Good Morning!
My oh my it's been a while. Fortuneately, I've had a bit of time on my hands to rectify that. So here's the second part of the update!
Sincerely,
Gatekeeper
Chapter 4: A Treatise
Bell woke up with the biggest crick in her neck, that she couldn't quite work out. With a few more painful tries, she shook her head and blinked her bleary eyes.
She had fallen asleep against one of the (remaining) overhead supports of the gas station, facing where she had awoken last night.
She saw that it was empty, the sleeping bag laid out flat facing the rising sun.
She reached for her pistol, afraid she would be caught by surprise by him.
Fully armed, she started looking around before standing up. She saw that Coyote had set up a campfire with some coals, cooking something over them.
And that the Legionnaire was sitting across from him.
She tensed up, her finger subconsciously going to the trigger.
She breathed. "Wait. If Coyote is willing to have him so close, he obviously hasn't done anything to him. A legionnaire he might be, but he's not an enemy right now. He did apparently took us away from the battle. Let's see how long it takes for him to change his mind."
She pocketed the pistol but sat for a while, watching them interact before standing up. As she did, a small gust of air wafted over the scent of campfire smoke and a delicious smell. Her stomach made its presence known and she couldn't resist for much longer.
She stood up and walked over to the fire, ignoring the Legionnaire but keeping an eye on him
"Hey Coyote," She called "What're you cooking?"
Coyote looked up after adding a few bits of charcoal. "Well, I can't say I'm cooking much at all. Our friend over here is the one to thank for the wonderful smell."
Bell scrutinized the grill "...Are those steaks?""
Coyote nodded. "Yep. Some of the best Gecko steaks I've ever seen. He's got a real talent, this one."
Bell jerked away. "That's Gecko!?"
Coyote threw a look her way. "Not all of us have the privilege of having Bighorn around all the time. We learn to make the best of what's around."
The Legionnaire said nothing, but after poking the steaks a bit more he nodded. He grabbed a stack of tin plates and a basic knife/fork combo. and served Coyote and himself, hesitating before doing the same for Bell.
Bell quirked an eyebrow but said nothing. She eyed the steak warily.
She'd seen Geckos in action, she wasn't sure she could stomach it like she could MREs.
Coyote and the Legionnaire did not seem to share the same struggles, digging in heartily.
After a bit, she decided to try it too. With a little difficulty, she was able to separate a small piece from the steak and popped it in her mouth. It was… amazingly better than she expected. A little tougher than the Bighorn steak she was more used too, but the smoky residue from the coals and whatever seasoning the Legionnaire put on easily set off the gamey texture.
She tried hard not to increase her eating speed, not wanting to send any kind of message across.
After eating the three reclined by the firepit; One in contentment and the other two in a wary vigilance.
Coyote got up with a small sigh. "Wow! That was good! I haven't had a meal like that in ages."
He stretched and started gathering up his things. "Why don't you two keep that grill set? I've got enough junk as it is, hah!"
Bell took a minute to process that. "Wait… you're leaving!" She said as she turned her head in his direction.
It didn't escape her notice that the Legionnaire also turned his head towards Coyote in surprise.
Coyote nodded, putting on his pack and gathering the last of his gear before grabbing a lever-action rifle from near the chair he was using. "Yep. I have one last job to finish, and I've put it off long enough."
"Oh no, oh nononono I'm NOT staying around this Legion savage alone!"
He started heading off when Bell stood up. She walked over to him, away from the campfire, before grabbing his arm.
"Coyote! You can't just… leave like this! What the hell am I supposed to do with him? He'll kill me 5 minutes!"
Coyote looked her dead in the eye before replying. "And he didn't have the chance beforehand? He was awake at dawn, Bell. He had every chance to do it yesterday too, when he dragged you here."
He sighed, shaking his head. "Listen, Bell. It's not my place to act as a moderator for you two. You have your own problems, and I've got mine to deal with. I helped you both out yesterday and this morning because our paths crossed, and I'd be ashamed if I let you kill each other before having the chance to even talk about it."
He pointed back at the Legionnaire. "This man saved you, and by my books that means you owe him something. I don't care if he's a Legionnaire, and I don't care if you're NCR. Doesn't matter, little missie. What you owe him isn't up to me to decide, whether it's your life, your money or maybe…"
He let down his hand "...maybe all it's good for is a chance to explain himself. You get to decide that, and I won't get caught up in it anymore until I got my own issues settled."
He turned away and continued walking, waving back to them. "Take care you two!"
Bell couldn't find it in her to go after him again, and stood there till he crossed over a hill in the road.
With a sigh, she turned around back to the campfire and started walking back.
