Author's Note: I hope that everyone is doing well, and that you are all enjoying the story up to this point. Enjoy the chapter, and reviews are welcomed.

Eventually, Amata calmed down enough to the point where she was able to fall back asleep, albeit while clinging to Mark. Mark didn't mind in the slightest. If that's what she needed to calm down, then so be it. Once Mark saw that she was asleep, he tried to sleep himself, but he got maybe another hour at most. It was like his brain wouldn't shut down for the night. He was starting to have second thoughts about this whole thing, but he shook those away. He was doing this for her, and the baby, to keep both of them safe, just like he did for her in DC. It was going to be painful to leave her here by herself, just like he realized it was painful for her to kick him out of the vault, and just like her kicking him out, this needed to be done.

Mark checked his pip-boy: 5:20 am. He decided to get up, so he slowly peeled Amata's arm off of him, got out of bed, and went into the bathroom. He turned on the light, and looked in the mirror. He realized that he should probably shave off his goatee, because the Legion didn't seem like a group of people that supported individuality. So he applied some shaving cream, and using a straight razor, he shaved it off. Once he was done, he examined himself. The last time he didn't have the goatee, he hadn't left the vault yet. When he went back into the room, the light on Amata's side of the bed was on, and she was sitting up against the headboard. He sat down next to her and kissed her on the cheek.

"You feeling alright, babe?" "Yeah, I'm fine. I don't think I've ever had a dream like that before." "It's alright. I've had nightmares every now and then, and they're scary at first, but then you wake up and realize that it was only a dream, and there's nothing to be scared of." She smiled. "Once I realized that you were still next to me, I knew that there was nothing to be scared of." "Well, you're welcome. Go back to sleep. You don't need to be up." She waved him off. "I said that I was going to see you guys off, and I still intend to." "Ok, but you might want to brush your teeth first, or you'll kill us all with that morning breath before we even leave," he said, semi-seriously. "You're one to talk. Your breath isn't exactly minty fresh at the moment."

(30 minutes later)

Everyone had gotten up, gotten what they needed, and were now waiting in the elevator while Mark talked to Amata, who was in the hall, facing the elevator. "Alright," Mark said to her, "we're leaving now. Once we clear out the camp, I'm gonna have to take off my pip-boy, but I'm gonna leave it with Veronica, okay?" "Okay." "You can track me now, so you'll know exactly where we are. If you need to talk, don't hesitate to call me. Once I leave to go into the Fort, I'll let you know, and I'll do the same once I get back. If you feel like going out, please stay on the Strip." "You better come back in one piece, you hear me?" "Hey, what have I told you? I'll always come back."

His voice dropped to barely above a whisper so only she could hear. "Plus, you know that this isn't the first time I've had to go undercover. Remember what I told you about the Pitt?" She nodded. "Don't worry. I'll be fine," he said, his voice returning to normal. "Mark, I'm your wife. It's my job to worry about you." There was silence for a moment. "I love you," Mark said as he kissed her. "I love you too." "Hey," Cass said from the elevator, "let's get this show on tha road already." Mark and Amata both chuckled. He looked in her eyes. "I'll be home for dinner. I promise." "You want me to make anything?" "If you do, just keep it simple. Remember the last time you tried to cook something fancy?" "I told you, that was an accident. Besides, the fire didn't do that much damage to the house." "You sound just like Moira Brown. Just don't burn this place to the ground, alright?" He gave her another kiss and walked into the elevator. Amata waved at them until the door closed, leaving her in an empty suite.

Once they had left, she made some breakfast and did a little bit of reading. Once she got tired of reading, she put the book down and wondered what else she could do. She found the quietness of the suite a bit unnerving. Growing up in the vault, there was always someone to talk to, whether it was Mark, one of her other friends, or even some of the adults. Even when she came out here with Mark, she would talk with Sunny when they patrolled Goodsprings together. Mark was always willing to listen to her if it was just the two of them, although she was pretty sure that half the time he wasn't really listening, just nodding and agreeing with everything she said. She looked around her and Mark's room. Never in a million years did she think she would ever be living in a place like this, or that a place like this would still exist. She just assumed that she would be living in the vault her entire life, like she had assumed that everyone else had, before Mark and his dad escaped and opened a Pandora's Box of lies and deception.

