A/N: Hello everyone! Good news, at least for me. I joined a writer's club at my local library and I am finally going to have another, more public outlet for my writing! This is the first piece that i wrote for this group and I am waiting until Wednesday's meeting to unviel it and I think it will do very well. I will let everyone know how it went in my main story The Adventures of Kazdin Willow: Brotherhood of Steel once everything is set into place and I get my feedback. I'm hoping it does well, but I am placing it here first for everyone to enjoy. Please, please, please critique it if you find any flaws in the story or especially any grammatical errors.
This One-Shot is completely AU from both the Fallout New Vegas game and from the plot line of AOKWBOS. This is not how I am planning to end that particular fan fic of mine. This is just a nice little story depicting a few of my characters in an AU type of story. Like I said before, just for shits and giggles to let the people of my community know what I can do with a pen, or rather sitting down at a keyboard with some Dr. Pepper and pizza for a wild night of writing.
Finally, the opening italics are a line from a very good song called "Safe Haven" by Project 86. Enjoy everyone and please let me know what you think!
Three Hearts Beating
By Kris Callahan
Nobody knows… Nobody cares… Nobody sees outside our safe haven…
The lovely raven-haired woman from Texas had thought these fleeting thoughts before when she had been at her lowest. Things were no better, no worse out there in the bombed out, desolate wasteland.
She had done her best to help her surroundings by eliminating so many threats to her frame of mind, even to the point of building a regime from nothingness. A wound to the head began her crusade to rescue what was hers from the corrupted leader of a rusted out casino adorned with flashing lights and a strangely cultivated air of laid back ease and comfort which only barely hid the shadows of scheming connivers.
She had scoured the merciless dry desert of the Mojave Desert from the ruins of California to the much better-off settlements scattered around Nevada. She had built an arsenal of death-dealers and protective armor. From her abyss of loneliness she had used her native charms to build a network of loyal friends and companions.
It had been just enough to take back Hoover dam from the razor-clawed hands of a corrupted army stretched too thin, which had forced its way into the remnants of California and Nevada in order to "bring peace" to the savage lands. However the only thing it accomplished was to force the denizens of the Mojave wasteland to bow and scrape to its demands or be declared enemies.
Kazdin Willow had come a long way from being a lowly courier who owned nothing more than a ramshackle rifle that always jammed and a borrowed blue jumpsuit to carrying in her hands the future of a land devoid of any true leadership. She held a massive stone structure, the only reliable source of renewable power left in the area. Therefore she was in control. Her friends, her allies and her deal-brokering had led her to believe she had finally achieved peace and prosperity for the region.
She had her best friend Veronica Santangelo. She had her boyfriend Craig Boone. She had all of these people who respected her for what she had done, but in the end she could not stand. Power had been thrilling, but she had managed her ego well. In the end it was the man she spared. The one man she had let walk after his defeat at the dam.
General Oliver should have been killed in action, but Kazdin had allowed one ray of compassion cloud her judgment. It really wasn't her fault; she simply had never been the commander of a war before. She ignored the advice of her boyfriend and let the man go and that decision had turned out to be a mistake.
Kazdin's five years as the leader of the Mojave Desert settlements had been ruled in relative peace and prosperity and she had enjoyed a burst of popularity for many of her initiatives.
Tribal groups were given land in which they could grow and rebuild their legacy, free from the icy hand of General Lee Oliver's armies. The settlers and various factions of Freeside, a township in close proximity to the bright lights and action of the New Vegas strip, were finally truly independent of control from any factions more powerful than their own, while paying a fair tax to Kazdin's regime in return. The local team of doctors and scientists were given life-saving medicine, assistance and resources with which they became stabilized over time.
Kazdin's regime was fair and even-tempered with locals who did not support Kazdin and her friends. She had allowed dissent in acceptable mediums. She had been every bit the leader that the former rulers of the Mojave could not be. She was an every-woman. They were an entity, largely of which had lost focus on itself and the people they had intended to govern. Words like compassion, equality and independence were simply words the Mojave's former oppressors had stripped from their vocabulary. An entity cannot fathom human condition and emotions the same way an individual can.
