CHAPTER 50
Roller Coaster Feels.
Nighttime had started to fall over the place by the time Sanford willed himself to start moving again.
All he had wanted to do after today was sit down and close his eyes- and at least he had afforded himself the first liberty of his wants- as he had sat in Robert's office for close to two whole hours before he finally departed.
Robert was a pretty good guy, in his opinion- they told each other some of the stories, and Sanford had opened himself up to it only after Robert had shared a few first- and, while Robert's were mostly funny, there were some that were pretty powerful.
"I met a woman near Boston harbor, found her in one of the old ship wrecks- it was interesting find indeed, and I suppose she sort of found ME instead..."
"How's that?" Sanford asked.
"Ah, she shot at me."
"Why?"
"-She saw me coming up onto her little makeshift home, and didn't even offer the liberty of a warning, before blasting away at me with a gun I'd never seen before. It fired railroad track spikes! Have you ever HEARD of such a calamity?"
"I found one of those once, in a warehouse."
"Do tell."
"It was broken, I took it anyway, I think... I think I might still have it somewhere at home."
"This Gas Station you've mentioned?"
"Yep."
"One day, Mr. Sanford, you'll need to show me this fortress of yours."
"Yeah, at some point."
"...Would you look at that."
-Robert had heard a small disturbance- leaned back in his chair, and had shifted the ugly, tan curtains over his window aside- and out there in the shady street, was a seven-foot tall titan, that had a small swarm of smaller beings around it.
Robert laughed, and Sanford stood up, rounded the desk, and peered over his shoulder.
The Deathclaw was out there, smiling, laughing with a small group of kids- there had to be eight of them all over her now- they were calling out to her, there were three or four on her shoulders at any given time- they kicked their legs over the sides of her broad flanks, held onto her horns, or her neck. Wonderful sight.
"I can't believe how beautiful, and strange, that is at the same time."
"That's my Deathclaw." Sanford smiled. "She has a good heart."
"Undoubted, at this point, Mr. Sanford."
"...Alright Rob', good talk."
"Best talk in ages, friend! Truly." They reclined back, shook hands, and Sanford started to get into his suit.
The big red door opened and out into the night was the armored man- the suit dark against the shade of the dusk sky above- Sanford looked up for a moment to see dark blues, hints of orange towards the south- stringing black clouds.
"Do come back again, pleasentries or for help, either or." Robert said from the doorframe.
Sanford turned and nodded at him.
"'Night, Rob'."
"Fair night, Mr. Sanford."
-He heard the door shut behind him as he trekked off down the street, towards where he saw his Deathclaw vanish off to.
A few soldiers were walking around, but the majority of the crowding was now by the plaza again- but this time, from the sheer volume of voices and laughter that echoed out into the night, Sanford was lead to believe that most of the city was down there.
In the darkness that encompassed most of the rooftops and overhead of the rows and rows of shacks and shanty structures- Sanford saw a faint bulb of orange blooming in the backdrop, towards the entry to the city.
The Mayor must have helped to plan something for all the Christmas decor set up, maybe this was the party- or they were celebrating something, Sanford considered the thought in the back of his mind, and he actively hoped it wasn't over him.
All he did was shoot a few synths outside the walls, and... People were treating it like he had saved the whole place.
The only reason those synths had shown up was because of him in the first place.
...But, if he hadn't stopped the planters then... What would the results be if another synthetic killer infiltrated Diamond? One of the most populous zones in Boston nowadays?
Sanford grumbled as he walked in the dark of the street.
Best not to think about it, Robert had said that when they were talking. Best to just forget it happened, look at the bright side and see the fact that they stopped something terrible from occuring. There it was.
"Hey." -Came from one of the nearby scrap walls.
Sanford stopped short and peered into the darker shade of the shack drawing out to his right- he saw someone leaned up against the wall, playing with a flip-lighter, that illuminated the collar of a black, leather coat- with a plain old white shirt underneath it revealed by the parting top button.
Her black hair looked like smoke in the darkness- and Sanford realized he hadn't put his helmet back on for the filters to work out here.
"Do I know you?" Sanford grinned, turning to face the shorter figure.
"You saved me, remember?" Jess smirked. "C'mon, how'd you forget THAT quick, titan-guy."
"-Oh, sorry, I didn't recognize you in the dark." Sanford chuckled. "Jess."
"Sanford Tobs, we haven't met before this, eh?"
"No. Neither have me and Robert."
"That's not surprising," She scoffed. "He's a recluse."
