I do not own Fallout 3
July 13th 2258.
"Push!" James said, holding his wife's hand reassuringly.
Catherine gave him a brief look of annoyance before giving a final push as her child was born.
"It's a girl," James announced as he picked the baby up, "we've got a beautiful baby girl Catherine."
"James, we did it." Catherine said in between quick breaths. "We did it, a girl."
James smiled at the baby as she her eyes wandered around the dimly lit room. "You've got a bright future, I'm sure of it. I'm your daddy. You're going to need a name, your mother and I have been talking, what do you think of Alexis?" James held the baby before turning her slightly until she was facing Catherine.
Catherine smiled at Alexis. "You're beautiful." She said laughing.
James turned Alexis back to him. "It's a big world out there, with all sorts of people. What kind of person will you be -?"
Catherine interrupted him, clutching her arm as machines began to beep frantically, "James."
"Catherine!" James said glancing at the monitors. "She's in cardiac arrest, get the baby out of here." He said to another woman.
July 13th 2259.
"Come over here Alexis." James said from inside the playpen. Alexis looked up him from the floor before shakily getting to her feet and walking over to him. "Good girl, only a year old and already walking like a pro. Your mother would be so proud of you." James smiled as he walked out of the playpen. "I know you don't like it when Daddy leaves you alone, but you need to take care of yourself for a minute while Daddy runs to his office. I'll be back before you know it." He said as he closed the playpen gate and left the room.
Alexis looked at the door for a few minutes before reopening the playpen gate and heading to her toy box. Alexis picked up her teddy bear from the toy box and held it firmly. She couldn't quite remember when she was given but she had a faint memory of her father giving it her.
"Quite the explorer aren't you?" Alexis heard her father say from behind her. "Serves me right for trying to pen you in." Her father walked from the door to a stand near the toy box. "See this?" He indicated the photo on the stand. "It was your mother's favourite passage from the Bible. Revelation 21:6. 'I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely'" He smiled although it was a sad smile. "Enough of that, let's go see if your little friend Amata wants to go play.
July 13th 2268.
It was Alexis' tenth birthday and she was at in her room alone expecting somebody to give her a Pip-Boy at some point in the day. Although she was not close to any of the kids in the Vault, except Amata, nobody had wished her a happy birthday. Her dad had left earlier in the day citing an emergency work situation and Amata had said nothing.
And so Alexis sat in her room reading an issue of Grognak the Barbarian when the intercom in her room went off. Alexis looked at it and saw it coming from her Dad's Pip-Boy. She quickly pressed the answer button and spoke into the receiver, "Yeah Dad?"
"I'm in the cafeteria, can you come down for a second?" her father asked.
"On my way." Alexis responded. She gave a small sigh before grabbing a few bobby-pins from her drawers and pulling her hair back and heading down to the cafeteria.
As she glanced through the window of the cafeteria she realized the lights were all out, covering the room in darkness. As she entered the room she was blinded by the sudden brightness of the lights being turned on and deafened by the shouts of 'surprise' and 'happy birthday'.
Alexis' dad stepped forward from the main cluster of people consisting of him, Amata, Officer Gomez and Amata's father/The Overseer. "Happy birthday darling, I'm proud of you. If only your mother -."
He was interrupted by The Overseer stepping forward. "Congratulations, young woman. I don't have to tell you how special this day is, do I? Now that you're ten, well, you're ready to take on official Vault responsibilities." He took a Pip-Boy out of the pockets of his jumpsuit and held it outward. "Here you are. As Overseer, I present to you your own Pip-Boy 3000. Get used to it, you'll be getting your first official assignment tomorrow." He finished before walking to a table with Old Lady Palmer.
Alexis' father looked at The Overseer as he left, rolling his eyes. "You're only ten once, so enjoy this day while it lasts." He said before joining the Vault maintenance technician, Stanley, at a table.
Amata walked from where she was stood, her hands holding something behind her back. "Happy birthday." Amata said happily. "I bet me and your dad really surprised you with this, huh?"
"Yeah, you did," Alexis admitted sheepishly, "thanks for doing this."
