Chapter 14: The Legacy
We made it as fast as we could to the city, screaming at the guards to open the gate. Victoria screamed as Joe and I eased her. Walter heard the screams and ran to us.
"What's wrong?" He asked as he wiped his hands with a cloth.
"HOLY SHIT, IS IT THAT HARD TO FIGURE OUT?!" Victoria screamed as she blew away a strand of loose hair from her face.
"Oh, she's having a baby!" Walter smiled as he walked to us.
"NO-SHIT!" Vee screamed between hard breaths.
He helped me carry her to the doctor. We opened the door and carried her inside. A nurse looked surprised and called for doctors to help her. They walked her to a bed and told me to wait outside until she's ready. Walter was already sitting on a bench. I sat next to him.
"This is a happy day, you should be excited." Walter said calmly.
"I just hope she's alright." I said as I held my knees.
"Don't worry, you'll be fine, man. Cheer up." Walter said, slapping my arm.
We waited there for an hour until the doctors told me to go inside. She sweated profusely and I grabbed her hand, trying to ease her through this. They told me to walk her through her contractions.
"Alright, push!" The doctor instructed.
Victoria screamed loudly and threw her head up, squeezing my hand as hard as she could.
"It's okay, Victoria, you're going to be fine." I eased her.
"No shit you fucking dipshit. It—hurts—NOW!" She screamed, almost weeping.
"Well if you just going to treat me like that I'll just le—"
"Don't even talk like him for a second!" Vee yelled at me, referencing Joe.
She squeezed my hand hard and continued to scream.
I kept telling her to focus on breathing and pushing. Her pained cries were heard throughout the building, and possibly even the town.
"Control your breathing; I can see the baby's head!" The doctor said.
She screamed louder and louder every time the doctors told her progress. My hand was red from being squeezed, but not as red as Victoria, who now is sweating like she's been next to a fire for an hour.
"She's almost out, just one last, big push!" The doctor ordered.
She screamed louder than any noise I've ever heard in my entire life. I heard the door creak open and saw Joe peek in. He had shaven the rest of his beard off.
"Hey guys I just got back together with Natalie, is everything alright he-"
He looked at what the doctors were doing and stared with his mouth open. His face of surprise turned to a face of horror as he found out what the doctors were really doing. He turned away from the door and ran away. Victoria continued to scream as I told her to breathe and then push.
"There she is!" The doctor exclaimed, holding up the bloody, crying, baby.
Victoria caught her breath, yet continued holding my hand.
"You did it Victoria." I sighed in relief, kissing her on the forehead.
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry I yelled at you." She breathed hard.
"I totally understand. Although I do take it as a personal offense."
The doctors took the baby away and sanitized her, wrapped her in a cloth and gave her to Victoria. She held the baby in her arms and looked at her. She had brown eyes and starting to close them as she went to sleep.
"Hi Sarah, I'm your mommy, and this is your daddy..." Victoria said softly, still out of breath after hours of screaming.
"So that's her name? Sarah?" The doctor asked us.
"Yes…" Vee smiled as she looked at her husband and best friends as she thought of a middle name.
"Sarah Josephine Marston." She told us.
"She's beautiful." Victoria told me.
"Just like her mommy." I smiled and put my arm around Victoria.
Joe slowly opened the door to the room and popped his head in.
"I… I heard that you shit yourself when you give birth." Joe said in a slow, child-like way.
"I don't want to see your patchy, red fucking face for the rest of the day, Joe." Vee said calmly as she stroked Sarah's head.
"Okay. Bye guys." Joe said quietly as his head retracted and closed the door.
We went back home in the next few days. A large group of people, including Moira, Jab, Joe, and Walter, cheered for us as I pushed Victoria outside in a wheelchair. We then went home. Walter made us a crib out of spare wood and wrapped it in cloth. He also made some toys for her out of cloth and stuffing.
"I can't thank you enough for this, Walter." I said, shaking his hand, and giving him money.
"No problem. What's this?" He asked.
"I think it's time I paid you back." I smiled as I walked away.
We laid Sarah in her crib and put her blanket over her. Joe walked inside, eager to see the baby. He walked up to the crib and stared at her.
"I saw too much of you that day, Vee. I'm not sure if I can look at you the same way again." Joe looked over to the baby. "Wow...she looks better than you, Vee." Joe whispered gently. "I've got it." I eased Vee as I elbowed him in the ribs.
