Hello hello, my friends! I'm sorry I disappeared for a while there - I didn't exactly mean to I just kept writing and everything sounded terrible. So today, in a fit of angsty writers block, I forced out this 18 page long piece of goofy shit that made me feel tender emotions and made me laugh at my own great jokes (I really hope you can forgive me)
Any comments and criticisms are always welcome in my book. You don't have to worry about me sobbing horribly anymore (you can't hear it through the screen anyway) so help me out and tell me how I'm doing. I will also attempt to answer any critics because I only realised you could reply directly very late in the game and I've been a little lazy.
Alright, here we go.
Crying - Roy Orbison / Saving My Love For You - Kay Starr / Apply Some Pressure - Mark Ronson's 'Version'
Boone and Veronica returned home two days later in the early morning. The sun was just rising over the strip through the thickening clouds, the sky still pink and plush like the morning they had left. Veronica was tired and sore, falling victim to a muddy sinkhole on the way back from Jacobstown. Boone was just excited to claim a sleep that wasn't stiffened by paranoia. The two were let down by the idea that they had to go scoop out a new brain for Rex – preferring to head home for the night so they could restock and rejuvenate. It just felt too weird without Annie.
They got along fine, sure. It wasn't weird or anything. It was just… stagnate without the courier. Boone didn't get Veronica's jokes half the time and Veronica grew weary of never getting a hit in with the sniper around. With Annie around, the man's attention never faltered from his partner and the scribe would have been free to punch things without a bullet embedded in it ten seconds before she could reach it. Veronica liked Boone though – he was easy to please and never spoke out of turn.
The elevator opened to a dark room that reeked of whiskey and cigarettes and something floral, blankets strewn out of doorways and the bathroom's fan systems whirring at full ball. But the air was crisp with relaxation, like the two had missed out on a whopping love and peace festival. Veronica flitted over to check the bedrooms, where she found Cass and Raul passed out happily in their respective beds.
Boone leant in to check on Annie, Rex darting between his legs to take up space on the weapons trunk at the end of their bed. The sniper couldn't seem to find the courier buried beneath their blankets and in a fit of worry he turned on the light. Much to his disgust, the bed was empty and still freshly made, just like he had left it three mornings ago. He dumped his pack on the floor and turned around to find Veronica, his gut sitting terrible at the thought of leaving Annie to deal with the NCR alone.
Knowing Annie, she had gotten herself arrested and was awaiting her trial. That, or she had finally lost it and returned back to the desert to live a life of marauding and killing things for no reason. He honestly should not have expected any less – and the irritating idea of knowing he could have stopped anything bad from happening began to rot in his head. The sniper let a loud breath slip out of his nose and the scribe appeared by his side, cocking her head silently.
"No Annie?"
"No."
The woman thought for a moment, stretching out her potato sack arms with a yawn before flopping them back down to her side with a loud slap. "Check upstairs. Cass says she's there."
"Guys, I'm in the bathroom." Annie's tired voice rang out from down the hall, sleepily dragging over the vowels as she attempted to sniff away what seemed to sound like a cold. Boone turned on his heel and greeted her in the doorway, met with the clean face of the courier who appeared to have just gotten out of the bath. She looked absolutely wrecked; large brown eyes half-shut and watery, followed by her hands that usually only shook so bad when she was holding a gun. Annie was leaning against the wooden frame, towel wrapped around her middle in attempt to hide what was usually so public.
Boone tried to remember a time when Annie had looked so tortured, but he could call nothing to mind. He placed his hand in the space between her shoulder blades and helped her wobble towards their bedroom. Annie's skin felt like she was on fire, burning through the pads of his fingers with every shudder that rolled across her seemingly fairer skin.
"Night Veronica~" Annie drawled softly as Boone pushed her into the room, his mind jumping to conclusions about the courier's previous two days as Veronica simply grinned.
"Night boss. Feel better, okay?"
"I feel fine." Annie had grumbled from the corner of the room, Boone shutting the door behind them as he leant back onto the hard wood. The courier ditched her towel, abandoning it by the foot of the bed as she crawled onto the mattress. "To be honest with you Boone, I'm pretty sure I'm dying." She muttered as she attempted to press herself up with her elbows – failing miserably as her head flopped back onto the bed.
"Been sleeping?" The sniper asked, pushing forward to towards Annie's cupboard. Pulling out bundles of fabric, he decided on a light nightdress to keep her temperature down and tossed it gently over her. She grunted quietly in thanks.
"I haven't been able to." She answered, slow fingers gingerly gripping the fabric as her tired eyes attempted to find the end of the dress so she could pull it over her head. She failed quickly, laying back unhappily as she embraced the sheets in a fit of tiredness. "I think I fell asleep in the-" (her yawn reverberated off the walls) "-bath though…"
Boone couldn't even begin his usual show of watching the girl flounce around, thoroughly disturbed by her shuddering eyelids and hitched breathing – the courier appearing to be severely beaten down and very lethargic about life. It wasn't Annie's usual tune, and the sniper began to work a scenario in his brain where he could get her to curl up in bed (fully dressed and content) and have her sleep the day away. She seemed to need it.
