When Lilith awoke she found the others asleep, everyone but Roland. The bunk to the foot of Brick's was empty but the mussed up blankets told her he had been in since she had fallen asleep earlier. Sighing she holstered her revolver and stepped outside for a breath of fresh air and some quite from the snores of the other men. Outside she found Roland leaning on the railing and looking up at the alien sky. "Sorry," she whispered as she stepped out and quietly closed the door behind her.
"If you don't mind me asking , what is with you and Brick?" Roland asked his eyes still trained on the distant stars.
"I don't see how that's any of your concern." She said quietly and crossed her arms over her chest.
"Have it your way. Are you ready to go?" He stretched as he pushed himself to a standing position.
"Let me get the rest of my gear and I'll be ready to go. Give me two minutes." When he nodded his affirmation she returned inside.
Mordecai lay sleeping in his bed, incognizant to anything around him. Brick still snored lightly in the bed behind her. Quickly she inspected her weaponry, while all of her load outs were good she lacked enough ammo for a full load on her revolver. Stopping for a moment she realized the room had become quieter and the noises from behind her had stopped. Slowly she turned to look behind her, Brick looked her over.
"Will you do what I told you?" He asked looking at her very seriously.
"I'll do my best," She said smiling warmly at him.
Carefully he made room for her to sit again; this time when she sat beside him he placed his good arm around her waist. They sat like that quietly for what felt like forever before Brick broke the silence. "This will be a good opportunity for you to work with Roland solo." He said in a low tone not looking at her.
"You're not trying to get rid of me are you?" She mocked nervously
Brick took a deep breath and looked at her face before he spoke. "You asked me what happens to you..." He trailed off and looked away again. "I see how you look at Roland when you think no one is looking. I'm not the only one who hides from the others." He said sad and serious.
Lilith looked down down at his arm; the shear size of it made her hands look like those of a child. "But what about you?" She asked.
"We're something different; you know that. He lifted his head to look at her, "Go you're keeping him waiting." She nodded and kissed his cheek. "Take this." he added slipping his necklace over her head, the key and rabbit's foot hung almost to her waist line. Slowly she stood and wrapped the chain around her neck until the charms rested on her chest. She made it to the door before he spoke again. "Here," he sad tossing her rounds for her revolver. She smiled and nodded, touching the key, as she left the building.
Roland met her at the stairs outside. "Ready?" He asked glancing at her new jewelry then away.
"Ready as I ever am to be shot at. She said walking toward Scooter's and the town's Catch-A-Ride.
"Already got us one." He said climbing into the turret of a 'Mean Green'. Smiling she kept walking and changed the runner's paint to the 'Fuego' model and smiled at him before jumping in the cockpit.
"You're lucky I'm not Mordecai." Came Roland's voice over the runner's intercom system.
Strapping herself in she hit her own talk button. "I know I am, but don't we want to be noticed?" She said sarcastically. Before he could say anything else she turned on the lights and headed on toward the Rust Commons.
They drove through the dim cycle and and stopped in front of One-Eyed Jack's bandits made camp. Quietly she backed the runner behind the rock face to hide it. Roland dismounted the turret and motioned her over for the 'game plan', as Mordecai called it.
"We broke in here quietly last time." Roland began. Lilith however remembered it to be a bloody shoot out, and rised an eyebrow at him. "Okay maybe not that quietly. This time though I want you to post out on that out cropping and see how many of them you can take out before we just jump in there. What's your best zoom?"
"I got a 4.3 on my Maliwan." She said removing and loading the rifle.
"Good take this," He said handing her a Mod; "It'll regenerate your ammo. Go."
Without any more questions she equipped the Mod and scaled the stones the reach the out cropping Roland had indicated. Firstly she spotted and dispatched the Psychos; they could be the most dangerous to their mission, charging in fire in hand with no regard for themselves. The shots flew silently through the air and there were three less hostiles to worry about. A half a dozen other shots on varying targets and she had cleared Roland's entrance. Quietly she scaled down, rejoined Roland at the entrance, and covered him as they scouted this building or that shack. During the little excursion they had seen few enemies ; Lilith began to get an uneasy feeling as they made their way further toward the camp's center.
