For a second time, Callie dreamed of Benny with a hole in his chest. It cut him right down the middle, bisecting his tattooed torso, the wound red, puffy, and angry against his fair skin. He appeared even paler than he was in reality, as if from blood loss or lack of sun exposure. While the wound itself was red and bloody, all torn up edges, everything that spilled from it was green. Lines of code, this time distinctly from the Securitron OS upgrade Callie had written herself. The code spilled out of Benny's chest and into the Mojave dirt. It sank into the ground and the excess pooled at his feet, an emerald ocean before him. Purple, blue, green, these colors stood so vividly in her imagination. Purple dress, blue eyes, green code.

Callie approached him, but she was different. Her stomach was distended, like she was pregnant. She wore a white dress that she recognized as Valerie's wedding dress from back in Vault 3. Even though the ceremony was just five minutes in front of the Overseer, Valerie had made herself up like a bride from a 200 year old wedding magazine. The magazine was already cut up in pieces by other women who had come before them. It sat on Valerie's desk at the clinic, tucked in between her medical textbooks and patient records. A dress and lipstick and silk flowers, all of it had been arranged. Callie had nearly vomited when she had seen the doctor all made up, crude fake flowers in her hands and a smile on her coral-painted lips.

But here she was in her own dream in Valerie's white dress, carrying Benny's child inside her. Not his first, though. She would never be his first anything. After the autodoc, she knew she hadn't had sex with a man before Benny. She wouldn't tell him that, though. His ego was big enough already.

In the fog of her dream, she knelt before Benny's mangled chest and drank green-tinged code from his vibrant crimson wounds. She drank his code-blood and it lit up the Pip-boy on her arm. Excess spilled down her face in quick moving streams, staining Valerie's dress as it rolled over her swollen breasts and stomach. Lewd.

Callie woke with a start, but not enough of one to unsettle Benny, who still slept beside her. His hair had gotten longer since they first met and when it wasn't gelled back it stuck in all manner of odd angles. Sweeping it out of his forehead, Callie scrutinized his face in the dim glow of the bedroom. It was never really dark. The wrinkles at the corners of his eyes were softer when he was relaxed. His eyelashes were incredibly thick. The black of his tattoos stopped at the most convenient place for a collared shirt to hide them, as if he always knew he was bound for a more respectable life. It was only a matter of time until the world caught up with him and his big plans.

Slipping from the bed, she gathered up her clothes from the night before. It hadn't been her intention to give in so easily, she was supposed to be mad at him. But why? For fucking someone else before he even ever knew her? That was just irrational. He had clearly fucked a lot of women between Mint and her, it was something like five or six years, right? One day Mint died at 21 and when she woke up again she was 22. Really though, much more time had elapsed. Callie died at 22 and woke up another woman entirely. Fucking hell.

The vial of benzoylmethylecgonine wasn't in her slacks pocket. Fuck. In the darkness of the room she crawled on her hands and knees, trying to find where it had gone. She had it in the elevator...right, she had heard it fall from her pocket when Benny stripped her pants off. It had to be here.

"Girlie..." Benny's voice was still full of sleep. He breathed the words in a quiet sort of way.

"Go back to sleep, you need it," Callie urged from her position on the floor. They both needed it, they were running on fumes and they knew it. But they couldn't stop now.

He reached over to his bedside drawer, not bothering to sit up, and pulled out a tin of Mentats, tossing them in her general direction and grunting. The pills clinked against the packaging. "You said you'd quit, but I guess it can't be helped."

The tin was full and rattled in her hand. Of course he knew, he always knew. Maybe not about the little glass bottle she had found in House's bathroom, but he knew she wasn't ready to give this up, not yet. At the pace they were going, she'd burn out without it.

She didn't thank him, but stood and made her way to the bathroom. She only took one of the pills and swallowed it down with warm tap water. To think after all the destruction this world had endured, water, hot and cold, could still run through taps. Some places weren't as lucky, but she had never really known scarcity herself.

With her vision sharpening, she made a plan for the rest of the morning. The Pip-boy read 10:23, so not much of a morning left. Still, she at least wanted to make some progress towards Novac today. Supplies had to be gathered and she still needed to talk to Cass. Plus she had to figure out some unfortunate accident for the redhead to befall if the time came. They could get lucky and maybe Cass would forget the whole thing, chalking it up to being too drunk last night. Not much chance of that, actually, she had seemed stone sober at the time of the attack.

Callie adjusted her ponytail and headed back to the bedroom. Benny was sitting up now and he had the Pip-boy from Vault 21 in his hands. His eyes were narrowed at the dark, empty screen as he randomly turned the dials.

