Chapter 55: Mom's Spaghetti
Charon had insisted we stay at the Citadel for two weeks until I was well enough for a trip home. In those two weeks, I noticed my belly had gotten slightly bigger. I couldn't wear my modified armor anymore. Charon had requested a new set of armor that he could re-modify to have an adjustable leather stomach piece.
I held my fancy new plasma rifle tightly as Freddie and Charon took the lead. In our time at the Citadel, Charon had forced Freddie to grow some balls. He was a decent shot and Charon made him exchange his vault suit for a suit of leather armor that was similar to mine. He wore the Tunnel Snake jacket over his armor.
The two of them insisted that I stay behind them on our way to Underworld. Charon and I agreed that it would be a good idea to check in with Barrows about the baby situation. Carol would be excited to see me, and a new smoothskin. Snowflake would have a heart attack when he saw how awful I let my hair get.
Anacostia tunnels were dank and damp from the river air drifting in and drenching everything in a rotting fish smell. Decomposing bodies littered the metro from our previous visits and they warded off any other inhabitants for the time being. It looked as if some animals had come through sometime and finished off the last bits of raiders they could find and left after there was nothing left to eat.
Freddie was trigger happy though. He shot at anything that made a noise, to much of Charon's dismay. Every time Freddie wasted a bullet on a random object, Charon had slapped him on the back of the head lightly with a growl. Freddie apologized extensively and holstered his weapon for the time being. Charon could handle anything that came their way.
The lights to the outside seemed like a blessing from the heavens above. It had been what felt like hours in the tunnels and Dogmeat whined to get back on the outside to use the restroom or whatever he wanted. Charon held Freddie and I back and exited the metro first. He scoped the area before waving us out. The Brotherhood seemed to have the super mutants under control for now.
Willow had her rifle up and peered at us through her scope. She dropped it quickly and waved with both hands, her rifle whipping around in the air. "Haven't seen our tourist in a while. Thought you died." She shot Freddie a wary look. "Who's the other smoothskin?"
We holstered all of our weapons and I ran over to her with my arms outstretched. "Willow!"
She spun me around in a tight embrace and set me down. "How big are you going to get, tourist?"
I blushed. "I don't know. I can't see my feet anymore unless I lean down."
She pushed me towards the door in a hurry. "Go to Barrows before you fucking pop everywhere. I don't need baby bits attracting the uglies."
Charon and Freddie followed me inside. Freddie froze and blanched once we exited the lobby. His eyes were focused on the dinosaur. I smiled and shoved him towards it. He stumbled and landed on its skull with a shriek. He kicked his feet and slid across the floor away from it.
"Why the hell would you do that?" He yelled.
Charon snorted and lifted him up by his collar. "Stop wasting our time with ridiculous fears."
Freddie reddened and straightened his jacket, mumbling stupid threats he would never go through with. I pushed the doors to the concourse open and took in the stale air and dull sight. The dark colors and the fire lighting the concourse cast everything in an intersting setting. It looked like what I would assume the real Underworld looked like. My eyes settled on Winthrop sitting on a bench. He looked over at the sound of the doors opening and smiled.
"Hey, Winthrop. How's it been?" I asked as I slung my pack from my shoulder to retrieve scrap metal I picked up here and there.
He stood up and wiped his hands on his coveralls. "Nothing too interesting. What are you getting?"
I produced the metal gladly and he beamed. "I heard you needed scrap metal."
He gave me a crooked grin. "All the time. What do you want for it?"
I shrugged. "I don't want anything. Just trying to help. I like it here."
His eyes widened in shock. "Are you sure? You have at least ten pieces."
I wrapped his fingers around the jagged metal pieces. "Take them. Don't worry about it."
The doors to the Chop Shop were heavy and dusty from lack of visitors. Graves smiled widely when she recognized me. Barrows turned around to chide us for interrupting his work, but shut his mouth when he saw Charon. Everyone had mostly ignored Freddie.
"Well, if it ain't my favorite smoothskin in the meaty flesh," he said as he set his clipboard down. I shrugged and he held me at arms-length. "My, you have gotten a little bigger since I last saw you."
A sour taste in mouth settled whenever anyone mentioned how big I was. I bit it back with a smile. "Yeah. And I'm only about five months along. Just another three months and I can get the little fucker out and have my body back."
He gasped. "I just remembered something. I sent Quinn out to get a little something-something from the old hospital in the city. It was pretty easy since he's ghoul and super mutants don't bother with us. Come see it."
He tugged me along to the other side of the clinic to a large... something-something... covered by a thin sheet. He yanked it off dramatically to reveal a big machine. It looked strange, but I couldn't figure out what it was.
"Uh, that's really cool."
"You don't know what it is? This makes it even better," he replied giddily. "Guess what it does."
