Hero
Chapter Two
By Race Ulfson
Standard disclaimer: I don't own the characters, they are property of SquareSoft. This fanfic is not for profit.
Author's Note: I lost a friend in a car wreck. His safety belt and air bag did what they were supposed to, but his metal tool box that he'd thrown in the back seat flew up and fractured his skull. Please drive carefully and never while drinking.
Hero
Chapter Two
By Race Ulfson
I cast Phoenix without even realizing it.
His chest heaved and his eyelids fluttered.
Alive. Okay then. Time to inspect the damage.
Squall's legs were pinned under the dash and were pretty much a mess.Although he was wearing his seat belt - can you imagine Squall NOT wearing his seat belt? - he'd taken a good hit on the side of the head, possibly from something bouncing around in the car with him. Squall was covered with glass and not all of it was safety glass from the windshield. I could smell beer and maybe brandy.
Squall, Squall, you know better!
Somehow I got Squall out, casting discrete curagas to keep him stable.
Fuu appeared at my side. "The Other One's stable." She sniffed as she helped me secure Squall. "He's going to jail."
Annoyed, I said, "You don't know that."
"His blood alcohol will be high... c'mon, I can smell the booze from here. He was doing over 100 - and the brown truck has local tags, he's from what is that? Esther?" All the time Fuu is talking, she's handing me the correct vials, taking notes on the PDA. "As soon as he's out of the hospital, he'll be some happy guy's new roomie at Dollet."
I cringed a little at that. It's not like I was really protecting Squall... just avoiding scandle. Payback.
Figuring Fuu knew anyway, I cast esuana on Squall and let her take him away. To be on the safe side, I pumped a few curagas into the old duff from the brown truck, too.
And then, as we pulled away, Squall's car inexplicably burst into flames, with a little help from our old friend Firuga.
No, I don't only stock healing spells. And don't look at me like that. What's the point, now?
So all the evidence was destroyed. Two days later, nothing in the news. I figured I hushed it up - or Laguna Loire and the Gardens did. Either way, my Good Deed of the Year was out of the way and lookee, I've got the rest of Autumn and all of Winter to coast.
I was refilling the packs and turning in reports. It had been a fun filled weekend for those of us in the rescue biz. Rajin was checking on patient status - he likes to follow up on each of "our" patients. I think he writes those near miss disaster stories for Dental Office Magazines - you know the ones with the little joke on each page and at least one Heart Warming Sob Story per issue? - If Raj doesn't, he should, because Fuu and I hear each patient's story despite all efforts to stop him.
Rajin rattles them all off, trivia, sucesses, a few failures to wince over. Fuu and I work and ignor him until he gets down to, "They're sending John Doe over to Charity."
"John Doe doesn't narrow it down much, Raj," I said, not looking up. If he's going to talk all the time, he should at least make sense.
"Exploding sports car? Head on with a brown truck? Mr. Gimmel, by the way, is doing just fine and went home yesterday."
"Why would they send him to Charity?"
"Because," Raj said, shocked I would ask a question he knew the answer to, "he's poor and hurt and they don't know who he is."
"They don't know who he is," I repeated, and it's a sad thing to be repeating after Rajin.
"I guess he doesn't remember anything."
"Can't trace the car, it totally burned up in the explosion," Fuu said.
Was that a dig? Didn't matter, I was on to other things.
Like, 'they don't know who he is.'
Pardon me, but that just pissed me off.
Squall saved the PLANET, for Hyne's sake. You'd think someone would recognize him! He saved you, and that fat bastard standing next to you, and all the people in Galbadia and the whole world from Galbadia, and me, and from something you can't even begin to understand enough to be afraid of.
Squall saved you all when he was 17 fucking years old and 4 years later no one even knows who the fuck he IS?!
No one misses him?