If asked afterward, Charon would have easily agreed with anyone stating that the entire affair of moving Li's staff through the tunnels was like trying to herd cats. Once his employer had woken up again, the similarities became even more apparent.
They had reached an open area at the end of the first round tunnel, and two Eyebots had immediately appeared out of a connecting corridor, zooming towards them and blatting out their tinny patriotic music. Not waiting to see if they were hostile, Charon had instantly blown both of them apart, the loud shots first waking and then rousing Cort entirely. Confused and blinking slowly, she had automatically reached up to wrap her arms around his neck, clear-headed enough to notice that she was being carried.
"Charon? What are we doing?"
Oh thank fuck, she's back, she came back. While he had always used a choke hold successfully in the past, he had been warned while being taught to do it that he could permanently damage whatever target he was applying it to. Relieved, he held her tighter, pausing for the moment. "We're going to the Citadel."
"But why are we going there, we were helping Dad today...Dad. DADDY!" Cort went from hanging limp to flailing wildly, beating him around the helmet and screaming as he hunched into himself, accepting the abuse. "YOU SON OF A BITCH, WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?" Reflexively letting her go when one of her knees hit him hard in the groin, he staggered back and groaned, Li coming up beside Cort in an instant and grabbing her before she could attack him further.
"He did what your father wanted him to do, Cort. He got you out, he got all of us out." Li flinched when she rounded on her, expecting another shot to the head and getting ready to dodge.
"WE HAVE TO GO BACK AND GET HIM!" Staring at Li and starting to actually see her, she pulled in air in high, breathy pants, bewilderment breaking through the rage. "What happened? What did he do?"
"James overloaded the Purifier to stop the Enclave from controlling it. When he started it up completely, it triggered a massive radiation purge. That's why we couldn't let you open the door, Cort. It would have killed you."
Looking incredulous, she spread her arms out and shook her head as Charon finally straightened up behind her. "Why didn't he just GIVE them the fucking thing?"
"Cort, they would have murdered every single one of us if he had helped them. Janice is already dead, and most likely Anna too. Don't make his sacrifice a waste by going back in there. He died to save you, and the Project."
"But-but I can't leave him there! I have to go back, I have to!" Li made her voice as soothing as possible, resisting the urge to close her eyes in thanks when the dog came up and pressed against Cort's left leg, who automatically dropped her hand to his ears.
"And we can, Cort. We can go back after we get to the Citadel and we're safe. Right now the Memorial is overrun and it will take something as strong as the Brotherhood to take it back. We need your help to get there Cort, so we can come back, so you can come back." Li pressed her lips together and took a risk, using one of James' pet names for her. "You found him before, sweetheart, you can do it again. Now you have to take care of us like he would. Can you do that for him?"
Her voice evening out, she looked blankly at Li. "I can find him again."
"Yes, Cort, you can."
Her breathing settling down, Cort looked almost calm before a strange, thoughtful expression shuttered over her face, coming and going so quickly that Li wasn't sure she had seen it in the first place. "Yes, I can do that. Give me my rifle, please. And my Goddamned pack, Daniel." Taking both items when they were proffered, she quickly crouched and pulled out several Stimpaks, putting them into herself and Dogmeat. Standing back up again and struggling with one of the straps, Charon approached her to help pull it on. Wrenching away when he reached out, Cort fixed him with a disgusted look and hissed at him, hitching her pack the rest of the way on by herself. "Don't you dare touch me right now, don't even try. Don't even think it. And stay the hell away from me until I decide to tell you otherwise."
Charon felt like his guts had been ripped out. She had never stopped him from touching her before, ever. "Cort, I'm sorry. I couldn't let them take you away." Raspy voice cracking, he tried again when she didn't respond, only started checking her repeater over. "I'm ready to be punish-"
"I'm not going to be talking to you again until I'm finished with all of this." Finding everything to her satisfaction, she leveled her repeater and started moving towards a flanged security door after looking to Li for direction, triggering it and walking through after checking her Pip-Boy. "Okay let's go, no nasties yet."
Feeling horrible, Charon stayed where he was until she was well in front of him. What she had just said was the closest she had ever come to telling him to shut up, and he didn't want to push her into actually saying it. He motioned to Alex Dargon for his own pack, shrugging it on after he handed it over, and then fell in beside Li as she followed after Cort. Starting when the woman reached out and tentatively patted his arm, he looked down at her as she whispered to him.
"Don't worry, you did the right thing. We couldn't have left her there. She'll be fine, once she's had a little time, once we've all had a little time. She's already coming back out of it."
