Chapter 7: Ex Aequo Et Bono

Usually defined as "what is right and good." Used to describe the power of a judge or arbiter to consider only what is fair and good for the specific case, and not necessarily what the law may require.

'What the hell are Mirelurks? Giant crabs?!' Vaultie shrieked as she backed up hurriedly from the water with a look of terror. The creatures emerging from the water - disturbed by the pump - were heavily barnacled and smelled of rotting seaweed. You could barely see anything from under the shell bar the overlarge pincers that snapped in front of them but there was a hint of dark, glittering eyes.

Garv found it incredible that she was terrified of those things, considering the Deathclaw she'd taken down a day ago with barely a sweat. But she'd been in the power armour then, with a mini-gun to hand - and it had been just one Deathclaw. There were three or four huge Mirelurks bearing down on them. She had never seen Mirelurks before - and patently she wasn't a fan.

Mathis seemed quite handy with the small pipe-pistol he pulled from his jacket and had climbed up onto the generator itself, as though he were determined to protect it with his life. His hill to die on - Literally if they couldn't destroy the Mirelurks. Garv and Sturges fled onto one of the large rocky protuberances of stone, kicking and shooting at the Mirelurks snapping at their heels.

Vaultie was being forced back and cornered by a stray Mirelurk. This one seemed to be limping very slightly and shuddering in a way the others didn't. Sick? Injured? Garv didn't care. All he cared about was protecting the next-to-useless Thea as her hastily cranked shots either bounced off it's protective shell or wildly missed their target and she skittered back another few steps, trying to stay out of the way of it's pincers. Despite there being obviously something wrong with it - this one seemed more violent and determined to get to her than the others.

Didn't she have the brains she was supposedly born with?! 'Get on the rock, Vaultie!' Garv yelled as he tried to get it's attention. He had a pervading sense of deja-vu he attributed to yesterday's Deathclaw incident.

Mathis meanwhile had noticed that Vaultie was in danger and had turned his attention to taking pot-shots in her direction. Garv wasn't about to put it down to poor shot that his bullets were straying closer to Thea than the Mirelurk trying to pin her.

'Shoot, what's that boy playing at?!' Sturges demanded as he attempted to keep their 'Lurk occupied. 'He's gonna hit 'er!'

Perhaps that was the plan. Their awkward and veiled conversation earlier on how much an intact vault-suit and Pipboy were worth floated across his mind's eye. Was he purposefully trying to wound her? Mirelurks were notorious for attacking virtually anything but would attack the weakest and easiest accessible target first. They would go after the smell of blood. With Thea the only one in reach and injured in any way, the Mirelurks would leave the others - and the generator - alone.

It was the mathematics of dreadful necessity all over again, but Garv was not going to do the math. She needed to help him. They still needed her - he'd promised to help her. What was more likely to kill their Vaultie first? Garv refocused his musket on another target and cranked the shot.

Mathis yelled out in pain as the energy blast hit him square in the shoulder, disabling his shooting arm. 'The fuck're you playing at?!' He yelled across the divide as his arm hung limply. Garv dropped the musket's sights and glared. He knew why.

With Mathis now disabled and the Mirelurks suddenly in a frenzy about where the smell of blood was coming from, Vaultie had enough of a chance to jump up onto a platform carved out of the rock and seemed to be fiddling with her Pipboy. Now? Of all times? 'What the hell is she doing?' Garv growled. 'She's meant to be shooting that thing!'

Sturges looked up from his gun and peered at their clueless-genius before he smiled suddenly. 'That thing has V.A.T.S?'

'What the hell is V.A.T.S?' Garv demanded accusingly.

'Watch!' The farm-boy answered which, normally, would have at least gotten him a slap upside the head for the obvious answer.

The Pip boy beeped and Garv could fancy he heard the whirring of the motors over the clicking and clacking of the Mirelurks as she held her arm aloft and repositioned her musket. Two, three, four shots straight into the Mirelurk's face. It reared back, screaming as more blood was shed from what looked to be it's face, but wasn't dead yet. In fact, it was angrier than ever before and swiped at her more than ever. Unperturbed, Vaultie loaded the Pipboy up again for another go around and sank two more into it's face. This time, it sank heavily and she booted it square in the face. So hard that the entire shell cracked from top to bottom and it almost fell apart as it hit the ground.

'The hell just happened?' Garv asked in the stunned seconds between the thing collapsing and the world coming back. 'She just - it -'

Sturges gave a breathless laugh. 'V.A.T.S! That thing can shoot the whiskers on a cat. Helps your aim too. Gitchur slimy butt back here!' He snarled and that was to the Mirelurk that had attempted to turn and go after the generator.

Garv grumbled very slightly to himself as he refocused on destroying the rest of the Mirelurks. It was practically cheating to have something that could help you aim but - he supposed - of all the people that needed it, it would be Vaultie. She needed all the help she could get.