"Here, let me show you." She climbed back into bed next to him and took the Pip-boy from his hands. "So this model will only turn on when you wear it, so let me show you how to get it off and on first. There's this latch, here," she flipped the unit over to show him where it was, a small, unassuming thing. "Pull the latch and it'll loosen up and you can slide your hand through. I know you don't want to wear it, so just put it on and take it off as you need it."

Benny nodded and reached back over to the bedside table for his cigarette pack. Lighting one, he made sure to blow the smoke away from Callie instead of towards her. Individual vices for them both. He was running on nicotine. Narcotics would get them though this.

"Most everyone wears it on their off-hand, so you can use your dominant one for typing, so here, gimme your left and we'll put it on."

Obediently, Benny stuck out his left arm and Callie slid on the Pip-boy over his hand.

"It's heavy, you wear this all the time, Girlie, all this extra weight?"

"You get used to it. Mine's even heavier than this one, I think. I dunno, maybe it's why I'm no good with a rifle. You have to use both hands for that." As she spoke she twisted the screen so it faced the right way. "Okay, where that latch is, just grab it and squeeze and it'll make the bio-seal between you and the Pip-boy.

He audibly inhaled when the seal was formed, there was some pinching involved. But he was tough, he'd get used to it.

"What is all this shit in my eyes?" Callie could see his irises rapidly changing focus, trying to accommodate for having the HUD in his immediate field of vision. Benny probably wasn't used to having something so close to his face.

"Oh, you don't need that," she took his arm and expertly moved through menus. "I'll turn it off." He relaxed when the HUD was disabled. It didn't seem on when she had tried it on Sarah, but then again she had never tried attaching two Pip-boys to one person at the same time.

"Do you see all that shit all the time? It's overwhelming. How do you even know where to look?" Benny rubbed his eyes now that Callie had released his arm.

"Like I said you get used to it. I've been wearing once since I was ten. And no, I don't have the HUD up all the time, just when I need it."

Benny smirked and took another drag. "Does it give you x-ray vision? Can you see through people's clothes?"

"No, but it can detect heat sources through walls and shit. Or tell me how far I am from my destination, things like that. Anyway, there's really only one thing you need to know." She had never expected Benny to take to the device's other, infinitely cooler, functions.

"Here, let's do it this way," Benny grabbed her shoulder and manipulated her so she sat between his legs, her back resting against his naked chest and his arms slung around her waist. He put his cigarette down in the ashtray on the bedside table, letting it flicker out. "I can see what you're doing with me now." He held the Pip-boy so it was eye level with Callie.

"Okay, so this is the messages folder," she pointed to the correct icon, "use the dial so it's highlighted on the screen."

It took some adjusting on both their parts, but Benny brought his right hand around to work the knob and after overshooting the first time, the correct icon was highlighted.

"Now, push the knob down and the folder will open." The test item from JOKER-1 was the only thing in the folder. "I've set your Pip-boy up so it'll send messages to me and only me."

"Don't trust me, eh? I'm not completely technologically inept."

"In the Vault this one guy sent a sext meant for his girlfriend to everyone in his address book, including his wife and son. He came at me screaming to delete it from everyone's local units. Like I could or would want to do that."

"Sext?"

"Er...like a message with all this sex stuff he wanted to do to her. It was really graphic." She scrunched her face up, remembering the vulgar descriptions. Somehow it was way worse than all the pornography she had watched.

"Well I know what I'm doing with this from now on." Benny squeezed her a bit with his right arm, pressing her more firmly against his chest.

"So highlight a message, click on it and it'll open. Click again and you can send a message back to me. A keyboard will come up and you can just press the letters on the screen to type a message. Same layout as a computer keyboard. Try it."

"Okay, don't look, it'll be a surprise."

Callie humored him and closed her eyes, letting her head rest against his shoulder. Even though they were about the same height, Benny's torso was longer than hers, most of her height was in her legs. So, seated like this she actually felt a little bit small, a little bit feminine. She was soothed by the rise and fall of Benny's chest as he breathed. His heartbeat was slow and steady; he was calm. Maybe she would admit to him that she liked this, liked being with him when they didn't have to be anyone else. Maybe.

The tones of an incoming message shook her from her daydreams and she opened her eyes.

"So let's see." Her message folder still had the note Benny sent her before through Yes Man and House's obituary, then an unread message from JOKER-2.

i love you make sure you come back to me

She was thankful that she wasn't facing him when her face started feeling hot. Knowing Benny though, he could tell without seeing her face.

"Yeah you got the hang of it. Just remember that it won't work if you don't put it on. You won't be able to see if I replied or anything. And if you get in trouble, message me as soon as you can and I'll come back."

"Nothing's going to happen I can't handle. And you said it yourself, we need those Securitrons under Fortification Hill." His hand was warm against her stomach. "Why Jokers, Girlie?"