"...I've gathered so far that the two of you don't get along."
"-Putting it lightly."
"Sure."
"Folks are having a drinking hour again," Jess nodded for down the street, towards the plaza. "-You're going to a party in a battle suit?"
"I wasn't planning on staying."
"Why not?"
"It's not my place here."
"-I was kidnapped by some fat, smelly thugs, and almost replaced with an android, and the guy who prevented that is right in front me," She got off the wall and smiled up at him. "Drop the armor at my office, take a girl out on the town, why don'tchya'?"
"...Uhm, I-I-I mean... S-Sure, I-"
"C'mon, I'll take you there."
"...S-Sure."
-0-0-0-0-0-
Throughout her entire life traversing the world wrought unto the stuff of mystery, destruction, and barren nothingness by the insolence of human kind- she had never found another living thing that she just idly... PLAYED, with.
She had found subjects for good discussion among her own kind, friends even- she had found security, not nessecarily happiness there, but never once during the birth and destruction of her home did she find another living thing to just have fun with to simply have fun.
There were no simplicities- it was all overcomplicated, stringy messes that tied in with who she felt for, who she wished would get stuck in a ditch, how she felt sorry for herself and all of her kind and how she despised other people- not just humans -for a good part of her childhood, her baby years.
She had been tossed into the blood, the sweat, the fear and the nothingness as a child, as a baby- and yet she had never seen another living thing, a person, of similar age and mindset- another child.
The years kept rolling by, she learned things, about herself, about the world around her- when she emerged into the realm of older thinking, and the things she had seen had morphed together to influence her behavior through experience- it was quickened by the lack of sociality.
As a youngling she never had anyone, and as an adult, her relations with her pack were fickle- and they were gone by the time she was beginning to live her days on a brighter notion.
There had been no hatchlings of her kind in the pack, and throughout the whole Wasteland, she had never interacted with humans, and thus, she had never seen a child of any kind in her life up until this point.
There was a bit of a matriarchal sense, a sense of feminine pride that she experienced being around these laughing, happy, curious little people- that hopped and climbed and grabbed all over her- they took turns riding on her shoulders, some of them tried to hold individual fingers instead of her whole claw.
The group had grown to nearly ten by the time they started dispersing to go home- or worried parents walked over and demanded they 'Get away from that... DEATHCLAW.' -in an instant.
She let them all go, albeit a bit sadly- one by one, she'd smile at them, making sure not to use her teeth- she'd just curl her chops upwards, wave them off.
Neil and Kyle were gone, so was Alex- all that was left after a bit was Stacy, the black haired little girl that was still on her shoulder. Two other girls had just finished climbing off by the Deathclaw's foot- and they vanished around the bend of a nearby building.
"How long have you been with Sanford?" The girl was full of questions- according to Sanford, for the few times she'd asked about children- that was pretty normal for someone her age.
"A month." The Deathclaw hummed- glancing sideways at her flank. She looked quite content with the girl.
"A month! That's cool."
"Indeed it is, petite' fille'."
"What's that mean?"
"It means- 'Little Girl'- in French."
"How do you know French anyway?"
"...I always have, I'm not sure."
"That's weird!"
"Mmhmhm." Nyx mused. "You should be heading home, shouldn't you?"
"OOHHHH fffffiiiiinnneee..." Stacy groaned as the Deathclaw held out her palm, and she climbed onto it.
"If me and Sanford come back, you can find me again." The Deathclaw smiled- watching the small girl stand down there, looking up at her.
"That'll be cool!"
"Oui'."
"-Alright, Nyx, g'night! It was fun playing with you!"
"Good night, I hope I see you again soon."
"Yeah!" -Stacy hopped up, and Nyx felt a tiny dot of moisture on her snout as the girl gave the scales there a tiny peck. "Night!"
-Then the little girl vanished around the same bend her friends had down the street lane.
Sitting up to her full height- the reptile dabbed a claw over her snout, left it there, rubbing, pondering. She was only made aware of how late it was once the trance had been broken- her experiencing of this amazing thing these babies had given her, unintentionally, too.
She was quiet most of the time that she trekked towards the source of the commotion in the center of town by the plaza- she heard laughter, talking, clapping- there was a radio device playing some kind of static-tinged old song she had never heard before.
There was only the hope of finding Sanford so they could pack up and head home- she had no interest in participating in the events here- so her height was mulled wth a bit of a slump.
"-AYE! Lizard-Lick! There ya' are!"
Oh, joy.
