Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lucy MacLean was 5 years old the first time she saw the monster from vault 33.

Before the war, before the bombs dropped and everything changed, just about every neighborhood had that one house that all the kids avoided. The house that the neighbor kids swear is haunted or inhabited by some boogeyman or creepy owner that would eat you if you stepped on their lawn.

For the kids of vault 33, that scary house was the vault’s 13th floor and that boogeyman was the Monster from Vault 33.

It had been more than 200 years since the bombs dropped and several generations of vault dwellers had lived and died in the interconnected vaults 31, 32, and 33.

No one knew when exactly the legend of the Monster from Vault 33 began, but there were grandparents whose voices still quivered when talking about the fabled beast.

The monster had been around for so long that some vault dwellers concluded there was no way anything could live that long, and that it must be nothing more than a scary story meant to scare kids into eating their greens or doing their schoolwork. Do as you're told or else the monster's gonna get you!

Whether or not you believed the monster actually existed, there was one thing that all the vault residents knew; the 13th floor was strictly off limits.

The residents were never given an exact reason why they couldn’t go to the 13th floor, but every overseer for the past 200 years, including the current overseer Barbara Turner told them that it was off limits, and the vast majority didn’t question the overseer’s authority.

Even at 5 years old, young Lucy MacLean knew that the 13th floor was off limits, which was one of the many reasons why the day that the vault elevator stopped on the 13th floor stood out.

From the moment she could walk and talk, Lucy was her father’s daughter. She wanted to spend every moment of every day with Hank MacLean and was heartbroken on the days he had to leave her behind to do ‘adult stuff for work’.

“Pwease, daddy, why can’t I come wiff?” Lucy asked, her missing baby teeth causing her to lisp.

“I’m sorry my little Sugarbomb, but I have important business with Overseer Barb and we need to keep her happy if you want your dad to get a promotion.”

“What’s a ‘pruh-mo-shun’?” Lucy sounded out the word.

“Well, as you know, right now, your daddy is just Assistant Overseer and Barb is the one in charge of the whole vault, but if I do a good job and make Overseer Barb happy, then maybe one day it’ll be my turn to be Overseer!”

“Like how I hafta take turns and share my toys with Norm?”

“Yeah, sweetheart, kinda like that. There will still have to be an election, of course, we are a democracy,” Hank added almost as an afterthought, “but after being Assistant Overseer for so long, it’s hard to imagine anyone else more qualified to lead than me!”

“Wow! And then when you’ve had your turn and I’m old enough, maybe I’ll get to be Overseer next. I wanna be just like you when I grow up, daddy!”

Hank beamed with pride at his young daughter and looked into her eager wide eyes.

“Well, maybe you could come along with me just this once. I’m sure Overseer Barb wouldn’t mind you shadowing me. I’m certain she would agree that it’s never too early to start training the next generation of leaders!”

“Yay! Yay! Yay! I get to go to work with daddy today!” Lucy bounced off the walls with excitement and Hank ruffled her hair and grinned.

“You have to stay close to me though, no wandering off!”

“I promise!” Lucy agreed, “I jus’ need a few minutes, then I’ll be ready to go.”

Lucy scampered off to her bedroom and began loading her backpack with a toy car, her favorite ball, and a Jangles the Moon Monkey doll.

“What are you doing, sweetheart?” Hank stood in the doorway watching Lucy pack.

“I’m getting ready for work, jus’ like you! ‘Cept I don’t have a briefcase.”

Hank chuckled and watched as she finished loading her bag with toys.

“Come on, Sugarbomb, let’s go say bye to your mother and Norm and then get going before we’re late.”

Lucy nodded and followed her dad to the gardens where her mother Rose and brother Norm were weeding the crops. Well, Rose was weeding, Norm was just watching with a bored expression, uncharacteristically unenthused for a toddler, especially compared to his overexcited sister.

Hank informed them that Lucy would be shadowing him for the day and they said their goodbyes before going to the Overseer’s office.

“Where’s Overseer Barb?” Lucy asked when they arrived at her empty office.

“Uhhh, I don’t know, she’s probably around here somewhere, maybe on another floor doing important overseer business, I’m sure we’ll see her later, but for now, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Lucy nodded and followed her dad around the vault as they checked on inventory levels for vital supplies, settled minor disputes between neighbors, and ensured that everything was running smoothly with the day’s work assignments.

Lucy was glued to her dad’s hip all morning following him around and doing her best to make small talk with the other vault dwellers as they passed them in the hallway.

When it was time for lunch, Lucy and Hank ate their cram sandwiches together and split a Fancy Lad Snack Cake for dessert.

As incredibly well-mannered as Lucy was, she was still a 5-year-old kid and needed time to play and get her wiggles out, so she took advantage of their lunch break to get her favorite ball out of her backpack and play a game of wall ball.

Without the ability to go outside and run around like kids before the war, Lucy had learned to get exercise in the vault in more creative ways, and one of her favorite ways to play was by bouncing her ball off the metal floors and walls of the vault and running to catch it before it could hit the ground a second time.

She devised all sorts of games with just a ball and her cold metallic surroundings, and she treasured the rare days when Norm agreed to play with her.

Lucy was so engrossed in her game, that she didn’t hear her dad until he had already pushed the button to call the elevator.

“Come on, Lucy, I said lunch time is over. It’s time to go!”

“I’m coming, dad!” Lucy ran to grab her backpack but didn’t have time to open the zipper and put her ball away properly, so she just held it as she ran to her dad as fast as her little legs could carry her, just barely making it inside before the elevator doors closed.

The elevator descended deeper into the ground but Lucy noticed it stopped before their intended destination. When she looked up, she saw an illuminated number 13 indicating which floor they had stopped on.

“Overseer Barb!” Hank greeted when the doors slid open to reveal his boss.

Lucy wasn’t sure if it was from her hands being slick with sweat, the surprise of seeing Overseer Barb on the 13th floor, or something else entirely, but whatever it was that made Lucy drop her favorite ball that day, forever changed her fate.

“My ball!” Lucy exclaimed as her favorite toy bounced and then rolled out of the elevator and deeper into the 13th floor.

Lucy wasn’t thinking about the fact that the 13th floor was off limits or the fact that her dad would not approve of her wandering off. In that moment, she was just a little girl who had lost her favorite ball and was going to get it back.

“Lucy, wait! Stop! Lucy, come back!” Hank called after her, but Lucy wasn’t listening.

“Hank, you know she’s not allowed down here!” Barb hissed as she joined her assistant in chasing after Lucy.

“Ball, come back!” Lucy shouted. She chased the rolling ball as it skittered across the metal floor.

Lucy was totally unaware of her surroundings and didn’t hear a word the shouting adults behind her were saying until her ball finally came to a stop against the metal bars of a cage.

When Lucy bent down to pick up the ball, she finally looked up to find herself nose to missing nose with a terrifying creature. It had big yellow teeth and charred looking skin that was missing in some areas and heavily scarred in others. The creature was wearing nothing but a blue tattered rag around its hips that may have once been a vault suit.

In the fraction of a second it took for Lucy’s brain to try to process what she was looking at, the creature’s eyes widened and then it started making noises that sounded like a mix between a growl and a cough.

Lucy screamed in terror as the monster reached out between the bars of its cage.

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!” Lucy’s bloodcurdling scream intensified when she perceived the action as the monster trying to grab her.

“It’s okay, baby, I’ve got you,” Hank lifted up his daughter from behind, pulling her away from the cage, but the suddenness of being whisked away from behind and pulled off her feet only made her scream even louder.

Lucy watched the beast as her dad carried her back to the elevator. Despite her horror, she couldn’t look away from the monster’s face. The last thing she noticed before the elevator doors shut was that the beast had almost soft human looking eyes that didn’t match the rest of its terrifying presence.

Lucy didn’t remember much of the elevator ride back to the Overseers Office. She didn’t remember much of anything that happened the rest of that day, but she knew that the hushed conversations between her dad and Overseer Barb were about her and that they were both very upset with her for ignoring them to chase after her ball.

Lucy waited to receive her punishment or be severely reprimanded, but it never came.

In the days that followed, whenever Lucy would try to ask her dad or Overseer Barb about the incident on the 13th floor, they would act like they had no idea what she was talking about.

Lucy shadowed her dad the rest of the week until he declared that her junior internship was over and that she needed to focus more on her schoolwork.

In the months that followed, both Hank and Barb were so adamant that nothing had happened on the 13th floor and that none of them had ever even set foot there because it was off limits.

At first, Lucy protested and tried to tell them about the creature down there, but Hank and Barb both thoroughly insisted that it must be Lucy’s imagination or maybe she had a bad dream and that the monster was just a silly urban legend that doesn’t exist.

As the months turned to years and Lucy threw herself into her schoolwork and countless extracurricular activities, Hank and Barb’s gaslighting was so effective that Lucy began to doubt her recollection of that day and began to believe that maybe it was just a really vivid dream.

Lucy’s dreams had heavily featured the monster in the years that followed, so maybe what she thought was a memory of a beast on a forbidden level of the vault was actually just the first time she had a nightmare about the creature.

Even though every fiber of her being told her that she knew what she saw and that the monster was real, she trusted her dad and Overseer Barb unquestioningly, so if they both agreed that it didn’t happen, then Lucy would believe them.

