Author's note is at the bottom.


"You got what you were after. So pay up!" McMurphy was saying from his side and suddenly he was brought back to reality. He was too entranced with staring down at the body in the dirt, face hidden by a light cowboy hat. He turned to stare at the darker of the two Khans before replying. "You're crying in the rain, paly." When he heard Jessup's next words, words that weren't meant to back his leader but rather to alert them, his adrenaline began to pump. "Guess who's waking up over here."

All three stared down at the figure that pulled herself to her knees, staring down at her hands as she tried to get them free. But slowly did she look up, brown eyes wide in fear. And shock hit him like a Securitron. Instead of looking for a face marred with burn scars and tribal tattoos, he found a face peering directly at him with just a streak of dirt and small lines of scars on her left cheek from when a Legion mutt got too close for comfort.

This wasn't what he planned. He knew that as he stared down at the woman sitting in the dirt. How could he have made such a mistake? Was it because she wasn't wearing sun dresses like she did on the Strip? Or sexy silk dresses with just a hint of lace when it was time for them to slumber? Or the brown armor with the two headed bear on the breast plate when it was time for her to go back and serve? Instead, she was wearing a red plaid shirt and a pair of jeans. And gloves. But the gloves were expected. She wore gloves even at home to hide what she thought was the hideous burn scars she had on her left hand, courtesy of a Fiend with a flamer. She wasn't the Courier they had been expecting. Hell, she wasn't even a Courier. She was a NCR trooper who, at first, had wanted to move up the ranks to Ranger. But after she had her son, their son, she decided that dream was for someone else. She was content with being a Trooper.

He wouldn't admit it, but he had already planned out what he was going to say. He pulled one last drag from the cigarette before dropping it to the ground and putting it out with his foot, trying to keep his voice even as he spoke. "Time to cash out." He turned, taking steps forward before McMurphy threw his arms out. "Will you get it over with?" He raised a hand; all fingers curled into a fist expect the pointer. "Maybe Khans kill people without looking them in the face, but I ain't a fink, dig?" He questioned, but it was more of a statement. If he was gonna kill her, he was gonna look at her face. She was the sacrifice for his control of New Vegas.

His hand slid into his jacket pocket and from it he produced the silver chip, the 38 on it seeming to mock him. He held it out for her to see, staring down at her. "You made your last delivery, kid." But she wasn't a delivery girl. She was a soldier. She was a mother. He knew somewhere on that cream colored flesh among the tribal tattoos was the name "Alex" in an elegant script. "I'm sorry you got twisted up in this scene." And lord, was he sorry. Those large blue eyes seemed to peer at him, tears brimming her lids.

He put the chip back into his jacket pocket. Instead of dropping his hand, he pulled the gun, Maria, from another pocket in his jacket, holding it out. He watched her glance at the gun, the gun she had fixed at times for him when it would jam. "From where you're kneeling must seem like an 18 karate run of bad luck." Her blue eyes were staring into his own, pleading, and even though her mouth was gagged with an old blue bandana he could almost hear her voice begging him not to point that gun at her. To not pull the trigger. "Truth is," He aimed the gun at her head and knew what he had to do. He couldn't stop his plans now. After all, she had been the one to encourage him to go through with taking over the Strip. "Game was rigged from the start." His hand shook as he pulled the trigger, releasing the first round from the chamber. It struck her in the neck and, to not seem weak in front of the Khans, he squeezed off another round with struck her smack dab in the middle of her forehead.

He had the urge to cry as she fell to the ground, blood pooling around her. But no tears came to him as he watched Jessup and McMurphy drag her body to the shallow grave. When they threw her in, he flinched. "Careful. Have some respect for the dead." He snapped and as they began to shovel dirt onto her body, he thought about what he'd tell their son. He'd give her a hero's death when he spun the tale to his child, maybe tell him that his mother doing what she did best – saving people. Maybe he'd tell him she died saving her platoon from a Deathclaw. But he'd wait until Vegas was his.

When they were finished, and much to his luck, her left hand protruded from the dirt. "Go ahead. I'll catch up." He needed time to think. And he needed privacy. The Khans nodded as they went on without him, and when they were out of his sight he kneeled into the dirt and removed her glove from her hand, sliding off the ring with diamonds twinkling in the starlight and slipped it into his pocket before he rose to leave. On the way back to the Strip, he remembered a story she told him about a man who had to sacrifice his wife to make the perfect weapon and be a hero. It never truly explained how the hero felt, but in that moment he understood how that hero felt. Evil. Dirty. Angry. And above all else; broken.

When he got home, the first thing Benny did was yell at Yes Man! And even punched his screen so hard it cracked at the bottom before he went into the living room of his presidential suite and fixed a drink. When he turned to examine the room, his eyes instantly fell on a picture of them together and, in a sudden blind rage, he had smashed the glass down on the counter with his hand. By the next morning, the whole suite was a mess and he had a bleeding right hand and two broken fingers on the left. When Swank asked what happened, he just told him he ran into a Fiend and just left it with that. That night, his son asked him where his mother was, and he told him the first thing that came into mind.

"She's far away, Alex."


So, this is just me screwing around with ideas. Yeah. There's a lot of one shots I have written up. I just decided to post this one.

Friends from role play read it. And here are some of Q&A's we had.

Q: Why wasn't she the Courier he was expecting?

A: Originally, this was going to be two chapters. The first chapter going over the death of her twin sister who died days before she was supposed to pick up the package(which was the Chip), but asked her to deliver the package for her.

Q: Benny and the Courier have a kid together?

A: Yeah. Like I said. I was fucking around with ideas.

Q: Are you going to continue this? - Was from my best friend. xD I think she was being nice.

A: Probably not. o3o

Q: Why didn't you put the Courier's name in here?

A: Technically, they never say her name in the game. I was kinda going for that.

Q: What're you gonna do if someone flames this?

A: Tell them if they don't like it, they can go suck it? 83

Q: Is everything accurate here? Like, the dialogue?

A: Well. I sat there for like. Thirty minutes re-watching the opening video twenty times. So I hope so!