"I need to be the example, not the exception."
His voice echoed in the dark reaches of her mind. She held a gun in her hand. An assault rifle.
He kneeled before her.
"I need to be the example, not the exception."
He repeated. He placed his hands behind his back.
Charlotte pulled the trigger.
His dead body shifted. No longer Paladin Danse in his Brotherhood of Steel uniform.
He was Father, her son, Shaun, a fully grown man, age having become him.
Dead. Right before her eyes, a bullet in his head.
Charlotte bolted up with a gasp.
She took in several deep gulps of air, eyes darting the room as she tried to slow her heart. The light that filtered in through the window from the vault giving her just enough light to show her where she was. Vault 81.
Charlotte calmed herself and threw her face into her hands. The nightmares plagued her. Her actions in the Wasteland probably always would. Not every decision was without some consequence. The amount of death that hung around her was like the very air she breathed.
Her betrayal of Shaun still ached and though he hadn't died like in her dream, she dreamt of it like that in various ways. She blamed herself. She may as well have shot him herself.
It squeezed her heart to know, that though 210 years had passed, it had only really been a year or so since she had held him as a baby. For her, time had only been that long.
She couldn't stay in the vault like this. She wasn't in any condition to be around these people. They were untouched by the Wasteland. Whole. Their hardest decisions were recycling and preservation of materials.
Charlotte flung off her sheets, and mind made up, pulled on her equipment.
Assault Rifle, grenades, and combat armor and she left the vault.
Three weeks passed before she returned again.
This time in the middle of the day. She was exhausted and alone. Charlotte had spent that time amongst the settlements, helping people.
She had also come up with a plan and some deals.
Determined, Charlotte marched through the vault, only to be stopped by security on duty.
"She said if you come back to see her in her office immediately." The man informed her. He stepped out of her way, allowing her to continue her trek into the vault.
Charlotte did as she was told and went straight for the Overseer's Office. She needed to speak with her anyway.
She noted the redhead watching her as she marched through the vault from the circular observation window of her office. Charlotte smirked. Gwen looked unimpressed. Did Charlotte have a surprise for her.
She was ushered on by the security guard at the desk before the Overseer's Office. The doors allowed her automatic entry.
Gwen sat at her desk, waiting.
"You know, when you made it back that night, I thought you would have at least stuck around until breakfast." She remarked coolly.
Charlotte approached the desk slowly.
"I realized I had some things to take care of." She shrugged.
Gwen studied her for several moments.
"I'm beginning to think you take our offer for granted." She stated.
Charlotte held her gaze steadily. There was a coolness to them. She had messed this up. She knew. She had realized that the Overseer might not take too kindly to her disappearance the day after she had left. By then, Charlotte had been in the middle of hurrying toward a settlement. Minutemen Radio having informed her of their oncoming danger.
Charlotte sighed. She ran fingers through her cropped hair. She had gotten a cut while she was out. The style faded up on the sides, the top, waves of short auburn.
"I do not." She said, deterred.
"In fact, I have come with deals made with settlements." She continued.
Gwen frowned at her.
"What kind of deals?" She asked warily.
"I have run of over 20 settlements in the Wasteland. They all carry food, water, and supplies." Charlotte began.
"Go on." Gwen seemed interested.
"In exchange for providing the Vault with supplies you need, they need someone who can synthesize medicine, they need people that can refine armor and weapons and even create things such as grenades and possibly ammo." Charlotte informed her.
"Their food is too irradiated for Vault consumption, however if a certain scientist were willing to work on creating a variant of crops that are less capable of absorbing radiated minerals from the soil and water, the settlements would also be happy to help grow and provide food." Charlotte hoped Dr. Penske could do this one. It would be hard work, but it would help the vault greatly.
Gwen mulled it over.
"You put a lot of though into this." She stated.
Charlotte nodded.
"I have been busy."
Gwen sighed.
"I am angry with you. I won't deny it, but this is a rather good offer. One you obviously worked hard to pull together." Gwen pursed her lips. Charlotte remembered the feel of them as they kissed.
"I will take the offer on two conditions." Gwen informed Charlotte. She stood. She leaned over her desk and held Charlottes gaze.
"The first, we need people to guard and patrol the vault outside. I refuse to send my own out, because of dangers we are not used to fighting." Gwen told her.
Charlotte agreed. The world outside of the vault was quite dangerous and difficult. If not ready for it, people outside of the vault did not last long.
"The second is that you, stay." Gwen held her hand up at Charlotte's mouth opening in protest.
"I need someone to train my people. If you want them to make these things for you, they will need your knowledge of the outside in order to better know how they can refine weapons and armor. I also need someone with knowledge of the outside to train and teach my people about it." She told Charlotte. "You are the best person to do it, because my people already trust you."
Charlotte crossed her arms.
"I have another counter offer." She declared.
Gwen raised an eyebrow.
"And?" She waited.
"There is someone that must be allowed to live in the vault with me. Someone I want to bring from the outside." Charlotte made her demand.
Gwen's eyes hardened and Charlotte shook her head.
"It isn't what you think." She stated.
"He is a child."
"Oh." Gwen let out her quiet surprise.
Charlotte nodded. "He is…. Like my son."
Gwen bit her lip.
"You have your agreement."
Charlotte returned a week later. She had taken only a day's rest at the vault after the Overseer agreed to her deal. The Overseer had made her announcement to the people and some were happy with it. Charlotte could already see who wouldn't be, however, and was willing to deal with them when the time came. She was already planning for them.
Charlotte approached the vault. Her stomach clenching with nerves.
"Mom, are we really going to live in a vault?" The child beside her asked.
Charlotte looked down at the auburn-haired boy beside her. His face was a mixture of her own features and that of her long gone husband's. It made her ache.
She smiled at him despite all of that.
"Yes, Shaun, the Overseer has granted us a room and you will have other children to play with." Charlotte told him.
"There is even a classroom."
He returned her smile and tugged her towards the opening in the rock. Charlotte allowed him to lead.
She hoped he would be accepted here. She wasn't sure if Synths could even age and if he couldn't, she didn't want him to spend his life in the Wasteland an anomaly. A child, forever. If he could age, she wanted him to have a happy life without all of the dangers of what he is.
The Brotherhood of Steel didn't know what he was. If they ever found out, they might try to force her to kill him or do it themselves. She would never be able to bear it. He was the last piece of Shaun she had left.
She held his hand all the way into the vault. The vault dwellers eyed her oddly as she passed them. They probably didn't expect her to have her own child.
Shaun pointed out different parts and machinery in the vault around him. He chattered excitedly just like any other 10-year-old might do in his place.
"Look at all these parts!" He told her, his face lit with his excitement. "I bet I could make a lot of stuff!"
"They look like they need some repairs around here, do you think they would let me help mom?" He looked up at her expectantly.
Charlotte wondered if the real Shaun had been the same. He had stated in his holo tape that he programmed this child with his memories and personality. If that were the case then, perhaps he had been the same. Interested in tinkering as much as this synth version was.
"I'm sure if you ask, they won't deny you, Shaun." She answered.
He jumped excitedly.
They bumped into Austin as she reached her room. When Charlotte introduced Shaun as her son, he offered to take him around and see if he could find him an extra vault suit in his size.
Shaun had waited for her permission, eagerness clearly written on his face. It seemed he was ready to make a new friend.
She let him go and turned toward her room only to come face-to-face with Gwen.
"Your son?" She observed Charlotte with raised brows.
"I…" Charlotte sighed,
"It's a long story."
Gwen crossed her arms. She tilted her head in the direction of Charlotte's room.
"Tell me."