3 - I don't know, angst maybe?
Cait nodded, and gently placed Nate on the ground, and ran to the doorway, when she went through she saw an old man in a white coat typing away at a console, "Are you Shawn?" She asked cautiously, the old man jumped then spun "Who are you?", he demanded in a wizened voice, "My name is Cait, I'm with your da, Nate, he's hurt really badly. He needs your help." That made Shawn go into action, "Show me where he is," as he followed Cait back through the doorway, "Father," he mumbled before running to a speaker box on the wall. "I need a medical unit to my quarters immediately, and prepare a surgery room, my father is in critical condition.", turning to Cait as she knelt besides Nate and held his hand tightly he heard her say quickly, "It's alright Nate, Shawn is getting you medical attention, you just make sure you live." Nate smiled at her as he raised his mangled hand to her face and placed it against her cheek, his fingers no longer wanting or able to move, "I will Cait, I promise, I can't let you down now.", he whispered back. She leaned closer and Shawn almost missed what she said, "I need you Nate, I really do love you," Nate gave a strangled cough causing more blood to splatter against Cait's face.
Leaning back up Cait took the deathclaw egg from where Nate's mangled hand had held it, she stood next to Shawn, "I wanted to meet you but not like this," she told him as she clutched the egg to her body, making sure it stayed safe. "Would it be possible for me to stay with him while he got better? It's what he wanted," she carefully asked Shawn, not taking her eyes off of Nate as he was loaded onto a stretcher. "I think I can arrange that for you and for him miss Cait," Shawn replied placing a comforting old hand on her shoulder, "I'll show you to my fathers quarters so you can get cleaned up. But I'm curious, why are you holding that egg like its part of my father?" Sighing she replied, "It's a long story that I think can wait long enough for me to get the raiders, mine and Nate's blood off of me those bastards got every bit of what they deserved from your da, and I don't want to keep tonight's awful reminder clinging to my skin any longer."
Nodding that he was fine with that he had Cait follow him, "If you would like I can arrange for some clean clothes for you to change into. Yours don't look like they could last another week out in the commonwealth." "That's fine, I do have a thing or two more to ask, but only when we're in private," she spoke as she glanced around at all the eggheads staring at her blood soaked body as they passed. In a matter of minutes they were standing in Nate's room within the institute, Cait had placed the egg on the bed and was staring at it unsure if she really wanted to ask now. "I can give you the full story later, but can you check this egg, see if it was possible that Nate, I mean your da, actually managed to impregnate a deathclaw." "Im sorry, he did what?," Shawn asked incredulously, "Like I said full story later, well all of what he told me at least. Don't destroy the egg, I think he would want to keep it around if it actually did happen. There's one more thing too, a personal thing for me."
Carefully touching the egg Shawn looked back at Cait, her head down staring at her feet in embarrassment, "Yes?", "I need to see if I can have a healthy child. I had done Pyscho for years before I met your da, and he helped me get clean at Vault 95, and we've been getting really close and I want to make sure I can give birth to a heathy child no addiction fuck ups or anything." Shawn smiled, "You really care for him don't you?", "Nate always said, 'Love is like alcohol, anyone can get drunk on it', and sweet Hades am I drunk. To me it's like he's the only clean air to breathe, I've seen how he was with other children out in the 'wealth and it made me realize that even if I had Nate with me forever I still would have had an empty hole in my heart." Placing his hand on her shoulder, "I'll see what I can do Cait, you get cleaned up then meet me back in my room, we'll have dinner and get to know each other while father is in surgery."
Cait nodded then touched the egg one last time, "I hope the momma deathclaw is alright, this was the last egg left, the raiders destroyed the other two and Nate had led her to some free food when this all happened. We were gonna keep her as a companion for the cottage and try and raise the eggs if they did have something in them." "You have my word Cait, and I'll see about checking on your problem as well, but after you've eaten, and from the looks of the blood pattern on your head, I might need to get you a medical as well, don't want you in a coma while father is healing." Cait just nodded and turned towards the shower not hearing Shawn leave she started the water flow, sighing as it hit her skin. Making sure she was alone Cait stripped and entered the hot flow, watching the blood on her body wash off and run down the drain.
