I was slightly surprised when I entered my apartnt and found a sobbing and slightly drunk Gloria Martinez on my couch. I didn't ask her what was wrong, since it was pretty obvious that it involved her son. Instead, I went to the vending machine in the kitchen and grabbed two coffees, orange flavored, and slipped a hangover potion into hers before putting them on a tray.
I walked back to the living room with the tray, hobbled actually, and her sobs actually increased when she saw struggling. I put the tray beside the half empty bottle of alcohol and four empty cans of NiCola. I handed her a cup of coffee and she gave a grateful look before she downed the whole thing.
My laugh escaped before I could stop it and she looked scandalized, then she huffed and sat back on the couch as her head cleared up from all the alcohol abuse.
“Why is your coffee so much better?” Gloria asked and grabbed the second cup. She took a long slow sip, made an ah sound, and then helped take a sip, too.
“Food prepared with loving care always tastes better.” I said and her eyes widened, then she started crying again. I handed her a napkin and she used it liberally to wipe at her face and to catch her tears.
Gloria didn't do anything else for several minutes as she tried to compose herself. I could tell she had sothing really important to say and I wasn't going to rush her. She looked devastated and I was sure that whatever David had done while he wasn't at school, either pissed her off or made her lose all of her faith in him.
When she finally stopped sobbing, she took several deep breaths and told what happened, where David had done, where he had been, and where he chose to go instead of accepting her help and facing his choices like a man. Him choosing to go it alone without her, broke her heart and shattered what little hope she had for him having a bright future.
“I can do a net search for him...” I started to offer.
“No.” Gloria denied and cut off. “No, V. He made his choice and now we both have to live with it.”
I sat there and thought about the problem. “I could give Vic a call and see if he'll watch out for any signs of him.”
Gloria started shaking her head and I caught her chin with my finegrtips.
“I'm not saying he'll keep tabs on him, or lo-jack him or anything.” I said and she looked surprised. “If he sees David in the neighbourhood, he could let us know if he's hanging around with the wrong crowd or sothing.”
Gloria looked like she was going to protest, then gave a small nod instead. I sent off a discreet ssage to Victor Vektor and gave him the deets on the situation and asked him to keep an eye on and an ear out for anything David might get into, if he ever showed up in the area. I showed Vic's response to Gloria and she visibly deflated with relief and slumped down on the couch.
I asked her if she was hungry and she said no, so I made myself sothing to eat that slled and tasted delicious. I hadn't even started to dish it up for myself when Gloria took the serving fork from and dished it up onto a large plate. She gave a pointed look and I gave her an innocent one back, which almost made her laugh. I counted that as a win and we sat down at the kitchen table to share the al together.
“Can you give a hand getting out of this thing?” I asked and wiggled my fingers towards myself when the al was over. “Syn sewed into it and it won't co off with just a casual tug like it normally would.”
With a nod and a helping hand on my arm to steady , we stood and went down to my bedroom. I undid the transfiguration on the school uniform to show the suture stitches along the undersides of the coat arms and the inside seams of the legs.
“She used sutures from the first aid kit in the bathroom. The small scissors should work to cut them and they should easily pull apart.” I told her.
Gloria went into the bathroom for a mont and ca back out with the scissors in hand. I stood still as she carefully cut up along the inside of the underarms first to get the coat off. She was a dical professional, so I wasn't nervous about her using a cutting instrunt so close to my skin and didn't flinch when I felt the tal graze my arms slightly.
Gloria gave a look of appreciation at trusting her so much and she tugged on the severed cloth and the suit coat slipped off of my shoulders easily. She paused at the sight of my armless shirt and she bit her lip to stop herself from comnting about how sexy it looked. She knelt and started cutting the sutures on the inside of the pants next and her breathing sped up a little when she reached a certain area.
Of course, I grew hard for her and she easily noticed, with her head being right there. Her face went red at seeing my obvious excitent and she cut her way down the other leg. The pants pretty much fell off when she was done and now she had a boxer covered erection right in her face.
Instead of pulling my underwear down and going at it like I knew she wanted to, she leaned forward and turned her head to rest her cheek against and her hands reached around and hugged my butt. She took several long and deep breaths as she enjoyed the silky hardness against her face.
Being careful of my cast, I very gently pet her head with my fingertips and she let out a soft sob and tears ca to her eyes again. We stayed like that for several minutes as Gloria comforted herself. She eventually composed herself once more and reluctantly let go. She saw her tears had soaked the cloth and she looked up at with an apologetic look on her face.
