Chapter One
Sweet Child O' Mine
She's got a smile that it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood memories
Where everything
Was as fresh as the bright blue sky
Now and then when I see her face
She takes me away to that special place
And if I stared too long
I'd probably break down and cry
Sweet child o' mine
Sweet love of mine
...
She's got eyes of the bluest skies
As if they thought of rain
I hate to look into those eyes
And see an ounce of pain
Sweet child o' mine
Sweet love of mine
James Bennett had done many praiseworthy things in his life. He'd founded a life changing science experiment, fell in love and married a beautiful women, and become a gifted physician. Yet he had never felt a stronger surge of pride than at this moment, when he held his firstborn child. "Catherine!" He exclaimed, unable to contain his excitement, "Catherine, we have a daughter!" Above his surgical mask, his eyes practically glowed with happiness, the skin around them wrinkling due to his enormous smile, hidden behind the mask.
James looked from the squalling infant in his arms up to the pale wan face of his wife, who smiled back, despite her obvious pain. "James, let me see her." Carefully, as if the infant were made of glass, the doctor reached over and placed the baby in her mother's arms. Catherine cooed appreciatively and touched a finger to the baby's cheek. "Oh," she crooned, "She's beautiful."
"Isn't she?" Said James, joining his wife at the head of her bed and smiling down at the pair of them.
In truth, the newborn was bright red and had her face screwed up in an almighty wail and was far from beautiful. Not that it mattered to two adoring parents. The child could have been bright purple and have a pig snout instead of a nose and they would still have thought her to be the most priceless treasure in all the world.
"Doctor," Said a nurse, "The image is done loading." the man turned the screen to face the parents and Catherine said, "My goodness, she is beautiful."
The face projected on the screen was much closer to what someone who wasn't prenatally biased would think of as beautiful. She was the perfect combination of her parents, leaning a little closer to her father. They had similarly high cheekbones, long sloping noses ending in a subtle point and deep set eyes. He father's features were thicker, and the girls were delicate, she looked fragile, made of spun sugar. She had her mother's fine, thick hair and large eyes with thick lashes but her father's coloring. Pale blonde locks and bright blue eyes. Eyes the color of what the sky should have been.
"She...she looks like you." Said Catherine weakly.
"But she has your lips." Said James affectionately, tugging down his mask and tipping his wife's chin up to plant a kiss on her full lips.
There was a frantic beeping and Catherine's eyes fluttered shut, "James.." She mumbled, and the doctor's eyes sharpened and he quickly took the baby and handed her to a nurse,
"I need twenty milligrams of that nurse. Catherine, Catherine listen to me. You need to stay with me, please stay with me." For the first time since the heart monitor went off, James's voice cracked.
"Posey.." She said numbly, looking around with blank eyes.
"What?" Said James, leaning closer.
"The baby, Posey."
"Posey, of course love." There were tears in his eyes as the others bustled about with medical equipment he knew was too outdated to work.
"The world could use more flowers." Catherine said, finally locking eyes with her husband. Her face was pale, too pale, and when she took his hand, and pressed it to her lips, it took too long for the blood to flow back into them, causing them to flush back to red. James nodded silently not trusting his voice.
"Doctor her levels are dropping."
"James." Her voice was just above a whisper. "I'm sorry."
"Catherine." His voice broke and he ducked his head, taking her hand and pressing it to his cheek, "Please..."
"She's gone into cardiac arrest!" Shouted a nurse to his left.
"Catherine...Catherine!"
Behind him, despite the nurses gentle shushing noises, their child wailed.
"Well, Posey my love." James Bennett's voice was low and rough, and his eyes red rimmed. "It looks as though it's just you and I now."
The baby slumbered on, eyes peacefully closed. "What sort of world have I brought you into?" He said in a strangled voice, tears welling in his eyes. "I'm sorry, Posey, I'm so sorry."
Unaware of her father's grief, the baby slept on. She didn't know her mother was gone, or that her father was within an ounce of giving up on everything that he had his wife had worked for. Everything except, "You." He said, looking down at the sleeping child. "You're all I've got left now. And I don't intend on that changing anytime soon." He kissed her soft forehead. "I'll keep you safe. I promise."