"I had a bad dream while you were gone." She started up again, managing to force herself upright, turning the nightdress in her hands in attempt to find the arm-holes. "I realize why I left now… the Khans…uh."
"Bad?" He asked politely as he stepped towards her, setting the material straight and holding it over her head. She obliged quietly, burrowing into the slip and embracing the soft sheen of silk. Annie let out a happy groan, looking up at the man with a glint of admiration before setting her gaze onto her cold feet.
The girl fell back onto the bed and crossed her legs over, rubbing her hands over her tired face sporadically and almost painfully, as if the thought pinched at nerves. Her hand wrapped and tangled through her longing bangs and tugged softly. "Could be worse." She started, clenching her fist to feel the sting of pulled hair. "Could be better, too. I know who I am now, I suppose... " (yawn) "Come to bed with me?"
"It's five in the morning, Anna." The man gave her a soft sigh as her face fell, buried instantly by ten rows of shivering fingers.
"Please?" Her voice was muffled and aching through small gaps of hands.
He semi-obliged and pulled up the desk chair beside her, taking a detour around the dresser again to pull out some undergarments to keep the girl decent. She took them begrudgingly, still buried under her hands and shaking like a little girl in trouble.
"Oh Boone, is it bad of me to have no remorse for the people I've killed?" She asked suddenly, tugging on her bangs even harder that time.
"That's how we survive around here." He spoke quietly, lighting a quick smoke before leaning on his knees. Even after losing his thrilling adrenaline rush that had birthed from two weeks of Legion hunting, Boone still felt comfortable comforting Annie. He felt he didn't need a clear head to talk to her, because sorting out her little issues cleared his own. The sniper had grown quite fond of that fact, filling his blank mindtime over the past two days with the babbling courier.
He shouldn't have let her stay alone, he figured. He felt terrible about that, but in saying that Annie did put her foot down quite sternly on that one. It appeared over the last week or so, since the courier had inherited the Strip, that Annie was constantly on the brink of a tantrum. He'd never seen Annie at the peak of her personality, like the others (Manny, or Cass) had described to him before – and that worried him just a little. When she was with him and him alone, she only threw childlike-fits that consisted of her getting sulky and pacing like an upset mother.
"Yeah… but… I dunno, Boone, what about the people you could have saved but didn't?"
The man kept his steady eye on her, the girl tossing from side to side in irritation at her own behavior. It was like the energy was pushing through the tips of her fingers and toes, her own limbs tensing and twitching with the current of her condensed feelings. Her own fingers were back to gripping the hair on the back of her head, eyes shut and brows screwed together as if she had been trapped in the worlds most uncomfortable place.
Boone felt the same, suddenly aware of his entire being. Did she know what had happened? What he had done? Annie was never one for dancing around the subject though… never dressed things up. She had to be talking about herself. There's no way she knew, right? His body was rigid and he could feel the blood pumping through his system, spurred on and probably catching all the uncomfortable tension that was radiating off Annie.
He had to calm down and get his head back solid so he could set Annie to sleep. That would fix her, easily.
"I spend all day thinking about how I'm gonna try and help fix this stupid desert up and then I remember that I'm not the person who I think I am, you know?" She sat up suddenly, curling around her torso to snatch the cigarette from his fingers. She took a deep breath in, exhaling in a set of coughs before she buried her fist in her mouth. "Like how am I supposed to get these people to trust and help me when they know, and I know, who I am and what I've done. There's something else in my head, like I can feel it, Boone…
"… I was a part of something big, I can feel it. There was this long road-" her arm moved forward and back, fingers dragging the smoke through the air in dizzied patterns as the sniper fought to hear every word she quickly breathed "-and I walked it so many times and now I don't walk it anymore and I think I'm going crazy, Boone." She turned and caught his gaze, the man taken aback by the sadness and fear in her eyes that had just made their very first début. She looked as if she was to cry but nothing came. "I don't think I'm cut out for this."
"This coming from the mouth of a woman who hasn't slept in two days." Boone forced out the words perfectly, capturing his stony persona to a T. He was glad he had the strength to force that out – he didn't he could deal with Annie in that state. What was that? Boone knew she could talk underwater but that was insane. "I think you should get some rest. It will make you feel better."
"You think so?" She breathed, retracting her teeth from her knuckles, eyes shining like a deer in the headlights.
"Yeah." He nodded. "Come on. Sleep." He ushered her back down, pulling the blanket from underneath her and setting it at her feet. The girl looked stupidly at him and pulled an upset face.
"Will you do me a favor?" She asked quietly as he began to back away, the man watching her body rise from the dead one last time that night.
"Sure."
"Will you take my pipboy and plug it in to Yes Man for me? It's in the bathroom." He slipped out of the door and leant in to turn off the light. "Take Veronica with you!"
