A/N: ALRIGHTY THEN! Not much babbling for you guys today, as I'm just gonna skip to the good stuff ;D

This chapter contains a pretty long explanation of Janny's adventure in the Those! questline. Nothing too deep, just her explaining everything and what Bryan's thoughts are on it, plus some cute stuff at the end. Well, I THINK IT'S CUTE! I dunno if it'll be cute to you guys... Oh well!

Happy reading, happy writing!

~Konfessionist out!~

Chapter Six: Peace of Mind

Day One

Bryan sat at Janny's desk, gazing around the room in awe- she wasn't kidding when she said that she'd make herself at home! Many books- some looked old and worn, while others looked quite new- were stacked or sprawled on the desk, her wardrobe was already filled with all her hung clothes and the trunk was open, revealing all the random junk she had with her. He had to assume that the safe had all her important valuables in it already, like weapons or money. All in all, the room had turned cold when Seagrave died, and now it was warm and alive with a new occupant. She had run to the bathroom for a moment, and said that she'd be back soon, so here he sat, waiting for her to return.

The door creaked open as Janny stepped in only a few moments later, clothes and a small washrag hung over her shoulder while her long fingers held a purple toothbrush with a split handle and a few missing or frayed bristles. She had changed her clothes, sporting a baggy black tank top that barely reached her naval, and tight navy blue shorts hugged her broad hips. Her hair was down, returning to its state of being a wild mane that he was so accustomed to.

"You want to know about everything that happened in Grayditch." She stated, pushing the trunk lid down with her foot to toss her clothes onto its top along with the towel and toothbrush, looking back at him. "Is there anything that you want to know specifically?"

He shook his head, unable to peel his eyes off of her. "N- No… I just want to know everything, miss. I want to know anything you can tell me."

She chuckled. "You can call me by my name, you know."

He smiled slightly, leaning forward in his chair.

"I know- and I'll promise to call you by your first name if you never call me "Mr. Wilks" again! It was kinda weird…"

She laughed and nodded. "Deal."

Janny walked towards him, leaning past him to the desk to pick up a hair brush that was missing a few bristles. She sat on the edge of the desk, brushing out her unruly curls as she talked.

"After I left you in the radiation shelter, I went looking for your father. I didn't have to search for long, though- as I had found him in your house…" She swallowed hard, looking down at him. "Are you sure you want to hear this, Bryan?"

He nodded. "I said to tell me everything… Go ahead." He ushered her to continue with a slight flick of his hand.

She sucked in a deep breath before continuing. "He was lying on the floor, near a flaming debris heap. There were a few fire ants lying around, but they were already dead… I barely recognized his body- not even his face from the picture you gave me… It didn't look like a body. Bryan, he had been torn up so much that I- that's why I buried him... I didn't want you seeing him like that. I didn't want anything more haunting your nightmares. I knew it upset you when I told you- I knew you were upset that you weren't able to see him and say goodbye one more time, but… I think you knew. I think you knew that I was only looking out for your best interests, so you didn't say anything else on the matter."

Janny cleared her throat, and he noticed that her eyes began to well up with tears a little as she continued to brush her curls.

"Later that night, after I put you to bed and you told me about the others in Grayditch, I went to the Brandice residence to see if there were any other survivors. I didn't find anyone… Nothing had gotten into their home, so I assumed that they had fled the town to get away from the ants. But I second guessed that when I saw that the house was full of belongings… Anyways, I didn't find anything else there that proved to be useful in my search so I moved on to Doctor Lesko's shack by your home. It was locked, but I managed to break in."

"Is that when you found him?" He asked quietly.

She shook her head. "No, actually. The shack was empty. Completely empty. It looked like he had packed up and left town, but…" She chewed on her lip with thought, putting her brush down in her lap.

"But… what?" Bryan asked, turning his chair slightly so he was completely facing her.

"I hacked his terminal, and found a journal entry talking about the Marigold Metro Station on the other edge of the town, by the old playground. There were a few other notes, too, about experiments that he was running on the ants that inhabited Grayditch. He was using Marigold as a controlled environment to run these experiments."

