Gob found himself looking at her again.
Part of him knew she knew about him and his vain love...and that he often looked at her from his constant scrubbing. He didn't really want to believe it though, his love was secret, his own little treasure that kept him warm whenever Moriarty decided to make the ghoul's life a living hell...as if it wasn't that already.
He was worried however.
It was not the constant itching worry in the back of his head that was the fear of Moriarty hurting him...nor the dry fear in the back of his throat that a customer would suddenly blow his head off for being a ghoul. No...this was an icy worry running down his spine and arms, centred around his heart and making it difficult to breathe.
And he was looking at the source of the worry right now. Nova was pale...paler then normal even, and though she had always been a little rough in the edge, no doubt because of a mix of radiation from the bomb and the rough customers...she now looked ragged beyond words.
The cigarette she had been smoking had fizzled out into a small stump, even as Gob watched it dropped out of her mouth without her even noticing. Her head was tilted back as her eyes slowly moved, no doubt counting the ridges in the steel ceiling, though the movement was more erratic than it usually was when she did that... Gob nervously wondered if she could move her head anymore, she hadn't done so for two hours now...
At least the bruise on her cheek from when Jericho had thrown a tantrum over her lack of...eagerness...had started to fade. The bruises hidden under her jacket from Moriarty's punishment however...the creepy thing was that she didn't even seemed bothered by it all. Normally she would put up on a brave face, and she was tough after all....but she would still wince when she didn't think Gob was looking.
Gob scowled at his rotting hands in frustration, willing them to move faster as he scrubbed the counter, so hard that he heard the wood creak under them even as his arms begun to hurt. Frustration...that was all he had, he had no words of comfort for her, they would just be empty things, nothing that would really help her. If only Colin would stop...picking on her! Sure, Gob took the brunt of it...he was used to that after all...but as of late the bastard had clamped down on Nova more and more.
And for no reason!
Okay, so maybe she hadn't had so many customers as of late...but that was a problem with trade and not people's will to...be with her. Many traders all over had come with odd stories of armoured soldiers taking their merchandise...those that actually reached Megaton that is. How was that Nova's fault!? Why was the brotherhood clamping down on trade anyway? Weren't they fighting the good fight anymore? It seemed a little odd...
He scowled at his hands as he stopped scrubbing, holding the two in front of him with mounting frustration. They were as usual pockmarked by holes and scabs, he could actually see his own bones and muscles through them. What little skin remained was a sickly brown and green...dry and ready to fall off at any moment. At least it didn't hurt...except in his heart. God he hated this! If he was a smoothskin people would stop berating him! If he was a smoothskin he would tell Moriarty what he thought of him! If he was a smoothskin he would take Nova and...
If, if, if...Gob sighed and turned back to scrubbing.
Then the door opened, finally a customer...Moriarty wouldn't be so violent if there was some caps in the register. Gob found himself recoiling at the sight though, hands half-raised to defend himself against a blow, physical or verbal...he wasn't sure which he preferred.
The man stepping forward wore black combat armour and could have easily been mistaken for a talon company mercenary if it hadn't been for the symbol on it having been painted over in a different shade of black. The pale handle of a Chinese style assault rifle poked up from behind the man's back and from his belt two grenades, an SMG and a sword hung. One of the more dangerous wastelander's no doubt...and judging by the scowl on the man's face an angry wastelander!
The eyes focused on him seemed to sear through his rotten skin, making Gob take another step backwards, half expecting to get a bullet in him...then they softened all of a sudden. "Whoa Gob, sorry if I scared you, was off in my own thoughts." The man stepped forward with a sudden smile on his lips and took a seat by the counter, empty hands lain to rest atop it...the left arm Gob realized sporting an odd cylindrical contraption with a computer screen facing the man. "Like the pip-boy? It works now. Though Moira managed to make the selection go upwards on the screen when you turn the knob here counter-clockwise rather then what I'm used to...I find that strangely annoying."
"John?" Gob rattled and took a careful step back to his place. Huh, even with all the dust and soot covering the man's face it was still strangely unchanged...yet something had changed, the air around the man...it wasn't the same.
"That's my name, don't wear it out." The man chuckled. He had changed...grown perhaps, he seemed more confident, and definitively rougher around the edges. Still, he was friendly, and that's what mattered. "How have you been Gob?"
"Good, good..."Gob lied automatically, then felt the faint pain in his face when it failed to blush. "Erm...I heard of you on the radio, Three Dog comes through quite well now thanks to you...thank you." He ghoul licked the craters that was his lips. "He has been talking quite a lot about you...did you really kill a behemoth?" Gob found himself inching closer, listening intently for the answer.
