Chapter Text
Lucy trudged through the ruins of the city, her eyes boring into the Ghoul’s back. He had hardly said a word to her since she agreed to come with him. She didn’t know what she had expected. There hadn’t been time to think about it enough to expect anything, but this silent treatment wasn’t it. He talked to the dog more than her. Not that there was much she really wanted to talk to him about. Just one thing, really.
“So, we’re just not gonna talk about what happened last time?” she asked.
The Ghoul didn’t even bother looking back at her. “What’s there to talk about?”
Lucy crossed her arms and turned her glare up a notch. “You tied me up, dunked me in a radioactive river, dragged me across the desert with no water except for a dirty puddle that was probably animal pee, cut my finger off, and sold me to organ harvesters!”
“And you got yourself outta there in one piece, and with a brand new finger to boot.”
“I wouldn’t call it brand new,” Lucy muttered. Honestly, she was surprised the graft had taken, considering the finger still looked necrotic. “And that’s not the point! I wouldn’t have been in that situation in the first place if it wasn’t for you!”
He finally turned around. Lucy stopped. She had no intention of getting any closer to him than she had to.
“I wouldn’t have had to resort to that if you hadn’t busted up all my vials!”
“Which wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t been using me as bait!” Despite Lucy’s intention to keep her distance, they stalked towards each other. As if she didn’t know who would win if it came to a fight.
“And let’s not forget you chomped off my finger first!” He pointed it at her, making her wonder how he had replaced it. She ignored that question for now.
“I was defending myself!”
“And I was tryin’ not to go feral!”
“You might as well have been! No, you were worse ! You knew what you were doing! You knew it was wrong! And you f***ing did it anyway!” She was just out of arm’s reach of him now. Far too close. “Whoever you’re looking for are you sure they’ll even want to be found by someone like you ?”
He grabbed the front of her shirt and hauled her up so her face was less than an inch from his. “You don’t get to talk about my family!” he dropped her and strode away, leaving her with her ass in the radioactive dirt.
Tears stung Lucy’s eyes. Her hands curled into fists, gathering up dirt. One found a rock. She considered throwing it at him. There was no point escalating the situation. The dog followed him like nothing happened. Wasn’t that the same one he stabbed in Filly? Stupid mutt didn’t have any sense. Well, she did.
Lucy took a deep breath, swiped the spittle from her face, stood, brushed herself off, and announced, “I’m leaving.”
He didn’t stop. “You’ll get yourself killed on your own.”
“I seriously doubt there’s anything out there more dangerous than you.”
“Fine.”
“Okie Dokie,” Lucy sighed and started walking in a random direction. Getting back on course could wait until she had put some distance between herself and him. She didn’t need him, anyway. She had been surviving on the surface for weeks now. Granted, most of that wasn’t on her own, and she had made one mistake after another, but she had survived. She never should have agreed to come with him. It had seemed like she had little choice, but after what happened with her dad and Max, she wasn’t thinking clearly. She had seen what the Ghoul was like. Having the same or compatible goals didn’t change that. He didn’t even want to acknowledge what he had done, let alone apologize. Had she really expected him to? Her pace slowed as her anger faded. She should have known better than to push him like that. It changed nothing he had done, it didn’t make it better, but she should have known better. And that comment about his family… It wasn’t even really him she was angry at. That was her father. The Ghoul had just been unlucky enough to be there when she was ready to lash out. Because he was the one who hadn’t left her behind.
Something moved by the remains of a building. Lucy froze, staring. A purple lizard slithered out. Lucy took a step back. The lizard moved closer, sniffing. Lucy reached for her gun. The lizard stood on its hind legs, nearly as tall as her. Lucy backed away, drawing her pistol. A frill spread around its neck, and it spat fire. She screamed.
#####
The Ghoul stalked through the remains of the city alone. That was all right. After over two hundred years, he was used to being alone. Well, not quite alone anymore. Dogmeat trotted up to him. Not paying much attention to whether the long, thin object in her mouth was a stick or a bone, he took it and tossed it in the general direction he was going. She took off after it. He took a swig from his canteen of whiskey. It was early in the day to start drinking even for him, but he needed the distraction.
The problem wasn’t that Lucy had left. He couldn’t blame her for that. In another life, if he had seen a man drop a girl on her ass, he would have slugged the guy and offered her a ride out of there. Maybe that damn golden rule of hers got under his skin because it reminded him that there was a time when he believed it. But that wasn’t the problem either. Not at the moment, anyway. The problem was that she had asked exactly the question that had been worrying him. Not that he let himself think about it much. Still, it had been there in the back of his mind, ever since he had stopped caring about being a good person and just started doing whatever it took to survive. And find them. Even if that meant being the bad guy. He told himself the answer didn’t matter. Until the moment came, there was no way to know. But he was afraid he did. Even if he didn’t, he knew that the man he was two hundred years ago would never have let someone like him anywhere near his little girl.
