Megaton, Brass Lantern

It had just passed 21:30 and in the nearby junk settlement of Megaton a young woman dressed in a yellow jumpsuit was panicking and trying desperately to get help, but only ended up confusing the town sheriff Lucas Simms even more with her fast and unintelligible speech. Despite his gruff manner at times, he meant well and cared deeply for most of Megaton's residents. As much as he tried to patiently listen though he just couldn't make out what Jenny tried to say. After several moments the sheriff resorted to raising his voice.

"Jenny, JENNY! Slow down girl, I can't help you when you're like this. Take deep breaths and calmly tell me what needs to be told, alright?"

Jenny was taken aback slightly by Simm's sudden outburst, but followed his advice before trying again to explain what was wrong.

"It's Leo, something's wrong with him. He's not moving and he has blood coming out of his nose. I need Doc Church."

It was only a matter of time, thought Lucas to himself. Leo was infamous for being the town junkie, yet his siblings were completely oblivious. Or in denial about it all.

"I'm sorry Jenny, the Doc is out for supplies at the moment-"

"What! We need to help him now or he'll die! Please Sheriff he's my brother! I can't lose him!" she cried. Lucas considered for a moment before rushing to Leo's aid. He didn't have much of a choice, but there was only one person who could help them. He put one of Leo's arms around his neck whilst Jenny copied his actions.

"I hope she's in a good mood" he muttered quietly to himself.

Megaton, Sofia's House

A lone figure sat quietly in the dark as the night passed by in the small and rusty house above the Brass Lantern restaurant. Blanking out the sounds of activity below the woman sat miserably at her desk, occassionally breaking the silence by taking a large gulp of whiskey. It stung her throat as it went down, but that was nothing compared to the other pain she always felt.

Briefly she looked at herself in the mirror and felt worse somehow. She was a young woman with raven black hair tidily done up in a bun at the back, though no longer wearing tinted glasses. Thanks to her time out in the Wasteland her skin was well tanned. Her outfit consisted of a grimy white tank top and dark green pants accompanied by boots, speckled with the blood of her patients. On top of that she wore various accessories to hold the medical instruments she used in place. Around her waist was a belt holding various containers and a satchel on the back. Slung across her back was a hunting rifle, or at least the holster for one, and another larger satchel bag lay by her side which carried various items such as water and food.

Every night was the same one after the other. After the day's work was done and nothing else was required of her she'd spend her time alone in her room, quietly drinking her favourite whiskey, trying to think of the better times. But it never helped. She always thought about that one particular day, and it hurt her to no end.

The house Mr Handy robot Wadsworth noted she was covered in blood as he passed by and again repeated what he had been saying to her for the last hour, interrupting her idle state.

"It appears you have been wounded Madam, may I suggest-" he began to say.

"Wadsworth will you just shut up?" she snapped. "This is not my blood, in case you forgot I am a doctor and as such tend to see blood every so often during my travels. Get that into your circuits and leave me in peace."

"I apologise Madam."

"Bloody robots" she muttered. Despite the fact her Mr Handy was very useful she couldn't stand its constant blabbering. She held a small feeling that it didn't like her either and could've sworn it had threatened her once or twice, albeit very quietly.

A loud knock erupted from the door interrupting her drink. Slowly and swiftly she loaded her sawn off shotgun and approached the door with her sights on it. With a quick flick she slid open the door shutter and peered out cautiously. To her annoyance, it was just the local sheriff and the woman from the bar beside the bomb. Between them they were holding up the youngest brother who was lulling his head. Or the oldest, she couldn't remember.

"Stow away your piece Sofia, we're friends not raiders" reassured Simms. He knew her well enough to know she was always armed and slightly paranoid of visitors. He couldn't think why, and any attempts to find out the reason usually ended in angry shouting or sarcasm, so he had decided long ago it was not worth trying anymore.

Realising there was no threat Sofia lowered her gun, clearly irritated by their presence.

"What do you want Simms? I'm not in the mood right now so this had better be important."

"You're never," stopped Simms as he looked at Jenny, who was by now puffy eyed and still crying. "Look, Leo here needs medical attention urgently and Doc is out of town for a while."

"Please! You have to help him!" weeped Jenny. A brief silence followed as Sofia considered.

