the pier.

[doubletap]

Let him just say it now--the kid had a lot of problems.

I mean, not really a surprise or anything--Alex had found him dried out in a desert, for crying out loud--but god damn.

Let’s recap.

Alex Seattle Geer found himself in love with a Vault brat from the Capital Wasteland with a daddy complex the size of Hoover Dam. Said kid loves him back--sometimes. Said kid would probably rather put another bullet between Alex’s eyes rather than spend time with him, and didn’t this just go to show it. Neil leaves to check up a rumor, said he’d be back shortly--shortly became two days and by then Dogmeat was back, meaning Neil took off somewhere he was worried the dog would get hurt at. Two days turn into two weeks and counting, and by then, Alex has tracked Neil’s steps, found the fucking pier, the fucking tool of a woman looking for her child, and all of the pieces are too easily placed.

Neil left for Point Lookout. And Alex, ED-E, and Dogmeat are left hanging in the wind.

Alex has been fucking camping on the dirty sand and shit next to that pier, waiting for that stupid kid to come back on that stupid ferry the woman told him about. Tobar the fucking Ferryman, and Alex feels like shooting the asshole just for submitting to Neil’s request. Probably not the guy’s fault, but-- Hell. Yeah. He didn’t traipse all over the goddamn country just to be left in the dust. Is the kid even coming back? Who fucking knows.

Alex will just.

Wait here.

Until Neil comes back.

Yeah, that’s not pathetic at all.

Comments

[goodfight]

There's relief that comes in a helping hand and an open coat, but Neil barely processes the facts. He watches Alex for a beat before closing his dark eyes, as though giving his assent. Before the other steps out, Neil falls again into sleep, into the quietest corner of his mind, giving up his dreams for the painful haze of fever.

[doubletap]

Gathering the leather clothes he wore for all of two minutes, as well as a large folded canvas sack, he heads out. Alex swings the door half-closed behind him, coming back to the room and Washington arguing with Cooper on how to successfully get the armor from a leg and foot. Alex raises a brow, part of him amused. In the middle of a statement, Washington notices Alex, and pushes up to straighten. "Hey, uh." He gestures to the door Alex came from. "Is he in there?"

Alex tilts his head. "You do have some kind of complex, don't you?"

Cooper snickers and Washington sputters. "I'm just worried! It's natural to be concern--"

"He's mostly okay," Alex says, half a repeat, hands raised up before him to convey peace. "He's got a bad fever, but I gave him another dose of meds for now. Got ED-E--my eyebot--keeping an eye on him for me."

Washington seems subdued for the moment. Alex starts forward to work on a body opposite to the one they are working on. Cooper takes the moment to fill in the spaces. "When I was fighting with that couch, I thought you said something about a cyberdog?"

Alex nods, detaching the pieces of armor to pile next to him. "Yeah, Rex. Not really mine, but I watch out for him. Had to get a couple of replacement parts for him to get him as new. --Not a lot of those left nowadays."

Cooper notices what Alex is doing and starts piling the pieces the same way. The guy they're working on is half out of the armor, and he reaches to undo the tags, holding them in a hand and looking that them. "My mother. She left because of the disagreements like you thought." Alex doesn't say a word, and this allows Cooper to keep talking. "She worked to guard a science facility. Liked her job a lot because at one point, her team got the call to retrieve a couple of cyberdogs. She used to tell me stories of how one had talked, and I loved those stories as a kid. She used to--"

There's silence. Washington has stopped working, is watching his partner. "NCR tore them apart," Cooper states, as bland as they come. "They wanted to take them to learn from them, but they just dismantled them. Mom said... She said that the talking one tried to reason with them, all the way to the end. That he kept asking why, that he could just tell them what they wanted to know. He cut off mid-sentence at one point, and she said that one of the scientists just said, 'good riddance. Finally he shuts up.' She left," Cooper says. "The next day, she just walked out. Asked dad to come with and just kept walking until she was far enough away that she couldn't hear it anymore. His questions of why."

