Pleasure and Pain

Chapter 1

Just in the blink of an eye, the small fragment pierced through her shoulder. The sound of her own flesh being ripped open by steel was enough to make her gag, though the adrenaline rushing through her veins kept her from falling down. Behind her, someone cursed—she damn well knew who it was. She tried aiming for the target before her once more, but missed; the energy in her body was slowly faltering away in seconds, leaving nothing but the pain and misery of her shot wound. Before she could move away, her mind shut down and her body went limp.

Occasionally in her state of unconsciousness, she felt like dying. Mostly because of the heat and the unbearable pain in her shoulder, as if somebody was constantly poking that specific spot to torture her. But, when her eyes finally opened ajar and her lips parted, she knew it could've been only one person. "Fucking hell Lucy, you're a real moron sometimes, you know?" the husky voice mumbled mockingly. His voice sounded annoyed. But there was something else, too. Despair. Relief.

She could only make out the vague form of her companion whose face hung above her, but she managed to smile. When she tried to speak, she coughed instead, her throat raspy and dried out by dehydration. "Oh, right." Boone said in reply to her noises, leaving her captured glance for a brief moment, only to return with a bottle of dirty water. Never in her life did Lucy think she would be happy to see a dirty bottle of water. Then again, she didn't exactly have the luxury to choose otherwise. He scooped Lucy's upper body into his tall arms and managed to set her up straight a bit before bringing the bottle to her lips. The woman drank eagerly, as if this small amount of water was life depending. Which was in some way partly true, she guessed. 

"What happened?" Lucy rasped when she was lying down again. She could almost hear Boone rolling his eyes. Before he could shoot one of his famous, sarcastic comments at her, Lucy spoke again. "I know I was shot, you idiot. But what happened afterwards?" 

Silence. She reminded herself that she just woke up after.. Boone knows how long. Take it easy, dumbass. Her brain already felt fried enough as it was, thanks to the Mojave heat.

They had tried to be so careful about this all; counting every step they took, tracking their area intensively and making sure noone would be able to trace their own. And yet, they'd run into a scouting party of Caesar's Legion. "Well, I finished it, obviously." Boone murmered as he went through his cameo backpack to grab whatever he was searching for. Lucy frowned, opening her mouth but then closing it again. "Are we back in the shack?" she wondered carefully. Boone's flame for revenge was hotter than anyone she'd ever come across, and she knew he didn't like any of this; it costed them precious time. Time they could spent on their journey, to deal with the Legion once and for all.

"Yeah." Boone sighed. Lucy's eyesight was finally adjusting, and she was able to make out Boone's face for once; he'd removed his beret and eyeglasses, probably before the hectic process of cleaning out Lucy's wound. "Get me up, will you? I'm tired of lying around being useless all day." she moaned, before looking down at her bandaged shoulder wound. "Enjoy seeing me naked?" she blurted out before thinking, immediately wanting to punch herself after seeing that. Boone's wife was still a sensitive subject she knew, for she had tried to address the matter a few times since they first started traveling together. Boone scoffed. "Hell yeah." he said enthusiastically. Their relationship wasn't build on mutual love affection; they were like a long lost brother and sister, often tossing around sarcastic comments at one another and being able to communicate perfectly without having to use words for clarification. 

Boone scooped her small frame into his arms and moved towards the small campfire in front of them. A disgusting smell welcomed Lucy as she made herself comfortable on a log. "Iguana bits." she stated with an annoyed undertone. "What a pleasant surprise." she added after a small moment of silence. Boone sat down on a seperate log next to her. "They ran out of cheeseburgers. Had to come up with something. Hey, atleast now you can be useless in front of a campfire, right?" 

Lucy cleared her throat. "Absolutely. I'm obviously the sophisticated one, if I may say so myself." she mumbled casually. Even though she seemed calm, she felt like dying on the inside. Not specifically because of her wound, but because of time. That stupid bullet wound could wait. It didn't deserve her attention.

She didn't know anything regarding their mission, when it came to time and location; it was all a blur, swept away like dust, thanks to this event of her getting shot in the fucking shoulder. "We need to get moving." she suddenly said, already wanting to stand up. However, the fast movement made her light-headed, and not to mention she winched from the pain in her shoulder. Fantastic reckoning, Lucy. Boone stood up and helped her sit down. "For fucks sake, calm the fuck down Lucy. You've been shot just a few hours ago. We need to stay here and take it easy." he grunted, clearly annoyed by her stubborness.

"No. We need to go. I don't know what they'll do to Benny if we aren't there on time." 

Boone snorted. "Right, him. Tell me.. Exactly why is he so important to you?" 

A short silence. Lucy tried to calm herself down.

"He's got something of mine." she left out the part where she'd grown some sort of disturbing affection towards him, after they spent a few days together in the Tops. Lucy had confronted him there and used her skills on him to get him exactly where she wanted him to be. Turned out, Lucy wasn't good with emotional barricades; when she heard Caesar had captured him, she immediately felt guilty for not killing him right way. Lucy had visited Nipton. She had seen what the Legion was capable of doing, even to the innocent. 

She completely, temporarily erased the event from her past on purpose. Or atleast, she pretended it wasn't there. She pretended it wasn't nagging her in the back of her mind. The event where Benny had once saved her life, a long time ago, before all this. A debt she was going to repay, regardless of the small detail of when he'd tried to shoot a her a few weeks ago.