"Ergo"

[Title:] Ergo
[Author:] jadesilver
[Series:] Final Fantasy VII (Post D.O.C.)
[Timeline:] Based off Information from: http://www.answers.com/topic/final-fantasy-vii-timeline
[Pairing:] ReevexVincent in many forms. I hope.
[Warnings:] There will be spoilers. Don’t get spoiled now! There will, knowing me, be angst, fluff, drama, action and such.
[Criticism:] If you see any spelling errors or stupid goofs, go for it. Otherwise this is here for you to enjoy. If you don’t enjoy it, walk away and don’t say anything. If you do enjoy it, let me know. Encouragement motivates me, attention whore that I am ^_~.
[Thanks:] threeonetwo for the beta.


Chapter Four:

Reeve set down his bag, and gave Vincent a doubtful look.

“You practically abducted me from the hospital. None of my staff know where I am. I have no night clothes, no toothbrush, and…”

Vincent was smirking at Reeve. The smirk was becoming more and more pronounced.

“And you are extremely good, although you go against every form of protocol I know.”

“What are friends for?” Vincent asked, smirk trading with smile just slightly, and only for Reeve.

“I can tell you were a Turk.”

Vincent shrugged, the motion graceful.

“There is only one problem that I can see,” Reeve announced.

“And that would be?” Vincent arched an eyebrow.

“There is only one bed.”

“And no windows. You sleep against the wall. I sleep to the inside of the room. I will be between you and the door. That is all that matters.”

Vincent looked down at the carpet then, as patchy as a stray cat’s mangy hide. All that mattered was that they keep the appearance normal travelers. A normal traveler would not sit in the hallway cradling a gun across his knees. He would sit up in the room, but if anyone were spying with thermal gear, they would know he was not lying down. Reeve got the wall. Vincent got the door. It was that simple.

“I…” Reeve began.

“I’m sure you won’t have any trouble sleeping,” Vincent said, giving him an appraising look.

“No…o…of course not!”

Sparkling ruby meet tired and hazy blue. Reeve was a mess of frazzled nerves when he didn’t have to hide behind his façade of public calm. There were heavy dark circles under his eyes, and his shoulders were sagging under the weight of his stress.

“Have you changed your bandages recently?”

Reeve blinked, startling as if just realizing he had forgotten.

“It…it slipped my mind. It’s been a bit hectic.”

Vincent slipped some gauze and a small tube of disinfectant from his pocket.

“Go take a shower, I will guard the door. Keep the tape they bound the wound with as dry as possible. Be careful to pat it dry out of the shower.”

Reeve blinked at Vincent, who went into the bathroom, pushing the door back against the wall all the way, and pulled back the shower curtain to prove to Reeve that there was nothing there.

“I will leave the door cracked. Call if you are concerned about anything.”

Vincent pulled Cerberus from the holster and chambered a round.

Vincent realized a bit belatedly that Reeve might have thought he was chambering a round for him. The WRO President all but flew into the bathroom.

Vincent shrugged to himself.

He waited patiently, blandly, while Reeve showered, and when the man peeked out hesitantly, he was holding out a length of bandage helplessly. Reeve in just a pair of boxers was…not something Vincent had ever fantasized about, but now with his new found interest he made a mental note to actively do so.

Again, Vincent’s fingertips skimmed the pale bronze skin of that broad chest, and for a moment he felt a flutter of something. A heat that went to the bridge of his nose, and quite obviously to the top of Reeve’s ears. He hadn’t meant to start fantasizing NOW when a few moments inattention might get Reeve killed.

He secured the bandage with practiced ease, and then stepped back

“I have no…” Reeve began, almost scarlet now.

“Sleep beneath the sheets. I will sleep on top,” Vincent stated. “You will not wish your clothing to be wrinkled in the morning.”

Reeve looked aghast.

“My clothing will not wrinkle.” Vincent said tiredly.

~*~

In the end it took four tries to get Reeve into the bed. The first two tries were supposedly thirst related, the third try was related to recycling the byproduct of thirst, and the fourth was just related to utter nervous breakdown.

Vincent had insisted the man take a tablet for his nerves ( A container full that he carried but had never taken.) There had been several minutes of Reeve sitting on the floor with his hand over his heart, trying to calm himself, and another thirty for the medication to take affect.

Vincent had then been able to ease Reeve into bed, (fighting the urge to pin him in by tucking the sheets very tightly) and then finally lay down, Cerberus on the floor within easy reach.

Vincent dozed lightly for a few hours, his body claiming the rest it needed easily without making either of them vulnerable.

Other than the noises of people coming and going, there was not much else.

Until Reeve started to whimper in his sleep.

Vincent reached over and gave the man a gentle shake, but it did nothing but seem to make the dreaming worse. Reeve, whose face had been childish in sleep was now contorted in pain or fear. Vincent could only guess.

Reeve thrashed, twisting in the sheets, and Vincent sat up. He used his flesh hand to pat the side of the man’s face fairly hard. Reeve’s response was spectacular. He came up flailing and took a swing at Vincent, which the ex-Turk ducked effortlessly.

