I wake up with a headache so bad I can almost hear each throb of pain. My fingers paw at my forehead and gently rub my temples before I slowly blink my eyes open.

"Jesus!" I gasp and jolt backward.

"Good. You're awake," Lucy frowns and leans forward to inspect my face. I lean backward and wince when my head throbs in one burst of pain.

"Kin," Lucy calls loudly.

"Ow…" I grumble and rub my head, "Don't shout."

"Ah, sorry."

A woman leans over me and shines a light into my eyes. I blink and turn away but she sighs. She asks me a few questions, apparently trying to see if I can remember things.

"She's fine," she says calmly after she gets me to do a few "exercises" as she calls it to test my coordination, and steps away from me. I blink a few times to focus myself and look at Kin.

She looks ridiculously young to be a doctor; she'd only have barely five years on me. Her messy black hair is tied back and she smiles kindly with honey eyes when I stupidly stare at her.

"No brain damage?" Lucy asks and I turn my head to her, surprised that was even a factor.

"Nothing I can spot at the moment. It wasn't that bad of a knock," Kin explains as she takes off a pair of rubber gloves.

The throbbing pain in my head tells a different story but I don't complain.

"What are you doing here?" I grumble at Lucy as I sit up.

"Kin said you were going to wake up soon," she says simply, "I wanted to see what state you were in when you woke up."

"W- how long was I asleep?" Was I in a coma or something?

"Only around eight hours," she shrugs, "Orin told me that you did well."

I swing my legs around and sit upright. Kin must have taken off my jacket and shoes while I was asleep, "I killed two geckos, climbed a rope and got knocked down in a crowd of people. I did fantastic."

"Don't be bitter," she scolds like she's my mother.

I turn my head and frown at her in annoyance, "I'll be however I want to be. My head feels like it's about to split open."

Lucy smiles a very small smile, "Chalk that up to bad luck then. You're going to be fine. Do you want to fight?"
"What?" I giggle in amazement, "my head is killing me. That and I have a job. I can't fight, I think my head will explode if someone so much as prods it."

Lucy's eyes flash with disappointment and her smile vanishes, "As yes, the courier."

"I need to make money," I say in disbelief.

Lucy tosses me a pouch, "150 caps."

I open the pouch and smile, "Cool."

Lucy walks me up to her desk and hands me back my bag when Kin "clears" me for discharge. "Clear" meaning to check if "I had blood coming out of my eyes, ears and or nose". I passed the exam and she condescendingly gave me a child's sweet when I left.

"Look, no hard feelings or anything," I say uneasily, "I just… I don't know if this is for me."

Lucy nods slowly in understanding and holds out her hand which I shake.

"The door is always open," she says firmly, "be safe."

"I will."

…

I decide to take Highway 188 back to Goodsprings. My head still aches and I'd rather have to rely on the kindness of strangers to help me if I collapse rather than the kindness of a hungry pack of dogs. I get there well enough and stop at a pit stop to eat. A couple of dozen traders and travellers are already there for lunch, either ordering food or sitting around talking. I sit down on a bench made of rotten wood and open some food I bought from a stand before I feel the bench dip in front of me. I flick my eyes upward and see a woman sitting in front of me and putting her own bag on the bench, making the wood creak and groan from the weight of it. She's dressed in a filthy looking brown robe, complete with hood. She looks bizarre. Probably a trader or a merchant, or related to one. She's healthy, so she's not from the Legion territories. There has to be some reason she's dressed like this… she isn't scarred enough to be a Legion officer's wife, or with a dent in her back from labour from being a slave.

"Hey," I nod politely as she digs into her bag.

"Hi," she smiles up at me with shining kind brown eyes a shade or two lighter than mine. She also isn't overly skinny, or overly grimy, or clad in filthy leather armour like the influx of DC civilians that Dad had been seeing a few months before, somehow coming through Legion territory in one piece, all of them hungry and dirty from months of travelling, "what're you eating?"

She sounds like she'd from Nevada, not eastern, her accent isn't quite as "fancy", as Dad put it, enough.

I hold up some jerky I'd been snacking on and mutter, "The guy who sold it to me said Brahmin, might be mole rat judging by the taste."

She laughs and lifts up her right arm and slams a power fist onto the table which makes me jump. A power fist, a mechanical glove mounted with a hydraulic jack that could probably break my ribs with a solid punch. Dad used to joke that if a man got punched by one in the crotch he'd be "spitting out his balls before you even felt the punch".

She takes out a small pouch and takes out a screwdriver, "Jumpy, aren't you?"

"As opposed to my usual reaction to power fists which is to-"

"Not annoy the people carrying them?" she continues and points her screwdriver at me, "I can rearrange your face, dude."

I smirk at the playfulness in her tone, "Try it then."

She keeps the screwdriver pointed at me for a few seconds, before laughing and starting to open her fist, "Smart ass, aren't you?"

I shrug my shoulders and she nods at me, "Are you Californian?"