Even if her brain kept replaying the sounds that thing made and thought it recognized the words ‘please’ and ‘help me’ in between the inhuman growls and coughs, she trusted her dad and Overseer Barb more than she trusted her own eyes and ears, so if they say it was all a dream and it didn’t actually happen, then it didn’t actually happen.

Ever the dutiful daughter, Lucy threw herself even deeper into her classes and hobbies, partly to please her father, but partly in an attempt to keep herself busy at all hours of the day so that she wouldn’t have any time to think about the monster and would be too tired to dream.

It didn’t work.

Chapter Text

Lucy MacLean was 15 years old the next time she saw the monster from vault 33.

In the year that followed her first encounter, she tried to forget, but the memories were so strong that she had to tell someone, so she ended up confiding in her mom and brother.

Norm was scared and didn’t want to believe the monster could be real, but her mother Rose took her seriously and told Lucy that she knew something wasn’t right about the 13th floor being off limits and that they should continue to investigate.

Lucy was thrilled that her mother validated her instead of brushing it off like her father and couldn’t wait to get started helping her mom investigate and unravel the mystery below their feet.

Unfortunately, the mother-daughter duo never got the chance to play detective.

A few days after their conversation, their crops started failing and everyone’s food rations got cut back.

It was the beginning of the Great Plague of ‘77.

Everyone had to quarantine and cut back on leisure to double down on hard labor until their crops had recovered enough to support them again.

Unfortunately, not everyone made it through the hardship of the plague, including Rose MacLean.

It had been nearly a month since Lucy and Norm had last seen their mom when they were informed that she had died.

And all of a sudden, investigating a monster that may or may not be real didn’t seem all that important anymore.

The loss was hard on both of the kids and they both grieved in different ways.

Norm showed even less enthusiasm for his work assignments or hobbies while Lucy threw herself into her work, achieving straight As while breaking the record for most extracurricular activities in the vault.

The monster’s eyes would still appear in her dreams from time to time, but she tamped down any thoughts of investigating now that her mom was gone.

As the years flew by, Lucy glommed on even tighter to her father and eventually, the loss of her mother became a little easier to bear.

The loss never truly left, but the time passed anyways and before she knew it, the years turned into a full decade.

Lucy was the most chipper, kind, and helpful 15-year-old in the vault, but always being a teacher’s pet wasn’t the best for making new friends. Even in a vault that prided themselves on caring for their fellow vault dwellers and always trying to do the right thing, it was expected for teenagers to have a rebellious phase, but Lucy’s never came.

The one friend she had made on her own was Steph Harper, another sweet, down-to-earth girl from vault 31 who believed in the mission of the vaults and saving America as much as Lucy did.

Steph came over in the triennial vault trade when Lucy was 13 and they’d been fast friends from the moment she arrived.

Now that Lucy was 15, she was allowed to start experimenting sexually in preparation for marriage.

Unfortunately, the only male in vault 33 deemed close enough to her own age was her cousin Chet.

Chet was two years older than Lucy at age 17, but the vault council was sympathetic to the lack of options and allowed Lucy and Chet to explore their growing sexual appetites as long as proper precautions were taken.

Chet didn’t seem to mind one bit that he got paired with Lucy, and despite his lack of experience, he was eager to please.

Lucy suspected that he had deeper feelings for her than those appropriate for cousins, feelings which she did not reciprocate in the slightest, but Lucy had always enjoyed science and didn’t want to turn down the opportunity for hands-on experimentation.

At 15 years old, the entirety of Lucy’s friend group consisted of Steph, her cousin Chet, and her brother Norm.

Lucy had told Norm about her recurring nightmares about the monster on the 13th floor, but in the two years that Steph had been in 33, Lucy had never talked about her encounter with the monster with Steph or Chet.

Until one night when the friend group decided to play a game of truth or dare.

“This is stupid, people really used to play this game before the war?” Chet complained as they all sat in a circle in the vault’s game room.

“Just pick if you want to do a truth or a dare, Chet. It’s really not that difficult of a concept,” Norm rolled his eyes at his cowardly cousin.

“Okay, fine, I choose…. dare.”

“Okay, I got it,” Steph said, “I dare you to strip completely naked and run around the room 5 times.”

“What?!?” Chet yelped.

“Oh come on, it’s not like Lucy hasn’t seen everything already, you don’t have to be embarrassed,” Steph teased as Chet’s face got even redder.

“Is it too late to choose truth?” Chet gulped.

“We already know your deepest secret is that you’re in love with Lucy. Just strip down already you big baby,” Steph urged.

Chet finally complied, stripping down completely and trotting around the room while hiding as much of his body as possible with his hands.

The game continued with Step getting dared to drink out of the toilet and Norm following through on a dare to lick Chet’s foot.

After that, Norm wanted a break from disgusting dares, so when it was his turn again, he picked truth.

“Okay, what to ask, hmmm,” Lucy rubbed her chin in thought, “I got it. Norm, why don’t you tell us about your most embarrassing moment.”

“Uhh I don’t know, I guess there was the time I was walking upstairs with a Jello mold and tripped and it went everywhere?”

“Hmm, that wasn’t the moment I was thinking of,” Lucy grinned.

Norm’s eyes widened when he realized what his sister was trying to get him to admit.

“No, no way!” he protested.

“Oh come on, it’s part of the game!” Lucy teased her little brother, relishing the chance to reverse their roles and be the one getting under his skin for a change.

“Yeah, Norm, tell us,” Steph chimed in.

Norm blushed but didn’t say anything as he looked between Chet and Steph.

“Fine then,” Lucy said, “if you won’t, then I guess I’ll have to tell Chet and Steph all about the time we were watching a Cooper Howard movie together that wasn’t even that scary but you were so scared you wet your vault suit and ruined dad’s couch!”

“Lucy!” Norm snapped in frustration and embarrassment as Chet and Steph suppressed their giggles.

“You were the one that wanted ‘truth’!” she shot back at her sibling.

Norm stewed in silence as the game continued.

“Okay, my turn,” Chet said, “Lucy, truth or dare?”

“Dare,” Lucy said.

“I dare you to ki—“ Chet started to say but both Steph and Norm cut him off with a unified “No!”

“What?” Chet asked sheepishly.

“Chet, you alway dare Lucy to kiss you, it’s getting a little old,” Steph said.

“I think Chet should lose a turn for that and I should get to decide Lucy’s dare,” Norm declared.

“Hey, no, that’s not how it works!” Lucy protested.

“You did get him pretty good with that truth bomb, Luce. I think he can be the one to dare you,” Steph reasoned.

“Yeah, okay, I can’t think of another dare anyways,” Chet mumbled.

“Lucy,” Norm said, a devious glint in his eyes, “I dare you to spend one night all alone on the vault’s 13th floor.”

“Woah, hey, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Steph immediately pumped the brakes.

“Yeah, Norm, that floor is off limits, we’d better not, I wouldn’t want Lucy to get in trouble,” Chet objected, “plus, I’m not even sure my master key works to open the 13th floor even if everyone was on board, which we’re not.”

At 17 years old, Chet was deemed old enough to be trusted with his first job and was selected to be the keeper of the keys to open the doors between vaults and ensure all the areas were properly secured.

“I’ve actually read the elevator manuals and I’m confident that I could hack the terminal to trigger the override if we had your master key plugged in too,” Norm said, “what do you think, Lucy? Unless you’re too chicken? Bock bock bock bock.”

“You know, chickens are actually incredibly noble and surprisingly smart birds, but no, I’m not scared if that’s what you mean.”

“Lucy’s not going down to the 13th floor,” Steph insisted.

“Yeah, Norm, I think you should just drop it,” Chet agreed.

“It’s Lucy’s dare, she gets to decide if she’s gonna wimp out or not,” Norm held eye contact with his sister, waiting for her to have the last word.

“Fine, I’ll do it,” Lucy agreed.

“Lucy, don’t!”

“We’re not allowed down there, it must be for a good reason!” Chet protested.

“I’ll be fine, guys. I accept your dare, Norman MacLean. One night all alone on the 13th floor. Bring it on.”

“Okay then,” Norm looked a little surprised at how quickly Lucy had agreed, he likely thought she would be more scared to go down there given what she’d told him about her recurring nightmares.

“I’m gonna pack an overnight bag but I’ll meet you by the elevator in about 10 minutes,” Lucy declared.

“This is insane! Lucy, don’t do this! You could get in so much trouble if Overseer Barb or your dad find out where you went!” Steph pleaded.

“Not to mention you don’t know what else is down there. What if… what if the monster is real?” Chet asked.

“Everyone knows the monster is just an urban legend to scare kids into behaving, right, Lucy?” Norm prodded.

Lucy took a deep breath to steady her nerves.

“There’s nothing to be scared of,” Lucy told herself just as much as her friends.

Lucy set off towards the supply closet and got to work packing blankets, pillows, a sleeping bag and some spare toiletries.

She went to the kitchen next and added a few bottles of water and some Fancy Lad Snack Cakes, just in case she got hungry.

When her bag was bursting with supplies and she couldn’t think of anything else she needed, Lucy finally made her way back to the elevator to meet her friends.

“Last chance to back out,” Steph offered, but Lucy shook her head.

“I’m doing this. Alone,” she added when she saw Chet open his mouth, looking like he was going to ask to come with her.

“Okay,” Norm said, “Chet, plug your Pip-Boy’s cable into the port on the terminal here,” he instructed as he pulled up the computer terminal’s back end matrix.

