"It won't take long." Lucrecia said as she perched on the edge of the desk, next to Vincent. Her arm was held up a little, to keep the blood flowing down, and she clenched and unclenched her hand to help the flow. She watched the dark liquid that filled the slender tube as it ran from her arm to Vincent's, and she smiled a little at the warmth of it as it lay along her forearm. It felt strange, but comforting in a weird sort of way.

Tifa stared, amazed at the casual manner in which the scientist watched her own blood flowing out of her. She wasn't squeamish, but… She shuddered a little, unable to suppress the reaction. She stood in silence, tired from helping Lucrecia.

"I love him, you know." Lucrecia said suddenly, breaking the silence, glancing fondly down at the sleeping figure, then looking back at Tifa again. "I did then, as well."

"But… not long ago you were saying that you hated him, and… Ohhh, I'm confused!"

"So am I." The woman smiled. "But I'll try to explain it for you. I did love him, back then, but he always seemed to be so far removed from me. I don't remember when Hojo started his scheme, but he seemed to be so very much easier to talk to. He was always around and I saw him everyday day at the lab. The Jenova project seemed so magnificent then. It was all like one long dream. When Hojo started to tell me about the idea of infusing a child… Oh, how could I have known he'd been carefully influencing me so that I'd volunteer? That was one of the reasons that finally stopped me from seeing Vincent. I wouldn't harm his child. How could I? And he wasn't a scientist, like we were; he wouldn't be able to understand it. It would hurt him."

"Not long after I married Hojo, Vincent disappeared." Her voice filled with undisguised anguish at the memory. "He left me. Stupid, naïve, foolish Lucrecia was left alone. I didn't know why he left, but all kinds of reasons passed through my mind. And although I had told him that I didn't love him, I did. I don't think I knew what I wanted. But I didn't want him to go." She paused. "I thought that I would die when he left. I wanted to die. But the Jenova… It was already too late for that. Hojo never left me alone long enough for me run away, and even if I could, where would I go? I was from Midgar. I didn't know my way around here at all."

Tifa said nothing, simply letting the woman continue with her story.

"Hojo started to show his true nature once Vincent was out of the way. He despised me and he made sure I knew the only reason he tolerated my existence was the experiment. He hit me often, always careful to avoid my stomach." She smiled bitterly. "He was too clever to allow rage to jeopardise his precious project. I honestly thought that he was going to kill me after the baby was born. And, you know, I think he thought about it, but in the end he just took off for Midgar, taking Sephiroth with him." Lucrecia gave a dark laugh at that. "I wish he had killed me. It would have been better than this!"

Tifa was silent for a while, unsure what to say to and worried about how dark the other woman's words were becoming, and then she looked up. "You don't have to think like that anymore. Vincent'll be with you when he wakes up. You don't need to worry about the past or anything that happened then anymore."

A strange statement crossed Lucrecia's face at that, but Tifa didn't notice, walking to the door to tell Cloud and the other's what was going on.

Lucrecia watched mutely as the girl left, only the sound of Vincent's breathing breaking the silence. She clamped the plastic tube that ran from her arm and pulled the needle out, wincing slightly, even though there was not the slightest pain. Taping a wad of tissue to her arm quickly, she fixed up Vincent's arm in a similar fashion.

He was a much better colour now, she reflected, absently running a hand down the side of his face.

She waited patiently, listening to the faint murmur of voices outside, and after a few minutes, Vincent's eyes drowsily opened. Red! She realised immediately, startled at the colour. His eyes weren't red before… They used to be blue. Gorgeous blue eyes, he had. You bastard, Hojo! I loved those eyes!

Vincent, meanwhile, was concentrating on regaining the ability to see properly. Everything was blurred and indistinct through the mist swathed vision sleep leaves in its wake. There was a face leaning over him… An angel? Vincent wondered. Did I die from that cliff fall? He blinked again. No, the face was human, not ethereal.

"I'm so glad you've woken up."

He recognised the familiar cadences immediately. Lucrecia… He smiled blissfully to himself. Angel… my first idea was right after all. "I was going to look for you…"

He reached out, seeking her hand and wincing at the pain that shot up his arm. She let him close his hand around her own and Vincent was content to have that simple contact. He almost couldn't believe she was really here, besides him, but he had long ago learned to believe the evidence of his own eyes. Lucrecia was with him again, after such a long time… She had become as necessary to his well being as the air he breathed, but so many years had passed without her that it had had to be enough for him to know she was there, somewhere.