Charon wasn't convinced, but couldn't get close enough to confirm his suspicions as they made their way towards the Citadel, Cort pointing him away when he got within more than three feet of her. While that was currently killing him inside, what was really bothering him was the fact that she hadn't cried yet, and the way her eyes were going. She had screamed, and raged, and fallen apart once her father had died, but there hadn't been a single tear in evidence through any of it, and while the rest of her face was animated, every time he caught sight of her eyes they were dull and getting worse. It was like the light was being sucked out of them from the inside. She had stopped and sounded concerned when Garza needed Stimpaks to keep going, hauling them out of her own supply to give to Li, but the expression of feeling stopped precisely at her voice. There hadn't even been a spark of emotion in them when she had taken out two of the three armoured Enclave soldiers they had discovered before starting to climb back up towards the surface, only pausing long enough to shoot out one of their eyes as he had done for her earlier in the Memorial after he had stunned them with a grenade. Whatever meltdown she was going to eventually have this time, he was positive it was going to be nuclear in proportion.
Making their way into the last section of tunnels, his frayed nerves were slowly driving him crazy. They had run into two packs of feral ghouls, the screeching monstrosities scattering Li and her staff like ash in a windstorm, and Charon had had a hell of a time trying to sort each mess out as the only thing they wouldn't attack, dealing with the ones trying to eat the screaming smoothskins while others latched onto Cort and Dogmeat as they fought. Pulling one loose from her that had managed to get its mouth around her left arm and putting it down, he had reached for where she was bitten out of concerned habit, getting a dead, warning stare in return. The second pack had been outside of a Brotherhood outpost, manned by a lone figure in full power armour with a Mini-Gun who swore at them to get out of the area, and behind him and a set of turrets was a ladder finally leading back up to the surface. Encouragingly, Cort had allowed him to climb up next to her to push the manhole cover off before she quickly scrambled out of it, emerging into the early evening air.
Coming out himself after carrying Dogmeat up, he looked across the Potomac towards the Jefferson Memorial as the smoothskins scrambled out behind him(aside from some nasty bites, they had managed to bring all of them through, partly due to his and Cort's intervention and the fact that they bolted at the first sign of trouble, leaving the two of them and the dog to clean up the mess). There was a swarm of activity around the building, and some kind of energy field was being erected as Vertibirds roared over it and spread out into different directions. Cort was standing and staring in the same direction with Dogmeat, one hand tugging on his ears as she watched. Turning back the other way, Charon looked up towards the Citadel. Made out of the blasted remains of the old Pentagon, the corner facing them was buttressed with a network of girders and metal plates, dominated by a massive rusting steel door. Flanking it on either side were two Brotherhood members and a sentry bot, slowly rattling back and forth between them. Making sure that Li and her people were going towards the Citadel behind him instead of haring off on another new and fantastically idiotic course, he decided to risk talking to his employer again, and walked up beside her.
"Cort?"
"What."
Relieved that she had responded in a somewhat positive form, he unburdened himself. "I'm sorry I knocked you out. I-I couldn't let you order me to stay, Li said they would have taken you, I couldn't let that happen. I'm fucking sorry, Cort. I promised I wouldn't hurt you, and I keep fucking doing it anyway. You need to, I mean I need you to-"
"Charon?"
"Yes?"
"I forgive you. And don't worry, none of this is your fault." Reassured, he reached out for her, stopping abruptly when she continued. "Why don't you go stand over with Li and her group, I'm just going to need a few more minutes here before I can go." She half turned towards him and smiled a little, still looking out over the Potomac. "Charon?"
"Yes?"
"I love you."
"I love you too, Cort." Feeling marginally better, he slowly trudged up the hill to stand beside Li, hearing Cort sigh quietly behind him.
"Daddy."
It had been hard to make it this far. At first all she had wanted to do was go back and find her father, but she was clever enough even when falling apart to know that there was no way to get back to him and get the Project Purity staff out at the same time. She couldn't fail him by letting his people die. Watching the size of the Enclave's invading force only confirmed it. Li's talk had helped her find her senses, and made her realize that there was an easier way to find James, as long as she could keep up appearances, and Charon away from her. He had been around her for far too long and was far too perceptive because of it, and Cort knew he was aware that something was going on with her, if not what. She couldn't risk letting him get close enough to figure it out, or break her resolve.
Out of everything, that had been the worst of it. It was taking every iota of will she had not to break down and hold her arms out to him, wanting to be comforted and have her hair pulled and most of all, take the confused and hurt look off of his face. She had forgiven him shortly after Li had talked her down, understanding why he had done what he had, and willing to admit that she most likely would have done the same thing in his position. It had made it hard to keep going ahead with what she wanted to do, very hard, but she had found a simple way to drive the impulse to hold him away. Every time she had felt herself coming apart and wanting to touch him, she had focused on the chimes that were back in her head, loud, jangling and soothing all at once. It made it easy to ignore the ghoul and keep going, drowning out everything except the horrifying emptiness that her father's death had left. Cort positively wallowed in it, wanting to fill it up with herself. Everything was easier now that she wasn't fighting or close to the big man, and seeing it all happening from somehow outside of herself made what she had to do appear simple and clear.
