Mark could only watch as Faith limped towards him, his eyes straying down to her legs and noted the pair of cut off Brahmin skin pants she wore. Around her left calf was a bandage. He met her midway, unsure of what to do, something he still wasn't used to feeling. "Finley says you're healing nicely." He finally offered lamely.
She nodded, shifting her weight gingerly. "Yeah. I took a couple Stimpaks back at Raven Rock and then when Kane found me; he took real good care of me."
"How did he find you?"
"No idea. I had just gotten outside and I see him there, shooting at the Vertibirds."
Faith watched curiously as SYSTEM ERROR flashed across Eden's screen, arching an eyebrow. It took several minutes for the error messages to stop running across the monitor but when they did, Eden's voice sounded small, if that were possible for a computer.
"Perhaps I have been mistaken, I seem to-" He faltered and then SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED began blinking. "I will aid you to the best of my abilities. Run."
Faith had FLOWN. Robots were everywhere, shooting at the Enclave soldiers who seemed to be crawling out of the woodwork to kill her. She fired haphazardly, to busy making for one of the exits she had seen on a wall legend when she had been trying to find Eden.
She turned down what had been a hangar, noting how it was empty and almost smiled when she seen the patch of sky. Ignoring the pain in her ribs, Faith hauled ass towards the still open doors, hearing the sounds of explosions behind her and knew Eden's self-destruct had gone off.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!" She screamed as she kept running and leapt right out into the air, her eyes clenching shut as harsh, rocky ground rose up to meet her. The impact was brutal and drove the air from her body, leaving her lying there feeling like her bones had been shattered and then liquefied on top of not being able to breathe.
The overall feeling of impending doom was not helped when she literally felt the ground shaking beneath her, followed by large boulders and debris flying overhead as the explosions shook Raven Rock to its very core. The sounds of Vertibirds taking off were just a background noise, though she could also make out gunfire.
"Can you get up?"
It took her a moment to realize that she was being spoken too, finally able to draw in a breath; and it hurt just to inhale. "Kane?"
The Ghoul glanced down at her, frowning for a moment before nodding.
"And he brought me back here." Faith concluded, finishing telling the tale with a shrug. "We had to stop a lot because I was in pretty bad shape but… Kane took care of me. He also hitched us a ride with a caravan, so we were mostly safe too."
Mark realized just how much he owed the Ghoul, and was also mentally congratulating himself on giving Kane to Faith. He had taken the contract because Faith seemed to get herself in all kinds of trouble, he had been more right than he expected. "So what's the damage report now?" He asked, gesturing to her with one broad sweep.
"Well, Finley managed to mostly fix me up. My ribs are cracked but he's got a plaster on them, says I should be healed up there fully by tomorrow as long as I don't go leaping off anything over three feet. My leg… in a day or two."
"What happened to your leg?"
"Bullets."
He just hugged her close.
Faith had just recounted her Raven Rock escapade for the second time, to Scribe Rothchild, Elder Lyons, Sarah Lyons, and her Lyon's Pride and was now waiting for one of them to speak. She wasn't telling the story again. Of course, she hadn't told the entire thing, she wasn't about to mention her ass whooping to any of them, especially Mark. She was just going to bide her time until she and Austin met again, and they would, then she'd kill him.
"Do you still have the vial of FEV?" Owyn asked after a moment, ignoring Mark's growl.
"Goddamn Owyn, after everythin' she went through to get here, that's all you can say?" He snarled, tempted to reach across the table and strangle the old man.
Owyn waved a lazy hand at Mark, obviously dismissing his implied threats of violence. "I do not mean to belittle what I am sure was a tragic experience, but at the same time, there are matters of the utmost importance we must speak about."
"He's right." Faith sighed; accepting the lit cigarette Mark passed her and inhaled deeply. He was very bad for her. "What's the report on the Memorial?"
"Enclave has completely taken over. They've put up a barrier around the island, we can't even swim across." Sarah said automatically, her forehead crinkling into a frown. "We have patrols keeping an eye on the place but that's about all we can do at the moment."
Faith pulled out a vial from the inside of her shirt, rolling it to Owyn.
Carefully, he picked it up and passed it to Rothchild. "It will properly disposed of after we have examined it." He promised.
"I'd be really careful with it if I were you." She cautioned. "When I was in Vault 87, I found logs about experiments with FEV and genetic mutations. I think that's how the Super Mutants were made."
Rothchild arched both eyebrows. "Really? What else did you find?"
"Vault 87 is their breeding ground. The Mutants are asexual."
Mark really hated it when she went all 'egg head' on him; he had absolutely no idea what she was saying. "Could you-"
"Dumb it down?" Sarah suggested with a cold smirk.
