Boone cautiously approached the town, tiny bones crunching under his feet. He was trying to avoid stepping on all the bones, but it was impossible, they were everywhere. The fingers on his wounded hand twitched with every step he took.

In the mist, he could see buildings, they looked something like old apartment complexes. A broken road followed the river into the distance. There was a fence surrounding the town's crop fields that was made of wood and bones, tied together with ropes and twine.

Boone wasn't the type to scare easily, but this place was eerie. Mist was coiling around the buildings like it was a living thing reaching out to grab him.

There were bodies in the mist... they disappeared as he tried to get a closer look.

There's no such thing as ghosts. That was what he'd told Fay. And all she'd said to him was… Are you sure?

She was right, now he wasn't so sure... He could hear the river rushing along behind the quiet buildings. But with Fay's story stuck in his head, he felt like he could see the ghosts of the past here. He felt a pang in his heart as he thought of Carla. He imagined her ghost walking silently in the fog...

"Who's there?" came a rough voice.

Boone instinctively reached for his rifle, but he immediately knew that it wouldn't be good enough. He was surrounded. People stepped out of the fog, people armed with guns and blades and other homemade weapons. Blades seem to be the most common...

This was where Fay learned how to toss knives, Boone realized. From these people... she must have started at a young age.

A bald headed man stepped forward as Boone tried to look stern and purposeful. It wasn't hard.

"You ain't one of our usual traders," he said gruffly. "Who are you?"

"Corporal Boone," the ex-soldier said shortly. "I'm not here to hurt anyone, I just need to ask you a few questions."

"Soldier boy, eh?" the bald man said, eyeing Boone suspiciously. "Seen your type here before, and I'll tell you what we told them... we don't need ya."

"Not here about that," Boone said roughly. "I'm here about Fay Morgan."

The change in the atmosphere was instantaneous. For a second they'd been cautiously accepting of him... now he was a threat. People's hands began drifting to their weapons.

"Fay Morgan..." the bald headed man said slowly. "What would you know about her?"

"I need to know where she died, where the Fiends might have taken her."

Silence but for the rushing river.

"And just what do you think you're going to do about it, eh? She's dead, said so yourself," the man said angrily, brandishing a rusted knife. "Let the dead rest, boy."

Boone sighed, reaching into his pocket and pulling out Fay's coin. He absently tossed it in the air and caught it. He'd only brought out the coin to give himself some time to think, but a scream distracted him. He dropped the coin in surprise. People were shaking, stepping away from him.

"What the hell...?" Boone grumbled, scooping the coin out of the sand. "It's just some old money..."

"Where did you get that?" said an older woman with fluffy gray hair. "Throw it down, young man, wherever you found it... it's a curse."

"A curse?" Boone repeated incredulously.

"That object is the reason the Morgan girl died!" the woman said, almost hysterically now. "She went down to the river bank to retrieve it when those monsters took her... I warned her not to go."

Boone's blood felt like it was turning to ice. The coin, this coin... was the reason Fay had been tortured until she was all but dead? Why did she still have it? And why had she given it to him?

We made the choices that brought us here.

"Perhaps it has made it's way back here for a reason..." the bald man said slowly. Then he gave Boone the once over, like he was estimating his worth. "Are you here to put the dead to rest? See, around these parts... the dead don't stay dead."

The sniper looked around. His own words played in his head yet again... had Fay asked him about it on purpose?

There's no such thing as ghosts.

"Yeah... that's why I'm here," Boone said slowly. "Tell me what happened."

The old man shrugged.

"It's like she said... Fiends took the girl... killed her. We could hear her screams," he said carefully, like he was afraid of offending listening spirits. "They must have thrown her body in the river, because we saw her floating by, dead as a door nail... thing is, her body crawled out of the river."

He paused there, seemingly to suppress a shudder of fear.

"Horrible, it was... naked, covered in wounds, moaning... and white as the bones in the yard," he whispered reverently. "No one would go near it... seen enough unnatural things like that to know not to touch it."

Boone's hands clenched around his rifle so tightly it hurt. His partner, a little girl, had been suffering and in pain... and no one would help her.

"She never left, though..." the old lady murmured. "Haunted the river and the abandoned house, cried at the edge of the town... Five years ago, a young man from a trade caravan went to try and put her spirit to rest. He never returned."

"But maybe you'll fare better, hm?" the bald man said swiftly. "The little Morgan girl must have sent you here for a reason... perhaps you'll finally put an end to her suffering."

Boone bowed his head.

I'm not the kind of guy who ends suffering. I'm the kind of guy who causes it. But not this time... This time needs to be different.