Lucy screamed. A gun fired. Dogmeat barked toward the ruckus. The Ghoul kept walking. She had made her choice. She would have to live with the consequences. More gunshots. Another scream. The Ghoul paused. She could take care of herself. He knew that. The image of her outside the Super Duper Mart was burned into his memory. Covered in blood not her own, carrying a weapon she definitely hadn’t had when he sent her in. A warrior goddess standing over him in judgment.
She screamed again. “Aw fu—c’mon!” he ran towards her, Dogmeat at his heels.
Between the noise and the dog, she wasn’t hard to find. Surrounded by fire geckos, she had gotten herself backed up against the wall of a crumbling building. At least they wouldn’t be able to sneak up behind her. One of them sprang forward. Lucy shot it down. A few more lay scattered on the ground. The Ghoul counted. Damn! She would need to reload after that one. He drew his rifle. Lucy fumbled with her pack, trying to reach her ammo. Another Gecko spit fire. Lucy shielded her face. Dogmeat growled. “Stay!” She obeyed, but she continued growling, eager to be set loose. Yeah, that wasn’t gonna happen. They’d bar-b-cue her before she got close enough to use her teeth. A gecko charged. The Ghoul fired. The gecko fell. The others turned their attention to this new threat. Shit. A few of the geckos broke from the group to charge him. Dogmeat barked. The Ghoul fired. Lucy started firing again. Must have reloaded while they focused on him. Now he had to reload. He ducked behind the closest piece of rubble just in time to avoid a streak of flame. A shot fired, followed by a very satisfying thump as the gecko hit the ground. It shouldn’t have surprised him. He jumped back out and started firing. Lucy reloaded again while he covered her. A few minutes later, the fire geckos were gone. Lucy slid down the wall to sit in the dirt.
The Ghoul took a puff from his inhaler and made his way over to her. “Now how did you mange to get yourself surrounded by a bunch of fire geckos?”
“It was just one at first!”
“What part of everything up here wants to eat you do you not understand?”
Lucy pouted and looked down. “It’s not like I was trying to pet it. They came out of nowhere.”
The Ghoul took a breath and surveyed the scene. Dogmeat had wasted no time tearing into a carcass. “At least we got dinner out of it.”
Lucy looked up. “We?”
The Ghoul shrugged. “Why not? There’s plenty here. You took down most of them yourself. Might as well split it. Even if you are still hell-bent on going solo.” He turned back to Lucy. “You’re right about one thing, Vaultie, I’m just about the most dangerous thing out here. Which means the other monsters know to leave me alone.”
She gave him what she no doubt thought was her fiercest glare. A chihuahua facing down a wolf. “I hate you.”
He smirked. “I know.” He offered her his hand. “But I’m the one who can get you through the Wastelands alive.”
She took his hand.
#####
It surprised Lucy that the Ghoul didn’t demand she help prepare the meat. He just got to work butchering the lizards himself. She wondered if it was because he had forced her to help make jerky out of that other ghoul, if he was trying to prove this time would be different. Not wanting to just stand around, and feeling she should meet him halfway she built a fire. By the time she had done that he had enough meat cut up for her to start on the jerky. They continued working like that until he got to the last lizard, then she banked the fire, and found a slab of sheet metal to lay across the coals, tossing meat on it to cook. The Ghoul even pulled some seasonings out of that bottomless bag of his. Lucy tried not to think too much about what else he may have used them on. Still, she had to admit it was the best meal she had had on the surface so far. Even though they ate in silence.
She couldn’t blame him for not wanting to talk to her. She was surprised that he came to help her after their fight. After what she had said. She had heard what he asked her dad. She knew he was looking for his family, that he had been for over two hundred years. To suggest they didn’t want to be found was just as cruel as anything he had done to her.
Lucy looked across the fire to where the Ghoul was petting the dog. “I’m sorry,” she blurted. “About what I said before.”
He looked up at her, studying her. Probably trying to figure out if she was serious. “You weren’t wrong.”
“That doesn’t mean I should have said it.”
The Ghoul sighed. “I reckon I owe you an apology too. For droppin’ you on your ass, and…” he waved a hand, “everything else.”
