When that smoothskin walked into the Ninth Circle, Charon had to blink to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. He'd seen smoothskins many times on his travels with one of his former employers, back in the days before Ahzrukhal had purchased his contract. Still, it was rare to see one willingly wander into the Underworld, especially one so young and innocent looking.

The girl who had stumbled in was beaming around the room as if everything in there were shiny and new. It were as if she couldn't see what kind of place this really was. It was a den of thieves, druggies, liars, and opportunists.

Rather than take the sensible route and run as far away as she could from this awful place, she took her time and greeted each of the residents. She asked them weird or stupid questions about what it was like living in a city of ghouls or what it was like to be a ghoul, things like that.

The patrons didn't seem to mind her barrage of questions concerning ghoul life. In fact they seemed amused by it. One by one, the girl walked around the bar asking her silly questions and smiling and nodding and acting like she had no problems with the way that any of them looked. After she had had her fill of information about the daily lives of the barely living she turned towards the door and looked as if she were about to leave.

Then she spotted Charon.

The girl bounced up to the much taller ghoul, grinning from ear to ear, "Hi my name's---"

"Talk to Ahzrukhal." He grunted. It wasn't his place to talk to the customers even if they were the one's who approached him and he wasn't really comfortable with the idea of talking to this smoothskin anyway. She seemed overly cheery and cheery wasn't a very fitting attitude to have in a place like the Ninth Circle.

"But I---"

"Talk. To. Ahzrukhal." The girl squinted at him for a moment, as if she were trying to interpret his words. Like they were some language foreign to her, something other than plain fucking English.

"And Ahzrukhal is…" He nodded towards the bar and mumbled something unintelligible. She looked at the ghoul in the white suit, tending the bar then back at Charon, "I will get you to talk to me you know."

He said nothing, just watched her as she waltzed up to the bar and began conversing with the corrupt ghoul. Why did she want to talk to him so bad anyway?

"What'll it be?" Ahzrukhal motioned toward his large assortment of scavenged alcohol and offered a lipless grin, "Not too often we get a smoothskin 'round here, and it's never a woman…"

"What's with that guy in the corner?" She leaned over the bar and tugged at her golden hair absent-mindedly in an attempt to coax information through utilizing her feminine charms. The girl was obviously uncomfortable using her body this way, but Ahzrukhal said it himself. It was rare for a girl like her to come through Underworld.

"That's my boy Charon," The old ghoul laughed letting his eyes trace over her, "He's not one for conversation but a loyal employee."

"Employee? You pay him?" She asked, there was a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"We have an understanding."

"Oh I see…" The girl glanced back at Charon with sad eyes and in a low tone asked, "Is he a slave then?"

"Watch your mouth girl!" He snapped drawing the girl's attention back to his employer. It made Charon tense up. Usually when his voice got like that he would issue orders to "remove" his problem. He really didn't want to kill someone so young.

The order didn't come, although the vicious bastard did give him a look that suggested he was considering it. Instead Ahzrukhal calmed himself down and chuckled, "I hold his contract… Charon is completely loyal to whoever holds it."

"What do I have to do to get this contract?" He listened as they bartered over his life. She said a thousand caps. He said make it two thousand or she could always do him a favor. There was no doubt in his mind any favor done for Ahzrukhal would result in someone's death The girl appeared to understand what he meant by favor as well because she sighed and pulled out a sack full of caps, "Well, I was going to use this to by a med-center for my home… but I'd rather lose my caps than my soul..."

Ahzrukhal snatched up her money greedily and dropped a weathered strip of paper onto the bar. The girl picked the paper up and glared, "This just says 'a piece of paper with writing on it'. I'd like the real contract."

"That is the contract." He snapped tucking her money away in his pocket, "Trust me, it may not make sense but it's the real thing. Show it to him and he's all yours." The smoothskin gave him a distrustful look before cautiously walking back to Charon's corner.

"H-hey…" She pulled held up the piece of paper, "Is this your contract? If it is, it doesn't make much sense to me."

Charon looked at his contract and felt a surge of electricity shoot to his fingertips. Ahzrukhal shouldn't have given away his contract like that. The towering ghoul walked over to his former employer, "Yes Charon, it's true. Have you come to say goodbye?"

He looked at the man who he had been protecting for all of these years. The man who forced him to do horrific things to good people, "Yes," he replied simply as he offered him his formal goodbye. Two gunshots to the face.

The first was enough to kill him. The second was just for the fun of it.

"W-What the hell was that about?!" The girl shouted. She was shaking and looking up at him with frightened eyes, "Wasn't he your boss?"

"Ahzrukhal was an evil bastard. He deserved worse than he got," He bent down and pulled the girl's caps off of his former employer's dead, rotting corpse and tossed them to her, "But you are my employer now. And for good or ill, I serve you."

This news brought no comfort to the girl who crossed her arms defensively and asked in a meek voice, "If I ever dismiss you… will you kill me too?"

