Watching his employer fall apart for the second time in less than a week, Charon was firmly considering the prospect of shooting James in the kneecaps on sight when he met him. Having gone through a bout of Cort's crying previously he now had a general idea of how to deal with it, but was temporarily stalled by the fact that the fit she was having now seemed to be different and much, much worse. She was sobbing like before, but this time had curled almost completely in on herself and was doing it in near total silence, aside from shuddering hard enough to wrack her entire frame with it. Alarmingly, she was also ignoring the dog's efforts to get her attention, tucking her head in further when he tried to lick her face. Whining, Dogmeat turned to paw at him. Charon reached over, and attempting to get a hand under her arms like before, spoke.

"Cort."

"FUCK OFF!" Both the ghoul and dog winced at the sudden volume that poured out of her and then vanished just as quickly, turning back into her silent shaking. Trying to pick her up once more resulted in exactly the same response, only angrier and more high pitched. Charon scowled, confused for the moment. She had practically throttled him the last time after barely touching her. If she wouldn't uncurl, she couldn't latch on like before, and he wouldn't be able to fix the problem. He turned to Dogmeat when he was pawed at again and watched the dog, who was pushing his paws against the bed next to Cort and then backing up, repeating the motion over and over while looking at him patiently.

Furrowing his brow even further, he stared at the animal until something clicked. Push. Wait. No. Pull. I can do that. Sprawling across the back of the bed, Charon quickly wrapped an arm around Cort's waist and yanked her against himself, Dogmeat jumping up immediately into the vacated space and laying down in front of her. Nearly losing hold when she suddenly shrieked and fishtailed off of his chest, Charon neatly moved his hand from beneath her side to the shoulder pressed against the bed, firmly pinning her torso in place next to his much larger one. Satisfied with his solution after Cort stopped jerking around and started to wail instead, he settled down and waited for the situation to resolve itself like before, directing his thoughts back to the girl's father.

Anything that could reduce his employer to a gibbering mess for hours on end would have to be dealt with, for her safety and ability to efficiently function. While what he was doing now worked, the ghoul couldn't guarantee it would always happen in a location he could adequately defend from outside intrusion. Shooting James would most likely not be a viable option, and he wasn't sure what would be; hopefully being reunited with him would cause Cort to self correct automatically. If it didn't, he would have to think of something else when they came to it. Either way, he would not allow her to remain compromised.

Charon had no idea why her father had left her behind in the first place. Safe in the Vault my ass. How the hell can you keep someone safe if you're not the flying fuck around to make sure. Sloppy fucking work. Snorting, he absently squeezed Cort's shoulder. Even as batshit as she was, clearly she was capable enough to thrive out here, and might not be suffering from her current instabilities if she hadn't been thrust into the Capital Wasteland with zero guidance. That deficiency he could help remedy by teaching her his own skills, and was doing so quite successfully in his opinion.

He also took a moment to be satisfied with himself for adapting to her odd requirements. It honestly wasn't that bad aside from distressing him on a newer, personal level he wasn't quite sure what to make of yet. Definitely easier than shooting the fuck out of shit now that he was used to it, and the kid was pleasantly warm against him. Even younger ghouls like he was ran a few degrees colder than normal, the ferals being completely devoid of internal body heat, so to him Cort felt comfortably like a small soft radiator.

Unwanted memories pertaining to his condition surfacing and getting confused with other less well-formed thoughts, Charon violently shoved all of them out of his mind and redirected his attention back to his employer. At some point during his musings Cort had settled into quiet intermittent sounds, one smooth hand buried in the dog's ruff and the other wrapped around his own ruined wrist. He decided to try speaking to her again.

"Cort?" Coming back out of herself, Cort snuffled heavily before replying, her voice sounding hollow and swollen at the same time.

"I thought I told you to fuck off, Charon."

"Yeah and I did. I fucked off to right here."

"You've figured out certain operational loopholes in your contract, haven't you."

"How could you tell. So what's next?"

Cort thought for a moment, processing. "I should've come here sooner. We'll leave in the morning for the garage. I know the roads, and once we get back to Farragut West it won't take long, it's practically a straight shot through and we should have enough supplies. Screw making any stops on the way this time. I'm fucking done with the detours until I find my Dad." Pausing for another snuffle, Cort fell silent for a few minutes. "Tired."

"Well then go the fuck to sleep, idiot." Pulling Dogmeat closer Cort leaned back against the ghoul and yawned, then buried her face in the dog's neck, who rested his head next to hers.

"Okay."


