"Are you sure this was what sent out the signal?" Cass asked as Elizabeth walked around the crashed satellite outside of Nipton. When she didn't answer, Cass nudged her back with her boot, and Elizabeth gasped in surprise.
"What? What is it?"
Cass snorted, "I asked you if this was what sent the signal?"
"Yeah, of course," Elizabeth held out her Pip-Boy and pointed to a marked location on the map, then switched to the third tab from the left and pointed to the marked quest, "This is really accurate, it helped me more times than I could count in Zion. Which probably wouldn't be that much because I can't count…"
"And what about the Mojave?"
"Yeah, here too!" She chirped, making Cass' heart flutter. She was so cute, even when they were both dying in the heat. She smiled at her friend as she glanced back between the satellite and her Pip-Boy, pushing buttons between both of them and making a confused face after a while when nothing happened. Cass stood between Elizabeth's arm and her body, reading the text out loud, then turning back to the other. "I think you need to wait until midnight? The Midnight Science Fiction Feature!"
Elizabeth blushed and stepped back, "It's only around ten at night, though…" She looked at the moon, then back to Cass, who looked a bit frustrated.
"You dragged me all the way out here so we could wait around for this thing?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't know..." Elizabeth looked at the ground in front of her feet, "Honest, I didn't know."
Cass sighed, "I'm not mad, I'm just... it's hot." She wiped some sweat off of her forehead. Elizabeth tilted her head, "Well, you are wearing a jacket and long pants."
"Says the one wearing a million-degree vest and ten-thousand extra pouches."
Elizabeth rubbed the front of her pants where her pockets should be, "These don't have pockets! We need pockets!"
"Okay, yeah, that I can understand." Cass laughed.
Elizabeth smiled, "Good. Now, we could wait inside one of the houses in Nipton but..."
"But what?"
"I'm still scared."
"That's okay," Cass walked up next to Elizabeth and put her hands on her shoulders, "we can wait out here, I don't really mind."
Elizabeth blushed, "Um, okay, thank you. I just... don't want to be alone."
"Hey, I get it, no one wants to be alone either," Cass sat down in front of the satellite and patted the dirt next to her. Elizabeth sat down next to her and pulled her knees up to her chest.
At 12:00, the satellite projected an image onto the screen of the Mojave Drive-in, waking both women up. Elizabeth jumped up and stared up at the projection.
It was an eye furiously looking around, it seemed. A curious image to project, but there must be a message behind it.
Cass rubbed her eyes and stood up, staring at the projection as well.
"What does it mean?"
Elizabeth shrugged, "A message?" She turned back to the satellite, "Maybe there's something on here?"
She touched the side, and a blue field of some sort wrapped around her, then she was gone before she could scream for Cass to help her.
"Elizabeth!" Cass yelled, but she was gone! Disappeared into thin air!
It had been a week since Elizabeth returned to the Mojave. She sent Cass a letter via (another) courier, telling her that she was okay and she was going to go treasure hunting in the Sierra Madre.
She spent the last two weeks drinking and gambling at the Atomic Wrangler, when another courier arrived with a letter one day.
"Letter for Rose of Sharon Cassidy," He said happily, holding out a letter to the surprised and uncharacteristically sober woman.
"What the-" Cass ripped the letter from the courier's hand and tore it open, reading the contents.
'Um, this is Elizabeth. Meet me next to the satellite. Thanks. Bye. How do I turn this thing off? Oh here we g-' the recording shut off, and Cass sighed rather dramatically and told the courier to go fuck himself when he asked for payment and stomped up the stairs to her hotel room.
Veronica was reading a magazine and jumped when Cass burst into the room and started packing.
"What's up?" She asked unenthusiastically.
"Elizabeth sent me a message."
"What did it say?"
Cass scrambled to get her jacket on and put her hat on haphazardly, yelling out "Nipton!" before running out the door and jumped off the second floor of the hotel onto the counter beneath, making James Garrett scream in surprise.
