I didn't intend for this chapter to have so much smut in it... it just sort of happened. I hope you enjoy nonetheless. I certainly loved writing it. As always, I have Pattyn to thank for her shower of compliments that never fails to inflate my ego to ridiculous and obnoxious proportions, as well as for being understanding, funny, and generally quite genius. A thank you also to DaLover who, because of Pattyn's generous shout-out, has come to read my little story too :3 I'm really glad you enjoy it, DaLover! Thanks for taking the time to read and review.


Leah perched on the wooden post at the foot of the bed, legs dangling as she watched Charon move about the room. With meticulous, unhurried movements, he collected supplies and gathered them all onto the bed behind her. The ground was littered with debris, bits and pieces of weapons strewn about the floor and shelves. The worn black of their leather armor peeked out from between the cracked cabinet doors.

Charon took a seat on the chair across from the bed, an old combat shotgun in hand. He set about taking the weapon apart and Leah found herself captivated watching him work, such broad hands steady around the delicate parts, which he let balance on his legs when he didn't need them.

Leah's bag was already packed and ready beside the door. Inside waited her Xuanlong rifle, SMG, and Victory rifle. She'd also stuffed a few grenades and her shishkebob in there for good measure.

But Charon was as thorough as he was patient. His head bent low over the scattered pieces of shotgun, fingers manipulating the tiny metal and wooden parts, he worked in complete silence.

This was their last night together before the fight. What could be their last night together ever. And she'd be damned if she spent it watching Charon tinker with old weapons. A sly smile rolled through her lips as she released the bar she sat on from her hands, electing instead to run one of them up under her shirt. She bit her lip to keep quiet as she teased circles around each nipple, feeling the sensitive nubs harden beneath her ministrations. She hadn't pleasured herself since Megaton—she hadn't needed to with Charon around. It was especially thrilling now, though, with him sitting in his chair fiddling with a shotgun while she arched on the foot-post of the bed, fiddling with herself. Cool air rushed into the opening of her shirt and sent goosebumps all over her skin.

Biting her lip to keep from whimpering, Leah skimmed her other hand down her stomach and slid it into her shorts, slowly swinging her knees out for better access. Her eyes closed as she found her own weeping arousal, barely stopping her breath from hitching as she pushed two fingers into her entrance. It was agonizingly good with the compulsion to moan bitten back and the excitement of her lover just across the room. Her toes curled against the cold tile floor and she slid a hand through her hair, fisted a handful of strands between her fingers as the other hand started a frantic pace.

A long and shaky sigh tumbled from her lips as she rubbed her thumb hard over the swollen nub at her center, fingers slick with her arousal. She ran her hand over her forehead, elbow trembling from the pleasure.

A rough hand abruptly gripped her wrist, startling her off-balance as her eyelids popped open.

"Oh!" she cried and her hand froze at once, fingers buried halfway inside of her center.

Charon was staring at her, his expression stoic, shotgun abandoned on the ground. Anybody else would have felt snubbed by his indifference, but Leah knew better. She saw the spark in his eyes that ignited and burst into a full-grown flame that seemed to burn her skin as he dropped his gaze down her body and then dragged it reluctantly back up.

"I see in my preparations for tomorrow, I've neglected something very important," he rasped, drawing her arm slowly outward. Her eyes followed his wide hand, clasped tight around her wrist, as his lips grazed the inside of her elbow. A shudder wracked through her spine as he lowered her arm to her side. His other hand hooked under her knee and suddenly jerked it upward, wrapping her leg around his waist.

Her gaze floated back up to meet his and she found it abruptly very hard to breathe. He released her wrist and tangled his hand in her hair, pulling her face up to his so that he could kiss her.

This kiss was not Charon's normal kiss, passionate but controlled, loving, avid. No, this kiss was much like the very first they'd shared: hungry, greedy, pulling at the strings of her lust to play beautiful music across her skin. Her heart was the instrument and Charon became not only the conductor but every musician in the symphony, stepping closer so that his body pressed flush against hers, his hips fitting oh so perfectly between her thighs, the rough material of his pants scratching against the sensitive skin there.

