Chapter 8: Sabotage

A/N: Hey everyone! Hope you all are enjoying the new game! I figured to celebrate it, why not have a new chapter?

It's almost time for Scarlett to come to the café to see who she'll want to cater to her upcoming banquet. Lana is trying to figure out what she can make since her notebook is missing. Will she be able to come up with something from scratch or will her dreams go up in flames?

Also I put out a little one shot for this story that takes place later on in the future. If you want to see what Rufus and Lana's relationship will be like in a few years, go ahead and read 'You Are My Home'.

So let's get on with the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 7; I just own my characters.

Enjoy!

/

"Shit, shit, shit" Lana grumbled.

She chopped up a few vegetables then tossed them into a pan. Adding a bit of oil, she stirred her creation as she grumbled and cursed her luck.

How could she have lost her notebook? She should have picked it up right away when Rufus startled her but of course she had to be distracted by him. She had hoped that one of her coworkers had seen it when they left for the day but no one saw it. Some of her recipes that she practiced were in that! She was going to use those for when Scarlett came to the café! But now that she didn't have her recipes, she had to wing it from scratch. That wouldn't really be a problem but it would have been nice to have written instructions to bounce off of.

She put the vegetables off to the back of the stove and worked on her sauce for the dish. Scarlett was supposed to be at the café in two days. She had to make sure this was perfect to the point that it was impossible to find anything bad about her dish.

Millie watched her roommate zip around their kitchen as she put things together. The kitchen had been off limits since last week. If she wanted something to eat, she had to test Lana's dishes to see if they were good or not. While she thought it was great to have fancy homecooked meals, her waist line thought otherwise. She was looking forward to when Scarlett would come to the café so she could have their kitchen back.

Lana dished up her creation on a plate and stood back to admire her work. It was a garlic, lime and black pepper lamb cutlet with grilled vegetables. Rufus mentioned Scarlett liked things that weren't very common and what could be better than lamb?

"Alright, Millie. Think this will be the winning dish?"

Millie groaned when Lana passed the plate over to her. She didn't know if she could have another bite. But being the good friend that she was, she forced herself to eat a bit more. If only so Lana would leave her alone.

"Why don't you just ask Rich Boy to talk to Scarlett? I'm sure he'd put in a good word for you"

"I am not asking favors from him. He's been trying to find out how he can bribe me to get my attention. I won't give him that satisfaction." Lana said.

"Besides, I want to prove I can get far on my own without anyone's help. Vivian has had her dad do everything for her and look where that's got her. The only one who can make my dreams come true is myself"

"I guess there's that. But you know…it's alright to get help from others every now and then" Millie pointed out.

"Maybe, but this is something no one can help me. Now eat up! The flavor gets ruined when it gets cold"

Millie rolled her eyes and took a bite out of the cutlet. As always, everything was amazing. The lamb was cooked right. The vegetables had a slight kick from how they were cooked. No one would believe this was made in some crappy apartment in the Slums it was that high quality.

"I think we have a winner. If Scarlett doesn't go for this dish then I won't buy Materia ever again"

Lana sighed as she slumped against the table. She had been going at it nonstop all week. She had to make sure this was a success. If she could cater to someone like Scarlett, then that could open a whole bunch of opportunities for her.

/

Two days later

The Golden Rose was in a frenzy as everyone rushed around to get their dishes ready. The Café was closed so Scarlett could test out the dishes without everyone watching her. Despite not catering to customers, everyone rushed around as if it was another day at work.

Lana worked on her lamb cutlets while she tried to help those that were next to her. Even though they were all supposed to come up with their own dish to show Scarlett, she was still a team player. All the other chefs appreciated that since at the end of the day, they were all on the same team.

"Hey Vivian, can you give me a hand with this roast since you're done with your dish?" one of the chefs asked.

Vivian scoffed as she held up her nails.

"I just got my nails done yesterday! I don't want to chip one by accident. What would Madam Scarlett say if she saw how disheveled I looked?"

"This isn't a beauty pageant! She's here to see your food not your face" Lana barked.

"Besides, you should be checking on your dish so it doesn't get cold"

"I don't need to take orders from you, rat. I've been cooking since I was twelve. I think I know when my dishes are ready" Vivian spat.

