(I HAVE FINALLY GOT AROUND TO GIVING THIS STORY A DECENT TITLE! AND MYSELF A DECENT USERNAME. LOL. EMISSARY OF THE OASIS IS MY FAV CARD, IN CASE YOU WANNA KNOW WHY I CHOSE THAT.)

When Deirdra woke a few hours later she still had a throbbing head and a churning stomach. She was slowly realising that a guilty conscience was probably not the only cause of her maladies. She had had nothing to eat or drink all day. Raphael had been so impatient to get on with the duel that morning, that they had skipped breakfast. She remembered wishing in vain that he would push '4' instead of 'roof' when they had boarded the elevator. No such luck. She groaned now, rolling over in bed. She had a strong, sudden urge to retch, even though it was unlikely that there was anything to come up. Holding her stomach, she forced herself to stand and reached for her jeans and t-shirt, lying in a crumpled heap on a nearby chair. She focused on her breathing as she slowly changed out of the pjs into the other clothes. She was much too dizzy to hassle with shoelaces, so she forgoed her sneakers and ventured out from the room in her socked feet. As she waited for the elevator to come up, she wondered what, if any, food was in the cafeteria at this time of day. It was after lunch but before dinner. That was assuming the DOOM duelists kept regular hours and, from what she'd seen thus far, they did not. Reaching the cafeteria, she saw that she wasn't the only one hungry. Valon was rummaging through the refridgerator in back of the large room. His progress was somewhat hampered by the sling he wore on one arm. What had happened?, Deirdra wondered. He most certainly had not been wearing it on the last occasion she saw him. "Need a hand?", she asked good-naturedly, quickly adding "No pun intended." Valon wheeled around, obviously surprised by the interruption. "Oi! I got a hand. It just ain't working too good for me right now. Well, actually it's more me arm", he said. He looked at her with curiosity. She wondered why. She wasn't weird-looking or incredibly attractive. Yet he was closely watching her as he had done yesterday. She suddenly felt self-concious and averted her gaze from his face. "You should shut that. You're letting the cold air out", she said lamely, noticing that the refridgerator door was wide open. Her face burned and she felt even more self-concious as she realised that she had almost repeated word-for-word what Alister had said to her earlier. Of course, Valon didn't know about that. He reached inside, pulled out a pita sandwich wrapped in cellophane and a bottle of juice, and shut the refridgerator. Deirdra noticed a letter 'R' marked on the cellophane wrapper of the sandwich. "Raphael's", Valon said, by way of explanation. "Don't tell 'im you saw me", he added, looking at her more intently than ever. "I won't", she promised. "So what's in there? Anything unclaimed? I'm starving." Valon grinned. "Depends on what you call unclaimed", he said.

"Meaning?"

"In my book, if it ain't got a mark on it, it's fair game."

"That has a mark on it."

She pointed at the sandwich.

"I'm a sucker for pita bread."

"Ohhh...how convienient."

He looked sheepish.

Deirdra opened the refridgerator and peered inside. There were several bottles of vitamin water, yogurt cups, pre-prepared salads, and some boxes of take-out food, all with Mai's name on them. Additionally, there were some soggy sandwiches belonging to Raphael (Valon had nabbed the last pita), and a half-full bottle of bourbon. "Whose is that?", Deirdra asked.

"Dartz's. I nicked it from his office when he wasn't 'round."

"You sure don't mind stealing, do you?"

"Borrowing without permission."

"Same thing."

Valon pursed his lips and pretended to be annoyed.

"Aren't you worried he'll find it?", Deirdra asked.

"Nah. He never comes 'round here."

"What does he do when he's not giving orders, interrogations, or history lessons?"

"Don know. Does it matter?"

"I don't guess so. I'm just curious, as I'm new here."

"He mostly just leaves us to our own devices."

Valon was grinning again and the way he had said 'our own devices' eluded to some nefarious behaviour. Deirdra decided to change the subject -back to food. "So what am I going to eat? I don't see anything unclaimed, and I'm not one to take something that doesn't belong to me", she said. "You sure? Those other sandwiches aren't terrible and Raph will just think I ate them", Valon said. He held two out for her. She hesitated a moment, then took them from his hand. "Don't tell 'im you saw me", she said in an exaggerated Australian accent, immitating Valon. He made the 'ok' sign, grinning again. As Deirdra turned to leave, he called "Oi!" and pitched one of Mai's vitamin waters at her. She caught it with her free hand, making a mental note to go buy groceries the next day.