Both ghouls went with the group to secure the military base, the next day. Lilian was fussing over Celia like a mother hen, bothering her constantly and making a fool out of herself. Lionel ignored it until it became too annoying for even him to handle, and snarled at Lilian. "She's fine," he said, bluntly. "Quit bothering her."
"She's not bothering me," Celia said, looking through binoculars at the distance. She was sitting on the gap in one of the mortared walls wrapping the south side of the base complex, watching for trouble. So far the base had not attracted any attention, but it was really only a matter of time.
"She's bothering me," Lionel grumbled, pulling Lilian away from the wall.
Lilian shrugged him off and glared at him. "Don't you take that tone with me!" Lilian huffed.
Celia smiled, looking down at them over her shoulder, and drummed her feet on the wall. "You guys are funny."
Lionel scoffed. "Funny is the last thing in the world that I am," he snapped. "Lilian, stop treating the kid like you treated Patty."
Lilian gasped and put a hand to her mouth. "You―You mean old man!"
There was an awkward silence for a moment, as Lionel stared at Lilian. She knew damn well was she was doing; he knew damn well what she was doing, too, and it did not make him at all happy.
"Who's Patty?" Celia asked, looking through the binoculars again.
Lionel fixed Lilian with a serious look, turning the full force of his irritation onto her. She turned away, screwing up her mouth. "Patty was Lilian's daughter," he rasped, angrily. "She's dead."
Lilian heaved a sob, dashing off toward the base buildings. Lionel watched her go, wishing he hadn't had to be mean. But he didn't like the way Lilian was becoming so attached to Celia. Right from the very beginning, she was pushing the limit. Lilian could be intense and overbearing, when she wasn't careful, and Lionel did not intend for her to "adopt" the girl. It would be trouble. Neither one of them needed more of that.
Celia scooted sideways to watch her leave. "What happened to Patty?" she asked, once Lilian was out of sight.
Lionel crouched down and sat on the pavement, leaning back against the wall. "Patty ran away from Grayling when she was sixteen," he said. "Lilian told her she couldn't marry a trader from Toskey. She died out in the wastes, somewhere." He cast his eyes upward at Celia's back. "Used to bother Patty like that, all the time. It bothers me."
She didn't reply. Lionel picked up a hand of dirt and ran it through his fingers, thinking. Lilian was selfish, sometimes. She might try to take in Celia, with the idea to raise her as her own. To replace the child she'd lost in Patty. She should be content that she still had Jennifer who cared for her, and friends in Grayling who cared for her. He had no one but Lilian to care for.
Damn, that made him feel like shit. Shouldn't have chased her off. He'd have to swallow his pride and apologize.
"I don't mind if she wants to smother me," Celia said, quietly. "My mom died when I was little. I... didn't have that, growing up."
"Mine died, too," Lionel muttered. He didn't remember much about that time in his life. He threw a rock across the court and sighed. "If you give Lilian an inch, she'll take a mile. Better to have her stop now."
The silence between them was filled with crunching footsteps on gravel and the soft whirring of a Mister Gutsy as a dark-haired woman approached. "Hey, Celia!" she called. "Come see this guy."
Lionel took the binoculars and stood by the opening in the wall, scanning the distance, as Celia came down to talk to the woman.
"This is the one that sliced you up," the dark-haired woman said. "See? One of the boys named him." She pointed. "Sergeant Sawyer."
"Ha, ha. Very funny," Celia said. "How's everything going over there?"
"The sentry bot hasn't been disabled yet," was the answer. "No one's explored that room yet. Benjamin is on watch right now. The old man is picking fights with everyone about how to proceed." The other rolled her eyes dramatically. "You should see it, it's ridiculous. No one's listening."
Lionel looked at them and made a questioning noise. "She's talking about Calhoun," Celia explained. "We called him the old man because―well, he's older than us. It's our pet name for the Overseer."
"He's not old," Lionel said, turning back to watch the distance. "Pesaro is old. That one with the eye twitch, he's old."
The woman laughed. "I guess we should trust your expertise," she said. "I'm Sally, by the way. Daughter of Joel, he of the eye twitch."
Stung him a little, people talking about him being old. He was a hell of a lot older than all these people, but not by choice. His feathers were ruffled, right now. Lionel made a face. He had to try to be nice.
"Sally, can you take over my watch here?" Celia asked. "I want to see what's going on in there."
"You both can go," she replied, patting the robot. "I've got to put Sergeant Sawyer through his paces out here." She laughed, easily. Lionel laid down the binoculars and moved away from the wall, eyeballing the Gutsy. "There's 'coffee' in the mess hall, if you want. Darla's serving."
"Thanks, Sally!" Celia said, waving good bye.
Lionel and Celia walked away, back over the rubble that lay about the court. Celia swung her arms back and forth, and kicked out her legs in a goose-step. It made her look a lot more like a child than she had before. "Where did Lilian go?" she wondered.
Lionel shook his head. "Probably on some poor bastard's shoulder, complaining about how mean I am."
The girl laughed. "You could be meaner," she said, jokingly.
"I could," he answered, deadly serious. "But I won't."
Celia didn't say anything. She really did need to realize it wasn't a nice place out in the wastes, he thought. Maybe she would figure it out before the town was attacked for the first time. It wouldn't be very long before that happened, he knew.
The double doors of the mess hall had been opened and the chain had been moved to the room where the sentry bot was, according to one of the Vault people. Celia stopped to ask a few questions and Lionel saw the others were staring at him. He felt the stares but let them drop. One man gagged and turned away. Celia didn't seem to notice.
She must have seen it, though. No one was that oblivious. Lionel knew what he was.
"Is there anything to eat?" Celia asked a sturdy, middle-aged woman running the percolator. The woman fixed her with an intensely painful stare, then turned the look onto Lionel. He didn't like it.
"This is it," she said, hoarsely.
"Okay, thanks, anyway," Celia said, and moved away, holding her stomach.
He wondered if she was hungry. She looked a lot thinner than when he'd first met her. All that Vault food, he thought, with a snort. Fattening. "What's her problem?" he grumbled.
"Darla is Simon's mother," she said, distantly. "The one who died."
"Doesn't like you, huh?" Celia shrugged in reply. Lionel got the feeling she wasn't well-liked to begin with, around these people. He felt a little sympathy for her. Not enough to let Lilian "adopt" her, though. He wasn't that foolish.
They moved onto the office rooms, and Celia stopped at a door, listening. "Hrmm," she said, sounding curious.
"What?" he rumbled.
She flushed. "Uhhh―nothing," and moved around the corner. "...You should go find Lilian. I'll see you later, okay?"
Lionel shrugged. "Whatever, kid," he said, and turned about, marching back through the mess hall. Where the hell did that woman go?