Talia sat on the floor of the museum gift shop, beneath the Jefferson Memorial, surveying the carnage around her. Dead supermutants littered the hallways along with some other… things. She deliberately turned her head away as one of the atrocious corpses lingered in her peripheral vision. She still hadn't quite been able to look at one properly. It was a horrifying amalgamation of too many arms sprouting from a bald, lumpy mass of flesh, with an all too humanoid torso rising out of it, and worst, the head, shrivelled and melted into a permanent frown, empty eye sockets and lack of ears leaving only its mouth tentacles to lash wildly at its surroundings. It was an abomination. James told her they had been dubbed 'centaurs'. Whoever came up with that name had a sick sense of humour.

Unfortunately, in the other direction she saw Dogmeat tugging unceremoniously at one such tentacle. Talia yelled at him to stop but he ignored her until she'd pelted him with at least ten empty bullet casings.

"Yeah, you oughta look ashamed," she scolded as he sidled over to her, head bowed and tail batting shyly. "Keep your tongue to yourself boy," she warned, dodging his licks as she cuddled him, "I know where it's been."

Which was more than could be said for James. She'd foolishly felt quite excited to tackle this with him, despite the dangers. He was obviously no stranger to a fight and his restless energy, while scaring her a little earlier, innervated her when it had become focussed on this one task in front of them. Maybe this was the real James she hadn't seen in the Vault, the one she could actually relate to. A little crazy, big ideas, and a deep wound that showed in his ferocity when threatened.

But despite agreeing to her plan, she didn't find the synchronicity that she and Burke enjoyed in the city, or even in the ghoul tunnels by Tenpenny Tower. She didn't even find the cohesion she'd planned on using to move them through the facility. The three of them were alive but the whole thing had been a shambles. Far from an admittedly unusual bonding experience, she felt like a passenger to his long held ambitions, something that stung all the more as he didn't seem to see it that way.

She supposed even the best battle plans could still go wrong, but not working together seemed like shooting yourself in the foot (or the hand, if you were a centaur). She'd lost him at one point, or maybe he just forgot that only he knew the place like… well, the back of his hand. And he hadn't even thought to tell her about the centaurs before going in. She wouldn't have wasted a good chocolate bar on the way down here if she'd known it was coming right back up.

Right now he was already fiddling with the computers that occupied the gift shop, rather than assess their situation while they could afford a break. Talia finished refilling her magazines and took a mental note of how many rounds she had left in her bag. Dogmeat would give her warning if anything was still moving in this place, but she wiped a bead of sweat from her brow all the same.

"You wanna get some fresh ammo out while you can Dad or what?" she badgered him, moving to where he stood.

"What? Oh, yes, good idea. It's over there." He pointed to his bag by the wall.

Talia shook her head but saved her energy, thinking it easier to just get it for him than argue. After a brief rummage she returned. Seeing his attention was still on the computers she pulled one of his hands free and slammed a box of shells into it. "Come on Dad, we should really check we haven't missed anything." She paced to the far side of the room, peering down the corridor for any signs of movement.

"Okay, okay, you're right." He stopped what he was doing and emptied the box into the pouch on his belt. "The only room left is the rotunda. It contains the control room and the purifier itself."

"Where's that?"

He pointed to a door in the corner.

Talia checked his sketch of the area and dropped her bag by the desk. It was small, consisting of just a narrow walkway around the control room, which itself formed a ring around the central machinery. "There can't be many in there unless they like playing sardines. We can go in quiet and sneak up on anything that is there."

"Alright. Be careful sweetie." James led the way and carefully opened the door a fraction for Talia to slip through first. She could hear the slow, leaden footsteps of one supermutant above. She wondered whether it missed the firefight because it was deaf, cowardly, or waiting.

Deft, silent feet carried her up a staircase where she saw the tree trunk legs of the supermutant in the control room. A grenade would have been her choice here, but James didn't want to damage the equipment any more than it may be already. So she crept the last two steps, lining up her sights with the back of the mutant's head and crossing the threshold so she could loop around the room if necessary. But all her time on the range paid off and it went down with a single burst to the head.

"I suppose that proves you are a better shot," James commented, once again approaching it to check it was dead, while Talia confirmed there were no more hiding nearby.

"I thought you took my word for it," she replied as she returned. The mutant took up the whole width of the walkway where it had fallen. "How are we gonna get these out of here? They must weigh a ton."

"I'm sure we can come up with something. We should have enough brainpower in here soon to figure that out, but there are more important things right now." James turned his attention to one of the panels.

Talia shrugged and leapt over the mutant. It was his lab. She finally took a moment to look around. Panels of buttons, meters, screens and blinking lights encircled the platform, all indicating that nothing was happening since James had managed to switch on nothing but a few auxiliary generators when he was here last. The central column was all glass and holding back an enormous amount of water. Small pipes snaked overhead where several clear sections allowed a view into the flow, or lack thereof as it was.

