Celia sat in the bower, her face sweating, her stomach roiling. Adam had ordered her to sit at his feet, facing away from him, and was running his hands up and down her shoulders and neck like he had a right to touch her. He breathed hot air into her ear as he audibly enjoyed the feel of her skin. She blinked slowly, and tried her very damnedest not to shriek.
But that was all she wanted to do, and she could feel the edges of her willpower crumbling. She kept thinking about Lionel and how he touched her neck, how it felt so much different than the comforting hugs and pats he'd given her. How he'd reacted when she brought sex up in the conversation.
She wasn't that stupid. She knew she was a target when it came to physical attention from men. Calhoun, Mayer... Even Lionel, who had said he wasn't interested, even if his hands said otherwise. Why hadn't she remembered that he was still a man? ...She didn't want to, she supposed. He'd been some kind of neutered hero to her, and she felt ashamed for wanting him to stay that way.
Adam shifted his hands to her scalp, feeling the skin under her hair. She shivered slightly, but not because she wanted to. He made a noise, and ran his hands along the same spot. Celia shivered again.
He shoved her off his lap and she fell to the wooden floor of the bower, catching herself with her palms out. A sheet of corrugated metal fell silently from the ceiling and landed with an enormous clatter near her, startling her. She jerked away from it, involuntarily. Then she froze, terrified.
Adam hadn't noticed, was staring at the ceiling with the skin above his eyes raised. "Not safe," he muttered. He stood and adjusted his robes around his waist, pulling them into a bunch. Celia stared at the metal sheet with her heart pounding in her chest, then scraped her eyes across the floor to see a hammer lying on the ground nearby.
She moved a hand out, slowly, then grabbed it up and hid it in the pocket of her robes with a swift movement. Echo saw her, and her eyes were curious, but she said nothing. Celia felt her arms begin to tremble, from the strain.
She would kill him, she knew. She'd never wanted so badly to kill someone, in her entire life.
"Come along, Echo," Adam said, and took the chain that bound her to the floor in his hand. He left Celia there, and she stared down at the wood and wondered if he intended to leave her to be impaled by the work going on above her. She waited for the order to follow, but it didn't come.
Surely he's not going to leave me here? she thought. She traced patterns with her eyes in the grain of the wood, and her chest tightened. A drop of sweat trailed dwon her nose and onto the floor. She was still bruised and beaten, and her nose was hard to breathe through.
"Follow, Eve," he finally said, and she stood up, shaking slightly. Her arms were terribly sore from holding herself so very still.
The weight of the hammer bounced against her leg and she tried to slow her stride to accommodate it. Yes, she knew she would use it, and soon, but she needed a better opportunity. She needed to be patient.
Landis came better prepared, this time, and Lionel swore as a shotgun blast tore through his lower leg. He hot-footed it up the rock face and practically lifted Jesse off of the ground, moving to better cover.
"I will kill you, you fucking zombie!" Landis yelled.
"Shit! Goddamn Landises!" Lionel ducked his head behind the rocks and felt the loose shards explode nearby.
"Cameron Landis," Amos called out. "Cease fire!"
"Oh, fuck you ARC guys," he yelled back. Another blast of the shotgun sounded.
"Is it a double barrel or drum?" Amos asked Jesse, giving him a sharp look. It was a test, Lionel thought. Keeping the kid's eyes on. He looked down at his leg and winced.
"Double," Jesse said. He had his rifle out and was creeping over the edge of the cover, slowly trying to get Landis in his sights.
"Can't kill him," Lionel rumbled. "Might need him." His leg burned in pain.
Amos shot a glance at the ghoul and shook his head. "At this point we might not have a choice."
Sue and the other two had scrambled down into the hole, while Bradley was standing tall among the rocks, looking down over his laser rifle. He chuckled. "A relative," he stated, more than he asked.
Lionel looked up at the idiotic soldier and moved his leg to a less painful position. "Father," he answered. He made a frustrated noise. "He reloaded yet?"
Amos nodded, but didn't bother to look over the rocks. No one wanted to stick their head out. Bradley was wearing power armor, and wouldn't take as much damage. He surveyed the man over his sights, then asked, "Should I shoot him?" He looked right at Lionel.
"No," Lionel said. "No, I'm not going to give the bigot the pleasure." He drew his knife and cleared his throat. "Jesse, shoot around his feet."
"What?" Jesse held the rifle up to his eye but hadn't quite made it up over the rocks.
A shotgun blast hit Bradley and he grunted, but moved away from the rock face. Amos pushed his own shotgun up along the rocks, shooting a glance at the old soldier.
"Come out, you rotgut piece of shit!" Landis yelled.
