avatar 20
Title: Avatar 20
Author/artist: TamLin
Setting: AU
Rating: T
Summary: what happens next? (I literally typed my keys off my keyboard for this. Well, the ';' key - but still...
She sat next to the bed side and listened to the soft beep that ran a slow, steady counterpoint to the rain falling so erratically outside the window. It had been raining all day, off and on, and instead of making things worse the steady tap against the glass seemed to make everything almost dreamlike.
She thought - she thought she very much needed to feel the disconnect of dreaming.
"…ne," she said it soft and gentle, reaching out to brush the shaggy overhang of his bangs away from his cool forehead. "It's raining. Can you hear it? Your mother used to say that the angels were weeping when it rained but that sometimes they were tears of joy…"
The man laying so pale and still on the bed didn't respond other than to continue to steadily inhale and exhale, the respirator next to his bed pumping in rhythm for him. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. It was a simple cycle but it was all she had to cling to.
Cloud… Steve - was gone.
She tried to tell herself it wasn't so, that whatever had happened to him after she'd been pulled from the game hadn't been permanent. That he'd wake up from the coma he'd been frozen in since then. That, somehow, the doctors or the scientists that had worked and run invasive tests and poked and prodded him like a dead fish would figure out how to wake him up.
That there was still someone in there to be woken up.
But… it was raining. And today was the day they pulled the plug on the extensive life support that kept him alive.
Things had… fallen apart after she'd woken up in her own body, head still spinning with the rapid extract from the game she'd been in the middle of. It had seemed as if every siren in the company's building had been going off. The computers had been nothing but sparks and smoke, strange people had been pouring into the room in both police and building security uniforms and her friends, the ones that had gone through all of this with her, had been hustled out and away from each other so fast, there hadn't been time to protest or fight it.
For most of them at least. White, Black and Swift had stayed with her. And she'd stayed with Cloud, digging her nails into his clothing to hang on at some points where someone had tried to separate them. Mace had been carried yelling from the room, promising both vengeance and a return and it hadn't taken her long to carry out both threats. Everyone else however had been swept away and it was only as the days had turned into weeks that they'd all managed to find each other again. Steve - their Cloud - had been the focal point that drew them all to the small, private hospital room his body had been taken to.
The terrorists that had taken over the building and hijacked the game were all dead. The news had reported it and White had later on confirmed it on one of his ghosting visits where he slipped into the room and stood silent for hours before slipping back out again. She supposed she should be glad - or sad - or horrified… but she didn't have any extra emotion to spare for anyone else. Whatever the young terrorist in the computer had wanted to achieve he hadn't. The internet ran as it always had and the computer systems at the company had been purged. The 'game' was dead and there was no hope of another renewal of the contract on it but the attention it had received had more than paid for it. She supposed there was irony in there somewhere but she just didn't have the energy to find it.
"I did my hair," mindful of the wires attached to his body and laying across the bed like life sucking tendrils, she crawled onto the thin mattress next to him, tucking in against his side the way she'd gotten so good at doing these past weeks. "Just for you. I thought - I thought you'd want me to look nice today. I know it sounds silly but - " her voice choked off and she shook her head, pressing her face against him. She couldn't - she couldn't do this. She couldn't let him go. Not so soon.
Except it was what his living will stated he wanted and the doctors had already put it off as long as they could. She shut her eyes hard and knew that wearing mascara today had been a bad idea. Getting herself beautiful had been a stupid idea anyway, knowing what today was but there was a part of her that thought - hoped - if she looked attractive enough he'd want to wake up to see her again. Or… if that failed it was a matter of pride - that she look her best today of all days. He wouldn't want her haggard and gray and she didn't want to be that type of woman either.
Except now she was going to smear her mascara and ruin the entire effort.
"Please don't go," she whispered it brokenly against him. "I just found you again. Please don't go this time."
In a perfect story, the words would have woken him… but this wasn't a story and his body continued its steady breathing without a flicker of change. She wrapped her arms around him tighter and tried to pretend he was only sleeping and it would all be all right in the morning.
