Rescue Me

Author's note: Sorreh about the enormous delay, I completely fogot to update this. Either that or I thought I had updated it and actually hadn't. o.O Either way, the next few chapters are going up like, now. ^-^ Enjoy. And leave a review, I'm getting back into the swing of things, and a few reviews will spur me on to update again.

Rescue Me
Chapter 3
Going Away

Days passed excruciatingly slowly and there was little to say about Squall’s condition except that he wasn’t getting any worse for now, but nor was he getting any better. He hadn’t awoken for the whole time he’d been confined, laying perfectly still, like a porcelain doll on display.

“Has he woken up yet? Has he said anything?”

“Not yet Quistis, now, please can you let me get on with my work? I told you that I’d get in contact with you and the others as soon as there’s been a change in his condition. There has been no change so please, stop nagging at me and be patient, I’m sure he’ll come around soon enough.” Dr Kadowaki informed the flustered instructor in a less than pleased voice. She could understand that the young woman was worried for her friend but nagging the physician wouldn’t solve anything, and considering it was the sixth time in four days, the poor doctor was finding her patience with the woman running out.

“So as soon as his condition changes you’ll let us know straight away?” The blonde queried again.

“Yes Quistis, now if you’ll excuse me, I can’t tend to Squall if I‘m out here chatting with you.” Dr Kadowaki muttered dismissively, and bustled past the instructor and deeper into the Infirmary, leaving the startled female stood awkwardly before the Infirmary’s administration desk.

Quistis sighed and reluctantly turned her back on the sickbay before slowly trudging out and into the hallway where her friends were waiting expectantly, Zell having even stopped his shadow boxing in eager anticipation of the blonde female’s enquiry. However, as she walked towards them, she shook her head and just walked slowly past them, hearing the collective sigh of Zell, Selphie and Irvine as they too turned and followed her slowly away from the medical wing.

“Still not awoken. D’you think he ever will?” Irvine asked, only to receive a sudden jab to his ribs from the small brunette female at his side.

“Don’t you dare say that! Of course Squall will get better. Don’t even think about him not waking up!” Selphie cried, her eyes welling with tears but before Irvine could draw her into a comforting hug, she pushed herself away from him. “How could you even think that he’ll die? How can you not believe in him?” She demanded, uncaring of the small crowd that was gathering around them in light of her shouting as they came to see what the fuss was about.

“I’m just being realistic Selph; of course I believe in him, it’s just that I think we just have to be prepared for the worst y’know, we wouldn’t want to get our hopes up in case we really do lose him.” Irvine explained, though it did little to calm the troubled girl as the tears that were merely shining in her eyes began to trail down her cheeks, carving wet channels down her soft and flushed skin.

“We’re not gonna lose him!” The distraught brunette female all but screamed, her breathing catching in her throat and her eyes widening in mild shock at her own outburst, it was very uncharacteristic of her to get so worked up over something that wasn’t a Garden festival or celebration of some kind.

An awkward silence fell over the halls, the odd shuffle of feet or stifled cough the only sounds in the normally bustling and cheerful corridors of the famous academy. It seemed as though the entire establishment had come to a complete standstill to hear the news of the Commander’s unchanged condition and witness the stress that such depressing news caused the elite SeeDs. But if the broken brunette Commander heard of how many people were so concerned for him, the likelihood would be that he would only get worse, having so many cadets, Instructors and civilians worried about him, abandoning their work for the sake of one wounded man would only make him want to leave the world more seeing how much distress he caused.

As Selphie sunk to her knees and the cowboy again went to comfort her, Quistis moved to the crowd surrounding them and sighed, her usually authoritative voice strained and tired. “Please, can everyone go back to what they were doing. As soon as we hear anything, we’ll be sure to let you know.” Her speech lacking in her eloquent language and demonstrating just how much the situation was wearing her down. Once the crowds had dispersed, she returned her attention to the SeeDs whom she called friends. “We have classes to teach, we can’t let ourselves become so distracted by this.” She murmered, though it was obvious that she would have trouble abiding by her own words as much as her companions would.

