Charon couldn't sleep. Not in Anastasia's bed; it just wasn't his place. He was filled with anticipation, glancing at the door every few seconds, waiting for her to come in. He'd put the sheets and pillows from the vault on the beds near the end of her conversation with James, but they now felt strange against skin so used to painful surfaces, the pillow seemed out of place under his head. He glanced at his armor, piled neatly by the door. He didn't know what to do with it; James was asleep in his room. So Charon laid in Anastasias bed with eyes wide open, in his black undershirt, pants and boots, simply waiting.
She came in a few hours later. She left the lights off; the moonlight coming through the holes in the walls illuminated the room with a soft glow. Charon, pretending to be asleep, watched her look at him, decide he was asleep, then start silently taking her armor off. She ended up in a tee shirt and shorts, her hair tied in a loose bun behind her head. She crawled into the small twin-size bed, and he scooted over to make room for her, putting his arm around her waist.
"What happened to kicking me out?" He asked softly, and she closed her eyes.
"I thought you were asleep, so I was going to let you stay, but if you'd rather sleep on the living room floor with Dogmeat, be my guest." She said, pulling the covers up over her shoulders and snuggling into him. She fell asleep quickly, but Charon lay awake for a while, listening to his 'owner' breathe, and wondering if freedom was still his greatest wish.
xXx
Charon left Anastasia's bedroom early the next morning, before anyone else was up. Since they had traveling to do he decided to go down to trade off some unwanted things like extra armor, broken weapons and cigarettes. Moira's wasn't open yet, so he headed down to the entrance of Megaton to see if any caravans were there. The only caravan was Crazy Wolfgang's, but he had enough caps to pay for most of the trades. Charon was left with a few bottles of booze and a carton of cigarettes when Wolfgang ran out of caps.
"Maybe there's something here worth the trade. Charon sifted through random articles of junk, pulled out some stimpacks and a 10 mm clip, but was left with a large carton of cigarettes. "Here, what about this thing?" Wolfgang asked and Charon turned to find him holding up a tarnished diamond ring. It glinted at him in the light from the sunrise, reminding him he needed to return to the house soon, but he found himself drawn to the ring.
'She'd love that…' He thought to himself, picturing her wearing it on her finger, after some cleaning of course. So he handed over the cigarettes for the ring, which he stuck in his pocket alongside the other purchases and the caps.
"Pleasure doing business with you!" Charon grumbled to himself on his way back up the hill to the house as the sun freed itself from the horizon. Passerby would've said he was saying something about a 'waste of perfectly good cigs.'
xXx
The trio headed out soon after Charon returned and Anastasia's father had woken up and eaten. They reached Rivet City near the end of the day after traveling almost identical to the day before. Exhausted, they trudged up the scaffolding and across the bridge, pausing only to give a bottle of water to a poor man on the bridge. Upon their arrival they immediately headed down to the labs to find Doctor Li.
"James?" She exclaimed, then ran over to him and hugged him. "I thought you were going to be killed! I thought you really were going back into Project Purity!" James returned the hug.
"Madison, I did go back. I went there and then traveled to one of the other vaults, to talk with a Dr. Braun about the G.E.C.K."
"What did you find?" Anastasia sighed and tuned them out, not caring in the least about what they had to say. She turned to leave, but heard her father call to her.
"Ana, sweetheart, would you mind staying here for a night? I don't know what our next plan of action will be, and I'd like you to be around, just incase I need you." Anastasia nodded.
"Sure thing, dad. I'll get a room at the hotel, and Charon and I'll be at the bar if you need us." James nodded, hugging her.
"Thanks, sweetie." He kissed her on the head and Anastasia and Charon left the lab as Madison and James struck up their conversation again.
xXx
"If he's in love with her, I'll kill that bitch." Anastasia announced as they walked down the halls. Charon looked at her, surprised.
"She doesn't seem that bad to me."
"You haven't seen her when it's just me. She's…she's a friggin' mega bitch." It was silent for a while as they navigated the maze of Rivet City.
"Would you like me to kill her? I could…make it look like an accident."
"Nah. Tempting, but my father needs her for Project Purity. But thanks for offering. I'll keep it in mind." She replied with a smile, and she placed a handful of caps into his hand.
"Get us a room, I'll meet you down at the marketplace. Oh, and here's my stuff, you can throw it in there." She said, handing him her pack. She turned and left, and Charon sighed, stepping inside the hotel.
xXx
"I'm sorry sir, but you only have enough for one room. Is that alright with you?" The computer asked, and Charon stood silent for a moment.
"That's fine." He said, and grabbed a key.
"Third door on your right, sir! Thank you for choosing the Weatherly!" Charon grumbled on his way down the hall. Leave it to that kid to pull something like this…But Charon didn't mind all that much. She was the one trying to keep up appearances, so if her father just happened to notice, what did he care?
Charon pushed the door open and threw the bags on the large, queen size bed. He sat on the edge for a moment, but immediately jumped back up, feeling a stabbing pain from his pocket; it was the ring. He'd forgotten about it after all of the battling they'd done to get to Rivet city. He tucked it inside his pack and sighed. What a dumb idea that was…
He headed down to the bar to find Anastasia chatting animatedly with someone. He moved closer and found himself recognizing a familiar smirk: Butch Deloria was in Rivet City.