A/N: Filler chapter! Haven't really got anything to say, except for, as usual, thankyou. Depending on the feedback, this chapter may dissappear.. Maybe. I'm about as happy with it as i'm going to get. Song for the chapter "Sugar" by Tonic.

sparkly green.

Tala frowned at the food left on the tray. "You didn't eat much." She muttered, eyeing Vince warily.

He was half asleep, curled on his side and watching television. His newly repaired arm sat atop the blankets, encased in a black and grey brace that was hinged at the elbow but fixed in place to prevent movement. At one stage that one small joint must have been supporting his entire body weight and as a result, was close to destroyed. To a lesser extent the same went with his shoulder. He had almost lost the arm initially, then as a result of neglectful nursing, he had come close to losing it again. The infection had progressed almost to the point of no return. The limb would never be the same.

"Wasn't hungry." Was his murmured response. His eyes drooped, tired.

"Vince, please," Tala began, her fingers working at the tangles in his hair. It had grown quite a bit since he was admitted. "You have to eat. You've already lost twenty pounds."

".. have not." He argued, his tone subdued.

She reached for his paper work at the end of the bed and flicked through it quickly. Once she found what she was looking for, she turned it so he could read it.

"Right, this says that you were 207 upon arrival, that sound right?" He nodded and she flipped a few pages back, "This, shows your weight now."

Vince's dark blue eyes flicked from the page to her face, then he lifted the sheet up and looked at himself. Tala could see his confusion.

"You've actually lost more than twenty… It's bordering thirty now, big guy. You have to eat." Her voice was pleading.

He stared at her for some time, eyes glassy, then slowly, he pushed himself into an upright position and gingerly reached for the abandoned tray of food.

Tala wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him to her. "Thank you for humouring me, big guy."

His cheeks reddened at her affectionate tone, eyes nervously looking anywhere but at her. "… Welcome."

Tala jumped, her heart thundering in her chest. "My god! Don't do that!" She chided. She brushed an errant honey brown curl out of her face, tucking it behind her ear.

On the other side of the table, Claudia, a nurse in her early thirties maybe, sat down, barely able to squeeze her bulk in the space between the table and bench. She would later come to be known as 'the one Leon threatened with bodily harm.'

"I don't know how you managed it. I really don't." She shook her head in disbelief. Tala fought to remain pleasant, as being outright rude wasn't in her nature. She cursed herself for being too polite at times.

"Im sorry? Managed what?"

Claudia rolled her eyes at the younger woman. "That brute in two forty seven B. Since you took him on he's been, dare I say it, pleasant." She scoffed.

Tala frowned. Did she mean Vince? Sure he was a little rough around the edges at first, but that was early in his stay. Since then it was almost as if the hospital had broken whatever spirit he had left. It pained her to see him so broken.

She tried to think back to any given moment that he had given her trouble but her mind drew a blank. The only problems, or so called problems, she had heard about was from a select few nurses. The battle axes that thought they ran the entire hospital. Her eyes narrowed on Claudia, who was rambling on about how arrogant and difficult Vince had been while she was assigned to him.

"Wait, wait, wait.. You were assigned Vince? He was one of yours?" She asked tightly, her hands splayed out on the smooth table top.

Claudia's overly plucked eyebrow quirked and when she spoke, her mouth was still filled with food. "Yeah, and?"

Tala's vision turned red. "You mean to tell me, that you were responsible for his well being? Didn't you notice that his arm was infected?"

"So he had a slight infection! Big deal! It wasn't about to kill him."

Tala stood up on the opposite side of the table. "Couldn't have killed him? Claudia.. HE ALMOST DIED!" she took a deep breath to calm herself, ignoring the shell shocked expression on the human wart hog's face, "Did you know that he flat lined on us during his last surgery? His body was shutting down! Do you know why that is?"

Mutely, the older woman shook her head. Tala leant in close.

"Because of you. You. Fucked. Up. If it wasn't bad enough that you almost cost him his arm, you almost cost him his life! He is a wonderful, wonderful man with so much going for him, and YOU! You almost took that away from him!"

Claudia spluttered, trying for a response, but Tala held her hand up in her face.

