So chapter 2, hopefully the next chapter will be out faster, I've been busy and also lazy when I had time. A bit about the setting, obviously it is the Mojave Desert, but it's been around a year and a half since Whisper (the Courier/Courier Six) was shot and dragged out of her grave and the game would have started. She got to the Strip after three months where she had been gathering her companions so they've known her for at least year while others have for longer. The time line is off since it's supposed to be a real story where time is more than just your clock on your Pip-Boy and with all the fast traveling and weeks it would take between the DLC's I figure the whole New Vegas storyline should take 3-4 years or so. Caesar, House, and Oliver are still alive, that might change depending on where I want to go. So Post Old World Blues, Dead Money, Render Unto Caesar was failed after killing Benny and getting the Securitron upgrades.

Just a warning, this is not a Veronica/Christine story, they will have a relationship, they will not have a horrible angst ridden divorce, but this fic a Fem Courier/Veronica fic. Now I'm going to stop ranting and on with the fic. There is information at the end of the story for Whisper and how I played my character at the end as notes. You don't have to read it, but it will hopefully give you some insight on the character and why she acts like she does.

I don't own Fallout and all that jazz, now on to the story.

"Urgh, come on don't you think we should go after her," Veronica Santiago asked as her companions as she paced around the eating room of the Lucky 38. The suite had the works, clean water, a stocked kitchen, beds, showers, even a TV, though it didn't matter since there weren't any television stations anymore, but it was impressive nonetheless.

"We heard you the first time Veronica," Craig Boone the sort of leader of their little posse when Whisper wasn't around said as he put his sniper rifle together at the table not looking at her, "but it isn't like Whisper hasn't done stuff like this before."

"That's right, two months ago she disappeared for a week while investigating the ruins of a drive in, but then she came back and told us all about her crazy stories about how she was abducted by brains with a teleporter," Arcade added. "If she didn't have that ridiculous dog gun and those fists made of a metal I've never seen before I would have said she had suffered from a week long bout of heat stroke. But she did so I'm incline to believe her, crazy sounding or not, Whisper's always come back safe," he said in that strange mix of intelligent and sarcastically condescending way he spoke.

Veronica loved the Follower of the Apocalypse though like an older brother and knew he didn't mean anything by it; which is why she didn't put her power fist through his face whenever he spoke. "She came back covered in scars and technology the Brotherhood would cream themselves to get a look at much less touch. I don't care if she was smiling when she came back, that isn't exactly a good condition to come back in."

"Listen Sweetness," Cass said calling Veronica her general nickname for anyone she was talking to after her third shot of whiskey while preparing her fourth. "There's not a woman in the Mojave who can take care of herself like Whisper, myself included," she said before pointing her finger at all of them, "but don't any of you fuckers tell her that."

"We're all worried about her Veronica," Boone said evenly, "but there isn't much we can do but hope she's alive. Arcade and I went with ED-E to that abandoned Brotherhood bunker and it was sealed completely, no way to get through from this side. But I know she's fine," he said giving her an uncommonly sympathetic look, "she's stronger than all of us put together and if there's anyone, man, woman, super mutant, ghoul, robot attack dog, that can survive anywhere in the wasteland it's Whisper, she's got the devil's own luck. And besides, if it makes you feel better Lily and Raul are out with Rex searching for her and we have ED-E monitoring all the radios, NCR, Legion, even if we all leave we might not be able to get back in to this place."

"I know," Veronica said finally sitting down at the table and running her hands through her hair underneath her hood. "But-."

"I have literally watched her beat a deathclaw to death with her bare hands," Cass said as if that was all that was needed to say.

"Listen Veronica," Arcade said stepping in, for all his deadpan and sarcastic bluster he was still much better at comforting stressed people than either Boone or Cass, at least when Cass wasn't sober. "We aren't saying that we don't care or that you shouldn't. It's just that worrying doesn't help anyone, not Whisper and not us, as shitty as it might sound, sometimes you just gotta take things as they come good and bad."

For only a second Veronica saw red and wanted to punch Arcade until his face was paste, not his fault but being told to 'wait and see,' pissed the cheerful scribe off to an unbelievable degree. As calmly as she could Veronica stopped herself and tried to count to six, Six had suggested that after the nickname Veronica had given her. She couldn't quite make it to ten when she saw red, but six was enough most times. She managed to blow the breath she hadn't known she was holding through her teeth remembering Arcade was a friend and settled down back into her chair.

