After their conversation, her dad outlined how he was going to take a little bit of time out of the upcoming days to start explaining how a lot of the research was done so she could actually start helping in the scientific realm of the project. In the meantime, she silently decided to suck it up and actually start pulling her weight with regards to the manual labor work. No more complaining.
Jennifer did tell him that she wanted to go ahead and go to the Arlington Library so she could wrap up chapter two of the Wasteland Survival Guide, which led to her explaining more about the book and what she had actually done over at Rivet City, which further led to the conversation they were having about Harkness.
Her dad shook his head in disbelief. "A real android. I can't believe it." He was sat in her desk chair, with his arms crossed and leaning on the back of it.
Jennifer was sitting on the desk, cross-legged. "I know, right? I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen how he reacted to the memory reactivation code."
He brought a hand up and rubbed at his chin. "Quite a few groups have been trying to accomplish that feat for centuries now. You'll remember from history class that the pre-war government had abandoned such a project?" At her affirmative nod, he continued. "Well, I know of a few post-war groups who tried to do the same thing. Which is why it's interesting that I've never heard of this supposed Commonwealth Institute."
She raised an eyebrow at him, interested. "Groups like who? I'm not familiar with many people out here who have the technology or knowledge to even attempt a project like that."
Her dad visibly hesitated at her line of questioning. She felt a prickling sense of unease at his expression, but she couldn't put her finger on why. "If I said the Enclave, would you know who I was referring to?"
Her brow furrowed. She remembered listening to that robot, whistling its patriotic little tune, right after she left the Vault and ventured into Springvale. "They're the ones with the flying robots, right? I listened to some of their radio broadcast, but it all felt really-" She twisted her mouth in contemplation, searching for the right word. "-weird. Out of touch, even."
He stared pensively over her shoulder, gazing at nothing. He almost looked haunted, shadows dancing across his face. After a moment, he snapped out of it and turned back to her. "Yes, that's a fair assessment of them. They consider themselves a continuation of the pre-war government, as its members are descended from important government officials that hid away after the bombs dropped. I've . . . encountered them before."
She waited for him to continue. After his pause stretched into a prolonged silence, her eyes narrowed in mild suspicion. There was definitely something he wasn't telling her, but she wasn't going to push it. They had time to talk in the future. "Okay. So they're not friendly, then?"
His mouth pinched and he shook his head. "No. They're not. Regardless, the Brotherhood defeated them thoroughly on the West Coast and they haven't had as much influence for a long time." He visibly brightened at the thought of their supposed ass-kicking. After a moment, he looked at his Pip-Boy. "Well, if you're going to Arlington Library, you should head out now. You should be able to get there by late afternoon if you move quickly."
She slid off the desk and stretched her legs out. They'd cramped after sitting in one position for so long and protested loudly at being forced to move. Before she started collecting her things, she leaned over and kissed her dad's whiskery cheek. "I'll be back by tomorrow, alright?"
He stared back at her in shock before grinning at her brightly. There was that smile they shared, according to Amata, at least. He pulled her into a hug. "Be safe. It's dangerous out there, and I don't know what you should expect to find. Raiders or supermutants at the very least."
Jennifer mentally pushed down her initial irritated response - I know how dangerous things are! - and tried to appreciate the concerned sentiment for what it was. After a moment, she pat him on the back and disengaged from the hug. "I'm always careful. Now get out of here so I can get ready."
He rolled his eyes at her in a friendly manner. "Sure thing, honey." The door closing behind him was loud but not angry.
She looked over at Dogmeat, who had been their witness to that baptism by fire. He cocked his head at her questioningly. Jennifer went over to pet him, kneeling down at his side, and shook her head. "Well. That happened."
After checking her supplies were in order, Dogmeat and Jennifer both left the Memorial site. She never played her radio while traveling in the downtown ruins, afraid that the noise would travel and attract unwanted attention from ghouls, raiders, or supermutants. Or worse, all three.
Unfortunately for the both of them, the Arlington Library was located on the other side of the river from the Memorial, so Jennifer and Dogmeat were forced to travel north for a ways to cross across a dilapidated bridge that was, luckily, still clear of supermutants from the last time they had to travel this way.