Amata laughed, "You're dad did all the organising, I just put up some of the decorations. But you're welcome. Anyway, I bet you can't guess what I got you, go on, guess."
"A date with Freddie Gomez?" Alexis joked.
Amata made a mock face of disgust, "Ew, gross. I didn't even think you liked boys. I got you something a lot better than that. Issue 14 of Grognak the Barbarian with no missing pages." She said proudly holding the comic in front of her.
Alexis took the comic with glee, "Where did you find this?"
"In a box of my father's old things." Amata replied with a laugh. "I can't imagine him reading comics but I guess everyone was a kid once. Anyway you should 'mingle' with everyone else, we'll talk later." Amata said before heading to the table Stanley and Alexis' father.
Alexis looked around before deciding to talk to Old Lady Palmers. Old Lady Palmer smiled as Alexis approached and asked, "Are you having a nice party dear? Ten years old, seems like only yesterday you got here…" she paused for a second as she got lost in her thoughts, "Goodness, I'm rambling. You're waiting for your present."
"You didn't need to bring anything Mrs Palmer". Alexis said, and she thought it was true considering she only knew Mrs Palmer as she was the grandmother of her father's assistant Jonas.
"Poppycock, I was ten once you know and all ten year olds like presents." Mrs Palmer looked around the room sadly. "The Vault was so crowded when I was ten but there's so few young people now. Ooh, I'm rambling again and you're still waiting for your present." Mrs Palmer picked up a plate that was next to her seat that had a sweetroll on it. "I baked it this morning. And it's all for you, so no sharing."
Alexis smiled to herself and quickly ate the entire sweetroll before heading over to Stanley. "Hey, champ, enjoying that new Pip-Boy?" he asked.
"Yeah, I am, did you fix it up?" Alexis replied.
"Sure did," Stanley responded with pride, "some people say the Pip-Boy 3000 is trash but that ain't true, the 3000A is the most reliable model out there."
Alexis nodded, "Well thanks for fixing it up for me."
"That ain't all I got you." Stanley said pulling a baseball cap out of his pocket. "I thought it'd be useful for when you play baseball."
"Thanks Stanley." Alexis said placing the cap on her head.
The rest of their conversation was cut short by Andy the robot. "Attention everybody." It said as everybody tuned to look. "It is time to cut the cake." Before anybody could stop it, it had cut directly through the cake with a buzz saw, sending pieces of cake across the floor.
Everyone stood in silence for a few seconds before a chuckle rippled through the room and everyone returned to their conversations.
Alexis looked around at the remaining guests, deciding who to talk to when she felt a hard tapping on her shoulders. Turning around, she gave an internal sigh at the sight of Butch DeLoria, Vault bully and all-round asshole. "What do you want Butch." Alexis asked with annoyance.
"I'm hungry and that stupid robot destroyed the cake." He said angrily. "Give me that sweetroll you got from Old Lady Palmer!" he demanded.
Alexis gave him a mock look down, "You do look hungry. Did your mom trade all the ration coupons for vodka again?"
Butch's eyes flashed with rage, "Don't you talk about my mom like that, you whore!" he yelled before he started swinging his fists.
Officer Gomez quickly grabbed Butch and pushed him back to his table before turning to Alexis and asking, "You alright hun? Did he get you?"
Alexis shook her head, "I'm fine, don't worry about it."
Amata waited until Officer Gomez had sat back down before she began to rant, "What is Butch's problem? I can't believe he tried to start a fight with you at your party, he's such a jerk."
"Please, he's lucky Gomez stopped the fight before I could start hitting him." Alexis replied with a grin.
"Sure, that's exactly what I was thinking." Amata's eyes wandered past Alexis. "I think your dad wants you."
Alexis turned around to where her father was stood, waving her over and walked to him. "Yeah dad?"
"Follow me." Her dad ordered as he walked out of the cafeteria.
Alexis nodded before running up to her dad and walking next to him. "What's happening?"
"Jonas wants to give you your present away from The Overseer. But before that, what happened with Butch?"
"Nothing I can't handle dad."
"Glad to hear it. Once you start letting people push you around, you'll never see the end of it."