"Listen Veronica, we are all worried about Whisper, but there are other things to worry about," Boone said diplomatically. "There is an army of slavers and killers just on the other side of the Colorado amassing their strength every day for the final push against the NCR. Whisper has managed to gather most of the local tribes on her side so that they would stand up against the Legion. Together they add up to an army that is big enough to be considered a power in the wasteland that could tip the balance to either the NCR or the Legion," he said spitting when he said the latter's name.

"Seriously," Arcade said throwing up his hands in frustration, "there's a garbage bin right over there," he said pointing to the trash can a few feet away.

"It was a demonstration of passion," Boone argued, "back to my point, the tribes of the Mojave are just strong enough together to have a chance of bloodying the nose of either side enough so they can't take the Mojave regardless of what happens."

"But they're only going to listen to Whisper, without her here waving her twenty foot dick around the Alliance of the Mojave falls back into a bunch of tribe, all of them are looking to play who's bigger with each other until things turn bloody," Cass interrupted with her usual sense of sensitivity.

"Out of respect for Whisper most tribes and gangs that have sworn to follow her have kept to themselves, but old rivalries sometimes burn even hotter than old enemies," Arcade said eloquently. "And since it's been so long even Mr. New Vegas hasn't any word on Whisper, those old rivalries and grudges are starting to flare up," he said unrolling an actual paper map of the Mojave onto the table. Pointing at New Vegas he started, "The Chairmen aren't going to start anything since Benny's dead and Whisper is pretty much the uncrowned leader of the tribe and the White Gloves aren't probably gonna start anything since a gang war is too barbaric for them. Gomorrah represents a problem though, Cachino is too terrified of Whisper to start an all-out war after what he saw her do to Big Sal and Nero, but the amount of chems his men are on, they might start something just for the hell of it one day and the Strip could explode in a single night. Mr. House's secruitrons will eventually settle things down, but not soon enough, the first time some is killed on the Strip when everyone's nerves are stressed to the breaking point, there's no going back. One of the families will be destroyed, maybe not when it starts, but definitely by the end, which will lead to the NCR deploying more troops to the Strip and Freeside to compensate," he said dragging his finger from Camp McCarran and Camp Golf to Vegas. "Which will spread them even thinner than they already are, cause more friction with Mr. House over Vegas, and destabilize their hold over the desert as a whole," the former Enclave citizen said taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes.

"Which is all the more reason why we should be out there finding Whisper instead of just sitting up here in this stupid suite," Veronica said stubbornly. She knew why they couldn't all go out into the wasteland to find Whisper, they had had this conversation before, but it didn't make it any easier.

"It's why Boone goes out with his 1st Recon Beret to Gomorrah every night when things are likely to get the worst," Arcade explained gently, he knew exactly why Veronica was being so stubborn about this, they all did so he tried to be patient.

Veronica looked at Boone, she knew him and knew he was a hurting man, but he was really warm and good on the inside. That didn't mean that with his sunglasses and beret on, not to mention his scowl, he wasn't an intimidating sight. "Even if Whisper hasn't shown up in a while, as long as we show people on the Strip that people are still in her fortress in the Lucky 38 watching it will deter them from starting something," Arcade continued. It was also why every now and then he would ask Veronica to go to Vault 21 to drop off a jumpsuit to Sarah or pictures to Michael in his workshop. She would draw eyes every time she walked down the street, not because she was pretty of course, or at least she didn't believe herself to be, but because Arcade had her do her little errands in full power armor.

"Listen Veronica," Cass said trying to stop the conversation she'd heard before, "we all know you have a massive ladyboner for Whisper," she said tactfully. "Not that I blame you, I mean if I swung that way I would swing away, hell depending on how many of these I've had," she said holding up her mostly empty whiskey bottle, "I might swing anyway. Anyway, we're all worried, but we gotta remember that Whisper would want us to keep as much order as we can until she gets back or one of the sides decides to start killing each other."

Before anyone could say anything, especially Veronica who's face was bright red, EDE came floating in beeping excitedly. After a particularly long stretch of beeps and clicks everyone, even Boone burst out into smiles. "So apparently Whisper's Pip-Boy finally gave a signal," Arcade said translating for everyone. He was the only one who spoke fluent Eyebot except for Whisper, the rest of them could only get the gist of what EDE was trying to get across.

