Chapter 9

Riley's Rangers and Misfortune

After we are fully rested Sapphire went down to see Wadsworth to get a haircut and relax for the day and I had to admit we both needed the R&R for a few days since we came back from the Pitt. There wasn't much to do around Megaton but at least it was peaceful enough to relax for a while. While she rested I went out to sell off and trade our extra equipment for food, water, and medicine.

'I think I'll try to cook something tonight for us. It shouldn't be too hard and Wadsworth will be able to help me if I need it.' I think as I pass by a male Zangoose he notices me and sneers at me with distain.

"Hey you." He says stopping to look at me.

I stop as well and turn to look at him, "Yes?" I ask him as he approaches me and sniffs me a bit.

"Tch you're nothing but a wimp aren't you?" He says as he crosses his arms trying to look tougher than he is.

I give him a scowl but say nothing I just turn and walk away deciding to not let him get under my skin. "Yeah that's right walk away like a weakling!" He yells after me before Simms steps in

"Jericho shut up and leave him alone!" He says as he pushes the Zangoose on his way. He growls and walks off giving off a slightly evil smirk as he walks.

'Man that guy is an ass hole… oh well; at least Simms dealt with him before I threw a fist at him.' I think to myself as I head over to the Craterside Supply to sell everything off. Moira gives me a decent amount of caps for everything I gave her. I also bought off all the ammo and food we could use in the future but for now I head back to the house where Sapphire is cleaning up the house a bit with Wadsworth.

"I'm back Sapphire." I say with a slight smile to her quickly forgetting the encounter with the Zangoose. She returns the greeting as she stops cleaning.

"How much did you get Ryan?" She asks curiously, she was always one to worry about money and since we had to rely on caps instead of money we had to be even more careful.

"I managed to get 5000 for everything not a bad haul huh?" I ask with a playful smirk knowing Sapphire could have easily gotten more than me.

"Hmm… not bad at all Ryan." She responds with a soft smile as she crosses her arms under ample chest. I chuckle as I start helping her with the cleaning and making lunch for both of us from our remaining food.

Later that night

Once the sun had set I began gathering food for us to make a nice dinner. I pull out a few pots and pans, 'Well I guess for an appetizer I'll make noodles then make… I guess either Salisbury steak or some Giant Mole Rat meat… So hard to choose when not a lot of the meat is appetizing.' I think with a small sweat drop but I shake it off and start cooking. I manage to boil the water we needed to make the noodles; I knew it would be bland since I didn't have anything to add to it aside from whatever meat we had.

'Actually that might not be a bad idea. I can at least try it to see if it sticks.' I think as I pull out some Mirelurk Meat we got from Rivet City, they said it came from a mutated crab or shellfish I wasn't really paying attention to what they said. I find a semi clean knife to chop up the meat up to add to the noodles, I stir up the meat, water, and noodles so they can combine easily. I was surprised at the new delicious smelling aroma that came from it. 'This might not be a half bad dinner date.' I think with a smile as I let the soup settle to cook a little longer.

I pull a pan off the broken rack near the stove and place it on one of the burners. 'Now Salisbury Steak I guess.' I reach into my pack and pull out a pair of the prepackaged food boxes I opened up the boxes and place the sealed food into the pan to heat them up to make them more bearable to swallow. 'Damn things taste like leather but they still give us sustenance.' I think as I concentrate on cooking letting my mind wander to the events that happened of the last few weeks or so.

Remembering every bloody battle and injustice that we never experienced in the Vault the only thing that has managed to keep me sane is probably Sapphire. With all the loving tender moments we shared it makes this hell a little bit brighter and more bearable to endure. 'I have a lot more to thank her for than just coming out here with me.' I think as I give a small humorless chuckle to myself.

After finding time to rest from the battles and hell that some call home, I find that out of a few I'm one of the few people who found love in this place and it has gotten us through a lot. I smile slightly as I snap out of my thoughts, "Wadsworth." I call out to him and the robot floats over to me.

"How may I be of service master?" he asks in a monotone voice.

"Can you keep an eye on the food while I go change please?" I ask him.

He seems to bow before responding, "Of course master and do make yourself look good for Madam." He says in his usual English accent. I chuckle at his remark and let him take control of the meal I had prepared after walking around him I headed over to the locker and pull out my Pre-War Business Suit and quickly went into an empty room to put them on.

I step out all dressed up in the business suit smoothing out the slight wrinkles and light layer of dust on them, "Now to go get my date." I say with a smile as I head upstairs to get Sapphire so we can sit and have a nice dinner with her. I knock on the door to the bedroom.

"Come in." She says from behind the door.

