Chapter Summary: A flashback shows how Beth and Arcade met. In the present, the three companions travel to Ranger Station Foxtrot. They still have a lot of air to clear among them.

Chapter 23: Someone to Watch Over Me

"Excuse me?" a woman said from the doorway of the canvas tent. "I'm looking for Doctor Gannon."

"I'm Doctor Gannon," Arcade replied, turning around.

She blinked a few times when she saw his face and her lips pinched slightly. "Uh, hi. I'm Beth Evans. I was hired to guard you on your trip to the Follower's Outpost."

A sudden scoffing snort escaped him before he could hold it back. Out of politeness, he attempted to cover it with a cough. Standing up, he estimated that the woman was both nearly a foot shorter and a decade younger than himself. Although she wasn't wearing the tell-tale blue jumpsuit, the Pip-Boy on her arm betrayed her as a vaultie. Had Julie meant this as a joke? He had insisted that he didn't need a bodyguard since they were short-handed, so this was who she'd hired?

"Are you sure?" he asked, trying not to sound rude, but likely failing.

"Yes, I'm sure. I may not look like much, but I'm quite capable." Putting her shoulders back and her hands on her hips, she seemed to stand a little taller for emphasis.

"I don't need a babysitter." She did look better suited to watching children than protecting someone on the road from fiends and raiders.

"Regardless, I was hired to do a job. You don't like it, take it up with Doctor Farkas. I'll be waiting by the gate when you're ready to leave." With that, she turned and walked away.

Arcade left his tent and proceeded across the courtyard to the office in the western guardhouse where Julie most likely was, all the while wishing that if she were going to hire a useless kid, she could have found a dark-haired young man with a chiseled jaw.

Inside, he found her typing on her terminal. She glanced back at him as he entered. "Arcade," she greeted in her soft voice, turning back to the screen. "Shouldn't you be on the road to the outpost?"

"Yes, but I wanted to talk to you about the 'guard' you hired."

"Beth? Seems like a sweet girl. Is there a problem?"

"Well, yes. She doesn't really strike me as the 'guarding' type. How old is she, exactly?"

Julie continued typing, only giving him part of her attention. "I didn't ask. She came highly recommended."

"From whom?"

"She was a guard for a caravan that set out from Colorado and she's done some work for the Kings. After that, I figured that guarding you wouldn't be much of a challenge. Give her a chance. If she's not up to the task, no harm done. After all, you said you can take care of yourself. Give my best to Doctor Alvarez. I'll see you when you get back."

He didn't have a response, so he left without another word and returned to his tent. Pulling his backpack out from under his cot, already packed with necessities, as always; he only added the book Plants of the Western Mojave that was on his desk. From the pack, he took out his father's plasma defender, which he had carefully wrapped in his spare lab coat. After verifying that the energy cells were charged, attached the holster to his belt. He had a feeling he was going to need it, despite Julie's assurances of this Beth person's capabilities.

Shouldering the pack, he headed out towards the gate where the girl was waiting, now wearing a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses.

"Let's get going," he said, sounding annoyed even to himself.

"Sure thing, Doc," she replied.

They proceeded east from Freeside. As they walked, he kept noticing that she would look over at him, staring until he glanced at her, then she would look away. "Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

"Sorry. You just look like my, um...someone I used to know."

"If it's a former lover, I can assure you that it wasn't me. You aren't my type."

"No, nothing like that." She frowned and her nose wrinkled. "He's been dead a while now, in any case."

"Sorry."

"It's fine." It clearly wasn't. "By the way, Doc, don't concern yourself. No offense, but you're not my type either."

Before he could respond, Beth put her hand up and shushed him, drawing her gun and crouching next to a broken highway divider. "Shh. I think there's someone ahead on the hill," she whispered, guiding him to cover behind her.

As if on cue, a few rocks came loose from the ridge and tumbled down the slope. Arcade pulled the plasma defender from its holster at his hip and clicked off the safety. Glancing over at his bodyguard, he saw that she was staring intently for any sign of movement. It didn't take long before a raider poked his shaved head from behind a rock and aimed his gun in their direction. Before he could fire, Beth fired twice. One of her bullets missed, but the other went clean through the raider's forehead and he rolled down the slope. Their cover blown, the other raiders came out and charged down the hill. Two of them had knives and the other had a crowbar. It took seconds to take them down. With one shot from Arcade's plasma defender, the raider with the crowbar instantly dissolved into a puddle of green goo.