"That's great," Veronica shouted getting up and giving EDE a hug, "well what are you waiting for," she asked as she put on her power armor that she left on one of the couches, it was too heavy for the hooks in a closet. She slipped into the hollow opening of the metal shell and took a deep breath when the gear and servos started to buzz as they came to life. They told her when she first became truly indoctrinated into the Brotherhood that even though she was going to be a scribe she still needed to be trained in the use of power armor in case the worst happened. Now that Whisper had dragged her all over the Mojave and dangerous situations for once she was glad about the stupid traditions of the Brotherhood, since it kept her alive. Veronica wouldn't admit it to anyone, but she was glad Whisper dragged her around too. "Aren't you guys ready yet," she asked when she saw that they were still around the table, it had taken her a good five minutes to put her power armor on, but they were still standing around like they hadn't heard any news at all.

"Hold on there cowgirl," Cass said gesturing for her to calm down, "we don't even know where she is yet, let's let the little feller tell us first," she said pointing to EDE who was hovering over the map of the Mojave. He slowly moved east, almost at the banks of the Colorado River, any further east and she would have been in Legion territory.

"I know that area," Veronica said still too excited to sit still, "there's an old bunker that the Brotherhood abandoned after the war with the NCR." She said that last part carefully, while Boone wasn't exactly on part of the NCR anymore and he hadn't actually fought against the Brotherhood of Steel during the war, he was still loyal to the idea of the NCR. He was more loyal to Whisper and his companions, but it wasn't a good thing to constantly throw the fact that their previous families were enemies.

"It's also on the other side of the Mojave," Boone said evenly pointing to it, "it's half a day's journey there Veronica and it's already late. There's no point in leaving now since we won't get to where she is even if we travel all night. Not to mention that Whisper is great a lot of things, but following a path isn't one of them for a courier," he said and Veronica had to admit that she had a point. Once when Whisper agreed to help her acquire technology to prove the problems with the Brotherhood's ideals all they had to do was go to Vault 34 and find a pulse gun that could disable power armor. It took the two of them days to find it when Six decided she wanted to go find aliens because she had heard a rumor some were camped out north of Vegas. Surprisingly enough they found aliens, hostile ones too and dealing with them had been fun, but that wasn't the point. Whisper, or Six as Veronica affectionately called Whisper when they traveled together or when she frustrated Veronica, was like a kid with ADD when it came to traveling, she would listen to everyone talk and mark things into her Pip-Boy. Whenever she felt like it, not caring what they were in the middle of doing to do something else.

It would have been frustrating as hell if not for the fact that Six always did the right thing and wound up helping people along the way. There was something endearing the way the older woman would still get all bright eyed after rescuing someone or finding some long lost family heirloom and have strangers break down in tears saying thank you over and over again when the courier returned what was lost without even asking for a reward. For anyone else it would have been stupid naivety, but somehow altruism fit Whisper better than her Pip-Boy.

"What if she's hurt," Veronica countered, she knew she would end up staying in the hotel, or at the very least Vegas waiting for Whisper since it would be stupid to trek out into the desert searching for a courier who barely seemed to know how to use a map.

"Then it's a good thing we have a ghoul, a nightkin, and a dog out there looking for her," Boone said.

"Careful sourpuss," Cass mocked, "that was almost a set up for a joke." When Boone just scowled at her though she laughed, "see, now you're acting in character."

"Anyway, in addition to friends in the area, she also owns a room in Novac," Boone said pointing at the place he used to call home. "She'll make her way there, hurt or not. I'll put out a wire to Ranger Andy to keep an eye out for her and to let us know the second she gets into town."

"But," Veronica said stubbornly, she really wanted to get out there even though she knew it was foolish.

Boone could see that Veronica was being stubborn, but also why she was. After all, he had done the same thing when he the second he heard Carla was in danger and his expression softened. "Listen Veronica, if it will make you feel better I'll even talk to Manny," he had to hold back from spitting when he said that name, "he'll see her from miles away when she comes day or night from the sniping spot at Novac-."

"Dinosaur head," Cass interrupted again.

