Mary awoke the next morning to an empty bed. "Vulpes?" She called, but there was no reply. She let out a tired sigh. He had probably gone off to do Legion business.

The real question was what was she supposed to do? She was sure there was some kind of work other than making babies involved with being a Legion wife.'

She began to arise from the bed but was stopped by a strong ache in her lower abdomen. "Fuck!" She cursed to herself. She then lay back down and slowly stretched her body until the pain faded.

After getting dressed Mary searched the tent for food. She had not realized how hungry she was until she remembered she had not eaten since the Legion began their attack on New Vegas. "Jesus…No wonder I fainted." She thought to herself.

Eventually it became evident that there was no food to be found in the tent so she decided to brave the camp in search of some.(But not before making a mental note to bitch at Vulpes for not leaving her something to eat, or at least instructions on how to get some.) Slowly she peeked her head out of the tent. There were a few Legionaries walking about but most of the camps current population appeared to be slaves. "The men must be out finishing their conquest of Vegas." She theorized. Which was okay with her, the fewer Legionaries she had to explain herself to the better. She then carefully emerged from the tent and made her way to the section of the camp she recalled had tables. Wherever they had tables food couldn't be very far, she figured. A few Legionaries shot her questioning looks along the way but she just tried to walk by confidently. One of the things she learned working in Freeside; if you look lost and confused people will try and take advantage of you, if you look like you know what your doing they will stay the Hell out of your way. Although it was hard to look confidant while a bunch of men in skirts stared lustfully at you.

"Please don't try to rape me, please don't try to rape me, please don't try to rape me…" She chanted repeatedly inside her head. But her chant was soon interrupted by the painful cry of an injured Legionary.

"Gah! Damn you woman!" He shouted as cringing slave woman tried to rub powder into his wounds. Mary soon realized the cringing woman was the woman she had awoken to after fainting the day before.

"Um, excuse me…" She interrupted.

"What do you want woman?" The man shouted angrily. "Cant you see we're in the middle of something here?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about…" She began, she then leaned down and examined the man's wounds. "You got these fighting an NCR Ranger?" She asked.

"Yes but what difference does that make?" He exclaimed in frustration.

"Rangers sometimes use these things called incendiary rounds…basically they don't just shoot you, they burn you. See here, how there is no bleeding?" She pointed to a bullet hole in his leg. "That's because the fire sealed it off." Mary then grabbed several of the herbs the woman had laid out and began mixing them. "Here, try this. Its sooths burns and heals them faster." She then gently rubbed the concoction on the man's burns and began to bandage them. The man let out a sigh of relief and then angrily turned to the other woman. "Why did you no know this slave?" He demanded.

"I-I'm sorry my lord!" She then quickly bowed her head.

"It's not her fault…" Mary pleaded. "The only reason I know this is because my father was a doctor." The man then let out a disgusted growl. "Humh. Go make yourself useful at something woman!" He demanded.

"Yes my lord!" The woman replied quickly as she motioned for Mary to follow her. "I'm sorry I got you in trouble…" Mary told the woman as soon as they were out of earshot of the Legionary.

"No…" The woman replied, "Trust me, if I had been in trouble you'd know it. My name is Siri, by the way. I don't know if you remember but we met yesterday. I was there when you woke up from your fainting spell."

"Yes I remember." Mary responded. "I didn't realize I'd forgotten to ask your name until you had already left. By the way…do you know where the food is around here?"

"Why yes…I'm surprised no one has shown you already." The woman paused and stared at her for a moment.

"Yeah…Tell me about it." Mary answered nervously. Why was she giving her that look?

It then occurred to her that Legion wives may be in a different social category than slaves. Who did Siri belong to anyway? The whole camp? Was she allowed to order her around? Not that she wanted to…But people might think it strange they were talking so casually with each other. Were they even allowed to talk?

"Sorry!" Siri said quickly once she realized she was staring. "I just-I had heard that you were married to Vulpes Inculta yesterday…"

"…I was." Marry replied.

"Oh! I'm sorry…I just assumed he would have shown you around, that's all."

Mary then thought back on the day before. Had Vulpes shown her around? She remembered walking around the camp and him speaking to her…Though now that she really thought about it she hadn't really been paying much attention at the time.

"Oh…Actually he may have told me, I just might not have been paying much attention…" She responded with embarrassment.

Siri shot her a look of disbelief. Even the newest slaves knew; when a Legionary talks, you listen. Especially if the one talking is as high ranking as Vulpes Inculta.

"Oh…I see…" Siri finally replied. "Come on, I'll show you where we eat."

Mary walked back sluggishly towards the tent. The Legion food had tasted better than she had expected, and with the appetite she had accumulated she quickly over indulged. It wasn't until she heard a familiar voice that she snapped out of her satisfied daze.

"-I'm going to have fun breaking you in!" The voice of the Legionary she had helped earlier that day growled. Quickly she turned around and was horrified by what she saw. The Legionary was roughly dragging a crying young girl to one of the tents. Mary's eyes widened in rage as she opened her mouth to speak, but she was caught off guard by a firm hand grasping her shoulder.

"Vulpes!" She said in surprise. Her new husband had managed to sneak up on her undetected.

"I know what you're thinking," He said calmly. "-don't."

She immediately knew what he was talking about. "But look at that girl!" She exclaimed in a hushed yell. "She can't be more than thirteen!"

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow. "And what were you planning on doing about it?"

"I.." She paused. What had she planned to do? Shake his finger at him? Give him a stern talking to? She had no authority here but she couldn't just walk away, could she?

"I don't know…" She finally admitted. "But I have to do something!"

"Don't be a fool." He said firmly. "Anything you do will just make him angrier and he will most likely take it out on the girl. Is that what you want?'

She paused and thought for a moment. "…No…" She finally groaned.

"Good. Then let it be. With any luck it will be over quickly for her." Vulpes replied. He then guided her back towards their temporary home.

That night, after she and Vulpes finished consummating their marriage again, Mary drifted into a worried sleep. Her dreams were filled with images of her fellow Followers during the Legions invasion of Vegas. One by one her colleges were nailed to crosses, torn apart, or decapitated. She could see Julie being rapped by two Centurions in the middle of the fort while other Legionary's cheered. She screamed and begged for them to stop but they all ignored her. Why would they not listen? Suddenly she saw the crowd part and a man wearing a dog head stepped forward. He was so familiar to her. Maybe she could talk him into stopping this horror. She ran towards him and begged for him to stop the massacre. Slowly he looked up at her and a smile creped onto his face. Then, without warning, he swiftly brought his machete down on Julie's neck. Mary let out a blood curdling scream as the man kicked her mentors head towards her feet.

Suddenly she found herself sitting upright next to Vulpes. She looked around is confusion. "What happened?" Vulpes asked, his eyes slightly wider than usual.

"What?" She whispered, her thought was sore for some reason.

"I felt you moving in your sleep, then suddenly your screamed and sat upright." He sounded slightly concerned, though it may have just been annoyance.

"I-I did?" She stammered. "Oh…I think I just had a nightmare." Her eyes filled with tears as she remembered her now hazy dream.

"Ah." He said simply. "Well, come here then." Vulpes then pulled her close to him. She was surprised, but didn't feel like trying to analyze his motivations. She just wrapped her arms tightly around her husband, buried her face in his chest, and cried until she fell back to sleep.

A/N: I'm not sure exactly where I want to take this story…I have several ideas but I'm not sure if any of them are the right way to go. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you for reading it!