Hey, time for the next instalment. Thank you all for the nice follows, favourites and reviews so far. And for going easy on me over the grammar and spelling.

I've read the first few chapters back and can see lots of the mistakes I made. This story is the first I've wrote in several years so naturally I've had quite bit of rust to shake off but I definitely feel I'm getting better the more I write. Hopefully that's coming across to you as a reader, that you're finding it easier and easier as the chapters go by to fly through my writings without stopping to pause and having to re-read something lol.

Also, the story will contain a few spoilers from FFVII Rebirth, so for anyone who has yet to play or finish it please be warned.

Chapter 4

The party, barring Cid and Vincent (who were both still back at the Highwind), were all now gathered together. Yuffie had indeed fetched the boys (well, the man, the dog, and the cat), and informed them about what she and Tifa had discovered at the town's medical clinic.

Barret was at a loss for words when he first laid his eyes upon Cloud. Seeing the man he affectionately referred to before now as "the Merc," in such a helpless state as this, he found it quite distressing. Cloud, in all the time so far Barret had known him, hadn't ever looked anywhere close to this... vulnerable.

Red had been overjoyed at hearing that Cloud had been found. He'd bounded off ahead of the others towards the clinic, desperate to reunite with his friend. When he first entered, he'd frantically called out Cloud's name (ignoring the shrieks of the on-duty nurse), hoping to hear a familiar voice calling back. Instead, all he heard was sobbing.

Tifa was sitting in a seat close to Cloud, her face covered by her hands as she cried. Yuffie, once she'd gotten back to the scene, went and sat down next to her, trying her best to comfort her older friend. The doctor kindly gave her some tissues, so Tifa could wipe her face.

Cait Sith, who'd leapt off his giant moogle in order to keep pace with Red, stood further back, allowing everyone else to be close to Cloud. Once it had dawned on him the state that Cloud was in, his voice became uncharacteristically low.

"Oh nooooo..." he'd said, dropping his head in sorrow.

Barret came forward to stand in front of Cloud. After taking off his shades, he kneeled down to stare directly into the other man's eyes. They looked utterly vacant. He brought up his good hand, held it directly in front of Cloud's face, and snapped his fingers a few times. Cloud didn't even blink.

"Shiiiiiiit..." he sighed, shaking his head. "It's like he's been petrified, or somethin'. 'Cept, he ain't been turned to stone."

Tifa was still sobbing, and Barret felt truly terrible for her. The same way he'd never previously seen Cloud look this vulnerable, he'd never before seen Tifa this distraught. Not even when the Sector 7 plate was dropped.

"Maybe we should step outside," suggested the doctor now. "Give the young lady here, and her friend, some privacy, for a few minutes."

Yuffie looked up.

"Yeah, I think that's a good idea."

She didn't really want her friend's side, not when she was this upset, but she agreed that Tifa probably did have more to express to Cloud, things she likely didn't want the rest of them to hear.

Yuffie stood and gave Tifa a small pat on the shoulder, then headed towards the door. Once she passed by them, Red and Cait both turned and followed her.

Barret remained where he was. He continued staring at Cloud in disbelief, but, after a few moments, he likewise turned around and began making his way out. When he reached the door, Barrett stopped, looked back over his shoulder, and let out a sigh. What the hell were they going to do now, he wondered. Then he continued on.

Now that the room was empty, except for them, Tifa lifted herself up out of her seat, but then allowed herself to drop down to her knees, in front of Cloud. She held his hands in her own again, then began to whisper.

"Cloud, please. Tell me that you can see me. Tell me that you can hear me. Just show me that you know I'm here..."

When no answer came forth, Tifa placed her head down in his lap, unable to prevent more sobs.

"I came this far believing in our memories together."

Outside...

Barret, Yuffie, Red, and Cait all stood together, each of them experiencing the same feelings of helplessness. This situation was not one that any of them had anticipated. None of them knew what to say.

"Hey, doc," Barret did mutter eventually. The doctor himself was in quiet conversation with the nurse, both standing only a few meters away.

"Y...yes?" he answered.

"What's the diagnosis?" Barret asked. "What is it we gotta do, y'know, to get him back to normal?"

"It's like I said before," the man in the coat replied. "His is a case of advanced Mako poisoining. I've never seen it so bad in a person before. There really isn't anything we can give him to help him recover, sadly."

"So what, you're sayin' he's stuck like that now, forever?!" said Yuffie now, exasperated.

"Come on," pleaded Red desperately. "There's got to be something we can do to help him?"