And so the army had lost and had fled back east and Kazdin Willow reigned in peace for five years.
Things started getting dicey after that fifth year. Violence returned to the streets and followers of the former occupying war machine were up in arms. However the final nail in the coffin of Kazdin's regime was the reemergence of General Oliver and the remnants of his army.
General Oliver had bid his time and strengthened the decimated remainder of his troops. His ranks were replenished with soldiers and equipment from the untouched New California Republic capitol. Along with alliances from various tribal groups and settlers, General Oliver marched back to the Mojave to take the dam back from Kazdin and her allies.
The attack had caught Kazdin's regime completely off guard. The problem with being a single person leading a large group of people was revealed to be that the number of her soldiers was tiny compared to Oliver's fully amassed strength. The sneak attack had taken everyone by surprise and before Kazdin's army could recover and start delivering losses to the enemy, half of her army was destroyed.
The remainder of the battle had taken only three days before she surrendered.
Holding the Mojave no longer mattered to her. Her army lay in tattered pieces around her, blood staining the rock and sand and concrete; the final gasps of the dying playing mournful echoes to her ears and the desperation of fallen comrades bringing tremors to her hands.
She had lost more than just her army, however. What would make a woman surrender in the dying strains of battle more than losing everything she had ever loved? She respected and relied on her army, this much was true.
But she loved Craig, Veronica, Stella, Dan… all of the acquaintances she had made throughout her journey who she had grown to love over the course of the years lay dead here and there having fought to their final breaths to save Kazdin's kingdom, only to fall the way the bricks and mortar fell during the Great War two-hundred plus years ago.
She held her hands aloft, having stripped herself of anything deadly in any way and left her fate to the smirking man standing tall in tan fatigues and an officer's hat. She stood before the man, eyes turned toward the dirty blood-stained ground. Her black hair was mussed and hid her face from the proud gaze of the General who had soundly defeated her.
"Kazdin Willow. There are so very many things I could do to punish your egregious disrespect and rebellion. To choose a place to start would be nearly impossible."
The General took a few steps forward, standing several inches taller than Kazdin although the former courier was nearly the same height as the man before her. He grinned when she shivered visibly as the thought of various tortures ran through her overburdened mind.
"I could for instance, shoot you dead right here and right now with my .44 magnum. A traitor in war deserves no less." The General stated condescendingly.
Kazdin mumbled a reply.
"What was that?" Oliver asked mockingly, cupping his ear with his hand.
The NCR soldiers surrounding the pair laughed aloud at the shuddering woman. They just knew they had cornered the former courier, a mouse shivering before a hungry cat. The same woman who had given their army hell with a proud smirk on her pretty lips now stood utterly defeated at the hands of the New California Republic.
"I said I never turned on you. I was never an ally and you all knew where I stood from day one. I am no traitor. I am a General who was defeated by a greater General, nothing more." Kazdin repeated loudly.
She dared to lift her face and flick her bright blue eyes up to General Oliver's brown ones. She showed no emotion other than defeat and grief held in check.
"Well, a defeated General is still upon grounds to be shot where she stands." General Oliver retorted with a slight lifting of his shoulders.
"Or I could take you prisoner. A prisoner of war for the rest of your life. You would have to look on in torment as I rule the states you fought so hard and so well to keep independent while you rot in a cell. A very small cell, mind you." He continued.
She stood still and said nothing, bowing her head once again in defeat as she awaited her sentencing.
"However, you showed me something I have never seen from any of my other conquests on the battlefield."
Kazdin's blue eyes perked up immediately. She looked into General Oliver's eyes once again, wondering just what this mysterious man was getting at.
"You showed me mercy. For better or worse, you allowed me and the rest of my soldiers to walk away. That is something I have not seen in fifty years as a General. That is commendable. It bit you in the ass, but it was commendable nevertheless."
General Oliver cut the rope binding Kazdin's bare calloused hands and she rubbed the tender digits until feeling came back into them. She looked up with tears wetting her eyes. Her lips parted slightly in wonder.
Oliver moved a step closer and looked into her brimming eyes.
"You just fought one hell of a fight, Willow. You were outnumbered and outgunned and we had surprise on our side but you and your army fought us to your last man. That is liberally impressive to me. I will offer you a choice, Willow."