"Wait a minute," He halted her, snapping his head up and stood up from his chair. "Are you telling me that Dr. Lesko was the reason why those ants were in town?" He exclaimed angrily.

"Bryan, please," She gazed up at him with a pleading look, resting a hand on his bicep comfortingly. "Please… Let me finish. You'll learn more about Dr. Lesko in a few moments."

With his lips pursed together in wrath that he'd rather not cage, he plopped back down in his seat and held his head in his hands as Janny continued.

"After that, I left the shack and fought my way to Marigold. I made my way inside, only coming across more of those fire ants, and I- I found another body. I think it was Mr. Brandice, because in his terminal I found an entry stating that he was going to go into Marigold to take care of the ant problem. I had pressed on until I eventually came across Dr. Lesko- I knew I'd find him, but I honestly didn't think that I'd find him alive." She smiled slightly. "He practically screamed when I opened the door and he saw me, but I must admit, my reflexes kicked in, and I-…I- erm…"

"You- did you kill him?" Bryan asked apprehensively.

"No," She finally snorted out a bit of laughter. "I punched him in the nose. It was an accident, of course, but when I dug deeper and deeper into the fire ant problem, I soon came to realize that he deserved it!"

He smiled a little, chuckling as well as the scene played out in his head. He could actually see it happening- a door sliding open, both Janny and Dr. Lesko shrieking in terror before she went and walloped him right in the nose!

"Any who," She sighed, beginning to brush out her hair again. "He told me about everything that happened. Yes, Bryan- he was the reason why the fire ants began attacking your town. He was working on a project, you see. He was trying to figure out how to shrink the ants to the size they were previous to the war, so we would no longer have to worry about them."

"So… Those fire ants weren't always that big?" He asked with furrowed brows.

"Oh, no! They never were! And they never breathed fire, either. The worst they'd do is possibly bite you, and even then it stung for only a moment. You'd live, pretty much unharmed, unless you maybe had some allergic reaction to the bite." She smiled, picking up a thick book she had on the desk behind him, flipping through the pages. "This is an Old World textbook I found. Kids your age and even younger went to school and learned about animals and bugs and such- ah! Here it is."

Janny flipped the book around to show him, pointing at a picture that was in the lower corner of the page. It was a picture of a horde of black ants crawling all over a beautiful, bold red and pink flower. The ants' size in comparison to the flower was the same as a Super Mutant in comparison to Rivet City! Either that was a very big flower, or those were very tiny ants!

"Wow," He murmured in complete astonishment as a smile crossed his lips. "That's amazing!"

"Isn't it?" She asked, her own smile deepening. "Would you like to borrow it?"

"Huh?" He blinked up at her. "Borrow it?"

Janny nodded, closing the book up with a hollow thud and handed it to him.

"But I-…" He looked away shamefully. "I don't know how to read… I was never taught how to. Never went to school." He shrugged.

"That's okay Bryan, you can look at the pictures." She opened the book slightly and fingered the pages, flipping through them to show him the slightly faded pictures and worn wording. "There's a lot for you to look at, but, if it bothers you that much, I could teach you how to read."

Bryan nodded with a thankful smile, but it no sooner turned back to a frown when he remembered what they were talking about.

"So if Pre-War ants never breathed fire and were so tiny, what happened to them?"

"Well, the radiation mutated them so they grew in size. The same goes for Brahmin, Molerats, Yao Guai, Mirelurks, anything living you see out here. Even Super Mutants." She closed the book once again and held it in her lap. "But unfortunately, when it came to experimenting Dr. Lesko skipped a step or two. He created a supposed "antidote" that would shrink the ants, but because he was so sure that it would work, he injected a massive amount of ant eggs instead of just one or two for testing. When they hatched, the antidote mutated them even further so that the ants were able to breathe fire. They also became aggressive and attacked the town, believing that you were a threat. They were simply defending themselves."

"Then what happened to Dr. Lesko? Is he still in Grayditch, making more fire ants or coming up with another "antidote" that- that makes them even bigger, or makes them spew goo, or something?" He retorted, fists balling on his knees as he leaned forward in his chair again to stare at the floor in disbelief.

"I don't suppose he is." Janny shook her head, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "I stopped him, Bryan."

