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 wouldn't be surprised if you all thought I gave up on or forgot this thing. Amounts to the same thing if I never update, huh? But I've been doing some of the side quests and playing some expansions I haven't tried yet, and I'm fired up! I had been wondering how to continue this fic and now I have some inspiration, finally!


Chapter Seven - Jumping the Gun

The Courier stood stock still. She could hear voices ahead, from just beyond this hill. She couldn't quite make out the words, but...she had the feeling these weren't just some wandering junkies.

She glanced over at Boone, seeing that he was doing exactly the same thing she was - keeping quiet and looking to her...for orders.

After a week and a half, she still felt weird, being in charge.

Seemed pretty straightforward what to do, though. You learned quick or you wound up dead, and one important lesson she'd taken away from her post-headshot experiences was that if you didn't know who you were dealing with, you wanted to get as much of an upper hand as you could, just in case. So she crouched down and crept far enough ahead to see the other side of the hill.

Ah, just a cozy little campsite, she thought, her mouth twisting in displeasure. The moon was veiled by the clouds, but down below, several figures were illuminated by a merrily crackling fire. There were a pair of two-man tents set up. She couldn't quite tell in this light, but she guessed the tents were crimson in color. It seemed that the four men standing around it were wearing that same color. The two men kneeling on the ground, and the third burnt to a crisp in that merrily crackling fire, were not.

So that was where the screaming had been coming from some half an hour ago. It had seemed a ways off, but they had headed towards it, thinking maybe it was an animal attack. It had been so long since she'd actually seen any legionaries that she hadn't expected anything like this grisly scene.

Fear gripped her immediately - some nightstalkers, she could've stood up to. This, this froze her in her tracks. The fire and torture brought Nipton to mind, and she couldn't suppress a shudder. Her blood had turned to ice.

She'd had some vague notion of a rescue when she'd headed this way, but that was out of her head already. She began to step slowly backward, whispering as she did so,

"Okay, Boone, let's just-"

CRACK! The echo of a gun shot rang across the land, followed instantly by more: CRACK! CRACK!

"Fucking hell!" the Courier screamed in terror and frustration. Her rifle was already in her hands and she put two holes in the last legionary just as he began to aim his own weapon. ED-E still seemed to be picking a target as the bodies dropped to the ground.

She straightened her posture, her heartbeat seeming to pound in her whole body. She was practically stunned by how fast it had all happened. She had just been thinking these guys were nobody you wanted to screw with, then bam, Boone was wiping them out and she was finishing them off.

But it wasn't that she had feared the four people they'd just killed. It was the collective that they came from. What if they find out somehow, what if they come-

"Well?" the sniper asked. She blinked, coming around, and looked at him. Her mouth opened then shut, and she narrowed her eyes. She was getting a few choice words together for him, but he was already striding down the side of the hill towards the camp.

It seemed that she was not, strictly speaking, in charge.


The captive screamed through his gag as Boone grabbed his arm. The other one looked at him, rather bug-eyed and hyperventilating. They soon began to calm down when the soldier began to cut their bonds and untie their gags.

"Sweet Jesus, I thought we were going to die for sure! I can't believe I didn't piss myself yet!" the first guy said, practically jumping to his feet, then stumbling as he realized his legs were asleep. Boone grabbed the collar of his shirt, nonplussed.

"Well, the night's not over yet, Horton," the second captive said. He took his time getting up, then began to rub his wrists. He stared at the burned body of the third captive for a moment, then looked at Boone. "Uh...thanks for all that. I think we were praying for some NCR boys to happen across us," he glanced at the Courier as she reached the group, "and even that was a long shot, not to mention the NCR guys might not give a shit, or might lose the fight." His lips thinned and he gulped.

"Yeah, well, Boone here's ex-NCR and just chock-full of surprises," the woman said as she stared coldly at her companion.

"I can see that. Lucky for us. Like, crazy lucky," Horton said. He suddenly looked a little sheepish and patted the pockets of his overalls. "Y'know, I'd really like to show you my gratitude, but I'm broke. I guess you could take the pistol those bastards took from me when they jumped us..."

The Courier thought for a moment, then sighed. "No, it's fine. You'll need it. You should probably take the rifle off one of these assholes, too. Try to make sure this doesn't happen again, and all."


As the two men walked in the direction of a distant ranch, guns in hand, the traveler felt a little of her calm coming back. She bit back the urge to rip Boone a new one.

"So, uh, that happened. And I'm glad those two are okay. There are already too many people being killed and tortured every day. But...damn, man, you can't just charge off into a gunfight like that! I wasn't ready for it, and honestly, I have to be careful about fucking with those Legion people! They wipe out whole towns, for Chrissake!"

Boone turned to look at her, face inscrutable and eyes hidden. She braced herself.

After a pause, he said evenly, "I know. I should've coordinated with you better. But if we're going to be working together, you need to accept that the Legion is my enemy above all else. If I see them, I will kill them. If you're scared to 'fuck with them', then we won't work. It's that simple."

The Courier frowned in thought. "That's...not simple at all. I don't want to die a horrible death by attacking an enormous army of crazy, misogynistic assholes. But...I also don't wanna..." She stopped there, gripped by indecision.

The Legion was, let's admit it, terrifying. If they caught you, there was no limit, no end, to what they were willing to do to you. Abuse, enslavement, rape, a slow and agonizing death...nearly anything terrible that could be done to a person. They were just about the epitome of evil in her book, which was a good reason to oppose them - she got that. Unfortunately, she wasn't at all that keen on dying, and the chances of Caesar's boys catching her and working her over were looking high. They were freaking everywhere. They were pretty well-equipped and well-informed. They had guys like that pale-skinned man working for them. They were all ruthless. And the NCR couldn't quite seem to stop them.

However...

She gazed into her comrade's sunglasses, her eyes steadier than the rest of her. "I don't wanna travel alone again. I mean," she looked at ED-E and added hurriedly, "without another human. Sorry, you're great and I love ya, but our conversations are kinda lacking." She looked back at Boone. "I was already getting sick of being alone long before I met you. Maybe I wouldn't have taken that bullet if I'd had someone watching my back..and it wasn't fun waking up with someone who didn't even know me, either. I don't think I can go back to that. But, just promise me one thing."

His eyebrow seemed to go up the slightest bit. "Yeah?"

"Promise me you'll be smart about killing legionaries. The longer we live, the more damage we can do to them. Hell, maybe we can go help out the NCR without enlisting. See what they need done to help win this thing. But while we take on the Legion, I need to know that you won't get me killed. I need to know I can count on you. You gotta let me do this my way, because if there's one thing I can do, it's survive."

Boone kept silent for a minute. As usual, she had no clue what he was thinking. She wondered if she'd offended him. She wondered if he thought she was asking for something impossible. He had warned her about traveling with him, after all.

"...I can try," he said finally.

And then hell froze over, she thought. He'd practically said something agreeable!

And yet, "That's not exactly a promise," she pointed out.

Boone head tilted slightly; she could imagine him rolling his eyes. "Then, I promise to try."

She clapped her hands together. "God help me, I'll take it!"

.o End o.

I had this feeling like the word "nonplussed" could mean either very affected or unaffected, so I looked it up, and indeed, it can mean two opposite things. But given Boone's personality, I think you can figure out which way I meant it, yes? Ahaha I hope I update soon with some exciting NCR missions or something!