It was a Saturday night.
And this kind of stuff happens on Saturday nights.
The man looked at the crowded bar, the place he had been trying to forget for the past few years. The people drinking, laughing, talking.
He smiled. I'm home.

Two hours later

It was raining.
Yeah, kind of hard, too.
Tasha sighed and tried to concentrate on the schoolbook in front of her. History just wasn't in the repertoire for tonight, was it? She looked at her clock. 1:35 AM. No use.
She switched positions and opened Outlook Express. No new messages.
She grunted when she realized that the cursor was still on Cid's email from earlier today. She had just gone to move it when the phone rang.
She blinked, and picked it up. "Hello?"
"Hello, is this Karen Gonzales?"
"No...um, this is her daughter, Tasha Gonzales. Karen is in the Bay Area for the weekend. Can I help you?"
"Oh. Um..." The voice, official sounding at first, and masculine, dwindled to a point. "Your father is Ronald Gonzales, right?"
Tasha heard a business about the place that suggested to her either a police station or an emergency room. She suspected the former.
"Oh, no. What has dad done now? What is his charge this time?" She asked, sighing, getting ready to take notes.
"Well, that's not precisely the problem, Miss Gonzales."
Miss? Tasha perked up. This isn't good. She got an unsettled feeling in her stomach. "What's wrong with my dad?" She asked, nervously.
"This is Officer Peterson." The voice said, regaining the official-ness that it had had before. "We need you to come to Carson Tahoe Hospital."
"Why?!" She exclaimed. "What's wrong?"
"We need you to identify his remains."

Tasha hung up the phone, tears streaming down her face. No. No. No. He was sober. She kept repeating it, over and over.
Her father...causing a drunk driving accident? No fucking way...
She clutched her favorite pillow, shaped like a big red foot, to her, and sobbed into it. "No!" she screamed to anyone who could hear her. "He can't be dead...I just saw him a few hours ago..."
She looked at the computer, amazed that Outlook Express even existed anymore, considering the whole world had just imploded. She could still see Cid's message.
Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there...
With open arms and open eyes, yeah.
Trying hard to control her sobs, she picked up the phone.

Cid heard a buzzing.
No, a ringing.
He looked at his phone. It was ringing.
Ugh.
He turned on his nightstand light and looked at the caller ID.
Tasha.
He snatched the phone up from it's cradle. "Tasha? What's wrong?"
He heard a slight moan from the other side. "Oh, God...Cid..." She sobbed out.
"Shh..what's wrong?"
"He's dead!"
"Who's dead, baby?" Cid asked, near hysterical himself.
"My daddy! He's dead!"

Sephiroth woke up in a cold sweat.
Something was wrong.
He looked at his clock-radio. 1:38 AM.
What could be wrong?
And then, from about a block away, he heard a cry. "No!"
It was Tasha.
He jumped from his bed, put on some shoes and grabbed a flashlight.

Aeris woke up in the guest bedroom to a scream from Tasha's room. "No!"
"Shit." She said as she fell from the narrow bed. Grimacing at the pain the newest bruise was causing, she stood up and walked towards Tasha's room. Then she heard something amazing.
"Oh, God...Cid..." Tasha was talking to Cid? They hadn't been getting along for days!
"He's dead!" Tasha said. "My daddy's dead!"

Aeris greeted Sephiroth morosely. "It's bad, Seph." She had tears streaming down her face. "I think Cid's going to come over, and I'm gonna call Reno."
"What happened?"
"Ron...Tasha's dad...had been sober for almost two years." Aeris said, jerkily. "He relapsed today..."
Sephiroth gasped.
"That's not even the bad part." Aeris sad, wiping her hand across her face. "After he left the bar, he took off in his car and decided to go four-wheeling up C hill, which is dangerous enough at night..."
"And it's raining..."
"And he was drunk." Aeris finished. "At least he didn't kill anyone else..."
"Wait..." Sephiroth gaped. "Ron is dead?"
Aeris nodded.
"Oh....no."

Cid rushed as fast as he could without bringing danger to himself or any of the other people on the road.
Of all the people Tasha could have called right now, she'd called him. And he'd promised, long ago and today in his email, that he would always be there for her, no matter what.
He had to get to her in one piece.

Aeris and Sephiroth put their heads together and came up with a few phone numbers: Vincent, Lucrecia, Lisa, Jeremy, and Caleb. Lisa was half-asleep but woke up fast enough when she heard the news. She promised to get ahold of her friends and they'd come over right away.
Jeremy wasn't asleep. He had been doing some homework for the weekend and had his phone book right next to him, he said.
Vincent and Lucrecia were reached at Lucrecia's house, and Vincent tried to pursued Lucrecia not to come over because she wasn't feeling well, but she insisted.
"Tasha has been here for me." She kept saying. "I need to be there for her."
Caleb was awake. Big surprise there. He told Sephiroth he'd be down to Carson as soon as possible...but it was raining, and Washoe is a dangerous valley during a rainstorm, so Sephiroth guessed they'd be seeing Caleb tomorrow.
So, right on Cid's tail, there was a large group of people, wanting to help.
Tasha stared out the window, watching the spectacle. They can't help. She thought, sadly. Not unless they're good at bringing dead people back to life.