She began to pray Nate would live as her eyes began to water with tears, pressing her hands to the wall, Cait sank down to the floor sobbing. "Nate, I'm begging you, don't die. I love you to much to go on without you.", she whimpered softly as the water began to hit the area of her head that was almost caved in when the raiders snuck up on her. Standing back up Cait grabbed the soap and began to scrub at the caked on dirt and leftover blood, she had to hope Shawn's people knew what they were doing and save Nate's life, not just for Shawn, but for her as well.
After cleaning herself throughly Cait left the shower and began to dry herself as she looked around Nate's room, she knew he would visit occasionally but she didn't realize he was there enough to decorate it with pictures of all his friends and the different settlements. Then there were several of both her and Nate usually hugging, love for the other hidden in their eyes. Next to his bed was one of just her smiling a laugh at him, she recognized it instantly, he took it a few days after they got her clean they were at his home in Diamond City getting absolutely smashed on his special brew, and they had just started flirting with each other. She smiled at her favorite picture of them though, he had his arms wrapped around her waist her fingers locked with his, his chin resting on her shoulder and head pressed against hers as they both had massive smiles on their soot and dirt covered faces, smoke was still drifting from his shoulder armor caused by the still flaming explosion in the background. 'We had just blown up a massive super mutant outpost with the Minutemen, made sure no one else could use it or come back to it.'
Her fingers traced Nate's handsome scared face before she held the photo to her naked chest, placing it back down Cait spotted fresh clothes to wear sitting on the bed. A blue t-shirt sporting a small Vault Tec symbol on the front with a large 111 on the back and some black blue jeans seemed to be the most normal thing she had seen in this place so far, donning the clothes Cait stepped carefully out of Nate's room and headed back to Shawn's room. Slowly entering the room Cait heard voices and quietly listened in, "Your father is going to be fine Shawn, but we have to rebuild the bone structure of his hand. Whatever he did practically destroyed every bone there, it's bad enough a stimpack wouldn't work.", a feminine voice said. "I figured as much when I saw it, I was horrified by it. Tell me Allie, are you using the metal plates or having to recreate the skeletal structure of the hand with solid metal? I only ask because I'm sure he'd want to know if it will effect what he does out in the commonwealth," Shawn's voice responded with a sigh.
Cait's heart clenched, 'Rebuild his hand? Was it really that bad?', "I have someone digging into his pre-war medical records for any old X-rays of his hand, we'll have to do a solid metal bone restructure, there's not enough bone left to put plates on. I'm going to suggest aluminum, it's light weight and sturdy." Figuring it was safe enough to come in since they were only discussing Nate's health Cait came to the door and knocked, "I'm not interrupting am I Shawn?" Shawn gave her a welcoming smile, "No, please come in. You'll be happy to hear father is doing ok so far, his hand is going to be problematic but we can fix it. He'll only have scars of the bullets that went into his chest I've had them saved in case he wanted them as a keep sake or to reuse them." "Thank god he's alright, but what's wrong with his hand, it wasn't that bad before was it?", Cait responded thankful Nate would live but still not knowing enough about his hand other than he pummeled a raiders head completely into the floor.
"His hand looked like it only needed to have the bones set, but when we went to do that, all that remained of his fingers where bone shards, chunks of cartilage and his tendons not even enough to fuse together.", the woman named Allie replied. "He did pummel a raiders head completely in, it looked like a bloody mashed pumpkin when he was done, he was furious when he did it to so he might have kept beating the bastards head in even after he was already slamming his fist into the floor," Shawn and Allie looked at each other at this, "That would explain the wood fragments that where found in his hand, but what could have caused him to do that?" Cait sighed, "If I'm gonna be telling this story I might as well include the the deathclaw thing as well. Does your friend need to stay here for all of it?"