The threat over, Beth walked over to the first raider and picked up his gun, then shook her head. "Piece of junk. Gun like this is more likely to blow the user's hand off than shoot a bullet," she said, dropping it back into the dirt.

Examining the three bodies that were still mostly intact, Arcade saw that they looked to be strung-out and half starved. He felt a pang of pity for them. These poor souls weren't acting out of malice, but out of desperation. Only desperate people would take on two heavily armed travelers with nothing but a damaged gun and melee weapons. It might have been easy for him to handle them even by himself.

"You're not a bad shot, Doc," Beth observed.

"You seem surprised." He tried not to sound offended, since he supposed she wasn't the only one who had made snap judgments based on outward appearance.

"I am. It's been my experience that doctors aren't usually well-versed in self-defense." Poking her toe at the goo pile that had once been the raider with the crowbar, Beth looked up at Arcade. "That's an interesting weapon you have. I thought you Followers were all about peace and whatnot."

"We are, but we will also defend ourselves, if necessary." He hoped she wouldn't press too much about the weapon, even though ones like it weren't all that uncommon. The Van Graffs in Freeside probably sold plenty just like it. Still, carrying it made him feel somewhat conspicuous. He'd thought about trading it for something more conventional, but he couldn't bring himself to part with the only thing he had left of his father, other than his armor. That was best left locked away and forgotten.

"We should get going if we want to reach the Outpost before dark."

"Yeah."

As they walked, Arcade started to feel regretful for how he had behaved earlier. He should have trusted Julie's judgment. At the very least, he could have hidden his skepticism better.

"Uh, hey..." It took him a second to remember her name. "Beth?"

"Yeah?" she responded neutrally.

"I wanted to apologize for my rudeness this morning."

"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yes. I didn't exactly make the best first impression and you're obviously more capable than I gave you credit for."

"Thank you, Doc. Apology accepted." She smiled at him genuinely.

"Please, call me Arcade."

"Alright." Her smile changed to a smirk. "You must have had some very interesting parents to give you a name like that."

"You could say that," he thought.

"Not really," he said. "The Gannons were a pretty boring lot." It was what he often said when anyone asked about his family.

"I'll bet most people think that. Whatever they grow up with, that's what they think is normal. Even if it's far from it."

He hadn't expected her to say that and didn't have a ready answer. "Um...I suppose." Except he didn't feel that way at all. From a very young age, he knew he and his family were different. He'd had to lie about himself, his family, where they were from, and a whole host of other things. The worst part was that it never felt easy. Even all the way out here in the Mojave, far away from all of it, he still had to be vigilant.

Beth listened as the sound of Boone's heavy boots receded down the hall. Taking a peek out the window, she saw him standing outside the back door.

"So, is it true?" Arcade asked, holding up the note he still had in his hand. "You killed Caesar?"

"Boone took that particular shot, but I was there, yes," she confirmed, turning back to him.

"Why? Or for the fact of the matter, how?"

"It's complicated."

"I'm sure it is. How did you two meet, anyway? You didn't answer before."

Beth sighed. She knew that this question was going to come back at some point, though she had hoped to put it off for a while longer. "He asked me to do him a favor and I did," she said.

He narrowed his eyes at her response, his arms still folded across his chest. "What kind of 'favor'? Something having to do with the Legion?"

"Indirectly. It's not my place to say." She wished he would just drop it.

"And why not?"

"Because it's his personal business that he trusted me with. And please don't ask him about it either, okay?" It wasn't just because it was personal. She didn't particularly want to hear Arcade's opinion on the fact that the "favor" was luring an unsuspecting, albeit very guilty, woman into the crosshairs of Boone's sniper rifle. Not to mention that Boone had trusted her with this task after a conversation that lasted less than five minutes. Fortunately for everyone, he had chosen the right person to trust. If Beth had it to do over again, she would without hesitation. She was reasonably confident, however, that Arcade wouldn't agree with that course of action, instead likely advocating for a fair trial overseen by the proper authorities. While his idealism was admirable, she often didn't share it. "We are all allowed some privacy, aren't we?" she pointed out.

