"Okay, now you can kill him," Vincent said, lifting his arm and letting Cid by.

Before Daren’s dad could get another shot off, Cid had tackled him and was thoroughly engrossed in rearranging his face.

Vincent didn’t care to stand there and be a spectator and went to assist Daren.

Sephiroth went to retrieve his sword, tapping Cid on the shoulder when he’d found it.

"Not yet," Cid said. "Where’s Shera?"

"She’s in Junon," Daren’s dad answered. "We dumped her in a hotel in Junon. She’d think she forgot how she got there and if she met one of your friends, they’d all be too confused to figure out that something was actually wrong until it was too late. Please don’t kill me."

"Sure thing pal," Cid said, getting up. "All yours," he said, gesturing to Sephiroth.

"But—"

"I said I wasn’t going to kill you, you dumb bastard!" Cid said, walking back into the hospital.

Sephiroth grinned and his future victim went white. He aimed the sword and stabbed it right through the man’s shoulder, breaking the bone with minimal damage to the sword.

Sephiroth could see Daren’s dad was about to ask how injuring his shoulder was going to kill him, but ignored it. He lifted the sword and put it on his shoulder like a bindlestick, his victim strung on it and hanging by a limp arm.

Sephiroth walked off, his victim whimpering in pain and fear.

The day was starting to look up.

Daren had been moved to the examining table. A noticeable red stain was forming on the side of his head, almost hidden by his hair.

Vincent was frantically struggling with a medical bag of plasma; three other bags had already been ripped, either on glass he’d gotten on him or from trying to use his left hand.

"Here, let me help," Cid said, taking off his gloves and reaching for the transfusion. "You set up the other... things."

"Aren’t you trying to kill him?" Vincent asked.

"No anymore," Cid answered.

"Here," Vincent said, delicately handing the bag to Cid with his right hand. "It’s a small cut, but I’m not taking any chances. Can you handle a syringe?"

"I think so," Cid said. "What exactly do I do with this?"

Vincent didn’t answer; too busy in setting up the IV almost faster than Cid could keep track of how he was doing it.

"Put it on here," Vincent ordered. "He’ll probably only need one bag if I can find a purer clotting agent in the drawers." With that, Vincent was again ignoring Cid, frantically searching through the drawers and cabinets as Cid slowly attacked the plasma bag to the IV, not very sure of what he was doing.

All Vincent found was a clean syringe until nearly taking apart the bathroom in his search.

"Just follow the directions," Vincent said, handing Cid the bottle and the syringe. He pushed the IV needle into the skin of Daren’s arm and sighed, watching the plasma flow down the tube. "Just… Just inject it to here," he said, pointing at the IV tube. "Don’t let any air get in there."

"You want to do this? I think you’d be better at it."

"Can’t," Vincent said, flexing his left hand.

"You’re really worried about him, aren’t you?" Cid asked, meticulously filling the syringe.

"Of course I’m worried," Vincent exclaimed. "He used to be my friend, Cid. He still is."

"No I meant more than I ever expected you to be over someone," Cid said, checking the needle. "How’s this?"

Vincent nodded at the needle.

"You’re not trying to kill me," Cid said, sticking the needle and hoping he was doing things right.

"Daren didn’t tell you?" Vincent asked, not making eye contact.

"He told me and everyone else a lot of things," Cid said. "Damned if I know which little thing your talking about."

"About why Shinra hired the TURKS in the first place."

"Yeah, he—oh. Oh god."

"There are just things you don’t tell to a little kid. He was eight when Hojo got the idea to do genetics experiments on his own son. I didn’t just donate blood. That was a pretense. I also kept an eye on Hojo and kept him off… I kept him off his own son."

"You mean he would’ve gone after his own kid?"

"Fuck ‘would’ve’ Cid!" Vincent yelled. "He did! He went after anyone under anesthesia… anyone."

"Vince—" Cid started, reaching for Vincent.

"Don’t you dare!" Vincent yelled. "Don’t you dare touch me, you idiot!"

"Vince, I understand—"

"No you don’t!" Vincent said. "You can’t understand because you’re just like him!"

"No, I’m not, Vince," Cid said. "That guy—"

"Put his hands all over someone unconscious and took advantage of someone incapable of saying ‘no.’"

Cid took a deep breath and raised his finger, about to make a point. Nothing happened. He lowered his hand. "Shit."

"Why did you think I was mad at you?"

"Because I kicked you out and you didn’t understand."

"What wasn’t there to understand, Cid?"

"You thought I didn’t want you. Goddamnit Vincent, I did want you. And I still do. I want you like… like…"

"Like what?" Vincent asked angrily.

"Like… Like a good beer," Cid said.

"You want to have me, throw me away, and leave me for someone else to clean up the mess," Vincent said. "You already did that."

"Goddamnit, Vince!" Cid said. "Here I was going to try a stab at that poetry shit and stuff and you make me look like a bastard. I meant I’m practically addicted to you. Everything about you drives me crazy and I want you so badly. Even the way you smell just drives me nuts."

"Well go smell someone else!"

"Look, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for being a pervert. I’m sorry for being an asshole. But I was a worried perverted asshole, okay? You wouldn’t get out of bed. You wouldn’t eat. There was nothing I could do to make you happy anymore. You just lay there and worried, it was like you were dead, only worse. The only way you’d react was to start crying. And you don’t cry. You never cried before."

"So what? So you tell me to get the hell out of town because you fucked up?"