"I don't need to stay if you feel uncomfortable with me being here, I can leave," Allie said knowing that that could be the cause for Cait's question. "It won't bother me, plus your story might tell us if there's anything else we need to look for while we have still him in surgery. But it's all your decision Cait," Shawn told her, placing another comforting hand on her shoulder. Not wanting her words to betray her, Cait nodded her approval, 'Whatever could help Nate I'll allow,' she thought as they all sat down. Cait then began the story that Nate told her as their food came, Shawn and Allie both were disturbed by the deathclaw mating just as Cait had been. Cait told them of the egg laying that terrified Nate, then the prank the claw and Nate both played on the raiders they came across which gave everyone a good laugh.
She spoke of their arraignment at the cottage, how she thought Nate was gonna be killed by the tamed claw, her help in enlarging the hole into a cave for the claw and the building of a nest. She told them of hers and Nate's confession of love, but left out how close they were to stripping naked and fucking right there. Then Nate taking the claw to a source of free food, and her going to check the eggs and grab his ruck sack. The blinding pain in the back of her head and the eventual black out, her waking up bound and gagged to a room of naked and aroused raiders ready to rape her. Her search for freedom or death when her eyes connected with Nate's, as he stood in the doorway, his armor and weapon dripping with blood from the other raiders he must have killed trying to find her.
Cait told them of the rage and fury he had as he slaughtered the raiders in the most cruel and gruesome ways that most people could only dream of doing to those bastards. She spoke of her fear for Nate when he got shot then her horror of Nate as he introduced one raider to his spine and pummeled anothers head into absolute pulp then the raider boss taking her hostage. Nate telling her to look him in the eyes telling her everything would be OK, which was their pre-arranged signal for her to go limp and get free. How he then tackled said raider to the floor and began to tear his intestines out through his belly button. Then the raiders last words before he went to cut her free and then began to comfort her, her words must have cut him deeply on how terrified of him she was at that moment. To him carrying her out the door and collapsing then to finally being here.
Cait took a drink of her water before drying her eyes, remembering her words and knowing how horrible she would have felt the rest of her life if those had been her last words to Nate. She then stood and went to the doorway ready to do anything else now that the story was over, "Cait your neck is bleeding again," Shawn called out to her causing her to touch the warm liquid on her neck and curse as she grabbed napkins to dull the flow, "If you go with Allie, she can give you that medical check you asked for, and I'll check on father for you." "I'd like that, thank you Shawn," as she began to follow Allie out the door into the main area of the Institute. Before she crossed the doors threshold Cait turned to look at Shawn, "When I get back we can get to know each other better, yeah?" "I'd like that very much, yes.", Shawn replied with a warm smile.
Following Allie out the door Cait sighed, 'Can't believe the bogeymen of the commonwealth are just a bunch of eggheads that don't wanna goto the surface.' "Shawn said you needed to get a medical, but he wasn't specific on what kind. Could you tell me what it was so I know what to look for?", Allie asked bringing Cait from her thoughts as she stepped into a private office. Looking around Cait replied softly, "I wanted to make sure that after all my years of Psycho addiction, and then my instant cleanse in Vault 95, if I could have a healthy child. I know Nate might want to have a little one again, and I'd love to have one with him after everything, but I want to make sure it's safe." Turning to look at Allie, Cait shrugged, "Other than that it would have to be a basic medical check up and making sure my concussion isn't severe, I don't want to go to bed then not wake up."
Allie gave a small laugh, "That should be easy enough to do, and if I may I'm glad I got to meet you. We've been begging him to bring you someday, not like this, but we did want to meet you. Shawn's father always talked about you a lot whenever he was visiting, we all ended up nick-naming you 'Nate's heart keeper'. " Cait was stunned, "Nate talked about me?", "Of course, all the time, like he never traveled with anyone else. He made it sound like, out of all the people out there, you where the only one that truly mattered. No matter what. Like a man in a rainforest with millions of puddles to drink from but only one that was clean and pure. I could always hear the love in his voice for you when he told us stories." Allie smiled, "Shawn and I always want to hear his latest tales from traveling the commonwealth when he visits. I could see the love in his eyes when he thought of you. Deep breath please." Cait smiled as she breathed, having Allie listen to her vitals, 'Nate's the perfect man for me. I just wish it hadn't taken me so long to see it.'
