Cort woke up early the next morning in her bed, Dogmeat unfortunately sprawled over one of her legs. After gently pulling the limb out, she hopped around cursing and stamping, trying to get the blood flow back into her foot until Charon yelled from the other room.

"The fuck you doing in there, herding Brahmin?"

"No! My foot's asleep, if you frigging must knoOwp!" She yelped as the pins and needles started to hit.

"No fucking wonder with the ass to face way you sprawl out."

Scowling at the wall and still hopping slightly, Cort stripped off Butch's jacket, then opened her door and went downstairs to wash up. She paused at the foot of the stairs for a moment, looking at Wadsworth who was still dormant in the corner. Without anything new to do he had apparently opted to stay out of the way. "Wadsworth?" Instantly the Mister Handy putted up to life.

"Good morning Madam! What do you require today?"

"We'll be leaving again this morning, so I'd like the remaining two bottles of water for this week, and thank you for cleaning up all that armour and junk."

"Madam is most kind. Would there be anything else required before you depart?" Cort took the water as the robot dispensed it and scratched the back of her head, thinking.

"Do I have any paper and pens?"

"In your desk, Madam. Third drawer down with the small explosive devices you keep bringing back."

"Oh, good. Now, you're sure you don't want me to bring you anything? I'll be gone for a while, but I can probably drag something home."

If a robot could look nervous, Wadsworth was doing it, eyestalks twitching and propellant vents giving a momentary sputter. "Well Madam. If it would not be a terrible imposition. I would like wire."

Cort raised an eyebrow. "Wire? What kind of wire?"

"Any kind Madam. All sorts, if you please." Cort shrugged.

"Okay then. There's extra stuff shoved in the lockers you can have, I've got a selection of it in my pack already for things."

"Oh thank you, Madam! I shall prepare your and the Sirs' belongings to depart."

Shrugging again, Cort watched him start to array their packs and armour before grabbing clean clothing and walking to the kitchen area to bathe. Coming out some time later with an armful of food, she handed the dirty things to Wadsworth and then used the bookshelf next to the staircase as a sideboard. I need to get a table or something for in here. Thinking of all the things you need for a house is way harder than it should be. Grabbing an apple and a box of Mac N' Cheese after filling Dogmeat's bowls, she flopped onto the couch as Charon came downstairs, the dog tailing him. "Breakfast's on the thingie there." Both grunted and went over to eat, and after finishing her own, Cort trotted back upstairs to her desk. Now where-aha. There it is. Pulling out a piece of old paper and a battered pen from under a generous pile of Cherry Bombs, she sat down and made a detailed but slightly inaccurate forgery of Charon's contract, then shoved it into a back pocket. There. Now that's all done. God willing it won't have to be used. Gently pushing until she could feel the hard spot under her chest and smiling, she went down to finish the rest of her business.


After having a private discussion with Moira involving multiple apologies and securing a sample of her radiation treatment for Barrows, Cort stopped in to see Gob, who had just opened the saloon for the day.

"Hey Gob, got your return message ready?" She smiled when he came around the bar and held up a few faded pages from an old book, a darker looping scrawl covering the illegible print. "You got paper!"

"Yeah. Nova pulled some out of the book leveling her bedpost and gave me a pencil." Cort took the proffered sheets and tucked them carefully away, then looked around. They were the only ones in the saloon.

"Where the hell is everybody?"

"Oh, both sleeping. Nova works late most nights and Moriarty's just drunk." He whispered the latter admission after a quick glance over his shoulder. "I don't mind having to get up earlier. It's nice to have the quiet time to myself." He tilted his head back and shoved his hands in his pockets, looking apprehensive. "Look, I'm sorry if I upset you yesterday. I didn't mean to make you leave. That's the last thing I wanted to do, you're always so nice to me. I'm sorry."

"Of course I'm nice, you're family. And it's okay Gob. I was just having a really crap day, and I'm better now. See?" Cort bounced on the balls of her feet and clapped. "Happy me again." When all he did was give her a pained, uncertain expression, she rolled her eyes and impulsively hugged him, pressing her cheek against his chest. After yesterday there was no way she could stand leaving him again if he was upset for any reason. "See? Only happy people give bear hugs. Now knock it off with that gloomy Gus bullshit."

Gob didn't know what was killing him more, her warm breath coming through his thin shirt, or the fact that his arms were pinned with his hands stuck in his pockets, preventing him from returning the embrace without breaking it. He was staring into her hair, furiously trying to think of something to do and how to respond to what she had said when she released him again just as quickly.

"All better?" Cort was looking up at him questioningly and clearly oblivious to the full ramifications of what she had just done to him.

I'm family? Oh sweet Jesus. Oh Jesus, she's still looking at me. That can I do. I can live with that. Can I ever live with that. That's enough. That's awesome. "Yeah. I'm all better. But, uh." Gob shuffled and coughed and decided to go out on another limb, practically climbing a forest with Cort at this point.

