Edited 8/7/14
Her short, broken nails raked over the sides of Benny's chest leaving red welts crisscrossing his fading tattoos. His breath was short and hot against her shoulder where he had buried his face and as she scratched he would groan in response, pushing her further though she lacked the long, manicured nails some women of the Strip seemed to sport. What she lacked in femininity she made up for in ferociousness, pawing at him and using the strength in her arms and wrists to dig her way into him. In her dream he had been ripped open down the center and while it had been horrifying at the time, the idea of their fluids flowing back and forth now was exhilarating. It had been days now since the-girl-who-was-not-her had invaded her conscious thought; days since she worried about being Mint, but this clawing, tearing, biting instinct, it reeked of the Tribal girl Callie never technically was.
Benny was utterly buried in her already, pushing into her in long, controlled strokes. On occasion his resolve would flicker and he'd smash their hips together in a frantic way that confirmed the Tribal boy he just couldn't quite leave behind; a boy that grew up watching others rut against each other like animals in shared tents where eyes were always watching. He lost control again and his moans shifted to possessive growls. His legs moved further apart, forcing Callie to splay her legs for him, opening herself further to a situation that seemed insane but was undoubtedly the path she had chosen.
This time he didn't touch her anywhere other than his cock inside her and his hips between her legs, his mouth at her throat. Instead his hands gripped the bed sheets, curling and uncurling, threatening to tear. Callie's hands were everywhere though, pulling him apart from his sides, his back, his ass. Each hiss of pain that spiked between Benny's pleasured sounds made her a little bolder, feeling out how far she could push him.
Oh, but he fit into her so well, well enough that she burned as his faster thrusts stretched her less predictably. Maybe he was fighting back? The muscles of his back rolled under her palms and she dug in again, hoping to leave half-crescent nail marks and full-moon bruises. If she was his girl, the whole world would know it.
"Benny," she growled back, turning her head so she spoke directly into his ear. His cheeks were apple red with exertion and she wanted to bite. But that might be a step too far. It's not as if the "frigid" girl from the vault that was her reality had been entirely subsumed. "Fuck me, Benny." She let her head fall back against the pillow.
His pace slowed, angle changed, and it was just perfect. "Ah, ah, there…" Callie screwed her eyes shut. She could feel his smirk against her shoulder as his pace increased again. Over and over he pushed against the place inside her that he knew quite deftly before with his fingers. He may have only been teasing her before, making her crazy. Oh, but this felt so different, pressing against her not with his calloused index finger but with the head of his cock. It felt rounder, fuller, duller, but better. A slow building pressure instead of a firecracker.
Callie choked out his name again as she came. Her body wound impossibly tight before her muscles violently relaxed. Then she choked again, not words this time, but pleasured noises. Another growl in her ear and Benny pulled out of her, his semen splashing against her inner thighs and lower stomach. He sat back on his heels, panting and running a hand through his hair. He looked utterly spent.
"I'll go get something to clean you off."
"It's okay, I'll get up and shower in a minute, just lay with me?"
Benny looked relieved that he didn't have to make the short trip to the bathroom. Flopping down next to Callie, he threw his arm across her shoulders and she turned to face him, his semen ran over her thighs and started soaking into the sheets. The rest of it clung to her skin. It was kind of gross when she thought about it, but she didn't really mind, that much.
"Good?" It was a genuine question
"Yeah, Benny." If she would have let herself, Callie could have fallen asleep right there. But it was only three in the afternoon and Yes Man's installation process would be finished in less than twenty minutes. For now she was content to look back into Benny's eyes, a lighter brown than her own. He was clearly drowsy as well. The last few days had been a rush, and there were likely quite a few more to come.
"You wore me out, Callie," he dropped his hand to the small of her back, resting it just above the curve of her ass. His body radiated a heat that she was quickly becoming accustomed to. It was a pity to have to trade his warmth in for the heat of the shower, but she would have to momentarily.
When Benny's eyes finally drifted closed she scooted out of bed, immediately waking him in the process. Not very stealthy. He rolled over but didn't sit up. Awake or not, he was clearly exhausted. She actually didn't know if he slept at all the night before, or if he had stayed up to watch her during her attack, after their confrontation with Arcade.
Arcade.
No, she had to push that aside for now. She had consented to Benny's plan to get House's autodoc and try and repair the damage to her brain.
The hot water was pleasant, but not as pleasant as Benny's hands on her. She washed quickly with the hard bar of soap on the shelf, carefully avoiding getting her hair wet. When they first made it to the suite hours ago she had showered as well, washing away the dirt and vomit she had managed to get caked in. This was just so she didn't reek of sex the whole day, since getting the autodoc couldn't wait.
She didn't bother to get dressed, just wrapping a towel around herself and heading into the adjoining room where Yes Man's installation was finishing up. She didn't have any clothes of her own left, by which she meant clothes that she had stolen for herself, so she'd have to wear Benny's until some could be brought over. Earlier, after she had first showered, she went through Benny's drawers and found one stuffed with Mint's old clothes. Even if they hadn't been comically too small for her (how had that never rendered itself clearly in her stolen memories?), she couldn't have worn those.
