."

Serah turns to Snow. "Snow, can you take him home?"

Snow nods. He walks up Hope, and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, sport."

Hope and Snow makes they're leave. When they're gone, Serah sits on the chair out in the hallway, waiting for time to pass so she can get her answer.

Snow drives Hope back to the house. After that, Snow returns to his NORA cafe. Hope doesn't really do anything for the night. He just feels lonely in this empty house. Lightning's in the hospital and Serah's at it looking after her sister.

For dinner, Hope just has some of that leftover gumbo that was made on Lightning's birthday. He sits on the dinning table, alone, eating his dinner. He starts to think it was a bad idea for him to have this gumbo for dinner, it was Lightning's favorite. Eating it just reminds him of her.

Right after dinner, Hope just goes straight to bed. He knows he's not going to sleep easily tonight. So the sooner he goes to bed, the better.

Day 6

It's about two in the morning, the kid wakes up. As soon as he does, he sits up. He takes a moment to relax, only he can't really relax. Hope looks at the nightstand next to him. He reaches for the photo of him and his parents. Hope holds it in front of him, looking down at it. He dearly misses his parents. He could only think about that moment when his mother died in the Jagd Woods. That's when he first met Lightning, and she took him in.

Lightning is his friend...no, friend is not a strong enough word. Lightning is his sister, or mother. Either way, she's family to him. He can't bear the thought of losing her.

Hope holds the picture close to him, hugging it. Hope closes his eyes, he tries hard to fight the tears. But the sadness is too much. He can't hold it in.

Hope jumps out of bed, rushes out into the hallway and head downstairs. Hope didn't bother to turn on the lights, he just runs in the darkness. Luckily, he didn't bump into anything. Hope reaches to a telephone. He turns on the lamp beside it, to shade some light.

Hope picks up the phone, deals the number for the hospital. He now waits, listening to the ringing. Finally, the phone is answered.

"Bodhum Hospital Care. Can I help you?"

"Yes, hello. I'm calling for someone who's a patient." Hope says.

"Patient's name?" The women asks.

"Lightning Farron." Hope answers. "She has someone with her, her sister Serah. May I speak to her?"

"One moment please."

There was nothing but silence coming from the phone now. Hope tries to be patient for Serah to answer, but with each passing second, he gets more and more worried. He's not afraid of anything bad happening to Serah, he's just afraid about Lightning. As if him talking to her or Serah is her only life force.

Serah waits out in the hallway. Lightning is still resting and recovering. Serah may seem calm, but in truth, she's nervous. Serah takes a deep breath to calm herself down. She knows that Lightning's going to be okay.

Serah was startled when she hears the announcement. "Serah Farron. Please report to the lobby."

Serah wonders why she's being called, but she doesn't question it. She gets off her seat and makes her way to the lobby. Serah arrives at the lobby, where the receptionist offers Serah the phone.

Serah can tell she received a phone call. "Hello?"

"Hello, Serah?" Hope says on the other line.

"Hope?" Hope can tell from her tone that Serah's surprised. She didn't expect him to call her, especially this late at night. "What are you doing up?"

"I-I...I couldn't sleep." Hope answers.

"Why not? Is something wrong?" Serah asks.

"I'm just...afraid." Hope says.

"About Lightning?" Serah asks. Hope nods, even through she can't see him. He looks down in sorrow. Serah starts to worry a little, Hope has been silent for too long. "Are you still there? Hope?"

"Yeah." Hope answers quietly.

Serah didn't hear him. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Hope slowly breaks down sobbing. First it's unleashing the tears and there goes the crying. On the other line, Serah can hear the waterworks. "Hey, are you crying?"

"I...I can't do this." Hope's words could hardly form, with his throat engulfing in tears. "I don't know what to do...I'm really scared."

"Hope, calm down." Serah tries to keep her tone gentle. Hope wipes away his tears, sniffles.

"I'm really worried about Lightning. I don't want her to die...I'm scared." Hope says.

"I know, I'm scared too." Serah says.

Hope sits down on the chair. "I'm afraid, Serah. Everyone I care about is always gone. First it's my dad, then my mom...and now Lightning is..." Hope says nothing else. He doesn't know how to say his words, even under all that depression.

Serah is sad too. But she's mostly sad for Hope. She can understand what he's going through. Lightning's the only family she has left. It's the same thing with Hope.

"I just don't want to lose her." Hope says in a quiet tone. Serah nearly heard it but she still caught what he said.

"Do you want me to come home?" Serah offered.

"No, no...It's okay." Hope says. "Besides, I think Lightning needs you more."

"Yeah. You're right." Serah says.

"How is she doing?" Hope asks.

"She's doing okay. She's a tough girl you know." Serah says.

Hope smiles a little. "Yeah, she is...can I speak to her?"

"I'm sorry, she's still sleeping. But I'll tell her you called." Serah says.

"Thanks, Serah. I'm sorry to bother you." Hope says.

"No, no. It's fine. I'm actually glad you called. I was a little worried how you're doing at home alone." Serah says.

Hope chuckles a little. "Okay."

"You feeling better? Think you can sleep?" Serah asks.

"A little. I think so, I'm still a little nervous." Hope says.

"Well, why don't you get a glass of warm milk. And, in my room, there's a Moogle doll on my bed, Mr. Mog. If you want, you could use him. He always helped me sleep." Serah says.

"Okay. Thanks, Serah. You should get some sleep too." Hope says.

"I will, don't worry about me." Serah says. "I should go check on Lightning."

"Okay. Good night." Hope says.

"Good night. Oh, and Hope?" Hope was about to hang up until he heard Serah continues to talk.

"Yeah?"

"Stay strong." Serah hangs up the phone, then she makes her way back to Lightning's room.

Hope just listens to the deadline. Even though he knows Serah's not there anymore, he speaks. "You too."

Hope slowly hangs up the phone. Hope takes in what Serah said. He goes into the kitchen, made himself a cup of warm milk. Once that's done, he walks upstairs with his drink. On the top of the stairs, he stops. He was about to head to the guest room, but remembers what Serah offered.

Hope goes into Serah's room. He looks at her bed. There, he sees the Moogle doll she mentioned. Hope decided to take it to bed, figured it's worth a shot to try.

Hope returns to the guest room, with the drink. He sets the doll next to him in bed, then he drinks his milk. Once that's done, he sets the cup on the nightstand, laying down in bed with Mr. Mog. He's starting to feel a little better.

Hope was able to get a good nights sleep, with the happy thought of Lightning returning home, alive and healthy.