I suddenly rembered a similar situation when I first started my adventures and smiled a warm smile as I repeated the angel Gabriel's words when she was comforting Asia. “I will wear your tears of grief and sorrow until such ti as you feel you no longer have to shed them.”
Gloria looked surprised and also grateful when she heard that. She slowly stood and looked deep into my eyes, as if she was trying to decide if I was joking or not. I wasn't, so she didn't see any amusent or deception, just my warm smile and accepting attitude.
She stepped close and hugged to give a chaste kiss on the lips, which she held for only a mont, then she stepped back. Before she could apologize for dumping everything on , I reached up and placed a single fingertip on her lips to stop her.
“Chooms help chooms out when they need it.” I said and moved my fingertip away from her mouth. “You don't have to apologize for needing a shoulder to cry on, Gloria.”
Gloria's eyes dropped to my crotch and blushed, which made laugh. I noticed it was getting close to a certain ti and needed to make an excuse to have so privacy.
“I'm going to lay down for a while to recover from school. I haven't been up and around this much in weeks.” I said and she nodded, then she helped walk over to the bed and helped get in.
Gloria gave an odd look, then she tucked in under the blanket and leaned down to give another quick kiss on the lips. “Thank you, V.”
I smiled and pretended to yawn. “Feel free to... watch what you want... and the vendi...” I trailed off and closed my eyes as I let exhaustion show for a mont, then I evened my breathing out and let her think I fell asleep. I watched her using X-Ray Vision to see what she would do.
Gloria stared at for a few seconds before her hand went to my head and she lightly caressed it, then stopped when she reached the bandages on the back. She leaned down and peeled so of the tape off to look underneath, then she sucked in a sharp breath because there were no more scars there. She put the tape back and gave another odd look.
After a mont, she seed to co to a decision and she did her best to walk silently out of the bedroom and shut the door. I watched her go back to the living room and sit on the couch. She sat there for several minutes and gained a smile on her face, nodded several tis, and stood. She left a ssage for on the television screen, instead of sending it directly to , and grabbed her coat and left the apartnt.
I checked the ti and Synapse wouldn't show up for another few hours for the night shift. I connected to my cyberdeck and pulled up the assignnt we received in class today, then sent a request to Carrie and the others and let them know I was available.
I received a private chat room request barely a second later and dove into cyberspace. As a rich corpo kid, Carrie had access to so good tech, including access to a private server. I appeared standing up inside what looked like a young girl's view of what paradise looked like.
There was a cushioned floor instead of grassy ground, throw pillows spread everywhere, fluffy blankets galore draped over everything, love seats scattered around, a four poster bed canopy overhead, stuffed animals of various kinds tucked into every nook and cranny, and a group of friends wearing comfy pyjamas were gathered together in the center of the whole thing as they chatted and laughed.
“You're a little overdressed.” Carrie said teasingly when she saw .
I chuckled and pretended to open a program window to choose a different outfit. I changed the academy uniform my avatar wore into the sa wolf covered pyjamas I wore back when I was Jon Snow in Ga of Thrones.
Quite predictably, a few of the girls let out wolf whistles and then giggled. I walked over to the group and sat down in the obvious space left for , which just so happened to be right beside Carrie, whom bead a smile at .
“I'm so glad you could make it.” Carrie said with affection.
“, too.” I said and actually ant it.
Despite so of their upbringings, they were all relatively nice girls and were only vindictive and sotis nasty when required by peer pressure to be that way. As future corporate executives, they had to have a public persona appropriate to their station, just so others wouldn't think they could be taken advantage of.
That was one of the reasons I didn't bla Evelyn for choosing the safer option of doing what Tanaka had asked her to do, naly not help when I asked, because it could hurt her chances to rise in the company later if she ignored or disrespected a current board mber's son.
It didn't matter if he was a disrespectful asshole or treated everyone around him like garbage, because his position in the social hierarchy was above hers and she had to be very careful about how she handled things. As long as she was compliant to his wishes, she wouldn't be seen as a troublemaker or bucking the system. Playing along was necessary if you wanted to get ahead in such a cutthroat world.
We didn't start in on the howork assignnt right away, though. The girls continued their current conversation and I slid into it as if I had been there from the start. Their surprised and appreciative looks made smile, because I was sure most of them thought I would interrupt them and want to dive right into doing the assignnt to get it done.
If I couldn't just generate the thing instantly whenever I wanted to, I might have ntioned us all getting to the whole point of gathering together. Instead, I knew the gathering itself was the point, since we could all have done the assignnt on our own and didn't actually need everyone's help.
