In the B-Wing Barracks, Juliet sat on her bed. Sylvia was several beds away from them, gearing up while eating a Fancy Lads. Charon stood over Juliet's bed awkwardly, like usual. Sylvia sadly took her last bite before she happened to look at them both. She squinted her blue-grey eyes at the pair and noticed that they appeared to be very miserable. "She always looks so sad every time I see her." Said the voice of a familiar ten year old, hell the only ten year old around.
"Well, she's got a lot to be sad about, Squire," Sylvia admitted. She looked to the young Maxson, now standing by her with a tray of half-fresh cooked meat. "No thank you, I just ate."
Maxson nodded, glancing back in Juliet's direction. "I wish I could make her happy."
Sylvia raised an eye at the boy in quick amusement. "Got a crush do we?"
"No!"
Sylvia giggled. "Well anyway, good luck to you Squire; your only competition is a fully packed six foot six red ghoul."
Maxson scowled at the Lone Wanderer before he carried the tray of meat over to Juliet and Charon. "Grub, ma'am?" He offered.
"Thank you. You're so sweet." Juliet accepted, carefully grabbing a piece of who knows what kind of irradiated animal meat. "Charon?"
"Not hungry." He rasped.
"Fine." Juliet began to munch hungrily.
"Are you going to be leaving again?" Maxson asked her worriedly.
"Yeah, yeah," Juliet replied. "Sylvia's going on a special mission to fight the Enclave. We're going to my old house, if there's anything left of it."
"Your house from before the Great War?" Maxson realized.
"Yeah, yeah," Juliet confirmed. "I lived in Takoma Park. Charon thinks it might be too dangerous, but I still want to go back home, you know?"
Maxson looked down at his feet before he glanced back up at her. "Can I go with you?"
"What-?" Charon asked in vague irritation. He wasn't sure he could look after both him and Juliet, especially in Super Mutant territory.
Juliet was quite curious now. "Are you allowed to? You'd need the Elder's permission, right?"
The Squire nodded. "Come on, let's go ask him!" He requested in his child-like manner, instantly grabbing Juliet's free hand and pulling her away.
"Okay!" Juliet yelped, cramming the last bit of cooked meat into her mouth. "Be 'wight back." She managed to tell Charon through mouthfuls. Sylvia watched them leave, then she looked across the room at Charon.
"Hey, you." She spoke to him. She hadn't been alone with Charon since... since Vault 112, since Juliet. Was she jealous? Sylvia couldn't give herself a straight answer. Charon was a good companion, she had no regrets letting him pump his employer-before-her full of shotgun shells when she'd gotten his contract. He put his own life on the line just to protect her. But, was it only because of the contract? After Vault 112 he'd slowly warmed back up to his old love, Juliet, before Sylvia passed the contract to her.
Did he really feel nothing for Sylvia?
"Hello, Sylvia," Charon finally replied. "How are you feeling?"
"Honestly? I'm eager for this mission I'm going on, and at the same time I'm nervous. It will be strange going on without having you watch my back." She admitted to him.
Charon delayed several seconds before he replied, "I will ask Juliet if we can help you on your mission, first."
"Oh no, no!" Sylvia declined. "It's quite alright. You look after Juliet, she needs you."
"Of course," he nodded, turning slightly to watch the return of Juliet and the Squire.
"The Elder surprisingly approved, but I had to pretty much swear an oath to protect him no matter what under my care," Juliet announced. "And I think the Elder is assigning a soldier to come with us, too." She added. Squire Maxson once again looked down at the ground, causing Sylvia to be slightly intrigued. She heard mutters here and there about that boy; he comes from a distinct family, the founders of the Brotherhood. He was definitely special, despite how timid he acted.
"Very well," Charon said in hidden defeat, then looking down at Maxson. "Can you use a gun, boy?"
Maxson gulped. "Yes sir, Sarah taught me. I'm not allowed on patrols anymore until I'm older, though."
"Why?" Juliet asked him.
"Well... I shot Sarah on accident one time."
Sylvia erupted into obnoxious laughter while Juliet tried to reassure him. "Maybe the Elder approved of you coming with me to give you another chance out there."
