Quick refresher for people: Maggie is Billy Creel's adoptive daughter, who he saved from a raider attack; helping the town fend off another raider attack is how he ended up getting a house in Megaton. This is two years before Cort shows up, so Maggie is seven. This is a one-shot that ties into chapter 34 of 'Into the Pitt, She Falls'.

It was a hot day, full of sun and everything laid out stark in the light, a good day to take Maggie outside for the first time since they had arrived in Megaton, but with an eyepatch instead of an eye on the right side, Billy Creel didn't see disaster coming until it was too late.

Maggie had wedged into the space between him and the wall of the men's washroom shack, determined to surround herself as much as possible with anything that wasn't anyone else. Not ready to hold his hand just yet(she had held Daddy's hand, nobody else was allowed to do that, not ever in her opinion), she had her hand clenched up in the hem of his leather vest. All she wanted to do was crawl back under her bed in their house. Billy had gotten them the house after killing more of them. The sheriff, a large dark man with an even darker beard, had been with Billy when he came back to where she had been told to hide, some place in the rocks outside the town. They had been going to it, and it was being attacked by them just like home had been, and they had seen Billy, only missing her because she was short. She was starting to like being short, and tiny. Being able to hide was the best thing in the world, and being short made it easy.

She wasn't supposed to, now. It had been two weeks, two weeks was long enough, Billy said. She was supposed to meet people. She wasn't supposed to throw rocks at them like she had at the sheriff. He hadn't been angry, though, but that might've just been because she hadn't hit him with any. Being short meant you couldn't throw very well. It was annoying and unbearable and sucky, just super-sucky, and it was better that she hadn't hit him, but since she had had to apologize anyway, she would have preferred throwing them good.

Maggie reached the corner of the little building, turned her head up to see who was coming out of it as the door swung open, she might as well meet this person, maybe she wouldn't have to meet anyone else if she was very good at meeting them, and practically shrieked her little lungs out onto the decking. Billy swept her up in an instant, telling her it was all right, he wasn't going to hurt her, they were going inside and she could get in her hidey-hole and she would be fine. Maggie kept on screaming into Billy's shirt as he picked her up, staring wide-eyed at the monster that had appeared in front of her, even though he looked all wrong for one, he looked too sad, and she had the most terrible thought while taking in a ragged breath to expel for another volley of noisy terror; that she had hurt his feelings by doing this and should feel bad about it.

She asked Billy that later, after she had come out from under her bed, wanting to know. Mommy had always said if she felt bad about doing something, it probably had been something bad and she would need to apologize for it. She needed to know something important first, and sidled out of her room, waiting for Billy to finish fiddling with the safe he kept in the floor. "Billy?"

Billy looked up hopefully, surprised but pleased that the girl had decided to reemerge before the next morning rolled around. "Yeah Maggie? Do you want something? Are you hungry?"

"No. Was the monster really a monster? Is he one of them?"

He looked at her carefully. She had started out using 'them' to refer to the raiders that had murdered her parents, and now it had become a catchall word for everyone and everything Maggie thought of as evil, scary or wrong. "No, Maggie, that was just a ghoul. He's just like you or me, except something bad happened to him, a bad accident."

She widened her eyes at the word 'ghoul', tightening her fingers on the door jamb. "He got too much irradiators."

He shook his head, and carefully pronounced the word she had mangled, something she did often and resulting in what he was starting to think of as Maggie-words. "Irradiated, Maggie. He got irradiated by radiation."

He waited as she darted her eyes down to look at the floor, something that meant she was thinking. He knew better than to try and talk to her, learning how fragile she was when she did it. It had taken her most a day to make up her mind about coming out of the derelict car she had wedged herself into after he had found her family and killed the raiders that had slaughtered everyone else in it, shrieking that she was 'thinking, thinking and now I have to start over!' when he tried to talk to her. It happened any time after that, as well; she would freeze, look down, and heaven help you and your eardrums if you spoke to her then.

