This one's a little longer and hopefully a little better! Sorry about the previous chapter, though. I have been very.. whats the word... disheartened about my writing lately, but I received a review that sort of threw me back on track.

Genesis - Grimes

Annie was suffering alone in the women's barracks, trapped in an unrequited conversation with Jack's new 'girl friend' Janet. The new girl was babbling on about her excitement – something that would have interested the courier on any other day but instead the girl was wide-eyed and cringing under a squeaky mattress.

Annie and Boone had travelled far and wide to return the red-headed girl to the arms of her squeamish lover, bouncing through New Vegas like modern-day cupids, sweeping the woman off of her feet with promises of a shy guy watching her from afar with binoculars. The point shouldn't have sold so well, Boone thought to himself, finding the whole thing more creepy than romantic – but Annie would have none of it. It may have actually been the single most adorable thing in the history of the Mojave, according to her.

It was all a big adventure until they had run into Boone's old unit at McCarran - a group of snipers with tight faces and heavy guns. They all held the scars of Bitter Springs on their tired bodies, peaking Annie's interest and Boone's nostalgia. He had forgotten how proud he was wearing the uniform, but remembered the shame and anger that followed it, tied behind the memory like sickly slaves. The situation had left him lost for words – not speaking more than two syllables back to Nellis, scouting dangers from under the big moon.

The more they travelled, the closer they came to Bitter Springs. It was a looming figure on his horizon, crackling with lightning and booming with thunder that shocked every synapse in his brain. He didn't want to speak about it with Annie, but he knew he had to… one day. Not any time soon, however. Not ever, if that could be helped.

Annie took the situation in a completely different light – reading his quiet as a distant want to return to his old roots. She could not roll over and ask him to speak to her, as he was away with the other men. It was so odd sleeping alone, without someone beside her breathing softly and innocently. The women were all fun enough, but there was only so much gossip that one could take – especially when she didn't know a soul of who they were talking about.

But if Boone left her, she would be alone once more. She was dependent on his ability to keep her safe even in the most boring times. Veronica was just not the same, and Arcade drove her wild some days… Boone was the perfect companion; a keen eye and a damaged voice box. The thought of him leaving her to re-join his old friends scared her to the point of white knuckles wrapped in bed sheets.

There was no chance in hell that she would survive House's rough schedule by herself – she needed the sniper to keep her on the tracks and not in the muddy ditch below. What would life be without Boone?

She could always go back to Red Rock Canyon… insert herself into her old life and try and make due. She could ignore the fact that she had left for a very strong reason (an idea that had itched at her brain every time she got homesick) and could settle down with one of the nicer boys and possibly start a family. Annie didn't want to do the whole New Vegas thing anyway… She would leave the casino with House and disappear into the wastes like nothing had ever happened. She had had her revenge, and it was not as sweet a she had hoped, and that placed the warmest cherry on the sundae.

She pulled herself out of bed, excusing her behaviour with her menstrual cycle and went outside for a smoke. Her stomach was turning itself in knots with nerves, her brain running on extra battery power to over think itself into sickness. How selfish of her to presume that it was Boone's duty to look after her. He had a better chance of self-fulfilment with a life in the desert, helping out his professional buddies better New Vegas with red berets and high-tech scopes.

Lighting the cancer stick with Benny's old Zippo, she shook it closed with a tink.

Maybe it was time to set Boone free – the thought made her laugh. She doubted he would take that well. Annie kicked her bare feet in the cold air, sucking in a lungful of fumes to drain it through her teeth a breath later.

The door of the male barracks opened and she looked over, a boomer stomping down the stairs and towards the mess hall.

"Hey!" She jumped at the opportunity. The man glanced over, attention caught as she stood up. "Is my guy in there?"

"The soldier?"

"That's him." She ashed with a click of her wrist. "Can you grab him for me? Not literally, though… Just call him for me."

The man gingerly returned to the door, leaning in for a moment to speak softly to the room only to turn back around and wave a goodbye. Boone turned up a moment later, leaning cautiously out the door to check the scene. Realising it was only his partner he jumped off the stairs to approach her quietly. He took an outstretched cigarette, lighting it with the pack of matches lodged in his pocket.

"Something wrong?"

"Are you alright?" She asked him, sitting down and tapping the wood to urge him to join.

"I'm fine." He sat beside her.

"And you're sure about that?" She asked, patting him gently on the knee. "Because you've been quiet all afternoon… Didn't even cry when Jack and Janet were introduced." He shot her a look.

"I'm fine." He took a drag quietly, looking at her bare feet in amusement. "Is this all you wanted to ask?"

"Sorry if you were sleeping." Annie apologised, rolling the filter between her fingers.

"I wasn't."

They stayed in reticence peacefully before Annie flicked the butt away, looking up at her counterpart with her eyes that swelled specifically in the moon.

"If you want—" She paused, the words jumping out of her mouth nervously "… If you want to go and join your old team, don't let me stop you."

