Authors note: I just wanted to say thank you to those who've left comments, as well as like and kudos. For those who are reading this on FF, you can also find this story on Archive of Our Own as well and will be more explicit than the story on FF.

We left Tusayan at the crack of dawn to return to camp by late afternoon and touch base with Mitch and hash out a plan for our first gig. Personally, I would prefer to infiltrate the place by myself and eliminate each Shiv, but Panam would have none of that and would insist on accompanying me; hell, she may even want to take the Panzer, though we still needed to repair it from the Mikoshi heist. As I drove down the interstate, I glanced over to see Panam fast asleep and snoring lightly; something about how peaceful she looked asleep stirred something within me. A desire to protect her for the rest of our lives, and any children we would have together. I definitely had to be the luckiest man alive to have a woman like Panam and if everything went to plan, I intend for this to last quite a while.

The drive back to camp was shorter than I had expected, instead of the eight hours that I had expected to be on the road, we arrive in five-and-a-half hours. The best part being Panam now owed me a beer as we made a beat that it would take me at least eight hours to get to camp, though I'd hold her up to that when we get settled in. Pulling into the camp, I parked my car next to her truck and noticed that Mitch was walking up to greet us; gotta admit I'm glad Panam tasked him with getting the camp up in running in our absence, and I could already see the more tech inclined people working on the Panzer. Of course, we still had people erecting tents, but most of them were for our supplies.

"Panam, V, welcome back; tell me, how was Tusayan." Mitch asked as Panam and I exited the vehicle and headed towards the Cantina for a drink with Mitch in tow.

"It's not to bad, a small town with some decent shops around; however, we do already have a job from one of their fixers." I said as we walked through the camp.

"We also found a garage that seems to have decent stock; might would want to check it out for yourself Mitch." Panam added as we walked up to the Cantina truck

"That's good to hear, though I do have some important information for you V that you may want to hear." Mitch said as we all ordered a beer and sat down at one of the tables.

"Is it good or bad information?" I asked as I took a swig of my drink and watched as Panam downed the entire thing without so much as a hiccup; the burp on the other hand was something I wasn't expecting, and her red cheeks betrayed her embarrassment.

"Depends on how you view it; while I was doing some recon, I came across some of your former compatriots from the Bakkers. Not gonna lie, I was surprised they were even out here, last I heard they went to Oregon." Mitch said as both Panam and I perked up at the name of my former Nomad clan, what on Earth could they be doing out here.

"Any idea what they are doing out here?" Panam asked as the cogs were already turning in her brain; maybe we could use this to our advantage, though I don't know how they would react to seeing me again after I had 'abandoned them after their merge with Snake Nation'. Of course, there really wasn't bad blood, and Chari understood that their destiny and mine did not match up. Of course, listening to her gloat about being correct wasn't gonna be fun and hopefully Panam could keep that legendary temper of hers under control.

"I don't think they'd pose any real threat to us; especially considering them being part of Snake Nation now. The real question though is if they'd be willing to trade with us, and maybe even have contacts that we could use." I said as I mused over possibly contacting them again, or course they'd be elated knowing that I became a nomad again but pissed that it is with the Aldecaldos and not them.

"Agreed, and as Saul would say, the worst action to take would be to not take any action at all; however, we first need to deal with the Raffen Shiv that made camp at an old cement factory thirty miles from our location." Mitch said with Panam arching an eyebrow as to how Mitch already knew before I told her that I had briefed Mitch on the job and to get the ball rolling. Mitch proceeded to hand both me and Panam a shard that had the factory schematics on it, and the possible compliment of Shiv members that were there. It was interesting to say the least, this Raffen Shiv base had supplies that we could take and even make some money from. Furthermore, we believe them to have prisoners who'd either be willing to join us, or we can get them back to their communities safe and sound, further spreading the Aldecaldos influence in the region. If all goes well and we can make a name for ourselves out here, then the contracts will come.

"On another note, seeing as our most experienced net runners were killed in the Arasaka assault, how would you like to take their position V?" Panam asked me as I thought it over; true, I was a hell of a grunt, but I also had a lot of experience in the net running aspect as well. Something I picked up on from T-Bug, and after her death further developed it to the point of mastery; hell, probably one of my proudest moments was causing a gang bannger to shoot his friends cocks off, then his own cock. The look on Johnny's face was priceless, and he soon burst out in laughter.

"Sure, gotta do something to earn my keep around here anyways." I said as Panam flashed me a bright smile before dragging me off towards the garage.

