She sat in the mess hall in a padded arm chair, eating nothing, with a blank look on her face. One by one the troops ate and left until she was the only one in the room. She was seated at a small table by the windows, with her chair angled so that she could look out at Lake Mead and the lights on the dam beyond. She stared out, looking but seeing nothing until she was startled by the lights being turned out in the mess hall. She looked around and saw a figure approaching from the kitchen door with a candelabra. Guess the generator is on the fritz, she thought. The figure came closer and she saw now that it was a tall man dressed in a tuxedo. For a minute she thought some of the talent from the Aces Club had gotten lost. She could not really make out the man's face in the gloom but when he stepped up beside her and spoke her heart nearly stopped.
"May I?" he said gently, motioning to the chair across from her.
Kate could not speak, but nodded, blinking tears from her eyes. Boone, now looking utterly different without both his trademark sunglasses and beret, put the candelabra on the table, sat in the chair next to hers and took her hands in his. Through the blur of her tears she could see his own eyes filling with emotion. He sat for a moment stroking her fingers and warming her slim hands with his large ones.
"I'm sorry I left you, but I had some things to do and they took longer than I had planned." Boone said.
He then took a deep breath and reached into the pocket of his coat. The candlelight glinted off of the silver filigree band set with small diamonds.
"Turns out that Michael Angelo clown has some real talent after all. I heard about his lesser known side gig of making jewelry from his sister at the Vault 21 Hotel. Much nicer work that his signs. What do you think?" he waited, holding his breath.
"I think you're a real ass sometimes." Kate choked out between sobs.
He rose and stood over her. She looked up at him, her heart pounding in her chest as he slowly leaned down and lightly brushed his warm lips across the angle of her jaw.
"You've got that right babe." He said, "Most of the time I would say, but not today. I promise to be a perfect gentleman. Will you marry me Kate?"
Her 'yes' was nearly inaudible, but she managed to get it out. Every hair on her body stood on end as he ran his hands down her bare arms and claimed her mouth in a full, passionate kiss. He raised her left hand to slide the ring onto her finger, then he gathered her into his arms and carried her out of the dining room. She buried her face deep is his coat, inhaling the scent of him. She shuddered a little with nerves when he didn't take her to her own room, but to one of the larger suites normally reserved for visiting dignitaries. There were candles glowing softly on the bedside tables and the bed was a wide one.
"Confident bastard aren't you, to have all of this arranged ahead of time?" she said with a little smile, feeling giddy until she remembered that half of her body was virtually paralyzed. He saw the change in her expression as he propped her against the pillows and misunderstood her anxiety.
"Don't worry, I didn't intend to jump your bones. I just want to be with you and hold you in my arms. I promised to be a gentleman, remember?"
"It's not that at all Craig. I was thinking I wouldn't be a very good wife to you because of my legs."
He sat down on the bed facing her with his arm arching over her waist. He leaned towards her, rested his forehead on hers and whispered,
"First off, I would carry you a thousand miles across Deathclaw infested desert to get you an ice cold Sunset Sarsaparilla. Second, I don't believe for one minute that you are crippled for life. You just need the right motivation. Third, I spoke to Dr. Usanagi at the clinic and she thinks she can help get you back on your feet as soon as you are willing to give it a try. I have to say that I hope it's sooner rather than later because I have plans for you and those legs. I'm not a very good sniper without my partner, and I have a mission in mind that I think you will want to be in on."
He stood again and shrugged out of his coat, placing it on a side chair, kicked off his boots and then blew out the candles.
"You clean up good." Kate said as he sat against the headboard and pulled her into his arms.
"So do you kid. Now kiss me again."
He held her all night, and they talked till dawn, saying so many things that they had kept secret from each other. He told her about sharing her dream of the cabin by the lake and how he had heard of an area to the north in Utah called Pine Valley, where he hoped to find just such a place to build one.
They fell asleep as the sun began its climb into the sky, to once more bake the dry sands for the Mojave Wasteland. But in their dreams they felt only cool lake water lapping against their skin as they swam near their small log house in the green valley.