"Shhh!"
The door to the room pushed open with the harsh reminder of silence and she reluctantly lifted her head. It wasn't time yet. They had another ten minutes before the doctors were supposed to come in and unhook everything. If the doctors were early… if they were early she'd fight them tooth and claw - or at least with all the verbal browbeating of a teacher - for those extra ten minutes. Instead it was Wedge.
Or rather Wedge's player. He had made it out of the game alive, unhooked just before the terrorists had taken over the system and he'd been in the group of hostages that Black and Jessie had rescued.
He was also an intern at the hospital and so Tifa had gotten used to seeing his cheerful face day after day. His kind eyes were one of the only reasons she felt comfortable leaving Cloud here each night to go home and go to sleep.
Now however, he looked worried and seconds later, she realized why as he hustled a large group of people into the room. She recognized White and Black and Mace and Swift - who surprised her because he was phobic about hospitals. Red and Jessie were there too and she thought she caught a glimpse of Lily and Aerith beyond the door before it swung shut again. Sitting up, feeling slow and lost, she blinked in puzzlement at them and the huge amount of gear they were carrying.
"What-?" she began.
"Apologies," White's voice was just as calm as ever even though he was already starting to set up the equipment around the bed. Black and Swift were moving with frantic speed as well while Mace handed them bits and pieces without even being asked. A strange shudder when down through Tifa as she sat up more fully, one of her hands going to find Cloud's from habit.
"What's going on?"
"White's got a burr up his butt," Swift answered but there was a strange flush over his face that she knew from experience meant he was excited despite the sarcastic drawl of his voice.
"I have no such thing," White answered mildly. "I have simply been monitoring the programs on the company computer - "
"Hacking," Mace supplied cheerfully as she handed over a small wrench. White ignored her as he continued to work.
"- and I have noticed several strange pulses on it."
"He thinks Cloud's still alive!" Black supplied and Wedge, standing at the door, made more frantic hushing noises at the loud excitement in the taller man's voice.
"What?" It had her full attention now and her brain seemed to shrug off the strange numb feeling it had wrapped around itself for weeks now. White's eyes narrowed.
"I believe that impulses from Cloud's mind may still be active in the system. That is all."
"He means Cloud's brain may still be there." Mace was grinning like an idiot and Tifa felt tears fill her eyes. But a part of her held back and a second later as Swift spoke up she understood why.
"Doesn't mean anything, Teef. Even if the program did copy his brain, there's no telling what it copied and what it messed up or missed out on. It might not even be him. We could be pulling that little snot nosed kid's signature. But White thinks it's time for a last ditch effort and we figured it's now or never. Sorry," he winced. "Didn't want to tell you before we were sure an' get your hopes up."
"No, it's okay," she turned her head in time to see Black handing the familiar head gear over to Wedge before diving back in to hooking wires up to computer towers. White was in the corner now, setting up a sleek silver laptop. Wedge came over with the headset but he hesitated next to the bed.
It went without saying that he could get fired for this and banned from the practice but that wasn't in his eyes when he looked at Tifa. Instead, his voice was soft as he said:
"If this bring him back… what we get back might be worse than just letting him go."
For a long moment there was only silence and she felt the way her own heart refused to beat. She knew that he might be talking about getting back the terrorist instead of Steve. But even more than that - she realized there might not be enough of Steve to make getting him back anything he would want for himself.
It was a long shot - and they were risking making it worse much more than their odds of making it better were.
And everyone was waiting for her to make the final call.
She looked down at his face, so peaceful and relaxed, and at his hand in hers, limp and without any strength.
He wouldn't want to come back as a vegetable.
The door to the room cracked open and Aerith's voice hissed:
"Hurry it up! There's a nurse we've already turned away twice trying to prep him."
"Do it." Tifa's head came up and her eyes were determined. "Give him the chance to fight."
Then she held his hand to her lips and she silently prayed.
