AU Crackship: Victor Batten and Daphne Holliday

[Victor Batten]

If Irulan had lingered instead of starting down the hall, she MIGHT have gotten some hell out of him, but he'd done well in avoiding THAT.  As far as he was concerned, she was being intentionally difficult.  Even he could make guesses about a patient's recovery, even if he couldn't guarantee anything.  She wouldn't even guess.  See?  Intentionally difficult.

Daphne, however, was not being intentionally difficult.  He knew that because he knew that too much of what he'd given her would absolutely knock him for a loop, and she had a smaller body mass.  He'd known that when he dosed her, but she had a hell of a lot more pain ahead of her and lot less in the way of precise motor functions than he did.  She could afford to be dosed up and not feeling the pain.  He couldn't, though what he'd taken was helping some.  Not enough, but some.

He waited until he knew she wasn't hurting anymore, about twenty minutes, before he settled in, and that gave him time to get his equipment together for the work ahead of him.  He probably could have just knocked her out, but he actually did want to hear what she'd say.  He'd make sure she slept afterwards.

That was more than he'd be getting, unless Connor showed up and tried to force the issue.  As he prepared his materials and felt out the situation with the needle he was going to have to be using with a damaged right hand, Daphne answered his question, and he wished he could have been mad.  He wasn't, though.  He let out a sharp, displeased breath and rolled his eyes, but he wasn't angry at her.  No, he'd just asked a patient on painkillers a broad question, and he'd gotten a very obvious answer.  He needed to be more specific.

He thought things over as he was leaning over her wounds, the first being the one he decided with some inspection was the worst, and was trying to slowly and carefully remove the stitching (what she hadn't torn out herself) so that he could clean it up and restitch it himself.  It looked bad, and it still made him want to kill the raven who'd done it.  "No, you're not killing anything now, you're absolutely correct.  Can you stop forever?  Not kill anyone else?"

Ever?

God, the 'No Smoking' policy in the infirmary was driving him nuts.  Fuck it.  The first chance he got to back off, which was actually to grab some peroxide and a fresh towel, he popped a window open a little and grabbed a cigarette.  It was a bad habit, and he'd be the first to tell someone not to do it because it was extremely unhealthy and it'd kill them someday, but that didn't mean he wouldn't do it.  He could use the nicotine.  "We'll blame Verde if Mitchell asks," he said automatically.  They always blamed Verde when Victor smoked in the infirmary, and Verde never argued.  Personally, Victor thought that the man liked the negative attention.  He seemed to get a thrill out of someone actually being willing to confront him.

[Daphne Holliday]

 Daphne stopped her haze and blinked her eyes widely at him. "Ever?" she repeated, like she was shocked. She sat back a little, her head tilting with the tell sign of an attitude. "What is it exactly that you used to do? I mean, can't we at least have some terms of agreement here? I'll only kill "bad" people?" she asked, holding her hands up to make little quotes. She ignored deliberately how much it still hurt to move, and she definitely was bothered by how scratchy and weak her voice sounded. She spoke from her chest, which gave it volume, but it still wasn't loud like she'd intended for it to be.

  Damnit. She'd really gone and fucked everything up.

  She held a hand up. "Ugh. I don't want to play anymore. Listen. You want to put a bullet in my head like I'm a rabid dog, do it. Just do me a favour and do it when I'm looking at you and don't shoot me in the back, okay?" she said. She pushed off of the exam table, nevermind all of her injuries. And goddamnit, Daphne headed for that door - like it was some sort of test. But it wasn't, really. She was just kind of over the situation. God, it really was a fucking game to her.

  Yes. At this point it was clear Daphne was clinical - but then again, Onyx had a hunter who'd been in Midnight long enough to lose most of her mind, and she'd been doing her job just fine. "You do somebody one favour," she muttered to herself, pulling the door open. Yeah, she pretty much was just bypassing security measures at that point. Hopefully they hadn't crowded around the door on the outside with arms prepared to take the wild beast down the moment it emerged its head.