Jericho looked around to make sure nobody was watching as he jammed the bobby-pin into the lock and reached for his screwdriver. That kid had been gone all week. For all he knew, the bitch was rotting somewhere on the ground being picked apart by wild dogs and mole rats. That sick looking zombie fuck, Gob, had mentioned something about her doing a bunch of suicide missions for Moira for almost no pay whatsoever. Made him sick, really. Nobody should go around doing favors for free.

"Got it," He mumbled twisting the lock to her house and opening the door. He thought maybe he'd loot the place while she was gone. It was her own fault for having such a flimsy lock on her door anyway.

"Good evening sir," An overly-cheerful Mr. Handy robot greeted in a loud booming voice, "I'm afraid madam is not here at this hour and I will have to ask you to vacate the premises."

"Not a chance ya tin can," Jericho crossed his arms. He wasn't leaving, but he wasn't about to piss this thing off either, "The uh… madam or whatever you call her sent me over," If he let on he was an intruder the thing might pull out it's buzz saw or hell knows what else, "She wanted me to come pick up a few things for her."

"My apologies sir, please, go on about your business," One thing he didn't like about these lousy machines was that they were so damn trusting. You could tell them that you were the king of the wastes and they'd treat you like fucking royalty. He watched the thing float off into a closet and made his way upstairs. As long as the robot was downstairs he could take what he wanted without a god damn inquiry.

The top half of the kid's place seemed pretty bare, understandable since she had only been there a couple weeks. Jericho immediately headed to the one of the only rooms on the upper level and swung open the door to reveal a basic wastelander bedroom. A bare, tattered mattress pushed up against the wall next to an empty dresser and a dingy, broken down desk.

He opened the dresser first. It was rare to ever find one with anything in it but it was always worth a look. Nothing there, maybe the desk. He tugged on the drawer but the damn thing was stuck. The ex-raider pulled harder but it still wouldn't budge. Angry he kicked it as hard as he could causing the drawer to splinter with a loud crack and fall out under the desk.

"Is everything alright, sir?" The Mr. Handy robot stalking around below called, their voices always set Jericho's teeth on edge, "Do you require my assistance?"

"No ya fuckin' sack of circuits," He spat back kneeling down to examine the contents of the drawer. There had to be about a thousand caps here, no wonder the drawer didn't want to open, "Huh… what the…" Poking out of the pile of money was what seemed to be the corner of an envelope. Curiosity taking over, he passed up the caps and pulled out the envelope. Inside were a few sheets of paper that appeared to be a letter that the girl had written.

"Dear dad, eh?" He scoffed looking over the first page. It was a letter to her father about all of the shit she'd been through in the past weeks. Amused, he stood and walked over to the bed, stretching out on his back and settling down to see what the wimp was whining to daddy about.

It seemed pretty uninteresting. Some vault commander guy killed some pansy named Jonas and a bunch of other people trying to get outside the pampered place. She had written some stuff about having to gulp down a shit load of irradiated water to the point where she could glow in the dark as one of Moira's wacko experiments. There was crap about how horrible and uncivilized the wasteland was compared to the previous hellhole she'd grown up in. He was just about to put it down when a certain passage caught his eye, I feel kind of sorry for him dad.

Jericho blinked at the phrase. Felt sorry for who? His eyes wandered back up the page a bit.

"When I first got into Megaton I met this sheriff and he pointed me towards Moriarty's. He said if anyone would remember if you'd been there it'd be him. I wanted to repay him for helping me but he wouldn't accept my caps, so instead I used all that stuff Jonas taught me to disarm that atomic bomb in the center of town." The way she wrote made it sound like a simple matter.

"Anyway, I walked into the bar and met my very first ghoul… His name was Gob. He looked kind of Scary but he's really nice to me for some reason."

"Yeah," Jericho laughed to himself, "Only 'cause he thinks your gullible enough to let him cop a feel."

"He even gives me discounts on stimpaks! I don't think Moriarty likes it much. I saw him beating Gob the other day for dropping a bottle of whiskey by accident. I feel kind of sorry for him dad." So it was Gob she felt sorry for. Despite learning what he wanted to know, he kept reading anyway. "I wish he'd let me help him."

"There's also something else. On my first day in Megaton I met someone. He really pissed me off dad."Hmm… the brat did mention him after all."He said bad things about me and about you. I aimed my gun at his head. I just wanted to scare him a little. I just wanted him to shut his mouth but he got up and practically begged me to kill him. I couldn't do it daddy. It's not like I hadn't killed someone before but those people were trying to kill me! I had no choice then but this guy… I was scared. He grabbed me but Mr. Moriarty stepped in before anything happened."

