Disclaimer: I do not own anything in my stories except for the fan fiction (including plots, OC's and so on). All the characters belong to the rightful owners. Any songs/poems/etc in my stories do not belong to me unless stated otherwise.
Hello.
Well this is a little bit awkward... And trust me that I am fully aware that it has been almost two months since the last one. And I also realize that you're probably expecting this chapter to be better than what it actually is.
Things will start to happen soon enough, I just need to lay down some ground work before.
Oh God I hate fillers, but you've gotta have them!
(Also a massive thank you for those who have reviewed. Seriously, reviews make my days and motivate me to write.)
Anyway, enjoy.
Chapter 7
"We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."
"You're going to have to start helping out around here, y'know." Gareth said, while munching on a piece of bread. It was breakfast time and Scarlett was sitting at the table, rather on edge about seeing Vaas. "The men are starting to get restless about you. You eat their food, smoke their cigarettes and you don't do anything to help out."
Scarlett nodded in understanding. "Yeah, of course." She took a sip of water, it was going to be a hot-as-hell day today. It was still quite early in the morning, and already now she was sweating. "Who do you need dead?"
Gareth chuckled and shook his head. "Oh no, Vaas is not having any of that. I think you'll be able to help Monroe out with the wounded guys for now."
Scarlett nodded slowly, trying to decide whether to ask Gareth about Vaas or not. "Okay. So I'm playing nurse."
"Pretty much. If something more up you alley pops up I'll let you know though."
"Yeah, thanks. Although I have no medical background, you do realize that?"
"Yes, but I doubt that will be a problem. Just do what Monroe says and you should be good."
"Fair enough, I suppose." Scarlett licked her lips. "Um, where is he anyway? Vaas I mean."
Gareth's eyebrows shot up a little, the corners of his mouth pulling down just the slightest. "He's not here. He left hours ago... A situation on mainland needed his attention."
Scarlett nodded, a small sense of disappointment washing through her. She turned her gaze down to examine her water glass to avoid Gareth's eyes, knowing that there was very little chance that Gareth knew about the kiss. And even if he did it shouldn't matter, but there was still a part of her that wanted him not to know.
"Listen kid," Gareth started and rubbed the back of his neck. "If you need anyone to talk to about what happened with Cirta... You know you can come to me right?"
She lifted her eyes and saw Gareth's filled with worry. "I know." She nodded slowly. However Scarlett knew that the only person she could talk to about this was Vaas, who was missing in action. "Do you know what went down between Vaas and Citra?"
Gareth shrugged and lit up a cigarette. "No clue. Vaas doesn't talk about it. I do know that they didn't part of friendly terms."
Scarlett let out a very unladylike snort. "No shit."
"Carlos might know. Scratch that, he probably does know, but I can't promise you'll get anything out of him." He said while scratching the back of his head.
"What's the story with those two huh? Carlos and Vaas."
"As far as I know the two go way back. I guess that also explains why Carlos is the only one who's throat Vaas doesn't rip out when he says something that Vaas isn't particularly fond of." Gareth shrugged. "Carlos is from Mexico and used to be one of Hoyt's top men. He didn't get along with most of the privateers though, so him and Vaas started working together. You should ask Carlos himself."
"Is Carlos around?" She questioned, drinking the last of her water.
"He should be back this afternoon. If I see him I'll tell him to find you?"
Scarlett shook her head. "That's okay, I can find him on my own."
After a moment of silence, Gareth put out the butt of his cigarette and then spoke. "Can I ask, what... What did Cirta do to you? Now, you don't have to tell me... I just- The things that I have heard about her... According to all of that you should be dead."
Memories of the stone room covered in vines flooded her mind. The fire pits. The wild woman and the story of the Giant and the Warrior. The delirium that the poison brought on. Her parents, so young and full of life. Her stomach twisted because it all had looked so real.
"I should be dead... Citra poisoned me. Vaas... he saved my life." She swallowed, she knew she should have mentioned Dalle Wombe, but she didn't.
The Old Man frowned. "He did, did he?"
Scarlett nodded. "If I was to ask Vaas about what happened between him and his sister, do you think he would tell me?"