Her Pip-Boy beeped to acknowledge that she had reached the marker set on her map for the coordinates of the Arlington Library. She checked her laser rifle's cartridge and glanced at Dogmeat before pushing open the double doors.
The interior wasn't completely dark, as there were windows lining the walls of the building to let sunlight stream through, but the area was simply too big for the natural light of the sun to brighten it completely. Some of the windows were boarded up by rotting woods as well, further limiting the natural light. Rows and rows of shelves were scattered around the room covered in flaked and peeling white paint; many were standing proudly in contrast to their deteriorated state, but many more had collapsed to the ground or were on the verge of it. Books were scattered over every surface: littering the ground and stacked in precarious piles on the remaining shelves.
Many of the books were ravaged by time in some way. Jennifer had seen some books out here before now, but the sight still made her sad. Some were burned, probably by fires started during or after the war. Others just suffered from time; the natural materials in the books breaking down, or molding from water exposure after two hundred years.
Directly in front of her was an oval reception desk. Even more directly in front of her was a woman sporting a short haircut and, strangely enough, dark red robes with metal accents on the collars and sleeves. Weird. She had a Chinese-style assault rifle slung over one shoulder, and her gaze snapped up to meet Jennifer's as she pushed the double doors in.
Her expression immediately fell into one of deep annoyance and her mouth thinned in irritation. She pushed herself up from the terminal she was hunched over and swung around the desk, steps purposeful. Jennifer would almost be intimidated if she wasn't absolutely certain that she could kill the woman with one well-placed pistol shot to the stomach. As it was, she merely lifted a brow in response to the display.
The red-robbed woman stopped a couple of paces away from Jennifer and held up a hand. Her voice barked out in the space between them. "Hold it! This area is under the authority of the Brotherhood of Steel." Her eyes narrowed fractionally when Jennifer merely gazed back at her steadily. "Leave immediately."
Jennifer chewed over how to approach this. She really wasn't interested in a fight with the Brotherhood, but she needed that book catalog. Apparently her mouth hadn't caught up with her brain, because she heard herself start speaking. "Wow. I can't go anywhere without running into you people."
Jennifer sighed internally. The other woman was not impressed by her astute observation. "You are in downtown D.C. You'll likely be running into our Paladin squads all over the area. I would suggest being polite, local." She dropped her hand back to her side.
Jennifer grit her teeth in irritation. "I have, yes. Anyway, I was just here to look at the book catalogs."
The other woman eyed Jennifer's laser rifle and the attack dog at her heels. "You're awfully brave to be walking around here by yourself." She paused for a beat, and Jennifer wondered if she was going to turn that into a backhanded compliment somehow. "Or stupid." There it was. "If you're looking for the records, it would seem we have similar goals in mind." She paused again, longer this time. She seemed to be debating something, and Jennifer could see on her face when she eventually came to a decision.
"I am Senior Scribe Yearling, Order of the Word." Jennifer hadn't fully realized until this point how serious this Brotherhood was about the 'knightly order' aesthetic, but apparently they weren't kidding around. "And I have a proposal for you, if you are interested."
The Arlington Library was infested with raiders and the catalog terminal was no longer connected to the mainframe. So what's the solution? Send in Jennifer. That's just peachy. She could hear the echoes from the distant Paladin squad as they helped her clear the area. A hallway that split left and right circled around and reconnected in the back and led to the mainframe area; she had been sent left. Hopefully with both sides covered, none of the raiders would escape or try to flank either group. The plan made sound tactical sense to her.
She pressed her ear to the closed door in front of her. Hearing nothing, she tried the doorknob. Dammit. Locked or jammed. She turned sideways and planted her shoulder to the door, trying to slam it open. Once, twice.
The third time it flew open, and she stumbled inside at the unexpected success. With too much momentum, she tumbled to the ground, tripping over her own feet. She heard shuffling movement from the other side of the room, and righted herself just in time to get tackled by an unseen assailant. Her rifle flew from her grasp and she was thrown into a wooden chair, which shattered at the impact into a million small splinters. A sharp pain in her right hand informed her that she'd have to pick some out in a minute.
