Tactics: M.I.A Fallout Tactics fanfiction immo rating: This one's alright. :D

I got a review not that long ago, and it prompted me to blow the dust of this series I've been writing and pull a fast one! :D Here ya go! Reviews ARE the key to getting me going :P

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"Maybe... she's hormonal?" Cookie cringed at the look Stevie cast at her. "What?"

"I think she's upset over Ice leaving." Stevie lay down on her bunk and sighed. Lex had asked for some time alone, and the 'father' of the child had respected that need for space and left her lover to herself in the medical wing.

The sound of the automatic doors opening and John ducking into the bunker interrupted Stevie's thoughts. Once his eyes adjusted to the sudden darkness and found Stevie, John let out a humorous chuckle. "Hey, Joseph, gifts for the Virgin. Where do you want me to put it?"

"The name's Stevie and believe me, Lex is the furthest thing from a Virgin." Stevie snorted. "Perishables and food items on Cookie's bunk. Everything else on yours, John."

"Why are our beds your storage space?"

"You're getting a percentage of it?"

"Oh. Right."

Mother, meanwhile, was sniffing the perishables and food items pile curiously. Her head perked up when she heard talk of percentages, eyes gleaming. "Percentage? Stevie?"

"You too, Mother. I won't forget you." Stevie grinned. "Take whatever you want, k?"

With a trilling sound deep in her throat, Mother grabbed the loaf of paper-wrapped bread she had been examining before and tore into it with a ferocity that was almost scary to watch.

They were all suddenly blinded by the light as someone else burst into the bunker. There at the entrance was a frantic Lex.

"Stevie?"

"Baby, right here." Stevie jumped off her resting place and was at Lex's side in an instant. The pregnant woman smiled warmly, than suddenly frowned. "I saw your squad leave! I was walking and I saw your vehicle--"

"No, I'm not going with them." Stevie grinned. "Were you worried about me, babe?"

"Don't 'babe' me." scowled Lex.

As always, the two women gathered an audience. These two brought a much needed breath of fresh air to the barracks. The life of someone within the Brotherhood of Steel was dangerous, wrought with constant worry. More often than not, it was the life of the survival of the fittest. Sure, in the wastelands, very few people outside the Brotherhood had the firepower to stand up against even an initiate. The world was not kind. But even in the Brotherhood--some would say ESPECIALLY in the Brotherhood--one got to see the ugly side of life.

People starving and dying. Fighting for survival.

Stevie and Lex were a breath of fresh air because it was... strange to see something outside the wasteland norm of suffering, of hatred, of hard cold survival. So opposite from the blatant destruction, a lot of people were entranced by Stevie and Lex. Creation. It was infinitely so much harder to create than to detroy.

"Not going?" Lex continued frowning.

"Staying here. With you." Stevie smiled. She gathered Lex's hands in her own. "Dekker asked if I wanted to. He has a job for me here as a test subject. Get to the bottom of this whole pregnancy thing."

"Oh." Lex smiled, looking almost relieved, then quickly went back to frowning. "Testing? Isn't that dangerous?"

"Not as dangerous as what you're doing right now." Stevie replied, referring to the tests that Lex was being subjected to daily. Since this was the 'immaculate conception', the Brotherhood scientists wanted to get to the bottom of this. It was not plausible, not feasible for Stevie to impregnate Lex. All the 'wise men', the scientists from the different camps, after hearing about the 'miracle', requested permission to enter the camp. It drove Lex nuts that they all came bearing gifts. Some joker had sent out a bulletin to the nearby camps, some bullshit about it being respectful for visitors to bring some sort of offering.

"Well, you love missions! You hate just sitting around."

"Yeah..." Stevie drawled. She sat back onto the bottom bunk and pulled Lex onto her lap. People sat around, chatting amongst themselves and helping themselves to the pile of foodstuffs Stevie had collected on Cookie's bed. "You know how I am, Lex. You know, I love going out and doing stuff. But I like being around you even more."

"That was so lame!" Some new initiate moaned. The moaner got a smack from Cookie and that drew out a few chuckles all around.
"Goddamn," Stevie looked around the crowded bunker and rolled her eyes in exasperation at her audience. "Can't you guys make yourself scarce? Can't you see me and the lady here are talking?"

"Hey, public space! YOU get a room!" There was another round of laughter.

The two lovestruck women rolled their eyes simutaneously. Stevie's droll look turned mischievous as she pulled Lex closer. "Who needs a room?"

"Stevie--!" The next words Lex was going to say was cut off efficiently either by Stevie's mouth or by the rising cheers of the watching crowd. It seemed that Stevie had grown to love PDAs.

"Make more eggs?" Mother asked hopefully, looking up from an iguana-on-a-stick.

--

"Hey babe, what's bugging you?" Stevie and Lex sat on top of a hummer, looking up at the stars. Lex's head rested on Stevie's stomache.

"You know." Lex sighed.

"You couldn't have stopped her."

"I could have."

"Would you actually try to keep her here?" There was a note of jealousy in Stevie's voice.

Lex sighed again. What could she do?

"I... couldn't have lied to her. But I'm just so worried. We know how dangerous it is. Me, you and the squad have been through it all. We know the inside story. How's she gonna survive out there, especially with Max as squad leader." Lex lamented. "Who's gonna give her the support she needs? Every day, we're getting more reports on--"

"First, you're off on maternity leave, so you have to stop eavesdropping on reports." Stevie shushed her girlfriend. "Second, even though we all think soooo HIGHLY of Max, we have to give him some credit. He's an asshole, but he knows what he's doing."

