Author's Note: I hope everyone is doing well. Enjoy the chapter, and, as always, reviews are welcome.

They did indeed sell dresses. Sarah had led them into a room off to the side of the lobby. Among other pre-war knick-knacks, there was an assortment of men's and women's clothes, including formal wear. As they all entered the room, Amata turned to Mark. "Why are we-" She never got to finish because a brown blur ran past them, nearly knocking them into the surrounding shelves. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, I can't believe it!" Veronica said in a very excited voice. "So many dresses, so pretty." She began looking through them. "I want this one, no, I want this one, no, I want them all!" "Veronica, sweetie," Cass said as she went near Veronica, "calm down fer a second." She put her hand on Veronica's shoulder, and when she did, Veronica gave her a death glare and growled at her, so she backed away a few feet.

"Veronica, ya actually want a dress?" Cass asked. "Hey," said Veronica, examining a blue dress, "just because I kick ass doesn't mean that I don't want to look pretty now and then." "Mark," Amata said, "before Veronica has a heart attack, you wanna let us in on your plan?" "Yeah, I wanna hear this plan of yers too, lover boy." "Ok," Mark said, "here's what I'm thinking. Back in the vault, this was this 'gang' that called themselves the Tunnel Snakes. They wore black leather jackets, had greased-back hair, and thought women would just fawn all over them just because they looked cool. Based on what I remember about Benny, I'm guessing he's the same way. So he's probably not going to ignore three smokin' hot ladies who come up and flirt with him. That's where you three come in."

"I'm gonna go in the Tops in disguise, then you guys come in ten minutes later, all dressed up. Flirt with him, and get him to take you guys up to his room. Amata will send me a message on her pip-boy telling me which room he's in. While you guys distract him, I'll come up, get the chip, get him to tell me what I want to know, and possibly put two in his skull as repayment." "Franklin," said Boone, up until this point had been quiet, "you know that they take all of your weapons before they let you in, right?" "Already thought of that Boone." Mark pulled out a switchblade and tossed it to Cass. "The guards are probably all guys, so they probably won't give you three as thorough a pat down as they will to me." "Mark," Amata said, "if we're all wearing dresses, where are we supposed to keep this?" "Uh…ok, I did not think of that, but I'm sure you'll figure something out."

Mark, Boone, and ED-E waited in the lobby while the three of them got changed. Mark had taken off his armor, put it in his bag, and had put on a pair of jeans, a red shirt, a jean jacket, a pair of sunglasses, and a blue baseball cap that had a red brim and a stylized "A" on the front that he picked up in the gift shop. Boone and ED-E would be waiting across the street with everyone's stuff, and would be the last line of defense in case Benny eluded the rest of them. While they waited, he noticed that Sarah Weintraub kept glancing at him when she thought he wasn't looking at her. She looked like she was trying to solve a puzzle. He looked at her, and for some unknown reason, she seemed familiar, like they had met before. Mark was certain they had never met, and he eventually shook himself out of his stupor. Maybe Amata was right, maybe he was a bit paranoid. A few minutes later, she descended further into the vault, a look of uncertainty upon her face. They waited for a half-hour when the door to the gift shop opened. Cass came out, wearing a sparkling silver gown that went down to her ankles, and white flats. Her long red hair fell around her shoulders. She handed Mark a couple of bags. "There ya go, lover boy. That's all a our other clothes and weapons. Ya definitely owe me a drink fer this." "Hey, just follow the plan and I'll buy you drinks 'till you can't drink anymore."

"Ya might end up goin' broke before I can finish drinking." She adjusted the dress, looking uncomfortable. "Why tha hell do people wear dresses anyway? They're impractical as hell." "People wear dresses to feel pretty, silly," Veronica said as she practically danced out of the gift shop and back into the lobby, with a big smile on her face. She was wearing a strapless blue dress that went down to just below the knees, with a white belt with a black buckle around her waist. She also had black one-inch heels on. For the first time, Mark could see that she had short black hair. "Thank you so much for the dress, Mark. You have no idea how much I've wanted one."

