[i]"Only a few hours? Aww man," He said as the doctor finished talking, "I feel fantastic. Like seriously you are amazing doc. I'm like a new man- we should go out on the town. Go get you laid since my sis' is too much of a prude." "Fuck you Val." Viva interjected as Noah pulled her away. Valko continued unperturbed as he babbled on a roll, "I'll get laid too. It'll be fun. What kinda woman ya like? Me, I like Tall Blonds- just like my drinks. I could sure go for a drink... and some food. I am so damn hungry an- Wait nooo, I wanted food. Take me back to the kitchen."[/i]


Loire was rather amused by Valko, well ... drugged up Valko, he appeared amicable and pleasant, then again, that could just have been the drugs talking, Val could be a whole other person once they wore off. Loire opted to just enjoy the good company for now, Valko was very friendly and the doctor was relieved that there was potentially one other person on this crew who wasn't as [i]complicated[/i] as Noah could be. 

[b]"I'll have to politely decline Valko, I have no interest in women, I'm very much married to my work."[/b] he replied pleasantly. He hadn't gotten the chance to answer Noah's question about taking things more seriously, so of course he wasn't going to tell Valko he was seeing someone ... besides, Noah was complicated, Loire didn't think he'd be the type to be open about his affairs ... Then again, he could be wrong. Being committed to his job was the easiest answer and wasn't a lie either. 

Loire had a hard time admitting his sexual preference. The colony world that he'd grown up on was small, a rigid religious regime had flourished, although not everyone was a follower it was impossible to entirely escape the influence and the judgement of the neighbours, and when everyone knew everyone else, gossip between neighbours spread easily, everyone was aware of everyone elses affairs and anything that wasn't fair, just and heteronormative, was usually regarded with scorn. Unfortunately for a young Loire, he grew up on one of the few somewhat "backwards" planets that held onto extremely dated conservative views that had pretty much faded out on other worlds. 

Loire had only been young when he'd left, but he'd learned that being gay wasn't something to openly declare on his homeworld. The Citadel was vibrant, in every way imaginable, and all sorts of people with all sorts of preferences were very vocal and visible and it was okay, Loire wasn't really accustomed to it though and generally kept to himself. His silence didn't mean he didn't acknowledge his sexuality though, he accepted it himself and assumed his parents were aware of it by now, parents could just sense this sort of thing right? 

[b]"Once you're back on your feet, and [i]not[/i] staggering around, you can eat and drink to your hearts content."[/b] Loire reassured. Usually patients who suffered internal traumas like Valko would need a special diet for a while, but Valko was a hardy bloke, there would be no need to molly-coddle him, he was already doing very well. 

Loire proceeded to help ease Valko back up onto the bed and began to do a series of routine checks, blood-pressure, temperature, heart beat, checking his responses to ensure he wasn't suffering from any kind of brain trauma. 
[b]"You gave us quite a scare you know."[/b] Loire said as he worked. [b]"I'd be lying if I told you you weren't at deaths door when Viva brought me in."[/b]

[i]"I fuckin know how bad the situation is, A situation we wouldn't be in if you hadn't of gotten us involved with the Nth. Which I'm still pissed about, and that's besides this nonsense about you spiking Val's drip- which I will get to the bottom of cause I ain't about to swallow that bullshit. So I hope you understand what I mean when I say we have Bigger Problems to deal with. I just got accosted by a druggy Noah, Some wasted, cut off, lowlife, who KNEW I was involved with Nth. Fucker was going through my pockets trying to find it! We got somebody on our tail Noah. Somebody who isn't shy about spreading the word about who we are and what we're hauling. Now we got a bullseye on us that's to the point that some wretch off the street can find us, who knows who else is gonna be gunning for that thrice damned cargo So Just Who the Hell did you Piss Off?"[/i]

[b]"You can't peg this all on me Viva, your brother was there too and it was because of him that this deal went south, if he hadn't caused such a scene we wouldn't have attracted so much attention adn we'd probably have already made the drop off by now if he'd just followed the plan."[/b] As far as Noah was concerned, 90% of the troubles right now were mostly Val's fault, that didn't mean that things wouldn't have fucked up later on because of Noah or the cargo, but this was the hand they'd been dealt and it was Val who'd caused the fight that landed them in hot water in the first place. 

Noah knew Viva was mad about upping Val's pain relief, and while Noah could understand her anger at him for the Nth deal, he wasn't going to sit back and let her look down on him because of Val. As selfish and manipulative as he could be, Noah [i]did[/i] care about Val very much, and as insufferable as she was in his eyes, part of him cared of Viva too in his own not very obvious way.
[b]"Vee don't dare think that I'd ever harm Valko. He's my best friend ... heck he's more than that, he's like a brother to me and I would die without him. Do you think you're the only one who was scared out of your freaking mind when he was bleeding out? Because you're not. You can hate me all you want, but don't for one second think that I don't love Valko, anything I do, I do with all of our best interests in mind."[/b] 

He wasn't lying. That much was pure honest truth. Maybe Viva would believe him, maybe, but right now, they had other issues to deal with so it wasn't worth dragging out this any longer, at least not for now. 

Noah swore under his breath when Viva outlined just how much more shit they were in now. During the blood bath, someone had sent out a signal, the class of their ship, and its cargo, and now it was doing the rounds on the underground intelligence circuit. 
[b]"Fuckin' Patches"[/b] he cursed. "Patches" of course referred to "Mal Sullivan", a big baddie drug lord who lost his eye and thus earned the lovely nickname "Patches" ... well ... not quite, no one lived if they said it to his face, but Noah thought the nickname was catchy. 
[b]"Mal Sullivan, he's ... He's not good news, but we can just get to Paradiso and get rid of the cargo quick. Are we refuelled and ready to go or what?"[/b] Noah asked, they didn't have time to sit around anymore, if the refuel wasn't finished up, Noah would go out with Viva and they'd get everything wrapped up quick and get off this damn station fast.