Eventually all of the tests for a regular check up where done, "Everything looks normal, you seem to be in peak health for someone your age and for living out in the commonwealth, now I just need to check your wounds before I do any other tests. Head is fine, your neck would've needed stitches if the knife had cut any deeper. I can put liquid stitches on it to keep it from opening back up, there will be a scar but not a noticeable one." Allie told Cait as she dug around in a drawer for the small bottle of liquid stitch, "I'm ok with that, we all have our own scars to bare, as trophies or as stories." Cait stated, using Nate's own words, a small laugh came from Allie, "Sounds like something Nate would say. Should've heard how pissed he got when someone here suggested using some of our medicines to clear up the scars from his skin, it was like telling someone to pluck out their own eyes because the color offended someone, according to Nate when I asked him."
Cait snickered at this, covering the sound of her hiss of pain when the liquid stitch stung at her neck. Once she was done Allie, put the bottle away "I'll need to draw some blood before I check your vaginal area, just to make sure there's no remnants of whatever sick Vault-Tec experiment you had to use to purge the lifetime drug use from your system." Cait was ok with this as she kind of expected it, but she was shocked at hearing someone besides Nate having such venom in their voice when it came to Vault-Tec, even she understood just how sick they were when they where in Vault 95. "I've never heard anyone besides Nate have such hatred for Vault-Tec, why do you hate them?", Cait asked pure curiosity fueling her question.
Allie sighed as she drew Cait's blood, "I started digging through all the Vault-Tec files when Nate's quest for Shawn finally had him come here, I saw every single one of their sick experiments as if I was there. I love science but what they did was not what they claimed, I didn't feel clean for a month after I read all the files, I still don't. They took a magnificent thing and bastardized the good thing it could have been, at least according to Nate 88 and 81 were a total failure for Vault-Tec because the Overseer actually had a conscience and refused to harm innocent people at 81 and he's in charge at 88." "Aye, up until that little twat Austin went somewhere he shouldn't have gone, we cleared the entirety of that unknown section just to find the cure. Bad thing was there was only one left, at least Austin got cured though, thank god we didn't get bit."
"Sounds like it would be a good story to tell," " What? He never told you all about that one? I'm surprised, that was one of our more interesting gunfights." Laughing Allie replied as she labeled the drawn blood, "Maybe you can tell it later, sounds like it would be fun." Allie then turned back to Cait, after reading a message on her console, "If you'd like we can hold off the exam for a while, Nate just got out of surgery and, even though he's a little groggy, he's asking for you." Cait perked up immediately, "Yes, please, I wanna see him. I need to convince myself he is ok, I keep thinking of everything going wrong and knowing what I told him when he saved me." Allie nodded in understanding, "Follow me then, Shawn is with him now."
Hurrying through the hallways of the Institute Allie and Cait came to Nate's room, "We don't have anywhere else to put people besides their own rooms here, we've never really thought we'd have to do major surgery and keep them in a hospital like area. When you're done visiting I can give you some instructions to make sure he stays ok, since you'll be sharing the room with him." At Cait's questioning look Allie added, "It'll be simple stuff, plus you two are pretty much connected at the hip, someone has to keep an eye on him while he heals." Cait nodded then, "I understand," "I'll be waiting out here for you when you're done, you have some time with your man."
"Thank you," Cait whispered her hand squeezing Allie's arm as she entered Nate's quarters, she saw Shawn and Nate talking softly without noticing her. "Nate," she breathed, Shawn heard her and turned with a smile, "Hello again Cait, I assume Allie told you father asked for you?" Cait nodded stepping farther into the room, once she was standing next to Shawn she heard Nate's voice, raspy and tired, "Hey Cait, I kept my promise didn't I?" Tears threatening to fall from her eyes, Cait didn't even notice Shawn move out of the way so she could be closer to his father, "I'm glad you did," she said as she knelt next to the bed and held his good hand tight, "I would've kicked your ass if you hadn't."