He still wasn't quite sure why, but then he wasn't sure how he had suddenly ended up with a daughter, either. Leaving her in the car had been out of the question. Somehow letting her go to someone else was now, too. But taking care of her was turning out harder than killing the damned raiders, and if he didn't find a way to get her to let others help him, he didn't know what the hell he would do, or how much further he would mess her up. He already had. Any plans he had made about trying to introduce Maggie to the concept of ghouls since she would be living in close quarters with one was shot to hell now, and it would probably take another two weeks to get her to even think about going outside again.

Maggie thought, and thought hard, wanting to only have to think of everything once, and in a row. If everything was in a row she got to the end, and then she wouldn't have to go to the beginning, which was good, since she couldn't end up back at any bad ends if she didn't start thinking about the beginnings again. She finally looked back up to Billy, who was still kneeling on the floor.

"Did I make him feel bad?" She hoped not, she still felt bad and didn't like it, didn't want to think about it, didn't want to apologize. He still looked like a monster.

He was quiet for a moment, and then he slowly nodded. "Yes, I'd say you did."

"Should I say sorry?" He went quiet again and started looking at her funny, 'Thinking-thinking-thinking', Maggie thought, 'thinking about me-me-me,' and even though she was dying for the answer, just itching to death for it, she kept quiet still.

"Well, what do you think?"

Maggie thought she hated that answer, it being the same one Mommy always gave her when she asked that question, but hearing it come out of Billy was comforting, in a chest-hurty sort of way. "I should say sorry." She gulped and decided to get it over with. "Will-you-go-with-me?"

Billy gave her the funny look again. Maggie kept herself from screaming at him to stop it. "Yes Maggie. I can go with you."

Gob looked up hopefully from behind the bar as the door to Moriarty's saloon opened, wondering if Nova and Silver were bringing him leftovers back from the Brass Lantern, and planning how to hide them from Moriarty if they were. Most likely one of the girls would do it for him until he could eat in peace, knowing that the Irish bastard would chuck the food if he saw it. He hated the place; the only reason he let them eat down there was to rub in how many caps the two made for the saloon, and the only reason the Stahls didn't tell them to go to hell was because the family needed the damn cap-

He froze as the closing door cut off the light and he could finally see who had entered. Oh sweet Jesus, oh craaap. It wasn't the girls. It was Billy Creel, the new resident, the one with the kid, the one with the kid Gob had scared to death, and he was coming right for him. He was at the bar, and looking at him, and he didn't look happy, and now he was talking.

"Can I have a word with you?"

Words that really meant 'I'm going to beat the snot out of you, shuffler, but I'll try to keep you from seeing it coming first.' He slunk over, knowing there was no way out of it and hoping if he ended up with Creel's hands around his neck instead of a bullet somewhere important that Moriarty would hear the ruckus and pull him off before he started seeing stars or things went black. Well, if he shoots me, at least I'll get out of the saloon for a while. Church won't make house calls. Or, I'll be dead and won't care. Bright side. Keeping his own hands wrapped around a glass and a rag, running one thumb along the soft material for comfort, he spoke into the bar and got ready to run. "What can I get you."

"Nothing right now. It's not really me who needs to speak with you. Maggie wanted to apologize for earlier, if that's all right."

Gob jerked his eyes up, surprised into boldness. "Who?"

"Me."

Gob jumped, startled at the little voice that had piped up from the other side of the bar. Putting down the glass and rag he leaned forward, gripped the far edge of the counter top in both hands, and carefully peeped over it. The little kid he had frightened the living daylights out of was standing there, looking like she was halfway to pissing her pants. He blinked as she let out a rapidfire stream of words.

"I'm-sorry-I-got-scared-and-yelled-cause-you-were-irradiators-too-much."

Gob took a few seconds to translate the kid garble into English as Creel quietly pinched the bridge of his nose, and then replied. "Ah. I-I accept. Thanks. That-that's very nice of you." He watched as she fidgeted, working up the nerve to talk again.