Lana rolled her eyes and helped her one coworker with their roast. Vivian smirked darkly as she watched Lana run around. She thought she was so special because Rufus paid attention to her? Well, after today he would see how much of a joke she was.

Jeremy barged into the kitchen.

"She's here!" he said.

Everyone quickly finished up their dishes and plated them. They hurried out of the kitchen where Scarlett was waiting for them. Lana felt the hair on her neck raise as she looked at Scarlett. This woman just oozed with power and confidence. She hadn't said a single word and yet she demanded everyone's attention. This was one of the top brass of Shinra.

Some of the chefs fidgeted at the intimidating stare Scarlett was giving them. If they couldn't handle this, then they wouldn't be able to handle catering for her.

Scarlett hummed as she looked at her nails.

"Let's get this over with then. I haven't got all day to try homemade slop"

"Then why did you ask to have us cater for you?" Lana wanted to say.

She just kept her mouth shut. There was a time and place for being snarky, and now wasn't it.

One by one, everyone presented their dish and explained what it was and how they made it. Scarlett seemed to have a crude comment for everything she tried.

"Too greasy. Way undercooked. I feel like I'm chewing on a shoe. Did you check to see if this thing was actually dead before you started cooking it?"

Some of the chefs got super angry at the insults while someone of them started to tear up. Lana remained calm and told herself to not take it personally. At the end of the day, Scarlett was looking for someone who could cater a big banquet and handle the pressure of it. If they would let a few harsh words get to them then they shouldn't be here.

Her turn finally came. It was only her and Vivian left so that meant one of them would succeed-mainly her for everyone's sake.

She set her plate in front of Scarlett.

"For today, I prepared a garlic, lime and black pepper lamb cutlet with grilled vegetables"

Scarlett looked at Lana with a raised eyebrow.

"I see you ran out of time to make yourself presentable"

Lana noticed that her uniform had a bit of grease from when she was cooking her lamb cutlet. She should have changed but she was more concerned her lamb was cooked properly.

"Good thing this isn't a beauty contest then" she tried to joke.

"Least my dish looks better than me"

Scarlett actually smirked a little. Finally someone who wasn't a crybaby or a pushover. But just because she wasn't a pushover didn't mean that her food would be good.

She cut into the lamb and ate some of it as well as the vegetables. She didn't say anything for a bit as she tasted everything. After a moment she set the fork down and pushed the plate away.

"Not really a fan of lamb…but this was decent. The lime and garlic helped mask that gamey taste to it. Could do without the peppers and cucumbers mixed together as well"

"That's the beauty about vegetables. You can mix and match them to make the dish however you like" Lana said.

She took mental notes about what she should change. Scarlett didn't say her dish was bad so there was a chance that she might pick her.

Scarlett was impressed that Lana wasn't arguing with her or defending her dish. She showed that she was willing to improve on things for her client. That was smart if she was hoping to please her guests.

"I have nothing else to mention. You can go"

Lana backed away as Vivian presented her dish. She was puzzled when she saw it was lobster. Now that she really looked at it, it looked like one of the dishes she thought of as she wrote ideas in her notebook. A sickening feeling clawed its way in her stomach. Did Vivian get her notebook somehow?

Vivian presented her dish and carefully brushed her hair over her shoulder. She got dolled up so she would look presentable for Scarlett. She always wanted the best of the best and that included things looking their best.

"My dish is a set of lobster tails with a lemon, garlic and Aleppo pepper sauce for the side"

The other chefs were puzzled at Vivian's dish.

"Did we get lobster recently?" one of them whispered.

"Not to my knowledge. I heard from some of the merchants that it's been hard getting them cause of the monsters that have been around Junon and Costa Del Sol lately" another one said.

"Wonder how Vivian was able to score some lobster tail?"

"Hopefully she can tell us. It's been a little over a week since we got our last shipment in and some of our customers have been asking about them"

The warning bells went off in Lana's head. Lobster didn't stay good for long. It was best to eat it within three days before it went bad. That was when it was already cooked. If one were to eat bad lobster, the consumer would have horrible, horrible food poisoning that could result in staying in the hospital.

If they didn't have lobster all week and Vivian just cooked that today…then that meant.

She realized what was going on and panicked when she saw Scarlett was about to cut into it.

"Don't eat that!" she shouted.

