Chapter Forty Eight: A Beating Heart and a Microphone
Isaiah Israel Boone. That was his name. With his flush pink skin, and his soft wrinkles that were slowly filling in as he got bigger every day. His eyes were the fresh blue that every baby starts out with, and he had a tuft of blonde hair on his head. So soft and perfect. He had trouble breathing, though, and sometimes he couldn't eat. Had trouble going to the bathroom. But he was getting better every day.
Craig, Veronica and Lily left to deal with Mobius, leaving Harley with Arcade and Isaiah. Arcade explained to her how to use the feeding tube and how to feed him with it, and that other than to feed him, everyone should just leave him be so he can get healthy.
So far, on the day in question, Arcade hadn't gained consciousness once, and Craig, Lily and Veronica had been gone for a few hours. Harley washed clothes in the sink, after shutting down her personality matrix because she was tired of listening to her bitch about being clean. She was a sink, for Christ's sake. The baby cried, but she left him be – he already ate, his diaper was changed, so he should be okay. Arcade also told Harley that the more she picked up the baby, the more dependent he would become as he got older.
Veronica was the first to come back from Mobius's lair. Before talking to Harley, seeing she was busy, she sat down beside the baby, repeatedly cooing his name until it flowed into one long word in Harley's good ear. Between her, the chatting personalities in the Sink, and the running water, she couldn't hear the baby crying - and that scared her. Would she even wake up in the middle of the night if he started crying?
"When I left, Craig was arguing with his brain and Lily was deciding on whether or not she even wanted it back," Veronica leaned up against the door frame. Harley wrang out the still-bloody sheets in the sink and moved them back to the soapy bucket, "How's Arcade been?"
"He hasn't woke up today."
"Not once?"
"No."
Veronica didn't know what to say about that. "Our brains were all there, in jars. Apparently, they all scavenged voice modules and could talk. Maybe it shouldn't surprise me at this point. You'll never guess, Craig's brain is just as stubborn as he is." Veronica and Harley let out a chuckle, "Lily doesn't want to take her brain back. Since she's had it out, she hasn't thought of Leo once. She hasn't been as aggressive."
"So you're saying that all Doc Henry has to do is lobotomize the super mutants to make them docile?"
"That's what I was thinking. We...saw Arcade's brain, too. It was already rotting, like they said. There was nothing to connect it to, so the biogel couldn't keep it preserved. The brain...told me to write this down and give it to you," Veronica slid a piece of paper into her pocket, "I'm...gonna see Arcade."
"Okay."
Lily walked through the door next, saying she didn't take her brain back. Apparently, her brain had tried to convince her to take it back, but it was mostly just Leo. He couldn't chop anything from the tank, and he desperately wanted to leave. Lily felt at peace though, for the first time since she could remember the vault, since before The Master had made her into what she was. She figured Harley would probably never let her hold the baby, but Harley still kept her around, and for that, she was grateful. Even when she first ventured with them, she could tell everyone else was uncomfortable. Not Harley. Harley let her call her "Little Jimmy" and called her "grandma" in return. Lily just wanted to stick around little Isaiah, Harley, Kennedy, Veronica, Cass...it was the first family she had in many, many years...and if she had to get rid of Leo to do it, she would.
Craig walked through the door about ten minutes after Lily, hugging Harley as she hung up a shirt from a line in the botanical garden room. She stiffened, melting a little when he kissed her deaf ear. It felt strange, like she couldn't feel it without being able to hear it.
Craig decided to keep his brain, mostly because he didn't feel any different without it, and he figured it wouldn't hurt to have it. He wasn't less aggressive, he wasn't more aggressive, he wasn't happy, he wasn't sad, it made no change. Out of all of all of them, it affected Craig the least.
They sat on the couch, on the edge of their seats. When was Arcade going to actually...go? Harley wanted to take him to North Vegas and bury him next to her mom, but...how did she know she wasn't going to bury him while he was still alive? Or how did they know he wasn't in their right now, already dead?
"Okay, so...what do we do about the think tanks?" Craig stood up to light a cigarette on the other side of the room.
"Can't we just kill them?" Veronica asked.
"You heard Mobius; he erased some of their memories. They aren't necessarily responsible for this. We let Mobius live, and he was just as responsible as them."
"But the think tanks did this to Arcade! It's their fault he's dying!" Veronica's hands were shaking.
"How do we even go about doing it? It would just be you and I, since the chip in Harley's arm only shuts off when we all get our brains back, and Lily never took hers."