They were putting shot after shot into them but at this point, they were just wasting ammo they couldn't afford to waste.

Althea Shapiro stood back, breathing hard but trying not to. The Mirelurk - whatever Garv had called it was dead but had already began giving off a foul smell that she could only liken to a filthy port on a warm summer's day. She fancied that she would never forget the alien look of it, or the smell, come to think of it. Not even in her nightmares.

The other Mirelurks had all turned and gone straight for the generator as Mathis swore black and blue, clutching his bleeding arm. Thea was angry at Garv for shooting him but it was an improvement over the last guy he'd shot in front of her. This one had been in the shoulder - before that he'd shot a man in the head. She was just bringing up her gun to help Mathis out when a flash of light caught her eye. Embedded in the carcass of the mutant crab was some sort of metal.

Was that what was causing it so much rage? Had it eaten something that had disagreed with it? She really didn't want to put her hands anywhere near that thing's insides but her curiosity was getting the better of her. Holding her breath, she reached in and tried to grab it. It was metal, but slippery. The first attempt, it slid through her fingers almost as though it had been greased with butter - not bodily fluids of some kind. The second grab, she managed to get just enough of a hold on it to tease it out.

It was a shotgun. It looked high end, covered in blood as it was. Someone had scratched "Firecracker" into the stock with some painstaking effort. Was it the gun's name? It's former owner's name? She was wary of handling it but considered that it could do a lot more damage to the Mirelurks than their laser musket shots which seemed to bounce off the toughened shells. Surprisingly, it fit snugly in her shoulder, as though it had been made for a woman.

Althea had the foresight to check if it was actually loaded and was greeted by a clip of seemingly unharmed shotgun shells. Distantly, she was glad that she'd played it safe and hadn't tried to pull it out by the trigger guard - and that it had failed to catch anything on the way out of the Mirelurk. During her study for the bar she'd read a number of brutal closed murder cases and a few had featured crime scene photographs. She knew what damage a shotgun could do in close quarters.

Nate had warned her in what seemed like a lifetime ago that shotguns were serious business and kicked back hard - especially in the wrong stance. She hadn't understood just what he meant by that until she fired. The blast bowled her over and she swore as her elbow impacted painfully with rock.

The sound rolled and echoed around the bowl of the excavations, causing the Mirelurks to scatter briefly in a flurry of clicking and squeaking - but one was far louder than all the others. Against all odds, without her V.A.T.S - Althea had managed to hit one and it had been set on fire.

She suddenly understood why the word "Firecracker" had been carved. She lay, sprawled in the rock dust and watched it flail helplessly before the fire was extinguished. Mathis, Garv and Sturges were all watching her in surprised fascination as she scrambled to her feet and loaded another shell.

'Woah-shit!' Mathis yelled and ducked lower as she sent another spray into the trio. One fast reload later - she shot another, and then another until the smell of burning seaweed overtook everything else and the excavations were silent.

She was breathing hard again, more in an effort not to be sick - both at the smell and at the carnage Firecracker had wrought. Glistening green and red guts were spewed across a swathe of the platform the generator was on. Broken pieces of carapace were spinning where they had landed. She hated this place. Hated the animals and the people and the decay.

She hated that she'd dragged Garv and Sturges into this and she'd almost got them killed - almost got herself killed. Helped and saved a man who had almost shot her and had been shot in return. She could feel the tears burning the back of her eyes, desperate to fall but she wouldn't allow them. Nate would never have cried after something like this. Nate would have known what he'd been doing and wouldn't have fallen into this.

'Hey, good job. You got'em all, Vaultie.' She turned, tears still threatening to fall, towards Sturges who seemed to be treating her like she was going to break any minute judging by the tone of his voice and she just couldn't seem to find her voice to answer him. The deafening roar of Firecracker seemed to have stripped her of it.

Sturges gestured to her to hand over the gun but her fingers tightened on the stock ever so slightly and he raised his hands with a worried little smile. 'Hey, you keep it.'

She watched Garv jump down from his platform and march over to the generator where Mathis was cowering. With one rough yank, he dragged the pseudo-scavenger off the top and into the sludge left in the wake of Firecracker's roar. The second he let go of the jacket, his musket came up to point itself between the man's eyes. Mathis cowered, the good arm raised to protect his face as his useless arm tucked itself under his armpit.

Althea Shapiro was no soldier - That had been her husband. But she was a lawyer. A smart- competent lawyer and what she had at her disposal were words. They came roaring back with a vengeance - just like Firecracker. 'Garv! Don't!'

The raider with his finger on the trigger stiffened before demanding 'Are you serious, Vaultie? He tried to shoot you!'

'That doesn't mean you have to return the act in kind. Besides you already did!' She clambered down from the rock, still clutching Firecracker and being followed at somewhat of a safe distance by Sturges as she waved her free arm at Mathis. Blood was soaking his jacket and he was shivering violently in shock and fear.

