Secret-Keeping
"Hey, hey, hey!" a hooded, robed woman prodded, poking at a sleeping blond man. He groaned and rubbed his eyes, turning his head to the overeager Scribe.
"What? You're not even in the right room. Girls are over that way," he said, pointing to the doorway.
"Lily's not curious and Raul won't wake up and Boone's just pissed at me and Christine's still at Usanagi's and I wanna go snooping," the woman explained, practically bouncing up and down.
"Veronica, what are you on about?" he asked, sitting up in his bed and rubbing his eyes again. "It has to be late."
"I know! That's why this is so exciting!" Veronica squealed happily.
"Every day it is increasingly obvious that you were raised in a hole in the ground," the blond man groaned.
"Oh, don't be such a killjoy, Arcade." She bent down and whispered in his ear, "Cass and Cynthia snuck out!"
"And this is exciting because...?"
"You heard me gushing about how I think they're gonna have true love, right?"
Arcade sighed. "So they snuck out and had a private dinner or something, so what?"
"So we have to spy on them!" Veronica insisted.
"They have a right to their privacy."
"Not when Cynthia leaves her outfit at home. They're trying to be sneaky. We can't have that."
"Wait, you mean the hat and the glasses and the trenchcoat and everything?" Arcade said incredulously.
"Yeah! Totally incognito!"
"Everyone recognizes Cass too, Veronica...I don't think they're on a date. Do you know when they left?" Arcade asked.
"No, I just woke up a few minutes ago and I wanted to go to the Tops with Cynthia and they were gone!"
"They might have left at different times, even - are all the supplies still here?"
"Still piled up in the master bedroom, yeah."
"So they didn't leave for the East yet." Arcade put a hand on his chin. "Why don't you let me get dressed and we'll look for them, okay?"
"I'll wait in the casino," Veronica promised, rushing out of the room. Arcade swung his legs over the side of the bed, stretched, and took his glasses from the nightstand. On the bed across from him, a bald man rolled over and stared menacingly at Arcade.
"You're really going along with her?" he asked in a disgusted voice. "The Courier deserves to be able to do something alone."
"She'd never leave her hat here, at the very least - she loves that damn thing," Arcade replied.
"You should leave her be," Boone warned.
"I'm not gonna hurt her, Boone, I just want to know if she's doing something we should worry about." Arcade walked over to the wardrobe, pulled on jeans and a labcoat over his t-shirt and boxers, and turned back to Boone. "If she's in trouble, I want to help."
Boone turned away from Arcade, muttering under his breath. Arcade thought he heard the words, "nosy kid," under his breath, but dismissed it for the moment. He left the guest room and entered the elevator, heading down to the casino. As he left, he spotted Veronica eagerly approaching a one-wheeled robot with a television for a face, with a great big smiling visage on the screen.
"Where did Cass and Cynthia go?" she asked.
"Rose of Sharon is at Gomorrah! She had a whiskey bottle in her hand and said she wanted to play some god-damn roulette, and told me to get her there if she doesn't come back before dawn!" the robot replied eagerly. "Cynthia left a few minutes after Rose of Sharon, but she didn't tell me where she was going! Sorry I can't help you any more than that. Some of my Securitrons spotted her heading west out of the Strip."
"Thanks, Yes Man!" Veronica said, bounding over to Arcade. "Did ya hear that? She's probably going to Westside!"
"To visit Lucy? But she never needed to sneak around to get to Lucy before..." Arcade pondered. "And she and Cass apparently don't have anything to do with each other tonight."
"That just makes it more fun! Bet she's doing some backhanded deal for psycho or something!" Veronica said, moving towards the doors of the casino.
"How would that be a fun thing?"
"Because then you and me could fix her and get famous and the Followers would get lots of NCR money!"
"Really, Veronica, the fantasies you come up with..."
As the two of them emerged onto the lit-up Vegas strip, they spotted a woman in a leather jacket and tattered cowboy hat harassing a dancer, just outside the large building with Gomorrah in flaming letters atop it. She had four NCR dollars in her hand and appeared to be haggling with her, even as she shook her head and continued dancing.
"Well, we found Cass," Arcade said dryly.
"She looks so...desperate," Veronica said, frowning.
"I think whatever Cynthia's doing might be more worrisome, honestly. If she doesn't want to be recognized, it really could be bad," Arcade mused. "Come on."
The two of them left through the Strip's gate, and Veronica insisted on running through the dark streets of Freeside until they spotted a lone figure walking past the Old Mormon Fort. She put an arm out to stop Arcade, and succeeded in clotheslining him. As he got up, cursing quietly and clutching his bruised chin, Veronica shushed him and pointed to the figure.
