Disclaimer: Fallout 3 belongs to Interplay Entertainment, Black Isle Studios, Micro Forte, Bethesda Game Studios, Obsidian Entertainment, etc - all of whom I am not!
The Lone Wanderer Ruth travels the wastelands researching for everyone's (not)favorite Crater-side Supply owner! Oh, and trying to find clues about her father along the way.
Ruth stirred, limbs twitching before she abruptly sat up, startling the people converged at the foot of the gurney she was laying on.
"Oh thank god you're awake - I thought the radiation had fried your brain!" The woman at her side fretted, brushing a hand through her clumpy blond hair to stop from reaching out and crushing her in a hug.
"Radiation?" The young woman brought a hand up, scratching the side of her head in thought. She turned her gaze to her arm and a bright smile broke out her face as she wiggled her fixed wrist.
"Ohh, that. Don't worry Carol I'm fin-nneah!" She exclaimed, rubbing her head where another woman smacked her.
"Don't you start on that 'I'm fine' shit vaultie, you scared the life out of us… well, mostly Carol, what the hell were you thinking?" Greta ground out, crossing her arms.
A throat cleared. "Yes, I would definitely like to hear your explanation." The ghoul wiped his hands on a stray rag and walked to the side of the bed, staring down at her. "Killing yourself is one thing, but doing so with radiation poisoning - and therefore robbing me of the pleasure of using your body's tissues for my research is a malicious act indeed!"
Carol's reproachful look swept across the bed at him. "Dr. Barrows!"
He shrugged his shoulders.
"Kill myself…? Is that what you think I was doing?" Ruth started to chuckle. "If I was going to off myself it would be in one mean bastard of an explosion, with several hundred people coming along for the ride."
It was silent for a moment, before Carol patted Ruth's hand as if saying 'that's nice, dear'.
"What I was actually doing was healing my broken arm, see?" She started flailing the limb, taking in their skeptical faces. "OK, OK, I know how crazy that sounds but listen, I sat in a pool of irradiated water next to a bomb for hours because Moira said she'd pay me if I got radiation sickness but then she said I'd be doing a great deed for science if I got really really irradiated because she had this cure and I felt fine after but she said she could 'hear my genes crying' which might have been a product of my drug-hazed mind and BAM - a teeny, tiny, mutation that fixes my bones when my rad levels skyrocket!" Ruth finished, taking a deep breath.
Greta sighed taking that as her cue to get the hell out. "I give up. Come find me when you're ready for a meal."
Barrows oogled her with a gleam in his eye. "This… this is truly a great day for science, no medicine - oh hell, you must let me analyze you!" A test tube and syringe appeared in his hands, but Ruth backed up, shaking her head. The last time he had tried to 'analyze' her, it hadn't gone well for either party.
It seemed the doctor was going to try to procure some samples anyway, but Carol stepped in front of the young girl, and a smack upside the head by his nurse made him grumble, hiding away his instruments.
"Patient consent first, testing after." She reminded him, her gravelly voice taking on a reprimanding tone.
The doctor sulked at his desk while Nurse Graves handed a small bottle of pills to the patient.
"Your radiation levels are fairly low at the moment, Ruth, so please try to keep them that way. 'Mutation' aside, that isn't good for your health." A small smile crossed her non-existent lips. "I'll see you soon!"
"Don't you mean 'might'?"
Carol ushered the young woman out the door.
"She means 'I might see you soon', right?"
Ruth sat at the table, quietly eating a bowl of whatever Greta was cooking.
At first, the silence had unnerved Carol, but she figured that the young girl was tired from her earlier ordeal and decided to let her be. She grabbed a rag and started wiping the counter down, focusing on a particular dark stain that the ghoulette had sworn she'd remove years ago.
Greta continued to stir the pot, as soon many residents would be there for the afternoon meal.
For the moment they forgot about their silent guest, so when she slammed her hands down on the table, they jumped - Carol letting out a small screech.
"Damn it kid - that table is older than you are!"
Ruth's eyebrows were scrunched together, but she sent Greta an apologetic look. "Sorry! I just realized… how did I end up at Dr. Barrows?"
"You sure as hell didn't walk there." She grumbled, stirring a little harder.
Carol abandoned her rag on the counter and took a seat at the table. "Well, when you decided to be reckless, " She started, making Ruth slump down in her chair. "Greta was very worried about you - "
"I wasn't, really."
