Queen's note: I may not write the full repairs for next chapter, as I have NO idea how those vault generators work. So, I'll leave that to Noal XD OH! Digital brownies to who figures out who Noel is XD

Also isopods are my current adhd hyper fixations so have a tiny cameo.

Welcome to the Wasteland

Chapter Thirty Five:

Backup Arrives

"Blood-leaf?" Valory asked as she peered at the humans in the shallow water. Tilting her head to get a better look at the water plants floating on the surface of the slow moving stream.

"Can see how it got the name." Lana stood up, she was standing just outside of the water by balancing on two larger rocks by the cluster of plants. She had one of the large leaves in her hands, looking it carefully over to see if there was anything- "Isopods!"

Lana almost lost her balance at the cheer, but Jake caught her by the back of her shirt.

"Whoa there, don't drop," The taller man snorted, not bothered with being in the stream as he had his new boots on the stream. He did not really feel the cold of the water yet. "What did you find?"

"Isopods, they look aquatic." Lana showed the man, holding the leaf carefully upside down and pointing to the little black and red bugs. "Rolly pollies? They're a really good sign of an area I think. These look like they turned back from terrestrial to aquatic, or semi aquatic?"

"Oooh, yeah I've seen them on Bloodleaf plants, I thought they pollinate them, as the plants seem to bloom more with them around." Jake looked around and peered into the water. "Cute guys, I was always told not to take all the leaves when harvesting them."

"Can isopods be pollinators?" Lana frowned, taking a careful look at the little crustaceans. Noting they had small spike-like nubs on their shells. "They're decomposers though? Wonder if they can pollinate or if they just eat the dead leaves to keep the plant healthy."

"That's just what I was told, here just take a few more. Noel should be showing up soon." Jake shrugged, bemused as he held onto Lana's shirt as she returned the 'bugs' to the mother plant and took a few more leaves the scarred man pointed out to take. Making sure they were both safe from a full dunk, Jake shifted and just picked up the smaller woman. Laughing as she squeaked in protest.

"Wait, there's more stuff I want to seeee…!" Lana pouted, but knew better to try and wiggle free, not wanting to get soaked.

"You've gathered a lot of things already," Jake said, daring to plop Lana directly in front of Valory. His hunch was right as the deathclaw reached out to grasp and pull Lana in between her forearms to sniff at the new plant. "Besides, I see Preston coming back with what looks like Noel."

He lifted an arm to wave, at the old bridge, getting a wave back from the younger man once Garvey spotted him. Jake found his new boots and socks on the bank, getting them on as Valory was starting to chuff playfully. Turning keeping Lana from the water's edge into a small game, well able to distract her little pack sister.

Once Jake was ready, and Lana had resigned to pack up her samples, still trying to figure out how to get a sprout from the mother 'blood-leaf' plant and survive until the trip back home. Or survive the trip home? Valory stood up, stretching her nearly healed leg out, glad some of the stitches had been taken out earlier that morning. Standing and walking was much easier, though Valory used all fours to get back up to the street level of the neighborhood. Glancing back and pausing to let Lana and her basket use her tail to help up the slope.

Jake was already up part of the way. Looking bemused as he grasped the eld of the offered tail to help the last bit. The scared man was not able to help but chuckle at hearing an interesting sound that came from Codsworth at seeing Valory again. It was interesting how the aware robot had some of the exact reactions as the people he had seen meet Valory. That included himself and Jack.

Noel paused, making sure the brahmin cow and her calves were not going to panic. He had her carrying the supplies from his bunker home. "Good to see you moving around again mis Valory! You seemed to have liked the attention that young man gave you."

"Moon Ridge was a very smart male." Valory purred. Sitting down beside the street, and humming a low subsonic note to help keep the brahmin calm.

Lana offered a hand to the cow, then petted both of the two heads in added reassurance. Recognizing her as the cow she had first found with Deegan. Glancing at the packs she had on her sides, Lana was happy to see it was relatively light. "Aww look its Chamomile!"

"Yes, I thought her getting some space with her calves would be good." Noel smiled, rubbing the side of the nearest head to him. Amused at the naming theme of flowers starting with the Brahmin, "She was starting to show signs of being restless."

