Good morning, evening and night to you all.
I'm listening to Kimbra's album 'Vows'. It's pretty decent, give it a spin.
"Well, howdy there, partner! You've come a far piece, haven't ya?"
Even though it had reached 9 o'clock at night, the Strip remained the brightest thing Annie had ever seen. Dressed in her usual merc gear, Annie had hyped herself up all afternoon with the intentions to just walk into the Tops and take Benny out with no hesitation. Instead she had been hijacked by a robot cowboy; his face glitching on the screen of one of the Strip's securitrons.
This was not part of her plan. She gave Boone and annoyed look, praying that robots didn't have the ability to read facial cues. But if it could, it didn't say anything.
"Point me to the Tops, Victor, I have a score to settle." Hand on hip, touching the small pistol, she attempted to look threatening. Boone took note that her little show just made her look like a child with a toy gun.
"Hey now missy, don't get hasty. Ol' Vic is just the messenger. The head honcho of the Strip, Mr. House, is itching to make your acquaintance." Her hand slipped from her gun, not knowing whether to feel worried or to take the whole thing as a compliment. What could Mr. House want from her exactly? "Just head to the Lucky 38, it's the big ol' tower shaped like a roulette spinner."
"And why is a robot passing on his message?" Boone asked from behind her, his form taking away the threatening feeling floating around their heads. He knew that Annie didn't mix well with machinery. Even the robotic dog that the King owned made her a little awkward.
"Well, it was Mr House who made the securitrons… It's the least I could do, considerin'." The robot didn't seem too pleased that Boone had spoken for her. "Don't dawdle. He'll be waiting for you."
And with that, he rolled back off to his post, his face flickering back to a belligerent looking soldier. Annie looked at Boone, brows raised.
"I hate robots."
"I know."
"I mean, I'm thankful that it pulled me out of my grave and all, but-... Agh." She pulled a dead face. "I think Victor really wanted me to go see Mr. House. It was like he-"
"Threatened you?"
"Well, sort of." Annie looked down at her boots, standing awkwardly at the gate while Boone drank in the place he often tried to forget. "I should go and see Mr. House. Get it over with. Looking at all of these robots makes me wonder what the Tops' security is like, anyway... I'm not going in guns ablaze when there's a good change I'd get vaporized before getting through the door."
After the last few days of mulling over her offer, Boone began to realize that he was in it for the long haul. He had to stop her from killing herself, which she obliviously tried to do nearly every day... He nodded.
"It was a bad idea anyway."
"Thank you. See, this is what I mean - don't let me do stupid shit." Her lips pursed into a smile, patting him gently on the arm. "You're an angel, Boone."
He scoffed at her, following her footsteps to the foot of the lit up stairway. Victor was standing at the door, waiting for them. Annie sighed, looking over at Boone with worry quite clear in her dinner-plate eyes.
"House wants something from you. No one's been in this casino for a long time, Anna. I don't think he'd lure you in there to kill you." His words calmed her a little.
"Alright, but if I die in there and you survive, I want you to go kill Benny for me, okay?"
He shrugged at her, causing her to 'tsk' and hike her dress up a bit higher. This 'House' character was going to have to work for her attention, especially when she turned on that sultry voice that had clawed at her throat for days. No one interrupted her master plans, not even the father of New Vegas.
"Hey there Little Lady, it's nice of you to come visit so soon! Now remember, your friend here can't come with you. He can wait in the lobby."
"Will he be okay there?" She glanced back at the haughty man who was staring at the robot with his usual dead eyes.
"Safest casino in all Vegas, missy."
Biting her lip, she let the robot take her inside. Boone sat down on a sofa right in front of the elevator, arms folded across his chest with little interest in the forbidden castle. He and Annie had to be the first people in that casino for years - this was an interesting point in history and he was a part of it.
But really all he wanted was to go back to the Wrangler and go to sleep in the bed he thought his own.
"Boone!" Annie burst back through the elevators an hour later. "This is where we'll be staying from now on, okay?"
Almost asleep in his chair, Boone jumped at the sudden noise. She laughed at him, heading towards the door.
"Victor, we'll just go and get our stuff from the Wrangler and we'll be back soon." She flashed her keycard at the robot, urging her companion to get up with a nod.
When they were back through the gates to Freeside, the smile slipped off of Annie's face. Her shoulders slumped and she looked up at the man, eyes wide with dread.
"I was killed for a platinum chip. I already knew that, but what I didn't know was that that chip held the key to Vegas. House roped me into his plans - now I have to kill Benny... But it won't be for me; it'll be for House. It just takes all the fun out of it."
"Why do we have to stay at the Lucky 38?" Boone asked, not too excited to be sharing a casino with literally no one other than Annie. That was an eerie thought.
"It's a trust thing. If House thinks I'm really on his side, he won't have me killed. The man is a computer screen, Boone. That terrifies me." They reached the Wrangler quicker than expected, probably due to Annie's ridiculous pacing. "I don't want to be a pawn for a man who I can't even talk to face to face... How am I supposed to know what he's really thinking?"
Pushing through the door, the Garrett twins were shocked to see them.
"Back so soon..?" Francine asked.
"We've come to get our stuff." Annie moaned. "It's not you guys, it's me."
"That's disappointing, doll." James snapped his fingers, making Annie's cheeks tint a soft pink. James was one of those men who swung both ways. He had a thing for robots too, which Annie found amusing considering she and Boone were the ones that had to go out and find FISTO. He always had some way to make Annie laugh. "You'll be back though... They always come back."
"How could I not want to stay in the finest casino this side of Vegas? Of course I'll be back."
James winked at her "You flatter us."
Their room was just as they had left it, under the belief that they would be back later that night. Annie took all their clothes from the drawers and shoved them in her pack, Boone taking the collection of weapons that Annie had left on the long bookcase. Even though Freeside was a bad district, they still felt safe at the Wrangler. It was like a home, albeit a home for chemheads and alcoholics, but still a home.
"It's such a nice place here, I don't know why I agreed to leave." Annie mumbled to herself, rubbing the back of her neck and watching her counterpart make the bed.
"If it guarantees your safety, then you have to do it." He replied stoically, mid-lean over the small bed. She wondered if he couldn't wait to take his shoes off, too. It had been a long day of tying up loose ends around Freeside, and all the hype she had caused in her brain for the sake of killing Benny was wearing off. Now she was just tired.
"Speaking of safety, I don't want to talk to you about whatever House is doing while we're in the Strip. I'm sure he's got ears everywhere in the place... So if you have something to say to me, just tell me that you 'want to go home'." Hoisting the ever increasingly heavy backpack onto her shoulders, Annie sniffed loudly.
He nodded, tucking the last edge under the mattress before straightening up himself.
"And tomorrow we can look around the Strip. I wont go see Benny until it's nighttime, that way there's a better chance of him not noticing me straight away. Then again if he's the boss he won't be down the front desk…" She smiled to herself, eyes widening with potential ideas. "I'll ask around."
"Don't get too ahead of yourself."
She brightened. "I won't," the opportunities were endless "I promise."