"- so she was going to go in after you -"
"Don't read too much into it - "
"Greta, please!" Carol huffed, sending her partner a reproachful look. "As I was saying, she was going to go but instead Charon took off after you."
"Wait, wait - " Ruth looked at her in shock. "Bigass motherfucker with a shotgun Charon? 'I can break your neck with one hand' Charon?"
She nodded, pushing a stray blonde lock behind her ear. "Yes. I went down to ask Greta if she could get an early start on the cooking when he kicked the door open, holding you in one hand and his shotgun in the other!"
"It was quite… inspiring…" She sighed, staring off into space, hands on her cheeks. If ghouls could blush, Carol's cheeks would surely be pink.
Ruth tilted her head. "How was it inspiring?"
"I'll tell you when you're older kid." Greta replied, humor lining her voice.
"You do know I'm actually an adult, right?"
"Whatever you say, vaultie."
Charon lit his third cigarette of the day - which would have probably been his twentieth if his bastard employer would let him smoke while standing around the 9th Circle all day.
He could hear Ahzrukhal now, in the few seconds it takes you to light up I could be viciously attacked.
The ghoul took a long drag. Bullshit. It had been years since he'd had to actively stop a threat on the slimy ghoul's life, ever since they'd come to live at Underworld.
Opening that shitty bar had been on of the worst things he could have done to Charon - at least out in the wastes he could hold out hope that someone would get passed him and off the son of a bitch. Now he played bouncer to the same handful of drunks and sadly, all he had to look forward to were his smoking breaks and the pissed off look Ahzrukhal would get when someone spilled their drink on him.
He sat down on the steps, resting his elbows on bent knees. The cigarette hung from the corner of his mouth as he stared at the hulking figure of the Mammoth. Surprisingly, it stood the test of time - it looked the same as it did the first time he saw it. Doesn't seem so big now...
The door creaked open but he didn't turn around. Charon absently noted the person's light footfall as they sat down on the steps, far enough away to be polite but close enough that he glanced to the side. What now?
Ruth caught his gaze and gave him a nervous smile, holding a lit cigarette in her hand. "Oh - hey, just, you know, taking a break."
He flicked his eyes back toward the furry mammal. He heard her inhale, and immediately start coughing.
"This is fucking horrible!" She choked out, and Charon felt a stab of amusement.
After the fit passed, he could feel her look at him a couple of times. "Uhh…" She mumbled, scooting closer to him.
Still he ignored her, wondering what she wanted. Did she come to ask for his silence, not wanting word to get out that she was trying to kill herself? That maybe she wasn't as capable as everyone made her out to be?
His hand shot out to wrap around her wrist, halting her from trying to touch his shoulder.
"Oh fuck please don't kill me!" She cried out, flinching back.
Charon's mind went blank. "Don't touch me." He said lowly, releasing his hold.
The vault kid's eyes popped open and she was suddenly waving her hands. "No no - that's not what I meant to say! I'm sorry you just scared the shit outta me - not that you're scary… well ok you are but not because of your appearance… well you are really tall and big and your shotgun is like damn but…" She trailed off, catching the look on his face.
His cig wasn't finished but he debated on just cutting his losses and heading back in.
"Look what I just wanted to say was thanks for helping me this morning, I kind of over did it this time so, yeah, thanks." She picked up her dropped cig and dared another puff, this time look a bit less green.
"Don't mention it." He replied.
"Oh, right." Ruth nodded, peeking up at him. "You're not gonna ask what I was doing?"
He inhaled sharply. "No." Charon grunted, blowing smoke from his nose. What was left of it, that is.
Her eyes lit up in wonder as she watched him. "Whoa, how did you do that?"
"Shut your mouth." He said simply.
Suddenly, she was glaring at him. "What the hell? Look, I'm sorry about what I said but you can't take what I say in fear seriously - besides how do you not freak out when someone grabs you like that and - oh!"
He couldn't help it, the corner of his mouth tilted up. He finished his cig and stood, heading back for an evening of standing and maybe, just maybe, ruffing someone up. If only.
"See you tomorrow Charon!" The vaultie called after him,
The ghoul glanced back at her smiling face before the door shut. I doubt it.
(Next chapter will have Ruth gaining Charon as a companion and hopefully leaving Underworld to go do crazy things! Thank you so much for reviews, fav's and fallows!)