Snippet #2164811

"I don't really expect him to Alex," she said with a warm smile, a stark contrast compared to the frozen environment around them. "I've seen his type before. Stubborn old dogs of war. You know what they say about old dogs, right?" She said, her tone implying that she found it a rather endearing quality. "Men like him are the hard quiet type. The UNSC are full of men like him, just ready to shoot at the first alien bastard who looks at them cross. To be fair, smoking is probably the least of his worries," she continued, her smile dropping into something of a tight lipped frown.

"Men like him don't normally die in a hospital bed nor even quietly in their sleep. It'd take a plasma bolt to the heart to stop him-- If only one. I wouldn't be surprised to see him shrug off a number of them, and take that many more of the bastards out," She said with a flicker of a smile. Talking about the man like that reminded her of her father. A stern faced man marching off to fight the bastards who threatened their way of life, who threatened his wife, his sons, and his daughter. Hell, she even saw a bit of her brothers in the man.

"But I digress, I doubt Corporal Carter would like the idea of me gossiping about him like that," she added, deftly changing the subject. "How about you Alex? Got a case of the sniffles that I can tell you to suck up?" she said with a laugh. Despite the utter amount of grim faced soldiers and hardened marines, Valerie still had a girlish air about her. Though she has been known to drag wounded soldiers from the frontline under heavy fire and then patch up their wounds mid-combat, she was still perhaps the softest soul in the entire base. An endearing quality, perhaps, but a good one to be found in a Hospital Corpsman.

A medic just as hardened as some of these soldiers and just as cold as the ground beneath her feet might not provide the care that she would. He'd end up saying that it was a lost cause and just let the soldier die. Not Valerie. She would try to the fullest extent of her expertise to save every soul she possible could. Sure, she failed many times before, but each failure only drove her to try and save the next one. Being the medic, she was perhaps more acquainted with death than most soldiers should be. An attitude like hers was rare, but it let her keep her air of optimism and care. Key things to look for in a medic.

A symphony of handgun shots drew her head in that direction. The only one she thought she knew over there was First Sergeant Kent. She chewed on her lip as if internally debating something, then shrugged, having found an answer. "Doing anything? Care for a walk? Thought I'd visit Kid and see how that eye's doing," She asked. The eye was probably long-since healed and her checking on him was probably uncalled for... But there was really nothing else to do, so why not right? With her question asked she turned and began to walk towards where the shots rang out.