Disclaimer: I don't own any of Bethesda's game or characters. Kyra, however, is mine.
Author's Note: Colin Moriarty is on my hate list for this game. Along with Ahzrukhal (the whole ten seconds he was alive), Tennpenny and the creeper who runs the clothing store, Roy Philips, Greta, AMATA, Confessor Cromwell (just because he's in that damn puddle every time I see him and he's not dead of radiation poisoning), Butch. He's irksome with his little grease wannabe impression, and that creepy Bittercup chick from Big Town who's in love with me.
Absolutely LOVE Willow, she's snarky and awesome. And Nova even though her voice scares me sometimes, and Gob cause he gives me discounts, and Tulip and Winthrop, and Star Paladin Cross cause cause she has a hammer and is almost invincible, and the Cerberus thing they've got at the ghoul city, and my butler who feeds me and tells me jokes, and Harkness who has perfected the ability to be a sadist and completely adorable at the same time. And Liam Neeson, who is my father and he loves me and thinks I'm awesome. Ha. Take that Universe.
So I've been trying to write these little ficlets how I played the game. And yes, I did finally just get annoyed with Moriarty and shoot him. I regret nothing.
Warning: Bit of a language warning here. Critics, ye be warned.
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This Drunkie Will Be Seeing You Now
By: Lady NeverAfterNon
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Nova rolled the cigarette nervously in between her fingers. She could feel the familiar drug itch tugging at her, urging her to fix it, scratch it- anything so long as she got her relief. This cold turkey shit was freakin' HARD. She lit the smoke, put it to her lips with trembling fingers and inhaled. The nicotine rolled over her fraying nerves like a balm and for a moment the drug cravings were pushed back. But not for long, she knew they would be back to haunt her.
They always came back to haunt her.
Harsh voices jerked her from her cigarette induced nirvana. Her eyes flicked to the bar and immediately registered Gob's tense shoulders and his hands clenched around an empty pint, the bare tendons in his hands standing out with strain he was putting on them. Her eyes slide to the left of the ghoul and registered Moriarty, his face purple with rage and spit flying from his mouth as he screamed at Gob.
"-and yer worthless, ye think ye get a break? Get up ye sad sack o' shit!"
Nova closed her eyes, but she still couldn't shut out the harsh sound of the back of Moriarty's hand connecting with Gob's skull. She found herself taking a deep shuddering breath. It was getting worse. Moriarty had been found pissing in the vat and it was only a matter of time before Lucas Simms came round to have a word. Moriarty was losing everything, and knew it, and Gob was playing the whipping boy.
She didn't know why it bothered her. Gob was sweet to her, yes, and polite (only man there who was actually, she was a whore after all and everyone knew it), but in the end he was still a ghoul. A dead man walking. Still, his skin didn't bother her though it frightened most and the kids wouldn't go near him. She also didn't actually find his smell offensive: a cloying heavy musky scent but altogether not unpleasant. Still, Lucy West, and especially Jericho, made a point of pointing it out every time the ghoul walked past in vicious angry tones that cut like knives.
It was amazing that it could still bother her at a time like this.
Her hooded gaze slid up from where it had been uncomfortably weighted to the floor and up to the sight of Gob's tense shoulders and Moriarty's angry snarling face.
"Don't hit me!" Gob's voice broke her heart, again, -it did every time she heard it- and she told herself firmly that she had absolutely no idea why.
"I can do what I want. Ye know why?" Moriarty spat viciously, "Yer mine, ye whiney little bitc-"
The door flew open and bounced off the wall with a harsh bang. The wind blew in bringing with it the acrid air and grit of the waste. Nova looked up, along with Gob and Moriarty and every drunken sod in the place. The Lone Wanderer stood silhouetted in the doorway.
She cut an imposing figure with the harsh evening light highlighting her armored body in the doorway of the saloon. Nova suspected that had been the plan all along, as the Lone Wanderer had always had an inkling towards the dramatic, and she had a soft spot for Nova and Gob. Moriarty's ghoul smack down could probably be heard all the way to the Brass Lantern.
