Cort roused James once Charon had set her down, and after she had noticed and then pulled out the buckshot left in Dogmeat(thoroughly cursing everyone out as she did so, including herself), they all set out on the last leg of their journey towards Rivet City. Catastrophically tired of fighting by now, they edged as far south as possible to avoid the main bulk of the city on the western side of the Potomac while remaining as undetectable as they could. Their efforts were rewarded by only having a few encounters with the easier to handle variety of the Wasteland's mutated creatures, finding nothing more difficult than a single Yao Guai.

"I am so damned tired. That's the freaking Nuka Cola factory up there and I don't even care." Cort looked up towards the building and shook her head wearily. James sighed in the eternal manner of worn-out parents with fretful children, then called back over his shoulder.

"We're almost there, Cort. Just through a few roads and we'll get to the river, and directly back to Rivet City, if you don't mind a swim."

Looking up the derelict building and wanting nothing more than to at least feel like wanting to explore it, she hefted her repeater up again and continued to gripe. "Have you smelled me? I've smelled me and I nearly knocked my own ass out. I want to live in the river at this point." Charon looked over to her, rolling his eyes as James rubbed his face and declined to respond.

"I'm sure the Mirelurks would go apeshit over that."

Cort twitched and gagged, remembering her most recent encounter with the giant crabs. "I don't need to know what else they would go apeshit over, I already have too much information about that already."

By the time they reached the city proper that evening, Cort was tired enough to give the Arlington Library barely a flicker of interest, her indifference to it compounded by the fact that they had nearly walked directly into a very large encampment of Talon Company. All of them were sobered by what could have been a potentially chilling slip-up since the mercenaries had somehow managed to acquire an operating sentry bot, its menacing rattle the only thing that had tipped them off to the danger they were heading towards. Deciding they did not need replacement parts for their armour that badly when they were so close to Rivet City, Charon took the initiative to rapidly direct them back the way they had come. After backtracking slightly, James motioned towards a highway that sank under an overpass, the length of it littered with derelict cars and furtively moving figures. The ghoul paused and looked over towards his companions.

"Is there anything in there that I shouldn't kill?" Both former Vault dwellers snapped up their left arms and spun rapidly through their Pip-Boys, then gave him a simultaneous shake of their heads. "Good." Charon carefully reached behind to his pack and started flinging frag grenades as he extracted them, long arms propelling them an impressive distance before they clattered to the ground, bouncing off the ruined pavement and rusted metal. He snarled and smiled as the explosions started to go off, accented by the screaming figures that were now quite obviously immolated raiders. Moving rapidly through once the vehicles had finished going off, they risked the slight radiation and heat in favour of avoiding anything that might have been attracted by the ghoul's impromptu fireworks display, who was currently grumbling happily to himself in an absent manner at the feeling of both. Cort grinned and reached over to lace one of her hands briefly with his before letting go and trotting to catch up to James.

She had become more relaxed since her declaration to Charon, feeling as if a weight she hadn't known was even there had been lifted from her chest. Admittedly, a large amount of apprehension remained for various reasons, but she now felt she could at least set her mind to puzzling them out, the remaining problems starting to feel like something she could enjoy solving. Problems were fascinating, even if they happened to be her own. Moving after her father as they made their way down to to the riverbank, Cort kept up a running examination of her situation in the back of her mind as they fought through to their current goal. She had isolated a few specific issues by the time they reached the water's edge, blasting away at the substantial amount of Mirelurks inhabiting the shore.

One, she was in love. Not that this was a problem in and of itself, but it had happened rather unexpectedly and in response to a very unexpected suitor, if she could even refer to Charon as that. There was also the fact that her feelings hadn't been verbally reciprocated, never mind the reason for it. Feeling too much silly euphoria to care about the particulars, Cort correctly deduced that even if Charon did not know the appropriate technical terms to explain his behaviour, he most likely did return her feelings in some capacity. Thinking about how he had started touching her, she wouldn't be surprised if he had figured that out before she had even realized it herself, even if he couldn't label it. She decided that if she was loved in return, it didn't really matter if one of them didn't know how to say it, as long as they could show it to each other.

Two, she was in love with a ghoul. Still fairly new to the world as it was now, Cort held no illusions about how most people were likely going to react to them being together, unknowingly homing in on one of her father's main concerns. She had gotten a crash-course on the prejudices facing ghouls from her interactions with Gob, and seeing the way people treated Charon and looked at her already for being friendly to both of them, she expected it would only get even worse once people realized she was doing more. The only 'normal' people she could think of who might react positively to her relationship with him were Moira and the bomb-worshipers, neither of which filled her with a sense of optimism, although at least with the crazy shopkeeper it would be because she was honestly happy they were happy. She sighed and plunged her combat knife into the side of a Mirelurk trying to crush her, doggedly continuing to think as James came over to fire his laser rifle into the giant crab's face, filling the air with the searing smell of burnt fish.

