Author's notes: SO! Here's the next chapter of Aimee and Charon's adventure! Chapter Twenty-One: Fine Again. Hope you enjoy! :D

It's kinda weird having Charon fight by himself, with Aimee passed out and whatnot... I liked how it came out, but I'm not that good with battle scenes Plus I love how (in-game) when Charon senses enemies, he starts swearing like a sailor and losing his cool and shiznit. It's adorable! -makes heart with hands- x3!

Please leave a review! They equal love!

Happy reading, happy writing!

~Konfessionist out!~

"Aimee! Aimee!" Charon howled, practically shoving or barreling over several Brotherhood of Steel soldiers that blocked his path as he ran to his employer.

She was sprawled in the shallow water, arms outstretched at her sides like wings with one of her legs crooked over the edge of the fountain, her brunette curls collecting around her head as it bobbed with the disturbed irradiated water. Blood trickled from a split in her plump bottom lip, staining her teeth pink and running down from the corner of her mouth to tint the water.

Charon fell to his knees on the steps leading up to the fountain and darted his hands in, wrapping them under her armpits to haul her out and she flopped into his lap as a soaking wet mess. Her hair was matted to the curves of her head and the angles of her cheekbones, covering over her closed eyes and he brushed them away. Her body felt cold and limp, arms spilled over her abdomen with her legs strung out between his knees and across the steps.

"Damnit, Aimee…" He growled, glancing over to see Reddin crawl out of the fountain on her own and she yanked off her helmet.

Blood rolled down from the crown of her shaved head and dripped over the side of her face. Water droplets clung to her bulky armor, beading off like a thin layer of sweat as she held her head with one hand, the other propping her up on the steps with her legs still in the fountain.

"Fu- Fuckin' Christ…" She murmured vehemently, looking up at Charon to stare back at him when her wide eyes fell down to Aimee in his lap. "Hey- it's that chick…"

"Reddin! Get your head out of your ass and help us out over here!" Vargas called from somewhere on the battlefield.

The ghoul bodyguard and the Paladin looked up to see a Super Mutant Behemoth wielding a club of what looked to be like a fire hydrant and a large wire basket on its back. A necklace of bones, and even halves of skeletons, strung around its neck as it bellowed at the little ants of chipped power armor that darted around under its massive feet. It was about as tall as the GNR building, and twice as sturdy.

Sonofabitch… Charon seethed, not even bothering to stare up at Reddin as she pulled her helmet back on, grabbed her abandoned laser rifle at the base of the fountain steps, and lunged head-first into the warzone without hesitation.

He tucked his arms under Aimee, one going under her back with the other wrapped under the crook of her knees and he quickly got to his feet. He darted across the plaza, doing the same as before and knocking over Brotherhood of Steel soldiers that were in his path and flew up the small staircase of GNR's entrance and weaved around the sandbag barricade to where their possessions were stashed. He clambered down to his knees and laid her on the ground, pulling his pack over to tuck under her head as a makeshift pillow.

Charon's eyes drifted down her torso as his fingers did, lightly pressing into her ribs to find any damage. He found two fractured ribs, and blood began to matt strands of hair together on the side of her head. He gently parted the strands at the bloody roots to find a deep gash riddling a small spot, and he figured she hit her head on the statue.

Two fractured ribs… Obvious concussion- He began digging through their bags. She can't stay asleep, she might not wake up. He pulled out two Stimpaks and hiked up the hem of her shirt to reveal a ratty nude-colored bra, and he injected her with the Stimpak between two of her ribs till its contents were completely drained. He knew how unsafe it was to use Stimpaks for concussions, so he injected another one into her collarbone in hopes that it would alleviate some of her pain.

Charon knew he had to get her inside- inside was the only place that was safe and quiet where he could get Aimee some medical help without the threat of a lumbering Super Mutant Behemoth swinging at them with a fire hydrant as a weapon. His hard eyes darted up to the locked doors of the GNR radio building, then back to the Super Mutant Behemoth that stormed about the plaza, swinging at soldiers.

One soldier went flying towards them, and instinctively Charon braced himself over Aimee so she wouldn't get hit by the body. The soaring soldier collided into the sandbag barricade nearby, demolishing the wall so sandbags littered the floor with heavy thumps and he was sprawled on top of it, laser rifle in his lap, and he tried to pull himself to his feet. A sandbag knocked out one of Charon's elbows, causing him to fall next to Aimee, and he growled at the soldier.