-She rolled her yellow, glowing eyes as the robot, Hancock, flew around from an alley behind her, zipped over to her side, and glanced up at her excitedly with all three ocu-lenses.
"Have you seen the monkey-man? I can't seem to find him!"
"Don't you have a scanning computer, that you can track his suit with?" She asked knowingly- looking at the Mr. Gutsy like he was a moron.
"-I KNEW THAT! I was just... TESTING you, Alligator-Freak!"
"Testing me, usiner? For what?" She scoffed happily.
"For anti-Communist authenticity!"
"...Pardon?"
"Yeah that's right! I was just making sure the Red Plague hadn't spread to you in our sleep!"
"You're an idiot, usiner."
"HERE, is what I want you to do- I want you, to LICK MY FUEL CELLS! SLOWLY!"
"It's not happening."
"FINE! I see! You're a TASTELESS Chinese sympathizer!"
"Mm."
"Don't 'Mm'- me, you mutant frog!"
"How does Sanford say it? You're obsolete."
"-...W-What did you just say, Gator-Chips?"
"Obsolete, usiner."
"-YOU CANTANKEROUS, MEAT-LOAF MUNCHIN', TOILET SWABBING, FLY EATING, SISTA' SLAPPIN', FANTA DRINKIN' SON OF A TIT! I'LL BUZZSAW YOUR NIPPLES!"
"I could not even understand half of what you just shouted, usiner." She chuckled. "No wonder you're obsolete, your understanding of the English language is rather dull."
"WHAT-?!"
" Oh, quelle' folie' de moi', I tried using long words..."
"-I'LL SET OFF MY SELF-DESTRUCT MECHANISM, YOU FUCKER! TAKE IT BACK!"
"Non'."
"HOLY CRAP! BLOOD-RAGE! INCOMING! I'LL FUCK YOU UP!"
"I hope you find the entertainment you're looking for."
"GAAAAHHHH-!"
"You screamed like one of the... 'Commu-nists' -you passionately despise."
"...Well played, Ghidorah-Mora, well played."
"Mmhmhm."
"-Now I see why Sanford has a hard on for ya'! You kick ass! Just like us!"
CLK
Clclcmclcmlclmc...
-She cringed, and swatted the robot away, where he rolled into an alley and rattled around some boxes that had been piled in the space back there.
Hancock raggedly was tossed- and within seconds, she hadn't even gotten a few steps away- he was back by her side, flying along with her.
"You got balls, Crocodile! I mean- not LITERAL balls! That's just wrong..."
"Mm."
"...Y-You don't have balls in there somewhere, do you?"
"Merde'- NO, how dare you!"
"-Don't gimme' that escargo chatter!" Hancock relented. "I dunno' what's what with you! You're a friggin' lizard! For all- THE HAN -knows, you could do all your shit outta' the same-!"
CLK
BM-Bmclckclcklcm...
-This time, Hancock left a dent in a scrap wall of one of the buildings nearby- he rattled and rolled to stillness on the dirt ground- lay there for a minute, and the Deathclaw actually thought she had broken him for a second.
She stopped in the middle of the path, turned over her shoulder and watched the motionless robot.
"...Usiner..?"
"..."
"...Usiner, get up, monsiuer' would be awfully upset if you further proved your being obsolete, and you let a wall do you in."
"...-YOU TWISTED FEMINAZI! KICKIN' THE POOR SCHMUCK WHILE HE'S DOWN, HUH?!"
"You'll be okay, poor baby."
"-ARRRGGHHH! I'LL LEAVE MOTOR OIL ON YOUR PILLOW!"
"-And then I'll stuff it into that storage compartment on your back, usiner."
"HA! I have shit WAY worse than that crammed in there! It smells like gym socks wrapped around the decaying feet of a sixty year-old corpse!"
"...You're disgusting." She sneered.
"Correction! I'm a FUCKIN' DIRTBAG, BITCH!"
"Accurately summarized."
"Now that THAT's settled- I CALL A DRAW!"
"Whatever you must do to make yourself happy, usiner."
"I SAID A FREAKIN' DRAW!"
"Mm."
"Fucker!"
"Mm."
"...Say, have you and the Flea-Eating Scrotum-Scratcher figured out that hogwash you were both spittin' earlier?"
"What?"
"The fight, you Commie'!"
"...Mm. I suppose so, oui'."
"'Bout' time! Don't pull shit like that anymore! You almost gave the captain a heart attack!"
"...Sanford started it."
"I CALL BULLSHIT!"
"...It doesn't matter anymore, usiner, I'm done discussing it. Fini'."