"Because we're the wild cards in this power game," her voice trailed off a bit at the end.

"That's more poetic than you usually are."

"You know the kind of supplies I like," Callie abruptly changed the subject. "Get me six days worth, just in case. Should only take about four though. For me and Cass both, I guess. I've got to talk to her about coming. She might not even say yes. She might be too spooked already."

"Nah, she thinks you're hot shit. She wants to see you shoot up things in the flesh. The whole Mojave has been talking about you and you don't even know it."

"I don't like the radio." It was true, she didn't. They only played a handful of songs on repeat and they never shut up about her after her first trip to Novac, spewing lies about her. It hadn't occurred to her before now that they probably talked about Caesar's demise too. Had anyone seen them do that? And now House was dead too. And she had been at the scene each time. She and Benny. Wild cards.

Benny reached for the latch to take the Pip-boy off. She stopped him.

"Wait, one last thing." She navigated to the empty audio logs folder on Benny's Pip-boy and took a deep breath. Yeah, she wanted to do this. Recording..."I love you, Benny," ...stop recording. She could feel him smiling against the skin on her shoulder. "You can play that back, whenever you want."

"Let me make one." She nodded and went for the right screen on her Pip-boy. The folder was empty even though she knew there should be files there.

"Okay, on three. One, two," recording. "I love you too, Callie," stop recording. It ran straight down her spine when he said it.

They went about getting ready for yet another series of separations. Benny removed the Pip-boy and stored it in Yes Man's office. It still seemed like the robot's office even though it wasn't there anymore. They had left it installed at the 38. Callie was confident that it was in control of the systems there and it was meticulously backed up on her Pip-boy as well, a dormant beast of a thing.

She pulled on the one pair of jeans from her drawer and a black tshirt that hung too long on her. In the end she tucked the hem into her jeans and put the leather belt she had on over it. Her laser pistol had been dropped in the sitting room last night when she tackled Benny in her jealous rage. This morning, she couldn't figure out why she had been quite that angry at Sarah. It wasn't her fault, she didn't know about her and Benny. And she had made it quite clear that she hadn't seen Benny at all since he had shot her. Still, Callie wasn't sure she'd feel quite the same if she was confronted with that perfect image of Vault femininity again.

Right, there was that familiar spite again. Good old spite.

Dressed for the day, Callie left to find Cass while Benny was still in the shower. She knew Cass was on the 11th floor but not which room. Once she made it to the correct floor she grabbed a random Chairman by the collar and asked after 'the drunk redhead with the shotgun' and she was directed to 1121. The boy looked scared shitless and she wasn't sure if it was because of her or because of Cass.

First, she knocked politely. When no answer came, she turned the knob. Physical privacy wasn't something that they were taught in the Vault, not really. Callie supposed she shouldn't be surprised when she found Cass still asleep, a bottle of whiskey on the dresser, and a man who was definitely not Swank in bed with her.

"Excuse me, I gotta talk to Cass." For some reason it seemed even more awkward at this point to just leave and say nothing rather than ask the questions she had come here for. She was also kind of a little frozen with embarrassment and she just sort of talked without thinking.

The guy, who was maybe a solid 15 years younger than Cass, lifted his white-blonde head and looked right at Callie. He didn't look terrified of her, so at least he wasn't a Chairman. Small fucking miracles. From the way Benny talked, Swank was still holding a candle for Cass, even if she had other ideas. Those Boot Riders boys had shit taste in women. That was for sure.

Nameless guy gathered up his things, he still had his pants on, and shuffled out of the room. Cass raised her head at the disturbance and was all smiles when she saw who it was. She didn't appear adversely affected by last night's festivities. No signs of dehydration or other hangover symptoms. She looked bright, alive. Her skin was downright glowing.

Cass hopped out of bed, unashamed that she was naked from the waist up, and looked around for her shirt. Just like her companion, she was wearing pants under the covers.

"Well, well, if it isn't the Angel of the Wastes. What can I do for you?"

Callie winced, "Don't call me that, Callie is fine." Everyone wanted to call her something else around here. For all she knew one day someone would yell out "Juan" and she'd respond to that too.

"Sure thing, Callie. So to what do I owe the pleasure." She had managed to locate last night's shirt and buttoned it up the front, covering her breasts. Callie hadn't realized that she'd been staring. So many freckles.

"I've got to go to Novac and I could use some backup. You up for it?" Callie tried her very best not to sound strained or insincere. It was a little favor Benny was asking her for, nothing big really. Just get Cass out of the Strip for awhile, and she was going anyway. It was up to her if Cass returned or not.

The redhead was already pulling on her boots, "You bet. This place is starting to give me cabin fever. Not used to all this swank shit."

Callie didn't know if she meant 'swank' as an adjective or proper noun.

