Ok! Hello, you guys! I have a special treat for you today! If life doesn't try to kill me, this chapter will be a whopping five thousand words (you can clap now)! I want to make up for my past chapters being less than stellar, both in content and length. Hopefully this will make up for that! Reviews: John: Teh ghast puple r sp00ky. And yes, morphine Miles is what happens when you don't sleep and do drugs. Don't do drugs, kids. Get your 23 hours of sleep. Take one hour to read my story, of course. I'm going to finish this story first, and then I'll focus on my new Star Wars story. I haven't abandoned either of them.

However, there is something that I need to say. I've been lacking in inspiration lately, both for TTP and the new story, and I think I'm going to take a hiatus. It'll probably be 9 weeks, about 2 months. If I do find my inspiration there, I will be trying to upload from said location, but it's not set in stone. I haven't abandoned either of these stories, so please, PLEASE don't think I'm dead or neglectful. You guys keep me sane. Without further ado, here is another romance-filled chapter of Tale of Two Pipers!

Day 18, Outskirts of Las Vegas. Afternoon, Piper and Miles.

Miles groaned, slowly shaking his head in exhaustion. "Wha… Where are we?"

Piper grinned, pleased that he was finally awake. "Almost in Nevada. You've been asleep for well over a day. How are you feeling, Captain Cosmos?"

Miles cocked a brow at her. "Captain… Cosmos? I'm not Captain Cosmos. The real actor was actually an asshole; at least that's what they said. I don't think I'm an asshole… am I?"

Piper shook her head. "I'm not going to answer that." She turned to him, obviously having some knowledge that he did not possess. "Last night you were screaming about how you had gone to space with Captain Cosmos. I had to turn up the radio static to drone you out, Blue. I willingly listened to radio static. I don't think you know what that does to a person's head."

Miles blinked rapidly, looking back at her. "What in the seven hells are you talking about? Last night we were driving to Dallas." He looked around, the snow-capped arches of the canyon a sight that Miles wished he could take a picture of. He quickly looked away from the window, focusing on the task at hand. "This isn't Dallas."

Piper stopped, unsure how MIles would react to the news. She sighed, deciding it was best to tell him now rather than later. What did they always say? Don't keep secrets from those you love? She rolled her eyes. Yeah, right. she thought, shaking her head. "Miles… Dallas is gone. No signs of life in the entire damned city. I don't know why, I don't know who, but I know it happened and frankly I'm not sure what could have happened. The answer I got seemed unbelievable."
Miles looked dumbfounded. "What do you mean, gone? Did the nukes wipe it out?" He scratched his chin roughly, searching for a question to stave off his fear. "Did any of the Vault residents survive?"

Piper snorted ruefully, masking her fear with indignation. "Blue, the Vault didn't survive. Someone… no, something made it go boom." She was hesitant to tell him everything else the report had revealed, but she decided that if she was going to go halfway she should go all the way. "The report said that the cause was a localized instance of an unidentified toxin, presumably a chemical agent. I looked at some of my bodies, and even though my medical knowledge is rudimentary, it seemed that the ones who didn't shoot each other suffocated to death. Asphyxiation."

She looked him square in the eyes. "It came from the Sierra Madre."

Miles looked confused. "The Sierra Madre? The casino resort? Where would a damned casino get a chemical agent?"

Piper shook her head. "I don't think it did; at least, not intentionally. My best guess is that the security system flipped its shit and went haywire, releasing some toxin that the Sinclair nutjob had put in as a crime repellant. Poor bastard probably didn't even know what he had bought."

Miles shivered, and not from the cold. "God… what do you think happened to the guests?"

Piper hadn't thought of that. "I… I don't know. I don't want to know, Blue."

Miles nodded. "Where are we?" he asked, trying to avoid the topic that had chilled him to the bone.

Piper looked relieved. "Right on the border of the Nevada Territories."