Veronica shrugged, "they're just brains in jars. We'll get the means to leave and go back in and smash their jars."
"Uh. I guess that works."
Veronica and Craig stood to go into the Think Tank, but Craig stopped, asking for a moment alone with Harley. Lily and Veronica nodded, walking out to the balcony to leave the couple alone, staring at the baby. He coughed, soft and almost inaudible as Harley resisted the urge to pick him up. He was still so small, so fragile...
"I love you," Craig pulled her into him and kissed her deeply.
"I know. I love you too."
They were silent for a minute before he asked what they were going to do. They obviously couldn't leave the baby alone, here. And taking him out across the Mojave was the worst idea ever. Harley said that they'd just have to stay with him. One person a night, rotating. Her one night, him the next, Veronica, Cass, Joshua, until he was healthy enough to come home. But Harley didn't like the idea of not being with him, and she'd have to stay anyways, to feed him. And Craig didn't want to leave him alone, either.
"This...trip...hasn't been the best."
Craig smirked, "you can say that again."
Harley could hear Veronica shouting at the think tanks through the walls, and could hear Klein's obnoxiously loud voice taunting her. She unfolded the paper Veronica had given her, "I don't have much longer. Probably tonight or early tomorrow morning. I'm sorry. -A.I.G."
"Our friend is about to die! Give us the transportalponder!" Veronica shouted, and Craig's gun was aimed at Klein's brain box, "we want to give him a proper burial!"
"But, if you didn't destroy Mobius...are you working for him?" O asked.
"No. He's just addicted to chems. He won't hurt you guys, we've made sure of that."
"HOW DO WE KNOW YOU WONT HURT US?!"
"We're trying to be nice. We have a baby and a brain-dead man, we just want to go home."
"THERE'S A WHOLE WORLD BEYOND HERE. THAT...MOJAVE PLACE YOU GUYS LIVE. IT'S EXCELLENT TESTING GROUNDS FOR SCIENCE!"
"No, you guys have to stay here."
"SAYS WHO?"
"The guy with the gun," Craig said.
"Look, maybe we can work out a deal," Veronica suggested.
"A DEAL? With the LOBOTOMITES?"
"Klein, I think the teddy bears are sincere."
"You guys stay here, and well bring you stuff to experiment and dissect," Veronica said.
"Bring us STUFF to EXPERIMENT ON?"
"YOU'D... YOU'D DO THAT FOR US? I THINK I LIKE THAT IDEA. A LOT, ACTUALLY. FOR SCIENCE, PARTNER!"
Craig lowered his gun slightly as Veronica and Klein stopped shouting at each other. And then, from the next room, he heard a loud crash, bolting off before Veronica knew what was happening. She held a finger up to the think tanks before running off in the direction of the Sink.
Craig pushed himself through the elevator doors before they opened fully and looked around. From where he was standing, he could see the twitch of Arcade's foot, blood on the floor. He ran in - the baby was alright, but Harley and Arcade were lying on the floor. It looked like she was trying to help Arcade and he collapsed on top of her. Her stitches were ripped open, his mouth was bleeding, and she hit her head off the coffee table on the way down.
Craig stooped down to roll Arcade off of her. "Don't!" She said, "You can't move him while he's having a seizure."
"But you're bleeding."
"I'll be okay."
"Isn't that painful for him?" Craig asked.
"No. He can't feel it. At least from what I understand."
Veronica came in, gasping and covering her mouth with her hand. Harley sighed as she tried wiggling her legs out from under her. They were starting to fall asleep and her knees hurt from being bent awkwardly. She wrapped her arms around Arcade and stroked his hair, crying against the side of his head.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," she whispered.
"It's not...your...fault," he was desperately trying to breath.
"I could've save you. I could've done something."
"You had your...baby. That's...all I...wanted."
"I...I gave him your middle name."
Despite the circumstances, he smiled, "thank you. I've...never had...better friends."
Veronica walked away, stomping angrily and punching the wall next to the refrigerator, watching it bow in with the added strength of her power fist. Her hands shook at her sides, and she couldn't breathe past the sobbing that racked her body. Craig watched helplessly as Harley unfolded herself from under Arcade, still holding him and stroking his head.
"I...I think I'm...ready. I-I don't want to...live like this...a-anymore."
"I can't kill you!" Harley was practically screaming, "I...I can't."
"Please? Boone...will you d-do me...a favor?"