There's silence in the room, none of the men pulling off armor pieces anymore. Washington felt sick. Cooper kept shifting the tag in his hand. Alex taps on part of the power armor in front of him, a beat to a forgotten tune. In memory. Maybe. "...I didn't come here to cause trouble for you guys," Alex says suddenly, something like an apology. "I'll going to try to make it so this doesn't fall back on you guys. You don't deserve this shit."

Washington laughs in reply, and almost confused, Alex looks up. Washington smiles. "You think I'm disappointed? I'm going to re-meet an awesome kid in a couple of days."

"Tell him that," Alex replies, smiling. "He needs to hear it more." The man nods in return, and Alex turns to look at Cooper. "Hey. I can't go into details and this doesn't make it right, but... If your mom's still around, tell her there's a facility that has started making cyberdogs again. It won't be the ones she knows, but they're good dogs." Good kids. "So the memory of those two won't just die away."

"It doesn't make it better," Cooper agrees. "But thanks all the same."

[vacuus]

The task Larry had hoped to work on remains grossly unfinished, mostly because the young guard, Drew, doesn't know what the hell he's doing. The knight finally has the guard simply watching as he compiles the building power levels in the past six months and downloads the data straight into the terminal built into his power armor.

And the download's taking forever. When he also had pH levels, shift check-in and check-out lists, turret settings-- Basically everything a five-man team was instructed to do.

Larry exhales slowly as he waits, unable and almost unwilling to make conversation. If Drew has questions, he'll more than likely answer, but honest to god, he's prone to be snappy in this mood. He can't think of anything beyond his dead comrades and superior, Lyons' dying ideals, and the mess that will need to be cleaned up once he returns to the Citadel.

Drew looks to say something but quiets when Larry shakes his head.

[doubletap]

The rest is finished as simple as it needs to be. The three get the sets of power armor into the canvas sack, and Washington pockets the tags. Alex pushes a tri-beam rifle on each of them, hooking the third to his own belt, and Cooper hefts the large tesla cannon to prop near the stairs.

The bodies are piled in a room off to the side--burial or burning will come after, likely when a living comrade is out of the way. Washington takes point, then Alex with the giant bag of power armor, and Cooper coming after with the cannon.

In the end, it was a simple task. But Alex comes away from it with a better sense of who these two unknown men are.

"I don't know your full names," he questions out of the blue. "It seems strange at this point to ask."

Washington, up front, shrugs. "Drew is Drew Marion. I'm Mike Washington--"

Mike? Alex mouths incredulously.

"--And Cooper's first name is Gerald. Good enough?"

Alex smiles to their backs. "Charmed, of course."

[vacuus]

Just when he thinks the download's idling to the point of canceling the request altogether, it finishes. Larry types in the closing command on the terminal before powering it off.

"It's finally done? That took forever," is the relieved comment from Drew, who straightens from his place in the wall to stand.

The lack of tact is enough to make Larry smile. Against his will, he would say. "If you think this is long," he says, "wait until we run the maintenance on the turret. I heard last time it lasted five hours."

The guard groans, only to have the sound cut off by footsteps. The two men turn to the basement entrance, one looking expectant.

Larry, on the other hand, only appears exhausted.

[doubletap]

The three men return to the center area, Alex hefting the bag onto a desk and Cooper laying the cannon down beside it. Washington jerks his hand at Drew who, after a forlorn expression at Ellis, returns to the other two guards. Washington, in turn, reaches in his pocket for the four tags--one a lucky break, resting a little charred in a pile of ash. He crosses to Ellis, holding them out.

Alex, leaning against the desk, starts to speak. "Okay. Here's how it went.

"Your group started by for your check. In the process, you became aware of another presence. You were commanded to wait for further instructions and watch the entrance. Your squadmates went for recon." Which, so far, was the truth.

"However, your team was taken by surprise. A small band of raiders had entered via blasting a vent in the basement, and due to the surprise, were able to down your entire squad. Your leader," Alex explains, eyes moving to the tesla cannon. "Had his hands tied. He would have been able to down the assailants, but was limited as he could not harm the project."

And, in that, Alex offers Ellis Tanks' honor as a gift.

