SPENCER SLAUGHTER !

"Look," he said quietly, "I'll tell ya, but you gott keep it to yourself, alright? It just happened not that long ago and it's…it's been hard on him. On all of us."

The man nodded, now even more intrigued, leaning a little closer to hear Ghoul's hushed voice.

"We were out on the edge of Zone Five, for your safety, I'm not gonna tell you why, but we were in Five near this rundown out post and we got swarmed by Dracs, so we did the only thing we could do: take cover, return fire, and hope for the best. Jet got pinned down behind this wooden post for the patio of the outpost. He tried turning to return fire, but they saw him move. Thankfully they hit the post and not him, but they hit the post as he was turning so when the wood shattered a bunch of it got in his eye."

"Oh geeze!"

Ghoul nodded sagely, taking the horror in stride. "We got him outta there quick as we could but…I mean at that point the damage was already done. Now, don't get me wrong, Jet's a damn good medic, but there's only so much surgery a guy can do on himself, y'know?"

The man gaped. "On himself?"

Ghoul shrugged. "I mean, yeah. We didn't have time to track anyone else down and it ain't like we can go to a City hospital. He, uh,…accidently took out a little chunk of his eye with the wood, passed of from the pain. I had to finish pulling it out for him. He's, uh, having to wear the patch at least till his eye grows back."

"Can it?" he demanded, voice full of genuine confusion and hopefulness in equal measure.

Jet snorted, choking on his own drink.

Ghoul swung to him quickly. "You good, babe?" he asked, voice returning to normal volume.

Jet nodded, coughing so he wouldn't laugh, as Ghoul patted him on the back. "Yeah, I'm good. Just-" he coughed again, trying to come up with a lie "-sneezed while I was trying to swallow."

"Well, bless you," Ghoul answered and patted his back again. "Slow down on that thing, maybe." He shook his head disapprovingly and turned back to his new buddy, then simply shrugged, looking a little lost in thought and helpless. He lowered his voice again, back to the conspiratorial hushed tone, "Jet seems to think so. But…like I said, he…hasn't really been okay since everything happened. Just. Try to ignore it, okay? He gets agitated when it gets brought up."

"Yeah, yeah," the guy agreed with a nod. "If I hear anyone say anything I'll tell 'em to drop it."

"Thanks, man, I appreciate it." Ghoul clapped him on the back, catching Poison's eye as he did, subtly nodding away.

Poison winked in response then made his way over to the bar. "Hey, you're fresh from the City, yeah?"

"Yeah. Snuck out with some Runners a few days ago," he answered.

Poison pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. "You ever play pool?"

"Never even heard of it!" he laughed.

"Great, I need a partner to play with my brother and his buddy. Come on, I'll show ya how to play."

Jet turned once he was gone, grinning at Ghoul. "Firefight and surgery on myself? That's messed up, Ghoul," he laughed.

"He's the one asking invasive question!" Ghoul cried defensively, grinning widely. "Would you rather me give out your medical history?"

"No-"

"Okay then. You're welcome."

"You made me sound unstable!"

"Baby, you are Zone Born you are unstable."

"You're a bastard," Jet snickered.

"Uh-uh," he wagged his finger then pointed to his chest for emphasis, "My parents were married when they had me thank you very much. You on the other hand-"

"Hey, you leave my mother out of this, okay?" Jet laughed. "Yeah, I was an oops baby, and yeah, she did ditch me on Cy's doorstep, but you used that to win an argument last week, so you gotta come up with somethin' new this time!"

Ghoul snorted. "Oh, that's awful," he snickered.

Jet shrugged, "We laugh about it or we cry about it. And if I can laugh about it while also makin' you feel bad about it, that's a win for me." He shouldered Ghoul playfully.

"How's it feelin'?" Ghoul asked seriously.

"Gettin' a little tired," Jet admitted, tapping the nearly empty bottle on the bar. He might well be the medic of the Fab Four, but in many ways Ghoul was his medic. He didn't hang around Cyclone quite enough to get the training Jet had, but he was sure to learn enough to take care of Jet's issues.

"Gettin' a headache?"

Jet shook his head. "Not quite that bad, just…kinda startin'a feel a little heavy. Can tell it's straining."

Ghoul nodded. "Keep me updated, we can leave if ya start feelin' too bad."

Jet rolled his eyes. "I'm fine, mom," he teased, shouldering Ghoul. "Thanks for lookin' out for me."