Harley couldn't breathe either, now. She was gasping for air, hiccupping under Arcade's weight and the crushing feeling of having Arcade here, in his last moments, in her arms. She wouldn't get to hear him laugh or cry, or be a sarcastic asshole anymore. He wouldn't be there to stitch them up, or to dryly correct them when they were wrong, or to give him awkward opinions or to tell Harley he was with her on whatever decisions she made.
"I can't ask...Harley or Veronica," Veronica's sobs could be heard from the other room, "but...you and I...weren't close."
"Is that what you want?"
"No!" Harley interjected. She knew she was being selfish, she knew he was in pain. And no one knew how long this would keep going on.
"Yes...please."
Harley let him go and he shakily tried to stand, but he couldn't. His legs wouldn't listen to him, they wouldn't bend the way he wanted them to. Craig walked over and helped Harley up, and they both helped Arcade stand.
"The balcony?" Arcade whispered low enough so Harley couldn't hear.
Craig nodded in response, "you should get in the autodoc, hun," he kissed her cheek and threw Arcade's arm over his shoulder. Arcade was mostly just dead weight, with his feet not even moving and his head lolling on his shoulders.
Veronica sat in the corner of the autodoc and the wall, waiting for Harley to get out, trying to focus on the sounds the machine made instead of the gunshot she was expecting. Lily walked over, sitting beside her and putting her large, purple hand on Veronica's robed head as she shook. There were no more tears coming out. She was just angry. Angry at herself for being soft and letting the think tanks live. Angry at herself for not noticing something sooner and rushing to fix it. Angry. She had never been so angry.
Harley stepped out of the autodoc at the same time the shot rang out, echoing in the metal, mostly silent room. The personalities in the sink let out the breaths they were holding in, and Harley sat down with Veronica and Lily as the baby started crying. The gunshot woke him up, it seemed. Lily pulled the two girls onto her lap, letting them sob into her chest while hushing them in her gravelly voice. She found herself crying as well.
"You guys should go back. Bury Arcade next to my mom."
"You should be there. I'll stay," Craig said.
"It'll take a whole twenty hours of straight walking to get from the Drive-in to the Strip. I can't leave the baby without food for that long. I'd love to go. I'll...visit him. Take little Isaiah there when he's strong enough."
They had put off dealing with Mobius for a few days simply because they weren't sure what to do or how to do it. Did they kill him? He didn't seem like he was bad, just confused. Or on chems. They also noticed something was off with the think tanks too. When they finally decided to just kill them, they found themselves unable to. Maybe it's because of how...innocent they were, like they didn't actually know the consequences of what they were doing. And putting it off for so long, meant that they now had to carry Arcade's lifeless body across the desert.
Veronica and Lily began packing their things up as Craig went back out to the balcony to clean up. He took off Arcade's glasses, cleaned the blood from his face and hair the best he could, and cleaned the balcony off. Veronica carried the suit case that they managed to fit all of their things in and hugged Harley goodbye. It lasted too long, but not long enough. Harley didn't want to be alone.
They all met out on the balcony, and Lily grabbed Arcade from Craig's arms and Craig grabbed the suit case from Veronica. The transportalponder was a gun, that amazingly enough, shot out a portal that took them right back to the Drive-in. Nobody felt comfortable leaving Harley alone, especially Craig. She didn't know the area, she was deaf in one ear, and she doubted she would hear the baby crying.
As they made their way back to the Strip, Harley pushed the incubator into the bedroom and placed it to her right. Muggy promised to wake her up if the baby started crying. The leather bound "journal of sorts" sat at the edge of the bed, as she lie down on the naked mattress, smelling the sweat and staleness that had come from not being used until recently. She lie in just a bra and a part of sweatpants so her stitches wouldn't rub off the shirt. She would have to lie on her back all night, when she was used to lying on her side. It didn't bother her, but it was so natural to just curl into a ball.
After a few minutes of listening to the incubator and Muggy humming, she decided she wasn't tired so much as exhausted from the rush of the day. Her back hurt from bending over and washing clothes, her stomach felt so weird and empty without all of that extra stuff in there, and the stitches hurt. Bending over constantly wasn't necessarily helping. She tried sitting at first, but then the sink was too high, and even putting the bucket on the chair didn't make it high enough that she didn't have to bend at least a little bit.
It didn't hit her until that moment that she was a mom. She had given birth. It was too early, it didn't give her time to adjust, but it was...different. Like she had somehow grown up in the small amount of time since she had Isaiah. It made her view people as sons, daughters, moms, dads, instead of just...people.