Miles looked at her like she was crazy. "Nevada Territories? You mean Nevada?"

Piper glared at him. "No, I mean the Nevada Territories. Was I not clear enough the first time?"

Miles held up his hands in defeat. "Ok, ok! Sheesh…"

Piper rolled her eyes again. "We're almost in Vegas. Get your caps out." The car rumbled through the bright streets of Fremont, formerly known as Freeside, and she admired the beautiful streetlights that danced and flickered. "Haven't seen this place in a while." She looked out the window, the image of a member of the Kings and a Securitron patrolling the streets making her smile. "Just how I remember."

Miles looked at her quizzically. "You've been here before?"

Piper nodded. "Great place. And if my suspicion is correct, then we should be in for a treat when we get to the gate. You've got friends, but so do I, Blue."

Miles stared at her, oblivious. He had literally no idea what she meant by that, but he got the feeling that he would know soon enough. The car slid to a halt in front of the gate into Vegas, a Securitron rolling over to check their papers. It spoke, its voice monotone and mildly aggressive. "Please submit an identification paper or two hundred Nevada Orens for your currency check."

Piper dug around in her pockets, trying to find her pouch. "Damn, damn… where is it?" She looked over to Miles. "Blue, do you know where my pouch is?"

Miles's eyes went wide. "Your… pouch? That old leather purse?"

Piper nodded. "Yeah, that one. Where is it?"

Miles pursed his lips. "I put it in a secret compartment in the hood, so it should be there."

Piper groaned. The Legion had probably scrapped the hood when they repaired the car. "Miles… my old Diamond City press card was in there. Why didn't you tell me you had hid it?"

Miles rested his head in his hands. "I have no fucking clue."

Piper sighed. "Well, great." She turned to the machine. "Well, we don't exactly have the ID or the Orens with us, but if you would just let us in, we would-"

The robot interrupted her. "We're sorry, but nobody without the proper items may enter New Vegas. Please, have a pleasant day."

Piper looked at the robot indignantly. "Excuse me? You listen here, you big bucket of scrap, we need to get inside and there's absolutely nothing you can do to stop us, y'hear?!"
Miles began to speak. "Uhm… Piper…"

Piper held up a hand. "Not now, Blue." She turned back to the Securitron. "And furthermore, you don't just interrupt me in the middle of my sentence, you got that?!"

Miles realized that Piper was probably going to continue her rant until she got tired, which would be about several hours. He grabbed her and twisted her to look at the top of the gate. There, sitting on the precipice of the metal door, was a man not much older than either of them. The man strained his eyes to see the duo in the light of the setting sun, but when he saw them clearly he seemed to be overjoyed. Miles couldn't pass up a dramatic line. "We seem to have company, Piper."

He didn't speak for a few minutes, just stared at the two of them. Finally, he burst out in a cheer. "Piper-goddamn-Wright! Is that you?!" He walked down to the pavement, meeting them face to face. "You're a lying piece of shit, you know that? What happened to 'visiting every month?!' Even I get lonely, you know."

Piper laughed, giving the man a hug. He returned the embrace, smiling broadly. "Gabriel, it's great to see you. I love what you've done with the place."

The man chuckled, his voice resonating with an accent that made Miles peg him as an Englishman. "I'm glad you finally get to see it!" He turned his head, looking over at Miles. "And who would you be?" He glanced over at Piper. "Didn't know you already found a man, Wright!" His expression changed drastically, and he quickly flicked a pocket knife out of his coat pocket. "If you hurt her I swear to God I will track you down and slit your motherfucking throat while you sleep."

Miles was very confused and terrified, rightfully so. He stammered, trying to think of a word to say. "You thought… us? No… no no no, we're just good friends. Very good friends." Miles left out the parts where they had slept together, because when a possibly psychotic man is holding a knife at your neck you don't say things to confuse them.