"No," I lie, "Why?"

She points at my throat with the screwdriver, "You speak like a Californian, there's a shade of it in your voice."

I shrug my shoulders, "I was born in Nevada."

My parents were both from California; I was born in the Mojave, strictly speaking in Nevada. Unfortunately, I had picked up my mother's softer spoken accent compared to the harsher accent most Nevadans have. Californian is more of a race to some people rather than where someone was born. For some it might as well be its own country, especially when talking about mostly Californian-born NCR citizens. The best idea generally, if you aren't confident in your ability to defend yourself, is to lie.

"What's your name?" I ask, desperate to change the subject.

"Veronica," she holds out her free hand, "yours?"

I jump when I hear a gun go off behind me. I turn my head just in time to see an explosion coming from the clearing a few yards away. My hand clasps for my gun and I grab it.

"Goddamned NCR," Veronica shouts angrily when she sees a couple of dozen soldiers spilling over a hill. I wince and take a step forward and look at a small wave of crimson Legion soldiers taking cover. I have no idea what to do. Dad told me to do something when this situation happened, but I can't remember anything now. I look over my shoulder at Veronica, who grabs my arm and drags me backward.

"What are you doing?!" I shout over the noise of gunfire.

"Legion can't aim explosives worth a damn!" she shouts as I follow her down a steep hill.

"Damn!" I howl when my still injured leg gives way. I tumble down and before I even stop Veronica is dragging me under my arms down below a bridge. I hear another explosion, closer this time. I stay quiet, even though I'm pretty sure Veronica can hear the sound of my heart pounding so hard it threatens to break out of my ribs. A woman clutching screaming children runs down to the bridge and clutches them close with panic in her eyes.

"Where's everyone else?!" I shout over the noise at Veronica. She shrugs her shoulders and another explosion goes off, it can't be that far because the bridge shakes.

"Hey, look at me," Veronica says and grabs my shoulders. I can't breathe, all I can smell is smoke and all I can hear is a woman screaming. My gun feels heavy in my hands and all I can think of is my father. Oh god, what would he think of me?

I open my eyes and look around. I move my legs and find out my ankle is sprained. Again and again explosions rain down over our heads. I cover my head with one hand and point my gun at one end of the bridge, where the Legion is.

"Crap!" I shout when another set of debris falls down. I hit the dirt and cover my head with my hands.

When the noise settles I look down and see a chunk of concrete on Veronica's leg. Her teeth are clenched in pain and she lets out a scream when she tries to move her leg.

I rip the concrete off and Veronica tries to move her leg again. She groans in pain and hisses air between her teeth.

"We can't stay here," I shout, "this bridge is going to collapse on us!"

"Well what do you want to do?!" she screams back, "Just run out in the middle of a battlefield?!"

"Around it, yeah! We're civilians! They won't shoot us!"

"That's what you think!" she whines as I pick her up over my shoulder.

"Come on, we'll be fine."

"My leg! Watch it!"

I hobble up the hill with Veronica over my shoulders. A few people who stayed up top are lying on the ground, dead with holes in the ground. I hear a shell whistling through the air and it banging against the end of the bridge.

"Jesus!" I cry and turn away from them. I cut around them, heading away from the battle and cutting around into the desert. A bullet whizzes past us at one point.

"I think my leg is broken," Veronica yells into my ear, "Please, don't drop me!"

"How is this my fault?!" I grunt as I jog. My leg is screaming in pain, but I can still put a decent weight on it. I ease her down onto a hilltop and lie down beside her, "Ow."

"Dumbass NCR," Veronica swears, "they'd think they'd warn us first."

My shoulders ache from carrying her and I don't bother replying. Her face suddenly appears above mine and I scrunch my nose at her, "What?"

She laughs, "I didn't get your name. I don't want to call you Dumbass all the time."

"Casey," I mumble and hold out my exhausted hand. I feel her shake it and I let my arm rest on the floor, "Alright… Where do you belong?"

"I'm a scavenger," she hisses and sits up, "god dammit, I need to go find a doctor or something."

"Yeah a medic won't treat us…: I trail off and think.

"Where were you heading?"

"Goodsprings, that's around a day away."

"They have a doctor?"

"Yeah."

"I'll take it," she decides.

"So I have to drag you?"

"Carry, preferably," she mumbles, "please?"

"Right now?"

"My leg's broken, I'll die if I stay here," she says desperately, "please. I can't make it by myself, god forbid the Legion get me."

I look at her for a moment, before groaning and standing up, "Wait here."

"Promise me that you'll come back," she says sternly.

"I promise, I need to find something to carry you with."

I come back with two discarded Legion spears and tie a few of my clothes to make a stretcher.

"This is pointless," I mutter, "unless I find someone to carry this with me you're going to be dragging along."

"I can hold myself up," she says. I stand up and look around, still wary with the battle still raging on in the distance.

"Wait, I have an idea."

I come back with a rusted out car rim, the rubber long since withered away.