"But what?"

He pulled his hands out of his pockets and tentatively held his arms up, smiling slightly. "Hands were in my pockets the first time."

Cort laughed and hugged him again, this time getting one in return. Hugs were good. After breaking off, she headed for the door. "I'll see you when I get back, kay?"

"Okay. Come back soon!" Gob turned back to the bar, whistling to himself as the door shut. He snapped his head around in terror before getting to it when a voice floated down from above.

"So the little bitch thinks of you as surrogate family, does she? Doesn't that explain a lot." Moriarty was leaning out of the darkness from the upper railing, smiling in a way that made Gob's guts loosen up. "Well my fine fellow, we're just going to have to make you fit and ready to welcome her back home, won't we? We'll make sure the lost little lamb blames herself for it too, just like dear old Dad."

Gob quailed even further. "You-you heard..."

"Colin hears everything in his own house, you rotting, ungrateful bastard. Including the caps that went back across the bar." He cracked his knuckles and started down the stairs.


Charon was armoured up and had Dogmeat ready by the time Cort got back, happily singing to herself.

"Fucking finally. Can we blow out of this dive now? I'm bored as fuck." She started slinging her armour on as he handed the pieces to her.

"Yeah yeah, keep your shorts on. We're about to be not bored and bleeding again soon."

Pausing to flick her bottle of purified water at the beggar who got their attention in front of Megaton, pointedly ignoring Charon's responding snort, the three of them headed back to Farragut West. From there it would be a relatively straight shot down the Potomac to Rivet City, and hopefully their last stop. Cort held no illusions about that being at all likely, but clung to it anyway. For now she was in a rare and perfect good mood that was only enhanced by the various violent encounters they were running into. Practice had turned the clashes with raiders and Talon Company virtually into a game for all of them, Cort dropping some with her repeater before they even noticed she was there.

There were a few nasty moments with Super Mutants as there always were, and a particularly harrowing incident with a Giant Radscorpion which had made it surprisingly close to the city. Charon had been knocked backwards into a wrecked car and missed being impaled only through Cort launching herself at the stinger, hanging on for dear life. The ghoul rammed his shotgun into the thing's mouth and unloaded a moment later, cursing and screaming in counterpoint to Cort's crazy laughing.

After trading with a rather odd woman named Grandma Sparkle once they had reached the banks of the Potomac, they stopped for the day around late evening, bunking under the Arlington Memorial Bridge in a raider camp they had cleared out.

"This isn't a bad shelter, for all it's in the middle of crazytown." Cort was hunched over and getting Charon to pull buckshot out of her back, having been winged by a raider hiding behind a pillar she had failed to check when passing.

"Oh fuck yeah, raiders, mutants, and the Citadel on your doorstep. It's fucking picturesque. Let's move in, we can repaint with the blood you're losing."

She grunted while he dragged out a particularly deep set piece of shot and scowled. "I'm not bleeding that much."

"Yes you are." Charon snapped, sounding frustrated. "If it wasn't for the mutt this would've blown your fucking fool head off instead of just skimming over your back. You're still way too fucking sloppy when you close in on something." Cort yelped when he finished and rammed a Stimpak into her back. "Serves you right."

Sticking her tongue out and pulling her bloody shirt back on as Charon pulled his off, Cort turned to reciprocate the treatment for the slashes running up the ghoul's side. Delicately patting at the edges, she soaked a rag in glowing water and started mopping at the rents. "At least I didn't decide to go do the samba with a Goddamned Ripper."

"Oh, pardon me for being occupied with saving your dumb ass. And what the fuck are you doing using your bare hands again? That's something else you're careless with. You spend way too much time irradiated, knock it the fuck off."

Cort rolled her eyes, privately enjoying the soothing effect the radiation was having on her own aches. "Yes, mother hen. I've got lots of Rad-Away, it's fine." At some point she would have to figure out how to broach the subject of her regeneration to the ghoul, but wasn't sure how. After talking to Barrows and Moira about certain side-effects that had come up, Cort wasn't sure she wanted to talk to anyone about it ever again, including herself. Considering his own worse state, she was not expecting him to be particularly sympathetic over her much smaller concerns. Completing her ministrations, she rolled off the ledge they were sitting on and started pulling out blankets, Charon mimicking her in a moment. "I'll do first watch, I can't sleep right now anyway."

Shrugging, the ghoul sprawled out on the floor. "What are we doing tomorrow?"

Cort blew out a breath and twirled a dial on her Pip-Boy. "Cross over the river, then we can backtrack up a bit to do two of Moira's errands at the Anchorage Memorial and the Tepid Sewers. Mirelurks and molerats, oh my. Then down to Rivet City. We'll have to pass the Jefferson Memorial to get there, apparently there's a shitload of Super Mutants on the way."

