Chapter 20: Dumbstruck
I walked to the hospital that night and found Joe in his bed with Natalie, talking to each other and laughing. I opened the door slowly and shouted in disgust.
"Am I interrupting something?" I asked them.
"Finished thirty minutes ago." Natalie informed me.
"Gross information." I nodded at her.
"So you guys are back together?" I asked them.
"Better." Natalie smiled as she showed off her ring.
"You should expect more from me!" Joe flexed his arm in celebration as he lifted up a shot glass and drank from it.
"Should you really be drinking in your condition?" I asked him.
"Shut up, nerd." Joe muttered. Natalie laughed.
"Well I'm just going to let you know what's been going on so you're in the loop." I started.
"Shoot, home-slice." Joe said as he pressed his nose into Natalie's face.
"I tracked Chain and his men to the D.C. ruins, but the problem is they went through a sewage pipe with radiation in it."
"Cool. Easy fix. Kids are playing with this new-medicine, 'Rad-Begone'? I dunno, but it gets rid of radiation. It's awesome."
"Well that'll help for the five seconds I'm protected with it. What am I gonna do if it's constant radiation throughout? Take the medicine every second I'm in there?"
"No, stupid. Get a suit. We've got them at the armory. But we have to order the medicine."
"I didn't know that."
"Get schooled!" Joe threw up a peace sign at me as Natalie lay atop of him.
"Argh, YOU'RE ON A WOUND!" Joe screamed, pushing Natalie off of him.
He yelped and held his body in pain. Natalie lay off the bed, holding her leg.
I stared at them with my mouth open. "Yeah, so anyways, I've got an idea…"
"What?" Joe asked through closed teeth.
"Since you're here and you can't really kill any raiders—"
"Wanna bet?" Joe tested me.
"Five bucks on Joe." Natalie announced.
"Thanks, Nat." Joe smiled at her.
"Yeah, I'm still talking seriously here. Since you're here I was wondering if you could pick up some of Victoria's work—"
"You want me to be mayor?!" Joe asked in excitement.
"I didn't say that. Just… do her job… for her."
"You hear this stupid vault dweller guy, Nat? I'm the goddamn mayor!" Joe cheered.
"Shots for everyone!" Joe lifted his hand into the air and hurt himself, making him fall back onto his bed with a grunt.
"I'll order the medicine tomorrow, don't worry about it." Joe nodded at me.
"'Don't worry about it'? You seem like we're not about to hunt down the guy that put you in here. This kind of merits a better response from you." I told him.
"I've got a lot on my mind, Jace." Joe answered.
"He almost killed Sarah."
"And now we're gonna kill him, so like I said, don't worry about it."
"Alright, Joe. Congratulations to you guys." I smiled at them.
"Thanks! I'll see you and Sarah tomorrow!" Natalie waved to me from the floor as I left the hospital.
"You hang out with Sarah now?" Joe asked her.
"They want me to babysit since the two of them are off banging in the woods or something."
"Heh. Gross." Joe smiled at her.
They sat in silence for a moment.
"Do you wanna bang in the woods?" Natalie asked him.
Joe turned his head over to her and waited in silence.
"…"
"Get me my crutches."
I opened the front door and closed it behind me, putting my hat on the hat rack and sighing to myself. There wasn't any food waiting for me, not like I expected her to get me any. I walked over to the cabinet and pulled out Sugar Bombs and dropped the box of flaky cereal on the dining table. I sat down by myself at the table, with the lights already turned off as Vee and Sarah were sleeping. I slumped in my chair and dug my hand into the cereal and crunched down on the food until I was done with it. I decided to fall asleep in the dining chair so I didn't have to argue with Victoria when I went into bed. I opened my eyes to her and Sarah sitting at the table. I looked at them through groggy eyes and looked down at the yellow crumbs all over my gut. I looked up at my wife and saw her glaring at me.
"You ate her breakfast, Jace."
I looked at Sarah, and then the empty box of cereal.
"I'll go to Moira's." I said dryly as I got up and shook my face awake. I wiped my hands on my face and walked outside in the cold of the morning. The sun just began to pop out from the horizon, leaving the sky black on one side and pink on the other. I shuffled tiredly over to The Craterside Supply and opened the door to it. Without realizing where I was going, I bumped harshly into another person. They moved me out of the way rudely as I stumbled around them. "I'm sorry." I told the person. They stared at me with red hot eyes and left the store.