"You two have gotten really good at that." Joe choked from the blow.
Joe grouped the three of us together, me in one arm, and Victoria in the other.
"You see this? You guys did this! With your adult parts!" Joe smiled. We gently pushed him off.
I waited until night and called Victoria over to the baby's room. I showed her the books that I kept with me.
"How'd you get these?" She asked, surprised by my present.
"Rachel gave us them as a present." I told her with a smile.
"When?" She asked.
"When we first found out you were having a baby. I've kept them a secret until now. You should really trust me less. I keep so many secrets from you; I'm pretty much a spy." I smiled, brushing off my shoulders in my great feat of hiding something from her.
"You're the best." She said. She kissed me.
"And you've got four seconds until this house explodes." I joked.
We started reading the books to Sarah every night. Victoria sung to her all the time, despite Joe's constant reminder of her "bird voice". Before I went to sleep, I would kiss Sarah's forehead. If I didn't, she would wake up in the middle of the night and cry. I would then get up and rock her to sleep and then kiss her goodnight. Victoria saw how happy I was with the baby, and would let me read to her all the time. I don't know why, but I started to shave my beard and trim my hair regularly. I started to calm down more, with my job and my life.
As the years went on, Sarah started to grow in teeth and talk. Soon she was able to walk thanks to some help by her parents, as Joe still stumbled like a baby, especially when he was drunk. Her blackening hair grew longer everyday so we had to give her regular haircuts to keep it at a normal length. The next 3 years seemed like it flew by. But still, a constant reminder stuck in the back of my head. There was still danger out there, and there wasn't a thing I could do to stop it. I was outside fixing the steps so they didn't creak or rattle when we walked up them. Sarah then walked up to me.
"What are you doing, daddy?" Sarah asked.
"I'm fixing the stairs." I smiled.
"So I don't fall when I walk up them?"
"Yeah. I don't want your noggin getting a bump on it anymore." I hugged her and kissed her forehead. She giggled.
"Is uncle Joe staying for dinner tonight?" She asked.
"Of course he is, but you make sure you don't touch his big-boy juice, okay? It's not for you. To be honest, it's not for him either, but Uncle Joe has a problem with that stuff and most people decide to just let it fester because they're afraid of what's gonna happen if they try to separate him from it!"
Sarah stared at me.
"Hey, daddy? Wanna play a game?" She asked.
"Sure, I can spare the time. What do you want to play?" I asked as I crouched down to her level.
"Let's play hide-and-seek!" You count first. I'll hide." She said excitedly.
"Okay, kiddo." I said as I cupped my hands over my eyes. I purposely opened my fingers so I could see her.
"You're cheating!" She said as she pointed at me, smiling.
"I'm sorry." I said chuckling.
"Okay, start counting!" Sarah said.
"1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10! Ready or not, here I come!" I shouted.
Sarah left the door open, so I checked inside the house. I saw her immediately under the table, but I acted like I didn't. Victoria smiled at me as I snooped around the house.
"Hello, miss. Have you seen a little girl around here?" I asked.
"No, no I haven't." Victoria said, playing along with the joke.
"And I definitely didn't see her under the table!" Victoria said.
"Oh well, thank you anyway, miss. I hope you're not harboring a fugitive. She's been on the run for months now and probably smells like poo." I said with a smile. I heard Sarah gasp in with my insult.
I continued to search around the house, checking in closets and under beds. I eventually went to the table and started to circle it. I circled the table a few times until I quickly jumped under it to spook her.
"Found y—"
Sarah was no longer there. My playful smile changed to an inquisitive smirk as I got up and looked at Victoria. "Hey have you seen Sarah?" I asked her.
"Is this a playful question or do you seriously not kn—"
The conversation in our house along with every other house in Megaton was cut short due to a piercing gunshot. A sound so identifiable with us that we knew exactly what it was. We stood in silence and looked at each other. We heard yelling in the distance, then more gunfire. People were shooting everywhere it sounded like.
"Jace." Victoria looked worriedly at me as we both crouched down.
"Find Sarah!" She yelled over the approaching gunshots. "Find Sarah!"
The bullets came from an assault rifle, maybe a shotgun and a pistol or two. My guess was a raider party nearing the town. I jumped to my feet and sprinted around the house. "SARAH?!" I shouted as I looked over all possible hiding spots. I swung the front door open, almost breaking it down as the gunshots and yelling became more apparent to us. I ran down the squeaking steps and stopped for a moment at the bottom one. I then ducked down to my feet and checked under the stairs. There was Sarah, crouched and scared from my serious screaming. "Sarah, get inside." I instructed her.