"I'll check the house," Boone said decisively. He was definitely curious about the house... And Fay had said there was nothing bad in there. So then what was in there? "Where is it?"

The bald man pointed to a small structure outside of town. Boone could barely see it through the mist, but it made sense… his beautiful partner had been banished to the edge of town where no one would run into her.

Biting back his anger, he turned and squinted upstream at the river and broken road. "Take it the Fiends are that way?"

The townspeople nodded all at once like they'd been practicing together.

"They steal from us, but don't dare openly attack us. We can take care of ourselves," the man said firmly.

"Yeah, I get it," Boone growled. It was taking all his will power to hold back all the things he wanted to say about these fucked up people and their fucked up little town...

"Beware, young man," the old lady whispered, her eyes clouded over. "She will take your life, if she can... do not let her deceive you."

Boone laughed to himself, his voice strangely muffled in the mist. The only thing he could think to say was something Fay had told him months ago...

"I think you've got it all wrong," he murmured into the mist.

I had no life to take... how could she take it?

Without another word, Boone turned and walked away from those people and back into the mist.

/

Minutes later, Boone was rushing through the fog, ignoring the bones crunching under his feet. He didn't want to stay here long, either. The last thing he wanted to do was run into Carla's ghost, or maybe one of the ghosts of all the people he'd killed...

Snap out of it, Boone... There are no ghosts. This is just one creepy as fuck town.

The house he'd been pointed to was a little ways outside of town. Actually, it wasn't so much of a house as it was some sort of garage. But it had clearly been sitting untouched for quite a while. There were some bones scattered out here, too... Remnants of Fay's many kills, no doubt.

The garage door was jammed shut, so Boone went in through the side door. The rusted latch broke after a minute of struggling with it.

He'd expected the bones outside. He hadn't expected the bones inside.

Because right in the middle of the room, next to the dusty bed... there was an old, decaying body.

Shit...

His first thought was that Fay had wanted to cover up a murder, and that's why she didn't want him in here. But... no, the longer he looked, that just didn't feel right. Cold blooded murder wasn't what had gone down here...

Before he went to examine the body, Boone did a quick scan of the rest of the space. Aside from the bed with a body hanging off it, there was a book shelf with several books in various states of decay, a few pots, a chest with some clothes, some nasty looking crap that might have been food that had been rotting for five years, and a few other odds and ends.

Boone stepped closer to the body. It was mostly bones at this point, but a few withered scraps of flesh were still hanging onto the skeleton. The body was half hanging off the bed... and it didn't look like it had been moved there. This was where the man had died.

For it was surely a man... The dirty clothes on the body were a man's clothes. Boone nudged the skeleton with his toe. There was a blood stained blade lying beneath the corpse. So Fay had killed him... This guy had to be the man who had gone missing from the trade caravan five years ago.

Boone frowned. He was still missing something here. Something else was bothering him.

The bed... the bed man's body was hanging off of... it was a mess, like somebody had been surprised in their sleep. And the clothes on the body were wrong, too. The man's pants, they were around his ankles.

And then it clicked. Boone's hands clenched themselves into fists.

You miserable piece of shit... Boone snarled to himself. You didn't come here to help... you came here to rape Fay! Bet you thought no one in town would give a fuck if you raped the dead girl, and Fay wasn't about to tell on you... But she surprised you, didn't she? She fought back...

Five years ago... Fay said she'd met Will and his buddies five years ago. This attempted rape must have been the last straw for her, what finally caused her to pack up and go, flee from this place.

Fury overtaking his senses, Boone slammed his foot into the skeleton's rib cage, sending bones flying. He wished there was more he could do, but it was hard to inflict pain on a pile of bones.

Once he had had his fill of abusing the old skeleton, he sat down heavily on the only chair in the one room garage. The chair collapsed under his weight, but Boone was too angry and depressed to care.

Fay was right... I never should have come in here. All it did was piss me off, and I need to be able to think straight for killing those Fiends.

As he stared mournfully at the rotting wall, pondering how Fay had stayed sane all those years, his eyes alighted on something he never expected to see in this depressing house.

Pinned to the wall next to the door was a faded picture that looked as if it had been ripped out of one of these old books that were lying around... It was picture of a man and a woman, lavishly dressed. They were dancing together, holding each other close. They looked happy, like they were in love...

As if he were in a trance, Boone got up off the chair he'd wrecked and plucked the picture from the wall. The edges of it were brown and curling up... he felt as if it might dissolve in his hand.

She wants that, Boone realized. For a while he hadn't been sure of what she really wanted, but... this just confirmed it.