"I can understand that, she was wandering around with a trader, then on her own after losing her person." Lana rubbed the other head. Smiling fondly at the chuffing and then happy sound made. It was not exactly like what Lana was used to with her moose, but still cute. "Look at this happy momma though! You want to stay up here with me and eat roses while Uncle Noel goes to save the world?"

Chamomile gave a happy 'murrr' like sound, as if responding.

"Betrayed!" Noel laughed, glancing at Preston beside him. "After I walked her up here this morning too."

Preston smiled, taking off his hat to hold over his chest, "I'm sorry my friend."

Valory shook her head at the silly moment, stooping down to touch her nose to one of the calves. It was still too young to realize what a predator was, but had only seen the deathclaw a few times. "Come, we will save a place, if not world, yes?"

"At least their world." Noel nodded, glancing at the young woman as the group started up the path to the vault. "Are you not going to come back down Lana?"

"If you need an extra body, I can." The blond said, shifting the hold of her new plant, to keep the cow from trying to steal it. "Other than playing with the local mushrooms and getting samples, I was just going to look at the trees near here. Mostly that big walnut!"

"You mentioned wanting a sample of it?" Codsworth asked, leading the way back to the vault.

Lana nodded excitedly, "Yes! Safely for the tree with its, erm, well bark-armor. Even a few leaves to figure out if its a male or female."

"Or both?" Valory offered, keeping a lazy pace in the back, "Pre-war…ah, grafting?"

"Oh, yeah that's possible. Do you know what it is, Codsworth by chance- wait wait." Jake started to ask but cut himself off as his own tree knowledge from centuries past started to really kick back into gear. He turned to look at Lana, "Walnut trees had both male and female flowers. Like the few local Chestnuts that survived back home with the kids in Parsons."

Lana gasped, not meaning to be dramatic as Noel laughed seeing her face. "Really?! Wait, chestnut trees?!"

"I mean, its good to have at least two around," Jake laughed, scratching at the scarring "I'll send word to my grand-kids. See if they can send some nuts to us here to eat. Hell, some more might have sprouted over winter. I know they traded seeds with the Masons with their trees for the little ones."

"Wait," Lana frowned and thought for a moment, one hand on the brahmin's shoulder, "That's… one, no at least five mother trees in the area?"

"Impressive." Valory glanced back to where the old tree was still visible in the Sanctuary neighborhood, "Ask if you can, get cuttings little one?"

"Would that be okay, Codsworth?" Lana asked as the Mr. Handy turned to float backwards as he passed the gate and fence around the vault.

"May I ask what you see as a 'Mother tree?'" Codsworth asked first, but did not seem against the ask.

Lana clasped her hands, smiling brightly as she looked at Preston coming up beside her now instead of between Valory and the brahmin. "It's a gods' send, so to say. Some sort of mutation that only happens to a few trees in an area. Mostly noticeable with fruiting trees, or nut trees. The main big mother plant goes into a hibernation through the fallout, and when it revives, the offspring are almost always dwarfs.

"Compared to the original speeches, the offspring plants are rapid growth and producing trees! Between that and a resistance to radiation, it's like they're trying to repopulate the void in plant life through the landscape!"

"Breath Lana," Noel reached over Chamomile to catch one of the flailing arms of the young woman. But ended up chuckling at the squeak she made as the cow finally stole the bloodleaf. "That's fascinating though, and explains a few things, I wonder if that's how there's several types of mutifruit?"

"It could be, isn't the common type something like old world apples?" Preston asked, taking another, putting a hand on Lana's back to help her stay upright, after a moment of failure to save her plant sample.

Noel nodded, giving one of the calves a head rub as she leaned up against him. "Apples and some pears, mostly. Hue and Lyn that came with Winston's group have many mutfruit trees they brought with them. Maybe they might know of these Mother trees?"

"I don't think we got to see what they had," Lana frowned, realizing she might have missed out on some other fun plant things. Not that getting all that was done in the last days was not worth it.

"Between going to the school with Winston and then swinging back up here yesterday," Preston chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck, resisting the urge to scratch there at the bightmark. Then moved to help Neol with unloading the brahmin's load onto the lift. "We've been busy."

"Indeed." Valory agreed as she twitched her tail to distract the calves, still keeping that humming going. "The air smelled…odd when you came up."

