[color=39b54a][b]Dr. Arthur West - Salem Clinic[/b][/color]

Arthur froze when the mutant began explaining the differences between the mutants of the east and his own kind, the mutants on the west coast. He was both surprised, intrigued, and more than a little disturbed at the intelligence and in-depth understanding of the FEV that Gorge was displaying. When Gorge mentioned that he believed that the Commonwealth's FEV might have been tampered with, or otherwise altered, Arthur could hardly contain his nervous apprehension.

[i]How right you are....[/i] Arthur mused to himself as he thought of the irony of the fact that not only was Gorge correct: but he was standing next to the very man who had helped to architect the Commonwealth strain. 

[i]“Come doctor there are still more wounded to care too, I’m not the best medic but I’ve been around long enough to know what to do as long as you tell me what to do.” [/i]

Arthur snapped out of his thoughts as he heard Gorge's voice.

"Ah of course..." He muttered, before turning back to the mutant, "Here...we need to move quickly. Let me finish stitching up Steve and then we'll move on to Brandy..."

------------------

After several minutes of nimble medical work, and with the help of Gorge, Arthur allowed himself a moment to breathe as he sat down in a nearby set of broken church pews. The patients had all been stabilized and bandaged or stitched up. They'd all be nursing their wounds for some time, but none of them would suffer any major long-term consequences from the injuries suffered. Not physically anyway....Arthur still had some concerns for poor Brandy's psyche, but he wasn't a psychologist and this [i]was[/i] the wasteland. Psychological trauma was a fact of everyday life here and he had to marvel at the fact that not everyone was a walking basket case. 

As Gorge passed by the pew, Arthur looked up,

"Err...thank you," he said, hesitantly, "I...appreciate the assistance." Thanking a mutant for rendering medical aid was hardly something he was used to doing, and the words came out rather muddled. 

With a sigh, Arthur leaned back just as Frieda walked back through the church doors carrying a small bag in her hand. Avoiding Gorge, she made her way over to Arthur and handed it to him,

[i]"Here.  Take a break, have something to eat.  I'll keep an eye on things, here."[/i]

Arthur smiled warmly, appreciating the gesture,

"Thank you Frieda, I could certainly use a break. Perhaps some fresh air could do me some good as well..."

With a nod to Frieda, he stood up, clutching the bagged lunch, and walked out of the clinic, narrowly avoiding the Deathclaw's carcass as he did so. He stared down in wonder at the size of the beast before reminding himself that he'd have to take a few flesh samples before the day was out and the creature had begun to decompose. 

"After lunch of course..." He mumbled to himself. 

As he stepped away from the clinic, he looked into the bag Frieda had given him and saw the sandwiches and mutfruit packed neatly within. He sat down on a nearby bench and took once of the sandwiches out. Eyeing it suspiciously, he tore off a small piece of it and gave it a taste. It wasn't....terrible, but he knew he wouldn't be able to finish it all, nor could he stomach it if he did, so he continued to nibble at it.

After a few minutes trying to get down as much as he could, he discretely pulled a small pill from his pocket and popped it into his mouth, savoring the rush of flavor from the supplement and allowing it to wash the taste of the meat away. He packed up the rest of the food back into the bag and just as he was doing so, he realized that he hadn't seen hide nor hair of Rick since the Deathclaws had attacked. Panic seized him, worried for the sake of one of two people in the town he could confide in as well as a fellow colleague and he quickly walked over to the Diner, deciding to start his search there. 

He needn't have worried, as luck would have it, Rick was carefully sweeping the floor of the Diner, trying to make himself useful no doubt, and Arthur breathed a sigh of relief,

"Glad to see that abomination didn't get you as well..." Arthur said as he entered the small, now decidedly torn up, little building, "I'd never seen one before....'Deathclaws' they call them. I'd be quite content with never seeing another one in my life. I mean I had read SRB repor..."

Arthur stopped short when he noticed the young waitress coming in from the back, eyeing them with mixture of indifference and angst before giving a sigh and resuming her work,

"..the Vault Security reports on them. But...never seen one in person."

Once Betty was out of earshot, Arthur lowered his voice to a whisper and continued,

"About that...proposal I mentioned to you earlier. Now more than ever I'm convinced we should request assistance from home. Another attack like that and the clinic won't be able to handle it...even with the supplies the town donated we're going through it faster than I could ever restock normally. And if we had even one disguised Courser to help protect it....you mentioned that The Directorate would be hard pressed to agree...and you're probably right."

Arthur looked around again, making sure that no-one had come back into earshot, 

"...I believe I might have something that could change their minds," he gazed back over at the church, "Something that might be an invaluable source of research. The mutant...the intelligent one...not Rook I mean the [i]really[/i] intelligent one. Its a mutant created from the original Mariposa FEV strain perhaps...perhaps I might be able to glean some insight from him. If I can figure out a way to get him to allow me to run some tests on him..."

Nervously, Arthur bit his lip, unsure of what he was about to say, and perhaps more than a little apprehensive,

"I could restart my lab here. Far away from Vault 88. They needn't be connected at all to it, and there's plausible deniability there as well. The research potential would be enormous...and if it gets the town the supplies and protection it needs...." Arthur sighed deeply, as if resigning himself, "Then I'll do it."