She looked back through the central window with a start. They must have been inside the monument itself now, for the control room was actually built around the statue. A huge, bronze Thomas Jefferson towered above them from inside its watery cage.

She hadn't known what to expect, but it was impressive. The entire building, above and below ground had been converted to the single aim of purifying the tidal basin. "How was this even possible?" she asked, circling the submerged statue.

"With a lot of sacrifice, honey," James answered.

It must have been huge, to build something functional in the middle of all the rubble, the danger, the barren hostility of the D.C. ruins. And so visible to everyone in Rivet City. She imagined she could feel the loss when its credibility and support evaporated.

"The lower level has flooded. Look," James pointed to the ground below the platform on which they stood, covered in stagnant water. "We should get the team here so we can get the pumps going to clear it, and assess what else has been damaged."

Talia let James go back for the team alone. She said she would guard the place from any more mutants and signal whether it was safe for them to enter, though privately she wanted a break from James himself. She told him to take Dogmeat but he refused, and she agreed he wasn't much help during a hold up anyway.

When he was gone she explored the living area of the facility. It had been mostly cleared out but some mess remained, given the scientists had left in a bit of a hurry. In one corner were four bunk beds, across from several sets of lockers, and a kitchen and a dining area. The project must have been a very close knit affair to work and live like this. She counted herself lucky to have fallen into her suite at Tenpenny Tower.

She rounded the corner and came to the only private room in the place. She assumed, as head of the project, James would have stayed there, and some holodisk recordings of his confirmed it. She picked one up and played it through her Pip Boy. It was a woman discussing test results. She almost switched off when the voice began talking to James in the background. Talia sat down as she realised it must be her mother.

She'd never heard her voice before. It was feathery, vibrant, full of determination when speaking of the disappointing results and joy when batting away James who was trying to distract her. Talia closed her eyes and tried to marry the sound with the photos she had seen. She had inherited her mom's looks, sharing her olive skin, dark hair and amber eyes, and now she could recognise her voice in Catherine's too. Her light, slightly husky tones definitely didn't come from James, though his low, soporific drawl had brightened up considerably since she had known him on the outside.

The recording veered further off track until James successfully distracted Catherine from her note taking, and it ended abruptly as they presumably got on with things Talia tried not to visualise. She grimaced and dropped the disk back on the desk. She didn't need that particular momento of her mom.

An empty whisky bottle sat beside the disk, and from the stale smell it had only been finished recently. She'd definitely inherited James' taste for a drink, if not also a crazy streak. Talia wondered how long he had spent here going through old recordings and making new ones. Having little else to do and wondering how she now found herself in another hole, this one full of mutant corpses, she listened to the disks recently made by her dad.

Most of them were dry, recounting what she already knew about how he'd learned of the G.E.C.K. and tried to recruit Dr. Li. But there was one, clearly made while the nearby whisky bottle was being drained. It called out to her morbid curiosity and she played the whole thing.

"Well, here we are again. Project Purity and me."

He speaks like it's his baby.

"It's been close to twenty years since my last entry. Since I left all of this behind to make a life for my daughter."

Talia scoffed.

"We spent all that time in Vault 101, tucked away from the rest of the world. It wasn't perfect, but it was safe, and that's all I could have hoped for."

Considering his staggering ambitions now, she wondered how he couldn't have hoped for a little more. But she could hear the familiar pain in his voice as he thought of Catherine, and scolded herself. I can be a heartless bitch sometimes. She hadn't given Amata a thought as she avenged Jonas, driven by her own pain. Why should he be any different?

"Now, my daughter is a grown woman. Beautiful, intelligent, confident. Just like her mother. And as hard as it was to admit it, she doesn't need her daddy anymore."

His final words knocked the wind out of her. Tears threatened to wet her cheeks and she threw the disk against the wall instead. It made a rather pathetic clattering sound, and only Dogmeat was around to notice. He prodded her leg with his nose and whined. There was no point in getting angry on her own, and it would just upset Dogmeat. She slid to the floor and hugged him.

James really thought she didn't need him anymore? How could things have got so twisted? Of course she needed him, even in the Vault. Especially in the Vault. Now she knew why she'd always been confused, felt uneasy about his story of their life, but before they left she had no one but him to ask. She needed him to explain, to trust her, to give her something that made sense. But he hadn't, so she'd walled him off, and he'd let her. He must have seen that as independence, whereas she saw a man that didn't care.

Maybe he was right. What had he done but drop her in a complete mess because he wasn't thorough enough to consider the options if his neat plan didn't work out like he hoped? He had underestimated the Overseer's insanity, and it got people beaten and killed.