There was a soft knock on the door and James looked up to see Doctor Madison Li entering the small room he was sitting in. "James, I'm sorry to disturb you." She said softly. James looked back down at the baby in his arms and said, "It's quite alright Madison."
"I'm so sorry about Catherine."
James closed his eyes at the mention of her name, but other than that made no mention of his wife's passing.
"I can't do this anymore." He said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"What?"
"I can't do this anymore, Madison." He repeated, louder this time.
"But," Doctor Li's face registered nothing but shock. "James," She pleaded, stepping forward, "We're so close!"
"I'm sorry." Said James simply, getting to his feet. He looked around at the room where he and his wife had been staying and started packing up his meager belongings into a leather backpack, leaving the baby swaddled on the bed.
"You can't give up now James!" She hissed, stepping forward. "It's not what Catherine would have-"
"You don't know what Catherine would or would not have wanted." James snapped, for the first time in that evening, and truly the first time for as long as Madison Li had known him, showing anger in his usually kind blue eyes. "She would have wanted our child to be safe. And she can't be safe here. My daughter needs me, Madison."
"The world needs you more!"
James shook his head and hiked the backpack up onto his shoulders. He went to the bed and gently lifted his child up and held her close. He looked back at Doctor Li, who looked angry, confused and ultimately just tired. "I'm sorry Madison," He said simply, "But this is goodbye."
"Where will you go?" She demanded, looking on the verge of tears.
"Anywhere, to keep her safe."
One Year Later
"My goodness Posey." Chuckled James, entering back into the room where he had left his daughter, "Disobeying me already?" He asked. Posey looked up at him and smiled a toothless grin. She was sitting in front of her toy box, the gate to her playpen wide open.
"You're already proving to be a handful." He mumbled, scooping up the toddler. "What am I going to do when you're a rebellious teenager?"
The child grabbed at his nose and cooed unhelpfully and James laughed before pressing a kiss amid the soft covering of wispy blonde hair on the top of her head.
"Look there Posey," He said, crouching down and pointing to a framed phrase on the table. "Revelations twenty one six, your mother's favorite verse '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'." Posey, of course, didn't do much with this information, just patted the frame, knocking it backwards. James laughed and set it upright and put the squirming child down. "Alright missy, you can walk." He said, watching the child toddle off, "Your mother would have loved to see you grow up Posey, I know she would have." He said, mostly to himself. He pushed himself up onto his feet and held out his hand, "Alright, let's go see if your friend Amanta wants to play." Posey placed a small, dimpled hand in his and together they walked into the vault.
Nine Years Later
The Good Doctor had watched his daughter grow up under the fluorescent lights of Vault 101 and despite it's many unfavorable aspects, he never regretted bringing his daughter to the Vault. Of course, she had no idea she'd been brought, but he wouldn't let her know this hadn't been her birth place. He already saw the curious flash in her eye when anyone mentioned the outside world, and he'd found several books under her bed about surviving in the wild. Pre-War books of course, so they were outdated and not very helpful when it came to the Capital Wasteland but it was enough to know that she was interested. He tried to assure himself that she had read everything that the vault had to offer, so she was just naturally curious about everything, but he still worried.
It had been years since his wife's death and his move to Vault 101 but he still missed her everyday. He wished Posey could know how wonderful her mother had been, he wished he could adequately explain to her about the project that brought he and Catherine together, but Posey could never know about Project Purity. He knew she would want to help, even at the tender age of nine, she would want to know everything about it, to go and help with the effort, and he couldn't let her leave this place. This place of metal safety and albeit confinement.
He leaned back from the papers he'd been pouring over and groaned, rubbing his tired eyes. He looked to the clock on his Pip-Boy. Five in the morning. He realized with a start that if it was truly the morning, then Posey was no longer nine years old. Today she was ten. An entire decade. "My, where has the time gone." He said to himself, into the empty office.
He knew he should rest, that Posey would be awake soon and wondering what he was working on. So he shuffled the papers into a pile and slipped them into an envelope and got to his feet, looking around the practically sterile vault walls and unforgiving lighting. He walked back through the halls of the vault, using only the flashlight of his Pip-Boy to navigate the dark halls.