"Fabulous. Wake me when you're ready." He rolled over and was asleep within minutes, Dogmeat on Cort's blankets beside him.

Pulling a chair over to the shadow of one of the pillars Cort sat down, wrapped her arms around her middle and watched the stars slowly spin by, wishing on each one for things she knew she would never get back.


Cort had opted to swim the river across a narrow point past the bridge, that particular structure leading deeper into the ruins than she felt comfortable going. After slogging out onto the other shore, they had traded off their surplus spoils to a scavenger camped under the far side of the bridge. Cort had finished the transactions up and left abruptly when Three Dog came over the scavenger's radio talking about her search for James, and she vented a substantial amount of frustration out on a raider camp just before the entrance to the sewers. Going in they found even more raiders, and after dispatching them and moving deeper, Cort found her first molerat to test Moira's repellent stick on. The initial results were surprising.

Blinking through the blood now covering her visor, she turned to Charon. "Uh. Uh oh. I don't think that's what Moira meant for it to do."

"Are you kidding? That's motherfucking fantastic. Give it over!"

"Screw you, it's my head-exploding stick!" Laughing, Cort pushed at him and raced after the next molerat farther down the tunnell, Charon pounding behind her and Dogmeat hot on both their heels. "Oooh oh shit, stop!" Skidding to a halt, they were just in time to see their next target blown to pieces by a frag mine. Smiling up at the ghoul she bounced on the balls of her feet, seeing more red lights in the darkness. "Teach me how to do mines?"

The rest of the morning was spent alternately disarming explosives or making heads explode, molerat and otherwise. Once they had finished looting the sewers and patching up their various bite and bullet wounds, they moved down to the Anchorage Memorial, Charon becoming more and more agitated the closer they got to it.

"You can't seriously intend to go the fuck in there alone." He was leaning with his arms crossed against the entrance to the Memorial, all three of them splattered with Mirelurk blood from the giant crabs that had been guarding clutches next to the river outside.

"Yes, I can. There's less chance of them detecting only me, and we can't kill anything inside or the data will end up being skewed. Now shoo." Cort was getting annoyed. This was the first chance she had had to assist with research in weeks and she missed it dearly. The lab in the Vault had been one of her favourite places, and while exciting, the Wasteland was deathly slim on giving up anything that could be considered an intellectual pursuit. As Cort saw it, this was the best of both worlds in one afternoon.

"For fuck's sakes!" Charon finally shifted away from the door, now looking decidedly pissed. Cort patted him on the arm and slid on one of the Stealth Boys from the MoT, the others tied to her belt.

"Don't worry, this won't take long, and they can't see me. Besides, I've got my repeater and a bunch of grenades just in case. Now stay here." Clicking the device on, she slipped through the door and disappeared.

Oh, this is fantastic! These things are amazing. Too bad they're only single use. Cort made her way silently down into the Memorial, quietly plucking up any choice loot she saw while avoiding the giant crabs. She had a moment to consider that she was finding things like this exhilarating instead of terrifying anymore when a slender, humanoid Mirelurk with flaring neck gills swung towards her, sniffing. Ooooh shit. What the fuckity fuck is that one. Pressing herself against the wall, Cort held her breath, willing it to move on. It finally did right before her Stealth Boy gave out, and she slapped the second one into place and put on more speed. Okay a little terrifying. Let's get out of here now. Nownownow.

Slipping down into the spawning pool, she placed Moira's device into one of the clutches and turned to leave, stalling when the way was blocked by several Mirelurks who had descended behind her. Pressing against the wall as they moved around, she fought down a crazed panic. What the hell are they doing? What...ooh no. Oh GOD no.


Charon had been pacing back and forth in front of the door for close to an hour, getting more and more worked up the longer Cort was gone, even resorting to talking to the dog.

"We're going in there in five minutes. I don't give a shit for that fuckwad's research, we'll blow everything to hell and get her back. She didn't tell us how long to fucking stay." Dogmeat whuffed in reply just as the door burst open, Cort's last Stealth-Boy fizzing out as she slapped the door shut again and leaned against it, panting. Charon spun to face her, scowling. "Fucking finally, what the fuck took you so long?" She swiveled her head around, eyes wide with one brow cocked in a weird expression.

"Do you know what it looks like when Mirelurks have sex?"

"Cort, what the f-"

"Because NOW I DO." Cort staggered away from the door after grabbing her pack, shuddering every few steps and making 'bleagh' noises as Dogmeat trotted beside her. "Let's just get to Rivet City so I can pour some vodka in my eyes and then get drunk on what's left." Giving herself a final juddering shake and throwing the used up piece of tech away, she headed for Rivet City, Charon shaking his head and following.