Queen's note: See, Noel did the thing! XD

Welcome to the Wasteland

Chapter Thirty Six:

Take a breath

Noel was quite happy to sit down on the long bench and sip the tea in front of him. It was wonderfully mundane to sit and wait for laundry. Not that he was not keeping up on being cleaned up, but getting a chance to clean his current clothes? That was wonderful.

Getting a proper shower and some clothes to use while his current set was being cleaned.

Fabulous!

The tea was good too!

Noel could see their dinner in a pot, the lights were just starting to dim as the day outside tilted to evening. He loved quiet, simple moments like this. He could close his eyes, using the quiet hum of the kitchen equipment to help imagine himself elsewhere. Not too far away, with the smell of green tea instead of rose. The absentminded hum his late wife used to do when focusing hard on her cross stitch patterns. Her refusing to stay in the lines of any drawn pattern, even if she drew it.

He could imagine the muffled voices and music in other rooms of his house that he used to have.

Noel opened his eyes to stir his tea, humming the notes that kept that part of his late wife alive. Spinning the well worn ring on his left hand with a smile. It did not hurt so bad anymore to think of his first family. There was still a throb in his heart, but it had dulled with time. Noel had raised several other adopted families over the decades, centuries.

It never replaced his daughters, could never do so. But for Noel at least, it had helped. Noel had been so happy that Hancock had approached him this last winter to teach 'his kids.' Noel was glad to be able to be in this area, to help his current three charges. Even though he was sad for them, losing their parents in that last big radstorm.

Soft footsteps and a thruster sound came down the hallway before Noel focused back into the present. He smiled over at the group as he recognized the voices. "Everything still stable?"

"Yes," The black haired young man said, a little sheepish but Sturges was also relieved. "I don't know how you knew where all the problems were in just an hour."

"I had, have... had? A doctorate in eclectic engineering, nuclear generators like these and others… I used to make them." Noel paused to consider something, "Design and make them really, more so development once I was older."

"Where did you used to work pre-bombs?" Lana asked in interest as she came to sit at the table as well, another load of harvested vegetables from the surface. She glanced to her right where the bathroom cubby was, and the sound of water. "Did you get Preston to finally take a shower?"

"Is that safe with," Sturges started to ask, making a motion over his neck where the bandage was on Preston's own neck.

"It looked good this morning when he asked me to check his back before he left to help Noel," Lana hummed, "There's no more infection spots, everything was healing really well. So long as he's not giving a deep, hard scrub to open scabs."

The older ghoul hummed as he poured a few more mugs of warm, if not hot, tea. "He'll be fine, Sturges. Sit down young man, breathe while we have the chance."

"Right," Sturges sat himself down at the table, reaching for the warm drink. "Might need another shower, wasn't expecting to find all those crispy roaches in the generators."

"Or how they just exploded into dust." Lana shook her mask below her knees before setting it aside. "How did you know Noel? Suspect?"

"It's not the first time I've seen a problem like this," Noel sat up a bit, motioning to his bandana off to the side. "Even prewar, there's something about electronics that attracts those bugs. Nowadays some types of the cockroaches are much bigger, but still attracted, the bodies of the juveniles just piled up and burned out the grounding rods."

"I wish a lot of insects didn't evolve that proto-lung," Lana made a face that the other two laughed at. The woman suspected that they fully agreed though. Just something about overly large insects and arachnids was…. horrible. The size of those cockroaches in the vault before?

Just no.

Lana really hoped that Blake really had eradicated all spiders from the area like Mary and Lucy said.

"Supper is ready!" Codsworth announced happily, bringing over two bowls at a time to the table. Third set down out of the way for Duke when he woke up from his nap.

"It smells so good," Sturges felt like he was being spoiled, "Codsworth, you're the best, I don't know how you do it, making things so tasty."

"Many years of experience," Codsworth tucked his arms in to show his pride and happiness. "And taste testers in that time to give feedback."

"We should probably think about what those people should eat when they come out of that stasis-like state." Lana hummed, pausing to eat. "I hope they can eat, but just plain broth might not be enough."

