"It isn't that bad," Governor Crocker said soothingly.

"Not bad?" Layla cried. "They said I was a 'wolf in sheep's clothing!' Did you see the part about how I apparently slept with half of the NCR army? And 'key members of the Legion!'" She put her head in her hands and groaned.

"They said I was an Enclave sympathizer and chem addict," the Courier continued. "Med-X! I don't ever take it when I get shot! My father's gonna have my ranger brother drag me back to California, I just know it."

"It's going to be all right," Crocker said, putting a Nuka-Cola in front of her. "When I first got into politics, you should have seen what they wrote about me."

"You?" Layla looked up, incredulous. "What did they say?"

"I was obviously a pampered Boneyard rich boy who didn't know how the real world worked."

She raised an eyebrow. "That's not true."

"Of course not, but news printers want to sell papers. What'll sell better: 'Crocker's a stand up guy,' or 'Crocker's a crock?'"

Layla bit her lip. "They didn't really print the second one did they?"

"They most certainly did."

She couldn't hold back a laugh. The governor smiled.

"This whole thing will calm down, and people will hear more from troops returning home," he told her. "Anyone who has seen what you've done knows the truth."

Layla nodded, then grimaced. "They're not going to attack my friends, are they?"

Crocker shrugged. "Who knows for sure? If someone gets a picture of you with one of them, I guarantee you there'll be a story about your steamy affair."

That didn't make her feel better. Well, it was a little funny. Suddenly her stomach felt like it dropped into her feet.

"Boone was at Bitter Springs… You don't think they'd go after him for that, do you?" She found Crocked giving her a reassuring look.

"No, the Observer is very pro-Kimball. They're not going to take pot-shots at war heroes. It's far more likely they'll say you've been corrupting him and hopefully he'll leave you for a nice Shady Sands girl."

Layla sagged in relief. "Okay… That's not so bad." She smirked. "I mean, I do corrupt him, so I can't complain about that one."

*.*.*

As she was handed another tequila, Layla came to the conclusion Cass was trying to cheer her up. The woman had been fairly annoyed with the first article, but the second really seemed to piss her off. Once the Courier had come back from Crocker's, the caravaneer and Veronica had demanded to take her to the Tops.

They had only just left the casino a few hours ago. When they'd been there last, people had been buying her drinks and making a big fuss over her once Swank announced the Shady Sands Standard article. Now people weren't making eye contact with her.

Layla certainly hoped it was because they felt awkward about the awful report, and not that they believed it. She had been somewhere between horrified and amazed that everyone in the town seemed to have seen that second article. She got the sinking suspicious Wade had been spreading it around.

Raul, she found, had been unusually quiet since the news broke, but had kept close by. If Layla had to guess, he was expecting trouble. She kept catching him looking around the room, hand still on his gun belt. That was probably a good thing; Layla wasn't really paying much attention to the area around them.

The initial shock of the awful article had worn off, giving Layla some time to think. Crocker had been right; they were just trying to sell papers. The thing that had concerned her was that some of the information in both articles was eerily correct. Probably the most worrisome was the mention of her Enclave ties. It was sensationally worded, but pretty much hit the nail on the head; she knew 'active' Enclave members. Of all the things that had been printed, that was one of her actually guarded secrets. Layla highly doubted Lieutenant Gorobets blabbed to anyone, and the only other one who'd seen the Enclave Remnants at the dam was Ranger Castles. She doubted he'd told anyone about the people who'd saved his life either.

Layla supposed it could have been a lucky guess, but the whole thing made her uneasy. Clearly someone had done their homework on her. That wasn't the kind of attention she was used to, and it made her feel far more vulnerable than she cared for.

"How about another drink, doll?" Swank said as he came up to her table, breaking her from her thoughts. "Can't let a bunch of rumor-mongers get you down."

The Chairman had been working hard to get her spirits up, instantly dismissing the second article as 'political bullshit.' Layla appreciated it, but she really didn't want anyone noticing her right now.

"Okay, Layla answered, then groaned as a thought hit her. "Nothing strong, I don't need people running articles about how I turned into an alcohol-"

"Wait," Cass interrupted. "Listen."