Leah's heart skipped a beat as Charon's mouth trailed down her cheek, hunted along her jaw line, lathed her throat with devoted attention. He moved his hands to the small of her back. With a purr of desire, she used his hold as support and leaned back, sweeping everything on the bed onto the floor with her forearm and looking up at him with the glimmer of a challenge in her eyes. His burning stare more than returned the sentiment as he let her fall back onto the mattress. She crawled backward until her head hit a pillow, licking her lips. Without breaking eye contact once, Charon palmed the post and leveled it in half a second, landing on his hands and knees in front of her, feral as the predator they both knew him to be deep down. Exuding pure sexual prowess, he stalked his way up her body.

Leah swallowed hard, her pulse rushing in her ears, knowing she probably couldn't have moved if she'd wanted to. He came to a stop when their faces were parallel. She was just dragging a shaky breath through her teeth when his hands found the edge of her shirt and yanked it up over her head. Gasping quietly, she lifted her arms and obliged him. He tossed the flimsy material away, sitting back up to admire her bare torso. Leah felt like a slave on the block, being studied and searched by a master who wanted to know he was getting his money's worth. She blinked away her sudden, unexplainable nerves and took a shuddering breath.

When Charon's eyes finally returned to hers, it sent shivers down her spine. She'd never seen anything clearer than the "I'm going to fuck your brains out" look in his tortured gaze and it never failed to get her riled up.

Smirking, as if wanting to make her wait, Charon ran the flat of his hands over every inch of her chest. His calloused fingertips scorched each pore in her lovely smooth skin as he dragged them, light as a feather, up her sides, in toward her collarbone, down over her breasts. She arched desperately up into his touch, letting out a small whimper.

Charon twirled designs into the light sheen of sweat on her stomach with his forefinger, spiraled circles around her bellybutton, traced lines up under the curves of her breasts, flattened his fingertip over her pert nipples. Her chest rose and fell in a quickening frequency as her need grew more urgent. She grabbed his hand, making him pause, and slowly dragged his fingertips up the rest of her torso, raking breasts and collarbone and chin before she found her mouth with his hand and she licked the pad of his forefinger.

His eyes widened immediately and his jaw grew slack as she drew his finger into her mouth, swirling her tongue around the tip of his rough digit and suckling softly. Something akin to a strangled groan rumbled in his throat at the sensation. He tried to refocus on exploring her body, but the suction she was putting on the sensitive tip of his finger was enough to have his erection asking—no, demanding—why they were both still so clothed.

"If you want me out of these clothes, I'm going to need my finger back," he growled, teeth clenched as he grew momentarily woozy from desire.

Leah obliged, releasing his finger with a slight pop from those thick lips of hers, lips that he knew felt fucking amazing around another part of his anatomy. He nearly ripped his shirt from his body and it, too, fell forgotten to the floor. Leah was already yanking his belts from the loops on his pants and he snarled as her shorts put up a fight, the button just too small for his big fingers.

"God damn it, Leah, if you don't help me get these off –,"

With a dusty chuckle, she released his second belt and slid her shorts off in one fluid motion. Charon made quick work of his second belt and pants, shoving them down around his ankles and struggling to kick them off. He paused as Leah's small hand stroked his cheek, drawing his attention back to her eyes. "Slow, Charon," she murmured with a quirk of a smile. "We've got all the time in the world."

"My brain acknowledges that," he replied, covering her hand with his and kissing her palm. "But my body is not so patient."

A small moan fluttered on her lips and she let her legs fall open in response. Charon's breath hitched as he caught sight of her glistening entrance. He maneuvered her legs upward, leading her thighs over his shoulders and curling his arms around her ass so that his fingertips could just tickle her sides.

Charon didn't bother glancing up at her before he ran a lick up over her wet folds. Every muscle in her body tensed in the shock of overwhelming pleasure, fingers flexing and splaying out, getting caught in the sheets.

Charon couldn't hold back a primal groan. Leah had the best flavor in the whole goddamn world and he would stay up all night tasting her if he could. His arousal was pressed awkwardly between his stomach and the bed, arms cramped where they were angled under her back, but he'd stay here for the rest of the night if she asked him to. He was just calculating how long it would take her to come when she let out an arching screech and her hips lurched upward into his face. He licked and sucked her folds, assisting her through her climax until she pushed him away with her heels, body shivering from the overstimulation.

