Cort had left her armour and pack behind in the clinic, her back too sore to carry anything immediately after suffering through the spinal tap Barrows had finally wheedled her into submitting to. It had taken every fibre of nerve she could scrape up to keep from screaming at the new torture, not wanting Charon to hear and come running. It doesn't fucking count anyway. I didn't lose anything, I just sort of...leaked a little. On the up side, Barrows had placated her with a holotape referring to the runaway android when she had asked about it, and he had been so positively giddy over the sample of radiation treatment from Moira that she wasn't in too bad a mood by the time she left.
"Why the hell is your armour off?" Charon fell into stride beside her as she passed, looking at her suspiciously.
Aw damnit. Cort thought fast and avoided eye contact, turning towards the stairs. "It was uncomfortable, and I don't need it right now, so off it came." Still looking at her queerly, as if expecting to find a hunk of her missing, he followed her up to Carol's. Coming in, she was almost bowled over by the little woman herself. Hugs. Hugs are awesome. Cort grinned and squeezed her back, waving the little wrapped package around. "Hi Carol! Got a letter for you." Letting go of her, Cort dropped down into one of the chairs around the front table, Charon following suit after he had removed his pack and helmet.
"Hello dear! Thank you so much for bringing it! I have another few for you to take with you, if it won't put you out too much?"
"'Course not. It might be a little while until I get back though, I'm only on a short trip out from the Jefferson. I have to get back to my Dad soon."
"Oh yes, I heard on the radio, that man does love to talk about you and your father. And don't worry about being in a rush, just whenever you can manage, dear. After all, if there's one thing I have, it's time." Carol patted her cheerily and then set about feeding them both, flipping a hand at her when she tried to pull out caps. "None of that. It's your delivery fee, just like last time. Are you going to stay the night?"
"Yes Carol, please. We're going to Vernon Square tomorrow and it's kind of late to start now."
Charon glanced up warily from his bowl of noodles. "We're not going back to that damned hospital again, are we?"
"Nope. I want to get to Vault-Tec Headquarters for Agatha. She said her great-great-grandmother's Vault was listed there, and there's probably all kinds of neat stuff we can sell. We're getting lower on caps than I would like, we haven't done any decent scavving in a while."
Grunting, he finished eating and waited for Cort, who put down her bowl a moment later and stood up. "What now?"
"Now I'm going to go see everyone. Coming, or...?"
"Hell no. I'll go over all of our shit or something, just find me whenever you're done making people's ears bleed." He hauled his pack up on the table after looking to Carol for permission, the woman giving him a double-take after he snaked an arm out to hug Cort around the waist before she left, her leaning down to press cheeks with him.
"Okay. I'll go bring my stuff up for you."
Cort spent the rest of the evening hanging around her different friends, while Charon occupied himself with their equipment after she had retrieved hers from the clinic and removed Dogmeat's from him. Once that was finished, he wandered around the concourse, finishing up inside the 9th Circle. Smirking, he looked up at the stains left by the parts of Ahzrukhal that had obtained enough momentum to reach the ceiling, then turned to the rest of the bar. No one had reoccupied it as a business, and the rooms appeared to have been converted into a common area, with extra cots laid out. Turning, he faced the spot he had lived half his life in, unmoving as other ghouls went around him.
Searching for him when she was finally ready to turn in, Cort found him still staring pensively at the corner he had occupied for so long, Dogmeat now sitting beside him. Charon looked down as she bumped against him. At some point Snowflake had gotten a hold of her, and her hair was back in the ludicrous crest she had had when he had first spotted her, clean and fluffing out all over her head.
"Come on Charon, it's late." Ignoring the dirty looks from a few of the residents who were bunking down in the bar, including Carlo, she worked her left hand into his right one and tugged, the big ghoul complying a moment later. They made their way around the deserted balcony, Cort looking up at him questioningly. "What were you doing in there? I'd have thought you would've had enough of staring at those stupid walls to last a lifetime."
