With their plates in front of them and the aromatic smells hitting their noses, the two began dining on their respected orders.
Every bite was more delicious than the last, the two couldn't believe how warm and comforting the food was, especially having had squirrel bits on sticks and not much else!
Tesla came around to check on them as she brought them more drinks and both Rose and Harold clamored with praise for the cooking.
"Aw, thank you sweeties, it's hard work getting up from nothing. Hope ya'll have room for dessert!" Tesla smiles before heading off to tend to the other patrons.
To Harold's relief, none of the patrons gave them trouble during their lunch, but seeing the eloquent written rules on a chalkboard, the patrons knew better than causing a fight in the restaurant.
Quite simple to understand and in bold print.
DON'T FUCK AROUND AND YOUWON'TFIND OUT!
Having picked their plates cleaned, Rose and Harold glimpsed each other.
"How was yours?" Harold inquires.
Rose responds, mimicking Tesla's southern accent, "Pretty damn good!"
They stacked the plates for Tesla and as they did, someone came through the doors.
Out of an old western, the moment the man crossed eyes with someone sitting at one of the tables, there's silent words exchanged.
The mood in the restaurant changed instantly as all the cowboys stopped to look at the man who came through the doors.
"Thought you were dead," Tobias spat.
His hands hovering over his belt, Gordon responds with a dry, "A blind ghoul can shoot better than you, fool!"
Quickly, it became apparent that Rose and Harold got caught in a confrontation between a bounty hunter and his mark.
And his mark wasn't alone.
In a posse made of aspiring cowboys, his mark found safety in numbers, and things started getting tense.
Instinctively, Harold grabs Rose's hand and pulls her under the table with him as they watch the confrontation unfold.
Tesla arrives from the kitchen hearing the commotion and starts demanding the patrons to calm down, or else.
"Ma'am, I'm here on behalf of New Vegas to collect this man," Gordon politely tells her as he points to Tobias.
Crossing her arms, Tesla asks, "What are his charges?"
She hears, "Assault and murder of Jazlyn Singer."
Rising from the table in anger, Tobias shouts, "I never laid a hand on her!"
Having done this before, Gordon kept his composure as he aired out Tobias' dirty laundry for all to smell.
"She was six years old when her papa found her body and gnarly any clothing left to the Mojave sun!" Gordon raised his voice for everyone in the restaurant to hear.
Going into the disturbing case, Gordon finished with proof of Tobias' guilt by saying that something from Jazlyn was missing when her father found her.
A diamond broach that he won in a poker game and gifted to her for her birthday.
"Hey, wait a minute…" one of the cowboys stopped when something Gordon said resonated with him.
Another cowboy mentioned, "He said he bought it for his sweetheart."
Tobias pleaded with his posse not to listen to Gordon, but it was all but too late, the cowboys weren't inclined to listen to Tobias any longer.
Sensing what was to come, Tesla dove back into the safety of the kitchen as Rose and Harold ducked to the ground.
Expectedly, Tobias started breaking down and revealed a nauseating detail, "She was always… always… she was always teasing me!"
Backed into a corner, the desperado attempts to shoot his way through the cowboys and the bounty hunter.
Bullets went through the air, hitting everything with prejudice.
Air around them became hazy and thick as men opened fire on one another.
Stuck on the ground and afraid to move, Rose covers her ears with Harold beside her as they watched the gunfire happening before them.
"I AIN'T GOING BACK!" Tobias screams as he hides behind a table while firing on the cowboys and Gordon.
Something caught Rose's eye as the intense situation continued.
Slowly, Rose moves towards what caught her eye.
Reaching out, Harold hisses, "Rose! What are you doing?"
He urged her to stay with him.
Rose says, "I have an idea!"
Begrudgingly, Harold watches Rose slowly move towards the object as there was a temporary ceasefire.
Despite the gunfire, it was untouched, but Rose moves back to Harold with it.
His blue eyes fell to the plate of chitlins and questions her with, "What on earth are you doing with that?"
Rose didn't answer him, instead the moment Tobias pushes himself up from the barrier he made, Rose proceeds to throw the plate of chitlins at his head.
Immediately, the porcelain shatters and the hot sauce covered chitlins mixed with Tobias' blood as the hot sauce began touching his cuts, causing him to drop his gun as he held his face in agony.
He didn't get a chance to react when the cowboys and Gordon overtook him.
His arms bound behind his back and his feet chained together, Tobias was finally captured after escaping justice for weeks, now.
Their celebration was short lived as Tesla returns to the dining room with a Protectron outfitted with a weapon.
With her southern accent thickened, Tesla shows how angry she became with the situation in her restaurant.
"What I just say?" Tesla shouts at them.
Like children caught doing something wrong, the cowboys and Gordon apologized for what happened, before Tesla demanded reparations for the incident.
She made it clear no one was leaving until she got the money to fix everything that had busted up during the gunfight.
Realizing they would only cause more problems, the cowboys and Gordon chipped in to give reparations for the incident.
Curiosity got the best of Rose as she sheepishly asked if she and Harold needed to pay for it before Tesla waved her hand.
"You had no part in this, sweetie. Tell you what, lunches on me, okay?" Tesla scratched the side of her head as she exhaled sharply.
Taking her offer, Rose and Harold got out of the restaurant as quickly they can.
"What just happened?" Rose felt blindsided.
Harold sighs as he explains, "In a bid to reclaim law and order throughout the fragmented wasteland, bounty hunting made a return after the war. Not surprisingly, it is still a prickly situation."
They're alive, so they have that.
It's terrible that the restaurant will likely have to close for repairs, but aside from that, nothing serious such as a loss of life occurred.
"They have terrible aim!" Rose notes.
Shrugging, Harold responds with, "There's not many ophthalmologists left."
As expected, with the war destroying the world and resetting progress considerably in areas, ophthalmologists are on the low end of the totem pole.
If there was any equipment leftover to do the practice, it was likely the equipment deteriorated or broken down for parts.