Charon trailed his hands down her legs as he sat up, from her hips down to the soles of her feet—eliciting a soft, breathless giggle from his smoothskin—before dancing his fingertips back up the insides of her calves. His erection was straining for friction by the time he returned to her level for another hungry kiss, tongues warm and soft in their contact between lips.

"Smoothskin . . . Leah . . ."

The way he breathed her name, choked up and rough with passion, had goosebumps pattering all over her skin once more. Her chest heaved with her panting as she struggled to regain her breath from her orgasm.

"Not sure if I can . . . keep waiting," he managed through gritted teeth. His lips were patient but insistent as he nuzzled her neck and nipped at the soft skin of her shoulder.

Leah gasped through a smile and ran the inside of a knee down his side. "Then take me," she whispered in a grating murmur against his ear.

"Gladly," he growled, rough hands pinning her shoulders down. In an impressive feat of flexibility, Leah curled her legs up and splayed them outward, giving him space to settle between them and hook his elbows underneath her knees. He flashed her one last searing glance before she felt the tip of his length graze her sensitive entrance.

"Oh," she gaped, hands clutching the bed sheets. She braced herself and kept Charon's eye contact as he slowly, s-l-o-w-l-y, pushed into her, inch by painstaking inch. Every ridge of ruined skin sent a tremor of sensation through all of her nerves like electricity sizzling up her spinal cord. He'd made it about halfway when he lazily withdrew and slid back in, feeling her stretch around him because she was so tight, she was an elixir, she was a fucking miracle.

"Oh, yes," she egged him on, fingers tangling in her hair as the pleasure threatened to short-circuit her brain. "Charon!" she cried, leaning up to bite down on the thick flesh of his shoulder.

He hissed a four-letter word, couldn't bring himself to even recognize what he was saying as her teeth stung his skin, pain mingling with the ecstasy of her walls tightening and flexing around him. She raked his skin with her fingernails, screamed his name, begged him not to stop, to go faster, harder, deeper!

Charon obliged with no objection. He'd be a slave for her any fucking day, especially when she was scratching against his body and her ankles were locked behind his back, ensuring that he wasn't going anywhere until they both got off. He found her collarbone with his mouth and sucked hard, savored her keening whimpers and how she pumped her hips up to his in response.

"I'm gonna come, I'm gonna come!" Leah moaned, tossing her head back and forth, back arching, muscles bunching. Her climax spun through her like a corkscrew, and she threw her head back against the pillows, nails curling into Charon's rough skin. "Don't stop!" she pleaded as she clamped down around his length, drawing a strangled groan from his throat. "Charon, don't stop!"

Who was he to refuse her wish? Hands gripping the bed sheets in desperation, he angled her thighs upward and slammed into her at an increased pace, spurred on by her orgasm. He had satisfied his woman and now the only goal was that of every red-blooded male with a beautiful female writhing and whimpering beneath him.

Leah propped herself up on her elbows and rolled her eyes back, shoulders trembling at the pleasure he drove into her, thrust after thrust. She gripped the back of his neck and pressed her lips to his temple. "Come for me," she pleaded. "Ooh, Charon, come for me."

"Oh, God, yes, keep going," he groaned, burying his face into the hollow of her throat as he gave another sharp push into her.

She squealed and dug her nails into his shoulders. "Mmn, Charon! Oh, fuck! I want to see you come! I want to feel you come!" she screamed, legs wrapped tightly around his waist, hips accepting every shove and giving back for every thrust.

Charon rumbled out a deep snarl as he burst into his own fruition, Leah's tight body milking him of every last drop. He ducked his forehead against her collarbone, gasping for breath, arms shaking with the effort of holding himself up.

"Jesus Christ," Leah sighed, lips numb with fatigue, as Charon pecked a kiss to her cheek and crumpled onto the bed beside her. He had barely enough energy left to find and grasp her hand between their bodies.

"Looks like we've got some cleaning up to do," she mumbled, head lolling to the side so she could take in the mess of supplies she'd made by scraping them into a pile on the floor. "Sorry."

"Smoothskin, you should never apologize after sex like that," he panted, an arm thrown over his eyes as he tried to regain his breath.

She smiled. "You're right, I guess. That was some five-star work, Charon."

