Vault 111 bristles with life. The lights may be dim, but the sounds of chatter reverberate through the walls, warmer and softer than the yellow paint on the walls. The mess hall is occupied at every hour, and Codsworth's circuits buzz with joy at the prospect of having more people to serve. Even if food is on a tight ration, there aren't any restrictions on water, so the showers see a great deal of use.
Funny how Nate used to find the quiet eerie. Now he rather misses it.
Never one to waste a moment, Hawthorne seeks Kaelyn out the next morning. "So, to our glorious new Overseer, I've gotta ask: is the plan to refreeze volunteers still a go?"
She arches an eyebrow, tracing the rim of her coffee mug with a finger. "You still want to try out one of the cryo pods?"
"Takin' a gamble," he says, but his eyes gleam. "Just how I like it."
Hawthorne isn't the only one who opts to go into cryogenic stasis. There's also a couple from Concord who are unimpressed with the prospect of vault living. A middle-aged man who's anxious about what will be on the menu if they run out of food, and another man with chronic back pain who doesn't want to burn through the vault's medications. And finally, a young woman who's excited by the prospect of the world she'll discover upon waking.
Even if Kaelyn holds reservations on allowing people back into stasis—Mrs Able's scare is still fresh in her mind—Nate is privately grateful Hawthorne has volunteered. He's a troublemaker, and this gets him out of the way. Temporarily, at least.
Kaelyn and Brenner sit down with each of them in turn to determine how long they want to be frozen for, or, alternatively, under what circumstances they'd like to be released. If Kaelyn's half involves creating contracts, Brenner's job is to describe the risks involved, which more or less encompasses 'anything and everything'. Brenner uses somewhat more impressive terminology.
After a medical exam, Brenner clears the volunteers for cryogenic stasis. As an aside to Nate, she mutters, "Never thought we'd be putting people back in, but here goes."
As Vault 111's Overseer, Kaelyn is present when the volunteers are frozen. She asks them one by one if they're certain, and then steps back to let Brenner and Nate work. Now dressed in a spare vault suit, Hawthorne twists this way and that to show off his figure.
"This doesn't leave much to the imagination," he smirks. "Bet you're loving the show."
Nate knows for a fact that Brenner ain't impressed. Not at Hawthorne's body, and not at his assumption that women are attracted to men.
As a married woman, Kaelyn doesn't dignify with a response.
Hawthorne gives her a sloppy salute and hops in his pod. Bay A is the largest of the three, but for the sake of logical organization, they use it for the volunteers. With luck, that malfunction might be confined to Bay C's array. When the last man is safely frozen, Kaelyn disappears to fulfill her Overseer-ly duties while Nate spends some quality time with his son.
After putting Shaun to bed, Nate emerges from their quarters to drag Kaelyn away from her desk.
"Day one and you're already working overtime," he teases. "Maybe having the office right next to our quarters is a bad idea."
It isn't home. Not yet, at least. But even if it never is, even if his heart lies in a modern little house in a quiet cul-de-sac, at least it isn't so far away he can't hear the beat.
Kaelyn's gaze grows hooded. "Do you think we'll ever be able to expand to the surface? If our neighbors—some of them, at least—" she falters, carries on with more resolve, "made it out there, can we restore Sanctuary Hills?"
"One day, maybe. Dylan and I can monitor surface radiation levels. When it's safe, we can expand."
"It… won't be what it used to be."
"No," he agrees. "But we're all alive, so I'd call that a win."
Her fingers curl into the collar of his shirt, not quite a fist—something more beseeching. "Shaun needs his father."
He drops a kiss to the top of her head. "And his wonderful mother."
Arranging the Overseer's bedroom to their satisfaction is apparently as tiring for Shaun to watch as it is for Kaelyn and Nate to do. The kid is all tuckered out, napping in the center of the bed. Beside Nate, Kaelyn wipes her hands on the front of her vault suit, leaving two gray tracks across the blue. Pushing several wayward strands of hair out of his eyes, Nate surveys their progress. Room: dusted. Overseer's belongings: cleaned out. Furniture: arranged according to the missus' directions. Their belongings: ready to find their new homes.
"Not too shabby," Nate says.
Shaun's crib sits in the corner of the room, on top of the nursery rug Nate brought back. Better not let Shaun get cold or uncomfortable on the bare floor. His toys sit in a pilfered Vault-Tec crate beside the dresser—and that piece of furniture had been even less fun to haul into the vault than the crib. As for their bed, the Overseer has not only a private room but a double bed. Just looking at it makes Nate's muscles sigh in relief after sharing that cramped gurney.
It'll be difficult, he knows, to be cooped in a fancy underground bunker with the same few dozen people, probably for the rest of his life. Always wondering about the rest of the surface, and the people he'd left there. His parents, his brothers, Fox Company.
Nate leans over the bed to gently wiggle one of Shaun's toes. The baby stirs, his leg kicking at the contact, and Kaelyn giggles, "Don't wake him!"
