When Ashes Fall
Summary: Magdelena Frost is the daughter of James, Vault 101's resident physician. As the vault is thrown into chaos as a result of James's departure, she escapes into the wasteland known as the United States, determined to find her father and make a difference in the lives of those she meets. After her father's tragic death and the completion of Project Purity, she sets out to find a life far from her father's ghost. But is James truly dead? It's a race against time in a role-reversal, and God only knows he's getting way too old to be trekking cross-country to find his wayward baby girl.
Warnings: We're going major AU on this one, folks. Buckle up, because I'm playing fast and loose with Fallout canon – so if that's what you'd like to complain about, kindly hit the back button. Some of the quotes will be used from Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, and Fallout 4. Other than that, I've just got a foul mouth and I'm not afraid to use it. Enjoy!
~~~xxx~~~
Magdalena Frost – or Mags, as she much preferred – was born shrieking with fire and brimstone reflecting in wide, teary blue-green eyes. Her skin, mottled pink, would fade to a delicate pale white, reminiscent of the photos James had seen of lilies. He looked up at what the projection of what his newborn baby girl would look like at the age of twenty, and was astounded by what he saw – Catherine's lips and nose, but the rest of his little one belonged to him. Her black hair was pulled back into a messy bun and already streaked with gray, but she looked so confident, green eyes sparkling with intelligence and a small smirk creasing her lips.
But the screaming of Catherine's heart monitor tore his attention from the newborn in his arms, and she was unceremoniously passed to Madison as he worked desperately to save the love of his life. He and his team gave every effort possible, but Fate is a cruel mistress.
They failed.
He failed.
His little girl, his baby, needed him, but there were days he could barely pull himself from his bottle of scotch to attend her. Those days haunted him for years to come.
Finally, he came to a difficult decision. He didn't want to leave the last place his Catherine had laughed, had smiled, had danced with him after a breakthrough, but he needed to. For his daughter. His Magdalena. She was already a beautiful girl, thick black hair covering her head, blue-green eyes that became greener every day, and the sweetest giggle James had ever heard.
And so, in the company of Star Paladin Cross, he ventured from the Jefferson Memorial with his daughter bundled in his arms, and made his way to Megaton. From there, he found the safest place to raise a child.
Vault 101.
Heaven knows why the Overseer allowed him entry, but James assumed it had something to do with his skill as a doctor, and the Overseer's distress over his ailing wife's health. Truthfully, he didn't care for the why, just for the fact the Alphonse Almodovar was willing to open that enormous steel door for him and his daughter. With a heavy heart, he bid the Paladin goodbye, and stepped into his – Magdalena's – future.
~~~xxx~~~
Taking over as the Vault's doctor wasn't a difficult task. While he'd always enjoyed research more than practicing medicine, he found joy in helping people. His assistant, Jonas, becoming a fast friend was quite the bonus. Magdalena, at the tender – and new – age of one, was rather enamored with the young man who helped her daddy, and the feeling was mutual. She always babbled rapid-fire to the young assistant, who simply held her and nodded along and exaggerated his reactions to pull a giggle out of the little girl.
James grinned widely at the pout on his daughter's face as he closed the baby gate behind him.
"Listen, kiddo. I know you don't like it when Daddy leaves you alone, but I need you to take care of yourself for a minute. You just stay here while Daddy runs to his office. You'll be okay, honey. I'll be back in a bit." With a last look to make sure his daughter had enough toys to satisfy her voracious curiosity for the time being, he swept out of the room.
Freddie Gomez sat on his exam table, sneezing up a storm. Herman Gomez, his father, was holding him up with one hand on his back, making sure he wouldn't sneeze himself off the table. It warmed James's heart to see that the vault had so many children around Magdalena's age.
"Well, young man! Let's see if we can't sort you out, hmm?" Hazy eyes stared back at him, a sure sign of a fever. After a quick but thorough examination, James determined that a nasty head cold was the cause of Freddie's machine-gun sneezing and general misery.
"Keep an eye on him, and give him these fever suppressors every six hours. He'll be a tad miserable, but he should be back up and running within a few days." James instructed, pulling out a small bottle of syrup. The elder Gomez took it gratefully.
"Thanks, Doc. Hey, bring that girl of yours over when Freddie's back up to snuff. Lord knows the kid needs more friends to play with." Herman said as he scooped his son into his arms. He was always grateful for the good doctor's help, and even more thankful for the man's tact in not mentioning his absent wife. Pepper was a ball of anxiety at times, and today was no different.
With an agreement to check on Freddie in three days, James strode back to his room, hopeful that his daughter had either fallen asleep in her playpen, or was playing with her toys like a good little girl.
He was right on the money when he walked back into the room – she was playing with her toys…just outside of the playpen. She clutched her book, You Are SPECIAL! in her arms as she gave her father a deer-in-headlights stare.
