I got a lot done on my work for today, and Lost wasn't on at the right time, so here's a chapter way before Friday! And wow, first favourite! Thanks a lot :D


Cort woke up sometime later with dirt in her right eye an a puddle of drool under her cheek. "Uugh. OW. Day 3 in the Wasteland. Lovely start." Swiping a sleeve over her face, she delicately picked bits of sand and dust out of her eyelid and winked rapidly to clear the remainder. Wadsworth putted over to her as she stood up, bracing herself against the doorjamb.

"Good morning, Madam. How may I assist you today?" he asked in a plummy English accent.

"Morning? How long was I uh..."

"Approximately 12 hours, Mum. Might I suggest next time you take advantage of the bed upstairs, it may be more to your liking."

"Uh. Thank you Wadsworth." Cort wandered around. Unless there was a whole lot of awesome hidden upstairs, her house seemed to consist of a storage locker and shelves, a sink, the robot and some run-down furniture. "Kind of bare in here, isn't it."

"You may purchase amenities from Craterside Supply, Madam. The proprietress has multiple accoutrements and accessories for your convenience, as well as options on decor."

The idea of letting Moira decorate her living space was both intriguing and horrifying at the same time. Since Cort was next to broke she filed the entire discussion with herself away for a later date. "Soo, what do you do?"

"I am your personal butler, Madam. I can tell jokes, style your hair, produce up to 5 bottles of purified water per week for your personal use, and perform all necessary cleaning duties and chores. I am also programmed for home defense in your absence. Is there anything I can assist you with at present, Madam?"

Cort smiled. It was nice having someone ask her what she wanted, even if they were programmed to do so. " I would like a bottle of water, Wadsworth. And once I wash up at the sink, doing my hair would be lovely."

"Just so, Madam." Cort drank the proffered water and briefly considered having him change his address for her, but it gave her a happy secure feeling. "What shall you be desiring for yourself?"

If you could just clean it all up for me and into a tidy bun or something, that would be perfect. It's been horribly tangled since I had to...since I set out for Megaton."

Cort stripped to her underwear and spent the next hour cleaning herself up and then being tended to. For all the snarls in her hair the robot made out with very minimal pulling, and she was fairly relaxed by the time he completed. "Finished, Madam. Does it meet with your approval?" Cort leaned over the little sink and peered in the spotty mirror. Her hair was in a comfortable chignon that looked like it would fit under her helmet without being inconvenient.

"Yes, actually, this is perfect. I'm going to go through my stuff now, so you can go back to doing whatever it is you, um, need to do."

"Very well, Madam." Cort watched him putt up the stairs, and turned her attention to her bag by the door.

"One Vault 101 suit. One armoured Vault 101 Suit. I really wish I knew who you came from. One 10mm pistol with shells. A bunch of Stimpaks, a bunch of Rad-Away, some Med-X, some food, my sunglasses, a baseball bat, my security helmet, extra socks and undies, my boots, and a small pile of caps. Some of my trade magazines and comics, and Dad's little bobble-head doll." Cort picked this last item up and carefully placed it on a shelf against the wall, then wiggled the toy Vault-Boy's head. James had always made it dance whenever her or one of the other kids had needed a shot or some kind of icky medicine when they were small to distract them. After staring at it for a while, she pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes, sniffed and turned back to her belongings to get dressed and repack. She rigged up a loop on it to carry the bat and put the 10mm on her left hip. I could have gotten something bigger like a rifle, but I'm better with this. There's no point in bigger bullets if I can't hit anything. She mused.

"Right, stuff to do! Wadsworth, I'm going out for a while!" Cort yelled up the stairs on the way out the door, flicking her sunglasses on.

"Very good, Madam!"


Cort flinched a bit when she rounded the side of her house. Wadsworth hadn't been kidding about her being out for so long, the sun was just coming over the edge of the bowl and unfortunately, directly into her face. She really had to see about getting a brimmed hat off of Moira at some point, while it wasn't nearly as excruciating as her first day out had been, sunbeams in the eye still hurt like hell. She made her way around the edge of the crater towards the saloon, pausing to avoid an older man rambling about the "Glory of the Republic". As fascinating as she was sure he was, Cort could only take so much crazy in one day before her quota was full. Hurrying up the last ramp, she ducked inside as an older man was coming out.

Dark. Very very dark. Apparently the photo-sensitivity came with one hell of a refractory period. Cort fumbled around to the right and slunk into a chair in a windowed side room to wait out the transition, blinking rapidly to speed it up. She nearly jumped out of her skin when someone spoke at her elbow.

"I think you are just the person I have been awaiting. I am very happy to meet you, my dear girl." Cort could make out a hat and a suit, and not much else.

"Excuse me?"

"My apologies. I am Mr. Burke." Cort took the offered hand and shook it, deciding to give her own a firm wipe on the leg of her suit(and possibly scrubbing it with some irradiated water) when she had the chance. "I have been waiting for a person of distinction to come by for quite some time. I have a business proposition for you."

Cort ran with her manners. " I see. Please continue, Mr. Burke." She listened to him talk, and slowly discovered that more crazy had decided to find her, despite her best efforts. Cort had the sinking feeling this was going to be a regular theme for her anytime someone, including her, opened their mouths. She decided to nip this in the bud sooner than later. She had things to attend to that were slipping farther and farther away.

"I'm very sorry to disappoint, Mr Burke, but I disarmed the warhead yesterday, right before I moved into this 'cesspool' and made friends." She reflected on this, considering she'd been lied to and mutated, but everyone she had met so far hadn't seemed rotten at the bottom despite this, and she certainly didn't want to annihilate them and all the people she hadn't been mistreated by or met yet.

"You...what? Cort watched the colour drain out of his face. "But surely, one as lovely and skilled as yourself could reverse the alterations performed."

"Oh I cooould.." Burke leaned forward expectantly and put a hand on her knee. That clinched her response. "If I wasn't going to break this mercury switch here." Cort snapped the little tube she had pulled out of a suit pocket, a component she hadn't felt comfortable leaving inside the bomb, along with some various wires. "Like this. That pretty much means it's dead for good."

Burke shot upright, along with the colour that had recently vanished down his collar. "You will regret this!"

"I think you'll regret having placed your hands on me uninvited. Not having a chaperone present is no excuse for treating a young lady new to this world so shabbily!" Cort leaned back while gesturing to her knee and tried to look affronted. She knew those terrible romance novels back in the Vault had to have been good for something eventually, knowledge of out-dated social niceties was apparently it.

Burke snapped his mouth open and shut a few times. "I...I...you have not heard the last from my associates and I, my dark songbird." Cort bit her cheek hard to keep from busting out with the wild laughter again and watched him slam the door.

Cort stood up, slowly released her teeth and hissed. "I really hope that wasn't stupid. I should probably be more worried. And stop talking to myself. And Simms owes me another one." Cort made a sour face and looked around, blinking experimentally. At least talking to Burke had given her the time needed for her eyes to adjust. She dumped the rest of the switch into a waste bin and crushed it entirely with one of the bottles in it making a satisfying crunching sound. Smiling, she swung around into the main room, and crashed directly into a walking corpse.