I felt my Courier in "A Woman's Place" wasn't a good fit for Vulpes, so I wrote this. Note that the girl in here is not the Courier, I felt Id have more freedom with an OC. Anyways, thank you for reading and please enjoy! (and review! Reviews make me smile:)

"Damn it" Vulpes thought as he propped himself upon the side of a large rock. His unit was on their way to New Vegas Strip when they engaged an NCR patrol. As far as he knew he was the only one left. He was wounded but managed to crawl to the rock for shade. How long had he crawled? He didn't even really remember crawling away. He looked down at the large gash in his side, he couldn't see out of his right eye, and he was pretty sure he had a few bullets in his leg too.

He couldn't die. Not yet. He still had his mission, he couldn't die until it was complete. He wasn't in any condition to move let alone complete Caesars task.

At that moment he would have fought the Legate himself for a bottle of purified water...hell, he'd fight him for poisoned water at this point. He didn't figure himself far from death, he could even swear he heard voices...

"...someone over there!"

He did hear voices! Was it the NCR? Did one of the profligate troops survive? He quickly fumbled around and found his machete. Glancing around, his vision finally cleared enough to see a shadowy figure approaching, he pointed his weapon at the figure, If he was going to die at the hands of the NCR he was going to at least make it hard for them.

The shadowy blob held its hands up "Were not here to hurt you" he heard it say. He couldn't identify the tone of the voice. Man or woman, it just sounded like a shadowy blob would sound to him. "...Please put the weapon down so we can see to your wounds", it finished.

See to his wounds? We? Was all this just a trick to get him to disarm himself? He thought it over for a moment and decided he would take the chance of trusting this blob to heal him so he could at least finish Caesars mission. The blob was probably a delusion anyway. So he, reluctantly, dropped his weapons.

The next few minutes were a blur to him. The blob was speaking to him but he wasn't really paying attention. After all, who cares what a(probably fictitious) blob has to say? He thought he could see other blobs, and even hear them speaking, even yelling, at each other.

Finally its words began to register. "Now, try and drink this" it said and pressed a bottle to his lips. He drank the water until he almost passed out from lack of breath. "good job..." the blob said softly after he finished. If he had the strength he would have struck it for talking to him like a child. It then began to speek again. "Your eye is swollen...Im going to make a small cut to let some of the blood out, okay?" He nodded his head weakly in understanding. He then felt a something soft touch his face, he vaugely remembered wondering it was, followed by a small prick around his eye. He felt what he assumed to be a rag soaking up the blood, which flowed quickly from his wound. Eventualy he could open both his eyes again althought they were currently still covered from the rag. "There, I think the bleedings stopped..." The blob said. Only this time he recognized the tone, it was soft, a womans voice. "Im going to take the rag off now and check, okay? Get ready now...the suns bright."

It could have been the heat or the fact that he was so close to death, but when Vulpes eyes finaly focused he could swear he was looking at the most beautiful woman in the world. Or at least an angel. "Hey," she said and smiled "Nice to finnaly have you with us."

"Pft!" one of her companions sneered "Like hell it is!"

The woman turned her head to her companion and shouted "Will you shut the fuck up!"

She then turned back to Vulpes and shook her head "Jesus Christ...Cant do a fucking Goddamn good deed without everybody bitching me the hell out..." she mumbled as she began cleaning his other wounds.

'Okay, maybe not an angel' he thought. But he was pretty sure she was beautiful nonetheless.