"Something has to be said about your habit of collecting people," Arcade chuckled, "like House does with those snow globes." The doctor was trying his best to make Ryn smile, but the Courier wasn't having it - not today. Today was one full of pain. Her head was aching as if she had been shot again. It was becoming too much and Ryn had little strength to mentally spar with Arcade.
After all, she had given up the pretence of being totally self reliant. Veronica and Cass, who had taken up sleeping in the master bedroom with the Courier, whispered to the scientist about they had to guide her to the bathroom for her every-other-day bathing ritual.
Boone, the NCR sniper, had grown close to Ryn despite the fact that they rarely talked. When she started to become ill, he remained even more tight lipped than usual. He would come to sit in her room while - never saying a word. He would sit and drink the Nuka Cola that the Courier had found previously, and clean all her weapons in complete silence. Raul helped, and tried to lighten the mood with his hollow tormenting but he would only earn a stern look from Boone and the occasional chuckle from Ryn. She wouldn't engage Boone, maybe knowing better than to push him into pleasant conversation when he was like this. Maybe she somehow knew that this whole situation made him fear loss that he hadn't experienced since his wife died.
Either or, she reserved only her softest expressions for the Sniper and talked in her throaty hoarse voice to the rest of her friends. In turn, they kept their voices low to keep her from wincing in pain. Even Lily tried to stop yelling, it was hard for her at first because the sicker Ryn got, the more she panicked about one of her 'grandbabies' dying. Even when Arcade promised that the Courier would not die, she wouldn't listen, insisted on force feeding the little 19 year old whatever was in the fridge. Ryn smiled and ate up even when she was close to vomiting. She told Arcade this was just to make Lily happy, after all she reminded her of her real grandmother.
"What? She was an 8 foot tall blue mutant too?" He laughed as he crossed his legs and flicked through the pages of Ryn's many magazines, this time one called True Police Stories.
Smiling weakly, the Courier ladled more mole rat stew past her chapped lips, "no, but she was bat-shit insane."
It appeared that only ED-E didn't feel concerned about Ryn's condition – then again, his program didn't include emotions, like most of machines in the Wastes. Rex, on the other hand, hardly moved from his place at the foot of her bed. Hardly, because the companions made sure to take turns taking him for walks. Not that they didn't get out enough with Ryn being sick. During the long hours when she was sleeping, two or more of the group would go for food runs in The Strip and Westside. Arcade was the only one who traveled to the Mormon Fort for medical supplies. Julie Farkas expressed the wish to visit her in The Lucky 38 but couldn't get a moment to slip away. Her concern for her recently inducted Follower, Arcade explained the symptoms to her only to find that she was extremely confused. "It almost sounds like she's pregnant… but suffering from some kind of poison as well."
"Pregnant?" Arcade's eyes widened with surprise. He didn't even know Ryn had been sexually active recently. He had known her all of two months, during that time she had traveled with him all of tree times, and all three times she hadn't been out of his sight for more than a minute. The poison could be explained easily, she had gone blindly into poisonous gas during her visit to the Sierra Madre and willingly consumed toxic drugs all for a silly ritual in Zion Canyon. Poisoned, Ryn could most likely be, but pregnant? Arcade frowned but said nothing more as he collected the spare meds Julie provided.
Ryn… pregnant… impossible, he thought, she's probably a virgin. Probably only ever kissed before. Arcade tossed the chance of pregnancy out of his head, it was outside the realm of possibility for someone like Ryn. He even chuckled at the idea but found himself choking back his laughter once he stepped off the elevator and into the suite. Veronica and Cass were standing outside the master bedroom, apparently locked out. Raul was on his knees, his hands working nimbly at the lock with a bobby pin and a screwdriver. Boone was pacing back and forth behind the three, his fists and teeth clenched while Lily barked at everyone to move out of the way so she could save her "little pumpkin."
"What's going on here?" Arcade asked dropping his bag to the floor.
"She woke up and went insane! Started throwing things at us, asking where some guy named Joshua was." Cass's fingernails were biting into her arm and though she tried to appear calm, her eyes were darting all over the room and her lips looked as if they had been bitten bloody.
"Joshua?" The name was familiar, Ryn had mentioned him several times after returning from Zion. Why would she want to speak to him now? How was she going to speak to him? Despite that, Arcade pushed forward past his fellow companions and pressed his lips to the small crack between the door and frame. "We'll take you to Joshua. I promise."