Arcade's eyebrow twitched and he stared at her a moment before surrendering with a sigh. "Fine."

The walk to Foxtrot was tense. Stealing glances at Boone, even with his aviators on, she could tell he was still upset, but more sad and worried than angry. The tension in his jaw and the way he held his shoulders gave him away. Maybe that's why he hid behind those glasses all the time: he had a terrible poker face.

Arcade's wasn't much better. She could tell he was more on the angry and frustrated side, which made her uneasy. She hadn't wanted him to know that she and Boone had been fighting the Legion, at least, not yet. She had always been reluctant to worry or disappoint him. Since he had his own secrets, it felt okay to keep things from him.

On the other hand, whatever she didn't know about Boone, she knew she could learn eventually. He had already revealed his darkest secrets to her, ones no one else knew. It was difficult to reciprocate sometimes, though. There were still so many things he didn't know about her, yet he wasn't to ask a lot of probing questions. Part of her wanted to tell him everything, but another part of her held back. There were things still kept in that box in the back of her mind, the one she tried not to open. It only came unlocked when she was asleep.

The two men couldn't see the tears escaping from her eyes and she was glad of that. She had mostly thought about herself, how she would feel if he left. She hadn't given as much thought to how Boone would feel if something happened to her. For a long time, she had kept her distance from people for her own sake, but maybe it had been selfish to even get close to him.

It was too late, now, though.

She had never cared for someone the way she cared for him and no one had ever cared for her the way he did. Arcade was right. Letting Boone into her life came with responsibilities. They owed it to each other to be careful. While she didn't appreciate how he went about it, she knew he had only been trying to protect her when he grabbed her arm and insisted they go back to Vegas.

Glancing at Boone again from behind her sunglasses, she wished they were alone so they could talk.

They reached Foxtrot at around mid-day. The cool air of the mountains was a nice change from the normal scorching heat of the dry desert. Beth went to go talk to the station's comm officer while Boone and Arcade stood back and waited.

Boone noticed Arcade glaring. "Problem?" Boone asked.

"What the hell were the two of you thinking raiding that Legion camp?" the doctor erupted, yet somehow keeping his voice low.

Defensively crossing his arms over his chest, he stared back at Arcade. "We had our reasons."

"You know what the Legion does. What could have happened. Don't you?"

"I'm aware," he answered through gritted teeth.

"And now they're after her. Do you have any idea-"

"Stop!" he growled. He reminded himself that this was Beth's friend and she probably wouldn't like it if he punched Arcade in the face.

The truth was that he didn't know what would happen to her if they captured her now. He couldn't imagine what the Legion would do to someone who had so openly attacked them, especially if that person was also a woman. There were places only the sick monsters of the Legion could go. Even just hearing the order to capture her read out loud had been enough for him to get the overwhelming impulse to pick her up and run back to Vegas.

"What possessed the two of you to go there in the first place?"

He wished Arcade would just leave him alone. If he wanted answers, he should talk to Beth. "The guy who shot her, that's where he went."

"That's it? That's the whole reason?" He seemed baffled.

Boone certainly didn't want to talk about the reason for his personal vendetta against the Legion. He knew that tracking down Benny wasn't Beth's only reason for going along, but wasn't exactly sure what all her reasons were.

"Did she do it for me?" he wondered.

Her invitation to drive the Legion out of Nelson was one of the main reasons he agreed to go along with her in the first place. Had she continued fighting them because she didn't think he would stick around otherwise? Then he wondered himself if he would have stuck with her as long as he had if they hadn't fought the Legion early on. He wanted to believe that he would have.

Arcade was staring at him, waiting for an answer. It was getting harder and harder not to just tell him to fuck off. Fortunately, Beth was walking back over to them, which caused the doctor to drop his line of questioning.

"Ranger Kudlow insists she never filed that report," she said. "Something funny is going on. We need to talk to Reyes at Forlorn Hope."

"Are you crazy?" Arcade asked, sounding exasperated.

"That's too close to the Legion," Boone said, as though finishing the other man's thought.