"Daddy I-" We heard a gunshots outside. Sarah looked at me.
"Sarah, listen to me. Get inside."
"But daddy-"
"Sarah get in the goddamn house!" I screamed at her as the gunshots echoed in our ears.
"Okay, daddy."
Sarah walked inside. I ran to the sheriff's department. Joe was inside talking to a random girl.
"You know, I think you could be about an eight on the-"
"Joe, there's gunfire coming from outside." I said. Joe pushed the girl away from him harshly and ran to a closet. He opened it and tossed me my holster belt while he put on his.
"What am I an eight on?" The woman asked, brushing her clothes off from her tumble.
"Shut up about your number! There's danger, woman!" Joe shouted as he reloaded his assault rifle. "I'm also in a relationship. Kind of. We're taking a break, now."
We ran outside to the gates. There were five raiders standing towards us, holding weapons at us and our security forces.
"Now you must be eight different kinds of stupid coming to this town like that. What's your business here?" I asked.
"We didn't shoot because they said they had a message." A guard said.
"Well, get on with it then, what is it?" I asked.
"Your boys are right, we do have a message." The raider held a grenade up to the air. Joe and I took out our weapons. I aimed my revolver at the raiders arm. I used my signal to Joe which meant that to focus on the other raiders when we fire. We used this commonly on raiders since Joe has an automatic rifle and I have a revolver. I shoot the main person, while Joe sprays bullets at the rest. I pulled the hammer back on my revolver and aimed at the arm to disarm the raider of the grenade.
"We've been watching you for a while now. Chain says to 'let it go'." The raider pulled the pin on the grenade as I shot his arm. Joe sprayed at the raiders and they all scrambled for cover. The grenade went flying behind them. After we finished shooting, we ducked behind cover and waited for the explosion. Dirt and fire flew up from the round as we covered our ears. We got up from the cover and looked at the raiders.
"What the hell was that all about?" I asked.
"I don't know, but that idea was pretty fuckin' stupid." Joe said as he dusted himself off of dirt and blood.
We walked over to the raiders. Four were dead, and one managed to hide from the bullets under his comrade. Joe picked him up with an evil smile on his face.
"Hey, buddy. How's it going? Good? Well, being a scared like a little girl is now going to cost you." Joe said to the raider.
"Nice hat, Walker Texas Asshole, where'd you find it, off the ground?" The raider retorted.
"You… son-of-a-bitch." Joe grunted as he pulled the man forward.
"Let's go, Jace." Joe told me.
We brought the raider to the jail. I let Joe interrogate the raider while I waited outside the room. Victoria then walked in with a worried look on her face.
"What happened? Sarah ran to me and she told me that you wanted her inside." Victoria said.
"It was raiders. We got rid of them, Joe's interrogating one now." I said. I heard faint yelling and cursing behind me, along with loud smacking.
"Where's Chain?!" Joe yelled at the man as he punched the raider in the face with a fist wrapped with a bloody cloth.
"I say nothing to you, faggot!"
"I—I… w-what'd you call me?" Joe asked him.
"I sai—" Joe punched him before he could finish.
"Oh I'm sorry, that was the part where I would let you talk… instead I punched you."
"The one with the jokes… Joey…" The raider looked at him.
"How do you know who I am?" Joe asked him as he shook his punching arm.
"We know everyone here in Megaton. Joey, Jace, Victoria… Sarah."
The last one made Joe's heart sink. He stared at him in silence for a moment.
"How do you know our names?" Joe asked him, running up and holding him by the neck. "Answer me!"
"Check the mailboxes tomorrow outside of town."
Joe let go of the raider and stared into his eyes.
"Wow, he's really getting into it." Vee said outside.
"The raider insulted him; I think he's just doing that because he's wants to, not because he wants answers." I shrugged. I heard muffled speaking and then more smacking behind me.
"Did he get anything so far?" She asked.
"I don't know, I'll ask. I knocked on the door behind me. I heard one more muffled sentence and then another smack. Joe walked out and grabbed a cloth and started to wipe the blood off his hands. Sweat drenched him and his shirt. His hands shook and he didn't know the reason. After we left he sat in his desk and thought to himself, breathing in and out.