"Good, the first thing you can do is help me fix my Thorn seeing as her current state is thanks to your ever so 'perfect' shooting." Panam said as she started and I could only grimmice at the memory that came to my head of our assault on a Kang Tau transport, which also caused Panam to become injured.

"Preem, though I would like to take a look at your turret; I feel like it is going to need to be rebuilt, and if I can do that then I can upgrade her targeting systems as well." I said as Panam pondered what I had offered to do.

"Sounds reasonable, but you are gonna pay for the turret and targeting upgrades." She said as I gave her a grin causing her to smile.

"Guess there isn't a way out of paying, is there?" I half-jokingly asked as Panam laughed before hitting me in the shoulder with her elbow.

"Not unless you want to be sleeping with Mitch or Cassidy for the foreseeable future." She said as the color from my face drained, I can just see them talking shit about getting thrown out of my tent by Panam.

"Right, I'll be sure to stay on your good side then; pretty sure I wouldn't hear the end of it from You, or the rest of the family if you kicked me out." I said as Panam continued to laugh and started snorting as well. As we made our way into the garage, we saw that Mitch and Cassidy were already inside working on their own individual rides with Panam's ride sitting towards one of the corners. As I engaged my Kiroshi Optics, I started seeing the health reports of the vehicle, overall, she was in great shape but needed some work done. Turning my optics off, I could see Panam was looking at me with a confused expression on her face before I explained to her that my optics allowed me to see a health report on a vehicle.

"Wait, you have Kiroshi Optics?" Panam asked as I nodded before I remembered that nomads usually didn't have Optical implants due to how expensive they are and never being in the same area for long. Hell, I never had optical implants until I came to Night City, and they were a gift from Dr. Viktor.

"Well Panam, looks like we got ourselves a very preem prize." Mitch joked as he joined our conversation with Cassidy not too far behind him.

"anyways, what are you'll doing here?" Cassidy asked as Mitch leaned against Panam's ride.

"We have a job Cassidy, and we need to do some repairs on my ride before we attempt to do anything about the problem." Panam explained as I took out a shard that had information about the Shiv and their camp and handed it to Cassidy and Mitch.

"Shit, count us in Panam, I'm itching for some action again."

"Good, it's just going to be the four of us, it'll be easier with just four versus the entire family." Panam said as I agreed with her assessment; four people could clear the entire encampment out much easier and quieter than a full blow assault.

"And for that reason, I think using the Panzer should be out of the question." I said as Panam faced me wanting to chew my ass out for even suggesting leaving the Panzer.

"Really, do you know how stupid that is? That Panzer would give us an edge and we wouldn't have to worry about anyone getting hurt!" Panam hissed at me while giving me one of her infamous death glares.

"Easy there Panam; V's right in that if we were to take the Panzer than the Raffen's will see us coming a mile away. It would give them time to set up defenses and who knows what they have that could take the Panzer out of the fight." Mitch said as Panam turned her head towards him and thought it over; while she was not happy with not taking the Panzer, she also understood where both Mitch and I were coming from, and she eventually relented.

After a few hours of doing basic repair work on the turret, I figured it would be a good enough time as any to fire her up and test out the turret. Personally, I hope that I fixed the issue with the gun jamming, but only way to test that out would be to use it; something I'd rather not do in camp. Putting the finishing touches on the turret, I saw Panam walking back towards the garage with Overwatch, and Johnny's revolver holstered in her belt.

Leaving camp was easier said than done, and many of the Aldecaldos were wondering what was going on. Mitch is a life saver and told them all that we were going to go scouting for a new trail incase anything happened which put most of them at ease. As we were driving down the road, I could see the sun beginning to set which meant that by the time we reached the Raffen camp, we'd have not only the element of surprise, but also darkness to conceal us as well.

"Hey Panam, I was just curious if you had anyone in your life before me?" I asked her which caught her off guard.

"You mean if I had a lover before you?" She replied as I nodded in agreement.

"Not when I was traveling with the Aldecaldos, but when I got to Night City, I started to think about it, and we know how that turned out." She said as she nudged me on the shoulder.

"What happened?" I asked as Panam took a deep breath.

"You remember that bastard Nash?" She asked me with venom in her voice.

"The bastard who klepped your ride; yeah." I said as Panam shifted in her seat.

"Well, he attempted to do more than just that; you know the bastard tried to spike my drink and rape me as well." Panam said as I could hear the venom with each word.

"Shit Panam." I said before she cut me off.