"I don't understand why you haven't told the doctors about this," Wedge protested as he began to hook the patient in the bed into the head gear. "I'm sure they'd be willing to try this. It's not as if we like death calls."
"They would, in turn, be expected to alert the company."
"And our boys would get a hold of the news too," Black added to White's explanation and at Tifa's curious look he elaborated. "Can you imagine what a large corporation or even a government would do if they could get a hold of someone that had survived in the 'Net for weeks? I'm all about my country and all but there's no way I'm risking Cloud that way."
"All set," Wedge announced as he stepped back.
"This could kill him," White remarked blandly from his laptop, not even looking up from the screen. Tifa glanced at the clock on the wall.
"Then we'll be two minutes early."
White lifted his head and for a long minute their eyes met, equal parts desperation and determination in both sets. Then he nodded and bent back to the keyboard.
"Swift, if you will be so kind as to make sure everything is set?"
"On it," Swift was already tracing wires and cords, checking lights and listening close to the hum of computers running. There was the sound of a commotion outside the room and what sounded like someone getting sick. Almost proudly, Zack commented:
"She's amazing, isn't she?"
The proud affection made Tifa's throat close over and then she heard White intone:
"Now."
There was a slight jerk from the body in the bed as the computer interfaced with it but Tifa already knew that from experience. Holding her breath, she only realized how tightly she was squeezing his hand when her own started to ache and she carefully relaxed her grip, just a little, eyes scanning his face for any sign of reaction at all. Wedge hovered near the monitor showing Cloud's vital signs. Black hovered near the door. Mace hovered near Swift until he batted at her. White typed keys in the silence, fingers flying over his laptop.
Outside the rain continued to fall in drizzling, sporadic bursts.
The monitor continued its steady beep and the respirator continued its quiet hissing. Tifa finally dared pull her eyes away from Cloud's face and shot a look at White. He was too absorbed in his laptop however. Swift was the one that answered, voice a quiet drone.
"He's huntin' down the blip. Kinda offering the cheese to the mouse to coax it into the trap. Trap in this case being Cloudo's body. He managed to tag it last time he found it so it's faster but he didn't manage to tag it until just this afternoon. Hence our last minute cavalry charge. 'Cause, you know, it wouldn't be dramatic if we tried pullin' this yesterday."
Mace lightly wacked him on the back of his head and he made a disgruntled noise and shot her a look. She ignored him to reach over and give Tifa's hair an unexpected ruffle. Effectively messing up what she'd worked so hard to make perfect earlier. She couldn't find it in her to care.
"Don't worry about it, Teef. I'm sure it's Steve. He'll be back in no time and then you two can invite me to the wedding. But I get to be maid of honor, not Jessie, got it? 'Cause we were friends first and all."
"Okay," Tifa agreed, even knowing that leaving Mace in charge of the bridal shower and bachelorette party was handing the keys to a candy store to a little kid. At the moment though she'd grab anything that promised a future with Steve in it.
"Come on…" Black voice from the door where he was now leaning against to block the polite knocking was coaxing and worried, perfectly voicing Tifa's own emotions. In front of her, Cloud's face stayed lax and his body stayed limp. White's fingers stopped their tapping.
"There," his voice was quiet as he announced that he'd done everything he could. Eyes starting to grow hot and dry, Tifa stared into the face in the bed next to her, waiting… waiting.
The computer lights flickered in the computer towers. The monitor beeped.
"I've been rooting for you two all along," Wedge stated quietly. Tifa lifted her face and gave him a weak smile. The polite tapping on the door shifted to stern warnings and a push that had Black leaning heavier against it.
And the monitor's steady pattern of beeps went suddenly high and monotone.
"No-" her face snapped back around so quickly the room spun and Wedge leap forward, gently but firmly pushing her a little to the side as the respirator suddenly seized up and stopped its pumping. Black's attempt at barring the door now earned shouts of alarm.
"No, no, no, no," Wedge was muttering it while he pulled tubes and the face shield away from the man on the bed.
"We're fucked," Swift announced calmly.