"Just thinking."
"About?"
"How differently things have turned out from what I thought they would be." Charon pulled back on her hand and then wrapped both of his arms around her. Cort looked up at him, smiling.
"What, you weren't expecting a nutbar Vault dweller to come drag you out of there some day?"
"I was expecting to be chained to the corner like a freak once I went feral and lost my fucking marbles." She shut her eyes as they suddenly started to sting and pressed her face into his chest, her smile gone.
"I won't let that happen." Charon snorted, stroking the back of her neck.
"I don't think you get to have a say in that."
"Well, you're definitely not in the corner anymore, are you?"
"No."
"Then don't worry. I'll take care of you, promise." Picking her up when she tugged on his shirt, he carried her back into Carol's, striding over to the beds they had occupied the last time and depositing her on the nearest one. He paused, looking down at her.
"Where do you want me." They had spent the last week sleeping on opposite sides of Dogmeat, neither comfortable with the negative attention received back at the Jefferson for publicly displaying affection to each other, Cort because it hurt her, and Charon because it hurt Cort. James hadn't pushed again after his last conversation on the matter and was true to his word about supporting her decision, but several people visibly disapproving at once had become extremely wearing and driven her into herself. Since they were only spending a single night in Underworld and in Carol's, she decided wanted to take as much advantage of their time together as possible.
"Oh God, right here, there's nobody around to get in a snit about it. Even if there is, I'm tired of missing you. Just keep me from falling out, these things are narrow." Carefully curling himself behind her, he tucked her against his chest and wrapped an arm around her waist as Dogmeat hopped onto the unoccupied bed and made a nest out of the blankets, looking pleased with himself as he settled into it. "Once the Project Purity is up and running, we are taking a run back to Megaton and moving your bed next to mine. If that's all right with you, anyway."
Pushing up on his elbow, Charon nipped at her ear before laying back down, closing his eyes and relaxing in the heat coming off of her. "What do you think."
"I think I'm happy."
The three of them left early the next day, Cort acquiring another holotape from Winthrop in regards to the android and clearing Tulip out of all the extra ammo, grenades and Stimpaks she could afford from the little store. Considering the odd looks she had gotten from more than a few people upon waking, Cort got the impression that sleeping in the same bed with Charon had been as big a deal here as it would have been back at the Jefferson, even if the reactions weren't overtly negative. If anything, people looked distinctly puzzled, although there was so many reasons for that to choose from, she wasn't quite sure if it was just one motivating the weird expressions or all of them. Clipping the last of her armour into place after returning to Carol's, she went to talk to her before setting out, little woman speaking to her as she walked over.
"Honey are you...and Charon..." Carol stopped, flustered.
Tired of the attention being paid to her personal affairs as a whole, Cort decided to be purposely obtuse. "Am I what?"
"Are you all right? Are you doing well together, sweetie?" She melted in the face of the other woman's concern, so far the only person who had asked about their well-being instead of voicing an unwanted and unsolicited opinion.
"We're both doing extremely well Carol, thank you for asking. Fantastically, wonderfully, amazingly well, even." She looked over towards the other room, where Charon was patiently struggling to get Dogmeat's armour on, the dog continually pushing his head up under the ghoul's hands, getting more insistent in his unending quest to get ear rubs out of him. I really need to tell him what that means before they drive each other totally flipping bonkers. Cort shrugged and turned back to Carol, smiling. "Don't worry. Everything's fine. I'll see you when I get back through again, 'kay?"
"Don't be too long dear, it's so nice to see you." Leaning in for another hug, Cort waved goodbye to her as Charon came over to join her, finally having succeeded in dressing the dog. Carol watched the big man silently run a hand through the girl's hair before carefully snugging her helmet into place, and she stood staring at the door for a little while after it had closed, smiling softly.