Just as he was about to answer, another smoothskin, an older sun-burnt male, burst through the doors brandishing a Chinese assault rifle that was trained straight at him.

"Cassie, you alright kid?" The man shouted, "I heard gunshots, this fucker hurt you?"

Charon aimed his combat shotgun at the intruding man's head. His finger was itching to pull the trigger again.

"Hold it… Both of you." The girl, he had called her Cassie, reached out and grabbed both men's weapons, "Please…"

The sun-burnt man grunted and slung his rifle over his shoulder, "You gonna get your fuckin gun out of my face you sick zombie fuck?"

"Jericho!" The girl snapped slapping the man on the arm and nodding for Charon to put his shotgun away.

"Are you sure you don't want me to dispose of this… person?" He gestured at the rude asshole who had insulted him, hoping that maybe this girl would reconsider and let him blow his fucking brains out, "As long as you hold my contract I will do whatever you wish. All you have to do is give the order."

Jericho flipped off big and ugly and turned to the kid, "Ya mind telling me what the fuck is going on here and what this leathery dick-wad is talkin' about? What contract?"

"Jericho," She said again in a warning tone, "I want you to treat my new friend here with respect. He's coming with us."

She was joking, right? The kid knew how he felt about these shuffler freaks. There's no way in hell she would drag one along knowing how much he hated them. He couldn't help but laugh, "Cute kid, real fucking cute. Now say goodbye to your… friend and let's get back to the hotel," He grabbed her rather forcefully by the arm and pulled her towards the entrance, "I'll be damned if I have to carry your ass back to GNR just 'cause you didn't get some sleep."

Charon reached out a muscle-exposed hand and pulled the older man off of his new employer with an animal-like growl.

"What's your fucking problem?" He spat, pushing the tall ghoul backwards, "Look we don't need your maggoty-ass following' us around! The kid and I get along fine by our fucking selves!"

"I'm afraid I don't take orders from you," Charon growled, if this man pushed him again… orders or not someone was going to have their brains splattered on the walls, "My employer says I am to join you so that is what I will do, and it's not like you could force me to leave."

Jericho looked as if he were about to take a swing at the ghoul when Cassie, having had enough of the macho-pissing contest, decided to speak up, "Jericho, CLAM IT!" He looked as if he were about to tell her to fuck off but decided against it, "Charon here is coming with me, got it? If you don't like that, there's the fucking door."

An uncomfortable silence crept through the room. Jericho looked at the kid, then at the freak. An ultimatum? It occurred to him that he really could leave right then and there. Hell, he would have left before if the girl didn't start crying on him. What the fuck was he staying for anyway? Just because a little girl who can't tell her ass from her elbows has a nice ass and off-handedly says, "I love you," doesn't mean he has to risk his ass and travel with zombies against his will.

"You know what kid," The old man said, breaking the cold silence, "Fine."

"Fine… F-fine what?" Her tone seemed harsh but he could tell the brat was worried. She didn't want him to leave despite her little tough-girl act.

"Fine," Jericho said again crossing his arms and staring daggers into the ghoul, "I'll come with, but I sure as hell ain't gonna like it."

"Thank you Jericho…" He couldn't leave her, not with this asshole. He'd probably eat her the moment he left them alone. Or at least… that's what he told himself, "We'll set out for GNR tomorrow. Right now," She stretched and that heart-warming smile returned to her young face, "I'm more interested in that hotel room…"

As the girl left them in search of a soft bed, Jericho found himself staring at Charon and vice versa.

"Look," He spat in a low tone patting at his pockets for a pack of smokes, "That girl there, you leave her alone, you hear me?" Charon just glared and said nothing, "You can follow her orders as much as you damn well please, but if you touch her… or me for that matter," Jericho paused as he reached in his pocket for his lighter, "Let's just say… my trigger finger's been feeling awful slippery." Without another word he lit his cigarette and pushed through the doors.

Charon, unaffected by the man's feeble attempt at a death threat, sighed as his former employer's pooling blood reached the edges of his feet.

"Fucking smoothskins."

_________________________

Author's note: Meh… Had writer block but awesome reviews and a week of playing Fallout made me Squee and write up this chapter.

(I like to get reviews)

First off I am not anti-ghoul or anti-Fawkes. I lurve thems! So ignore any shuffler or zombie talk (although I must admit… I kinda like the term shuffler)!

Second: I like reader input… Where do you want me to go with this?

Third: Xanophillius Nacindo Dulliante (a.k.a. the writer of the review that got me off my ass): I never got dogmeat on my way to Minefield (I always freak out and assume he's gonna set 'em all off.) Also I hope to make the vaultie less of a good girl soon… (I just gotta figure out a way to get her and Jericho together… DAMMIT I WANT HIM TO NAIL HER!)

*ahem*…. Er… *cough cough*

Also I want Charon to be a complete jerk off in this… (kinda because I'm getting sick of all the "hurt puppy" Charon fics… Where's it written that he has to be a tortured soul? Maybe he wants to do some torturing ^_^)