Lucy nodded. “Thank you. But if this is going to work, it can’t happen again. And that goes for me too.”
“I’d say sellin’ you for parts is worse than sayin’ somethin’ a little mean-spirited.”
“At least you were trying to survive. I was just being mean.”
“You really just wanna pick a fight don’t you?”
“No I’m—” she cut herself off. She was making the point for him.
“To tell you the truth, I was kind of glad to see you got some bite to you.” He smirked and held up his hand, wiggling the trigger finger. “Of course I already knew that.”
Lucy stared at him and burst out laughing. “That has got to be the worst dad joke I’ve ever heard!”
The Ghoul chuckled and mumbled something about being out of practice while he lit a cigarette.
“Should I take a watch?” Lucy asked, more to steer away from the touchy subject than anything else.
The Ghoul shook his head. “Dogmeat will let us know if there’s trouble.” He patted the dog on the head.
She would have been more surprised if he called it Fluffy.
“Besides, I don’t need as much sleep as you do.”
“Should we keep going, while it’s not so hot?”
He took a draw from the cigarette. “Problem is just about everything else out there had the same idea, and it all—”
“Wants to eat us. I got it.”
He gave her that infuriating smirk. Why did it seem familiar? “Nice to know you can learn after all.”
“I was top of my class back in the vault!”
“Sure you were, Sweetheart, they just didn’t teach you nothin’ that does you any good out here.”
He had a point there. “Why did you offer to let me come with you? You clearly don’t need my help. You could have left me at the observatory, or when those lizards showed up.”
“They’re called fire geckos. You could have left me back at the Mart, or finished me off yourself. Hell, you had a right to. I would’ve in your place. But you didn’t.” He puffed on his cigarette. “Guess I thought I owed you for that.”
Lucy smiled. “Thank you.” Chalk one up for the Golden Rule.
“Doesn’t make us friends,” he muttered.
Lucy had to agree with him there. They weren’t friends by any stretch of the imagination. But at least now she didn’t feel like he could turn on her any minute. Maybe up here that was the best she could hope for.
#####
Norm slapped his Pip-Boy. He had lost track of how many messages he had sent to Chet, with no response. He couldn’t even be sure the messages were getting through; the thick lead-lined walls of the vault could very well be blocking the signal. Even if he could get to the computer the robobrain, Bud Askins, used to communicate with Overseer Betty, Chet didn’t have access to the other end of that line. He was going to have to get himself out. Hacking the door with his Pip-Boy was his only option. Which was why he was slapping it. As if that would help. The terminal by the cryo pods wasn’t much help either. It seemed to mostly contain files on the people in them, which could be useful if he actually got out of here, but escape was his first priority.
“Come on, come on,” he muttered, which also wasn’t helpful.
“That’s not going to work,” the robobrain behind him insisted. “Really, if you don’t want to starve to death, entering a pod is your only option. Of course, if you’re stubborn enough to refuse it’s your own fault. I would just rather not have to clean up the mess.”
Norm ignored him. Finally, he was in. A menu appeared. Open 31? Norm hit yes. A pneumatic hiss signaled success.
The door stayed closed.
Norm heard Bud Askins fretting behind him. “Oh no! First an intruder, now an unscheduled release from cryo! What else could go wrong!”
Oops. At least whoever came out might help him. Norm turned around.
A small figure huddled on the floor.
“Really miss, I must insist you get back into your pod at once!” The robobrain circled the little girl, tugging at her vault jumpsuit.
“Hey! Leave her alone!” Norm shouted.
The girl jumped. The bot backed off.
“Just give her a minute.”
The bot rolled back and forth. “This is getting out of control. I can’t leave her out here. I’m contacting Betty.”
“Yeah, you do that,” Norm muttered as the bot zoomed off to whatever private corner he would send the message from. He turned toward the girl. “Sorry if I scared you.”
She stared at him with wide dark brown eyes. “Where am I?”
Norm slowly moved toward her. “Vault 31. I got stuck in here. I was trying to get out and accidentally opened your pod instead of the door. Sorry I woke you up.”
“Woke me up?”
“Yeah. You’ve been in cryo sleep.”
“How long?” The poor girl couldn’t have been more than six years old.
“As far as I can tell about two hundred years or so.”
“Two hundred! What about my Daddy? My mom…”
Norm motioned to the rows of pods. “They’re probably here.”
She shook her head. Ice crystals clung to her mass of black curls. She shivered. Norm knelt next to her and tentatively wrapped an arm around her in an effort to share body heat.
“My name is Norm, by the way. What’s yours?”
“Janey.”