I step inside to find her brushing her long soft hair so it could regain its shiny sheen that it once had, I smile at her as I walk up to her and hug her from behind, "Ready for dinner Sapphire? " I ask with a small kiss to her cheek.

She giggles softly at the kiss and hug, "All set what's for dinner?" she asks with a smile as she nuzzles her back into me.

"Dinner is Mirelurk Meat in Noodles and Salisbury steak;" I say while sticking out the tip of my tongue out, "Not very appetizing huh?" I ask her while pressing my cheek to hers.

She blushes lightly, "Maybe we'll know when we eat it." She says with a smile.

I smile again as I back up so she can stand up out of the chair she was sitting in. She was dressed in the same Pre-War Dress she obtained mysteriously but still looked amazing on her, "Still look as beautiful as ever Sapphire." I say with a smile and a small bow from the waist.

She giggles lightly at the mock form of chivalry and from the complement, "Thanks Ryan." She says as she curtsies as well walking over to the small table we have in the small house. I pour the experimental mixture into two bowls and set them out at each end of the table as well as serving the Salisbury steak on two plates.

"Always happy to do this for you Sapphire." I say with a soft smile to her making her blush again. She smiles as she samples it after knowing it was good we started eating together talking about the groups and monsters we met in the Pitt after finding out that their leader was a former Brotherhood of Steel member kept us talking for a while about the mysterious group that seemed to focus on hoarding Old World tech and how this chapter is working to protect a few areas of the Wasteland.

After we ate we decided to take another walk around Megaton again enjoying the cool and slightly dusty air as bleak as the landscaped looked as long as we were together we didn't mind it in the slightest. With Sapphire being here I felt more at ease than I would normally be by myself, the thought of being out here alone slowly dawned on me as we came to a stop in front of our home. "You have that worried look on your face Ryan." Sapphire's voice snaps me out of that train of thought easily.

"Yeah… unpleasant thoughts unfortunately." I respond with a forced smile making Sapphire shake her head; she gently cups my cheeks in her hands and pulls me down a bit so that our foreheads touch.

"Well don't think about them. This place… it's not pretty or kind but we have each other and we will face our hardships head on alright? You're strong and I'm smart together I doubt there's anything we can't handle." She says firmly while we stare into each other's eyes.

"We've had plenty of close calls though… The Super Duper Mart, Galaxy News Radio, Old Olney, Paradise Falls. We've been on the brink just scraping by, by sheer luck and… wandering this wasteland alone is a bleak prospect and one I hope we never have to experience." I reply softly tears softly prickling at my eyes, through the slight teary blur I could make out even Sapphire starting to tear up.

"I know… I wouldn't have survived this long if not for you… you idiot." She says with a small smile before hugging me tightly and burying her head in my chest. I hug her back feeling her shake a bit struggling to hold in her tears.

I stroke her back gently as I bite back my tears as well, 'Guess some thoughts were meant to never go away in this place…' I think to myself as we stood at the door and held each other.

The Next Morning

We find ourselves exploring the Capital of the Old World trying to pick over what leftovers other scavengers had left behind in the ruined buildings, though dealing with the Super Mutants proved to be very annoying as they controlled much of the upper half of the Capital Square. At least until our Pip-Boys picked up a radio signal referencing a mercenary group called Riley's Rangers and how they were trapped on top of a hotel by Super Mutants and that their leader had gone to a place called Underworld which was marked on our Pip-Boys as the old Smithsonian Museum.

"This place seems strange." Sapphire states looking over the broken barely still standing architecture. Like most of the buildings they had degraded over time, from the fall out and constant fighting.

I sigh slightly, "More creepy but we need more info on this company." We wander through the clouded double doors into a small atrium where several sentient ghouls pull weapons on us, "Wasn't expecting this…" I say as Sapphire and I hold up our hands and weapons.

The closest ghoul motions for everyone to lower their weapons, "Why are you here strangers?" He asks in a firm gravely tone that seems to be common among ghouls due to their damaged muscle and skin.

I holster my Gauss Rifle onto my back before I begin speaking, "We picked up a transmission about a merc group that's in trouble." I lower my hands to my sides as Sapphire follows suit.

"Riley's Rangers? Yeah we know but we can't take two steps outside without those Brotherhood assholes taking pot shots at us. If you want to help then try seeing if Riley is awake." He replies as he moves over to an air vent and proceeds to hammer on it.

We walk past him and into the back where we find another ghoul taking notes while a large group of Feral Ghouls wander aimlessly in a locked room, having to ignore the slightly strange sight we walk over to the lone female human laying passed out on an exam table, her body is covered in bandages and bruises from what looks like a heavy barrage of punches or bullet wounds.

"Hey be careful she's been in a medically induced coma to help her heal." The ghoul doctor says without turning to look at us he sits at a terminal to officially record his observations on the Feral Ghouls.