Kyra shut the door with an equally loud but less impressive crash and tromped in, her heavy boots tracking mud and crap in a straight line to where Nova stood. Inwardly Nova cheered, knowing exactly what was coming, but outwardly her poker face was firmly in place as Moriarty seemed to be a happiness vampire and could leech it from his employees in seconds. Moriarty gave his best paying customer the evil fish eye, but he departed.
The Lone Wanderer's caps were good, and so long as she paid and didn't cause trouble he left her alone. Nova also suspected that the old geezer was still hoping the girl would do whatever it took to find her father, but the girl hadn't caved yet. Nova didn't expect she would either. Kyra Mcrea was horribly mule-headed when it came to getting her to do things she didn't want to do.
Kyra threw her pack next to the bar stool with a loud thud, splattering mud everywhere. She tossed a jug of caps at Nova, who caught them without even looking at them. Nova was moving even before she registered the thought.
She slid onto the stool next to the Lone Wanderer and slowly counted out the caps. She knew it was rather rude, but she couldn't help it. Force of habit. Besides, she knew Moriarty'd have her head if he knew she'd serviced a customer without counting the payment.
"Hundred Twenty Caps," the Lone Wanderer said tiredly. She looked at Gob, "I'll take a Bloody Deathclaw, please."
Nova chuckled lightly. Gob was the only one she knew who got the Lone Wanderer's please and thank you's. And Moriarty knew it. It infuriated the old man to no end when the girl fixed him with her surly stare, then turned right around and presented Gob with manners fit for a king.
Kyra slumped heavily on the barstool and sighed. She pulled off her metal helmet and dropped it on the floor, then she began her customary act of peeling her dirty dreadlocks away from her skull where the helmet had squashed them. Nova shook her head, then reached over to help. After all, she had paid the fee and Nova had done worse for less.
She had absolutely no idea why the Lone Wanderer shelled out one hundred twenty caps every time she blew through Megaton when she had a perfectly good house, but she wasn't complaining either. One hundred and twenty good caps just to listen to the girl bullshit, and to give back some of her own. No funny business. Nova frowned. The Lone Wanderer was weird like that. Nova made an annoyed sound. One stray dreadlock had decided to tangle itself into the back of the girl's combat shotgun like a centaur tentacle around a baby.
She tugged on it.
"Ouch!"
"Sorry. How'd you manage this, Miss Dangerous?" Nova tried to tug gently. Fat chance. That dread was stuck worse than a mole rat to a sewer.
"I had a mild disagreement with a robobrain up in the hills near Tennpenny tower." Kyra flopped out across the bar, sunburned arms stretched out in front of her like the stringy old noodles Moriarty sometimes gave Gob for dinner when he was in a bad mood.
Nova raised an eyebrow. "I was of the opinion that they didn't stop to chat. What did you disagree about?"
Kyra sighed heavily. "I was existing. How rude of me I know, but I just couldn't possibly stop. We came to blows over it."
Nova snorted and finished untangling the Lone Wanderer's hair. Come to blows in Lone-Wanderer-speak meant, 'I beat it to death with a blunt object then looted the body.'
"I wasn't aware your boy had let a mean old robot get you," Nova said sarcastically.
Kyra gave her the evil fish eye as she bound up her dreadlocks in a long pony tail that brushed her butt, "I left him at home with the dog. He got munched on a bit by a Yao Guai and he's still recuperating. Maybe he's making me mac' an cheese! Mmmm, love me some mac' and cheese."
Nova stared at her. "Charon cooks? Sorry honey, but if there was ever a man who looked like he wouldn't go near a stove with a ten foot pole, it'd be him."
Kyra laughed. "Yep. Found a shit load of iguana bits one day, brought it home and left it in the fridge. Had to leave him too cause he was busted up and I needed to make a run through the sewers for Moira. When I came back he was in the kitchen frying it all up and wearing a stupid prewar polka dot apron. Hottest thing ever. Jumped his bones after that, couldn't be helped. Not that I saw him complaining though. Anyways, dunno what he marinated it in, but it was damn good. I ate like a pig."
Nova choked at the mental images, then laughed.
Kyra watched Gob's progress with hungry eyes. The ghoul unhurriedly blended the irradiated canned tomatoes together with the booze, then poured the whole sludge together into a slightly icky looking iced over glass. Gob slide it across the counter towards her and her fingers scrabbled for it.
