Gob was polishing a glass for the third time in a row, staring at the door. It had been an unusually rotten day. Jericho hadn't moved from the end of the bar since opening, and was particularly nasty. He wasn't sure who had pissed in the ex-raider's Sugar Bombs, but Gob had become a surrogate for them. He knew better than to hit or throw anything at the ghoul, Moriarty would eject anyone abusing his bar or the...employees. He did not, however, stop anyone from aiming insults and foul language at the poor bartender, and Jericho was particularly skilled with both. Resigning himself to the verbal punishment after the first hour of it, Gob waited for anyone new to come in to distract himself with. Unfortunately, everyone new usually wasn't very pleasant and he was only trading direct verbal abuse for veiled disgust. He had started in on the glass for the fourth time when the door swung open.

Whoever was coming in was huge. Backlit by the bright light from outside, a bit taller and the figure standing in the doorway would have had to duck to enter the saloon. Gob blinked when the person split into two, one still large and the other, smaller portion a few inches below the level of the bigger one's shoulders. The bartender smiled when a third, four-legged figure ducked in to match pace with the smaller one, who had resolved into someone wearing a Pip-Boy. Cort. Oh thank Christ.

"Hey Gob!" Smiling, she swung up on the corner stool, Dogmeat taking his accustomed place beneath it. Coming over to the bar, Gob jerked to a halt when he saw the other person sitting down next to her.

"Charon?" Gob stared at the other ghoul who was currently glaring down at the smoothskin looking at him disgustedly from his right. They rapidly moved farther down the bar after a brief moment, clearly not liking whatever they saw in the big man's face. Swiveling his head back around, Charon turned to Gob.

"What."

"N-Nothing. Just surprised to see you here."

"Aren't we all. Girl hired me."

Cort eyed the two staring at each other for a moment, then coughed politely. Gob started and turned back to her. "So yeah, obviously I made it to Underworld. Want to see what I brought you?"

Brightening and looking hopeful, he leaned forward on the scarred bar. "Brought me?" Cort smiled and dug around inside her Vault suit, pulling out the messages from Carol and handing them to Gob.

"Letter one, letter two! I saw Carol while I was there and she sent these back with me." Grinning wider, she bounced happily in place as he took them and practically hugged the letters to his chest. "We'll be going back to DC day after tomorrow, so if you want to write something to send back, I can take it, or just tell me the message. I can pop over to Underworld again easy."

"Oh, excellent!" Gob had the chance to smile back for a fraction of a second before Moriarty yelled out from the back room. Flinching and quickly shoving the letters deep into a pocket, he spun around.

"Gob! Again with running your mouth off! I don't pay you to yatter at the top of your lun-Oh. It's you. I should have known." Cort raised both eyebrows and stared back at Moriarty, who was looking at her foully, glancing at Charon and back. "Well, had to have one of your own, did you? People are going to think you've got some kind of a fetish, lass."

Rolling her eyes and making a rude gesture in his direction, Cort snapped back at him. "Considering the deplorable state of smoothskin men out here, of which you are no exception by the way, limp dick, no fucking wonder. Can I get back to ordering my drinks now, or do I take all these down to that Brass Lantern place?" Smiling sweetly, she shook her bag of caps, making them jingle loudly, while Charon snorted back something sounding suspiciously close to a laugh. Moriarty narrowed his eyes. The Stahls and their restaurant were an annoying thorn he was firmly committed to plucking out any way he could, including doing it cap by cap. He snarked at Cort before disappearing back to his terminal, greed winning out over anger.

"Fine lass, and plant that high and mighty arse in my bar all day if it suits you. Make sure to keep both of your damn mutts from pissing on my bar."

Pointedly ignoring that and the multiple people staring at her, including Jericho, Cort turned back to Gob. "Two scotch?" She watched the ghoul busy himself getting the drinks together.

"I'm glad you're back, Cort. I've been listening to stories about you on GNR when I'm allowed. Thanks a bunch for fixing that by the way, it's pretty much the only thing that makes the days decent. The thing with Reilly's Rangers was really awesome."