Kazdin gulped the mountainous lump from her throat and stammered before excusing herself, taking a breath and trying again.
"I am listening, General." Kazdin said softly.
"You may either be assimilated into the New California Republic as a grunt soldier and serve us for the rest of your days in maintaining this place. Or, you may submit to bindings upon your wrists again and taken to the border of Nevada under guard. Once you get to the border you shall be cut loose with a set of armor, a knife and a pistol and henceforth until the day you die you will be banished from California and Nevada."
The General paused for a moment to let the two options sink into Kazdin's mind. After a few moments' pause, Oliver spoke again.
"This is a one-time deal and your choice will be final."
Kazdin had to think only a moment.
She would never again be able to lie in Craig's muscular, warm arms at night. She would never be able to laugh and cry with her best friend Veronica. She would never be able to drink and bluster around with Stella. Never get to talk technology and electronics with Dan and his robotic creation Monroe.
The Mojave held too many deep-rooted memories. There was no salve for a shattered heart and a stripped and strangled psyche.
"Allow me to leave, General, and you will never see me again." Kazdin replied.
Her voice quivered and tears finally left her eyes, flowing down her cheeks to her chin as her body trembled. She wrapped her arms around herself as she finally allowed her sadness to come out.
She could have stood as stoic as the late Stella always had and face her choice with a rock solid chin held high, but she couldn't. Her sobs came, although she was able to keep them low. Her chattering teeth and shivering body, however told her tale.
General Oliver's smirk disappeared and was replaced with one of compassion. He didn't reach for her, but his tone softened and he became less intimidating as he took her shuddering body in.
"This was war. I know that we are enemies, but this battle was strictly business. If it helps at all, I harbor no ill will for you personally. You have shown yourself to be very capable and I respect you above any other General I have ever faced in my life."
Kazdin took several breaths and shook her head as she raised her eyes back to take the General in.
"I am not mourning my loss in battle. I am mourning my losses in battle. As you said it was only business. My friends and allies stood by my side like your own soldiers stood by yours. You won fair and square. Your tactics were better than ours. But in the end, I still lost allies, friends, people I loved. I lost my boyfriend… I have lost in three days everything I had built in five years. You tell me, how am I supposed to feel?"
There was no fire in Kazdin's words. The only emotion punctuating her statement were displayed with her quivery voice and halting words barely spoken through her tears.
"When you put it that way," General Oliver spoke gently, "I would say you have a point. Your dedication to your troops… your friends is admirable, but they were casualties in war and while I sympathize for you, I cannot say that I apologize. Because I do not."
Kazdin nodded.
"Please hold out your hands." The General spoke after a moment.
Kazdin did as instructed and a female soldier moved forward and fastened a length of rope around Kazdin's hands. When she was convinced the ex-courier could not break free so backed away and nodded to Oliver that her task was complete.
"Kazdin, you will now go along with an entourage to the border and after that, you will leave. If I see you around these parts again, however, that will be considered a declaration of war and you will be shot on sight. Do you understand and will you comply?" General Oliver declared.
"Yes, sir. I do and I will." Kazdin answered.
"Good luck with your future and I wish you the best in whatever it is you do with your life now." Oliver said, offering a respectful salute. Kaz raised her bound hands and returned the gesture.
With that, the General made his way to address the people of Freeside and New Vegas while Kazdin marched along with her NCR entourage without looking back.
That had happened ten years ago.
Kazdin Willow-Ross now stood looking back east as she contemplated her past and mourned the memory of her friends. Her mind fought against the notion that they had all been scattered in the streets or buried in unmarked mass graves. Hopefully the same respect Oliver had shown her had been bestowed upon her friends, but logically the simplest solution to the removal of so many bodies was to do the opposite. The chances of a respectful wake or proper burial were slim to none, but Kaz liked to believe that the NCR had treated the dead the right way.
At thirty-five years of age, Kazdin was just starting to show the wear and tear of being a survivor in the post-nuclear holocaust wasteland. The lines on her face, albeit barely visible had not shown themselves when she was in her twenties.