"Your praise is all I seek, smoothskin."

"Then I'll praise you every time. You're great in bed, really fucking hot, and I love the hell out of you. Good enough?"

Charon paused, a smirk growing on his lips. "For now, smoothskin. For now."


Sunshine glinted off of shining metal, throwing beams of sunlight in all directions. Anxiety roiled through the crowd like a gust of wind, summoning goosebumps on skin, dilating eyes, pushing many to the point of hyperventilation. A shadow bathed every soldier in the courtyard and they tilted their faces upward to watch the colossal robot soar overhead.

Two soldiers in the back, however, felt no such concern. The shorter one pulled her helmet from her head and grinned up at her companion. "You excited?"

Charon took off his helmet as well and yanked his smoothskin into a passionate kiss. "I would love nothing more than to kill the bastards who tried to take you from me. And then –,"

"Fuck me silly?" she guessed with a sparkle in her eyes.

"Correct."

"Then eat?"

"Yes."

"Then maybe we can make love after."

"I'd enjoy nothing more."

Paladin Glade nudged Vargas beside him. The latter cleared his throat. "The hell do you want, man?"

"You see Leah and her pet back there?"

Vargas glanced over his shoulder to see the girl grinning up at the ghoul, who had a large hand tangled in her hair as he kissed her. He shrugged. "So what?"

"Kept me up all fucking night last night with their howling. Couldn't get a minute's sleep. I'd hate him if I wasn't so jealous."

"I hear you there, Glade."

Charon glanced up, feeling eyes on his back. Two of the paladins ahead were spearing Leah with the occasional glance, voices low as they whispered to one another. He straightened his shoulders and made to step forward.

"Oh, ignore them," Leah sighed, grabbing him by the wrist and stopping him with a roll of her eyes.

"They're talking about you," he said with narrowed eyes.

"I can tell." Her smile was smug. "Boys will be boys. But men," she added, emphasizing the word with a gentle prod to his shoulder, "get to stay up pleasing women all night."

"All right, listen up!" a woman's voice yelled from the front of the group, cutting off Charon's burst of laughter. Sarah Lyons stepped up facing them all, her helmet held to her side. "This isn't going to be a walk in the park. We've all known that from the start. And you wouldn't be here if I didn't think you couldn't handle a few pussy Enclave soldiers. Stay close, stay tight, listen for my word. Oh, and Leah's word goes, too. As well as Charon. They tell you to jump, you should already be in the air. Keep in mind, Pride: Nobody touches Autumn. He's Leah's. She's got a score or two to settle. All right, boys. This is the moment we've been working our asses off for! We are the Lyons' Pride! Are you ready to kick some ass?"

There was a unified shout of bloodlust and excitement. Leah's and Charon's voices joined in the battle cry and they lifted their weapons into the air among all the others'.

"Good!" Sarah shouted, authority strong in her voice as she waved a frantic arm toward the double doors of the Citadel. "Let's go, troops! Out, out, out!"

The silver-clad bodies all ran for the exit, the couple in the back slipping their helmets back on. The group burst out into the Capital Wasteland. Yells, gunshots, and explosions were their greetings. Charon grabbed Leah's hand and held tight, pointing with his shotgun to Liberty Prime. The massive robot was already marching over the bridge toward the Memorial.

"Keep fire off of the robot!" Sarah screamed at them.

Leah and Charon ran to the front of the group, the Vault Girl downing two nearby soldiers with her rifle. They caught up easily with Liberty Prime, who took out an entire vertibird with a bright blue laser. It whirred and spiraled down into the water with a crash of flames.

"Not bad," Charon observed beside her from behind his helmet.

"I've seen better!" Leah cried back, lobbing a grenade. It rolled between the feet of two soldiers, who barely had time to scream before they were blown to bits.

"Where, smoothskin?" her ghoul demanded, swinging his shotgun into another soldier's helmet and knocking him down before blasting his chest full of lead.

"Take one guess," she replied with a smirk that remained hidden behind her helmet, patting him on the rear. Her metal glove clanked against the torso of his armor, but he got the idea and shook his head, his dusty chuckle dampened by his helmet.

