We reached the science lab and I just stopped in front of the door, unable to proceed.
If I entered this door I'd bet all my caps that it was going to be something.
I didn't know what exactly, but it would probably entail laying my life and Charon's life on the line to kill something or someone or grab something or deliver something or another and I had already bitten my lip until it bled just standing there thinking about it.
What did I owe a man who kept me in a cage like a stupid flower trying to rob me of my life before abandoning me and leaving me with nothing more than a lies upon lies?
What did I owe any of them? The only one who'd actually ever done anything for me was Charon.
He didn't ask anything from me until I practically forced him to. He had the good graces not to impose on our friendship like that.

As I stood there deliberating, a crooner on Galaxy Radio spelled out for me the words that would forever be the second catalyst to my decision, the first one being Charon himself. I don't want to set the world on fire I just want to start A flame in your heart

Sappy as it was it hit me harder than a deathclaw on buffout.

My resolve now intact, I spat blood on the ground, blurted my revelations to Charon, hoped he could express them more coherently than me and sent him in to pass my message on to Dr. Li and/or Dad.
I pressed my ear to the door and heard snippets of words through the door.

"Excuse..intrusion...here on...behalf...my mistress... inform...she will not...accompany... memorial...not now...not later. Do not pursue... any attempts at contact...may be met...with...hostility...that is all...ood day."

He emerged from the lab and I thanked him with a squeeze on the arm.
We turned and walked away briskly but not briskly enough.

"Theda!" My Dad called out,
his voice ringing down the hall sounded as troubling to me as when robobrains speak all soothingly to you whilst they're trying to kill your ass.
Just...unsettling.

My Dad jogged down the hall. Caught up with us.
My face sank when I saw him and his face sank when he saw Charon.
If I learned anything from living in a Vault for so many years it's that gossip travels as fast as the speed of light in small places. Maybe even faster.
I looked at the expression on his face and I had no doubt whatsoever that someone, possibly everyone had already told him things.
That I had been in Rivet City since the night before and Dr. Preston said she spent most of her caps getting a detox shot for her drug addictions. So then, how is she paying the big ghoul for his protection services? Well I'll tell you. We heard with our own ears how she pays him. She's paying him with something other than caps for his protection services. Can you guess what that other thing is? Welll your first guess is the right one. I can tell you that much.
And Sister was killed in cold blood last night too.
Coincidence? I think not. That's probably what we heard her "paying" him for last night...
and it wasn't over quick either. She was "paying" that ghoul until morning.
Poor girl. It's probably the only way she knows how to survive on the Outside.

"Theda". My Dad repeated and I took a step backwards, tonguing where my lip bled.

Charon sensed me tense up and made a move to step in front of me. My Dad took a step back and I pushed Charon back and took the step forward I should have from the get go.
I just wanted this over.

"Please. You have to come to the memorial with us. It's crawling with mutants. We need your help."

"Hire a merc." I said to him plainly.
"Like this one." I pointed to Charon and turned heel.

"Theda! This was your mother's dream!"

I stopped walking and recited it by memory.
"Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end and giving unto him..."
I stopped and let the words pass over me. I tried to feel something but I just didn't/
"No sale." I said.
I walked and he continued to follow.

"Theda." He said.

I stopped again. Waited for him to say he was sorry or something along those lines.
That was the least he could do.

"What."

"Just help us to secure the Memorial and I promise...I"

"NO." I said "And that is final."

My Dad took a step forward and Charon had evidentially had enough because he stepped in front of me before my Dad could make contact with me.

"No more." Said Charon.

I nodded at Charon and watched as my Dad backed into the wall behind him.
I turned my back on my Dad for the last time, walking away from him back into to the word that he had tried so hard to shelter me from.

Never to look back.

.