New, short chapter, sorry about that but if i made this one longer it spill over into a completely different tangent.
Wheatley leaned against a tree, Louise was still ill, though she was feeling better and would be there for her would be there for her own celebratory party.
Right now though he was thinking.
Nobles, commoners, the line between them. Frankly the whole situation was, obsolete to him.
Even given the finest vault tec approved education it would be wrong to say he fully supported the American way, they did end the world mind you. But when every other word praises the glory of democracy something stuck.
His whole commoner, noble issue was the prompter for this train of thought. At the end of the day, did he care? Call him what they wanted it would not change him.
Still it was a lie. And that sat wrong with him.
Though he did not know it he was watched. Slowly she walked up on the and almost chipperly spoke up.
"Hello Wheatley."
Shaken from his contemplations he half turned to face the speaker.
"Hay Siesta you on a break right now? I could use some outside perspective."
"What is it?" she asked a surprised look on her face. He did not answer, only patted the ground next to him. She sat down next to him.
"Ok Siesta here my problem. I'm not a noble but every noble thinks, or is trying to convince themselves and each other I am."
"That's a problem?" Siesta said confused. At Wheatley puzzled look she clarified. "A lot of people would kill to be in your shoes. To be a noble, to finally get respect."
"Ya, and have Mott be a esteemed peer? I'd rather give a super mutant a blow job."
"What's that?" Siesta naively asked.
Some were a 12 pound iron lock bar dropped in a maximum security prison built out of solid rock on a island in the middle of the ocean. "You don't want to know." silence stretched then he sighed. "I'm not a noble yet everyone seems to think I am."
"Well, nobles are rulers. Do you rule anything?"
"Back home?" Wheatley leaned back. "Not a thing. I was a member of the Brotherhood of Steel though."
"are they Knights?"
"Well not as you know it, erug, yes." he put his head in his hands. His own vault tec education providing the next bit.
"And Knights were noblemen. O joy."
In the silence he looked up at the tree and watched a squirrel chattered to it self as it ate a nut.
"Would a nobleman eat a squirrel, because I really would once upon a time."
"A squirrel?" Siesta asked surprised. She was a commoner so eating rodents at time was not unknown, and depending how you cooked one a squirrel was quite good. She just could never imagine Wheatley to do it.
"Ya, I think I have one." he lift his pipboy up in a gesture. "Not like I'm going to eat it now mind you." Silence.
Wheatley stood up with a sigh. "Well if I'm going to be dubbed a noble one thing best is gotten straight."
"And that is?" Sesita asked. Wheatley smiled and extended his hand to help her up.
"I'll still be human. I will still care."
SHIFT
A building, no, not just a building, her home! Louise smiled at the sight.
It was a spring day, flowers in full bloom, a riot of color, scents and sounds as bee buzzed lazily between each ripe flower.
Laughing in joy of the day she ran into the garden, twirling in the flowers like she had when she was a child.
Suddenly she stopped turning to face her home, smiling in glee of life. Her sister, Cattleya stood on the back door smiling back.
Then it all went away.
A flash of light from behind her house. A massive blast wave of flame washing over the house, timbers went flying, shingles, nails, it was all removed and sent flying, her sister, atomized, the flames washing over her before she knew she was dead.
The blast front burned everything before it, it touched Louise.
She woke up with a scream, panting.
Her hand lept to her heart, it was pounding.
She knew what was real. The dream was not, the fact she was in the nurse's office was, the fact that EVERYTHING Wheatley said was right was.
"Believe it or not we destroyed are world with those things."
"all I had left was a list of target and a hammer to beat them down."
"I learned early on there are two ways to help people. One: Find ways to help them live. Two: Kill people who would harm them. Either way helps."
"The wasteland is a hard place to live. Its kill or be killed as I have told you. What made you think I would be exempt from that?"
The realization of just what kind of world Wheatley came from crashed hard around her ears.
A dead one. A world killed by men, not god.
She now had what amounted to a horsemen of the Apocalypse, a herald of a burned planet, as her familiar.
God!
A plow slammed into her face.
"Could you keep it down Louise? I'm still not feel well." Normally Kirche's discomfort would be enjoyable.
Not now.
Not when she had to ask her self this question.
If a noble protected his familiar from harm, and she was a zero.
Then who was the familiar, and who was the noble?
SHIFT
IT was night, the celebratory party was going on in the back ground. As Wheatley try out the title had been introduced as.
"Paladin Wheatley James, Chevalier? Or is it Chevalier Paladin Wheatley James?" Wheatley stood out on the balcony as the party went on behind him.
Party, he scoffed at the thought. To a person who grew up on 60 era swing dancing and nothing else, it was quite, uncelebrated.
"Hay partner I got to ask you something." Wheatley took a sip out of his small wine glass before he answered.
"It's a free," he frowned; this place was screwing with this metaphors. "OK, it's not a free country Derflinger , but talk away."
"Why don't you like using me?" Wheatley swished the wine in the glass around.
"If you mean with Foquet then the option was between you and a fat man."
"Ya I'll give you that." Derflinger replied. "But before that, you really don't like using me. You only did when everything else you tried failed."
"How long are you Derflinger?"
"60 inches of high grade tempered Damascus steel the last of an art." he said proudly.
"Normally I kill some one from 400 feet away. That's roughly 80 times as long as you are. Frankly in my world swords were only for those who could not afford bullets." he took another drink of his wine. "So, you want me to give you to some what who want to use you? I won't hold it against you."
"No partner, I'm been a sword for ever and my partner has always been Gandalfr. Beside I have more then a few tricks up my self that you stinking guns can't do."
"Like?" Before Wheatley got his answer a herald gave a announcement. "Introducing Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière?"
He turned to watch as the pink haired girl walk up the stair, her dress just about the same color of her hair.
"She had that in her dresser?" Wheatley asked himself. He quickly plotted her path. She was heading toward him warding off people asking to dance with her with the ease he brushed off flies.
Soon she was in front of him. Wheatley may only have been wearing a servants uniform, (and god knows just how many nobles had done a spit take at that!) and she a silk dress but it was clear form there body language they were equals.
She finally spoke. "I wish to apologize, Wheatley."
"I'm flattered. For what?"
"I did not believe you, about you world being ruined, not truly. But, after you showed me what you could do."
"You do believe me." Wheatley said nodding. "Well, I'm glad but it does not change much on are end. I still need to head back."
"Why? It's a hell hole. You said as much your self." Louise said simply, confused.
"It's my hell, and I have a commitment to make it a even better place to live." He turned and looked back up at the moons. "Don't get me wrong, I like this world. But my own needs me. I am the friggen Lone Wanderer. I keep that place from blowing apart at the seams."
Silence stretched between them.
A conductor announced a new dance song.
Louise coughed into her hand changing the subject.
"Do you wish to dance?"
"I,really don't know how to dance your way. Remind me to show you swing dancing some time."
"Swing dancing?" she thought about it, but changed her mind about asking about it. "Well, its not that hard." she extended her hand.
Wheatley thought about it, before emptying his glass in one gulp. "What have I got to lose?" he took it.