Chapter Text
It takes a full year of hard work and planning before they’re nearly ready. A year of pretending to cure Father and gathering allies. Three hundred and sixty-five mornings of waking up alone and terrified from nightmares of ferals tearing her apart in a metro station. Spending every waking moment in fear that Duncan and RJ will wither away from a wasting disease she’s already cured.
Over the course of a year, Lucy continues her research on curing Father’s cancer. She purposefully works slower: both out of spite and to give her more time to plan her escape. She redundantly tests the same cure over and over again, coming up with infinite ways to word “unsuccessful findings” in her reports. Lucy cites her relatively poor work and fruitless data on stress and isolation. It’s easy to explain away: she no longer receives any information on her family and Brian was transferred a lab over to concentrate on his FEV research.
In reality, Lucy is pretty sure she figured out a cure four months ago. Piggybacking off of hundreds of years of research, it wasn’t nearly as hard as curing her son. Duncan’s disease was completely new and unheard of, with no live samples or subject to test on. However, cancer has affected millions since prewar times, especially since cigarettes were so popular.
After the Great War, the nuclear fallout created a radioactive wasteland, presumably worldwide. This net of constant radiation ages people faster, ruining skin and organs much sooner than ‘clean’ places such as the Institute. It turns out after 200 years of constant radiation negatively affecting the human race, nature decided to give us a fighting chance.
Weekly three-hour field trips to the surface would put the Director’s cancer in remission within a year.
Unfortunately for the Director, Lucy is feeling particularly spiteful. Lucy begins typing up another mind-numbing report from off the top of her head while the bulk of her thoughts tick off the Director’s sins on her metal hand. The metal clicks with finality, echoing through the lab.
This man is responsible for her kidnapping and subsequent imprisonment at the Institute. He’s holding all of her research hostage until she cures his ‘incurable’ disease. He is most likely babysitting her family with a deadly courser. He allowed her situation to deteriorate to the point where her subpar synth substitute lured her family into a feral nest. Finally, if Brian hadn’t kept a vial of the cure, her son’s life would be on the line.
If anything, perhaps she isn’t spiteful enough.
Lucy knows the Director installed a spying program to her terminal that allows him to read her reports as she types them. There’s a slight lag between keystroke and feedback that isn’t there when Brian is logged in. With a small sneer, she adds a helpful suggestion to her report that the Director consider ghoulification as a possible cure for his cancer.
An echo of RJ’s laugh rings in her head as clearly as if he were there. He would’ve enjoyed the irony. After all, feral ghouls ruined her chance at reuniting with her family peacefully. RJ partakes in swift revenge (usually a bullet to the skull), but he always appreciated her finesse when it came to vengeance.
In Little Lamplight, RJ would tell you off to your face, all threats and violence, but Lucy… Lucy would wait until you’re bleeding on her surgery table before she did anything about it. There would always be a suspicious shortage of Med-X and lack of a steady hand when those occasions sprang up.
Lucy pets her jacket beneath her lab coat: her own small rebellion. Since her Institute status changed from temporary visitor to prisoner, she’s taken to wearing her bomber under the lab coat. The coat falls over the bomber a little awkwardly and she’s positive everyone knows she’s wearing it, but Lucy is far from caring anymore. She picks the bullet hole through the left shoulder with her flesh hand, outlining it fondly.
‘Soon, RJ,’ she thinks, willing her words to reach him. ‘I’m almost home.’
The door between her lab and the FEV side slides open and Brian strides through the archway. From partner to esteemed head researcher for the super mutant virus, Dr. Virgil has been promoted as high as Lucy has fallen. He has his own assistants, lab, and research to conduct which makes him far too busy to make social calls these days. He tries, though, and Lucy appreciates it.
“Greetings, Dr. MacCready,” he says stiffly. “A few items seem to be missing from the lab so I assumed it was you. I’d appreciate it if you kept your hand to yourself.”
His formal speech and icy demeanor towards her was carefully constructed between them. The Director was hoping Brian and Lucy would lose their rapport once Brian was promoted and given his own project to head.
As if Lucy’s ego is that fragile.
In reality, they’ve never been closer. Lucy and Brian simply expanded on their spoken code over the past year, implementing it with every ally they gain. As distant as they seem, Brian is risking his life to help her plan succeed, and if it came down to it, Lucy would as well.
“Of course you did, Dr. Virgil,” she responds testily and clenches her metal hand dramatically for effect. “Unfortunately, I’m not interested in contaminated equipment. Check somewhere else.”
“Afraid of turning green, Lucy?” Brian tries to sneer but it falls short, worry working its way into his voice and dropping her title.
Are you afraid?
Lucy took a moment to think that over. Is she scared? The plan’s failure would result in their death, but the success of the plan carries risks as well. Afraid for her own well-being? No. Afraid for her husband and child, well. They were already in danger: under the crosshairs of the Institute, no one is safe.