Kyra waved away the proffered straw and instead put her face straight into the glass. Happy gurgling slurping noises came from her end of the bar. Nova shook her head and looked at Gob. The ghoul's mouth was open slightly, incredulous at the comical display coming from the girl Three Dog dubbed 'Hero of the Waste'.
"If the Universe would come up with a way for me to smoke and drink at the same time, I would be a happy camper," Kyra muttered thickly.
"Amen baby." Nova tapped the counter to get Gob's attention. The ghoul's glassy eyes met hers, and she didn't look away.
"Scotch," she murmured.
Gob set a glass carefully in front of her and filled it. Moriarty would have his head if he knew they were skimming the inventory, but then again the old man pissed in the vat so Nova felt the point was rather moot. Not to mention that most of their fancy booze came from the Lone Wanderer anyway, as Gob bought off whatever wine, whiskey, beer, or vodka she'd managed to pick up in exchange for stimpaks.
Instead of downing it as she would have normally done, Nova sipped it, allowing the alcohol to burn its way down her throat and fill her with a steady warmth that made her stretch and sigh contentedly. She pushed the remainder back at Gob. He stared at her, and then the glass, a little uncertainly. He glanced at the back room where Moriarty lurked, then straightened his shoulders almost unnoticeably and tossed back the remainder of the scotch. He set the glass down firmly and looked at her.
Nova grinned at him. He did it like a pro. "Atta boy. Top us off again?"
Gob spared one more nervous glance at the back, then did as she asked.
Three shots later and they were both grinning like fools. The Lone Wanderer had emerged from the remains of her drink and was ranting about something to do with Nuka-Cola and killer robots and canoodling.
"-and THEN, I followed her around the whole damn hour and a half it took her to give me the entire friggen history of every shtuupid bottle in the place, and when I finally get outta there her boy jumps me and accuses me of tryin' to steal nookie from his lady. I mean, what the hell? Who does that?" Kyra glared mulishly into her empty glass, then waved it at Gob.
"Nother' Defclaw, please" she slurred.
Gob watched her open mouthed, then shook his head. He plucked her glass from her limp fingers and refilled it.
Nova sipped her scotch. "Let me get this straight. Some broad asked you to bring her Nuka Cola Quantum, and her boy wants you to bring it to him so he has a better chance of getting laid?"
"Yep. I'm the go to girl for all things Quantum. So I hit up that sshilly factory, nearly got killed by the Nuka Lurks. Nuka Lurks, can ya believe that? Worse than th' regular ones. Anyways, got all th' way down to th' ass end o' that factory, and it turns out I gotta go gallivanting all over for thirty stupid bottles of Cola. Not one Nuka-Cola in that factory. Why is it never easy? The Universe hates my face." By this time Kyra was gesturing wildly, and ended up knocking herself off of the barstool with her enthusiastic finish.
Nova and Gob stared at her empty barstool incredulously.
"I meant to do that," came a muffled voice from underneath the bar.
Kyra awkwardly heaved herself back onto the barstool and banged her head onto the counter. "I think I might be drunk," she muttered.
Gob threw back his head and laughed. His throaty chuckle scared the other drunks out of their stupor and they looked around wildly, obviously expecting an attack of some kind. Gob laughed until his sides hurt and he doubled over, clutching at them. Nova found a stupid grin had attached itself to her face as she watched him. She couldn't help it. His laughter was contagious.
"Shut up Gob!" Jericho's shout shocked the ghoul out of his happy buzz, and Gob's mouth snapped shut with a click.
Nova glared at Jericho. Jerk. She reached over and poked Gob in the stomach, absentmindedly noting that the boy had abs like iron. She wondered what it would be like to run her hands down them and- okay squashing that train of thought right now.
Gob quirked a small grin at her, letting her know it was okay and there was no harm done.
Nova sipped her scotch and watched him as he began to wipe down the counter. Gob's laugh was low and deep and the sound of it made her toes curl. It was like rocks in a coffee grinder, and she loved it. She had never heard it before; Gob NEVER laughed. Never. She decided right then and there, though she told herself firmly that it was purely platonic and there were no feelings attached, that she would do whatever she could to make sure she kept hearing it.
"You know, a genuinely nice boy in this day and age is like a jug of purified water in the middle of an irradiated outhouse," the Lone Wanderer remarked.
