Games We Play: Beginning
Notes: Everything belongs to Bethesda and Obsidian, I'm just playing with their toys.
Just kidding! THIS is actually the end, a sweet little epilogue to wrap this thing up for good.
beginning
noun
the background or origins of anything
"Dad!"
The voice is small, anxious, excited. It's so full of feelings he can't entirely process it. Deacon stands, wiping his hands on his pants. Small rolls of sawdust fly off, catching in the breeze, and floating away to land in the creek. Marty and Sturges stop what they're doing too; Sturges twirls a hammer in his hand while Marty conscientiously puts his screwdriver in his pocket.
Shaun is running towards him, running the way Deacon taught him, with his hands pumping up and down and his knees lifting with each step. He's gotten so fast, and there's a hot flash of pride in his heart as he watches the boy running up to him.
"What is it, son?"
Son. It's taken some time to get used to that one, but it feels good. Shaun had started calling him Dad just a few weeks after they got here; that had felt natural, real. He wasn't even sure how many times it happened before he noticed it; Peaches had just pointed out to him one day that he was responding to it, and Shaun had grinned at them and taken off to go play in the creek.
"It's Mom," the boy is breathless, skidding to a stop at the foot of the bridge. Deacon steps forward to keep him from getting too close to the saw lying on the ground, and plants one firm hand on the boy's shoulder. He's panting, hands on his knees, and Deacon feels a twist in his stomach.
Peaches -
He hopes she's okay.
"What is it, buddy?"
A grin from his son. "She's having the baby!"
"What? Wait - what? Now?" He looks back at Sturges and Marty, then at the handrail on the bridge, eyes cataloguing everything but seeing nothing. Where's his shirt?
"Yes, now! Come on!" Shaun's hand is in his, small and insistent and slippery with sweat.
Fuck the shirt, he thinks. He doesn't need it.
He clasps Shaun's hand and starts up the hill after him to watch the birth of his child.
