"This isn't going to end well…"

Layla stood facing Novac's night-shift sniper, her mind in overdrive. She'd traveled alone in the Mojave and beyond for years; there was no reason for her to pick up a companion. In fact, the guy seemed a little cracked, making it a terrible idea to trust him on the road. But she'd seen past his gruff exterior as he read the bill of sale she'd found in Jeanie May's safe. Anguish radiated from him as folded the note detailing the sale of his wife and unborn child to Caesar's Legion.

And now Layla had asked him to come with her. The guy who she'd just met. The guy who had just popped Jeannie May's head off without seeing the proof first. The guy who just told her it was a bad idea himself. The guy who was completely alone with only the thought of what had happened to his family to keep him company.

She must have been contemplating too long; she could see the sniper's eyebrow start to rise as he continued staring at her. Thinking a moment longer, she decided she'd have to give him a snappy line to sooth any doubts he had.

"You got any better plans?" Layla kept her wince to herself as the man frowned further.

"Fine. Let's get out of here," Boone growled after a moment, gathering his things from the mouth of the dinosaur. They met outside the gate of the motel a few minutes later. Without so much as a word between them, the two started away from the town. They didn't make it very far before a voice stopped them.

"Hey there, little lady!"

The Courier turned, grinning widely.

"Victor! What are you doing all the way out here?" She regarded the robot cowboy for a moment. Then closed an eye and tilted her head slightly. "Are you following me?" she said with mock accusation, still smiling.

"I'm on my way to New Vegas. I reckon you are too, huh?" Victor said. Layla nodded. "Well, I figure we'll see each other from time-to-time then. Who's your friend?"

Frowning, Layla suddenly started when she remembered Boone was with her. She turned to find the man staring at her and the securitron, eyebrow raised again.

"This is Boone." The Courier nodded to the sniper. She turned to fully face him. "Boone, this is Victor, my robot guardian angel."

"Aw, yer gonna make me blush," Victor said. He turned to Boone. "Now you treat that little lady right. My friends and I will be keeping an eye on you."

Laughing, Layla waved him off. "Now now, don't worry, we'll be fine. I guess I'll see you in Vegas."

"If not sooner. Take care now." With that, he rolled off. Layla smiled after him as he disappeared over a hill, then glanced back at Boone, who was still giving her a weird look. Layla shot him a grin in response and continued down the road. As they walked, she could feel eyes on the back of her head.

"You're face is gonna freeze if you keep that eyebrow up," Layla said, not bothering to look at the sniper.

"Your robot threatened me."

The Courier let out a laugh.

"He's just being protective, and he's not mine. He just helped me out a few times."

"What happened?"

Biting her lip, Layla wondered briefly how much she should tell her new companion. She was pretty sure she hadn't suffered any brain damage from the two bullets Benny had put in her head… but she wasn't certain. It probably would just make things more complicated anyway.

"I ran into some trouble with a guy from the Strip and a few Great Khans. Victor got me out of it." Looking over her shoulder, she noticed Boone seemed a little agitated.

"Do you know any Bennys? Especially ones in checkered suits?" she asked.

"No."

Silence followed, and Layla again wondered what she was doing by having Boone tag along. She decided to analyze it during the slightly tense silence that followed. If she had to pinpoint why a complete stranger with a high-caliber rifle was following a few yards behind her, it would be sympathy. Well, sympathy mixed with concern. He'd just gotten finished losing everything, and Layla knew he had to be close to a breaking point. What kind, she wasn't sure, but she didn't want to let him find out.

There was something else to him though, something that made her like him. She couldn't put her finger on it yet, but she felt she always had good instincts when it came to people. Either way, she broke the silence, curious about the sullen man.

"So, tell me about yourself." She thought she heard a disgruntled sigh, but she might have imagined it.

"Not really my thing."

She ignored his weak attempt to deflect her questions. "How did you end up in Novac? Did you meet your wife around here?"