"Yeah." He gave her a flat look. "No."

"No?" She perked. "Why?"

"Because I don't want to." He spoke deadpan, making her heart leap up into her throat to drop back into the pits of her digestion with a graceful swan dive. She punched his arm in happiness.

"Don't let my enthusiasm fool you, Boone, you can leave whenever you want to." She told him, rubbing her own up suddenly in shyness.

"I know that."

"Well then…" She cleared her throat. "Thanks for staying with me. I know you've got your own schedule to tend to and spending all this time trailing beside me must bore you to death some days but… thank you for staying." She patted her own thighs with tight slaps. "Means a great deal to have a bit of first recon looking after me."

Boone looked down at her and she smiled at him, turning his gloomy mood into one of more guilt. He scolded himself for being quiet all afternoon, his mind piecing together that she was probably doing that woman thing where they take one thing completely out of context and worry themselves sick about it. Carla did it all the time, and Annie (as it seemed) was no different. He felt like an asshole.

"Do you think we could go see Bitter Springs some time soon? When we finish with these guys?"

He paled at the words.

"Why?" He asked, his voice as grating and stony as it had always been.

"Because I keep wanting to go see the Khans but there's something that's bothering me. There's a reason I left, I just know it. I just don't know exactly what it is." She looked away at the thought for a millisecond, returning her gaze to his. Their eyes burnt each other for a moment, his riling with sickness and hers with loneliness. "Bitter Springs will remind me. I know it. I need a reason to not go Red Rock." The man didn't say anything, breaking eye contact to stare helplessly at the hangars miles away. The girl caught onto his sudden mood change, eyes checking over the tightened jaw and strong grip on the taut wood of the stairs. She had possibly said something wrong, clicking back to Manny's sad look that one night back in Novac. Bitter Springs seemed like a touchy subject for any man in a beret.

Annie touched his leg softly, resting it to run her fingers up and down in a supposedly comforting rub.

"I know something went down in the ol' Springs, Boone, but I'm not going to ask you because I know it makes you uncomfortable. I could set you on fire and you wouldn't move because you are very rigid right now… Boone?" She waved her hand at him and he turned his neck to look at her again. "I'm kidding. Something's bothering you and I know it, you're not as hard to read as you think. You don't have to tell me, your secrets are your secrets and not mine, but I want to go back for a while."

"Not now."

"Not now." She nodded, placing her palm back into her lap. "When you're ready."

They sat in silence, staring up at the candle sky. It was lit by thousands of tiny white lights, just like the solar model at the Repconn centre. The grass around them blew in the wind, chilling up Annie's arms and legs and goose-bumping her scarred skin. Boone had lost himself in thought, his gaze soaked blank and dead. He wasn't wearing his sunglasses for the first time in what seemed like forever, the thought making Annie ease up a little.

Boone was a human after all – even he couldn't see in the dark. The realisation that he was still a man turned Annie confident. The man still had feelings buried deep inside him somewhere, and if a couple of words could ease his pain there was no harm in trying.

"I don't know what happened, but Manny didn't seem too proud when he mentioned it…" She started again, breaking him out of his thoughts sparring. "But hey, if you've killed a couple of Khans, Boone, I'm not going to be upset with you. I know we were pretty rowdy… I'm sure I tipped my fair share of NCR caravans back in the day… whatever you did was probably warranted."

"It wasn't." He said curtly, standing awkwardly to leave. She slipped next to him, tugging his arm as he avoided her gaze. "I'm going to go to bed now." She let him go, rubbing her hands together in the chilly air. "Good night."

"Night, Boone. Sleep well." She told him and he stood for a moment, taking her in with a pinch of propensity.

Was it selfish of him to keep her from finding her own past? He stared down at her, the moon brushing her with pale skin and bright eyes – an innocent spectre that was the personification of the last amount of lust he had in the shell of his body. For once he wanted to be back at the casino where she floated around in her pyjamas most of the time, talking only of stupid things that seemed unimportant at the time but turned the memories into something pleasant and not wrong.

He wanted so badly to have a double bed again where she could lay and talk to him all night, occasionally touching him to watch him squirm unhappily. The wastes only reminded him that he was alone and so was she, but in the casino they had built a nest that was their space. It felt criminal to be in a bunker full of men again, the testosterone pumping with bad jokes about things he probably couldn't relate to if he had even tried.

(They had even asked him about Annie – after he had carefully explained to them that they were not a 'thing'. Does she like tall guys? or Would she consider a long distance relationship? or his personal favourite I bet she looks fantastic under that armour. Does she look fantastic under her armour?

For the record she did look fantastic under her armour, but that thought was lodged in the deepest parts of his mind.)

"Boone?" She asked again, quietly this time, his gaze unnerving her slightly. He blinked back to life, grimacing openly before making the decision to rest his hand on her shoulder in an attempt to reach out. She took the hand in her own and squeezed it, giving it a quick kiss for good luck before he pulled away awkwardly to return to his bed.