Elmyra Gainsborough had never raised a toddler. She had taken in her daughter Aerith closer to eight years old, and therefore had never dealt with the least appealing stages of motherhood. She had never thought she was less skilled or somehow beneath other mothers, but there was no denying that raising Aerith was nothing like taking care of a toddler like Marlene. According to other parents Elmyra had known, Aerith had been nothing like other children even on her worst days. It was only on a regular basis recently that Elmyra thought of Aerith's relative ease compared to the cackling toddler currently running through the first floor. Marlene's excited screeching rang through the house as Elmyra let out a weary sigh.

"Marlene!" Elmyra snapped from Aerith's room, pausing in packing a box to push stray strands away from her sweat-dotted forehead. "I said don't play with that ball inside."

"But I'm not!" Marlene blurted, shortly before something bounced on the floor and knocked into the kitchen table.

In frustration Elmyra's brow tightened. How could toddlers lie the way they did? Just so naturally and without the slightest hesitation? Again Elmyra was reminded of her daughter, who had never lied so easily—actually, she had never really tried. "Please take it outside, Marlene. I'm trying to pack."

"Okay!"

"Don't go anywhere other than the gardens," she called, recalling it was nearly sunset.

"Okay!"

"And be careful of the flowers—!" Elmyra was unable to finish her last warning as the front door was noisily thrown open and slammed closed again, Marlene's excited laughter trailing toward the gardens.

This was all a temporary arrangement, but if she was honest with herself it was all worth any minor annoyances.

Putting the last of Aerith's old picture books (padded with stuffed animals) in the box, Elmyra taped it shut. With a soft sigh Elmyra stood and shook out her dress. She hefted the box and trotted down the stairs, setting this newest one next to the others. She folded her arms around her midsection and glanced over the parlor, feeling another pang of anxiety. No matter how unsafe Midgar had become, it was going to be heartbreaking to leave it all behind. There were so many memories in this house…

As Elmyra turned to ascend the stairs again, she paused as she noted footsteps nearing the front door. Hopefully that was Mrs. Sun: One of the other families down the road had agreed to trade some of Aerith's old clothes for some that her daughters had outgrown but would fit Marlene. Again adjusting her rusty-blonde bangs away from her forehead, Elmyra wiped her hands on her apron and made it to the door as a firm knock rang out.

She opened the door, and her friendly smile immediately vanished. Elmyra knew the men on her porch too well, and she glared between the scarecrow of a man with violently-red, spiked hair, and his statuesque partner with a shaved head and thin beard. "Reno. Rude," she greeted in an icy voice.

"Evening, ma'am," Reno said with his characteristic grin, tapping the baton she had never seen him without on his shoulder idly.

While it was impossible to follow Rude's eyes through his sunglasses, a slight tilt of his head suggested he was studying the changes in the parlor. "Going somewhere, Mrs. Gainsborough?"

Elmyra had managed politeness with the Turks throughout her time with Aerith, but she no longer found the need. Aerith was no longer at home, and Elmyra had chosen to believe AVALANCHE on the matter of the Turk's activities. It was difficult to feign politeness with people who committed mass murder. "I don't see how it's your business anymore. You've done enough to my family. And I'm afraid Aerith isn't here. Last I understood, you already knew that." She added in a firm growl, "Leave."

Reno let out a long whistle, his blue eyes rolling as he craned his head to glance through the doorway. "Well, shit Rude, we pissed off her ma. Better go, then."

As Reno spun and strolled down the porch steps, his head swiveling to scrutinize the gardens, Rude did little more than adjust his glasses. Anxiously, Elmyra planted herself in the doorway, taking a deep breath as she noted the figures on the path leading to her porch. Three Shinra soldiers stood awaiting orders, their menacing grins visible under their visors—and threatening rifles at the ready.

"Please leave, Rude," Elmyra repeated, her voice only as loud as her courage would allow. It was barely a breath above a whisper.

After a tense pause, Rude subtly shook his head. "I'm afraid we're not here for Aerith, ma'am."

Elmyra's mouth fell open slightly in confusion. She was unable to ask for clarification before her stomach lurched and her eyes widened in realization. "Run!" she screamed toward the garden. "Marlene, run! Please—!"

Rude's hands gripped Elmyra's wrists and she let out a cry of surprise. It was the first time any of the Turks had laid a hand on her. Never had she wanted to know how strong a Turk was—Rude's hold was like iron as Elmyra struggled uselessly. Effortlessly, he yanked her forward, and she staggered down the steps. She nearly tripped, but Rude pulled her to her feet.

"You can't do this!" she howled. "I haven't done anything wrong."