"Shut. Up. You are filth," she snarled. Gone was the sweet little girl that everyone liked, instead replaced with a pissed off woman on a mission. "How fucking dare you do that to him."

"I am not filth! He is filth! He's a street racer!" she argued. She didn't even see Tala's fist coming until it was too late and her head snapped to the side, a huge red welt blossoming just beneath her eye. Claudia's eyes widened in shock, her hand cradling her face.

Tala pointed at her, her finger inches from her face. "He was a street racer, but he's not any more. He will never drive again because of you! And anyway, who cares what he does in his personal life? Your personal ideals should not interfere with your work!"

"I've done nothing wrong and I'm having you charged with assault! I have witnesses!"

Tala leaned back, looking around the silent cafeteria. She smirked. Everybody was looking anywhere but at them. "Are you sure?"

From the back of the room, a voice piped up; "I never saw a thing!", then another, "I thought you said you tripped?"

Unable to stomach being near her any longer, Tala grabbed up her bottle of water and her bag, then stalked from the room, trying no to blush at the tremendous applause that followed her.

Once she was outside, she leant against the wall and shook her hand, wincing. It was the first time she had actually hit someone, like an actual punch. "Damn." She muttered, eyeing the red knuckles. That felt good.. She grinned and started down the hallway. Suddenly her long work day didn't seem so bad.

Tala didn't know what to do. She had her arms full of a hundred and seventy five pounds of man, and she didn't know what to do. Upon her arrival to Vince's room, she decided to visit him during her break, she discovered him in the throes of a terrible nightmare. He was drenched in sweat, trembling. It had been easy enough to wake him, but once she did, he seemed to slip into an almost catatonic state, just leaning heavily against her, shaking. It was all she could do not to panic and run screaming for the doctor. Doing that would only make him retreat more into himself. He was loosely clutching the arm with the brace on it, staring blankly ahead.

"Vince? Sweetie please give me some kind of response… Please?" She shook him slightly, just a slight jostle, and awkwardly brushed her hand across his forehead. She grimaced. The brace he was forced to wear on his damaged arm was digging into her chest, biting into the skin. How can he stand wearing that thing? She asked herself. He stands it because it reduces the pain he feels by almost twenty percent, that's how!

"I wanna go home," he mumbled against her neck. "Want Tala."

She looked down at him, shocked. "Big guy, it's me. I am Tala." She cooed softly into his ear, rocking him back and forth in a soothing motion. Her arms tightened around his shoulders, fingers tangled in his short hair. "Do you want me to call Leon or Letty?"

Vince's reply was sluggish and almost inaudible. "…Le worries too much.. I'm sposed to take care of him.. Mama made me promise 'fore she died."

Sensing he didn't speak of his mother often, Tala urged him on. "What was she like?" She almost sighed with relief when his muscles loosened and he fell limp against her. The shaking was subsiding.

"Like Le," he murmured, "She smiled a lot."

Tala pulled the blanket up over them, one hand smoothing over his now covered shoulder, the other resting lightly on the back of his head, her short fingernails raking against his scalp. The more time that passed, the more he relaxed. I am going to get in so much trouble for this.

"Le doesn't seem to smile a lot, sweetie." She heard his quiet sigh and couldn't help smiling as he nuzzled closer. If it had been any other patient, she would have put a stop to it right away, but Vince genuinely seemed to need physical contact. It calmed him. Just when she thought he had slipped off to sleep;

"… Letty makes him smile."

Tala smiled against his head, her cheek rubbing against his thick, surprisingly soft hair. "I noticed that, actually."

She was still rocking him ever so slightly when she caught sight of her supervisor standing in the doorway. He gave her a resigned look and nodded his head, then silently pulled to door shut.

He's going to have a lot to say about this later, she thought, her small hand rubbing calming circles on Vince's shoulder. Still, she was relieved that he had refused to comment on it right away. Vince was almost asleep and he didn't need the added stress of a confrontation right now.

He nosed in closer to her neck, shifting to take some of the pressure off his arm. "Tala?"

"Yeah, big guy?"

".. I want to go home."

She sighed and gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Soon, Vince. Soon."