She slowly, gently tried to move into a more neutral position on her back, but her soreness made it more than difficult. V managed to retract her arm to her chest, and rolled her head onto its back, but that was her limit. So he carefully helped raise her legs from the twisted side position, on the ground, to having her now less so bent knees point at the ceiling. Spine and legs now finally realigned with her hips.

Her moans however had turned into soul grating groans, her brow furrowed and lips contorted into a grimace. She gasped with every slight move and Vik could safely assume that after all this time, she was still too fucking stubborn to admit when she was in pain.

"You're a fool, V. No buts, I'm doing this." He rummaged through his bag as she vented, lacking the steel nerves to keep on hearing her suffer.

"This? What happened to holding my hand through 'this' and giving me a blow-by-blow sitrep?"

V was genuinely upset, closed her eyes in irritation of the situation, and of course the shame and pain,
"Fucking a, I hate it when guys say 'this' and don't elabora- Ow!"

He injected her neck with a mild sedative, enough to dull her senses and keep her from wrestling against him or writhing in pain.

Her eyes shot open, yet she immediately started to mellow out,
"Hey! Wh-, what was that?"

"Something that's gonna help me do this." He again surprised her, she wasn't too sure yet if she'd be happy with it. V had, with his help, managed to get flat on her back, but that was about it. Other than that, she had been turtleing hopelessly, in vain efforts to sit up straight. Vik however, managed to now scoop her up nigh effortlessly, and to V's dismay walked them straight into her bathroom.

The shower head was, sadly, not detachable from the wall, leaving him with very few choices. In his opinion anyway, if he'd asked, V would've said, 'Call Misty over, she can help with this part'.

However, much like his friend and current patient, he couldn't let things go once started on them, needed to see this through to the end himself. Make sure she's okay, cleaned up, and that salt moisture was indeed not the culprit of her seizing episode.

She finally gasped in relief when he'd placed her on the cold bathroom floor, propped up against the wall,
"So… good…"

"Glad you enjoy that, I'll be right back with you."

"Hurry… Please…"

V needed to concentrate, pull her shit together, explain to him she was losing control.

When Vik returned to her, without a shirt, or shoes, or even jeans and heaven forbid no sunglasses, but with 2 towels, a washcloth and in his boxer-briefs instead, she realized his intention.

'Oh dear,'

She lost her focus, any and all composure, the cold wall and floor didn't seem to cool her anymore, not noticeably anyway. Her heart rate increased and the sedative coursed through her system much faster than normal.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to remove your robe for this, miss," he semi-joked, hanging it next to their towels.

V's speech wasn't so much slurred anymore as there was a slight drawl to it,
"Drugging a young woman in her house to give her a hand bath, huh? How do I know whether it wasn't you? Hmm? You did show up suspiciously fastand it's your field of expertise!"

She got him to flare up his charms again, the grin, wink and shrug.

"Well shit, V, got me on the ropes there. Maybe I teamed up with Johnny to arrange this, who could say?"

'Vik's yanking your chain, just saying. I ain't sharing the glory for this beautiful disaster. This is all me, baby...'

'So much for dipping out, I hear.'

'Haha, yeah… Goddamn, wish I had popcorn.'

It wasn't Johnny this time, but V was just as surprised to hear the following come from her own grinning mouth,
"In that case, I should thank the bastard for this magnificent evening."

It seemed the sedative had a side effect Vik hadn't yet seen before, one that inhibited proper filtering between speech and thought. Not a truth serum effect per se, but for all intents and purposes...

"Nah. What for? You were obviously in actual pain. Scared enough to panic? Doesn't sound worth a thank you to me."

Despite being aware of her own verbal inhibitions she was still incapable of intervening in her own demise,
"For sending me a knight in shining armor, obviously."

"I don't know if you could consider ragged cargo pants and a sweaty button up-" he'd been speaking humbly with eyes cast aside, gobsmacked to find himself silenced by a dainty finger on his lips. His eyes snapped up towards her, Vik's wide eyed gaze fell into hers, much closer to his face now than before, as she'd climbed onto her knees to reach,
"The only Doctor in the whole world I have and would ever again allow to get elbow deep in me."