Zell nodded having remained strangely motionless and silent throughout the news and its proceedings, but as his head drooped and he turned to head towards the lifts, he lifted his head and turned his dulled and concerned gaze back to his friends. “Squall would want us to carry on without him, not to neglect our duties because of him; maybe we should leave him alone for a while. Doc Kadowaki has said that she’ll tell us if he changes at all so we’re not doing anyone any favours by moping around the place and making everyone else depressed too.” He said quietly, and received a reluctant mumble of acknowledgement from the high ranking SeeDs.

Together the small group headed off to attend to their duties, whether it be teaching, training or simply sleeping, each feeling like they bore the weight of the world on their shoulders, in much the same way as they had when fighting the sorceress. If Squall were to pass away, then his friends would be the ones who were landed with the blame, it would be their fault for not helping him and pushing him over the edge, but not only did they want him to recover because of that, but because he was their friend and leader. Also, without the Commander’s calm and collected demeanour to keep everything in order, the ice that layered his words and actions that kept even the most troublesome students in check, things easily got out of hand.

****

Coincidentally, it was that day that Squall chose to rouse himself from the welcoming darkness of his attempted suicide.

‘Attempted?’

Slowly, wearily opening dulled blue/grey eyes, the Commander of Balamb Garden observed his surroundings.

This certainly wasn’t heaven, unless his idea of bliss was being hooked up to an IV with numerous tubes and wires leading in and out of his body and he enjoyed the incessant monotonous beeping of the heart monitor beside his bed.

It could only be Hell. Or as others liked to call it, reality.

Even though he was as white as the sheets beneath him, he was deceptively strong and seeing as they’d been pumping food supplements into his body, he was stronger than he would have expected to be. With this in mind, he sat up, painfully, but he was no stranger to pain and pushed such feeling aside, and checked to see what he was clothed in. Obviously his other clothes would have been bloodied so he wouldn’t be wearing them, and not surprisingly, he found himself in those tacky blue hospital issue pants and shirtless.

Just as he was about to find his way out of the tangle of wires and tubes that bound him, he heard distinct footsteps just down the hall from his ‘room’ and so he hurriedly made sure he looked as dead as he did before he awoke. Moments after he was settled and motionless once more, Dr Kadowaki entered the room and started to check him over, making sure his tubes were still in, and that everything was in order, his condition hadn’t changed.

After enduring being poked and prodded for signs of a reaction, the brunette male waited until the footsteps receded into the depths of the medical wing again, before resuming his attempt to free himself from the tube shaped restraints that were pumping Hyne knew what was into his system. Reaching over the edge of his bed, he shut off the heart monitor so that he could at least try to ease the pounding headache that had settled at his temples, and then looked to the coils of line that led to various pieces of equipment beside his bed. Bracing himself for the stabs of pain, he pulled each electrode and tube from his body, and swung his legs to the edge of the bed, wiping the small trails of blood from where the electrodes had been embedded into his skin.

There was a loud crash from Squall’s room, but thankfully the physician wasn’t in, having been called to a classroom where a cadet had collapsed, meaning that the infirmary, and consequently Squall, had been left unattended. The brunette lion was lying sprawled across the floor, scowling at his legs as if they’d betrayed him as his arms had back when he’d wanted to reach for the drifting feather. Being motionless for about a week apparently had a negative affect on the lower body seeing as it hadn’t been in use for a while. Growling in frustration at his lack of mobility, he painfully hoisted himself back onto the bed and just sat on the edge of it, contemplating his predicament and the possible solutions. Seeing as the doctor hadn’t entered the room, it was safe for him to assume she was elsewhere, therefore meaning that he didn’t yet need to worry about being found.