Maybe he was right. Was he dropping her and the others in a new heap of trouble? What had he underestimated this time? The only thought that calmed her nerves was that Dr. Li had agreed. Despite the feelings Talia felt lingered there, the woman radiated a reason and confidence that balanced James' almost disconnected zeal. She wondered if her presence would calm him in the coming days. She wondered if he wouldn't have spent the last two decades drowning in the past had he never taken Talia to the Vault.

She was half right. Once everyone was in the facility that evening, James' focus was back, organising each of the team to specific tasks that would get the mainframe up and running once more. Talia recognised her feelings were all over the joint, but she relaxed into the work. It wasn't too far off what she'd done in the Vault, and the infrastructure was not so different. Tinkering in windowless corridors soothed her whirling mind, apparently.

They worked late into the night, eager to get as much equipment as possible powered so that by morning, when the pumps had done their work, they could begin system testing. There would be no point chasing the G.E.C.K. if something critical needed repairing before it could be utilised.

James and Li were searching for information on a G.E.C.K. in the gift shop while everyone else rested or tried to sleep in the bunk room. Talia felt restless, tending to natter with someone before bed either in person, via her terminal in the Vault or, lately, over the phone. She slid quietly off her bed, casting an eye over Daniel Agincort, the engineer who had taken a strong dislike to both her and James and let her know it. Fuck it, why was she being careful? She stumbled into the kit by his bed, disturbing his very focussed attempt at falling asleep.

"Sorry dude, did I wake you?" she whispered. "Didn't see your stuff down there."

She heard him mutter something amidst an irked sigh but he didn't see her smirk through the darkness. She made her way over to Janice's bunk, creeping onto the foot of the bed where she'd laid out her own blankets and pillows. They were what Anthony would call kitsch, albeit in various shades of brown, wool apparently being available somewhere but not dye. A fact Talia had noticed since spending time outside of Tenpenny Tower, where everyone dressed in well kept pre-war clothes. Wasteland-made clothes were rather more earthy.

"This is cosy," Talia commented in a low voice.

"Thanks. We might be here for a long while, so I thought it'd be nice to bring a bit of home along. Do you like it? I knitted all this myself."

"Really? Wow. That's kinda cool."

"Yeah, I find it relaxing. I'd kill for some colour though. Never found anything in the market yet. I could probably make a dye and do it myself, but I just don't have the time."

"Maybe you'll get lucky and find a mutated pink sheep one day."

Janice chuckled. "Can I request orange? Pink isn't really my thing."

"No way, pink would suit you. I have this pink dress, super cute but I haven't even worn it. Though that's more because I love my red one way more. You could have it! Oh we could go out in the city. Or is that over the top?"

"Maybe not in the Weatherly... but no, you keep it. I'd feel like a badly made doll. Girly things just aren't my style."

"Aw, I like dressing up. It was weird at first, but a lifetime of blue jumpsuits does that I guess."

"You don't need to worry, you'd look good in a potato sack. Hey, I've got plenty of those if you want one."

Talia sniggered and warmed a little at the compliment. "Sure, it can be a theme. We'll all go wearing one."

"We'll have to drink vodka. It's made from potatoes you know? Ooh! Maybe I could distill some. I bet we have all the right equipment."

Talia whispered. "That could make you rich! A fresh source of vodka would go down a storm here."

"Right. Not sure I can turn our lab into a booze factory though." She nudged Talia on the arm jokingly.

"We'll use the purifier. We'll turn the river to vodka."

"That would be something." The pair sniggered none too quietly, drawing another meaningful huff from Daniel.

"Holy shit… all the mirelurks are smashed and getting stuck on their backs when they fall over..." Talia wheezed at the stupid image of the mutated crustaceans, normally looming several feet above her when they lurched out of the water.

"And I have to make some sort of anti-still to turn the river vodka back to water to grow the vegetables," Janice joked, though it didn't tickle Talia nearly so much.

"No," Talia corrected, "you have to invent vodkaponics."

"Brilliant," Janice laughed. "You're funny. My parents left me with a brain, but I'm not sure my funny bone is all there."

"Sure it is, it's just kinda… sciencey. I'm not sure what use a sense of humour is out here anyway."

"Nonsense. Everyone needs to smile, especially in the Capital Wasteland. I'm not from here, and let me tell you: whew-whee, it is not very nice."

"So why are you here?"

"My parents brought me, stayed because the city's pretty safe and I got working here. I remember some of where we came from. It wasn't so grey or so many things trying to kill us. But maybe that's just memory bias. You know, when you think everything was better when you were young. Although you were in a Vault, so everything was better."

Talia shrugged. "It was clean and mutant free I guess, yeah."

"But only blue jumpsuits, the horror," Janice teased.