Beth sighed. "I know, but I don't see that we have much choice. Someone is messing with NCR intelligence and if we don't do something about it, who will?"

"The NCR can find someone else to do it." Even though he knew that wasn't likely, he didn't much care.

"But they won't and what if there's more to it? I know you two are worried about me, but you both have to realize that the only way I or anyone else in the Mojave is going to be safe is if the Legion is defeated. If they win, nothing will matter. Vegas itself might not even be safe."

As much as he wished she weren't, Boone knew she was right. If the Legion took over the Dam, the rest of the Mojave would follow.

"How about this?" she offered. "We'll stay here tonight. With the three of us and the dozen or so Rangers stationed here, it should be safe enough. Tomorrow night, we'll stay in Vegas, then go on to Forlorn Hope."

"Can't you just radio the info to Reyes?" Arcade asked as though it were obvious.

"I would, but I don't know who's listening. If someone is manipulating the intelligence on purpose, I don't want them to know we're on to them."

"Fine, we'll go with your plan," Boone agreed reluctantly.

As the sun set behind the hills, she watched Arcade from the other side of the small camp as she finished her dinner. He was eating at a table by himself with a book, but she noticed that he hadn't turned a page or touched his food for nearly fifteen minutes. His eyes glanced up and settled on her, staring as though trying to figure something out. Somewhat reluctantly, she closed the distance and sat across from him.

"Hey," she said. "You still angry with me?"

He sighed. "I wasn't really angry with you, per se. I was...frustrated with the situation."

She tilted her head to the side and raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Okay, fine. I was a little angry." He put his book down on the table and closed it. "Mostly, I'm confused. I just don't know what's going on with you lately. Working for Mr. House is one thing—which we need to talk about later, by the way," he added, pushing up the bridge of his glasses. "But fighting the Legion? That's not you. You don't shy away from getting your hands dirty, but I've never heard you even have much of an opinion on war or politics. Now you've thrown yourself into it like this."

"You'd be surprised," she thought.

"I've never seen you in a relationship before either, which I thought was a good development, but is this his influence? That's not like you either, to let someone change you, man or otherwise. I don't know what to think."

She wasn't sure what to say. While she could have chronicled to him her various exploits in the Capital Wasteland, that was a very long conversation she didn't much want to have. Talking to Boone was one thing, since he let her talk without digging deeper than she wanted, but she knew Arcade would ask more questions about things she would rather not discuss or even think about. "It's not just Boone. It's...a lot of things."

"A major traumatic experience like the one you went through in Goodsprings would have an effect on anyone."

"It's not like I've never been shot before," she said with a dismissive shrug.

"This was different. You don't have to pretend like it wasn't," he said gently.

"Yeah." Beth averted her eyes.

"So, the guy who did it, he was at the Legion camp?"

"Who told you that?" she demanded, her eyes focusing back to him.

"Craig."

"Son of a bitch," she breathed.

"Don't be mad at him, I pressed him."

"I asked you not to do that."

"No, you asked me not to ask him how you two met, which I didn't."

She sucked in the side of her cheek in annoyance, but she couldn't really argue. Though she wished Arcade hadn't pestered Boone about this. Couldn't he tell that Boone was already upset enough?

"So is that why you went? To track down the man who shot you?"

"Yes...and no. Maybe I had something to prove to myself."

"Where does Craig fit into all this?" he asked seriously. "Would you be doing all this if not for him?"

Beth picked up a stray Fancy Lads snack wrapper and folded it absentmindedly. "I don't know. Probably not. But that doesn't mean it's not my choice or that it's the wrong thing."

"I just don't want to see you become a different person. I like you the way you are." He gave her a brief grin. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I don't have a lot of people in my life I really count as friends."

"Me neither." She smiled back at him. "Cra—Boone is a good man, Arcade. Try to have faith in me that I wouldn't put my trust, or my life, or especially my...affections in the hands of the wrong person. He doesn't want me to get hurt any more than you do. The bottom line is that I'm doing all this because I believe it's important."

"Yes, it is important, but it's also dangerous." His eyes looked back at her with worry. "Promise me you'll be careful."

"I will. I promise."

"And I do want to help, if I can."