"Well, Benny's getting together our supplies. Meet me downstairs in like," she checked her Pip-boy, "an hour I guess." They would be leaving in the hottest part of the day, but it couldn't be helped. As long as they stayed well hydrated, it should be fine.

Before leaving, Callie wanted to swing by Lucky 38 one last time to check in on Yes Man. She already had her laser in her waistband, so she just rode the elevator down and crossed the street to the other casino. Not even bothering to head upstairs, she paged Yes Man on the intercom.

"Yes Man, I'm heading to Novac, I should be back in four days."

"I'll miss you, Pretty Lady."

Callie smiled, that used to mean something to her, when bots responded like people. She had a Mr. Handy that she kept in the lab that knew her birthday, the date of her mother's death, the anniversary of her being assigned as robotics engineer. It would respond with pre-programmed pleasantries that felt lovely and real. Yes Man felt a little like that sometimes.

"You feel secure, Yes Man?"

"Yeppers," its words reverberated in the empty lobby, bouncing off the glassware.

"If you need to reach me, ask Benny, he can hail me even if I'm off the relay network." Yes Man's custom OS was sophisticated enough that it should be able to detect failures in its own system. If something was wrong with it, it should know to call for help. That was a small consolation with leaving her pet project behind. Even though Benny and Ortal had started on Yes Man long before she was in the picture, she felt oddly responsible for the thing it had become.

"Thanks a lot, Pretty Lady."

She didn't say goodbye to it, as usual.

Back in Benny's suite, the things she had requested were laid out on the bed, along with two packs to sort things in. There was also a handwritten note from Benny, asking her to wait until 1pm before leaving, he would meet her in the lobby between appointments to see her off. Obviously, he hadn't deemed it necessary to use the Pip-boy to contact her.

She set about sorting items, splitting the rations in two sets. Shotgun shells were for Cass, obviously, E-cells for her. Water split evenly, she held on to a few more stimpaks than she allocated to Cass. Mentats for her. The vial was sitting with the Mentats and Callie was slightly ashamed for it. Even though the active ingredient, the thing that produced the high feeling and quenched her addiction, was the same, there was something vulgar about the powder. It was so vulgar that she couldn't name it, this thing that she was addicted to. It was Mentats or benzoylmethylecgonine. The once-legal incarnation or the strict chemical name. She wouldn't call it what it was, though she had read about it in pre-war texts. It was the same reason why it occurred to her a man like House might keep some around for fun.

Still, she stuck the vial in her pack.

There was leather armor for her, which she pulled on over her jeans and tshirt, working the buckles and straps into place. It was the same set of pants she had before, only it had been washed and the zipper fixed. The top to the armor was different, it fit alright though. She transferred to vial from her pack to her pocket, keep it closer to herself.

She swung both packs over her left shoulder and left the suite, locking the door behind her. She still didn't have her own key. Benny had left the door open, with Yes Man gone there was less of a risk of anything befalling them, but it was still wasn't a cautious thing to do.

12:56, this was it.

Cass was downstairs, dressed in the same combat armor from yesterday. It was too big on her. Her shotgun was across her back and today she appeared to have some of her own explosives with her. They were probably over-geared for the trip to Novac, but there could be an ambush waiting for them anywhere. Cass had a huge grin on her face with those pointy canines sticking below the line of her lip.

"Here, supplies." Callie tossed Cass her pack and the redhead shoved her explosives into the bag along with a bottle of whiskey. Great, this trip was going to be just great.

"So, we gonna get moving?" Cass was just itching to go. Swank wasn't behind the front desk, but Callie wondered if that was why Cass was on edge down here.

Callie tried not to seem so anxious or attached. "Waiting on Benny, he's going to see us off."

Those little teeth made an appearance again.

The two women waited in silence until Benny appeared, coming through the front entrance to the Tops a few minutes late. He was neatly pressed again. This version of Benny, with his hair all in place and his Tribal markings covered, was a still strange thing, even now. Should she have to get domesticated eventually too?

His hand was at the back of her neck and his lips on hers right away. Callie could hear Cass snicker. That woman had a reaction for fucking everything. He smiled when they parted and on reflex she smiled back.

"I'll be back as soon as I can." Her throat felt dry. All these strange half-goodbyes. One time, it would be the last one. The real goodbye. She didn't know if it would be this one. They could never know for sure.

Silly, sentimental things.

"We can both take care of ourselves. It'll be fine." Benny always was good with words, these ones seemed right. This was working because they could both change the world around them, even if they were sometimes failing at changing each other. Wild cards. Sometimes. Sometimes they succeeded in changing each other.

"Remember to check for messages."

Benny nodded and let her go. Cass trotted dutifully behind her into the dry desert air.