13. We Have Etrinity
MacCready POV
Cat's In The Cradle by Harry Chapin
Beth had decided to take a few days before going back to the Brotherhood. As grateful as she is, she wanted to take some time to focus on other, happier things.
I wake up before she does. She's taking up most of the bed—her figure practically stretched out like a starfish. So, I'm on the extreme edge, wondering how long it's been like this.
I shuffle a little bit to the side and get up, looking down at her. Her mouth is open wide, a small dribble of spit running down the side of her face, and her hair's a complete wreck. She's so cute. I turn to the nightstand and pick up her Pip-Boy, tuning into Classical Radio. Even though it used to bother me some, it hasn't since she told me why she listens to it. Associating it with her dad makes it special for her, and I can easily live with that.
Putting the Pip-Boy back down, I head downstairs. Wonder if she'll be hungry. What do we have here. I open the old ice cooler we installed a couple days ago. It's filled with various meats and vegetables. I rummage around to see if we have any leftover iguana soup, but after coming up empty, I close the hatch and just stand here, thinking. Should I try to cook something? I don't even know if I can—she's always the one to make food. I do watch her though. I think for a second. Okay, maybe I watch her, and not really what she's doing. Ah, screw it.
I open the hatch again, pulling out a leg of mole rat and a couple tatos. These go together, right? I look around the kitchen for a pan or something and find one on the shelf above the stove. Putting it down on a burner, I stare at it. Next? I look around, pleased to be reminded of oil when I see a bottle of it. I set it down on the cabinet next to the stove and move to the other side, readying a knife for cutting the meat. The part I'm most acquainted with. I raise the kitchen knife to chop it when I hear a startled, "Woah!" Turning around quickly, I see Beth at the foot of the stairs, looking confused. However, as I turn, I nick myself with the blade I'd all but forgotten was in my hand.
"Ah!" I exclaim in surprise more than pain. Running up to me, she looks scared.
"You okay?" she asks.
"Yeah. Surprised me is all." I look at the slice. It's bigger than I expected.
Going upstairs quickly to the first aid on the wall, she comes back with some gauze. Reaching into the liquor cabinet by the door, she grabs a half bottle of Bobrov's best. "Isn't that stuff gonna eat my flesh or something?" I ask her.
"Shh," she responds, prepping the gauze and moonshine. "It's just about the best thing we have right now." She leans my hand over the sink and says, "This is gonna hurt a little bit," as she pours the liquor over the small gash.
"Ow! That hurts more than it did to actually get cut!" I try pulling my hand away but her grip might as well be a vice.
"Will you stop it?" she all but demands. "I'm trying to help you here."
"Doesn't feel like it…"
"Alright, you big baby." She rolls her eyes at me with a smirk. Taking the gauze, she gently wraps it around my hand and secures it. "What are you doing in here anyway?" She looks over to my workspace and gawks.
"Well, we ran out of leftovers… and I wanted to surprise you. Plus, I'm hungry." She laughs.
"Well, you sure did a good job at surprising me. What's with the radio?" She asks as she makes her way to the cabinet, inspecting what could have been breakfast by now.
"Thought you'd like waking up to it," I say, following her as she looks around the kitchen, trying to figure out what I was going to make. I don't even know what I was gonna make myself.
"So, mole rat and tatos, huh?"
"Why do you sound disappointed?"
"I'm not," she chuckles. "Just interesting choice for breakfast."
"Well, I don't know what's considered breakfast food!" She laughs again. "What?" I ask a little aggressively.
"You just did it again. Got mad over something small? It's fine, Robert. I said interesting, not that it's wrong or bad. Just different from what I'd make."
Trying to alleviate the attitude, I ask, "Well, what would you make, then?"
She looks into the cooler. Pulling out a few mutfruits and some razorgrain, she says, "This."
I stare at her. "What are you gonna do with that?"
"C'mere. I'll show you."
Stepping toward the counter, I watch as she chops the mutfruit into quarters then puts them in a largish bowl. Taking a wooden spoon, she starts to mash them until they start to break down. "Wanna try?" she asks, looking over to me.
"Sure." My answer must not have been very confident from the sound of her light chuckle. Once she sees I'm actually not sloshing the pulpy fruit all over the place, she scoots down the counter a bit and takes a few pieces of razorgrain. "What are you gonna do with those?"
Without looking to me, she says, "Use the seeds." She plucks apart the big part from the rest of it. Opening the pods on the end, she puts the seeds into the bowl along with the mutfruit. She takes the bowl and spoon from me, mixing it vigorously until it's some sort of juice looking stuff. After setting the bowl on the counter, she suddenly lunges toward the shelf on the other side of the cooler. "Almost forgot." She brings out a box of Sugar Bombs and crushes some inside the bowl and mixes it in as well. After pouring some of this strange concoction into a couple glasses, she hands me one and says, "Breakfast food," with a wink.
