Rated M for gratuitous profanity, violence, and ghoul sex.

The Fallout universe rights are currently owned by Bethesda Studios. I receive no money for this. It is merely a creative outlet, dream space, respite from the real world, and something to tide me over until Fallout 4 is released.


Chapter Forty Nine: Make Up Your Mind

When the door banged open in the other room, Charon startled awake.

"Church! Where is she?" an angry voice boomed as footsteps rattled the floorboards.

Charon was on his feet. Gun in hand. Eyes locked on the door.

Kate moaned groggily. "What—?"

Charon shushed her.

"Church, where in the hell are you?"

"Goddamnit, what?" Doc Church grumbled, moving with lighter steps.

"I asked you where she is."

"I can't tell you if you don't tell me who in the hell you're talking about."

"You know damned well who I'm talking about. Kate."

"Simms, you know better than to bother my patients."

"Charon, what's going—" Kate tried to push herself up, but the pain took her back down with a cry.

The heavy footsteps landed in front of the door. Charon moved in front of it. The door opened. When Simms saw the gun, he put his hands up and glared at Charon.

"You must be the new pet that I've heard so much about."

"You need to calm down right the fuck now," Charon growled.

"Charon, he's okay. Can you help me sit up? Please?"

"Are you sure that is wise?"

"Look, ghoul. I'm just here to talk. Get that gun out of my face."

Charon's eyes flicked down to Simms's pistol. "Give Church yours first. Then you can talk to her."

"Fucking shuffler. Fine."

Charon leaned forward. "Slowly."

Simms brought his arm down, took the grip of the pistol between two fingers, and held it out to Church. Church took it and studied it, opening the chamber and flicking it closed. He nodded his head, impressed.

"Now drop yours," Simms spat.

Charon stepped back, lowering the gun. He kept an eye on Simms as he crossed to Kate. He slid his hands under her back and pushed her up slowly. "Easy, smoothskin."

Simms walked in and leaned against a wall, crossing his arms. Church hovered in the doorway.

Simms harrumphed. "Well, I see you've got yours trained about as well as Moriarty trained his."

"He's not a pet, and neither is Gob." Kate moved her legs until she could lean against the wall.

"I think you mean 'was.' I've heard some interesting stories about you today, vaultie."

"That so? I hope Three Dog isn't talking shit about me again."

"No. My sources are quite a bit more local."

"Well then. I can't wait to learn what I've been up to."

"There's the one about how you killed Moriarty, and then there's the one about how you sent your little ghoul boyfriends after Jericho."

Kate glanced at Charon questioningly but quickly returned her focus to Simms. "Then you didn't hear the best one."

"Who else is dead?"

"The bomb."

Simms wrinkled his brow. "What?"

"The bomb. I got it disarmed. I told you I would." She looked at Charon apologetically. "Charon, could you please get the detonator for me? It should be with the other tools in the jumpsuit that I was wearing earlier."

Charon dug through the heap, feeling for the detonator so that he could keep his eye on Simms. He held it out to her.

"Give that to Simms, please."

He glared at the man before he handed it over.

Simms studied the detonator. "I'll be damned. That's it?"

"Yes."

Simms slid the detonator into one of the inner pockets of his duster. "I guess we're indebted to you, but that doesn't change what else you've done."

"You sure about that? I think I did the town two favors today. In fact, it seems like I did two things that you couldn't."

"I would watch it if I were you, girl. As I recall, I told you to keep your nose clean. The only reason I'm giving you a chance to explain yourself is that you've done some good things for people around town. Now tell me: why did you kill him?"

"Tell me who you heard it from first. It's only fair that I hear who my accusers are."

"You've got a few of them."

"Oh really?"

"You might be surprised. I heard it from Gob, Nova, and Jericho."

Kate snorted. "And you believed Jericho? I think the drunk that does Moriarty's dirty work might be a little bit biased."

"Then what's your excuse for Gob and Nova?"

Kate tried to shrug, but as the pain flared, she bit back a groan. Eventually, she would remember to stop doing that. "No excuse. I did kill him. I just wanted to make sure that you were aware of how disreputable one of your sources is."

"Start talking."

"Did they show you his terminal?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Kate's eyes narrowed. "It has everything to do with it. He hired Jericho to kill Gob and Charon. When I confronted him about it, he pulled his gun on me. I didn't go in there looking for a fight, but what was I supposed to do? Not defend myself?"

"And where's the body?"