"Yes ma'am, I won't let you down!" Maxson promised her immediately.
"Well, Squire, are you ready then? Do you need to get anything from your room?" Juliet wondered.
Maxson tugged at the coat he was wearing. "I'm ready. Also... Scribe Carlisle?"
"Huh?" She was clearly not used to her new title yet.
"You can call me Arthur," Maxson insisted.
"Okay, Arthur, and you can go back to calling me Juliet." She decided, patting his shoulder. "Let's go home, then."
Upon leaving the Citadel, Juliet knew they'd have to cross the river to get to her old home. "The bridge we followed Liberty Prime down, is it safe to cross?" She wondered.
"Only one way to find out," Charon sighed.
The additional soldier assigned to go with them was pretty quiet. Maxson asked him for his name. "Danse," he replied. Juliet knew he was a newer recruit too. He was a young man with perfect dark brown hair and eyes that were light brown. Smiling seemed to be against his nature, just like Charon. Juliet kept herself from grinning like an idiot as they crossed the bridge. When they couldn't go any further due to building debris, Maxson asked what they should do now.
Juliet looked around, trying to recognize where they were. "We're almost to downtown," she realized. "Is there any way we can get around all of this? We need to head north-east."
"We can climb down it," Charon suggested.
Maxson looked over the side of the bridge. "That's a long way down."
"I'll go first," Danse offered, taking point. He approached the debris towards the left end of the bridge, took a quick glance over it all the way down, and slowly climbed over the rail, lightly jumping onto pieces of concrete.
"Your turn," Juliet urged Maxson.
"Ladies first, ma'am," he countered back.
"Let's go together then," Juliet suggested. He seemed keen to that idea. Charon rolled his eyes; this boy thought he was something else. He watched them journey down the dozens of pieces of broken building debris, then he joined them last. Juliet nodded at him and continued to lead the way. Everything sure looked gloomy and different with nearly everything destroyed, but it was still home. She had the group wrap around the Museum Authority building, then trek exactly north since there was only one straight shot that wasn't blocked from... debris, God, it was everywhere.
The further north they traveled, the more Juliet realized downtown must be more destroyed than it initially looks. They would have to continue to detour until they found a way in - and that way was soon revealed to her as they came upon Friendship Heights. "Arthur!" Juliet said excitedly.
"Yes ma'am?" The Squire replied.
Juliet took both his shoulders to face away from the Friendship Heights Metro entrance. Danse was reading the transit map to calculate their remaining distance. "Do you see that water tower way over there on the left?" Juliet asked.
Maxson nodded.
"I went to school over there," Juliet pointed out. "So did Charon."
"Neat!" Was Maxson's gleeful response while Charon scowled at the memories of high school.
"Does that mean your old house is nearby then?" Danse suddenly assumed.
Juliet sighed nervously. "You'd think, but we didn't live over here. I mean, we used to before we moved to Takoma Park which is why we stayed at the same school, we-" she realized she was going into a story that possibly only Maxson would listen to. "Never mind, but if we follow the Friendship Heights station to the White Line, we'll make it home." She said with increased determination.
"We should move." Danse insisted. Charon nodded in agreement.
From here on out was memory lane for Juliet. At least, that's how Maxson made her feel as they neared Takoma Station exit. In between killing feral ghouls Juliet told Maxson about her sister Julia - how they took this metro station every day to get to school. Talking about Julia felt good, even if it was to a young boy. Charon and Danse had no choice but to listen too, but they remained quiet.
Emerging out onto Takoma Park Juliet could tell it had been more than a few days since she'd last been here. The war 200 years ago had not been kind. But that old damn thrift store was still standing. So was the bank across from it on their right. Juliet frowned at it, never again would she think she'd see the red B A N K letters light up. In a matter of days for her, everything was turned upside down as she knew it. She gulped, trying to keep a low profile as they began their final trek past the all too familiar places of what was once Juliet's home.
There were burnt, destroyed cars everywhere. To alleviate the fact that she got robbed of the rest of her childhood, Juliet thought to herself sarcastically, good thing our car halfway made it into a garage...