The two continued to walk in silence down the stairs to the reactor level before Alexis and her father approached Jonas. "Hey little lady, enjoying your party?" Jonas asked once she neared.
"Yeah it's pretty good. My dad said something about a present?"
Alexis' father began to speak, "Well, now that you're old enough for a Pip-Boy and old enough to do some work I figured you're old enough for this." He said before picking up a BB gun from the ground. "Jonas found it down here in pretty bad shape, took us three months to get it all working again. Do you know how hard it is to find a spring that small? Good thing Butch 'misplaced' his switchblade." He finished with a smile. "Ready to give it a try?"
Alexis furrowed her eyes in confusion, "What can we even shoot down here?"
"Jonas and I made a small shooting gallery for you. C'mon." The three walked through a nearby door to where Alexis saw three targets lined up near a back wall. "You come here whenever you're free."
Alexis hugged her dad tightly, "Thanks, dad. Can Amata come down as well?
"As long as she doesn't tell anybody about it, I don't see why not. Now c'mon see if you can hit the targets."
After nine shots, Alexis finally hit all three targets before a small screeching caught her attention.
Her father glanced at the source of the screeching. "It's a Radroach, see if you can take it out with your BB gun."
Alexis nodded before taking careful aim and firing two shots, one striking it in the leg the other though the head.
"Nicely done. Jonas take a picture of me and the big game hunter."
Alexis smiled as Jonas took the picture.
October 12th 2272.
Alexis and Amata both stood in the medical lab; Alexis repairing the desk and Amata restoring the terminal after a particularly aggressive patient had trashed the room after a check-up. Alexis glanced at Amata as she sat at the chair to repair the terminal. The years had definitely been kind to Amata, in Alexis' opinion, Amata had become taller since puberty, her face softening and her breasts growing. Alexis blushed slightly as Amata turned and looked at Alexis who quickly looked away.
"All done." Amata announced proudly. What time is it?"
Alexis glanced at her Pip-Boy "16:50." She replied.
"Nearly recreation time. Want to head to the cafeteria and get something to eat?" Amata asked as she marked her 'restore terminal' job as complete in her Pip-Boy.
"Sure." The two headed down to the cafeteria and sat down at a table after getting their meals.
The pair chatted for around ten minutes before noticing Ellen DeLoria, Butch's mother, stand from her table in the corner and drunkenly stagger away. The two snickered as she left, it being no secret in the Vault that Ellen was a raging alcoholic who would let any man have his way with her in exchange for vodka or food ration coupons.
As the two finished their meals and took their trays to the bin, Alexis stopped Amata and pointed at the table Ellen DeLoria had just left. Amata looked for a few seconds before seeing what Alexis saw; two bottles of vodka dropped on the seat as Ellen left.
Amata felt her eyes widen in shock at what Alexis was planning, "You know we're not allowed to." Amata began to lecture.
Alexis rolled her eyes and grinned, "We've got no jobs for tomorrow, we'll just go to a storeroom, nobody will even know."
Amata let out a deep sigh, "Fine, grab them and let's go."
Alexis quickly gathered the alcohol and hid them in her jumpsuit.
The two found themselves minutes later in an empty storeroom and both hesitantly began to drink from the bottle. An hour later the pair were undeniably drunk, with Amata laying on the floor and Alexis slumped against the wall.
Alexis took a deep breath, it was now or never to tell Amata how she really felt about her. "Amata, you how we've been friends for literally years?" Alexis slurred.
Amata took another mouthful of vodka before nodding, a smile playing on her lips. "Yeah. What about it?" she asked, moving over to where Alexis was.
"I kind of like you. As in really like you. As in more than friends." Alexis stated, her face turning a deep red as she looked at the ground.
"Okay." Amata replied.
"Okay?" Alexis repeated, "Any other thoughts on that?"
If Amata had any more thoughts she did not verbalise them, rather she brushed her fingers along Alexis' face and brought her face up until the two were facing before Amata lent forward until she gently brushed her lips against Alexis'.
The next hour was a drunken blur with the two teenagers exploring each other's bodies before the two both drifted into a content sleep in each other's arms.
Review please.
The next chapter will cover the G.O.A.T until the two escape the Vault.