"Very well, bring him in here." she sighed irritably.

Quickly she unbolted and opened the door, ignoring the sobbing of Jenny as she and Simms brought the unconscious Leo inside.

"Overdosed?" she inquired, answered with a quick nod from Simms.

"Overdosed? What do you mean overdosed!"

"Get him on this table quickly, lay him down. Wadsworth, water." she ordered. The two placed Leo on a table in the middle of the ground floor room.

"How long has he been ODing?"

"My brother is not overdosing! He's never taken drugs!" protested Jenny indignantly.

"If you are too blind to see it and cannot accept that your brother is a drug addict that's your problem!" snapped Sofia. "How long has he been overdosing?"

"Least five minutes" grunted Simms.

"For fuck's sake" she muttered to herself. "Just keep him on the table and I'll handle the rest. I have something that should do the trick."

"Should?" spluttered Jenny, "what do you mean should?"

Again Sofia ignored her as she calmly browsed through the various medical instruments and chemicals until she found what she needed, a large syringe filled with a bright blue liquid. She made sure everything was ready, then turned to the Sheriff and Jenny.

"He's probably going to react very suddenly, so make sure he doesn't hurt himself, got it?"

The Sheriff nodded whilst the petite woman just sniffed.

"Ok, keep him steady, easy does it," she told them as she carefully inserted the syringe into Leo's chest and gently pushed on the plunger. Nothing happened at first, then suddenly he sprang upwards, gasping for breath and nearly throwing himself forwards off of the table.

"Don't break your skull or I'll add more to your bill", Sofia said whilst pushing him back.

Jenny was too overwelmed with relief to take notice of Sofia's comment as she clung to Leo tightly. Simms made sure he was stable then grunted thanks before leaving the trio to their business, whilst Sofia decided to get things over with as soon as possible.

"Jenny, since your brother has no doubt bled himself dry with his addiction you're going to have to pay for the shot. I'm not a charity," she added unnecessarily. Nothing out here was a charity. Charity was a stupid word for stupid people in her eyes.

"Oh please Sofia, I don't have much right now. I can give you a discount at the Lantern, how about that?"

"Oh sure, a discount is just what I can live on. Yes a discount can pay for my medical supplies, a discount can pay for weapons and ammunition and a discount can pay for the food and drink I need!" Sofia retorted.

"Are you being sarcastic?"

"Never," she added tiresomely, "Now the caps. 1500 for the shot."

"ONE FIVE HUNDRED! I can't afford that!" Jenny shrieked.

"Pre-War medicine, especially the kind that I've just wasted on Dopey here is not something you can find everyday and that usually means it costs a lot to obtain, money or otherwise. Now cut the shit, you got your brother treatment and now you need to pay for it."

It was Leo who answered this time, although a little slower than usual.

"Erm Sofia, I erm, I guess since it's out now I need to stop with the drugs and erm, well anyways my stash has enough to make up for the shot. I'm sure of it."

Sofia eyes narrowed dangerously, "Do I look like a drug dealer?"

"No no no, but one man's drug is another man's medicine right?"

"Hmm," she pondered. Usually people paid in caps up front and if it wasn't up front it was always in caps. Any deadbeats and she would promptly take something of equal value from them on the spot or re-injure them, the former most common since the Sheriff for one didn't approve so much of the latter. Then again she felt herself that it was barbaric to do so too, so a trade of some kind was standard.

"That's acceptable, provided I see this stash first. I don't want you to bullshit me into giving you free treatment."

Leo tried to move off of the table. "I'll just go and get it."

He felt a hand tightly grip his arm and saw Sofia's other hand hover over her holstered shotgun.

"I don't think so Leo. For starter's you've just recovered from a drug overdose, you're not in a very good state at this time. Secondly, I am not that stupid to just let you walk out of here. I suggest you send Jenny to retrieve it. That way we can avoid any misunderstandings."

Once the junkie's sister had retrieved the stash Leo was permitted to go. He'd be in a lot of trouble with his brother Andy but that was none of her affair. Counting the stash contents she sighed. It appeared to be satisfactory, but only just.

"It appears you have been wounded Madam."

"Oh fuck off Wadsworth."