"I don't know, he might. Vaas has never been keen of sharing his past with anyone, although I have a funny feeling you might be an exception." Gareth shrugged. "Listen. I know I have no power over anything you do, you've made that extremely clear. But..." He sighed heavily and Scarlett stayed silent, waiting for him to continue. "But I really wish you wouldn't get close to him. Vaas is a dangerous man." Scarlett opened her mouth to interrupt, but Gareth lifted up his hand. "Please. Let me finish. I know you're going to say that there is nothing there, but kid, I'm not blind. I see the way he looks at you and well, in return the way you look at him."
"The way he looks at me? How does he look at me?" Scarlett was slightly confused. She was aware of Vaas' looks, the teasing and the tension between them. But all of that was shared, more or less, in private. "How do I look at him?" It dawned on her that perhaps she wasn't as good at concealing things as she had thought.
Gareth smiled slightly, shook his head and sighed. "Ah, forget about it. Just take my advice into consideration, alright?
_X_
"So you're a doctor?" Scarlett asked Monroe, her head tilted and fingers carefully wrapped around the pile of bandaids that Monroe handed her.
Monroe shot her a quick look and his Scottish accent rang through the quiet room. "More or less. Why are ye so interested?"
Scarlett shrugged. "I'm here for the foreseeable future, so I figured it won't hurt to get to know people... And I like stories."
Monroe didn't look convinced. "Not the mindset of most of the people here. People usually avoid getting personal, yknow. Especially in yer line of work."
Scarlett shook her head with a small smile. "I guess I'm not like a lot of people then."
Monroe let out a chuckle and took a bandaid from her hands. "I was a medic when I was in the British Army. Didn't last long, me military service I mean. Five months, just about exactly. So aye I am a doctor."
"How come so little?" Scarlett's eyebrows pulled together. "If you don't mind me asking."
"Naw." Monroe rubbed his beard and once again Scarlett's eyes were drawn to the Glasgow Smile on the mans face. Every single time she was around him she tried not to stare, it was the same with Vaas. "It ended in a court martial because I was involved in pro-IRA activity." He motioned for Scarlett to follow as he crossed the room. "Anyway, ever since I was a wee lad, I wanted to join an MC in Ireland. Me da had been a part of it."
"MC?" Scarlett interrupted to clarify. "Motorcycle Club?"
"Aye." Monroe nodded. "I became a prospect almost right after I got back from the army. Even though I wasn't a full member I became the clubs medic. The previous medic got shot right in the heart, so they needed me." He clarified. " Eventually I was patched in, quicker than usually but I proved me loyalty."
"It sound's like you were happy." Scarlett said, taking note of the faint smile on the mans lips.
Monroe nodded, his smile growing. "Aye, I was." He rinsed his hands with some water and then rummaged through a small shelf.
Scarlett kept prying. "What about wife and kids?"
"Aye," Monroe admitted. "I had a wife, we were going to have a wee one as well but she was killed when she was four months pregnant."
"I'm so sorry..." Scarlett said, she knew she didn't really have anything to be sorry about but she couldn't help but say it. "I mean... I..."
"I know. And me too." Monroe stated, but then smiled. "She was amazing though. I have never met a stronger woman, honestly. She was absolutely brilliant. Our relationship though, it was what it was. We were too different but too alike at the same time." He chuckled. "We were either fighting or fucking. Don't get me wrong, there was a lot in between the two. I was addicted to her. After she died, I made some pretty bad decisions. Both when it came to meself and the club." Monroe looked over then, to see if Scarlett was listening.
She was.
"Anyway. I was stripped of the patch and exiled. I wasn't allow to show me face anywhere around the MC, even different charters, nor the city. A couple of years later I found meself here."
"I keep wondering about this." Scarlett started. "How do you end up here? I mean, in general. A lot of the people who I have seen here are pretty international and from such different backgrounds, that it's hard to imagine. I mean this place isn't even on the map. "
Monroe motioned for Scarlett to follow and he walked out of the door into the blazing hot heat. He lit up a cigarette and offered Scarlett one as well, which she gladly took. "Well for me it was through an old MC member, who had been exiled as well. I met him in Mexico and he was heading out here so I joined him. I have no clue how the lad found out about this place." He took a deep drag from the cigarette, his eyes scanning around.
