For The Sacred and Profane, who, through my writer's block, bouts of lacking inspiration, my somewhat fickle and totally random nature, and my fried brain (which has nothing to do with writing, I hope), has been more than patient waiting for this story. I certainly hope it was worth it!

I have lots to say about this fic, but I'll save it for my LJ. Important here is that I tried something new, well two things, and I won't say more than that here, other than the difference between italics and plain text are a change in POV. It felt right for varying reasons, so I went with it. I hope it worked.

I neither own nor profit from ffvii or its characters.

Thank you for reading. Reviews are welcome and appreciated.

Enjoy.

fire mystic

New Beginnings

From where she was lazily swinging in the old tire Reno had put up in the yard, gazing into the depths of a cloudless blue sky, Tifa could hear the phone ringing in the house. She contemplated not going to answer it, but then remembered she had switched the answering machine off, so whoever was calling wouldn't even be able to leave a message.

She half expected the ringing to stop before she reached the house, but it kept on, and her nerves started to jangle with it; people didn't wait for a phone to ring that long unless it was important. By the time she hit the screen door, she had hit a slow jog, weaving through the house, and grabbing the phone on about the twentieth ring.

"Hello?"

"Hello. May I speak with Tifa Lockhart, please?"

"Speaking." Tifa started arranging things on the counter, a habit that was leftover from her days tending bar, but as she listened, her hands stilled first, and then her body slowly sank down onto the nearby stool.

"Yes, I got it," she concluded the conversation. "We'll be right there."

She hung up, keeping her hand on the receiver, took a deep breath and swallowed hard, and then picked up again, dialing a number she knew by heart.

"Yo." As many years had passed, Reno still answered the phone the same way. The smile Tifa always got at his greeting still managed to lift the corner of her lips, even through the tears that were starting to fall.

"Reno, I need you to come home."

There was a breath of silence on the other end of the phone before Reno responded.

"I'm on my way. What happened?" He didn't need to ask Tifa if this was an emergency. If the tone in her voice were not enough to clue him in, years together and a lifetime shared had taught him that Tifa wouldn't make such a demand unless it were extremely important.

"There's been an accident." The last word was choked off by a sob that escaped and she had to gulp to control it.

Reno made record time getting home as Tifa filled him in on what few details she knew, which were simply that Elly had been in an accident and that she was in surgery. She was angry and frustrated that the nurse that had called hadn't given her any more information than that, but the nurse had told her that even if she could go into more detail, she really didn't know any more than that. From there, they entered the hospital and were directed to a waiting room, where Elly's fiancé, Fei, was already waiting. They were shortly joined by the doctor that had taken care of Elly in the emergency room.

Fortunately, he informed them, it wasn't as bad as they had first thought. The removal of her spleen had been the worst of it, and the internal bleeding wasn't nearly as bad as they originally feared. Of course, there were stitches. Lots of stitches, and though they had called a plastic surgeon in to handle the overt damage, some of the scars would be permanent in some form or another. The hardest part for Reno, Tifa, and Fei was going to be sitting in the waiting room for the hours it took for Elly to get out of surgery and recovery.

When the surgeon came out to get them, he told them Elly was still in recovery, and very groggy, but that they could see her, suggesting one visitor at a time to start with. They walked to the door of the recovery room together, but Reno and Fei gave Tifa a slight nod to signal she should go first.

Tifa entered the room and went to sit by the bed, noting right away how pale Elly was. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing evenly, and Tifa assumed she had fallen back to sleep. She took Elly's hand in her own and as she waited for her to wake, she thought back on their life before Elly had moved out of the house.

I wasn't sure exactly what had happened, but I remembered waking up a couple of times. The first time had been very strange, disorienting, and all I could recall was a man standing, no, kneeling over me, with a bright blue sky and some leaves as a backdrop. He looked down at me and said something about help, and just as I realized I was in pain, the world faded to darkness again. The second time I woke, I was shaking, uncontrollably, and someone was holding me down, wrapping warm blankets around me. It took a while to calm down, at which point I realized, groggily, that I was in a hospital, but still had no idea what had happened. The one thing I knew for sure was that I felt awful and alone and afraid.

Waking up this time wasn't the nightmare it had been the past two times. My mother was sitting there staring at her hand clasped with mine. I must have made some noise because she turned watery brown eyes, which matched my own, up towards me with a hopeful face and a relieved smile, as she brushed away tears that had managed to escape her eye.

"You're awake," she stated, as if I wouldn't know that already.

I tried to answer. A grate of sound was all I got, and she reached for a cup of water, helping me take a small sip. When I tried again, all I could get was a hoarse whisper. It was going to have to do.

"What happened?"

"You were in an accident and they had to do surgery. How are you feeling?"

Oh, she really didn't want my honest answer to that. With the new information, I now tried to figure out what was injured, but had no success.

