Chapter 49: Ready Freddie

Freddie blanched and turned on his heels. "Shit!"

I caught a glimpse of one of the guards aiming their pistols towards his head and I leaped for him. Our bodies tangled on the ground and the round fired above us where his head had been.

"No! Don't leave me out here!" Freddie yelled, crawling to his feet and taking off again.

I grabbed his arm and tugged him back to the ground as another shot fired. "He's going to kill you."

Freddie swallowed hard as we watched the vault slowly seal once again. He pushed me off and threw his face in his hands. "What have I done?"

He thumped a fist on the ground and screamed into his elbow, cursing me and everyone he could think of. I should have just told him to go back. I could have brought Dogmeat to him. This was all my fault. I gently rubbed his back and he didn't shy away from my touch.

"I am... so sorry. This is my fault." My voice cracked and tears threatened to flow as my throat tightened.

He was completely quiet and still as I rubbed his back and he processed what this meant. I continued. "I don't know what good it is, but you aren't feeling this alone."

His shoulders shook slightly under my hand as he cried on the cave floor in a heap. "I don't belong out here."

My frown deepened and I laid down on the floor next to him. When I was in the vault and Freddie got overwhelmed, I would pull him into another room and I held him until he felt like he could go another day. I held out my arm and wrapped it around him. He curled into me and buried his face into my chest and sighed heavily.

"Elle?" His voice was hoarse.

"Hm?"

He rubbed a circle on his palm to feel more zoned in. "What did you do when you left?"

I smiled sadly and ran my fingers through his brown locks. "Well, as soon as I got outside, I threw up and almost passed out. Then I found my way to Megaton and fucked my baby daddy so I could save the town and have a place to sleep." I wiped his face with the sleeve of my jacket. "I didn't know a single person, have a place to sleep, or any idea of how shit worked out here. Luckily, you got me."

He cleared his throat and nodded. Dogmeat pawed at his back until he reached back to pet him. "I don't know what I'm going to do."

I shrugged. "At least you don't have to worry about what the Overseer was going to do when he found out you were the one who opened the vault."

The broken look in his eyes said what words couldn't. He felt doomed. Like he would never be able to make it a day out here. We sat up and I helped him get to his feet.

"What am I going to do, Elle?" He pleaded.

I took his hand and led him back outside. He shielded his eyes again and took a deep breath. "We're going to my home."

He nodded and we slid down the hill to the ground. His feet thumped against the asphalt loudly and we side stepped an irradiated puddle. Everything would become overwhelming again for him soon, so I would introduce him to the world slowly. He took note of every piece of paper, tin can, and vehicle as we made our way through town.

"There's a few things I should warn you about." I interrupted his sightseeing.

He acknowledged me and ushered for me to go on.

"Well, I don't live alone. I have a guy out here that takes care of me. He's sort of a boyfriend. I don't know, it's a really complicated arrangement. Anyway, he doesn't look like a regular human does."

Freddie gave me a confused side glance but allowed me to continue.

"Uh, after the bombs dropped, radiation was a big deal. People that were exposed to it and survived turned into what we call 'ghouls'. Some of them didn't maintain sanity and basically turned into zombies. There's a lot of hatred between ghouls and humans. Mostly because of the way they look."

Freddie nodded briefly. "What exactly do they look like?"

I ran a hand through my stringy hair and cursed myself for not asking for some vault supplies. "Well, they lost a lot of their skin. And they all have the same weird blue eyes going on. There's a lot of variations in skin color though. Some are yellow, some green, tan... and I've seen a few blue. I don't know why it does that but I'm not going to ask. It's a really touchy subject with them. Oh, they also lost most of their hair, if not all of it."

He swallowed loudly. "Jeez, that sounds like hell."

The gates of Megaton opened up and Stockholm waved for me. "Eleanor, who you got with you?"

I cupped my hands around my mouth to yell. "Another vault dweller! He's cool, don't worry about him!"

Stockholm nodded and waved us into town. I pushed the gates opened and met face to face with Lucas Simms. He tilted his hat up and exchanged glances between Freddie and me.

"I was feeling really homesick and shit happened. I don't think he really wants to talk about it. He'll be no trouble," I said quietly.

He nodded curtly and extended a hand to Freddie. He took it gratefully and shook it. "A friend of Eleanor is a friend of the town. I'm Lucas Simms, the mayor of this little town. Don't worry about the bomb. It's deactivated thanks to your friend here."

Freddie choked on a breathe of air. "Bomb?" He whispered.

Simms and I shared a chuckle. "It's no longer a threat," he offered.

He swallowed and nodded nervously. "Well... it was nice to meet you... sir."

Simms waved us goodbye and we headed towards the house. He drank in the ramshackle town that was my warm home. People gawked at his vault suit and shook their heads, clearly disagreeing with the accumulation of vault dwellers in the town. I opened the door and Wadsworth putted down the stairs.

