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There’s a crack and a bright light and then the cold steel of a shotgun barrel pointed at his brainstem. Even as a super mutant, a point blank blow with a shotgun would be nearly fatal. He knows who it is without even turning around. The Vault Dweller. The one who killed Kellogg, who took down a Courser, who has faced so many obstacles and survived each one.
But it’s only been a week. Surely building the relay and fumbling around the institute would have taken longer than seven days. Still she’s resourceful. Smart. Cogent. Motivated. And apparently, she no longer needs him. He knows he should have expected it.
He’s not expecting her words.
“Tell me you didn’t know,” she snaps.
“Know what?” he replies,
“Know what happened to my son. WHO MY SON IS?!” the Vault Dweller screams. The gun rattles in her hands against his neck and Virgil suddenly realizes that the woman is crying. So angry and sad and confused and terrified and she just wants answers that they all do.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know…”
“DON’T LIE TO ME, VIRGIL!” she screams again, the cold barrel suddenly pressing harder into his neck. “The child I was looking for? How many babies has the Institute kidnapped? Can’t imagine it’s been too many…”
Even with the changes to his brain, Virgil realizes what she’s saying. Who her son is. There’s only one person her son could be. Father’s story is known among many at the Institute - a baby boy rescued from a dead vault, supposedly no other survivors, his pure genes giving birth to the Gen-3 synths, with the boy being raised among the Institute’s most dedicated.
“I had no idea,” he says, defeated, “Truly. If I had known who you were, I would have warned you.”
“Bullshit.” She cocks the gun.
“Why would I lie? What do I gain by having you go in blind?” Virgil argues. She says nothing, so Virgil continues. “At worst you kill me, at best you leave me to become a mindless goliath in this wasteland.”
He hears the gun drop to the ground and is almost surprised that it doesn’t go off. He turns to see the woman on her knees, her arms wrapped under her chest gasping for breath. Virgil has never been good with women, even as a human, so there’s little comfort he can provide for her.
“Do you know what he was like growing up? If he was loved? If he was…” She’s grasping for whatever she can about her baby, her lost child
“Father’s a private person. I wasn’t very close with him,” he says. “He’s intelligent, persuasive, driven. And devoted to his work and people.”
She remains stationary, still staring at the ground in front of her. Her arms unclench around her and out of one hand rolls the container with the Serum. While Virgil is eager for it, he doesn’t trust her in this state enough to just reach and grab it. Instead he gets down to her level, at least as close as he can.
“He’s all I had, Virgil,” she says, her voice weakening. “He’s all I’ll…” She collapses to the floor of the cave. He waits for a moment before lifting her exhausted form up and carrying her down to his bed. She makes no movements, only the soft in and exhalations of her breath even tell him that she’s alive. He wonders for the moment if she had spent the past week pushing through without sleep in the slim hope that she would find her son, until he remembers the container she had dropped.
He picks it up and examines it, noting everything has processed as predicted. He hesitates, looking over at the woman on the bed, before he injects himself with the serum. Thoughts overwhelm his Super Mutant brain as the fluid flows through his veins.
Father had likely planned everything from her release to how she met him.
She had to have met Father before getting the Serum.
She had crossed lines to help the Brotherhood, the Minutemen, the Railroad and even himself to get to her child, only to find an old dangerous man.
He pities her , for all the decisions she’ll have to make. But for now, he finds a threadbare blanket, covers her form and waits.
~~ * * *~~
When she finally awakens days later, she looks at him confused. Virgil gives her a soft smile before running his hand nervously through his hair. “The serum was a success,” he says. “I have you to thank for that.”
She groans before rubbing her eyes. “How long was I out?” she asks him.
“Three days, give or take,” he replies. “You must have been running on fumes.”
She shakes her head and the pieces fall into place in her mind. That look of sadness appears on her face as the memories from the past week grow brighter. “It’s all true, isn’t it? Shaun, the Institute… ”
Virgil nods. “I’m so sorry you had to find out the way you did.”
But her next words again surprise him. “What do I do now, Virgil?” He frowns at her, unsure what she means. “Everyone knew I was looking for my son, what am I supposed to tell them? Oh yeah, the Institute that everyone hates and fears? Yeah, my kid leads it. Oh and he’s an old man now.”
“Do you have anyone you can trust?” but she shakes her head. He knows the man she had first arrived with, the Brotherhood Soldier who looks so familiar, and his whole faction would likely use her against the Institute or use her as bait if they suspected that Father would be willing to get his mother back safe.
“Maybe Mac…,” she says, her mind running over her friends. “But he’s already on his way to the Capital Wasteland. Nick might… but… he has his own past with the Institute.”
Virgil sighs and sits down beside her. “I don’t envy you. Whatever path you take is going to be hard. It’s not to be taken lightly.”
She looks over his face, staring at the new unusual features before she drops her head to her lap and softly says, “I wish he had just left me in the vault.”