Everyone jumped at her sudden outburst. She hurried over to the table and pulled the plate away.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Vivian snapped.

"How dare you try to sabotage me!"

"If anyone is sabotaging you it's yourself!" Lana snapped.

"Are you trying to kill someone here?"

She motioned for Jeremy to come over.

"Jeremy, smell this"

Jeremy looked annoyed yet confused. Going over to the table, he grabbed a fork and stabbed the lobster meat. When it came out of it's shell the powerful smell of ammonia hit everyone's nose. The lobster meat broke apart and fell on the plate in gloopy clumps.

Scarlett, Jeremy, Vivian and a few others nearby covered their noses when they smelled the foul odor.

"This lobster meat is expired" Jeremy said shakily.

Vivian was about to serve Scarlett expired food. She could have gotten sick. Vivian paled when she saw her dish. She was sure it was ok. That it was supposed to smell like that because it was fish. She saw everyone was whispering about her. She glared at Lana and jabbed a finger at her.

"You set me up! You wrote that recipe so I would fail!" she cried.

"What are you talking about?"

Vivian pulled out Lana's notebook from her apron.

"You wrote out that recipe about lobster tail as one of your ideas for today!" she said.

"You must have written it poorly to sabotage anyone who read it!"

"Hey, isn't that Lana's notebook that she was looking for all week?" someone asked.

"Yeah. You said you didn't see it Vivian. Why would you say that if you had it this whole time?"

Vivian panicked some more when she saw she was caught.

"S-she gave it to me! She said she wanted to help me with today so she gave me it! I should have known better since she wrote lousy recipes"

Lana narrowed her eyes in disgust. Vivian would throw anyone in the mud to cover for her stupid mistakes. Luckily no one seemed to buy her lie.

"We just said she mentioned about loosing her notebook. Why would she give it to you when she said she lost it?"

"You two don't get along period so why would she help you?"

"I recall you asking Lana for help during her lunchbreak last week now that I think about it"

All of a sudden Scarlett threw her head back and laughed.

"Oh this is too rich" she said.

"So not only can you not come up with your own recipes, but you can't even properly cook the ones you steal from. You obviously don't have common sense since you couldn't tell you were using bad lobster. Maybe you should spend more time at the stove instead of the mirror, girl"

Vivian's face went red with embarrassment.

"Y-you have no right to talk to me like that! My father works for Shinra! He'll hear about this!"

The room turned cold as Scarlett gave Vivian an icy stare.

"And who do you think is his boss, child? So not only can you not read a recipe but you can't read the room either"

She stood up from her seat.

"I've seen enough. I should have known I was wasting my time coming to a small forgotten place like this"

Jeremy panicked and hurried over to her.

"Madam, please! This was a minor setback" he insisted.

"Your 'minor setback' almost poisoned me. The only reason I'm not going to bulldoze this place to the ground is because your one chef saved me from getting food poisoning" Scarlett said.

She spun on her heel and motioned for her security team to follow her.

"Now if you'll excuse me. I have to burn this outfit to get rid of the rotten lobster smell. Good luck trying to bounce back from this"

The door slammed behind her. Everyone was silent as they processed what just happened. Vivian glared at Lana again and got in her face.

"This is your fault! You made me look like an idiot!" she screamed.

"How is this my fault?!" Lana snapped.

"You wrote that recipe! You obviously knew it would turn bad!"

"The recipe is fine when you use fresh lobster! Where did it say to use week old lobster?"

"You just-"

"Enough!" Jeremy snapped.

He turned to Vivian with a very angry expression.

"Vivian" he said slowly.

"Where did you get that lobster?"

"It's one of the lobsters we get for the café. It was part of our supplies request" Vivian said obviously.

"I'm sorry let me rephrase that. When did you get that lobster? I haven't been able to order any all week from our merchants due to a supply shortage. And don't say you got it from somewhere else cause all the other restaurants have been having the same issue"

Vivian was quiet for a moment before she spoke.

"Last Friday" she said quietly.

Lana held the bridge of her nose as she fought the urge to say something. How did this woman not kill anyone yet with her cooking?

Jeremy's eye twitched as he stared Vivian down.

"You mean to tell me…you used week old lobster that has been slowly rotting in it's shell…and you thought it would be the perfect dish to serve to one of the top brass of the largest multibillion gil company in the world? Is that what you're tell me?!"

