Good morning campers, its time for chapter 5! (Which also means its review reply time!)

Heulwen: Yeah, don't they though? I can't wait for them to work together again. He's so serious and she's so... not as much. Hehe, and I feel really happy about the updating myself. I haven't been able to write this productively for a long time and it gives me pride that it seems people are enjoying it, too.

NukaColaQueen: I think its my favorite line in the story so far. I just couldn't resist when it popped into my head.

Chapter V

Quicksand

It was turning out to be a beautiful day in the Mojave wasteland, or so the view from Lucullus' raft implied. Scarlet sat with her legs hanging over the back, boots beside her and pants rolled up to her knees, so she could enjoy the cool, soothing sensation of the water running over her skin. In the midday sun the water seemed to sparkle with a divine light, especially in the places where the light refracted off the surface and was thrown up to dance upon the rocks lining the banks. Above her stretched the sky in its infinite blue, cloudless and bright. Somewhere in the distance she heard the determined cry of a bird of prey diving down upon its meal. The thought of the sudden attack reminded her of how House must have felt when she'd come waltzing into the Lucky 38 with war on her mind. He had been minding his own business – the business of controlling the Strip – when bam all of it was over and he laid limp and dead in Scarlet's talons.

Not so lucky anymore, are we House? She allowed a wry grin as she tilted her head back to observe what Vulpes was doing. Since House's demise he'd barely said anything to her, but it hadn't seemed like he was being rude about it. To Scarlet it had been more like they just didn't have anything to say to each other anymore. The Frumentarius impressed her as the kind of man who was very dedicated to whatever he was doing, focused. Now that their mission was over there was no more business to discuss and idle conversation had been a waste. For a while she believed he'd begin his series of personal questioning again to dig beneath her psyche and discover what made her tick. He'd opted out of that, too, which was both a relief and a disappointment. Where she was happy that he was no longer prying into her head she was uncomfortable with his long silences.

Scarlet was surprised to find the dark-haired man watching her, and like a deer trapped in pre-war headlights she found her gaze pinned by his. The narrow angles of his eyes were sharp but not unpleasant, in fact she was realizing that she liked the simplicity of them, and the intelligence that shone as bright as the strip from the depths of them. A truly intelligent man was hard to come by in the wasteland, but sitting across from her on this raft was a prodigy, a strategic genius – and a particularly handsome one to boot.

Vulpes Inculta might not have been everyone's cup of tea, but Scarlet had always preferred hers a little bitter. His way of doing things would likely leave a nasty aftertaste in one's mouth (as seen in the aftermath of Nipton) but while he was working he was just too beautifully delicious. Despite his eyes upon her she allowed a smirk to creep over her lips at her clever associations. Comparing his exploits to food wasn't the greatest achievement she'd ever had, but it had been very creative, and the tiny tingles of thought that accompanied the words Vulpes and taste were too much to ignore. While she was really speaking metaphorically to herself about the two ideals another part of her brain was dredging up images that would have made the Garrett twins blush.

"Yes?" She inquired.

"We should reach Fortification Hill soon," he told her, showing no sign of what had really been going on in his head, "perhaps you should prepare to disembark." He allowed his gaze to shift from her eyes (pity) and down to her bare legs. Whereas she could have been planning on climbing up to Caesar's tent without her boots on he seriously doubted it, and he didn't want to wait for her to wrestle them on after they'd come to a stop. Cursor Lucullus had to get back to Cottonwood and Vulpes himself had other work to do outside of wandering around with her.

Without argument she swung her legs out of the water and proceeded to wipe off any excess that remained before shoving on a couple pairs of socks and replacing the boots back upon her feet. By the time Lucullus stopped the raft at the Fort's docks she had everything ready and they immediately stepped off onto the ground. They bid farewell to the ferryman and made their way up to the main gates where once again Scarlet was expected to turn over her arms.

"Aw, come on, I'm with him," she jerked her thumb towards Vulpes, "its not like I'm going to be shooting up the place. Couldn't we let it go just this once?"

The man glowered down at her, "sure you can keep them, but I'm afraid I'd have to kill you."

She blanched, "okay, I guess that's a no." She shoved her belongings at him and continued to follow Vulpes up the hill.

"You insist on keeping your weapons when you are obviously surrounded by more than enough to keep you safe." He observed, his eyes looked straight ahead, but she knew his attention was fully on her. "You do not trust us?"

