Blood & Sympathy (FFVII: Vincent x OC)

Ch52 - Aftermath

All she remembered were shouts. Endless voices talking on top of her. She couldn't feel her body, she didn't have her senses. She was numb, limp. She couldn't move, couldn't think, but she knew she was being transported somewhere. A helicopter. The flickering lights of a corridor. A hospital? Probably. She didn't know, because everything turned black and she slipped into unconsciousness and for a moment she knew that this was the end.

A moment she'd longed for, for so long. She'd been wanting to die for thirty years. But then, the thought of dying was the worst that she could fathom. No. The thought of Vincent dying was the worst that she could think of. What could he be doing now? She didn't know. She just slipped into the vast darkness of unconsciousness.

And she didn't know how long it took when she opened her eyes again. She didn't know how long it took when she gained her senses. That pain on her stomach returned back in full force, but she could still say she was on anti-inflammatory pills, because she knew that the pain should be worse than it already was.

Jocasta tried to move her hands. She looked down at the tubes and needles that fed her blood vessels with the nutrients that her body needed. It felt like she hadn't moved her fingers, her body, her limbs, in days. She was on a hospital bed. She recognized the familiar beeping sound of the machines around her. Her eyes slipped on the opened window that brought white light in. It wasn't yellow as it had been before when the Meteor was still in the sky. She could only assume that they had made it. They had saved the world, because her body felt like she hadn't moved it for days. Days that during Meteor they didn't have.

She turned her gaze on her left side and she let out a sigh of relief. Vincent. The pain on her stomach seemed to fade away, and all she could feel was her heart beating loudly. He was there. He was okay. He was safe. He was sitting on a chair beside her bed. His attention was focused on a book. She couldn't help but smile as she looked at him for a moment. He had that focused expression on his face and a pile of books rested beside his chair. She could only assume that he'd read all of them. How long was I out?

She opened her mouth to speak, but her throat needed a few efforts to make out a word. His name, the first word she'd spoken in days "V- Vincent..."

His eyes widened and he immediately slammed the book closed. He didn't care if he'd lost the page. He settled it on the pile of books that rested beside his chair, and he got up and hurried towards her. His hand found hers immediately and he sat beside her on the bed. His eyes stared down at her in wonder and surprise. Her fingers tightened around his left, clawed, hand, and his right had reached for her face. He cupped her cheek and she leaned on his touch immediately.

"Jocasta... how're you feeling?" He asked as he traced his thumb on her cheek and she smiled up at him.

"I'm better now," her fingers tightened around his as she shifted her head and pressed a kiss on his thumb that was on her cheek

He let out a sigh of relief. That tension on his shoulders, loosened away, and he leaned down and pressed his forehead against hers. His crimson eyes found hers and he drew in a shaky breath.

"I thought I'd lost you," He said. His breath hit her face and her hands reached for his cheeks, cupping his face. He closed his eyes and reveled at the soft touch of her fingers on his pale skin. He had missed it and it hasn't even been that long.

She smiled up at him as her nose brushed against his. She looked at the dark circles around his eyes that let her know that he hadn't slept. How could he? He was so panicked and worried. After she fell wounded, Cid hurried towards the Highwind piloted it into the crater with all the skill that he possessed. Vincent carried her back into the Highwind, and Tifa injected her with her wound-healing serum that she had in her bag. Dr. Alford in Mideel's clinic had said that if it weren't for that, she'd be dead. But her body took its time to heal and Vincent had been by her side for seven days.