Kazdin still had long black hair and stunning blue eyes, but her skin was darker and the dry environment of the wasteland had introduced itself to her epidermis. Her body, however was still lithe, hard with muscle and attractive and she considered herself lucky. Most didn't live to be thirty-five in the wastelands of post-apocalyptic America.
Kazdin turned her head from the entrance of the ruin that used to be the Pentagon and pointed her eyes at the tall, thin but muscular form approaching her. A slow smile crossed her lips and she looked with love upon the man she called her husband. Holding his hand was a certain little dark haired bundle of energy.
It had taken years for Kazdin to heal from the trauma of seeing her best friends and loved ones slaughtered upon the battlefield, but Andrew Ross had stayed by her side through all of her turmoil.
The wasteland of Washington D.C. was no picnic. There were always problems and as a leading member of the Brotherhood of Steel; scavengers of technology in thick power armor who protected the wastelanders; Andrew was a central player in everything involving Washington D.C. But even on top of his duties and responsibilities to the Brotherhood and to the wasteland, Andrew always found time to be an ear for Kazdin.
Being a friend had led to being an ear. Being an ear led to being a shoulder. Being a shoulder led to being a heart.
Being a naturally wonderful hunk of a man with shoulder length dirty-blonde hair, blue eyes and an easy smile caused her to eventually fall in love with the charismatic and influential man.
The first time she had lain with him had been one of the happiest moments in Kazdin's life. Four years of misery, loneliness, angst and turmoil were shed in one long, continuous display of love, affection and above all, trust. The one emotion she thought she would never again show another person. But that night amidst the heat of both the campfire and the two bodies lying nearby, Kazdin had finally allowed her trust to return full force as a gift to the handsome Paladin.
She had confessed her love for him a few months later and after a year of courtship and surviving the dangers of the wastes together, Andrew and Kazdin were finally united in marriage by the Elder of the local Brotherhood of Steel chapter, Elder Sarah Lyons.
Even then, when she honestly believed that she could not be happier; eight months later she told Andrew that she was carrying his child. She had expected Andrew to be regretful or apprehensive about the news, but his reaction blew her away. A strong embrace and a kiss to her lovely lips and words of thankfulness and praise was his response to the lively news.
Andrew Ross was truly a remarkable man. His accomplishments of defeating an army which rivaled the Brotherhood of Steel and cleaning every drop of surface water in D.C. with the help of a gigantic water purifying machine was impressive on its own, but even more jaw-dropping was the fact that he had accomplished these things when he was only nineteen years old.
But Andrew's monumental successes notwithstanding, Andrew was remarkable in other ways as well. He was a very handsome man, even to the point where Kazdin would call him beautiful. He was as rugged and diamond-eyed as the next man who had spent his entire life just trying to survive the desolate and dangerous wastes. But even with as hard as the wasteland had made him, he still had an easy smile, a gentle and caring attitude and an open door policy to anybody he liked.
His scarred and pocked body was slim, but sinewy muscle formed the makeup of his lanky form. His large, calloused hands were rough but they were always gentle when holding Kazdin or their baby. They were hard as steel to anybody who threatened his family and friends. They were quick to shake hands or give a playful smack on the arm to his best friends Gem and Sarah.
His longish dark blonde hair was rarely slicked back and often fell into his blue eyes, but he rarely raked his hand through the hair to move the strands from his visage. His trimmed facial hair gave him a sophisticated, if not gritty look that charmed most people.
Kazdin had often wondered why Gem or Sarah hadn't caught his eye. Andrew had told her time after time that he thought of neither of them as anything more than best friends. After many repetitions of this fact, Kazdin relaxed and accepted it as truth.
Kazdin had thought her life was over when she had been exiled from the second place she had ever called home, but here in Washington D.C. she had gained so much more. She would always miss her friends in the Mojave, but she knew that she was blessed.
She had gotten married to a wonderful, good-looking man. She had a five year old daughter who meant the world to her and Andrew. She considered Sarah Lyons and Gem to be best friends. She had been accepted into another Brotherhood of Steel unit and was able to become a Paladin once again. After being stripped of her status and power armor in the Mojave by the victorious General Oliver, Kazdin had lost hope that she would ever be able to become a proud Paladin again.