Cass felt physically relieved when Elizabeth appeared in a burst of light, looking a little confused, and completely overwhelmed. She didn't say anything as the water merchant ran to her and pulled her into a tight hug, she only hugged back and held onto her tightly.
She pulled away from Elizabeth, and she stared into her chestnut colored eyes, full of relief and pure joy, and Cass pulled the other into a gentle kiss, a small peck on the lips.
They were soft, Cass noticed, unnaturally soft for someone these days. Elizabeth was blushing now, which Cass thought was adorable, and she smiled and pulled Elizabeth into another hug.
When they pulled apart once again, it was because Elizabeth almost collapsed. When Cass asked if she was okay, she laughed and pulled Cass into her lap and kissed her properly this time, lips molding together and their arms wrapped tightly around each other.
Elizabeth pulled away from their kiss and pressed her forehead against Cass', accidentally knocking off her hat in the process, and smiled.
Somewhere in there, Elizabeth muttered "I love you so much", which caused Cass to pull away and look at the other quizzically.
"What was that?"
Elizabeth blushed, "I didn't mean to... I..."
Cass sighed, "Elizabeth, we barely know each other..."
Elizabeth looked at the ground and played with a stray string on Cass' shirt, "I'm sorry..."
Cass kissed her gently on the forehead, "There's no need to apologize."
"I know, but I still feel like I should... Like..." Elizabeth sucked in a breath, "I don't know."
Cass stood up and helped Elizabeth up, then put her hat back on. "Well, the others are probably waiting for us."
Elizabeth checked her Pip-Boy, scrolling through the notifications she gave herself whenever something was finished or what she needed to do. "We still have to go to HELIOS One, Camp Forlorn Hope, and- oh crap, Veronica... dang it..." she dug the heels in her hands into her eyes, out of frustration or something else, she didn't know, but she felt overwhelmed. Really, really overwhelmed.
There were still blanks in her mind, which was more frustrating than having nothing at all. And, what was worse, is that she was rejected. Elizabeth felt like she was the one to do the rejecting, not the other way around.
"Hey... you feeling all right?" Cass asked, putting her hand on Elizabeth's shoulder.
Elizabeth screamed as loud as she could, scaring the living hell out of Cass, and screamed and screamed until she felt a little bit better. She fell back onto the ground, staring up at the stars and blue fog in the sky.
"Well okay then." Cass said simply, scooting over to Elizabeth.
Elizabeth threw her arm over her eyes, "This is just too much. I was... I'm just a courier..."
"I see that trip frazzled your brain a little," Cass laughed. She laid down next to Elizabeth and stretched, then folded her arms behind her head, "Get some sleep, you need it."
Elizabeth happily complied.
The next morning, she woke up with Cass sleeping soundly, curled up next to her. She rubbed her eyes to make sure she was really awake, then kissed the other gently on the head.
Cass stirred in her sleep, and then opened her eyes. She looked at Elizabeth, then smiled, closing them again.
"We slept out here in the dirt, outside Nipton, next to a crashed satellite. This surprisingly isn't the weirdest situation I've ever been in." Cass whispered, and Elizabeth chuckled, "Come on, let's get back to Freeside."
The two were almost at Novac when Cass finally broke the silence.
"What... happened?"
Elizabeth stopped and turned around to look at the other, "What do you mean?"
"When you went treasure hunting or whatever."
"To the Sierra Madre? That was... an impulse I had. I do stupid things a lot, and you should probably know that I'm a little reckless and not very smart. I just... needed to get my mind off things, so I ventured down to the bunker and I was kidnapped. Kind of. I was forced to break into a casino with three other individuals and... well, to be honest, I don't quite know what happened after that. I'd rather not think about that I kind of... was traumatized... a little."
"Oh my God, are you okay?"
Elizabeth smiled and spun around on her heel, and started walking to Novac, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit scary down there. At least it was down... I don't really know where the Madre was but it was scary. With ghost people and poisonous air and bomb collars..." Elizabeth wrapped her hand around her neck, gently, where the collar used to be, then gulped.
