HAIL TO THE KING
Chapter 11 of my story, I will be updating far more regularly now that I have more spare time on my hands, this chapter is a bit longer than some of the previous ones.
Cass was sleeping peacefully until she was awoken by horrible, violent coughing; it was around one in the morning, meaning Cass could barely see anything. The cowgirl slowly tilted her head to get a much clearer view. She noticed it was the Courier who was violently coughing; she also noticed dozens of drugs around him, mentats, med- X, buffout, even stimpaks were scattered across the bar table he sat near. He grabbed a handful of these drugs and stuffed into his mouth, sculling it down with a bottle of scotch.
"Drug addict, junkie, gun-frenzy, suicide."
These words constantly floated over Cass's head, the two things she hated more than rapists, cheaters and players, were drug addicts and dealers. Much like her father before her, she couldn't stand the sight of these people, but she didn't know the cause for the courier, "Was he sick? Depressed? Hurt? "She didn't know, but tried to hide her curiosity and worries.
Her best guess was the scars, the ones that were physical and mental, most couriers didn't last as long as him, they were human after all, "easily corrupted, weak willed and easy targets." The Courier was a different story though, which is why Cass remained with him.
It was as if his throat was being blocked by an unknown force, the coughing started to intensify, which was followed by heavy, and slow breathing, alongside wheezing. She could also see that his hands were entrenched in his face; sweat was dripping more than usual.
Now at the edge of the bed, he started muttering something under his breath, very quietly, to Cass, he didn't seem like the praying type or even the type to constantly dwell on the past. As the Courier moved his hands away, she noticed speckles of blood, bright red speckles of blood.
The more he coughed, more blood streamed out. By the looks of things, it was painful and reoccurring, after the coughing stopped, he wiped the blood off with his singlet, lying on his back next Cass.
In the months being with him, this was the first time she had ever seen him like this, severely weakens, defenceless, a mere mortal like the rest. "Why didn't I see this before? Why was I so fucking blind?"
His eyes were bloodshot, but his face remained in its original position, confident and strong, even though she could clearly see, that was not the case from what was happening from within. She eventually fell asleep, but still couldn't get that image of the courier out of her head; it was haunting her, even in her sleep.
Several hours later, Cass awoke again to see the courier lying on his back; it was as if he didn't move from that position, he was staring at the ceiling with his big, striking dark brown eyes. Her hands reached to the Couriers chest, and as she slipped off his slightly bloodied white singlet, he turned to her, giving a smile.
She also felt sadness for him, something she rarely felt, she loved him, and that was obvious, she knew he endured so much pain, more pain than any other person she had met. There was more to it however, an illness, a disease of some kind was ruining the Courier.
"Something wrong?" his eyes blinked questionably.
Cass moved her fingers over his lips, collecting some blood left behind, "Are you okay? Trust me, if you say you are, so help me god, I will fucking end you."
The Courier looked away avoiding any eye contact, at that split second she knew he wasn't okay, "Come on, what aren't you telling me? Please, just tell me damn it."
His smile put her worries out of the window, that easy going, sexy smile, which laughs in the face of death itself. Cass placed her head on his chest, starting to slowly kiss it.
"Cass?" he continued looking at her with his curious eyes.
"Mm?" she responded back to him.
"What are you doing?"
"Well, this cowgirl has some needs, sexual needs, unless you are "tired"."
He gave a chuckled and rolled over, allowing himself to be on top of her, in mere moments the two were undressing themselves. Just outside the apartment, the King held out his hand, about to knock, but some certain sounds made him do otherwise. Pleasurable moans could be well heard, even from the outside, the King knew he wasn't needed, or at least not at the moment.
The King chuckled on his way out, most of the other companions were also busy, Veronica was at the followers of the apocalypse's base, Boon was on some personal mission, and Lily was enjoying her time with Neil, the super mutant who helped them at Black Mountain, Raul, was somewhere, while Rex and his robotic friend were at the Kings' base.
The Courier quickly dressed himself; Mr House wanted to talk to him immediately, something private. Right before he was about to leave, Cass had an odd request, "Hey, while you're there, check if Mr House has any…"toys".
The courier was confused at the request, "Um, toys?"
"Old world gimmicks, you know?"
"Uh, right gotcha, this is Mr House we are talking about, so chances are he a shit load of that kind of stuff."
The Courier and Cass laughed at the same time; he gave a goodbye kiss and went off to meet Mr House, something he wasn't excited about. She contemplated as he left, she had always wondered if it was wise to stay with the Courier, to leave her blood stained past and pursue something even she desired, to be loved. She was worried about the Courier though, she wanted to help him, not lose another love one, and she waited for him to return from Mr House, but was afraid of what the future held.
The Courier finally entered Mr House's penthouse, he still didn't trust Mr House's security though, and robots which packed an arsenal got him worried. Also since he decided to give him the Platinum chip, Mr House seemed invincible.
The Courier glared up to the screen, the old man's face suddenly appeared, "Oh how beautiful, a Courier and a Cowgirl falling in love, it's just like in those movies."
"What are you talking about?" the Courier was worried at what the answer might have been; he knew Mr House was manipulative, but this scared him.
"You see, I have eyes and ears all over this lovely casino, I heard your conversation, saw…some things, it's touching really, a sick man with only a few months left falling in love, it's sad, don't you think?"
"You motherfucking bitch, I knew you were sick, but nothing compares to this, you can get fucked, for all I care."
Just before the Courier was able to move a muscle, all the security around him had their weapons pointed to him, "Tsk, my dear friend, it's not wise to insult me, especially when I can order all these lovely security to wipe you out in a second."
"You son of a-"
The Courier bended over, coughing up huge amounts of blood, he clenched his stomach, falling on his knees.
"Such a shame, I can help you, I have the technology, just help me liberate the Mojave, help me get rid of the scum, NCR, Legion, the Brotherhood of Steel, they are just the beginning, help me to help you."
The Courier slowly got up onto his feet, the pain was now getting to him, "You are one deranged motherfucker, fine, what do you want me to do?"
"O how my heart hurts, well, The Brotherhood is a pain, get rid of them and I will help you, it's a promise."
"That's assuming you have a heart," the courier gave an annoyed chuckled, he didn't like being pushed around.
"I like you Courier, you have that old world look about you, as you can see, you are my sword that delivers blows, now go, oh and give my regards to Cass, your cowgirl friend."
"Dick head!" the Courier walked back to the apartment, he knew that to get close to the Brotherhood, he needed Veronica, but he didn't like this, he like the Brotherhood, they were heroes back East, he was unsure whether he could really pull off this stunt.
As he was heading inside the apartment were Cass remained, he felt intensely weak. His vision blurred and felt blood in his mouth again, as he held the door to get better balance, he felt faint, felt like hurling.
"Fuck! The damn pills are not working anymore."
After getting his bearings after a few moments, Cass walked towards the Courier, he shook off the pain and illness as if it were nothing, but in reality it hurt, it was killing him, slowly yet gradually he would die, he knew that, but didn't want the others to know, especially Cass.
"You okay?" Cass could see the Courier was still dizzy
"Yeah, I'm fine, it's just the heat, come on let's go find Veronica, I need her to help us with something."
As Cass moved up, the Courier quickly grabbed a mentat and swallowed it, he needed the pain to disappear, at least for now.
Chapter complete, I plan to put in Arcade into the following chapters, who will secretly help the Courier with his illness. Hope this chapter had minimal mistakes.