EDITED: 14/10/18

Boone approached the NCR woman the moment she stepped away from her commander. He apologised for bothering her, considering she looked absolutely exhausted, and he explained that he needed to know whether he would be dragging a corpse back to Goodsprings or not.

Even through the exhilarating few hours of death hovering over her head, the woman managed to smile at the handsome man. "She told me to tell you not to leave without her."

He found no solace in her words, aiming his feet towards a shady spot so he could steal a cigarette where no one could watch him. He had no faith in the situation whatsoever. Then again, there was no other place for him. He would wait another half hour before he walked in there and found her, then would put her body in a nice, simple hole and return to his journey.

Annie, however, was sitting on the counter inside the building, staring down a new recruit with a deadpan face. As much as she wanted to, she could not remember most of the faces that were staring back at her – but their eyes told her that they knew exactly who she was.

"So," she started, her words doused in thick smoke "this man had the balls to find you, so you could fuck me with a shovel and then stiffed you when he realised that we were more connected than he thought. But, he also thinks I'm dead so he thinks you won't squeal."

Jessup wasn't as worried for his life as he was ten minutes ago. As much as he wanted to hot foot it out of there just in case she did end up snapping, he could feel a soft curse in the air that had wrapped itself around Anna like a warm blanket. She seemed calmer than she had ever been in her entire life. "If you put it that way, then yeah."

"Tell me more about him. I'm gonna find him." Annie was on her third cigarette, the stress of the situation coming through. These people she called her friends should have been face down in their own blood, not giving her apologetic pats on the back. But she gave them the benefit of the doubt, because she couldn't push away that familiar feeling that the dirty men gave her.

"Benny? Oh, easy, he's the leader of the Chairmen. They run the Tops Casino on the Strip." Jessup had his arms folded, more relaxed than when she first walked in. The colour had returned to his face when he realised that she was not going to strangle the life out of him - like she had done many times before for a lot less than this.

"The Strip?" The only thing that clicked in her head was the sound of the safety flicking from Benny's gun. "Seems like a piece of work, travelling from the Strip to come find little old me."

"Well, he got that chip he was after. Stole it off his boss."

"Did he tell you what it was for?" Her heart fell when he shook his head. "I'm surprised you didn't just kill him."

"We wanted to, ya know, after what happened, but we figured it would be better to just leave it in the past." His eyes trailed unhappily to the floor before snapping back up tensely. "Don't need the Chairmen coming after us."

"What happened?" Annie perked up. Jessup's face fell, almost guilty when he realised he hadn't thought about it in a while.

"Chance's dead."

Chance.

Chance.

Soon Chance had a face; a handsome face with long blonde hair and a behemoth frame. He was very rough around the edges but his voice made her heart nearly squeeze itself to death. An ugly feeling burnt in her chest - was it love or absolute hatred? It felt like there was no difference.

"Oh."

"It gave us the creeps… The two of you dying within a day of each other… Even buried around the same area." Jessup boiled his voice quietly, watching the girl's lack of reaction. "Destiny, like Papa always said."

"Very sweet, Jessup." She said bitterly, remembering nearly every little detail of the man who made her heart ache. "But I'm not dead."

"Even though he refused to say anything we knew he missed you, Anna. We all missed you. Now that you're not dead and all, you should come back again. Some people probably won't be happy about it, but Papa likes you. He'll take you back quickly, of course you'd have to go through initiation again but I'm sure you can handle that."

"I left for a reason." She mumbled, slipping off the countertop. Even though she didn't know that reason at that point, she knew it must have been a good one. Something inside of her begged her to leave, as if she couldn't handle another bombshell like that Chance one. A feeling in her chest started to throb, and her body cringed with a grief she couldn't understand. "I should go. My friend has probably left without me by now. Thanks for your help."

"The offers always there." He stepped forward for a goodbye but stopped himself when he realised it wasn't a good idea in the slightest. "Remember that, Anna. I bet Jack and Diane would love to have you back."

"I'm sure." She winced, mixed with feelings about a man named Jack and his common-law wife named Diane. So sweet, and always so accommodating and safe… Annie had to leave before she broke down and walked back to Red Rock Canyon with them. The feeling of family was somehow overwhelmingly stronger than the need for revenge. But she knew that Benny could not get away with what he did.

Jessup's eyes drooped, and he fished through his pockets to return with his hand clenched around a decorated Zippo. He lobbed it, Annie catching it quickly.

"When you see Benny, shove this up is ass for us."

Turning the metal case in her fingers, the girl looked back up to her old friend. "I'll do more than that." She winked before bursting through the door into the morning sun.

Annie made Boone walk to Boulder Beach Campground for lunch. It wasn't in his plan – he preferred to keep moving, but the girl seemed drained. He'd only known her for a day, but the look on her face was one he didn't think she could pull.

Throwing herself under a shaded rock, she watched Boone pick off lakelurks with a bored look in his eye. She split that day's meal generously, leaving the most protein to the older man, a Sunset Sarsaparilla each, with a bottle of purified water to share. She and Boone had a canteen each but drinking slightly irradiated liquid from taps was probably not going to do them too well in the long run.

"Boone, lunch!" She called, watching the man lower his gun, throwing his gaze around to check for danger. She sighed quietly. "My pipboy will tell me when something gets close. Let's just eat so we can keep moving, okay?"

He sat down beside her, aching for the cool touch of the rock face. The makeshift rest felt like a cold blanket, cooling the burning muscles on his back. It was the simple things that kept him going.