The person on top of her smelled rancid in the unwashed way that many raiders shared. His face was covered in dirt and smeared blood, and he had a wild look in his eyes. His right arm pinned her down as he raised his left hand which gripped a rusty knife. She frantically pulled her own hand free, and as she caught his wrist on the downward swing of the knife, she belatedly realized that this was going to hurt.
Pain exploded in her right hand as the wooden splinters were shoved down further into her palm, and she snarled at the raider grinning down at her. She had enough strength to hold his knife away from her, but she couldn't throw him off or even headbutt him. She wildly looked around for something to help her, wondering where the hell Dogmeat was.
As if she had summoned him, something forcefully collided with the man pinning her. He was thrown over the top of her head and his back hit the ground, which was good. Less good was that in the process of being flipped over, she lost her grip on his wrist and his knife fell, impaling her in the shoulder through the strap of her combat armor with such force that it lodged into the wood floor. Warm blood rushed out of it, staining her vault suit and the floor beneath, and she screamed.
Dogmeat snarled behind her and she heard the raider's death gurgle.
She frantically reached up and ripped the knife out of her shoulder and threw it across the room. A small, pained noise left her as more hot blood spilled out of the wound, faster now. Her heart beat loudly in her ears. She tried to lift her arm and almost screamed again at the effort. Her left hand scrambled at her waist for the pouch of stimpaks and she clumsily snapped it open after a few long moments.
She reached up and injected it into the junction of her neck and shoulder, the chest piece of her armor hanging loose with the strap cut. She stayed on the ground, hunched on her left side and breathing shallowly, until the disconcerting feeling of her skin and muscle stitching itself together stopped. She took a moment to pull the large wooden splinters out of her hand, flinching at the pain and watching the blood leak out. The stimpak would work its way through her system to heal the gash on her palm under her thumb eventually. Jennifer heaved herself to her feet and looked around.
Dogmeat was sitting near her, looking worried at the state of her. She gave him a clumsy pat on the head. The man who had tackled her was lying with his throat ripped out, in a similar state to another raider across the room, who Dogmeat must have been dealing with before helping her.
Jennifer shook her head angrily at herself for what should be a rookie mistake by now. She reached over to grab her rifle's strap and swung it over her left shoulder. She was having trouble lifting her right arm, and she desperately hoped that it wasn't a side effect of her field injection of a stimpak. Those are always dangerous, leaving scars where someone who was well rested and fed would come out unscathed, but nothing bad had happened yet. The muscle in her shoulder had probably been nearly severed, and the accelerated healing might have reconnected it incorrectly.
Jennifer shook her head at the thought and unbuckled her chest piece to let it fall to the floor. She would have to work without it for now and sneak her way through the remaining raiders. She rolled her good shoulder and unholstered Amata's pistol, then strode out of the room.
The journey to the mainframe area was pretty much clear after that, and after meeting back up with the Brotherhood soldiers, she set to work reconnecting the terminal link to the main server. A few minutes later and she was back in front of Scribe Yearling, who was eyeing her ripped and bloodied vault suit hesitantly.
Luckily for Jennifer's patience, the woman refrained from commenting on it and handed over the promised caps for reconnecting the terminal to the mainframe. She swiftly downloaded the book catalog and archives and holed up in a side room that didn't have Brotherhood soldiers or raiders in it to scrub down her vault suit and rest until she could leave in the morning for the Memorial. What could go wrong?
The first thing Jennifer noticed was that it was too dark to see. Where the hell was she? The second thing was that she was cold, much colder than usual, because she was covered in a fine layer of sweat that chilled with the air around her. The third was that she was sore all over, from her hands clenched tight around her legs to her back that was hunched over, burying her face in her knees.
She slowly unclenched her hands, feeling the blood rush back, and stretched out her legs, making her body ache even more, briefly, as she straightened up. She still couldn't wrap her mind around what was happening fully. How did she get here? Where even was here? She looked around, trying to get some sort of clue, before she realized that she needed some sort of light source, as the darkness was encompassing and complete.