Cass doesn't say anything. Elizabeth didn't blame her.
"I was really scared. I thought I was going to die." Elizabeth cleared her throat, "Anyway, before that, I went to Big Mountain, Big Empty, whatever it's called. I had my brain, spine and heart removed by the scientists there, and I had to recover my brain. Well, long story short, my brain is back, but I've got a fake heart and a fake spine, and a new house!"
Cass laughed, and it made Elizabeth smile. They continued on in silence.
When they reached outer Vegas, Cass stopped and looked into the distance.
"What is it?" Elizabeth asked. Cass licked her lips, "I was wondering if you were able to make a detour. I wanted to pay my respects to the end of Cassidy Caravans, check out the site where they died. It's not too far from here."
"Do you think there's anything left?"
"Only wishful thinking on my part, most likely. At the least, I'd like to pay my respects. I got them into this mess, I owe them that much."
Elizabeth couldn't resist those sad blue eyes, "Let's go."
"Thanks," Cass kissed her on the cheek, "I appreciate it. Some of the caravan might be ash, but we were expecting raiders and over-inquisitive NCR border guards. There might be something left."
When they finally found the remains of Cass's caravan, she bent down near one of the piles of ash, and examined it.
"God, there's almost nothing left. Looks like whoever it was, was just in the mood for killing. Most of the cargo's ash too- not burned, looks like... disintegrated. When I heard the reports, I assumed 'ash' meant 'burned.' So close to the Vegas wall, too, don't that bear all. Must have happened during the day, though, they hadn't made a camp."
"Why would they have done it during the day?" Elizabeth asked.
"No idea. Maybe to catch the sun in their eyes? Maybe they wanted the caravan to come to them, walk into an ambush?" She stood up and turned to the other.
"We should check the wagon, they may not have got everything. Whatever we find, it's yours. It's the least I can do for this."
When Elizabeth was scouring around, Cass stood up again. "You know what? What happened to my caravan... it's not the first time I've heard about an attack like that. One of our caravans got hit a few months back, and the caravan'd been burned, too, along with the cargo. I wonder if he made the same mistake, and that other caravan got hit with energy weapons, too."
"Do you want to check it out?"
"Yeah, it's a ways though, hell of a detour. You sure?"
"Yes, let's go," Elizabeth smiled, trying to reassure the other.
Cass wasn't wrong, it was a hell of a ways away. The caravan was also most disintegrated, with the exception of the dead Brahmin and empty crates.
"More energy weapons hit this caravan. Place has been picked clean. This... this is Brotherhood level murder here, but they don't do things like that. This was done with a purpose. Let's poke around a bit, see what we can find. Might be something in the wreckage."
Elizabeth dug around in one of the ash piles and pulled out something.
"What's that? Looks like a map," She handed it to Cass and she studied it for a moment, "Got a route along the West of Vegas, and..." She pointed at a location, and held it out for Elizabeth to see.
"They've marked another spot. Over here, along this stretch. That's fucked up- middle of nowhere."
"Let's go then."
"Yeah, something's wrong, I can feel it. It's not any closer than the first, so if you'd rather let be, let me know."
"No, it's fine."
"All right, let's move out."
The caravan was also burned to ash, but there were also some intact bodies around. "Another caravan burned. Except someone made camp here, and I never heard about this attack. Let's look around. Something stinks."
The two of them examined the bodies, and they turned out to belong to the Crimson Caravan guards and Van Graff thugs.
"That does it, that's all I need to know. Crimson Caravan and the Van Graffs... they were behind burning these caravans, and they've got to answer for them. I'm going to get some extra ammo, a few bottles of whiskey, then show them how Cassidys settle accounts."
"No! No, there's another way. We can get evidence, let NCR take them down."
She crossed her arms and scowled at Elizabeth. "NCR? Are you out of your fucking mind? That'd take years... and with the war with the Legion, no way they're going to waste time running up the Crimson Caravan or the Van Graffs!"
"The harm to the Van Graffs would last longer and travel back West."