"Over scrubbed," Jake explained as Noel tilted his head, "And higher oxygen levels down there. Like prewar levels."

"Need to be very careful of any electrical fires." Noel nodded. Glancing around now that Camomile was unloaded of the equipment. "So, how's going back down with me for the day?"

Preston lifted his free hand with a smile, not as tired as the day before. As he had gotten a surprisingly good night's sleep in Sanctuary after sharing a dinner with Valory. The young man glanced at Lana as she chewed on her lip, looking between the cow and Deathclaw.

Valory chuffed, crouched down to press her forehead against her human's side. The scales on her head, and several other patches were starting to turn gray. "I'll watch the cow, brah-nin? As she grazes."

"There is a nice pen between the largest hedge roses, mis….misses? Mis Valory." Codsworth offered politely, "And the park side is pretty full of grasses and flowers."

"Hopefully we'll be done by this afternoon, evening at most," Noel said confidently, as he was experienced with the generators used in vaults and bunkers. He poked Lana, much more confident this close to the aware Deathclaw to be playful, "There should be stable power and time to go look at the walnut tree."

"How are the kids?" Preston asked once Valory herded the brahmin away from the lift as Codsworth moved to push the lift button. Not missing how Codsworth paused, and focused all optics on them at the mention of kids.

"Very good," Noel smiled fondly, "Abby was excited to add the split beans Marcy dropped off to her garden plots. She got every seed to sprout in the bunker! But overall, they are improving. We go to their parents' grave in the evening to eat dinner with them now, and that seems to help young David and Lori now.

"Jacky had a feeling it might be better for them to stay here for now." Jake agreed with his brother, and shifted to kneel down as the lift started to move. Codsworth hurried back over to sit down himself as they entered back into the 111 labeled Vault. Duke appeared out of nowhere from his adventure to bound over and jump back on the lift. Skiddling as he slid into Preston with a canine grin over one of the wild ground squirrels.

"He's back!" Lana laughed as Preston was knocked onto his rump with a startled sound, the man laughing himself as the squirrel was shoved into his jacket before getting a full, wiggly dog greeting.

"Hi again, Duke?" Preston said once he was sitting upright, a lot more confident himself to squish the canine face between his hands. Then moving to rub the ears and neck first, before scrubbing the offered belly as Duke rolled onto his back in the man's lap.

Noel breathed a relieved sigh, not having expected the sudden appearance of the brown and black dog, "Goodness, you have a happy friend Garvey!"

"Someone might have found their new person?" Codsworth asked in good humor, balancing on his folded arms as his thruster was off. Peering at the humans with two eye stocks, the last optic watching to be sure nothing fell down through the closing hatchway above them.

Preston shook his head, avoiding a flailing paw before being licked. "Really?"

Duke grinned in his way, boof-ing as if answering.

Reviews!

Blazingwolffang: MY GOODNESS my man! that's a lot of reviews! You have no idea how happy that made me to see them lol my alerts glitched out XD

Thanks for letting me know about chapter 2, its fixed up now! The bunker is going to be it's own place as much as tied to the Co-op village, its where their going to be growing a lot of stuff away from the rad-storms.

Razorgrain I'm going on its like the bigger types of rice, always assumed Tatos are like russet potatoes in a different shape. Pretty plan but has a lot of calories for something that can grow as fast as it does. As for mirelurks, it seems like most shelfish, and freshwater ones are sweeter?

I noticed that with the deathclaws having no set spot, so I was thinking the head matriarchs got taking out [gunners?], succumbed to the bigger rad storms or left after they lost what ever nesting site.

As for vehicles, I think there would be some, and it makes sense that wagons would crop up again, even basic simple ones. Yet in theory, there could be some coming back once things seem to settle. But given what I understand the current vehicles at the time of the bomb drops would be hard to fix if they were in the emp ranges. Some stuff if not in range could work if they had enough...coolent? I think.

No spy Turkies, they're too sweet! Wait until you see the Storks I'm bringing in from the concept art of the game xD Also, There's no tag for Deegan that I found! Charon was supposed to have showed up already but the story got away and there's no trip to Goodnaighbor just jet... yet!

Don't give Lana jet, she needs to breath.