"Sniping. Spot," Boone continued glaring at Cass, before clearing his throat and turning back towards Veronica. "That's the best I can do Veronica, if you run out there halfcocked without any real information you risk getting yourself killed and as tough as you are you don't have as good of a chance as Whisper."

Veronica would normally disagree, she knows she's one of the toughest women in the desert, but then again Six was a special case. The woman came back from a bullet to the head for god's sake, when she left the grave her attacker had left her in she tracked him through the waste, from Goodsprings to Vegas to even The Fort, the Legion stronghold. There she fought him one on one with only knives and got her revenge. And during that time she had fought off abominations, mutants, animals, cazadors, raiders, feral ghouls, aliens, robots, Legion assassins, and countless other monstrous and bizarre foes earning the courier the respect of all of the Mojave. Six was a survivor, no doubt about that, except for maybe Christine, the courier was definitely the toughest woman in the Mojave, maybe not even Christine.

Besides, if Boone was willing to talk to his estranged sniper acquaintance to get her to shut up, she wanted to respect his wishes or at least the effort he was making. "Fine, I'll wait a little while," she said as she started to take off her power armor, "but you come find me the second someone makes contact with her alright," she said more than asked.

"Will do," Boone said and with a nod Veronica walked off to go to the main bedroom. Whenever Whisper left her behind when she went out adventuring, Veronica took up residence in the master bedroom. Because she missed her friend and was annoyed at being left out on the adventuring in addition to the fact that it was the most comfortable place to sleep, not because it smelled like Whisper and that comforted her. Besides, as she pointed it out when Cass mentioned it, Whisper had been gone for two months and her smell had left her sheets a while ago.

Veronica was happy that Whisper seemed to collect books and magazines, she probably had the biggest collection of literature in the Wasteland. Veronica herself enjoyed reading a bit to pass the time, though she had read almost everything at least once from the few issues of Boxing Times to Tumblers Today. What she considered the jewel of Whisper's collection though was the Wasteland Survival Guide, written by Moira Brown and Rain Waters, (she didn't believe that the latter was actually a real name but she wasn't around to ask). The book was well written and factual, though Veronica couldn't actually believe there was someone as crazy as Six who was willing to cripple themselves for knowledge or sneak through a mirelurk den without killing any of the inhabitants just to plant an observer unit. She didn't even know what a mirelurk was, but if they were anything like lakelurks Veronica wouldn't take any chances and would just pound away with her fists. Still, the book was sworn by dozens of different merchants who said the information inside had saved their lives countless times, so that had to count for something.

But what made the book a treasure in Veronica's eyes was that it was new, well not new new, but post war within five years not found in the remains of a house where the residents have been long dead new. All the better it had apparently been published in Washington D.C. the former capital on the other side of the country. That meant people were alive on the other side, and this book was proof of that. She had torn through the book a dozen times but she just loved how the Moira woman wrote so Veronica didn't care. She was in the middle of the chapter on rats and how hitting them with a certain stick was a good way to kill them when Boone walked into the master bedroom.

"What's up," Veronica asked trying to keep her face clear. She was kind of envious of how the sniper was able to always keep his face clear, she never told him that though since she knew she wasn't jealous of how he got to be that way.

"I called Ranger Andy like I said I would when you walked in here as a heads up. He called me back five minutes ago saying Whisper got into town fine. He said she looked exhausted a bit beaten up, and carrying more loot than a pack Brahmin, but fine. Apparently she went into her room without a word to anyone with her companion and settled in for the night."

"Who was she with," Veronica asked wondering if this would be a new person to bunk down at the Lucky 38. She was kind of hoping for maybe some sort of sentient deathclaw or a talking yao guai, though she supposed another ghoul like Raul wouldn't be so bad, especially if they were alive before the bombing.

"Andy just said something about a woman, or at least he thought she was a woman," Boone said cautiously.

"A woman," Veronica tried to say evenly, but it came out suspicious and kind of jealous.

