Blood & Sympathy (FFVII: Vincent x OC)

Ch58 - Truth And Lies

Hands were around her as her gaze focused on a random spot in her room. She felt the weight of a chin, resting on top of her head. It was Sephiroth holding her this time. Her fingers were tight around his as the pain radiated from her stomach all over her body. It made her eyes water and her body tremble. She wanted to look up at Sephiroth and thank him for being there for her. Thank him for holding her. It made the pain bearable. But the voices inside her mind were still loud and unbearable and her stomach was ruthlessly hitting her with that stinging pain.

She let her head roll back on his chest and she let her eyes close. His hand was around her waist as he held her against him, in a sitting position. His back was resting against the wooden frame of the bed, while hers pressed against his chest. Sephiroth was quiet. He was just holding her. He had offered. He couldn't stand by and do nothing but watch her being in pain.

Her fingers were tight around his and he could say she was trying to stay quiet no matter the pain. Sephiroth looked down at her and pressed his lips against her forehead as he mumbled.

"Hang in there,"

She nodded. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze "Thank you, Seph,"

She felt him leaving out a sigh as he pressed his cheek on top of her head "You're welcome... Mother," he hesitated to speak it out loud. But it sounded right.

She was the only real Mother he ever had. He noticed her smile when he called her that and he couldn't help but let the corners of his lips curl up as well. His hands tightened around her and brought her closer. He finally felt that completion that he lacked for so long. He finally had an actual Mother. And it made him so content that he never felt like this before. But watching her being in pain like that, it saddened him more than anything. He would do anything to make her feel better. Holding her was the least he could do.

Then Hester walked into the room. She wasn't wearing her lab-coat as she usually did. She wore a pitch-black skirt that reached just above her knees, and a white shirt. Her hair was wrapped back in a tight braid, and she held a plate in her hands with a spoon, sunk in the steaming soup that he guessed Shera had just made. Hester was so busy with her research in the Hospital's Microbiological Lab, that she had asked him to take the results of his Hereditary Test. He hadn't told her yet about the results and he too wasn't sure what to feel about them. He had found out another stranger he never knew was his father and it, honestly, didn't change anything.

Hester sat beside her on the other side of the bed and she brought the plate closer to her. Sephiroth helped her sit up. She let out a wince and she looked weakly at the spoon of soup that Hester was blowing for her.

"I'm not hungry," Jocasta protested.

Hester sighed "You haven't eaten anything in two days. You can't expect to take an anti-inflammatory pill on an empty stomach,"

Jocasta knew she was right. Even the most noob doctor knew that anti-inflammatory pills shouldn't be taken while the patient's stomach is empty. But she didn't want to eat. She didn't know why. She didn't have the energy to do anything but lie down and bear with the pain and the nightmares in silence. She was feeling guilt. Guilt. If Vincent came to her what could she say? That she knew where Lucrecia was? That she knew that she was alive? That she knew about Sephiroth being his son? She knew all of these. She'd have so much to confess. But there was barely anything to do about any of these.

Lucrecia had locked herself into that crystalized Mako for a reason. She wanted to die. She couldn't stop the pain that the JENOVA cells brought her. Septicaemia can kill if not stopped, but Lucrecia had tried to take her own life long before her body gave in. The JENOVA cells did not let her body give in. She was bearing with the guilt and the pain of her own immune system fighting and destroying her own tissue. She wanted to die but the JENOVA cells wouldn't let her. Locking herself into a greenish prison of crystallized Mako was the only way of not dealing with the pain and the guilt that she couldn't escape from. It was better than an eternity of pain and a guilty conscience.