A/N: To be perfectly honest with you this is my first Fallout (and video game) Fic ever. I love this game and hope you will enjoy reading this. It's based just before James leaves Project Purity. My character was female (obviously) but if you want you can substitute the "Daughter" references to "Son". Well I hope you enjoy.
War... War Never Changes...
The hum of the distant generators did nothing to quell the tense and saddened air that filled the atmosphere of the Jefferson memorial.
He could hear nothing but the small washing of the water against the hard metal flooring of the central area of project purity. Ahhh, such a design of brilliance. It was his creation, his life's work to make this project successful; it meant so much to the population of the wastes. Some had never even tasted pure, untainted water.
But nothing mattered now. The project had run its course, failing to produce anything that proved it had even the minimal chance of success. He felt like such a failure. The fate of what once was one of the most powerful continents' to ever grace the earth had rested on his shoulders and he had failed them.
He could vaguely hear Madison and the others in the lab along the corridor. She had commanded them to let him be and he was above all else grateful to her. Dr Madison Li was one of the best scientists within the capital wasteland, and he hadn't met any other who felt so passionately about bringing back the source of all life for every being.
Well, except Catherine.
It pained him to think of her name so soon, it had only been a matter of days since he lost her. It had been a shock to them all and a devastating blow. Not only did they lose one of the brightest and most compassionate scientist, they had also lost a great friend, companion and wife.
And one among them had lost her mother.
The young scientist sighed and put his head in his hands. How could he forget his new-born daughter? She was his flesh and blood, his one true creation. The project was nothing more the metal, water and machinery. No, she was all he had left to remind him of Catherine, and he was all she had left on this god forsaken earth.
"James?" called star Paladin Cross. She knocked on the door but walked in anyway as per her direct nature. She watched James carefully as she crossed her arms. "What are you doing?"
James couldn't help but smirk reluctantly. Cross was the only one that had dared defy Dr. Li and come to see him in these few passing days. She often brought him food or played a game of chess with him, all the while not speaking a word. He admired her for that.
"I was just… thinking Diane, that's all."
She didn't react to him using her name informally. She merely waited, watching the depressed young man before her.
"What have you decided?" She asked after some moments of quiet
James finally looked up. Under the harsh gaze of the lone light in the room the rings under his eyes were still there. His unshaven jaw line gave him weathered and sickly looking apparel. He sighed.
"I'm not sure. All we have worked for is here right now, but all I can feel is the reality slipping away from me. And with… Catherine gone, I don't know what to think."
"But?"
"My daughter is here, now. She is the only thing precious to me I have left. I don't want her growing up to believe her father couldn't give her a better life because he was chasing a damn failed dream." He closed his eyes "there is so much more I can do for her then I can do here."
Cross sat on the adjacent chair to him and took a bottle of scotch from her carrier pack. She poured it graciously in to the two shot glasses on the table they shared.
"I would like to remind you that this is my special stash. Premium, vintage 2074 scotch. Not one drop of radiation in it".
He chuckled. A good scotch would do him wonders right now.
"Now James, No one here can decide what you are going to do. I can't say I would be surprised if you left the project. The elder has expressed interest in retracting all forms of guard from the project as I'm sure you know. The Brotherhood of Steel is stretched to thin to allow us to guard this place, no matter how important it is."
She took a sip of her scotch.
"Yes I know Diane. The Brotherhood as greater things to content with without worrying over us."
"But that is not important is it now? What matters is what you feel is right. For you and your daughter. I have seen you, talking on the radio with that Vault leader. It seems clear to me that you have made your choice already."
He ran a hand through his hair. "So I've been caught have I? Ok then. I have been talking with hi. He is Overseer of Vault 101; it's hidden in a rocky outcrop north west of here just outside Megaton. No one would have guessed it was there. He has expressed interest in seeing me"
Cross looked at him through her half empty glass. "So when do we leave?"
"I though the Elder didn't want you guarding me anymore?"