As they approached a series of connected townhouses - one of which is Juliet's home - she came to acknowledge she never really knew her neighbors, only the neighbor who lived right of them. Old Mrs. Anderson. Juliet wondered what became of her when the war happened.
Finally, they made it to the fallen Carlisle residence. The townhouses had suffered so much damage that some of them cracked, creating openings to the backyards. Juliet cringed at the sight of the front entrance. The door was boarded up obnoxiously and two of the living room windows were shattered completely. "You lived here before the Great War?" Danse asked, looking up to see that the top right half of the building was gone.
"Yeah, yeah," Juliet answered. "We moved here when I was about twelve or thirteen."
"What's back there?" Maxson pointed towards the back which was revealed from a building crack.
"Just my backyard," Juliet told him. "And a fallout shelter my dad built."
"Did your father leave anything of value behind?" Danse asked. "Any technology, maybe?"
Juliet was amused as she replied, "No he didn't, but it's worth checking out anyway." She felt she was internally mourning as she trailed around, venturing through the building cracks to reach her little backyard. The far side held the double doors into the shelter. Juliet peered down, half expecting it to be totally collapsed in from outside debris from the bombs. To her surprise, it was open and clear. "I'm going in." She announced.
"Be cautious," Charon warned her, coming up behind her with Maxson and Danse in tow.
Juliet sighed in relief when she made it to the bottom. Each step proved to stay intact during the way down. She expected pitch black darkness but there was one small lantern going. Was someone just here? Were they coming back? Did they live here?
That's when she saw him in the corner and screamed. Charon made it down, calling out for Juliet. He squinted his eyes since it was dark, but after a moment he saw a vague light, and Juliet was knelt down right of it. "Juliet?" He called again.
"Charon," she nearly sobbed. "Charon, look... it's Charlie."
The red ghoul narrowed his eyes as he approached the corner. "Are you sure that's him?"
"Yeah, yeah, look," Juliet pulled her old Mr. Handy's head forward, revealing small, pink heart shaped stickers behind the robot's left and right eyes, and a star shaped sticker behind his middle eye. "Your sister put those on him, remember that?"
"I do," Charon admitted. "He was floating in that same spot when I came here to look for you, when the bombs fell. He barely kept himself up then. I'm surprised he's still here after 200 years."
"You came here to look for me?" Juliet asked as Maxson came over to check the situation out.
Charon nodded. "He told me you and your mother went to Vault 112."
"Which is when you went there and punched that Robobrain," Juliet was starting to fit more pieces together. She sighed. "Do you think he could ever be fixed?"
"You want to fix him?" Maxson asked.
"Of course I do," Juliet changed her usual reply this time. "I thought Charon was all I had left of my old life. Seeing Charlie here... it may not make sense to any of you, but this is keeping me sane, I guess."
Nobody said anything after that. Danse was wondering what the big deal was about some broken robot, it had been nothing more than a tool for Juliet to use. Then again, Juliet was a different breed. She was a Pre-War Human, which was... completely unheard of, unlike the Pre-War Ghouls, which was common. It was obviously a different time back then, robots must have been treated differently maybe? She was literally addressing the robot with a gender.
"If the damage isn't extensive, it could be possible to have it repaired by someone with extensive robot knowledge." Danse decided to be a team player. "However... one person couldn't carry it alone, it's too big."
"I can handle it," Juliet promised. "I'll get Charlie out of here."
"I'll help you carry him, I'm strong." Maxson offered his services eagerly.
"Very well," Danse said, turning for the stairs out of the shelter. "We should get moving and get back to the Citadel. Mission success?"
Juliet happily nodded, giving the lifeless Charlie a hug before she let Arthur come around to grab his legs after Juliet started bringing him up slowly. She feared he'd fall apart from rust or damage. She noticed Arthur had been vaguely over his head as he struggled to help keep the Mr. Handy up. "Are you okay?"
"Yes ma'am!" He huffed his reply as Juliet began walking backwards up the shelter steps, realizing how heavy Charlie really was when he wasn't floating. Regardless, it wouldn't stop her from bringing her robot home. If she could repair him, she began to wonder how she could explain to him why she and Charon were the only ones left. She gulped at the thought. She couldn't bear to tell him what became of his human counterpart.