Nate reels her in for a kiss that's dusty and sweaty and entirely too much fun—Kaelyn smirks, the corners of her eyes crinkling, and squirms out of his grip.
"You need a shower. Badly." She holds up a hand when he shifts, contemplating whether to make another move anyway, and cocks her head to a closed door on the far side of the room. Now a ghost of a smirk haunts her lips, her eyes half-lidded, as she looks him over from head to toe. "Luckily for you, there's one right there."
With a pointed look back over her shoulder, Kaelyn palms the door controls. It springs open with a hiss, and in the resulting quiet the sound of her zipper is all too loud.
Nate follows with a chuckle, pulling his shirt up over his shoulders and starting on his trousers. "More than happy to oblige, hon."
It almost seems unfair, getting a front row view to Kaelyn peeling out of that tight vault suit: first she pushes it over her shoulders and down her arms, reaching back to unclasp her bra and show off the bare brown expanse of her back. She has more trouble shoving the suit over her thick hips and down her legs, the fabric catching at her calf and toppling her.
Nate lunges to catch her, his arms circling her waist, and he enjoys the feel of her weight against his bare chest as she regains her footing.
Better than the last year of fantasies combined.
"Maybe I should've practiced that one," Kaelyn says, squirming in his arms, and Nate has no choice but to kiss away all traces of dissatisfaction.
"Believe me, that's the best thing I've seen since I shipped out."
"That isn't necessarily a high bar to clear."
She's got a point, but that isn't something either of them would prefer to dwell on. Tucking her hair behind her ear, Nate presses his mouth to the side of her neck, relishing the soft noise she makes. With his assistance to keep her balance, she weasels out of the vault suit with more success on her second attempt. She kicks it to the corner of the room for good measure and slips out of his arms. When she turns around to face him, every thought in his head screeches to a halt.
Aside from her panties, the sweep of her body is unbroken from head to toe. Motherhood accentuated her soft curves, rounding her hips and stomach.
She's so beautiful.
She's also conducting her own inspection of him, and from her expression he suspects she's as awed as he is.
With a sudden smile that has too many teeth, Kaelyn curls one finger around the waistband of his briefs and pushes down. Nate does as he's bid then returns the favor, and she takes his hand to lead him to the shower stall.
Stepping into the hot spray is always a relief at the end of the day, no matter how easy or hard it's been, and even though no shots have been fired today Nate feels strangely tired as hot water pounds the tight muscles in his shoulders and neck. Eschewing proper shower procedure, he wraps his arms around Kaelyn and holds her close as their hair plasters to their skulls.
The only thing that tops a hot shower and his wife is a hot shower with his wife.
Water leaches away the tension from his muscles, leaving a weary lassitude in its place. Maybe it's a trick of memory, but it feels like more than the toil of interior decoration swirls down the drain with sweat and soap. Secure in the knowledge that his family is safe, he's safe, and he can finally let his guard down. It's exhausting in its own right to drop a burden he's carried for a year, since he was last called away from Sanctuary Hills.
With the slow drag of Kaelyn's hand up and down his spine, his blood starts to migrate south of the border. And she is very aware of that fact, if her low smirk is any indication, and pauses. She runs her hands over his skin, searching for changes in an old homecoming ritual. It doesn't register what she staring at until she reaches out to press her fingers to the spot just south of the months-old scar across his ribs. Nate twitches at the contact; the Christmas stabbing isn't his fondest memory. He's about to deflect, make some joke or reassurance, but the sharp slash of her eyes dries the words in his mouth. The pucker between her brows isn't fueled by the ugliness of his scars, but by the hurt they represent.
"It's all right," he says, even though it never is.
In lieu of a response, Kaelyn ducks her head to press a warm kiss to his newest scar. Her lips are ticklish over his sensitive skin, and he fights a shiver.
Kaelyn checks him over inch by inch with eyes and hands, tracing every one of his new scars. There's his final souvenir from Alaska, where a bullet grazed his inner arm. The Reds are crap at giving presents. The old gash on his forearm; she even discovers the tiny burn on his finger.
When Nate can't take any more of Kaelyn's maddening touches, he curls a hand under her chin and pulls her up for a kiss. Her mouth is sweet and hot and eager, her tongue sweeping against his. He's about to press her against the shower wall when a loud cry pierces the air. She stiffens, peering past his shoulder to the door. He hangs his head so his forehead brushes her shoulder.
Dammit.
Kaelyn sighs. "Play time's over, I'm afraid."
With an apologetic pat, she untangles herself from him and gives herself a final quick scrub. Shaun's wails get if not louder, then more insistent by the second.
"Gimme one sec, hon. I'll be right there." Gently pushing her out of the shower, Nate runs the water cold.
Every day is take your child to work day. It's odd to go from writing reports at his desk to checking on Shaun in his play space, then back to work. What's odder is looking across the room to see Kaelyn working at her desk, when she isn't out mediating disputes directly. Their respective occupations have always been rigidly separate; she a civilian lawyer and he a soldier. He never expected them to blend like this. Not complaining, mind.