After spending ten or so minutes shifting books and pieces of scrap electronics from the super computer, Veronica finally accomplished syncing of files. The two companions stood awkwardly in what had turned into Annie's chamber – a brightly lit bachelor-pad lived in by a book-hoarding, noodle-eating courier who had given herself cabin fever by staring out at the revolving outer world.
Yes Man greeted them both with a creepy enthusiasm, having being put in the friendly pile in the computer's system the first night of Annie's reign. Boone didn't like the look of the eerie bastard that stared back down at him. He honestly didn't blame Annie for going a little weird.
Veronica clipped and pressed the pipboy around her wrist, powering it up to illuminate the dead-on-his-feet vault boy. The scribe let out a tired sigh as she flicked to check the file sharing. "She's been living on NukaCola and noodles for two days. You think this is how House started?"
The sniper pulled a face and folded his arms. "If that's true, we should probably stop this."
"I'm sure she'd appreciate living in a cryogenic chamber." The girl grinned and popped the clamps from her arm, rolling the machine off and into her palm.
"I think that's the last thing she wants." The sniper straightened up, heading over to check out the view from straining glass windows. The realization of their height above ground made him a little sick, edging back a few paces before Veronica joined him.
"You're getting that vibe too, huh?" She pulled up an orange sofa chair and rested her elbows on it. Boone looked at her awkwardly. "About Annie. She's getting weird."
"Yep."
Boone wanted to avoid that conversation. Maybe Veronica needed a sleep as well. The scribe was twisting dials and pressing buttons on the courier's pipboy, humming a small tune as she thought something over. She perked when she came to a conclusion.
"Take Annie to get that brain with you. I'll stay here and look after the place, make sure everything is running smoothly."
Boone thought the offer over very quickly, picking up one large flashing caution sign that made him take two steps out of a weird fantasy and into one of sneaking suspicion. Although Annie seemed to trust the Brotherhood scribe with her life, Boone still understood that if the old faction decided it wanted its hands on Annie's treasure trove then Veronica was going to be the one to do the duty. The look on his face made the scribe guffaw horrendously.
"Don't worry. If I burn the 38 down at least you'll see the flames from Novac." The brunette drawled easily, earning a stiff look from the sniper. "Look, if it makes you feel any better, we can all take up shack at the Wrangler for a few days. Lock the tower until you guys get back."
The sniper gaped over the thought for another moment, chewing over the rushing ideas of Annie not being a rabbling imbecile for more than a day. The thought that bothered him the most was the fact that it was going to be just them again. If they brought Cass along, the two rowdy women would get him killed. Raul would be a nice change to the scenery but the sarcasm would grate them both down. It would have to be just them – just like old times – an attempt to get the girl back on two feet so she didn't crash and burn miserably under only the beginning of immense pressure.
Sometimes Boone forgot that the sad woman pawing at his chest was the last hope for the Mojave. In a little area that was bubbling with tension (he could barely feel it up in Jacobstown but that was before they were nearly assassinated on the way home) Annie was the mediator. She didn't want it but she was rotting her brain to try and help. The mucky shape of Annie in his mind cleared itself for a moment –the man realizing that she was more important to him than he made her out to be.
She wasn't just sniveling Annie… she was the courier – spreading whispers of hope around the dusty towns that really did need it.
Feeling enlightened by the idea of some quality time with the number three (although the only remaining) woman in his life (third behind his mother and Carla), Boone nodded in acceptance, pressing back on the tip of his foot to push towards the elevator.
The four companions were gathered at the kitchen table, drinking light liquor and gabbling about the political situation in their current desert. Boone, a firm man for the NCR, was facing an ever-growing battle against the three other fairly neutral teams. Cass was bitching about the balls of the McLafferty woman while Veronica tittered on about the use of NCR force in Primm. The sniper was not a man of words, so he found himself gathering and storing the sloped side of personal opinion – one that was not his own.
Halfway through a general discussion about the current state of the Mojave Outpost, the bedraggled courier appeared in the door frame. Wrapped in a powder blue jacket and her nightdress slip, Annie pushed her spastic hair from her forehead and beamed in appearance.
"Hey guys. How much of the story did I miss?" The courier asked, skimming past them all to dig around in the fridge, returning with some squirrel on a stick. She had her pipboy singing a soft tune, glowing with electric amber notes and lists.
"Only a few paragraphs, boss." Raul returned, earning him a whopping grin from the black-haired woman. She plonked down at the head of the table, right beside the grinning scribe and the pink-cheeked redhead. Annie skimmed a drink of Veronica's sarsaparilla, making quick eye-contact with her sullen looking partner.
"Alright, well, now that I feel a thousand times better," the courier leant forward, flicking a few dials on her pipboy to mute the music " straight to business. I have been working on an action plan for the next few weeks. I figure you'll all take this pretty well considering the amount of bottles I see."
"Just get it over with." Cass muttered and shot Annie a cheeky grin, the courier returning it gratefully.
