I Never Let Her Die! (Aerith x Male Gamer Reader)

Disk 02: Chapter 05: Division of Labor

Mideel. After landing just outside of the town limits we made our way into the town itself and asked around until determining the location of the clinic. Tifa immediately rushed off in the indicated direction and the remainder of us followed at a slightly Slower pace.

"Poor Tifa..." Red said. "What must her emotions be right now?"

"Gotta be tough." Barrett agreed. "Hell, all I gotta do is think for a minute about how I'd feel if I found out my wife was alive but I couldn't go to her. Honest truth? Dunno if I could survive it."

"I expect every one of us has someone we could say that about." Vincent said softly. He glared at me and asked "Can I assume you know the whole sordid tale of Lucrecia?"

"I wouldn't call it sordid. You did the right thing under the circumstances Vincent."

"Perhaps."

"For sure..." I stopped short of everything I was going to say, but Vincent picked up on the short stop.

"What else were you going to say?" He demanded.

"I... Vincent, I didn't intend to tell you this until a little later on... Lucrecia, she's not quite dead..."

Vincent stopped in an instant, turned to face me. His usually unreadable eyes were filled with the most emotion I had ever seen in them. "But how...? The Jenova cells."

I answered "Yeah. Look, once we've got Cloud back and get the huge materia thing handled I can take you to where she is. But we need to plan things out first, if you just go in, things won't end well for her."

"Very well." He agreed, though it was clear he didn't want to wait.

A few minutes later we arrived at the town's small clinic. Tifa was already inside and we could hear her voice Vied as she spoke with the doctor. "So there's nothing you can do for him?" She demanded.

As I walked in the door, the doctor answered "I'm sorry miss. Truly. But, the mako exposure this young man has suffered is just too extreme for medical science to do anything... He shouldn't even be alive." Turning to see us entering, he asked "Can I help you?"

"We're with her." Barrett said.

"Ahh. Well, I can only tell you what I've already told your friend. The boy's recovery, or not, is in his hands. I can do nothing. No doctor could. Either he will live, or not, but only time can tell."

"We understand doctor." Aerith said.

"Spiky-head's tough. He'll pull through." Cid tried to reassure Tifa.

"Well, I have other patients." The doctor said, "I'll let you visit your friend. But, only half an hour for the lot of you. After that, one at a time please. He's down the east hall, fourth door on the left." The doctor smiled and headed off down the west hallway.

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As we entered Cloud's room, Tifa stopped and shuddered, barely concealing tears at his condition. Barrett and Cid entered next. "Damn!" Cid exclaimed. "I knew it was gonna be bad, but I never thought it'd be this damned..." He was forced to shut up as Barrett elbowed him in the gut, hard.

"Shut up fool!" Barrett rumbled.

"No, no... It's okay Barrett. He's right." Tifa said. She stepped up to Cloud and knelt by his side. "What's it been like for you?" She whispered. "How much pain have you held in for so long?"

Kneeling at Tifa's side, Aerith said "He's gonna be okay Teef. Trust us on this."

"I do." Tifa answered. "Or at least I'm trying to, it's all so much to take in, especially when I'm seeing Cloud like this. And I've not seen anything to prove where you say you've been."