A/N: a hot older, religious man meets a vault stray. flirting involving bible passages takes place. this is not meant to at all offended. i fall in love with the most minor characters ever.


When he first meets her, it's under heavy fire by muties, Initiate Jennings body by his feet and with the sound of gunfire and mutant screams ringing loud in the air. She's not hard to miss, which is more to say then most natives, especially if they're wearing… what he assumed was a vault suit someone did their best to add some extra protection to in the form of leather armour.

101.

"New recruit?" He asks, more to himself then to Lyons, but Lyons answers, shrugging.

"Just a stray we picked up." The Sentinel remarks distantly, clearly thinking their guest more a burden than anything else. "The one that blundered into the Uglies over on 42nd. Says she's on her way to GNR, figured she could tag along."

Colvin smiles under his helmet, an empty gesture since she couldn't see, and chimed a friendly welcome to the civilian. He doubted Lyons or any of his brothers offered the same courtesy after all.

It works, because she gives him a half-smile, even as she continues to firmly grasp at her rifle.

"You don't need to worry. You're with friends now. We'll see you safely through." He continues, his smile never dissipating, even if she couldn't see it.

He could practically hear Vargas' eyes roll at his comment.

Colvin just shot Vargas and Lyons a look. "My brothers may be gruff, but they will lay down their lives for you." He reassures their guest, but she says nothing, only raising an eyebrow at him in response before Lyons' gave the signal to move forward.

To her credit, she's a good shot and doesn't get in his way. She's still green, he can see that. Her grip on that rifle isn't as steady as he first thought. Not as green as Reddin or Jennings (Maker, rest his soul) though, but it's clear this isn't her first mutant kills, and to her credit, she's also probably not much older than the two Initiates, if not younger. They clear through the school smoothly before Lyons' gives the orders on how to approach the base, purposefully ignoring the stray.

Colvin glances at their guest, who's looking more and more increasingly annoyed at Lyons' effort to ignore her, despite the fact (even if Colvin wouldn't audibly admit it) that she was proving a steadier and better shot then the trigger happy Reddin. Admittedly though the stray had her Pipboy to help her.

"Come with me if you like. We'll have the best view." He offers, again with the empty gesture of smiling under his helmet.

She gives him another half-smile, genuine and somewhat relaxed, even if he did just watch her take down a few muties, and takes him up on his offer, following him up a broken staircase. He kneels before the window of their 'perch', rifle steady in his grasp as he eyes over the base, at super mutants and brothers alike.

"This looks like the main force…" He whispers, again, more to himself. "Many tormented souls will meet the Maker today. I will pray for forgiveness."

He almost forgets she's there for a moment as he signals Lyons' over the radio and settles his gaze into the sights of his rifle, taking a sharp breathe. "Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death." He recites under his breath, ready to take the shot before he hears her finally make a noise.

She gives a chuckle of wonder before the first words he ever hears her speak surprise him. "I will fear no evil. For thou art with me."

He can't even ask her how or where she knows that from before she's suddenly taken a shot with her rifle, leaving a large indent into the head of a now screaming mutie. If it had been a more powerful gun, she probably would've taken the head clean off.

After the last mutie is down she takes a sharp sigh and leans slightly back on her heels, lowering her rifle and he glances at her quickly.

The vault suit hugging her frame is bugging him now. He wouldn't say in a bad way, just in a way he couldn't shake from his mind. In his 40 years in this world, Colvin has met a few vault dwellers before, but it usually never turned out good for them. A scribe he only half listened to had told him once that most were the sad results of experiments usually, carried out by the Enclave before the Great War. If she was from one of those vaults, he supposed that's where she may've learnt that verse from… He knew a small handful of people in the Waste still practised the faith but…

"You were right." She chuckles, breaking him out of his train of thought as she reaches into one of the pockets of her suit for a cigarette and a lighter.

He blinks, grateful for his helmet obstructing his face as he's simply staring at her dumbly. "Huh?"

She lights her cigarette and takes a long drag, smirking at him in a way that makes his mouth suddenly feel dry. "We did have the best view."

Colvin chokes out a laugh. "Told you we woul – "

He's cut off by the sound of a loud, gut wrenching roar and of steel bashing against steel and goes pale behind his helmet. The Knight Captain barely makes out the sound of Vargas crying out for Reddin before the explosion hits them and he's on top of the stray, having thrown her down to do his best to cover her from the fire and shrapnel from the explosion.

There's screams and desperate orders from the bottom floor and over the radio as the Behemoth roars in anger, swinging its makeshift hammer around in blind and mindless rage, but all he can hear is her swearing underneath him.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck." She hisses underneath him, an audible gasp of pain following as he moves wrong and digs his armour further into her rather thin suit from grasping for his rifle before he pushes himself off her.

He doesn't mutter an apology as the soldier in him kicks in again and merely begins taking immediate fire.

If he didn't think her green before, he definitely does now, but he can't fault her for that. In his 20+ years on the field, he's only seen maybe 5 Behemoth's, tops. To her credit, she gets up pretty quick, and even with the obvious terror written on her face, doesn't hesitate unloading rounds of hot lead into the Behemoth's skin.

It goes down, but not quick enough in Colvin's opinion. The last bullet hits right through its skull as it howls in pain before slacking down to the ground like a ton, the Behemoth's blood beginning to pool across the concrete. Reddin is dead, if the explosion didn't kill her, the way the Behemoth threw her across the courtyard certainly did and Lyons and Vargas are beside themselves with anger and grief over the loss. The loss of a brother, even a local Initiate, was always hard, especially for the Pride.

He glances at the stray, who is still trying to regain some form of composure, and feels an odd stab of guilt go through him that he was more concerned for her then he was his brothers. Colvin gives a few sharp intakes of air, still trying to catch his breath, before he solemnly asks if she's alright.

She licks her lips, they're dry and chapped, and there's a thin veil of sweat over her features (why is he noticing that?) and she doesn't respond to his question. He's about to ask again, reaching out to grasp her shoulder when she shoves his hand away, and murmurs a quiet apology about Reddin before jumping from the window of their ledge to walk over to Lyons and Vargas only giving a brief chat before she continues past his brothers and into the building, rifle clicking at her side.

The Knight Captain watches her walk off, realises she's walking with a slight limp on her left, probably fucked it up when he jumped her, then realises he's watching her ass as she walks, realises he's suddenly craving a taste of that cigarette she had and then shakes the thoughts from his mind.

He needs to pray.

A lot.


A/N: i'm hoping to average at least one bible verse every 1 - 2 chapters but we'll see how it goes. would apperciate feedback.