"Thank you stranger, you… wait… John? Is that you?"

Jack was crouching behind a rock, leaning out from the side and looking through the scope of his hunting rifle. He had spotted the Vertibird landing next to what was marked on his Pip-Boy as "Smith Casey´s Garage". He had seen three Brotherhood soldiers entering the garage. His gut told him that one of them was Sarah. He wondered if this was the garage that his father had mentioned in the hollo-tape. The Brotherhood seemed to think so. They´d left two soldiers guarding the bird, so Jack couldn´t steal it. It would´ve been something, he thought, his own Vertibird. His mind snapped back to reality, when the three soldiers who´d entered the garage came out again. Looked like it wasn´t the garage they were looking for, because no father Neeson was exiting with them. One of the soldiers punched the side of the Vertibird. Jack was now sure that it was Sarah. Another of the soldiers went up to her, it looked like he/she was trying to comfort her. It didn´t seem to work though because Sarah pushed the comforting soldier away. Then they jumped back into the Vertibird and took off. They flew away south. Probably towards Tenpenny Tower. Sarah was probably thinking, or hoping, Jack could help further. Truth be told Jack actually hoped they would find his father, for Sarah´s sake. Every monster had its weakness after all.

Jack holstered his rifle on the backpack and stood up. He had set out to deliver Susan to Paradise Falls, but he got tired of her crying and pleading, so he set the collar to auto, and sent her on her way, giving her a day to get herself to Paradise Falls before the collar exploded. She was a former slaver after all so he believed she´d make it there in one piece. If she didn´t he would at least get paid for killing her since she was one of Eulogy´s VIP´s. He preferred if they were captured, but he was cool with killing them as well.

His new plan for the trip had been to go to a place he´d heard the slavers discussing, there was supposed to be a town, completely made up of children, in a cave somewhere out west, but no one had ever found it and since Eulogy paid more for children Jack had decided to give it a shot, he could always use some extra caps, and he had to do something with his time, or he´d go crazy. But now he found himself intrigued by the garage. He didn´t know, but his gut told him it was something there that Sarah had missed, and his gut had never betrayed him before. So he decided to check it out. He picked up his Chinese assault rifle and headed towards the garage.

-/-

When he entered the garage the stench of dead molerat reached his nose. Some bugs were already feasting on the carcasses. He scanned his surroundings. He saw nothing of interest in the old reception area, so he went out to the garage. There he saw more dead molerats, but that was about it. He turned around to leave, when something caught his eye. There was a switch on the wall, but there was nothing in the garage that seemed to need a switch. He went over to it and pulled it. To his surprise, a part of the floor opened up, revealing some stairs which looked very much like the stairs in Vault 101. He went down the stairs, finger on the trigger, then walked through a long corridor. It turned to the right and suddenly he was standing in front of a vault door. "112" was written on it, just like the vault door in his old vault had "101" written on it. Could his father still be inside? It had been over two years so it seemed unlikely, given Jack´s track-record, but what if he was? Since he hadn´t returned to Project Purity, there was a chance that he would find his father dead inside the vault, and if that wasn´t the case he´d probably perished out in the wasteland.

After a few minutes of giving it some thought he decided to check the vault out, it could at least offer him some closure. He hooked up his Pip-Boy to the control panel, end that horrible alarm went off. This is giving me some major flashbacks, he thought. Then that even awfuller screeching sound of the vault door sliding open tortured his ears. When all the terrible sounds stopped, he stepped into the vault. To his surprise, he was greeted by a Robo-Brain, telling him his arrival was 202,3 years behind schedule. It then handed him a vault suit and requested him to put it on. Jack wasn´t in the mood so he packed it into his backpack and shoot the Robo-Brains energy conductor, causing it to shut down. He continued farther into the vault and found a large room, which contained some kind of pods, similar to the one the Outcasts had found. Upon closer inspection, he could confirm his suspicion. They were simulation pods. He checked the pods one by one, to see if his father was inside one, and that he was. Over two years, and he had been in a simulation almost the entire time. Jack logged in to the pods terminal. His father was still alive, according to the readings, but it said that manual ejection had been terminated. He wondered if it was like the Operation Anchorage simulation, that you had to finish the simulation to get out, but that seemed weird. It had taken Jack about three days to finish that simulation, his father had been in this for over two years. Something was wrong. Thanks to his earlier experiences with simulations, he knew that there should be a failsafe inside the simulation itself. The problem with Operation Anchorage had been that it was so big that the failsafe was near impossible to find if you didn´t know where it was, which the Outcasts scribes hadn´t known. This simulation didn´t seem to be as big though, since the computer said that there was only a couple of small different places installed. The currently active one was "Tranquility Lane". There was one pod left open, which didn´t contain anybody. Jack climbed into it. Now that he had finally found, or stumbled upon, his father, he couldn´t just walk away. He wasn´t dead and leaving him here wouldn´t offer Jack any closure. He leaned back, closed the pod, and prepared himself to meet his father.