The doctor looked at his nurse, then back at them, and he just sighed.

"Quite frankly, it's a miracle he's even alive," he told them. "The fact he survived such a catastrophic event, I can only put down to the fact that he must be a SOLDIER. They are exposed to Mako already, as you can tell by the glow of his eyes. My guess is, is that it creates a kind of tolerance, of sorts. The only treatment I can recommend is to keep him away from any orbs of materia, also any other Mako-infused products. In that case, perhaps, eventually, his mind may be able to repair itself a little, and he'll possibly regain some of his faculties."

Barret turned away and cussed in frustration. The planet only had days left, maybe even just hours, before the Meteor crashed down and destroyed all the life in the world. And the Weapons, or Sephiroth, might have even killed thousands of people before then anyway, unless something was done to stop them. They didn't have time to wait around and hope for Cloud to snap out of it, if it were even possible for him too. This scenario, it was probably the absolute worst one they could be facing.

"Maybe someone in the company, they might know something that'd be of help," Cait Sith suggested now.

"We are not going to Hojo to ask for his assistance," Nanaki told him firmly, actually using his other voice to emphasise the point.

"Wha...?" answered Caith. "Come on, don't be daft now. I'd ask that nutter for help."

"Then who else do you mean?" demanded Yuffie. "You honestly think that ANYONE in Shinra is going to wanna help us right about now?"

"Not exactly no, but maybe there's some old case notes that I can get my hands on? I know that them lab boys have a history of using living people for their mako experiments. I don't like that fact one bit personally, but it is what it is. So maybe they wrote or put somethin' down, stored it in the company computers, like. Perhaps some info about this exact sort of thing?

Red snorted in disgust at the thought.

"Fine, you can look into that."

Just then, the door to the clinic opened, and Tifa appeared in entrance.

"I'm sorry, everyone," she said as everybody turned to look at her. "I'm okay now. Please, could you all come back inside? There's something I'd like to tell you."

Back inside...

Tifa stood next to Cloud with her hand on his shoulder. Her four friends were gathered around to hear what she wanted to say.

"The most important thing in the world to me is Cloud," she began, trying to keep her tears in check this time. "I've decided, I'm going to stay here with him, and do whatever I can to help. I don't care how long it takes or, what he may need, I'm staying by his side. Either until he gets better, or until..."

She didn't to finish her last sentence for them all to understand her meaning. Everybody looked around at one another, all of them digesting her remarks. Surprisingly, it was Barret who was the first to reply.

"Tifa, if that's what you think is best, then go ahead."

His words were non-judgemental. He was obviously accepting of her decision.

"Yeah, you just focus on helping Cloud," Red told her. "We'll take care of everything else."

"We can manage all the other stuff lassie, don't you worry about us," Cait added, trying his best to sound supportive.

"Yeah, we'll find all the materia needed in order to win!" said Yuffie with her trademark confidence. "And you, you can tell Cloud that, if he's good, little patient, that maybe I'll show him what I find. IF... he asks nicely."

Tifa knew in that moment that she couldn't wish for better, and more understanding, friends.

"Is everything okay?" asked the doctor coming in now.

"Yeah," Barret answered. "We was just gettin' ready to go, actually. We gotta head back to our ship, before nightfall."

"Oh, very well. I wish you all a safe trip to wherever you're all off too. And I promise, we'll take good care of your friend here while you're gone. I assure you, he's in the best possible hands."

"Heck, we know that," Barret told him. "You see, Tifa here, she's stayin' to help out. Nobody can take care of soldier boy here better than she can."

The doctor turned to look at Tifa. She placed her hands behind her back shyly.

"That isn't going to be a problem, is it?" she asked.

"Oh no, of course not," he answered. "Please, feel free to stay here with us to help your friend, for as long as you like. I must warn you, though, in the evenings he does sometimes, get a little difficult to manage."

Tifa nodded at him to show she understood, then she looked back at her friends.

"You will all definitely be okay without me, won't you?"

"Don't sweat it, Tifa," Yuffie told her. "When you've got the Amazing Yuffie on your team, there's never any reason to worry. "

"We'll come back and visit ya'll soon, aright?" said Barret.

"Right."

"Good. Now come on, you guys, we better head on back. Cid probably be havin' his nap right about now. Let's go wake his ass up, then tell him to get us the hell offa this island."

Later...

The others had left now, and Tifa was alone at the clinic with just Cloud and the staff. It was early evening, and the time Cloud normally was washed and changed.