"I don't know. They brought me down here when they saw how messed up I was, and that's all I know. I imagine that they cleaned up for the sake of the bar and the sake of anyone else seeing it. He was a traumatizing mess when I left."

"And you're telling me that you didn't sic your little ghoul buddies on Jericho?"

"I can only assume that they saw the terminal after that. Jericho's still alive, right? I would think that that would be all that matters."

Simms glared at Charon. "He says they took his weapons."

"Smart thing to do when someone's supposed to off you, if you ask me. Besides, that man should only have guns when the town is under attack. It was just a matter of time before someone new came into the bar and said the wrong thing to his drunk ass."

"I hope you haven't forgotten who's sheriff around here."

"Okay, sheriff. Tell me: what would you have done? Told him it's not nice? Besides, why would you care? They're just zombies, right?"

"That man did a lot of things for this town."

"Like what?"

"He put up the fence."

"How many years ago was that? Or wait. Was that before he bought Gob as a slave or after? I'm just curious. Name one thing that he's done recently. Come on. Last five years."

"He keeps the town in business."

"Marvelous. I'm sure that if Gob and Nova decide to keep running the bar, they'll do an even better job. I doubt that Moriarty's company was what enticed customers to return."

"You've been out of that vault two months—"

"47 days. 48 if it's tomorrow. I don't know how long I've slept."

"47," Doc Church muttered.

"My point is that I don't know who the fuck you think you are coming into my town and pretending like you own the law."

"I'm Ms. Vaultie 101. The Lone Wanderer—well, the former Lone Wanderer." She smiled at Charon. "Some people call me 'Smoothskin.' Some people call me 'Kid.' But to Leo Stahl, I'm the one that helped him get off of Jet—well, while I was here anyway. To Walter, I'm the one that fixed the pipes and brings him scrap metal so that he can maintain the water system. To Moira—well, she calls me her research assistant. I'm the one that got cut the fuck up at the Super Duper Mart getting food and medicine, which ended up going to The Brass Lantern and Church."

"Of which I already wasted about half of it on you," Church grumbled.

She ignored him. "Not to mention that I'm the one that disarmed that goddamned bomb, and I was the one that talked Burke out of blowing it up in the first place."

Simms blinked. "What?"

"Oh. I guess I never told you since he walked out of here like a repented man. Yeah. Burke, that skeevy motherfucker, asked me to blow up the bomb for caps. 100 caps at that. That's how much you offered me, wasn't it? 100 caps to decide between life and death. If you recall, I said that I didn't even want the caps. I just wanted to do the right thing. Now. I realize that I've only been out of the vault for 47 days and that I haven't spent all of them in Megaton, but I think that I've done nothing but good for the town, including killing that prick. I saved the lives of everyone else in this town. Two of them twice over, whether you consider them people or not."

Simms stared her down. "You say this note was on his terminal?"

"Bastard kept notes on everyone in town. This guy, who was supposedly a friend of my father, wanted me to pay him a load of fucking caps to tell me where he went. I got tipped off about the terminal. I wanted to see what I missed while I was gone."

"You shouldn't have been snooping around."

"He shouldn't have been such a prick."

"And how do I know that you didn't write up that convenient proof yourself."

"Because I got cut the fuck up yesterday. How good was I going to be in a fight after that? Do you think I did it after he was dead? Look at me. I can't even fucking move my arms without excruciating pain. Besides, I'd be bleeding all over the fucking keyboard."

Simms rubbed his forehead. "You can't go around acting like you own the town."

"Someone's got to take Moriarty's place."

"That some kind of sick joke?"

"Sure is."

Simms let out a long exhale. "The next time, you talk to me before you start shit."

"It seemed too urgent to wake you up and ask for your permission. I would also like to remind you that I tried the peaceful way. He was the one that got sick of talking." She glared at him. "You know I'm right."

"She's a pain in the ass, but she's right, Lucas," Church said.

Simms grunted and reached a hand into his duster.

Charon snapped his gun up. "What are you doing?"

"Getting something for Kate. Relax." He slowed his movements and drew out a piece of paper and a key. He tossed them on the bed. "These are yours."

Kate eyed them from where she was. "Great. What am I looking at?"

"The deed and the key to your new home."

Kate scoffed. "So you come in here ready to put a bullet in me, but now you're giving me a house? Maybe you ought to have Doc Church check you out."

"Don't make me change my mind, vaultie. I promised myself that if you managed to disarm that thing, I would give you the deed to one of the empty houses. The nice one, actually."

"Is this some kind of joke?"

