Charon and I left after a week of stay with Nora and the others. By the end, she was in tears, asking me not to leave. I consoled her the best I could, but let her know I'd start saving money if she every changed her mind. We were standing at the gate, the kids gathered around us. I was holding my child in my arms with her own wrapped around my neck. I could hear her sniffle, and it was only a matter of time before she started crying. I rubbed her back and stroked her hair, consoling her. "You're okay, baby. I'm coming back, I'm coming back."

"But what if something happens?"

I looked her in they eye, a hand on her cheek. "Don't you think that way, baby. I'll come back for you, Nora, I promise you that." I gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead and wiped a few more tears away. "We're always together, even when we're apart."

"How?"

A few thin tears escaped my eyes, "You're in my heart and my thoughts. This way, you're always with me. I have your voice, your hair, your eyes, your fingers, all in my head. We have all the silly and lovely conversations in our heads and we can think about being with each other at any time all the time. Nobody can take those away from us, does that make sense?"

She nodded. "I think so."

I kissed her again and squeezed her. "Good. I love you Nora. I love you more than you know."

"I love you too Mama."

We waved goodbye to the rest of the kids and left the caves. I was only filled with more drive than ever to get my shit together and find a place for us to stay and maybe even work.

After about two months of wandering, doing odd jobs, we found ourselves in Dupont Circle, clearing out raider after raider. They had plenty of supplies for us to pilfer, but it was when we were poking around we found a real treat.

It was a Pre-War clothing store. It was sort of tucked away from the main circle, the windows were boarded up but the door was free. It was small, dusty, comprised of one room and a changing room. Surprisingly enough, no threats roosting there.

"I don't see these things very often." I dropped my stuff on the ground by the door and started walking around. "It's strange to think people felt safe wearing just this stuff at one point." I tried on a pair of glasses.

Charon removed the toughest parts of his armor and set his things by the door as well. "Those Rivet City folk do." He sat up on the desk and opened up a bottle of clean water and some apples.

"But not like they did. They're just playing pretend." I tried on a wide brimmed bonnet with a thin black ribbon tied around it. I found a clean, springy, green dress and tried it on. Surprisingly, it fit pretty well. I started looking around the store for a mirror. I eventually found one. I looked at myself and had a moment. The first thing that leapt out of my mouth was "People must have been so beautiful."

"What do you mean?"

"Could you imagine if everyone looked like this all the time?" I put my hands around my waist. I looked at my profile, and admittedly, I might have looked better without all the scars and knotted flesh from where animals took giant bites out of me or where mines exploded, but this dress sure as hell looked a lot more flattering than my usual Wasteland garb. "Just that. I mean, look at me. This is the nicest piece of clothing I've ever worn."

"Green does look nice on you."

"Exactly!" I turned back to the mirror and took off the glasses and hat. I looked myself in the eye as I said "They must have been so beautiful." I don't get to see my reflection often, especially this clearly. I studied my features closely, soaking up every bit. Every pore, every hair, every scar. My nose had changed since the last time I saw myself. It's strange to think that other people know my face better than I do.

"People aren't beautiful now? What makes you any different than them?" He pointed to a poster on the wall.

I looked at the poster, "Well, they got to wear these clothes all the time, they weren't so beat up, and they probably got baths pretty regularly."

"But their faces weren't any different. They just weren't as dirty."

"I guess it doesn't really matter in the end what you look like, huh?" I turned to him. "You want to look at yourself?" I pointed towards the mirror.

He scrunched his remaining eyebrows up, lifting the plastic bottle to his mouth "No." He took a healthy drink. "I don't need to be reminded of how I look."

"Aw, but what if you put on normal people clothes?"

"Wouldn't change a goddamn thing."

"You don't think it would be fun?"

"No."

I laughed and walked to the back of the store. "C'mon, just for shits and giggles."

He grumbled and got up from the desk. He grabbed the first thing he spotted, I kept my back to him as he changed. I heard the zipping of a fly and the tightening of a belt. "I look like an idiot."

I turned around and he was dressed in a blue polo shirt and brown slacks that were too short for him. His feet were bare. "You gotta wear the shoes!" I chuckled.

"They don't fit."

I laughed, "Of course they don't!" I walked up and got right next to him, slipped my arm around his waist, and admired our reflections in the mirror. "A modern couple; sexless and half-starved!"

He pulled me into a headlock, "You forgot at each other's throats." He immediately dropped me before I even had a chance to retort. "Check it out." He walked to where a boarded up window. "Phonograph." He rummaged around in the desk and pulled out several huge black disks, "Records!"

"Is there something in that water?" I took a sniff of it and took a swig.

"No no, these are disks. These are where Three Dog gets his music from."

"Whoa! Seriously? Those things? No way." I walked over to the sill with him.

"Watch." Charon stood over the contraption and wound a crank handle on the side of the wooden box. He lifted up this arm and placed the black record on the top, then placed the arm over the disk. I looked up at it in surprise when a scratchy noise came out of the metal thing, but nearly pissed myself when this giant sound started playing from it. I jumped back and shrieked, clasping my mouth with my hand. I stood there bewildered, looking at the thing, then at Charon, then back at the thing, with wide eyes, he was laughing at me. "Do you believe me now?"