"I checked to make sure it was ok!" Vivian insisted.

"It say's lobster is still good frozen after a few days"

"When it's cooked" Lana corrected.

"Cooked meat takes a longer time to break down than raw meat. That's one of the first things they talk about when you start training to be a chef. How could you forget such an important thing like that?"

Vivian was about to make a snarky remark when Jeremy held his hand up.

"Fighting over this isn't going to change the fact that we just lost a huge customer. Everyone just clean up and go home. Let's pray that we all have a job tomorrow when we clock in"

He left the dining hall and locked himself in his office. All the other chefs glared at Vivian.

"Way to go Vivian"

"Thanks to you, we're all going to be out of a job"

Vivian flipped her hair over her shoulder and huffed.

"I'll talk to my dad and see if he can pull some strings. He's done it for this place once before"

"If you're dad is so powerful and wealthy like you say he is, then why isn't he one of the big wigs of Shinra?" one of the chefs asked.

When Vivian didn't have an answer some of the chefs scoffed.

"You're a real piece of work"

They started cleaning everything up. Vivian glared at Lana again. She opened her mouth to say something but Lana beat her to it.

"If you say this is my fault one more time, I'm going to rip out those overpriced hair extensions you have on your head" she threatened.

"It's not my fault you can't read or cook. You knew how serious this meeting was and you blew it because you don't use common sense. You're lucky you didn't kill anyone with that dish"

She went over to her and snatched her notebook back.

"The next time you try to use one of my recipes, read the fucking instructions and not focus on the pictures"

She spun on her heel and went into the kitchen to help with the cleaning.

Vivian had angry tears in her eyes as she just stood there. How dare they make her look like an idiot? She was Vivian Tulley! She was from the top class of Midgar! No one looked down on her!

She was going to make Lana pay for making a fool out of her. The Upper plate didn't need rats roaming around.

/

Everyone dragged their feet as they left the café. The day's events sucked the life out of them.

"Looks like I'll be updating my resume tonight" one person said.

"Update? I'll be making a fresh one. No way anyone would hire from the place that almost killed Scarlett"

Lana dug her hands in her pockets. Now that the events of the day finally passed, she suddenly felt numb. She had slaved away in her kitchen for weeks for this. She changed and perfected her recipe so it would be a show stopper. All of that hard work only for Vivian to take a massive crap all over it and ruin it for everyone. She could have killed Scarlett if she didn't pay attention to that lobster.

She bit her lip. She really thought that maybe she had a chance to impress someone like Scarlett. She knew it was a farfetched dream but there was a part of her that thought there still might be a tiny chance it could happen.

A tear slid down her face. Who was she kidding? She was a girl from the Slums. No one from the top would think she was worth a chance to be better. Hell, she knew Rufus only interacted with her because he was bored and he seemed to like pissing her off.

"Dreams are just meant to be dreams" she whispered.

"Lana?"

Lana looked up to see a surprising face on the upper plate.

"Sam?!"

The old Chocobo handler stuck out like a sore thumb in his cowboy getup.

"What are you doing up here?"

"Needed to get Elinor's medicine and take care of a few things while I was up here" he explained.

"What about you? Why aren't you at work, little missy?"

Lana opened her mouth to say something then closed it. What could she say? That her chance to get a promotion was ruined? Sam saw how sad she looked and figured something happened.

"Come on, little miss. Let's head back to the train and you can tell old Sam about what happened"

Lana wiped the tear from eye and nodded. Sam wrapped his arm around her and gave her a fatherly hug as they walked to the station.

Papa Sam always seemed to know how to fix things. Didn't matter how bad it would be, once he heard what was going on he worked his magic and somehow made everything better again. Even Dad went to him when he needed advice on something. Papa had secretive ways to get things done. Like making mom's dreams come true. Even dad was impressed with how he got things done.

I think that's why dad preferred him to be my grandpa instead of his dad.

/

A/N: Damn, Vivian really almost screwed up. How stupid could she be to save lobster like that? Too bad Lana had to suffer like everyone else even though she saved Scarlett's life.

Sorry there wasn't any Rufus in this chapter but fear not he won't be away for long.

Please review and tell me what you think!

Take care!