Elder Sarah Lyons had other plans and after various tests she awarded Kazdin her old rank once again as well as a place in the Lyon's Pride, Sarah's personal squad of elite soldiers. That day was a relief to Kaz because being a Paladin was something she had loved, once upon a time, and now here she was being awarded Paladin status once more.
Kazdin's eyes welled up again as she watched Andrew and Serena walking hand in hand toward her.
"Hi mommy!" Serena called, waving her tiny hand as she approached, beaming happily.
"Hi, Serena. Didja come all the way out here just to see me?" Kazdin asked, wiping at her eyes and bending down to pick her giggling daughter up into her strong arms.
"Yeah, daddy says it's time to eat dinner. We came to get you so we could go and eat with Gem and Sarah." Serena said happily.
"That sounds really good." Kaz said with a chuckle.
"Why are you crying mommy? Are you sad?" Serena wondered when she noticed the wetness filling her mother's eyes.
"No, sweetheart. Mommy was just remembering." Kazdin answered.
"Thinking about Uncle Craig? And Aunt Veronica?" Serena asked in a small voice.
"Yes, honey. I was. But I was also thinking about all of us. Mommy may be sad because she lost her friends, but I am very, very happy that I have you and your father." Kazdin said, making her little daughter smile wide.
Serena wrapped her tiny arms around her mother and hugged her. Kazdin returned the hug and kissed her daughter's black hair. Serena's blue eyes were shining when she released the hug.
"I'm glad you're not sad anymore." She said softly.
"I can't be sad when I have you." Kazdin answered, kissing her daughter's face.
"Why don't you go run along and tell Sarah to hurry up with the food." Andrew suggested with a teasing grin.
"Okay daddy." Serena said. Kaz set her down on the ground and the little girl skipped back toward the compound.
Andrew regarded his wife warmly. Gently placing his strong hands on her shoulders he grinned at her. He raised a hand a softly wiped Kazdin's tears away. Kaz nuzzled her nose and lips into Andrew's warm hand and kissed his palm before she moved to kiss his rugged lips, deeply and completely in love.
"Are you alright, Kaz?" Andrew asked when she separated from his lips.
"I miss them so much sometimes. I wish they were here right now with me. But I will never see them again. That's tough sometimes. But I am going to be alright. I have been given so much… So much more than I deserve. I was given a daughter, I was given you. If you and Serena were the only two people in my life right now, I would be as happy as I could ever be. But then I have Gem and Sarah and even Gallows. I am good. I am good, Andy."
Kazdin looked so sure behind those glistening blue eyes that Andrew smiled and kissed her lips once again. He touched her face as their kiss lingered.
"I thought my life was over. I thought I would never survive this without them. But I have a wonderful life now, and it is all thanks to you." Kazdin said when they released their kiss for the second time.
She turned back to look at the fading sunset and Andrew wrapped his strong arms around her waist and stared off into the distance with her.
"You are the most important person in the world to me, Kaz. I love you." Andrew whispered as he buried his nose into her sweet smelling black hair and breathed her scent into his nostrils.
"I love you too, baby. I used to concentrate on wasted love, but you gave me a new beginning." Kazdin whispered, turning once again to gaze into those warm, deep, endless blue eyes.
"I will always be here with you, Kaz."
"And I will be here with you as well, Andrew."
The man in question grinned happily as he shared a lingering comfortable silence with his wife.
"Come on babe. Let's go get some squirrel stew and whiskey before the other Paladins eat it all. See if we can't annoy Sarah some." Andrew suggested.
Kazdin giggled before running a hand through Andrew's golden mane and kissing his lips again.
"That sounds great. But keep the whiskey." Kazdin said.
"That's new. It's unlike you to turn down a drink." Andrew said, blinking with confusion.
Kazdin giggled again and returned her lips to his for another fleeting moment before moving her lips to his ear.
"That's because I can't have it. I'm pregnant." Kazdin whispered to her bewildered husband.
The look of pleased shock on his handsome face was surpassed only when he wrapped his arms around Kazdin's shoulders and squeezed. There were no further words and there were none needed.
The only sound that mattered was the sound of three hearts beating.