And then Tifa felt the hand she'd wrapped both of hers around, very gently, squeeze.
"Steve!"
Everyone ignored her because the monitor was still flatlining and Black was having to put all his weight against the door to keep it shut. Desperate, Tifa wrapped both hands around Cloud's and squeezed back, resting their interlocked knot of flesh and bone over her own heart.
"He squeezed my hand!"
"Teef…" Swift gave her a look and she knew he was going to say that it was a final reflex as his spirit kicked off from his body. She refused to believe it though. Instead, she raised it his hand to her lips and very lightly bit his knuckles.
The hand in hers squeezed again.
"He did it again!"
Wedge, busy tilting Cloud's head backward and ready to start CPR, hesitated and she let go with one of her hands to catch at the back of his smock.
"Check him!" she demanded. "Check to see if he's breathing."
"Teef - " Swift was starting to sound worried and he moved over as if he was going to physically pull her off. But he didn't. Not yet. The monitor was high pitched and Black gave up his battle at the door. The respirator was flat as well, dead in its spot. Wedge, seconds from being pulled away by furious doctors, lowered his head and simply rested his ear over Cloud's chest.
She held her breath.
Everyone in the room seemed to hold their breath and only the rain continued down.
One of the towers shorted out with a fizzing noise.
And Cloud suddenly sucked in a horrible, wheezing breath and shoved Wedge off of him as he rolled to the side and started coughing as if he was going to hack up both lungs. His hand had a painful, death grip on Tifa's but he could have broken bones and she wouldn't have cared. Instead she ignored all the doctors trying to get close enough over the computer towers to see what was going on and huddled close, leaning over him, rubbing his back with her free hand as if he was a small child. There was nothing in his stomach to choke up and he finally got the heaves under control, sucking in harsh breaths. One of the doctors stepped forward and with a ferocity she hadn't known she had in her, Tifa slashed narrowed eyes at the man and snapped:
"Don't you touch him!"
Voice raw and a little painful, the entire room still heard it when the man in the bed murmured:
"That's my girl."
Author/artist: TamLin
Setting: AU
Rating: T
Summary: what happens next? (I literally typed my keys off my keyboard for this. Well, the ';' key - but still...
She sat next to the bed side and listened to the soft beep that ran a slow, steady counterpoint to the rain falling so erratically outside the window. It had been raining all day, off and on, and instead of making things worse the steady tap against the glass seemed to make everything almost dreamlike.
She thought - she thought she very much needed to feel the disconnect of dreaming.
"…ne," she said it soft and gentle, reaching out to brush the shaggy overhang of his bangs away from his cool forehead. "It's raining. Can you hear it? Your mother used to say that the angels were weeping when it rained but that sometimes they were tears of joy…"
The man laying so pale and still on the bed didn't respond other than to continue to steadily inhale and exhale, the respirator next to his bed pumping in rhythm for him. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. It was a simple cycle but it was all she had to cling to.
Cloud… Steve - was gone.
She tried to tell herself it wasn't so, that whatever had happened to him after she'd been pulled from the game hadn't been permanent. That he'd wake up from the coma he'd been frozen in since then. That, somehow, the doctors or the scientists that had worked and run invasive tests and poked and prodded him like a dead fish would figure out how to wake him up.
That there was still someone in there to be woken up.
But… it was raining. And today was the day they pulled the plug on the extensive life support that kept him alive.
Things had… fallen apart after she'd woken up in her own body, head still spinning with the rapid extract from the game she'd been in the middle of. It had seemed as if every siren in the company's building had been going off. The computers had been nothing but sparks and smoke, strange people had been pouring into the room in both police and building security uniforms and her friends, the ones that had gone through all of this with her, had been hustled out and away from each other so fast, there hadn't been time to protest or fight it.
For most of them at least. White, Black and Swift had stayed with her. And she'd stayed with Cloud, digging her nails into his clothing to hang on at some points where someone had tried to separate them. Mace had been carried yelling from the room, promising both vengeance and a return and it hadn't taken her long to carry out both threats. Everyone else however had been swept away and it was only as the days had turned into weeks that they'd all managed to find each other again. Steve - their Cloud - had been the focal point that drew them all to the small, private hospital room his body had been taken to.
