"I thought I'd let you sleep. There were a few things I had to do before we left anyways," Lucky said. "It had been a long time since I'd woken up with someone in the same room as me."
Boone woke up to streams of sunlight flooding in through the wooden slats over the window. He rubbed his eyes and let out a long groan. He squinted, not remembering where he was and looked around the room. The first thing he noticed was that he was covered in a blanket. He remembered laying on the couch and watching Lucky and then nothing.
He saw her pack on the foot of the bed and a flak jacket laid over the top. He stretched and felt every muscle straining to relax. He stood and wandered around the room, knocking on the bathroom door first to see if Lucky was there. He turned around and noticed that the floating trashcan was gone as well.
Walking out into the cool autumn morning and seeing the town coming to life during daylight hours was something he hadn't noticed in a long time. He rested his hands on the railing and leaned slightly out to see if he could find Lucky. The old woman at the other end of the complex saw him and smiled. Boone didn't return the favor. He would have preferred to have been ignored all together that early in the day.
He looked the other way and saw her finally in the workshop.
People walked around him. They all had strange looks on their faces and none had greeted him. A small group of townies were whispering amongst each other as he crossed the road and headed to Lucky.
"You need to hold still, ED-E" Lucky insisted with a sigh.
The bot let out a chirp and then settled again.
"I knew you were there. I could smell the stale booze," Lucky stated with a snort.
A small gloved hand reached for a coffee cup on the bench and drank. She set down the glass, lit a cigarette and continued working. He heard her grumbling and swearing as she picked up a nearby screwdriver. She clicked her tongue a couple of times and then flicked her ash.
"Are you going to say something," she asked coldly without looking.
"Morning," Boone finally uttered.
"Yeah," she grumbled. "That'll do." She dropped her cigarette on the ground and smothered it with the toe of her boot. She picked it up and stuck it in her back pocket. Boone recognized it as a sniper's way of covering their tracks. "Alright, you're done." She turned around and glanced at Boone as the bot began to hover again. "Just don't do anything too rash; I don't know if those bolts are going to hold," she admitted with a frown.
"What's with that thing?" Boone asked with nod in ED-E's direction.
"I dunno. He's nice enough. When I reactivated him he seemed... grateful?" Lucky explained.
"You know there is a scrapyard not far up the road if you want to drop him off there," he remarked, folding his arms.
He remembered the icy cold stare that Lucky had given him. Her glare was piercing enough to unsettle him. ED-E, however, shook and let out a cacophonous sound.
"I was going to let him shoot you," Lucky confessed. "I didn't think I needed to waste my ammo. I don't know if ED-E ever really forgave you for that." She let out a sigh and said, "Ah well, you two are together now and probably will be for awhile. You might want to work out your differences."
Boone watched ED-E watch him. He couldn't believe that she would do that to him. He glared at the bot in silence and stopped the tape.
"Is she pissed at both of us?" He asked the tin can. ED-E let out a wistful trill and zoomed out of the room.
Boone growled in frustration and turned the tape back on. He didn't know if he wanted to listen anymore. If she was going to be a bitch about the two of them not liking each other then he wasn't going to give her the time. He had to get ready to leave, he just wanted to say good-bye and be done with it, not listen to her memoirs under the shroud of answers. He hit the fast forward on the screen and watch the timer tick off minutes. When he thought he had gone far enough ahead he listened again.
"It was the first time I'd heard that I was tough to kill – it wouldn't be the last, unfortunately." Lucky began with a plaintive tone. "The Great Khan that was with Benny the night I got shot was there. I knew that the Khans had taken Boulder City as a refuge, but I didn't have an option not to go. It was just a piece leading to the climax. I was determined to get my reparations in the form of blood.
Hell, the Khan gave me his damn blessings and a parting gift."
Boone remembered the standoff that had gone on there. The Khans were entrenched in the ruins of the ghost town. They had hostages – NCR recruits. He did nothing about it. He didn't want to get involved. It was between Lucky and her question. Whether she got the answer she wanted was transitory to him.
He looked at the monument and read the names on the large slab of rock. Four years. This is where the NCR had stopped the Legion the first time. It was the end of Joshua Graham, the Malpais Legate, or whatever fancy fucking name they called their generals. It was his ultimate failure. Everyone knew it. No one knew if he was dead or alive. He hoped it was the former. The son of a bitch was a sadist, ruthless in determination. Even the NCR Ranger sharpshooters had five confirmed accounts of his death. He was hard to kill... kind of like Lucky.
And now it was only a matter of time before the Mojave was greeted from another attack by the Legion forces. He hoped that the Legion wouldn't push them to this point again. They already blew the damn city up once and if Caesar were as cunning as some thought, they wouldn't fall for the same trick that damned Graham.
He spoke briefly with the young private that was there and only stepped away when he heard gravel being crushed under foot. He saw several people running towards him with Lucky and ED-E bringing up the rear. He saw the leather vests and shuddered. His first thought was Bitter Springs and he prayed that none of them would recognize him.
"Fuck those NCR bastards!" a Great Khan with a mohawk yelled into the fading sky.
When Lucky caught up to him she had a small smile on her face.She flipped a small metallic square into the air and caught it. She examined it and and let out a disappointed sigh.
"His is better than mine," Lucky mentioned as she dug into her pocket to compare the two.
Boone watched her for several minutes as she turned each over and shook them next to her ear. Behind her glasses, her eyes squinted. The dimming sunlight made her icy blue eyes sparkle. A soft breeze picked up as she flicked them open and ignited them. Her black hair flitted delicately as she played with the fire.
"Are you done?!" Boone snapped. The tone in his voice made Lucky jump. The small bit of amusement died and a subtle look of fear seemed to grip her. Even he was surprised at how forceful he was, but he wasn't prepared for the startled reaction he'd received. "I'm sorry."
"I wasn't prepared for that. I hadn't had anyone use that tone with me in... God, nine years. And the one who did it? You didn't want that tone, not even a little bit. Not from him. Not ever," Lucky eventually said as if she was trying to shake off the chill she remembered. She let out a soft chuckle to cover up the shame she felt from it.
Lucky stared at him for a moment. She examined him carefully. She met his eye and let out a weak laugh and checked her Pip-Boy.
"Well? Where are we going?" Boone questioned in a calmer tone.
"Are you hungry?" She asked back with a soft tone. She almost sounded submissive with the question.
"If you guys are going to eat, there's the 188 on the overpass," the private stated.
The duo looked a little ways to the west and nodded to each other. They started walking towards the dying sun. Boone kept looking out of the corner of his eye at Lucky. She looked determined and unphazed now by his yelling.
"Are you going to answer my question now?" he queried.
Lucky looked at him. She crooked her eyebrow and replied, "Vegas."
"If we hadn't gone that way at least to eat, we'd have never met Veronica," Lucky chimed.
"Oh, hell, Veronica," Boone murmured. "The second or third person that would join your motley crew."
"I prefer to call you guys 'strays' if you're going to complain," Lucky interjected as if knowing his complaint about the former Brotherhood of Steel Scribe. "Now if your done, I'd like to continue. You're going to be here soon and I have some admittances I have to get to before you get here."