"Will you really live forever?"

Kid, I hope not. "Maybe."

"Can you still smell things?"

Well, that's better than telling me I smell. "Yeah."

"What's your name, my name is Maggie Creel."

Gobtholem- oh screw that. "Just Gob."

She wrinkled her nose up, and he waited to answer the question he knew was coming, not really minding it this time. "What kind of name is Gob?"

He shrugged and gave the answer he always gave. "My name." Seeing her nod thoughtfully and starting to feel slightly happy, Gob decided to give a little more. "What kind of name is Maggie Creel?"

She smiled, then unfortunately followed it with a verbal sucker punch, something he was painfully used to. "My name with Billy's, I get his name now. Does it hurt to look like that?"

Gob briefly considered telling the truth to the childish, unintentionally hurtful question, wanting to say yes it hurt, it hurt more than anything to be treated like a sub-human rotting pariah, and asking him that hadn't done much in the way of helping it, thank you, then chastised himself for feeling so petty. At least this was someone who honestly hadn't meant to set him up before knocking him down. "No." Gob nearly faceplanted on the bar at what happened next.

"Oh, good." Happy that she had been thoughtful enough to check first, it was important to do that, think before you did something, Maggie reached up and put her hand on the back of Gob's much bigger one where it was curled over the bar and wrinkled her nose in another grin. "You feel funny."

"Maggie!" Maggie yelped as Billy hauled her back and picked her up. "All right, that's enough of being rude."

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to see how different it was." She bit her lip, not wanting to blubber, if she blubbered they would leave, and she didn't want to, she had met someone, someone who didn't loom over her and looked sideways at things when he talked to people just like she did. Maggie wondered where he liked to hide. She didn't think he would fit under his bed.

"It's alright." She turned her head back up as Gob spoke to Billy. "She didn't mean anything bad by i-" A voice cut him off and he suddenly snatched up the glass and the rag and looked terrified, and Maggie wrapped her arms around Billy's neck and squeezed in response. Anything that could scare a not-monster was not good. She swivelled her head to stare as a grey-haired man with a beard came out of a room behind Gob.

"Now, what the sweet hell is this? I'm not running a nursery school Creel, so kindly get the little brat out of my establishment, and keep her out. Gob! Get back to work, I don't pay you to stand there and run your mouth off."

A nice voice, but not a very nice man. She liked Gob's voice better, even if it did sound scratchy. It was kind. But it was too quiet for her to hear what he was saying now, and then she was too far away, because Billy had carried her outside and shut the door. She didn't want it shut, she wanted it open, and she wanted Billy to get Gob, because suddenly she thought that someone really needed to go get him and Billy was good at that. Maggie squirmed and tried to get down. "I want to go back in and see him again, we need to go in again, right now, down now!"

Billy didn't say anything for a long moment, just stood staring at the saloon, his arms crossed under Maggie's rump and holding her firmly in place. Simms had warned him against Moriarty, something he had decided very early on was a very sound piece of advice. What had just happened only confirmed what he had been told by the sheriff and others. He wasn't quite sure how to explain the concept of 'manipulative backstabbing bastards' to Maggie, though, or why the first person she hadn't tried to run away from or pelt with stones was now off-limits. Eventually, he sighed, smiled, and tickled her ear with one of her own pigtails. "No, you can't, it's not a place for little girls, and I guess Moriarty doesn't want you bothering Gob. So you stay away from both of them, Maggie." He raised his eyebrows in surprise as she narrowed her eyes to slits and hissed out at the door, sounding uncharacteristically vicious.

"I hate him. He's one of them."

"Yes Maggie, he's one of them, so you make sure you mind what old Billy just said. You can't see or talk to Gob again." He watched her face fall as she stopped struggling, and felt his heart go with it. "I'll visit him for you, okay? Just until someone gets him like ol' Billy got them."

She looked up at him hopefully, and gave him another Maggie-word. "Really? You foreswear?"

"Yeah, Maggie. I foreswear."