The terrorists that had taken over the building and hijacked the game were all dead. The news had reported it and White had later on confirmed it on one of his ghosting visits where he slipped into the room and stood silent for hours before slipping back out again. She supposed she should be glad - or sad - or horrified… but she didn't have any extra emotion to spare for anyone else. Whatever the young terrorist in the computer had wanted to achieve he hadn't. The internet ran as it always had and the computer systems at the company had been purged. The 'game' was dead and there was no hope of another renewal of the contract on it but the attention it had received had more than paid for it. She supposed there was irony in there somewhere but she just didn't have the energy to find it.
"I did my hair," mindful of the wires attached to his body and laying across the bed like life sucking tendrils, she crawled onto the thin mattress next to him, tucking in against his side the way she'd gotten so good at doing these past weeks. "Just for you. I thought - I thought you'd want me to look nice today. I know it sounds silly but - " her voice choked off and she shook her head, pressing her face against him. She couldn't - she couldn't do this. She couldn't let him go. Not so soon.
Except it was what his living will stated he wanted and the doctors had already put it off as long as they could. She shut her eyes hard and knew that wearing mascara today had been a bad idea. Getting herself beautiful had been a stupid idea anyway, knowing what today was but there was a part of her that thought - hoped - if she looked attractive enough he'd want to wake up to see her again. Or… if that failed it was a matter of pride - that she look her best today of all days. He wouldn't want her haggard and gray and she didn't want to be that type of woman either.
Except now she was going to smear her mascara and ruin the entire effort.
"Please don't go," she whispered it brokenly against him. "I just found you again. Please don't go this time."
In a perfect story, the words would have woken him… but this wasn't a story and his body continued its steady breathing without a flicker of change. She wrapped her arms around him tighter and tried to pretend he was only sleeping and it would all be all right in the morning.
"Shhh!"
The door to the room pushed open with the harsh reminder of silence and she reluctantly lifted her head. It wasn't time yet. They had another ten minutes before the doctors were supposed to come in and unhook everything. If the doctors were early… if they were early she'd fight them tooth and claw - or at least with all the verbal browbeating of a teacher - for those extra ten minutes. Instead it was Wedge.
Or rather Wedge's player. He had made it out of the game alive, unhooked just before the terrorists had taken over the system and he'd been in the group of hostages that Black and Jessie had rescued.
He was also an intern at the hospital and so Tifa had gotten used to seeing his cheerful face day after day. His kind eyes were one of the only reasons she felt comfortable leaving Cloud here each night to go home and go to sleep.
Now however, he looked worried and seconds later, she realized why as he hustled a large group of people into the room. She recognized White and Black and Mace and Swift - who surprised her because he was phobic about hospitals. Red and Jessie were there too and she thought she caught a glimpse of Lily and Aerith beyond the door before it swung shut again. Sitting up, feeling slow and lost, she blinked in puzzlement at them and the huge amount of gear they were carrying.
"What-?" she began.
"Apologies," White's voice was just as calm as ever even though he was already starting to set up the equipment around the bed. Black and Swift were moving with frantic speed as well while Mace handed them bits and pieces without even being asked. A strange shudder when down through Tifa as she sat up more fully, one of her hands going to find Cloud's from habit.
"What's going on?"
"White's got a burr up his butt," Swift answered but there was a strange flush over his face that she knew from experience meant he was excited despite the sarcastic drawl of his voice.
"I have no such thing," White answered mildly. "I have simply been monitoring the programs on the company computer - "
"Hacking," Mace supplied cheerfully as she handed over a small wrench. White ignored her as he continued to work.
"- and I have noticed several strange pulses on it."
"He thinks Cloud's still alive!" Black supplied and Wedge, standing at the door, made more frantic hushing noises at the loud excitement in the taller man's voice.