Lex frowned, but kept her lips tightly sealed until Stevie sat up and leaned down to give the woman a kiss.

"I'm just worried, is all." Lex sighed again. "She's... you know. She's Ice. She's family."

"I know. And we know Ice." Stevie smiled reassuringly at Lex. "She's capable. She's damned good with her guns and she can get out of a pinch in a hurry. I mean, second to me, she's our best scout."

"Second to you? Sorry hun, but Ice is our best scout." Lex barked out a laugh at the indignant look on Stevie's face. "Please, you can't roll out of bed without everyone else knowing!"

"Hey, so what if I'm not an early riser?" Stevie quipped back defensively. She smirked slyly as she continued with her comeback, "And anyways, where do YOU get off telling me that I'M not quiet, Ms. Bottom-Screamer?"

Lex cringed. "I hate that you call me that."

"I'll stop calling you that when you stop being a pillow-biter." Stevie smirked.

"God, I hate you." Lex pronounced, reaching up to pull Stevie down for a kiss. "But I just can't seem to get enough of you."

Stevie grinned down at Lex, her hair making a curtain around their faces so all they saw was each other.

"Do you know how happy you make me?" Stevie asked softly.

"How happy?" Lex raised an eyebrow.

"So fucking happy."

Lex felt herself melt even though the rational part of her mind was telling her that from an outsider's point of view, the conversation the two of them were having was probably extremely idiotic. "I love you, despite the fact that you're a bitch sometimes."

Stevie's eye twitched a bit, but she bared her teeth in a grin at Lex. "I love you even though your ass is getting fatter and fatter."

Lex's eyes narrowed. "I hate you."

"Lex!" John was driving towards them in a buggy, windows rolled down, head sticking out and screaming his squad leader's name. "Lex!"

"Guys?" Lex sat up and both Stevie and Lex immediately picked up the weapons they had on them. They might be intoxicated on love, but it was still a dangerous world out there and one could never be too careful. "What's up?"

"Lex!" The buggy had screeched to a halt just behind the hummer, almost hitting it, Stevie pointed out angrily.

"She's fucking pregnant! Watch the fuck out!" Stevie snapped, holding on to Lex protectively.

"Ice! Ice!" Mother's rasping repition of the name of the person Stevie and Lex had been discussing froze the General on the spot.

"What?" Lex felt fear freeze her insides. She slid off the hummer, almost losing her balance in the process, but managed not to fall and straightened up. "What? Soldier, REPORT!"

"Her squad... Ice..." Tears had trailed their way down Cookie's face and she barely got the words out between the sobs. Cookie was... well, one tough cookie. This was bad if Cookie was crying.
"Cookie, girl, what?" Stevie looked beside herself with worry. Ice and her might've fought a lot, but they had been through everything together. Ice was family. "Don't do this to us, tell us."

"Her squad met with heavy fire." John said soberly. "The Brotherhood had to knock out the front door of the enemy's base with a nuke. Dagger Squad went in with them, but after a while... we--they lost contact with Max's squad."

Lost contact. Those two words were synonymous with 'dead'. Even though sometimes, on a rare occasion, contact was re-established and everyone was alright, usually, losing contact with someone meant trouble. Meant death.

"We've been trying to get a hold of them for an hour or so." Cookie managed to blubber out. "But... Dagger Squad... they found Max."

"What about Ice?!" Lex demanded, face pale and drawn. "Was Ice with Max?!"

"No, he wasn't--"

"Why the fuck isn't the leader of the squad with his squadmates?!" Lex was close to hysterical now. "What the fuck kinda leader is he?!"

"Max is dead, Lex."

That deflated the General.

"Dagger Squad tried to investigate further, but even THEY had to pull back, there were just way too many bots. Two of their own are heavily injured. They're waiting for reinforcements..." John tried to continue, but he couldn't anymore.

Stevie and Lex floundered, not knowing what to say, and finally Stevie spoke up.

"What about now?"

"Dekker has our channel." John held up a radio grimly. "He'll contact us if there are any updates. After that last update from Dagger Squad, we all piled into the buggy and went to find you. The Brotherhood is on red alert. Robot activity is up everywhere and a few of our guys out there... well, we've gotten confirmed sightings from them. And then we lost contact with them. We... need to get you two back to base."

There was silence. And nobody moved for what seemed like a really long time. All of them stunned. Feeling incredibly numb. Mother was the first to break out of the stupor. She took an unsteady step forward, towards Lex. Then another. She kept moving forward until she had her head pressed against Lex's chest. Then she let out a huge shuddering sigh. Then another.

It took Lex a while to realize Mother was crying. Which was exactly what Lex felt like doing at the moment. The General hugged Mother close and let the tears fall, feeling the rest of her squad closing in, arms encircling her and Mother in a group hug.

"Ice," Mother cried in her deathclaw way, her voice a low strain, even harsher than it normally was. "Ice, come baaaack."

"She'll be okay. God, she'll be okay." Stevie whispered fervently. Lex didn't know if her lover was trying to reassure everybody, or if she was praying.

The keening wail from the deathclaw made Cookie cry even harder and she nearly crushed everybody with her hugs. But nobody cared. One of their own was either in mortal danger, dying or dead. Nothig else at that moment mattered as they held each other and tried not to think of the worst.

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endnote: Now ain't that funtimes? For all of you who've played the game, you know what's going on. Comments, complaints, suggestions are welcome :D