Slipping an arm around Reeve’s waist, he held him tight to his chest, restraining him carefully.

“Reeve, it is Vincent…please calm, it was only a dream.”

The body in his arms was so tense that for a moment it trembled against him before it relaxed slowly.

“Vincent?” Reeve asked, his voice very small and breathy.

“You are safe.” Vincent murmured again, trying to reassure.

And then Reeve began to pant, obviously having held his breath out of fear, his body relaxing by degrees against Vincent. He was damp with sweat and his shoulders were bowed again, as if struggling against some pain he didn’t understand.

“Okay…okay…you can let go,” Reeve murmured. “I’m okay…”

Vincent let go slowly, and Reeve scooted away to the far end of the bed, eyes wide. The corners of his eyes were damp, but Vincent pretended not to notice.

Reeve swiped a hand across his face, wiping sweat. He then ran his fingers through his hair, dislodging his hair tie.

Vincent stood from the edge of the bed, and touched Reeve’s bandages with the tip of two claws.

“You are bleeding through. Take another shower, I will do what I can for the wound.” Vincent said.

Reeve just gave him a desolate look.

Vincent helped him up off the end of the bed, and the WRO president swayed ominously.

Vincent slipped an arm around him, carefully cradling him for a moment.

What he did not expect, was for Reeve to slip both arms around his waist and lean close for a moment, taking a shaky breath.

Vincent froze, not certain what to make of what was going on.

“Are you all right?” Vincent asked.

Reeve nodded, and for a long moment didn’t pull away. Vincent wasn’t exactly certain what was going on until he felt Reeve’s shoulders shaking. He wasn’t exactly quite sure what to do, but for a moment he had a flash back to Shelke crying on his shoulder.

Carefully he slipped his arms around Reeve’s sturdier form. He wasn’t certain if touch would be all right, but when Reeve held him tighter, Vincent found that comforting something in pain came quite naturally to him. Before he could stop the reflex, he was combing claw tips gently and carefully through Reeve’s hair.

He said nothing, and Reeve made no sound, although his tears wet Vincent’s t-shirt.

The broader man was shaking again, so Vincent supported him more carefully.

“You feel fevered.” Vincent said, noting that Reeve felt strangely warm.

Reeve shook his head.

The spell passed in a few moments, and Reeve stood away, embarrassed.

Vincent pretended, again, that he did not notice.

“Take a warm shower,” Vincent encouraged, leading Reeve into the bathroom..

Again he pressed the door back to the wall, and inspected behind the curtain.

“Clear.” He said softly, before retrieving Cerberus, and again, sinking down to sit by the door.

For the longest time, the water didn’t run, and then he heard Reeve sigh and turn the water on. Sometimes it took time to gather yourself after nightmares.

~*~

Vincent applied antiseptic to the wound, blotting it on over the tape with a practiced hand. The wound looked a bit red. Reeve would more than likely need medication if it was becoming infected. And he could not close the wound with materia, or it would simply heal the infection in.

This injury would have to heal on its own time, and Reeve would be returning to the ICU first thing in the morning, so Vincent could arrange for a doctor for him then.

“Do you have any medication for pain?” Vincent asked him patiently.

Part of the nightmare might have been discomfort. Sutures (or even suture strips) in your chest were unpleasant to sleep with, especially since Reeve slept on his stomach.

Reeve nodded numbly as Vincent put fresh gauze over the wound and re-wrapped it.

“In my pack, it’s in the green plastic bottle.”

Vincent retrieved it from Reeve’s pack, sorting through paperwork, a journal, and several strange looking controls that had to be for Cait-Sith.

He brought a glass of water from the bathroom that he loaned to Reeve along with the recommended dose. Reeve didn’t mind the claw in the least when Vincent offered the cup with it.

He took the medication and drained the glass, still looking exhausted.

“Try to get some rest,” Vincent told the man.

Reeve tied his hair back again with a sigh.

“I can’t sleep…it all haunts me.”

“Like what you wrote about on the back of the report you gave me?” Vincent asked, uncertain why he was meddling but unable to really help himself.

“Oh…that.” Reeve said guiltily, swinging one foot slightly where it wasn’t on the floor, tapping his heel back against the bed frame.

He glanced up into ruby eyes before looking away.

“You don’t have to speak of it, if you don’t want to.” Vincent said.

He had no right to pry into another being’s pain.

“I…I knew, and yet, I said nothing. Now my friends, as well as my people, have suffered.”

Vincent, in that moment, though that Reeve was a stronger man than he. To take on the kind of responsibility that the man faced daily…it terrified him to think about it.

“How were you to know? Mass panic can be as dangerous, if not more so than the problem itself. I disagree with the way you handled it myself, but in your shoes I would most likely have done the same. How were you to know? You aren’t psychic,” Vincent’s deep voice held an edge of empathy before he glanced away.

Nothing was said.

Vincent was silent, brooding beside Reeve. Reeve was equally silent. He turned to Vincent almost half an hour later.

“You are right…thank you.” Reeve said, before climbing beneath the covers and laying a wet and weary head down on the pillows. The pain medication beginning to work, and the tranquilizers were still working, so it was no surprise when Reeve fell into sleep with a tiny kick of a foot and a sigh of relaxation.

