Rated R for mature situations, drug references, mature language, and explicit sex scenes. You've been warned.

Author's Notes: This is the last chapter of the first part of my little story that I'm working on. Granted, I do give little tidbits of what to look forward to, hopefully this is a good enough ending to the first part. I still don't know how many parts it's going to be, but probably four at most. I'm aiming for three, but it just depends how the story goes. Anyway, give me some feedback on what you guys think!

G A W D Y F O R T U N E S

Part 1: Unfaithful

By: Xtine

Chapter 10: Departure

Reno gimped on the street with his hands dug deep into his pockets. He watched the sky above him begin to grow dark from rain clouds moving in from the north. His heart physically ached and he felt his throat clench up as he continued to walk further and further away from the person he now knew he desperately loved. A warm tear streaked down his cheek and he watched it fall onto the cement below.

With a sigh he looked ahead and saw a dilapidated building in the distance, which looked like it would serve as a good shelter until he could figure out how to get himself as far away from the town as possible. He had to leave it all behind now, as he for the first time knew what love was and now he had to get himself as far away from it as he could so he could forget the feeling, as he knew he could never feel something like that again.

It's like the best drug, he mused to himself, as he had never felt so high before as he did with the time he spent with Tifa. He wished he could have told her that. He wished he would have had the courage to tell her everything that he felt last night, and how he would have given nothing more than to run away with her to a desolate town full of people they didn't know to start a new life together, just the two of them.

But now he stumbled through the wet streets doing what he had always done best. Hiding himself from his opposition and doing whatever he needed to do to survive. That was the game now.

Not even thinking that there would be a possibility of him having more trouble, he nonchalantly hobbled past the inn not noticing whose attention he happened to grasp.

Barret stood by the windowsill peering out into the street and cautiously watching the Ex-Turk gimp his way down the street. He scoffed to himself as he watched the slimy rat walk by and he just didn't seem satisfied to let him go that easy. Memories of his old teammates popped up in his head and he clenched his fist as he once again became enraged and he promised himself to seek revenge for them.

xoxox

Gray clouds were filling the sky when Tifa stepped outside. She heard the clap of thunder over head and one by one the raindrops began to fall. A breeze swept by her side and sent a chill up her spine. With a deep sigh she walked out into the street and began her frantic search to find her lost lover.

Her jacket was soaked after an hour of searching with no results. Still not willing to give up on him however, she pressed on and ended up going into an abandoned building near the edge of town to keep herself from getting more wet than she already was.

The windows had been shot out of the building and some of the pillars holding up the second story had fallen down. Debris and rubble littered the floor but the ceiling, although not in the greatest condition, still stood and kept most of the rain out of the dilapidated building. An idea had then struck her that this would have been a good place for a homeless man to ditch the weather at.

"Reno," she called his name, hoping for a response but wasn't surprised when she didn't get one. She walked on into the rubble a bit more, but became disappointed when she faced the fact that he had probably already left town.

Tears welled up in her eyes and she leaned up against one of the supportive beams in the building. The sobs began to wrack at her body and she slid down the cement and curled into a tight ball hiding her face in her knees as she let the tears come pouring out knowing that she let the best thing to happen in her life get away.

xoxox

Little to her knowledge, the being she so desperately looked for was standing only a few feet away observing her every move. He smirked in response to her concern and when he saw her fall to the ground crying, he could feel his soul cry with her. Seeing her so frantically search for him told him everything he wanted to know. Trying to be as quiet as possible, he stepped cautiously towards her frail body and stooped over her with a very satisfied grin perched on his lips.

"This wasn't exactly what I had in mind for our first date, but.." he didn't even have a chance to finish his sarcastic statement before Tifa's attention was caught.

"Reno?" she looked up to see his stoic form standing in front of her. In less than an instant she climbed onto her feet and gleefully wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight, warm embrace. He happily obliged to her greeting and wrapped his muscular arms around her waist in return and hid his face in the crevice between her neck and shoulder.

"I thought I was never going to see you again," she cried into his neck. He smiled and tightened his embrace around her.

"You didn't think you could get rid of me that easy did you," his voice was soft and relieved to be holding her in his arms once again. She laughed in between sobs as she shook her head.

Releasing his tight grip from her, he looked down into her eyes and was about to place his lips upon hers until he heard the distinguished sound of a gun being cocked. Before he even had a chance to turn and see the attacker, he felt the piercing bullets enter his backside. He didn't even hear the shots ring through the air before the intense pain shot up through his spine. He only managed to stand for a second before collapsing down to the ground.

Tifa looked straight ahead as Reno fell out of her sight to see Barret standing about 6 feet away with his gun arm smoking from the shots he just let off. A pure look of horror was on Tifa's face as she felt her world come crashing down to the ground.

"Tifa! It had to be done. To avenge Jesse, Biggs, and Wedge," Barret started to justify the shooting.

"Oh my God Barret," she had no argument for him and she just looked at him with grief stricken eyes.

"He's a fucking Turk Tifa! He woulda killed you too if somebody put a big enough price over your head!"

Not paying any more attention to Barret, she fell to her knees and crouched over Reno as she could feel him struggling with his last breaths.