“Of turning green? No. What I’m most afraid of is turning into you,” she retorts, her voice like the crack of a whip in the quiet lab.
Not afraid of dying. Afraid of staying here.
Lucy watches Brian’s jaw work. To an outsider, they’d see him grinding his teeth in anger. Lucy sees her friend trying desperately not to smile at their antics. Her eyebrow quirks slightly and he sighs into his hand, no-doubt hiding a broad grin.
“Very well. If you don’t mind, I have fruitful research to conduct,” he huffs. The plan is set.
Brian throws his arms in the air in an exaggerated display of frustration. As his hands come down, he lightly brushes against her flesh hand. This is a new form of secret code that Brian’s been implementing lately. Being so isolated, Lucy is starved of most human interactions and Brian sympathizes with that. He does his best to show her that he’s still in her corner, still there for her despite the Director’s best efforts.
The moment passes and Brian exits the lab with dramatic anger. Lucy has enough tact to disguise her laugh as a scoff. She shakes her head and returns to her report. She hits send when she hears footsteps approach her lab from the opposite door. Not Brian.
The hiss of her lab door activates once more and a man in an orange lab coat walks in. Lucy stiffens until she sees his slightly-hesitant gait, eyes shifting with a hand running through his blonde hair.
“Liam,” Lucy greets, her shoulders relaxing. Liam has always been civil to her since she was kidnapped, but they never had a chance to be friends. Eight months ago, Lucy and Brian figured out Liam was the one helping synths escape and essentially blackmailed him into assisting their plan.
“I hope you’re here to give me a hand with this cure…?” Lucy asks. Are you here to help with our endgame plan?
“I brought a few old reports from the archives, it should definitely help,” Liam replies easily. I brought supplies, we should be ready soon.
There was a time when their spoken code made Liam annoyingly giddy. Lucy assumes he enjoyed the cloak and dagger stuff because he didn’t feel invested in it. Sure, he was helping some synths escape, but Liam was born at the Institute. He’s never had his life ripped away from him at the whim of a madman. Thankfully, he’s buckled down since and takes their work a bit more seriously now.
“Thanks, just leave it on the table there,” Lucy tells him. Leave before anyone gets suspicious. Unable to help herself, she struggles not to smirk. “I think I might be making some real progress, here.”
Working really hard to sabotage any possible research that might cure that bastard.
Liam pauses at that, seeing her metal hand clench tightly. He sighs with a small smile and shakes his head a little, hoping he never makes the mistake of making an enemy of Lucy. Both from what Brian has told him and what he’s witness firsthand, Lucy is a remarkable woman. Even if she hadn’t blackmailed him into being a partner in crime, he probably would’ve helped her regardless.
Making sure she’s watching, Liam moves deliberately and carefully. He places the files on the nearest table, tucking a single white sheet of paper within the dusty ancient folder to hide it. He’s out the door with a wink and she laughs softly.
Lucy hopes to herself that Liam stays safe in the tumultuous days to come. After all, he’s just assisting from the sidelines while Brian and her take the bulk of the risk. His innocent and light-hearted nature is refreshing in this utopian prison and reminds her of a time before. It’s an echo of reading comics and giggling with RJ, or the thrill of raiding an old convenience store for sweet treats in the dead of night.
A loud bang interrupts her memories and she stills in shock. The overhead lights falter for a moment, then fall to darkness. After a moment, the dim red emergency lights kick on, casting an eerie glow over the lab. The noise shakes the floor and violently jars the more sensitive instruments off the countertops. They fall and anything glass explodes into shards on the tile floor.
The shattering glass startles her into action. Lucy sheds her lab coat, revealing her dusty bomber underneath. She grabs the file Liam dropped off in case it has anything incriminating on it. Sliding the folded note out from between the yellowed pages, she shoves it roughly into the pocket of her jacket.
Lucy strides to the door between her lab and Brian’s, dreading what she’d find. This isn’t the plan. Brian and Lucy are supposed to escape silently in the night, with Liam and the rest of their allies covering their tracks as long as they can. Explosions certainly aren’t a part of the plan.
The hydraulics to the FEV lab screeches open, metal on metal clawing open. Cautiously, Lucy approaches the opening. Smoke billows outward and the lights from inside the lab are dim and flicker. A hand reaches out through the choking fog and grasps the door for leverage.
“Dr. Virgil?” she asks, still wary of being found out. The hand twitches, drawing her attention to it. It’s large, larger than Brian’s, and that causes her to back up. The red glow washes out the color of everything, but there’s no denying it looks particularly dark. The FEV virus…the super mutants.
Suddenly she’s back in Little Lamplight huddled in the caves. Smallest children behind her, as if she could protect them from monsters as easily as she’s saved them from infections. They listen to the thud of super mutants trying to tear down the walls between safety and death. She hears a whimper and it takes her a moment to realize it’s her.