Talia huffed. "Need I remind you I had insane Overseers trying to kill me? Don't try and lord your mutants over me, wastelander."

"I think you're one of those now- I heard how you and James cleared out this place. I have no idea how you have the courage to do that."

Talia shrugged. "Well I've tried hiding in a hole in the ground. I don't fancy it."

"Yeah but, you could hide in a lot of other places. But then I get the sense you and James aren't really the shy, retiring types."

Talia quizzed the botanist with a look, just visible in the faint glow from the corridor lighting.

"Look, Madison has told us about James and this project. And now he's here, going at it tooth and nail like it was just yesterday it was shut down. And you, well, you turn up like some badass bodyguard, gettin' hammered at night and clearing out mutants in the morning, yeehaw."

Talia stifled a giggle. "Badass, come on…"

"That's what I said. I've met some tough adventurer type women, but they're all old and missing eyes and fingers. Must've taken them a long time to learn what they know. Must run in your family to just go for it and be great."

"Well I… I've had good training is all."

"I've had good training. In plants I mean. But I'm nothing special. I don't have the… je ne sais quois that makes a genius like Madison or your dad."

Talia snorted under her breath. "Genius?"

"Oh, don't give me that, I mean it. To come up with this and actually do it, that mind has to be different."

"Different, that's for sure."

"You're being facetious, but I can see what Madison was talking about. And anyway, they say there's a fine line between genius and madness."

"I can see the truth in that. Well I'm no genius… I guess I'm just mad."

"Girl, you've got some kind of spark. But even if you are mad, I'm happy to have you. Like I said, I wouldn't want to fight these mutants."

"The Mad Scientist and Co, at your service," Talia joked. "Seriously though… do you think he's a little… off?"

"I don't know Talia. I don't know him. And all great minds can be a little off, to be honest. Do you?"

Talia paused. "Kinda. I just… does he really have a breakthrough or is he just desperate to try again?" If he really thought she didn't need him, maybe he just saw it as his window to leave and give Purity another shot. He'd clearly never stopped thinking about it.

Janice shifted on the bed. "Well, Dr. Li thinks it's worth it, so that's good enough for me. It's really exciting to be involved either way."

"Mmm, that's what I thought," Talia agreed.

"So who trained you to be such a gunslinger? Don't tell me it was James!" Janice whispered, changing the subject.

"What? Oh, geez, no. Well, he taught me with a BB gun when I was a kid. But up here... I've had a mentor, I guess."

"Ooh, find someone needing a hand like I did huh?"

"Yeah… pretty much."

"Anybody I know? I don't suppose they run in my circles too."

"Hehe, I don't think so. Someone at where I live. Well, I live there now."

"After you met?"

"Yeah, we… helped each other out, and it went from there."

"You're being very vague."

Talia shifted awkwardly. Before she could come up with anything Janice continued. "There's a little more to it huh? Come on," she nudged Talia in her silence, "a lot of people find a step-up out here and they all feel a bit special about them. I've seen it a lot. I even know couples who met something like that."

"Oh," Talia breathed in relief. "That you?" she deflected, smirking through the darkness.

"We're talking about you," Janice countered quickly. "We all thought you were some sort of superwoman to turn up with the skills you've got. Now I hear you're shacked up with whoever taught you. Tell!"

"It's hardly shacking up, a lot of people live in the tower," Talia smirked, but relaxed into answering. She hadn't talked about it openly with anyone. (There were some things she wouldn't bring up around Gustavo; the guys were an absolute no-go; Anthony was a blatant gossip; Godfrey tried hard but she thought trusting her love life to a machine was a little desperate; and Herbert, well, with his history she wasn't sure she wanted to hear what might come out of the scoundrel's mouth.)

She couldn't suppress a smile. "He kinda runs the place. He's super smart. He even looks really good. Like, I thought everyone on the surface would be wearing furs or loincloths or something."

"Or potato sacks," Janice interjected, and Talia giggled. "Oh, hey, you live in Tenpenny Tower don't you? You're not talking about…?"

Talia's face went glacial. "Tell me you're joking."

The botanist shrugged innocently, waiting for an answer. Talia threw one of her own quaint pillows toward her head. "I'm not talking about Tenpenny, you sick woman. Ew."

"Sorry, it's the only name I know, I don't know who he is," Janice laughed. "That's a pretty fancy place. You've done well to land yourself there with this handsome sponsor, huh?"

Talia rolled her eyes and pulled a pillow into her lap. She didn't care at all about the lavish surroundings anymore. She'd live under a rock if it meant Burke would show up and take her away from this madness again.

"Yeah... I might have fucked it up though." She sighed and dropped to a whisper. "Jan… have you ever been in love?"

Janice stroked Talia on the arm warmly. "Aw, I have. It can be painful right?"