"Good thing too! Can't have the team of badass destruction infighting!"
"Mm."
"...You know, Gila-Monster, you've made Sanford a happy guy."
"What do you mean?"
"Look at him! He's having the time of his miserable, stank-ass life with you around!"
"...O-Oh."
"Not that I can see WHY, after all, you DO suck."
"Mm."
"I respect that!"
"That is quite unusual."
"DON'T GET USED TO IT!"
"I will note that."
-0-0-0-0-0-
Pretty close to the main plaza was a small shack- and the only reason it stood out from the others around it, was because of its size, and the fact that all the windows were boarded up.
Sanford took the appearance of the place with a bit of worry- he had heard some people giving Jess a hard time earlier in the day, and he actually was considering that maybe, he had come across the OTHER recluse in Diamond's walls.
He didn't know anything about her, he hadn't ever spoken to her before- yet here he was walking towards her place of establishment, laughing with her, telling her an exact repeat of everything he had just told Robert not to long ago.
"-Yep, veteran of the war in Anchorage AND Japan, my pa' was."
"You take after him, I see. Wiping those synths out like they were standing still."
"-I mean, YEAH, I guess, a little bit..."
"So how do you get out of that thing, Tobs?" She spoke over her shoulder as she slipped a key into the lock of the metal door to her home- Sanford watched, and noticed she was smiling.
"It'll only take a minute." He said.
The door clicked open.
"I don't know what Rob's office looks like, but here's mine, Tobs." Jess went inside first- pulled down on a line draping from the dark ceiling- the lightbulb up there buzzed, light flourescently illuminated the whole inside of the structure.
It looked pretty similar to Robert's business- there was a door that lead to some back area- probably the place she actually LIVED in- and here there was a two room office and lobby, the walls were lined with aluminum cabinets, filing drawers, and thin skeletal shelves stacked with papers- there was a rifle on the top of a alumnum desk in the back.
At least the floor wasn't messy like Rob's, it was just... Everything ELSE was.
Sanford stepped into the frame wordlessly as Jess hung back and waited.
He paced over in front of the desk, nodded at the gun on top of it- looked both ways, pointed at the floor awkwardly.
"R-Right here?"
"That works, Tobs." She laughed at him. "C'mon, they'll run out of beer soon, they ALWAYS do."
"I don't drink." Sanford said as the suit hissed, creaked, the limbs hung on either side- CHSM- wwhmmm- and the back plating unfolded.
-Climbing out onto the floor, his boots thudded hollowly against the tile- he turned around and held his arms out to her.
"What do you think?"
"VERY handsome." She smirked.
"Huh."
"Are you all set?"
"Going with a stranger to a drunken party?"
"You don't HAVE to drink, if you wanna' be a party killer." She rolled her eyes. "It'll be fun. Especially for me, seeing as no one's willing to go with the OTHER trouble maker of Diamond."
"Explain that to me," Sanford asked as they both slipped back out the door, and she shut and locked it behind them. "-You and Robert were partners before?"
"Sorta'." Jess sighed, spinning around briskly and pointing for the source of the noise ahead. "Robert's too concerned with himself and his work to have a partner."
"You seem really harsh towards him, and, he doesn't seem to reciprocate it." Sanford observed- them walking beside each other down the dirt lane- he actually got a bit of a naked feeling, leaving all his gear, his guns behind with the suit... He brushed it aside.
"That's because he knows he was wrong."
"I would focus on the fact that it's over, and you both are fine staying away from each other... Today was jus a one-time thing, hopefully it'll never happen again, right?"
"...You're too optimistic for a fighter, Tobs." She leaned over and bumped him with her hip.
Sanford shifted to the side from the contact- not because it was strong, but, it raised a sort of flaring suspicion in him. Against his own judgment, perhaps, with brain power being replaced by another force's influence- Sanford didn't call it out, and kept going with it.
"Tell me about yourself, Tobs." Jess looked up at him. "I've heard all these things about you today, and none of it from YOU."
"...I just... I dunno', what's to know? I'm a scavenger, I have the weirdest group in the Wasteland with me." Sanford chuckled.
"I don't even understand how you got a DEATHCLAW with you... That's amazing!"
"Yeah, we just... FOUND each other."
"We've had Mutants, Ghouls, foreign people from outside the Commonwealth... But never a Deathclaw."
"Most places haven't. -Where do you come from?" He changed the subject.
"I was born here." Jess replied. "Had three sisters and a brother, my dad and my stepmom."
"Wow, big family."