She brought his hand to her lips and kissed his knuckles before brushing the back of his hand against her cheek, a hand reaching out to brush his hair from his eyes. Her tears finally falling freely, "I'll be outside if you need me Cait," Shawn said as he patted her shoulder. "Wait," she said as she stood, placing Nate's hand down, she walked up to Shawn and gave him the biggest hug she could, "Thank you Shawn, for saving him.", she murmured softly. Shawn only chuckled as he patted her back as he returned her hug, "Take as long as you need with father, but don't forget he will need some sleep." Letting go of Shawn, Cait went back to Nate's side, holding his hand tight again, Shawn closed the door as his father quietly said, "Cait, dry your tears, please, I don't like seeing you cry, it makes my heart hurt."
Cait could only laugh, as he tried to dry her tears with his thumb, raising his hand back to her lips again before leaning her cheek against his hand, "You silly man, I'm happy I love you." Her free hand began to stroke the scars on his face lightly, and occasionally drag her fingers through his loose hair. Getting off her knees for a moment Cait put her face near his, brushing her lips against his cheek gouge scar before she buried her face in his neck, tightly gripping his hand as she began to cry again. "I'm sorry Nate, I'm so sorry. I wish I had never said those words, I would've felt like the worst person in the world if you had died and I didn't apologize for what I said." Nate was mildly confused for a moment, "What words? That you love me?"
Cait laughed, "No you twit, what I told you after you cut me free. How I was terrified of you at that moment and didn't know if I was right for that feeling." Nate grinned, "I think it's ok to feel that, especially after what you had just seen me do. At least you knew you were safe though, or else you never would've thrown yourself into my arms. You knew I wasn't gonna hurt you, but I'd do everything I possibly could to save you." Nate paused, "Look at me babe," he waited till her eyes were locked with his, "If I had to do all of that again, I wouldn't change how I did it other than grabbing some of my chest armor that had the ballistic weave. Then I wouldn't have had bullets in my chest, I just would've had massive bruises."
Raising his head he kissed Cait's lips, causing her to smile, "That's what I was looking for," he smirked before pressing his forehead against hers. Both heaving a sigh of relief at being together again, Cait then stood tall before carefully climbing onto the bed next to him. Her body pressed alongside his as she laid down next to him, her head laying against his uninjured shoulder. Nate laid his head against hers as she snaked her left hand down to wrap their fingers together and her right hand carefully placed on the bandages of his chest. "Cait," "Yeah," "How do you feel about us?" It was an innocent enough question after all, and he really wanted to know the answer.
Cait twisted her head around to look him in the eye, moving her hand to his heart fingers tapping lightly where they lay as she replied, "You don't have to ask me that. You just have to listen to your heart Nate." He smiled placing his bandaged hand over hers, "Good, I wanted to know cause I, well I kinda wanted to do one really important three part plan thing I have with you in Diamond City. It can wait till I'm better though," he kissed her forehead. "Goddamn gutter mind Nate," Cait laughed, "It wasn't specifically that Cait. It's something that has a lot of meaning for me." Cait's grip on his hand tightened for a fraction of a second, "Then I guess I'll just have to wait to find out won't I?" Nate lifted his arm and let Cait slide closer as she nuzzled her cheek against his shoulder again, while he placed his hand on her ribs, and yawned, Nate smiled before yawning himself, "Sleep love, we both need it. I'll be here when you wake up."
Cait gave a small nod as she drifted off to sleep Nate soon behind her. Neither heard the door slide open as Shawn stepped inside, seeing Cait and his father cuddled together in sleep made him smile. Crossing the room to the dresser Shawn pulled out his fathers camera and quickly took a picture, knowing his father would like it. Placing the camera back Shawn quickly scribbled a note for Cait before throwing a blanket over them. As he left the room he glanced back at his fathers genuinely happy smile before he shut off the lights to let them to sleep peacefully.