"Aida!" Butch shook her as hard as he could trying to pull her from her sleep. He groaned when she pushed him away and rolled over reaching for the body that was no longer there. He crouched beside her pulling her into his arms and off the ground.

"What are you doing?" Aida screeched.

"We need to get out of here and fast!" Butch whispered and he hurried through the large trees for an exit that wouldn't lead them straight into Tenpenny's arms.

Aida slid down from Butch's arms as they reached the wasteland. "What is going on?"

"We need to get out of here! Tenpenny's Mercs are everywhere and I don't think Charon and Fawkes can hold them off for long."

"Where's Burke?" Butch grabbed at Aida's arm as she tried to run back the way they had came. "We have to find him! We can't just leave him there to die!"

"Aida for all we know this whole ambush was Burke's idea! No one has seen him since the Mercs arrived."

"After everything he has done for us you still don't trust him!"

"All he has done!" Butch growled as he grabbed Aida's arms to hold her in front of him and keep their eyes met. "He almost got us all killed and now he has tipped off Tenpenny's men!"

"He wouldn't do that Butch!"

"Open your god damn eyes Aida! I know love is blind but this… this is ridiculous!"

"He wouldn't do that Butch." Aida shook her head as her eyes filled quickly.

"He did Aida and the sooner you face that fact the safer we will all be!" Butch looked up as Charon and Dogmeat came running through trees. "We need to get out Maryland nowhere here is safe for us."

Fawkes followed shortly with Clover over his shoulder, her blood running down his arm and chest.

"We need to move and we need to move quiet and quickly." Butch nodded to the others as he locked .his hand into Aida's. "If we can at least get out of the state we will be better off."

Aida watched over her shoulder at Oasis as the fighting echoed through the night's air, waiting for Burke to come through the trees and chase after them but he never came.

Clover winced as Aida wrapped the bandages over her gunshot wound on her side. "Sorry…" Aida whispered flashing her weak smile.

Clover smiled silently telling Aida to cheer up.

Aida pushed herself up off her knees and walked to the pot full of hot water dipping her hands into it and washing away the blood. "There's no way we can travel with her like that Butch."

Butch glanced over at Clover who was tightly holding her side as she took in each breath.

"She can't travel she needs a doctor." Aida looked back down at her hands as she picked at the dried blood. "Why don't you and Charon take her, me and Fawkes can continue on. I have my pipboy and Fawkes is more than capable of protecting me from anything."

"Aida I don't…"

"I'll be fine. We can send word when we reach the border. Besides I need someone to look after my home."

Butch looked back at Clover and then to Aida.

"It will be fine I promise." Aida smiled drying her hands.

"You'll really leave."

Aida nodded. "And I won't look back." She gasped when Butch wrapped his arms around Aida pulling her off the ground in a tight hug.

"If anything happens to Aida."

"Nothing will happen." She whispered wrapping her arms around him.

"Gone!" Tenpenny threw the glass of whiskey at the man causing it to shatter against the wall.

"They escaped sir."

"How could they've escaped?" Tenpenny growled as he grabbed the man's armor pulling him off the ground.

"I told you to give me time!" Burke barked the young man.

"Time!" Tenpenny spat as he glared over to where Burke stood. "You had more than enough time to bring that little bitch to me! But now I have to send these idiots back out into that horrid place to search for her because you needed time!"

"If you would have just let me do what I needed to do…"

"You better watch who you are speaking to boy! You may look older than me but do not forget who you are speaking to!"

Burke lowered his head to the floor as his jaw clenched.

"I want her found and I want her found now!" Tenpenny through the merc to towards the other men standing at the door way.

Dogmeat whined as he pushed his nose into Aida's hand, she smiled down at him giving his head a scratch. California seemed so far away to her and she found it ridiculous that she had to leave her home because of someone who she had watched die right in front of her eyes. How could Tenpenny want her so badly that he still chased her from the grave? She sighed looking up at the large sign that told them they were now leaving Maryland and entering god only knew what. She glanced over her shoulder at what she had worked so hard for, what her father had died for and now she was just leaving it. Everything she had ever known because of Tenpenny… and Burke. Her jaw clenched as she thought of him, why didn't she listen to Butch. Her heart clouded her head and made her blind to what he really was, a selfish prick who was only looking for how he could benefit himself how could she be so stupid, so blind. If only she had shot him the moment he had asked her to rig the bomb none of this would have happened she wouldn't be forced into the unknown. She refused to ever let her heart cloud her mind and make her believe something that was not true. Never again would she be the victim of another's game, this time everyone had to play by her rules and if they didn't well it was their life they were betting not hers.

And with that it comes to an end... But I will be starting the next story soon so just keep checking back on my page. Hopefully I can have the first chapter up by tonight but I am not sure. So thank you to all my readers who stuck with this story to the end I hope you all read the next one because it is going to involve my male courier Dedric, explain more about what Tenpenny really is and I haven't really decided what will really happen between Burke and Aida just yet.