Talia nodded, though nothing could burden the lightness in her chest or keep the smile from her lips.

Eventually she went to bed, holding onto the warmth she'd cultivated while talking with Janice. Burke had taught her so much about the world and herself, and she'd learned because she trusted his guidance, and because he'd persevered where she struggled or resisted. The same warmth she felt when he smiled at her success or one of her jokes. Foolhardy as it was to think so, she felt like she mattered more than the role she was filling. Most of the time. But even as messed up as his plans were that day in the courtyard, he hadn't thrown her out. She had left him.

A scuttling, rattly, unpleasantly roachlike sound disturbed her thoughts. The pumps howled from years of disuse. Daniel began to snore.

Why in the everloving fuck did I do that?

Talia stood on the platforms that had been erected around the monument and observed the spectators. She came up here regularly to look out for signs of any more mutants (and privately, Regulators). There had been nothing so far, nor any hint of the Brotherhood of Steel. James had pointed out the direction in which they had a stronghold, but they seemed uninterested in the scientists' return. However in the several days they had been working news had got around, in the way news did, and a number of people had gathered near the monument and on the far river bank. Talia wasn't sure what was so exciting to look at, but crowds attracted crowds, and they seemed pleased when she gave them a wave.

She trundled back inside to see what James needed her to do. The systems tests were complete and they were now making the needed repairs to get the purifier back online. If it could run as well as it used to it would be ready to receive a G.E.C.K. when they found one. She could probably understand the details given enough time and the inclination, but she settled for the simplified outline James gave her.

She found James in the control room with Li. They were both focussed intensely on their control panels, though occasionally uttering information to each other. Talia watched briefly as the pair mirrored each other in more ways than one, James as content as she'd ever seen him, not being overbearing or spinning off on a personal tangent. It was like a window to another dimension.

Talia approached James quietly. "We seem to be all clear Dad. Although we're quite popular with the locals."

He looked up. "Oh? They must've heard what we're doing."

"So what's next?"

He peered over his shoulder at Li and pulled Talia aside. "I think we need to talk." He ushered them out of earshot just outside the doorway. "I've been... hearing things."

Talia raised her eyebrows mockingly. "Voices?"

He only frowned, continuing sternly. "Things that have happened out there." He dropped to a whisper. "Megaton… destroyed. You… you didn't have anything to do with that, did you?"

Shit. She'd all but forgotten about that. Or at least, how regular people saw it. "What? Dad, why would you ask that?" She tried to act completely flummoxed.

"That's what they're saying on the radio. Talia, answer me."

Ooh, she'd forgotten about that guy on the radio and his wild accusations. They were correct, but that didn't mean they weren't wild. Did he really know?

Maybe it was the oppressive heat of the control room, or her growing hunger, or that her bra strap had been cutting into her shoulder all morning, but James' sudden accusation really pissed her off. His attempted look of disdain must have cost precious energy that could be spent on the project, if only he didn't have such a fuck up for a daughter. She knew what his priorities were. Did he really care?

"Yes. Yes, I did have something to do with it." God, she ate up the shock on his face. "Why ask if you don't want the answer? You have no idea what I went through in the Vault after you left. And you never intended to. So the way I see it, what I do in the world is my business now, not yours."

His lips moved like a goldfish for a few seconds until he found his voice. It was hoarse. "What you do in the world may be your business, but here, now, you are my daughter. That goes against everything I ever taught you."

Talia folded her arms. "I forget the lesson about what to do when you're kicked out of your Vault with nothing and your only options are stealing, brothels, or helping out with a nuclear experiment. What would you do? Oh, that's right, you wouldn't know because you weren't actually from the Vault and had a whole life to go back to."

He motioned with his hands to calm her. "Look, I want to talk more about this later. But you must know I can't begin to tell you how disappointed I am in you. But for now, please, there's work to be done."

He made to turn away. Talia watched as if in slow motion. Unbe-fucking-lievable. As if she was caught sneaking a drink, or cheating on a test, he was disappointed and would talk later. She grabbed his arm. "No Dad, we'll talk about this now."

He looked startled for a second. "Alright," he hissed, obviously desperate to keep Li out of this. "Explain yourself."

Talia's eyes widened. He seemed to think she'd come up with a scientific proposal for blowing the nuke. "I had fucking guns pointed in my face Dad! They were beating Amata, they beat me. I had to shoot my way out, thank you very much. I found Jonas' battered- body…" she paused to catch herself. "I mean, thank you for leaving your gun. I paid them back. But God I loved having to shoot my friend's parents to get out of your mess, your fucking- secret," she almost choked on the word. "And then I have guns pointed in my face as soon as I get out, your buddy in the bar wanted to pimp me out. Do... do you have any idea?"