The expression of the man changed yet again, growing far brighter than before. He flicked his pocket knife back down, giving Miles a hug too. "Any friend of Wright's is a friend of mine!" He glanced around quickly. "Sorry for the whole threatening thing. I'm a protective person. Doctor Mitchell says I have what they call 'bipolar disorder.' Don't know what in hell that is, but apparently it's serious." He shrugged. "Oh well."

Miles looked back and forth between the two. "Were you two like… together?"

Now it was Piper's turn to laugh. "No, not at all. When my father died I left the Commonwealth for a few months, hopping on a caravan to New Vegas. I came across Gabriel in Goodsprings, right after he woke up, and he was looking for a man who had shot him in the head and left him for dead. I helped him out for a while, using my investigative skills to help him track the guy down. We became friends, and I even took some pictures at the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, where Gabriel here made New Vegas an independant state. When the battle calmed, we met again, and I promised to come back and visit him when I got the time. It's been years."

The man, who appeared to be Gabriel, nodded. "That's the thick of it. So far I've been able to keep the NCR and the Legion from running back to try to take me down. I swear to you, governments are like children sometimes. They whine and complain when they don't get what they want. It's baffling, really." He sighed, taking a flask out of his pocket, throwing back his head and gulping down a swig of whiskey.

Piper frowned. "I asked you to stop drinking, Gabe."

Gabriel waved her off. "Oh, come off it, Wright, don't do this again. This job is stressful, you know. You would be amazed by the sheer number of people that try to shoot the slot machines into submission." He chuckled, his voice dropping to a whisper, almost as if he was sharing a secret. "They're all bulletproof!"

Piper sighed. "If it was anybody else, I might be surprised." She turned to see Miles rummaging around in the trunk, presumably trying to locate his coat. She smiled, looking back at the Courier. "Do you mind if we come in?"

Gabriel smiled. "Of course! Sorry to have kept us out here. This entire place drops below zero when the sun goes down." He gestured to the Securitrons manning the gate, his command followed by the loud grind of metal on metal and the gate screeching open, giving way for the old Highwayman to scoot through the gap.

Miles's eyes went wide when he saw the city in all of its glory. "It's bigger than I remember…" he muttered.

Gabriel nodded. "I've incorporated parts of Freeside into the compound, even though the Kings do good work in the area." He smiled, taking a deep breath in. "Poseidon is still pumping out energy for the grid. Our engineers tweaked it and made sure that it runs with maximum efficiency, not to mention securing power for all of Nevada." He turned back, his mind suddenly processing his words. "Wait… you've been here?"

Miles nodded, still entranced by the nostalgic atmosphere the cityscape imposed on him. "Yeah. Long time ago, actually. Wanna say that it was… 2065? No, wait… 2066. It was 2066." He frowned. "Apologies. My mind isn't what it used to be."

Gabriel looked shocked. "Cor blimey! You're telling me that you came here… what, two hundred years ago? What sort of fool do you take me for?"

Piper sighed. "He's telling the truth, Gabriel."

Gabriel looked over to Piper, his brows scrunched together. "Oh, come on, Pip! Surely you can't expect me to believe this rubbish! He's no ghoul; the man's skin is completely intact! How else is he going to be able to live for two hundred bloody years without aging a day? What you're saying is preposterous!"

Piper shook her head. "Cryogenically freezing the entire Vault he was a member of might do the trick."

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Alright, alright. If it makes you feel more like a man, I'll humour the idea that you're two hundred years older than you look. Not buying it, though." He took out a remote and slammed his hand down on the button, and everyone turned to see the doors of the Lucky 38 swing open. "Welcome to my kingdom of glory!" Gabriel cried, taking out a key and turning it into a panel on the back of the elevator inside the 38. Out popped a retinal scanner and a fingerprint detector, and Gabriel simultaneously put his finger down and his eye in the range of the small device.

Piper rested against the wall, crossing her arms as she looked around. "So… where are we heading?"