"Harboring terrorists is illegal," Rude said coldly, shoving her forward. The three soldiers adjusted their holds on their rifles, their three-eyed helmets staring Elmyra down eerily.

A shrill screech from the flower garden brought Elmyra's fight back to her, struggling against Rude's hold. "Marlene! Marlene!" she shrieked. "She's just a child, she hasn't done anything. Please—!"

Sobbing neared as Reno sauntered closer, Marlene's kicking and flailing form propped over his shoulder. "Well, her daddy's done more than enough, yeah? Don't make this harder on yourself."

"You bastards!" Elmyra screamed, trying to stomp on Rude's feet and desperately reach for the weeping child. "Leave us alone, leave my family alone!"

One of the soldiers raised the butt of his rifle. "Stop resisting and shut up—"

"Enough!" a new voice shouted, causing the soldier to pause.

From behind Reno a man in a suit joined the group. His dark eyes were soft as they looked into Elmyra's, his calm caused her to relax by degrees. He wasn't a Turk, his extremely well-tailored, dark-navy suit wasn't made to endure their kind of dirty work. The fact that a soldier had stood down spoke of this man being high-ranking—more so that Rude had straightened and his grip on Elmyra had eased slightly.

He looked to Reno with a hard frown, the movement of his lips followed by his black, trimmed beard. "Let Mrs. Gainsborough hold Marlene, please."

While Marlene still kicked and wailed, Reno raised a red eyebrow doubtfully.

The man in his thirties sighed and ran a hand through his slicked-back, black hair, giving a sympathetic look to Elmyra. "You won't resist anymore, will you?"

Timidly, she glanced over her shoulder at Rude, and then at the soldiers. She shook her head gently. "Please let me hold her," she whispered. "She's scared."

Reno clicked his tongue loudly. "Sure, sure. Whatever you say, Mr. Director-sir." He stepped up to Elmyra, and Rude allowed this to be a signal to release his hold.

With trembling arms, Elmyra took Marlene and held her closely. She patted the back of her soft, brown hair as the girl sloppily sobbed into her shoulder. "Thank you," Elmyra whispered, resigned.

The director held up a flower from Aerith's garden up to Elmyra and Marlene, but Elmyra made no movement to accept it. She held Marlene closer, her eyes thinning at this man. He hadn't had any form of permission to touch her daughter's flowers, and she wasn't going to be grateful for the theft and regifting.

Seeing her reaction, the director nodded subtly and slipped the flower into his lapel. "That's fair. Let's go."

A Shinra helicopter was parked in the vacant lot nearby. Elmyra wasn't aware Rude knew how to fly them, but he took the pilot seat by rote. Reno slipped into the front passenger seat, sinking into his chair. The Shinra director stepped into the back as the vehicle started, and the soldiers helped Elmyra after him. As the helicopter shuddered and rose, Marlene began to relax little by little. Elmyra whispered for her to be brave, forcing a smile as she used her apron to wipe tears and snot from the girl's face.

While no one addressed Elmyra and Marlene directly, the trip was hardly silent. The roar of the engines and the blades whirred around them and the cabin jostled noisily. While Elmyra could hear none of it, Reno was speaking to Rude as though the situation was dreadfully mundane, and the soldiers muttered to each other in low voices. The director, on the other hand, said nothing. His eyes stared out the window, but seemed to look much, much further away. Occasionally his lips would part in silent whispers, and he would raise his hand to rest it on an earpiece. He would also break his silence to answer a phone, having terse conversations about what sounded like ordinary office matters.

How anyone could be so utterly detached was beyond Elmyra.

The helicopter landed outside of Midgar, where a truck sat waiting. The soldiers remained, but the director and the Turks herded Elmyra and Marlene into the vehicle. Elmyra asked no questions, despite the many that Marlene had now. After having cried herself to sleep and waking back up again she was alert and curious.

"Where are we going?" she whispered loudly to Elmyra, looking out over the darkened plains that the truck rolled across.

"I don't know," she whispered back. If Elmyra was in fact being arrested, surely they would have gone straight to the Shinra building. There was nothing noteworthy in the direction they were going away from Midgar, just the town of Kalm.

The director sitting across from them frowned to himself, his knee starting to fidget anxiously. Although his eyes still looked miles away, they shifted as he grimaced at nothing.

Marlene looked up at Elmyra. "What's wrong with him?" she whispered in a voice still too loud for an actual whisper.

Elmyra raised a finger to her lips and shook her head. The last thing Marlene needed to do was make herself more noticeable. "Don't bother him."

All three of them flinched as the director's phone rang. He took a deep breath to steady himself and pulled it out. "Tseng."

Elmyra instinctively pressed Marlene's head further into her shoulder. That was not a name she was happy to hear.

"Do you have it?" was the reply on the phone.