"Good day, Mada-" he paused to analyze Freddie. "Madame, are you aware of the intruder?"

I held up a hand. "He's going to be staying with us for a while."

Wadsworth gave a mechanical sigh. "Are you going to bring in every stray you find?"

My hands found my hips without me even knowing it. "Are you going to complain about every person I bring into my home?"

The lens on his "eyes" narrowed as if he were going to say something sassy and uncalled for. "Well, if you were the one having to clean up after all your residents, you would be mad too."

"Wadsworth, go charge up. You're being cranky and sentient." I pointed to his charging pad and he drifted over to it, pouting, and powered down.

I huffed and collapsed on the couch in an exhausted mess. Freddie stood by the door, clearly unsure of what to do. I rolled onto my back and Dogmeat jumped onto the couch next to me.

"Too bad you didn't have anything of sentimental value on you. Looks like you only have your vault suit. Hold onto it for as long as you want." I stared at the ceiling and tossed an arm over my eyes. "I regret selling mine but I really needed caps."

He looked down at his suit and bit his lips. "What are caps?"

I leaned on my elbows to look at him. "It's the money out here. Everyone uses bottle caps for some reason."

He nodded, trying to understand the new outside world. "Anywhere I can get a drink? I drink to stop shaking."

I looked closely at his hands, and they were very clearly shaking. "Yeah, there's a bar. And the bartender is my friend so I get discounts. Oh, and he's a ghoul so you can see him before you meet Char-"

Oh fuck. I didn't even think about how Charon would react to me bringing another guy to stay with us. Isn't there some kind of guy code about that? And I've slept with Freddie too. This is going to be... interesting to say the least.

I sat up and straightened my jacket before opening the door to leave again. "We should hurry and come back. I don't know when Charon will get here and I think it would be best if we got home before he did."

The bar was as musty and dry as ever as we sat in the chairs Charon and I usually took. Gob straightened when he heard the door open and immediately calmed when he recognized me. Freddie jumped and held his breath when Gob waved nervously at him.

"Hey smoothskin, haven't seen you in a while. Who's he?" Gob asked, gesturing to Freddie's vault suit.

I gave him a small kick to the ankles as a warning to be polite before he spoke. "Uh, my name's Freddie. I'm from the same vault as Eleanor."

Gob breathed a sigh of relief, seeing Freddie didn't look disgusted. "I'm the bartender for this sorry bar. The name's Gob."

Freddie nodded and held out a hand. Gob flinched, waiting to be struck by another stranger. Freddie slowly withdrew his hand with a shocked expression. "You okay, man?"

The two of them stared at each other in anxious shock. They were exactly the same. I nudged him to make his order and he muttered "beer."

Gob nodded and bolted, thankful for the excuse to leave for the moment. He returned with a warm bottle. "I made sure you didn't get one of Moriarty's 'special blends'."

Freddie looked at me nervously, as if to ask what the "special blend" was. I shook my head and mouthed "you don't want to know." He took the beer hesitantly and popped the cap off. I stepped towards the trash can, but I stopped him and stuffed the cap into his pocket.

"You keep that," I muttered.

He nodded and sipped the beer quietly. Gob motioned to Freddie, who had been very skittish this entire time. Lucy West had taken notice of him and eyed him from her corner of the bar hungrily. Freddie was completely oblivious.

I leaned over the counter so only Gob could hear me. "I stopped by the vault and he wanted to just see the outside and go back in. You know, curious and stuff. And then the vault closed and he's stuck out here with me."

Gob sucked in a short breath. "Today is not his day, huh?"

I shook my head and watched him straighten like a board when Lucy ran her finger up his arm. I stifled a laughter when he locked eyes with me for help. Gob nudged me.

"What did Charon have to say about it?" He asked with concern.

My lips thinned in a line. "He doesn't know. I can't just make the kid stay in the common house. Charon will be back soon so I need to hurry. He went to the city to find a crib for Clarice."

His eyes widened in surprise and he half smiled. "It's a girl? How do you know?"

I shrugged loosely. "I don't know how I do, I just do though. I can just sort of feel it. I heard that mothers can sometimes tell if it's a boy or girl before they're born."

He leaned against the bar and sighed as if it was the first time in a while that he had the chance to relax. "How's Charon taking it? He never would have struck me for the father figure type."

A small smile tugged at my lips. "He was the only one that was excited for the first couple months. I didn't want to be a mother. I'm too young and... I'm me. I'm going to be the worst mother ever. He convinced me into being happy about it somehow."

He scratched his head and sniffed. "Yeah, never would have thought." He tapped my arm to get my attention. "What took you so long getting back here?"