The Brotherhood of Steel warrior looked over to Charon as he got to his feet, leaning into a stone pillar for support as he reloaded his laser rifle.

"Is that- Aimee?" He asked, momentarily stopping his reloading session to point down at the battered woman- it was Knight Captain Colvin's voice.

Charon clambered to his feet, pulling out blankets from Aimee's backpack and tossed it next to his unconscious employer as he got to his knees at her side once more.

"Aim for the eyes." He instructed sternly, sitting Aimee up slightly with one hand to pull her wet shirt over her head with the other. He had to get her soaking garments off of her and get her into something warmer, and cleaner.

"Wha- What?" Colvin stammered, slightly taken aback by the ghoul undressing his employer.

"Aim for the eyes!" Charon bellowed, turning his chin up over his shoulder to glare at the Knight Captain, and pointed out at the battlefield that was taking place in the plaza. "Disorient it by taking out its eyes!"

"Ri- Right!" He exclaimed in a baffled tone, cocking his laser rifle with a melancholy whir of power and jumped over the discarded sandbags, hopping down the stairs and jumping into battle once again.

He shook his head and turned back to Aimee, laying her back down to unlace her boots and yank them off, then tugged at her shorts and pulled those off too. He went to her backpack, finding that she had no clean clothes and dug into his bag with a throaty grumble, pulling out a slightly bloodied off-white shirt. It was part of the collection of "leisure" clothes that she bought for him. He tugged it over her head, sliding her arms into the sleeves and grabbed for the blanket and wrapped it around her, tucking the folds under her body. He began to clean the dried blood on her chin and knees, and did what he could to clean the crimson gunk from her curls. The infuriated howl of the Super Mutant Behemoth brought him back to the problem that screamed at him- getting Aimee inside.

Charon got to his feet, pulled his combat shotgun from his back and ran to the top of the stairs at his side. He halted himself to look over his shoulder at his unconscious employer for a moment, and then darted down the stairs to the centerpiece of the plaza where some soldiers took refuge to reload weapons or hide from the Behemoth.

"Aim for the eyes," He directed, pointing at the Behemoth. "It can be taken down faster that way."

"You again?" Vargas looked to Charon over his shoulder, getting up from his crouched position. "What did you say?"

"I said aim for the eyes." He snarled callously, glare baring down on the Paladin's shoulders.

"I meant are you trying to tell me what to do? Are you, a ghoul, directing what a Brotherhood of Steel warrior should do? Why don't you go find a nice, quiet graveyard to play walking dead in, zombie?" He barked.

Charon growled savagely, hooking his rotting fingers into the neck opening of Vargas' armor and yanked him close to his ravaged face, almost lifting the man off the ground.

"I've been in this fucking round-about longer then you've been alive with your head up your ass- and you have the gal- the nerve- to tell me how to operate on the battlefield?" He shoved the Paladin back, almost knocking him off his feet, but he caught his balance quickly. "That armor you're wearing? It doesn't mean shit to me," He spat. "You might as well be wearing tin foil- at least you'll be shining."

"You shuffling brain-eater!" He exclaimed, pointing his laser rifle at him. "I outta shoot you!"

"I should do the same," He agreed. "But I can guarantee that your body will drop to the ground faster than you even knew what the fuck happened to you and your pathetic skin-bag hide."

"Charon! Vargas!" Lyons exclaimed, stumbling over to the two of them. "Stop dawdling and take down that Behemoth!"

"Aim for its eyes," Seriously- were these people a bunch of bigoted retards? "Herd it towards the Metro Station as well. It could be used to our advantage- use its power against it."

"How so?" She asked, enthralled by his budding plan.

"It has two advantages, strength and size. We can use its size against it." He explained.

She smirked a little in understanding. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall, huh?" She glanced over to Paladin Vargas and furrowed her brows together. "Vargas! Are your orders unclear, or are you waiting for a fucking permission slip? Go! Tell the others to lead it to the Metro Station and aim high!"

"Ye- Yes!" He quickly scurried away, directing the other scattered soldiers of their new orders when Lyons stepped closer to Charon.

"I saw Aimee- go flying, I mean, when the bus exploded…" She muttered, glancing over to him. "Is she going to be alright? The Brotherhood of Steel would like to give her the honor of coming amongst our ranks, and give gratitude for saving Reddin once she awakens. She would have certainly died if it wasn't for her."

He snorted slightly at the hilarity, as this would be the last thing Aimee would want upon awakening- another fan club.