Cort was out of the Jefferson Memorial less than a half hour after waking up, pausing only for Charon to recollect the mines he had set the previous evening before ripping the doors open. Swimming over the Potomac again, they didn't stop outside of the standard firefights until it was fully dark and the ghoul convinced Cort that at the very least, the dog had to fucking sleep and eat if not her. Travelling without a pack Brahmin had proven to be almost ludicrously faster and the party had made it as far as Springvale, Cort choosing to bunk down in Silver's old hideout instead of dealing with the distraction of going back into Megaton.

She now sat rocking back and forth against a half-rotted cabinet, watching Charon and Dogmeat sleep in the dusty moonlight. She had insisted on sitting first watch, too wound up in her thoughts to even lay down. Once I find Dad I'll go back and apologize to Gob for not taking his letter to Carol right away. It'll all be fine when I find him at Vault 112. Dad will know what to do to get Gob out, and fix everything else. He'll fix me. She resisted the urge to replay through her recordings again, focusing instead on her breathing and the wind outside the house. After watching the pale light make it halfway up the ancient and peeling wall across from her, she shook Charon awake and wordlessly collapsed onto the floor, falling asleep after he dragged her next to where he sat.

The next morning after waking up and being practically forced by the ghoul to eat something, Cort headed back out into the shattered landscape, her companions trailing behind. Breaking off the main caravan route towards evening, they became increasingly bogged down with more and more fighting, entering areas where the hostile creatures had not been cleared out by regular travel. After being forced to detour farther around Evergreen Mills than she had wanted to initially, Cort was getting increasingly frustrated.

"We're going in completely the wrong direction now, fuck." She was looking far into the distance from where they had taken cover in a outcropping covered in dead bushes, a large party of raiders moving through where she had initially wanted to go.

Charon looked over to her briefly before going back to scanning the landscape. "I thought you traded with this particular faction of shitheads before."

"Crow traded with them, I was along for the ride. Diplomatic merchant immunity. Since I'm not working drag on a caravan anymore, they'd split me open just like all the other ones we've run into." She frowned, rapidly flipping through the screens on her Pip-Boy. "We're going to have to go farther south before we hook back again. We should probably stay here for the night though, shouldn't we." Cort mentally begged for him to say 'no, let's keep going', not really surprised when he affirmatively snarled back at her.

"Fuck yes, you shithead, unless you want to run into those fucking assholes in the dark, or something even better like a shitting Giant Radscorpion. They're really easy to see at night and all, being totally fucking black."

Cort slumped farther into cover and hugged Dogmeat to her. "Fine. Just tell me when it's safe for you to sleep and I'll take first watch again." Ignoring Charon's swearing, she went back to her Pip-Boy. They could head south to the VAPL-84 Power Station and find one of the old main arteries next to it, which would connect to the road heading past Smith Casey's Garage. Most of the asphalt remained and it would be faster travelling than going overland, which wasn't an option now anyway. She swore at herself, thinking back to her time with Crow. He had pointed the structure out to her after swinging the long way around Evergreen Mills, adding it to her collection of map markers. Cort had almost not bothered doing so, not seeing the point of knowing where an abandoned garage was and only putting it in out of a compulsive need to collect any information she could get out here. Halfheartedly re-plotting routes and not getting any shorter results, she nodded off leaning against a rock, aching inside and out.


She woke up to Charon shoving an open can of Pork N' Beans and a bottle of water into her hands, the sun coming up into the pale sky behind him. Cort looked at him, incredulous. "Wha...you didn't wake me up!"

"No, I did not. You were fucking exhausted."

"I told you to tell me when it was time for me to take watch. You've been up all fucking night now!" Angrily eating after he had pointed to her hands, she stared at the ghoul reproachfully.

"No, you told me to tell you when it was safe for me to sleep, and I decided it wasn't. I spent fifty fucking years napping in spare minutes, so I can handle one fucking all-nighter, especially with you ready to drop the fuck dead last night." He turned back to scanning the surrounding area. "There's nothing moving out there now, so we can head out whenever you finish eating, I've had mine and fed the dog already."

Wiping an arm across her face, Cort blearily creaked to her feet, wincing at the sore spots her armour had dug into while she slept in it on the uneven ground. She slung her pack and helmet on then staggered through the bushes, checking her Pip-Boy for their new bearing. "We'll go south until we hit the main road, look for a power station just past it. Then we can follow the old road until we get to one heading North."

They found what Cort had been looking for before noon, coming down to investigate the station for anything useful after hearing gunfire, fights generally meaning there was something decent for them to mop up afterward with little personal effort. What they found was several dead raiders and a dying Yao Guai. Cort raised her repeater and after putting the mutant bear out of its misery, silently started looking through the corpses with Charon. Dogmeat walked around the perimeter, sniffing into the wind and pacing faster and faster. He stopped a moment later, both the girl and the ghoul snapping their heads around when a guttural snarl started spilling out of him.

