Chapter 1

Butch Deloria shifted uneasily in his seat. His wife, Christine continued her rant.

"…and while I'm busy cleaning and cooking and looking after our children he's out with his stupid 'gang', which of course constitutes a group of grown men acting like teenagers while drinking in the storage room. I just- I can't take this anymore! I'm going to go insane!"

Sienna blinked and tried to keep up with the infuriated woman's words, which seemed to be shooting out at breakneck speed.

Christine counted on her fingers, listing her annoyances with her lazy husband, "He won't get a job, he spends ridiculous amounts of money on booze and- and not to mention chems! I'm almost positive he's using jet! I'm just waiting for the day that Timmy gets his hands on that he'll no doubt find in his fathers jacket pocket, which will no doubt happen if this giant lug doesn't get his act together!" She whacked Butch on the arm, prompting an ooph from him.

"Ok." Sienna said slowly, trying to take all of that in. She turned to Butch, "Butch, is all of this true?"

Butch rubbed his sore arm. He looked incredibly uncomfortable, no doubt from having this side of his private life exposed to the woman he used to bully so much through childhood. True, hearing about the breakdown of his marriage caused no limit of glee for Sienna, but she was nothing if not professional and would not let him know this.

"Well… I don't know. I mean I do some stuff to help out, like… like last week I took the kids out did I not?" His chin went up a notch, challenging Christine.

She levelled an incredulous gaze at him. "You mean when little Jenna ended up in Dr Veasley's office with the tip of a nuka-cola bottle up her nose? Yeah, great paternal care there Butch."

"Hey! How was I supposed to know she'd do that- who does that?" He retaliated, looking rather dishevelled and disgusted at the memory.

"Why was she even drinking nuka-cola, huh? You know that stuffs addictive!"

Sienna clapped her hands together, "OK!" The pair stopped their bickering and looked at her, still shooting looks of disdain at the other. "Right. Well. Ok, It seems there are some serious disagreements about what things should be done by whom, and how. Have you thought about sitting down together and writing a list, or plan of some kind assigning certain responsibilities between the two of you? And I mean together, because you'll need to discuss and both of you agree on this in order for it to work. And Butch, there are plenty of jobs which don't take up the whole week; still giving you the time you want to spend with your friends. Your G.O.A.T results suggested you would make a great hairdre-barber, remember, so that's always an option to look into? I know they're still looking for people there."

Butch scoffed, "Right. Because you're so happy with your job you got 'suggested.' Please."

Sienna's lips thinned, angry that other people seemed to know about her unhappiness. Was it that obvious? Trying to maintain some semblance of professionalism, she continued to listen to Butch and Christine's whining, and then an hour later another couple's, and then another. Yeah, she loved her job.


Lucas Simms blearily opened his partly swollen eyes. A man stood a few feet away cleaning his gun with a cloth, and looked over to Simms with a cold expression on his face. Simms groaned in pain, the searing pain in his ribs growing stronger from where he'd been beaten. It had been only an hour since he'd heard the intruder in his house, going to investigate before the butt of a rifle was smashed into his chest. He'd doubled over only to be forced into the intruder's knee, followed by a fist colliding hard with his jaw. Staggering backwards the intruder followed, reaching into Simms holster and retracting his gun. It happened so fast the sheriff had no time to recover before dazedly seeing another fist coming towards his face, and his world turning black.

He appeared to be somewhere now outside of Megaton, in the middle of nowhere. As the reality of the situation sunk in, his breaths grew painfully heavy and he quickly reached for his gun, which of course wasn't there. The man had tossed the cloth away and stopped cleaning his pistol, holding it loosely in his right hand.

"I took that away, so don't bother," the man's voice was as cold as his expression, which hadn't a flicker of emotion in it from what Simms could tell.

"Who are you?" Simms demanded hoarsely, still gasping from the pain in his abdomen no doubt signalling a broken rib. "You going to kill a man without his weapon, in cold blood?"

His eyebrow rose, and he smirked. "Well… I was going to kill you in your sleep, so yeah." He walked closer to stand only a few feet away, "But somehow you managed to hear me and wake up which let me tell you doesn't happen often, took me by surprise. Of course your son was in the next room, wouldn't want to wake him up during our fight and kill another witness now, huh?"

Simms let out a breath of relief that he'd been holding since he came to, Hardens' safe. But he wasn't. "Why are you doing this…who are you?"

"It's more who sent me you should be asking. And I have no idea why they want you dead, doesn't matter really. It's not going to change anything." With that he lifted his 10mm and sent a bullet right between the sheriff's eyes.


Tenpenny sat at his empty balcony watching the ghouls at his gate through the lens of his scope. They seemed to be causing the guards and residents serious disturbance, which while amusing, was a threat to his community. Wouldn't want any of his lovely rich residents moving on now, would he? The ghouls would have to be removed. A movement to his left told him he had a visitor.

"Ah, Mr Yorke. I trust things went smoothly with Megaton?"

Gordon Yorke took the seat opposite him, "The sheriffs' been dealt with, yeah. Do you have my payment?"

Straight to business then. Shame, thought Tenpenny, he didn't often get visitors. The residents of the tower were of little interest in that respect, with nothing more to say than babble on about meaningless gossip. Mr Yorke, he was sure, would have far more intriguing stories to tell. He'd enjoyed his conversations with Mr Burke until that damned Sheriff killed him. He reached over to his suitcase next to him, passing it over to the other man to open it, containing 1000 caps.

"So how long exactly have you been in the contract business, Mr Yorke? My contacts tell me you're relatively new to the capital." His associate who brought him into contact with Gordon said the man had only lived here a year, but his life before then was a complete mystery. Gordon ignored him, counting the caps were all there. Tenpenny's irritation flared, but he refrained from snapping; he was going to need Mr Yorke for another job.

He lit up a cigarette, "Tell me, have you heard about the ghouls lurking about outside the tower? They've been causing a lot of hassle for my guards."

Gordon looked up, his attention back to Tenpenny. "How much of a problem?"

"3000 caps to remove the whole nest of them." He blew out a puff of smoke, "Roy Philips in particular. He seems to be the leader of the group."

"Where can I find them?"

Good. It seemed a deal was going down. Tenpenny smiled, "From what Gustav has told me they're residing in the Warrington Train tunnels."

Author: I know it's kinda short, and gives away very little, but the first Chapters more of an experiment as I'm new to writing. Any reviews and constructive criticism would be appreciated and I do plan to stretch out new chapters. And don't worry I don't plan on keeping Sienna in the vault for long - I'll try and see if I can wrap that up in the next chapter. :)