Author's Note: I hope everyone is enjoying the story up to this point. Enjoy the chapter, and as always, reviews are welcome
When Mark, Veronica and Arcade stepped off the elevator to the Presidential Suite, Arcade looked around and gave a whistle. "Wow, this is quite a set-up you've got here. I always wondered what the inside of this place looked like. So, where is this lab that you promised that I could use?" "If I remember correctly, it's on the fifth floor. Veronica, could you show him to one of the empty bedrooms? I need to go have a chat with my wife." "You got it. Come on, Arcade."
As Arcade and Veronica walked down the hallway, Mark walked to his room and opened the door. He saw Amata sitting on the edge of the bed, staring blankly at the wall. She didn't notice him at first, so he slammed the door shut. That got her attention. She jumped a little, and slowly turned her head to look at him. "You know, it's funny," he said as he started to take off his armor and put it on the desk, "you grow up with someone, been best friends for twenty years, and you think you know everything about them. Their likes, their dislikes, their skills, and all that good stuff. You think you know what they're capable of, and then all of a sudden, they do something that leaves you dumbfounded."
"Mark-" "No, no," he said as he held up a hand to silence her, "let me finish. After you stormed off, Veronica asked me what happened, and for once, I didn't even have the slightest clue. So I began to think. Why would my wife, the love of my life, who wouldn't kill anyone unless it was in self-defense, kill someone who wasn't even remotely threatening them? Then I remembered what you said to Jacob. You said you saw firsthand what drug abuse can do to someone. Now, I don't do drugs, and I don't think anyone in Goodsprings did any drugs, so it must have been in the vault. So tell me, who was it? One of your friends?"
She continued to stare at the wall, and there was silence in the room for a few moments. Then she started to cry. Mark went over to the bed, sat down, and pulled her close. "It-it w-was my dad." She put her head on his shoulder and continued you to cry. "Your dad?" She nodded weakly. "A-a couple of months b-before everything went to hell-" He held up his hand to silence her again, and contorted his face like he was concentrating on something. He could hear whispers outside the door. He walked over to the door quietly, and could hear the whispers better. "…move, Veronica, I wanna hear what's goin' on…" "…you move, I was here first…"
Mark opened the door and they both stumbled a bit. "Is there something that I can help you guys with?" "Oh, hey Mark," Veronica said, clearly flustered, "we were just, um, walking by and, um, we were wondering…" "Guys," Mark said, "I know that you're concerned, and you wanna know what happened, but I'm trying to figure that out right now. So, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to have a private conversation with my wife. I don't want to be rude, but I need you to go somewhere else. Anywhere else, just not here." "Come on, Veronica," Cass said, "let's go get a drink. We're here if you need us, Captain." "Appreciate it, guys."
Mark closed the door and went sat back down on the bed. Amata had stopped crying, but her eyes were still a bit bloodshot. "Sorry. Now what were you saying?" "Umm, yeah, like I said, a couple months before you and your dad left, I found a bunch of pill bottles in the locked drawer in his desk. They were all painkillers, and there were a lot of them. I know for a fact that he didn't have any pain problems. He was just hooked on them. I knew he had changed, but I just thought that it was because of stress. I tried to confront him, but he wouldn't talk to me about it."
Mark started to rub her back. "Amata, why didn't you tell me?" "I thought that I was over it, but seeing that dealer made all those feelings come flooding back. I mean, it felt like he didn't even care about me anymore. It felt like all he wanted was to keep feeding us the lies that he had our entire lives. Even after you left the second time, it felt like he was purposely avoiding me." Silence permeated the air for a couple of minutes, and then Mark spoke. "I need to show you a couple of things. I wasn't sure about showing them to you, but I think that the situation dictates it." He let go of her and looked through his pip-boy. "The night that I came back, before I talked to your dad, I looked on his computer, and found these files. I copied them and then wiped them off the vault's server." He pulled up the first file and showed it to her. It was titled 'Rebels':
An alliance of rebels has formed in my vault, dedicated to the wholly destructive goal of re-opening the vault to the outside world. Amata and Edwin Brotch are the leaders of the band, with those ridiculous Tunnel Snakes making up its muscle, along with a handful of other youths and naïve idealists.
Attempts to isolate and demoralize the group are proceeding apace. Edwin Brotch has been jailed for his attempt to lead a direct attempt to open the vault's door, and their members have holed up in the old clinic and schoolroom. Their dwindling food supply and proximity to the dangerous "Dr. Andy" are sure to drain the morale from their rebellion, until they give up and they are welcomed back into our happy family again.
