Anastasia laughed almost all the way back to Megaton.
"Did you see her face? What a sap, marrying that wino." Charon smiled. Anastasia noticed. "You're smiling, Charon!" she said, excitedly. He looked at her face, lit up like a child's on their birthday, and found he couldn't stop smiling. She was quiet for a moment. "You look nice when you smile. I'm glad you can, now that we got that bitch back."
Charon let her think that was why he was smiling. But he was smiling because of the most amazing kiss he'd received. He wanted more, his eyes inexplicably drawn toward her lips as she talked. So for the moment, he watched for Megaton top rise out of the dust.
They didn't make it all the way there smoothly. A group of Talon Company mercs ambushed them, attacking from atop a rocky cliff. Charon took out the first two without problem, but the third stomped on and broke Anastasia's leg. She screamed out with pain, and proceeded to blow the man's head off with a rail gun.
"Charon…see if any of them had stimpacks on 'em. I'm…out." She hissed through her teeth, holding her bloody leg. Charon got some ammo, and a sheet of paper out of them, but they had no stimpacks. So he carried her back to town, and paid a ridiculous fee to the town doctor. He watched carefully as the doctor gave her a shot that knocked her out, then as he forced the bone back into place.
"Let her rest for a day or so; it's nothing major, so she'll be fine."
Charon carried her back to the house, and opened the door with some difficulty, shutting it behind him with his foot. He decided that her bed was the best place for her, so he carried her up the stairs and opened the door.
He'd never been inn her room before, and he looked around in awe. The ceiling had strings of little lights hanging from them, giving the room a warm glow, even though it was nighttime. There was a giant teddy bear holding a smaller one on the floor by the foot of her bed; he remembered finding the big one with her in an old abandoned factory. He didn't know the story behind the other one, but it must've been old; it was practically falling apart.
He laid her on the bed gently and turned his eyes to her desk where an assortment of strange things lay; a picture of her and a man that must've been her father, then a picture of her when she was about ten with another young girl. There was a little action figure of Abe Lincoln, and his diary. There were papers and notes she'd collected on her travels, and a small tin of bee bees, sitting beside a lunchbox and a Nuka-Cola Quantum. He cast a look back at her, then closed the door and went downstairs, asked Wadsworth to make some food for him and Anastasia when she woke up, fed Dogmeat and sat down, pulling out the paper from the merc. It was a job: to capture Anastasia, dead or alive, with a substantial bonus for the latter. Charon frowned.
"Don't worry about it. I can handle myself, and with you watching my six, I'll be fine." He heard Anastasia's voice from the stairs, and there she was, standing. He stood up immediately. She smiled, and hopped down the stairs on one leg, holding the railing. He helped her over to the other chair and she sat down. She took the paper from him and looked it over, then sighed. "Why is it that when something good comes along, people want to destroy it?"
Charon handed her some purified water and remained silent. It was quiet for a while, and Charon absentmindedly scratched Dogmeat behind the ears while watching Anastasia mess with her Pip-Boy. Suddenly it started beeping and she frowned, confused.
"What does that mean?" Charon asked, almost fascinated. She shrugged.
"It's never happened before." Suddenly a young woman's voice filled the room.
"Anastasia, I'm sending out this emergency signal to you. I need your help. My father's gone crazy since you and your father left the vault, and I fear if you don't stop him soon…listen, if you still care about the vault, still consider me your friend, then help us. I changed the password to the main vault door to my name. If you still care, you'll remember it." Silence filled the room once more.
"We've got to go. I've got to help her." Anastasia immediately said, but winced when her leg touched the ground.
"You need rest; only a day, the doctor said. Then we can go." Charon said, and Anastasia looked down; she knew he was right.
"We leave tomorrow afternoon."