"Veronica I'm sure you have nothing to worry about," Boone said awkwardly. The one good thing about being an emotional shut in with a death wish was that you never had to comfort people. That of course had changed once Whisper had gotten a hold of him and worked her charismatic cheerful brainwashing words and gotten him to open up. She had been the first person he had opened up to after Carla… died, she had dragged him into a life of danger, adventure, and comradery. He had expected the danger and adventure parts to be the end of him, a lot of times it almost was, but Whisper had talked him out of his self-destructive path. She had shown him the power of mercy to both allies when she rescued all the NCR hostages from Nelson even though it would have been easier and safer to just put a bullet in them from a distance, and enemies when she did the same for the Powder Gangers the Legion had taken slaves. Whisper had taught him it didn't mean that you were weak when she took the same hands she used to rescue those strung up boys to tear through the Legion camp at Cottonwood Cove.

Then the courier starting gathering other lost souls like his to the Lucky 38 and he wasn't sure what to make of them at first. He thought they were just another group of freaks trying to hold on to something that made them feel wanted, a drunken cowgirl who had lost everything, a Follower of the Apocalypse who had a past he didn't want to reveal, an ancient ghoul who was struggling between fixing what he could and killing any villain he could find, a nightkin who thought they were all her long dead grandchildren, a robot dog who didn't like it when people wore hats, a floating eye that was far more helpful and knowledgeable then it let on, an ex-Brotherhood lesbian scavenger who couldn't stand watching her family kill itself, and him, a sniper who couldn't protect his wife and was forced to kill her to save her from worse horrors, at least he hoped he had and was looking to die. At first, when Whisper had brought her to the hotel and introduced the others to him when they arrived he had tried to maintain a professional front. Cold and distant, but not rude or hateful, he might have been looking for a way to die with meaning, but he still had manners. It was how he was taught to act around other soldiers in sniper training. Other soldiers were sent out to die as much as fight, snipers were trained to kill, there was no point in growing close to men who would die while you were looking for another officer to put down.

But eventually the walls that he built up, the walls Whisper had started to crack came down around his companions, especially after Whisper convinced him to give up on his aided suicide. Boone still wasn't great at interacting with his companions but he was opening up more and trying, Whisper said that was the most important thing sometimes. He wasn't sure he believed what she had said, but he believed in Whisper enough to at least go along with it for now. "Andy said he thought she was a woman, I don't think he can tell and from the way he sounded it wasn't his eyes that were the problem."

That made Veronica feel a bit better, but not much, "Whisper's flirt slut though," she said frustrated. It wasn't completely fair, a lot of the time Whisper was simply being nice, but around some of the more receptive women of the Wasteland she tended to flirt a bit harder than was needed for kindness or sweet talk.

"I'm sure everything will be fine, why don't you get some sleep and by lunchtime tomorrow Whisper will be back. You can check out her companion then, and probably the hundred pounds of gecko hide with her," Boone said trying to make a joke, but then the two of them grew silent. It was actually very likely for Whisper to come back to the hotel with a hundred pounds of gecko hides or somethings equally preposterous. A couple of good gecko hide could be sold for a decent amount of caps, but Whisper was practically a prospector with all the junk she brought back to the hotel. She could usually find a buyer willing to pay something for a bit of her hoard, but the hoard still grew.

Veronica wasn't even sure how she had managed to find enough plasma and laser weapons to rival the Brotherhood's stockpile. Not the Mojave chapter, but the whole Brotherhood. And that was just from her normal daily excursions, Whisper had been gone for two months, how many floors would it take for her to empty her pack now. When she looked at Boone's face and saw a creeping horror set in that matched hers she decided to take his advice so they wouldn't have to talk about it. Faking a yawn she stretched her arms up, "well what do you know, I've suddenly got my energy knocked out of me so I'm gonna go to bed, I suggest you do the same," she said getting up to get changed.

"Right," the 1st recon sniper said walking out of the master bedroom, he was struggling to figure out where they would put the junk that Whisper brought back with her this time. "Have a good night," he said gruffly.

Smiling again Veronica chuckled, Boone was sort of their second in command after all, he had to bear the brunt of what Whisper dropped on them during her excursions. She got dressed for the night, taking a nightgown she had found in Vault 34, it wasn't the fancy dress she had always wanted, but it was sexy and it made her feel more like a woman than her robes or power armor. "Damn, women back before the war sure knew how to dress, even if it's just for sleeping in," she said admiring herself in the mirror. She was glad that Whisper had found it while searching through drawers instead of pulling it off a dead body like a lot of the clothes the courier found.