"Mark, I don't see how this helps. This only confirms my point." "Hang on. I have one more thing to show you." He pulled up another file, and this one was titled 'Amata':
It pains me dearly to know that Amata is behind the rebellious element in my vault. If she weren't their leader, it would be a simple matter to break their spirits and bring them back in line with the vault's time-proven isolation plan.
But with her as a central figure in their rebellion, I must refrain from the more persuasive tactics at security's disposal. I will not repeat the mistakes of that night again. The vault cannot afford it, and I cannot bear to drive my daughter further away from me.
Despite everything, I take great pride in her natural talent for leadership. When she inevitably comes around, I feel she will make a worthy successor to the position of overseer.
When she finished reading, tears began to form in her eyes again. "You see? Yes, he probably did change, and he believed that the rebellion was doomed to fail. Although with you in charge of the rebels, he probably should have known better than to doubt your leadership skills. Despite all of that, he still loves you, and I know you still love him. I hated that my dad didn't trust me enough to tell me to my face that he was leaving the vault, but I forgave him, because he was my dad and I loved him, and I still do. Both of our fathers made mistakes, and severe errors in judgement, but they're family, and you make allowances for family that you wouldn't make for anyone else."
"Oh god," she said, burying her face in her hands, "I feel like such an idiot." "Hey, you're not an idiot." "Yes I am. Did I ever tell you what I wrote in that note to my father?" "No. You said it was personal, and I respected your feelings, so I let it go." "Well, among other unflattering things, I told him that I didn't feel safe in the vault anymore, that I couldn't trust him anymore, and that he didn't care about me anymore." She looked at Mark and gave him a smile. "I also told him that I was going to find the only person I felt safe with, the only person I trusted absolutely and the person that I knew still cared for me, despite what happened between us."
"So you knew, even after what I said in the vault, that I still cared about you?" "Like you said, we've been friends for twenty years. One week of anger and regret can't come close to erasing that." They kissed. "Jesus, that night that you escaped, it feels like so long ago." "I know. We've both been through a lot of shit since then, but there's this saying that goes, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." "Yeah," said Amata, "but you were nearly killed a lot more than I was." "Yeah, I guess that makes me super strong, then." They both laughed.
"Do you remember when my dad interrogated me in his office that night?" "When he ordered Stevie Mack to assault you with a baton? Yeah, I remember." "You remember what you did right before he was about to hit me?" "Yeah. He was lucky I only shot him in the damn knee. The fact that your father would have his own daughter attacked made my blood boil." "Which is why you turned the gun on my father, and I pleaded with you not to hurt him." "You have no idea how close I was to pulling that trigger, but I knew if I did that and killed him, that it would have been the end of us, so I decided to just fire a warning shot to the right of his head instead. I think he got the point."
"When you protected me from getting hurt, and when you were merciful enough to spare my dad's life, I knew right then and there that I wanted to be with you forever. Which made it all the more painful when we were at the vault door and I told you that I couldn't go with you." "Well, if I knew the wastes were as dangerous as they were, I wouldn't have asked you in the first place." "You don't know how much I wanted to say yes. You remember the last thing you said to me before security came?" "You made me promise that I would be back, and I said that I would, and I always keep my promises."
Silence again permeated the room. "Thank you," Amata said. "I think talking about it helped." "Hey, I wouldn't be a very good husband if I didn't help you through things like this. In the future, if you need to talk, I'm always here to listen. If you get angry, there's a gym downstairs. Go hit a punching bag. Hell, hit me if you need to. Going around murdering people just because you have pent up anger isn't the way to go." "Yeah, I know. Um, those messages you showed me, why did you take them and then erase them from the server?" "Well, I was pretty sure I could convince your dad to step down, and I thought seeing those would have compromised you emotionally, and the vault needed you to be strong." "And you think that fight we had before you left didn't compromise me emotionally?" "Well, I didn't think that you would throw me out of the vault, but it all worked out in the end."
They both smiled and kissed. "Come on," Mark said, "it's time to eat." Mark put his arm around her shoulders and they walked to the door. When he opened it, he found that Cass and Veronica were eavesdropping again. "For the love of god," Mark said "can't we get any privacy in this place?" "Nope!" Veronica said, smiling. "Are you okay, Amata?" Cass asked. "Yeah," she said, looking lovingly at Mark, "I'm fine now."
Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Until next time.