Her Pip-Boy gave a mild beep and flooded the room around her with a sickly green light as she held down the middle button on its face. It looked like some sort of closet. There was a shelf across from her covered in an array of cleaning supplies and buckets. The room smelled faintly of dust, as though it wasn't used very often. She suddenly became aware of Dogmeat sitting next to her, bright, wary, and alert, watching the door intensely.
At her small movements, he turned towards her and nudged her with his nose, looking every bit as concerned as he always was when she got herself into trouble. "Hey, buddy." When he deemed her to have pet him an acceptable amount, he went back to playing the lookout, watching the door. Well, okay then.
She began to stand, leaning heavily on the wall for support, her body achy and protesting moving after having been curled on the ground for who-knows how long. Even that simple movement drained her of energy. Jennifer looked around for a light switch, and after a solid minute of struggling in the low light, she found one and flicked it on. The bulb above her was nearly burned out, desperately in need of replacement, and gently buzzed as the room filled with a dull light. It was enough for her to see by, at any rate, and she turned off her Pip-Boy's light.
With the screen no longer lit, she could see that it was very early in the morning according to the clock, which confused her already muddled brain. She had returned to the Memorial from the Arlington Library some time in the late morning, which meant it had been almost twenty-four hours, and she didn't remember a goddamn thing that happened in that span of time.
Jennifer's chest began to constrict, and it was getting harder to breathe against the rising tide of panic. She stumbled from her spot leaning against the wall to the door and threw it open. The bright light of the hallway stunned her momentarily, but the open air helped her breathe.
Dogmeat rushed past her legs, looking around them, before he turned back to her with his head cocked questioningly. Unfortunately for him, she didn't know their next step either, because they certainly weren't in the Memorial. She cautiously looked down both ends of the hallway, but other than being in some sort of curved building, there were no other identifying factors to take note of. The walls, ceiling, and tile floor were all a shade of white, and the ground was mostly swept and mopped, if a little old and worn. It was probably the cleanest building she'd been in so far.
After a moment of wavering indecision, she decided fuck it and started going right, hugging the wall tightly with her right side and keeping a hand on it to steady herself. Dogmeat followed close on her heels.
She passed by a closed door with a sign on the outside that read 'The Den'. She frowned in consideration, the word ringing some bell in the back of her mind. She shook the unnerving feeling off and continued on. She slipped through a set of double doors labeled 'A Ring' and came face-to-face with a mountain of steel.
After a moment of alarm, she recognized the symbol painted on the shoulder of the power armor, and realized she was looking at a member of the Brotherhood of Steel. Was she in their base? She remembered talking to those two Brotherhood members at GNR and one of them had mentioned what their base was called, she was pretty sure, but she couldn't remember it for the life of her.
The Brotherhood member turned to look at her as the door opened, and after a brief moment of consideration, nodded at her politely. "You're the vault dweller?" At her confirming nod, they continued. "I was told to let you know that the Elder wanted to speak with you." She was promptly disregarded as the soldier went back to keeping guard, having communicated that request. Jenifer took the opportunity to let Dogmeat in behind her and shut the door.
"Thanks. I'll find him soon." She didn't get a response and didn't particularly want nor expect one anyway.
Studying her surroundings revealed that there was some sort of medical bailey to her left and another closed door ahead of her. She walked forward and peered around the corner, trying not to appear too suspicious now that there was another person around. Rows of closed doors met her gaze, except one labeled 'Mess Hall' which seemed to be open. She started heading that way, thankfully not having to pass another guard, but she took note of the one stationed further down the hall.
The mess was brightly lit and stocked with different kinds of pre-war food containers and drinks. Attached to the side walls were rows of booths, like the kind they had in the Vault. Along the back wall was a stove, sink, and fridge, with a set of worn cabinets above the counter. She hadn't noticed how dry her mouth and throat were until she looked at the clean water, but the realization didn't surprise her. She was dehydrated - she had sweat a lot in that closet. Her skin was still chilled with it.
She looked at everything laid out on the counter but couldn't bring herself to grab anything as a protesting wave of nausea washed over her. Instead, she made her way to the first booth of the room, next to the doorway, and slid into it so she was facing the room and could watch anyone that came in. Dogmeat laid himself under the table, out of sight.