The legionnaire was still nearby, banking the coals and cleaning up the rest of the gear.
She walked back and stood by the fire, waiting for him to get done putzing around.
She might or might not have had her hand hovering over her pistol.
Just in case.
"She has her hand on her pistol. I wonder when she's going to shoot me. I wonder if I'd be fast enough to kill her before that happened."
Argus shook his head slightly as he cleaned the remainder of the cooking gear. It was a little excessive, what with the extra plates and utensils, but it was nice not having to worry about getting your hands too oily from the steaks.
He was putting off talking to her, he knew that, yet he couldn't quite bring himself to turn towards her.
He… didn't mind this type of ceasefire they'd kept today. But he was unsure of how to keep that up.
Luckily, he wasn't the one who had to break the silence. "...Hey." the girl said.
He turned to face her squarely, his stance tense.
She huffed. "If you're going to stand like you're going to fight me, we might as well get it over with now."
Her hand inched closer to her pistol.
Argus tried to relax his stance. While he was curious to how a fight would last between the two of them, he wasn't that interested. Besides, he needed to fulfill his promise first.
Afterwords? Well, that was to be determined later.
The girl heaved a sigh, also moving her hand away from the holster. "Okay, I guess you don't want to fight either. Great."
She started pacing, not really turning away from him but moving back and forth on her side of the campfire. "Look, I'm NCR. You're Legion. Yesterday you fought me. I didn't see you, but I know you must have been there. WE should have killed each other. It's how these things work."
She flung out her hands. "But then that Deathclaw showed up, and God only knows how we survived that."
"Who's God?" mused Argus.
"And NOW Coyote been telling me that you… dragged me here." She finished with an exasperated groan and looked at him.
Argus nodded. Not much else to add on to that.
"Should I tell her about skinning the Gecko? No, doesn't seem important. I'm glad they turned out well."
Bell stood there for a second before throwing out her hands. "WELL!? You gonna add something to that? 'Cause that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me."
"... on second thought maybe I should tell her about the Gecko, she seems pretty lively."
She sneered at him. "Or is this one of your misogynistic things where you don't even TALK to women? Well that's just great. Thanks for the whole drag, I guess, but I got to head back to base. Someone has to report that…" She gulped a bit, but forged on "...that my squad got caught up in a firefight. I imagine you have to do something similar. So I'll take a bit of this gear, and head out unless you have some superior Legion wisdom you want to give me." She said sarcastically.
She started grabbing some of the loose gear, making a loose pack.
Argus rolled his eyes.
"Well, I guess that's that. She'll get back to her base, and I can't go there since I'll get shot on sight. It can't be that far anyway, seeing as we ran across each other during the day."
After thinking that, he felt a sudden cold race up his body.
"...But I made a promise. Something tells me it won't go that easily. She's perfectly capable. I mean, she IS a soldier, even if she is a women. Are the NCR that desperate that they'd destroy their society by having women fight instead of fortifying the home? No wonder they seem to run away at times….
...Mars damn it all, I should never have made that promise."
Mustering up all his will, he coughed a little before speaking. "...No."
Bell swung around from gathering her supplies, with a glare. "Oh, and how are you going to stop me? Are we back to square one already?"
"Shit. Okay, more words this time!"
"No!" Argus said emphatically "I… I must come with you. Till you are safe."
Bell looked at him with a look of disbelief. "...Why?"
"I made a promise." Argus explained.
"...And?" Bell ventured, "Anything else?"
Argus shrugged.
"...I'm not getting rid of you am I?" Bell deadpanned.
Argus responded with a headshake.
"...You're not a big talker, are you?" She asked
Argus shrugged.
Bell sighed, before sitting down again.
Argus sat down as well.
They sat there for a bit, Bell muttering to herself while Argus waited for her to continue.
After sometime Bell sighed again before looking up at him.
"Fine! Fine. I'm going to assume that you are crazy, if not stupid, but that you mean well. I've heard you Legion guys are super serious about promises, so I'll give you that. If you're serious about this whole thing, we'll go to my base camp after looking at the battle scene to make a report and recover anything that hasn't already been taken care of."
Argus nodded in agreement.
Bell nodded as well. "Okay then! So, here's the deal. Follow me to the base camp, and I'll get the other squad to let you go free assuming they don't shoot us on sight. Sounds good?"
Again, Argus nodded. Sounded simple enough.
She reached over the banked fire, and extended her hand. "Alright then, let's shake on it."
Argus grasped her hand and gave it a good shake.
"I guess I should introduce myself. Name's Bell." She said.
"Argus." he replied softly.
Bell sighed. "I can tell this is going to be a much bigger headache than what it should really be."