James' face was grey, but he still wasn't fucking reacting. "I'm sorry Talia. I know it was hard, but none of that justifies what you did-"

"I'm not trying to justify it. Jesus fuck, what is wrong with you?" Hot tears blurred her vision. Why did he never get mad? Never. Never did he raise his voice, speak in anger, just flip out. What would it take? "You don't fucking care, just admit it, why are you still bothering with this… act?"

He looked wounded, like he did on the way to the monument from the city. "I care Talia. It's just that right now-"

"Yeah, yeah, you care more about this water, I know. Well I don't. I care more about why you don't give a shit when I tell you I nuked a town." She stood on her tiptoes and raised her voice over James' shoulder, into the control room. "Yes, everybody! You heard it! Megaton! That was me!"

That finally got something out of him, as he grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her further away from the door. Too late, precious Madison had heard.

"Don't like that huh? Don't like your reputation being ruined by your fuck up daughter-"

"Talia-"

"-just not enough to stop her being a fuck up-"

"Talia!"

"What!" She glared back as he pinned her against the railing. "What are you gonna do?"

"What can I do? Ground you and tell you not to do it again? My God…"

"That's right. Nothing," she hissed softly. "You'll do nothing, like always. That is until you felt okay about ditching me, then you become this… This." This person she wished she'd seen before. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply.

James' grip shifted. "Talia, you'll always be my daughter, and I love you-"

"But..." she finished tiredly.

"No. No but. Just… calm down."

She sighed with the weight of the world. Was he made of stone? "Why didn't you stay here?"

"I'm sorry?"

"You could have stayed on the surface with Dr. Li and your team, doing science and being happy."

He let go of her and stepped back. "No… no, it was over. The project was gone."

"She built a new project."

"It's not… it wasn't so clear back then. Everything was in tatters."

"Why didn't you remarry?"

He blinked, taken aback by the change in subject. "Talia, I loved your mother-"

"I know. But people move on. They can."

"Sweetheart… oh, even if I wanted to, the Vault was… it was already so small."

"I know," she concurred.

His voice softened further. "Talia… sweetheart… I vowed to your mother I'd keep you safe, so I took you to the Vault. That was my entire mission. I wasn't living for myself after you were born. After... You were the love of my life then. Just you."

Talia looked up into his face as the words reverberated around her mind. She saw, for the first time in a long time, the glistening of real emotion in his eyes. He was serious, honest. Or at least more honest than she'd ever known him. She began to cry.

Not because it moved her. But because he really believed it. He really believed what he'd told her, told himself, over and over again. That the Vault was the best place for her. That he was keeping her safe. That she was his number one priority. Because it was the antithesis to the story she'd lived. She'd lived a life second to his memories. Second to his dreams, to his hopes of getting it all back. Of making a dead woman happy. And he didn't even realise.

He pulled her into an embrace and she acquiesced, grasping the back of his lab coat, wiping her tears on his shirt. He uttered soothing words, stroking her hair in some attempt at comfort, and she hugged him tighter. She gave him this, a show of reconciliation, but her eyes were glassy. He didn't even see his wounds, let alone hers; there was a long road ahead before they could heal, and it wouldn't be complete. Privately, she mourned the relationship she knew they would never have, that she now saw was lost long ago.

James had called a tea break, and it extended into lunch. It was the longest they'd rested since arriving, excepting the relatively short nights asleep. Li had sat far away from Talia and James, which was strange, and so had Daniel, which was normal. However, excited chatter amongst the others had lifted the mood, and the air felt marginally clearer.

"Okay, everyone, let's get back to work. We're almost there." James turned to Talia. "You remember where to go? I'll be on the intercom to guide you through every step, alright?"

Talia nodded and headed off to the other side of the building, to the end of the corridor where there was a hatch to the water intake pipes. There was a blockage in one of them, and Taila had been awarded the glamorous job of clearing it. Manually.

She stopped by the hatch and called James on the intercom. "I'm here."

"Alright. Now don't worry, this is perfectly safe, the water isn't flowing into the system yet. All you need to do is go in and follow the pipe until you find the debris. Break it up if you can, then we'll decide if we need to clear it out or if the water can do that. Be careful. There's no intercom down there, so call me again once you're out. You'll exit near the cisterns."

"Okay. Well, I'm going in."

"Speak soon."

"Taking the plunge."

"I told you there's no water in there."

"Sorry Dad, can't talk, I'm kind of in a flush."

"..."

"Got to flow now."

"...Urgh."

"See you soon."

"Yes, honey."

She opened the grate and climbed down the ladder. She coaxed Dogmeat onto her shoulders, something she'd practised already while clambering down rocks in the wasteland and finding that he didn't want to follow.