Now for the difficult part: trying to figure out what the hell was going on. She took stock of what she knew as best she could through her tired and muddled brain. One, she didn't have her bag or weapons with her, except the knife in her boot. Two, she didn't seem to have any obvious new injuries, but she couldn't remember what happened after she left the library and returned to the Memorial. Three, they let her keep Dogmeat, and the guard didn't attack or detain her, so she wasn't being held hostage or prisoner, but she was alone.
She frowned at that realization. Where was her dad? A headache suddenly bloomed between her eyes and she pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration at the pain. Concentrating, she could faintly recall people in black armor and a man in a coat speaking with her dad. She was… behind glass? Her heart beat in time with the pulsing of her headache. They were talking and… Madison Li was beside her. Her dad and the man were arguing and there was a shock wave and he collapsed against the glass, coughing blood, smearing crimson…
Her eyes widened as she remembered precisely what happened at the Memorial in blistering clarity. The memories crashed against her and she wished desperately she could rewind time to twenty seconds ago when she didn't remember in painful, agonizing detail every moment of watching her dad die from advanced radiation poisoning.
Her chest filled with a coldness, reaching to all of her limbs and numbing her from the inside-out. She tried to steady her breathing, she couldn't freak the fuck out, but as she watched her dad die in front of her over and over she couldn't help but shake.
Jennifer breathed, and breathed, and breathed, and tried not to panic like some wimp like Butch was always calling her. She could handle this, she had handled everything that had happened so far, she'd lost plenty since that moment Amata woke her in the Vault, what was losing one more person after everything so far?
She broke from her revere as footsteps approached the door and a person walked through wearing some sort of long-sleeve blue shirt and dark colored cargo pants. She detachedly watched the other woman approach the counter and rummage around, grabbing a Nuka Cola. She looked familiar, but Jennifer couldn't place why.
Until she turned around, that is, and Jennifer suddenly placed her face after seeing it clearly, and the name that went along with it. Sentinel Sarah Lyons, that woman she had met at GNR. To her credit, Sarah didn't jump at suddenly seeing Jennifer sitting - admittedly kinda creepily - alone in a booth at three o'clock in the morning.
After a long moment of silence, Sarah raised an eyebrow at her. "You just manage to get yourself into all sorts of trouble, don't you? What are the chances I'd find you after you'd gone MIA for the last few hours?"
She seemed to be expecting an answer, so Jennifer made her brain catch up with what was happening. "Maybe I was ready to be found." She felt like there was something more she should say, but she couldn't think of anything, so she fell silent.
Sarah watched her consideringly for a moment before grabbing another Nuka Cola from the counter behind her and then gesturing to the other side of the booth in a sort of you mind? motion. Jennifer shrugged in response and gently pushed Dogmeat with her foot so he wouldn't get crushed by the other woman sitting. He huffed at her, betrayed, as he crawled out from under the booth and laid on his side, apparently at ease with the near-stranger approaching them.
Sarah slid into the booth and easily popped the caps off both cola bottles, leaving them in the middle of the table, and pushed the other across the way so it was sitting in front of the vault girl. Jennifer hummed in appreciation, but she was already sliding backwards into the reel playing behind her eyes, watching her dad's blood smear on the glass-
"Where did you go?" Jennifer jerked her head up at the other woman's voice and met her sharp blue eyes. She'd forgotten she was there. "Earlier. After we led your group to the med bay." Sarah's face was carefully clear of any emotion and she kept her eyes locked on the younger woman.
Jennifer hadn't gotten around to thinking about any of that yet, a blur of halls flashing through her mind, blinded by a haze of panic. "I just found an empty room and stayed there." She chewed on the inside of her cheek. "Guess I just wanted to be alone." She briefly thought about her meeting with the guard outside. "Someone told me that the Elder wanted to talk to me. Do you know what that was about?"
Sarah tapped the hand not holding the glass bottle against the table top. "My father wanted to establish a plan of action moving forward, as the Enclave have begun a full-scale occupation of the Memorial, and what your role would be in it." She tilted her head a bit, face unreadable, eyes flinty. "I'm curious about that too."
Jennifer frowned and dropped the other woman's gaze. It was hard to look at her when it felt like her gaze was pinning her to the booth seat. "I'm not sure. I mean, I'm still not a hundred percent clear what's even going on."