Carefully not thinking about anything else except how she would soon be with James again, she looked down at the dog pressed against her leg. "Dogmeat, go sit with Charon. I need you to be not around for a little bit. Momma has some stuff to do." Ruffling his fur and watching him trot over to the ghoul where he stood next to Li at the intercom, she smiled, happy to have kept the promise to the dog, even if not quite in the same way she had meant when giving it to him. This way I'm not leaving Charon alone, either. Dogmeat took care of me fine, he'll take care of him too when I'm gone. Turning back to face the Memorial and bending down as if to scratch an itch, Cort took her combat knife out of her boot and quietly slit her wrists.
Li was angrily confronting the man to the right of the gate, helmetless with long brown hair and a mini-gun braced against one hip. He glanced blandly at Charon as he came up, then redirected his attention back to the scientist.
"I'm sorry Ma'am. No unauthorized civilians are allowed inside the Citadel. You'll have to leave, now."
"I have wounded people with me and no where else to go. Are you even paying attention to what's going on across the river? I want your name and rank right now!"
"It's Paladin Bael, Ma'am, and the other side of the river is not my priority. Guarding this gate is."
Charon looked down as Dogmeat suddenly sat beside him, whining, then rapidly turned to look for Cort. The dog hadn't left her side since she had woken up down in the tunnels, reassuringly close to her when he couldn't be. Spotting her where he had been ordered away from her last, he relaxed, feeling marginally relieved if still terrible. She was standing with her arms crossed in front of herself and shuddering slightly, which usually meant she was crying. Finally, oh thank fuck. Maybe after she's done I can touch her again, and she can tell me what to do and I can fix everything. Shooting a glance over his shoulder as Li yelled into the intercom, he returned his attention back to Cort, the waning sunlight shining on her back and reflecting off of the river, and the large puddle expanding at her feet. He was wondering where the water had suddenly come from, why it was the wrong colour, when she suddenly collapsed into it, her bloody knife skittering across the ground.
"CORT!" Everyone turned when he screamed, Li running behind him as he bolted down the hill towards the crumpled heap, Dogmeat at his side. Throwing himself down next to her, Charon turned Cort over, exposing what she had turned around to hide. Li touched down behind him a second later and started tearing at his pack. Her eyes were rolled up in her head, and both wrists had long slashes running up them, her front completely saturated in blood from where she had held them against her. "No, Cort, no. What the fuck did you do?" Placing his large hands over the cuts, he squeezed them brutally shut, letting out a noise halfway between a snarl and a sob when blood kept welling out from between his fingers.
Yelling out from behind him, Li continued to tear things out of his pack, flinging them everywhere. A cluster of grenades made it up to the foot of the Citadel, Bael swearing and almost hitting the dirt before he realized they all still had their pins in them. "Charon, where are they, where are your medical supplies!"
"The lunchbox. She puts everything breakable in the lunchboxes now." Pulling it loose, she yanked it open and took two Stimpaks and a blood pack out, scrambling around to plunge the syringes into Cort's arms, her knees skidding in the blood under them all as she did.
"Hold her right arm out straight. Do it, Charon!" Numbly complying, he watched as the woman plunged the needle of the blood pack into it, holding the bag aloft with her teeth as she lifted his fingers to check under them. Nodding at what she saw, she spat out the bag into her hand and then held it aloft as high as she could. "Good. Pick her up and follow me. Daniel! Alex! Get Cort's things and everything of Charon's I just scattered around and follow us inside. Faster than that, Daniel!"
Bael leaned back, adjusting his Mini-gun. "The gate is still not opening for you, Ma'am." Not sparing a glance for the Paladin as he spoke to her, Li walked past him and rammed her free hand against the intercom button, yelling into it.
"It's damn well about to. Lyons, I know you're in there and I know you can hear me! You open this Goddamned door right NOW!" Bael looked shocked and then rapidly hid the expression behind a stony one as the massive steel gate behind him started grinding upwards almost immediately, dirt falling from the giant teeth that had anchored it into the ground. "All right, everyone in, now." Charon followed closely behind her, trying to make sure the tubing connected to the blood pack stayed slack as Dogmeat wove in and around him, amazingly not tripping him over. Heading through a long courtyard framed with rubble, they came to a set of double doors opening into the Citadel proper.
Everything after that was a blur for the ghoul, until he finally found himself alone with his employer again. Li had placed the blood pack on top of his shoulder and then had a one-sided shouting match with an ancient man sporting a white beard, clad in some kind of messed up blue robe. A blonde woman in power armour had joined in at some point, and the old man had talked both of them down. Then everyone had turned to him, and all he had wanted to do was to start shooting or scream at every single one of them to do something. Cort was limp in his arms, blood-soaked and feeling like a dead weight. He didn't understand any of it, was surrounded by a fortress of people who generally made it a practice to try and exterminate his kind when they were bored, and he was all alone except for the dog. Charon didn't have any idea of what to do. Oh fuck, Cort. what the fuck did you do?