The thought made her smile for some reason. Most people would see it as grave robbing, but Whisper just seemed happy to find things lost in hell and find a use for them outside, saving them she called it sometimes. Like when they were sneaking through Vault 22 to find out if some of the rumored miracle farming technology was real only to find it overrun with green vegetation. It was both wonderful and terrible once they stumbled upon their first sporecarrier which were even worse than the giant mantises. The technology was real, but it was too uncontrollable so she didn't object when Whisper agreed to help the researcher ghoul Keely destroy all that remained of the data and purge the vault of the monsters forever. Of course before she agreed to firebomb the whole vault to clear the spores out for good Whisper announced that she had to 'save' every teddy bear in the vault so they didn't die in the crossfire. Veronica had thought she was kidding, and so had ED-E, until Whisper begged them to help her save them because they were innocents, and they would be alone down in the vault if she didn't save them.

Which is why, the three of them had to outrun the fireball they set off with twenty pounds of plush in their packs each while exiting the vault. But they did it, they saved the Mojave from ending up like that false Eden, even if they didn't get the information she needed to prove to Elder McNamara that the Brotherhood's isolationist stance wasn't going to work. But hey every teddy bear was saved and Whisper managed to make it up to her by getting Veronica the pulsegun that proved her right, even if the Elder didn't agree with her. Saving the teddy bears was a waste of time and put them at risk, but it made Whisper happy, Veronica didn't even like her like that at the time, she knew the courier was pretty from the first moment she saw her, but that was that. It she wasn't like that bitch Corporal Betsy who wanted to fuck anything with two tits and more than one leg. Still, to see Whisper smile and thank Veronica for helping her save the teddy bears almost made the trip through hell worth it.

Looking back on that memory made her smile and cuddle with Smokey, the teddy bear Whisper had gotten specifically for her in that vault. Most others she had passed out to any kids nearby who looked like they could use a new toy or to the Followers at the Old Mormon Fort for their patients who needed comfort, but she saved two, one to give to Veronica and one for ED-E as thanks for helping her. The robot didn't know what to do with it since he was a floating ball so he beeped politely then when the courier wasn't looking he dumped the bear into one of the various containers in the Lucky 38 and forgot about it. Veronica on the other hand was touched by the gift, she knew that it was a silly little thing and that Whisper was half crazy if really sweet. It wasn't a dress, but it was something she could cuddle at night so she decided to keep it as her own. She named it Smokey even though she was the only one outside of the Brotherhood that would get the reference, but she didn't care since it was soft and she loved him, platonically of course, she was still into the ladies romantically, but she let him cuddle with her at night.

With that last thought she laid her head down on her/Whisper's pillow and closed her eyes. As an old song played on the radio somewhere in the hotel she drifted off to sleep happy that Whisper was safe and would be back home soon.

I wanted to do this a bit tighter, it was supposed to end when Christine and Whisper arrived at the Strip, but the story kind of got away from me. By the time I got to a decent stopping point I realized a scene transition in a chapter didn't feel right so I ended it earlier. So I guess that means that the next chapter will be shorter, but hopefully it also means I will get off my lazy ass and write the next chapter.

A little bit about Whisper, just to get some background since unlike the other's she's the player character and therefore different than the others since everyone's character is different.

Name: Whisper

Occupation: Courier/ Defender of the Wasteland

Karma: Really good

Reputation: She is liked by almost all good and neutral factions, only the Legion and Fiends outright dislike her.

Level: Around 30ish

Personality: sort of a magical pixie girl with a bloody streak. She doesn't do bad things like steal or kill people for their weapons/armor that is better than hers even though it would be helpful in the long run. She gives things away to people without always taking payment deciding on how the other party makes the request and how they act when she receives what she got for them. She does silly things like saving teddy bears in desolate locations like empty vaults or caves with abominations and stuff, mainly because I do that when I play. She's also a bit of a flirt and identifies as a lesbian so she would have the Cherchez La Femme perk in game and likes to use it. Though she hasn't slept with anyone during the canon storyline as of yet.

S.P.E.C.I.A.L: strength 8, perception 6, endurance 8, charisma 7, Intelligence 10, Agility 6, Luck 6

*all modified by perks from the Big MT and implants

Skills:

Max: Unarmed*, Melee, Repair*, Speech*, Barter (* Tag Skills)

High: Guns, Energy weapons, Science

Medium: Lockpick, Medicine, Survival

Low: Sneak, Explosives,