Chet plugged in the master key cable from his Pip-Boy and a new screen came up, filled with random words, numbers, and symbols.

Norm scrolled through the list of words and removed some of the junk data, trying one incorrect password before tapping the right one, the computer screen changing to a list of menu items.

“Okay, I’m in,” Norm declared as he looked over the options, “executive override code… unlock access… 13th floor, boom.”

“I uh, I guess I’ll see you all in the morning,” Lucy gripped the straps of her backpack tighter and exhaled as she stepped into the elevator.

“I still don’t like this,” Steph crossed her arms.

“Me neither!” Chet added, looking like he was on the verge of tears.

“I’ll be fine. And when I’m back tomorrow morning safe and sound, I want you all to declare that Lucy MacLean is the supreme queen of truth or dare,” she let out a forced laugh.

“We’ll see you on the other side,” Norm pressed one last button and the elevator doors closed before the car began its descent.

Lucy gripped her backpack straps even tighter until her knuckles went white and hands began to cramp.

As the elevator slowly dropped her deeper into the ground, her mind raced with long suppressed memories from her last visit to the 13th floor.

Lucy wondered what, if anything, had changed in the past decade and if the monster would still be there after all this time.

Just as the tension in the air felt like it was going to burst, the elevator dinged. The number 13 illuminated Lucy’s face as she gazed upwards.

After what felt like an hour to Lucy’s frazzled nerves, the elevator doors finally opened to reveal the forbidden floor.

Lucy’s first impression was that the floor felt smaller than when she was five years old, but she guessed that was due to her being a small child and everything feeling bigger when you’re that age.

Slowly, Lucy’s brain commanded her body to put one foot in front of the other as she passed cabinets, lockers, and tables full of medical supplies on her way to the cage in the middle of the room.

As she got closer, she realized that it looked a lot less like an animal cage and a lot more like a proper prison cell with reinforced bars bolted firmly into the floor.

The closer she got to the prison cell, the more her memories from that day came flooding back.

It was dark, but when Lucy looked between the bars across from the small toilet, she saw a lumpy form moving up and down on the small cot, covered in a blanket.

For a moment, Lucy wasn’t even sure that it was the monster.

Sleeping on a small cot in the dark, Lucy thought it looked like her dad taking a nap or really any normal human, not a terrifying beast.

That all changed when Lucy’s boot squeaked on the metal floor and the sleeping form sprang out of bed at the sound. It immediately threw off the blanket and sprung to action, taking a fighting stance.

Lucy stumbled backwards in shock, tripping over her own feet and falling flat on her butt, all while maintaining eye contact with the beast the entire time.

The beast’s eyes changed from hard and confrontational to soft and surprised in an instant.

“It’s you,” the beast said in a raw and ragged voice before launching into a coughing fit. “Water,” it croaked in a strained voice, “I need water.”

“Oh, uhh, I have some water,” Lucy remained seated on the ground while she pulled out one of her bottles of water.

She briefly considered getting up to step closer and hand the bottle through the bars, but a part of her was terrified that it would take the opportunity to grab her arm, so instead, she just rolled the bottle towards the cage along the floor until it came to a rest on the outside of the bars.

Lucy watched as the beast scrambled to grab the bottle and pull it into the cage, ripping open the top without taking the time to properly unscrew it.

The beast held the bottle up to its lips and began to chug the contents of the bottle, moaning in pleasure between deep pulls.

Lucy watched as the majority of the water made its way down its throat, but some of it dribbled down the beast’s chin and onto its heavily scarred chest that was clad in the same blue rags as a decade ago, only significantly more ripped and tattered.

“Thank you,” it whispered when the water bottle was completely empty. A surprisingly pink tongue darted out to lick its lips of any remaining moisture.

“You uh… you can talk? Not just grunts and growls?” Lucy finally worked up the nerve to ask.

It let out a grunt in the affirmative.

Was he… trying to be funny? Lucy wondered to herself. Lucy had seen enough of the beast’s intelligence and more than enough of its decidedly male looking body to start using masculine pronouns in her head.

“Thank you,” he repeated, his voice sounding clearer now, “for the water.”

He gently rolled the empty bottle back in Lucy’s direction until she stowed it back into her bag.

“Oh, uh, it was really no problem,” Lucy said, trying to remember her manners.

“I have something else of yours,” the beast said before turning his back to her and digging around under his small dirty mattress until he found what he was looking for.

It took Lucy a second to recognize the dirty object in his hand when he presented it, but her already big eyes widened when she realized what it was.

The object that had led to their first encounter together. What was once her most prized possession and whose absence helped her resist fully falling for the lie that their first meeting was just a bad dream.

“My ball! You… you kept it all these years?” Lucy was confused and a little touched by the gesture. The thought of this beast keeping her prized possession safe for a decade made her heart race, but she was still wary that it could be some sort of trick to lure her closer to the cage.

“I did,” he lowered his eyes to behold the ball as he played with it in his scarred hand. Even from distance Lucy could see he had impossibly long eyelashes, “for ten years, I kept it safe and hidden away from the scientists who experimented on me so they wouldn’t take it away. In my solitude, I would play with it to keep entertained and stay sane during my prolonged isolation,” he bounced the ball once on the hard metal floor and caught it, the corner of his mouth ticking upward while his eyes were still downcast in thought. He hesitated a beat and his pink tongue once again licked his lips before he continued, “it also gave me hope. Hope that one day you might return for it and maybe… maybe rescue me.”

Lucy didn’t know what to say. She thought back to the fairytales she’d read growing up and had always cast the monster in the villain archetype, antagonizing the hero in her dreams and nightmares but now… meeting him again and seeing him like this… he looked more like the damsel in distress, the princess locked away in her tower. Did that make Lucy the brave knight in those stories? Lucy shook her head to clear it of the childish fantasies and reminded herself that it could still be a trick.

“I’m sorry but what… who are you?” Lucy finally spoke up, needing to know more about the curious creature before her.

“My apologies, darling. Being away from society for so long, you tend to forget your manners,” Lucy listened silently even though she wanted to say that his manners were far better than she expected, “the name’s Cooper.”

Lucy had to stop herself from bursting out laughing. The monster that had haunted her dreams, that had terrified her as a kid, that she thought was some big evil villain was named…. Cooper?!?

Despite her best efforts, Lucy couldn’t contain her giggles and beast cocked his head to the side at her reaction.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she said in between laughs, “it’s just that… the monster that I spent so many years terrified of, the monster that parents in the vault use to scare their kids into behaving, the monster that I still have nightmares about grabbing me is named Cooper?!?” Lucy barked out another laugh but stopped when his eyes narrowed and his frown deepened.

“You got a problem with my name, sweetheart?”

Lucy immediately stopped laughing. She wasn’t sure if he was being serious or not, but despite his seemingly mild manners, she needed to remember that he was still a dangerous creature.

“No! No problem with your name whatsoever, it’s just that I don’t know anybody else in the vault with that name and the only person named Cooper I can think of was that old actor Cooper Howard who did those cowboy movies before the war. Gosh I had such a crush on him growing up. My dad and I just watched the one where he plays the handsome sheriff and his real life dog got to help him catch the bad guys and…” Lucy watched a strange expression that she couldn’t quite place wash over his face as he tilted his head to the side, “sorry, uh, nice to meet you, my name is Lucy. Lucy MacLean,” she finally finished her ramble.

“Lucy MacLean, huh?” the way he said her name as if he was tasting every syllable on his tongue made her shiver, “nice to finally put a name to a face after all these years. Pleasure to meet you, darling,” Cooper extended his hand through the bars of his cell for a handshake but Lucy just stared at the proffered limb without making any move to get closer.

A part of Lucy realized that she was being very rude by not shaking his hand, but another part of her remembered the way he grabbed at her through the bars 10 years ago and was still a little wary that the gentlemanly charm was all an act.

Lucy gave him an awkward little wave from a safe distance until he finally retracted his hand back through the bars and pursed his lips slightly at the rejection.

“So, Miss MacLean,” he said, bouncing the ball once on the metal floor and catching it, “what brings you back down here after all these years?” he gently tossed the ball to her after he asked his question and Lucy caught it.

She was reminded of a Vault-Tec conflict resolution technique of using a talking stick so that only the person holding the stick could speak and no one else would talk over them during the mediation process.

As Lucy rolled the dirty ball between her fingers and examined it, she wondered if Cooper had read the same conflict resolution manuals as she did and was trying to make her feel less afraid.

“My brother,” she finally answered, “we were playing a game of truth or dare and he dared me to spend the night down here. I had told him about my nightmares after our first meeting and he knew how scared I was of…. the 13th floor. I think he was hoping I’d be too scared to accept the dare.”

Lucy bounced the ball back to him when she was finished speaking.

“I didn’t know you had a brother,” Cooper commented as if they were old friends, glossing over the fact that she had admitted to having nightmares and being scared to come back here, “older or younger? Tell me more about him,” he tossed the ball back to her.

“Younger. He can be a typical annoying little brother sometimes, but I still love him and am so thankful to have him in my life, even when he gets on my nerves. When my dad tried to convince me that our first meeting was just a bad dream and that you didn’t actually exist, Norm always believed me and didn’t make me feel stupid for believing in the monster.”