"Holy shit!" I stared at it, a mix between scared shitless and jittery with excitement. "This is exciting! I've never experienced anything like this before!" I started laughing, holding my hands to either one of my cheeks. "What are we listening to?"

Charon looked at the paper as it was spinning, "Something called Leicester Square Rag by Oscar Rubin and His Band."

"Why don't we bring this up to Three Dog so it can always be playing?"

"Hold on, we've still got the rest of the side to listen to."

"Side?"

"There are two sides to every record."

"And there are two sides?"

"Yes."

I smiled so hard my eyes almost shut tight. Needless to say, we spent the evening sitting and listening to records. We sat against the wall beneath the window, I rested my head on his shoulder as the music continued to play. We talked a little bit about the songs, but we were more preoccupied with enjoying it rather than talking about it. We got ready for the night, we actually slept in the clothes we were messing around with. They were more comfortable and more warm that just our skivvies. We ate dinner and went to bed. It was warm, still, and quiet. It was a comforting sort of quiet, not the threatening quiet.

I really liked it. I really, really like it here in this corner. We slept soundly, we cleared out any enemies in the area. We had brought our things into this small room with us, so if anyone did break in, we still had the advantage. We didn't have to sleep close to each other to keep the other warm, but we slept close because it felt nice to. We woke up late the next morning, facing each other, in the other's arms. I woke up first, unusually. Charon was still asleep, or at least his eyes were closed. And I don't know what possessed me, but I gave him a quick peck on the forehead before I put my forehead right up against his and closed my eyes again.

"Was that a good morning kiss?" His voice was heavier and gravellier with sleep.

"Savor it. You ain't getting anymore than tha-" The doors burst open. I saw the metal boots of Brotherhood soldiers rush in. They were dragging in fallen soldier, shouting things about stimpacks. I pulled Charon flush against my body and flipped over. I told him to stay put as I talked to them. If they gave us trouble, then he could come out. I grabbed my pistol and stood up, "There's someone already here!" I shouted above the rest of them. I walked through the door, there were five of them, two on the ground. "What's going on here?"

"Identify yourself." One of them demanded.

"I'm not answer any questions until I can see your face."

Their leader took off his helmet and tossed it on the ground. "Identify yourself or we'll shoot you down!"

"My name is Judith, and what's the issue? I could help you." I tucked the pistol into the band around my waist and glanced over the two men on the ground.

"We were patrolling the sewers when we were jumped. These FNG's got beat up real bad, they're in critical condition."

"Get their armor off and tell me exactly what happened." The squad removed each piece of armor as their leader explained the start of their troubles.

"They were lagging behind before we were ambushed by raiders. Then we hit a bad patch of radiation and a whole shit ton of ghouls. Couple of them reavers got a good hit on us. That was a day or two ago, and these kids are in critical condition."

"Yeah, no kidding." I treated their radiation poisoning, having their brothers and sister hold the bags up. Next were the blood transfusions. The one was alright, but the other guy had a pretty serious infection that was spreading up his leg. Some of the tissue had already died. "How long have you been down?"

"A week, week and a half."

"Did he show this to you?" I made sure he was out cold before I removed the dead flesh with a combat knife.

"Whoa whoa whoa what are you doing?!" The leader demanded.

"I know what I'm doing, and did he show this to you before you went down?" I barked back. I demanded a stimpack.

"He mentioned it-"

"Then this is your fault. This is two weeks of decay, not 'a week, week and a half'. He's lucky. He'll keep his leg." The flesh grew back, albeit a significant piece of this young man's upper thigh was now missing. The infection in the surrounding tissue was destroyed. The other guy started coming to. "Hey there, don't panic. How are you feeling?"

He rubbed the back of his head, "Goddamn, where am I? My head hurts."

"Did you hit it on something?"

"Not that I can remember. Who are you?"

"My name is Judith. I'm going to check you for a concussion, alright? You're okay. You're with your squad. Now follow my finger." I moved it left to right, his eyes twitching as he followed it. "Lean forward, do you feel a weight?" He did so and flinched. "Alright stop. Close your eyes," I put my thumbs over his lids. "Now try opening them." They didn't even twitch. "Alright you have a concussion. Where did you hit your head?"

He shook his head. "I don't, I don't remember."

"Did one of you knock his head around while carrying him?"

"I accidentally hit it against a piece of concrete rebar, ma'am." The woman spoke.

I shot her a dirty glance, "Where did you hit him?" She pointed to the side of his head. That is where I applied the stimpack. The boys were both up and coherent in ten minutes. I sat back on my heels, a job well done. I stood up and faced their squad leader. "I'd like compensation for this."

"No."

"I used my own supplies to heal them."

"We didn't ask you to save their lives."

Charon opened the door and pressed the barrel of his shot gun against the leaders' skull. "So pay us for yours."

*Thanks for reading! Any reviews help!*