"Two hundred years and I can still find good things to surprise me. Not a bad day. Not a bad day at all."
Pushing into Vernon Square sometime before noon, they paused to patch up the smattering of wounds they had managed to accumulate, Freedom Street Station having filled partially up again in the gap since they had last gone through.
"Maybe eventually they'll stop coming back in here. They have to run out at some point."
"We could only be so fucking lucky. What's next?"
"Vault-Tec HQ is on the far side of the square, it's past where we've been." Cort drew her mouth up into a moue of distaste, looking at her Pip-Boy. "There'll probably be more of those damned boogers over there."
"Fucking typical if there is." He tilted her arm around, staring at the screen. "Look, we can get closer through the Metro Junction instead of slogging all the way through the open. It'll pop us right out next to the building."
"Sounds good to me. I'll take more raiders or shit over mutants any day."
Streaking out of the Freedom Street entrance, they quietly made their way over to the other gate and down into the underground again, clearing out the few raiders and feral ghouls that occupied it before reemerging at the far end of the Square. Fighting through a small cluster of mutants, Cort spotted the building she was looking for a minute later. Boxy and with a massive 'VAULT-TEC' sign running up the front, it looked like a massive distressed radiator, the roof peppered with rusted antennas and satellite dishes.
"Well, that's it. Let's see what we can find."
"Annoying shit that will try to fucking kill us."
"Pessimist. This was your idea, you know."
Coming into the dim, cavernous lobby, they found vague sounds of fighting and more crumbling walls, dust puffing up from wherever they walked. Streaming down from the upper levels were the echos of energy weapons and mutants bellowing. Charon scowled. "Fucking fabulous. Robots. I fucking hate robots."
"Well at least they're killing the mutants for us." Cort stared towards the front desk, looking up at a pristine copy of Vault 101's door suspended over it, her face carefully blank.
"It'd probably be better the other way around." He dug through his pack, hauling out pulse grenades and slipping them into his belt pouches as the noises upstairs increased. "We're lucky we haven't had to use these much, I've got a ton of them. You remember how these work?"
Tearing her eyes away from the massive steel plug, she turned back to Charon, carefully reciting what he had taught her. "Big fat EMP, limited radius, can still fuck me up a little if I get caught in it."
"Good girl. What did I tell you about Sentry Bots?"
"Get right the fuck in their grill, they can't shoot me if I'm between the fucking arms."
"Right." Waiting until the sounds had stopped, they moved deeper into the building. It proved to be even more confusing than the Statesman had been, and they had to turn around more than once after running up against caved in walls and collapsed floors, the still-functioning overhead lights scattering everything with misleading shadows. Emerging from nearly all of them were robots, robots and more robots. Protectrons, Mister Gutsys, Robobrains, and an alarming amount of Sentry Bots. All three of them had a hellish drag upwards, avoiding sonic attacks, flamers, energy weapons, bullets and the occasional missile with varying degrees of success, and Cort thanked their lucky stars that she had managed to acquire new bottles of glowing water and a surplus of Stimpaks. She did it all over again after coming up to the next floor of the building as she was spattered with several bullets, having missed an overhead turret which Charon rapidly blew apart with his shotgun. Swearing, she poked around the front of her armour.
"Fuck. I'm going to need new plates in front, these are fried. Let's see if we can find an office we can close up." Slinking through the first door she came to, she was rapidly driven back by yet another turret. "FUCK!" Ducking to the side, Charon took it out the same way as before while Cort hit the floor, hissing loudly as she staggered back into the room "Shut the damned door, that went straight into me." Closing it, the ghoul came rapidly over to her, crouching and carefully pulling her helmet and pack off.
"How many."
"Two or three by the feel of it. Goddamnit, I fucking hate turrets."
"Can't that piece of shit see them?"Charon waved a hand towards her Pip-Boy, which was coated with her blood. Disgusted, Cort slatted it off the screen with the edge of her hand, then twirled one of the dials.