Sarah's hand stopped tapping abruptly. "What do you mean?"
Well, damnit. She hadn't meant to reveal her hand quite so thoroughly. "I mean- I just- I'm having a hard time remembering everything that happened." Fear and panic tried to crawl up her throat and she swallowed harshly. "It was all so fast after Dad-" She wearily brought a hand up to rub at the scar above her eyebrow. Her headache was building again and making it difficult to think.
Her arm was suddenly blazing hot, and she swiftly opened her eyes to see the other woman's hand laid gently on her wrist. Sarah spoke carefully, for all the intensity written across her face. "I think you went into shock after you arrived here."
She stilled in thought. Oh. Well, the symptoms seemed to match, at least. Shock can cause a brief lapse in memory. Warmth radiated through her, starting from her wrist and dislodging the cold from her chest, accompanied by the sweet sensation of relief at the explanation. At least she wasn't going insane.
"Yeah. That's… Yeah. I think you're right." She was having trouble expressing her gratitude just then.
Sarah smirked at her. "I know I'm right. I've seen it enough, and you look pretty out of it." Her face fell a little. "Actually, you look terrible."
Jennifer snorted. "Gee, thanks?" She couldn't get a read on the other woman. Was this supposed to be making her feel better? Because it actually kind of was, and she didn't know if she should be annoyed by that fact or grateful.
Sarah spoke seriously. "You should sleep more."
Jennifer scoffed. "Says you. What are you even doing up?"
Sarah shrugged lightly. "Looking for errant vault dwellers. The Brotherhood doesn't take kindly to them, you know. Almost as bad as muties." Well, that was a deflection, but Jennifer certainly wasn't going to point it out.
"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye out for any."
Sarah gestured at the girl's cola. "You should drink that. Before it gets cold." She brought her own room-temperature drink up to her lips, apparently pleased with herself and her joke by the way she was smiling slightly behind the rim of the glass bottle.
Jennifer rolled her eyes. "Oh, I didn't know you were a comedian." But she brought the drink up to her mouth anyway.
They stayed in the booth for a while, each quietly sipping at their colas. The silence probably should feel awkward, but it didn't. Jennifer didn't linger on that thought. Before too long, though, Sarah was dragging her up and out of the booth with some half explained comment about how Jennfier was, quote, 'disgusting', and that the other woman was surprised they hadn't found her earlier due to the stench alone.
Which was a fair assessment, really, as Jennifer had been crawling around in the sewer that connected the Memorial to the Citadel. That didn't mean she had to like it, though. Jennifer performed the appropriate amount of huffing and brooding and scowling to convey to the other woman that she didn't appreciate the fact that she was called disgusting and smelly, however true it was. Dogmeat just trotted along happily beside them like the traitor he was. He even stood on Sarah's other side, not in his usual spot beside her, because apparently she couldn't trust anybody in this wasteland.
Eventually, after traveling through many hallways and down a few sets of stairs that left Jennifer confused and slightly lost, the group stopped outside of a large locker room of some kind that she was promptly shoved into and told to put to use.
It was similar to the ones that were in the vault. The main room was filled with lockers that didn't seem to see much use. A doorway to the side led to another tiled room that had showerheads lining the walls with drains under them. The main difference was that in the vault, there were small tiled walls that separated the showers and provided some modicum of privacy. There were none here.
Jennifer mechanically stripped off her clothes and left them in a heap on one of the metal benches against the wall by the doorway. She wandered over to the nearest showerhead and, with a bit of fumbling she was glad no one was around to see, she turned on the shower and stood under the rush of clear, cold water.
A chill settled over her skin and helped clear the fog from her head. Her thoughts eventually led back to what happened at the Memorial and she felt hot tears well up in her eyes. They silently fell and mixed with the cold spray of water running down her face.
Jennifer inhaled a deep, shuddering breath and took stock. She left Arlington Library and arrived at the Memorial. After some fussing from her dad at the state of her shoulder, she finished cleaning her vault suit and repaired the shoulder strap of her combat armor. She helped him with some menial tasks. The Enclave arrived. Her dad was locked in the Rotunda with some man and they both got kille-
Sarah's voice cut through her thoughts, bright and sharp. "Hey, vaultie. I left your bag and a towel out here."