The whirling of Yes Man's extremities functions coming back online after the reboot shook her away from the thoughts of Mint's drawer. The green screen on the Securitron's front flickered back over to Yes Man's smiling face.
"Why hello Pretty Lady Friend! Looks like your programs are finished installing, I actually feel pretty swell too."
Callie smiled, predictable robots were predictable. Yes Man's pre-programed cheer just oozed out of every word it spoke.
"I told you to call me Callie."
She pulled up the correct menu on her Pip-boy and disconnected it from Yes Man's short-range communications. "So nothing feels out of sorts? All your core processes functioning within rage?"
"Yep, yep."
"Good. So Benny told me that you two found an autodoc on House's network?"
"Sure did. From what I could tell it's a Mark III model. Media access control address is consistent with known late model autodocs. Besides, just takes common sense to figure that House would have a top-of-the-line medical robot seal into the Lucky 38 with him."
"You did good, Yes Man." She smiled, "you and Benny both."
"You flatter me too much." Benny's voice was behind her and in a few short seconds he was standing beside her. "That's a good look for you, Girlie."
She rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Yes Man. "Okay, with the new programming Yes Man should be able to access all of House's systems, and I should be able to figure out how to replicate the programming on the Chip, but I've got to get more information about his set up. Only problem is, we'll still need to get Yes Man into the Lucky 38 in order for it to take control of the systems…"
"That's a firefight," Benny started. "You're not ready for that. Hell, don't even know if I want you involved in that part."
"I'm as good a shot as you." Callie narrowed her eyes.
"You said it yourself, you only want to be involved in the parts that are fun for you. I can handle Not-at-home when it comes to taking him out. But we need to get you fixed up first, we're on a schedule here." He tapped his bare foot against the floor. "If I go in now, it's a full on tango right from the get-go." He moved closer to Callie, but it didn't seem entirely intentional. "Plus, if I go in shooting, there's a chance I could damage the bot we need. We can't risk that."
"Well, I've got a personal invitation from House himself, he wants to talk to me."
"About what?"
"About what everyone else wants, control of the Mojave, some damn dam, shooting more ghouls into space, fuck there's probably a dozen other things. Point is, I can at least get in without a problem. Once I'm in, I can narrow down the location of the autodoc and I should be able to trick the system into never knowing it's gone."
"And how are you going to do that?" Benny's grin was a wide as the damn dam.
"What's that look about?"
"You've got that look in your eyes that you've got some great plan, that probably involves computers or getting into my pants."
Callie scoffed, "I do flatter you too much. But yes, it totally involves your penis."
"Knew it."
"So you've got all these scrap computer parts," Callie bent over next to Yes Man and picked up a small, dense computer tower. "It's pretty simple really, Yes Man has the MAC address of the autodoc, that's how it identified the autodoc in the first place. We have one of these machines clone that MAC, put it on House's network in place of the autodoc, I should be able to walk right out with it, no questions asked."
"But can't robots, well, see? They'll see you bot-napping one of their compatriots."
"Sure they have visual sensors, but security bots are likely to run a cross-check of all the machines on the network. People may believe what they see, but the bot will believe the data packet, if the autodoc MAC is still responding, they'll trust that over their visual sensors."
"You come up with all this just now?"
Yep."
"Ms. Callie is exceptionally talented as a robotics expert! She's much better than Ms. Ortal!"
"Thanks, Yes Man." She made a note to ask Yes Man more about 'Ms. Ortal.' Damn straight she was more talented.
"Do you need anything from me?" If Benny didn't understand the plan, he gave no indication.
"I won't know until I've sorted through the components that are here, but I'd be surprised if I do need anything. Uh, I suppose I could use a few more E-cells in case, and…another tin."
Benny nodded "Armor?" She had her pants but had left the top of her leather armor back in Jacobstown when she had bolted. The pants were kind of in rough shape too. Benny had ripped part of the zipper.
"No, don't want to raise more suspicion than I need to. Just some slacks and a top that will fit me will be fine. Oh! And shoes."
"Yeah, of course, I threw out the other ones," Callie had hurled on those…
"Size six if you can manage."
Benny looked at her feet and gave her a skeptical look.
"Oh, six in men's."
"Right, well, I suppose it will take some time for this cloning thing you're doing. I've got some calls to make. We may be moving ahead with getting this autodoc out intact first, but I want to be ready for taking the 38." He squeezed Callie's shoulder and kissed her briefly before leaving the room. It was so, silly, domestic. For all the desperation of their earlier sexual encounter, the kiss was familiar. She wouldn't yet admit that she liked it.
With Benny out of the room, Callie set to work on the compact computer tower, first opening it up to see what components were inside before assessing whether or not they worked. This one was missing a fan.
As she worked she asked Yes Man important questions in a casual manner.
"Tell me about Ms. Ortal."
"She is 5'4", slim in build, Caucasian, brown hair and blue eyes. Member of Followers of the Apocalypse. Moderate to advanced skill in robotics. Moderate to advanced skill with humans. Low skill with weaponry. She was looking for medical data from House's network."
What a reliable bot. Told Callie everything about the woman without touching at all on what she was actually interested in.