"It's possible to wake her up for a short time, I can monitor her condition and put her back under if her pain gets too unbearable." I say to the ghoul as he simply waves me off not taking his attention off the terminal in front of him.

"Do what you want smooth-skin the blood is on your hands not mine." He replies with a slight annoyed tone in his voice. I sigh and shake my head as I pull out a Stimpack and mix it with Med-X I carefully inject it into her arm, within a few seconds she groans and sits up.

"Where am I?" She asks holding her head with her right arm while clutching her stomach with her left arm she looks right at me with her left eye since her right one was obstructed by her arm.

"You're in Underworld, the people who live here found you and patched you up." I slowly explain to her which seems to make her relax for a brief minuet before she grips my shoulders firmly.

"My men! What about my men!?" She asks clearly alarmed and worried, before she winces pain from the sudden burst of movement.

"We don't know, we woke you up to ask you about the situation there." I reply as I grip her shoulders and have her lay back down slowly which she follows easily due to the pain or just because she knew she couldn't fight right now I didn't know.

"We were scouting it's what we're paid to do to make maps of the wasteland, we went into this hospital to check for supplies and found a bunch of Super Mutants there they chased us into the Hotel next door, where we lost Theo one of our newer recruits and he was carrying our ammo;" Riley pauses to readjust herself to get comfortable I could tell she was slowly slipping back to sleep. "We set traps for the Super Mutants to thin their numbers but they still cornered us on the roof, I had a Stealth Boy so I used it to slip past them to get help but it ran out just as I reached the bottom where a bunch of them got me. Please you have to save them they're probably running on fumes if they're still alive." She says weakly as she digs a slip of paper out of her pocket and hands it to me.

I look it over reading the series of numbers and letters as a password possibly for the ammo box they lost. I look over at Sapphire and she simply nods as she heads out the door, with the information in hand I follow her, 'We'll get them out Riley.' I think to myself as we make our way to the Hospital she was talking about.

True to her word the Hospital and the Hotel were swarming with Super Mutants which made our current dislike for the mysterious and dangerous mutants grow even bigger than normal. We persevered through the two buildings using every tactic and advantage we could get to push though them faster. Along the way we had found the ammo box Riley had mention while she was awake, once we found our way onto the roof we followed the slew of dead Super Mutants to a small entrenchment with two men armed with assault rifles or other small arms and one woman armed with a Minigun.

"Hey! Hurry up and get over here before more show up!" One of the men spoke up as we sprint over to them eager to catch a break from all the fighting. "Now what are you two doing here?" The man asks taking a knee next to us.

"Riley asked us to come here to get you guys out, we cleared out the upper levels of the hotel the bottom might still be a problem though." I say as I toss them each some ammo for their weapons which they heavily thank us for.

"Thank god she made it and one more problem we have to get the elevator working if we want to get out of here but we need a Fission Battery." The man, who introduces himself as Butcher, says looking at the other man who was messing with the elevator control panel.

I remember picking one up on the way up since they're usually so valuable to Moira but seeing as this was an emergency I gladly part ways with the small piece of tech, with the elevator repaired Sapphire and I take point in escorting the remaining three Ranger members out of the hotel which was no easy feat as soon as we exited the elevator doors we came under heavy fire from all the Super Mutants. We steadily pushed our way through unleashing a barrage of bullets and energy blasts. As we made it outside the Rangers thanked us and headed back to their headquarters leaving Sapphire and I alone to contemplate our next move.

We had decided to pick up my dad's trail again and headed out to find the Vault he was searching for, it was a long stretch that the garage it was hidden under would still be standing at all but faith is all we had to go on at this point. It was eerie out in the wasteland the silence alone could be quite disturbing on its own as well as the lack of any non-hostile life for miles, with a heavy mind we continue to walk through the empty expanse of dead land.

It was midday when we decided to rest on our Pip-Boys we got a new marker for a place called Evergreen Mills and it was the worst mistake we could have ever made. As we walked into the center square we came under a large barrage of fire from all directions, I took the brunt of the fire with being in power armor, Sapphire was lucky enough to cloak and try to find where the gunshots were coming from.

I unholster my Gauss Rifle to use the scope to find the hidden attackers as the town was built into a small valley with tall cliffs with plenty of outcrops and spots to snipe. Easily enough I'm able to spot a few raiders hiding up high in the rocks and open fire killing them with the energy blasts. But then more started to pour out from the buildings and a few cellars, I only caught a few of them getting cut down from a barrage of suppressed bullets from Sapphire.