His head shot up so he was looking directly into her eyes. "You did- You did what?"

She nodded with a smile, fingers squeezing his shoulder soothingly.

"After I stumbled onto him, and apologized for breaking his nose…" She let out a small giggle. "He told me everything that happened and asked that I help him destroy the antidote so he could have a fresh start. You see, ants need to have an Ant Queen- she makes all the little ants. I was told to destroy theeggs he hatched and the ants that spawned from them, but I was specifically directed not to disturb the Ant Queen or destroy the antidote he created. If I did, his project would have been ruined."

"What did you do then, miss- oh, I mean, Janny?"

"I went into this dark tunnel, looking for the antidote when I came across the Ant Queen's guardians. There were five of them! With big, snapping pincers and horns on their heads and backs! After doing away with all of them, I found a terminal that was hooked up to this machine that contained the antidote. I returned to Dr. Lesko and told him that my job was done, and I escorted him back down the tunnel to the terminal. I watched him work, asking questions about you and- and your dad…" She swallowed hard again, clutching the textbook on her lap so tightly her knuckles went bone white. "He refused to take responsibility for the trouble he caused… As a scientist, he felt that good things would and should be sacrificed in order to come across great discoveries…"

Janny's eyes turned unfocused as she sniffled, unlatching a hand from his shoulder.

"I didn't know what to do. I pleaded, I tried reasoning with him- telling him that he had to take care of you and erase all the damage he had done, but he simply refused! He just- he just refused…" She looked up at him. "I was angry. I shoved him away from the terminal and with my tire iron, I smashed it to pieces. Then I picked up the machine that held the antidote and smashed it on the ground." She smiled a little. "He was so upset, screaming and spitting livid that I had destroyed many weeks' worth of tests and notes that would help guide him in starting the experiment over again. I told him I didn't care, I told him that if he wouldn't take responsibility for all the trouble then I would… And with that, I traveled deeper into the tunnel to search for the Ant Queen because I had made a promise to a certain little boy that I would stop whatever started the fire ants." She smiled even wider at him knowingly.

Bryan stared back at her with a mixture of astonishment and gratitude. This was because she had gone above and beyond what he had expected all those years ago. When he met her outside the Super Duper Mart, he asked that she find his father, and that was it. Not only did she find his dad, she buried him, destroyed the fire ants, and even went as far as making sure that Dr. Lesko wouldn't be able to destroy another town like that ever again… She made sure that he'd never get the chance to destroy another family ever again…

"I found the Ant Queen deep in the tunnel in a big cavern. Bryan, she was huge! She was at least four to five times bigger than the fire ants- she had wings, and she spat this bizarre substance that was similar to plasma, but it was lighter in color. It was blue, almost. After I killed her, I returned to Dr. Lesko and told him that the Ant Queen was dead… He practically chased me out of Marigold with a sharp stick!" She laughed a little, shaking her head. "After all that was over, I returned to you, and you were still sleeping like nothing bad had happened… When you had woken up and I told you it was all over, you were so happy…" Her voice trailed off on a blissfully content note.

Janny looked up at him, smiling sweetly as she handed him the textbook.

"I promised you all those years ago when I first found you, I was going to stop whatever was hurting you… And I hope I fulfilled that promise, Bryan."

Bryan nodded, smiling a little as well as he looked down at the textbook. He took it with slightly shaking hands, running his rough digits over the peeling cover. It felt like Christmas, and that he was getting the best present ever- he was given peace of mind, in his hometown and the wonderings of his goddess, and soon enough he'd be given the gift of some education. He'd be able to read soon!

"Is there anything else that you'd like to know about that day?" She asked, causing him to look at her as she slid off the edge of the desk and landed on her feet at his side, putting her brush down to place her hands on her hips.

"No," He shook his head, putting the book down in his lap. "Not about that day, anyways…"

"Oh?" She tilted her head to the side. "Then what would you like to ask?"

Bryan's smile was etched on his face from ear to ear as he looked up at her, and he held out the book.

"When can you start teaching me how to read?"

Janny smiled just as much as he did, picking up the textbook from his lap with her fingertips brushing over his.

"Starting now, of course."