"I certainly hope that your plan works, Charon… For the sake of my men." She finished, almost hopefully, before darting away to the members of the Lyons Pride and to leave him alone by the fountain to watch them shoot at the Behemoth.

Charon looked back to the corner of the plaza where he left Aimee, almost wanting to go back over to her to brave the eye of the storm but he knew better than that. The only way to get her inside sooner was to quickly wrap up the battlefield with a nice pretty bow- who knew how much longer it would take with the Tin Can Cadets running the fucking program?

He looked back to the Behemoth stumbling about the plaza, swinging at a small group of BoS warriors that had collected, but had missed. A geyser of thick scarlet suddenly sprang forth from one of its eye sockets, causing it to stagger back a bit with the force of the hit after glowering down on the armored soldiers. It exhaled a long and loud roar of agony and frustration, swinging at them again, and again missing. This was his turn, now- he'd get the other eye, even if it killed him.

Charon ran forward, dodging some of the scattering warriors that were trying to escape from the half-blind Super Mutant Behemoth's uneven path. Some were unfortunate, getting trampled on as if one massive footfall was like a stampeding herd of angry Brahmin, and their power armor did nothing to protect them. It was the equivalent of him stepping on a sheet of scrap metal. Blood and innards spewed from every orifice their heads contained, the pressure of the Behemoth's foot rolling out their inner contents as if they were simple tubes of toothpaste with a shiny tube container.

He ducked under some high-aimed laserfire- he was partial to having a head- and continued sprinting along till he was on the edge of the Behemoth's incoherent pathway, aiming his combat shotgun at its head. No matter what, his shotgun was loyal to him- pointblank or a far off distance, he could hit a range of targets due to the fact that the spread of his buckshot was controlled because of a piece he had assembled himself and slapped it onto his weapon many years ago. It was the weapon that was modified and assigned to him back in that damned program… When he was being "trained" to become a "bodyguard".

The ghoul mentally shook his head of the thought. He couldn't get distracted- not now, when their victory was almost imminent.

He brought himself back to what was happening, retracing his aim on the Behemoth's head again and began unloading shell after shell. It ripped through the air like it were tissue paper, ringing a grating, raw roar of release as it struck home amongst the Mutant's gnarly yellow features. It caused blood to spill down from the new scratches and injuries, right between the eyes and in a little trail over its missing eye and down its cheek- just a bit more to the right, and it wouldn't have sight at all…

Charon quickly ran to the side of the fountain and out of the Behemoth's way so he could find a relatively safe spot to reload his shotgun, looking up to see the giant Super Mutant continue to stumble around. It really was having difficulty getting around with only one eye to see through.

He got up again and followed it closely, running at its side with his shotgun held in front of his body till he was a head of it by a few yards, jerking back to turn around and aim for its head again. Aiming high again, he was willing to give it another try as Brotherhood of Steel soldiers were shooting stripes of red at the back of its head. The plaza began to smell like frying blood and the pungent odor of burning, rancid flesh. He shot again, in another diagonal trail dancing across its face before another geyser of blood shot out from its only remaining eye, profusely pouring from its eye socket and down the angle of its cheek to its jaw. It roared again, dropping its hydrant club to the ground and continued staggering about the plaza as if it were a small child struggling to learn how to walk with its arms slightly outstretched as if looking for something to steady itself on.

Charon quickly evaded its path to jump over to the fountain, reloading his combat shotgun once again to go back to shooting. He instead began aiming for its massive legs in an attempt to cripple them- it was so close to the Metro Station, now. Just a few more shells, just a few more uncertain steps, and the fight would be over.

But the sound of another weapon began to howl over the sound of his combat shotgun and the laser rifles, the noise of its fire carrying across the battlefield to him out of pure familiarity. It wasn't a laser rifle, which all of the BoS warriors had, and it wasn't another combat shotgun… The click and release was repetitive- an automatic weapon. It sounded like a-

He froze with shock. –a 10mm SMG. He darted his eyes over to the corner where he abandoned Aimee, seeing her standing at the top of the stairs with her bare feet braced apart and Elaine held by one hand as she blearily aimed at the Super Mutant Behemoth with blank, grey eyes. An infuriated look tangled with her usually tranquil features, and she slowly made her way down the steps one by one. Her porcelain legs were bare, the dirty shirt he dressed her with whipping about her curvy frame and clung to her broad hips as she walked towards the fountain to get closer to her large target. It caused some of the warriors to stop momentarily out of bewilderment, when they realized that it was the Lone Wanderer- practically half naked and seemed to be a walking shell of what she once was before. Dried blood caked her scraped knees, and fresh ruby streams rolled down the side of her face.

