One Second Chance

Disclaimer: I do not own the any of the intellectual property in the Fallout: New Vegas video game, and make no claims on the characters, locations, situations, etc. that are presented therein. I do not profit from the writing and posting of this fan fiction.

A/N: I feel like the last chapter was a bit too heavy and dramatic. I miiight go back and change it, idk. Thoughts? And mostly I'm talking about where Boone is thinking about all the stuff with Manny and Carla and everything, and to a lesser extent, the Courier's reaction to what Jeannie May had done.

Thanks to all my readers and my reviewers. And if anyone's reading but not reviewing, I would really appreciate even a one sentence review from you (though more is almost always better!), just so I can get a better idea of how many people are actually interested in this story. Unless I really just have three readers lol, which is okay, too.

Chapter Four - The Only Constant

It was all he could do to stand still and do his job. All this watching, all this waiting, and now the time had come. Or was coming. Maybe. Hopefully. Shit, it would make all the difference in the world just to know for sure right now.

Was the stranger going to succeed, or was she going to fail? How long would she take? Was she going to betray him?

He was far past the point of caring about what happened to him if she turned him in, and damn, at least that would end things. But that wasn't what he needed to be thinking about now. He needed to focus on this - the one thing he had left. His last mission, assigned to himself, by himself. One for Carla.

When the time came, he didn't feel what he'd expected to feel. There was no rush, no sense of impending absolution. He was calm. He was ready.

Same as always.

The Courier was all raw nerves as they headed out of town. Thoughts were stampeding through her head - stupid thoughts that she tried hard to get rid of. She wondered if she was safe, standing out here next to a soon-to-be dead woman. What if Boone missed? Well, fuck, he was a sniper. He was first recon, whatever that was - something elite, surely. He was not going to fucking miss and kill someone who was just standing near his target.

Unless...she was also his target. Unless, he wanted to get rid of witnesses...

Oh, shut up, she thought, smiling weakly to herself. If it was someone else she was thinking of, maybe that would be a serious concern. But not with Boone. True, she hardly knew him. She hadn't even had a clear look at his eyes. She had no real reason to trust him. And yet, deep down, she did trust him. He was screwed up and cold and mean, and he was about to be a murderer if he wasn't already one, but there was a reason behind it all. She kinda understood how he felt, at least in a general sense. She knew what it was like to have nothing going for you except for revenge.

"Now, what's this all about?" Jeannie May asked.

The dumb broad had come out here with virtually no questions asked. The traveler could only wonder at the complacency. Did the mayor have no guilt? Had she forgotten so easily? And was she so smug, so confident in her crime against her fellow woman that she trusted some stranger to lead her out in front of the sniper's nest where her victim's husband was standing with a rifle?

The Courier had to know. Red flags were popping up in her mind that this was a Bad Idea, one that could ruin everything, but she still had to say something.

She stopped once they reached their destination. Turned around, pulling the beret out of her pants' cargo pocket as she did. She held it at her side for the moment.

"Was it good for you? Or was it just about the caps?" she asked neutrally.

The mayor's eyes went to that hat, and there was immediate recognition, quickly followed by understanding. And acceptance. And, God, some pitiful emotion. Sadness? Regret? Relief?

"No," she said, her voice hardly above a whisper. "No, none of that. The town. Don't you see? I did it for the town. The Legion-"

She stopped talking as part of her brain exited through the right side of her head. It was a neat shot. Perfect. She was dead in an instant, and her body was on the ground a moment later.

The Courier stood looking down at the corpse, her body frozen to the spot. Her mind was likewise frozen. Once she was able to move both again, she went to him.

It was a good thing Cliff had already gone home. She felt like he would know - like the whole town would know, if they only looked at her. And she really had no clue how she would react if she had to deal with anyone right now. She might well be unable to stop herself from blurting out, "We killed her. She was sorry, but we killed her."

She met Boone on the stairs inside Dinky. The sniper was coming down, maybe to clean up the mess. She didn't really care about that.

"You asshole," she hissed, standing in his way. "Why didn't you wait for the signal?"

"You took it out - that was enough. Can I have it back?"

She looked down at her hand, which was clenching the beret. She didn't hold it out and just looked at him again. "You said to put the hat on. I hadn't done that yet. I was talking to her."

"Not my problem. I needed her dead. There was no point in you talking to her, especially if it was going to make you change your mind." She stared at him without responding, so he went on. "You feeling guilty or something? Wondering if what she was going to say something that would make this okay for you? Don't. Just fucking don't. As long as you had the right person, you don't..." His eyebrows went up; his mouth hardened. "You were sure it was her, right?"

