[b]Rough Riders, Frontier Corp, Eliza  Weaver - Gomorrah, New Vegas, Nevada
[/b]



 Eliza could tell from the way Shelby acted around her that she had experienced this kind of suffering herself. If there was going to be anyone that Eliza could open up to, Shelby was the one. She wanted what was developing between the two of them to last, Eliza was tired of being alone in this world. Now neither of them had to suffer alone anymore. Shelby had been able to calm Eliza down enough that she could think clearly and answer her coherently. Without taking a moment longer to think about it Eliza fetched her pack of cigarettes from her bra strap. It seemed like they never left her side, and they probably never did. It seemed like everytime she tried to kick the addiction she always relapsed even harder than before. She needed something to clear her head and until now her smokes were all she had. Even if every puff of acrid smoke edged her closer to death Eliza didn’t care. She figured something else would take her life before they did, and before she came to New Vegas Eliza didn’t feel like she had much reason to carry on living in the first place.
 
 Eliza held the pack of cigarettes in her hand. She quietly examined them as if every memory they helped her forget were embedded into the creases and cracks of the pack. All that pain and suffering pushed aside and passed by. They helped her forget but they never helped her heal. That’s all everything ever did for her, her cigarettes, the alcohol, even the slaver girl. Nothing ever helped her heal, nothing ever gave her the satisfaction of conquering the horrors that conquered her. Fresh tears started to roll down Eliza’s face as Shelby spoke to her. Her words made her heart ache, for the first time in her life Eliza felt like she was in the presence of someone that genuinely cared for her. She didn’t need anyone or anything else anymore.
 
 Eliza violently crushed the pack of cigarettes in her grip, the packaging exploded as the tobacco and paper inside it burst out of her hand and scattered on the tile floor. Eliza interlaced the fingers in her right hand with Shelby’s left and squeezed them slightly. Somehow Eliza snapped back, just like before when she tackled Shelby. Parts of her were coming back online, emotions she refused to acknowledge, and memories she forced herself to forget. It was time for Eliza to wake up and smell the ashes of the world she left behind, otherwise she was never going to move forward.
 
 Eliza gave a labored sigh before she spoke as if she was working up the strength to say what she wanted to. “It was about a baby...my baby. I was 4 months pregnant when I lost it...him. It had to be a boy, it always is in the nightmares. I never seen him but I can’t forget him no matter how hard I try.” She spoke with a cold demeanor as if she had to shut off part of her brain to allow herself to recall what had happened. “I was in the NCR when he was conceived. His father was the reason he died.” Eliza pictured the details much more vividly in her head but she was still afraid to go into the details with Shelby. Part of her wanted Shelby to think she was strong, too strong for the things that happened to her to have actually happened. 
 
 “Shelby if you want this thing between us to continue then so do I, and I’ll do anything to prove that to you. No matter how much it hurts I’ll answer any question you have. Just so long as it means that I never have to leave your arms.”