She looked down at her slowly expanding stomach, and she started to think about the baby again. Even though Mark tried to reassure her that she would be a great mom, she still had her doubts. 'Raising a kid before the war must have been so much easier, with actual laws that prohibited maniacs from running around the streets with guns,' she thought to herself. She put her hands on her stomach and started talking to the baby. "Hey there, little one. You don't know it yet, but, um, I'm your mom. Your dad isn't here right now. He's gone off, trying to make this world just a bit safer for the both of us. He has a tendency to do that sort of thing. He's actually very good at it, but that doesn't mean I don't worry about him constantly, and one day I'm fairly certain he's gonna drive me to insanity. He's also a bit overprotective, sometimes to a fault. I suppose that's not necessarily a bad thing, though. I know that he would move heaven and earth to keep the both of us safe. We are both very lucky to have him."

She looked at her pip-boy: 7:22 am. She wanted to go out, but it was still kind of early for her, so she decided to explore the rest of the hotel. She decided to check out the clothing shops that were on the second floor. There were three separate clothing stores, one for men, one for women, and one for babies and children. There were signs advertising various sales on the windows that faced out into the main corridor. She looked around the men's store first, and saw some shirts that she thought Mark would look good in. After looking around in there for a bit, she went into the women's store. There were a lot of things that she thought she would look good in. They had all types of clothes. She saw the section that had dresses. 'Veronica would probably have a field day if she ever came down and saw all of those,' she thought.

She came to a section that had some very…sexually provocative nightwear. She looked through them. "If I wore any of these, there's no way Mark would be able to keep his hands off of me." She picked out a couple that she really liked and put them over her arm. She decided that she would give him a nice surprise when he got back. She looked to her right, and saw the maternity clothing. She realized that she would need some of those sooner rather than later, since all of her clothes were made for someone with a trimmer figure. She also found it kind of funny that these two sections would be right next to each other, as someone wearing the sexy nightwear would probably lead to someone needing the maternity clothing.

She went back up to her room and put the clothing she picked out onto the bed. After working out for about an hour in the gym, she decided to take a bath. She hadn't taken a bath since she left the vault, although this bathroom was a hell of a lot nicer. She let the tub fill up, and added some soap that was sitting on a shelf next to the tub. Once it was full, she turned off the water, and stripped out of her clothing. She got the radio that was sitting on the desk in their room, and put it on the edge of the sink. She turned it on, took off her pip-boy, and put it next to the radio. As the music on the radio began to play, she slid down into the tub, and let the warm water envelop her. She could feel the muscles in her body relax. She laid back, closed her eyes, and smiled, 'Yep,' she thought, 'I could definitely get used to this.'

(1 hour later, somewhere in the Mojave)

Mark checked his pip-boy. They were about two hours from Cottonwood Cove. He also checked where Amata was, and saw that she was still in the 38. Most everyone had been chatting to pass the time until they got to their destination. Arcade was walking to the right of Mark, and Mark noticed that he looked a bit apprehensive. "Hey, Arcade, you alright?" Mark asked. He gave Mark what looked like a forced smile. "I'm ok. It's that I didn't think that I would ever willingly march to Caesar's front door. Hell, I just met you two days ago, and now I'm helping you kill a bunch of slavers, not that they don't deserve to die, of course. Remind me why I'm doing this again?"

"He got you access to a world-class laboratory to help the Followers," Veronica interjected. "Oh, right." "Arcade," Mark said, "don't worry. You'll be high above the Cove. I'm the one that actually has to infiltrate the Fort." "Right. I still think you're a bit insane for doing this, but I suppose you have your reasons." "Yeah, I do. The only reason that I need is back at the 38 right now."

(Same time, Lucky 38)

Amata opened her eyes and looked around. The bubbles in the tub had all but disappeared, and the water felt lukewarm. 'Huh,' she thought, 'I must have fallen asleep.' She got out of the tub and checked her pip-boy: 10:15 am. She got a towel out of the closet, wrapped it around herself and went back into their room. After getting changed, she decided that she wanted to go out. She remembered that Mark said to stay on the Strip, but she wanted to check out that building in Freeside that had all of that purple neon. Plus, she reasoned, she never actually promised Mark that she would stay on the Strip. She headed towards the elevator, before she remembered that Mark could see where she was now, and he would check in with her before he had to take his pip-boy off.