At this point there was no way Cort was going to leave Charon over the opinions of others, never inclined to bend to them in the first place and being far too attached to him by now to start. She would live as a hermit before leaving him, not finding the great majority of humanity that pleasant to hang around with in the first place, and figured the antisocial man would probably prefer that option entirely anyway. Cort smiled as she hit the dirt to avoid a sonic pulse belting out of one of the Mirelurk kings, thinking about them going off somewhere secluded, like Agatha and her husband had chosen to do, spending their lives together.

Getting up and firing her repeater into the gilled monster as Dogmeat latched onto its groin, she sobered when she thought about the woman who was now living all alone, with nothing but her homemade violin and itinerant caravan merchants for company. She would never have to worry about Charon dying of old age, only the possibility of him going feral(she made a grim mental note to discuss the matter in detail with Barrows at the earliest opportunity), but would herself continue to get older and die. The ghoul had already surpassed the average age she could have expected to personally live, but then, she had already come close to dying more times than she could count. Sparing a moment while reloading her repeater to consider that her life was probably going to be cut short anyway, regardless of her choice of partners or their lifespans, she decided it was a waste of her brain power to spend potentially limited time worrying about the small shit, especially if it was out of her control.

"Finally. That's all of them. Cort, come over here sweetie and we'll get everyone patched up before we get into the water." James started pulling medical supplies out of his pack as Charon walked around butchering the corpses for meat, Dogmeat still gnawing on the Mirelurk king he had bitten the crotch out of. Making her way over to her father, she methodically started getting her rags and remaining Stimpaks ready.

What worried her most of all was what James' opinion of the entire affair was. He hadn't pushed Cort for details or otherwise, although it was clear it was still weighing on his mind if he had gone so far as to ask Charon if he had been having sex with her. Considering he hadn't gone entirely ballistic at the ghoul saying he had, she took it as a sign that he was at least partially accepting of the choice she had made, even if he didn't know she hadn't actually done anything yet. I haven't even kissed him. I don't even know if he knows how to kiss. I don't know if he even knows how to do, do, oh, oh sweet Jesus, Joseph and Mary. Sex Ed class never went over how to teach someone ELSE to do it. Cort brayed out a nervous laugh and instantly clapped a hand over her mouth when Charon jerked his head up to look at her, frowning in the way that usually meant he was concerned she was about to lose it. She smiled, waved him off and returned to treating her injuries as James did the same, now glancing up at her with a serious expression. Oh, crap, here we go. This should be entertaining as fuck.

"Honey, are you sure about him? You've only been out here for a few months. You could find someone...normal to settle down with eventually, if you gave it some time." James kept his voice low, not wanting the ghoul to overhear as he worked. Narrowing her eyes at the slight against the ghoul and starting to get her back up, Cort decided to plunge in with both feet.

"One hundred percent, Dad. And if you've forgotten, I'm not exactly normal anymore myself."

"Yes Cort, I'm aware, but you still appear normal. You could easily hide your mutation, and children aren't everything. There's a lot more to having a happy relationship."

"I shouldn't have to hide anything from someone that's supposed to love me, and he does. And this might be a bit of a newsflash for you, but I love him back. He doesn't care who I am, what I can do, and he'll protect me until the day I die. He threw himself in front of a Deathclaw for me, for fuck's sakes. I won't let go just because he looks different. What kind of person do you think I am?" Cort tried to work up as much righteous indignation as she could into an undertone, straining to keep her voice lowered.

"I think you're still a very young girl who latched onto the first strong person you could find in a crisis, who unfortunately also happens to be someone who is going to expose you to a lot of grief, whether he wants to or not. Cort, I'm sorry I have to tell you this, but you have to leave him before you get any more attached, or worse." Cort shut her eyes, resisting an incredibly strong urge to punch her own father. After slowly counting from ten, she opened her eyes and responded.

"No. I could get into a giant hissy fit over what you just said, but I'm not going to. What I'm going to do is this. Dad, it's none of your Goddamned fucking business. You left me behind because you said I was an adult and could have my own life. I've found that life out here, whether you like it or not, and for now, it's going to be with him. You are far, far past the point of being able to tell me what I can and can't do with it. It's what I want, and I'm done discussing it."

James sighed defeatedly, taking in his daughter's furious expression and deciding there was no deviating her from her chosen path. "Honey, if that's what you want, I'll support you in your decision, even if I think it's a terrible idea. I just hope you don't get hurt by it."

