A/N: So there will be a another note at the end of this story, but for now this is just a little bit of information about the different format in this story. The Italic format is used for a flashback\story telling in the chapter. What does that mean? Well it means its to be taken with a hint of Salt, as Nova and Susie are remembering the events their way. That being said, there is a lot of truth in what their saying but some of it being hidden from the stranger sitting across from Truth of the stories will come out in later chapters (not really lies just more like changing some things around and witholding information) and some of it wont. Because whats the fun in telling everyone his full backstory in one sitting. James has been gone for nearly two years, and lot can happen in two years. Thats what this story will try to explore in some detail. Anyways, Remember to R&R.
Something about this woman, made Susie feel like she could open up. Like she was talking to a big sister, or something like that. Susie always wanted a big sister. Having grown up with only brothers, she always wanted someone to talk to about girly stuff. Someone she could come to for advice, whose answer wouldn't be "I'll kick their ass".
"So, are you from his vault? Or did he just pick you up somewhere?" Nova asked, leaning over the railing overlooking those below.
"Yeah, we grew up together." Susie stated, raising an eyebrow to Nova's curiosity.
"Really?" Nova asked, taking a deep drag from her cigarette.
Susie wondered if that was something all wastelanders did, smoked. Or was it just everyone that knew James and Jericho? She certainly had little desire to start that habit.
"Um yeah." Susie responded, smiling at how amazed this made Nova.
"That's something else." Nova chuckled looking towards Susie with a smirk.
"Why?" Susie asked, concern in her tone.
"Well you got the real dirt on him then, don't ya?" Nova laughed, Susie joining in nervously.
"Come on honey, spill." Nova said, wrapping her arm around Susie.
"Spill what?" Susie asked, naïve of what she was being asked.
Susie wasn't sure what she was being asked to say, but she somehow knew that Nova wasn't asking for anything that would cause anyone harm. Nova was just asking her something out of her own curiosity. And Susie felt good, having been the one Nova asked this of.
"What was he like, you know, as a kid?" Nova asked, as she blew smoke from the corner of her mouth away from Susie.
"Oh…" Susie said, her memory rewinding back to when they were kids.
James was a completely different person two years ago, but not too different from when he was a kid. In fact, besides his physical changes, the only changes that really occurred from the moment he started schooling was that he had stopped picking his nose and hanging out with Butch.
"Well, he was always kind of a loner, shy, quiet and a little wimpy looking. He hung out with Amata a lot, but never talked to anyone else." Susie remembered aloud, rather amazed at how different he had become.
"He was always reading, or watching holo movies, or locked away in this small room he somehow got the key too. You couldn't blame him for being distant, he was bullied a lot by Butch and the other guys. And even the adults sometimes." It was at this moment Susie stopped, due to the fact Nova was in fits of laughter.
"You're shitting me! You sure, we are talking about the same guy?" Nova asked in disbelief, the thought of James being bullied and wimpy looking too much for her to handle.
"Nope that's what he was like." Susie smiled, glad someone found his change so funny.
"The guy, you called a hero!" Nova asked, trying to verify this was fact.
"Yeah!" Susie said, feeling a little like she was on trial.
"He ever get into a fight?" Nova asked, not asking about whether he was beat up or not, but when did he first start fighting back.
"I only saw him fight once…" Susie said, remembering only a few years ago outside of the classroom before the G.O.A.T exam.
"Well, go ahead tell it." Nova enthusiastically said, walking Susie over to a table and two chairs set outside the bar.
Sitting down, Susie took a deep breath and recalled the fight from years ago.
There was about an hour to wait before Mr Brotch would show up and give the exam, and James was running late. Despite having studied almost all day and night for it, he was so nervous about taking the test, and no amount of pep talks or encouraging words made the knot in his stomach go away. He had even tried to fake illness to avoid taking the test, but unfortunately his father had not been born the day before and knew his son was faking. After a lecture about the moral obligation and duty he had to take the test and be assigned a career, James left the clinic to go to the class room. Susie was waiting outside of the room, watching her crush make fun of the Overseers princess. They would crowd around her now and again, mock her for her daddy's position and make fun of her choice in friends.
"Get away from me you Tunnel Snakes!" Amata had shouted, hoping someone would stand up to the meanest (And only) gang in Vault 101.
"I got a real Tunnel Snake for you Amata. Have a feel!" Butch said with a vulgar tone, grabbing her hand and placing it on his groin.
