"Doctor James, can you come back to my clinic as soon as possible?" The familiar gruff voice of Barrow held a thick eagerness that captured her attention.

She was currently squatting by the head of the fallen Behemoth, scraping calcified plaque off his gums when her PipBoy picked up his transmission on their shared frequency.

She looked at the time, noting the sun had just finished setting. The air had swiftly cooled and the horizon had the faintest tinge of greenish yellow as darkness spread its wings over them.

The detour to Evergreen Mills had been the perfect amount of violence and chaos to keep her mind off of her father.

Charon, still wiping gore off his face and arms with a rag kept his usual passive expression but with the standard growling and cursing with increased duration since they left the vault.

"Perhaps we should turn back."

He rarely made suggestions. It was his way of making a request. He wanted to go back.

She turned from her samples to look up at him with a grin. He was improving. "Yeah. Sounds like a good idea. We need to resupply." She got to her feet, her knees popping and her back aching.

Her mind hummed and she knew going to sleep wouldn't happen until she was an inch from fainting from sheer exhaustion. Times like this she craved some Med-X.

"Do you wish to make camp?"

"No. Let's go now."

"Very well."

The two of them had been hiking for hours, taking out bloatflies and radscorpions. An eventful screaming raider with a green mohawk threw a molotov cocktail but inadvertently set himself on fire. As the bandit kept screaming and running around them with flames lapping his neck and face, Leah watched on with no desire to aid him.

"Should we intervene?"

"If you want. I don't feel like it, personally."

She felt her companion's eyes snap to her with worry but she kept looking at the red light dancing in front of them like a will o' the wisp, thinking of whether or not she should make the trip to Rivet City.

Charon put the raider out of his misery with two pumps of his shotgun and a well placed aim at his burning cranium.

When they arrived at Underworld, Leah went straight to the Chop Shop, Charon dutifully her shadow.

"Leah," Nurse Graves smiled at the vault dweller with radiance. "Barrows will be back any second. We've made an amazing breakthrough."

"The suspense is killing me," she tried to join the cheer with a pull of her cheeks. "I also bear tidings of exotic specimens. A Behemoth." She dug out of her backpack and placed in their fridge some of the biomatter she had procured. "Not sure how helpful they'll be with our mutual goal but I'm sure it'll be fun to look under a microscope."

"Fascinating. I wonder if there's any significant variance with what I've seen from typical supermutants. You know, the last time I saw a behemoth was when I was still a smoothskin. Scariest creature I've ever seen in the wasteland. It was fighting a deathclaw. And lost."

"I'd have lost that bet."

"What're we betting?" Barrows stepped out from behind the door and swiftly shut it before whirling around with sparkling eyes and yellowed teeth flashing at her. "James! You won't believe it. I've gotten through to Ethyl."

She felt her scalp prickle with anticipation. "What happened?"

"It'll be easier to just show you. Please, follow me." Barrows had his hand on the doorknob, ready to open the only barrier separating Leah from two feral glowing ghouls, when Charon slammed his hand onto the door to hold it into its frame.

"No." He looked ready to fight, milky eyes electric white.

"She will not be harmed. Promise. Ethyl has been very calm. Meat… is currently restrained."

Charon shook his head but Leah put a hand onto his arm. "I'll be fine. Easy, Charon." His protectiveness was touching. "Don't worry. I know you'll keep me safe. Come with me."

"Of course."

They entered the room where the smell of rust and recycled air filled the room.

Meat, chained in the corner, howled and hissed, rattling the metal links and desperately trying to project a blast of radiation towards Leah's direction.

The green luminating mist was far but her geiger counter ticked on her wrist warningly.

"I do not think you should be here," Charon's voice held a treble, a low plea.

Ethyl, the female glowing one, walked slowly to them. Eyes unfocused, pads of her feet slapping the ground with each step, she approached them while sniffing the air.

The glowing one's face was inches from Leah's face. A simple jerk forward and the feral could have a decent bite on her cheek. Ethyl's breath was hot and smelled of rot.

Charon stepped forward but Leah planted her hand onto his chest, keeping him back.

"Ethyl," Barrows quickly spoke gently into her ear, "this is my friend. Say hi?"

Ethyl blinked slowly and a guttural, "...h-hii," echoed off the stone walls. "Smooth… skin…"

Leah's eyes widened. "Fascinating."

"Right?" Barrows looked practically giddy. "I managed to get a CAT scan of her brain earlier this morning. Her brain has shown a reversal of cerebral cortex degeneration. The radiation therapy seems to be helping her regenerate her brain."

"Amazing. Hi, Ethyl, it's nice to meet you." She held her hand out to shake with the ghoul.

It had been the wrong move.

Ethyl screamed, swinging her talons in front of her, and it had been the sudden tug of Leah's back collar that spared her face from sporting deep claw marks.

Charon wordlessly hoisted her up, arms around her torso as he swiftly stepped backwards out the door and kicked it shut. Barrows was trying to calm the hysterical Ethyl through the dirty windows while Charon put Leah down.

"Are you harmed?"

Her armpits stung from how sudden he grabbed her like she had been a small child, but she shook her head. She was slightly shaken, but beyond that, fine.

"I told you it was dangerous." He shook his head at her.

Normally, this would have irked her.

But at that moment, she was glad he cared so much. At least somebody cares.

"Yeah. You did. Thanks for getting me out of there."

Charon merely stared before turning away to cross his arms and pout.