"No offense there, Mr. Fox," she replied, "but I don't trust anyone. The Legion's known for its low views on womenfolk – which I happen to be – and it makes me just a little bit nervous to be walking around this place with nothing but my fists to accompany me. It wouldn't be the first time someone has promised my safety and then ripped it out from under me."

"The Legion is not that way. We keep our word."

She couldn't stop the derisive snarl that burst from her lips, "yeah that's what everyone says before they stick a knife between your ribs, or a bullet in your head. I don't like to take my chances. Don't take this the wrong way, because I know at this moment I'm a stranger in your camp, but trust works both ways. I know I'll have to earn it with you guys if I so decide that's what I want, but you'll have to earn it with me as well. Blame that on the wasteland."

"What would make you feel more comfortable?"

"Hell, I'd feel okay even if it was a stick the size of my pinky. I don't even care if I could kill a mole rat with what I had, just… something."

"You're like a child in need of a security blanket." Vulpes sneered, but she was surprised to see it wasn't just one of disgust, there was a bit of amusement written in there as well. The bigger surprise was when he suddenly grabbed her by the neck and hauled her into a space between two tents, her back shoved roughly against a post there while his other hand snaked under her first layer of clothes. Thoughts burst through Scarlet's mind and she found that she was scared and excited all at the same time. His curled fingers brushed against the edge of her breast and she resisted the urge to draw in an intake of breath. She could tell there was something in his hand, something he deposited within the inside pocket of her leather jacket.

His breath was hot against her throat as he leaned into her ear and whispered, "I know that you have it, and where it is. If you reach for it I will slit your throat myself, are we understood?" Then the moment was over and he stepped back away from her, dragging her back out onto the main path to continue their journey to Caesar's tent. She let her hand drift up to feel the hidden bulk of what he'd slipped in her clothes and realized it was a little switchblade knife.

"Why?" She asked. Part of his job was to protect Caesar and here he'd given her a weapon. Sure, it was a tiny little thing, probably unable to do any real kind of damage in the small time she would have if she did decide to leap on their leader, but it was still something sharp and pointy.

"Because I don't really feel like watching you twitch around like a frightened squirrel in front of Lord Caesar."

She bristled, "what makes you think I'd do something like that? I didn't last time."

He actually laughed. It was a short, mocking one, but a laugh nonetheless. "Yes, and last time you most likely had some kind of weapon hidden on you that the guards missed. I'm not a fool, and you're not either. Today you seem less than happy to be here, even more so than last time, and I would presume that's because, like an idiot, you forgot to bring anything you could slip passed them. Correct?"

Her mouth became a straight line, a little angry that once more this man had pegged her so well. "Like I'd tell you."

"All right. That's fine. Just understand that if I ever find anything on you that is not that which I just gave you then you shall regret it." His voice had deepened into a threatening purr. As they approached Caesar's tent he added, almost as an afterthought, "oh and if you do ever use that," he nodded towards the hidden knife in her jacket, "I will claim you must have gotten it passed the guards somehow and deny all knowledge."

"Understood. I suppose this will be our first little lesson in trust, now won't it? I'll trust you won't rat me out with this knife, and you trust that I won't actually use it."

Vulpes nodded at her. For some reason Caesar believed her to be important and he was willing to do what it took to get her to see the Legion as something other than what the outside world was feeding people. The first step in any relationship, business or personal, was always trust. It didn't matter if that trust would be kept or was intending to be broken at some later date, but it was necessary for proper progress. It would be a shame to kill her before he could see what Caesar was talking about, but he had meant what he had said. If she even twitched wrong he would tear into her. She might have survived a bullet, the wasteland, and the battle for the Lucky 38, but she would not survive him.

-X-

Vulpes did most of the talking. Scarlet didn't mind at all because she enjoyed the sound of his voice as well as his apparent top-notch abilities to weave beautiful words into sentences. If he hadn't become part of the Frumentarii she could have seen him as a master storyteller. It was just another reason on her list that she was becoming more and more disappointed with his allegiances. Every second in his presence her attraction to him was growing, an attraction that was going to go nowhere just because he was part of the Legion and saw her as a tool: not a woman, and definitely not a soldier.

Once more Caesar was impressed with Scarlet's performance and thanked her. Then it came down to the moment that she knew would be coming the entire time. He asked her once again if she was going to side when them, and she did not have an answer. She shifted on her feet and started to cross her arms over her chest as she thought, but remember the switchblade in her jacket and Vulpes' threat she quickly dropped them to her sides so he didn't mistakenly believe her to be going for it. After a moment she gave a deep sigh, "Look, Caesar, I've really enjoyed working for you and everything, but it hasn't been all that long and I still don't know anything about you. Not really. I'm not telling you it's a no, but I can't honestly tell you a yes right now and I don't feel comfortable lying just to make you like me."