Vincent let him sleep until noon.

~*~

“Where have you been Sir?!” A frantic bodyguard met Reeve and Vincent at the door, looking wide eyed and weary.

“Didn’t Cloud tell you not to worry?” Vincent asked, feeling a little cross for reasons unknown, perhaps the lack of coffee.

The bodyguard turned to him.

“He said so…but it is our JOB to worry. We cannot protect you if you are not here,” the man turned his words to Reeve.

“Well if you are protecting him, then get him a doctors appointment. His wound is infected.”

Vincent glanced at a feverish looking Reeve.

“You are wounded Sir?!” The bodyguard looked panicky. “This way, immediately!”

“No…I…I’m fine! Vincent tell them I’m fine!” Reeve wailed as he was dragged off towards the central part of the hospital by his bodyguard, who was joined a moment later by a few members of Reeve’s staff.

Vincent watched impassively as Reeve was swamped by well meaning and concerned people while giving him a look like a young child being abandoned to the nurse.

Vincent turned away, and stalked towards the ICU rooms. He was immune to The Eyes. This was hopefully for Reeve’s own good, if the man could just stay out of trouble for a few hours.

Vincent knocked on the door where Marlene and Denzel were being kept.

Cloud answered, rubbing his eyes.

“How are things?” Vincent asked lowly.

Cloud yawned.

“Good. Denzel is off the IV line and was transferred to his own room. Cid’s been keeping him company when he’s not making scheduled runs. Barret and Shelke are making good progress at Seventh Heaven. And Tifa is…” Cloud closed his eyes tiredly. “She’s not doing well. Marlene…they gave her a feeding tube, and she got a fever this morning.”

Vincent nodded.

“Have you eaten?”

“No, I was holding Marlene and fell asleep,” Cloud admitted.

“Lets go then…Marlene will be all right for a while,” Vincent tried to encourage. “Where are Yuffie and Nanaki?”

“They went with the search team,” Cloud said. “They could use Nanaki’s nose, and Yuffie’s ninja skills.”

“It is a good thing you did not go. You are tired enough as it is. When you are weary you could make a mistake, and you cannot afford to make a mistake with what we are hunting,” Vincent said.

Cloud nodded tiredly, and then with one last worried look to Marlene, followed Vincent out into the halls.

~*~

Yuffie looked at the map again, and then up to the field in front of them. There was a small, newly formed caldera where before there had been meadow. They had a live specimen banging around in a large, specially designed glass container in the back of the truck, and then men had regrouped.

“We found more of them,” One of the men reported to his commander. “In the shadowed side of Edge, and they were digging…digging up bodies. They weren’t eating them…just digging them up.

“That is interesting. Did you finish them off?”

“Between the materia and the flamethrowers, we got them all. We also found a nest with eggs in it. We have retained photographs and footage of the nest and then removed the eggs to the trucks.”

“Good,” The commander stated.

“So where the heck did this caldera come from?” Yuffie asked the topography specialist next to her.

“Calderas form when an underground cave or depression gives way and can no longer support the land above. It happens most often after a heavy rain. We normally use *GPR for this sort of thing, but with the close proximity of the Mako veins, we can’t sense anything. It messes up our readings.”

“So something below the surface collapsed…do you think these lizard-human things came from there?” She asked.

“We are already consulting the President. We aren’t equipped to set up camp or guard here, so for now we’ll have to retreat for the day.”

Nanaki loped up a few moments later.

“We have located a trail where the beasts have been dragging the corpses they find towards the caves closer to Midgar,” Nanaki stated, his tail waving in alarm. “The men have started calling them ‘Bone Collectors’.”

“That’s really gross…what do they want with bodies?”

“There were more nests in the caves. They were stripping the bodies of any flesh or tendon, and taking the bones towards the nests,” Nanaki said. “We destroyed the nests thoroughly.”

“That’s so disgusting!” Yuffie groaned.

~*~

“You realize of course, why I freed you, do you not G?” The man asked.

“You have a vendetta against Rufus Shin-Ra. I do as well. Against any Shin-Ra. I was fairly certain we are of like mind regarding the situation at hand.”

“But of course…however, your friend has been a bit sloppy, and attention has been drawn prematurely.”

“Leave my brother out of this Corsaire.”

“We will be requiring humans soon…so it is up to you to perfect the abductions.”

“Your lizards clearly fail at that.”

“Yes, they do, but they are trainable enough to make a wonderful army, don’t you think?”

“I think you had better be prepared to lay to rest what you raise, lest you fall to it. That is what happened to the Shin-Ra’s with SOLDIER, you realize?”

“But of course. I am fully prepared.”

G smirked. “You can’t put me down that easily.”

“No, but I hold your leash, so long as I am keeping your brother alive.”

G’s smirk became a predatory grin.

“How very true.”

~*~
A/N:

*Ground Penetrating Radar: A tool used by archaeologists, architects, builders and the US military to determine positioning of various objects below the earths surface, like Radar for the air, or more aptly like Sonar for underwater exploration.

~*~