"I dunno, man, you sure?" Jesse raised an eyebrow at the ghoul. "Maybe we should kill 'im. Be a lot more simpler."
Lionel grumbled to himself. "We need him to be reloading," he muttered.
"No problem," Jesse said, and tilted the rifle down at the ground, firing off a shot randomly. He fired two more shots and a responding blast from Landis sounded.
Without hesitating, Lionel moved over the cover and slid down the wall, moving closer, his shin bleeding in spurts with the muscle movement. He flipped the knife in his hand, holding it the wrong way around. Landis saw him coming, redoubled his efforts to load the shells into the shotgun, but the minute he looked away Lionel threw the knife at him.
It hit him square in the forehead by the butt, a satisfying thwacking noise and grunt coming from the old wastelander. The action distracted him enough that Lionel had an opportunity to take him down. He grinned and drew his revolver, coming up on the man quickly, and hit him across the temple with the butt. Landis fell but didn't lose consciousness, and Lionel kicked away the shotgun with his uninjured leg, viciously.
"Fucking idiot," Lionel muttered. "Amos!"
"So is this a new thing, or have you always been this effective?" Amos asked, looking at the ghoul.
Lionel shrugged. "Sneaky shit don't work on power armor," he answered. He'd honestly expected to get a chest full of shotgun wad. The knife had been a spur of the moment idea.
Bradley came up behind him, and held his rifle on Landis, followed by Jesse, holding his weapon as well. Sue and Jeremiah poked their heads out over the cover of the rock face.
"You got to stop trying to kill me," Lionel told the old man. "I am not an enemy."
"Fuck you," Landis spat, his eyes moving between the ghoul and Bradley.
"Why are you even here?" Amos asked. "Celia told us you weren't her father."
"And you told me I ought to take her off your hands, so neither one of us really wanted her," Landis spat at Amos and held up a frag grenade in his right hand.
The reaction was immediate. Lionel clenched his fist around the man's hand and squeezed, Jesse and Amos backed up fast, and Bradley put the lens of the laser rifle against Landis' left eye. "I would advise you to discontinue this line of attack," Bradley said. "No matter why you are pursuing Lionel, your action will not be successful."
Landis grunted. "Fucking ghouls," he muttered.
There was a tense moment of silence, and the three looked at each other with varying degrees of consideration. Lionel stared at Landis with a tired look in his eye, his leg starting to hurt enough that it was affecting his balance. The wad had hit his calf, and the burning feeling started to creep up his leg like fire.
Bradley stared at Landis, putting pressure on the laser rifle, pushing him slowly backwards. Landis stared back at Lionel, his thumb inside the pull ring. Slowly, he moved the thumb and slackened his grip on the grenade inside Lionel's grip. Lionel knew he didn't want to let go.
He wrenched the grenade from the man's hand and hurled it out into the wastes. Jesse and Amos moved back toward them. "Why are you trying to kill me, this time?" Lionel asked, shooting a glance at Landis. "We had a truce, didn't we?"
Bradley laughed, almost inaudibly. Amos kept his shotgun up and Jesse relaxed a little, as they approached.
"Man," Jesse said. "Didn't you get enough of an ass-kicking last time?"
Landis looked between Jesse and Lionel, then shot an angry glance at Bradley. "Phaeton isn't walking anymore," he muttered. "We're all free game in the wastes."
Lionel's leg spasmed and he wavered a little. "I'm sorry," he said, suddenly. "I'm sorry that she's gone, and I'm sorry that you don't like what's going on. I'm sorry I ever tried to help those stupid people!" He rubbed his face and felt the strain of the past few weeks catching up to him. "And I'm sorry I ever went looking for you. You don't deserve her."
Landis' eyes narrowed and he launched himself at the ghoul, headbutting him under the chin and knocking him back. Lionel didn't fight back, this time. The rage he'd been depending on was gone. Landis hit him over and over until Amos leveled the shotgun at the back of his head.
"Landis," he said. Landis raised up his hands and stood. Amos firmly escorted him away.
Jesse helped Lionel up off the ground, and made a strangled laugh. "Uh..." He sputtered. He laughed, a high-pitched nervous one. "Man, when was the last time you were chased by a shotgun-toting father?"
"2058," Lionel said, promptly. It had been the first and last time it had happened, too. He smiled to himself.
Jesse laughed again. "Seriously?"
Lionel patted him on the shoulder. "Jesse, I used to be a lot worse when it came to women," he said, and a tiny smile tugged at his beaten face. "I got better." He looked over at Amos, pushing Landis back up to the rocks, and followed.
"I wanna hear that story," Jesse said, as he tagged alongside.