Nova opened her mouth to argue, deny it, anything. She did not like Gob. Not like that. They were coworkers, as screwed up as that sounded. He was a GHOUL for crying out loud. It sounded cruel, but that was how it was.
But she never got a chance. Moriarty had heard Jericho's shout and came charging from the back like an enraged Yao Guai. "What the hell are ye doing Gob? Ye don't get to talk, ye just stand there. Ye stand there and you work! I feed ye, I give ye a bed to sleep in, and ye throw it all in my face, ye ungrateful wretch."
Nova looked at Kyra. At first glance the girl was preoccupied with her booze but a second inspection revealed a vein ticking in her temple and her teeth grinding together. The Lone Wanderer was pissed.
The metaphorical shit was clearly about to hit the metaphorical fan.
Nova chewed her lips nervously and looked back over at Gob.
Gob's shoulders were hunched, and he was clearly expecting a blow. Nova, without thinking, stretched out a hand across the bar. Hidden by the glasses and pitchers littering the weatherbeaten surface, she reached out and lightly touched her fingers to his side. The feel of the tips of her fingers against him seemed to give him courage. His shoulders straightened and he looked Moriarty right in the eye.
"Moriarty, please, I wasn't-"
Moriarty's face went purple with rage, and spit flew from his mouth and he could barely speak he was so angry. "Shut yer gob, Gob! Ain't that why I named ye that to begin with, cause ye talk too goddamn much?"
Nova glanced at Kyra and saw the look on the Lone Wanderer's face and froze. The girl's teeth were barred in a homicidal snarl and she was looking at Moriarty rather like the way a rabid dog would eye a fat rabbit.
The volcano blew. The Lone Wanderer threw her hands up in the air, then brought her clenched fists down with a crash onto the dirty bar.
"Fuck!" she screamed.
Nova's face whitened. There were two perfect dents in the metal of the bar, just the size of the Lone Wanderer's fists.
Kyra stood up and jabbed a shaking finger at Moriarty. "You! You are so done! I have had it up to here with you and your- your- I just-...FUCK!"
The Lone Wanderer's combat shotgun was off of it's place on her shoulder and the muzzle was pressed against Moriarty's chest faster than anyone could blink. The shotgun roared and the tight spread of bullets in such close quarters blew Moriarty back into the wall. He crashed against it with a sickening crunch of broken bones. He barely had time to stand before the Lone Wanderer was on him.
She threw aside her shotgun and began to beat the ever living snot out of him with her lead pipe. Jericho had come charging up when the shots were fired, and he tried now to engage the girl but Kyra was too far gone. She threw him off and went back to obliterating the former owner of Moriarty's Saloon.
Nova felt the whiskey shots trying their best to come back up. Moriarty was now nothing more than a pile of meat and gore on the dirty floor. She felt something wet hit her face and when she put up her fingers and touched her cheek, they came away stained red. Nova began to shake. She had never been more afraid in her life watching the armored monster covered in Colin Moriarty's guts screaming bloody murder and tearing the shit out of her former boss.
A warm hand grasped her shoulder. She screamed. She was pulled into a pair of rough arms she recognized as Gob's. His scratchy voice in her ear was whispering over and over to her that it was okay, that he had her. When her brain refused to catch up with her and assert control, he gathered her up and half carried her up the stairs and away from massacre occurring in the bar.
He opened the first door he came to -the guest room- and firmly barred it behind him. He deposited Nova carefully onto the queen sized bed, and she barely registered him moving away. She rocked back and forth, her arms clasped around her knees tightly, as if she let go she might fly to pieces. The room was swimming and she could feel the tell tale burning in the back of her throat. She bent.
And then Gob was back, holding a dented pail under her with his left hand and his right resting carefully on the back of her neck. Nova vomited violently. Everything she'd eaten that day on top of the scotch went into the pail. Her mouth burned and she coughed, feeling like her lungs were about to follow the contents of her stomach into the nasty bucket.
Gob sat quietly next to her stroking her hair until she was done, and when she'd finished he handed her a bottle of purified water and a towel. She wiped her mouth, looking at him greatfully.
"Thanks," she croaked, her throat still on fire.
Gob nodded. He lightly touched her shoulder, then rose and dragged a chair over by the door and sat down heavily.
