Sophie left me in a bar at the bottom of the world.-Bottom of the World, Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton.
Madison Li can't tear her eyes away, as much as she wishes she could. The girl standing in front of her shuffles from foot to foot nervously, raking a hand through her greasy and tangled hair. The vault suit is ripped in all of the right places that Madison tries not to linger on. But the feature that captures her attention the most is the girl's face.
She is the spinning image of the man she loved so long ago, and of the woman she tried not to despise.
"I can't help you," she says past dry lips. "Go somewhere else."
"Please," the girl pleads, and her voice sounds so quiet and lost. Her voice tugs at a place Madison thought she had discarded.
"Your father insisted that we return to work on Project Purity. I tried telling him that too much time had passed; that there was no way it could work," Madison finds herself saying. "Predictably, he refused to listen to me. He said he can prove that it will work, and he headed off to the old lab." The girl nods slowly.
"Thank you, ma'am," she says, turning around.
"Wait," Madison says, not wanting to lose sight of her face. The girl turns to look at her. She suppresses a shudder at the way the girl's eyes stare at her. She is frozen in time, and staring into James' eyes. She can almost believe that 19 years haven't passed.
"Yes?"
"Aren't you supposed to be in a Vault somewhere?" Madison asks, and she knows she is grasping at straws. She just can't bear for the girl to leave.
Not yet.
When the girl gives her a strange look, she elaborates,
"James said that was where he left you."
"I left to look for him," the girl answers, as if it were the simplest solution in the world.
"I understand that is the exact opposite of what he wanted for you," Madison comments. A ghost of a smile flutters across the girl's flips, and Madison melts.
Like father, like daughter.