Getting on the chems is so fucking easy, getting off the shit is a totally different matter altogether. I wandered around Freeside for a bit, sleeping in the ruined buildings in the slums, my caps got boosted the first night out while I was sleeping. I was so fucking screwed. I left Freeside and wandered a bit, finding an old shop, its roof missing, the top floor open to the sky and slept there for a couple of days, trying to dry out from the chems, and failing miserably.

It was there that I met Skeet. Skeet was a Fiend, he took me to Vault 3 and I got back into old habits, I didn't whore myself as much as I used to, but the Chems flowed like water from the dam and I got fucked up on chems every night with Motor-Runner's blessing. More than once I found someone had fucked themselves up so bad that they'd overdosed after we'd been together.

It made me think: were they fucking themselves up because of me, or are they really that fucked up anyway? I think the answer to that question was that they really were just that fucked up, but at the time, I was just so fucked up myself. I spent a good year there before I knew I had to get out.

Word was spreading that the Legion was trying to take the dam for the first time. NCR presence was building up, and it would only be a matter of time before the NCR would come for the Fiends next. We'd take shots at them over at McCarran, I know I took out at least three with my cowboy repeater. Skeet gave me the rifle when I went out on my first jaunt with him and his crew, we were plastered to the eyeballs on Psycho and Slasher and ready to just wreck whoever the fuck we came across.

He smiled as I blew the head off an NCR soldier, His head literally exploded, I was proud of that back then, not so now, that guy could have been my brother for all I know. Motor-Runner himself gave me my first pistol for that kill, a 10mm bitch I called 'Betsy' I slept with her under my pillow for protection.

It was when I used it on one of the Fiends who tried to have his way with me when I didn't want him, that I had overstayed my welcome. I shot him in the dick. He became a eunuch in a millisecond, not that he lived long enough to enjoy it. He bled out in the room I claimed.

Through the haze of the chems, was aware enough of what I'd done, and the consequences would be that I'd most likely be killed by the other Fiends. I moved quickly, grabbing some Jet and Psycho from my locker, taking with me some Vault 3 jumpsuits and shoving them into a duffle bag. I cleared out the two dressers of clothing and headed out of the living quarters. I moved quickly, gathering items that wouldn't be missed, shit I could sell. I grabbed my rifle and Betsy, her barrel still warm to the touch from her discharge and hot-footed it out of there.

I changed into some 'decent' clothing when I got far enough away from the Fiends, and almost too close to Westside. I hauled ass back to the little shop where I had stayed after my flight from the whore-den of hell, Gomorrah.

I looked over the place properly, there was a shelf on the bottom floor in the main part of the shop, and there was also an intact door at the back which was lockable. I looked around the outside and couldn't believe my luck when I found a key that was wedged between two bricks in the wall, it fit the door, so all I had to do now was to secure the place a bit better. In the bathroom, the toilet was smashed, not something that would be useable by me or anyone else. I decided to scout around for a new one, or to be more accurate, one that wasn't broken. The sink was also in a similar state, at least there was a bath, thank fuck for that.

Other furniture I would scavenge later, but at least I had a place to stay. The first night there was hell, the second day not much better as I began to come down from the chems and withdrawal set in. I itched and sweated and cried out in the night, in the morning my bottle of water was dry and I had scratches that I'd inflicted on myself and a puddle of puke added to the stains of the mattress. Skeet was there, sitting in the corner.

I reached for Betsy, but she was in the far corner. I'd thrown her in the night in a fit of angst.

"Take it slow Laura, I ain't here to kill you." He said slowly. Skeet could always seem to hold his chems better than anyone else. I shivered despite the heat of the day. Skeet came over and helped me up.

"I'm going to take you to the Followers," he said, "They'll help you get through this." I nodded, my addled mind not even comprehending what was really happening.

Skeet carried me through Freeside to the old Mormon Fort and handed me into the care of the Followers of the Apocalypse. I was placed on a mattress and given a dose of Fixer by a blonde guy in glasses. The first shot of the stuff flowed through my system and the hallucinations began. I screamed as the guy before me changed into some sort of demon in dark power armour with electricity crackling across him, Skeet held me gently as I shook, he waited until the shaking had subsided it was an hour before the next hallucination would kick in as the fixer cleansed my system of the chems that I had used and relied on for so long.

Julie Farkas was the next person I saw in hallucinogenic form, her spiky hair suddenly burst from all angles of her face, skin parted, blood blew out in gouts, and this scene was so horrific I actually fainted.

Days later, I was still vomiting from the effects of the Fixer, or so I thought.

"Laura, I have some news for you." Julie said, coming over to her with a medical clipboard. "You're pregnant."

I sat there stunned. Skeet had been there the whole time, and was blown away by the news, he knew the baby wasn't his, but he wanted to be there with me all the way. I was touched, he was a good friend, but I guess he wanted to be something more as well, and held a hope for it to be true, but I've been fucked by so many men who professed to love me, that I don't know if I could ever feel anything for another man.

"Fuck." I said, bewildered, "I don't even know the first thing about kids!"

"They take nine months." Julie smiled. "We'll go from there, but you need to eat good clean food, nothing that could possibly be irradiated, unless you have a good supply of Rad-x and can filter your food and water through. You have to be very careful, especially in the wasteland. You must come to see us, or go to Dr. Usanagi at the New Vegas Medical Clinic every week until this baby is born, we want to give it the best chance at life." Julie smiled; she seemed more excited about the ex-junkie having a baby that I was myself. It was a huge thing. It gave me purpose in life.