"Was she romantically involved with Benny?" Robots liked direct questions.
"Nope!"
"Did she want to be romantically involved with Benny? Did he want to be involved with her?" That would be a more difficult answer for Yes Man to produce, it would require a level of inference.
"No evidence to suggest that, Ms. Callie."
"Mmm." She found two fans, just for good measure and installed the one that looked to be in better shape. A full set of tools had been strewn across the room. A nice set. Either they belonged to Benny or Ms. Ortal had left in quite the rush. With the fan in place, she hooked the computer up to one of the available monitors that she already knew worked an hoped it would boot up.
"After taking control of the Securitrons, what's Benny's next step?"
"He plans on securing control of the Strip and consolidating the existing families under his control. Second, he wants to remove New California Republic influence from the immediate vicinity of the Strip and adjacent towns. While I have briefed him on both the presence of the Brotherhood of Steel and Caesar's Legion he was uninterested in their status at this time."
The little box came to life and Callie set to work. For now, it seemed to be in working order. It didn't pack much of a processing punch, and there didn't seem to be a way to verify how long it would actually stay running. It would help if she could find an extension cord in one of the boxes, in case AC outlets were not conveniently placed inside the Lucky 38. The computer didn't have to stay running for long, just long enough that she could get the autodoc back out of the building. Benny was probably right in planning for an assault on the casino ahead of time.
"Yes Man, can you read off that MAC for the autodoc?"
"Certainly! 00-1Alpha-1Echo-26-Charlie6-60."
"Anything else distinctive about that station table entry?" She typed away, creating the clone.
"Not that I can tell from here."
"Good job." With the clone complete, Callie shut down the unit, unplugging it from the wall and starting the search for an extension cord. "Did Benny tell you anything else about his plans?"
"He was concerned with gaining control of the Securitron's first. That's why he was so keen on getting me working."
"I suppose so. Okay, Yes Man, don't tell Benny I asked you these questions, okay? About Ms. Ortal or about his plans."
"Sure thing Pretty Lady Friend!"
Callie winced, Yes Man had preferences. Despite being instructed to call her Callie, he had reverted. That wasn't in any of the programming she had produced for him and most of what Ortal had done should have been erased or written over. The names preferences must have been stored somewhere else.
Her search for an extension cord was for naught and she was starting to get cold without any clothes on. Benny must have adjusted the climate controls. She didn't bother saying goodbye to Yes Man, she'd see it before leaving for the Lucky 38 anyway.
Back in the bedroom there were a few tshirts and slacks laid out on the bed for her, along with a pair of boots on the floor and a cardboard box of Mentats. Damn, they must have been all out of the tins. She popped a single Mentat and chased it with her water from earlier on the bedside table. A pair of gray slacks were just her size and she threw on two tshirts for good measure. In the vault she had always worn a bra, even though her breasts were small. They were just always available. Since leaving for the Wastes, it boiled down to if she had one or not. Her long-forgotten bag back at Old Mormon Fort had a couple in her size, but like hell she was going back for those. For fucks sake, she still hadn't worked up the courage to ask Benny what had happened with Arcade.
First one 9mm shot, then another. No laser. Had there been a third?
The Mentat started working and her vision sharpened. She would feel less vulnerable if she did have a bra. She should have asked Benny, but she hadn't, and clearly it hadn't occurred to him. Pulling on her socks and boots, she thought back to Mint's drawer. That drawer was bound to haunt her. Damn, it was going to be an awkward conversation to have with Benny if she was going to stay here. Was she going to stay here?
Fuck it. She opened the drawer and pulled out one of the bras. It was white and lacy and utterly feminine. And unlike everything else in the drawer, it was sizes too big. She stuffed it away and slammed it shut, causing the dresser to shake in protest.
"I'm going now, Yes Man." She crossed back through the office and grabbed the dummy box, tucking it under her arm. Remember, don't tell Benny what we talked about."
"Affirmative, and good luck!"
Her laser pistol and the E-cells she had asked for were sitting on the bar in the lounge area, along with two stimpaks she hadn't asked for. She threw the stims and cells into her pockets and clipped the pistol to her waistband before picking up the computer again.
Benny came back through the door before she could make her way out.
"Leaving without saying goodbye, I thought we were past this." He took her face between his hands and kissed her, first on the lips, then on the forehead. "I hate sending you there alone. If something happens to you."
"We agreed, this is the safest way, the bots will turn hostile if you come."
"That's not what I'm worried about. I know you're the robot wizard." He smiled and ran his thumb against her forehead. "I'm worried about this. About your having a fit alone in some megalomaniac's sanctum."
"I'll be fine, Benny. I know if I take too long you'll come in for me, hostile robot guards or not."
"You better believe it. How much time do you need so I don't crash the party too early."
"Give me three hours." Really, it should take her no more than fourth-five minutes. But Benny was likely to take that as a hard and fast deadline, rather than an optimistic suggestion.
"I'll have dinner waiting for you, then."
"Aw, thanks, honey." She pecked him again on the lips, that silly, familiar look that he got made her kind of silly too. She was out the door before he could make any more silly, familiar statements.