Wow, hard to even believe how long it has been since I posted something. Really had a good case of writer's block and I hope I have gotten out of it moving into the back half of 2018. Recently got into the Fallout franchise and I gotta admit, 4's ending really pissed me off, so here's just a little something I came up with to kinda...fill in the gaps.

Every decision in this one-shot is my own from the game. There are certain lines that were pulled from the game itself, but it was used for stat up purposes for certain scenes. I do not own any character or setting in this one-shot, all rights belong to Bethesda Game Studios and Esclation Studios respectfully.

Fallout 4: One Final Goodbye

As if losing his wife wasn't bad enough, now Eric, the sole survivor of Vault 111, has not only lost Nora but now he's going to lose his son too, this time to something that is beyond his control. Eric has one last chance to make things right, put the family he once had to a close and move onward with the future of the Commonwealth.

"This isn't some fairy tale, father. There's no saving me. I'm dying, and you're going to destroy everything I ever loved." The Father of the Institute, Shaun, took a breath "You're going to have to live with that."

Another breath was taken, this time, it hurt more then he expected. As Shaun could feel his insides ripping with pain looking up at the man he once believed, their eyes matching exactly, the same color of emerald green "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to be alone for my last few moments. Go, do what you must."

For Eric, this was the moment he thought would never come. Having to stand over his son, who was laying on a bed with an apparatus over his legs that was being used for life support, this was the type of event a parent could only have nightmares over. His son was dying, and he was still alive.

He had considered at one point, when he found out the leader of the Institute, The Father, was his own son Shaun, who had been forced away from him at the cost of the life of his wife and only love Nora, Eric had considered working with Shaun, to create this better tomorrow for the post-apocalypse world that had been created since the Great War back in 2076, but after a group of synthetic humans, or synths as everyone called them were released by Eric, he knew enough was enough.

"I don't want to be involved with this Shaun. I want you."

They stood out on the rooftops above the Institute, they had a decent time standing together, talking about not only the past with Shaun getting captured, but also finding out Shaun had opted for Eric to be released. Though, Eric had a hard time coming to grips with the reasons for his release.

Shaun wanted to use him, as a lab rat, nothing more then a test subject to see how his own flesh and blood would react to being released into the new world post the Great War, whether he'd be killed, or he'd strive to find his son after sixty years of separation while Eric lay in a cryogenics tube, knowing Nora was probably bleeding out or dead and his son was gone.

"After all this, after…. Everything you've seen, all that you've learned. You're just going to walk away?" Shaun was stunned, but not surprised none the less

"I can't do it, Shaun, I just can't." Eric looked his son in the eye, his eyes, the same emerald green eyes he saw every day in the mirror "And you shouldn't do this either. You can come with me and leave this behind."

"And leave behind everything that I have dedicated my life to make a reality? No, I am sorry father, but there is no room for sentimentality." Shaun took a few steps back "I had hoped that we could be a family again, I hoped you shared our vision for the future, my vision for the future."

"Your future is twisted, your so power hungry that you don't even care about the people your stepping over. People who are just trying to survive?"

"Did you learn all that from those cavemen in the Commonwealth? They are nothing without their technology, technology we have practically handed them on a silver platter. You don't get to judge us when the atrocities they committed are far worse."

Eric looked out at the water and buildings ahead of him then back to his son. Never in his life would he ever think he'd have this point happen, a conflict of ideals with his own child about the fate of the world, of course then again, no parent ever did have to go through what he did.

"Your mother would be ashamed of you Shaun." Eric took a step backward then turned his back to his son "I won't be apart of this."

"No," Eric looked at Shaun and pulled a chair out from the terminal nearby, taking a seat so he was level with his elderly son "You're not going to lose me that easily, your mother and I were there when you were born, it's only fitting that I am here when you die. The Minutemen can wait a couple more minutes."

"You didn't hear me properly, I said I wanted to be alone…"

"Well, you don't get to decide that Shaun!" Rage building in Eric's voice "You don't get to wake me up, try to bring me into your organization, then try to cast me out because your upset that we have a conflict of ideals. Maybe that's something the Institute never taught you, Shaun. Human beings have different thoughts from others, your staff is a pure example of that. The people in the Commonwealth, I've seen them at their worst, and I've seen them at their best. They don't deserve to have someone standing over them and tell them what to do."