"Before I start, I want to thank Boone and Veronica for going to Jacobstown with Rex." The woman flattened her palms on the table, pushing off an air of professionalism – making the four companions break out in short sharp laughter. Annie wasn't fazed, pressing forward with an even bigger row of teeth. "And thanks for putting me to bed, too. I think I nearly thought myself stupid."
"No problem, boss." Veronica cooed, ruffling up happily. Boone nodded at her blankly.
"How was Jacobstown?" Annie continued. The scribe brightened and then faltered, both pleased and confused at Annie's sudden pulse of leadership. Boone beat her to it.
"We found the man who does the surgery. Just have to find a dog with a good brain."
Annie thought for a second, confused at the concept before leaning back into her chair. "Where do we get one of those?"
"I'm guessing you find a dog, boss." Raul interjected and Annie rolled her eyes openly at the old ghoul.
"I'll get mine one day, old man." She waved her finger at him before sniggering away. "I guess we'll go find a dog. Any old dog or a certain dog?"
"We were thinking that old trash yard near Novac." Veronica piped up.
"Old Lady Gibson." Boone added.
"She has a lot of dogs." The scribe finished.
"Alright, Old Lady Gibson is gonna give us one of her dogs. Easy. Okay, now we get down to business."
"State your case, boss." Cass slapped her hand on the table and Annie giggled away, swatting the air.
"Please don't call me that, you know how much it bothers me."
"That's why we do it, boss."
Annie squinted at them all until she felt it necessary to stop, folding herself to read her pipboy under the harsh fluorescent lights of the kitchen. "I've been thinking, while Boone and Veronica were gone and in light of my sudden treaty with the NCR, that with the—whats that word? I can't spell anything." She pressed her nose to the screen "with the stability of whatever the hell is going on in this place, that its time to start to pull things together. Alright. Cass,
"I need you specifically to do me a huge favour. You know enough about caravans to get one up and running again. If you're up for it again."
"Before you go any further, Annie, let me remind you that I don't work for anyone but myself." The caravaneer kicked back in her seat, rocking on the two back feet. "So don't think you can roll in here and start bossin' me around."
"I thought you'd say that." The courier rubbed the ugly welt on her head, eyes rolling in their sockets. "Listen, I'm gonna give you some caps to start up your business again. I don't want any of your profits and I don't want nothin' to do with your work ethic. I just need you to take some stuff places for me. I know I can trust you not to mess with the stock."
The redhead sat the chair on four legs instantly, eyes narrowed cautiously at the serious looking courier.
"I'm not going to put you on the spot, so I don't want an answer now. Just think about it."
"What's in it for you?"
"I already said that, Cass." The courier pulled a straight face before taking the first bite of her warming dinner. "I don't want nothin' but someone to move my stuff around."
"What kind of stuff?"
"Scrap metal mostly." Annie shrugged. "Need it up to Nellis, cause they're building that aeroplane… some to North Vegas to keep the fence up. Just around small towns, keep the caps moving."
The four companions watched the courier closely, not having heard a serious idea from the woman's mouth in, well, never.
"My plans are still in the first steps so don't expect any miracles straight away." The courier sighed. "We just have so many resources, it would be a real waste to let them sit there and rot."
"Don't overdo it, Anna." Boone noted in monotone from the back of the cluster, earning a group nod. "We have bigger things to think about."
"Yeah." The courier nodded. "That's what I'm doing. If those Boomers get that plane running then we have a mighty powerful ally if those red bastards try anything."
Veronica looked at the sniper, the man returning a look just as bland as the courier tattered on about something ridiculous ("What if they even dropped mininukes?!"). They both mentally agreed to Veronica's proposition – they were to get Annie out of the casino and into the wild. They had to turn her back into the loudmouthed asshole that would rather beat the shit out of people than help them.
It was decided – Boone was to take Annie to Novac for a while. A holiday to clear the woman's head.
"I don't, uh, like the look of those clouds, Boone." Annie didn't seem to want to leave the casino. A few days of soaking up all things technological, the courier seemed to have gained a slight fear of nature. The sky seemed blue as could be, pinking in the sunset as the bright bulb of light sank into the distance. Boone had found it to be better to travel at night - the rain dying down around five in the afternoon. It was much safer to avoid being lost in the thick Mojave rain.
Annie was bouncing on her fairly new leather boots, keen to get out onto the road to Novac but shaking in her shoes at the thought of being away from the giant dock of information in her casino. Up in there she had a reading on everything – she basically knew everything. Yes Man had freed up thousands upon thousands of House's old files and she hadn't even made a dint in them yet.
Although, she did feel a little worn down after staring at Yes Man's strange face all day. She could not deny that her brain felt like it could have walked out on her and never returned.
Annie was very excited, however, to be with Boone for a while. They had been strained for time with each other ever since the other three moved in. There was no doubt in her mind that one of the things that bothered her the most nowadays was the fact that he wasn't around as much. It wasn't his fault though, she supposed.