“I’m glad you have someone like him in your life too. It can be awfully lonely believing in something despite everyone telling you you’re crazy and you’d be better off just conforming,” he said cryptically but didn’t elaborate further, “so aside from playing truth or dare, what else do you like to do for fun up there? Any hobbies?”

Lucy grinned at the question that was firmly in her wheelhouse as she launched into a lengthy explanation about her multitude of hobbies and activities in addition to her academic achievements.

They continued to toss the ball back and forth as they talked and lost track of the time.

Eventually, Lucy’s adrenaline wore off and she had calmed down enough that her eyelids were beginning to get heavy.

When she checked the time on her Pip-Boy, she saw that it was already well into the early morning hours as she let out a big yawn.

“You can go to sleep if you want, you look like you need it,” Cooper observed.

“I’m just gonna get out my sleeping bag but we can keep talking,” Lucy yawned again as she began to unfurl her bedroll and laid down on the metal floor a few feet outside of his cage.

Cooper asked her a few more questions around the kinds of food they had up there, but Lucy couldn’t recall if she gave an intelligible answer as her exhaustion finally caught up to her.

Lucy’s last thought before sleep overtook her was that she had shared so much of her life with Cooper, but she had neglected to ask him many questions about his past and still knew very little about where he came from and why he was down here to begin with.

Lucy had dreams that night of going on a date with a charming gentleman that bore a passing resemblance to Cooper Howard. The man of her dreams was polite and had a voice like butter with a soft southern accent. Lucy was enjoying their date and liked getting to know him better enough for her to agree to go home with him. Lucy was nervous and excited as she followed the man back to his room, but as soon as they were all alone, her date transformed into a hideous monster. Lucy tried to run away but he locked the door and attacked her, bashing her head into the door and stabbing her midsection with his big claws.

“Lucy!”

When she awoke to the sound of her name, her head and chest ached as if she had actually been stabbed and battered.

Lucy gasped and looked around the dark room, trying to get her bearings, but she only freaked out more when she realized she wasn’t in her bedroom.

“Lucy, you were having a bad dream,” a voice to her left said.

When Lucy looked to see the source of the voice, she let out a scream at the disfigured face staring down at her and scrambled to get away from the bars of the cage that she had gravitated towards during her sleep.

“Hey, it’s okay, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, I just wanted you to wake up from your dream. It’s just me,” Cooper tried to calm her down but Lucy’s heart was still racing and her body hurt so much that she suspected she had actually hit the solid metal bars during her nocturnal thrashing.

Even as she recalled the events of last night, she still couldn’t shake the decade of fear that this creature had caused her.

“What time is it?!?” Lucy asked before remembering that she had a clock on her Pip-Boy and brought the device to life. “7:45am?!? My friends are probably already awake and wondering where I am,” Lucy immediately began to pack up her sleeping bag and shove her belongings in her bag.

“Wait, you don’t have to go just yet, do you?” he sounded almost disappointed at her sudden rush to depart, “please, can’t you just stay a little longer and we can continue our conversation from last night? Please, I… I never get to talk to people unless they’re torturing me and talking with you, hearing what your life is like has been a breath of fresh air. Please don’t go!” he pleaded as his tone turned from calm and controlled to increasingly desperate.

Lucy hesitated just as she was about to put her ball into her backpack. Were they really torturing him down here or was that just a trick to get her sympathies?

“I’m sorry, but my friends will really be wondering if I’m okay if I delay any longer. I have to go,” Lucy paused a beat before tossing the ball back to him, “here, you hang onto that. You need it more than I do.”

The ball bounced several time until it came to a rest lamely by his feet.

As she turned to leave, Cooper’s desperation turned into a full-on breakdown and he revealed more about himself in under a minute than he revealed during their hours of conversation.

“Lucy, please don’t leave me! Your vault Overseer Barb is my wife! She and her goons torture me, cut off pieces of me and poke, prod, and inject me with things in the name of science! Your dad Hank is in on it too! They’re both evil and they’ve kept me trapped down here so long that I don’t even know how long it’s been, all the years blend together! Please, Lucy, you have to get me out of here, I just want to the torture to stop, I just want to get out of here!”

All the information that Cooper just dumped on Lucy combined with her disorientation from her nightmare was too much for a 15-year-old brain to handle. The possibility that Overseer Barb and her dad could be so evil was too much for her brain to process, so instead of considering the facts, she shut down and rejected what he was saying.

“No,” Lucy shook her head, “no, my dad is a good man and Overseer Barb has been nothing but kind to us. She’s been like family to us since my mom died and even if they have some secrets, I trust that they have the vault’s best interests at heart.”

“Please, Lucy, they’ve both been lying to you! I promise you I’m telling the truth! I may not be able to convince you of that today, but please just promise you’ll come back for me when you can see it too.”

Lucy shook her head slightly as she slung her backpack over her shoulders and gave one last look at the desperate creature before her.

“I’m sorry, but I’ve known my dad and Barb my entire life and I just met you. I’m sorry but they’re my family and I… I don’t know you. Goodbye,” Lucy spared him one last look and saw his crestfallen expression turn to frustration as he gripped the bars of his cage so tightly she worried they might finally break.

She turned her back on him and began to walk towards the elevator.

“Lucy!!!” he shouted in a mix of exasperation and anger, “you can’t just leave me here! I know you’re a good person, I know you always try to do the right thing and you won’t let them keep me prisoner here. Come back! Lucy! Wait, please, Lucy, you know me. You do know me! I’m Coo— but the elevator doors had already shut and cut him off.

It would be 10 years before she saw him again.

Chapter Text

Lucy thought about asking Chet for the master key and going back countless times in the ten years that followed her night on the 13th floor, but something always held her back.

In the days that followed, whenever Norm, Chet, or Steph would ask about what happened, she was closed off and short on details, simply saying that the 13th floor wasn’t that scary, never saying a word about the monster.

Eventually, they stopped asking her about it.

Lucy wasn’t sure why it was so hard to just admit the truth about what happened. Maybe she was too ashamed of her actions abandoning a desperate soul in need of help, or maybe she was too scared to dig deeper into the allegations he made against her dad and Barb, finding it easier to go along to get along and not rock the boat.

Lucy rationalized that it was far more likely that the man she looked up to her entire life was telling the truth versus a monster she barely knew and that even if she wanted to investigate and see if his claims were true, she was just one person and didn’t have any power to stand up to the Overseer. Or maybe she was just too scared of what she might find out.

No, it was easier to maintain the status quo than to try and be a rebel in a vault full of conformists.

Even though Lucy never acted on Cooper’s accusations, his words were always in the back of her mind every time she interacted with Overseer Barb or asked her dad a question that he dodged, and she hated him for even planting that seed in her mind.

Nevertheless, the years passed with Lucy throwing herself even deeper into her hobbies and schoolwork, which included intense preparation for her Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test or G.O.A.T. that every vault dweller took at age 16.

Lucy was thrilled when her intense preparation paid off and her G.O.A.T. placed her in the teacher track.

With a renewed purpose to be the best teacher possible and help mold the young minds in the vault to be prepared for the future, Lucy ignored the small voice in the back of her head that told her to go back to the 13th floor and set Cooper free.

Once she graduated and started working as a teacher, the years began to pass by even faster.

Even though Lucy still trusted her dad and Barb enough to pick them over Cooper, she hated that every interaction with them about their work felt like walking on eggshells. Every time they said something that didn’t quite add up, Lucy had to force herself to ignore it and remember that it was all for the best interest of the vault that no one question the overseer.

Over the years, Lucy thrived in her work and personal life in just about every aspect except romance.

Lucy continued practicing cousin stuff with Chet, but his feelings for her made every session even less enjoyable for her. She felt guilty for leading him on when there was obviously no future there.

Even though Lucy was mostly fulfilled by her work teaching and her various hobbies, she still yearned to find a romantic partner to have kids with and accomplish the mission of the vaults.

The older she got, the more apparent it became that there weren’t any suitable romantic partners for Lucy in Vault 33.

When Lucy turned 25, she decided to enter into the vault’s triennial vault exchange program in the hopes of finding a suitable husband from Vault 32.

After practicing her presentation over and over again until it was seared into her brain, Lucy made her case to the vault council and was thrilled when she got approved for the inter-vault exchange.

Even though Chet was heartbroken, Lucy figured that getting married and starting a life with her new husband would help her forget all about Cooper and she thought that a fresh start would be good for everyone.

There was very little time to plan for the wedding once her application was approved.

One minute her Pip-Boy was chiming to let her know that she had successfully persuaded the council to trade supplies for a husband for her, and the next she was getting into the shared vault wedding dress and remarking to Steph about how tight it felt.

Steph, who had met her husband Burt a few years prior and was now very pregnant, tried to reassure Lucy that the dress wouldn’t stay on long and talked about how excited she was for Lucy to get pregnant too so they could raise their kids together and fulfill the mission of the vaults in reclaiming America.

Lucy smiled but as soon as Steph turned to walk away, it turned into a grimace.

Lucy didn’t know why, but despite seemingly having everything a little girl could hope for on her wedding day, a lifetime of being a good wife and pumping out babies to repopulate America didn’t seem quite as satisfying for Lucy as Steph made it sound.

Lucy shook her head to clear the traitorous thoughts. She was an active contributor to the wellbeing of her community. She was the assistant overseer’s daughter and she was duty bound to procreate and be a good mother to achieve the mission of the vaults.