There was no answer, and the Courier looked back his way. She realized a little too late that his dead wife might not have been the best thing to talk about. He clearly hadn't given her all the details of what had happened, but Layla had a pressing feeling something was troubling him more than the rest. Deciding to be bold, she figured they'd just cut to the heart of the matter.

"What aren't you telling me about your wife?"

The man stiffened, gaze snapping in her direction.

"Carla's dead, and that's all you need to know."

Red creeped up her neck as Layla turned back to the road. That was stupid. Very stupid. They walked in a much less pleasant silence for a time. Eventually the girl decided on another line of questioning, not willing to give up on getting to know her new sniper.

"Manny told me you guys were in 1st Recon?" She mentioned Novac's other sniper with disdain. She hoped he didn't take offense to tone, but he didn't seem too happy with the man anyway. She'd liked Manny when they first met, but when the subject of Boone, or more importantly Boone's wife, had come up, he opinion of him had started to sour. The sniper seemed nonplussed at her negative regard to Manny as he answered.

"Sniper Battalion. We scouted and took out key targets."

Layla looked his way as they continued walking.

"Is that a 1st Recon beret? I've never seen red NCR berets before."

"Yeah."

She saw his eyebrow raise as she started grinning. She'd remembered the horrific tan line on the top of his head.

"You ever take it off?"

"No."

Layla laughed a little. "So, what kind of action did you and 1st Recon see?" She suddenly remembered what Manny had said about that Khan settlement. "Were you at Bitter Springs?"

The air suddenly grew colder as Layla felt the brittle silence fall over them. Looking back again, she found Boone staring straight ahead. The Courier bit her lip.

"Were you?" She should have bit harder. Stupid, dumb idiot.

"That part of my life is over, and so is this conversation."

Layla was glad she was in front of the man, facing away from him while they walked. She could feel her cheeks burning now. No more questions for now. The tension was getting unbearable. Just as Layla felt like she was going to snap, she saw a man running their way.

That wasn't so weird; people ran all over the Mojave. What was odd was that he seemed to be running straight for Layla. She put her hand on her gun and heard Boone ready his rifle. The man came to a stop a few feet from them and started talking before she could say anything.

"Hey, wanna trade?"

The Courier gave him an incredulous look, and the man sighed.

"All right, lying just isn't in my nature. My name is Malcolm Holmes, and I've been following you."

The man suddenly looked nervous. Layla didn't understand at first; she had actually recoiled a step at his remark, worried he was about to spring a trap. It took her a moment to realize that he was reacting to Boone. She glanced over her shoulder and found him glaring eye lasers at the man, gun half-raised in his direction. The guy couldn't be stupid enough to waltz up to them, introduce himself, and start shooting, and that realization made Layla curious.

"Why were you following me?"

Holmes turned his attention back to Layla, still darting a look over her shoulder periodically.

"I… saw you pick up a bottle cap with a star on it. You didn't seem to react to it; do you know what they are?" He must have guessed what the girl's blank stare meant and continued. "Sunset Sarsaparilla Star Caps supposedly unlock an old world treasure. Nobody knows what it is, but people are willing to kill for them."

"Treasure?" That got her attention. "What kind of treasure?"

The man shrugged.

"No one knows for sure. It must have been worth something, at least in the old world. But they say Festus guards the treasure. He's supposed to be old, pre-war old, but people swear to me they've met him."

This was an odd thing to randomly start talking about to strangers. She looked at the man again, still confused. "So, do you collect star caps?"

"No, not anymore. Too dangerous. I just wanted to warn you. If you keep looking for them, look out for a man named Allen Marks. They say he'll kill anyone if they have star caps."

"Oh. Well, thanks?"

The trader wave off her thanks.

"Just be careful; there are some strange people out there." With that, the man turned and started walking away. Layla stared after him, blinking. After a few moments, she heard Boone sling his rifle on his back.