The man shrugged. "Oh I hear Three Dog on the pip-boy too...that guy really knows how to make a bird out of a feather." Oh... "I mean all I did was run past the thing, grabbed a gun...though it looked more like an ugly slingshot if you ask me...and shot the thing in the back." Gob blinked, how could anyone sound so...blasé about it? "Wasn't much of an effort in comparison to some other things."
"Such as?" Gob inched closer, feeling his worries fly away at the thought of the heroics his friend no doubt had performed.
"Well, the Talon company have been chasing us for the last...five days now I think." Wait...us? Looking up Gob realised the man hadn't entered alone. A giant...a familiar giant...in leather armour stood by the door, milky eyes fixed on John as he waited for orders. "Not to mention quite a few close calls with super mutants, heck, I would be dead if it wasn't for Lyon's Pride back in the underground."
"Charon?" Gob couldn't help but ask, even though he knew the monster wouldn't answer him. The other ghoul merely shot him a neutral look before returning his gaze to his master. Gob turned a surprised look at John: "You got him from Ahzrukhal?"
The man looked a little embarrassed, at least for a moment, then the new steadiness returned. "Yeah...bought his contract...then Charon here blew Ahzrukhal's chest to pieces..." The man frowned. "Which I still don't approve of Charon, remember our discussion."
"Yes master."
Gob grimaced, John was another ghoul's...master. The similarity between Charon's and Gob's situation was painful. John seemed to be thinking the same thing and looked a little pensive as he muttered: "He's better with me Gob...you understand that right?" He hesitated. "You know...he apparently must have a..."
"I know." Gob raised a hand, a warm feeling in his chest as he realised John was trying to explain himself to him, him....as if his opinion of John mattered. "I lived in underworld before you know, I know of the people there." He forced a smile. "Oh...and Ahzrukhal deserved what he got, you can be sure of that."
"It's the principle of the thing." John retorted, smiling a smile of...relief? "Oh and that reminds me! Carol says 'hi'...actually she wanted me to give you something." Gob felt even warmer, God, the man cared, and Carol remembered him. There was people out there who loved him...he had almost forgotten. "It's...ah there it is." John pulled something out of the duffel bag he'd been searching through, showing a pair of tight-looking socks of stitched leather and old cloth. "She said it would help with...bone-soul?"
"Bone-sole." Gob corrected, taking the offered socks with wide smile. Oh...they were beautiful, his own socks...given to him. "It's when the skin on your foot gets all worn down and you end up walking on bone...it's kind of nasty." He could almost feel Nova shudder at the memory of when he had pulled out his foot out of his boots and most of his flesh hadn't followed...it had been the only time she had screamed at his condition.
Heck, he had almost screamed. He hated when that happened...which Carol had remembered! John grimaced a little at the description, but said nothing about it as he continued: "Yes well...she said to wear them a lot but remember to let the feet breathe at times...mother's eh?" A shadow passed his features...wait...was that jealousy? John had never mentioned any mother, then the man smiled again, all forgotten. "Anyway, there has been quite a few scraps with the talon company, I blame that Mr Burke guy..."
"Never did like him." Gob assured. "So...talon company? And you're still alive?" He was still clutching the socks as he leant forward, hoping for some grand tale...
Instead the man shrugged. "Meh, they're stubborn but a little too aggressive, still, they're worse than the super mutants in my mind...since they actually have a brain." He had faced super mutants...and didn't even seem that worried about them. Gob found himself straightening his back at the thought even as his hands moved to pour John a glass. Screw Moriarty and his greed!
"So you're still hunting for your father then? Or are you too busy fighting the good fight?" Gob smiled knowingly, wanting to encourage the man taking a sip from the offered glass.
"Who says one can't do two things at once?" John laughed, then pouted in a feigned irritation that probably wasn't feigned at all. "The talon company got us sidetracked however, got here instead of to Rivet city. Damn them all to hell...meh, at least it means I get to hang out here with you two...Nova?" John flinched, concern crossing his face as he finally looked over at the woman in her corner. "Are you okay!?"
The woman straightened a little under John's gaze...why didn't she do it when he looked at her? Still, the smile on her lips was a weak, a shadow of what she was capable of. Gob cleared his throat, feeling a little embarrassed for some reason. "Nova hasn't...been feeling well as of late." He scratched his head. "I don't know what's wrong...." Could they hear the frustration in his raspy voice?