"I told you James its not that he doesn't want to, the Brotherhood has dwindled to barley 50 Knights and only a handful of paladins that can lead them. However, I have already cleared my escorting you with Elder Lyons and he has no objections. He's been quite lenient since Sarah was born."
James smiled as he remembered meeting the 8 year old blonde girl. Catherine had doted on her as a child since she too had lost her own mother in a super mutant attack. "Sarah will make a fine Brotherhood member when she is older. She has the compassion of her father and the toughness of her mother."
The Star Paladin stood and downed the rest of her drink in one. "So?"
James paused for a moment, thinking. "3 days. I want to be able to talk to Madison and sort a few affairs out before we leave. We go at first light, before the Super mutants move out from there camps, it will be safer then."
The combat hardened Paladin patted him on the shoulder and walked over to the bed in the corner, she looked and James could swear he saw the shadow of a smile on her face. She walked over to the door. "She truly is your daughter James, and she couldn't ask for finer parents."
With that she left. He listened to her metallic footprints until they became distant. He slowly drank the rest of his scotch, listening to the holotape he had made when he and Catherine had just set up the project.
Better days…
He heard shuffling from beside his bed. He stood up straight and walked over to the shifting bundle that was tucked safely in to the blankets of the baby carrier. He sat on the bed and watched as his infant daughter began to awaken, her blue eyes reflecting in his own.
"Good morning sweetheart. Daddy's here."
3 days later.
The sun began to rise diligently in the sky. It had never ceased to amaze the young scientist. That sun was the same that those people had seen 200 years ago. Maybe it was the last thing many of them saw before the cruel irradiated jaws of Oblivion had taken them. It was unaffected, bringing light to the broken lands and James feared that at some point, it would never rise again. That it would give up and leave them all to rot in the wasteland.
No, he turned away from such thoughts. Those thoughts turned many mad and most to commit great atrocities. He would not give in to the darkness. What was in the light was too important to allow to fade.
Once the beacon had began to peak over the hollow remains of the capitol building he walked out in to the cool air. The light shone through the old crippled buildings casting harsh shadows upon the scorched ground.
Dr. Madison Li was standing just in front of the entrance. She looked haunted, as if she didn't want what was happening to happen. But she knew that James had decided his own path, and she couldn't discourage him. He meant everything to this project and without him it would wither. She new in her heart that the project would decay, crumble and rust, but she knew it wouldn't completely die and that was her hope.
He said goodbye to his team. Only some had come to say goodbye, others had either stayed to monitor the equipment or had damned James and refused to look at him. Many Handshakes later he came to one of his dearest friends.
James walked up to her. "Madison"
She smiled, however the was no happiness in it. "James"
He held out his hand awkwardly, in the form of a handshake. "So I guess this is where we part."
She took his hand "it appears so."
"You have played an essential part here Madison, you made this project what it is and, you saved my daughter. I can't think of a way to thank you."
She stood stock still. Her hands balled in to fists before she threw herself at James and he caught her in a hug.
When they separated she cleared her throat and wiped her eyes. "Well, you best get going James. I don't want to scrap your carcass off the ground if the super mutants show up."
He smirked at her dark humour. "Well goodbye Madison, until next time."
"Goodbye James."
He shifted the bundle in his arms and along with Star Paladin Cross stood and a hill looking north east. This would be his last vigil here for some time, and even in the shadows of the crippled buildings, of the dusty scared earth and the shine of the dirty water the sun was beautiful.
He looked at his only Daughter, the wisps of her blonde hair, so much like Catherine peeking through the blankets.
"Well Sweetheart, you may have been born out in this wasteland. But at least you get to see its one true beauty."
He tucked the parchment of Revelation 21:6 in to the blankets and with one look at Cross, descended the hill towards his destination under the gaze of the beating sun.
And for 19 years neither of them would see it again.
A/N: well, that came out better then I thought it would be. I hope got the feeling right. Review if you liked it please, it would be great