Maybe she would feel a bit more excited once she finally met her husband.

As Lucy walked down the long vault hallway with a fake flower bouquet in hand, she was escorted by her friends, her dad, and Norm who all walked with her towards the door to Vault 32.

In typical little brother fashion, Norm spent the walk down the hall teasing Lucy about having no idea what her husband looks like.

“But of course, it’s all just superficial concerns, it’s what’s on the inside that counts,” Norm added in faux earnest.

“That’s right,” her dad chimed in.

“And in that respect, he could be a cannibal or just like crammed full of tumors!”

“Norman!” their dad scolded but that didn’t stop Norm from leaning in closer and whispering in Lucy’s ear so that only she could hear.

“Or maybe it’s the monster from the 13th floor waiting behind that door.”

Lucy’s heart stuttered as she considered the possibility of Cooper waiting for her on the other side of that door for just a fraction of a second.

Lucy knew that Norm was probably just trying to be annoying and didn’t mean anything by it, but Lucy found herself wishing just a little bit that she could see Cooper again after all these years, even if it was just to get some closure before starting the next chapter of her life.

Lucy knew that was unrealistic and that the best she could hope for was that she buried the Monster from Vault 33 so deep in her mind that she never thought about him while she enjoyed her new life with a husband she was hopefully at least a little bit attracted to.

After a slight delay with Chet faking a tumbler jam and professing his love for Lucy, which she reminded him was never going to work out, finally the inter-vault door opened and a handsome man flanked by dozens of other people in vault 32 jumpsuits emerged.

“Lucky!” Steph whispered in Lucy’s ear when they both realized that the handsome man in the middle of the group must be her future husband!

Lucy was finally starting to get excited and felt the dread start to leave her body when she saw just how attractive the man that introduced himself as Monty was.

Lucy didn’t consider herself a superficial person, but having a partner this handsome would definitely make the sex a lot more enjoyable… she hoped, since she had never had sex with anyone other than Chet and they mostly just did hand and mouth stuff.

They walked as a group to the vault’s main gathering space with fake grass and a telesonic projector that looped images of the Nebraskan countryside.

The wedding ceremony was a blur as Lucy and Monty said some basic vows and then kissed.

It was a brief but nice kiss that acted as a promise to each other and to all the people gathered here. A promise to be faithful to each other, til death do us part, and a promise to do their marital duty of making babies with diverse genetics to maintain the vault’s population for years to come.

Now that she was married, Lucy was fully committed to forgetting about her time with Cooper on the 13th floor and moving on with her new life.

After a brief reception including cake and a father-daughter dance, it did not take long for Monty to pull her aside and request they go check out their new apartment.

While Lucy was being sentimental about all the appliances and amenities that their new apartment had to offer, Monty was already naked and waiting. Apparently he took his duty to the vaults seriously too and couldn’t wait to start making babies with her now that they were married!

“Okie dokie!” Lucy said and began to strip down.

Their kisses this time were more passionate than the chaste one they shared during the wedding ceremony but once they got to the actual sex…

Lucy didn’t want to use the word ‘disappointing’ since her only other sexual experience was with her cousin, but the deed itself was brief and hurt a little and she had to do most of the work getting herself off since he had finished first.

As Lucy stared at the ceiling in not-quite-post-coital bliss, she wondered if this was what the rest of her life would be like; technically satisfied but not quite fulfilled.

While Lucy was trying to rationalize that they just didn’t know each other well enough yet and that the sex would get better with time and practice, she noticed her husband wiping himself off on their new home’s curtains!

Lucy thought it odd that any vault dweller would disrespect curtains that had been handed down for generations and expected to last for years to come.

While Lucy was contemplating the odd behavior, she heard a scream from down the hall and immediately lunged for her Pip-Boy to check Monty’s radiation and confirm her suspicions.

“Raiders!”

After the accusation left her lips, Monty immediately turned hostile and the next thing Lucy knew, she was fighting for her life.

In the violent struggle, Monty got the upper hand long enough to stab Lucy in her midsection, causing her to let out an agonizing scream, but she knew that no one was coming to help and she would have to save herself.

Lucy dug deep into her bag of tricks with moves she’d learned in her Intermediate Phys Ed classes and didn’t stop fighting until Monty was lying on the ground with shards of their broken blender sticking out of his cheek.

Once Monty was dealt with, Lucy ran to help the rest of her fellow vault dwellers fend off the attack, making a pit stop in the armory for a tranq gun first.

Lucy helped her friends battle through the swarm of angry raiders, using the accuracy she’d learned from riflery club to deadshot raiders in the eye with her tranq gun.

The telesonic projector caught fire, sparked, and burned while Lucy made her way over to save Norm.

As Lucy took Norm under her arm and led him to safety, it felt like the entire world was coming to an end all over again 219 years later.

Once Lucy had helped Norm hide in a footlocker and saw that Chet and Steph were both holding their own, she made her way to the overseer’s office to find her dad and confront the leader of the raiders.

Lucy stormed into the overseer’s office, tranq gun blazing, but quickly saw that the alleged overseer of vault 32 had her father and Barb on their knees with a much bigger and more deadly gun than the weapon in Lucy’s hand.

“My name is Lee Moldaver,” the woman said, “and you’re gonna wanna hear what I have to say, so why don’t you put your little gun down and take a seat.”

Lucy thought about trying to get a surprise attack in, but she knew that would be suicide, so instead, she sat down and listened to Moldaver’s speech.

Moldaver told Lucy about how both her father and Barb were from before the war, both hundreds of years old, using cryo and other science to extend their lifespans.

She told Lucy about how her mother Rose and her had started exchanging electronic messages in the months before her death and that they had made plans to run away together to a settlement called Shady Sands, but that her dad had found the messages, dropped nukes on the settlement and killed her mother for even thinking about leaving him.

Moldaver revealed that the mission of the vaults was a sham and that 32 and 33 were just used for breeding stock with Vault-Tec middle management to have babies with. Moldaver told Lucy that if she didn’t believe her, then she was welcome to go see vault 32 with her own eyes.

Lucy’s mind spun as she took in all of these shocking revelations and Moldaver dropped truth bomb after truth bomb.

Lucy thought about her dad and how thoroughly he tricked her into trusting him. Lucy thought about Norm and what he would do when he found all this out. But mostly, Lucy thought about Cooper and how every word that came out of Moldaver’s mouth only affirmed what he had told her 10 years prior.

Young Lucy might’ve been able to sweep any doubts she had about her father and Barb under the rug, but Lucy was 25 years old now and it was time to grow up.

There was no denying the truth now that Hank and Barb weren’t who she thought they were. Both Moldaver’s and Cooper’s words rang true and it was time for Lucy to stop living a lie.

Lucy’s ears were ringing, her head ached from the vertigo and she felt like she might throw up, but she listened to the rest of what Moldaver had to say.

Moldaver continued to provide proof of Hank and Barb’s sins, all while Lucy thought about how differently things would’ve been if she’d just believed Cooper all those years ago and worked to get him out. She owed him a big apology.

When Moldaver finished her speech, she turned to Lucy and smiled, no doubt seeing just how deeply her words cut.

“Lucy, don’t believe her, it’s all a lie!” Hank shouted in a last ditch attempt to win his daughter back, but it just earned him a pistol whip to the head by one of Moldaver’s goons.

“I’m going to offer you a choice now, Lucy, and I want you to choose carefully, because this could be the biggest choice of your life,” Moldaver spoke calmly and smoothly, “you can either choose to stay here and save your father and your beloved overseer, try to go back to a normal life despite everything you now know. Or… you could walk out that door right now and leave these two to their fates,” Moldaver cocked the hammer of her pistol, the implication clear of what would happen to them if Lucy left.

Lucy looked between where her dad and Barb were kneeling and the door.

“You’ll be lauded as a hero if you stay and save us, Lucy!” Barb chimed in desperately, “the whole vault will throw a celebration in your honor! All three of the vaults!”

Despite his head wound from his earlier interjection bleeding profusely, Hank risked one more attempt at reasoning with his daughter.

“Lucy, I know you’re gonna do the right thing. I’m still your father, you wanted to be just like me when you grew up, remember?”

Lucy felt even sicker when she thought about her past desire to follow in her father’s footsteps. She might’ve been easy to brainwash when she was a little kid and even pretty malleable as a teen, but now she was an adult. And she was ready to finally be her own woman.

“My men won’t stop you if you choose to leave. All you have to do is walk out that door,” Moldaver assured her.

Lucy spared once last glance at Hank and Barb as a silent goodbye, then got up and turned to walk away.

There was a chorus of shouting and pleading from Hank and Barb as Lucy walked away, then as the door slammed shut behind her, two loud shots, and then silence.

Lucy didn’t turn around.

Lucy ran to check on Norm in his hiding spot and was relieved to find him alive and well.

Next, she checked on Steph, who had taken a fork to the eye and was more than a little shaken up, but she would live.

Lastly, she found Chet washing blood from his face after one of the raiders got trapped in the doorway and chopped in half.

Lucy didn’t know why she didn’t just ask Chet to borrow the master key again, he probably would’ve said yes, but he also might’ve tried to go with her, and what she was about to do, she needed to do alone.

While Chet was busy washing up, Lucy left and looked for his abandoned Pip-Boy. Sure enough, it was still plugged into the door console next to the upper half of the dead raider's body.