Crouched behind One-Eyed Jack's hut Roland waved her to him. "I want you to Phase in and put Jack down. I'll take care of anyone coming in or out."
"Far be it for me to complain but something seems wrong. Why aren't there more bandits? This all seems to easy." She voiced what had been running around her mind for sometime now.
"I notice but we'll deal with that problem when we get to it." Nodding she disappeared.
Normally her Phasewalk was a tool she exercised for speed but right now she'd use it to get in and back out, hopefully, without being detected. Inside she found out why they had not seen anyone difficult to kill before now; three Badass Psychos stood inside with four Bruisers and One-Eyed Jack. Releasing her Phasewalk inside she caused the room to erupt with Fire and Acid. Using her own entrance as a diversion she rushed from the building to tell Roland of the trap. On her way out the door she took a bullet to the shoulder; given it made a clean exit she decided it was far more important to get to Roland and inform him of the situation. She needn't bother to tell him as she found him swarmed with bandits and midgets. Grabbing her SMG once more, she made her way through the fray to Roland's side. "It's a trap! She yelled as she approached.
"Thanks Lilith. Not sure I would have figured that out." When they finally cleared enough room her dropped his personal turret. The turret rang out in three round bursts aiding them in clearing out some of the onslaught before One-Eyed Jack emerged and shot Lilith twice in the right side. Putting a hand over her wounds, and being thankful they were well grouped, she phased once more and appeared in an elemental burst of fury behind Jack with her bladed revolver in hand. Quickly she drove the blade into the back of Jack's neck severing his spine, killing him instantly. Leaving her weapon in him she drew her twelve round shotgun and put three incendiary rounds in to each of the four Bruisers. Pulling her electric clip repeater she killed what midget shotgunners she could as they appeared from around the buildings. Not being attentive to her surroundings she was blindsided by a Badass Psycho and thrown several feet in to the side of a building.
There was a tapping like the sound of flesh hitting flesh that came to Lilith as she began to come to again. She could feel fire under her skin that stretched from the left side of her body to her right. Her Siren skills were slowly trying to mend the damage that had occurred to her body. Suddenly there was a violent and painful connection to the side of her face and she snapped to a sitting position with her eyes open; a move she instantly regretted when her vision swam and her stomach lurched. She closed her eyes and held her head in her hands, her shoulder stinging from the movement. Roland dropped himself down into the dirt next to her, sighing in relief when he knew she would live.
"Thank god you woke up." Roland said breathing heavily. "I wasn't sure what I'd tell Brick. He'd kill me if I let his woman die."
"What?" Lilith asked groggy. "I'm not his woman. Where did you get that idea?"
"Well just how the two of you are. Why, you're not?" He asked curious.
"No I'm not. I don't really need someone to take care of me...Well not normally." She chuckled. "But you did a good job of it today." She said looking away from the eye contact Roland was trying to make.
"I could keep doing it if you want me too." He said helping her stand and bracing her with one arm.
Lilith turned her head slowly to look at him. "Huh?"
"I just thought if you wanted we could start seeing each other and I could keep taking care of you."
"You know what I think I might." She smiled at him and he shifted his arm to her waist tightening it. A shock of pain ran down her spine and her breath labored until the feeling subsided. "Maybe a visit to Zed before we do anything else."
He chuckled a bit, "We can do that." He said as he helped her load herself into the parked Runner's turret. Jumping into the driver's seat himself he risked a broad smile while no one was looking and headed them back to their waiting companions. With two of the four of them healing he'd have to suspend further searching for the vault; but he figured time with Lilith was worth it in trade. The blistering sun began it's slow lazy decent to the desert horizon as Roland drove them on ward.
Blood, bone, and pain aside if you asked either vault hunter about that day in the days that followed either one would tell you that it had been, all in all, a very good day and most definitely one that had changed their lives, mostly, for the better.