"And that man, he's still alive?"
Monroe nodded. "Aye, he's at another outpost. In the one where I was originally, but when Carlos found out about me medical history I was pulled here. Safer, not a lot but enough."
"Was he Irish?"
Monroes eyebrows pulled together and he turned to look at Scar. "Aye. What about it?"
Fuck. "Oh no, nothing really. I'm just trying to figure out how many different nationalities you have together here." Scarlett shrugged and tried to play it cool, while taking a drag of her cigarette. She knew she shouldn't have pushed it. "From what I've noticed you have Spaniards, Frenchmen, Argentinians... People from Scotland," Scarlett motioned to Monroe with her hand. "Ireland." She shook her head. "Yet everything seems to be in it's odd harmony."
"There are conflicts every now and again, of course. They are mostly resolved in fist fights or football games."
Scarlett laughed. "I shouldn't be all that surprised, should I?"
"Probably not." Monroe chuckled and put out the cigarette. "Back to work. How are yer stitches by the way?"
Scarletts hand automatically went to her chest, where the mark of Coin Man was going to be for forever. "The bandage is dirty and the wound probably needs cleaning, I forgot to do it before." She put out her cigarette and followed Monroe back inside.
"And the hands."
"Quite good, actually. Healing surprisingly quickly." Scarlett said, inspecting the scabs on her knuckles. Carefully pulling at the edges of them with her short nails.
"Don't pick the scabs!" Monroe exclaimed when he looked at her and Scar immediately pulled her fingers away, while looking incredibly sheepish. It felt like she had been caught with her hand in a cookie jar. "Jesus lass, ye'r almost as bad as Vaas."
She froze for a second and her eyes widened just a little. "Like Vaas?" She managed to say. "How come?" She damned herself for the reaction she seemed to have just to his fucking name.
Unbelievable, it's like 6rd grade. Her inner voice noted.
"The man is allergic to scabs, I swear to all that is holy." Monroe chuckled. "Every scab, no matter how tiny, he bloody rips off. The lad knows it will leave a bigger scar and it'll take longer to heal."
"I'll try to be good, in that case." Scarlett couldn't help the humour in her voice.
Monroe turned to her. "I'll change the bandage and clean the wound, after that I'll show ye Ashers painkiller sizes."
Scarlett sat onto one of the chairs in the room and pulled the neckline of her shirt down so Monroe could pull the dirty bandage off. "So how do you operate? I mean, do you go to the main island to treat people or do they come here?"
"Depends." Monroe said, his eyes and hand focused on her wound. "Bit of both really. When someone gets shot and all of that jazz, I go out." Scarlett hissed in pain when Monroe cleaned the wound. "When after that I'd prefer to keep an eye on the lad, then I'll bring him here." The Scot grabbed a new bandage and carefully put it over her wound. "When it's healed a bit more, ye could leave the bandage off for the night. It'd do it good to get some air. Just don't sleep on yer stomach."
Scarlett nodded. "Okay, thanks you."
Monroe grabbed a small bottle off the shelf and a bottle of water. He then held the smaller bottle up so she could see. "Morphine. Each tablet contains 5 milligrams. Ash," he paused to point to the far corner of the room. The bed which was furthest from the door, in the back corner of the room held a sleeping man with a brown sheet draped over his bottom half and a white t-shirt on the top. "at this point needs about 20-25 milligrams of it every four hours."
"And I'm the one who has to tend to him." Scarlett guessed.
Monroe nodded. "Aye, it gives me more leeway. Because it could very well be that in an hour I'll be on mainland and all the other men have other shit to do."
"Fair enough."
Monroe then motioned for her to follow as he walked toward Asher. From a distance Scarlett guessed him to be somewhere between twenty five and thirty five. He had tanned skin and blonde hair, with a little bit of a stubble on his chin.
"Hey," Monroe called and let out a whistle. "Ash!"