"The piece of shit can't tell what things are aside from wanting to kill me, and all the broken corridors in here are playing hell with it. The most I can find out is 'something vaguely that way is an asshole'. You can drop a warhead on it and it'll still work, but give it three dimensions to see in and it has a hissy fit." She patted at the left side of her armour and grimaced. "You''re going to have to get this off and then the stupid slugs, there's no way I'm going to make anything but a hash of it with my right hand." Snapping her Pip-Boy light on, she watched Charon haul the battered little lantern out of her pack and her hemostats, a Stimpak joining them a moment later. After peeling off her chest plating and ragged shirt, he held up the lantern and examined the two holes in her left shoulder critically.
"You got fucking nailed all right. You want a Med-X?"
"Nah, screw it. I'll just suck it up."
"Your funeral."
"That is so encouraging, thank you for that. Just do it, I've had worse." Cort stared around the room as he gently dug around inside the wounds, her eyes focusing in on a working terminal. Oh thank God, I thought there wasn't a working one in this shitpile of a building. Maybe I can turn the fucking turrets off. Wincing as the ghoul hauled out the two slugs and jammed the Stimpak into her chest, she scrambled over to it before the holes had finished closing up. Charon rapidly pulled her back and into his lap, a restraining arm around her waist as he sat down. "Hey! I need to check that thing out."
"You need to stop impersonating a dumb shit full of holes first. Wait until you at least stop bleeding, you ditz." Cort gave up and leaned back against him, closing her eyes.
"Fine, but then I need to get into that terminal. Carpe diem, and all that."
"Crap what?"
Cort chuckled. "Carpe, not crap. 'Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero'. I read it in a book. It's Latin, a dead language. Probably pretty Goddamned dead now. Anyway, basically it means do all you can today, in case tomorrow never comes. Personally I think it is an excellent philosophy to live by, especially in this shithole world." She sat still for a few more moments, then started squirming uncomfortably as the medication took hold entirely. "Can I get up now? Everything's itching like mad, so I know it's fine."
"What? Yeah, go on." Charon let go and watched her immediately attack the terminal, kneeling in front of the desk and muttering to herself. The eerie green glow coming off the screen backlit her curves and the wild spikes of her hair flicking around as she scratched vigorously at her shoulder. At some point a Mister Gutsy had managed to hit her from behind, and there were the remains of a plasma burn on her side, slowly starting to disappear as the Stimpak kept working. Quietly pulling over her damaged armour, he took spare plates out of Dogmeat's pouches and started repairing it, thinking about things as he did so. At some point he was going to have to go further with whatever it was Cort wanted to do with him, and her statement about not having a tomorrow had jarred him into wanting to make a serious effort at it at the first available opportunity, finding it to be an accurate assessment. At least here she doesn't have anything to throw herself the fuck off of if I chicken out again. There was one of your life's greatest moments, running away from an unarmed teenager. Snorting in recollection of his cowardice and vowing to not succumb to it again, he pulled the top of his own armour off and repeated the treatment he had just given Cort's, then checked over the dog. Teeth and claws not being particularly effective against metal, she had ordered the animal to stay to the back and he was relatively unscathed. Charon looked up again as she spoke, still pecking away at the keys.
"Apparently I can turn off the security robots from here and access the mainframe if I find a couple more terminals on this floor. Although what the Christing point of being able to shut them down up here is, I don't know. We've already killed most of them. And it doesn't even work on the stupid turrets." She brought up another screen and frowned. "And what the hell is a 'Masterbrain'?"
"Probably something supremely annoying that will try to fucking kill us. Come on over and get your shit back on." Picking up her shirt Charon examined it critically and then wadded it into a ball after deciding it was more holes than fabric, flicking it across the room. Digging a spare one out of her pack, he rolled it up and carefully pulled it over her head before grabbing up her armour, putting it into place after Cort had tugged the shirt all the way on. "There. Now try learning to look the hell up."