"Yes. But, Tseng, he saw me."

A pause, then Tseng's voice asked, "Who saw you?"

"Cloud saw me," the director said uneasily, his eyes staring straight through Marlene and Elmyra. "I don't know what to do, please tell me you're close."

In confusion Elmyra glanced through the mirrored windows, seeing nothing but empty, darkened plains around the truck. Marlene sat up straighter and looked with her, seemingly enamored with the show of bewilderment more than anything.

"We're almost there," Tseng replied. "The closest we can get is the station for the chocobo tracks. Get there."

Clearing his throat softly, the director winced. "I can't shake him."

As cold as always, Tseng's voice answered, "If our spy has outlived its usefulness, then so be it. Just get this job finished and be done with it."

The director clasped his eyes shut and grit his teeth. "…Fine. I'm hurrying."

Unceremoniously, Tseng hung up. The director kept his eyes closed a few moments, his brow tightening in visible pain. A heavy sigh of resignation shook his shoulders, and after a moment longer his eyes opened again. For the first time since leaving Midgar he looked—genuinely looked—to Elmyra and Marlene, staring directly into Marlene's inquisitive eyes. He eased forward and reached into the inside pocket of his suit coat.

Defensively, Elmyra held Marlene tighter.

The director produced a small device from his pocket and held his phone beside it. The phone beeped, its screen lighting up. Through it voices and music could be heard over the din of some public, open space somewhere. In a low, gentle voice the director said, "Marlene…who would you love to talk to more than anyone right now?"

Marlene immediately leaned forward, her eyes bright in hope. "Daddy? Daddy! Tifa!"

"Hey," a voice rose over the phone, eliciting an audible gasp from Elmyra. "That's Marlene!"

It was Aerith's voice.

"Hey!" Marlene blurted, her hands reaching for the devices. "It's the flower lady! Flower lady—"

The voices on the phone cut off and it went dark, and the director silently slipped the device back into his coat.

"—h-help…I wanna talk to Daddy…" Marlene whimpered, her lip quivering as tears welled in her eyes. "Where's Daddy?"

"That was my daughter," Elmyra hissed, her eyes burning as well. "You son of a bitch, how dare you. How dare you—what is wrong with you?! What have you done to her?"

Tiredly, he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Nothing. Aerith is fine."

Marlene was inconsolable, falling back into wailing sobs as she sank into Elmyra. Hearing Marlene's crying pushed Elmyra to tears as well, and she clung to the child tightly. "You monsters…" she hissed between trembling breaths.

Glass separating the driver's side from the passengers' slid low enough for Reno to stretch his arm through and thump his baton against the truck's ceiling. "Shut up. Holy shit, some of us are trying to sleep!"

"You're fine, Reno," the director sighed, rubbing his face. "Let them cry. They deserve that much."

The truck at last came to a stop in Kalm, on a side street off of the main square. Marlene had again cried herself to sleep, so only draped limply against Elmyra as Rude opened the door for them. Drained, Elmyra stepped out of the car and glanced at the streets of row houses, and the tall one before them topped with a quaint, tower-like structure. Due to the lateness of the hour it was difficult to tell the color of the home with its wooden accents and layers of stone.

The director jogged up to the front door and unlocked it, turning on a light inside before looking back at the Turks. "Please wait out here, gentlemen."

"Strictly speaking," Reno yawned out, flipping his long ponytail over his shoulder. "We're not supposed to just let a board director or—gee, I dunno, hostages—wander around without an escort."

"We'll be inside, you'll be here watching the door," the director insisted. "You'll be doing your job just fine."

Rude and Reno looked to each other, and with a roll of his eyes Reno waved them on. "Fine."

As Elmyra stepped into the home, Marlene yawned largely and rubbed her eyes. The parlor was warm and welcoming in soothing, golden woods and flower-patterned curtains hanging in the windows. However, it was sparsely furnished and lacking any personal touches, radiating a subtle loneliness from under layers of comfort.

At Marlene's request, Elmyra set her down and the girl curiously trotted to the stairs in the back of the room.

"It's alright," the director assured Elmyra before she could object. "Both of you are free to look around. It's all yours, after all."

Marlene had already started up the stairs, leaving only Elmyra to gawk at the man blankly. "I-I'm sorry?"

Idly strolling around the far wall, the director ran a finger across a shelf and studied it. He nodded approvingly. "They did some good work for a rush job…" He glanced at Elmyra and smiled wearily, then continued his leisurely walk around the parlor. "My parents insisted on not selling it when I got a home for them on the Sector 5 plate. I'm glad they didn't now."

Awkwardly, Elmyra adjusted her skirts and folded her arms across her chest. "…This is your home?"