"I had a thought about that, or a few thoughts." Codsworth hummed, cleaning up a bit around the vault kitchen. "But I'll need either an immersion blender attachment for one of my arms. Or a commercial blender that could be found in restaurants."

"Blended soup?" Sturges asked after a moment, "Long as it's not meaty, should be a good and not hard on the stomach."

"Add some of the port tops and razorgrain for protein and calories," Noel nodded in agreement, smiling. "We'd have to harvest a lot of the new growth… think we can bake them dry?"

Lana looked between the mushrooms and other vegetables in front of her to the oven thoughtfully. "Probably, I saw a thin veggie slicer in Codsworth's home in the neighborhood. We could slice stuff, back them dry, and powder it all if need be. Or slice thin and freeze them in prep. Break up the water pockets in the harder things like carrots and squash."

"There's one open freezer, erm…pod?" Sturges offered, "It wasn't ever filled, and there's two that failed, but kept the bodies solid from…errrr…"

"Leaking?" Lana offered, snorting but felt a bit guilty that she giggled. "Sorry. We should get those people up top and buried in that graveyard Codsworth made. Valory can dig deep enough holes for them."

"It would free up the other pods to use like freezers. And it's okay dear." Noel agreed and reassured. The man stretched his back for a moment, considering how heavy a body was, and for a lack of a better phrasing, dead weight was like. Taking time, he could get the frozen bodies to the lift himself, with help it would be faster.

"Might be a tomorrow project though." Lana said, glancing to her right as the bathroom door opened. Waving at the very clean and oddly relaxed Preston.

The man was only dressed in socks and long pants. Still damp a bit but had that slight trance look of someone after their first hot shower in ages. At least a few months for himself. Duke trotted out, damp himself from getting his own scrubby time. The dog honestly had been sleeping most of the time in the bathroom before almost the last minute jumped into the shower with his new person and demanded attention.

Duke had one of the towels over his head and shoulders, tongue lolling out in a happy canine grin. Coming over to plant his head in Lana's lap first for attention, then work around the table.

"Feel better son?" Noel asked, smiling over at Preston, feeling like the grandfather he was.

"Much, much better." Preston agreed, carefully feeling around his neck, as the bandage came off. "Lana, could you check this and my back before you go?"

"Sure," Lana nodded, getting up as Duke took his towel to thump his head into sturgies side with a happy sound and wiggling rump.

"Are you not staying the night again miss?" Codsworth ask, making sure that Preston had a glass of water with his soup.

"No, I need to get back to check on my plants and animals at the Co-op, and in the bunker." Lana pushed Preston in the seat she just left, to make it easier to check. He was still taller than everyone in the room after all, with the exception of Jake, who was likely still napping. "Besides, I think Fredrick would have a fit if he didn't hear from me for much longer."

Also, she wanted to give Mary one of the new pairs of boots they found with the storage supplies.

"I'll probably stay here again," Sturges said, confident now to play a little rougher with Duke, grabbing the towel to rub on his head and neck. "I want to see if I can find any more hidden closets like the laundry cubby. But also, if Noel is staying, figure out how, or rather the order to get people awake safely."

"I let the kids know I would stay the night already," Noel nodded, he looked at Lana, "Megan was going to stay with them and those we saved in the bunker. Could you check up on them?"

"Sure," Lana finished up, patting Preston on his good shoulder, "Let everything dry naturally tonight and breathe. I'd recommend you stay here where it's clean and less likely to get an infection now that the first ones cleared up. Sleep on your good side and get Sturges to put new bandages on them before you come out."

"Are you going to be okay…?" Preston started to worry, looking back before trailing off as Lana laughed and his memory kicked in.

The young woman clasped her hands and leaned over to her right to look around the minuteman. "Preston. Luv. Brother. My friend. If anything wants to try and get near me with my Pack Sister as she gives me a piggybackride home? Whatever it is, its not going to be able to see the next morning."

Sturges bursted out laughing, for the first time in a long time he felt like it was really reall. Getting to have not so morbid amusement at his own fate, but more of seeing the look on his friend's face. Preston himself let out a defeated sigh, dropping his head down on the table, to the side of his half eaten bowl of dinner.

