Little Towns
Author: TheLionTree—Theliontree dot tumblr dot com
Artist: AlbertoGang-albertogang dot tumblr dot com
Setting: Fallout 3
Characters/Pairings: OC/Burke, OC/Harkness, Butch, Lone Wanderer, Charon, Bryan Wilks
Disclaimer: The Fallout series and all its settings and characters are © Bethesda Softworks.
Warnings: Explicit, non-con, violence, kidnapping, domestic abuse, female masturbation, sex
Summary: AU where LW = twins. Cathy and Caleb are ejected from Vault 101-She copes by running into the arms of first Burke then Harkness. Everything seems fine until Burke gets jealous. Meanwhile her brother spends all his time becoming a hero and begins resent his sister. Long and Angsty.
Author's Notes: Dedicated to the amazing people in the Fallout fandom. Special thanks to my beta reader ToFunction and my artist AlbertoGang.
… she was sitting in a window seat staring out and she kept talking about
the Big Dipper and that Little Dipper and pointing;
and suddenly I realized that she thought we were in outer space looking down at the stars.
And I said: You know, I think those lights down there are the lights from little towns.
-Laurie Anderson
1
He named his children Caleb, after his father, and Catherine, after his wife. He made the announcement as the love of his life died so fast he barely had time to process it. Thirty minutes later Madison pulled him off her open chest.
She kept repeating, "She's gone, James. You need to let her go."
Stumbling over the instrument cart, James swam to the makeshift cradle holding his two children. He stared at the light yellow blanket draped over the side to prevent a draft. The sound of infants gurgling and moving should move something inside him, but it did not. His little babies, all alone with no mother. Reality hurt too much and James struggled to find joy.
Looking over his shoulder he could see Madison straightening the sheet over Catherine's face, the blood from her wounds seeping up through the rough-hewn cotton. His head remained turned, wondering why she hadn't closed her up so she'd look pretty. Then he remembered his wife wishing to be cremated. Why waste the sutures? Things moved fast while he stayed slow. People moved around the room but they seemed like fog particles.
"I'm so sorry James," Madison said, her hand placed gently on his arm. He remembered a night, years ago, when he'd broken her heart. Thankfully, she'd learned to forgive him.
"Did you see them?" She asked and motioned towards the crib.
"No," he said. Amazed he could say that much.
"You should go look," Madison nudged. "They were everything to Catherine and you owe it to her to be an amazing father. I'll take the body outside and stack some kindling; you tend to your babies."
He wished she'd contained her tears, spared everyone his pain. Catherine had been Madison's rival, and now she tended to her body as if they were sisters. He regretted not doing it himself but he'd fallen apart.
He waited until she'd wheeled out the corpse before he looked into the bassinet again. It felt wrong to look his children in the face with sorrow clouding his eyes. They were the last piece of the person he'd loved more than himself and they deserved love. As their chubby bodies writhed and kicked he heard Catherine's cry of joy at seeing them.
Tears fogging his vision James beheld the two pink, shriveled humans he'd help make. His daughter wiggled her legs as if she were kicking away the sides a prison, while son smiled up at him.
Medical training said babies were unable to smile on purpose, but as he looked at his infant boy he saw his wife's enchanting grin. His daughter started to scream, but James ignored it. Instead of helping her he clutched onto that narrow beam of happiness and refused to let it go.
2
On her tenth birthday Cathy tried to ram a sweet roll up Butch's nose. He'd tried to take it from her brother only to have Cathy wheel around and extract revenge. Butch responded by crying for his mother. Cathy's father swooped in and punished her for picking on him, her brother joining in on the admonishment.
For years she'd felt bad about being mean to Butch. They'd shared a thousand sweet rolls while they talked and joked. Still she'd never felt right about slighting him for picking on Caleb and tonight she hoped to make up for it.
Resurrecting an ancient red dress she'd traded off of Mrs. Henderson, she swapped her brother's baseball cap for a jar of transparent sequins and spent the next few days stitching them on. It looked like icing in the sun-lamps and the memory of the sweet roll tickled her as she hummed and worked.