The pipe interior was taller than she was, so she moved through easily, pushing back those intrusive thoughts that asked if she could hear roaring water. She sang to Dogmeat in an attempt to ignore them, playing with the echo. He joined in, seeming bemused by the strange sound of their voices.

They passed through a few grates and eventually saw daylight. There was the 'blockage'. It was actually a broken section of the pipe itself. A hole had formed on the side, the open air swirling through the wire fencing that encased the pipe, the busted section in several pieces on the interior.

Talia thought it looked pretty bad, but she was also glad she didn't have to shift something gross that had got stuck in here. Preparing to continue, she stopped with a fright when she really did hear something.

Roaring? No, it was more of a thrumming. She jumped out of her skin as James' voice came through on a loudspeaker nearby.

"Everyone, listen. It seems we have some visitors. I don't know who they are or what they want. Remain in your assigned areas while we sort this out…"

As she wondered whether that meant she should stay in the pipes, the thrumming grew louder, becoming a pounding that filled the pipe. The source came into view. Two helicopter type craft landed on the ground around the monument outside. She recognised them from classes in the Vault, but had never guessed how loud they would be. Or that they were still airborne.

James continued broadcasting, though he seemed to be talking to one of the team. "...The Enclave? What? What are they doing here? ...They're where? Madison- quick, lock that door."

The transmission stopped. Talia heard heavy footsteps of several people running, though she couldn't see them.

Enclave. They ran that radio station she heard when she first stepped outside. Ever since it had just seemed to be recordings of various rants by the 'President', and everyone was adamant they were long gone.

There was no way out of this pipe at the broken section, so she continued the way she had planned. Eventually she emerged inside, in the basement. Creeping around the massive pools of water, she made her way back up toward the control room, careful to look out for any of the new arrivals.

She made it to the gift shop before spotting anyone. Boy, they didn't look friendly. And they were kitted out in the baddest armour she'd ever seen. They called it power armour, and it basically turned a man into a mini walking tank. She assumed. She didn't want a demonstration, so she weaved around the soldier slipping into the control room unseen.

Li was at the top of the stairs looking in to the central platform.

"What's going on?" Talia whispered while joining her.

"I don't know… they just came in here so fast…"

Inside were James and Janice, flanked by another soldier in power armour. A man in a sand coloured military uniform and long trenchcoat approached from behind. "By the authority of the President, this facility is now under United States government control. The person in charge is to step forward immediately and turn over all materials related to this project."

He stopped in front of James and Janice, awaiting one of them to move. Neither did, though James answered. "That's quite impossible. This is a private project. The Enclave has no authority here. I'm going to have to ask you to leave at once."

Talia couldn't help but laugh. At least she felt a little better about James' apparent lack of passion or fury if he thought a polite but firm request would see these guys off. She cleared her throat as Li gave her an incredulous look.

"Am I to assume, sir, that you are in charge?" the Enclave officer continued, in an accent Talia could listen to all day. But the delivery was open contempt.

"Yes. I'm responsible for this project."

"Then I repeat, sir, that you are to hand over immediately all materials related to the purifier." The officer's tempo increased with irritation at having to repeat himself.

"I'm sorry, but that's-"

"Furthermore," he ignored James completely, "you are to assist Enclave scientists in assuming control of the administration and operation of this facility, at once."

Talia recognised the twinge in James' face as he held back what was really on his mind. "Colonel- is it Colonel? I'm sorry, but the facility is not operational. It never has been. You're wasting your time here."

The Colonel matched James with an equally irate sigh. "Sir… this is the last time I am going to repeat myself. Stand down at once and turn over control of this facility."

James responded firmly. "Colonel. I assure you this facility will not function." He sighed theatrically. "We have never been able to successfully replicate test results-"

Talia, Li and James all jumped in shock as the Colonel drew his pistol without warning and fired. Then Li cried in anguish to her right, and Talia realised Janice was on the floor. Motionless.

The three of them stared at her, but the only movement was the pool of blood gradually growing on the floor beneath her head.

Talia slammed the door release switch over and over, but it was locked from the inside. She ran along the platform to the door itself, slamming her fist on the window.

The silence broken, the Colonel continued. "I suggest you comply immediately, sir, in order to prevent any more incidents. Are we clear?" He spoke to James and only to James, putting the blame squarely on his shoulders.

Talia saw fire in James' eyes. Fire she could feel. The fire that coursed through her veins when she found Jonas' body, that made her turn around and head back into the Vault she was escaping. Risking death for a chance at revenge, because this fire fed on it. And she wouldn't have cared at the time, so long as she got to see the Overseer's life flicker out.

James answered through gritted teeth. "Yes, Colonel. I'll do whatever you want. There's no need for more violence."

"Then you will immediately hand over all materials relating to this project and aid us in making it operational at once," the Colonel repeated yet again, though his tone had softened with satisfaction.

