A/N: Initiate Stanton was never given a first name in game, and I can't find one for him anywhere else. For that reason, he will be called Avery- the same first name of his voice actor. If you know of one he has and are reading this, please tell me. Thanks.
Bryan wouldn't admit it, but the bunker terrified him just a little. All he could think of as the Paladin-Yerxa had been his name-lead him through the halls to someone called Elder McNamara, was of the Enclave. The past six years had been far too stressful for him, and the bunker evoked harsh flashbacks.
He kept his mouth shut though, and focused on what was lying ahead and behind. Ken, hopefully, had already made it to New Vegas. Bryan had had to leave Fawkes and Dogmeat in the front entrance to the bunker. It was strange not having them right by his side.
Still, he had made a promise, and the sooner this was over with the better. Elder Lyons had trusted this to him and he planned to see the delivery through, even if the place intimidated him. He wondered about his father, what he would do; knowing his dad, he would have carried on and delivered the message. That was what Bryan planned to do.
Out here, though, he missed home. He missed Sarah and the Pride, Gob, Three Dog and oh god did he especially miss Leo. Leo had elected to stay behind when Bryan chose to leave some time ago, and Bryan couldn't help but wonder as he passed through those corridors, was Leo missing him? Bryan was 26 now, and he'd been gone a good couple of months. Leo had promised to wait, and Andy and Jenny had promised to take care of him and watch over him. It was kind of paranoid to assume Leo was already chasing someone else, but he couldn't help it. Bryan wished he'd never left, though; after all he had been through, he was looking forward to settling down in Megaton and living his life with Leo, Fawkes and Dogmeat (with the occasional fending off of an Enclave remnant, raider, super mutant or whatever attack).
That was before Ken showed up. Ken was something of a self contained maelstrom. He swept in, he kicked ass, he ordered a drink and he started chatting Bryan up about what he knew about the Enclave running around and what was this Talon Company business and why the fuck were the super mutants here so murderous.
Maybe Ken knew who Bryan was when he sat at the barstool next to him. Maybe he didn't. But either way, Bryan was stuck helping him, and Bryan was going to keep his promise to Elder Lyons.
Yerxa held out his gun to signal Bryan to stop moving, and stepped closer to a large desk in the middle of the room they were in. "Elder McNamara," he looked back at Bryan, then ahead again. "This wastelander says he carries a message from Elder Lyons."
Elder McNamara furrowed his brows and leaned forward, beckoning Bryan to come closer. "Dismissed, Yerxa. Thank you for bringing him to me." Yerxa nodded and left the room as Bryan stepped forward. He clutched the holotape close, skin crawling. "How do you know Elder Lyons?"
"Let's just say we've had a lot of close dealings together." Bryan held out the holotape. "This has a good few hours of updates on what's going on over there." He bit his lip, then looked around the room. "Your base looks like an Enclave base."
"What?" McNamara sounded somewhat offended. If the Enclave had been anything here like they had been back home, he wasn't surprised.
"Back on the East Coast," Bryan explained. "The Brotherhood over there has taken over some building called an Octogon or a Heptagon or something. There aren't any bunkers or Vaults they live in. This looks more like the Enclave's. Which is mostly destroyed now, by the way, but this is definitely more what it looks like."
"I see," McNamara was silent for a moment, then gestured to the door. "You said there was a few hours worth of material on here. I hope you won't mind if I ask you to stay the night, so I can listen to them and discuss them with you?"
"Well, I actually have somewhere to be. I have to catch up to Ken." Bryan admitted. "And I left my friends in your entrance. But Sarah Lyons should be here soon. She promised she'd follow up with the Pride. Of course there's also the matter of worrying they all got wiped out trying to help some straggler, but you never know."
"Why on earth would they-"
"You know what?" Bryan held up his hands. "That was a bad joke. But I really think you should hear it from them. The Pride is the best of the best there, they'll definitely be here in one piece."
Elder McNamara nodded. "Well, then. Uh, you mentioned something about Ken?"
"Small world?" Bryan asked. "Yeah. Said he's known here as Courier Six or something? Sounds like some kind of super hero alias but I don't really have room to speak. They call me the Vault Dweller over there. Or the Lone Wanderer, if you like that better, sounds a lot cooler."
"Do you always talk this much?" McNamara asked. Bryan chuckled.
"Only when I'm nervous." He nodded. "Uhm, could you possibly point me in the direction of New Vegas? Maybe offer advice, I have no idea how to get past all those scorpions."
"Oh, uh, I can send someone with you. It's about time to check in with Vegas, anyway. I'll send the Stantons with you." McNamara stood and went around the desk, approaching Bryan, gesturing towards the door. "It shouldn't be too hard to locate the medical office or the quartermaster. I'll send word you're allowed to be given full access to any supplies there." He put his hand on Bryan's shoulder. "Thank you for bringing this to me."
Bryan smiled softly. "You're welcome, Elder."
"How long has he been in there?" Cass asked, leaning up against the door outside of the bathroom. Ken had come back to the Strip, and he'd gone right to the showers. He hadn't even bothered coming to see Arcade. Arcade had to find out from Boone that he was even back.
"A couple of hours." Boone answered for Arcade. The older man was crouched outside of the door, listening for any signs of life from inside. Boone jerked his head back to the kitchen. "Come eat, Cass. They're going to need some time to talk."