Gabriel smiled. "Presidential suite. You'll be staying there for the duration of your stay… hopefully a while, if you decide to stick around." The elevator emitted a confirmatory beep, adding Piper and Miles to the database as well as unlocking the Penthouse and the Presidential floors for access. "House's Presidential was quite miserable, really. I remodeled the place, made it bigger, better, and more boisterous. Hopefully you'll like it."

The door slid open, revealing a beautiful suite filled with luxuries and antiquities from across the Wasteland. In the center of the grand plaza, there was a pool filled with bubbling water, and the wall was made of glass, overlooking the Strip and beyond. The room was breathtaking (for visualization purposes, I'm using the Lucky 38 Suite Reloaded - v4 mod, one of my personal favorites).

Miles's mouth hung open in surprise. Gabriel stared at him, unable to pass up a chance for comic relief. "You're going to spoil your appetite if all you eat is files."

Miles closed his mouth, smiling. "Sorry, it's just that this place is awesome!" Miles cheered, walking around the parlor. He slammed into a small Securitron with an elated looking face. He stared at the machine. The machine stared back.

"Hey there!" the machine chirped.

Miles stared some more. "Who are you supposed to be?"

The machine spoke again. "The name's Yes Man! I'm the Courier's right-hand bot!" It laughed, sounding almost sadistic. "You must be Mr. Mackenzie!"

Miles nodded. "Yeah, that's me." He surveyed Yes Man's stature. "You don't look like much."

The machine whirred and clicked, raising itself to the height of an above average Securitron, but the array of weapons it contained was alarmingly higher than most of Gabriel's peacekeepers. "Looks can be deceiving!" the machine peeped.

Miles let out a grunt of interest. "Alright then." He backed away, slowly. "I'll be going now."

The machine nodded. "See ya around, now! Don't be a stranger!" it beeped, rolling off toward the kitchen.

Miles heard Gabriel calling him, and he ran back to the elevator. "What's wrong?"

Piper smiled. "Gabe's showing us his penthouse, Blue. Follow me."

The elevator rose yet again, reaching the top of the structure with a satisfying ding. The doors slid open, revealing a massive rotunda. In the center there was Gabriel's bedroom, to the east of that there was the mainframe that controlled all of the Strip, and to the west there was the storage center for supplies. "Welcome to my abode!" Gabriel hollered. "You are going to love this."

He let out a sharp whistle and a cyborg dog barked, shooting to his side. Directly behind him was a blond-haired man wearing a white Enclave lab coat. "Rex! Get back here!" The man looked up, his glasses sliding off his face. "Oh hey, it's you! How's it going, Gabe?"

Gabriel smiled. "I am fine, Arcade. Where is everyone?"

Arcade stood upright, brushing off his far from pristine coat. "Boone and Veronica are still on their way back from their honeymoon; caravan got raided. They'll be back in a few hours. Cassidy's waiting for you in your guys' room; Lily's still tending to her garden on the roof. She asked me to thank you for the greenhouse."

Gabriel grinned. "Alright…" He turned to the duo, his eyes twinkling. "The tour is going to have to wait; sorry. I'm going to go talk to my wife, so feel free to browse the Strip. Cachino owes me more favors than a Jet addict to his dealer, so if you want some freebies head to Gomorrah. Try to be back by tomorrow morning. Try not to ruin the bed." He laughed. "Anyway, I'm heading to my room. You two have some fun, you hear?"
Piper and Miles eyed each other, a smile creeping on their faces involuntarily. The same thought came to them both, finally ending the battle of rational thought that had raged since that cold starry morning on the outskirts of Chicago. It's time.

And that's that. I know, I'm such a tease sometimes. You'll just have to wait to see what happens! I'm going to go all Ted Kaczynski for a while, go up into the Appalachians. I also apologize to the 10% of my viewers that are British. I probably butchered your slang so badly… oh well. You guys are my life, as always! Don't go callin' the coroner, because I'm ok! -Valkyrie