Sudden Change

On the five-mile drive, he falls asleep. Nodding off he never notices that he slumps to her left sun warm shoulder. Having held the night post the night before, the vibrations and the relaxing breezing wind massage him to sleep. She glances back to him and his wind shaking beret. A soft smile forms over her lips and she suddenly looks back to the front of her. A small group of raiders had taken to the surprise of a working motorcycle and wanted it. They were determined with the sudden lock of eyes with hers and the raiders. She lifted a hand back to Boone's left thigh.

"Boone!!" she yells before lifting out her magnum and ducking down to a few laser shots from the raider Fiends. She gasps and finds a scattered building to drift to, with her right arm she catches Boone from rolling off. He was quickly awakened from the laser shots, her warning tone, and now widely awakened to the sudden jerk of her driving.

"I-I am here Carla!" he says suddenly, clearly indicating he was waking from a dream he could not avoid. He peers over her shoulder up to her golden eyes. She shows a concerned look and quickly jerks her head to the corner of the wall she had taken cover behind with the bike.

"Fiends, they have Laser RCWs. I can tell by their fire rate when I hauled ass past them," she warns and climbs off the bike keeping it running in case they required a quick getaway. "We are too exposed among the rubble buildings and open roads for us to keep going. We need to kill them off," she informs him, slipping away her less needed revolver and to her heavy Gauss Rifle.

"Yeah, you are right." he lifts his rifle to his shoulder and peaks quickly over past the edge of the wall and aims. He shoots close to a raider's leg as the five of them keep pushing forward. They yelled among each other that they were behind the wall.

"Hey! They are circling around to us Susan." Boone warns.

"I got it!" she sprints across the crest opening of the wall and to the other edge a few feet away from Boone.

They both are patient as the raiders come to their death. At the moment, they both have their right eyes down their scopes and they each send rounds to the raiders occasionally missing, but eventually hitting a lethal shot to their legs, chests, or heads all the while ducking behind the wall. Boone took a shot to his right arm that was aimed at the edge of the wall as he had ducked back a second too late. She hears his painful grunt then spots the last raider that had shot him as he rushed out of their sight. The woman was climbing through the hole in the wall. Susan sucks in a breath and sways her rifle immediately to her back right to aim. Twisting to look back to Boone who clinches in pain, Susan sees a knife in the raider's hand lift above Boone's head. Susan pushes back hard on the trigger blowing a hole through her chest. A gag of blood and the ringing of the loud shot is heard in Boone's ears. He looks to his right as he has his back pushed against the wall. The woman drops to her knees as her bighorner skull helmet shakes to her spasms and falls back away from Boone. The bright white laser blast from Susan's rifle had expanded in a small supernova and evaporated any blood that would have splattered on him from the hole. Boone's eyes had stayed at Susan's kneeling position through the chest hole and after the raider had fallen. He was surprised once again and at this moment he had forgotten the pain. Her stance was heroic to his eyes, perfect and like a ranger's, he would never admit it openly, but he was conflicted in his amazement. For any, it would be hard to move on from the pain only to end up thanking her for her heroics.

"Ger…" he groans and is brought back to the feeling of his arm going numb.

She returns the rifle's strap over her shoulder and along with her satchel's after popping in another microfusion cell. Sliding around her satchel to her kneeling right knee she digs through to find a stimpak.

"Hey, I got it, move your hand. Just thank god it wasn't a bullet. God forbid the pain of removing it and using this." she chuckles seeing the small deep flesh wound as he moves his arm. Using her left hand to level his muscular arm she keeps her knee up to rest his wrist to it as she bites the plastic cap and removes it from the needle. "Okay...slight pinc-"

"I know just get it over with." he groans deep and glances to her golden eyes peering over the ridge of her glasses.

"Fine mister pissy pants." She gives off a sneering expression and slowly enters the needle close to the burned hole to his lower upper arm. The muscle and skin slowly repair itself. His skin rapidly grows over layers of cells on his arm to return it to new. She pulls it out suddenly after it's hiss stops from the pressure gauge. "Alright...done now we should be okay and I do not feel like looting bodies today. I am sure there are more around just waiting for us around here." she stands and reclips her satchel closed and dusts off her knees after laying his arm slowly back to his side. He stands up quickly and they both give a quick look around hearing out and making sure the area was clear before they returned to the seats of her bike. He keeps silent for a moment and clears his throat waiting for her to sit first before he gets back on.