In the waterfall cave, it had been the hardest thing in the world for Vincent to walk out and leave her, but she was safer there, he reasoned at the time. Sephiroth had to be dealt with and Lucrecia would be safe in the cave, he would find her again after it was over.

There had been hostility and anger in her voice then. Still, she wasn't hostile now, so Vincent dismissed it.

Lucrecia explained what had happened to him in a quiet tone, all the while thinking over some of the things that Tifa had told her. He's been unshakably loyal to me since before Hojo locked him up… what did I do to deserve that? What did I do to deserve years of dedicated devotion? He thinks always of me, only me, never even does he worry about himself, just me. And what did I do? Refused to help him when he was injured, screaming my hatred while he was lying unconscious on the floor. I don't deserve him. I never did.

"You have even more Jenova cells in your body now. It's what I had to do to help you get better." She said simply, her mind still tracing out dark thoughts of its own.

"Jenova? Where from?" Vincent's forehead crinkled slightly under the dark hair.

She held up her arm and tapped it, with a faint smile. "Me. Blood transfusion." She explained.

He nodded. Lucrecia's blood running through his veins… the notion made him smile in pure whimsy. He quite liked the poetry of the idea.

"The increased percentage of Jenova means that… that you're even less human than you were. I think you would have to contrive to end it, it couldn't happen by accident now. You're like me."

"Like you…" He echoed thoughtfully. "I'll be with you always now, won't I?"

Lucrecia was silent at that and the blissful statement on Vincent's face was suddenly replaced by abject guilt as he misinterpreted her reaction.

"Lucrecia, forgive me!" He burst out, clutching tightly at her hand in desperation. "Forgive me for everything I've done to you and for what I did to your son!" His voice faltered. "Forgive… forgive me for what I am…"

"There is nothing there to forgive anymore, Vincent. I can't hold anything against you. But if you need me to grant you your absolution, then I will. I will grant you any absolution you feel you need, but it is unnecessary." She told him softly.

She watched him for a long while, staring into the deep crimson eyes, before she spoke again. "I love you." Such a simple comment. No grand declaration, just an unadorned statement of how things were, so typical of the scientist that Lucrecia was.

She leaned over him hesitantly, his hand releasing hers and moving a short way up her arm, then she bent to kiss his lips.

Eventually drawing back, Lucrecia gave a faint sigh before noticing how drowsy Vincent's eyes were becoming. "You need sleep." She advised.

"There's nothing now that… that can possibly… part us, is there?" Vincent slurred, half-asleep already. Lucrecia gave no answer, watching sadly as his eyelids closed, peaceably. "Love you." He muttered, falling into slumber, a heartbreakingly happy statement on his face for the first time in decades.

"No Vincent." She said quietly, once she was sure he was asleep. "Nothing can part us now. Except me. Everything that has happened to you is my fault. You're not the one that needs to atone for your past mistakes, it's me. It was never you who was at fault. Everything will be fixed when you wake up. I don't deserve to be on the pedestal you've placed me on. I'm not infallible. I've made so many mistakes. I don't deserve to be in your life and I'll make sure that I'm not."

Lucrecia's brimming eyes fell on Vincent's gun where it lay on a shelf. Tifa had put it there for safekeeping, but now it had a purpose. With a last look at Vincent, she picked up the gun and hurried from the room.

Tifa turned from her quiet conversation with Cloud as the door opened and Lucrecia crept out furtively. "Where are you going?" She asked curiously, wondering what could possibly compel the woman to leave Vincent.

"What? Oh, I just need to… to, ah, to go somewhere else for a while. That room gets stuffy when you sit in there too long." Lucrecia stuttered, looking guilty and trying to conceal something from their view.

"Shouldn't someone stay in there with Vincent? Is he OK yet?"

"He woke up not long ago. He's sleeping again now, but he's fine. Could you keep an eye on him? Just look after him for me, would you?" Lucrecia looked imploringly at Tifa, starting to edge towards the door, even as Tifa nodded her agreement.

"She was behaving… a bit odd." Cloud commented once the woman had left.

Tifa nodded thoughtfully. "What do you think? I know she's been acting a little strange before now, but this was different."

"I'll find Cid and Red. I don't know what's going on but if we stick together then hopefully we can sort out whatever it is. What about Vincent?"

"I'll look after him." Tifa smiled as he waved amiably from the doorway, then returned to the room they had left Vincent in.

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