"I finally found my dad. He was in another vault and we went to the Jefferson Memorial to work on a project. Charon and I stayed and helped with minor repairs for a while and we're going back whenever they need us for the actual project."

Gob threw his hands up and almost whooped. "Holy shit, you found him?"

I nodded proudly. "He's kind of paralyzed for the time being but he'll regain his muscle mass."

His face pinched into a questioning expression. "What the hell even happened?"

Our conversation was interrupted by the door slamming open and a tall figure stepping into the dim bar. It was Charon. My stomach dropped in an instant.

He glared at me. "What's this I'm hearing about another vault kid, Eleanor?"

Freddie scooted away towards the wall and away from the massive ghoul. Charon shot him a death stare and closed the distance with three long steps. He towered almost two feet over the poor kid and he bent down to get even more in his face.

"Who. Are. You?" His words were bitten out and heavily enunciated.

Freddie looked like he was about to shit his pants. "I... I'm an old friend of Elle's... uh, Eleanor?"

I wedged myself in between them and I could feel Charon trying to burn holes into Freddie's face. He glared down at me with a twitch of his lips. "How the fuck did this happen?"

My hands found his chest and rubbed in small circles. "Let's just go home and talk this out in private. Please?"

He leaned down to get to my level. "I come home with shit for our kid, and I find out from people I don't even know that you left town and you came back with some guy. I want to talk about this now."

By now, the entire bar was staring at the scene Charon had made. Moriarty stepped out from his back room and leaned against the door frame with his arms crossed and a wide grin. "What's going on, love birds? A third little wheel come into the nest?"

Charon slowly turned his head towards Moriarty and slowly back to me. "Piss off, you fake Irish bastard. This isn't any of your business."

I bit my cheek to prevent myself from smiling and the "fake Irish bastard" stopped grinning. His ruddy face twisted into a sneer. "Ye wanna start some shit over yer little slut, take it outside, zombie. If ye gonna hit her, by all means, do it. Just do it somewhere else."

Charon growled in my ear and pushed off the wall. "You wanna fucking say that again?"

Moriarty maneuvered around the bar and Charon met him halfway. "Take yer whore and leave. Now."

Charon's fist connected with his jaw and before he could regain composer to fight back, Charon pinned him to the wall with his forearm crushing against his throat. Gob and Nova stood, waiting for him to die. No reason to stop what was happening.

Freddie grabbed my hand and tried pulling me to the door. "Elle, we gotta get outta here."

I shook him off and planted my feet to the ground. I wasn't going anywhere without Charon. I wanted to see that asshole get what was coming to him.

Charon only increased the pressure on Moriarty's throat, the small man kicking uselessly at his legs. Charon smirked and slowly withdrew his combat knife. The fear flashed in his face.

"You don't fucking say a word about her. You don't even look at her. You don't deserve to look at her," his voice was hoarse as he pressed the blade flush against the scared little man.

It wasn't the knife that was worrying me. It was his absolute lack of facial expression and emotion in his voice. Moriarty nodded quickly. "Aye."

A short bark of laughter escaped Charon's lips. "That wasn't a warning. You aren't leaving this bar tonight."

He slowly dragged the knife across his cheek, drawing a thin red line of blood. A quick look down told me he had pissed himself already. Freddie tugged at my arm and pleaded for me to leave.

"Freddie, I really think it would be smart to stay here. I think he's mainly trying to show dominance over you or something."

Freddie threw his hands up, exasperated. "He can fucking have it. I don't want dominance. I just want to live."

I shushed him and turned back to the scene. Moriarty's screams of pain drowned out all thoughts that could follow. Charon held a hand over his mouth and forced his head back for a better angle. Patrons in the bar had slowly started filing out, eager to see the ending but also not wanting to be an accessory to murder.

Freddie whined in his spot, wanting to bolt any second. I stood still, watching the scene unravel. Gob was almost giddy and Nova held a critical look. "I really hope he dies soon. Simms is gonna be here any minute."

The muffled screams grew loudly as Charon's blade dug deeper into his temple. It was getting gruesome until the screams stopped very suddenly. His body went limp and Charon dropped him to the floor, wiping the blade off on his shirt.

Freddie stiffened when Charon stopped in front of us. I smiled sweetly at him, but he wasn't having any of that. I yelped in surprise when he pulled me to him tightly and crushed my lips to mine. Had we not been in public, and about to be arrested maybe, I would have just gone all the way right there. He groaned into me as his tongue coaxed its way into my mouth.

Freddie covered his eyes, embarrassed and uncomfortable. "Okay, I get the point. I really don't mean to intrude on whatever you two got going on. I don't even want to be out here."

Charon dropped me and wiped his mouth. He stabbed a finger in Freddie's chest. "If I find out you've touched her, I'm going to fucking kill you."