"Glad I could make your day, Veronica. Listen, both of you," he said, addressing Cass and Veronica. He checked to make sure Amata hadn't come out yet. "Amata is the only person left in this world that I love. I am trusting the both of you to keep her safe. I wouldn't trust her safety to just anyone. I know the three of us basically just met, but I consider you guys to be my friends. Now I don't know if Benny saw the two of us together in Goodsprings the day I was shot, so if either of you feel like he suspects something, I need you to get her out of there. Restrain her if you have to; just get her out of there." "Don't worry, Mark," said Veronica, "no one will lay a hand on her if I have anything to say about it." "Yeah," said Cass, "anyone touches her, I'll castrate 'em." "Thanks guys, I appreciate it." Mark saw Amata come out of the gift shop, and his jaw dropped.

She was wearing a gorgeous blood-red silk dress that flared out at her hips and stopped just above the knees. It had half-inch spaghetti straps and showed off her bosom, while still leaving something to the imagination. She was also wearing matching red one-inch heels. Her brown hair, usually in a ponytail, fell loosely around her face. She stood in the doorway, her face as red as the dress, looking at Mark nervously. "Do-do you like it?" Mark didn't say anything. Instead, he walked over to her, grabbed her, dipped her backwards, and gave her a passionate kiss. When Mark was done, Amata looked a bit flustered and had to catch her breath. "You look absolutely gorgeous," Mark said. "I gotta agree with Mark on this one," Veronica said, "you look drop-dead beautiful."

"You know," Mark said seductively, "If we weren't about to kill someone, I would toss you on that counter, rip off that dress, and have my way with you." Amata started to blush again. "Ya can do that later, lover boy," Cass said, interrupting them. "Right," he said adjusting the jacket he was wearing. "You all know the plan. Give me ten minutes, and then you come in and do your thing."

Mark entered the Tops and looked around. In the lobby was a long, curved granite desk with two men in grey suits behind it. On either side of the desk were large, open doorways leading to the rest of the casino. "Hey, hey, name's Swank and I run the day-to-day operations here," said one of the men behind the counter on Mark's left. "Welcome to the Tops. I'm gonna need you to hand over any weapons you may be carrying." "Well, I don't have any," Mark said spreading his arms, "but you're more than welcome to check." One of the men guarding the doors came over and patted him down. Once he was done, he nodded to Swank. "All right, now that that piece of business is out of the way, was there anything I can help you with?" "I'm here to try my luck at the tables." "Right on, daddy-o. The cashier is upstairs. There's a set of stairs right behind the wall here." "Thanks, Swank. You have a good night."

Once Mark got his chips, he sat down at a blackjack table. He saw Benny at the back of the room, surrounded by four guards, his hair as greasy as Mark remembered it. Part of Mark wanted to kill him himself, but he wasn't packing any heat of his own. A few minutes later, he saw the girls walk past him and towards Benny. He ignored them, not wanting to arouse any suspicion, although he found it hard to not look at Amata in that red dress. He tried to focus on the game, glancing at Benny every fifteen seconds or so. It looked like he said something funny, because the girls started to laugh. After a couple of minutes, it looked like their plan was working, as Benny was leading them away from his guards and to some elevators away from the main floor.

Amata, Cass and Veronica followed Benny into an elevator, and they got off at the thirteenth floor. Amata noticed that there was one guard on patrol, and that the room was the only one on the floor with double doors. His room had a queen-sized bed, a fully stocked bar and dressers to their left, and a couple of doors to their right. "Ladies, ladies, make yourselves at home. What can I get you to drink?" "Whiskey," Cass said. "Beer for me, please," said Veronica. "Um, could I use your bathroom?" Amata asked. "Sure thing, doll face. It's that door right behind you." Amata went in, and noticed it was surprisingly clean. She started to type in her pip-boy: "13th floor, only room with double doors. One guard on patrol." She sent the message, and a few moments later, she received a message: "On my way." Amata stayed in the bathroom for a couple more minutes, hoping she could stall him long enough until Mark got up. She went back out, and saw both Cass and Veronica with their hands in the air. "Guys, what's going-" "Hands where I can see them doll face."

