09 Masseur (Uber cont)

a/n: The West Gate Station team is trying to pull itself together after Ricky has a bad experience.

Short. Swears, add more to Gino's speech. Drugs/alcohol.

All the good things belong to Monolith Soft, but the West Gate Station is mine.

Gino closed the blinds, slanting them so that only a flicker of light cut across the room. He darted from the sofa that sagged under Ricky's weight and the windows to peer out at the station. "Brat still working all three bays," he muttered. "Swear she could run the whole thing without our help. She just keeps us on for the funsies."

Ricky sunk his head into his hands and felt sick. The tide of energy that the dose of uber had given him was ebbing fast. Maybe he groaned or maybe Gino was just a good friend. He was by Ricky's side, pushing a strawberry sports drink at him. "She said drink, so drink. She must know something about what you took, right?" He rubbed Ricky's shoulder at an awkward angle. He wasn't a great masseur, not that Ricky knew much about it, but it felt comforting.

Ricky was gulping his second bottle down, sloppily enough that Gino had pulled a box of shop towels off a metal shelf and was mopping up the mess, when Lila joined them. She didn't hide the fact that she locked the door behind her. Gino started talking a mile a minute, but Lila walked right past him. She opened a drawer in her desk, pulled out a small glass and a large bottle, not a sports drink, and poured. She finished much faster and neater than Ricky. "I'm getting rusty," she said with a gasp. "My technique used to be a lot cleaner. Sorry about the headache, Ricky." She dropped glass and bottle back into the drawer. "I'd offer you some, but I figure we'd better not layer alcohol on top of that other stuff."

"Offer me your shit," Gino snapped.

"You want some?"

"Hell no. We aren't partying. We need to do something?"

"What?" she asked quietly.

"I don't know! Help my man! Do something!"

"What's the dangers of this kind of drug?" Lila asked. "I mean, are we looking at an overdose or withdrawals or what?"

"Why you asking me?! You look at me and think I know about this shit?" Gino was shivering with rage.

"You're the only other person in the room, Gino. I don't have much choice who I can ask. I don't know about this sort of thing."

"Bull."

Lila paused. Ricky was looking at his feet but he was sure what her face looked like. Tight and fighting something. "My family had troubles. I always kept away from anything stronger than beer. If I weren't a mim, I'd probably be reconsidering what I just did a moment ago. This isn't my territory."

"And you think it's mine?" Gino said, still angry but calming down fast.

"Time to hit the almighty Frontier Nav search engine." She reached into a different drawer and pulled out an ancient comm device Ricky hadn't seen before.

"Hey, hey!" Gino leaned over her desk. "You sure you want people knowing you're asking questions about this kind of stuff?"

Lila laughed, so fast that Ricky almost missed it. "No worries. This search history has seen some things. 'How to deal with uber overdose' is mild in comparison."

a/n: Shameless plug time: uh, where to start? They were in my earliest writings, like The Lily and the BLADE (7-9) at their earlier station. Ricky used brainjack himself in Inktober 2018 (17). Shameless plug remains shameless.

Next up: Maybe more of these guys, maybe "tinder". Or send a suggestion and save us all.