When the last sequin had been secured, Cathy pulled the dress on and frowned at how it fit. Red fabric hung loose where it ought to be tight and bouncy, boobs were not a gift she'd gotten. Hopefully Butch would be surprised by how lovely she looked and wouldn't mind. He'd never seen her in a dress before, so he had to be impressed.
The button on the door compressed and she shoved the red fabric in a box next to her bed, tossing a book over it. Her brother stumbled into the room and fell into the bed across from her. Sixteen hours of guard duty and when he came home he'd immediately to go sleep. A shortage of housing in the vault kept them in their dad's house despite working and Cathy couldn't wait for her own room.
Caleb rubbed his chin, a fine showing of fuzz catching in the light. He was so proud of his beard despite it being fairly sparse. Thick patches of black next to patches of skin made it look more like he had mange than hair and she kept begging him to shave it. Frustration over the fact he wouldn't listen made her ask a question she knew would put him one edge.
"How's Amata?"
"I have no idea," he responded.
"Then why are you blushing?" Cathy teased.
"Why are you awake hours after curfew?" Caleb shot back. "Sneaking out to be with Butch again?"
"What do you think?"
While Caleb hadn't been blushing his words now forced on onto her cheeks. Hot and annoyed she felt her temper rise.
"You should hurry up and marry him so I can have my own room." Caleb turned to face the wall. "I'll buy a bottle of vodka to keep his mom away for the wedding night."
"That's rude," Cathy growled. "Butch's mom drinks cause her husband died, you should feel sorry for her. I hope if I get married they transfer you to Butch's old room and I'll get to stay here at home."
"With dad?" he scoffed. "Why do I not see that happening? Even if they offered, you'd say no. You can't wait to get out from under his thumb."
"You're getting me confused with you again," Cathy reminded her brother.
"Whatever." Caleb rolled onto his stomach and stared up at the lights. She felt tempted to pull the medical curtain between them. This had been how most of their conversations had gone for the last year, he said something rude, she pulled the curtain in a huff. Her father kept telling her not to be so sensitive and to remember how lucky she was to have a brother as good as Caleb.
"I ran into him in the hall." Caleb blurted out, distracting Cathy from her thoughts.
"Dad?"
"Yeah, Dad," Caleb responded. "He was up really late. Maybe he wanted to catch me at the end of my guard shift."
"What did he want?" Cathy felt startled by the news. Their father had always gone to bed at nine-thirty on the dot.
A scoff escaped Caleb's lips. "To ask if I would reconsider studying medicine. Said if I'd admit I cheated on my G.O.A.T. he'd talk to the overseer and ask him to reassign me. Same stuff, different day. Thing that bothered me though, he seemed really serious about it. Like if I said yes something important would happen."
"Sounds like dad." Cathy felt glib admitting this but her father had been upset about his son becoming a 'thug for hire.' It hadn't mattered Cathy received the highest score possible, his golden boy wanted to be a lowly police officer.
"What bothers me," he continued, "is that it didn't sound like dad. He seemed desperate for something I couldn't give him. So I told him 'no.' Reminded him that you were his kindred science geek and that he should be happy to have one sibling following in the family footsteps. I told him I wanted to be more adventurous, like mom."
Crossing her arms Cathy looked down at the box with her dress in it. She shook her head at what an idiot her brother could be. "Mom was a research scientist."
"That's what he said," Caleb chuckled. "The really weird thing, he told me he hoped I'd never have to be a hero and to remember Grognak is a comic book character."
"Maybe you need that reminder," Cathy said. Picking up the box with her dress in it she stood and pressed her elbow into the door, opening it up. "You're not some meat-head guard Caleb-you were always smarter than that. I wish you could see it."
"Sure, dad number two."
He turned to look at the wall again and Cathy knew she'd lost the battle. The only person he'd listen to anymore, Amata, would be no help. Time to make peace with Caleb's life being wasted. It made her sad to think he'd spend the rest of his life walking the halls of the vault like a retired cowboy, waiting for a moment of glory. If it were possible she'd find some way to manufacture a scenario where he came out feeling like a do-gooder. She couldn't, though. Instead she focused on making tonight special and headed towards the lavatory with her box in tow.