"Very well. Give me a few moments to bring the system online."

Talia would have screamed at James not to give this asshole what he wanted, but the change in his voice… it was completely detached from the darkness in his face. He was up to something. She whipped her head around to Li, but she just looked at Talia in fear and confusion.

Helpless, she pounded on the window again, but James ignored her, heading over to one of the panels.

As he flipped switches and tuned dials, and the Colonel tutted at how long he was taking, and Li questioned what he was doing under her breath, and the red puddle under Janice kept growing, Talia got chills.

"Dad?… Dad!" She may as well have been howling at the moon.

There came a sudden, thunderous crack and she hit the deck. Alarms began to sound. And James and the Colonel cried out in pain. She knelt up to peer through the window. The Colonel was on his knees. The soldier was scrambling against the windows. James was staggering over to the door.

"Dad?" She turned to Li. "Open the door. Open the door!" But Li shook her head.

James slammed his palm on the window, jolting Talia's attention back. "Run…" he groaned.

Talia frowned, pulling herself up on the window.

"Run!" he reiterated with the last of his strength, crumpling to his knees after that, and after that falling to the ground beside the Colonel.

She stared for… she didn't know. Not long enough. Li was talking. She didn't hear.

Li grabbed her arm, pulling her away. "We have to evacuate now! Or your father died in vain."

"What? I'm not leaving him! We have to help him!"

"The radiation levels in there are lethal! You'd die the same way he did." The confusion must have been clear on her face as Li hurriedly expanded. "He caused an overload, to keep the Enclave from getting the purifier and to buy us time to escape. He's… he's gone. Now we need to move before more of them show up."

Talia turned back to look at him. As if she needed more proof what Li said was true.

Li grabbed her jacket this time, practically dragging her away. "We need to get out of here now."

Reality seeped in with the force of Li's words, and Talia managed to sputter one relevant question. "How?"

"There's an old tunnel that will lead us out of here, to someplace safe. We've used it as an evacuation route once before. Let's hope everyone remembers how to find it, there isn't time to round everyone up. Follow me, and hurry." She finished her last words while setting off, pulling Talia with her.

She led the way to a corner of the gift shop where she dragged aside a desk, lifting a manhole cover beneath. She paused to look around for the others but Talia waved her in, following with Dogmeat.

She barely noticed the stench of the old sewer. The others were there already: Alex, a scientist, Garza, a friend of Li's who helped with heavy lifting, and Daniel. Daniel approached Talia before her feet had even hit the ground.

"You! I better not ever find out that you or your father had anything to do with this." He stopped when Dogmeat growled. "If I even think you sold us out-"

Talia closed the distance. "You'd better walk away right now."

He tried to stare her down but she saw uncertainty in his stupid face and his voice faltered. "Yeah? Well…"

Li got between the two of them, voice shaking with anger or fear. "That's enough. We have to get out of here. Has anyone seen Anna?" A chorus of shaking heads and worried faces answered. "Oh. Well, we can't wait. Hopefully she's just behind us."

"What?" Alex complained. "We can't just leave her!"

"The Enclave will find us if we stay here, we have no choice." Li was firm.

"We know why that is," Daniel pushed.

"Leave her out of it Daniel, let's just get out. I don't want to die down here," Alex countered.

"We'll be lucky."

"What do you mean? We've done it before."

"This one. If she wasn't in on it she'll kill you for slowing us down," Daniel goaded, though from a safe distance.

As the bickering escalated Talia tuned out, barely caring what he was insinuating. She noticed herself move away from the group, leaning into the wall, feeling only Dogmeat's wet nose against her fingers.

Li raised her voice, stern and commanding, urgency constraining any fear to only a slight tremor that hinted at the gravity of the situation. "Gentlemen! Let's not shit ourselves, please." She turned to Talia, her voice punching through the images swirling in her mind. "Talia. Don't wander off. We're going to need you." She silenced Daniel with a look and pulled Talia from the wall. "You're the only one with any kind of combat experience. I need you to lead the way, and we'll follow."

Talia frowned. Li elaborated hurriedly once more. "We've got the Enclave behind us and who knows what ahead of us. No one has been down here for years, we're probably not alone. Now I'm responsible for these people. With James gone I'm responsible for the project. You are responsible for clearing a path through this tunnel. It leads to the Citadel, the Brotherhood of Steel's fortress. We'll be safe there. You understand me? Please, get a grip and let's get out of this alive. Talia. Do you understand?"

Something clicked in Talia's mind. The fog cleared, her disbelief was packed away, and her training took over. She nodded firmly. Tunnels. She was happy in tunnels. She was happy when there was a plan. Li would keep the team calm and Talia could focus on what she was good at. Surety coloured her features, eyes clear and calculating. "Follow me."