She had quickly pulled away in disgust, shaking her hand free of any invisible germs that were present on his groin. Amata wasn't the prettiest girl in the vault. that title would have gone to Christine, however Amata was forbidden fruit to the guys. Her father was the overseer and that meant that he kept a close eye on her at all times, along with a strict no dating policy. Susie would admit, she was jealous of the attention Amata got from the guys. It was strange that the two never became the best of friends, as Susie too was a victim of an overprotective father. Her brothers even made sure that the only guys she talked to were them or the Tunnel Snakes.
"What, you think your better than me bitch?" Butch asked, peeling his teeth to Amata.
"You tell her Butch!" Paul encouraged, as James turned the corner and saw them.
"Hey!" He had shouted, his voice breaking into a high pitch which made it so much less intimidating.
"Leave her alone!" He continued as he walked over to them.
"Or you'll what." Wally, Susie's brother, asked James, stopping the young man in his tracks.
"Ya. Know what's good for ya 'know-it-all', and walk away." Freddie warned, causing James's face collapse into a fearful expression.
"James, just go…I can handle these morans." Amata stated, knowing James was about to get really hurt if he did anything.
James knew Amata was trying to protect him, but it wasn't right that she had to. Even when he was trying to protect someone, he was being protected. That ended now. Pushing his left foot forward and dropping his bag to the ground, James raised his fists nervously at the leather jacket wearing gang.
"Oh shit. Looks like the doc's kid wants to fight." Paul laughed, causing the group and the entire class room to turn to their attention towards James.
"Come on Paul, he isn't going to hit nobody-" Freddie said, before he was sucker punched by James.
The entire vault grew silent, as Freddie Gomez was punched across the face and knocked to the ground by the class book worm. In a split second the rest of the gang had surrounded James, with the intent of beating him so bad his father wouldn't be able to fix him. James, however, fought back as best he could, landing a number of punches before he was beat to the cold blue floor. Spitting on the beaten body of James, Butch laughed and asked if anyone else wanted to take them on.
"Anybody else got the balls to take me on?" Butch asked, smiling from his pedestal of victory.
The crowd gasped in astonishment, as James rose from the ground. Susie to this day, believed she was more shocked than anyone else there. She had never seen anyone get up from such a savage beating, and what made this worse was that the weakest kid she knew got up from the hardest beating the snakes ever gave. But there was something else, something in James's eyes. Something dark and something that told her, he wasn't ready to stop fighting. It scared her a little.
"Hey Butch! I didn't hear a bell…" James stated, as while he struggled to stand but held his fists up straight.
"We aren't done…till I say we're done!" James barked, glaring at Butch and his fellow snakes.
"Is he serious?" Paul asked, looking at the off balanced challenger.
"Round two Mother fuckers!" James shouted as he lunged forward, landing a right hook on Butch before being ganged up on again.
"Why don't you stay the heck down?" Butch asked, as he continued beating the crap out of James.
"Because your mother hits the bottle better than you hit me!" James shouted, infuriating Butch further.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" Butch roared, as James continued to fight back in vain.
Luckily for James, Mr Brotch arrived on the scene just in time to stop Butch from killing him.
"Sounds like he was a tough little bastard, even before he left the vault." Nova stated, smirking at Susie.
"What's even more amazing is he sat the G.O.A.T exam straight after that, but was rushed to the clinic before he got his result." Susie continued, thinking about how amazing he really was back then.
"Oh shit. How'd his dad feel about it?" Nova asked, curious about James Sr.'s reaction.
"I don't know…I didn't go with him to the clinic." Susie admitted, having not had the interest before in knowing what had happened after the fight.
There was a noticeable silence between the two after that. Susie felt like she had said something wrong, but knew that wasn't the case. Or at least she hoped.
"So, do you have any stories about James?" Susie asked, as if she was talking to her girlfriends back at the Vault.
Nova went silent, as she knew a lot of stories about James, but the only one she could think of was when he came back.
"Well, when he first came to the bar he ordered a water…and Jericho knocked him out for that." Nova said, remembering the first time she lay eyes on James.
"Okay…" Susie responded, disappointed at the lack of any real story behind that statement.
Nova saw that this wasn't the kind of story the young lady wanted to hear, and decided she should know about the day James came back from the Pitt instead. Problem was, now Nova had to explain the Pitt to someone who was just out of a safe haven and facing and unforgiving wasteland.
"Listen up, because I am not gonna say this story again." Nova said, leaning back in her seat and taking a deep breath.
"See there's a place called the Pitt. Fucking hell on earth. Rapists, slavers, monsters, diseases, and all the shit from your nightmares live there." Nova explained, lighting another cigarette.
"Okay…What's this got to do with James?" Susie asked, frightened at the direction this conversation was going but leaned forward on the table, listening attentively.