She sighed internally as he slowly started to smile again, and weakly returned his expression as he placed a glass in front of her. Goddamnit. Now I can't be as pissed as I want to be at that. "Oh, I'm sure I'll end up on there again." Taking a mouthful of liquor, Cort froze. After sniffing the rest of the scotch, she shut her eyes and dribbled the contents of her mouth back into the tumbler and pulled a face, then quickly slapped her hand over the top of Charon's glass before he could lift it. He raised an eyebrow and looked at her. "Gob, do you know what's in that? Don't answer that, there's no way you'd serve it to me if you did. Give me two Nukas instead."

"Aww, little Vault bitch can't hold her booze?" Jericho slurred up at her from the other end of the bar. Cort smiled the same sweet smile she had just given to Moriarty.

"Nope. You want both? I'm buying." Motioning to Gob, the bartender grabbed both glasses after giving her a questioning look and took them over to the ex-raider. Jericho snatched both and downed them, being careful not to touch the ghoul, then leered at Cort.

"Well fuck yeah! How about you slide on down here then, sunshine?"

"How about you quit while you're ahead, cupcake." Cort shook out the amount of caps needed and shoved them over the bar to Gob, who furtively looked around and then shoved a handful back to her. She quietly piled them back into her bag after looking at him to make sure, then levered the cap off of her soda. The bartender took one last nervous look over his shoulder and leaned back onto the bar in front of her.

"So Cort." She looked at him questioningly. "Story-time?" Smiling again(and damned if it didn't feel good to her to be doing it so much of it lately), Cort leaned in towards him.

"Yes Gob. Story-time."


Cort and Charon finally left before closing, Cort having happily talked about her recent travels to entertain Gob along to pass the time, and Charon amusing himself by staring down various people stupid enough to make eye contact. The last one had been Jericho, who had been solidly plastered for nearly half a day.

"Hey rotbag. Still have your dick on?" Charon had spun in place walking to the door as Jericho shot the slur at him. Not slowing down as he faced the drunkard, he jerked his crotch with one hand.

"Why, you hungry for it, shitsack?" Any response from Jericho had been drowned out by Cort laughing her way outside, Dogmeat yelping along with her.

After getting back to the house, she happily murmured over the pile of new furniture and equipment piled neatly in the center of the room, Wadsworth putting next to them.

"Deliveries came for you while you were out, Madam. Will you be requiring assistance with them?"

"No thank you Wadsworth. You can um, retire for the evening if you'd like."

"Very good, Madam." Cort watched the robot move to the corner of the room and shut itself down, pondering where to set up her new things.

"Well, first things first. Help me move the couch in the other room downstairs, huh Charon? Then we can move your bed in there." Spending the next hour fussing around, Cort felt very happy and domestic. Apocalyptic hellhole aside, it's nice having my own house. Not just a living unit, but a whole entire house. She paused to look at Dogmeat, who was asking Charon to scratch his ears. The ghoul hadn't figured out what that particular behaviour meant yet and was staring at the dog, one eyebrow cocked. And nice to have a new family, even if it is a smart dog and a smart-mouthed cranky mercenary. Cort smiled, the expression fading after a moment. Oh, Dad. I miss you so much. Eyes stinging, she turned to lock the door and then jogged up the stairs, trying unsuccessfully to keep her voice from cracking. "Tired, night." Charon looked up at her rapidly receding back and frowned.

"Cort?"

"Goodnight." Dogmeat left off waiting for the ghoul to figure out what to do for the time being and trotted upstairs after her, Cort pushing the door shut behind him after he was through. Charon stood motionless staring at her door until he heard her uneven breathing fall into the regularity of sleep, then went quietly to his own, still frowning.


Having been awake for over a full day, all three of them slept until close to noon. For once, Charon was the first up and around, and he busied himself at the workbench while waiting for Cort to wake up and issue his orders for the day. Hopefully it'll involve something other than sitting around on our fucking asses looking at losers all day. Something violent. Charon smiled to himself and stripped apart another combat shotgun to improve his own, making his face carefully neutral again out of habit when he heard Cort's bare feet padding down the dented stairs. Turning around on the bench to look at her, he rolled his eyes. Half her hair stood straight up, the other half plastered in various directions, and her eyes were puffy with dark circles under them. At some point she had tied the top of her Vault suit around her waist, and was tugging blearily at the tank top underneath it, blinking slowly when she noticed him.

