Chapter Ten: Are You Worried?
Day Three
"Huh?" Bryan asked, eyes squinting as Janny stood on the bridge extended out to Rivet City, leaning into the railing at its side while looking upon the broken bow. "Did I find anything?"
She nodded in confirmation, looking at him over her shoulder. "Was there anyone else down there?"
"Well…" He scratched his head. "Just a buncha Mirelurks, really."
"I mean people, Bryan, when I ask if you saw anything down there." She turned around so she was facing him completely, gripping the railing with her other hand gripping her hip. "Did you see anything that implied that there was someone alive down in the bow when you were with James and C.J.?"
"Not really. We just found a lot of cans and bottles- mostly garbage." He cocked his head as she began walking down the bridge in a slow, thoughtful stride towards land. He followed her closely. "Why are 'ya asking?"
"Just curious…" She replied once he was at her side. She was only staring forward, taking off her plasma rifle to check it over closely.
Bryan watched as she worked. "Where did you get a gun like that, Janny?"
"My plasma rifle?" Janny smiled, holding it up for him to see as they walked into the metal structure and down the sloping walkway. "I got it from Harkness, actually."
He tensed slightly, but said nothing as they continued walking. Who in their right mind would give such a priceless gift? Unless it was broken or there was something wrong with it- that would be a different story. But if Harkness gave it to her willingly?... When he asked- or actually implied through question- if they had dated before, she didn't really answer it… The conversation sort of drifted off from there, so he never got a proper response. Or at least one that was even worth mentioning.
She must have sensed his concern, because with a smile, she quickly added on;
"I had done him a very big favor, you see. He didn't know how else to repay me, so he gave me ownership of his plasma rifle." She looked back forward. "He claimed that it was loyal and had never failed him in all the years that he used it, and he reckoned that it would do the same with me. He was right- it's a beautiful weapon to have."
After that, he shook his head clear of any more thoughts of Janny and Harkness being involved romantically, but his mind still had little inklings dotted about his brain like a festering disease milking him of any energy.
"Bryan, I need you to do me a favor." Janny spoke as they reached the shore, and she knelt down in the grainy sand. "I need you to watch my things."
"Your… things?" He asked, eyes widening when she handed him the plasma rifle, and he took it reluctantly, as if it would burn him. "Wa- Wait! What am I holding your stuff for?"
"I want to go exploring," She replied with a toothy smirk as she untied her combat knife's binding from her thigh. He didn't even know it was there until she peeled it off and handed it to him as well.
"Exploring? In the bow?" He exclaimed as she shrugged off her long coat and laid it over his outstretched hands. "You can't! Harkness said it's off-limits!"
"Harkness gave me permission to look around down there." She answered. "He knows quite well that I am a skilled combatant, as he saw in the marketplace only moments ago, and he wants me to go into the bow to see if there's anything I can scrounge up to trade for Rivet City."
Bryan's eyes widened as she crossed her arms over her stomach, fingers sliding underneath the hem of her shirt, and she pulled it up over her head to reveal tight, black binding wrapped around her full breasts. His jaw dropped and, with his eyes practically popping out of his skull with how wide they were, they quickly danced away to look at a particularly interesting rock, trying to be a decent gentleman for her.
"Uhm…" He murmured awkwardly, cringing when she tossed the garment onto the growing pile of her possessions that were in his outstretched hands. She worked on her sneakers next, simply slipping them off and placing them neatly in the sand then yanked off her socks and tossed them at him, tugging off her shorts to reveal tight boy shorts that matched her breast wrapping. She tossed her shorts to him, handing her shoes over as well while digging around in the stash in his arms to find her knife.
"You're going in unarmed? No armor, no weapons, nothing?" Bryan exclaimed fearfully, practically dropping her stuff onto the ground as he did so.
"I said I am a skilled combatant, didn't I?" Janny gave him a reassuring wink, holding her sheathed blade between her teeth to free her hands so she could tie back her hair in a tight ponytail. "I've had my fair share of dog fights and unfair odds, as you can see." She motioned down to the scars that riddled her torso.
Four long slashes came from the side of her ribcage to the center of her abdomen in a diaganol, they looked old, for they resembled scars. There was a bite mark in the crook of her shoulder, and another on her right upper arm that looked too big to be canine. He noticed a sunken bullet wound on her left hip, and some other grazes and scratches and scars on her thighs, with a deep, red-purple scar that stretched over her knee cap- similar to the one below her collar bone.