"Because he went there, and came back." Nova emphasised, as she began telling the story of the day James returned.
The bar grew silent, as the scarred young man stepped towards the bar. His eyes dead, his head shaved, his leg in a splint, a broken pip-boy hanging from his wrist and his torso covered with a mixture of dust and blood. Almost nobody recognised him straight away, except for the ghoul bartender.
"What can I get you?" Gob asked, as the bar's atmosphere returned to normal with a hint of caution surrounding the man in the stool.
"Whiskey." James said, as he threw a small bag of bottle caps on the table.
Gob handed the young man a bottle of whiskey, and watched as he drank the entire bottle without removing his lips from the neck. He repeated this action over the next few bottles, before Gob couldn't in all good conscious continue serving him.
"Another..." James ordered, resting his head on the bars surface.
"I think you have had enough" Gob advised, causing James to raise his head in disbelief.
James just stared at the ghoul, before he stood up and began laughing. But it wasn't a funny laugh, it was a cold, frightening laugh. One that couldn't come from a sane man, and one that scared everyone sitting down.
"It's all just a sick joke!" James shouted, as he spun around with his arms stretched apart.
"You, me, this fucking bar! All of it's just a big game!" he shouted, making no sense to anyone else but himself.
Pulling out his gun and firing off some shells into the air, James looked all around at the fear he was causing and then noticed Nova. The one time Jericho or Simm's were nowhere to be seen. Hell, even billy would be welcomed at this point to help calm the situation down. But no, there was only civilians, Gob, and Nova. He staggered over to her, everyone's eyes on him as he approached.
"You know what I'm talking about…don't ya?" James asked, pushing the gun against Nova's face.
"DON'T YOU!" He asked again, this time more aggressive in his tone.
"You don't want to hurt anybody? Right?" Nova asked, trying her hardest not to show fear.
James looked at her, and lowered his head for a moment. Then dropping the gun, he pulled Nova close and hugged her. Nova then realised why he was hugging her so tight, and pushing his face into her shoulder. He was crying.
"I didn't want to do it….but I had to." He drunkenly sobbed, as she rubbed his back.
"What did he do?" Susie asked, not sure of who they were talking about anymore.
"I don't know. He still won't say. But whatever it was, he was a changed man." Nova explained, putting out the remainder of her cigarette.
"What happened then?" Susie asked, curious to see what he did next.
"He went home, and nobody saw him for a month." Nova stated, clapping her hands together in a chopping motion.
"What do you mean?" Susie enquired, confused at Nova's former statement.
"I mean he barely left his house, or talked to anyone for a month." Nova explained with a deep sigh.
"He only left to buy food and water." She continued, but quickly halted as the door to the saloon swung and a drunk James came tumbling out after it.
He lay on the ground, laughing to himself about how he forgot the door was there. He clearly had drank too much, but wasn't bothered by this fact. This was the man who saved Vault 101. Jericho exited the bar shortly afterward, carrying Butch over his shoulder and swearing under his breath.
"Hey Nova." Jericho said, nodding towards the woman next to Susie.
"Hey Jericho." Nova smiled, as she waved at the old Raider gaining an appreciative smile.
"Hello Nova" James greeted in an almost musical way, raising his arm to wave at her.
"I think you should go home and get some sleep." Nova advised, as James sat up facing the women, eyes glazed over.
"Sounds like a plan." James agreed, staggering to his feet.
"Is he going to be okay?" Susie asked, the as James stood up.
"He'll be fine. He's been worse." Nova smiled, nodding to Susie.
"You's gonna help me carry this pansy? Or Wat?" Jericho snapped at James, reminding him that Butch was still out cold.
"….."
"Kid!" Jericho shouted, responding to the silent gaze James was giving him.
"I'm thinking about it!" James answered.
A\N 2: So this wont be the last we hear about the Pitt in this Story. Why is the Pitt so important? Well, let me share something with you. I am playing fallout 3 for the first time and start hearing all about this place called the Pitt. Suppose to be horrifying, made a brotherhood of steel unable to return to field duty, suppose to be full of disease and just an outright monstrous place. When I hear that its in the DLC, I get excited and afraid, because this place is suppose to be so bad. I play it, and while it is fun and full of moral choices, its not what I was hoping for.
In this story however, my Pitt is a hell on earth. It outright destroyed James's humanity and nearly took his soul. The Pitt made the Vault Dweller a Wastelander.
Now about this chapter, the Month of isolation will be explained later in the tale but will be explained eventually. The next chapter will take place when they get home, and the morning after. Hope Everyones excited to meet Watsworth.
Again R&R and I will see you all soon.