DesertStar87: Thanks!

And here's the update.

When Ashley woke up, she heard voices in the room. Opening her eyes and looking around, she saw that they belonged to Doc Mitchell and the unknown girl from the day before.

She let out a loud groan as she sat up, having slept in a rather uncomfortable position caused her shoulders and back to hurt. She just holstered the pistol she still held in hand when the redhead turned around and looked at her with a puzzled look, apparently she hadn't noticed Ashley before.

"And who exactly is this, Doc?" the redhead asked the Doctor, raising and eyebrow.

"Oh I forgot to tell you, that is the women who brought you here, but I actually forgot to catch her name yesterday, I'm sure she can introduce herself." the Doc answered.

"She sure can," Ashley answered with a smirk and held her hand out to the redhead "I'm Ashley."

"Oh thank you, you saved my ass up there!" The redhead said with a bright smile. And before she could even react, Ashley found herself in a tight hug with the smaller woman, unsure of what to do and blushing slightly, she patted the girls back. "I'm Joan by the way" the redhead said with a grin.

"Er..yeah…it's alright, don't worry about it, nice to meet you." she managed to mumble with Joan still clinging to her.

After Joan finally let go, still grinning, Ashley took a few seconds to collect herself before talking to her "Well it definitely seems like you feel better, did I get that right?"

"Oh of course, I got a hard head, you can't get rid of me that easily. By the way, why do you sleep with a gun in your hand, seems kinda…well, unsafe." Joan said.

"I'm a cautious person, which I would recommend for you too after I saw what happened yesterday." Ashley simply responded.

"Hey now, hold on! I was just doing my job, I didn't even know those guys!" Joan answered seriously.

"Your job, what's your job?" Ashley wondered out loud.

"I'm a Courier for the Mojave Express, but I can explain that outside if you come with me, I need some fresh air" Joan said while heading for the exit.

"Hang on there" Doc Mitchell stepped in "Since we only found the few papers on you that I already gave you, I wanted to give you some things." He walked to a counter next to the door and came back with a couple of items. "That's my old laser pistol with some energy cells for it and my old Pip-Boy. I hardly ever go out anymore so I don't need them, but I figured you might." He handed the stuff over to Joan who thanked him for everything and walked out.

"Well, I'll be going, thanks for the couch Doc, take care." Ashley said, picking up the rest of her gear and heading out as well, where she found Joan waiting.

"So, yes or no?" She suddenly asked.

"Are you kidding me? Yes or no to what? You didn't ask me any questions." Ashley asked, obviously confused.

"I didn't? Well sorry, I was wondering if you'd come with me and help get my package back, you know…the one that the guy in that ugly-ass suit took from me." The redhead answered, blushing.

Ashley blinked, dumbfounded "Why would you want me? I don't know anything about the Mojave Wasteland, do you?"

"No, not really, but two clueless girls are still better than one clueless girl. Besides, you look like you can very well handle yourself and I could really need someone with combat experience, I don't have any, besides killing some path-blocking critters every once in a while." The redhead stated.

Sighing, Ashley nodded "Zero and zero is still zero you know, but alright, I don't have anything else to do anyway until the repairs on my vertibird are done. Besides, that guy is still up for a beating, usually nobody gets away if I aim at them. So yeah, I'll help you. But there are some conditions."

"Conditions? Like what? Joan asked

"First, I am leading, where I go, you go, even if it's the opposite of where you have to go. If I say take cover, you take cover, if I say run, you run, got that?" Ashley said in a serious tone.

"Of course, wouldn't have done otherwise, you are clearly the one with more experience." Joan said happily.

"Good, second, I won't take you along when you use that piece of trash there" Ashley said, pointing at the old laser pistol in Joans hands "the Doc may mean well, but that thing is of no use, the only wasteland asshole it's gonna kill, is you. On the other hand, the Pip-Boy is very useful, so I ask you to use it, put it on and get used to it."

"Sir, yes Sir." Joan said with a cheeky grin as she slid the Pip-Boy on her arm and turned it on. "But I don't have any other gun, so I will have to use this until we find a better one."

"No you don't, here" Ashley said and handed her Smugglers End, her unique laser pistol "that pistol is unique and was a gift, so if you fuck it up, I'll fuck you up. And now drop the other piece of scrap metal, you won't need it, just take the energy cells."

"Wow, thank you, that even looks better than the other one." Joan said, flattered.

"Yeah, welcome. Third, yes there's more, don't look at me like that! Third, if we find that guy and you get your package, I get to kill him. If you're not okay with that, say it now and we won't join up." Ashley continued.

Joan gasped "Kill him, why do you wanna kill him? I mean….he didn't do anything to you, did he?"

"That's beside the point, accept it or don't, it's up to you." Ashley just answered.

"Alright alright, he's yours if we find him. I gotta admit I'm not really after him for the package, too. It's just, you know, you don't fuck the person that brings your mail, I'm pissed. I don't really care about the package, it's good caps, yes, but that's not the point, I want to repay him a little." Joan said with a grin.

"Good girl, starting to learn already, I might just like you. Last condition, if we meet someone who I think is a good addition to our group, I will ask him or her with us, whether you like it or not. That is it, accept those conditions or go alone, up to you." Ashley said with crossed arms.

"Done, I can live with that, I trust you won't take any total psychopaths with us, guess we're a team then, huh?" Joan said, smiling.

"Jeez, why are you constantly smiling?" Ashley said while staring at her.

"I'm just a happy person, better get used to it." The redhead responded cheekily. "By the way I already got a lead for us. The assignment for this job came from the office in Primm, guess we should go there, find out more about the package and who knows, maybe that idiot is there."

"Alright, sounds good to me, let's go." Ashley said, while already starting to walk.

"No wait! Not so fast, the Doc also mentioned a woman named Sunny Smiles here in town, said she would have some useful things for me, maybe we should find her first?" Joan said and grabbed Ashleys arm to stop her.

Ashley sighed and turned around "Well okay, guess it can't hurt, I got all the time in the world anyway, let's go find her then."

"Yay, come on, Doc said she's mostly in the Saloon." Joan said and walked towards the Saloon.