She rolled her eyes as she tugged her helmet and pack back into place. "I know how! I just kind of overlook the ability sometimes."
"Next time try to overlook the bullets. It'll save time."
Finding another room with another terminal and turret as they continued around the floor, she was prepared this time and blew it out with her repeater before rapidly moving in front of the desk. "There, see? Got it."
"Finally."
Finishing up with the security protocols she needed to access, she pulled a face at him and then blinked in surprise when he made one back. Smiling, she nudged against him on the way to the door. "You've never done that before."
"I haven't done a lot of things I need to get around to." Flushing as he rubbed behind her ears, Cort slipped back out into the hallway, sliding down the wall and looking for the next office, cracked paint flaking off and scattering as she brushed up against it. Taking a quick look at her Pip-Boy she frowned, and then held up two fingers as she approached the corner of the hallway, peering carefully around it. She shot back an instant later and crashed into Charon as a sonic blast slammed into where she had been standing. Wide-eyed, she looked up at the ghoul.
"Masterbrain is definitely something that wants to kill us. It's like a jumped up Robobrain. With a helmet." Jerking her head back as a tinny female voice issued from around the corner, she raised her repeater as the ghoul pulled out a pulse grenade.
"I calculate your chance of success to be...well, I don't want to be morbid..."
"Fucking fabulous. I hate it when they talk." Charon threw the grenade, banking it against the far wall and sending it around the corner, Cort sliding out past it when the explosion cleared. She was stunned almost immediately by another sonic pulse, the shot she had begun to fire going wild and slamming into the ceiling above, raining dust over her as she sprawled back on the floor.
"Stronger, oh fuck it's stronger than the normal ones! Throw another, throw another!" Charon cocked his arm back as the robot rolled into view, dim light from the working fixtures in the hall shining off the reinforced dome over the braincase, a faded 'VAULT-TEC' printed across the front of it. Appearing to register Cort as non-threatening, it turned its attention towards him.
"Please believe me when I say I'm not enjoying this."
Swearing, he shoved himself to the side as the apologetic nightmare fired off a volley of its lasers, grenade in one hand and shotgun in the other. "I can't, you're inside the fucking blast zone AND my shot radius, get up and get out of there!"
"You could run? I'm trying to kill you, you know."
She scrambled up behind the Masterbrain and banged immediately into the wall, tipping over like a drunk turtle as she hit the floor again. "I couldn't find my ass with my fucking elbow right now, just THROW IT!" Complying with the order, he then ducked as the grenade went off, Cort curling up into a spastic ball to avoid the flash of light billowing out around her. Charon darted over as soon as it cleared and jammed his shotgun into the robot's neck and fired, blowing it apart and sending bits of brain and metal everywhere, including all over his employer. "Oh my God what just hit me, aaaaw shit. It feels like Jello made out of piss and tinfoil." Trying to get up again, she made it as far as her knees before slowly crumpling back down, helmet clunking against the torn linoleum. "You know what just come get me when you're ready, I'll be right here."
"I'm here right now." Sitting beside her he gently tipped her back up into a sitting position, nudging her continually upright as he removed her helmet.
"There's three of you. No wait, now five. No...aaw fuckit." Cort fell forward, leaning against his chest. Reaching over her, Charon dug a Stimpak out of her pack and wrapped his other hand firmly around the back of her neck as he placed the needle behind her ear.
"Cort."
She sighed, bracing her hands on his thighs. "I know. Just do it, otherwise I'm going to end up puking on your crotch." The ghoul rammed the syringe in, holding her tightly as she flailed around. Pulling it out when it was depleted, he threw it across the floor and hugged her briefly before pushing her up again, peering into her eyes.
"Better?" Blinking erratically, she slowly focused in on him as he stroked her hair.
"Much. You're back to one you now. Let's go finish this shit and get out of here."
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