The brunette male sat on the edge of the bed for some time, weighing his options, waiting for his legs to decide to function again. However, for fear of being found, Squall tried again to stand not long after his initial collapse, and although he was shaky and unsteady, he was able to remain upright and in light of this, rather than stick around and wait for someone to come across him in the Infirmary, he staggered towards the door, picking up his usual outfit from a cubby hole to the side after it had been washed. Gear collected, but Lionheart missing, Squall stumbled out of the medical wing, thankful that classes were in session and the hallways were clear.

Understandably, traversing the halls when you could barely stand was difficult to say the least and on a number of occasions, the brunette male stumbled and met with the floor. He did manage to reach his room undetected though, and his door hissed open quietly to admit him.

It was untouched, which did actually mildly surprise the commander as he’d expected his ‘friends’ to rummage around to try and find the cause of his melancholy, not that they’d find anything anyway. They never understood him, no matter how much they tried or said they did, not one of them would be able to understand him unless he wanted them to, and he wasn’t in that way inclined.

Forced to become the leader he never wanted to be.

If they understood him, they would never have put him in that position to begin with, and maybe, just maybe, none of them would be in this situation and Squall wouldn’t have tried to take his own life.

Just remaining upright was taking its toll on the weakened male and he slumped onto the couch of his dorm/living quarters, trying to steady his breathing and keep going. He had to get out of there, had to get as far away from them as possible and if they wanted to help him, they could do so by allowing him the freedom he desired. But he wasn’t going anywhere without Lionheart.

Shuffling through to the bedroom, he dropped to his knees before the bed and reached beneath it, withdrawing Lionheart’s case. Opening the heavy lid, the majestic gunblade lay in its velvet lined support, glowing as usual in a beautiful pale blue.

Changing out of the distasteful medical clothes, Squall changed as fast as he could, given the circumstances, hastily clipping the weighty weapon to one of his many belts before resting against the wall as he stood, a wave of nausea and dizziness washing over him, causing him to double over in great discomfort. Once the feeling had passed, the brunette staggered out of his room once again and moved as swiftly as he could towards the parking lot. Seeing as he was supposedly still unconscious, no-one would be on the lookout for him, and hopefully, it would make his escape easier.

With the added weight of Lionheart banging against his hip, the brunette commander was surprised that he didn’t collapse on his way over, seeing as he was in less than good health, but as he snuck into the covered parking lot of the military facility, he was relieved to see one of Garden’s many vehicles parked against the far wall.

Glancing left and right to check for onlookers, the weakened brunette made his way over to his selected vehicle and scrambled inside, taking a moment to rest as he settled himself in the driver’s seat. Once his breathing regulated, he started the engine to the car and put it in drive, just as a small group of people assembled at the entrance to the parking lot where he’d entered only minutes before. Much to his annoyance, it just happened to be Zell and Quistis whom were leading a small group of cadets, probably about to go on some kind of field trip or something, the blonde female instructor was always trying to emphasise the importance of field training and frankly, it got on the commander’s nerves.

Quistis’ eyes bulged as she caught sight of who happened to be behind the wheel of the transport she was about to take but before she could come and try to stop him, Squall revved the engine and, with tyres squealing against the concrete floor, hastily sped away, out onto the plains, leaving the onlookers with their mouths hanging open in disbelief.

Where he was heading, he didn’t know, how long he would be gone, he knew not that either, but he did know that he had to get as far away from Balamb Garden as he could, somewhere that the others would not think to look for him.

Sighing with melancholy, Squall drove for Balamb, intending to catch a train, to where, he had yet to decide, but he had a little while to think about it, and what he wanted to come of his time alone. No doubt Balamb Garden would be on the verge of falling to pieces without their ‘all powerful’ commander to maintain order, but he had to ask himself whether he wanted to go back to that. After all that had happened there, both good and bad, did he really want to return to his position of authority where no-one cared about the individual themselves but about whether or not the work gets done? Did he really want his ‘friends’ badgering him about throwing parties for his birthdays and trying to get him to lighten up? Was that the life that he wanted for himself?

The answer, simply, was no.