After that pitiful dream in the Wrangler bed, Annie had resigned herself to behind her computer. There was nothing in her head other than the upset screaming of Danny's wife. It horrified her that it could have just as easily been Boone and his wife, or Cass and her caravan… She spent those two days curled up on a bar chair, reading everything she could about the Mojave and what made it tick. Annie made a promise to herself the moment she woke up that afternoon, and realised that was there was something more out there. There definitely was more. And if she could do anything to help, she would do it with passion.
Those long roads in her mind made her gut ache harder than when she thought about Danny and Malcolm… and she still had another four or so years missing from her life. It just kept going.
But still… a few days out with Boone wouldn't hurt her.
Somewhere between the 188 and Novac, Boone and Annie became very aware of the rocking clouds that seemed to swoop in above them. At first the winds were sending them towards the Outpost, but in the last minute they appeared to redirect themselves towards the two travellers. There was flashing in the night sky followed by a quick and deep rumble, sending the robotic dog spasmodic and whimpering.
The sniper was quick to act, tugging Annie's pipboy for a quick confirmation of the area. "El Dorado's up ahead." He nodded in the direction, struggling to keep steady as Rex attempted to hide between his legs. "If it gets any worse we can stop in there."
"I thought you said it would be better to travel at night…" Annie frowned at her companion, slightly terrified by the oncoming darkness chewing up the usually bright stars. She'd watched the previous nights storm in horror from the giant windows of the casino.
"Can't predict the weather." He grunted back from behind her, keeping a keen eye on the windy distance. There were no animals in sight – a bad sign to say the least. He had been too keen to leave the casino, so he hadn't thought his plan through well enough.
But in saying that, he really couldn't predict the weather. It could have been perfectly sunny at three in the morning and he wouldn't have questioned it.
A harsh gust of wind blew up the road towards them, exploding Annie's ponytail into a rush of thick, black curls. Boone chewed the inside of his bottom lip, taking a glance behind them before speeding up to catch the courier.
"Let's get into that gas station before it hits."
"Oh, so now it's gonna hit, Mr. I-can't-predict-the-weather." The courier frothed, tripping over a shuddering Rex. The sniper shook his head at her, no time for your sass, woman, tugging the girl along softly with her arm in his grip. The quicker he got them both inside, the quicker they avoided some hectic Mojave wasteland fairy tale that usually ended up being realer than necessary. The last story he heard had contained a deathclaw, gale force winds and an unsuspecting NCR soldier.
Rex was pattering strangely in front of them, speeding up suddenly and slowing back down, as if suffering incredible lag. After a while of the speed walking, Annie decided to scoop down and pick the poor creature up, feeling sorry for the half-brain-dead dog. He had a fair bit of weight to him, slowing Annie down a great deal as the two partners were hassled by the ever-increasing winds.
Boone skidded her to a stop only a few feet from the garage door. Although the wind had fought most of Annie's hair from her ponytail, the courier could still squint along the snipers pointed arm to see the flashes of red in the desert behind the building. The man pushed her away to the building, the woman sprinting off to set the dog down on the front steps before returning to her man's side.
The sniper had his eye down his scope, harassed by the whipping sand and pressed sideways by the hustling gusts. He managed to line up his shot, firing tightly to pick off one of the red-coated bastards that were belting towards them from the distance. There was a spatter of gunshots over the whistling wind.
"I can't help you if you don't bring them over here." Annie had wrenched her sledge from her back, suddenly eager to crush someone's skull. She had forgotten how intoxicating a rush of adrenaline was. Rex let out a rough bark from behind them, drawing Annie's attention to a leathered-up idiot swinging a crowbar at her head.
The courier stepped out-of-the-way and swung her body to annihilate the suddenly there Viper. The man staggered away as Boone's rifle cracked into the distance again, the companions stiffened and sharp from the sudden threat of two common enemies. The man hunched over, his leather armour suddenly bursting with a couple of sharp ribs and a blobbing rush of blood.
The viper stumbled back towards her, finding strength to wretch the bar above his head to bring it down on Annie's outstretched forearm. The woman hissed for a second, angered, looking back up at the viper with evened eyes. She ditched the sledge and jumped him.
Pushing his middle down to the ground, she dug her knees into his biceps and went to town on his face with her good arm. With her slightly crippled and majorly screaming arm she fought for the knife that was holstered on her hip. The man was flailing for his crowbar, his grunts drawing Boone's attention or a split second - the sniper scoping the situation quickly before deciding Annie had it under control.
Attempting to work out the angles of a nice and neat neck shot, Annie lined her knife awkwardly on the man's neck. She wasn't too excited to get her nicely cleaned armor soaked in some asshole's blood (although her knees where squelching in what appeared to be his guts). The poor struggling man beneath her gave her an awkward feeling in her stomach, almost guilty about ridding the world of whatever this guy was...