I take a sip. And immediately chug as much as I can. Setting the glass down onto the counter, I say, "Wow, that was good. How come you never made this before?"
"Cause I just came up with it," she laughs.
"You can make up something that good on the spot?" I ask.
"Guess so. It is pretty good."
"It's more than pretty good," I counter. "Is there more?" I look into the bowl, happy to see more awaits me.
Smiling, "You know, if you're this happy with this stuff, you should have seen my mom's improv skills in the kitchen. She could make a meal taste brand new by using four leftover dishes."
"That takes talent," I say around a bite of pulp.
"Sure did," she says, still smiling. I'm glad she has happy memories about her parents. "So, what's your rating?"
"Million outta ten." I put my glass down. "Stuff sure fills you up quick," I say with a grimace. "So, be careful."
"Well at least I'm not chugging enough for two in a matter of seconds," she retorts with a smirk.
"True." I move toward the couch—waddling from how I feel. She sits down next to me, taking her time on the drink. "I never knew you could do that with mutfruit," I say, astounded from her food skill.
"Oh, I'm sure there's other stuff." She giggles.
"Like what?"
"Nothing. I'll show you sometime." She giggles again, and I swear I see her cheeks turn a faint pink colour.
Later in the evening, we decide to go for a walk outside the Wall. I don't know why outside the Wall, but that's where we end up going. We find ourselves at Trinity Church and go in. There's a few super mutants toward the back, but nothing several clips couldn't handle. After they're dead, we walk around to see what we can find.
"Hey, look what I found," Beth says from around the pulpit. Walking up to her, she hands me something.
"Astoundingly Awesome Tales!" I look up at her. "Thanks!" I tuck it into the satchel on my shoulder I had actually thought to bring.
Continuing to move through the church proves useful. We run into some books which excites Beth, as it usually does.
"Your bookshelf is either going to break down or run out of room with as many books as you're putting on it."
"I'll just build another one then," she teases, winking at me. "You know, since I'm a carpenter apparently."
"Hush," I say with a smirk, making her chuckle. I think for a second. "So, you're serious about building a house, huh?"
"Well, yeah." She sounds like it's obvious. "Home Plate's great, but it's not really a home. It feels too much like a warehouse to me." She picks up a random bottle of wine and puts it into my bag. "I like windows."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," I chuckle. "Any idea where to build?"
"Not really. I hear Nordhagen Beach is quiet. I'd just like to be out of the way—have a nice, wide open space. As comfy as Sanctuary was, it was kinda cramped."
"Starlight Drive-In could be an option, then. It has a lot of room, and it's not too far from Sanctuary, in case you want to be close."
She makes a face. "It would be nice sometimes. But, I think I've had my fill of Sanctuary for now."
I nod. Thinking for a second, I say, "What about that cottage up by Salem?"
"Certainly doesn't hurt to think about," she says with a shrug.
As our conversation progressed, we had moved from the back of the basement up to the front. I definitely was not expecting what I came face-to-face with.
She walks into the nursery and picks up a teddy bear. "Well, here's another one." She glances up from the toy in her hands. "Must've had a big congregation to have a nursery this big." She steps over to me to put the bear into my shoulder bag. Seeing my face, she asks, "What's wrong?"
I sniffle, "It's nothing… Just got something in my eye."
She sets the bear down and lifts my face with her hand. "No, you didn't. What's wrong?" she repeats. I stare at her, no longer able to hide the tear falling down the side of my face.
"Just thinking about Duncan, you know?" I quickly wipe my cheek.
"He's fine. We got the cure to Daisy a week ago. It should be there by now—he's probably causing all kinds of trouble, like his dad." I smile a little bit.
"No, I know he's better. He has to be by now, like you said. But… I'm thinking about back when he was a baby—wishing I was able to find a crib or something like that for him." I look over her shoulder. "Wished I could have provided better for him—wish I could now." I shake my head, angry. "Up and leaving him like that—some father I am."
"You're doing all you can."
"Am I?" I ask. "Cause to me, it seems like I just left him. I know I couldn't bring him with me, with his condition and all that. But, now that he's probably better, and there with no family, it's not all that different from how I was raised when I was a kid. And I swore I'd never let him go through that—I want him to have a better upbringing than I did."
"It's not like you left him alone, though. I know you better than that."
"No," I say. "I didn't. But, they're not me, you know?"
"Yeah," she says. "Nothing like a parent." She pats my arm. "I'm sure you left him in good company, though."
"I did," I agree. "Remember Kate?"
"The vault dweller?"
"Yeah, that's the one. I left him with her, her husband, and their son."
"Oh, I didn't know they had a kid. But, I don't know much about them to begin with, so…"
"What do you know?"
"That they're both from Vault 101, and that she's very adventurous."