She gave an acknowledgement to the other woman and began to wash her body and hair more earnestly. Disgusting water swirled down the drain at her feet. Eventually, the water shut off automatically and Jennifer made a protesting noise in response.
She eventually turned and, briefly leaning out the doorway to make sure she was alone, walked over to her stuff and toweled herself dry. She dressed in her spare jeans and white shirt and gathered up her disgusting clothes and bag. She wandered out the locker room to see Sarah leaning against the wall by the doorway with Dogmeat at her feet.
They made their way to some laundry room where she deposited her awful-smelling clothes and towel that were to be washed by Brotherhood Initiates, apparently. Sarah led her back up the winding maze to the med bay that she had passed earlier, where the Memorial group had been brought when they'd initially arrived. There was a Mister Gutsy currently inactive in his docking station in the corner. She spotted Madison Li and some of the other scientists and mechanics that had been stationed up at the Memorial lying on various cots around the room. One was empty of anybody, and had her rifles and pistol piled on top, and her armor heaped on one end. Glad to know where those are. It must have also been where Sarah had found her bag.
Thinking of the woman, Jennifer turned in the doorway to look up at her, only to find herself already being studied. She opened her mouth to say any number of appropriate things - like 'thanks for dealing with me even though I'm an awful mess and probably would have stayed sitting in that booth for a few more hours' - but the words got caught in her throat. She promptly shut her mouth, damning her own awkwardness and social inability.
Sarah took pity on her. "Try to stay here this time, if you don't mind." The amused curl to her mouth told Jennifer that the other woman was kidding, probably. Mostly.
Jennifer shrugged in return. "Yeah, I'm not going to make any promises. Goodnight." She turned to walk back into the med bay without waiting to see what the other woman would say to that.
She could hear Sarah attempting to bite back laughter behind her and she smiled to herself a little.
Jennifer spent most of the night alternating between fighting back waves of tears and crushing emptiness. She felt strangely hollowed out in her chest, like somebody had taken a spoon and carved out a part of her heart. The cot she was lying on was pushed against the wall and she took the time to study it.
The white plaster was cracked and peeling in places, giving it a rough, raised texture, and the wood underneath was dark. It smelled strange, like some of the other places that she'd been in. She wondered if it had something to do with whatever was in the paint that was aging.
Jennifer turned onto her other side. Her brain was skipping like a bad vinyl record. What was she supposed to do now? Her dad was . . . gone. She hurriedly dismissed that thought. She couldn't get back into the Vault. Painful, but one she had sat with for a while now. The Elder wanted to talk to her about the Enclave?
She flipped back onto her side so she faced the wall. Her right shoulder twinged in response. It still wasn't working fully. The Elder wanted to talk to her about the Enclave. The group that currently moved to occupy the Memorial. The one that killed her dad, and a few of the other scientists if her memory wasn't failing her.
Her eyes stung at the sheer rage that filled her at the thought of them. She clenched a fist and dully watched it shake at the force of her grip. Yes, she'd speak to the Elder. She wanted to know what he planned on doing, because she knew that the next thing for her was to find and kill every last Enclave member in the Capital Wasteland.
A/N: This chapter has been drafted and re-drafted and re-worked and re-written since I released Chapter 19 months ago, so I hope it doesn't disappoint.
Hope the scene change between the Arlington Library and the Citadel wasn't too jarring, but I really wanted to do something different for that whole part of the quest, and after doing some research on medical shock, it seemed like an interesting angle to go for. I liked this version better than the play-by-play alternate version.
Additionally: the Citadel is much bigger than is depicted in-game. Think of the layout of "The Hive" from the Resident Evil (2002) movie. Stimpak headcanons are explored a bit. I also looked at SO many diagrams of shoulder muscles for that fight.
Finally, if anyone is confused by Sarah's mildly babysitting behavior here, it is important to note Jennifer doesn't quite grasp the reputation she's garnered for herself as good, but slightly unhinged.
Thanks for reading, and remember to review! Anything is appreciated.