I glanced around and saw a big plush pillow, which would be perfect for what I wanted it for, and I moved over and grabbed it, then went back to 'my' spot and set it down, then I laid down to prop my chest onto it and hugged it to my neck and rested my chin on it. I then proceeded to keep talking and bent my knees to put my feet in the air and lightly kicked them in a classic relaxing pose girls used during a sleepover party.
The girls looked at like they had never seen before, then each and every one of them quickly copied and shuffled their pillows slightly forward to be much closer to each other, and , than they had been while sitting around and giving each other space.
The conversation imdiately changed to beco more intimate as the girls relaxed with and the gathering soon changed from a normal eting of friends doing howork to one that resembled a sleepover party. They looked like they were having a lot more fun than only a minute ago and I ntally smiled at putting them at ease.
Because of my actions, they knew I wasn't going to disrupt things or cause any problems. As far as they were concerned, I was just one of the girls right now and they were all quite happy about that.
*
Victor Vektor examined Veder's body as he reviewed a replay of Gloria's visuals for the last few interactions she had with him. Edited, of course. She wasn't going to embarrass herself by including anything intimate, even if he was a choom to her and one of the best ripperdocs in the area.
“You're right. He's already healed all of his external damage and the incisions we made to remove his chro, even where the skull plate had been.” Victor said and paused where Gloria had peeked under the bandage.
“Can dorphs really do stuff like that?” Gloria asked. “This is way too soon for it to heal like that, isn't it?”
Victor sat back on the chair and thought about it. “What was it Veder said? With stuff like this, he's the exception and not the rule.”
Gloria blinked her eyes at that and then her face flushed red as she looked away.
Victor knew for sure that she adored the kid if she reacted like that. Taking care of soone usually ford a temporary bond that could grow into sothing else if you weren't careful. Maintaining an appropriate professional distance would usually stop that from happening, though. It made him think Gloria had invested her emotions a bit more into Veder than even she suspected.
“After talking to V, I've asked around for a few people to watch out for David.” Victor said and Gloria's head snapped back to stare at him. “No, no. Nothing like that.” He said with a chuckle. “I talked to Misty upstairs and she passed it on to her new boyfriend Jackie Welles.”
“Jackie, Jackie... where have I heard...” Gloria whispered and then her eyes narrowed. “Isn't he that muscled thug that rides a suped-up motorcycle? He's part of the Valentinos, isn't he?”
Victor knew he had to tread carefully after that reaction. “He's trying to break away from that kind of life... amicably, of course. They're his family, after all. He doesn't want any bad vibes between him and his chooms if he goes independent.”
“Bad vibes?” Gloria huffed. “I think you're spending too much ti with Misty yourself.”
Victor chuckled and raised his hands in surrender. “Those are Jackie's words, not mine. Misty's a sweet girl...”
“...that you're not interested in at all, which is why you have such cheap rent.” Misty said as she entered the basent carrying a small box. “I grabbed those hydraulic sealing rings you wanted.”
“Oh! That's great, Misty. Thank you.” Victor said and stood to take the box from her. “Did you manage to find any Ginseng in Japantown?”
Misty nodded and lifted the small bag she had at her side. “It's barely enough for what I wanted it for and it's not nearly old enough or has enough karma built up to last for more than a month.”
Gloria sat there at Victor's workstation and observed Victor and Misty interact like they were old friends. There was no sexual tension at all between them and Gloria understood what Victor had ant.
Misty was a sweet girl, if you looked past the weirdly cut and teased out blonde hair, the raccoon-like eye makeup, the spiked dog collar, the ratty old knitted blue sweater, the large pentagram necklace, the leather skirt, fishnet stockings, and stripper heels. She didn't have any visual signs of having any chro, either.
Their conversation stopped when Victor excused himself and carried the box into the backroom where he kept the spare parts. Gloria thought about asking Misty about Jackie and how they t, or why she would think dating a gang mber was in way way safe, then Misty shocked her.
“David is going to be okay.” Misty said and stared at her, as if she could see into her soul.
“How did you know...” Gloria started to ask.
“It's a gift. I did a card reading this morning and...” Misty stopped herself before she explained way too much about what she did and why. “I stumbled into him after I left the spice shop. He looked lost and I told him to reach out to soone I knew he could connect with.”
Gloria's face drained of color. “N-n-no... you... you didn't...”
“Jackie was more than happy to show a new choom around the city.” Misty said with a smile.
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