"What?" It had her full attention now and her brain seemed to shrug off the strange numb feeling it had wrapped around itself for weeks now. White's eyes narrowed.
"I believe that impulses from Cloud's mind may still be active in the system. That is all."
"He means Cloud's brain may still be there." Mace was grinning like an idiot and Tifa felt tears fill her eyes. But a part of her held back and a second later as Swift spoke up she understood why.
"Doesn't mean anything, Teef. Even if the program did copy his brain, there's no telling what it copied and what it messed up or missed out on. It might not even be him. We could be pulling that little snot nosed kid's signature. But White thinks it's time for a last ditch effort and we figured it's now or never. Sorry," he winced. "Didn't want to tell you before we were sure an' get your hopes up."
"No, it's okay," she turned her head in time to see Black handing the familiar head gear over to Wedge before diving back in to hooking wires up to computer towers. White was in the corner now, setting up a sleek silver laptop. Wedge came over with the headset but he hesitated next to the bed.
It went without saying that he could get fired for this and banned from the practice but that wasn't in his eyes when he looked at Tifa. Instead, his voice was soft as he said:
"If this bring him back… what we get back might be worse than just letting him go."
For a long moment there was only silence and she felt the way her own heart refused to beat. She knew that he might be talking about getting back the terrorist instead of Steve. But even more than that - she realized there might not be enough of Steve to make getting him back anything he would want for himself.
It was a long shot - and they were risking making it worse much more than their odds of making it better were.
And everyone was waiting for her to make the final call.
She looked down at his face, so peaceful and relaxed, and at his hand in hers, limp and without any strength.
He wouldn't want to come back as a vegetable.
The door to the room cracked open and Aerith's voice hissed:
"Hurry it up! There's a nurse we've already turned away twice trying to prep him."
"Do it." Tifa's head came up and her eyes were determined. "Give him the chance to fight."
Then she held his hand to her lips and she silently prayed.
"I don't understand why you haven't told the doctors about this," Wedge protested as he began to hook the patient in the bed into the head gear. "I'm sure they'd be willing to try this. It's not as if we like death calls."
"They would, in turn, be expected to alert the company."
"And our boys would get a hold of the news too," Black added to White's explanation and at Tifa's curious look he elaborated. "Can you imagine what a large corporation or even a government would do if they could get a hold of someone that had survived in the 'Net for weeks? I'm all about my country and all but there's no way I'm risking Cloud that way."
"All set," Wedge announced as he stepped back.
"This could kill him," White remarked blandly from his laptop, not even looking up from the screen. Tifa glanced at the clock on the wall.
"Then we'll be two minutes early."
White lifted his head and for a long minute their eyes met, equal parts desperation and determination in both sets. Then he nodded and bent back to the keyboard.
"Swift, if you will be so kind as to make sure everything is set?"
"On it," Swift was already tracing wires and cords, checking lights and listening close to the hum of computers running. There was the sound of a commotion outside the room and what sounded like someone getting sick. Almost proudly, Zack commented:
"She's amazing, isn't she?"
The proud affection made Tifa's throat close over and then she heard White intone:
"Now."
There was a slight jerk from the body in the bed as the computer interfaced with it but Tifa already knew that from experience. Holding her breath, she only realized how tightly she was squeezing his hand when her own started to ache and she carefully relaxed her grip, just a little, eyes scanning his face for any sign of reaction at all. Wedge hovered near the monitor showing Cloud's vital signs. Black hovered near the door. Mace hovered near Swift until he batted at her. White typed keys in the silence, fingers flying over his laptop.
Outside the rain continued to fall in drizzling, sporadic bursts.
The monitor continued its steady beep and the respirator continued its quiet hissing. Tifa finally dared pull her eyes away from Cloud's face and shot a look at White. He was too absorbed in his laptop however. Swift was the one that answered, voice a quiet drone.