Trying not to smirk either, Faith cleared her throat. "Anyways, the Mutants are neither male nor female." She glanced at Mark, not surprised to see both irritation and comprehension on Mark's face. He loved reminding her how worldly he was but he sure hated any reminders of how ignorant he was in terms of science and books. "So they can't reproduce the way we do. They have to find human victims and take them back to the vault. There they dunk them in FEV, or 'green stuff' as they call it. Some of the victims turn into Super Mutants, others turn into Centaurs, and others just don't make it at all."
This new information registered nothing but silence, each face contemplative.
"Now that we know where they are coming from, we'll have to deal with them." Owyn said finally. "After we handle the situation at the Memorial."
That was what Faith wanted to talk about, the Jefferson Memorial. "What's the game plan?" She demanded, leaning forward on the table.
"Remember Liberty Prime?"
"The big hunk of scrap metal?"
Sarah snickered, ignoring the looks she received from both Rothchild and her father.
"That big hunk of scrap metal," Rothchild said with as much dignity as he could muster. "is how we're going to get past the Enclave's defenses."
"You have no idea how good this feels…"
Chuckling softly, Mark lowered his hand back into the tub, allowing the sponge he held to soak up more of the warm water. He gently scrubbed her back, trailing a finger down a fading wound and then over to the new scar on her side. "Who did this to you?" He murmured, his blood boiling though he managed to keep the anger from his tone.
"I couldn't name a specific face, there were soldiers everywhere." She spoke just as softly, still refusing to name her personal assailant. She could only imagine Mark's wrath if he knew that Austin had literally beat the shit out of her. "It was hell getting out of there."
"Luckily Kane found you."
"Yeah. I'm going to tear up his contract."
"Why?"
She leaned back into his arms, her knees pressing against his, surprised that there was a tub large enough to accommodate them both. "I would feel really bad if he died on my watch. When the Memorial was taken over, I thought he had died… I don't want him to die because he's obligated to me."
The practical side of Mark told him to smack her for being retarded. She needed all the help she could get; THEY needed all the help they could get. Then there was a very tiny part of him that knew this was Faith's decision and she could probably make him very miserable if he contested her. Having a wife had some serious setbacks to it.
He moved to washing her front, knowing she had to be the one and only person who had ever relaxed so completely with him, she was so trusting. Even Nova had usually kept him at a distance, afraid of what he could do to her. Of course, he had had to win Faith's trust; she hadn't just given it to him. He supposed, after saving her ass so many times, she eventually got the message that he wasn't out to kill or maim her. Too bad he hadn't been able to save her this last time.
"I've been meaning to ask how you got this." He murmured, drawing a soapy finger across the scar on her face.
She reached up to feel it, frowning slightly. "At the Memorial, I dodged a laser blast. It clipped me."
There was another source of shame. He should have been there, maybe he would have been able to… well, not prevent what had happened, but done something. "I'm sorry about James, Faith." He said finally, letting the sponge glide into the water in order to wrap his arms around her, resting his chin on top of her head. "He was a good man."
"He was." She whispered, closing her eyes.
The following morning was game day, and everyone in the Citadel was either eager or on edgy. Faith and Mark had emerged from their room and been out long enough to feel the tense atmosphere.
"Faith, come with me. 'Taker, breakfast is being served down the hall." Sarah said as she strode by, not glancing back to see if Faith was following.
Shrugging, Faith went after the other woman. She remembered Sarah from the GNR radio station; she also remembered Sarah and Mark's involvement. At the time however, she hadn't had any claim on Mark so she couldn't hold that against either of them. Quite frankly, she didn't have the energy too. She trailed Sarah down the many halls, finally halting when Sarah stopped, arching an eyebrow at the armor lining the walls.
"I wanted you to know that… that I am proud to fight with you today." Sarah said after a moment. She could not believe she was saying this to the Kid of all people; the first time they had met Faith had been unconscious and didn't look like much. She still didn't look like much, just a scarred up young woman, but Sarah also knew Faith had been places and done things nobody else in the Enclave had, herself included. "I would also like to induct you into the Lyon's Pride as an honorary member."
Faith simply nodded, unsure of what to say.
"Also, I want you to pick one of these suits." Sarah gestured to the armor. "We have Power Armor and Recon Armor."
"I'm not trained for Power Armor, I'll take the Recon." Faith said instantly. She had seen some of the other Pride members wearing it, Gallows had explained -in his short, tense way- that it was best for long range and sneaky fighting, or for those without strength to use the Power Armor. Not to mention her own armor was long dead by this point.
Smiling, Sarah helped Faith into her new armor, glancing up towards the ceiling when the sound of dozens of footsteps passed overheard. "You nervous?"
"A little."
"We'll make it through alright. We got the robot piece of shit, remember?"
Not very reassuring.