"G'morning."

"The hell happened to you last night. You look like you went through a fucking mutant ambush in your sleep." Giving the ghoul an evil look, she pushed the heels of her palms into her eyes and rubbed at them before staggering over to slump next to him on the bench.

"Thanks so much for the compliment. I had nightmares all night, if you must know." Cort had spent the entire evening and morning waking up every few hours, chased out of sleep by horrible images involving James and the terrible things that could have happened to him. Considering the things she had gone through, her mind had a lot to work with. She was sourly contemplating the notion that resting for a few days was giving her entirely too much time to think. I sleep better now when things are trying to murder me every day. Just perfect.

"What the fuck kind of thing could freak you out? You're a total nightmare as it is already." Charon absently patted her shoulder while delivering the insult, then returned to sorting through the various parts strewn on the work surface in front of him. Cort smiled, and feeling slightly better, leaned in towards him to peer at the disassembled weapons.

"Oh, thanks. It doesn't matter what it was, I'm awake now. What are you doing?"

"Improving the power and accuracy of my shotgun."

Cort wiggled in place and smirked at him. "Told you you were the one with accuracy problems."

"As fucking if. Now watch me and learn how to do this, then go eat something. You keep fucking forgetting."

"Okay."

Watching attentively until he finished up, Cort ate breakfast and fed Dogmeat, then decided to spend the afternoon with Gob. It would probably be a long while until she was back to see him again, and she wanted to make the most of her time available until she was in a solid position to get him loose from Moriarty. Swinging Butch's old jacket on and raking her hair into a semblance of order, she turned back to Charon as she pulled on her boots. "Do you want to come with? I'm going to go hang out at the bar."

"Fuck no. I had enough annoying and crazy yesterday. For the year. I'm staying in here."

"Fine, fine. You know where to find me." She signalled Dogmeat to follow and headed out into the new afternoon, swinging across the bowl towards Moriarty's, while Charon resigned himself to finding something non-violent to do. She had made it halfway to her destination when a familiar voice detained her.

"Miss Cort?"

Jerking to a halt and spinning around, she looked up at the sheriff, who tipped his hat when her eyes focused on him. "Simms."

"I just wanted to check in, and ask about your new companion." Simms hadn't confirmed it, but he had been around long enough to know a trained mercenary when he saw one, if only from the subtle behaviours the man had. Anyone that large could kick up dickens as a rule, and create problems he didn't need.

Cort crossed her arms and looked up at him. "I'm fine, he's fine, although I had to head off the cultists yesterday."

"Cromwell tends to get worked up over ghouls when they come in, although in a more docile way than most of the other residents, which you should be aware of. He's going to be staying with you for a while?"

"Oh I'm aware. I see fine, exceedingly fine, how Gob gets treated. And yes, he is staying. Permanently. If I ever don't come back, the house is his, consider it part of my will."

Simms sighed and resisted the urge to run a hand over his face. The situation with the bartender was bothersome, but he couldn't afford to upset the tenuous political situation with Moriarty over a ghoul. "Miss Cort, while I appreciate your concern, I don't think you've been out long enough to grasp the nuances of-"

"Hi Miss Cort! Hey, Dad." Both their heads turned to look at the boy running up to them, Simms gaping slightly. Cort grinned and waved.

"Hi Harden! Where's Maggie?"

"Doing girl things, which I don't want to do. Can I please play with Dogmeat?"

"Sure! Just be gentle, and let him go back to my house when he gets tired, Charon's home." Cort signalled to the dog, who grinned and trotted after Harden.

"Thank you Miss Cort!"

Turning back to the sheriff, she recrossed her arms. "Was there anything else, because I was going visiting before I go out to do more things I'm sure you'll hear about on GNR later."

"No, that was it." Watching her stride up to the saloon, Simms sighed. "Giant pain in the ass, who brings new migraines with her. It's a wonderful day in town."