Simms sighed. "No, it isn't. I already heard about all the shit you did for other people. I figured that if you actually disarmed that damned bomb that you must really care about the town and deserved to be a part of it. I can't say that I'm pleased about recent events, so don't make me regret it. And this doesn't mean that I'm not going to take a look at that terminal."

"If they turned it off, the passwords is 'lotsacaps.' One word. 'A' in the middle. Where did you say this house was?"

"The one closest to the gate on the right side."

"Okay, well I imagine that you'll be able to find us there if you change your mind, which you shouldn't."

Simms gave Charon one more dirty look. "Can't say it's been a pleasure."

"Likewise."

Simms turned to Church. "Give me back my gun, and I'll quit bothering you and your patient."

Church narrowed his eyes. "You better not put a bullet in her. I wasted too much of my time on her as it is, and she still owes me for it." He held the gun out to Simms.

Simms took the gun from Church slowly, watching Charon while he slid the pistol back into his holster. "You act like I couldn't pay off the damned bill."

"I didn't say that you couldn't. It would just be a waste of your caps."

Simms pursed his lips at Kate. "Remember: no more fuck ups."

"Not planning on making any."

Simms moved past Church and left. Kate let out a slow, shaky sigh.

"That all true?" Church asked, assuming Simms's space in the room.

"I passed out after I got here. I woke up for maybe two seconds when Charon moved me in here, and I don't even fucking remember what I said then. And Simms woke me up, what—ten minutes ago? When did I have time to come up with a story like that?"

"Well, it better be true, cause I just put my ass out there for you, and I doubt it would have gone quite as well if it was just you and Simms, especially if your little ghoul friend here pulled his shotgun stunt."

"Thank you, Doctor Church."

"Don't thank me. Just stop coming in here. I'm hoping to sleep a little better knowing that that damned bomb isn't going to go off any second. Don't know how I ended up with the worst house in this shithole right next to that death trap and those crazy Church of Atom motherfuckers that stand around all the time just praying that the goddamned thing will blow up."

"Should I bother hoping that you'll be nicer if you start sleeping better?"

"No."

"So what do I owe you?"

"150 caps and blood in a month."

"No."

"The hell you mean 'no.'"

"I'll get you the caps tonight, but one month isn't enough time to regenerate all the blood cells. In the vault, we donated blood every two months."

"Huh. That might explain a thing or two."

"So what's my prognosis?"

"How do you feel?"

"Shitty."

"I can give you more Med-X, but I don't want another junkie in town."

"Then just give me one syringe of it, and I'll make it last over the next day or so."

"Hmph. You better."

"How were the wounds?"

"I got all the shrapnel out of your shoulder. It nicked part of the bone."

"How is my hand?" It was the question whose answer she was most afraid to hear.

"Well, the good news is that the bullet went straight through. Bad news is how it rearranged stuff in there. With enough stimpaks, it should heal okay. If you exercise it, you might get all of your movement back."

Kate paled as she closed her eyes and knocked her head back against the wall. "That fucking bastard." Her voice had lost all its strength.

"Your cuts went back to the way they were yesterday before I treated them."

"Treatment?"

"Stimpaks twice a day. I'm assuming ghoulie here knows how to help with that. If not, you get someone else to do it. Don't come by here. Go easy on the Med-X. Get plenty of liquids. No alcohol. Don't forget to eat to get your strength back. Keep your ass rested. No running around tearing out your stitches."

"You told me that yesterday."

"And I'm telling you again since you did such a damned fine job at listening. You didn't let me finish. I didn't realize I needed to tell you this yesterday, but resting also means no fucking. You two keep your damned hands to yourself for a few days."

Kate snorted. "That should be easy considering how torn up I am."

"You can go get my caps now, if you want, but with the Med-X and me helping your ass with Simms, it's 180."

"Fine. Just give me the Med-X when we come back. I want to be able to walk without stumbling everywhere."

"Kate, I can get your things, if you would like to stay here," Charon said, frowning.

"No. I need to get out of here. I need some fresh air."

"Well, let me help you up."

"No. I'll do it myself." Kate scooted her body forward little by little until she was sitting at the edge of the bed. She leaned forward and pushed herself up slowly.

"You okay?"

Kate sighed. "I'm fine, Charon," she said, hoping to fool him even as her voice shook. "Can you please just get Moira's jumpsuit and tools? I borrowed the suit and some of the tools from her."

"Whatever you want, Kate." She tried to ignore the pain in his voice.