Both their jobs require active participation in the daily running of the vault, and they soon discover that carrying a baby with them can help relieve the tension from a brewing situation.
Nate is reaching for his coffee when an alert pops up on his terminal, freezing out the files he's been reviewing.
WARNING: Unauthorized activation of Vault 111's door controls. Proceed with caution!
Oh, he'll be proceeding all right.
"Nate? You saw it too?" Across the room, Kaelyn still sits at her desk, hands still poised to type. Makes sense the Overseer would be alerted to the vault's opening as well as the head of security.
"Yeah, I saw it." He fumbles for a gun that isn't on his belt, then digs through his desk to find two sidearms. He presses the smaller of the two into her hands. "Be careful with this."
Kaelyn's expression shifts as she accepts the weapon. It doesn't fit in her slender hands, which aren't quite sure how to take the weight. But she checks the safety and the magazine, and catches Nate's nod of approval. So she remembers the times they spent at the shooting range.
He still prays she won't have to use it.
Calling out to Codsworth that he is to protect Shaun, he jogs down the corridors, praying that today isn't the day out of all days where he gets mixed up in the corridors. The warning lights flash orange as the door cycles open with a massive groan, complaining it isn't supposed to be opened with such regularity. Nate watches, leaning forward in his place, worry and hope waging war on his face. Kaelyn hangs back in the corridor as he directs.
Damn, but he wishes for his squad right now. His full squad.
Up the stairs marches none other than Miller, with her family in tow. Clanking up the stairs behind them is the suit of power armor, presumably operated by Sculley. But with their face covered, there's no way to be sure. He had been sick when he'd left.
Kenzie's hair is pulled back in a ponytail, their hair puffing out in a springy starburst behind them. Each parent carries one twin on their hip; the little girls peer around the cavern with eyes so wide the whites are visible from this distance. Then Marie wiggles in her mother's grasp to be set down, her twin following suit, and they race down the catwalk, giggling at the clanks that echo off the high ceiling.
Nate drops to his knees, a grin lighting his face. "Hey, girls! You remember me?"
Isabel looks up at him with the solemn gaze of a four-year-old. "You're the man from Mama's photo," she decides at last.
"That's right. I'm Nate, at your service." Nate ruffles Marie's fluffy black hair as he stands to greet her parents. "Took you long enough, Miller. And Kenzie—glad to see you in one piece!"
"It was hit and miss at times, but all pieces are accounted for," they say as they take his hand. Their smile slides away as they take in the exit zone with its yellow rails and blue lights. "This place really has running water?"
"I take your running water and raise you hot showers."
Relief melts the last of Kenzie's cool and a grin spreads across their face. "Hallelujah."
Kaelyn steps forward to greet the family, earning a shoulder clap from Miller and a quick hug from Kenzie. "I'm glad you found your family, Gina. And it's been too long, Kenzie."
Slinging an arm around Kenzie's waist, Miller pulls them close to her side. "Well, Kenzie here did the bulk of the work keeping the girls safe."
"Your power armor helped," they murmur back.
Nate gives the armor a hearty smack on the elbow while Kaelyn hangs back. "That you in there, Sculley?"
Miller and Kenzie share a look. A spark of tension ignites around the room, contracting the air. The power armor's external speakers click. "You can't get rid of me that easy, Sarge."
Unmitigated relief washes over Nate, as swift and sure as a surging wave crashing on shore.
"What's going— Gina!" Brenner screeches to a halt by the group to share a one-armed hug with Miller, then Kenzie. "Anyone injured? No? Sculley ever going to step out of the armor? Also no?"
Five seconds stretch into ten. Finally, with all the reluctance of an elephant leaving a cool water hole, the seals on the power armor release to spit out Sculley.
His skin is like roasted leather, withered on his bones, and his eyes are black from hemorrhaging. With everything else going on with his appearance, the fact all his hair has fallen out—including his eyebrows—seems like a minor detail, but that's what sticks out to Nate.
Realizing that he's gaping, Nate's mouth shuts with an audible click. "That you, Sculley?"
Beside him, Kaelyn clutches her hands to her chest.
"'Bout as ugly as ever, right?" His voice is low, raspy from scorched vocal cords. He folds his arms across his chest, but the motion only draws attention to the peeling skin on his hands. Any hair he once had on his arms has either fallen out or burned away.
"He's not the only one we've seen," Miller explains. "Whatever the radiation did to them, they're still kicking."
Brenner cocks her head on the side. "You're a stubborn ass, you know that, Sculley?"
He grins, and the expression is too unsettling when he doesn't have any lips. "It is my best feature."
Against all odds Sculley is still alive, and Miller not only found her family but brought all of them back in one piece. If anything, this gives Nate hope.
"C'mon." He jerks his thumb over his shoulder at the vault. "Want to see what we've done with the place? All that's missing is a swimming pool and a TV."
As Nate shows Miller and her family into the vault proper, he can't stop smiling. This isn't the future any of them planned on, but this is what they got. Time to make the most of it.
A/N: Big thank you to everyone who read/favourited/followed and huge thank you to everyone who reviewed!