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" He cried, muscles tensing at the thought of her mangled body decomposing in the bow. "That just proves that you aren't bulletproof!"
"I never said I was bulletproof, Bryan." She reminded him.
"Either way, it shows that you could get hurt! Or- Or worse, killed!"
This seemed to make her smile as she slipped the blade into her breast wrapping for easy access, looking back at him.
"Are you worried about me, Bryan?" She asked sweetly in a soft, silken voice that ran a welcomed shiver up his spine.
His already evident blush darkened significantly and he cleared his throat, looking away.
"Of course I'm worried…" He replied honestly, staring at the ground and how the dust coated his shoes. "You're risking your life for scrap! This is different from when you protected me when I was a kid," He looked back at her. "Don't do this, Janny…"
"Bryan, I-"
"Please..." He added on desperately, staring her straight in the eye. "Please?..."
Her smile disappeared and she sighed, looking up at him with sympathetic eyes and placed a hand on his shoulder comfortingly.
"Bryan, I-…" She sighed again. "I'm not looking for scrap. I'm looking for someone."
"S- Someone?" His brows furrowed together.
"It was for your own good, the less you know, the better. I want to give you legitimate absence of knowledge, in case someone bad were to come around, snooping for answers." She replied softly, looking back out to the shimmering blue water. "I believe that there's a man named Horace Pinkerton in there, and I have some questions that need answering- answers that only he may have for me."
"Pinkerton?..." Bryan blinked in recognition of the name. "You mean that guy who's haunting the bow?"
She laughed heartily. "He's not dead, well- I hope he isn't. If he was, that would certainly pull a snag in my plans!" She turned back to the water, walking in knee-deep and cupped her hands in it, bringing up water to splash onto her arms and chest to quickly get used to how cold it was. "I met him once before- but that was ten years ago, and he'd hardly recognize me now with how old I assume he is to be, if he is still alive. He was quite rude, though… He had an extreme dislike for Dr. Li- you remember her?- and he couldn't get me out of his little hideaway fast enough!"
As Janny turned back around to continue dipping her arms in the water, Bryan saw that in the middle of her back was a large splotch of ruined, reddened skin- as if someone had tagged her with a flamethrower or maybe a frag grenade too closely.
"Can't I come with you?" He pleaded, walking to the shoreline, right before the water was able to touch the toe of his boots. "Don't go in alone!"
"Bryan," She looked back at him over her shoulder with a kind smile, walking deeper into the water. "I'll come back to you."
"I'll come back to you." The words made his heart flutter in his chest, causing the organ to begin pumping wildly in his ribcage, making it feel as if his skin were aflame with tingles.
"…Promise?" He muttered, staring at her ponytail swaying between her tan shoulder blades as she walked out farther from him.
Janny nodded, smiling even more. "I promise. I'll even bring you back something nice, alright?"
He looked away, and finally nodded reluctantly.
"Just-… Be careful." He begged.
She nodded once more as he walked back to the metal structure of Rivet City, and she swam towards the underwater entrance of the bow. But he looked back just in time to see her wave and take a deep inhale, diving under the water with her hips jutting upward to the surface and she kicked as she maneuvered her body downward. He smiled a little, picking a nice spot to sit at the base of the metal slope, next to the water caravaneers, where he could see the shore from. He wanted to be the first to see her when she returned from her little adventure.
Heavy boots clopped down the metal walkway at his side- he looked up to see a black-skinned security guard. It wasn't unusual to see them off the ship, they'd sometimes do a quick perimeter check to make sure the Super Mutants weren't straying too close to the settlement. But then, he saw the guard stumble towards Lucky Harith's Brahmin.
"Bryan, I-…I'm not looking for scrap. I'm looking for someone."
He closed his eyes, letting her words echo in his head. Why did she feel the need to lie to him at all? Did she not trust him? Maybe she simply didn't think that it was any of his business?...
Or maybe, like she had mentioned, she was worried for him and believed that the less he knew, the better off he would be- she was looking out for his best interests like she had done so many years ago, when he was just a little eight year old boy. Orphaned and alone without anyone else but a goddess to turn to.
Bryan knew that when Janny promised something, she'd fulfill it. Even though worry and fear had his heart and stomach in a vice grip, he felt somewhat relieved- like he believed she'd return.
In actuality, he knew she would come back to him, just like she said she would.
Nothing more happened as his eyes grew sore and heavy under his eyelids, and he dozed off- but then again, that was before he was able to watch the security guard once speaking with Lucky Harith walk past him to the gritty shoreline where Janny had disappeared to follow her.