Lucy unplugged the cable and took the device with her. The door opened up, still dripping blood that Lucy had to dodge as she stepped around the dead body and made her way to the elevators.

She plugged Chet’s key into the terminal and got to work hacking to override the lock and access the 13th floor. It took her a little longer than Norm to hack, but eventually she was in.

Lucy took a deep breath and collected her thoughts as the elevator slowly descended to the 13th floor.

A part of her wondered if he would still be in his cage or if he had gotten out or, heaven forbid, died in the ten years since she saw him last.

When the doors slid open and revealed a familiar silhouette between the prison bars, Lucy let out a big sigh of relief.

She steadied her nerves and took one step forward and then another into the dark room.

Lucy wasn’t sure if he would be furious with her for leaving him to rot another 10 years, but even if he hated her, she had to at least try to do the right thing, because regardless of her father’s influence, that’s who Lucy was.

And right now, she had a wrong to right.

Chapter Text

Lucy’s breath caught and her heart skipped a beat when she emerged from the elevator to see the Monster from Vault 33 alive and looking exactly the same as he did a decade ago.

Well, almost the same. His tattered blue rags that had once been a vault suit had completely fallen off and he stood completely naked in his cage.

Even though he was the naked one, as Lucy approached the cage and his eyes raked over her, she was the one who felt surprisingly bare.

Lucy realized that she was still wearing her bloodstained wedding dress and guessed that the blood was the reason for his odd expression and lingering gaze. She hoped that his silence wasn’t because he was mad at her, but she wouldn’t blame him if it was.

“I’m so sorry!” Lucy blurted out before she could overthink it any further, “you were right. You were right about everything and I should’ve believed you. My father, Barb, the vaults, my whole life! All a lie. I should’ve believed you or at least I should’ve found a way to come back and get you out. You told me they were torturing you and I did nothing, I’m just as guilty as they are and I’m such an idiot for not questioning their actions or digging deeper when things didn’t add up. I just… it was easier to not question things,” she gestured down to her wedding dress, “hell, I was going to get married today and was planning on starting a new life and forgetting all about you until just a few hours ago.”

“Well, then I guess fate had different plans for both of us today, darling,” he finally spoke up, his voice soft and gentle, not indicating any of the righteous fury that she expected him to feel towards her.

“I betrayed you! I left you here to rot another 10 years after you told me that you were being tortured! I just told you that I was planning on forgetting about you and never coming back, and you’re not even a little bit mad at me?”

He shrugged.

“When you’ve been alive for over 200 years, 10 years goes by pretty fast. I’m just glad that you eventually found out the truth and believe me now.”

Lucy let out a sigh.

“Even though it hurts like hell and I still kinda feel like throwing up, I am glad I found out the truth too. I can’t live a lie anymore. I’ve made up my mind. I’m going to leave the vault and explore. I want to see the world and discover the truth for myself.”

“What about your family?” he wondered.

“My dad and Barb… the raiders… they’re both…” the word ‘dead’ stuck in Lucy’s throat.

“So, my ex-wife finally got what was coming to her, huh? How’d it happen?”

Lucy was able to find the words to relay what had happened with her wedding ceremony, Monty, Moldaver, and the ensuing battle and ultimatum.

Cooper let out a low whistle.

“Sounds to me like we both had pretty awful spouses. Maybe we could start a club.”

Lucy wondered how he could still joke after everything he’d been through. She had assumed that he would be either be furious and out for revenge against her or broken and depressed, but he seemed to be in oddly good spirits.

Unless it was all a trick to get her to trust him enough to open the cell door so he could kill her?

Lucy wanted to trust him and she knew now that he was telling the truth, but he was still a horribly scarred monster with every reason to hate her.

“I want to trust you,” she looked into his eyes through the bars of the cage, “and I want to let you out of there, but first I need you to promise me that you won’t try to eat me the second I let you out.”

“Well, you do look like you’d make some pretty delicious ass jerky, but no, sweetheart, I promise not to eat you,” he let out a breathy chuckle and looked her up and down.

Was he… flirting with her? No, it couldn’t be. She must be misreading his tone.

“Okie dokie, thank you Mister… thank you, Cooper, sorry I still don’t know your last name.”

“Yes you do, darling. I tried telling you the last time but I suppose I can’t blame you for not figuring it out.”

“Huh?” Lucy looked at him in confusion, trying to figure out what he was talking about, but when she looked closer at him, she saw just how human he looked and realized that she was staring at his completely naked body and immediately averted her gaze.

Cooper grinned at her reaction, which only made Lucy blush harder. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember what he had been trying to tell her in her haste to leave the last time.

“Still haven’t figured it out? I think they kept my original clothes in a locker over yonder if you need a hint.”

“Okie dokie!” Lucy chirped and immediately went over to the lockers that he had pointed towards, thankful to put a little distance between them after the rising tension was starting to make her hot under the collar.

Lucy opened up a few empty lockers before finding one with a cowboy hat, shirt, and pants that must’ve been the clothes he was referring to.

Lucy brought the clothes back over to the prison cell and handed them to him through the bars.

She looked away while he got dressed to try to give him some privacy, which caused him to chuckle and shake his head.

“Now that’s more like it,” he said once he was fully dressed.

Lucy turned to look at him just in time to see him put on his cowboy hat with a flourish.

“Have you figured it out yet, Miss MacLean?” he tipped the brim of his hat towards her and winked and a wave of familiarity suddenly washed over Lucy.

Lucy took one step closer to the bars of his cage, then two, looking directly into his familiar brown eyes.

No, it couldn’t be. After all these years, it was impossible. He should’ve been dead, and yet…

“C-Cooper Howard?” Lucy whispered the name like a prayer and her eyes widened as he grinned back at her, the left corner of his mouth ticking upwards as he gave her that signature movie star grin.

“Now, you’re getting it,” he drawled, clearly taking great pleasure in shocking her with this revelation.

“I thought that Cooper Howard died when the bombs dropped, how are you still alive?!?”

“Well, I suppose a part of me did die that day when the bombs dropped and the radiation turned me into whatever I am now. I heard the scientists say that there are others like me on the surface. They call them ‘ghouls’.”

“There are others like you up there?!?” Lucy realized how little she knew about the surface and wondered what other monstrous creatures might exist after 200 years of radiation.

“Well, I’ve been poked, prodded and injected with cocktails of drugs six ways to Sunday, so I’m not sure if anybody is really like me, but yeah from what I gather, other humans up there that got exposed to radiation had their skin decay, their noses fall off, and their lifespans extended.”

“How did that happen? How did the radiation turn humans into ghouls? How did you even get down here to begin with?” Lucy fired question after question like a machine gun.

“I’d be happy to answer all your questions, sweetheart, but first, I’d really like to get out of this damned cage,” he said with a tight smile.

“Oh right,” Lucy looked at the electronic lock and plugged in Chet’s Pip-Boy, revealing the backend data on the terminal. She got to work hacking while he watched on anxiously, “and you super duper pinky promise that you aren’t mad and won’t kill me the second I open this door? I really am sorry about leaving you last time.”

“Darling, I’m not mad at you. You were a scared girl back then, falling for the propaganda that Vault-Tec and your daddy told you. Anyone would’ve chosen family over a strange, ugly monster, but now you’re your own woman who sees through their bullshit. And, I think the fact that you came back here at all means you’ve already made up your mind. I know we still don’t know each other that well, and I’m a far cry from the cowboy you grew up watching on the Radiation King, but I want to prove to you that you can trust me. I will never lie to you, so if you free me, I will answer all your questions to the best of my ability. Please, Lucy, I just want to be free.”

Lucy was touched by his impassioned speech and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was being earnest and telling the truth.

With a few more keystrokes on the terminal, Lucy successfully hacked the device and saw the menu option to disengage the lock.

Lucy pressed the button to indicate that she was sure she wanted to open the cell door, and heard a click before the heavy reinforced metal door swung open.

Cooper took one step outside and paused a moment before taking another step and then another, a huge grin spreading over his face as he took his first steps outside of the metal box that had been his home for two centuries.

Cooper laughed as he picked up his pace from a walk to a run. Lucy watched as he continued to run until he was practically sprinting in circles around the room while laughing with unadulterated joy.

His laughter and joy were contagious as Lucy began to grin and decided to join him in running a few laps around the 13th floor until she was out of breath.

Cooper seemed to have 200 years worth of energy saved up though, so even after Lucy was tired and took a break to catch her breath, Cooper kept running, practically bouncing off the walls with energy.

He eventually made his way to the lab section of the 13th floor and began opening up every footlocker, cabinet, and safe he could find to loot their contents.

Lucy watched as he popped pills, injected drugs, inhaled chems, and licked up every unknown substance in sight.

While Lucy didn’t approve of drug use, she could see just how happy he was, and figured that he deserved to go on a little bender after everything he’d been through.

When Cooper finally finished his binge, he let out a big exhale of satisfaction and turned to face Lucy.

“Thank you, Miss MacLean,” he extended his right hand out for her to shake, “you were the reason I never lost hope all these years. Knowing that you were out there, knowing that there was a chance, however small, that you would come back for me, and then you did. That was what kept me going when things got rough, that little sliver of hope kept me from giving into my base instincts. Kept me from turning into the feral creature in a cage that they wanted me to be. I owe you my sanity and my life, so… thank you.”