I rush to take cover as my Pip-Boy alerted me to my low health, not that I needed another reminder that I was in a steadily increasing amount of pain, I duck behind a truck to administer a Stimpack and switch out my Gauss rifle for my Chinese Assault Rifle since I would need speed over power for now. I quickly stand up out of cover and fire a quick burst getting most of the new attackers, I duck down hearing the bullets ricochet off the old military truck but I knew the cover wouldn't last long with every damn car having a fusion core inside it; it was a mini nuke waiting to go off with enough damage.

I hear a couple of the raiders shout out to scatter which I took as a prime opportunity to make a break for it, that was a mixed idea, as soon as I stand up I see another raider with a rocket launcher aimed squarely at the truck and fire, I couldn't run so all I could do is take the full brunt of the damage. The truck exploded with a bright red and white flash of flame and metal, it threw me back hard leaving my Power Armor in shambles and a heavy ringing in my ear.

My helmet is shattered and all I could hear was my own heartbeat, my body felt heavy and I couldn't feel anything. I see Sapphire appear above me trying to shake me awake, I don't know if she was trying to yell especially since we were still under fire from the raiders barely being able to see the bullets impact the rocks around us. She fires back and reloads before she pulls my helmet off and tosses it somewhere out of my line of sight.

Next I see her pulling off what little remains of the armor and tossing it away trying to get me out of the normally heavy suit of metal, eventually she pulls me free and drags me off under my arms. From the position I can see that my Pip-Boy is flashing its warning light and displays most of my body being crippled as well as a large dosage of radiation from the truck exploding. I struggle to keep my eyes open but once again I slip into the darkness of unconsciousness.

I groan heavily as I slowly come to, above me is a metal ceiling after some time I recognize it as the ceiling to our Megaton Home, "Ah Good morning sir! I'm glad to see you're alright enough to wake up." A Robotic voice sounds off next to me.

"Lower your volume Wadsworth… my head is killing me." I say softly pulling the pillow out from under my head and placing it over my face feeling very nauseated and exhausted still.

"Sorry Sir but I cannot until I fetch Mistress Sapphire." Wadsworth replies as he hovers off to another part of the house.

I sigh again into the pillow as my memory returns to the front of my mind Evergreen Mills, the ambush, the car detonating next to me, and how Sapphire had to drag my sorry ass out of the fire again. I lift the pillow off my face and I squint at my Pip-Boy to see the date, it had been a week since that happened Sapphire must be ready to blow a gasket at me for worrying her for so long.

I lay my arm back down and cover my face with the pillow again but just as I was about to drift off the pillow is yanked off my face and I see Sapphire standing over me with her right hand on her hip with her brow furrowed at me. "You know this means I own your ass for a while don't you?" She says firmly, I could only nod since I couldn't argue with her in my condition. "Good…" She softens her expression and gently places the pillow behind my head again and crawls into bed next to me. She rests her head just over my heart with her left hand lightly stroking my bare chest, "Why is it always you? Why do you have to get hurt…?" She asks softly her right hand gently intertwining with my left.

"Heh… I'm the easier target and I make myself one…" I say softly as I slowly relax with Sapphire on top of me. "How did you manage to get away with me?" I ask her softly as we keep on resting.

"Stealth Boy, though I had to dump you behind a few rocks and I thinned them out then kept dragging you back until we reached home. Simms helped me patch you up but he could only do so much the Doctor doesn't make house calls apparently." Sapphire replies with a slight huff at the end in annoyance.

I couldn't help but chuckle at that, "Remind me to thank him when I'm able to get up." I say softly to her slowly lifting up my right arm, which I just barely noticed is in a makeshift cast, and gently stroke Sapphire's muzzle and cheek. "Guess its back to using my Vault Armor sorry to see that Power Armor go." I say softly knowing it probably couldn't be salvaged.

"I don't care just as long as you stay alive Ryan." Sapphire replies by looking up at me and kisses me gently on the cheek. "So you're going to be resting up for a while so for now I'll go stock up on meds." Sapphire says softly as she gets up and walks out of the house leaving me alone with Wadsworth.

I sigh softly not wanting Sapphire to go but still feeling the exhaustion I slowly lull back into the darkness of sleep.

AN: Sorry for the long wait I had some trouble with choosing the direction of this chapter. Plus lost a bit of resolve in writing when I read the Fallout/MLP crossover Fallout: Equestria. I know not a lot of people like MLP but that story is in my opinion the best descriptive and well thought out/ well written story in a long while. I will be finishing this Fic but I will attempt to speed it up so I can do the next two games however when I reach the Fallout 4 Arc I may need assistance with the DLCs as I have yet to play them at the time of me posting this chapter. Anyways I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and I know the Winterized B-51 armor can't be destroyed I threw it in as a sort of reminder that they're vulnerable and to add the mechanic that the armor can be destroyed. Please R&R.