Boone looked around at the bed. He imagined her sleeping there as a girl, all alone every night. And she'd gotten used to it, but she'd never quite let go of the idea of love, of affection, of intimacy...

Maybe she thought she'd found it in Will, her friend... but then he disappeared and left her more alone than ever. She'd been lonely enough to invite a psychologically scarred ex-soldier to travel with her.

This is what you didn't want me to see, the ex-soldier thought sadly. You don't give a shit about this idiot, you've killed enough people, he doesn't matter to you at all... No, it was your heart you didn't want me to see. This is what you wanted to hide.

Boone carefully folded the picture, the picture containing a young girl's hopes and dreams, and tucked it inside his armor next to his heart. His fingers brushed against his letter to Carla, a letter containing his own hopes and fears...

Suddenly he wasn't sure he could carry both. It was hard enough carrying around his own pain. But just like when he'd threatened Caesar, he felt he had no choice. He'd have to be strong enough for both of them

Boone turned to leave, punting the dead man's skull across the room as he did so.

/

Once he'd left the house, Boone skirted the town and had followed the old road up by the river for more than a mile until it rounded a curve...

And there it was. Hidden in the mountain side on the other side of the river was an old warehouse of some kind. A causal passerby might assume the place was empty, but Boone knew better.

There was a chain link fence, covered with all the usual Fiend decorations... hooks, chains, dried blood, hacked up corpse parts... dead giveaways. The Fiends were still here, alright. Fay was lucky that she'd only been tossed in the river, and not strung up on a fence like those poor souls...

Boone knew all about Fiends in a general sense. He knew they were a sick, twisted tribe of people who lived more for drugs than anything else. He'd known Fiends to kill, rape, torture and worse... usually to get more drugs, but sometimes just for their idea of fun. They were definitely the type to kidnap and torture a young girl just for kicks.

His first instinct was to find a place to snipe from, but he was way too far away... And he couldn't just walk in the front door... he'd have to sneak in somehow. Although he had to cross the river first. Boone backtracked a little before finding what seemed like a good place to cross. He waded into the river, walking steadily through the current.

"Wait!" came a sweet female voice, echoing over the water. "Please!"

Fay was sprinting towards him, holding her bad arm to her chest as she ran.

Boone paused in the middle of the river. Those warm emotions in his chest seemed to have crystallized into something painful... Fay had to go back. She couldn't come with him.

"Go back, Fay!" he called.

Fay ignored him, sloshing into the water. But the current was stronger than she expected, and Boone saw her swaying and trying to fight it as she made her way over to him. He swept through the water, throwing his strong arms around her and pulling her upright against his chest.

He could feel her shaking and panting against him. She'd obviously run all the way here from her hiding place. And on top of that, she was absolutely terrified.

"Hey," he said, rubbing her back with one hand to calm her down. "Hey, it's alright. I'm here."

"You can't go. Please," she stammered against him, her tiny body trembling. "This is crazy. Let's go back to Novac. Please."

Boone almost laughed in relief... she was only out here because she cared about him, because she obviously couldn't stand the thought of anything happening to him.

"We're not going back now. You're still scared," he said simply. "You're afraid of these people... and you don't have to be, okay?"

Fay's hood had come down... her long, starlight hair was streaming down her back. She pressed her cheek to his chest.

"That doesn't matter," she whispered. "Just... just don't go. I can't lose you like I lost Will and the others. Let's go back."

Boone smiled sadly at her, still holding her steady against the current that was threatening to take both of them. Loss was definitely something they both understood. But it still didn't change what he had to do.

"Sorry, can't take that chance," he said firmly. "You're going West like you promised, and you're staying with me."

Fay looked up at him, her eyes widening. Mist swirled thickly around them, making Boone unconsciously tighten his grip on his partner, an irrational fear of losing her to the river rising in his mind. He couldn't lose her now...

"Staying... with you?" she repeated faintly, her golden eye sparkling. "But you... you want to...?"

Boone really did laugh quietly to himself then, squeezing his partner tight against his chest. She didn't struggle, didn't try to get away from him like she used to… Had she figured him out like Julie had warned him she would?

I do want to. I want that more than anything, Boone thought. I can't just leave you out there alone. I just can't do it. I still want the same thing I wanted when I married Carla. I've had enough of war, I've got enough blood on my hands.

He pushed her white hair out of her face, touching her porcelain cheek.

Maybe one day, you'll be able to love me back. Maybe one day, you'll let me make love to you. We might be suffering, but at least we don't have to be alone.

"I do," he said firmly, his hand still on her cheek. "If that's okay with you."

Fay simply stared at him, some unreadable emotion on her face. Would she run away now that he'd admitted that?