Even if she was still breathing, it was almost like Cort had succeeded in killing herself, seeing the state that she was now in. After confronting Elder Owyn Lyons, and finding out that the only doctor the Citadel had in its clinic was a malfunctioning Mister Gutsy, Li had requested a room with a bed to put her in. Charon followed her silently through the degraded corridors to the small windowless one that the blonde woman had volunteered to lead them to, ignoring everyone they passed and placing her on the tattered bed when they arrived. Alex Dargon had trailed behind them with Cort's pack, haphazardly overstuffed with everything that Li had hauled out of his own, the repeater jammed down the back of it like a bizarre flower in a lumpy vase. Pulling the mess apart and waving at Alex to leave, Li took out the lunchbox she had used earlier, removing two more blood packs. "All right. I'll just get these in before I go and you should be set."
Charon looked at her, feeling even more panicked. "You're not staying?"
"I can't stay with her, the Purifier is my first responsibility and there's no time to lose. I have to make sure that Lyons fully understands the ramifications of what just happened, and...and explain about James. From what he told me, you've been taking care of her for a long time already, and you're capable of doing everything I could at this point." Reaching over, she handed the new blood packs to him, inserting one into the same spot as the first after removing the spent bag, and the other into the back of her right hand. After finishing with that, she turned Cort's Pip-Boy over and poked at it until she found the health monitor screen. "Three should be enough according to this. When these have finished draining, take them out and apply pressure to where they were until they stop bleeding."
"I know what to do. I've used them before." Charon looked down at his employer. Her eyes were open again, but they were completely blank, and she hadn't reacted at all when Li had slid the needles into her. "What's wrong with her."
"At this point, what isn't wrong with her is a better question." Li sighed. "I don't know Charon. My field of expertise doesn't cover much more in regards to medical care outside of what I've already done. That's...that was James' specialty. My best guess is some kind of severe shock, which isn't surprising, considering. Keep her warm, keep her away from anything dangerous, and clean her up, she's absolutely filthy. It may not do anything for her, but it certainly couldn't hurt. I'll be back to check on her later, when I have a chance to." Straightening up, she headed for the door. "I'll have a word with Lyons in regards to you, but for the time being, I wouldn't leave the room unless absolutely necessary. The Brotherhood aren't known for being the most tolerant towards ghouls."
"No fucking shit." Charon kept staring down at the limp figure on the bed as Li left, shutting the door behind her. She was far too pale under the grime covering her, almost waxy looking, and her eyes still hadn't changed. The only movement in her aside from shallow, slow breathing was the occasional reflexive blink. Watching the last of the packs drain out, he removed them both and put each of his thumbs over the holes in her arm, almost taking his hands back when he touched her skin. For the first time ever, Cort felt colder than he did. Pressing down, he counted to ten and then removed his hands, moving her up to a sitting position when he confirmed she was no longer bleeding from where the needles had been. It was like posing a large doll, complete with dead glass eyes. He had found one once, in the rubble of a house somewhere long forgotten, and he had an obscene urge to tip her back again, wanting to see if her eyes would close then like the doll's had when he dropped it.
Don't fucking think like that. She's not a fucking doll, she's alive. Kneeling in front and grabbing a hold of her, he hugged her tightly, their armour creaking together the only sound in the room. Reaching up to tug on her hair, he became even more distressed when her head lolled back with the pressure, instead of staying still like it normally did so he could pull as hard as he wanted. Even worse was the fact that it stayed there when he let go, leaving her staring sightlessly up at the ceiling. Fighting down another surge of panic, he reached up and gently tilted her head back down to where it had been and then took her helmet off, putting both his hands carefully into her hair. "Cort, come on. Stop fucking around. Your fucking eyes are open, I know you're awake, so knock this shit off." Getting no response, he tried a different tack, one that usually provoked her. "Cort, it's my fault, all of it's my fault. I'm ready to be punished. Please punish me, I deserve it. Please do ANYTHING!" Leaning forward again, he pressed his ruined lips to her soft ones and frantically rubbed behind her ears, waiting for her to kiss him back. When she didn't, he tried harder, pushing his tongue into her mouth. When he finally broke away, the sight of her stopped him from trying anything else. Mouth ajar and wet-lipped, it somehow made her vacant stare a thousand times worse. Delicately pushing up on her chin to close her mouth, he pulled her against him again and went entirely to pieces.
Thanks for the reviews, dudes! And for anyone now currently going insane with suspense, no you're not going to have to wait long for the next chapter. :P