Layla stopped talking and tried to figure out what the other woman was talking about. Looking around she noticed a group was forming around the bar, near the radio.

"…The reports are still coming in," Mr. New Vegas' voice came over the radio, "but inside NCR sources say the Brotherhood of Steel may have been involved."

"Implicated in what?" Layla cried as she rushed over to the crowd listening in.

"Shh," one of the gamblers next to her said as the radio announcer continued.

"The Followers of the Apocalypse have not released a statement yet, but the two groups have had little hostility in the past. I guess the honeymoon's over. This is Mr. New Vegas reminding you to treat your spouse right, especially if they have a murderous streak."

"What happened?" Layla asked again. The gambler who'd shushed her turned back her way.

"The Brotherhood of Steel wiped out that Followers outpost near the 188."

*.*.*

"This place is a nuthouse," Layla murmured as she and Raul walked into the Old Mormon Fort.

"I wonder how many are 'war reporters,'" the ghoul responded.

"I'll tell you one thing," Layla said as they started looking around for Julie Farkas. "I don't think the Mojave's been very well served by the media."

"You've got about a 50% success rate," Raul said sardonically.

"Yeah, well, I'd rather have no articles about me at all," the Courier grumbled.

"That's the price of do-gooding."

"You do plenty of good-doing and you never get any of the negative crap," Layla said. The ghoul laughed.

"Never get any of the positive either, boss."

"That's not true; I feed you all the time. And there's all that reflected glory- Oh, there's Julie," the girl said, waving as she approached the Follower. Julie looked tired as she stopped long enough for Layla and Raul to catch up.

"I'm sure you guys are busy," Layla said, "but I wanted to talk to you before I started wading through all the NCR brass."

"We don't know much yet," Julie said with a sigh. "All we've been told is that the place was torn up by laser fire and everyone there was killed."

"Who was there?" Layla asked, feeling her stomach knot up as she did.

"Dr. Alvarez, the new volunteers she'd been training, and Emily Ortal."

Layla gasped. Emily had been a friend ever since she'd helped Layla and her group take over the Strip from Mr. House. The Follower had been in the Lucky 38 often to study the late owner's technology.

"I just saw her a few days ago," Layla sputtered without thinking. Julie gave her a understanding look.

"Emily spoke about you fairly often. She was very happy to get access to Mr. House's systems," Julie said kindly.

"Is there going to be a service for her here?" Layla asked.

"No, she's getting sent back to her family in Arroyo."

The Courier nodded, then felt her stomach twist again. "The radio's been saying it was the Brotherhood… Do you guys have any clue?"

"I'm afraid not," Julie said, sounding annoyed. "The NCR has 'officially' taken control of the investigation. We haven't had access to the site since it happened."

Layla nodded. "I'll speak with Crocker. If he can't help, I'll run down to Camp Golf and see what the rangers are doing about it."

Julie sighed. "I'd appreciate if you could get word back to us when you learn something."

*.*.*

"I'm here to see-"

"He's expecting you," Liza O'Malley said stiffly. "Go in."

"Thank you," Layla murmured as she walked past the secretary's desk. Liza had never been overly fond of the Courier, despite the other woman's efforts to be pleasant. Layla was starting to realize that she'd have to accept that there would be people she couldn't win over.

That thought didn't help her mood as she headed down the hall toward the governor's office.

"Oh, excuse me, Chester," Layla said as she found the MP in the hall, standing with his back to her and in her way.

"Granville," the man said in greeting as he turned. "What's this about the hanging out with Enclave members?"

"It's not true," Layla all but snapped. Chester held up his hands.

"All right, don't bite my head off," he said, backing away.

"I'm sorry," Layla sighed. "Kinda stressed."

"Yeah yeah, it's tough being the toast of the town," the man said as she continued on without responding, not wanting to dig herself deeper. Instead, she turned into Crocker's office.

"Layla," she heard the governor say as she stepped through his door. "Come in. Close the door."

She did as he asked, then threw herself into the chair by his desk.

"I'd say I want to go back to California and hide, but half the place thinks I'm the Legion's personal whore," she muttered. Crocker laughed at that.

"When it rains, it pours," the man said.

"How much have you heard?" Layla asked. "Is there really any evidence it's the Brotherhood?"