"Stay the night and take care of yourself son," Noel chuckled as he got up to put his dishes in the sink, but let the hovering Codsworth clean them as it seemed to make the Mr. Handy happy. "If you need it, I will call doctor's orders! Even if I had a doctorate in electrical engineering, I'm still a doctor."

Lana gave her new friend a hug, carefully, on his shoulders, before Sturges did as well. "Get some real rest where you're safe and comfy. Help Sturges with plans, and we can talk about prepping growing food later. Codsworth, where do you think we can find some of those blenders?"

"Pinelli's Bakery in town might be a likely place for kitchen goods." Codsworth offered as he put the few dishes up to dry on their spot. One optics focusing on Lana as she started to gather her things into a bag. "There might be some in the Fallon's store, both places I think were boarded up and stayed that way over the years."

"There's a surprisingly large amount of places that stayed boarded up." Noel noted, "More so out in a bit more rural areas like here. Have everything Lana?"

"Yeah, I think I left my jacket, bow and quiver in the entrance." Lana nodded. She glanced aground after a moment as if making sure she gathered and left needed things. At the sad look from Sturges, the woman snorted and dug into her small bag to put a soap bar back on the table. "Here, just in case you want to try and get more of the wasteland out of your skin with another shower."

"Yeeeaaaass," the young man made no effort to hide his satisfaction with the odd treat. Sturges did not even mind his newly degreased hair being ruffled. "Tell me what you need Lana, and I'll somehow find the ingredients for more of this soap. It's so nice."

"I'll check the batches of soap that the Abernathy's and I made in the bunker, it should be nearly cured." Lana laughed, as she tied her pack to her hip. "But I can do that for the next batch, in the meantime we'll make more lists!"

Noel hummed happily as he moved to walk with the young woman. Leading Duke back to Preston to keep them both distracted. It was a pleasant walk back to the entrance of the vault.

"Make sure Preston does get some sleep, yeah?" Lana half asked, worried about her new friend.

"Of course," Noel nodded, offering a small pill bottle to Lana before she went down the stairs. "And here, please take a Rad-X once you're up top. It felt like a small rad storm was trying to build up this morning."

"Thank you Noel." Lana smiled up at the living ancestor, grabbed her last things and headed to the lift. Sitting on it as Noel manned the controls.

She kept from shivering until it was completely dark in the lift. Oops, they had forgotten about turning the lift lights back on.

Oh well.

Lana pulled her jacket on, fiddling with her gear until she pulled her legs up to hold. Listening to the sounds of the lift with her eyes closed. Trying not to let some pestering thoughts seep in now that she was alone. It was still a relief when the hatchway opened and Lana was greeted by the all too familiar chuff of her guardian.

Valory hummed as she rose, walking over to curl around her small human. "My little one. Sad thoughts?"

Lana nodded, relieved though as she leaned against the deathclaw's forearms. Then snorted a laugh as Valor ducked her head to huff and do her equivalent of razzing against Lana's side. "Yeah, sorry. Just feeling…yeah. Sad."

Valory hummed a deep note, rubbing her forehead against her human. Not hard but just firm enough to make sure Lana was grounded. Shifting to mostly lay down and curling her tail around and waited.

"...I'm worried I'm not making any progress in finding the seed bunker." Lana admitted after a long while, hiding under the big cuddle. "...I miss home too."

Valory kept up her humming for another few moments before speaking. "Missing the pack home, our home, this is fine. Good thing, my Little One. A good sign of healthy mind I think. I miss… the pack home."

The deathclaw had to pause to take a few breaths as she focused on speaking clearly.

"I see no wrong in the…time-frames. Frame. Of looking for the… possible seed bunker." Valory gave another head rub, much softer this time. "What use is it to go looking, with no home to stay in? No food to keep growing for time here. Or food…for you to take on the trip back?"

"...thank you." Lana hugged the big head, reaching to rub a spot she knew Valory like behind the left horn. "Can… I have a ride back to the Co-op?"

Valory snorted, nudging her human charge as she shook her head. Trying to stay in an annoyed tone, but her amusement made it through. "Hatchling!"

Reviews!

Blazingwolffang: Thank you and omg thank you! that means a lot to hear