Disclaimer: Atlus owns everything except my own characters. Duh. XD

Angie Thompson did something she normally would not have. It left everyone in shock. Everyone in the room held their breath, awaiting something; anything from the red-faced neko who had just been slapped across the face with a clipboard.

"O-oh my… Marie… I am… so…" Angie stuttered. The girl turned away from her, tears filling her eyes. She was embarrassed and degraded, having been hit by a nurse in front of both Victor and Derek. "I don't know what came over me…"

The raging dispute was result of Angie's comfort towards Derek, who had been feeling under the weather. Marie had tried over and over again to reach him via the nurse call button, but the agitated nurse at the desk only entered time and time again, telling her the doctor was not available yet.

Victor came to her aid immediately, for he knew what her urgent news concerned. Of course, Dr. Chase had held him up in the hallway, leaving Marie alone for a longer amount of time. Frankly, Marie was growing uncomfortably impatient, and when she saw the reasons for the stalling, she became furious. She had news that needed to be presented to her personal doctor and researcher ASAP. Yet, the staff of Caduceus was making that seemingly impossible.

Marie spotted the culprit, Angie, and demanded that she come in right away and speak to her privately. Angie obeyed.

Outraged by the hold up, Marie told the nurse something along the lines of: "Quit flirting with my surgeon and get your ass back to work," followed by: "There are more important things to worry about than making relations with some guy you have no chance of getting, so just back off and let him do his job."

Angie, compelled to get her sweet revenge against this little, hormonal, teenaged, neko, without thinking, smacked her as hard as she could with the clipboard in her hand. The sickening sound of the collision brought instant shock upon the nurse's face, realizing that Victor and Derek had witnessed her act of cruelty from the doorway. Marie had been out of line, but Angie's job as a nurse was to deal with unreasonable patients, and she had done the unthinkable. The way she handled the situation was not her best move, nor her smartest.

Angie burst into tears, embarrassed and ashamed that she had done such an awful thing to a young girl, and in front of the man she longed to be hers. Victor, inflamed with anger, shoved Angie aside and asked Marie if she was alright.

Marie laughed under her breath, rubbing her stinging cheek.

"I suppose I deserved that…" Marie said smiling and brushing away the tears. "I'm sorry. I was acting like a child, I shouldn't have gotten so cross with you. You were only trying to help Derek, whose feelings I didn't take into account. I'll tell you something Angie, and it's cruel, but I want to be honest with you. I really don't like you."

"Now I remember why I like this kid!" Victor shouted, slapping his knee and laughing. Angie's face flushed red.

"I don't like you, you don't like me, I told you off, and you smacked me, so we're even okay? Don't worry about it. Though there are several things about you I'd rather not have to deal with while I'm here, I'm just going to suck it up and let it go. You helped save my life, so I'm just going to drop this and forget this ever happened," Marie declared with great maturity. She was not one to take to humans kindly, and she hated women most of all. Women all hated her, while the men never bothered to take any notice of her. It was natural for her to have disgust toward Angie, a superior to herself, as it would have been in a neko tribe. "I actually don't blame you for crushing on Mr. Stiles, here," she went on. "He's handsome, smart, and he's nice. Shoot, if he was a neko and I was his age, I'd be all over him too." At this, everyone laughed except Derek, who rubbed the back of his neck and blushed.

Marie smirked, slugging Derek on the shoulder roughly. "Just messing with you, Doc," she grinned at him, her ears dancing with happiness. "Everything I said was true though, you are very attractive. You could get any girl, Dr. Stiles. But to me, you're a great doctor, a friend, and like an older and wiser brother. I thank you for that."

"Sure thing, Marie," Derek said, his shoulders relaxing again from the tension that had settled in the room moments prior. He rubbed her back, allowing her body to relax again as well. She then turned to Victor.

"Victor, you're like an older brother to me, too," she said to him. "Thank you." With that said, all that she had been meaning to tell them all along, she hugged Derek and then Victor. Tears filled her eyes. "Forgive me, all of you… I've been so rude and cold-hearted… I'm just so… afraid…" she whispered, beginning to sob.

"I forgive you Marie. You'll get through this, Derek and Victor will help you," Angie said calmly. She purposely left herself out of that statement, nodding to Derek as she left the room. The air was too uncomfortable between the two girls, so she suspended her duty to aid Dr. Stiles with Marie and took her much needed vacation time instead.

"Have a nice vacation, Angie," Derek said, waving to her. He was about to go deep into thought about how the nurse felt about him, but was probed so by Marie to comfort her before anything else was done.

"Go," Victor ordered the doctor. "Go on, take your break okay? I'll take care of her. I'll inform you of anything I'm told otherwise." Derek grinned meekly, seeing Victor's brotherly side, a side he'd never seen of his colleague before, come out right before him. He exited the room, adding that he too forgave Marie before walking down the hall and to the lounge for his coffee break.

"I'm sorry Angie hit you. That was really strange of her," said Victor.

"I deserved it. I stepped out of line, after all," she replied, beginning to calm down.

After her crying fit ended, she described to Victor all about the neko pecking order and how nekos functioned as tribes in the forest. Victor became very interested in the concept.

"Angie is older than me, so she is superior. The teens in a group squabble for authority and they attack using put-downs. The older nekos, the superiors, fight back using words as well, and as the argument continues, one neko will end it by physically inflicting damage on the other. The one who was injured must surrender. Angie beat me to the punch," Marie explained, setting herself and Angie in a neko tribe setting, using the scenario they had just experienced. "Seeing Derek as a role model or an older brother, I wanted and demanded his full attention." Victor's eyes were full of curiosity. There was so much he still needed to learn about these strange creatures, and he listened contently as his mind absorbed the information like a sponge.

"Considering Derek was a neko, he would have full control and power over me, being both older and a man I admire," she continued. "I must respect his wishes, and he wished for me to apologize to Angie and not to fight back, so I respected those wishes because it was my instinct to do so. Plus, it was the right thing to do."

Though she was more civilized than her past generations, her instincts restrained her. Ingrained into her being and DNA was compassion, intellect, comprehension, and integrity. She had no control over these aspects of herself, and she had to abide by her instincts whether she wanted to or not. That part of her was still wild and beast-like.

"What would I be considered in a 'neko tribe'?" Victor asked, strictly out of curiosity.

"You would probably be a leader of some sort. Leaders of a neko tribe have to be smart and strong, and you've got the smart part down," she said, smirking. "Others would look up to you for guidance, just as I do." The man that never smiled couldn't force one back now. He grinned, patting Marie like a dog on the head. Her ears began circling wildly, and they both couldn't help but laugh at this peculiar sight. Victor was about to ask a series of questions to learn more about the tribes, but stopped himself as he glanced down at his watch.

"Gee, we've been talking about nothing for ten whole minutes. I should really get back to work," he stated, getting up from his seat and rushing towards the door.

"Wait! The information!" Marie yelled. "I've been meaning to give it to you all morning." She held a piece of paper in her hand and waved it violently in the air. Victor strolled back over and grabbed it from her thin fingers. He scanned it, his eyes falling upon the name "Kenneth Blackwell". His eyes widened in surprise.

"Kenneth Blackwell, the creator of GUILT, assisted my father in the creation of the NRCV 15 years prior to now."

A/N: Surprised? I'm not sure if this cuts into Blackwell's life before Delphi, but oh well. I guess I should've paid more attention… Anyway, hope you enjoyed this. #5 is coming up!