She looked down at the steps. Pulled the piece of paper out of her pocket. "Yeah."

He scanned the bill of sale, his eyes catching on certain key words. When he was done, he exhaled harshly. He was silent for a few seconds. Then he said, "You'd have to be an idiot to read this and still regret what you did."

The Courier jerked her head up and scowled at him. "Oh, she deserved it alright. But that doesn't mean killing her should have been meaningless or easy. I'm not like that, okay?"

"And I am?" came the quiet, bitter reply. It was his turn to avoid eye contact. He reached for what was his, his gaze going right past her. "It had to be done. That's all."

"Okay. Fine. So now what?"

"Meaning?"

She made an impatient sound. "You know," she said. "Is there going to be trouble? How's this going to effect things? What will you do now that you've had your revenge? All that kinda stuff."

His eyes narrowed behind his shades, like she'd crossed some line. Maybe he didn't like her speaking so comfortably about the revenge part - that'd be her best bet. "Probably not. Dunno. And none of your business," he replied.

"Really? That's all you've got to say to me now? Ouch! I feel so used," she mock-whined. But she shrugged dismissively. Now that she thought about it, she realized she shouldn't have expected anything more out of him.

So she wasn't expecting it when he sighed and elaborated, sounding like he was speaking to a temperamental child. "I really don't know. Hadn't thought past this point. I can't stay here, that's all I know. I can't stand this place, and the only thing that was keeping me here is done now. Don't really have anywhere I wanna go, though."

She wondered if that was how it would be for her once she found the man in the checkered suit. No attachments, no home, no purpose. She hoped not. It sounded damn depressing.

"How about reenlisting?" she suggested. "It looks like the NCR needs all the help they can get. The guys I've seen so far are shit-scared about the Legion activity lately. And, they're right to be. I...I was in Nipton right around the time it was converted into a giant graveyard."

Boone's eyebrows rose a hair. "Hadn't heard about that. Shit. It's even worse than I thought." He paused. "But...I'm done with the NCR. I'll work on my own."

The Courier slowly shook her head, chuckling humorlessly. "Yeah. Good luck with that. If I happen by when you're up on a cross, I'll either let you down, or pop you one and put you out of your misery. All depending on how long you've been there, of course." She smirked, waiting for an argument or explanation that didn't come. His perfectly serious expression wasn't changing, either. She lost the smirk. "God, you mean it, don't you? Look, I don't doubt your abilities. I'm pretty sure you can give 'em a little hell and still make it out alive. But even snipers normally work in twos, right? Do you really think you're gonna accomplish anything in the long run, besides getting yourself killed? They are the fucking Legion. They are the many. Even if you don't get caught, the damage you'll do won't add up to much."

"You're probably right. But going back to the NCR just isn't an option, and taking out a few legionaries is better than nothing. I'll take what I can get."

She pictured him out there, alone, wandering. Picking off a couple of legionaries here and there. And then...him getting killed as he took on a few too many. It didn't seem like it'd be that far into the future, either.

She couldn't accept that outcome.

"How about I do you one better, then?" she said, going for nonchalance. "Come with Eddie n' me. I'd say me running into the Legion and surviving means I have better credentials than most, and we'll all have a better chance if we stick together." Once the words had rushed out of her, she felt self-conscious, like she was just a bit too desperate for companionship. She believed what she said, though, and she certainly would've liked more support when the episode in Nipton had happened. And when she'd been shot.

He just looked at her for a while, worsening the feeling of transparency and making her want to fidget. When he did speak, he spoke hesitantly. "That's not a good idea. You'll regret it if you work with me."

But she wasn't so much deterred by his words as she was relieved by how he spoke - he really seemed to be thinking about it. She smiled reassuringly. "Sorry, but you lost me. Care to explain for the slow people?"

"...Guess you could say I'm bad luck. This isn't going to end well."

She laughed in surprise. "I didn't have you pegged as the superstitious type. Well, I think I'm good luck, so it all balances out anyway. I mean, I took a bullet to the head, y'know, and I lived."

"Brain damage isn't the most convincing argument you could've made," he commented with a grunt.

She raised her right hand, middle finger extended. "Psh. We all got our issues, don't we? And anyway, I don't really need to persuade you. You already know I'm right. You know that we can get more done together than we can individually. If you want really want to hurt the Legion, or serve out justice or whatever, then you know what you have to do. You gotta come with me."

"Yeah. I just don't think you understand what this'll mean."

"Damn straight, I don't. But I learn better when I'm shown, not told. So let's do this and see where it takes us."

.o End o.