"I’m sorry. I didn’t think you could get any more fucking miserable. I new something was my fault, so I had to tell you you couldn’t be around me as much as you could help it. I told you I’d be there for you if you actually needed me."

"I did need you, didn’t you understand?"

"Vincent you needed me as much as… as…"

"I needed you more than I needed anything else and you told me to get the hell out of your life."

"No, I told you to get me out your life. I told you to get a life and be happy with it and I knew I wouldn’t be part of it. Do you have any idea what I did after you left?"

"Yes. You went back to your life, your house. I didn’t have any of those anymore because you kicked me out of them. You invited me in and then you kicked me out."

"Vincent I acted just like you did after you left. I didn’t get out of bed for a week, I almost lost the crew, I couldn’t think and crashed the plane. Twice. You have no idea how much I wanted you back. Shera nearly gave up trying to help and almost left."

"So what am I supposed to do, Cid?" Vincent asked. "Stay with you again to worry about you molesting me like Hojo? I used to have nightmares about Hojo. Then they started to change and it was you, not him. You were the one I couldn’t fight back against and then I realized it was real. I bought that damn condom because I knew if we were close for too long we’d end up having sex. I told you I didn’t want to and you refused to listen so I had to either really kill you or go along with it."

"You were enjoying it!" Cid said. "That was why I kept it up. I wanted you to enjoy it. I wanted you to be happy, damnit! You could have said no."

"No I couldn’t Cid. Don’t you understand? I couldn’t to the nightmares and I couldn’t to you!"

"Shera?" Daren mumbled. "’Zat you?"

"No," Cid said, sighing.

"Then turn the TV down."

"Understand now?" Vincent asked.

"Yeah," Cid said. "Can you do me a few favors, though?"

"And they would be?"

"I was going to ask you to stay at the house, but you’re too mad and I haven’t gotten the dead guy off the porch. Here," Cid said, handing Vincent some money. "You still got bandages all over you and they haven’t found the Death Penalty yet. Stay somewhere nice. Make sure the door has good hinges. I promise I won’t bug you."

"And?"

"And I want you to hit me."

"What?"

"You were better off trying to break my nose, so go on. Besides I deserve it."

"Cid—"

"Look, I’m not trying to get you to forgive me, cause you’re not gonna. If you wanna go back to it, though."

"Are you saying you want to atone for you sins?"

"Maybe. Will you—"

"No."

…………………………………………………………………………………….

Daren groaned as he woke up.

Someone was in his office.

"Please be selling cookies," he muttered and sat up.

"Huh?" Shera asked.

"Nothing," he said, taking the IV off. "When did you get back?"

"A few minutes ago. Don’t get down, I’m still cleaning up the glass."

"So…" Daren said. There wasn’t much to say, really. Not anymore. The time for monologues had passed.

"So how did you figure it all out?"

"He was the only who could possibly have known where notes on Vincent were. I couldn’t really tell Cid about it all, I was hoping to keep my secret. So much for that. I was also hoping they’d catch him and I could be conveniently out of the area at the time. No luck there, either."

"How did you know he wouldn’t shoot anyone?"

"Easy. My dad’s never had good aim and he’s always been too proud to practice. Plus he knew he’d have to be more thorough. He beat Vincent with a sword, a gun, and mako. Not to mention he found Sephiroth wasn’t killed."

"So where’s Rude?"

"Beats me."

"But then how did you keep him from sabotaging the gas?"

"I left a note."

"You wrote all that in a note?"

"No," Daren said, smiling smugly. "I left a note asking Cid to fix the pipe because it leaked."

Shera chuckled. "That meant Cid could be by any minute and he wouldn’t be able to control the blast."

"Exactly. I left it there before I checked on Vincent."

"How old were you when he knew you?"

"Eight. I looked ten."

"Then how in the world did he recognize you."

"I forgot to put my contacts in. Plus I look amazingly like my father."

"That’s right," Shera said. "You never did explain who your father was."

"Let’s… Let’s just say it’s the reason Cid’s afraid of doctors in the first place."

"Well that doesn’t make any sense at all," Shera said. "He’s been afraid of doctors since he broke his leg when he was nine."

"Oh."

"It… It was… was… Dr…. Hojo…" Daren said, shamefully.

"It was who?" Shera asked. "I don’t know who that is, I’m rather bad with names."

"Shera, I love you."

"I know," she said. "I love you too, but you’ll have to learn a few things before we actually get married. First, stop getting involved with people who have an unhealthy relationship with their weapons. Second, put the seat down."

"You were abducted at the time."

"That’s no excuse."

…………………………………………………………………………

"Cid, how’d this happen?" Vincent asked, curling up next to Cid n the bed. "How’d we get naked and use up that condom?"

"Maybe you really want me to miss you," Cid said and kissed Vincent on the forehead.

"Or maybe I realized there was a difference between you and Hojo."

"Damn straight."

"Oh, you are not!" Vincent said. "I guess I realized as much as you had your hands all over me, you didn’t really do anything. Not bad. You stopped when I could tell you no. You knew I was enjoying it the other times."

"Pretty much. I kinda thought the whole point of fucking your brains out was you enjoying it."

"Cid?"

"Yeah?"

"I came here today to get my stuff and there was one condom in my wallet."

"So?" Cid said. "You weren’t complaining before. Did I fuck up again?"

"No. It’s just that I bought a pack of three."

"Hey I didn’t use it."

"Sephiroth said he’d go bother Cloud when this was all over, didn’t he?"

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