"I wonder what it means when there's a star under the cap?" Annie asked after cracking open the lukewarm soda. "Lucky." Pocketing it, she looked over at her companion, half expecting an answer but not receiving any. "You don't talk much, do you?"

He looked at her, mid chew. Whenever she managed to catch his eye, she always gave him that same grin. Even if she looked mildly defeated and slightly angsty, Boone knew she thought he was a joke.

"It's not like it's a bad thing. I can't imagine you being a chatterbox." Boone couldn't manage to chew anymore as her mouth kept gabbling. "Someone as handsome and mysterious as you shouldn't have the lips of a Strip girl."

He looked back at the lake, chewing slowly to avoid looking flustered. Annie thought he simply blew her off, which made it even more fun to play with him. There was something about a man with no surface emotions that made her crazy – maybe she could play with him a little…Tease him into loving her in the most demeaning way possible…

She stopped, that grief in her chest squeezing tightly. Swallowing quickly, she glanced at her pipboy.

"Hey buddy, there's something to our left." She shot him an awkwardly plain smile and he put his food down.

"On it." Rifle in one hand, he peeked over the rock carefully. He returned less than a second later, a burning fire in his eyes.

"What?" Annie asked, pitching the soda. "What, Boone?"

"A couple of Legion boys." He grunted.

"How many is a couple?"

"About five."

"Five?" She struggled up, lifting her eyes over the rock to spy the Legionnaires, possibly new recruits just there to fuck with the Mojave. "That's not a couple! What in the hell are they doing up here? We're nowhere near anything to even do with them."

"Here to pick off any strays from Alpha, I guess." He crouched back down, his head down to sweep the packs on the ground, letting Annie catch a glimpse of his eyes in the sunshine.

"Shit…" She frowned, her hands beginning to shake. The nerves enveloped her whole, chilling strong shivers through her brittle spine. She heard Boone's gunfire, realising he was already up and fighting – leaving the girl gaping for action that she was surely missing out on.

Bullets cracked into the rock, sending debris everywhere as the kid with the submachine gun couldn't figure out how to aim properly. Boone picked him off first. The thing about Legion fighters was that they charged – they simply ran into battle taking shots like they were only BB pellets. It was like they didn't have a sense of self-preservation, only the ability to blindly follow orders from men in better uniforms. The thought made Boone grit his teeth – he knew all about that sort of work.

One had already reached the rock by the time Boone had to reload. Ditching that idea, he took his machete and struck it between the soldier's neck and shoulders, making the dope stumble off to the side. His Super Sledge cracked a piece of rock off as it fell, landing on Annie's hand in the process. Her breath hitched in her throat, staring painfully at the man writhing in agony by her feet. People were falling all around her and she hadn't done anything about it at all.

Annie leapt up in an act of confidence, knowing full well that she was not a child and she could take care of herself. She did not need Boone to take care of her, even though he was crouching away trying to reload. After her horrible near-death situation that very morning, she was intent on showing her new counterpart that he wasn't going to have to do all the work.

Her good hand found the sledge, hoisting it over her shoulder. Approaching the twitching man, she targeted his head and threw the weapon down. Her body screeched with appreciation – the muscle squeaking with something familiar and thrilling, her arms taking the impact like a pain conductor. His head crunched in easier than she had thought it would – expanding with a red-splatted halo around the man's neck stump. Using his shoulder as leverage for her boot, she pulled the sledge out and swung it back up and around, into the ribs of the enemy behind her. His machete caught her leather, slicing down her arm and leg as he fell at her feet. He had game, she would give him that.

Her breathing slowed as she counted. Boone killed two, she killed two – there was one more. Squinting into the distance, she saw him running for the hills. Shrieking in annoyance, she slammed the sledge down.

"I thought the Legion was supposed to be fearless, you fucking coward!"

But Boone was already beside her, taking out the man's legs.

"Don't kill him, let him fucking bleed out." Annie reached up and grabbed the hot barrel of his gun. The burn was nothing compared to the screams of her muscles. The feel of blood dripping through her fingers brought her down from her high, the wriggling of her digits dotting the ground with a pretty pattern. "I can't believe that. Caesar's fearless fucking army, my ass."

Boone inched his gun out of her hand, slinging it on his back. As the woman continued to swear and carry on, he surveyed her work. One man, well, what used to be a man, was coated with blood and bits of his own skull. His head had literally exploded, leaving only a haunting torso. The other man, however, was wheezing off to the side with a crushed chest. Boone left him there, finding pleasure in the fact that it was a horrible way to die. They deserved it though, they deserved every last bit of pain they suffered.

Bending to retrieve his machete from the crushed man's shoulder, Boone heard Annie go quiet. He turned to find her topless, mumbling angrily at her now torn leather armor. The contrast of her skin and the sun was shocking, not having seen a woman in this situation since… well... the overwhelming feeling of attraction was back, and it hurt his head. There was a very tempting female in front of him, a female with no sense of control, teasing him with her lips that muttered "Oh fuck me…" ("My armour is fucked, Boone!")

He turned around to face the lake. His face, still as blank as Mojave sky, heated a little. There was a wash of shame that came to smother him, Carla's body wrapped in his sheets after their third date coming to mind. It was that feeling all over again, but he didn't like it. It felt dirty.

"Can we wait here a little while longer? I have to repair this. There's no sense in having armor if I have an obvious weak spot." She sniffed, dropping the top to dig through her pack. "It won't take long, I promise."

He found a lakelurk in the distance to pick off. "Mhm."