"Hello, Deputy—Sheri… what are you again?" Moira asked me.
"I don't care about my title. Do you have Sugar bombs?" I asked her after a yawn.
"Of course. I'll get my daughter to get it."
"I didn't know you had a kid." I nodded at her.
"Yeah, Megaton just seems busy all the time lately." Moira pointed her head to the next room.
"MOIRA!" Moira screamed at her daughter. "Bring me some Sugar Bombs!"
"Your daughter is named… Moir…" I sighed half-way through my sentence and decided not to question it.
A red-haired teenager gave me the cereal and I pulled money out of my pocket to pay for it.
"So how's the family?" The older Moira asked.
"Not dead, so pretty good." I nodded as I counted the change.
"Sarah just had a birthday recently, right? How old is she now?"
"Five… no wait, four…" I tried hard to remember.
"I… uh… guess it's pretty early for you, huh?" Moira asked me.
"Uh-huh." I nodded as I walked away with the Sugar Bombs.
"I'll see you later." I put forth as I left the store.
I passed the person I bumped into and raised my head to them. "Sorry about running into you."
"It's fine." The person said without a smile as they watched me walk off.
I walked inside the house and tossed the cereal onto the table. "Enjoy, honey." I smiled at Sarah as I looked over to Victoria and sneered at her.
"I'm going to take some files Joe was working on in his office before he—" I stopped, and my eyes grew large.
"What?" Victoria asked.
"We forgot to feed Giggles!" I yelled as I ran outside to Joe's office.
I swung the door open and held my nose I smelled death. I walked into the office and looked down at Joe's desk. A dead man lay handcuffed to the desk leg, his face smiling wide; frozen in rigor mortis. "Oh shit, Giggles." I said aloud to the dead raider, sorry that no one has been in Joe's office in a month.
"That's why we can't get a dog." Vee told me back at the house.
"A lot of stuff has been going on, lately, I didn't see you remembering."
"That's not the mayor's job! You're supposed to feed your prisoners!" Vee argued.
"Well, he wasn't going to help us with Chain anyway."
"Yeah, right, no need for rehabilitation, just starve him to death."
"Sorry, Vee, but rehabilitation was the last thing on our minds with that guy."
"The crime system in this world sucks."
"Good thing you're deputy." I exhaled as put my hat on.
Victoria sighed.
"Natalie should be here any minute." Victoria said to Sarah.
"I'll miss you, honey." Vee kissed our daughter on the head.
Sarah got up and ran up to my leg and hugged it. I patted her on the head. "Go eat your breakfast, Sarah." I smiled at her.
"Not even going to say goodbye to your daughter?" Victoria asked me.
We heard a knock at the door. "That's Natalie, now." I grunted as I turned away from my wife. I opened the door and greeted Natalie, trying my best not to seem angry at her. She walked inside and smiled at Victoria as she smiled equally as nice back. Natalie then bent down to Sarah and gave her a high-five. "Ready for that make-over?" Natalie asked her. Sarah nodded with a smile.
"We'll be fine here, guys. Have fun, or whatever it is you guys do." Natalie shrugged as I nodded and left the house with Victoria to conduct the trade missions with Springvale.
"So how's your head feeling?" Natalie asked Sarah as she picked her up and placed her above the cabinets so she could grab some treats. "My mommy gave me some medicine and I feel better." Sarah responded.
"Thank you." Sarah recited afterwards, clearly forcing out the manners her parents taught her.
"You're welcome. Now don't eat too much of that, you'll get sick."
"Mommy and Daddy don't ever let me have gum drops. They're mean to me."
"Well gum drops are bad for you. The only way you're going to know that is if you have some. That's just what I think."
"Well I like these." Sarah mouthed with old sugars forcing her mouth closed.
"Not for long." Natalie smiled.
"They don't let me do anything. I can't play outside anymore or talk to Uncle Joe anymore."
Natalie looked down at her as she swallowed the gum drops.
"When you're older, you can do whatever you want, trust me." Natalie expressed.
"Why do I have to wait?"
"Because…" Natalie tried to word it for the child to understand. "Because believe it or not, you're not ready for the world as it is, and you probably won't be when you're bigger. That just happens to some people."