"That's them alright. But, yeah. They live in Megaton now, not too far from 101."
"Oh, yeah. I remember you saying that now."
"Yeah. They have a son named Ellis—he's a year or so older than Duncan, so they're kind of like brothers." I sit against the wall next to the crib and she follows, sitting next to me. "I couldn't have found better people to leave him with.
"When he first got sick—since Lucy had already passed—the first person I thought of was Kate. I was a complete assh—er… jerk… to her when I first met her. Running Lamplight as mayor, I had to be protective of the other kids, so that meant being wary of everyone that showed up at our gate. She was no exception—she was just a mungo after all.
"But, she took her time and was really nice to us. She never threatened us or anything, even at the gate when I was being really rude. Once I opened the gate and allowed her in, she spoke with a lot of the kids as if we weren't some kind of creepy underground commune. She and Lucy really hit it off."
"So, you knew Lucy from Little Lamplight?"
"Yeah. I'll tell you more about it later—just… not now…"
"That's fine," she pats my knee. "Go ahead."
"But yeah, she got along great with everyone. She was great with kids. So, when Duncan got sick, I thought of her first. I hadn't talked to her since Duncan's birth, but I heard she lived in Megaton. So, off I went.
"When I got there, Butch—her husband—opened the door. He looked at me, confused for a minute, before calling her. I think he started to recognize me.
"When she got to the door, she somehow instantly recognized me, throwing herself forward to give me a hug. 'Mayor MacCready?!' She invited me in and we talked for a few minutes before I brought up the reason I was there.
"She couldn't believe that one, Lucy and I had actually gotten married, two, that we had a son, and at such a young age, and three, that he was as sick as I said he was. She didn't want to believe me. She'd looked at Ellis, and I imagine she was horror-stricken at the just the thought of it being reversed—at the thought of her son being so sick that he could die.
"I told her that I'd heard rumours of a cure up here in the Commonwealth by a guy named Sinclair. I didn't even have to ask—they were the ones to ask me if I wanted them to keep him while I came up here to find it.
"So, I went to get him from our house not too far from a small town called Arefu. I packed my bag, however lightly, and headed back to Megaton. I'll never forget the way he looked at me when I said I didn't know when I'd be back—I thought I'd die from the memory of it alone.
"But, it did help to see Duncan and Ellis getting along. Butch said that Ellis had always gotten on well with everyone in Megaton, but he was jealous of Duncan up until their meeting. They looked like they were doing great, so that did help me cope with my choice.
"Kate assured me that they were going to do their best with him. She wrote me a few times, asking questions about him. Like if he was a picky eater or what his sleeping arrangements were at home.
"Still, it bothered me, knowing that I wasn't the one taking care of him when he needed me most. It still bothers me."
"We should move, then—you need to be with him. Screw building the house here."
"No, we still have to find Shaun. Plus, I don't wanna rip you away from your home." I'd been thinking about this for a little while and finally come to an answer. "We'll move here." My tone is absolute—no negotiations.
"Are you serious?" Her eyes are so rounded, they appear they could fall out at any moment.
"Of course. New start and all that. We should probably get the house built and find Shaun first, though. It'd be nice to live here. I've come to actually prefer the Commonwealth over the Capital Wasteland."
She's so shocked, she can't get past what I first said. "I can't believe you'd do that for me." Her face alone reveals her bewilderment, not including the stupefied tone to her voice.
"Is it so shocking that I would?"
"A little, yeah."
"I don't know why," I respond. "Seems to me I've made my feelings clear enough." I grin at her.
After a minute, the bafflement subsides and she goes to stand. She puts out her hand for me.
"I guess you don't remember what happened last time you offered to help me up?" I laugh, my mood refreshed now.
She thinks for a second then facepalms. "Mass Pike Interchange," she says. "You pulled me down instead of me pulling you up."
"Yeah," I chuckle as I grab her hand and pull her down anyway. Looking down at her on my lap, I smile. Shaking her head at me, she grins herself. I continue, "You know… I don't know what karma I cashed, but… I definitely don't deserve someone as good as you."
She slaps my leg, then stands. Looking at me on the floor still, "Don't you dare say that! You're far better than everyone else, and don't you forget it!" She walks over to where she laid the teddy bear down earlier and bends down, putting in into my bag. Looking at me, "Got it?"
I grin. "Got it." She turns toward the steps to leave.
Seeing that I haven't moved yet, she says, "I'm done here. You coming?"
"Yeah. Let's head home." I stand up and fall into step a couple feet behind her, wondering how I was so lucky to have ran into this woman. Things are looking up finally.
A/N: I found it kind of sweet in-game how MacCready gets a little teary-eyed in Trinity Church when you near the nursery. I just had to add it in somewhere.
So, it landed and built it's nest here in this chapter. I think I'll keep it. I named it Bob.