Cass nodded and pushed back, patting Arcade on the head. "You should go in, talk to him. It doesn't take two or three hours to wash your ass, no matter how dirty you are."
Arcade took a deep breath in, nodding and standing. She had a point. And they were going to have to talk sooner or later, that was a given. It bothered him that Ken was upset over something like this, that he wouldn't have come to see Arcade. Even if he wanted to just be clean before he did so, Arcade still wanted to see Ken, badly. He could have dealt with the grime.
Ken probably knew Arcade was standing outside of the bathroom door-he had a creepy sixth sense like that-and Arcade wasn't getting anywhere by pacing around waiting for him to open it. So, taking a deep breath, he opened the door, slid in, and closed it quietly behind himself. He didn't hear any water running.
Ken was sitting in the tub in the farthest back stall, knees pulled up to his chest and water barely sudsy anymore. It wasn't the fact that he was naked that made Arcade stop and admire him, it was the fact that he'd barely changed out in the wasteland. His skin was a bit darker from all his time in the sun, and he had a scar on his lower lip running down to his chin. It was hardly visible, though. His hair, too, was much longer; he'd probably rinsed off all the dirt and grime and grease before taking a bath, because it was wet and tied back into a small bun. It was also lighter than he remembered, with streaks of white through the toffee-brown.
As soon as Arcade approached him, Ken became a lot more interested in his bath. "Get out, I'm not decent." He joked weakly. Arcade laughed but didn't leave, instead shrugging off his jacket-he still wore his Followers coat, he didn't know why-and pulling a chair up against the wall. "Everyone else is eating dinner."
"You should probably join them."
"Nah. Not hungry. Besides, I'm sure they'll save me some." Ken nodded. "Why didn't you come see me?"
Ken frowned and grabbed his washcloth and box of Abraxo cleaner. Arcade briefly pondered if that stuff was actually safe to bathe in. Plenty of people had done it, but most of the old movies he'd watched, people bathed with bars of soap. Then again a bar of soap was hardly something that would have survived the nuclear apocalypse. "Sorry."
"That's all you have to say?" Arcade clenched his fist. "Sorry? You were gone for three years, Ken. You took off on a suicide mission into the fucking middle of hell and all you've got to say to me is 'sorry'?"
"What else do you want me to say?" Ken asked, scrubbing his knee like it was the most interesting thing to do in the world. "Oh, I see, I'm supposed to feel bad because I decided not to stick around here and instead chose to go wandering the wasteland and find something better to do. Is that it?"
"Ken, that's not-"
"Last I checked, Gannon," Ken turned to look at him. "I asked you to go with me. We didn't have to cross the Legion. We could have taken a different route. You didn't have to go. You told me no."
Arcade bit his lip as Ken went back to scrubbing himself. "I made my choice, Arcade. And you made yours. I wasn't going to stay, you weren't going to go. And now I'm back, and I have a feeling you're not going to let me live it down."
Arcade's bit his tongue and hunched down, elbows on his knees. "I was worried about you, Ken."
"After what I've been through, you really don't need to worry about me." Ken replied. "I can take care of myself just-"
"Hold the fucking phone, who are you?" Ken's head shot up and Arcade turned around to face the door.
"Oh, that sounds like trouble." Ken reached over and unplugged the tub, standing up. He grabbed the pants he'd intended to put on and slipped them on and Arcade handed him his coat. They left the bathroom to be greeted by the sight of Cass sticking the business end of a teals cannon Arcade had been working on into the face of a man not nearly as tall as her. He was flanked on either side by two people in power armor, undoubtedly Brotherhood of Steel; a large Super Mutant wearing the rags of a Vault suit was behind him, and a dog stood between him and the Paladin to his right, growling at Cass.
"Oh, good fucking god, Cass," Ken scoffed, moving up to her. He pushed the barrel of the cannon down. "This is Bryan. He's on our side."
"Really, now." Cass stepped back, clearly not convinced. "And what's with the power grunts?"
"Fuck you," came a female voice, from the right side, slightly muffled. She holstered her weapon and reached up, pulling her helmet off. The person to the left of Bryan did the same.
Veronica scoffed. "Watkins."
"Actually, Veronica," the other woman said, tucking her helmet under her arm. "That's Paladin Stanton." She sneered at the other woman.
"Stanton?" Veronica turned to look at the man to Bryan's left. "Really, Avery? Okay, I know you can't be picky down there, bro, but please tell me that is a joke."
Avery dropped his head as Ken groaned. "Okay, down, girl." He gestured to the others. "Guys, this is Bryan. He's from the East, on the coast. That's Fawkes behind him, that's Dogmeat." He pointed to the others. "You've officially met Veronica. Cass is the trigger happy one. Boone, here, is ex-NCR First Recon. The ghoul is Raul, the dog is Rex, and this…this is Arcade." Cass stepped back and Arcade reached up, putting his arm around Ken's waist and a hand on his other shoulder.
"You guys can go back to eating dinner, or whatever. Avery, Melissa, Fawkes, you guys can join them, or feel free to wander the suite, relax, whatever. Arcade," Ken put his hand on the older man's, looking at him, "can you take Bryan to see Yes Man? I need to get dressed." Arcade nodded, but before he could pull away Ken leaned in and kissed his chin. It was certainly a turn for the weird for Arcade, considering a few moments before they seemed ready to have a fight. But he did as Ken asked, leading Bryan to the pent house. He figured he'd have plenty of time to talk to Ken later that night.