"Of course. We're going to need all the doctors we can get."

He opened his mouth slightly and his jaw stiffened. It looked for a moment like he wanted to say something important, but then he dropped his shoulders and sighed. "Right. You should go talk to Craig. I'll see you in the morning."

She'd seen him do that before and she wanted to say, "Maybe if you didn't hold yourself back so much, you wouldn't be so lonely," but didn't. After all, until very recently, she supposed she was the same way. So instead she just said, "Night."

"Good night."

Standing up, a sharp wind cut through her thin button-up shirt and she shivered. She crossed the camp to retrieve her duster from her pack, feeling relieved that the tension between her and Arcade had mostly dissipated during their conversation. Things felt more or less back to normal. At least, as normal as things could be with the threat of the Legion looming over them.

She took a some time to warm herself by the crackling fire before going to find Boone.

Boone sat alone in the falling darkness, facing out into the woods with his rifle in his hand. An open can of beans sat next to him, but he didn't feel like eating.

Despite what Beth had tried to convince him weeks ago back in Bitter Springs, he still couldn't help but think he still had bad things coming. Maybe Beth wasn't meant to save him. Maybe the whatever that was after him was lulling him into complacency, waiting until he got close to her, then it would take her away, just like it had Carla. Only this time, he didn't think even a need for vengeance could keep him going. He didn't have it in him anymore.

"I never should have gotten close to either of them," he thought, the sinking feeling of guilt and despair in his gut. "Maybe I should leave. She'd be better off without me."

That thought was fleeting, though. If he left her now and something happened to her, he'd never forgive himself for not being there to protect her. He hadn't been there to protect Carla and that thought still haunted him every day.

He wasn't just staying to protect her, he knew. As selfish as he knew it was, he didn't want to leave her. Not only did being with her make him feel alive, she actually made him want to be. He hadn't felt that way in a very long time. It wasn't just because Jeannie May was dead or that they had fought the Legion. It was her. He recognized that now.

Besides, he knew that if he left, it would hurt her and he could never bring himself to do that.

Rubbing his tired eyes, he suppressed a yawn. Hardly sleeping for the last two nights was taking its toll on him. The fatigue certainly wasn't helping him feel less defeated.

"Boone?" he heard Beth's voice from behind him say.

His throat felt tight, so he grunted in response.

"Can we talk?"

Sliding over to the side of the log he was sitting on to make room for her, he wordlessly gestured for her to sit.

She sat down and stared out into the dark, pulling her duster around her in defense against the cold. "I wanted to say I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry for?" he asked.

"I shouldn't have been so dismissive of your concerns."

"Okay."

"But I do wish you'd have talked to me instead of trying to manhandle me back to Vegas."

"I was trying to protect you."

She sighed heavily. "I know and I get that, but like that, it's not a help. It's a liability. You aren't focused on the mission if all you're worrying about is me. You're going to get yourself, or maybe both of us, killed."

He hadn't thought about it that way, but she had a point. An unfocused soldier is a liability. If he was going to stay with her, he needed to figure out a way to deal with his fear of losing her in a way that didn't put her life in more danger.

"I don't want a bodyguard. I want a partner," she said, putting her hand in his. "I need you to have faith in me, that I can take care of myself, at least sometimes."

"It's not that I don't have faith in you. It's me. I messed up. I should have known they were tracking us."

"That's not your fault."

"Yes it is. I'm supposed to have your back."

"And you do! I'm sorry I questioned that. You've always had my back, I know that."

Looking her in the eye, he affirmed, "I always will."

She leaned into his shoulder and he put his arm around her. "We're stronger together. And going forward, we'll make decisions as partners. Okay?"

"Okay."

"So are you okay with going back to Forlorn Hope?"

Boone let out a long breath. "No, but that doesn't mean I think we shouldn't. Tell me, though...aren't you scared?" He tried to keep his voice even, but heard it falter.

"Of the Legion? Of course I am! But this thing is bigger than just the two of us. If they win, this will never be over."

"I really want it to be over."

"I do, too."

Squeezing his eyes shut, he held her in a tight embrace and rested his cheek on top of her head. For that moment, sitting there in the dark with his arms around her, it felt like they were the only two people in the whole world.