"Worrying about being hurt is a really lousy reason not to do something you feel is right, Dad." Cort turned to motion Charon and Dogmeat over to check for any wounds they might have accumulated as James stared into the distance behind her, where the Jefferson Memorial loomed out of the mist coming off the river.

"Yes honey. I suppose it is."


After pulling themselves up on the far bank of the Potomac(Cort positively wallowing in the water at points to get the accumulated filth off of herself) and finishing off the additional Mirelurks that were attracted by their swimming, the quartet made their way up the scaffolding to Rivet City. James punched the intercom button to summon the bridge and turned to Cort, who was leaning against Charon and by now completely exhausted. "It's still early enough for Doctor Li to be working, so we should go directly to the Science Lab and get Project Purity moving again."

"Welcome to Rivet City, please wait while the bridge extends."

Cort resisted the childish urge to stick her tongue out at the intercom, too tired to attempt it at any rate. The closer they had come to the carrier, the more energy her father had seemed to obtain, and she was relatively sure he had sucked it entirely out of her. Looking up at him blearily, she croaked out a reply. "How about you go talk to Li, and I go drop dead somewhere. You can fill me in later. Preferably after I've slept in a bed."

"Cort, it's very important we get to work. I've already been irreparably sidetracked by Braun's imprisonment and-" She cut him off with a petulant whining noise she hated to hear coming out of herself.

"Daaad, I just spent about a week...how in God's name was that only a week...just over a week. Just over a week getting out from and back to here and I've been shot, clawed, stabbed, shot, bitten, shot, knocked out and eaten. And up until three or four days ago you were a freaking dog. I have no idea what bearing that has on me being exhausted but just thinking about it makes me tired, so please, please let me go to bed. I wouldn't be any help to you like this right now anyway."

James took in her shadowed eyes and slumped posture as the bridge swung out to allow them into the city. "All right honey. I'm sorry if I've been pushing you too hard. I can let you know what's happened in the morning and what our next step will be."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you." Cort shoved herself upright and made as straight a line as possible walking across the bridge as it grinded into place, waving weakly to the security chief as he advanced to see who was coming. "Hi Chief Harkness. Awww, come on Dogmeat, leave him alone." She frowned as the dog trotted quickly up to the armoured man and started snuffling around his knees, repeating the behaviour he had performed on their first trip into the city. Harkness gave a dismissive shake of his head, watching Cort and the others approach.

"It's fine, Miss. He's not hurting anything by being friendly. I see you found your father. Sir." He tipped a lazy salute in James' direction and got one in exchange before returning back to the carrier. "I trust all of you remember my previous instructions?"

"Yes, Chief Harkness. Clean noses." Cort signalled Dogmeat to follow and headed inside the carrier, then hugged her father before he split off to go to the Science Lab. "Come on Charon, we'll go back to the hotel again. I want a door, and I want to lock it."

This time along with the disagreeable Mister Handy, they found a pretty short-haired blonde woman wearing a blue pre-war dress. Cort dispensed with the niceties of greeting her entirely and went directly to depositing the required amount of caps on the desk. "I'd like a room, please."

The woman looked avidly over Cort's shoulder to where Charon was standing as she started flicking the caps into her hand. "A room?"

Too tired to start a pissing match, she selected the response she thought would end the conversation as fast as humanly possible. "Yes, a room, singular. I'm not made of caps." She thinned her lips, and decided to get another difficult matter over with while she was too worn out to be nervous about it. "And a bottle of scotch, if you have it."

"Of course. Door around the corner to your right, Miss." Stumbling around to return to the room she had occupied previously after delicately plucking the proffered alcohol out of the woman's hand in exchange for another little pile of caps, Cort had time to hear her continue talking before cutting her off entirely by shutting the door. "Mister Buckingham, now is that the girl you-"

Closing her eyes and letting out a long breath, Cort listened to Charon depositing his pack, not resisting when he pulled her forward to remove her own. She opened her eyes again to watch as he methodically started taking off her armour, starting from the top down. Interspersed with the removal of each section were the slow pets and caresses the ghoul had become adept at giving and she shut her eyes again when he got to the plating on her hips. Clenching her hand around the neck of the scotch bottle when he suddenly nudged her legs apart to reach the buckles for it, Cort gasped and shoved herself back, fetching up against the door.

"I, uh, I can get those ones. Take care of your own instead, huh?" She watched him stand up and start to do as she had directed while giving her a questioning look.

"What, fucking ticklish again?"

"Uh yeah. Something...something like that." Cort finished taking off the rest of her plating, then discarded her boots before crawling onto the bed, yanking the cork out of the bottle with her teeth as she did so. Spitting it out across the room, she looked over to Charon. "I think we can have that talk now, before I lose my ner-we lose the opportunity. Come on and sit down."