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Voices

Tifa

When Cloud climbed over the railing, there was nothing I could say, really. He slid her off his shoulder and just held her there. He didn't move. He didn't speak. He looked an inch away from crying.

I would have been too if I had been the one holding her. It was hard to believe that naked, broken thing was my friend. I could hardly recognize her. For a while I thought she was dead, that Cloud had just brought the body back so we could give her the proper honors, bring her back to her mother.

Then she breathed. It was a nasty, gasping, rattling sound. She was injured inside and out. A dark stain was fanning out across Cloud's shirt. It took a while to sink in and become clear to me.

It was something I hoped I would never see a friend go through. You learn to recognize these things in the slums. Life is rough there. Girls learn how to take care of themselves, which alleys to avoid, how to look out for one another, how to take care of one another if something...goes wrong.

I've seen my fair share of it. A few times, more than I would have liked, my bar turned into an emergency room. I guess it was some kind of haven for the girls who came to me, bleeding and broken and cringing from male presence. I did what I could for them. I know the drill now. Call the doctor, or patch them up the best you can. Notify the authorities if she wants to and let them hurt her again while they gather evidence that won't serve a damn purpose. Nobody up top really cares about girl from the slums.

Vincent was the first one to move. He put his cloak over her. It was easier when I did not have to look at her. Cloud began to shake so Vincent took her from him and began walking inside. Cloud fell to the deck as soon as his hands were free. I would have stayed with him, but she needed me more.

Vincent carried her to the room we had set aside for her. It was right between mine and Yuffie's. We thought it would be nice, when we got her back. It would be just us girls in that corner of the ship and we could laugh and joke like we used to. We can't laugh now. I don't know if we ever will again.

She didn't even twitch as Vincent set her down on the bed. He said something about telling the pilot to get to the nearest town for a doctor as he left the room. I had materia with me so I used it. It didn't do much that I could see but the awful rattling sound stopped. I thought for a second that I might have done something wrong and killed her but she still had a pulse when I felt her neck.

Even with her body covered I could barely stand to look at her. Her face was swollen and purple. Her hair was matted with blood. I know you're not supposed to wash the...the victim. The evidence has to be gathered by someone who's trained to do it. But we know who did it and he's already dead.

I hope Cloud made him suffer for this.

I got a sponge and a basin of warm water from the bathroom and started to wipe the blood off her face. I had to refill the bowl a lot. The water turned red so fast. I was afraid to open the cloak but I did it anyway. I couldn't let her stay like that.

There was some ragged cloth binding her wrists together. It was dirty but it might have been pink once. It was probably all that was left of her clothes. I tried to get it off her quickly but my hands kept shaking. I threw it on the floor when I finally got it off. I wanted to burn it. Looking at it made me feel sick.

I was still sponging her clean when the doctor came in. He yelled at me for what I was doing, but Barret put a hand on his shoulder and told him it made no difference. I stepped back to let the man do his work.

He was such an ass about it. He just snapped his gloves on and poked and prodded. Doctors can be so cold. It's true none of us could have given her the stitches she needed, or bound her broken bones so well, but he never even asked her name. He worked on her like she was so much meat. He didn't care that she had friends who had spent weeks looking for her and worrying about her. He didn't care that she was a lovely person.

I guess she didn't really look lovely at that point.

I stayed the whole time the doctor worked. I kept my eyes on her face. I didn't want to see what the doctor was doing but at least he didn't ask me to leave. Nobody else had come in and I wanted her to have someone there who cared about her.

The doctor was mumbling something about her being stable when she finally woke up. She opened the eye that wasn't swollen shut and looked right at me for just a second.

There's really no appropriate thing to say in this kind of situation. All I could say was her name.

She didn't move. She didn't blink. She didn't even try to speak. In fact, she didn't do anything at all.

That was when I realized that she wasn't really there anymore.