Benny's Suit

It was late when the Courier came back. Veronica looked up from her game of Caravan, which Cass had been winning anyways, and smiled as Mouse bounded into the room.

"We did it," she said as she swept up Veronica into a hug.

"You did it?"

Mouse pulled back, hands still grasping Veronica's shoulders, and beamed. Boone stood behind her, his lips in their usual grim line, but he gave Veronica a cursory nod of the head.

"We did it! He's dead."

Mouse let her hands slide down to Veronica's, and spun them around the room, laughing. Rex had to dart out of the way when Mouse's celebration brought them too close to where he had been sleeping.

"He's dead! He'll never… He'll never hurt me again. The bastard."

Veronica's hands twitched. She wanted to reach up and cup Mouse's face. Instead she just smiled as Mouse slowly brought their twirling to a stop. Mouse's face lit up, and she laughed again, pulling away from Veronica.

"And check out the snazzy new suit I got," Mouse gestured down to the checkered black and white outfit she was wearing.

"It's not snazzy. It's ugly," Cass snorted from her table.

Veronica paused and looked at Mouse more intently. She hadn't notice it with all of Mouse's celebratory antics, but her usual reinforced leather had been replaced with… Well, Cass was right. It really was an ugly suit.

"Honestly, Mouse." Cass paused to cut the deck to Boone who had joined her. "You're going to go around wearing a dead man's clothes?"

"It is a little weird, Mouse. I can't believe you took the time to even take the clothes off his dead body." Veronica's eyes were starting to sting from the busy pattern, so she looked back up to Mouse's face. Tracks of sweat made lines through the grime on her face, and pieces of her short black hair were plastered to her forehead. It must have been another hot day out in the Mojave.

"No, he took them off before he died."

Veronica started, having been distracted from her observations.

"I'm sorry, what? Why would he do that?"

"Well, he had to take them off for us to have sex. Not like we could do that with his clothes on."

"I-what?"

"It was all part of my plan, see? We had sex, and after he fell asleep, because guys always do after, I cut his throat."

A flash of ice in her veins, and then Veronica felt her face grow warm. If it was possible, that suit had just become uglier.

"I see. Well, I believe I have some, ah, scribe business to take care of. So."

Cass waited for Veronica to leave the room before speaking again.

"I can't believe you let Mouse sleep with that creep, Boone."

Boone snorted before flipping over a few cards. "I'm not her father. Not like the kid listens to me anyways."

"Hey, I am right here, you two."

"You're an idiot, Mouse." Cass studied the cards on the table. "Looks like I win again."

Mouse smiled at her reflection in the mirror. It was amazing, really, how well the suit fit her. The others had been trying to get her to take it off for a few weeks, but they didn't understand. This suit had haunted her dreams. It had been the last thing she had seen as she fell down that hole.

And now? What did she have to be afraid of now? Benny was dead. She wore the suit that had brought her death. She had the NCR at her back and Mr. House's robots in her pocket.

She had stopped carrying around her gun everywhere she went. If anyone else tried to mess with her, she'd punch them right in their smug face. After all, that's what Veronica, right? Punch people in their faces? And Mouse had her suit. She didn't need to be afrai-

A knock at the door snapped Mouse out of her reverie.

"Yeah, alright. Come on in."

It was Veronica. Before, she would visit Mouse's room almost every day. But lately the visits and their late night chats had stopped. This time, she slipped into the room quietly, and held something behind her back.

"I have something for you, Mouse."

"Oh? A present?" Mouse grinned, but her smile fell when Veronica's only response was to shove something into her hands. She tried to plaster on another one as she ran her fingers over the dirty black leather now in her hands. "What is it?"

"It's a King's Suit. I know you wanted one, but you used your favor to stop the fighting between the Kings and the NCR instead. Well, now you have one."

"Veronica, this is… I don't know what to say. Thank you." Mouse looked up at Veronica, smiling again for real this time. "I'll go put it in my closet."

"Why don't you put it on?"

"Oh?" Mouse snickered. "You just want me to get undressed, is that it?"

Veronica's next words were steely and controlled. "I want you to take off that suit. Please."

"I can't."

"You can."

"No. You don't understand, Veronica. You don't know what this suit means to me."

Veronica's head was bowed, and she muttered something.

"I'm sorry. What?"

"You don't understand, Mouse. And if you can't understand, then maybe, maybe I've been misleading myself. I-I need to go."

Veronica left Mouse's room, she heard Mouse shout behind her, heard her footsteps come after her, but she kept going. If she stopped moving, the tears would come, and she couldn't let Mouse see her cry. Not over a stupid suit.

It wasn't until she reached the Strip that Mouse finally caught up, grabbing at her wrist, pulling her close. Veronica took a deep breath, willing the tears to stay back.

"Please. I can't understand unless you explain it to me." Mouse raised a thumb and rubbed away a tear that had slipped loose. "Please explain it to me."

Veronica's words came out choked but clear enough for Mouse to hear. "When you wear that suit. All I can see is you and him. Do you-do you understand what I'm saying?"

Mouse furrowed her brow, and continued to rub Veronica's cheek with her thumb.

"I understand. I-"

Mouse's eyes widened and her hand flew to her hip, grasping for the gun she no longer carried. Veronica gasped and lurched forward. She felt the warmth spread across her back and heard the words "Message from Caesar, Courier", before the darkness enveloped her.

The first thing Veronica noticed when she woke up again was that she felt very stiff. She was bandaged heavily, she could tell, and Arcade Gannon sat at her side, fiddling around with a Doctor's Bag.

"Good, you're awake." He said as he gently administered another stimpak. Well, he tried to do it gently, anyways. "Mouse will want to see you. I'll let her in."

Mouse came in, followed by Boone, and ED-E. She wasn't wearing the suit, and she wasn't wearing her reinforced leather either. She had on metal armor, spikes protruding from the shoulders, and a raider's helmet on her head.

"I'm glad you're awake, Veronica. I wanted to say goodbye before we left for Cottonwood Cove."

"You're not wearing the suit."

"Yeah, I know." Mouse reached out and brushed a strand of hair from Veronica's eyes.

"Don't go."

"We'll be back. Promise."

The next few weeks went by slowly for Veronica. She was bedridden for the first few days, but eventually enough complaining and thinly veiled threats convinced Gannon that she was well enough to move around. Eventually Cass began to pull her aside for games of Caravan, gently tutting that all the pacing Veronica was doing was going to ruin the floors. Even with the distractions, every day that Mouse didn't come back was torture.

And then, one night, as she lay in bed willing sleep to finally come, she heard something bump against her door. Her heart leapt into her throat and Mouse's name left her lips,

Mouse wasn't at her door, but ED-E was, a note taped over his ocular sensor.

"meet me in my room–Mouse"

Mouse's room was dark when Veronica first entered. Mouse was leaning against a wall, illuminated by the light of a floor lamp. When Veronica saw her she laughed. Mouse was wearing the King's suit, and had her hair greased back in an imitation of the King gang members.

"Hey, thanks for the clothes. I think this is going to be my new outfit." Mouse pushed herself off the wall and walked to Veronica.

"Some people wear different clothes every day, you know."

"No, I don't think that's a thing." Mouse rubbed away a tear. "You always cry when you see me now."

"I'm happy to see you." Veronica rubbed at her eyes, trying to wipe away the tears, but Mouse gently held Veronica's face in her hands. She leaned forward and placed a kiss each spot a tear fell.

"I'm happy to see you too." And then she leaned forward and caught Veronica's lips with hers. "And I won't wear Benny's suit again."

"Mouse?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up and kiss me again."

"Okay."