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

[doubletap]

--He nearly stumbles. He catches himself, foot in the air, and steps down firmly. His eyes lock on the kid and hold.

For a long fucking second, he really doesn't know what to say.

"...Hey, kid."

[goodfight]

Only his attentions are caged in sleep, and this? This is merely its echo.

Neil mumbles an inaudible reply before falling silent.

[doubletap]

...Unconscious again. Something in the vicinity of Alex's heart drops. He swallows, and continues on. Notices the dog watching him but doesn't say anything. ED-E beeps something explanatory, but Alex doesn't care enough to hear.

They're across the river soon enough. Alex doesn't feel tired.

The building comes up fast after that. He'll have to figure out how to open the door with three kids on his hands.

[goodfight]

His dreams fold and unfold within the layers of his unconscious, slipping in-between depths. Neil dreams, and much later, when he has the mind to analyze, he might say that things have gained a different element.

Presently, his fingers curl into a fist, and he speaks slowly. "Head...hurts... It really..." Is killing him.

[doubletap]

Kid's awake again. Alex pauses a bit from the building. Shifts him a little in his arms. "...Will you be okay for just a little more, or do you want some meds?"

[goodfight]

--meds, something echoes back. Who? His dream self does not know.

"Nothing...helps... Tried... X... Buff... Nothing."

[doubletap]

...Something twists inside him. Before he can stop himself, he drops his head to kiss the uninjured side of Neil's forehead. "Try to go back to sleep for now, Wanderer. I'll see what I can do."

[goodfight]

That seems to satisfy the void he's missing. Neil whimpers and lets his hand drop, to dangle toward the ground.

[doubletap]

All right. All fucking right.

For a brief second, he shifts Neil so he can twist open the door. Alex whistles for ED-E, so the kid can prop it open while they go in.

To his surprise, it's Dogmeat who comes first, shifting his thin body into the crack and nosing it open to sit against it. Alex thinks for a moment that he should have kept track of how much the dog was eating, that he owes it to the mutt to make sure he survives. But Alex knows that ED-E's motherhenning would have taken care of that, but still, he thinks--

"Thanks," Alex says quietly, the first words he's said to the dog since all of this. "Good boy."

He moves quickly past, into the hall, the kids following, and then into the room on the right where the Rivet City guards assigned to the task loiter. They start for the weapons at first, then recognize Alex from the brief sojourn he had here before--and they recognize Neil in his arms.

"Hey, wait, is that--"

"Is he okay--"

"What happened--"

Alex keeps walking, tries to lose the intense look to pass on a confrontation. "This is the Wasteland, shit happened. There's still that med lab downstairs, right?"

Off guard, one hesitates, then nods. "Yeah, but we haven't been done there a lot. I don't know what all is down there."

Alex pauses. "No creatures or anything?"

The guy shakes his head. "Nah. I hear he--" A nod to Neil. "Cleared up the Super Mutants who were living here before. Nothing else has moved in."

Alex gives a curt nod and starts walking again. "I'm going to borrow your basement, then. This was the closest place I could come to."

The guy he was talking to just nods, but a younger man starts a poor protest. Before it even reaches Alex, passing through the hall, the first guy shushes him. The younger one puts up a fuss. "But the Brotherhood isn't going to like this--"

"He's Brotherhood," the first guy replies, annoyed. "And the one who cleared this place, and the one who made all of this possible."

The younger kid frowns. "But that was the Brotherhood of Steel and some dead guy from a Vault."

"No," the first guard says. "I've been here from the start. I knew that kid from Rivet City, too. He fixes stuff that's broken. He was definitely the guy."

The younger one frowns again. "Seems like he's the broken one now."