-/-

The pod opened and Jack looked down on his Pip-Boy. Twelve hours, not bad, he thought. Definitely better than his father. He couldn´t wrap his head around how easy it had been either, how the fuck was his father stuck in there for over two years? When all you had to do was play the sadistic freak´s games? He looked over towards his father´s pod, to see if Braun kept his word. He had, Jack saw his father climbing out of the pod. Jack did the same, and now stood face to face with his father.

"Thank you stranger, you… wait… John? Is that you?" Jack nodded, finding himself speechless. He´d almost forgotten his father´s voice, and it felt surreal to hear it again. "Son… you´ve saved me. I was afraid I´d be trapped in there forever. It´s so good to see you, but what are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? To be honest, I kind of stumbled across this place on my travels." Jack answered coldly.

"In your travels? What do you mean? I… I left you in the vault… you shouldn´t be out here." His father answered confusingly.

"Yeah, thanks for that by the way. Leaving your only son to die underground without warning." Jack said sarcastically.

"What? Son, what are you talking about?"

Jack sighed. "When you left, the alarm went off, the Overseer had Jonas interrogated and killed, then he sent for me, luckily Amata got to me first and warned me, and I managed to escape, after killing him and taking the Overseer´s secret passage to the vault door."

"Oh my God… I´m so sorry son. I can´t even imagine the horrors you´ve gone through…"

"No, you really can´t." Jack interrupted him. His father looked at him. His eyes sorrowful and teary. He seemed to be examining him. After a few seconds, he touched the scars over Jack´s left eye.

"What´s this from?" he asked.

"Yao Guai." Jack answered.

"And these?" he asked and touched the scars around Jack´s neck.

"From a slave collar." His father looked up on his son´s face in horror.

"Yeah, I got grabbed by slavers, about six months after leaving the vault, when delivering a letter to Arefu. I was then sent to a place called the Pitt, where I worked in the Mill for about seven months I think. Then I was put in the Arena, where I fought for two months, before earning my freedom."

"I-I´m so, so sorry." his father said with tears running down his cheeks. "B-but wait… How long have I been in here?"

"It´s been two and a half years since you left the vault." Jack answered, still coldly as ice.

"That means, I´ve been here for over two years… Oh my God." He said, the realization hitting him hard.

"Yeah, well, could´ve been worse, I thought you´d died."

"No, no, I need to get back to Project Purity."

Jack sighed. "They´ve already finished it, they just need the code."

"What? They?"

"Dr. Li and her team."

"Did they retrieve the G.E.C.K?"

"I don´t know what that is and I don´t care. Sarah told me they had finished it, and just needed the code."

"Sarah? Elder Lyons daughter?"

"Yeah, she was just here, but she didn´t find the secret switch in the garage."

"I see."

"Mm. I´m getting out of here now, I need to get going. It´s getting late and I´d prefer to get to my destination while the sun is still up." Jack said and turned around and walked towards the stairs. His father followed.

"Where are you going?"

"None of your business dad."

"Son wait!" His father said and put his and on Jack´s shoulder. "I know I haven't been the best father, but please come with me! I don´t want to leave you again."

Jack turned around and looked down into his father´s eyes. "You´re not leaving me, I´m leaving you this time." He answered and made quick work of the stairs, without looking back. He continued through the vault, passed the dead Robo-Brain and stepped out of the vault into the long corridor. When he reached the end of the corridor, he saw that the floor had closed automatically and Jack looked around for a switch. Suddenly the floor/ceiling opened and when Jack looked up, he was greeted with a bright red light filling his vision and then everything went black.

-/-

When he woke up, everything was still pitch black, even though he felt his eyes were open. He could hear a heartbeat monitor beeping next to him, and muzzled voices, it sounded like they argued. His face was extremely warm. It felt like he had bandages wrapped around his head. He was lying down in some kind of bed. He cleared his throat, getting his voice ready to talk, then it felt like the world around him started to spin, and he felt himself fading out of consciousness again.