"I'm not finished, anyways, I took a drink of my beer and passed out not to long after; thankfully, Eddy knew me and saw me pass out. Nash told him he'd 'take care of me', but Eddy refused and said that I'd be staying there tonight. Straight up told Nash if he ever saw him again, he'd blow his brains out." Panam finished as she chuckled at the thought of Nash getting his just desert, though in a way he did, but by someone else.

"Shit Panam, I'm so sorry; had I known I would not of been as persistent on trying to fuck you that night." I said as Panam placed a

"It's fine V, and besides, I'd be lying if the thought didn't cross my mind; hell, watching you dance around those Raffen Shive battling them close quarters like nothing actually aroused me greatly." She said as she started to laugh.

"Why didn't you then and why'd you agree to share a bedroom together?" I asked her with genuine curiosity.

"Well, first and foremost, I was exhausted; I had not slept in days. Secondly, something about you made me feel at ease and I felt safe with you. I also didn't want you to think I was just some slut who'd spread her legs for the first man to come across her." She said as I smiled at the thought of even not knowing each other, she still thought highly enough of me to share a room and be safe.

"What about you V, did you have anyone that you were sweet on before meeting me?" She asked me as I thought about it.

"There was this one girl that I knew when I was in the Bakkers; hell, we even shared our first kiss in a synthetic corn field." I said as the memory resurfaced.

"What happened?" Panam asked.

"A few weeks later we were moving camp, and some Raffen Shiv ambushed us; unfortunately, she caught a bullet to the heart." I said as I thought back on it, that ambush had decimated the Bakkers, and was a big contributing factor to them joining Snake Nation five years later; hence my vendetta against the Raffen Shiv.

"Damn V, I'm so sorry." Panam said as she squeezed my shoulder.

"Thank you Panam, but there's nothing to be sorry about and to be honest, had that ambush not even happened, the Bakkers would have just found another excuse to join Snake Nation." I said as Panam pondered what I had said fully understanding as she had been in the same boat when she became a Merc.

"You know, even with the shit we've been through; I'm glad things worked out with us." Panam said as I squeezed her hand and agreed with her on that.

"Agreed, and I want you to know that if ever the time came where the Aldecaldos would turn left and you right; I'm going right with you." I said as I saw Panam smile.

"Thankfully that won't happen." She said as we arrived at our destination and proceeded to get out of the truck.

The concrete factory has long been abandoned and by the looks of it, was owned by the same company that the Raffens had Saul captive in. With the floor plan being near identical, it made organizing the plan all that much easier, and with suppressed weapons and luck, the Raffens will not know we are even there. The added bonus being it was near midnight when we breach the compound and only a small contingent would even be up and keeping guard.

"So, what's the plan Panam?" Cassidy asked as he and Mitch approached us.

"I'm gonna leave that for V; this is more his area of expertise anyways." She said as all three turned to me.

"We take them by surprise with a two-pronged assault from the north and south side of the complex; Panam and I will attack the North while Mitch and Cassidy attack from the South. While we were heading this way, I took the liberty to look over the floor plan and I organized a strategy with lessons learned from our rescue of Saul. First and foremost, we attack when most of them are asleep; we first attack where they all sleep at and can kill most of them before they know we are there. After that, it's just a matter of cleaning up the stragglers, and with suppressed weapons we won't have much to worry about." I said as I took out four suppressed M251s Ajax Assault Rifles and handed them to Panam, Mitch, and Cassidy. I addition to the AR's, I also took out four silenced Unity Pistols as a backup; while I still had Overwatch strapped to my back and handed Panam a suppressor for her Sniper Rifle as well. After going over the details, we get to work.

Panam and I were the first to get into position, a gate that was lightly guarded by just one man. After the guard left the area, I gave Panam a lift and she climbed over the got and jumped onto the other side; from there she opened it and I made my way through. As we went into a narrow corridor between two buildings, I could see the guard was pissing on the wall and with a quickhack shut his senses down. With one swift motion of my trusty combat knife, I slit his throat and hid the body. From there, she and I used a ladder to access the roof and cleared the sniper that was closest to us; poor fella didn't even see it coming.

Mitch and Cassidy on the other hand had a bit of tougher time getting into position as they came across three guards who would not separate which prompted them to contact me.

"V, we've got an issue; there are three guards near me, and we can't proceed until they are eliminated; can you distract one of them?" Mitch asked over the holo as I hacked into their network and placed several daemons and then proceeded to shut down their optics and audio capability. Taking aim with Overwatch, I called out the target I was going to kill and told them to handle the other two. A silent shot rang out and the first guard head was obliterated while the other two were killed in quick succession by Mitch and Cassidy.