"Busted!" He thought to himself. "Oh, Catherine. If only you could see our little girl now."
"Ha ha ha! You're quite the little explorer, aren't you? Serves me right for trying to pen you in!" he exclaimed. Magdalena babbled up at him, overjoyed after his return.
"Come on over here. I want to show you something," James prompted, crouching down to his daughter's level and opening his arms, motioning for her to walk to him. On chubby, unsteady legs, she made her way over to him slowly. When she was within arm's reach, he snagged her around the midsection and lifted her onto his knee. She squealed happily and wrapped her chubby baby fists in his lab coat.
"See that?" he asked, pointing to the quote on the table. Her green eyes followed the motion of his fingers. "It was your mother's favorite passage. It's 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.'"
His little girl stared up at him, mouth open in a little "o," eyes sparkling. James felt a pang of sadness penetrating such a happy day.
"She always loved that…" he murmured, more to himself than anything. With a sigh, he placed Magdalena back down onto the floor and rose, knees cracking.
"All right. Come on. Let's go see if your little friend Amata wants to play…" he felt his daughter's hand on the back of his calf and turned around to see her steadying herself on him. A rush of affection pierced the gloom, and he smiled.
"Dada. Go Dada!" Magdalena exclaimed, and he grinned up at the ceiling. Somehow, everything would be okay.
~~~xxx~~~
Mags was ten today. Ten years had passed since his little girl came into the world. Ten years had passed since Project Purity was abandoned.
James pondered the impossibility of it all as he stood in the darkness of the dining hall. Amata and Jonas, bless the two of them, had helped to prepare this surprise party, and now, they were just waiting on the guest of honor to arrive.
Suddenly, the door opened, and light flooded the room.
"Surprise!" the attendees cried, and his awestruck daughter filled his field of vision.
"Stanley, you turned the lights on too fast! Ya blinded the poor kid!" Officer Gomez complained. James grinned, clapping with the other residents.
"Happy birthday, honey! I can't believe you're already ten. I'm so proud of you! If only your mother-" he trailed off as the Overseer abruptly interrupted.
"Congratulations, young lady. I don't have to tell you how special this day is, do I? Down here, in Vault 101, when you turn ten, well…you're ready to take on your first official Vault responsibilities. So here you are," he handed her a Pip-Boy. "As Overseer, I hereby present to you your very own Pip-Boy 3000. Get used to it. You'll be getting your first work assignment tomorrow." He laughed as he walked off.
"Enjoy your party. You're only ten once, so have fun." With that, Mags wandered off to mingle with the guests, leaving him to stand with Officer Gomez.
"Happy Birthday! We really surprised you, didn't we?" he overheard Amata ask with a chuckle. "Your dad was afraid you were on to us. But I told him not to worry. You're so easy to fool." James hid a chuckle of his own behind his hand.
"Great party, Amata! Thanks for doing this for me." Mags replied. His daughter was nothing if not polite, bless the heavens. Catherine would be proud of her manners.
Amata asked Mags to guess what she got the other girl for her birthday. James's eyebrows shot to his hairline when his dear, precious, sweet and innocent daughter replied, "A date with Freddie Gomez?"
Officer Gomez burst into laughter.
"For the record, he's got a crush on her, too. Christ alive, when did our kids grow up?" Herman asked, turning to James. James just stared at the wall, haunted by the idea of his baby girl dating. The security officer just laughed again, and patted James on the back.
"If only Catherine were here. She's the one who was supposed to handle boy problems, not me!" James bemoaned to himself. He was broken from his reverie by the sound of a scuffle.
"Butch! What are you doing!? Hitting a girl, and on her birthday, for heaven's sakes! Did he hurt you, honey?" Officer Gomez was crouched in front of his daughter, her cheek bright red from Butch's fist. He was pleased to see Butch's eye was already beginning to turn black.
"I'm okay, Officer Gomez! Don't worry about me!" his bright-eyed girl exclaimed. Slowly, he made his way over.
"Are you alright? Is Butch giving you a hard time again?" He asked. She grinned up at him.
"Don't worry, Dad! I can handle Butch!" she replied. He beamed with pride.
"I'm glad to hear it. Once you start letting bullies push you around, you'll never see the end of it. Come on now, I bet there's someone else out there with a present for you!" while James stood to walk to the intercom, he saw his daughter talking to Stanley.
"How do you like that there Pip-Boy, miss? Fit alright and everything?" he overheard the man ask.
"It's really cool. Did you fix it up for me?" Mags questioned. Stanley smiled down at her from his seat at the bar.
"As a matter of fact, I did. I'm glad you like it. Some may think the A series is a bit basic, but I've always preferred them for their reliability." Mags listened attentively to the adult ramble about the pros and cons of different Pip-Boys, and James once again thanked his lucky stars for such a patient and polite girl.
"Thanks, Stanley." She replied.