"Does this kind of thing happen to you often?" he asked. She heard the lightest touch of amusement in his voice and turned to him.

"Random strangers running up to me to tell me about magic bottle caps that lead to treasures with two-hundred-year-old guardians and that people are willing to kill for? No. That one doesn't come up so much."

He was giving her a fraction of a grin, and Layla was relieved the earlier tension was gone. Her hopes were almost dashed when the man suddenly frowned at her.

"Where are we going?"

Nearly laughing, the girl realized they'd been walking for more than an hour, and he hadn't been informed of the plan.

"I know where there's a Legion raiding camp. We might be able to save some captives." The sniper nodded, and they traveled the rest of the way in silence, though it was a much more tolerable, tension-free quiet.

*.*.*

There was a guy wearing a feathered headdress barking orders at the other Legionaries as Layla and Boone overlooked the camp. It didn't matter how much these creeps freaked her out, they sure wore bizarre clothing. There were five of them at the camp, way more Legionaries than Layla would have ever dreamed of taking on her own. She had thought about calling the whole thing off, but she could see two bound Powder Gangers, both looking bruised and miserable.

Just when she had nearly formed a plan, she heard an ear-splitting crack and saw one of the Legionaries crumble to the ground. Eyes wide, she turned and found the sniper lining up another shot.

"Warn a girl next time!" she hissed as she drew her 10mm and started firing as the armed group scrambled to respond. Soon bullets were embedding themselves into the dirt around them, and the Courier got the feeling she was in over her head.

The guy with the feather hat went flying from a round shot by Boone. Layla had to amend her last thought as she managed to down one; maybe she wasn't over her head. By the time she had taken out her target, Boone had finished off the remaining men. She hoped the sniper hadn't noticed she wasn't so hot a shot. Standing, she made her way over to the captives while Boone started searching the fallen Legionaries.

Both men looked relieved as the Courier approached. Their relief seemed short-lived, however, as they recognized her. Without a word, she pulled the knife from one of her pockets and cut the ropes from their hands.

"What the fuck do you want?" the first Powder Ganger snarled as Layla cut the other one free. She put her hands on her hips.

"A little gratitude would be nice," she said, putting her knife away. "And learn some manners while you're at it." She gave the two former captives a sneer. "Get the hell out of here." Both Powder Gangers scurried off without another word. Layla snorted.

"Pack of ingrates…" She eyed the feathered hat the one guy had been wearing and walked up to it with a grin. Picking it up, she turned to see how Boone was doing checking the bodies and found him looking at her.

"What was that about?" He nodded toward the retreating gang members.

"Oh, that. They're Powder Gangers. I kinda messed up a few of their plans. And kicked them out of a town they were trying to take over. And killed their leader." She saw his mildly impressed look and had to work to keep the smile off her face. His look turned into a frown suddenly.

"How long did you know about this place, about those men?"

She didn't like the tone he was using. Somewhere between suspicion and anger.

"Um… two days? Why?"

"Two days?" He didn't sound happy, and Layla looked up from the hat in her hands. "They almost got them into Legion territory. Why didn't you go after them sooner?"

Layla opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She knew the reason; Nipton's fires were still in her mind. The crucifixions and calmly explained brutality had scared the hell out of her. And she suddenly wondered if she hadn't picked up Boone in part because of what she'd seen in the burning town.

"They… I didn't think I could take them on my own. I would have gone to someone in the NCR for help, but do you really think they'd go running off to save some gang members?" She must have failed at keeping the tremor out of her voice, as Boone's expression softened just slightly. He looked away to the tents that surrounded them.

"I…" he sighed. "I'm sorry. It just pisses me off that the Legion can operate like this in NCR land. We should have secured the area better before we expanded further."

Dropping the feather hat, Layla shook away the last thoughts of Nipton from her mind. "Yeah… well, why don't we go back to Novac for the night? Head back out again in the morning."

Boone gave her a hard-to-read look before he spoke. "Okay."