She realized that she would have to wait until Mark took it off to go out. If he knew that she was in Freeside, he might get distracted worrying about her. Unsure of what to do now, she looked around the room, and decided to do some cleaning. She made the bed, and gathered their dirty clothes. There had to be somewhere to do laundry in this place. She chuckled. "Look at me. Married for two days and I'm already acting like a housewife."

(11:55 AM, Cottonwood Cove)

The six of them stood (or floated, in ED-E's case), on the sniper's nest that Boone had told them about. There was evidence that someone had been here before, with an extinguished campfire and some camouflage netting propped up on a couple of stakes. Mark had a sneaking suspicion that it was probably Boone had probably left this stuff, but he didn't say anything. They were very high up. The Legion soldiers looked like ants from up here. Mark took some binoculars out of his bag and studied the area. The road leading into the Cove was lined with crosses, and Mark could make out some skeletons on a few of them.

He looked into the Cove itself. He could see a two-story building with some sort of cage next to it, presumably where they kept the slaves, but Mark couldn't see any. There were some tents on one side of the building, and there were some derelict buildings on the outskirts of the area. He looked towards where Cottonwood Overlook was, and was about to put the binoculars down, when he did a double take. "Mark," Veronica said, "you ready to do this?" Mark didn't answer as he kept the binoculars fixated on the Overlook. She tapped Mark on the shoulder, and that brought him out of it. "What?" "I asked if you were ready?" "Oh, yeah, I am, but I think we may have lucked out." "How would that be?" she asked. "Look at where I'm pointing. What do you see?" She took the binoculars, and looked. She could see a tractor trailer barely hanging over the edge of the overlook, and on the side it read, "San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station." "Ok, I see that truck, but I'm not sure what you're getting at." she said. "Hey," said Cass, "you wanna tell the rest of us without binoculars what you're talking about?" Mark spoke.

"Hanging over the edge of the overlook is what appears to be an old truck from a nuclear generating station. Given the size of the trailer, it's entirely possible that there is some nuclear waste in there. If we can get that door open, we can let the nuclear waste flood the area, making killing them that much easier." Everyone was staring at Mark like he was crazy. "What?" "Uh, Mark," Arcade said, "if we do that, how the hell are you going to get into the Fort? Assuming that the truck is filled to the brim, that much radiation would kill you, and rad-x won't really do much." "Yeah," said Veronica, "you'd die before you got halfway to the docks." Mark was hesitant to reveal more about his past, but the proverbial cat was out of the bag.

"Yeah, that won't be a problem. I'm sort of…immune to radiation." There was silence for a few moments before Cass spoke. "I'm sorry, I think I jus' heard ya say that yer immune to radiation." "I did." "How is that possible?" asked Veronica, "I mean, if you're a ghoul, then you're the best looking ghoul I've ever seen." She picked at his skin. "Please stop that. I'm not a ghoul. Back east, I was involved in an accident that involved radiation. Long story short, the radiation bonded with me and now I'm immune. Now, it doesn't heal me like it would a ghoul, and as far as I know, I still age normally, it's just that I won't get sick from it." Mark only knew about this immunity because the Brotherhood noticed anomalies in his blood when they tested him while he was in a coma.

"Mark," Arcade said, "when we get back to the 38, do you think I could take some blood samples? The implications of this could be huge!" He sounded excited. "No, Arcade. Whatever I have stays with me." "But-" "No, Arcade." Mark went into his bag and pulled out a small silver tin. He opened it, and inside were a bunch of small, round, pinkish things. Mark took one out and put it in his ear. "What're those?" Cass asked. "Wireless ear pieces. They'll allow us to communicate with each other. Before you ask, I found them scavenging. Now they're all tuned to the same frequency, so we should have no problem keeping in contact." Everyone grabbed one and put them in. "Ok," Mark said, "Boone will stay up here, and the rest of us will go down to the truck. If there is no nuclear waste in the truck, we proceed with the original plan. Otherwise, we let the waste fall and send these bastards to hell."

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Until next time.