"Don't mention it," Stanley said as he reached into his pocket. "Oh yes, I almost forgot. Happy birthday! It's not much, but I hope you like it." He said as he passed the girl a baseball cap, which she immediately put on.
"Jonas?" James asked the intercom, hoping his partner in Vault 101-style crime was ready.
"Hey doc. We're all set down here." Came the staticky reply.
"Great, I'll send her right down." He turned to the girl now staring at him expectantly. "Hey, that was Jonas on the intercom. He and I have been cooking up a little surprise present." He instructed her to slip out and head down to the reactor level, and gave her a full minute's head start.
When he arrived, he found his assistant ribbing his daughter. The two of them always had an uncle-niece type of relationship, and Jonas had even given Mags her nickname.
"Magdalena is way too long of a name for such a little girl." He'd complained as he held her. James finished administering her shots.
"Then what do you propose?" James asked bemusedly, taking his wailing daughter from his assistant. His daughter handled shots just about as well as a typical person handled bullet wounds or broken bones.
"Mags, I think." Jonas replied, wiping the tears from the little girl's reddened face. "Yeah, she looks like a Mags."
"Mags, hmm?" James mused, looking at the toddler in his arms. "How do you like the name Mags?"
His girl gave a watery giggle.
"Well then. It's settled. Mags it is."
~~~xxx~~~
"Well, as far as I can tell, you're a perfectly healthy sixteen-year-old girl. So yes. You have to go to class to take your G.O.A.T. exam." James cocked an eyebrow. His daughter – the doctor's daughter – thought she could fake being sick to avoid the G.O.A.T. Hmph. As if.
Mags just gave him her infamous innocent grin that he knew was in no way innocent. His daughter had grown up quite cheeky and sarcastic, and reminded him so much of himself at that age. Oh, she could be the polite, sweet thing he'd known six years ago, but with teenhood, she'd come into her own. She preferred biting sarcasm to fisticuffs, though…that worked about as well as killing a Deathclaw with a butter knife, especially with one Mr. Butch DeLoria.
"Are you sure I'm not sick?" she asked with a cough – a very fake cough, at that. He sighed, and leveled his child a blank glare.
"I'm certain, sweetheart. Please, honey, please, take these achievement tests seriously. The last thing I need is your mother's ghost haunting me because her only child became a garbage burner." He replied humorously. This time, his daughter aimed the blank stare at him.
"If you say so, dad." She sighed before flouncing out the door. He smiled as he heard Jonas greet her on the way out the door.
A few hours passed before Mags bounced excitedly through the door. Both he and Jonas looked up in anticipation.
"Daddy!" she exclaimed. James blinked. His not-so-little girl hadn't called him that in years.
"Yes, love?" Jonas was tensed beside him, and the sentiment was mutual. He didn't know if her energy was excitement or pure, unadulterated fury.
"Guess what I got on the G.O.A.T.!" Mags sing-songed. Jonas gulped.
"God help us all…" Jonas thought.
"What did you get on the G.O.A.T., honey?" James asked, rather than guess.
"Vault Physician! We get to work together, daddy! Me, you, and Jonas!" she exclaimed excitedly. Both he and Jonas were up like someone had shot at their feet.
"That's wonderful, dear!" James shouted, wrapping his daughter in a tight hug. Jonas grabbed her the minute James released her.
"Go Mags! I knew you could do it!" Jonas cheered.
When she was released, she burst into laughter. James cocked an eyebrow as he looked at his assistant, who just shrugged.
"You'll never guess what Butch got!" she wheezed through her laughter. When Jonas asked, she burst into another fit of giggles.
"Hairdresser!" she crowed. Together, the three of them stood in the middle of the clinic, laughing on and off for the next twenty minutes at the thought of Butch, scissors in hand, styling some poor Vault resident's hair.
~~~xxx~~~
These were the memories James looked back on as he laid on the cold floor of the purifier, Janice's rapidly cooling body not far from reach. He'd managed to reach the glass preventing lethal radiation from leaking out and either brutally killing or ghoulifying everyone on site, and managed one word.
"Run…run…" his daughter's eyes were panicked as she banged on the glass, trying to get it open, trying to get to him. But he'd sealed it from the inside – the switch beside Madison would not work, despite the older woman's shaking hands continually flipping it.
He'd wanted to say so much more – how much he loved Mags, how proud he was, how sorry he was, but nothing would come out. The radiation was leaching his strength by the second, and he couldn't find it in him to even open his mouth.
His daughter, his world, his hero, had stepped out of the Vault and into the terror of the wastes to find him, and in his last act on this earth, he needed to keep her safe.
He could hear her frantic cries, pleas, even threats trying to get him to stay awake, stay with her, but he just couldn't find the energy.
"Catherine…" James thought with a smile. "I'm coming home."
And everything went dark.
A/N: Just remember, this isn't a death-fic for James. I also don't know how often this will be updated, but I'll try to keep it on a schedule. Thanks for reading!