"Assuming their way was clear, the... let's say five. The five raiders stormed upstairs. But you and the guards here were alerted by the sounds of combat and were ready for them. You were able to clean their clocks in an extended battle--the raiders were surprisingly competent--but of course they were, having downed four Brotherhood Knights. This was only due to the assistance that the Rivet City guards provided. In acknowledgement of their help, you allowed them to keep your brothers' tri-beam rifles," Alex said, nodding at the energy guns now strapped to Washington and Cooper. "You packed up your team's armor and tags, and took your commander's weapon as your own. You stayed long enough to patch the leak the raiders had used to come in, and then came straight away to report this-- After, of course, finishing your initial report."

Alex pauses, Washington staring at him with a look between admiration and disgust. Alex claps his hands once, then spread his arms. "Questions from the group?"

[vacuus]

It's Washington who offers what the knight requested moments prior: four sets of holotags. Larry accepts the items quietly, nodding once in gratitude. He proceeds to go through them one-by-one, ensuring the condition of each.

The man doesn't look up until Geer speaks, summarizing the plan to assuage suspicions and satisfy the Brotherhood of Steel. There's more as the man from the West provides a way for Tanks' honor to remain intact. It is a generous offer; there are still those who remember the pivotal fight against the Enclave years ago, and the sacrifices made.

There are still those who hail the Lone Wanderer as a hero, who laud the Purifier as the greatest achievement this wasteland has yielded. Who would crucify Tanks' memory for trying to bring everything down.

There is mild bewilderment. There is gratitude. Knight Larry Ellis absorbs it all.

He raises a hand in jest at the prompting as he gives a genuine question. "What about you and Park in this story?" he asks.

[doubletap]

Alex ceases making faces at Washington in order to answer Ellis. It's a simple answer, and Alex likes simple things.

He smiles charmingly. "Of course we were never here."

[vacuus]

"Hm." Larry mulls over the scenario once more, his thoughts spoken aloud. "Raiders in the basement. I was ordered to stay with the Rivet City guards. Paladin Tanks couldn't risk Project Purity, and my team was overrun. The remaining five raiders made for upstairs, but we cut them off. Eliminated the threat mostly thanks to these three."

Here, the knight looks to the guards, a depressing smile forming on his very tired face. "Congratulations, gentleman. Maybe Officer Lepellitier will finally give you three a raise," he states.

[doubletap]

Cooper returns to silence, and at the expression on Drew's face, Alex turns over the remaining energy rifle to Washington. The man raises his eyebrows at the kid, and Drew begins to think he'd never touch that rifle.

Alex pats the cannon that had been shooting at him near to an hour prior. Then looks up to Ellis, expression tired. "Do you have any objections? If there's anything you can't get behind, speak it now."

[vacuus]

Larry returns to watch Geer, his usually bright green eyes appearing dull. "I have no objections," he gives. "There'll be measures set up by the Elder to further fortify the Memorial's basement, but that will happen long after you two have gone."

He rises slowly from his seat, bones and joints cracking in the motion. "I will start preparing my report," continues Larry. "If you and Washington would go over it with me once it's done, I would greatly appreciate it."

Five hours later, of course. There will be time to kill while waiting for tasks to complete.

[doubletap]

Alex reaches to shift through the pack the armor is in, dragging out his own leather armor. He holds this out. "Modify to fit you better, but don't ruin it too much. I like that." It matches one Neil owns, after all.

"Otherwise," he smiles a bit self-depreciatingly. "I'm running on fumes here. Don't think I've slept more than a couple of hours in the past few days." He means week. But people look at you a little funny when you say that. "You think you guys could hold down the fort for a while?"

Washington only nods to this. "God, man, get some rest. We can work out the details without you for a while."

[vacuus]

The knight steps over to accept the armor and tucks it under an arm. He'll shake it out and see what can be done with the size when he's away from the main hallway. "Don't worry. I won't leave too many holes." If this situation isn't what it is, Larry might have winked.

Why the thought strikes him, he can't say.

As for Geer-- "We'll keep things afloat," Larry says. "Go catch a few winks."