'If I had "returned it in kind" he'd be dead.' Garv argued, his eyes and gun never wavered from the terrified man in front of him. 'Because that's what he was going to do to you, Vaultie. He just had shit aim.'

'But you don't.' She replied with a frown. 'I know you don't - you shot him in the shoulder, Garv.'

The raider looked angry for a second before he grunted 'I couldn't guarantee I'd get a headshot and if I missed, he'd have killed you.'

She felt oddly flattered that he wanted her alive so badly that he'd taken a less risky shot to avoid her getting hurt. She wanted to believe that there was good in Garv - needed to believe it in fact. If she didn't believe he was basically good, then she would never have struck a deal with him - murder of a gang leader aside. He seemed almost wasted as a raider.

Garv made to shoot again and Mathis reared back against the generator when Thea yelled 'Stop!' He dropped the gun from his shoulder and finally turned to snarl at her 'What about this is so hard? I am going to shoot him and save us a whole lot of problems. If you've got a problem with that - then I don't care.'

'I'm not going to let you shoot a man in cold blood in front of me - again.' Thea hissed. 'We have a deal.'

He stalked closer to her and leaned in close to her face. 'And if you remember, that deal hinged on murder. What's one more?'

She tried to get a semblance of personal space and stepped back but he wasn't going to let her go that easily. 'Garv-'

'You dragged us into this! So congratulations Vaultie - it's your fault. I'm just fixing it.'

'You fucking-' She hissed as her cheeks darkened and her eyes crimped in anger.

Sturges groaned. 'Will you two stop bickerin' for two minutes? Y'all're acting like a bitter old married couple.'

'No we do not!' They both rounded on Sturges at the same time before going back to their staring contest.

'I don't see why we can't settle this with words. I'm the victim, shouldn't I get a say in the justice?' Thea tried being reasonable and using logic. It did very little to change Garv's stance.

'No. It doesn't work like that, Vaultie.' He snarled. 'This isn't before the war - this is the Commonwealth. If you didn't want this outcome - why did you even tell me about that terminal? Why did you even hack it?!'

'Uh…' Sturges began.

'Shut up Sturges. I want to hear this. Why didn't you just keep your nose out of other people's business?'

'If I had, you'd be dead.' She replied darkly.

'Garv.' Sturges tried to interrupt again insistently and the two turned on him.

'What, Sturges?' Garv finally growled.

'He's gone.' The handyman raider deadpanned.

Thea and Garv both turned to look behind the raider and at the empty space in front of the generator where Mathis had been dumped for his execution. There was a blood smear on the chipped yellow paint but no Mathis.

'Fucking-!' Garv threw his musket down and ran his hands over his stubble. 'You happy now, Vaultie?'

'Me?' She demanded. 'This is hardly my fault! I just wanted to help someone!'

'And this kind of shit is what happens!' He thundered. 'Now we've got more than just Jared to worry about! We do not get involved in other people's problems!'

Thea fell silent. There was no point in arguing that she had no idea this would be the outcome - it was still her fault in Garv's mind. Nothing she had said or could say would change his mind, evidently. The wind tugged at her hair and blew the smell of dead Mirelurks and hot generator grease across the three.

'Let's just get the hell out of here before he finds friends.' Garv grunted and bent down to pick up his thrown rifle. Thea opened her mouth to say that if he had friends close by, then they would have intervened already but caught Sturges eye as he hastily shook his head. The universal sign to just drop any and all attempts to talk to him at present.

At least Sturges was still on her side.

A/N: I'm meant to be working on something else right now but the latter half of this chapter seized me and wouldn't let go. I was intending on doing this purely by Garv's point of view but no matter how I considered or looked at it, I couldn't get it right until I was forced to switch to Vaultie's perspective. Firecracker's first appearance! Woo! Ohkay now onto the plot. You may all be in uproar about how Preston isn't like that in the normal game, you may just enjoy the drama (in which case carry on). You may notice that Garv is not sweet and innocent like Preston is portrayed. You ever taken that man to Quincy? Oh he's up for murder and retribution alright. I just allowed Garv to express his feelings a bit more on the subject. And yes, he blames Thea for that mess. Wouldn't you? He's very much trying to help her but she's not exactly helping herself and that makes him mad. He's lost too many people to stupid decisions to let her make another one and get killed. Thanks to that fiasco, Mathis is now running around the Commonwealth spouting about Garv, Sturges and Vaultie to anyone who'll listen. Or maybe his boss. Or maybe Jared. But he'll be back. My canon-senses have finally stopped twitching now that at least part-canon has been restored with Mathis' escape. (although I really did murder Mathis on my first playthrough after I hacked his terminal.)

Thanks for all the follows, faves and reviews! I'm back and judging by the length of this chapter, better than ever!