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Virginia snorted and added with a mischievous smile, "I'm not carrying your fat ass over any doorstep.". Although her words may have sounded callous and perhaps bordered on insulting, she carefully inspected his bandages to see if any of them showed signs of new bleeding.
She remained silent during his long and somewhat emotional gaze, just scanning her surroundings to see if there was a threat to her or his somewhere. Most of the Alliance members present were casting surly glances at her and it wouldn't be Virginia Belle if she didn't return their 'warm' welcome in equal measure.
With the way she was guarding Damien Morreti, she gave the direct impression of an angry she-bear guarding her only cub and was mentally and physically more than prepared to face a fight and hard blows. As Morreti's speech slowly came to a close, Virginia felt her muscles begin to quiver with the rising adrenaline levels in her blood.
After the speech ended, she looked around the crowd with mild nervousness and clenched and unclenched her fists several times, not forgetting to stretch her neck slightly threateningly as the theoretical scuffle could become real at any moment.
"Hey, where the f*ck you think you-", she growled menacingly at the approaching, dangerous looking man and would have stood in front of Morreti had he not stopped her in time. She tried to ignore his gesture, but when he squeezed her upper arm harder in an attempt to silently signal that he was serious and only then did she stop.
However, she continued to make it more than clear with her body language that she was prepared to defend herself and Morreti, and slowly gritted her teeth as the tension in the room rose.
When the man wrapped his arms around Morreti, Virginia sighed loudly and relaxed. Her face showed a hint of relief and she briefly rubbed her still slightly reddened eyes. "That was close.", she whispered softly towards Morreti and nodded, "They could've killed you, dummy.".
"Yes, they could have." She was right and he did that much after their audience had begun to slowly disperse, having found a new target for their prejudices in the four mutineers. Their Commander had acted in the interests of the Alliance, no matter how unsavory his actions may have been, and he was willing to come back and admit everything. The mutineers not only acted on their own, but they also decided that coming back wasn't worth it and that the only worthwhile course of action was to leave all their people behind. So even if Morreti hadn't made any of these accusations against his assailants, this was still the subtext behind the current feud.
When it felt like his legs were going to give out once the adrenaline had worn off, he reached out and resumed his position of leaning on the vicious companion that had remained beside him throughout that ordeal. "I saw the way you stepped in front of me." Having said this he regarded her with a distinct but unclear look in his eyes. "For somebody who only just seconds ago was trying to not look as if they cared so much, you were perfectly willing to show that you did actually care, and that you cared a lot." He fully expected she'd find a way to sarcastically curse her way out of this topic of conversation, but even if she did humor him it wasn't as if he was able to play around for much longer. Every alarm his body had was blaring in an effort to tell him that he needed to rest again, the most apparent of which being how weak he was on his feet now.
Knowing she'd be able to see and even feel his lack of resilience, it was only a matter of time before he was either lectured or reprimanded for this stunt and hauled back to the infirmary like luggage.
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Virginia caught him carefully and wrapped his arm around her neck again. These were practically automatic movements, practiced through countless drills and first aid courses over the years she'd served in the Insurgency Fleet.
"I think it's every officer's duty to protect Mr. President.", she chuckled as she carefully made her way down the stairs with him, "But seriously - you, Thorn and Grant saved my ass, so I'll protect yours too.".
Their way down went slower and slower, and Virginia could feel Damien Morreti growing heavier as he ran out of energy with each step. "Watch out!", she cried out loudly as Damien's legs suddenly buckled and she was forced to quickly grab him with both hands under his arms and throw him down on top of her to keep him from falling on the hard stairs. She hissed in pain as the sharp edge of the step dug under her shoulder blades despite the thick fabric of her uniform. Damien's own weight pressing her against the stairs wasn't helping much either, or rather the opposite.
"F*ck.", she ground out between her teeth, slowly gathering the strength to lift herself and herself off the stairs, "You just caught me off guard, I'm fine.". Her right arm wrapped around his body while her left hand gripped the railing and with gritted teeth she tried with all her might to pull herself up while both her feet finally found a firm footing in her heavy boots. "Hold on to me tightly.", she commanded as she finally got to her feet and again used her stronger left hand to pull him higher up onto her shoulder and grip him tightly. "No more surprises like that please.", she said with a slight smirk as she walked with him out of the Alliance building.
"Are you still with me, Damien?", Virginia asked him as she half carried him towards the infirmary at Fort Ramsey.
When he was commanded to make sure he was holding onto her, she'd see him visibly smirk before cracking a joke. "Don't need to order me to do that." Even though he did try to keep a firm grip on his companion so he didn't faceplant, it wasn't nearly as substantial as it could have been.
"Yes, I'm still with you. Not like I can go someplace else, and it's not like I want to right now." Even if this was agonizing, the fact someone was helping him and doing so in a manner that felt sincerely considerate was comforting to him and all the wisecracking did next to nothing to mask that fact.
And then, from seemingly nowhere, he spoke up with absolute clarity. "I'm glad I found you." There wasn't anything longwinded or excessively sentimental about that, only sheer gratitude and affection.
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Virginia snorted, "Yeah. Hopefully your people'll get used to it.". She had to grit her teeth as even her own strength began to leave her. Her head was still pounding, her stomach felt like it was on water, and she felt like her arms were being pulled up to her knees.
Through it all, though, she was finding more will and more energy to keep going. Perhaps she had taken it into her head as a mission to drag the Xeno Alliance commander back to the hospital even if she had to drain her soul, and Virginia could be very stubborn.
She kicked open the hospital room door with her heavy boot and sat Damien Morreti down on the bed with an effort. With a deep sigh of relief, she helped him swing his legs out onto the hospital bed as well so that he could finally lie down. She looked ragged, but still had enough strength to slam her fist on the emergency button by his bed to summon the medical staff.
Only then did she collapse into a chair and lean back, "That was a very dangerous stunt, Damien. If they're going to kill you for ripping some stitches or whatever...", she paused for a moment in a deep breath, "...then I'll help them.". She then gave a tired chuckle as she watched the look on his face and rubbed her cheeks with both hands to keep herself awake as she was waiting for the medical staff to arrive.
While he did seem to be in a severe amount of pain as a consequence of this stunt, it did seem like it was the only one he was having to suffer through right now. He wasn't bleeding a trail or showing any signs that he might pass out, his focus hadn't waned but there was no way to be certain it would stay this way. Thankfully, even if something was eventually going to go wrong and give rise to complications, he'd been put back down in the hospital bed.
He turned to face his companion when she made that comment about being perfectly willing to help the attending medical staff kill him if any stitches were tone, and he just smirked through the pain. "Fair enough, you put up with getting me to where I needed to go and bringing me back." The medical staff from before were back in the room mere seconds after he'd finished that sentence, so even if he might have wanted to say more there was too much noise and shuffling from all of them making sure he hadn't ruined the hours of hard work.