Boone's shots were becoming quite regular, clearing out a decent half of whatever Legion squad was coming their way, turning Annie shivering and nervous. Of course it would be their luck to be jumped by two different teams! Obviously they were to expect the Legion attack because of Boone's little incident... but Vipers? Just moments before she managed to dig the knife into the thrashing man's neck, Annie was seized by her curly pony tail, dragged backwards and off the lost cause.
She was met by the tip of what appeared to be a shining knife. The glint in the metal flashed with the burst in the sky.
Annie rolled out-of-the-way, staggering up to jump away awkwardly. "Boone!" she shrieked, lunging for her sledge. The man swung around and took the head off the bitch that was looming over Annie, just after the woman managed to cut a red ribbon down the front of the courier's armor. Annie burst out with a happy laugh and nodded in approval at the man, earning her a stern stare before he turned back around to deal with the impending situation.
The Legion men were only a few yards from them now, darting through the wind towards the two that were barely illuminated by the torch on Annie's pipboy. There was another clatter of thunder and a sheet of rain fell from the skies above, spattering over Boone's glasses. He holstered his gun.
Rex had latched onto the last Viper in the empty garage, dragging the screaming man from his ritual by the left leg. The thug was scrambling for his gun, stopped a moment short by the crushing force of Annie's sledge over his right arm. The howls of pain were drowned out by the sudden surge of water that wrecked all visuals.
Boone backed himself into the garage, taking shelter under the rotting roof as he scoped as hard as he could through the thick rain. He felt safe in the darkness of the garage, knowing full well that whoever was going to come in would be easy pickings for his limited range and ease of light. Annie flicked the light off her pipboy, stumbling over a pile of what appeared to be gutted rattlesnakes.
The courier cornered the dog and crouched around him while the sniper took a steady breath, sitting like a dumb duck waiting to be found. It killed him inside that he couldn't just run back out there and rip their faces off with his bare hands but that would be stupid. He had Annie to think about.
A body jumped in through the mist with the whirring of a ripper, suddenly decapitated by a well-aimed shot from the strong man in the soaking wet red beret. The saw rumbled and gurgled in the rain, running to a spitting stop as it grew waterlogged by the crushing drops.
There was another boom of thunder and a second man staggered in, taken out by a bullet through the shin before Boone lowered the scope and watched him twitch for a while. Annie observed in quiet, wondering how deep the strict severity had buried itself in Boone's mind. Throwing him her ratty 10mm, she watched on in silence as her partner shot out the knee of the Legion soldier, his muddy boots rolling the gagging man out into the throttling rain.
Gathering his backpack and companion, the sniper invited the courier to pry her way through the locked door in the garage.
After the sacrifice of three lock picks, Boone and Annie struggled to shut the door against the whipping winds, leaning back to scrape the wet sand from their faces as they attempted to calm down. The two hadn't been expecting such a quick and meaningful firefight - and Boone had proved himself once again by taking out an entire Legionary assassination team, sent directly for the two of them under order of Caesar. He did feel a little proud.
Annie seemed to enjoy the sudden peacefulness of the empty gas station. She wrapped Rex up in a ratty blanket and buried him under the counter; snuggling happily into the small, warm space. The girl then began to raid the shelves, wheeling toy cars away and cringing around cans of cram.
"We won't be starving, that's for sure." She muttered happily as the sniper stalked around the perimeter, crushing the radroach family breeding in the bathroom. The courier began to harvest a few blocks of bubblegum. "How come we've never come in here before?"
"Guess." Boone answered flatly from the office. The roof had begun to leak, dripping with clicks of metronome onto the linoleum floor. The courier sent him a polite laugh from the main room and turned to find him behind her, rifle in hand and glasses tucked into his front pocket. His face stayed in the same rocky demeanour as he brushed past her, starting to clean a corner for the two of them to curl up in.
"How long do you think it will last?" Annie asked, slivers of rain spitting on the floor up from the whirring whirlybird that appeared to be spinning out of control above them.
"What?" Boone looked up from his bag, halfway through pulling out dry clothes. His beret was tucked in his back pocket, glowing red in the dark room.
"The storm. Reckon we'll get out of here tonight?" She asked, catching a warm dress that she could stay decent in while they waited out the storm. He tugged off his shirt and changed it quickly, pinning it up on the highest shelf with a few slugs of scrap metal.
"No way to tell." He kicked an empty box of Sugar Bombs out-of-the-way and set himself down, tugging and adjusting his beret over his head "We'll have to wait it out."
He watched as she unzipped her armour, letting it slap the floor with puddles of water. The dress she pulled on was too long, hanging over her hands and hitting her lower calves so she looked like a lanky old maid. He sniffed a laugh at her when she pulled a face.
"Well then," she plonked down beside him, tucking her heels under her thighs as she waved a box at him "bubblegum?"
"No thanks." He patted it away midair and Annie sighed loudly, resting her head against the shaking walls as the box bounced away. "How long do you want to stay in Novac?"
"As long as we need, I suppose. Not too long, obviously." She turned to face him slowly. "Why? You wanna stay for a while?"