The sleeping figure grumbled and turned his head. Monroe shoved the man in the shoulder, which caused the man to come to conciousness.
"What'd ya want, dude?" The man questioned while rubbing his eyes and yawning. A second later Scarlett was staring into the clearest blue eyes she had ever seen.
"Time for medicine, lad."
The man pulled himself up on the bed so that he was leaning against the wall. "You must be Scarlett." He said with a wide smile.
Scar recognised him to be an American, probably from California. "Scarlett Vincent. I'm surprised you've heard of me."
The man let out a laugh. "Of course I've heard of you. You're the who cut off Felipes dick!"
Monroe cleared his throat and Scar turned her attention to him. The Scot handed the bottle to Asher and then spoke. "Make sure he doesn't take them all at once, keep a good half a minute between each. Just in case." Monroe started handing the pills to Asher one by one. "If he's drowsy or dizzy he's fine. Same goes for stomach pains, nausea, vomiting, headaches, overall tiredness, anxiety or mild itching. They're just small side effects." Scarlett started to make a mental list of all of the things Monroe said. "However if the lads heart-rate slows or speeds up, for that matter, if he gets chest pain, shallow and weak breathing, extreme drowsiness and him feeling like he might pass out, let me know. And don't let him go anywhere near alcohol."
"Alright." Scarlett nodded, going over the list in hear head while hoping she'd remember them all.
"Remember, every four hours. Leave a dosage for him for the night in case he needs it, but usually he sleeps through the night fine."
"What do I have to do for you to let me take my own medicine, man? You know I won't chug them down at one." Asher chuckled, popping another morphine tablet into his mouth and washing it down with water.
"Get to the point where ye don't need to take medicine." Monroe said and then turned to Scarlett, pulling out an extra walkie-talkie from his belt. "Emergencies only."
Scarlett nodded, wrapping her fingers around the dented black device. "Emergencies only." She confirmed.
Monroe ran her by a couple of other things that she would regularly have to start doing, like keeping note of all of the medicine that goes out, briefing her on the amount of medicine that goes to each outpost and when the pick-up dates are. The only long term resident there was Asher, so Scarlett didn't have to watch out for any of the other men who were currently in the beds.
Sometime after lunch, Scarlett returned to the so called hospital quarters. She picked up the morphine bottle, took the right amount of pills into her palm and grabbed a water bottle. Asher wasn't asleep this time, instead he was flipping through a book.
"What are you reading?" Scarlett asked as she sat down on the chair next to the bed.
Asher put his book down and slid himself up on the bed. Then he took the water bottle and the first pill from Scarlett's palm. He swallowed the pill and drank a bit of water, however before he even attempted to reach for the next one he showed Scar the cover of the book.
"It's Peter Pan."
Scarlett let out an involuntary laugh. "Peter Pan." She repeated. "I did not expect that."
Asher smiled and shrugged. "Yeah well. It's rarely that you get book here, it's even rarer when they're half decent. Kip managed to pull this out for me the last raid."
"Peter Pan is quite good, I don't remember much of the book but the movie where... Um.." Scarlett handed him another morphine tablet. "Robin Williams played Peter. I can't for the life of me remember..."
"You mean Hook!" Asher said, drowning the pill. "Oh I loved that movie!" He pulled the open water bottle to his lips like a microphone and quoted the movie. "Good Mooooooooooooorning, Neverland! Tie down the main mast, mateys, 'cause here he is, the cunning kingfish, the bad barracuda! A man so deep, he's almost unfathomable. A man so quick, he's even fast... asleep!"
Scarlett burst out laughing at his facial expressions that went with the little speech.
"Thank you! Now, let's give him a very big hand, 'cause he's only got one. I give you, the steel-handed stingray, Captain James Hook!" Asher pointed to a sleeping pirate on a bed further away.
Scarlett looked over her shoulder, "I don't think he's qualified enough to be Hook." she said and handed Asher more morphine.
"True," Asher admitted. "I think Vaas is more up for the part."
"And I'm guessing you would be Peter in that case?"
Asher shrugged. "If I don't have to wear tights then I might actually up for it."