"That's her!" she said. "Look at the way she walks - it's hard to see with her trench on all the time, but she kind of staggers, she has a weird step, see?"
"How can you be sure?" Arcade asked.
The figure stopped, turned, and pulled a large revolver from her hip holster. She pointed it down a nearby alleyway as two shaggy-looking thugs rushed at her from it, brandishing knives. Two quick shots and their heads became a pink mist.
"Okay, so it's her," Arcade whispered. He looked to where Veronica had once been, and spotted her hiding behind a telephone pole with a finger to her lips. He rolled his eyes at her.
Cynthia briefly looked to the left and right, apparently didn't spot either of her friends, and continued walking towards the north gate of Freeside. Veronica stepped out from behind the telephone pole and joined Arcade again.
"Come on," she urged as Cynthia passed under the Freeside sign. The neon lights illuminated her blond hair, held back in a messy bun with white flowers stuck through it, and showed her plain brown dress clearly. "She looks so girly!" Veronica objected quietly.
They followed her silently as she circled around the wall of sheet metal that surrounded Vegas, counterclockwise. She stopped in front of a dilapidated hotel building and knocked on the door, three quick strikes with her fist. Arcade and Veronica poked their heads out from behind the corner of a building across the street to see who came out.
A woman in black with blotchy, shriveled, darkened skin opened the door. Cynthia plucked a flower from her hair and offered it to her. The woman seemed shaken, but took the offering nonetheless. Cynthia moved in closer, bent down, and kissed her.
Veronica made an absurdly high-pitched noise directly into Arcade's ear. Cynthia's head snapped to look directly at the building the two were hiding behind, and they both darted back into cover immediately.
"Don't ever do that again," Arcade hissed. Veronica made a similar noise, but somewhat more quietly.
"She has a secret love!" Veronica swooned.
"Pretty Sarah, of all people," Arcade mused. "Well, I think that concludes our little adventure. Let's leave her be."
"One second," Veronica said, poking her head around the corner again. The two women had disappeared from the doorway. "Guess they went inside. How cute! How nice of her, too, to make that poor woman feel beautiful..." She started walking back towards the Vegas Strip, with Arcade following behind.
Arcade rolled his eyes. "Yes, how noble of her, to be shared with her three other girlfriends."
"They aren't girlfriends, they're-"
"Sex toys?"
"Oh, hush."
"Just saying," Arcade said, putting his hands up.
"I've never seen her kiss someone on the lips like that before, you know," Veronica said, pouting slightly. "Maybe it really is love this time."
"Look, as much as I like Cynthia, I've never been convinced that the woman's even capable of love," Arcade argued. "The whole reason she's been able to do as she's done for the last few months is that she doesn't ever let her feelings take over completely - she's the most shrewd, manipulative, closed-off person I've met in my life. Not that it's a bad thing, she's funny and kind and all, but really, the fact that she could convince a man to give up top-secret military information despite hating him so much she shoots him immediately afterwards...Kind of makes me think she's never going to give in to her emotions like that, you know? She's always after something - justice, revenge, peace, money, or sex. But I don't think she'll ever seek out love."
"You're just saying all that because you're a cynical old man," Veronica said, sticking her tongue out at Arcade. "I think she's doing this because she has that reputation, and she has to keep it, you know? So she can't just be in an open, loving relationship with someone - then her enemies have someone to go after, and they see her as weak."
"First off, I'm not old-"
"Old soul," Veronica countered.
"Secondly, you're making excuses because you're still carrying a torch for her."
"Am not! Christine's back!" Veronica insisted as they passed under the Freeside sign.
"Doesn't mean anything."
"I love her."
"I can tell, but love isn't something that belongs to one person alone. You can definitely love more than one person."
"Oh, and you have experience with this?"
"Just trust me on this one."
The two of them passed through the gate to the Vegas strip, where Cass stumbled out onto the street before them, then fell flat on her face. A wide-brimmed black hat fell off her head.
"I'm the fuckin' Courier! Everrybody gimme free sex!" she shouted into the concrete.
"Oh, damn," Arcade said, rushing over to the drunken cowgirl.
"Doctah doctah, I need some re-lease," Cass slurred, rolling over to look up at Arcade.
"Oh for the love of God," Arcade moaned, holding out a hand. "Veronica, help me out here," he said as he struggled to pull her to her feet. Veronica took the other hand and lifted the drunk to her feet.
"Heavier than you look," Veronica complained as she steadied Cass.