"-Amazing right? Then mom and dad moved down south with the militia, took my sisters with them, and my brother, uhm... He... Died."
"I'm sorry, can I ask how?"
"-I don't want to talk about it."
"Sure."
"What about you? Any family left after two-hundred years?"
"Nope."
"Any girlfriends?"
"-Listen, Jess," Sanford stopped short- they could see shadows of people moving about down the street, at the mouth of the plaza beside Billet's shop- laughing, glass breaking, talking. He held up his hands and frowned. "-What is this?"
"Don't tell me you have a problem with it," She smiled. "You DID save me today, and, when was the last time a cute guy happened in Diamond who would talk to me for more than a minute?"
"I couldn't say."
"-There is all the evidence you need, amazing, right? How drab it is here."
"So... What then?"
"Care to skip the party for some pointless sex, guy?"
"...I-I'm sorry... W-What?"
-Keep in mind here, that, Sanford was human, and if anything was obvious about humans, it was that they sometimes were overcome with a desire to enact a replication of passage of genes, even though the effort was fruitless, and not always deeply connected to them emotionally.
Sanford had been running around Boston, doing all kinds of crazy things for twelve years- and never once in those twelve years, had he come across another human being, another person, where his ocassional sex drive could be placated.
This was like an earthquake for him- something a young boy would experience almost- it was an exciting, brain-clouding, finger trembling chance of opportunity- decade of having nothing, and all of a sudden, this beautiful young woman was opening the door.
Sanford's mouth went dry- he felt lightheaded.
-Images of the Deathclaw flashed throughout his mind, but his addled brain wasn't even computing that she was in the picture anymore.
It was a romantic height over the very thing he had been taught was the RIGHT thing since he was a baby- and that hadn't been in his life ever since he had reached maturity. Sanford understood... bluntly, you know... what to DO, how to do it, what the complications might be, or the fluencies...
But God almighty, he was a dear in headlights.
"Why not try for it?" She persisted- she was touching him now, his shoulders- she had the weight of her pelvis against his.
Sanford quaked- it was so instantaneous, so powerful that even SHE felt how his body reacted.
Sanford would regret it later, he REALLY would, but he didn't control himself.
He sealed it.
-0-0-0-0-0-
"Merry belated Christmas, Diamond!" Mayor Jompson called out from the front of Billet's counter- the crowd clapped and cheered.
Nyx and Hancock cut through the outskirts of the celebration- where there were almost fifty or sixty people gathered throughout the plaza- and some of them were so drunk that they didn't even cast a glance in the odd duo's direction.
"Look at them! Wasting away on their Commie' made camel-piss beer!" Hancock ranted- flinching back when a man stumbled by, laughing copiously. "I oughtta' shoot coolant at 'em!"
"Refrain from that, please." The Deathclaw sighed.
"-Alligators are walking-!" -A passing woman hiccuped.
Nyx's chops rippled for how deep the resulting growl was.
The woman hiccuped again- this one sounded more like a gasp -and she hurried away back into the crowd, dropping a beer bottle on the dirt at her feet.
"You tell those scabs, T-Rex!" Hancock laughed- picking up the bottle with his claw, he smashed it against the ground where the bottom bulb shattered- CRSK! -and he started waving the sharpened end around. "-BAR FIGHT TIME! CHAAARGGEE!"
"Be QUIET, usiner! I have a headache!" She barked at him.
Hancock stared at her blankly, dopped the bottle on the ground.
"-Kill joy." He commented.
"UGH." She pouted.
There were lanterns lit all over the plaza- the whole area was tinged amber- she saw the Mayor walking around, talking to people, with Liham nearby- soldiers were on the outskirts of the celebration, and most of them were looking at her under their S.W.A.T helmets.
She growled again and sped up her step.
She wanted to leave already.
"Usiner, have you picked up Sanford?" She groaned over her shoulder.
"Aye-aye on that! He's down THAT street! Right there!" Hancock jabbed his buzzsaw. "ONWARDS! Yah lizard! YAH! -Damn it! I don't have a whip!"
"Fuck off." She rolled her eyes.
"SUCK MY SPROCKET!"
-The two rounded the side of Billet's noodle shop- and her eyes adjusted to the sudden darkness that invaded the street beyond.
The noises became more and more faint as the two trekked a little further down the dirt- amber highlighting her scaly back, and Hancock's rounded chassis.
"-Augh! Crap! I think I tugged a circuit breaker! Someone get the pliers!" Hancock snapped- banging the side of his buzzsaw against himself.