-/-

"I´m sorry Dr. Neeson, but there is nothing more we can do! I don´t even know how he´s managed to stay alive this long. I´ve never seen anyone survive a shot from a laser rifle to the head before. I mean, his forehead has completely melted away, and his eyes seem to have taken a serious hit as well." a voice unknown to Jack, informed.

"I CAN´T LOSE HIM NOW!" his father screamed. "Not now…"

Jack reached out towards his father´s voice. His father gasped and took his hand.

"Son! Are you conscious?"

Jack grunted in response. He hadn´t felt this weak since working in the Mill.

"I´m sorry son, I don´t know what to do!" his father said in despair. Jack smiled. He cleared his throat and coughed some blood. But this time he didn´t pass out.

"Rads…" he mumbled.

"What? Rads? What do you mean John?"

"G-give m-me r-rad-pois…oning."

"But that will kill you for sure!"

"J-just d-do it. T-trust me…" Jack stuttered. His father squeezed his hand then screamed.

"I NEED EVERYTHING THAT PUTS OFF EVEN A SINGLE RAD! IRRADIETED WATER, RADIATION DAMAGED ITEMS, HELL DON´T YOU HAVE SOME KIND OF EXPERIMENTAL RADIATION WEAPONS!?"

"We do! I´ll go get it!" Sarah said from across the room.

"Well hurry!" his father said then went out of the room. Jack felt himself slipping, and slowly passed out again.

-/-

He opened his eyes, and it was still dark, but not pitch dark, he could see the bandages wrapped around his head. His body felt stronger again as well. Not a hundred percent, but strong enough to move. He reached for the bandages, and began unfolding them. He heard to voices gasp, and someone running up to him.

"Stop John!" his father said with a worrying tone, but Jack preceded. He knew his body had healed. Ever since he helped Moira with the chapter on radiation poisoning in her "Wasteland Survival Guide" his body had started to heal when exposed to radiation, similar to a ghoul. It wasn´t pretty though and it did leave scars, but it did heal properly, it was probably what had saved his life when he worked in the Mill. And when he opened his eyes again after removing the bandages he was met with the image of his father and Sarah looking mighty surprised, their jaws dropped to the ground.

"Would you mind telling me what the fuck happened?" Jack asked rudely. Sarah didn´t answer however, instead she flew across the room and threw herself over Jack, hugging him.

"I thought you were going to die." she whispered. Jack smiled and hugged her back. "I´m so sorry Jack, I assure you, the man that shot you will never wield a weapon again, he´s working in the kitchen as we speak." Jack grunted in agreement, even though he would´ve preferred to shoot the man.

"Son, that was astonishing. The radiation healed your wounds, it even grew back tissue, muscle and skin!"

"It´s quite something isn´t it?" Jack said proudly. Sarah released him from the hug and stepped back. Jack sat up on the edge of the bed, orienting himself. According to the sign above the door, he was in the medical wing in the Citadel. There was a box in the corner of the room from which he saw his leather armor sticking out of. He stood up and walked towards it.

"Hey! Take it easy, you were almost dead three hours ago!" Sara said worryingly.

"I´m fine." Jack answered and opened the box, revealing all of his stuff inside.

"Oh my God…" his father mumbled when he saw Jack´s scarred back. Another souvenir from the Pitt. Ten lashes for insubordination, five for working to slow. Jack didn´t answer and preceded with clothing himself. When he had put everything on and holstered his weapons he turned around and was met with four eyes staring at him.

"What?" Jack sneezed and met his father´s teary gaze.

"I´m so sorry son. I never meant for you to have to leave the vault…"

"Yeah well, shitty planning dad, now if you´ll excuse me, I have places to be."

"Are you shitting me Jack!?" Sarah screamed. "You just found your father after two and a half years, and you´re going to leave, just like that?"

"Pretty much ye, as I said, I have things to do."

"And what is it you must do exactly?" she asked, her voice trembling with rage.

Jack looked at Sarah, then his father, and then back at Sarah.

"I´d rather not say, now, I must insist on excusing me…" Jack answered coolly with his hand on the trigger of his Chinese assault rifle.

"Why´d you save me if you despise me so son?" his father asked, his voice filled with the tones of a broken heart.

Jack froze. That was a good question. Why had he saved his father? He sure as hell despised him for leaving him to die in the vault but Jack couldn´t come up with an answer. His mind was blank, emotionless.

He pushed passed his father and Sarah towards the door. He grabbed the doorknob and opened the door, but before he went out into the corridor he turned around and mumbled:

"I don´t know…"