"What are you doing?" she frowns when I rip off my belt and tie the rim to my bag.

"This is a big tire," I declare, "they built these things to last. If I tie the wheel to the bags, the bags together and end of the stretcher to the bag straps, it should be alright."

"But I'm going to be moving at an angl… oh, you're short."

"Hey," I mutter, "Be nice."

The end result is very shoddy at best. The wheel is on its side so the bags won't tip when I drag it. It makes a lot of noise, more than I would want it to make. It's a decent trade, though. I wouldn't want to carry Veronica all the way to Goodsprings.

"Thank you," she says when I start to walk. My ankle makes me walk at a tender limp when the immediate danger is behind us.

"It's just what you do," I shrug my shoulders and stretch them out, "I'm going to be annoyed if you walk me into an ambush or something."

"Oh yeah," she says sarcastically, "that's my plan."

"Joke," I mumble.

…

My legs and shoulders are numb when we reach Goodsprings at sunset. My ankle springs up when I walk from the tenderness, but I'm sure it's only a sprain. Veronica had dozed off long before I dropped the stretcher at Doc Mitchell's front door. I lean forward and bang my head against the door, I'm too tired to really care.

The door opens and I stumble back to avoid falling into Doc.

"Kid!" Doc gasps, "God damn, you're alive! We've been worried sick!"

I point at Veronica, "Can you help her?"

Veronica looks up at us from where she's lying and smiles awkwardly, "Hi."

Doc nods at her and looks at me, "What happened?"

"Debris from an NCR Legion fight," I explain and unbuckle her, "It landed on her leg, we're pretty sure it's broken."

"I can look after her," he assures the both of us, "Casey, why don't you go to Sunny's house?"

"Oh crap," I smack my hand against my forehead.

"Where the hell have you been?!" Sunny shouts and grabs me, "What the hell happened to you?!"

"Easy!" I shout and rub my sore head. I should have said yes to Kin's offer of pain killers.

"Easy?! You said you'd be back in a day, it's been almost a week!"

"Stop… shouting… please…" I wince and clutch at my weak head, "it's hurting. I took up an offer to learn how to defend myself. Look though, money."

I feebly hand out my earnings and she swats them away.

"I don't give a crap about money," she sighs and hugs me tightly.

"I'm sorry," I stumble awkwardly and hug her.

"I thought you were dead or something," she squeezes me tight before pulling away. She sniffs and wipes her eyes that I didn't realise were moist, "Doc said that you went to have a talk with him."

"I did," I nod and sit down on my bed and kick off my shoes.

"Good. I'm really glad that you did."

"Yeah," I nod and collapse onto my back onto the bed, "I'm sorry."

"I'm just happy that you're here."

…

I wait a few days for my bruises to fully heal and for my head to stop aching before I make the trek back to Primm to work. Sunny was reluctant for me to leave even this early and insists that she comes along, as well as Cheyenne. The dog likes me well enough to wag her tail when I call her name. Sunny also uses the excuse to hunt nearby geckos.

Before I leave I visit Veronica. Her broken leg apparently was just badly bruised, so Doc only put her on crutches and a fair amount of pain killers. Veronica had spent the past few days drugged out to the eyeballs on military grade morphine a few NCR soldiers had left behind and a few sedatives. Doc said not to bother seeing her because she was mostly unconscious. Only today when I knocked on the door was when I saw her through the hallway sitting on the couch.

"I thought I was having some kind of fever dream or something," she explains when I sit down and give her coffee. Her leg is elevated on the coffee table and her filthy robes replaced by a few of Sunny's spare clothes, "I never thought you would carry me. It'd have been easier to leave me for dead."

"You begged me, practically," I laugh.

"I'm sorry that I didn't give you much of a choice about that," Veronica winces when her leg throbs, "Goddammit."

"You have to have a pretty bad bruise," I put my drink on the coffee table and lean forward, hovering my hand over her leg.

"If you lay a finger on it I will kill you," she warns.

"I'll get the Doc to give you some more morphine," I stand up only for Veronica to stop me.

"I don't need it," she says firmly, "it's just a little pain. It's not killing me."

"What?" I frown in disbelief, "You don't want morphine?"

"No… No I'm good," she waves it off, "where are you going?"

"To Primm," I explain and pick up my bag, "I'm a courier, I have to work."

She nods in understanding, "I'll be here…"

I make it to the doorway before I stop myself. I turn around and laugh awkwardly while drumming my fingers against the doorframe, "Sorry… I… don't think I told you my name."

"Casey," she nods with a smile.

I raise an eyebrow at her. Doc told me she'd been practically unconscious for the past few days; she couldn't have been snooping around even if she wanted to, "How?"

Veronica shrugs, "I'm a good listener. It's my job."

"What is your job?"

Veronica shrugs her shoulders and smiles again, flicking her wrist at the door, "I'm in too much pain to talk about that crap right now. I'll be here when you're back, I'll bore the living crap out of you then."