"Well that didn't happen to you." Sarah said as she put the gum drops down.
"You might see me as a big girl because I'm taller than you are, but that doesn't always mean I am. Do you understand?"
"You're… little… like me, but tall?"
"Let's just say your Uncle Joe and I have some growing up to do, still. That's why your parents don't really want him around you. For now, they want you to act grown up like them."
"But didn't you say that I may not grow up at all?"
Natalie sighed and thought how to word her sentences again.
"There are a lot of people that you see today that aren't grown up at all. There's always more you can do to act big, but… some people don't want to do that…"
"Why?" Sarah inquired.
"Because acting like a grown up sometimes makes you unhappy."
"Well that doesn't sound fun for me!"
"You're gonna have to go through it at some point, and when you realize it… you'll be happy with yourself. That time hasn't come for you yet, so live it up, kid. The time for you right now is make-over O'clock." Natalie smiled as she pulled out make-up and hair care products.
Natalie noticed the gum drops sitting away from Sarah.
"Finished already?" She asked.
"I don't want them anymore." Sarah told her.
Natalie smiled and nodded as she put the candy away. "Told ya so."
Sarah stuck her tongue out at her. Natalie did the same.
Sarah's tongue dropped down and her eyes glazed and turned away from Natalie. She looked down and sniffled, her head spinning. "Sarah? Are you okay?" Natalie asked her. Blood fell from her nose. Sarah dropped to the floor with the thud as Natalie went to grab her. Her head snapped to the side when she heard a thundering knock at the door. Natalie wiped Sarah's nose and opened her eyes to see if they were dilated, even though Natalie didn't know what to do with that information if she gathered it. The door knocked again as Natalie rushed Sarah to water and opened a bottle. Little did she know the front door creaked open and a man and woman walked in behind her. Natalie mumbled some curse words as she tended to the little girl. She breathed in and exhaled into someone's arm grabbing her mouth closed. Natalie tried to scream as she was jerked back. They two stumbled back as a woman in armor picked up the girl, and stroked her hair back. Natalie muffled out screams as she jumped back and slammed the man grappling her into the dining room table, smashing and breaking the old legs as Natalie sent the attacker into it. Natalie got up and ran at the woman taking Sarah and was backhanded by the kidnapper as her right her held onto Sarah for a brief second before being detached. Natalie stumbled back and held her face. "Bitch." She muttered as she ran forward again with a fist in the air. The man regained his senses and grabbed her hand back, spinning Natalie around and throwing her head first into the cabinet of food. Loose, stale cereals and meals fell on her body as the two left with Sarah. The last thing she saw before they left were two metallic devices strapped to their wrists; something peculiar to the bandits in the Wasteland. Natalie got herself up and ran forward, her head dazed. She fell to her knees, nauseous from the blunt force applied to her head. She got to her feet and ran forward, following the two people as they left Megaton in a large group of people. "Stop!" Natalie yelled in the crowd as she fell again, her spinning as if she had four shots of vodka on an empty stomach. She spotted the three further away now, heading towards the rocky hills miles north.
Natalie regained her composure, and walked up to the nearest guard and grabbed his weapon from his hands. "Uh, miss, I kinda need that for my job." Natalie threw money that she earned from gambling at him. "Uh… never mind." The people ignored the woman as she ran after them at full, sobering speed. She aimed the rifle through the sights and popped off one, two, and an accurate third shot that flung itself through the chest cavity of the man. Natalie sprinted as the woman carrying Sarah turned around to see Natalie teeing the rifle butt off her head, using her running force to club her across the chin. The woman flew back from the blow and fell onto her side, rolling Sarah to the side. Natalie panted heavily, barreling over onto her knees and catching her breath as the woman felt her broken nose and bloody lip and chin.
"Who… are you?" The woman asked Natalie.
"I'm…" Natalie had to gasp for air, she had not worked out in a while.
"I'm the babysitter."
"Alright, hold on… gimme… a sec." Natalie coughed and spat onto the floor and lifted up one finger to the woman, putting her life on the line for just a second as she caught her breath. Natalie regained her stamina and executed the woman with the rifle. Natalie picked Sarah up and walked back to Megaton. Natalie threw the rifle back to the guard, cradling Sarah in her arm.
Without looking at the guard, she told her: "You suck at your job."