When Tommy woke up it was already late,he overslept after last night's excursion.
So when he got to the dock there were many people already here.
-Good morning sleepy head. Alice greeted him with a smile.
-Good morning- he answered.
-That has to be the first time that you came this late,what happened? Did you oversleep?
She asked with a smirk,she's still not over him making fun of her despite getting some revenge with the scanner incident and he wasn't the only victim,Simon was next.
-Yeah,i couldn't sleep and as you can see i overslept.
He admitted. But seeing her gave him an idea,he was thinking about how to get some alcohol to get rid of the drug from his system.
-Some times I really wish I had some alcohol.
He complained.
-Good luck with that,there is not a drop of alcohol on this whole station.
She said, shaking her head.
-Didn't we just find a bunch of medical supplies?
he asked.
-You know we did ,so what?
She didn't understand what he was implying.
-Wasn't there any alcohol in there?
He asked with a grin.
Her eyes grew to the size of saucers when she finally understood what he was getting at.
-Not a chance!
She said determined to never let him get anywhere near the stuff.
-Why not?
-First of all,it's a 95% spirit meant for disinfection, there is no way you can drink it without dying or at the very least getting poisoned.
Second there is only around 20 liters of it and there is no way in hell im letting you waste it to attempt suicide.
And finally we all agreed that all the medical materials are mine and I'm not going to share,especially knowing what you have in mind.
She said with a serious tone while pointing every argument on her fingers.
-You do know that we could water it down to a safe level and that would lessen the amount that i want.
He still tried to convince her but deep down he knew that she wouldn't budge.
The drug may have dulled her learning ability but it could not do anything about her stubbornness.
-No,no way,I wont allow it.
She said, crossing her arms before her.
-You wont allow what exactly?
She jumped when Simon's voice boomed from behind her.
She didn't even hear him approaching.
-This idiot wants to get drunk using disinfecting alcohol that we found.
She said pointing at Tommy,fully expecting the big guy to support her in this situation.
-Actually that's not a bad idea, all we need to do is to dilute it with water so that it's drinkable.
Said the big guy after he thought it through.
-Not you too.
Alice said with resignation in her voice.
-What were you expecting?
He asked, looking surprised.
- I sure as hell didn't expect you to support his idea.
She answered,getting ready to tear into them for even thinking about drinking.
-Calm down Alice, it's not like we're gonna drink ourselves silly every day and go on a rampage.
Not to mention that some booze can really help you with some problems.
Simon tried to pacify her as best he could while trying to convince her to let go of some of her supplies.
-No it doesn't help,all it does is to make you look stupid and forget about the problem instead of solving it.
And before you try to do any more convincing my answer is still No!
She turned to leave but stopped.
-And just so you know,if I find any of my alcohol missing you'll regret ever being born.
Both men were speechless; they never knew that Alice had such strong aversion to drinking.
-Well there goes that idea.
Said Tommy with some sadness in his voice and Simon just nodded, also sad.
The difference was that Tommy was sad because no matter what Alice said he had to get at least half a liter of her alcohol to get rid of the drug and since she refused to give it to him he had to get it himself and that meant he had to steal it.
He didn't want to steal from someone he considered a friend but that was his only way to get what he needed and telling her about Diazium was pointless since it was forbidden medicine
and most doctors even heard of it.
He only knew because his mercenary medic friend had once told him about it when she was drunk.
It was used on her when she was in medical school and some of her peers got jealous of her performance but she only found out about it after she failed her exams and got kicked out.
She got back to normal pretty soon because she got herself drunk silly the day she got kicked out of school.
After Alice left, Tommy and Simon got to work like usual.
When it was break time Tommy didn't eat like usual but just sipped some water.
Last night he was able to confirm that the water supply was clean.
When Simon asked about it he said he wasn't hungry and changed the topic.
When it was time for his training he dialed it down quite a bit.
Without food there was no way that he could do the same intensive training and he didn't want to eat more of the drug before he was immune.
The main problem was that Alice probably expected him or Simon to try and steal the alcohol so she would be in the med bay as much as possible to deny them that possibility.
In a way it was funny to think about Alice as an opponent that he had to outwit or bypass and for something as silly as some alcohol.
-It would be really funny if it wasn't that important for me.
Tommy thought while waiting for an opportunity to break into the med bay.
Well Alice gave him a surprise ,she wasn't spending all her time in the med bay it was the opposite.
The next day she came to them with a big smile on her face and told them that she had hidden the alcohol so they could forget about drinking.
She looked genuinely happy that she prevented them from getting drunk.
However what she didn't know was that Tommy already got all the alcohol he needed.
And there was no way in hell that he would let her know about it.
Last night when she was sure that there was no one around she tried to sneak out of the med bay with the alcohol so that she could hide it.
Let's just say that stealth wasn't her forte and she failed to detect Tommy who was waiting for her to fall asleep so that he could quietly get some of her stash.
He was shocked at first and then amused.
-Well if she wants to make it easier for me,who am i to stop her.
He thought while waiting for her to finish hiding all of the bottles in a ventilation shaft some 200 meters from the med bay.
After she was done and went back to the med bay Tommy took 4 bottles and poured a quarter from each into one of his canteens.
When he was done he refiled the bottles with water and put them back to their hiding spot.
Simon looked amused by her antics.
-You know Alice i think you're overreacting. He said with his ever present smile.
-Oh how am I overreacting,trying to keep the two of you away from alcohol?
She asked with a challenging tone.
It was obvious to them that she was 100% sure that she did the right thing.
Tommy suddenly started laughing and Simon did the same, making her confused.
-You know it's just some booze and while it would be great to drink some it's not like we can't live without it.
Furthermore it's not like we are going to rob the med bay just to have a drink,do you see us as some addicts or something?
Said Tommy while barely holding back his laughter.
At first she was getting mad,she didn't like it when someone laughed at her,but after hearing what he said and thinking about it for a moment she blushed with shame.
Even though she had her reasons to keep them away from the booze,she just now realized she managed to make a complete fool of herself.