I had never seen a baby before.
There had been other kids in the vault, but none of them more than a few weeks or months younger than me.
The small baby that was peacefully asleep in her crib looked so...tiny, fragile, were they supposed to look like that?
It almost made sense now, why my father hadn't stayed in the Wasteland, so small, utterly helpless, babies looked like they would die if you touched them.
I could hear her mother behind me, going over something, and I knew this would be the prefect time to take Marie, but I felt weird about it, I wasn't a saint, I wasn't opposed to the idea of one versus the many, but this was a baby, a small, fragile baby, that needed her parents, like I had needed mine.
Her mother had survived her, while my mother had died.
Her father fought for her, while, my father had chosen to fight for others.
I didn't want Marie to become me.
Poisoned by so much bitterness, all the horrible things that I had done, the choices I had made, but I supposed to be redeemed, I saved Megaton, I made the water clear, but that didn't change that I caused the death of every resident in Tenpenny Tower, I had killed an old man for praising the Enclave, and I had done so much more, because I was bitter and angry.
Marie's eyes opened, the dark brown orbs finding me in seconds, and in those eyes, I saw the good that I had lost, the innocence that had been ripped from me.
I couldn't do this.
The one for the many, just wasn't worth it.
The people here deserved to be free, but not at the expense of a baby, not for the trade of her loving parents, to two people that had never raised a baby, and that had zero knowledge in a scientific background.
I wasn't condemning her to a fate worse than death, though I was sure, deep in my bones, sure, that Wernher was going to kill the baby, once he got what he wanted. I couldn't trust the man, I knew that, too.
I came here to help, not because I felt anything other than disdain for Wernher.
I looked at little Marie one more time before moving away from the crib, and walking towards the elevator, my mind made up.
Marie would be safe, happy, and healthy, here, with her parents.
The Pitt slaves would be put back to work, and Wernher and Midea would meet their end.