"What, too many to wear tights?" Scarlett giggled, imagining the blonde man in tights.
"Ah, well yes." He said, nodding and then tossed the brown sheet acting as a blanket off of his legs, keeping his private parts covered. "Also, tights would be painful as fuck."
A gasp of shock escaped Scarlett's lips when she saw Ashers leg. The left leg had wounds, both cuts and what resembled burns, continued all the way from his foot to under the sheet. It looked brutal and painful.
"Holy fuck! What happened?" Scarlett asked as Asher adjusted the sheet so that it left the wounded leg out in the open.
"Small roadside bomb," He shrugged. "Not too bad, just hurts like hell. Also, I'm sorry. I should have warned you, but the pain from the sheet got pretty bad." He smiled apologetically and continued. "I kept it covered up so you wouldn't freak."
"Why would you care if I freaked out?" Scarlett asked and handed him another morphine pill. There was one left in her palm.
"Because you're beautiful." Asher admitted with a smile and Scarlett couldn't help but to crack a smile and raiser her eyebrows. "I didn't want to scare you off. Plus! There is no one on this island who is really good to look at when having a conversation. Now don't get me wrong, Monroe is a handsome man. And have you seen Carlos!?" Asher fanned himself with his hand. "But when you don't swing that way, you don't swing that way."
"True that." Scarlett admitted, giving Asher the last morphine tablet.
"I haven't formally introduced myself, I'm Asher Wilkins." The smiling man extended his hand out and Scarlett shook it.
"Very pleased to meet you Asher."
"Ash, please." He said. "Asher makes me feel like my father. Old."
Scarlett tilted her head and smirked. "Well, you're what. Pushing thirty five, forty?" She joked, knowing that there was no way in hell that he was forty.
Ash's mouth fell open and his hand went to his chest. "Oh how you wound me, beautiful." He then chuckled. "What are you, fifteen?"
"Sixteen and a half!" Scarlett corrected with a smile.
"Oh I am terribly sorry." Ash laughed. "Where are you from? I'm guessing you're European."
Scarlett shrugged. "Here and there, but yeah Europe."
"You know I could just ask Gareth right? I mean, you are his... step daughter?"
She shrugged. "Ask away if you must. What about you though, California?"
"Actually an army brat, but yeah. I'm from Cali. What gave it away?" Ash smiled, nodding.
That man's wide smile was contagious. "The hair, I think. The fact you called Monroe a dude. Or I don't know. You as a whole gave it away."
_X_
"What's the 'button-box' thing?" Scarlett asked with a rum bottle in her hand. Kip was on the floor next to the bed tinkering with a computer.
"It's a scenario somebody proposed at an artificial intelligence conference. Imagine there's a computer that's been designed with a big red button on its side. The computer's been programmed to help solve problems, and every time it does a good job, its reward is that someone presses its button. We've programmed it to want that... So at first, the machine solves problems as fast as we can feed them to it. But over time, it starts to wonder if solving problems is really the most efficient way of getting its button pressed. Wouldn't it be better just to have someone standing there pressing its button all the time? Wouldn't it be even better to build another machine that could press its button faster than any human possibly could?"
Scarlett's eyebrows furrowed and she took a sip of rum. "It's just a computer, it can't ask for that."
"Well, sure it can." Kip turned to her. "If it can think, and it can connect itself to a network, well, theoretically, it could command over anything else that's hooked onto the same network. And once it starts thinking about all the things that might be a threat to the button, number one on that list is us. It's not hard to imagine it getting rid of the threat. I mean, we could be gone, all of us, just like that."
"That escalated quickly." Scarlett said and Kip lit up a joint. Kip lifted the joint from his lips and offered it to Scarlett. To that Scarlett merely shook her head and lifted the bottle of rum. "I'm fine with this poison."
Kip nodded and turned back to the computer.
"Is that what you're trying to build?" Scarlett realized.
Kip nodded. "Yeah. It's been a bit of a hobby for a while now."
"Why would you want to build something that could in theory cause destruction like that?"
Kip laughed and shook his head, like she had said something funny. "I'm building it because I can."
