Back before the War, Sac-Town was known as Sacramento. Now it was a lawless, uncontrolled city. The problem was, it was a journey of several hundred miles, most of which was through the deep desert, and the best way to traverse it was as part of a caravan along an established route. There were watering stations along the way, but they catered to the caravans first and to individual travelers last, if at all.
Luckily, it was fairly easy to get a job as a caravan guard. For someone as well known as the Ghoul, the caravaneers would offer premium pay. Him and a well-trained, well-behaved dog like Dogmeat? He would ask for double.
The Ghoul got up early the next morning so as to avoid saying goodbye to Lucy, and made his way to the caravan post, Dogmeat at his heels, his new duster hanging from his shoulders like a piece torn out of night. He noticed several Wanted posters for Jael along the way, noting that someone had already crossed out the first bounty, for five thousand caps, and doubled it.
The picture, if it was at all accurate, showed a woman about whom most people would say, "She'd be a good-looking woman, if it weren't for the scar." Her left cheek was cratered like the moon, probably from acid or a shotgun blast since the rest of her face was alright.
Ordinarily he would have taken down one of the posters to pursue the bounty, but he had more important things to do.
However, when he reached the post…
"Oh, fuck no," he said in dismay.
Lucy had gotten there first.
"Oh, fudge yes," she retorted.
"What did you do? Plant a tracker on me or something?" he asked, glaring at her.
"No," Lucy glared back. "I planted it on her new collar." She pointed to Dogmeat. "Not that it would matter since I beat you here. I knew you were lying yesterday."
"How could you tell that?" he griped.
"Because as happy as you looked and sounded, it…didn't quite reach your eyes. So why don't you tell me what's really going on?"
"Goddamnit," he said.
As he headed for the Sac-Town sign, Lucy followed him. "Come on, I told you everything, didn't I?"
"Whether I wanted to know or not," he spat.
"Maybe I can help," she offered.
"Worry about yourself, all right, Vaultie? Look, our association has been dissolved. You want to sign on as a caravan guard, you do so at your own risk, understand?"
"Perfectly," she said.
They negotiated with the Happy Trails Caravan Company's caravan leader, and although Lucy's pay was much less than his, it was still higher than the average guard's pay, based on her knowing him. Even though he insisted they weren't a team.
"So, what happened with your daughter and your ex that you had to lie about?" she asked as they went into the low, dark bar which catered to caravaneers. She ordered two beers and a bowl of clean water for Dogmeat, sliding one beer his way.
"Oh, I saw my daughter. Just not the one I was looking for," the Ghoul sighed, and explained.
"She's a ghoul too?" Lucy asked when he finished. "In all the time we've traveled together, I don't think I've seen any ghoul children."
"If you think about it, you'll realize you've hardly seen any children, period, Vaultie. People who have them tend to live in the back of beyond."
"Why is that?" she asked.
"Safety. I remember a bounty I took, must be a hundred, hundred twenty years ago. A widower with two kids had to go out of town. The girl was ten, he told me, and the boy, three. He usually asked his one neighbor to watch them, but they weren't available so he asked the other neighbors.
"He was gone two days, and when he came back, his place was torn up, the neighbors were gone and so were both his kids. A few days later, he's combing the town asking about them and sees his son's shirt on a trash heap. It was hard to tell it was his son's because it was stiff with blood, but he recognized it. He never found a trace of the girl, but the trash heap was in the food market next to the butcher's stall."
"Oh, no." Lucy's eyebrows drew together with sympathy.
"He got his caps together and put up a bounty on the neighbors. I found them, collected on it, and the next day he went down to that butcher stall with a bunch of frag grenades strung together like grapes. Left quite a hole in the ground." He finished his beer.
"I don't know if I should say I'm sorry about your little girl being a ghoul or not," she confessed.
"Save it, smooth-skin," he waved it away.
"What are you going to do if—when you find Janey?" Lucy asked.
The Ghoul raised an eyebrow. "Nice save. I am going to find somewhere in the back of beyond, and give her the best life I can."
He could see by the expression on the girl's face that she had a lot of questions left unspoken, such as 'Do ghoul children grow like normal ones?' 'How will you help her cope with being a ghoul?' 'When will she have to start taking stabilizer or other chems like you do?' 'What if she never grows up?' 'What if she does and then finds out she can't have children?' 'What if you go feral while she's still little?'
He knew that because he was asking himself all those same questions, but right now was not the time to be worrying about any of those things. The time for that was when he found Janey. Right now, there were several hundred miles of bad road, along with stingwings, night stalkers, bark scorpions, tunnelers, and everything else the desert could throw at them. And that was just to start with…
A/N: A short one tonight.