Worried that she was going to go down into the river, the ex-soldier hefted the small girl in his arms, cradling her against him.

"I know it's not what you're used to, but if you'd just give me a chance to show you..." he continued, still cradling her like a child. It just felt so good being near her, knowing that she saw everything he was and still cared about him.

And now, he saw her, too. He saw a young woman who was just as broken as he was.

Maybe separate, we'd fail... but together, we can make it.

"So are you going to show me… or what?" she whispered, a slight grin on her face. The sniper could see the honesty in her eyes. She still didn't understand love, but his heart soared at the knowledge that she wanted to try. And she'd try with him.

Craig Boone grinned back at her, leaning in to take something he'd wanted for weeks now... just one kiss. He saw no fear in her eyes, no worry, just trust. He pressed his mouth to her pale lips, his own lips moving in what was the most tender kiss he could manage.

After a moment, her sweet lips began moving curiously against his… Her kiss was the most amazing thing he'd felt in ages.

The chill of the water vanished, his fears disappeared. Heat flooded his body as his heart pounded against his ribs. He'd never felt more alive.

Because there was life in him now. Maybe Fay had lent him some of her own soul like he'd hoped she would, or maybe he'd found the spark of life in himself that he thought had been lost forever, but... there it was.

Sooner than he would have liked, the kiss ended.

Fay looked up at him bashfully, happy but confused.

Boone, figuring that they'd been standing in the river long enough, began walking them back towards the far shore.

"Are you sure this is what you want?" she murmured to him as he walked. "If you'd rather someone more... normal..."

She still doesn't get it... Boone thought. She thinks she's a freak. I may not be as eloquent as the Colonel, but I need to tell her somehow.

"You're everything I ever wanted," her mumbled into her hair. "Just say you'll stay with me. That's all I want."

I've been telling myself I care for you as partner, but it's not true. I see you as so much more than that. I can keep you happy and safe, I know I can. Please just give me a chance.

Fay cuddled up to him, wrapping her good arm around his neck, burying her face in his shirt. It was something she'd never done before, not in such an intimate way. Boone let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"Of course I'll stay with you," she said softly. "Where else would I be?"

The man laughed, squeezing Fay gently, tangling his hand in her hair. He'd reached the far shore, and he set his girl gently on the sandy bank. Now that she knew how he was feeling, he felt better about touching her the way he'd only fantasized about...

He brushed her hair back from her face, letting his numb fingers trail down her white cheek. Looking in her bright eyes was easier, too. Fay shivered a little bit, but she still looked so happy.

Whatever this was, whatever it was going to be, they could make it. Their relationship might be strange and different, but it was theirs. He wasn't even sure if his partner could love him back, but he was going to give her everything he had.

There were no words for a while. There didn't need to be. As Boone held his partner carefully, attempting to avoid jostling her injured shoulder, he realized that his partner had loved him all along. Fay had been telling him for weeks now that she trusted him, believed in him, wanted to stay with him. He'd just been too blind to see it.

When she'd hugged him back in The Atomic Wrangler… that had been the start he should have seen. She'd cared about him, tried to help him in the only way she knew people accepted, even though it had been hard for her. All those little things she'd done might have been normal for other women, but certainly weren't for her.

It was just now he could appreciate them. He was grateful that he still had the chance to tell her that it made a difference for him.

"So..." Fay began, her head on his shoulder. "Let's keep going, okay? We can get far away from this place and never come back."

Boone squeezed her hand.

If I could end your suffering... could I be forgiven for all the other horrible things I've done? I've got to try. You're still the best thing I have going for me.

"No," Boone said firmly. He had to sound confident for her sake. "I told you, I can't take that chance. Those Fiends are as good as dead."

"And I'm supposed to take a chance by letting you go?" she asked, her thin fingers tightening on his wrist, like she thought she could stop him if she just held on tight enough.

"You're just going to have to trust me."

Fay sighed, though she still refused to loosen her grip on him.

"Trust is kind of a funny thing... I've never trusted anyone like I trust you, and in some ways I barely know you."

"It's alright," Boone assured her. "We know enough."

Assuming they got out of here alive, they'd have the rest of their lives to get to know each other, though Boone knew it would likely be a process. But it was a process he couldn't wait for, because each and every little thing he got from her was even more precious to him.

"I never imagined this happening to me, you know," she murmured. "I didn't think you'd stick around for more than a week that day I asked you to travel with me..."

Boone chuckled, using his free hand to gently untangle some of the knots in her starlight hair. The braid was starting to make a whole lot of sense.

"Guess you don't know me as well as you think you do."