"Other than queasy and really tired, I don't feel much at all."

"Probably the medication you're on." She nodded at the clear bag of fluids hanging near the bed.

I was quiet for a minute as I rested. My head was fuzzy, not working quite right, and it was exhausting to concentrate.

"This reminds me of when I was sick when I was little." I gripped her hand. "You were always there when I woke up, holding my hand. No matter what time of night it was."

She smiled down at me, and I wondered if anyone in the world besides me and Dad had ever seen Tifa Lockhart with such warmth and concern in her expression.

"I never thought you'd remember those times."

I nodded. "It made me feel good. I have lots of memories like that."

She leaned forward in her chair.

"Tell me."

And I did. Memories of sitting on her lap while Dad pushed us on the swing in the yard. I was hardly old enough to stand, but I remembered that as clearly as if it were yesterday. Memories of playing hide and seek in the house, and how Mom always had to be the seeker because nothing got past the infamous Reno of the Turks. The three of us lying out on a blanket in the middle of the night, finding strange shapes in the stars. Mom in the kitchen, covered in flour, as we baked our first cake together. Fairy tales, shared on the couch, Mom filling in the voices as I caught her every time she tried to fool me by deviating from a story.

She was wiping away tears as I stuttered my way through a haze of pleasant childhood memories.

"I'm surprised you ever left. You were such a happy little girl."

It was my turn to smile. While that was true, we had our moments.

"Uh huh. I think you've forgotten our arguments about clothes." Oh the fights we had. Nothing I ever wanted to wear was good enough for Mom, and I hated everything she wanted me to wear. "And do you remember how you used to talk to my teachers all the time to find out if I was really telling the truth about not having homework? I hated that!" She looked a bit guilty now.

"I was only trying to make sure you did well."

"Is that why you always cleaned my room? And read my diary?"

What an expression of guilty outrage. I knew before she said it that she was about to try denying it.

"I never read your diary!"

"Oh really? Well, somebody did, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't Dad!"

"It could have been." She was trying to get out of it, but it wasn't going to work.

"Oh, no it couldn't. If he had ever read what I wrote about Fei when we first started dating, I'd still be locked in my room."

Ah, and there was the telltale blush that said she knew exactly what I was talking about, that she had read the illicit fantasy that I had planted there just to see if she would say anything. To her credit, she never did.

I reached for the small glass of water on the tray beside the bed, and that's when I knew that even though I was feeling no pain, things were not working the way they should. I was weak, so weak, and I was beginning to feel the first bits of pain around the effects of the medication. Mom helped me with that sip of water, and as I rested back against the pillow, I knew whatever strength I had was gone, and I closed my eyes briefly.

When I opened them again, Mom was gone, but Dad was sitting in the chair beside the bed, much like my mother had, my hand held firmly in his. He was glancing around the room, taking in everything, as he always did. He knew just from a slight shift in my hand that I was awake, and he turned an intense gaze on me, green eyes as penetrating as they ever had been despite his aging, the tendency towards mischief they usually held missing at the moment.

His eyes were dry now, but he had been crying.

"Hey Baby. How you feeling, yo?"

That definitely got a smile. He had long ago stopped using 'yo' when he talked, except for when he answered the phone or was trying to amuse me. It worked, but it hurt to laugh.

"I've felt better, Dad. I'm sure I've looked better, too."

He did a once over of my face and what he could see of my body, as if he hadn't already studied me when he came in; I knew he had, and made note of every scratch and bruise he could as he did it.

"It's not too bad. It'll heal."

"Can you tell if there will be scars?"

Mom wouldn't have been able to talk about that with me, but Reno of the Turks wasn't put off by such nonsense, leveling me a serious look.

"Not that I can see, but from what I've been told, you've got some future scars under those bandages of yours."

I wasn't sure what to say to that. Of course, then again, I hadn't seen exactly how much damage was done.

"You can probably get them covered," he suggested with a shrug. "If you want."

He wasn't judging me, and was very carefully giving me a blank expression.

"What would you do?"

He shrugged again, slouching back into the chair in that lazy way he had.

"They're a fact of life, Baby. Whether you cover them or not, they're still there."

It was my turn to study him. He hadn't covered his scars. The proof was in the two on his upper cheeks, but I had also seen him without his shirt. I knew there were more, even if others didn't see them, and he wore them all like a badge of honor and had a story for every single one of them.

I decided then and there that the scars would stay, and now I would have a story of my own.

"Do you remember what happened?" He asked.

"Not really, no, but I've heard whispering among the nurses that it was pretty bad."

"Were you alone?"

Ah, and that was the ten million dollar question. My father wanted to know why someone hadn't been there to protect me.

"You know, Dad, no one can keep me safe all the time."

He might have argued, but I cut him off, despite growing tired.