"Until I was thirteen," he said with a shrug. "It's still my mother's home, but I hear she has her hands full back in Midgar. She's taken in a boy who lost ever…" He trailed off, uncomfortably clearing his throat. "Who was from Sector 7."

Elmyra swallowed hard. "Ah."

Pausing beside the sofa under the large window next to the front door, he slipped his hands in his pockets and gave Elmyra a small smile. "I'll be getting movers for the rest of your things. The last thing I suppose I should ask is…is if you want me to move any of Aerith's flowers."

Blinking at him in disbelief, she scoffed, "Excuse me?"

"I admit," he said with another shrug. "There's not much room for it, but with enough planters we can make it work." He plucked the flower from his lapel and again held it out to Elmyra. "They aren't looking as good without her there, are they?"

Her face softening, Elmyra took the bloom and held it closely to her chest. "…No, they're not. Almost the second she left…" She shook her head and placed a hand to her forehead. "I don't…I don't understand. What are you doing? Are Marlene and I…hostages? But you're giving us this house?"

Thumping caused both of them to turn toward the stairs. Marlene shyly peered between the railing, a large, plush black cat dangling from her arms.

Chuckling, the director walked toward the foot of the stairs and knelt low. "I see you already found my friend."

Marlene sat on the final step, holding the plush close. Very calmly the director reached for the stuffed cat and titled its head up, looking into its smiling face. With gentle movements he adjusted the tiny crown propped between its large ears and gave its head a soft pat. "This is a very old friend of mine. I think I was…fifteen when I made him. First one…" he mused in a soothing voice. "This is Cait Sith."

"'Ket shee'?" she repeated.

He nodded. "That's right. Say hello, Cait." He reached back to the doll and eased it to face Marlene in her arms. "'And, hello, lass!'" he chirped in possibly the thickest Highland accent Elmyra had ever heard, causing a surprised giggle to tumble out of her.

"'It's a fine pleasure to meet ya,'" the director continued for the plush. "'Don't worry aboot a thing. Aye'll always look out for ya, Miss Marlene. I promise.'"

Marlene laughed and happily squeezed the plush. "Thanks, Cait."

"He's a good friend to have," the director said. "He's loyal…he'll never lie to you…" he added, his face falling sadly.

"I'm gonna take Cait Sith upstairs," Marlene said firmly, then hopped back up the stairs.

A silence fell as the director watched Marlene disappear. Slowly, Elmyra approached him, anxiously twirling the flower's stem between her fingers. "Who…Who are you?"

He stood, straightening his suit coat. "Reeve Tuesti. Director of Urban Planning and Development. Reeve is fine."

"Why would…Why would a Shinra board member care about us?"

"…Because I'm a son of a bitch and I needed you both as leverage for personal gain," he said.

Elmyra frowned. "…Are you judging me for resenting this arrangement? Or threatening my daughter?"

"No," he said. "It's a perfectly natural response. And I am a monster."

In frustration Elmyra rubbed her face. "You're…not. I don't know what you are, but I don't think you're a monster."

"I am holding you hostage, and earlier was absolutely kidnapping."

"But you…Are you protecting us?" she asked gently.

Scratching above his eyebrow, Reeve sighed. "I can't…presume to give the Turks orders. If they're told to do something I can't stop them. But someone of my position can make requests for some…allowances."

"Like shuffling us out of Midgar into a home and offering to move my daughter's gardens?"

A weary smile crossed his lips. "And making sure Marlene isn't taken one step closer to headquarters, yes." Rubbing the back of his head, he glanced at the floorboards. "You'll still be monitored, you won't be allowed to leave the city limits. But it's better than whatever some of my fellow board members would have done. I know that's not saying much."

"It's…It's more kindness than anyone from Shinra has ever given my family."

"That's not saying much."

"No, no it's not," she laughed coldly. "But…thank you. Thank you for this. This…This isn't actually about Aerith, is it?" she added. "Is this about Mr. Wallace?"

Reeve frowned. "I…can't say I like Marlene's father. He's done very terrible things. But I have a certain respect for him, and I appreciate what he…at least, what he thinks he's trying to do. But I will say…" He walked up to Elmyra and gingerly touched the petals of the flower she held. "I would do just about anything for your daughter. If there is anyone on this planet who deserves someone fighting for them, it's her. I will not let anything happen to you or Marlene. For her."

A smile spread across Elmyra's face and she firmly took his hand in hers. "Thank you. Thank you, Director."

Startled by her touch, he fumbled out, "R-Reeve is fine."

Elmyra tilted her head slightly. "Are you not used to thanks?"

He eased his hands away from hers as a distant formality returned. "It's just not necessary. Please."

If you like my writing, support the first installment of my series, City Between.

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