"Get some rest," he rasped.
She closed her eyes and rolled over and passed out. She knew he'd be there by the door all night, and wouldn't let anyone in to hurt her. She slept.
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When she woke again, it was evening the next day. Gob was gone, but the door was locked, and he'd fixed the handle so well that only a master thief would have been able to get into the room. As far as she knew, only the Lone Wanderer had that skill in Megaton and she was currently AWOL. Judging by the light filtering through the cracks in the wall she had been asleep roughly twelve hours. Nova groaned. Her mouth felt like someone had tried to reupholster it with dirty shag carpet. She sat up, carefully holding her aching head.
"Ugh," she muttered, holding the heavy, throbbing lead mass she currently called her skull, "Never, ever, doing this again."
As she sat there trying to get a hold on the thundering headache she had going on in her brain, she glanced at the little beaten up side table next to the bed. A bottle of purified water sat on it along with a few little tablets of painkillers. She tossed them back gratefully and washed them down with the water.
Then she went in search of Gob.
Creeping down the stairs to the bar, she half expected to find the Lone Wanderer still painting the walls with blood, but everything was quiet. Gob had obviously tried to clean up: the floors were mopped and the broken furniture was piled in the corner waiting to be thrown out. Nova halfheartedly gathered up the cups and plates things and carried them to the sink. She did the dishes slowly, and it began to sink in that Colin Moriarty was finally gone. She had no idea what would happen to the saloon, or to she and Gob. Would they be able to stay? She had no idea where the deed to the property lay, or even if they'd be allowed to have it even if they did find it. She rather expected Jericho to claim ownership, or something like that. It seemed just like something he would do.
When she'd got through all the dishes, wiped down the bar, and thrown out the garbage and Gob had still not returned, she went out looking for him. She didn't have to go far.
She found him of all places on the roof. Gob was pertched precariously next to the sign atop the saloon, repainting it. Nova shielded her eyes against the sun's harsh glare. 'Gob's' was painted boldly in yellow letters over the weathered white of the previous name. She waved. He saw her and waved back jauntily.
He finished and climbed down like a ninja. He carefully set down his paint can and stood next to her. Together they looked up at the sign that now boldly proclaimed the new ownership of the saloon.
"What'll happen now?" Nova asked him quietly.
Gob glanced at her. "Lucas Simms came by early this morning. We found the deed to the Saloon in Moriarty's stuff as well as my contract...and, well, Simms burned my contract and gave me the deed and the key to the place. The saloon is ours now. You're welcome to stay if you like, I can pay you the same and we can-"
He was rambling. She put a hand gently over his mouth, smiled, and found to her surprise that her face was slightly damp. She hadn't cried in years. How odd.
Gob was still watching her rather nervously, waiting for her reaction. She threw her arms around his middle and hugged him hard. It was strange: in all the years they'd worked together at Moriarty's she'd never noticed just how big and sturdy he actually was. Her head barely reached his shoulder. After a moment his arms came up and around her and hesitantly hugged her back. In the dusk of the setting sun, the air blew over them with an almost frigid chill, but Nova didn't notice. Gob's irradiated body was like a space heater, with legs.
She half registered the sound of the hustle and bustle of Megaton around them, and realized that they were standing there holding each other for the world to see. Nova was not surprised in the least to find that she didn't care one bit.
"We'll be okay," she murmured, "We're here, we've got each other, and we've still got the saloon. It'll be okay."
Gob chuckled and the sound rolled over her and warmed her down to her toes.
She pulled back and looked up at him a little uncertainly. She opened her mouth, and nothing came out. After standing there gaping at him for a bit, she closed her mouth with a click, frustrated. After all that had happened, after she was finally sure and didn't care and wouldn't fight it anymore, she couldn't say it. I love you.
Gob slid an arm around her shoulders and tugged her gently back into the bar and she almost cried again. That one simple gesture nearly had the waterworks going again. It said quite plainly that he didn't need to hear it, that he would wait for her and that she could tell him when she was ready. Nova had absolutely no idea what she'd done to deserve him, but she was greateful the Universe would let her keep him.
They would be okay. They still had the saloon, and they had each other. Not a bad way to be in the Capital Wasteland, all things considered.