"Even you couldn't keep me safe all the time. Remember when we were playing Turk and I fell out of the tree and sprained my wrist? Or that time you were teaching me how to fight, and I got cut on a piece of glass on the ground? Oh, hell, how many times did I fall off a swing and scrape my knees or elbows?"

An emotion that I wasn't used to seeing on his face filled his expression: Guilt. With a hint of confusion.

"I was only trying to protect you."

"Life can be dangerous and you, of all people, should know it. Sometimes kids have to fall down and get cut or scraped, or walk home by themselves. Or pick their own dates." As it turned out, Fei hadn't been the wrong boy, but Dad refused to see it.

"And sometimes, Dad, accidents happen."

He squirmed a bit in his seat.

"I didn't pick your dates."

"You would have liked to. You always thought Fei was all wrong for me."

"I never said that!"

From over eyes starting to slip closed, I managed to raise an eyebrow.

"You threatened to…how did you put it? Use your EMR to light him up like a light bulb? Yeah, I think that was it." It may not have been perfect, but it was close.

He bowed his head, but I caught the smirk on his face.

"And I still will if the need arises."

And he would, I knew, but I also knew that he would never have to.

"It's okay, Dad. I think he's bright enough without your help."

I closed my eyes, and, possibly, I dreamed.

Tifa and Reno were talking softly when Elly woke again, finally clear of recovery and secure in her own room. They stopped when they saw Elly's eyes focused intently on them.

"What's going on," she asked.

Tifa approached the bed, and took Elly's hand.

"They're keeping you overnight, but the doctor said he'll release you tomorrow as long as you have someone to help you out for a few days. So we were just making plans. I think it best if you come home with us, and I'll take care of you. You can have your old room if you want, but I thought it would be easier for you to use the…"

"I'm not going home with you, Mom."

The words froze Tifa in mid-speech, and she simply stared down, horrified at her daughter. Reno looked as if he wanted to disappear into thin air.

"I love you, and thank you for offering, but I have my own home now, and Fei will take care of me."

Tifa looked at Reno for support, but he was busy studying his daughters face.

"Honey," she started. "I don't think that's a good idea. Why would you want…I don't understand…"

"There have been lots of times you didn't understand, Mom. Remember the fights we used to have?"

Tifa nodded, softening a bit at the reminder of past differences.

"Yeah," her father added. "I think you got your screaming voice from your mother." Leave it to Reno to try to brighten things up. Tifa gave him a side-long look with a quirked brow.

"Yes, Darling, but she got her destructive nature from you. There were times…"

"I'm sorry."

Both parents turned to look at their daughter. Elly glanced out the window as she explained.

"Sometimes I felt trapped, claustrophobic, like I couldn't breathe. You were like a mother hen, always keeping me in line, Mom, and Dad, you were like a lion guarding your pride, and screaming, slamming doors, and throwing things seemed like the only outlet I had at times. Now I know why you did it, and I know why you want to do it now, and I appreciate it, but you know," Elly looked up at them now, making eye contact with both in turn, "I am a grown up now, and I'd like it if you got to know the grown up me as well as you knew the little girl."

Reno was still looking at her, strangely. The thought had never occurred to him. Didn't she know she was always going to be that little girl he pushed on a swing?

Tifa, a bit shocked, sat down on the edge of the bed.

"I didn't know you felt that way. You never said it like that before."

"I know, but I've been thinking. Things happen, like this accident, that makes us regret what we never say or do, and I don't want that for us." The words hung heavy in the air. It was a very serious realization for all of them, how time had almost passed them by.

"Besides," Elly added, "You guys are going to be grandparents one day. I can't have you treating me like a child all the time."

Tifa's eyes flew wide open.

"Are you…?"

"No, Mom, but..." She motioned toward the drawer where the nurse had put her personal items that had been removed when she had been admitted. Tifa reached in, pulling out a plastic bag, and looked at the contents, her eye immediately catching the delicate sparkle of the diamond within.

"Fei asked me to marry him."

Reno was piecing things together and trying to get the full picture of the message his daughter was trying to make clear. He didn't know when or why, but as Elly had gotten older, things had changed between them, and they had nearly lost something precious.

He wasn't going to allow that.

Behind him, from the open doorway, there was the rumbling of someone clearing their throat. He turned to find Fei leaning against the frame.

"With your permission, of course," Fei stated.

Silence followed, and it seemed like time was suspended, everyone still, as if they were holding their breath. Then Reno extended his hand, and Fei walked forward and met it with his own. Elly could feel her mother's hand squeeze her own at the same time, and saw the smile of joy light up her face.

They were discovering the young woman their little girl had grown into and would be adding a member to the family. It was a tentative new beginning, but it was a beginning full of hope that would be guided by the lessons of the past.

"You know," Tifa advised her daughter, "we're going to spoil our grandchildren rotten."

Elly simply smiled, knowingly. "I'm relying on it."