Blood & Sympathy (FFVII: Vincent x OC)

Ch72 - "See? Everything's Alright."

Wait here, and they'll come back. It was Aerith's voice on that message. There was no doubt. It came on all the phones. Everybody picked them up and heard what they wanted to hear. A cure for Geostigma, only to be found in Aerith's Church on whatever was left of Midgar's Sector Five Slums.

Vincent was worried. He was more worried than he'd admit. They hadn't found the bodies, only Hester lied there frightened. The entire team had received that call on their phones. It was more like a message, asking them to go back to Aerith's church. The entire City received that call. And maybe, the entire world did as well. Everybody gathered at the Sector Five slums. Or at least, what was left of it.

It was incredible to think of how the only thing that still stood there, was Aerith's Church. The entire City had collapsed, yet that church still stood tall. There was indeed something special about that place. Vincent hadn't visited it before, but Tifa had told him that that's where Cloud, Sephiroth, and Jocasta would be. That's what everybody read in that message on their phones.

Cid took them there on the Shera. They hoped that they'd find them there. Children and people were already in the church when the team entered. Jocasta was standing side by side to Sephiroth in the far end, in front of that pond. He looked good. Like he hadn't gotten shot at all. Cloud woke up. He'd been floating in that pond that rested in the middle of the church, right where Aerith's flowers used to.

None of them had any injuries at all. Jocasta wasn't really sure how that was possible. She remembered the explosion's flames consuming her back. It would've burned her and her daughter alive, but she had saved Hester just in time. It was that motherly instinct.

She and Sephiroth looked up seeing the team hurrying towards them. Hester jumped in Sephiroth's hands. They both laughed as he picked her up. His hands were tight around her as he supported her whole body against his, and her legs tangled around his waist. His fingers clutched on her shirt as she kissed him right away. He smiled in the kiss. Everything was going to be okay.

Jocasta smiled as she watched the two. She noticed Tifa hugging Cloud tightly, not minding the water of the pond that had reached her knees, wetting her shorts. And then she felt arms around her, and her face pressing against the chest of a man. She would recognize those buckles of that leather shirt anywhere. The hands were tight around her. She even felt his fingers clutching on her shirt. She felt his chin pressing on top of her head and she didn't know what to do. She didn't know what to say, how to react.

She just felt it all coming back at her. The guilt. The regret. The pain. She had hurt him, and she knew it, and she knew that she did not deserve that hug. She did not deserve him. She did not deserve his hands around her. She had hurt him. She had failed him. And it was unbelievable to think of how many feelings just a simple hug of his brought to her. She had missed this so much. She had missed him so much. She was so used to the pain that she didn't know how much it hurt not having him there for two years.

He didn't care, though. He thought he'd lost her for a second. He knew that explosion should've killed them, but it hadn't. It hadn't, and he felt so much grateful that she was there. That she was alive. That the voices inside his mind were silenced. He felt her fingers clutching on his shirt and he'd forgotten how much he liked it when she did that. He'd forgotten how it felt hugging her. He'd forgotten how much she needed him and how much he needed her. What would he do if she had died in that explosion? How would he ever be able to let her go without mending that relationship? Without fixing what they had?

"I'm so sorry," It came out with a sob as she pressed her face further into his chest and her fingers pulled on his collar as if she was trying to bring him closer.