Lucy was beyond touched at his kind words and gladly accepted his outstretched hand this time.

Lucy noted the way the rough skin of his hand felt around her much smaller and smoother hand.

It wasn’t nearly as off-putting as Lucy thought; he was oddly warm and his firm grip was almost comforting. Lucy briefly wondered if the rest of him would be as warm.

“You’re welcome,” Lucy breathed out. The pair locked eyes and maybe it was all the chems blowing his pupils wide, but Lucy could see just how emotional this moment was for him and how grateful he was to finally be free.

“Thank you, truly,” he repeated, still holding onto her hand, “I can’t tell you just how much I appreciate you coming back for me. I thought of you in bed almost every night,” Lucy’s eyes widened in surprise and he quickly added, “I mean I thought of you coming back here to let me out while I was laying awake in bed. I probably had just as many dreams about you freeing me as you had nightmares about me,” he let out a wry chuckle.

Maybe it was his touching words, maybe it was curiosity, maybe it was the weight of all the revelations that day catching up to her, or maybe it was something else entirely that made Lucy throw her body against his and hold him tight for a big warm bear hug.

Cooper gasped and hesitated a moment before leaning into her and hugging back.

Lucy suspected it was the first time in 200 years he’d had physical contact with someone who wasn’t trying to experiment on him or do him harm.

The longer the hug went on, the more Cooper relaxed until he felt confident enough to put his hand on Lucy’s lower back and pull her deeper into his embrace so that every inch of her body was pressed against his.

Lucy couldn’t remember the last time she’d had such a good hug. Probably from her mom back when she was still alive.

Lucy couldn’t hold back the dam any longer. Her tears finally overflowed and she began to shake as sobs wracked her entire body.

Cooper wordlessly held her as she cried, rubbing comforting circles into her back.

“Ow,” Lucy exclaimed in pain after a particularly big sob.

“Did I hurt you? I think they did something to make me a lot stronger and I forget my own strength sometimes, I’m so sorry!” he let go of her and took a step back. Lucy immediately missed his warmth.

“No, no, you didn’t hurt me, it was my damn husband Monty. He stabbed me and I think I just re-opened the wound.”

“Are you okay? Let me take a look,” he gently brushed a hand over the bloodstain on the front of her dress, causing her to shiver.

“I’ll be fine, I already took a stimpak, don’t worry about it. Besides, don’t you wanna get out of here?” Lucy tried to keep her voice cool and casual as she brushed off his concern, looking towards the elevator.

“It’s all I’ve ever wanted, but if we’re going to make our escape from the vault and go explore the surface, I can’t very well have you bleeding out on me before we get there, now let me see it.”

Lucy’s heart raced. She wasn’t sure whether it was from the idea of him putting his freedom on hold to take care of her wound or if it was the implication that they would travel together up on the surface when they made their escape.

“Okay,” she breathed.

She knew that she had to undress so that he could get a better view of her wound. She had never had any issues de-robing at the doctor’s clinic whenever she had her fertility checkups and those were much more invasive than a simple wound to the torso, but for some reason, she felt a hell of a lot more nervous about getting undressed now than she did with her doctor. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was Cooper freakin’ Howard and learning this brought back memories of her teenage crush on him and fantasies about getting undressed for a very different purpose.

When Lucy had delayed as long as she could, she reached for the zipper of her wedding dress, but the motion of reaching behind her back only aggravated her wound more and Cooper noticed her wince.

“Here, let me,” he motioned for her to turn around and brushed her hair out of the way before reaching up to pull on the tab of her zipper.

If Cooper noticed the goosebumps that erupted on her skin, he didn’t say anything. If he did, Lucy would’ve blamed it on the freezing air in the lab.

Lucy turned back around to face him and held his gaze as she slowly pulled the straps of her dress off each shoulder. In hindsight, perhaps turning back around was a mistake, because the air between them felt like it was charged with a 10,000 volt Tesla cannon.

Lucy looked up at him from under her eyelashes for a beat before finally averting her gaze, breaking the tension.

She slowly peeled the dress away from her wound, hissing when air hit the cut and it started to bleed again.

“Yup, you definitely reopened it. Have a seat and I’ll see what I can do,” he gestured to the metal table a few feet away. His voice was low with concern, but his tone was calm and confident and it made Lucy feel like everything was gonna be alright.

Lucy discarded the bloodstained dress onto the floor and took a seat on the cold metal table wearing just her underwear. She gasped at how cold it was and missed the warmth of Cooper’s hug.

“Okay, let’s see what the damage is,” Cooper’s hands were warm but she still shivered under his touch as his fingers gently prodded the wound, “sorry, I know you probably don’t want an ugly old ghoul like me touching you, but I need to patch you up, so I promise I’ll be quick,” he said, completely misreading her physical reaction.

“Okie dokie,” Lucy squeaked while his fingers trailed over her bare stomach.

“The stimpak did a good job of stopping the internal bleeding, but the external wound is still open and very likely to get infected if I don’t stitch it up. Luckily, I know what I’m doing with a needle and thread, give me a moment.”

Lucy sat patiently while Cooper rustled through a few of the cabinets and medical carts until he found what he was looking for. He used alcohol to sanitize his hands and the needle before approaching her with the supplies in hand.

“Is it gonna hurt?” Lucy asked nervously.

“No, thankfully I was able to find some Med-X,” he held up a syringe full of liquid, “so after I administer the shot with a quick pinch, you shouldn’t feel a thing, but let me know if you do and I promise I’ll stop immediately.”

“Okay, let’s do this,” Lucy nodded and took a deep breath to calm herself.

“Okay, here comes the Med-X.”

Lucy looked away while Cooper injected the chem into the surrounding area. The pain from her wound dissipated almost immediately.

“Alright, and now I’m gonna patch you up,” Cooper stepped closer to her and braced one of his rough hands against her ribs and then pierced the skin with the needle.

As he worked on closing up the wound, Lucy had a sudden realization that he was standing between her legs and that she was sitting on a table wearing nothing but her underwear.

With him standing so close, Lucy started to notice things like his long eyelashes and his sharp cheekbones that, although hidden under mottled and marred skin, were actually kind of beautiful.

Lucy didn’t quite realize what was happening until it was too late, but the more she stared at his face and his strong forearms and slender hips nestled between her knees, the more obvious it became. She was experiencing a mix of arousal and attraction that she had read about in books but had never experienced for herself.

Lucy gasped at the sudden realization and chastised her traitorous mind for thinking about closing her legs around him to pull him closer to her core.

“Everything okay?” Cooper asked in response to her audible gasp, “did you feel that stitch? I can find some more Med-X,” his fingertips trailed over her lower stomach and Lucy thought for just a fraction of a second that he was going to continue his path south, finding herself somewhat disappointed when he stopped near her navel.

“No, no, I didn’t feel anything, the Med-X is working great!” Lucy hoped that he couldn’t feel just how fast her heart was beating.

“Okay, I’m almost done,” he gave her a reassuring smile.

“You’re really good at that,” Lucy commented when she saw him pull the thread taut through a tiny loop he made.

“I’ve had a lot of practice over the years, unfortunately,” the curve of his smile disappeared into a flat line, “ghouls heal faster than humans so the scientists that experimented on me, they would cut off pieces of me to see how quickly it would regenerate, but I think some of them enjoyed it a little too much and started doing it for fun. The small wounds would heal pretty quickly, but for the big wounds, I kept a needle hidden and would tear thread off of my bedding to sew myself up.”

“Oh my gosh, that’s terrible!” Lucy commented, feeling guilty all over again for leaving him to be tortured and experimented on the past ten years. She suspected that wasn’t even close to the worst of the experiments he was subjected to.

“At least it comes in handy,” Cooper shrugged casually, “maybe I could use my skills to be a doctor or a tailor up on the surface once we’re free.”

“Well, I haven’t seen your seamstress skills yet, but your bedside manner is impeccable, Doctor Howard,” Lucy joked nervously, hoping she wasn’t coming off as too flirty.

“There we go. All done, sweetheart,” Cooper smiled and Lucy looked down at his hands.

Cooper leaned in and rubbed the adhesive on the medical tape until it completely covered the wound.

Lucy didn’t know how far she had leaned forward until he looked up from his handiwork and the two locked eyes.

Cooper swallowed and Lucy could see his throat bob as they both seemed to realize just how close their faces were.

For a brief moment, Lucy thought that he was going to lean in too and close the distance between their lips, and she wondered why the thought of kissing the monster that had haunted her nightmares didn’t seem to horrify her.

At last, Cooper broke the tension and stepped backwards until he was no longer between her legs.

Lucy immediately slammed her knees shut and hoped that he didn’t notice her reaction.

“I uh,” he cleared his throat, “I guess that we should find you some clothes that aren’t bloodstained.”

Now that she was no longer in need of immediate medical attention, Cooper finally seemed to notice that she was in her underwear and averted his gaze.

“Right,” Lucy breathed and stood up from the medical table. She wasn’t sure if her lightheadedness was from the blood loss or something else.

Lucy rummaged around through some cabinets in search of clothing, but all she could find were white lab coats. She supposed it was better than nothing. Just as she had begun to put on the lab coat, Cooper looked in her direction.

“No!” he shouted out, startling them both, “no, I’m sorry, but not that. Anything but that. I think there’s a vault suit in one of those lockers on the floor.”