Cass sighed, "All right, if you poke around the Van Graffs and Alice, fine. But if I see either one go into their camp? I'm going to start shooting, no matter what you find."
Getting the evidence was easy enough. Elizabeth had to pick the locks of the safes that held the evidence at the Crimson Caravan.
"You find any 'evidence' yet? I'm not going to wait forever."
She handed her the note, "Here's the evidence of the deal. Without its twin, there's no proof."
"So there's just one more safe to crack? Hope you can get to it. Say what you will about the leading two ladies, they watch their lockers like crows. Still... you got one, so the other might not be impossible. If you get both, then let's talk. And... I appreciate you putting yourself at risk like this. Thanks."
She patted her on the arm and Elizabeth smiled.
They broke into the Silver Rush in Freeside and found the other piece of evidence, somewhat magically. When they got back to the others at the Atomic Wrangler, Elizabeth gave the other piece of evidence to Cass.
"Here's the other piece. We have both now."
"No shit. There it is, the blood, the motive, as clear as day. They must have penned these with snake venom. But... we got it, now what? Sure, this damns them, but only if someone listens."
"Is there anyone you trust in the NCR?"
"Well... Jackson in the Mojave Outpost could get it to folks in the West. I wouldn't trust anyone closer to the Colorado. And the Crimson Caravan and the Van Graffs have their heart back West. Not sure it'll do any good, though."
"We have to try."
"All right, let's do it, listen to what he has to say."
"After... After dinner and a night's rest, right?" Elizabeth asked hopefully. Even the strongest people had limits.
Cass, reluctantly, agreed, and Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief.
Back at the Atomic Wrangler, Elizabeth surprised the others with her sudden return, and went straight to bed.
And in the morning, Elizabeth surprised Veronica with Vera Keyes' dress (that she stole off a skeleton, but she didn't mention that to Veronica), and she was more than happy to show the other some unarmed moves.
Elizabeth wasn't too good at punching, she was more of a stabbing kind of gal, but she took the instruction anyway.
When Cass and Elizabeth arrived at the Outpost, Cass almost ran to the main office and threw the door open and shoved the evidence into Ranger Jackson's hands, who looked pretty surprised.
"Cass, I wasn't expecting to see you anytime soon," He said.
"I have evidence of a caravan conspiracy."
He read both of the notes, then handed them back to Cass, "All right. This is... this explains a lot of the lost caravans. I thought it was Legion work, but..."
"Can you get it to the right people?"
"I can, if you make a promise. I need you to swear you won't take revenge on Gloria or Alice. If you do, then your case is over, and we can't see that justice is done. I know some things are hard to let go, but you need to understand that, hear me?"
Cass sighed, "You have my word."
"That'll have to do." Jackson took off his sunglasses and rubbed his eyes, "God, what a mess. People turning against each other when the Mojave's at risk of failing? If the Republic's sinkhole progress doesn't kill us, greed will. Thanks for bringing me this, I know revenge must have been tempting," He put his sunglasses back on and smiled a little, "For what it's worth, I appreciate you didn't shed any more blood. We need to save our strength for the Legion."
"You're welcome," Elizabeth said, since Cass wasn't going to.
"I'll do what I can, and these folks that got killed need to be answered for."
When Jackson went back to his duties, Cass turned to the other, "Well, that's settled... I suppose."
"Are you all right?" Elizabeth asked.
"Feels... I don't know. I guess I feel relieved. I don't know what I feel," Her expression brightened a little bit, "Wait, that's not true. I think the NCR back West, when riled, is going to be the worst enemy the Van Graffs and the Crimson Caravan ever had. They're all so mired in procedure and paper out there, the kind of evidence we gave is going to be worse than shooting them. I think that settles accounts with me- and my men. That was some tricky political maneuvering, but worth it, even if it takes a few years."
She looked very relaxed now, and that made Elizabeth even happier. She hugged her tightly and kissed her on the cheek. She hugged back, and then pulled away.
A/N: wow this was actually really long for some reason lmao