John gave him an odd look, then waved to Nova. "Well why is she still standing there then? Come here Nova, sit down and rest." The woman gingerly stepped forward, hands stretched out towards the counter, as if she feared falling...Gob grimaced, his chest hurt just watching her... John seemed quite concerned as well as he frowning watched the woman sit down on the corner stool opposite him. "Not to be mean...but you look horrible."
"I wouldn't know about..." Nova's husky voice broke into a coughing fit, Gob winced, seeing a drop of blood land on the counter. John didn't seem to notice though, his gaze fixed upon the woman. "...I think I still turn a few heads..." The flirty smile was a sad one, made all the worse by the tint of green on her cheeks.
"Stop that and look at me." The commanding voice allowed no disobedience, making Nova straighten her face and turn large eyes straight at John. The man squinted at her while reaching out with his hands. "Have you had any contact with sick people? Or maybe been bitten by something?" That got a weak chuckle from the woman even as she flinched back from John's outstretched hands. "Trust me, I know some medicine."
"You just...scared me." Nova muttered, gaze darting to the floor. Gob sighed, she didn't like being touched by men anymore...though normally she was aware enough not to show it. "Go ahead." She inched forward, letting John touch her right under the jaw, his fingers moving in a way Gob had seen Doc Church do...then suddenly pulling back as his pip-boy begun crackling.
A curse left John's lips even as he pushed his wrist forward, moving it in front of her and listening to the crackle of the pip-boy while checking a dial on the left side of the controls. "How the...have you been standing next to the bomb or something?" He shot Gob an almost angry look. "Do you know why she's suffering from advanced radiation poisoning?"
"Oh...oh God...dammit!" Gob kicked at the counter, hearing an odd crack from his foot, Ignoring it he turned to Nova, eyes pleading. "I'm...so sorry Nova, I didn't..." She didn't seem to hear him...instead he turned back to John. "Colin has been a little...cheap as of late, worse then normal even...she has been drinking irradiated water and the worst scotch in stock...for a long time now."
John seemed to collapse a little, his body seemingly losing some of his strength, his eyes shone with anger though. "That's...God I hate him..." He sighed, then held up a hand above his shoulder, palm upwards. "Charon, give me one of the radaways."
"Yes master." The ghoul's dropped a large bag from his shoulder and quickly dug through its content until he found the requested item, smoothly handing the yellow bag to John.
The man wasted no time, holding the scratched bag up with his right hand he used his left to place Nova's limp hand on the counter. The fact she wasn't even resisting or saying some lame joke was...scary to say the least, as was the fact that she didn't even react to how John pulled up her sleeve and stuck the large IV into her arm. "Now this will help, but I'll leave two more radaway here for later...just in case. Charon." The ghoul reached down and fished up two more bags, a glance by Gob told him the man had just given away half his supply of the bags...
"T...thanks." Nova meekly said, looking away with a strange look on her face. Gob's jealousy was nothing compared to the joy of seeing her getting better. This was it...this was what Three Dog talked about, this...was the good fight. Gob forced himself not to hug the man, she was going to be okay!
"Now I don't want you to drink anything for...oh for four hours, and if you need to go to the bathroom you should hold it as long as you can. We want the chemicals to work through your system as long as possible." John's voice wasn't the normal friendly, it was...he really sounded like a doctor. "I suppose I'm wasting my breath when I ask you to drink something cleaner?"
Nova chuckled, she was still pale, but looked a little more present as she focused he eyes on John. "I can only promise that I'll try to follow the doctor's orders."
"Gob hold this." Gob swallowed the sudden panic as he was forced to hold the bag of vital substance in the air while John reached out to check Nova with surprisingly knowing hands. "Yep, your output is already dropping...but I want you to take it easy these next few days okay? At least stop standing all day and take a seat, enjoy a long lunch...stuff like that. Otherwise your body will recover slower."
"O...okay." Gob watched in envy at the hands so gently checking Nova under her jaw...then her forehead for a fever...the back of her cheekbones... "I'll do that." Nova breathed the words, her voice neither husky nor pained, normal...her defences down. John stopped his hands for a moment before continuing, an odd look on his face. "Other then that...am I okay?" Why had she closed her eyes? Why was she...? Gob looked away.
"Ye...yes sure." In the corner of his eye Gob watched John drop his hands, a pained look on his face. "You're fine, just stop doing stuff that's bad for you for a while okay?"
"Ha!" Nova's laugh was a bitter one. Her cheeks were red though...and her eyes focused on the IV in her arm. No...! "If I could do that I wouldn't be here in the first place..."