"You're a bad liar, smoothskin, but thank –,"

"Democracy will never be defeated!" Liberty Prime announced as he grabbed the two bases of an energy field and ripped them apart, clearing the way.

"You bet your sweet ass it won't!" Leah cried up at the robot with a laugh, dashing quickly into a tollbooth on the side of the bridge. Charon dropped down right beside her, his laughter audible even above all the gunshots as they quickly reloaded.

A metal object came clanking into the tollbooth. Charon grabbed Leah's arm and made to sprint out with her on his back if he had to, but his smoothskin calmly swiped the grenade up and flung it back out of the small window above her head. Charon whooped in amazement and pride.

It exploded two seconds later, sending the soldier who'd thrown it flying back onto his ass as Leah ducked her head to shield herself from the blast. "Quick, let's go," she called and they sprinted out of the tollbooth. With a burst of energy they managed to catch up to Liberty Prime, who was taking gunfire like it was nothing. The Pride was still half a mile behind them, but Charon didn't mind—they worked better on their own anyway. And it was some kind of treat to watch Leah mow down Enclave, lips pulled back into a wicked grin as one-by-one she watched them fall.

The Memorial was in sight now. One last barrier stood between them and Project Purity. Liberty Prime inched his way toward the energy bases, Leah and Charon easily taking out the straggling Enclave that tried in vain to take him out with pistols and rifles.

Liberty Prime absolutely demolished the last barrier, slamming one base to the ground and then the other, where it toppled and sank into the Potomac with a large splash that speckled their armor with water.

Leah let out a trill of laughter and sprinted the last few yards to the Memorial. She knocked one Enclave soldier to the ground with the butt of her gun and lifted her boot to kick the second in the chest. Clumsy in his Tesla armor, he stumbled to the ground while Leah dispatched his companion with her Xuanlong rifle. She turned to take care of the second, but Charon had already caught up and gotten rid of him.

"Ready?" he asked her, voice tinny through the helmet.

"So ready. Sarah didn't leave me Autumn for nothing," she snarled with danger in her voice. They ducked into the dark Memorial, guns at the ready, prepared for anything. Leah grabbed and squeezed Charon's hand once. Dulled as the motion was through their armor, the meaning was all the same.

There was the pattering of boots on tile and Leah rounded the corner with an ear-shattering battle cry. Four Enclave soldiers had guns pointed at her and one stepped forward, a minigun in his hands.

"Surrender now, and we will let you live," he announced, face hard.

Leah held her hands up, feeling Charon's confused gaze on her back as she lifted her helmet off of her head. Her black hair cascaded around her ear and she cocked a grin at Mr. Minigun. "Fuck you."

With a flash of her arm, Leah hurled her helmet and it clocked the soldier right in the skull with a sickening crunch. She pulled the pin from a frag grenade and rolled it, turning and somersaulting behind the nearest wall, where Charon pulled her up onto her feet and admonished her sharply for her stupid, bold actions. The door opened, letting in the bright light of the sunset outside and they both aimed their weapons at the newcomer.

"Weapons down, you crazy bastards," Sarah snapped, trailing into the room with Glade and Vargas behind her. Charon growled the tiniest bit and Leah whispered, "Enclave first, then perverted Brotherhood members."

"Right," he agreed coldly.

"Let's go," Sarah ordered brusquely, leading them toward the door to the rotunda. She allowed Leah to go first and the Vault Girl kicked the door open with a boot.

"A flair for the dramatics," Charon said, rolling his eyes at his smoothskin, who let out a bark of laughter. They all filed into the rotunda to see Colonel Augustus Autumn with his pistol at the ready.

"You again!" he roared as everybody in the room tensed for combat. He pointed a fury-shaking hand at Leah. "I can't say I'm surprised. You and your ilk seem hell-bent on destroying everything our government has worked to achieve! You've done enough damage for today. Let's end this!"

"Gladly, you son of a bitch," Leah screamed as she leapt for him. He shot his pistol and she felt the burning laser graze her side, but it wasn't enough to stop her. She tackled the colonel and all excesses were drowned out: the sound of the Pride and Charon taking up arms against the other soldiers in the room, the pain in her side, the sound of the siren going off from the Project, all washed away. All she could see and feel were her hands closed tightly around Autumn's throat as she squeezed her thumbs inward as hard as she could. He kicked beneath her body, nearly bucking her off, but she released one hand from his throat to punch him in the nose.

