Summary: How does Lucas react on his father's death? How are his outdoor friends' reactions to James' death and to Lucas' situation?
20 years after Lucas' birth
Lucas pov
"Run," James exhorts with determination from the other side of the glass door, as deadly radiation fills the chamber that will quickly kill him. "Run!"
"No!" Lucas cries and starts to hit the glass. All this work to find him, almost a year of wandering thru the wasteland dessert, all to find his dad, now wasted. "No, I will not leave you. Open up! Let me save you!"
Madison Li grabs Lucas from behind and has to drag him away. "You can't!" she says desperately. "The chamber is swimming in radiation. We have to leave him. More soldiers are coming."
"No! I won't leave him."
Madison turns him around with surprisingly much power and slaps him hard on the cheek. "Pull yourself together! Look at him." She points at the body of James on the other side of the glass. "He's already dead. You cannot save him. But you can save is yourself. You can save me and the others. We need you to come with us."
With that she drags him to the stairs. He looks one last time behind him, on the still warm body of his dad, too chocked to protest. And as the words of Madison starts to sink in he turns to the stairs and hurries away with her, with tears threatening to roll down his cheeks. But he will not cry, not yet. As Madison has said, the other's needs him.
When they come to the Citadel he leaves the others, Madison Li amongst them, without a word. Lucas doesn't want to hear the condolences of anyone. He wants to be alone. Therefor he hides away in the best hiding place he can find in the Citadel, which is in a small hole in the headquarters outer wall. It's dark and damp in there, and he had to kill a molerat that surely called this its home.
Well in there he rolls into a ball and starts to cry and sob uncontrollably. He has held it in all the way from Jefferson Memorial, and now he feels like that he can finally let it out. He cries for what feels like an eternity. And when he finally comes out it is as dark outside as inside the hole. Well outside Lucas feels like another man, deprived from all joy and happiness in his life. He feels like he can never smile again, nor laugh or even feel contempt.
He has turned into a man without feelings, a person who is empty inside. And that might be very dangerous, indeed.
Two days later
Madison's pov
Madison Li wonders where Lucas has gone to, as he has left her with the others on the doorstep of Citadel. That have been two days ago, and she haven't seen him since then. He seems quite upset after the death of his father, but that isn't unusual. She was also upset when her father died a few years ago.
Even though she is sure that Lucas will come over the loss, she wants to keep tabs on the boy for a while to make sure that he doesn't do something catastrophic. She would have wanted to speak to him about James, as that might help the healing progress, but now it might be too late.
Three Dog's pov
When the rumor comes to the GNR building Three Dog feels like someone have stabbed him in the heart. The misfortune the kid has! He can relate, as many of the good soldiers from the brotherhood of steel have died while protecting the plaza. It might not be the exact same thing, but it is a start.
That same day Three Dog makes an announcement on the radio about it. "Hello, Capital Wasteland, it is time for some news. Today is a sad day, as someone really good has left us. You remember those two vault dwellers I have been talking about? Yeah, James, the first one, has died. So if you see Lucas somewhere out there, buy him a beer from me. And tell him this; everything will be fine again. The light will shine in your life one day, and the memories of this will be far away… hey, that rhymed! I might become a poet one day!"
Gob's pov
Gob observes the sad sight in front of him. Lucas sits on one of the bar stools on the other side of the counter, with his face on placed on the wooden countertop, passed away from to much beer. Gob has wondered why the kid has come here to drink so heavily, and then he heard on the radio of what happened. To think that this kids father is dead! Gob barely remembers his own father; sometimes he forgets that he even have one. Of course, his father has been dead for a very long time.
He looks at the heap that is Lucas for a moment longer before he reaches under the counter and brings out another beer. Gob pokes at Lucas, and as Lucas looks up with drunken eyes Gob presents the bottle. "Here you go, you sad sod. This one is on the house."