"I guess not," Fay whispered as she watched him smoothing out her shining locks of hair. "You definitely surprised me. Well, you trusted me to have your back at Bitter Springs, so... I guess I'll just have to trust you now."

Boone tried to shift her tiny body so he could get up, but Fay refused to loosen her grip. She had some strong little fingers.

"You're still not letting me go," Boone pointed out. "Why'd you tell me to come here if you were going to change your mind?"

Fay thought about that, resting her head on his chest.

"I thought that if anybody could take down those Fiends... you could. I, well... you sounded like you had a reason to want to do this. And I believed it."

Boone exhaled slowly. That meant a lot, coming from her. When Carla died, the townspeople in Novac used to tell him he was cold, if they spoke to him at all... he supposed they were right. Even now, with the prospect of loving someone again right over the horizon, he couldn't shake the desire to kill. But at least Fay could appreciate it.

So he carefully loosened Fay's death grip on him and stood up. She immediately stood up too, fear in her eyes.

"I promised I'd do this for you," he said firmly. "If you're living with me... I don't want you to be scared of these sick fucks every day. Besides, they've had it coming to them for years."

"If they hurt you… they'll regret it," Fay said, her eyes wide as saucers. Boone laughed at the notion of his tiny partner coming to rescue his sorry ass. Not that he doubted her for a moment.

"Yeah, I know," he said. "But I promise, I'll be fine. I won't let anyone hurt you again, ever."

It must have been something in the way he said that, but he saw the suspicion immediately forming in Fay's mismatched eyes.

"You went in my old house."

Well, guess there was no point denying it… Besides, she'd already assumed that he would.

"I did," Boone said carefully. Slowly, he reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out the picture he'd taken from Fay's house. He unfolded it and showed it to her. "Sorry... you kind of gave yourself away."

Fay took the picture from him with trembling fingers.

"Yes... I suppose I did," she said, though she seemed to be talking more to the people in the picture.

Then she looked up at him with her blue and gold eyes, like she was waiting for him to judge her. But Boone didn't have slightest desire to judge her for wanting a little bit of affection. In fact, he was only hoping she wouldn't judge him too harshly...

"So... here," he said slowly, handing over a slightly damp folded letter. "It's only fair."

His partner, a slightly baffled look on her face, unfolded the letter and read it. Moments later, diamond tears dripped down her cheeks. She folded the letter back up and made to tuck it back in his pocket for him, but Boone stopped her.

"Hold on to it for me, would you?" Boone said gently. He replaced his letter with Fay's picture. "It's easier to carry this way."

Fay's lower lip trembled in the most adorable way.

"I... Oh, Craig, of course I will," she whispered, using her good arm to place the letter inside her armor.

Boone grinned and swiftly kissed her once more.

"Thanks. So I need you to do one more thing for me... Stay put this time, alright?"

Her lip quivered again. She wasn't making it easy to leave.

"I'm afraid you won't come back," she whispered.

Boone held out his arms, and Fay immediately stepped into them. That was the best gift she could have given him… her trust, her unconditional love. He knew that even if he failed in his goal to kill each and every Fiend, Fay would still love him in her own unique way.

"I'll come back," he said firmly. "But these assholes hurt you… and I can't just let that go."

Fay sighed, her body relaxing into him.

"I knew you'd say that… and I know I can't stop you."

"You go," Boone said gently, gesturing to the West. "Go around this place… wait for me. I'll find you when I'm done."

"I'm not leaving here without you," Fay said stubbornly.

Boone chuckled, brushing at her hair.

"Then wait here. Please. For me," he added, hoping to impress upon her that he didn't want to lose her, either.

Maybe she understood, because she stepped away from him and sat down on a stone, though she didn't look happy about it. She pulled her hood back up, covering her hair and eyes.

"I'll be back, alright?" he said gently.

"I believe you."

Boone figured he couldn't put it off any more… he had to go. The longer they sat here, the more they made themselves a target. He headed for the river bank. He paused there, looking back at his partner.

"One more thing," he added.

Fay raised a pale eyebrow at him.

"Yes?"

"Why'd you really turn down the Colonel's proposal?"

Her mouth twitched into a smile.

"I think you know. After all… you just had to interrupt it, didn't you?" she said slyly. But she didn't sound very upset.

You didn't love him, Boone thought, his heart racing. You had feelings for me and didn't know how to tell me, didn't have any idea how to act on it...

Just the thought warmed his soul against the chill of the water, much like Fay's kiss had. He felt like he could do anything… even earn forgiveness for his past.

/

A/N: So I think I like this haha. Almost to the end! So much gooey mushy feels to wrap up... and also violence!