I bit my lip and shrugged. "I have no clue."
He clenched his fists excitedly. "It's an ultrasound. They used it before the war to take x-rays of babies in the womb. A pretty neat concept. They even took pictures of the babies but I doubt that piece still works. The ink is probably dried up anyway."
Charon's face lit up as he ran a hand over the cool metal of the machine. "We get to see her? Does it works?"
"I don't know if it's a girl or a boy, but we might be able to get a clear enough image to find out today."
I stared at my stomach and rubbed it. "I think it's a girl. I don't know how I know though."
Barrows waved it off and told me to lie down and lift my armor enough to show my stomach. I did as told and he smeared a cold gel over my skin. I flinched at first but it warmed up quickly. He switched the machine on and waited several minutes for everything to power up. The machine was louder than I thought it would be. He handed me three bottles of water. "Drink these. Quickly."
I lifted my brow in confusion but took the bottles and chugged the water. It was painful to drink so much but he seemed to know what he was doing.
After about ten minutes, I had the incredible urge to pee. He kept me down and reapplied the gel. "I need you to stay down. I probably should have used the gel after you had to pee."
"I have to go to the bathroom really bad," I whined.
He nodded. "I know. You have to have a full bladder to see the baby clearly. It will only be a few minutes. By the way, who's the toddler in the armor with you?"
I stifled a laugh and Freddie glared at Barrows. "An old friend from the vault. Freddie, this is Dr. Barrows. Dr. Barrows, Freddie."
The two men eyed each other and went back to what they were doing. Freddie returned to staring at the glowing ones drooling behind the glass with fascination.
Barrows pulled a strange wand with a wire cord curling its way to the bottom of a screen and rubbed it across my stomach. "This is the first time I actually get to use this."
Charon held my hand and kept his eyes glued to the screen. Barrows kept glancing between the screen and my stomach. The screen was black with a few white spots. It was partially cracked but seemed like it was useable. A fuzzy image appeared within a few moments.
"There. There's your baby."
Charon's hand tightened on mine and he smiled. "She looks very much like a blob. Almost like a spider."
Barrows chuckled. "Yeah, not always a clear image but it's something. I can't say I miss spiders. Can't imagine what they would look like after mutations." He shivered at the thought of what they were talking about.
"My brother threw one on my face in the kitchen when I was very small. I think my dad gave him the belt," Charon smiled sadly.
My eyes darted to his. "Charon, you remember that?"
He nodded. "Some things are coming back. More than I remember before I lost almost all of my memories. I am not sure if I should be grateful or not."
Barrows exchanged a glance between the two of us. He was currently unaware of our situation. "Also can't say I miss my father giving me the belt."
"What does that mean?" I asked.
Charon chuckled. "Usually when a child misbehaved or made bad grades in school, their parents would hit them with a leather belt. The thinner the belt, the more painful. It wasn't very affective. It didn't teach the child what they did was wrong. It just taught them that if they were caught doing something bad, they would be hurt by the people who should protect them from pain."
"Yikes," I muttered, thankful Dad had never done anything like that to me.
Barrows nodded. "It wasn't pretty. My mother lost the belt so my father resorted to a fly swatter."
Charon shook his head with a look of disgust. "My father found reasons to hurt us. I don't know why my mother allowed it. It's not like he didn't use it on her."
Barrows gave him a nervous look. "Uh, look at the face," he pointed at a small cluster of white spots that barely looked like a human face. It looked more like the product of a centaur and a super mutant one night stand.
Freddie leaned in. We had all forgotten he was even in the room. "Why does she look like a plate of spaghetti?"
"She isn't going to look like that when she's born, is she?" I asked nervously.
Barrows gave me a stunned look. "That's the profile. The baby doesn't have a nose on the side of its head. See?" He pointed to the small bump on the side that vaguely resembled a nose.
My mouth formed a silent "o". No matter how strange the image on the screen was, I couldn't tear my eyes away from it. This was the first view of my daughter.
"I can't really tell from this angle, but it looks like a baby boy," Barrows admitted.
Charon's hand squeezed mine once more. "Might have a son, then. What were we thinking again if it was a boy?"
A small smile graced my face. "Alexander."
He nodded quietly. "That's right. I got pretty used to the idea of having a girl."
Barrows exchanged glances between us. "Well, we're just about done here. I'm sure you would be more than happy to go to the bathroom and rest up."
Charon helped me down from the table and Barrows handed me a rag to clean the gel off. The humble strip of cotton was now slimy and stiff. I sneered at it when it stuck to my hand when I went to throw it away.
Freddie whistled for Dogmeat to wake up and he held the door open. I thanked Graves and Barrows excessively and promised to be back again before the delivery and we exited the clinic. The next stop was Carol's.