"I'm afraid I've only received a very bare-bones report. There are a handful of rangers looking into it, but nothing concrete has come up."

"Then why are they saying it was the Brotherhood of Steel on the radio?" the Courier demanded. She caught the tone she was using and grimaced; she was starting to take out her anxiety on the Governor.

To the man's credit, he gave her an understanding look.

"It was a merchant delivering supplies who discovered the scene. There was a lot of gatling laser damage, and that usually points to the Brotherhood."

Layla sat back on her chair, thinking. There certainly weren't many people outside of the Brotherhood of Steel who ran around with gatling lasers, but it certainly didn't prove anything.

"Was there anything else?"

Crocker looked slightly uncomfortable as he continued, "The Outpost had been torn apart, but there were clearly files missing. Research, reports, and holotapes were taken."

That was more worrisome, but didn't necessarily indicate the Brotherhood. Layla gasped as a thought occurred; the Enclave information ED-E had been carrying. She'd given a copy to both the Brotherhood and the Followers.

"What?" the governor asked. "What is it?"

"It's... something," Layla said carefully. "We may have a big problem."

"I think we do either way," he said. "Is it something concrete?"

"It's a possible connection between the two groups, but I'd need to have someone who knew what was stored at the Outpost look around to see what was missing first."

The governor nodded. "Julie Farkas has asked to be let in already."

"Yeah, I spoke with her," Layla said.

"Have you had a chance to talk to any of your Brotherhood contacts?" Crocker asked.

"No," Layla sighed, "Well, I've been with Veronica since this happened, but she hasn't spoken to anyone yet. We were planning to go to Hidden Valley tomorrow morning."

Crocker nodded. "I hate to make any moves until you've had a chance to speak with Elder McNamara... but we need to start damage control."

"Yeah, I know." Layla dug a notebook out of her pocket and flipped it open. "So what's the plan?"

"I'll have an nice, vague official statement to go out tomorrow," the governor answered. "It'll delay any major decisions for a little while."

"It's only going to take one hotheaded NCR soldier mouthing off to one hotheaded Brotherhood paladin, or vise-versa, and this is going to get very ugly," Layla said with a groan as she finished jotting down her notes.

"And neither side is in short supply of hotheads," Crocker agreed.

The girl gave him a grim smile. "All right, I'd better head home. Raul's been watching me like a hawk; I don't want him to come looking for me."

"It always pays to be cautious," the man said. "Especially at a time like this."

"Yeah, I know," the Courier said as she stood. "If I can't get away quickly once I get to Hidden Valley, I'll send a courier."

"Go on then. We'll be in touch."

*.*.*

The girl nodded as she got up from her seat and made for the door. She looked distracted as she left. Crocker knew that faraway look; he'd seen it on the Courier numerous times, usually when there was trouble.

Well, trouble was certainly here, though Crocker hadn't thought it'd come this soon. The Mojave's peace had been held together with duct tape and wonderglue. Even with Layla's constant efforts to keep things together, it was only a matter of time until something changed for the worse.

In all honesty, he thought that change would be General Moore trying to oust him from the Mojave and his new position. He'd heard about some of the reports she'd sent to California about him. Plenty of concern for his abilities and willingness to do what was good for the NCR.

But, oddly enough, the inquiry and eventual dismissal he'd been expecting hadn't come. Crocker had come to suspect the rangers may have had a hand in it, possibly Layla as well.

Now wasn't the time to dwell on that, however. He had work to do. Before he left the office, he wanted to type out the official NCR statement, start putting together the report he'd send to California, and set up a meeting with General Manning about their combat readiness. Crocker and Layla would certainly do what they could to keep the peace, but it didn't hurt to set up contingencies if the Brotherhood had decided to act against the newly-signed treaty.

As he started jotting down a rough draft of his statement, he heard someone walking through the hall. It was late, and most people didn't come around his side of the embassy. The footsteps approached his office, and he looked up as the door opened, wondering what was wrong now. The gun pointed in his direction answered for him.

Thank you all for the ass-ton of favorites, alerts and the few reviews that made me make Goofy-styled 'Gwarsh" noises. In answer to L. Ravensky's question: this is the end of the series proper, but not the end of Layla's story.