Her hand was shaking as she reached towards the journal. She didn't know what to expect - Arcade was a mostly serious guy, and when he wasn't being serious, he was being a mostly sarcastic guy. But, Harley knew he had a sensitive side, even if she was probably the only one who knew about it. He shared her bed for the months that Craig was in Zion, he held her through her nightmares and her mood swings. He gave her tips on how to be healthy when she was pregnant, but never pushed her. Arcade was there for her, and it was more than he had done for most people.
So when she cracked the journal open, she leafed through the pages, skimming over the dates until she got to the date they met, the first time she went to the Followers to help out, when she was assigned to assist Arcade with his patients. She had just got done talking to some locals about the NCR attacking them, and when she walked out of the tent, almost ran right into him. The journal entry said:
I met this girl today. Long, red hair on one side, and shaved on the other. She had the scar of a bullet wound running across her temple and into the side of her head, but she was still beautiful. I think she's that courier everyone has been talking about lately. If she is, she certainly lives up to what's been said about her. I didn't have to tell her what to do when we looked at patients. She said she used to live in an old gutted out mini-hospital from the Old World. The kind that you went to if you only needed stitches or a checkup. She was easy to get along with, too. Didn't say much about how awkward I was and certainly didn't make jokes or poke fun.
I normally go for guys, but...she's different.
Harley felt dirty reading this. Was Arcade sure that this is what he meant to give her? It was so private...and yet, she wanted to know more. She flipped to the say when she was shot in the ear at the Ultra-Luxe and began reading that entry.
So, this macho beefcake ran in earlier carrying none other than the courier in his arms. She had been shot in the head...again. Except this time, it was at some weird angle and hit her eardrum instead. Damaged the nerve beyond repair. Poor girl will be deaf in her left ear. I wish there was something I could do. Usanagi owes me a favor, maybe I can get her some implants? This is crazy, I don't even know her.
Update: so not only was she shot in the head, but she found out she's pregnant. She's nearing the eleven weeks and didn't even know. It's not unusual, I suppose. She's active, but she clearly doesn't eat enough protein. Along with not getting a regular period, I'm sure the abnormal amount of radiation in her system coupled with not having enough hCG could also be why she didn't know. But, that could also lead to several problems with the baby. If it makes it to term, which I seriously doubt it will, it will probably not develop enough to live on it's own. Most more than likely, it'll need a feeding tube and will probably have severe mental issues.
Harley stopped reading and looked at Isaiah, blinking back tears. Her cheeks were raw from constantly wiping her eyes and she was so emotionally drained that she just couldn't bear to cry anymore. She kept flipping through pages, wondering why she was doing this to herself. There was something Arcade obviously wanted her to see.
I had to do a test on the baby today. They wanted to know if it was the macho Beefcake's. I stood outside while they talked about getting the testing done. It sounded like the beefcake and Harley slept together, but she rattled off a ton of names, sounding entirely too Roman, of people who could be the father. I'm not sure what happened, but it didn't sound consensual. Not my business, but I knew she didn't want it to be anyone else's other than his. What was I supposed to tell her? It wasn't his, not by a long shot. So I took two copies of Beefcake's blood work and showed them his versus "the baby's."
She was sick to her stomach.
That damn Boone left. He got high and drunk, wallowing over his past at the bar, and came back, picking a fight with the first person he saw, which happened to be Harley. He called her a bunch of names, said she slept around with the Legion, backed her into a corner. She was a blubbering mess when I found her, hiding behind the elevator on the casino floor. What an asshole. I can't believe she loves him.
She nodded; Craig could be an asshole. Skimming through the pages for the months that he was in Zion, a line caught her eye:
I like taking care of Harley. Holding her while she has nightmares, helping her take care of Kennedy, cooking her breakfast... I'm not sure I've ever felt for another person like this. Part of me wishes Boone will stay gone.
This came as a surprise to her. Sure, he called her beautiful the first time they met, but he specifically indicated that he was gay. He didn't utter a word about being bisexual. Harley just thought he was her best friend. Until she read that line about his saying he preferred guys. She flipped to the last written page.
I'm dying. My brain won't connect to the Tesla Coils like everyone else's. I plan on giving this journal to Harley. It has the locations of my works in it. If you're reading this, I'm sorry. I love you,
-A.I.G.
His normal curved, fluid handwriting had turned jagged and sloppy in his final few entries. Despite the few entries she read, she wasn't mad at Arcade.
Just...lonely.