He thought about his words for a moment, breaking eye contact to focus on the rusty leg of a nearby set of shelves. "No."
"Alright." She nodded awkwardly. "If we get out by tonight, we'll stop by Old Bitch's and then we'll have a bit of a rest and go back to the 38. Deal?"
"Deal."
Annie folded her arms across her chest as silence swept over the room. All that could be heard was the faint roar of wind and the dense patter of rain on the tin roof, varying in intensity every few minutes.
Their closeness was like a furnace, pushing out heat and enveloping the room in what felt like a warm blanket. It had been a long time since they had been awake and in such close proximity of each other - like it had been a while ago. There was no Veronica or Cass sitting between them like they usually did; it was them and them only. The air prickled with some kind of tension.
"Just us again, huh?" Annie asked quietly as Boone lit himself a cigarette. When he bothered to look back down at her again, he was greeted by those round and intrusive eyes. They weren't brimming with whatever sycophantic glitter like they generally were, but with a warm, almost loving sheen. He fought to look away but he found he couldn't; rooted to the spot by his normally so reliable boots. "I'm sorry if this makes you uncomfortable but I've missed it... You."
"S'alright." He muttered through the filter. "I get it." He drew his feet flat and rested his elbows on his bent knees. Annie looked him over quietly as she bundled her messy hair into her palms, squishing them to her cheeks as she thought for moment. She had so many things to say but nothing seemed important enough to be bothering him...
"I'm also real sorry if I freaked out on you the other day. I hope it wasn't too weird for you."
"Of course not." He asked simply, not wanting to scare her with a bunch of words. The whole thing didn't seem out of character anyway, Annie reading it as a supportive claim from the man's mouth.
"That memory was just really… vivid, I think. Yeah…" The girl trailed off, freeing her hair. She finished with an uncomfortable grunt. The man let her sit in silence to allow her to stew on her words, an old trick he'd picked up from his father when his mother had her few meltdowns. "I don't think I'll ever join the Khans again."
"You haven't gone back yet." Boone interjected, catching her gaze. She licked her bottom lip unhappily and twisted her fingers together in her lap. "Still want to?"
"I have to. I said I would. In fact, it's pretty bad that I still haven't gotten around to it." Annie's lips pursed and she scrubbed an itch from her nose, sniffing loudly before leaning over the sniper to snatch his cigarettes. "That's going on the list of things we need to do before we die."
"So we're dying together now?" He asked with a hint of humour in his voice and the girl beamed instantly, clicking the lighter to ignite her smoke in a burst of orange light.
"Would rather die with ya than without ya, Boone." She leant across to slug his shoulder with her good arm. "If that's okay with you, soldier." She added sourly at the end in a dig at his recent adventure.
"S'pose." He replied softly and the courier relaxed a little.
"This is nice. It hasn't been us in so long." She hit his shoulder again, pressing her smoke to her lips to suck in a lungful of tar. "I bet you miss it just as much as I do."
He sat silent for a moment, looking down at the girl then back to the shuddering window frames. Annie flicked the light back onto her pipboy, illuminating the room with the soft yellow bulb. "Got any alcohol in that bag?" He asked.
Her eyes lit up. "Of course I do." She crawled to the pack, retrieving a small jug of clear liquid.
"What is that?"
"Premium vodka, my friend." She shook it, the juice bubbling happily for a quick second before bursting into smaller, happier bursts of moisture. "Picked it fresh from James Garrett's sweaty hands."
"Sounds great." He said flatly as took the bottle and cracked the lid. He swirled it gingerly, neck tickled by the courier breathing over his shoulder. Boone could not deny he felt pretty good after his minor win over the Legion in earlier minutes, and figured that, well, perhaps a little off the edge would smooth things out real good.
Annie was packing the respect and responsibility of an 80-year-old war nurse, resting her chin on his shoulder but keeping a nice distance from the sweet spot under his ear. Was his judgment clouded by the surge of adrenalin still clinging in his blood cells? Possibly. Did it seem like a bad thing at the time? No. He was with the girl who he had recently realised wasn't as bad as he had originally thought; an enlightening experience… It was more confusing than it should have been.
Things could have and possible were suddenly showing in a new light, his brain flicking back to the first and foremost impression he had ever caught from the girl… Those dinner plate eyes, those thick eyebrows and that superfluous gap… all charming and slightly alluring and not the token symbol for the woman who ran his life. It was like someone had picked him up and placed him back at the start, but this time his first few steps were not marred by an overwhelming surge of guilt that came from never accomplishing much after his wife's death… He had ruined her life, and perhaps he would ruin Annie's but for now the courier seemed to be holding her own.
She had been sounding a little crazy lately but she was still holding it together. It was more than Boone could say about himself. The thought made him like her a little more, attuned to her senses like he was the night in the mouth of the dinosaur. He was drinking in the woman who was something else, something that wasn't monotonous Novac and sad-eyed Manny – the life he was imprisoned in before she came to his door.