"No...Reno," she pleaded that this was all a bad dream. "Please...You'll be okay." She tried to convince herself more than him as she looked down towards his abdomen and saw the blood beginning to poor through the exit wounds. It was a wonder that none of the stray bullets hit her, but Reno was standing directly in front of her as a shield.

Reno tried to speak but all that came out was a cough and a small dribble of blood from corner of his mouth and he could only shake his head in response.

"Tifa..." his voice was faint and weak when he tried to speak again, "I have to admit that this past few days have been the best days of my life."

"I won't let you die...!" she cried to him, not wanting to admit defeat, especially now that they could finally have each other. Of course, she could try using her cure materia, but even that was only a temporary pain neutralizer, and wouldn't stop the bleeding.

"You showed me what it is to love," he tried to fight in his last few words as his eyesight was growing darker and darker.

Barret stood and watched in horror at the grief he put his friend in, although there was a deranged satisfaction that overpowered his sensible mind saying it was the right thing to do. He shook his head and whispered some obscenities to himself. He had watched Reno leaving from the bar and followed him here into the rundown building and was planning to finally rid the earth of its scum. He hadn't even noticed when Tifa had showed up, and the thunder outside drowned out any silent conversations the two were having. Still shaking his head, Barret headed in the opposite direction, leaving the two lovers to have their final moments together, also knowing that Tifa probably wouldn't want to see his face again.

"Reno," she whispered his name again as more tears streaked down her cheeks and fell upon his dying form.

"Tifa, I love you," were the last words he managed to speak as he put his hand on her cheek and guided her down towards his lips for one last kiss. Those are the best last words I could ever do… He thought as he watched the world slowly descend into blackness around him.

Tifa continued to kiss him until she felt his hand fall back down to the ground and the muscles in his lips relax as his mind left the conscious world. Her lips began to tremble and her body ached at the realization that he was now gone, lost to her forever. Everything she ever wanted, the love that they had was real, and now she had nothing but the memories the two had shared. His face flashed in her mind, and her heart shattered seeing his lifeless form below her.

"Re…Reno?" she whimpered his name as she looked down to see the vacant stare from his half shut eyelids. Her body shuddered as she fell over his corpse and sobs wracked her tiny body.

Even in their very short time together, he had shown her things that she thought didn't exist, feelings that had been so clouded by her past that she didn't dare explore what she truly was missing.

Tifa didn't even rise from his body until a paramedic came and put his hand on her shoulders. She looked up to see an unfamiliar face look down on her and comfort her away from the body as other paramedics came quickly and placed his body on the stretcher. It was strange that they didn't put his body in a body bag, but honestly she wasn't even thinking rationally at the moment so the thought never crossed her mind.

"I'm sorry for your loss ma'am," the male paramedic apologized and tipped his hat at her after successfully putting Reno's body in the ambulance.

Another paramedic came and gave a distraught look as he tried to hurry the other man along. Together they raced into the driver and passenger seat of the ambulance and drove off, not bothering to turn on the siren.

"Damn, it took long enough to find him," the driver spoke while looking through the glass of the ambulance to Reno's body that was lying limp on a stretcher.

"Well, hopefully we reached him in time," the female concurred while turning her head to take a glance at the fallen man and the doctors that now huddled over his body looking for vital signs.

"I'm just curious about what was going on between him and Tifa. I'll be sure to ask him about THAT when he wakes up," the male smirked and turned back towards the steering wheel and proceeded to drive off into the distance.

xoxox

Two months had passed since Reno's death and she could now empathize with Cloud's loss of Aerith. She still lived in her bar, but she was now alone as she found a note on the table of few days later from Cloud.

My dear Tifa,

It's funny how things work out in life. I can empathize with your loss. I'm writing you though because I've finally realized that it's time for me to go on my search. I don't know if I'll ever see you again, but I hope you can move on and hopefully fate will help us both.

Love always,

Cloud

The letter had left another hole in her heart, as she now felt completely alone in the world. Everything she loved she had lost, but now she had time to grieve and to move on.

She looked in the mirror at her stringy hair, which she attempted to brush out as she waited patiently. She glanced over at the small utensil every once and a while as mixed emotions welled in her stomach, or perhaps just another wave of nausea. Either way, she ignored the uncomfortable feeling and continued to move her fingers gently through her hair and gaze at her reflection in the mirror.

Times had become difficult for her, as every night she dreamt about the man she loved and wishing there was a way to reverse the past. The worst part about her dreams though were the ones where she convinced herself that he really wasn't even dead. When she woke up however, she had to recollect the last hours with him to convince herself that it had really happened.

Another five minutes passed and she knew it was time to look at the results of her pregnancy test. She stepped towards the counter that it rested peacefully on and glanced down at the little window that held the result.

A small smile spread on her lips and a tear of excitement escaped the corner of her eye from the result. She put her hand up to her lips and she felt them tremble under her touch as she took in the information.

She knew that even in Reno's departure of this life that she now held onto a part of him within her. From the nights that they had together, and their final night alone where she could say she 'made love' to the man she would have spent the rest of her life with, she accepted the results of her test as being accurate.

Disclaimers: I do not own any of the names, characters, or places mentioned in this story.