"It's a bit late, isn't it doctor?"
James turned to see the Overseer standing with his arms crossed behind him.
"I suppose it is." Said James, his voice nothing but polite, though his skin crawled. Something about this Alphonse had always rubbed him wrong. "But, you of all people should know how paperwork is."
"Indeed I do." He said simply, "Working on Patient reports then?""
"Yes, dreadfully boring I'm afraid."
"May I see them then, I'd like to know how my vault residences are doing."
"Oh," James tightened his grip on the folder and felt his stomach drop. "No, I don't think that would be proper, Overseer. You know, with Doctor Patient confidentiality and all. Some embarrassing things in here."
The Overseer's smile tightened slightly, but he said smoothly, "Of course, you're a good doctor, James."
"Thank you." James nodded and headed his way back up the hall.
"James," Called the Alphonse, and James turned back. In the low lighting, the Overseer's deep set eyes were completely cast into shadow. "Your daughter is ten today, correct?"
"Yes, she is."
"Interesting.." He said slowly. "They grow up so fast, here in the vault, don't they."
"Yes, it does seem that way sometimes."
"She's safe here, remember that, Doctor."
James clenched his jaw tight, and it took all his self restraint to keep his hands from clenching into fists. "I never forget."
"See that you don't, Mr. Bennett."
And with that, the Overseer turned on his heel and disappeared into the dark corridors of the vault.
Slightly unsettled, James returned to his apartments and closed the door behind him. He knew he should keep his notes on Project Purity locked away in the safe in his office, but he wanted to keep them where he could look them anytime he wanted. He'd told Madison he was done with Project Purity, but in truth, he didn't think he could ever give up on Project Purity entirely. It was a bit part of his life, and honestly, almost like a second child to him. Project Purity was important. Not just to him, to the world. He was so close to figuring it out. He knew he could do it. He just needed a little more time. He looked at the dark living room, and saw a slight glow under the door to Posey's room. So he wasn't the only one burning the midnight oil. He crossed to the bedroom and knocked gently. There wasn't a response, so he opened the door.
Posey was asleep on top of her blankets, surrounded by books. She was laying on her stomach, with her cheek pressed against the pages of what he recognized as one of his old medical journals. He had no idea where she'd found all of these volumes. Books weren't exactly plentiful in the vault. Yet she had half a dozen. Some fiction, most nonfiction though, on varying topics, from rebuilding robots to a manual for gardening, which had to be centuries old. James chuckled to himself and set to gathering them up, making a neat stack on her bedside table, where a flashlight remained on, it's beam falling across his daughters face. Her thick lashes were so long they brushed her cheeks with her eyes closed, but they were also blonde and difficult to see without the direct beam of the flashlight on them. Her mouth was open slightly as she slept soundly, pale hair spread messily over her face and books. He gently removed the book from under face and pulled a blanket over her sleeping form. He brushed a lock of hair away from her forehead and placed a kiss where the hair used to be.
He walked back to the door after shutting off her flashlight and stood at the door, looking back at his daughter. Here she could sleep without worry. There was no need to assign someone to first watch. No need to make sure your weapon was within reach. Yes, she was safe here, in the vault. This was the place for her, even if she didn't agree. She was safe here. And that was all that mattered to him.
Author's Note: Sorry this is such a monster of a chapter. I recently restarted my old Fallout game and I fell in love with it all over again. It's strange, if someone asked me which I liked better, Skyrim or Fallout, I'd respond Skyrim but nothing quite sucks me in like the story line of Fallout 3. So I decided to challenge myself and write a bit of a novelization of Fallout 3 with a few of my own twists. I don't know how much I'll stick with the games original dialogue or things of the like. Probably not much. Hopefully you guys like it anyway. This chapter's title is a song by Guns and Roses, but I prefer the Jasmine Thompson cover of it, if you care to listen to it. I think they lyrics just fit James and the Lone Wanderer's, in this case Posey's, relationship. Anyway, farewell dear reader!