"When we get to the Crimson Caravan I suggest getting some sleep. It would do you some good in being fit for shooting," she says kindly but it must have been taken the wrong way.

"I got it alright. Don't- just don't worry about it." he snaps and he avoids her eyes knowing she would have a concerned look and a questioning response but she does not indulge.

"Look, I know you are going through some things but if it will cost you your life I suggest returning to Novac, your home," she says with a stern voice as she lifts her feet and twists the throttle to get a move on.

"It isn't my home anymore. I probably won't be going back. Not with the things I've done." he says low as if it was a warning or a silent plead for forgiveness. She felt a sorrow feeling wash over her but the lives she had taken were for her protection and the protection of others. She never had a guilty conscience, for whatever reason that was she knew between right and wrong and that is what counted.

"You want to talk about it? Later?" She offers an ear to him and glances over her shoulder to him.

"You don't know what you are asking for," he says low, keeping his back straight and feet comfortably on the pegs.

"Hey, you brought it up. I am just here to hear your stories since you listened to mine. It is up to you if you are comfortable with telling me yours. I could also give some advice." she says clearly as they get closer to Crimson Caravan CO.

"It is none of your concern," he warns and she abruptly stops the bike.

"How could you say that? We have fought together. I have your back and you have my respect. I offer an ear not to have you cold-shoulder me and act like an ass Boone. You know when I first met you I knew you had some problems of your own. Not with me but back at Camp Golf...you knew of Cottonwood. I could tell by your face. Yet you never mentioned it to me knowing the fact I was looking for someone that could possibly be enslaved. Ever thought of that?" Her eyes blaze with anger and betrayal. Putting her life into his hands, her life into his, she expected some respect from him. She easily formed a friendship with him based on the world's trials. Having someone save you from danger was good as gold. Something the wastes hardly gave but Boone had given her in return she would worry for anyone she would call a friend.

"I am heading out on my own for now on. Get off!" her voice echos out in rage. She had never felt resentment till now and she knew the fact about Cottonwood was true.

"You can do what you want but I am not going anywhere. I will walk if I have to," he says now looking up to her right eye aimed over her shoulder. Their partnership did mean something to him. He just never handled kindness well and always pushed it away since things had changed for him after his wife's death. They had all avoided him in Novac and never looked him straight in the eyes, not like Susan, another stranger to help him forget. "I've got bad things coming to me, Susan. You better keep your distance when the time comes. You don't know what you are asking for, for knowing what I have done, but I will stay, for your sake."

"What I am asking for, is that you show some respect and just trust me. Without that, I am not sure if it is good for you to stay. For all, I know you could shoot me in the back but I trust you because we have been through shit. It makes us a team." she sighs at the fact of him wanting to push her away, but she assures him that no matter what he chooses it will turn out alright.

"I can handle myself. I am far from afraid, Boone." she rests her hand from her handlebars to her lap as he steps off and steps away from the bike.

"That day you showed up in Novac. I had a feeling I was supposed to go with you. That it was time to move on, now I know." he seems to soften up a bit in his tone.

"Know what? That you need to go back and stay there? Sounds like a good idea right now." She gives him a taste of her own cold shoulder. Having spent most of her time putting up with most of his attitude from the start, she becomes annoyed with herself by enduring it and prefers them to be apart for the time being.

"Look…" he sighs, clearly giving up and respecting her anger. "If you ever change your mind, I will be right there with you." he indirectly admits to his respect for her and stands still for a moment only the wind hushing between the two.

She looks away from him, now returning her hands to the handlebars. She lifts one foot to her peg as the other holds up the bike and her right-hand lifts from the handlebar to grip the sunglasses of his. It leaves her to deal with the headache that will develop from the sun but anything to keep her mind off of Boone and her worries.

"Here…" she says lastly and tosses his glasses, then digs through her bag and tosses three stimpaks for him to catch, and drives off in anger continuing to the traders at the Crimson Caravan. Leaving him in the dust he stood for a moment to look down to his hands feeling regret. Slipping back on his glasses he kept his walking path leading through NCR areas as he continued back to Novac only to have him fill his mind with guilt and his own shame as he thought over and about himself for once.