"You honestly think that's the best? After everything you've seen?"

"Yes." Eric nodded "Yes I do."

Shaun leaned back and pondered for a moment, maybe his father was right. Maybe the meds he was pumped with was playing with his mind, but maybe his father had a point. The Institute was all he had ever known but standing out on that rooftop with his father felt invigorating and gave him a new retrospective on things, though it left him with more questions than answers.

What was the Commonwealth like before the Great War? Who fired those missiles first? Why did no one try to fix it?

Maybe these were questions his father could find out for him, to carry out his legacy, he had always wanted it that way since he discovered his father's existence, but now, seeing the man he was, the one the Minutemen looked to as their general, maybe he was the best hope the Commonwealth had.

"What was my mother like?" Shaun asked, finally easing the expression on his face to something calmer

Eric smiled "She was a lawyer…a really good one. She believed every client she represented deserved a fair trial, never letting corruption ruin her, or her reputation. She always said having you was the best decision she ever made with her life."

They talked, never really about topics that seemed to make many transitions from one to another very well. From their life in Sanctuary Hills to his parents meeting for the first time, his father's time in the service, what Eric discovered in the Commonwealth and even what Sanctuary had become.

"I wish you could see it, Shaun, you would be happy there," Eric said after he and Shaun had a good laugh about Nora embarrassing Eric at their rehearsal dinner

"Maybe I can't be there in person, but in spirit." Shaun nodded as he leaned back "It's time."

"Are you sure?"

Shaun nodded "Yes, I want you to know, that I have no regrets, I have lived a full life."

"I know you have. I'm proud of you Shaun." Eric smiled as he took his son's hand "And I am sorry."

"As am I. Father, I do have one final request to ask."

"Name it."

"You should have seen him, Nora, I was in shock, Shaun, all grown up, being the head of the Institute and…I couldn't have been any prouder of him."

Eric had returned to Sanctuary, kneeling in front of his wife Nora's grave, a lone tear came to his eyes as he looked down at the makeshift tombstone he had made up after moving her body from Vault 111. No one deserved that fate, he kept telling himself after he buried her

"He's gone now Nora, he died a few days ago, and I lost him again. But, the Commonwealth is improving, everything that has happened these last few months happened for a reason. I can say that it's not a perfect world, but I think the three of us would have made it home."

He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out an old-time photo of Nora that he kept on his person. Her blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, her body wrapped up in his trench coat, standing on the pier at Boston Harbor, it was where he proposed to her back in 2068, back when he was fresh from war and she was just getting off a rough case. She hesitated when she said yes, it was shocking to Eric that she took so long, but as he figured out, she was just teasing him.

"I miss you Nora, not a day goes by where I don't think about you, wonder what your reaction to this new world would have been. I think me, you, Codsworth, Shaun, we would have made it home."

"Blue?"

Eric looked up to Piper Wright standing at the doorway to their home in Sanctuary, she was wearing one of his old shirts he picked up from their journey and her black hair pulled back. After Nora's death, Eric found himself drawn to Piper, maybe the same way he did with Nora all those years ago. It wasn't something he wanted to do…it just happened, but he was glad Piper accepted going slow with their relationship, he could only hope that Nora would approve of their relationship, of him moving on.

"You should come in. The radiation storm is going to set in soon."

Eric nodded and stood up, placing a hand on Nora's grave "Tell Shaun I love him and I'll see you both soon Nora. I promise."

He walked away from her gravesite and to the door, quickly stealing a kiss from Piper and smiling down at her, smiling wider when he noticed ten-year-old Shaun laying down on the couch, an old book laying in his lap.

Shaun's last request to Eric was that he take the synth version of himself with him when the Institute detonated, he didn't want to at first, but this was what Shaun wanted. This synth was different from the rest, he acted and sounded like a real boy, though his speech was a little weird, it was something he could adapt to, though he always wished it was his real son, not some mechanical copy.

But this was his family, and he was happy with where things were at.