"He's huntin' down the blip. Kinda offering the cheese to the mouse to coax it into the trap. Trap in this case being Cloudo's body. He managed to tag it last time he found it so it's faster but he didn't manage to tag it until just this afternoon. Hence our last minute cavalry charge. 'Cause, you know, it wouldn't be dramatic if we tried pullin' this yesterday."
Mace lightly wacked him on the back of his head and he made a disgruntled noise and shot her a look. She ignored him to reach over and give Tifa's hair an unexpected ruffle. Effectively messing up what she'd worked so hard to make perfect earlier. She couldn't find it in her to care.
"Don't worry about it, Teef. I'm sure it's Steve. He'll be back in no time and then you two can invite me to the wedding. But I get to be maid of honor, not Jessie, got it? 'Cause we were friends first and all."
"Okay," Tifa agreed, even knowing that leaving Mace in charge of the bridal shower and bachelorette party was handing the keys to a candy store to a little kid. At the moment though she'd grab anything that promised a future with Steve in it.
"Come on…" Black voice from the door where he was now leaning against to block the polite knocking was coaxing and worried, perfectly voicing Tifa's own emotions. In front of her, Cloud's face stayed lax and his body stayed limp. White's fingers stopped their tapping.
"There," his voice was quiet as he announced that he'd done everything he could. Eyes starting to grow hot and dry, Tifa stared into the face in the bed next to her, waiting… waiting.
The computer lights flickered in the computer towers. The monitor beeped.
"I've been rooting for you two all along," Wedge stated quietly. Tifa lifted her face and gave him a weak smile. The polite tapping on the door shifted to stern warnings and a push that had Black leaning heavier against it.
And the monitor's steady pattern of beeps went suddenly high and monotone.
"No-" her face snapped back around so quickly the room spun and Wedge leap forward, gently but firmly pushing her a little to the side as the respirator suddenly seized up and stopped its pumping. Black's attempt at barring the door now earned shouts of alarm.
"No, no, no, no," Wedge was muttering it while he pulled tubes and the face shield away from the man on the bed.
"We're fucked," Swift announced calmly.
And then Tifa felt the hand she'd wrapped both of hers around, very gently, squeeze.
"Steve!"
Everyone ignored her because the monitor was still flatlining and Black was having to put all his weight against the door to keep it shut. Desperate, Tifa wrapped both hands around Cloud's and squeezed back, resting their interlocked knot of flesh and bone over her own heart.
"He squeezed my hand!"
"Teef…" Swift gave her a look and she knew he was going to say that it was a final reflex as his spirit kicked off from his body. She refused to believe it though. Instead, she raised it his hand to her lips and very lightly bit his knuckles.
The hand in hers squeezed again.
"He did it again!"
Wedge, busy tilting Cloud's head backward and ready to start CPR, hesitated and she let go with one of her hands to catch at the back of his smock.
"Check him!" she demanded. "Check to see if he's breathing."
"Teef - " Swift was starting to sound worried and he moved over as if he was going to physically pull her off. But he didn't. Not yet. The monitor was high pitched and Black gave up his battle at the door. The respirator was flat as well, dead in its spot. Wedge, seconds from being pulled away by furious doctors, lowered his head and simply rested his ear over Cloud's chest.
She held her breath.
Everyone in the room seemed to hold their breath and only the rain continued down.
One of the towers shorted out with a fizzing noise.
And Cloud suddenly sucked in a horrible, wheezing breath and shoved Wedge off of him as he rolled to the side and started coughing as if he was going to hack up both lungs. His hand had a painful, death grip on Tifa's but he could have broken bones and she wouldn't have cared. Instead she ignored all the doctors trying to get close enough over the computer towers to see what was going on and huddled close, leaning over him, rubbing his back with her free hand as if he was a small child. There was nothing in his stomach to choke up and he finally got the heaves under control, sucking in harsh breaths. One of the doctors stepped forward and with a ferocity she hadn't known she had in her, Tifa slashed narrowed eyes at the man and snapped:
"Don't you touch him!"
Voice raw and a little painful, the entire room still heard it when the man in the bed murmured:
"That's my girl."