Charon spun towards where the dog was facing, cocking his shotgun. "Fuck. Oh what the fuck now. It better not be another fucking Yao Guai. I fucking hate Yao Guai."

Cort pulled her repeater up and started walking towards her dog. "But why, they're just so damned cuddly. It's that or another Radscorpion, the way he's starting to go. Probably attracted by the noise like we were." She was getting the feeling it was maybe a few of the giant bugs considering the way Dogmeat was starting to slaver. Looking closer at him for a moment, she got a sneaking suspicion that the dog was starting to actually panic before a huffing cough caught her attention. Cort was tumbling across the ground a moment later, the skin on her right leg in ribbons from where what looked like an over-sized lizard had slashed at it. Fetching up against a rock, she stared wild-eyed at it. "What the fuck is that? Charon, what the fuck is THAT?"

The ghoul didn't look at her, firing rapidly on the giant monstrosity. "Deathclaw! For fuck's sakes Cort, get up, get up now!" Dogmeat was barking wildly from one side, dashing in to bite at a tough leg before dancing away again, yelping as a clawed hand clipped his side.

"DOGMEAT RUN!" Cort screamed as she scrambled to her feet and started unloading her rifle into the nightmare barreling towards the now retreating dog, peppering the side of its body with .44s.

"No, aim for the legs, the fuckers can't jump if you go for their fucking legs!" He advanced and aimed his next blasts towards the lizard's powerful back limbs, yelling again a moment later. "Mutt, I'm out!" Dogmeat tore towards the ghoul, Charon digging his hand into one of the ammo pouches on the dog's side as Cort readjusted her aim and continued firing to draw its attention away from the other two, the repeater's singing voice clicking dry a moment later.

"Hey you fucker! Come get me instead, come get me!" She was yanking her assault rifle free when the monstrosity made a final coughing leap towards her, its legs finally giving out when it landed. Charon looked up at Cort's shriek to see her flying backwards through the air until she slammed into a large jagged boulder, pushed by a backhanded swing from the Deathclaw. Her voice cut off instantly as her body made a sickening wet crunch against the stone, Charon feeling something in him snap along with the sound.

"CORT!" She didn't turn her head or speak back to him, only stared sightlessly at the sky, her upper body making weak, mechanical spasms. Feeling a red haze descending over himself, Charon slammed the reloaded drum back into his shotgun and bolted towards the crippled Deathclaw, Dogmeat roaring beside him as he dug his boots into the earth, voice breaking. "You fucking sonofabitch, you broke her back! You broke her FUCKING BACK!" He had time to unload one shot before they both crashed into it, the dog ducking under to slash the thing's belly open when it reached up to tear at Charon. Snarling back at the giant lizard while it bellowed at the dog literally digging his way further inside, he fired again and again until the thing's head finally disintegrated and it collapsed, splattering the gaping holes in his front with brain matter and bits of skull. Dogmeat hauled himself out from underneath it a moment later and came over to Charon, looking like a furred charnel house. "Good mutt. Very good mutt." The dog whuffed and licked the side of his face, then spun and ran towards the girl.

Coughing weakly and dropping his shotgun the ghoul dragged himself up to a sitting position, one arm wrapped around his oozing torso as he looked back for Cort. She hadn't moved in the last few seconds it had taken them to finish fighting, still only making the same pathetic little jerks as the life went out of her, legs unmoving. "Cort. No, Cort." Charon started pulling himself hard towards her, the dog already licking at her face as the gore pooling out of his fur mixed with the red earth underneath her. If he got to the supplies in her pack in time she might live. If she lived and couldn't walk, he would carry her wherever she needed to go, wanted him to go. And if she did die, Charon was determined to follow her. He would ignore his own wounds again, Cort being unable to order him not to, and under no circumstances would he cut his contract loose from her body. As far as he was concerned, Cort was his contract.

Dogmeat he could tell to return to Megaton. Someone there would recognize him and take the animal in, the kids, or maybe the crazy woman who ran the supply store, although he had doubts about the animal listening to him instead of Cort once she was gone. Pushing that thought out of his mind, Charon hauled himself over the last few feet, still saying her name over and over in a toneless litany. He had a burst of hope when the dog nudged her head to the side and her eyes seemed to focus on him. He was reaching out to grab her arm, convinced that it wasn't that bad if she could just see him, when Cort gave a final jagged gasp outward and stopped moving.

"NO!"Collapsing onto his back Charon screamed, gave up entirely to the agony settling into his body and mind, and passed out.


Hoshit, what's going to happen next. How was that for you, good? Want it to keep going? Thanks so much for the new reviews, some of you have been busy!