"Aimee!" Charon exclaimed, getting up to run towards her when the Super Mutant Behemoth walked into his path, causing him to stumble backward and land on his back in a clap of dirt. He quickly recomposed himself and grabbed for his shotgun, getting to his feet in a crouch to steady himself and shoot at its legs again.

Blood was streaming from its eye sockets and its knees, dribbling off to mark its confused trail before another load of buckshot buried itself into the yellow flesh of one of its shins, causing it to trip forward. Its shadow neared the ground as it hitched and its head smashed into the hood of the Metro Station, causing it to collapse around its skull and it gave a few more gurgles of near-death. Unable to get up, floundering slightly in a struggle, it slowly began to still itself- without noise, without movement, it gave up and passed on.

Some Brotherhood of Steel soldiers began to crowd around it, making sure it was dead and a lot of them began to glance back and forth at each other with amusement laced in the eyes of their helmets. That was when laserfire, streaks of red singeing the air, rounded off as they gave whoops and hollers of victory over the massive kill and triumph. But those who were gawking at the bloody, half-naked, hair dripping, bleary eyed Aimee were too enthralled by her strange appearance to engage in the celebrations.

Aimee lowered Elaine to her side, slowly stepping forward with uncertain footsteps, blood lingering down the side of her face to drip onto the shoulder of his shirt.

"Da- Dad?..." She murmured, arm outstretching slightly with arched fingers, as if trying to grab onto something invisible. "I-… I can't find you… Dad…" She closed her eyes and let Elaine clatter to the ground at her feet, dropping to her knees.

"Aimee!" Charon called, running towards her and wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her from collapsing completely, letting his shotgun fall to the ground next to hers.

But she was already out of it again. Head lolling away from him and her damp curls swaying with the gentle wind, short legs numb under her body and sprawled at his knees with her arms in limp sleep at her sides. He quickly slapped his combat shotgun on his back, picked her up with both of his hands now free and strolled across the plaza with her in his embrace and his head held high. He could hear the warriors completely stop celebrating to watch what was happening and murmur to each other, voicing their confusion or explaining how surprised they were that a pretty girl like her was allowing a ghoul to carry her as if she were his new bride.

"Charon!" Colvin called behind him, but he didn't slow down. The Knight Captain was at his side in mere moments, outstretching a hand to Aimee. "Here, let me help you with Ai-"

"You lay a hand on her, and you're never getting it back from me…" He snarled protectively through bared, yellow teeth; his eyes hardened down onto him in a blizzard of icy shrapnel and pin-pricked pupils.

He opened his mouth to object when Lyons came up behind him, clamping a hand down on his armored shoulder and shaking her head- telling him that it would be wise to heed the ghoul's warning and back off.

Charon walked to where he had left Aimee at the beginning of battle, noting the small droplets of blood that led in a trail from the spot where she was laid all the way to the fountain where she collapsed. Shooting at the Super Mutant Behemoth, she had a look in her eyes… It was pure rage- and not the kind you were aware of, the kind you didn't talk about… The blind rage. It was like she couldn't quite grasp where she was or what she was supposed to do; and all she knew was that she had a gun in her hand and a massive target in front of her. That was the kind of blind rage you should fear, because that's the sort of rage that runs off of almost nothing at all.

He collected their belongings and stuffed them into their packs, setting Aimee down for a moment to throw them onto each of his shoulders and picked her up once again bridal-style with her arms spilled over her abdomen. He walked to the entrance of the GNR building and pressed a finger to the intercom.

"Let us in." He demanded hoarsely.

"Well- it seems that the threat of the Super Mutants has been neutralized, and the Behemoth has been taken care of…" The man's voice drawled.

"I have a wounded girl here that needs medical attention." He snapped. "Are you going to let us in, or do I have to kick this fucking door down?"

There was a moment of insulted silence over the intercom before a buzz of admittance droned over the small speaker. Charon yanked the door open and strolled in, looking down at the battered woman in his arms.

Good God, he hadn't felt so worn for wear in a long time… This woman was going to be the death of him- or be the reason why he turned feral.

As he climbed up the stairs and past the lingering stares of question the Brotherhood of Steel warriors that lined every shadow of the GNR lobby shot them, Aimee dug her fingers into the front of his armor. She tilted her head slightly to get closer to his broad chest, smearing blood up his exposed bicep, and murmured something that sounded vaguely familiar to "Char-bear".

But the ghoul must have misheard her.