"'S all muscle. Alla it," Cass clarified.
"Let's get you back to bed," Arcade suggested.
"No! I ain't got a hooker yet!" Cass dug in her jacket pocket and produced a huge wad of bills. "And look, I got the money!"
"Broke the bank, did we?" Arcade asked.
"They kicked me out because I was way too awesome for them," Cass replied.
"You were cheating, weren't you?" Arcade said.
"Can't cheat at fucking roulette, I'm just that lucky."
"Whatever. You're going home before someone shanks you," Arcade stated.
"No-fun fuckin' doctors with their fuckin' therapy and their not having sex," Cass mumbled, but she followed Arcade into the Lucky 38 nonetheless as Veronica picked up Cynthia's hat. After laying her down in one of the cots set up in the suite's kitchen, Arcade returned to bed. Boone turned over and stared at him.
"So, was she in trouble?" he asked.
"No, she's just seeing someone in secret."
"I told you, you didn't need to go. Next time, let her keep her own secrets." Boone turned away again. Arcade sighed, took off his labcoat, and laid down in his bed, turning over his new knowledge in his mind for hours to come.
Cynthia sighed and kicked off her boots as she left the elevator, emerging into a darkened hallway. Her hair fell in messy tangles to her shoulders, and she kept adjusting her dress straps, feeling uncomfortable. She opened the door to the master bedroom, flicked on the light, and cursed loudly when she spotted the brown-robed woman sitting cross-legged on her bed.
"I knew I was being followed!" she moaned. "Can't I just have some privacy?"
"You and Pretty Sarah!" Veronica exclaimed happily, eyes shining. "That's so cute!"
"Get out," Cynthia ordered, pointing out the door with her thumb. "And don't mention this again."
"Arcade knows, probably Boone too," Veronica pointed out.
"God dammit," Cynthia cursed, walking over to the bed and sitting down behind Veronica. She turned her body to face the Courier.
"So why is it a secret?" she asked.
Cynthia put a hand to her head. "This is payback, isn't it? For when I asked you if you'd ever been in love, and you wanted to drop it, but I wouldn't - right?"
"Maybe a little bit," Veronica admitted, "but I also just really want to know."
"Look, I - I didn't mean for this to happen. When we first met her, it was just after we killed Motor-Runner, and all the Fiends were on the run. When I heard about what Cook-Cook did to her, I wanted to help, but he was nowhere to be found. So I kind of put that on file and after our trip to the Madre, I heard he was back in town. So I went out at night, found Pretty Sarah, and took her to Cook-Cook's camp. Took out all the Fiends from a distance and shot out one of the bastard's knees, then we came up close. Handed her my gun to finish him off. She used it to pistol whip him 'till he cried, then cooked him with his own flamethrower."
"That's horrible!"
"The least he deserved," Cynthia hissed. "You wouldn't understand, Veronica. Don't try and convince me otherwise."
"So...so how did that lead to what I saw tonight?"
"I brought her back to her hotel, but she looked kind of...lost, unsure what to do next. I felt like...I don't know, that she needed a little help, needed someone else in her life besides her girls. So I took her to dinner at the Ultra-Lux and things just...kind of developed from there." Cynthia sighed. "Please, keep it secret, Veronica. If this gets out, she's in a lot of danger. I have plenty of enemies left."
"I will...but you're going east soon. She's not coming with you, is she?"
"We both knew, starting out, that it wasn't going to last. But it makes us happy, and that's all that matters. Our scars compliment each other, and she's helped me deal with a few problems of my own."
"Your scars?"
"Oh, dammit." Cynthia swung her legs up onto the bed and pulled up the hem of her dress over her knee. Ragged raised lines criss-crossed the back of her legs, running over blotchy skin coated in small white slashes. "These ones, and there are a lot more, okay? Ask Cass about it some time."
"Why would she-"
"I had to pass the time while we were at the Madre, so I told her about...my past. I'm not retelling it. Now, is this going to be a problem? Do I have to look back every ten feet I walk outside the goddamn 38 and shoot any robes I spot?" Cynthia asked pointedly, drawing out her pistol and holding it straight up.
Veronica held up her hands. "Okay! Okay! I won't mention it again-"
"And definitely not to Cass."
"Not to Cass, right. But still!" Veronica grinned. "You're in love! That's awesome!"
"Don't assume anything, Veronica."
Veronica got up off the bed. "See you in the morning, lovebird."
Cynthia threw a boot at her head, intentionally clearing it by a narrow inch. Veronica beat a quick retreat, closing the door behind her.
"God-damn optimists," Cynthia cursed.