Autumn shrieked in pain and she delivered blow after blow, until his face was black and blue, lips swollen, nose broken. "This is for my father, you shit-faced coward!" She kept punching long after he'd fallen still and the gunfire in the room had died down. She didn't realize she was crying until one of her tears hit the back of her hand on his throat and that stilled her.

"Smoothskin."

She looked up to see Charon standing beside her, a hand held out. She took it and allowed him to pull her into his arms.

"I'm proud of you," he rasped in her ear. "Autumn will burn in hell for what he's done. I couldn't have delivered him to the underworld any better myself."

Leah chuckled sadly and kissed his chin. "I'm glad this shit is over with," she sighed, drying the last tear from her eye and smiling at her ghoul. She turned to Sarah, who was wiping sweat and blood from her face with a dull rag. "Is that it? All we have to do is activate the purifier now?"

"We just need to get this room secured," she sighed, looking tired, but satisfied. She headed for one of the doors and then a voice shouted, "Hello? Hello, is anyone there?" from the intercom at the top of the stairs.

Sarah rushed over to tap the reply button. "Dr. Li? It's Sarah Lyons. I'm in the control room. We're both here. What's going on?"

"I've been monitoring the equipment remotely and we have a serious problem," Li cried back. "The facility has been damaged during the fighting. Some of it looks accidental, some of it may have been sabotage. There's pressure building up in the holding tanks. It needs to be released now, or else the whole facility could explode!"

Leah facepalmed, trying to hide the spike in her pulse. It was like a goddamn movie. One thing after another.

"To release the pressure, you're going to have to turn the purifier on, do you understand me? It has to be turned on now! If I'm reading this right, I'm afraid there are lethal levels of radiation inside the chamber. I'm sorry. I wish there were some other way, but there's just no time. It has to be done now or the damage will be catastrophic."

Her voice crackled to a stop and Leah felt Charon's hands clamp down on her shoulders in concern. Sarah turned to them with her shoulders set and sighed. "Well, so much for celebrating. Who's gonna be doing this? Should we draw straws? I mean, I'm the oldest, so I think –,"

"I'll do it," Charon interrupted her casually.

"What?"

"What?" Leah echoed, whirling on him with fear in her eyes. "No, Charon! I won't let you do that!"

"Why?" he asked calmly, stroking her hair back to soothe her. "A little radiation's nothing to me. In fact, it'll heal the bruises I got getting my ass over here. Trust me, smoothskin." He cupped her face and kissed her hard. "Stay here. I will do it."

"Charon, please," she begged, grabbing at his armor as he pulled out of her grasp. "After my dad – I can't afford to –,"

"I love you," he cut her off.

"I love you, too," she murmured, with defeat in her blue eyes. There was no other option and she knew it.

"The code, smoothskin," he reminded her. "The code."

"Two-one-six," she said quietly, his hand grasped desperately in hers. He slid it out of her hold and stepped into the airlock, which closed with a hiss behind him. Leah pressed herself up against the glass, regretting it instantly.

"Please hurry!" she pleaded, tears prickling in her eyes. "God, please hurry."

"Relax, smoothskin," Charon said, rolling his eyes as he strutted to the control panel. He pressed the code and then the enter button and grinned at her over his shoulder. "See? No harm done –,"

There was a resounding boom and the ground began to shake. Leah's face twisted into an expression of horror and she threw herself at the glass, slamming her fists against the window. "CHARON! GET OUT OF THERE!"

A flash of green light temporarily blinded all of them, even Sarah as she tugged at Leah, trying to get her to move. "Come on, we need to leave!"

"NOT without him!" Leah shouted, pushing the sentinel away. "Charon!"

Her ghoul turned to her with a glint of fear in his eyes. He rushed to press the airlock button, but it was too late. There was one more flash of light and then the core ruptured with a blast of water and radiation that Leah could feel even through the layers of glass.

Leah remembered falling back down the stairs. She remembered hitting the bottom and the splitting pain in the back of her head. She remembered watching Charon run toward her, one hand outstretched.

She remembered him screaming her name.

And then . . . she remembered the darkness.