Benny had a gun out and was pointing it at the three of them, and his back was to the open door. Amata raised her hands. "You really think I'm that stupid? I saw you with that guy I iced in Goodsprings. So, what, are you here for revenge? 'Cause that ain't gonna happen. I've come too far to be offed by some dames in dresses. So here's what's gonna happen. Maybe if you guys all get down on your knees and beg, maybe I won't kill you." The three of them saw Mark tiptoe into the room. Amata then started to laugh. "What's so funny?" Benny asked. "You're right. The guy you shot, he's my boyfriend. The funny thing is, he's not actually dead. But you're going to be." Benny turned around and saw Mark. He went to fire his gun, but Mark forced Benny's arm upwards, causing him to fire into the ceiling. They then began to struggle. "Veronica, Cass, get her out of here, NOW!" Without a word, Veronica and Cass each grabbed one of Amata's arms and dragged her out of the room against her will.

Mark kneed Benny in the chest, forcing him to drop his gun. Mark punched him in the face a couple of times. Benny tried to respond in kind, but he was telegraphing his punches so badly that Mark was easily able to deflect them. "What's the matter, Benny, can't fight someone unless you knock them out from behind and bind them?" "You have no idea what's going on, and why I took that chip. Too bad you came all this way just to die. GUARD!" "Oh, I think you'll find that your guard is quite dead, so he won't be responding anytime soon."

Mark gave him an uppercut to the jaw, which staggered him and forced him against the bar. Mark saw Benny's gun a couple of feet to his right, so he dove for it. He grabbed it and got back up. Benny was running at him, a bottle of wine in his hands. He went to swing it, but Mark fired a couple of shots into his stomach. Benny stopped mid-swing, and fell to his knees, the bottle crashing to the floor beside him, blood pouring out of his stomach. Amata, who heard the gunshots, ran back into the room after making sure that it wasn't Mark that had gotten shot, followed by Cass and Veronica. "Mark, are you okay?" "I am," he said as he kissed her, "but he isn't," he said, motioning to Benny.

Benny was now lying on the floor, trying pointlessly to stop the bleeding. "You know, from where you're lying, this must seem like an 18-karat run of bad luck," Mark said, echoing Benny's words from the graveyard, "but the truth is, when you shot me, you signed your own death warrant." Benny didn't say anything as the life left his body. Mark hugged Amata. "You're okay, right? He didn't hurt you, did he?" "Mark, I'm fine." "Yeah, we're fine too, thanks fer askin'," Cass said. "Oh, be quiet Cass. By the way Mark, nice one-liner. I approve," Veronica said. "Thanks. I am glad you guys are okay. Why don't the three of you go meet with Boone while I look for the chip."

After the girls left the room, Mark searched the entire room, but came up empty. He opened one of the doors to his right, and saw a hallway that looked like it wasn't always there. Mark walked down the hallway, and came into what looked like a workshop. It was dimly lit, but Mark could make out some workbenches and some computer terminals. He saw the chip on one of the workbenches, so he grabbed it and put in his jacket pocket. He was about to leave, when he heard a voice. "Hey there!" It seemed awfully cheery. Mark turned around and saw that it was a securitron, only with a big cartoonish smiling face. "Who are you?" Mark asked. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am a PDQ-88b securitron, but you can call me Yes Man." "Yes Man, huh? That's interesting." Mark took the chip back out. "Yes Man, what do you know about this chip?"

After talking to Yes Man for about twenty minutes, Mark went back down and met the others across the street from the casino. He took off the hat and sunglasses and tossed them in his duffel bag. "Did you find the chip?" Amata asked. He took out the chip and showed it to them. "Ok, so what now, lover boy?" Cass asked. "Well," said Mark, "I was knocked out, bound, shot, left in a shallow grave to die, was in a coma for a week, and then traveled halfway across the Mojave to track down and kill the guy who started all off this. The least I can do is finish the damn delivery." They walked back down the street to the Lucky 38, where Victor was waiting. "All right Victor," Mark said, "I'm ready to meet Mr. House."

Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter. The baseball hat that Mark wore was an Atlanta Braves hat. I am a fan of them, so I figured that I would work that into the story somewhere. Until next time.