Before Scarlett could reply the door flew open. "¿Qué onda?" Carlos shouted while stumbling into the room. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he was drunk as hell. "Skipper!" He shouted while looking at the empty table, which was where Kip always was.
"Carlos." Kip said, not even lifting his eyes off the pieces of metal in his hands.
Carlos turned to look toward the bed. "Oh! There you are! And Scarlett-" he spoke three sentences worth of Spanish without even realizing it. He layed down on the bed next to Scarlett, almost falling over in the process. "I have to admit, I've totally underestimated the power of your boobs. They can freeze my mind at twenty paces."
Scarlett slapped her hand over her mouth to keep herself from laughing. Even Kip was now paying attention to the drunk man.
Carlos did some more muttering, which was a mix of Spanish and English. None of it was very coherent. By the end of the rant, he patted Scar's thigh and said "Nope, sex can wait. I want pie!"
Scarlett burst out laughing. It was one of those honest belly laughs that gave you cramps and made you cry. She hadn't had a laugh like that in forever and for a moment if felt like she couldn't stop. When she finally did she helped Carlos up from the bed.
"C'mon, we should get you out of here before you puke in Kip's bed alright?" Scarlett chuckled.
"Do you need help?" Kip asked, but didn't look like he was planning on standing up.
"No, I think I can handle it." Scarlett said, "Thanks."
Carlos muttered something and walked out with Scarlett. Thankfully he was able to actually walk himself and only had his arm around Scarlett for balance.
"Yknow," Carlos started. "It fucking sucks that you have to leave."
"I'm not going anywhere." Scarlett said, confused.
Carlos shook his head. "No, not yet. But you will!"
"And why does that suck?"
"Because you make us so much better!" Carlos said and Scarlett realized that she didn't know where Carlos' quarters were. But Carlos turned left so she trusted that he was coherent enough to know where to go. "I mean, Kidd is fucking ecstatic to have you around! Even Monroe likes you, he rarely really likes anyone. And fucking Vaas, güey, Vaas!"
"What about Vaas?" Scarlett asked as they neared a building which looked like it was on the verge of collapsing.
"He's different with you around. Fucking... Fucking..." Carlos shook his head and pushed open the door. "He's better. It's as if the two of you balance each other out." Carlos grabbed a bottle from a table on one side of the room and emptied the contents into his stomach. The next things out of his mouth were in Spanish, so she didn't understand any of it. Carlos sat on the edge of the bed and Scarlett leaned against the doorway. Perhaps it was better that she didn't know what he was saying, because the way he looked at her was like a thirsty man begging for water. "You do realize, that it's fate that you're here right?" Carlos asked. "Nothing will be the same after you go. Things are better with you here, so obviously they will be worse with you gone." He ran his hands through his hair and shook his head. "Nothing happens just because."
Scarlett frowned. "Go to sleep, Carlos."
The man kept going. "You don't see it do you. You don't see the changes... Of course you don't see the them."
"Changes?" Scarlett pried and took a seat on a chair.
"The way people are. Kidd was a bitter old man, I'd seen him smile like three times and now that's all he does! He drank himself to oblivion almost every night." Carlos explained. "And Vaas... Vaas has not spent this long in the camp in years. He has always been on the move, constantly doing rounds... Spending the maximum of two nights here. Then off again. He shouts less too, makes more jokes that are actual jokes." Carlos sighed. "You're here for more than just to hide."
Of course, I am here for more. Scarlett thought. Because I'm not hiding. She didn't say anything though, she couldn't say anything.
"You're close with Vaas?" She questioned after a few moments.
Carlos shrugged. "I suppose. Closer than the rest but still at arms length." The man sighed and layed down, closing his eyes. "Cojeme, everything is spinning..."
"Get some sleep." Scarlett rose from the chair and made her way out before he could say anything else.
So that was that for this time.
Hopefully I will get another chapter out soon.
This story will have about the total of 15 (give or take) chapters.
As per usual, review, alert... post it to tumblr? Twitter? Whatever floats your boat.
Reviews are better than the big red button.
Adiós amigos.
-Max