A new nurse had come on duty to replace the former, a woman named Jean who looked to be in her thirties, and she had agreed to mentor Tifa in how best to care for the comatose patient.

"We don't have a bath tub here, sadly," the nurse told her. "And we can't put him in the shower because he can't stand and support himself. So instead, we have to fill up this bowl and wipe him down by hand." Jean was prepared to show Tifa exactly what to do, but, to her surprise, the young woman seemed to have a perfect understanding already. Tifa took a washcloth and dipped it into the warm, soapy water. She then started by slowly wiping his forehead and face, making sure to be as gentle as she could. Then she moved onto wiping his arms, then she unbuttoned his gown and began on his torso.

Jean was going to begin wiping down Cloud's legs, but, upon seeing how dedicated Tifa was to caring for him, she decided to hang back and watch, unless specifically asked to help out. She didn't know the exact nature of the relationship between these two, only that, to her, it was abundantly clear that this young lady absolutely adored their patient. This made Jean not want to touch him in his private places: she felt it was best to leave such intimate acts to Tifa.

"I'll go and fetch him a clean gown," she said eventually. The nurse turned and headed towards a cupboard at the other end of the room. Tifa continued to wash Cloud all over, though throughout this unorthodox bathing, he remained still and silent.

"Here we go," said Jean, kindly placing the fresh gown on the bed nearby. "I'll let you put it on him. But if you need me to help, then just ask."

"Thank you," said Tifa gratefully. She did have a question she wanted to ask.

"Er... Jean, what happened to his clothes? I mean, the uniform he was wearing? And the sword? Someone told me that he still had it with him when he was found."

Jean thought for a moment.

"His clothes? Oh, we sent them to be cleaned. A person in town is handling it, he should be bringing them, and the boots, back here, either tomorrow, or the day after. And his sword? We've put it away. It's in the closet next door, along with a bangle and the gauntlets he had on."

Tifa nodded. So Cloud's gear was safe. She knew if he could talk right now, he'd be mightily relieved to know none of his things had been lost or stolen. Cloud was very attached to his Buster Sword. And the rest of his gear was all pretty expensive.

Tifa now thought back to when she herself had been pushed into a pool of Mako, Cloud himself, ironically. She remembered waking up in Gongaga, at Cissnei's house. Cloud had been at her side the whole time, pleading with her to wake up.

That was the occasion when Cloud opened up to her for the first time. Like, properly opened up. He'd finally shared with her his insecurities, his confusion about his muddled-up memories, and his fears regarding the SOLDIER degradation theory. Tifa had reassured him, insisting that his worries were misplaced.

She finished wiping him down, and Jean passed her the fresh gown before going next door to boil some tea for them both. Tifa pulled off the gown Cloud had been wearing and prepared to dress him in the new one. He was now naked, but Tifa refrained from glancing at anything. If ever she were to set her eyes on certain parts of his body, Tifa wanted it to happen with Cloud's consent. Besides, she knew that, in a scenario where their current roles were reversed, Cloud would be absolutely respectful of her body.

Once she'd dressed him in the new gown, she wondered what to do next? Perhaps he needed feeding? There was no feeding tube attached, so it had to be assumed that Cloud was still able to eat even in his current condition. Or maybe she should talk to him more? Fill him in on the details of everything he'd missed.

Jean returned, and she asked Tifa how she liked to take her tea. This reminded her of the fact that she'd barely eaten or drunk anything for days.

"Jean," she asked now. "Earlier, the doctor said that Cloud... gets difficult to manage in the evenings. What does that mean?"

"It's when he falls asleep," the older woman explained. "We think he has dreams, and he starts thrashing around and saying a few words. None of it makes any sense, really. He just keeps rambling about numbers, and also, something about a reunion."

Tifa didn't reply to this. Instead, she turned back to Cloud and, impromptu, decided to give him a tight hug.

"I'll... I'll go check on the tea." Jean awkwardly exited again.

Tifa continued to cling to Cloud, her eyes becoming wet once more.

"Cloud, you're not just a number. You're not a clone. You're a real, living person."

She let go of him finally, then brought her hands up and placed them gently on each of his cheeks.

"I know you're in there somewhere. The real you. The person I grew up with. And I'm going to stay here with you Cloud, nobody can pull me away.

End of chapter. Slightly shorter one this time but hopefully you enjoyed. We'll keep things moving a at nice pace. This story is very much a CLOTI fic so we won't be depicting what the rest of the party get up too during this period of the game, we're going to stay in Mideel with these two.

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