The older man studied her and she wasn't sure if he was angry or not. "It seems we are at an impasse then Courier."

"It seems we are. But if you give me a few days I'll have some kind of answer for you."

"Very well," Caesar agreed after a long deliberation. "You have three days to make your choice. By then I would like to know if you are with us, or against us. There will be no more extensions."

Scarlet gulped and nodded. "I understand. I will return in three days time, no matter the answer."

-X-

She was starting to seriously wonder about the stability of her sanity. Explaining away why she'd blown up the generators in the bunkers was easy as was why she'd accepted Caesar's help (or Vulpes', rather) to take down House. Why she was continuing to entertain ideas of some sort of partnership with the Legion after she could no longer see any reason to even stay in the Mojave was troubling. She'd only stuck around so she could track down Benny, which she'd done. Then she'd stayed because of House, for she couldn't just let that jackass get his way. If she was smart she'd just pack up her things and high tail it over into NCR territory, or maybe she'd head North and out of both the NCR and Legion jurisdictions.

Many times in her life she'd felt her subconscious working against her like this. Her rational logic would tell her what would be the best thing to do and then for some reason she'd do something else, as if some mechanical part of her was running completely separate from her brain and making her do all kinds of ignorant things. Sometimes, after the fact, she could see this subconscious entity's choice had been righter than her logical one, but unless there were facts her inner mind were picking out that she wasn't getting about the Legion she was at a loss why her feet weren't carrying her away from this place as fast as they could.

As she thought about footsteps she heard some coming up behind her, hurried but not quite running. When she turned to see what was going on she found the man who had taken her down to the bunker jogging towards her. She didn't know why he would be coming to talk to her, but as he stopped before her she realized that he was indeed going to speak to her. "You're Gaius, right?"

He looked surprised she remembered. "Uh, yeah." He answered. His voice was smooth and sounded very friendly. It was the exact opposite of Vulpes'. "Vulpes asked me to come talk to you about a possible job."

"I already told Caesar that I wasn't sure about what I was going to do yet. Vulpes was standing right there. He should know this."

Gaius ran a hand through his dark brown hair and considered her a moment before going on. "Its not that kind of a job. It's a personal favor for him."

Scarlet raised an eyebrow. Vulpes Inculta inquiring upon her a personal favor? Now that was fascinating. "What would this favor be?"

"It is a job that normally a member of the Frumentarii would do, but we have almost everyone busy right now and this is a matter that must be taken care of quickly. There is a woman in the Strip, her name is Martina Groesbeck, and she's very important to some plans of ours. She has a way of getting secrets and selling them for a price, but lately she's attracted some unwanted attention from the Omertas and they've been talking about teaching her a lesson."

"So you want me to go take care of this problem?" She asked. "Why didn't Vulpes just come ask me himself?"

"He's busy right now so he asked me to do it." Gaius explained.

Scarlet smirked and looked over his shoulder. Vulpes Inculta was standing outside Caesar's tent with his arms crossed over his chest, watching as she and Gaius conversed. "Yeah, he looks really fucking busy."

Gaius turned and followed her gaze and then let out a deep irritated sigh before continuing, "are you going to do it, or not?"

"Fine, fine. I'll do it." She waved one of her hands dismissively at him and then raised her right hand to give the OK sign over his head up at the other man. "But next time tell him if he wants something done he can come ask me himself."

Gaius rubbed his temples. "If this is the way you are then no wonder why he didn't come talk to you himself."

Her mouth twitched and she put her hands on her hips, "what is that supposed to mean. I'm a perfectly friendly individual."

"Sure you are." He replied.

"Whatever." Scarlet rolled her eyes. "I'll give Vulpes my report on the matter when I return to talk to Caesar. And I will be talking to Vulpes."

"I'm sure he'll be overjoyed." Gaius answered, deadpanned. His sarcasm was not lost on the woman standing in front of him and she gave him a snarky smile before turning on her heels and marching down towards the entrance. He, too, was beginning to wonder what the hell Caesar was thinking.

Gaius was originally supposed to be a once-only character, but since I named him when he took Scarlet down to the weather station bunker I kind of sealed his fate as being a slightly bigger part of all this. A personality came to me, a quirky one, and I think that if I continue to use him later he'll be a source of interest and amusement.

Next Chapter: As Scarlet grapples with the her decision she must also find a way to ensure the protection of Martina the spy.