"That's not all daddy. I was on my way to the house Mr. Simms gave me and I heard that guy from the bar shouting about something in the shack near the place. He came outside and threw up over the railing. I tried walking past him but he grabbed me and started yanking off my clothes. I wasn't strong enough to get him off of me but when I look at his face I noticed he was crying." He felt some rage building up inside of him, embarrassed that anyone had seen him cry let alone some sissy vault dweller. "He didn't appear to notice until I said something. Then he got mad and yelled at me. I was too scared to do anything I just ran away… But I can't help but wonder what could make a man like him so sad.

Oh well, I'm going to a place called Minefield tomorrow. Maybe after that I'll try to find you again.

Love you,

Cassandra."

Jericho pulled himself into a sitting position, staring at the letter in his hands. Did she pity him, is that why she didn't go running to Simms? And why the hell was she writing letters to a guy who had obviously abandoned her anyway? It didn't make any sense to him.

He stuffed the letter back into its envelope and shoved it in his pocket. The sound of a door swinging open and the clank of boots on a steel floor caused him to jump to his feet.

"Good evening Madam," The robot cheerfully greeted with it's booming, metallic voice, "Your friend has already arrived and is waiting for you upstairs." Great, that god damn tin can gave him away. It wasn't like she wouldn't have noticed him leaving with the girl between the entrance and the stairs but that floating metal bastard didn't have to announce it.

The girl who came up the stairs appeared much different from the mousy, clean, stuck up girl he had met earlier in Moriarty's Saloon. It was the same kid but with some distinct differences. She had seemed to have abandoned her vault 101 jumpsuit in exchange for a well filled out Merc Charmers outfit. She wasn't so clean looking anymore either, she was covered in dirt and dry blood, some of it hers. Her eyes even seemed to be dingy and cold. They seemed so familiar. What had happened to her in just that one week?

"You're that guy from before…" She sounded off to him, he couldn't put his finger on what it was. Her now empty, eyes dropped to the broken drawer and pile of caps at his feet, "Come to rob me?" Cassie lowered her weapon and put it back in it's holster, "Take whatever you want, I won't stop you."

Jericho looked at the kid, then the caps on the floor, "Fuck it. I don't need your caps." He pointed back down to the bed and smirked, "But if I can take anything I want," Maybe some teasing could get her to act like the little kid he knew she was, "Why don't we pick up where we left off?"

"Please… don't," She seemed to be on the verge of tears, "I just came across a raider camp on the way here and the last thing I need is to be raped by one of them."

"Hey I'm not a fuckin' raider anymore," He growled grabbing her by the throat and putting her against the wall, "That was a long time ago," His grip tightened, "Got it?" She nodded, "And besides," The older man's hand left her throat and his fingers trailed down to the edge of her pants, "It wouldn't be too bad, would it, fucking somebody like me?" He leaned in and nipped playfully at her neck.

The girl closed her eyes. In truth, she wanted him to keep touching her. Rough, gentle, it didn't matter but she knew it'd be wrong. She'd only be using him like he wanted to use her that night she'd caught him crying. She wanted to do anything and everything to forget the last week of her life. But getting lost in the arms of a man she'd normally avoid at all costs seemed wrong, "Get out."

They were both silent for a while, she knew she had to be as far away from this dangerous person for as long as it would take for the girl to get her head straight, "You may not be a raider anymore… but you were once. So that means you must have done horrible things to people," Jericho jerked back. "I can't stand people like you."

"Look bitch, I'm just trying to throw your sad ass a mercy lay," he shoved his hand in his pocket and produced the envelope, "I may be a bad guy but at least my life is a little less pathetic than yours." With that he tossed the envelope at the girl and stormed down the stairs.

"My word sir," The robot thingy floated over, "You did sound ever so cross towards my mistress. I do hope you two aren't fighting."

"Get the fuck out of my way you useless pile of scrap," Jericho kicked the robot out of his way and pushed through the front door.

Safely outside he took a deep breath of the poisoned air, and rummaged around in his pockets for his cigarettes. Dumb bitch. Just because he used to be a raider doesn't mean he was proud of it.

And that girl was practically begging to be fucked. Maybe not with her mouth but with her body and with her eyes. Those chilling, dulled eyes. It clicked in his head where he had seen them before. They looked exactly as his eyes looked when he took his first innocent life at the age of fourteen. That was it, wasn't it? Sometime during her trip to Minefield that little cock tease of a vaultie had taken an innocent life.

He took one last look at the girl's house before retreating into his home to perform his weekly ritual.

"Welcome to the wastes."

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Author's note: I'm kind of nervous about this chapter... I was working on lack of sleep and didn't really go back to look over what i wrote. :3

The innocent person I refer to in this chapter is most likely Arkansas in Minefield. Sure he attacks you first, but when you think about it he probably just thought you were a slaver come to claim him. (if you don't know what i'm referring to... google it)