Lucy takes a deep breath to steady herself and backs up until she finds an object suitable enough for a weapon: a heavy centrifuge. She picks it up and holds it in front of her like a shield, hoping to throw it at the enemy so she has time to run. A voice rasps something in a rough, gravelly voice and she tastes fear.
“-cy. Lu…Lu-cy,” it strains and gasps. Lucy’s heart drops.
“Brian?” Lucy hesitantly sets the centrifuge down and walks forward cautiously.
Pulling himself through the door, Doctor Brian Virgil steps into her lab. His proportions are all wrong: hands too big, neck thick, and clothes straining at the seams. His skin is darker than usual under the red emergency lights and his hair is singed off in some places.
“Lucy,” Brian’s voice sounds almost the same, if a little worn. Lucy could close her eyes and imagine he just has a sore throat. Her own throat constricts and she makes a fist with her flesh hand, nails biting into palm, willing the pain to steady her.
Brian’s shoulders sag with relief and he takes a step forward, but falters. He looks down at his too-big hands and grimaces, making a fist. “There’s no time. The cure-”
“The cure?” Lucy looks at him confused. She’s never been asked to cure super mutants, that was Brian’s research project. Then it clicks: not the cure for him, the cure for Duncan. Brian holds a hand out expectantly, and pleads with his eyes.
“You…what happened? Why didn’t you stick to the plan? I don’t understand, Brian, we were supposed to leave together,” she shakes her head, confused. Brian lifts his arm with a pained grunt and points to the other side of the room. Following the line of sight, she looks past the wreckage and sees the old file Liam brought.
“The file? Brian, did Liam know about this? Please, make me understand,” Lucy’s voice is cracking with unshed tears. Her only true friend here, now in the process of becoming one of the most feared monsters of the wasteland. It was too much. How much more would the Institute take from her?
“You’re in danger,” Brian grinds out with effort. He grabs his throat in pain, a low noise of agony escaping him for a moment. The next time he talks, his voice deep and rough, nothing like it was before.
“I…had to save you,” his face is pleading, willing her to understand. “I don’t know if I did. But I can save him. Duncan. I’ll make sure he gets it.”
Lucy nods and crosses the room to a small desk in the corner. She leans down and removed the cure that’s been taped behind the desk for a year now and hands it to Brian. He carefully takes it between two fingers and slides it into his lab coat pocket, as far from his destructive body as he can keep it.
There’s a cry of alarm from the FEV lab behind him and Brian winces. Another, deeper voice laughs menacingly. A few more thuds and both noises stop. Looking over his shoulder nervously, it’s time for him to go.
Brian takes a step closer to Lucy. He leans down, awkward in his new and changing body, and kisses her lightly on the cheek. Then with a small smile, he brushes a tear away with a massive finger. Lucy’s metal hand instinctively comes up to touch her cheek, even knowing she wouldn’t be able to feel anything with it.
Brian’s face is tragic, full of remorse and agony. He backs up through the doorway again and grabs the sliding door with massive hands. He wrenches it from the system, wires snapping and metal groaning, and slides it halfway shut. Through the gap, Brian meets Lucy’s eyes one last time.
“Lucy I-“ Brian falters, the words stuck in his throat. He sees her there in the low light, tears streaming down her face, anger and sadness muddling her expression, surrounded by destruction. She’s just as stunning as the day she was brought here. Like a wild prewar animal: beautiful, cunning, and dangerous.
It’s kinder to her if he says nothing. He looks down and shakes his head, a small smile on his face.
"I’m sorry.”
I love you.
Brian forces the door shut as another voice taunts from behind him. There’s a wrenching noise of metal being ripped like paper, then a hollow clang of metal piping. Wet thuds drum behind the door with a few sharp cracks here and there. A loud hiss of steam covers up the rest of the sounds like white noise.
Lost, Lucy looks around her ruined lab. Equipment strewn everywhere, broken glass sparkling in the low, red glow reflecting the ruin her life has become. Patting down her bomber pockets, she finds the note Liam slipped her this morning. Pulling it out, Lucy reads it once, twice, then allows herself to sob.
Doctor Brian Virgil,
It has come to my attention that Lucy MacCready, former lead researcher of Project D-2583, is plotting against the wellbeing of the Institute. In light of this betrayal of the Institute’s hospitality, Lucy MacCready’s life is forfeit.
After an extensive investigation into your former superior and yourself, it has come to my attention that your relationship with Doctor MacCready has become strained. Therefore, you’ll be pleased to know that she will be rotated into your next crop of test subjects at the beginning of the next quarter, ideally by July 2287.
As always, the research you perform on the FEV virus helps make the world a safer place for all and the Institute appreciates your efforts.
Thank you for your time and dedication,
Director