Well, she forced herself through his door.
The courier snatched the bottle from his hands and returned to her flatbacked position, staring through a level in the shelf to take in the shadowy figures on a Sunset Sarsaparilla poster. She took a long, hard swig and gasped for air as it burnt her throat. She spluttered through the pain and passed it back to the sniper, bending forward to regain her senses.
They drank in silence for what seemed like hours, Annie lost in her thoughts about the Strip while Boone fought through bad memories and bad decisions in attempt to gain the courage to speak to Annie. He felt like he had nothing important to say, and everything that was actually important wouldn't dare leave his throat. He was not ready for Bitter Springs, and neither was she.
"This stuff is alright." He complimented in the broken silence after she turned on the radio to dull the white noise. The courier looked back up, squinting at him in the softened darkness while Rex sighed a sleepy dog sigh in the corner.
"Stronger than I remembered." She added, looking at the bottle and running her bitten nails along the etched label.
"What is it?"
"Same stuff I had that night you left for Cottonwood." The courier grinned, bumping his shoulder cheekily with her own before she caught the numb tip of her tongue between her teeth. "Hey Boone?" She asked quietly after they sat in silence for a short time.
"Yeah?"
"Because I got you drunk, can I ask you some things?" She tested the water with a shake of the bottle, the quarter-full juice-vessel sloshing almost comically beside her head. The sniper let out a long, tired sigh. "Cool, man. Real smooth." Annie grinned, reaching her fingers up to tickle the bangs from her eyes. She slicked them over her barely wet hair. "Did you really think you were going to die at Cottonwood?"
"Yes." He answered honestly and softly, barely audible over the crooning of some country star. The courier's face softened at the thought and she turned her neck to stare up at him easier. Her eyes were burning with questions, the teeth on her bottom lip tugging for answers…
"Would you have preferred to have died at Cottonwood?"
He thought about it in perfect silence, only startled into thought by the pitched yahoo of Mr New Vegas. "No. Probably not."
"Will you tell me next time before you go on a quest for blood rain?"
He scoffed a laugh at her, chest jumping as he rolled his eyes.
"I guess." He looked down at her and watched as her entire face brightened, cheeks red from the liquor and chest dewy from the quick shower. Annie let out a pleasant little laugh and ruffled her feathers, pleased with herself. They stared at each other quietly for a moment; the girl caught in the idea that maybe this was the right time to make her move. Even the screaming harlot in her was pushing forward, pressing her shoulders towards the man with every ounce of strength she had.
But Annie didn't move, lips slightly parted as she watched the man above her in deep thought that gave her the look of a troubled schoolgirl. The older man kept his eyes from sweeping over her freckled cheeks and kept a steady contact with her own gaze, occasionally dropping his sights to the rotating teeth sucking on the bottom lip.
"One more question?" She choked out suddenly, fighting the urge to simply pull him down onto her and make him her own. The man snapped out of it suddenly, leaning back a few inches before turning his head to stare blankly at the sarsaparilla poster.
"Hm?"
"Is it worth it?" Annie asked, running her fingers through her messy hair. The man looked tentatively back down at the girl, catching that hopeful stare of hers that had dragged him in not even ten minutes before.
"What?"
"You know… you?" She continued, scared of her own words. She was walking into uncharted territory as she spilled a little more of her own secrets to the sniper, catching his pupils dilate at the question. "I want to know if I'm fighting a lost cause, Boone… Do you think that this… Am I just waiting for nothing?"
The sniper found he was reaching for her hand, curling up her bitten nails and protecting the soft skin with his own larger set. He pressed her palm to his jaw and held it there for a moment, dragging her fingers across his chin to his mouth where he placed the faintest kiss on the tips of her fingers.
Annie's entire body ricocheted with goose bumps, her spine shivering as he returned her hand to his neck. He watched as the loving sheen returned to her eyes, the moment slightly terrifying and still made him want to get up and walk away – but he stayed still and bared the raw pain and found a little bit of comfort in the way she shaped her palm over the hitch in his jaw.
Annie had never wanted a man so bad, her eyes skimming over his defined features with eyes filled with awe. He was the one staring back at her – this beautiful design of a man with blue eyes that gave him a mysterious and sad air… he had confirmed that he was hers in the future. She could wait a little longer, if he himself had promised that it was worth it.
Her other hand found his chest and she twisted her fingers in his shirt, stomach churning nervously as they retrained themselves from doing anything they would have regretted. Boone needed to go slow and Annie could do that, slackening her grip but sliding her fingers to hold onto his strong shoulders.
His heart felt like it was going to combust, aching in his chest as he backed away from all the reasons that said 'go for it' (you've done it once, big guy, you can do it again). His hand felt around for a distraction, landing on the packet of smokes in his front pocket, latching onto the escape whole-heartedly as he was able to pull away from her.
"Cigarette?" He grunted. The girl's face faltered and then blanked out in a moment of self-service, rebooting with a bright smile a moment later.
"Thanks, Boone."