"Thanks for the assist V." Mitch called over the holo as we continued to the center of the compound and infiltrated the makeshift barracks that the Raffens were using. Panam and I entered the building from the rooftop while Mitch and Cassidy entered from an unguarded door and we made haste to the security main frame.

"V, you think you can upload a virus to the mainframe?" Panam asked me as Mitch and Cassidy sealed the doors shut behind us.

"Already ahead of you on that sweetheart." I mentioned to Panam as she started glaring at me

"Oh, yeah, it's gonna be interesting when they wake up. Mitch, Cassidy; you'll manage to seal the doors?" I continued as Mitch and Cassidy finished locking up the doors.

"Sure did V; say, what you got planned for those bastards?" Cassidy asked

"I've uploaded a cyberpyshosis daemon which will infect all the Raffens, once it hits, they will all start shooting at each other. With luck they will all die, and we can just waltz on out." I said as Mitch and Cassidy were grinning from ear to ear while Panam was equally impressed but pissed at the same time, mainly me calling her sweetheart in front of Mitch and Cassidy.

"And if they don't?" Panam asked as she looked at the camera screen to see the Raffens start to attack one another.

"We'll have to kill the remaining Raffens then; unfortunately, uploading the cyberpyschosis daemon to their network took all I had, even after uploading a breaching protocol." I explained as they all understood somewhat just how demanding pulling something like this off is.

As we continued to keep an eye towards the monitors, to my horror the daemon that I uploaded failed to do as much damage as I'd like and now the entire compound was in an alarm. As I looked out, I could see the Raffens starting to get their bearings and figured this would be as good of a time as any to attack them head on. Without uttering a word, Mitch opened the door and we entered hells embrace. The firefight proved to be as exciting and freightning as any other firefight that I'd ever been in; my main goal though was protecting Panam, Mitch, and Cassidy; hell, Johnny was right about one thing. Going Solo, I never had to worry about this, but now I do.

The Raffens put up more of a resistance then I anticipated and soon we were running low on ammo. It was at this time I decided to start net running seeing as my ram slots had returned, and I started quick hacking the nearest Raffens using overheat on one and overcharge on the other. While batteling through the Raffens, I saw one had his rifle pointed directly at Panam and without hesitation I used my body to ram her out of the way and took the bullet in the process, a memory coming back in the process.

'V, would you take a bullet for me if the time came?' I heard Silverhand once ask and reminisced on that; Panam on the other hand was both worried and furious at me.

Not to long after the rest of the Raffens were dead; their charred, dismembered and otherwise non-recognizable bodies left for the crows to feed upon. Mitch was assisting me to Panam's truck when she halted him and started directly into my soul.

"Why the hell did you do that you gonk." She demanded as I looked at her; while she was angry and pissed, I could also see the fear and worry in her eyes.

"You were gonna get injured or possibly killed, so I did what I felt was the right thing to do." I weakly said as Panam pondered

"Why would you risk everyone for me?" Was all she could ask as I could see tears starting to form

"So that you wouldn't end up like Jackie." Was all I could muster before passing out, Panam kept V's unconscious body cradled to her breast before laying him down so that first aid could applied.

Panam's PoV

I looked over V's unconscious body and felt responsible for this; had I been more attentive to the battle than maybe I could have gotten out of that sniper's field of fire and V would not have had to use his body as a shield. I was thankful when Cassidy immediately went to perform first aid on V and prayed that V would come out of this on top.

'So you wouldn't end up like Jackie.' When he uttered that, my heart skipped a beat; he was so scared of losing me the same way he lost Jackie that he used himself as a shield to protect me.

"You must not blame yourself Panam; V himself didn't notice that sniper until it was too late, and he had a split-second decision to make, so he chose to protect you." Mitch said as I just stared at my lover's unconscious face

"He's right Panam; we all knew the risks, and no one knows them better then V; believe me when I say that it will take more than just a sniper to put V down." Cassidy said as he filled the bullet hole with quick clot and medical gauze. Within minutes the bleeding was under control and V was carefully transported to my Thorn. Looking at V, I was thankful we had friends to count on and with time I had no doubt V would be healed up and ready to take on the world. The crutch of the issue still remained though, neither I or V are invincible, and who's to say the next time won't be the last.

Post note: I just wanted to apologize how long it took for me to get this chapter posted on both AO3 as well as FF. I ended up getting called into work at the last minute to travel so that we could fix an aircraft to get it back home.

Note 2: I was just curious how you'll would feel if I brought Johnny back and made him a more integral part of the story.