"Do it yourself." Nyx snorted.
"Bah! To HELL with you! I'll fix MYSELF!"
"Monsieur'? Is that you? Where is your-"
-Two figures, shadowy, conjoined.
She stopped in her tracks and saw Sanford, out of his armor, leaned down, and making oral contact with that journalist girl they had saved in the streets outside.
They didn't even notice the two of them from down the street.
Sanford and her shifted their heads a few times.
It was... Disgusting, to watch.
...She didn't have a right to be angry about it, she knew... They had pledged nothing, they had enacted nothing...
...But she was so mad, so flaming angry, that Hancock, frozen beside her- realized the scrunching sound he was detecting faintly in the air was her knuckles cracking from how hard she clenched fists.
...Look at the two of them.
First he said stupid shit to her, and now- now THIS.
...You know what, fuck this. Fuck all of this, she was done. Last damned straw. Fuck him.
"...I-I'm leaving." She choked- she spun around, and her tail slouched through the air behind her.
"Wait?! What the hell?! WHY?!" Hancock started to follow her- his thruster whooshing- then he turned one ocu-lense to glance down the street. "...OH, yeah, that'll... That'll piss the protagonist's chick off! What the BALLS, Sanford?! YOU HO-TOTING PIMP-ASS, BITCH!"
The robot spun back around, and saw the Deathclaw was already halfway through the plaza.
"-WAIT! Drago-Muffins! COME BACK! There's an obvious explaination! SHE'S A FUCKIN' MARTIAN! WITH A MIND-CONTROL BEAM! SAN' OF THE FORD'HAS BEEN HYPNOTIZED BY A LITTLE GREEN ALIEN!"
-The guards on either side of the gate at the top of the ramp parted, and they asked what she was doing.
"-I'm going for a walk, please open the gates."
-The soldiers looked at each other, didn't argue with the seven-foot tall reptile.
Hancock had just parted between a few people by the time the gates slid aside- rattled still, and the Deathclaw was gone into the darkness of the gateway corridor outside in the blink of an eye.
"WAIT! HOLD THAT GATE, YOU FUCKERS! I HAVE A SCALY FREAK TO CHASE AND RETRIEVE! HOLLDDD THEEE GAAATTTEEEE-!"
-0-0-0-0-0-
Sanford was on overdrive the whole time. He saw nothing else, heard nothing else- all he focused on was kissing this woman.
It got pretty heavy before fate intervened- she was panting into his mouth, she had a leg over his hip- they teetered in the middle of the dirt street in the darkness. Sanford gripped her behind through her pants- he was sweaty, he was shaking.
...And then this, big, shadowy, fat, theoretical finger- like the finger of a poltergiest, or a demon- just... WRUNG itself into the back of his mind, and it pressed and snarled.
It was a hideous, hideous feeling- a feeling of guilt, a feeling of betrayal. He had consecrated NOTHING, not a single God damned thing with that creature- and yet that sense of connection, that the last month had formed- it forced him to suddenly tear away, and look into the darkness over Jess' head.
The girl leaned against him, panting, looking up at his chin with a feeling of gradual sinking pitting in her system.
"-W-What happened?" She stuttered.
"...I-I-I... I... I can't do this." He mumbled.
His hands, his arms- they unfurled from her, and he stepped back- she teetered in the cold space in shock before him.
"...I can't do this, t-this isn't right..."
"-Did I do something wrong?" Jess looked like she was about to cry. "T-Tobs did I do something wrong?"
"...N-No, this isn't your fault. You didn't do anything, it's... it's ME who's done something wrong... I... I have to go."
"...The door's locked, Tobs..."
"C-Can I borrow your key?"
"...Yeah... Here..." She dug into her pocket- the golden piece clinked in her fingers- Sanford took it quickly and stepped down into the darkness from whence they came.
Jess stood in the shadows- looking down at her own shoes- there were tears running down her face.
A Power Armored gauntlet extended into her vision, the fingers opened, with her tiny key in the center palm.
She snatched it up, stuffed it in her coat pocket- and looked at the expresionless helmet of Sanford Tobs.
"...I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that." She apologized.
"Don't be. It's fine." Sanford patted her arm. He turned to the plaza, and the mechanical boots whined and thunked as they carried him away from her. "...You should talk to Rob' again, you can't stop talking about him." -He called over his pauldron.
Jess looked down at her shoes again and hugged her arms over her breast.
...He was right.
AND, he was no replacement for all those years ago. Not for her.
-0-0-0-0-0-