Vik blinked, somewhat confounded, not so much by what she said rather than by the fact she could move somewhat already. He took her tender hand into his calloused and cut paw, as he'd put it. Cautiously he returned it to her, helped her sit back down, advising,

"Hold onto that thought,"

He rose and stepped back into her living-room to check his bag again, took a second look at the hypo syringe. He realized it was perfectly dosed at her weight, but it did not take metabolism, cyberwares, or resistances into account.

The side effect list was also quite barren, usually not a good sign despite contrary belief. He looked into the bathroom, watched her trying to enjoy the cold wall and floor again by hugging them, rubbing herself all over the chilly surfaces, still grinning from ear to ear, eyes shut. He sighed, successfully trying not to laugh,

"V, you're high as frozen balls, now is not the time to admit or commit to anything. We can pick up these topics some other time, when you've rested and sobered up."

"Even with the ball in your court and no opposite defense, ever such the gentleman."

He tossed the hypo back in his bag, playfully shook his head at her. The scantily clad Doctor re-approached her as he spoke, again that sight for sore eyes evoked incorrigible thoughts and feelings within her,

"Guess in a place like NC in this era, common decency is hard to find and easily mistaken. C'mon, let's get you freshened up."

Vik knelt in front of her, extending V a helping hand,
"Can you stand?"

She chuckled, accepting his hand and meekly pulled herself closer to him, as he placed his arm around her shoulders.
"I wouldn't still be sitting here if I had the strength to climb the likes of you."

A man could only get so flustered,
"Not the same thing, but point taken. Wanna just get this over with?"

It was a sincere question he should've asked sooner. With his bare knees on the hard bathroom floor, he pulled her from the wall to lean her back against his chest.

"Do you? I'd rather now'd never end."

If she had the strength she would've writhed her curves into his, instead she merely traced his left collarbone over her shoulder. Gently he again took her hand from his body and placed it on her own,
"Geez V, you're never getting this drug from me again."

"But it's so much funI can finally say what I want." Her mouth spoke, but her mind said otherwise,
'Is it really though?'

"Where is all this coming from?"

Asking the ether, he didn't exactly expect an answer.

One of the new standards of this era was that, even in relatively poor buildings like V's, there was no need to wait for water to get warm. Vik reached for the knob to his left, shortly running the shower, just enough to wet her and the washcloth with water at her preferred temperature. The moment of contact with the water had her expel an adorable yelp before answering him,
"The bottom of my heart, duh."

The woman couldn't see how his face reddened at her sincerity, thankfully,
"Right, not sure if Sober-V would agree though." He muttered as he squirted some of her Body Bike Anti Static Shower Gel onto the washcloth, making it lather well before gently yet firmly scrubbing her wet and sweaty skin.

"This is Sober V, Viky! Just a lot more loosey-goosey, and fun."

She managed to wiggle her behind in rhythm to her words, hoping to provoke something in him but Vik was not in that mindset, he was on the job. Otherwise he would've gotten distracted by her curves much earlier, how the soap suds dripped down them, the way her rich tan peeked through the white bubbles.

"As your friend, I'm inclined to believe you. As your physician however, I must stand my ground."

Brushing aside a lock of her hair, the man drifted in thought somewhat, subconsciously, sensually touching her skin,
"It'd be wrong on so many levels, abuse of authority, strength. Clarity of mind. Even if I knew deep inside that your feelings were true, I'd never forgive myself."

The instant he finished his sentence, he'd realized what he said, what he'd been doing, quickly retracted his fingers from her hair.

"Aww. That's so… Wait, hol' up. You're saying it is mutual then?"

She'd wanted to turn in his supportive embrace to face him, but he wouldn't let her and she didn't have that strength to do it all by herself. Vik chuckled,
"To you? I ain't saying shit. This is a conversation I'll have with Actual Sober V, in about,"

He looked at his watch, holding it in front of her for clarification,
"12 hours from now. You on the other hand? I'm going to finish bathing you, dress you, run a last diagnostics, and put you to bed."

Even when high, V knew there was no sense fighting a guy like Vik, and gave in to what he thought was best for her.

"Yes sir."