Lucy nodded and wordlessly put down the lab coat, walking over to the locker on the far wall and digging through it until she found the familiar blue and yellow fabric.

Lucy zipped up the vault suit and Cooper seemed much calmer now. He was finally able to look at her without immediately averting his gaze, which made Lucy smile.

“Well, Mr. Howard, now that I’m all patched up, are you ready to get out of here?”

“Darling, I’ve never been more ready to get out of here,” he chuckled.

Lucy immediately wanted to hear him laugh again and found that she was growing quite fond of his pet names for her like ‘sweetheart’ and ‘darling’ that sounded even better in his light and smooth southern accent.

Lucy gathered up her things and took Chet’s Pip-Boy with the master key back to the elevator bay.

Just as Lucy and Cooper were about to plug in the key and call the elevator to take them to the vault entrance, all the lights went out.

“Oh no!” Lucy turned on the flashlight on her Pip-Boy to see, but the power to the elevator was out too and pressing the call button did nothing, “I think the raiders got into our reactor room.”

“But you have backup power, right?” Cooper asked, and almost as soon as he finished his sentence, the lights came back on and the medical machinery began to whir.

“We do, but the emergency power doesn’t prioritize elevators since most of the vault is accessible by stairs, so we have to wait until they get the main power back on before the elevators start working again.”

“How long do you think that will take?

“I don’t know. I… our lead engineer was among the dead from the raider attack. He could’ve probably had it back up and running in a day or two, but without him…” Lucy trailed off.

“What?” Cooper asked, he clearly didn’t like where this was going.

“It could be weeks.”

Cooper let out a big sigh and rubbed his face, “ahhhh, out of one cage and into another.”

“I’m sorry. If you hadn’t stopped to patch me up, we could’ve gotten out of here before the power went out.”

“It’s not your fault,” Cooper reassured her, “besides, what’s a few more weeks when you’ve been here 200 years?”

Lucy admired his positive outlook even after all the horrors he’d seen and the torture he’d endured.

“Well, at least the lights are working. If we had to wait down here in total darkness, that would make things a lot tougher. Who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky and the elevator power will be back on in a few hours or maybe just a day or two!”

“Maybe!” Cooper agreed, unable to resist Lucy’s infectious optimism.

It would be two weeks before Lucy and the Ghoul encountered another living soul.

Chapter Text

“Maybe it’s for the best that the elevator isn’t working right now,” Cooper remarked as he and Lucy walked back towards the cage in the center of the room.

“Oh? Why’s that?” she asked.

“I know we’re both desperate to leave this place and go see what life is like on the surface, but let’s face it, neither of us are prepared for what we might find out there right this minute. We’re gonna need to gather enough food, water, and medical supplies to keep us both alive and maybe even some weapons in case we run into some more raiders or other folks trying to do us harm. Besides, a few days to rest and regroup will be good for us and give your stab wound some time to heal.”

“I suppose you’re right. We can stop by the armory and pack up some essentials before we leave the vault for good. This will give us some time to plan,” Lucy paused and considered what kinds of weapons they might need and if there could be more than just raiders trying to kill them, “what do you think it’s like up there?”

“Well, I only know what I’ve heard from the scientists, but it sounds like the other ghouls, for some of them, their brain rots and they go feral, attacking anything in sight.”

“But that wouldn’t happen to you, right? I mean, you’ve been a ghoul for over 200 years without going feral, so you’re not gonna turn on me all of a sudden and start attacking?” Lucy had flashbacks to her nightmares about the monster grabbing at her, trying to get her through the bars of the cage.

“The doctors gave me this special chem that keeps me from going feral,” Cooper pulled out an inhaler with a liquid vial attached to it, “as long as I get one or two puffs of this stuff every day, I won’t go feral. It’s a gradual process too, from what I understand, so you’d be able to clear out long before I got to the ‘attacking anything with a pulse’ phase.”

“Okay, that’s good to know,” Lucy nodded, hoping he wasn’t too offended by her question.

“Aside from raiders and feral ghouls, I hear there’s a whole host of radioactive and mutated monsters just looking for their next lunch. I definitely would feel a lot better having a big iron on my hip to face whatever we may find.”

Lucy nodded and made a mental note to take as much ammo as she could carry when they looted the armory.

“What was it like up there before the war?” Lucy asked.

“It wasn’t perfect, by any means, there was war and injustice and fighting over resources, but it was still a hell of a lot better than living in a cage with nothing but a bed, a shitter, and a cadre of stab happy scientists for company.”

Lucy continued to ask him questions about life before the war and told him that she was a grade school teacher of American History with an emphasis on ethics, so she was thrilled to be able to get a firsthand account of pre-war life, not tainted by Vault-Tec’s propagandistic slant in her textbook.

“Wow,” Lucy exclaimed when Cooper revealed yet another fact that didn’t match up with what her education told her, “and to think, if my husband hadn’t turned out to be a murderous raider, I never would’ve found out the truth and would be playing house and pumping out babies in my new home.”

“Y’all have houses up there?” Cooper wondered.

“Mm, they’re more like apartments, but yes; after you’re married, you stop living with your parents and get assigned a new home with your spouse so that the two of you can err… have some privacy while making babies.”

Cooper chuckled, “ahhh, a newlywed fuck pad, I see. And this was the dream for you? Getting hitched and fucking your husband’s brains out for the rest of your days? Becoming one of their breeders?”

“No, I mean— I wasn’t— I didn’t,” Lucy sputtered and knew that her face was turning red. Growing up, Lucy had always envisioned marrying someone who looked like movie star Cooper Howard, but now that the real deal was standing in front of her, her brain flooded with images of the two of them getting married, playing house and making love for the rest of their days. She flashed back to the moment before Monty was revealed in the vault exchange where she thought about the monster waiting to marry her on the other side of that door. Lucy shook her head to compose herself, “I was supposed to want a simple, boring life where I did my part to help repopulate America, but even before I knew the truth, I was having second thoughts.”

“Oh? Little miss overachiever didn’t want to break the record for most children?” he joked before getting serious, “what is it you do want in this life then, Lucy?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against being a mother and housewives are a vital part of our community, but I just wanted more for my life. I craved adventure and spontaneity and not knowing what the next day may bring. I didn’t want every day to be the same as the day before. I knew it was what my dad and the rest of the vault wanted for me, so I put on a brave face and tried to stay positive, but I knew deep down that it wasn’t what I really wanted.”

“Well, you may be asking for a little less spontaneity once we’re up on the surface and there's a new mutated monster trying to kill you every day, but once we get out of here, you’ll be free to live your life however you see fit.”

Lucy took note of the way he said ‘we’ like they were a team and would have each other’s backs on the surface even after they escaped. She smiled at the thought.

Cooper told her a little bit more about life before the war until Lucy’s eyes were getting heavy with sleep and she could no longer suppress her yawns.

Once the adrenaline of her wedding, getting stabbed, fighting off the raiders, and discovering the truth about her dad and the vaults wore off, she had nothing left in the tank and was beyond exhausted.

“You need sleep,” Cooper declared when he caught her yawning yet again as she tried to stay awake for his stories.

“I’m fine, I can stay up a little longer,” Lucy protested but Cooper shook his head.

“We’ll have plenty of time tomorrow for me to tell you all about drive-in movie theaters. Let’s get you to bed.”

Lucy’s head swiveled around the room until they locked on the tiny cot in the cage and then back to Cooper.

“I didn’t mean with me! Sorry, I should’ve been clearer,” he said, slightly flustered under her gaze, “if it makes you feel safer, you can take the key inside and shut the door. I’ll sleep outside the cell on the floor.”

“I don’t need to shut the door, I know we still don’t know each other that well, but I trust you enough to not eat me in my sleep. I just don’t feel right about kicking you out of your own bed.”

“It’s okay, you need to rest and recover from your stab wound. I’ll be okay sleeping on the floor. Besides, after 200 years, it’ll be nice to sleep outside the cage.”

Lucy wanted to protest more, but she was simply too tired and began making her way towards the cot.

Lucy took off her boots and Pip-Boy and unzipped her vault suit to let some air in while she slept.

Lucy laid down on the bed that smelled like Cooper and got as cozy as she could under the covers. The last thing she saw before sleep overtook her was Cooper laying down outside the cage between her and the elevator doors like her own personal guard dog.

Lucy dreamt about the Monster from Vault 33 again that night, but instead of nightmares, he was the protagonist in her dreams and the two of them held hands as they escaped the vault and started a new life together.

Despite the small cot not actually being that comfortable and the horror of everything she went through the day before, Lucy woke up incredibly well-rested.

She grinned as she got out of bed and stretched and saw Cooper do the same.

“How’d you sleep?” Lucy asked.

He let out a noncommittal grunt but from the way his bones snapped and crackled and he grimaced when he turned his head from side to side, Lucy could tell the answer was ‘not very well’.

The first thing they did after Lucy got dressed and put on her Pip-Boy was to go try the elevators, but the buttons did nothing as there was still no power running to it.

“Well, I suppose we’ve got some time now to properly turn this place over and loot any supplies we find,” Cooper commented.

Lucy agreed and they got to work opening every single cabinet, locker, shelf, and cupboard in sight. Cooper was even able to find some bobby-pins and after a few lock-picking attempts, got one of the safes open that housed an impressive stash of chems.

They decided to leave behind a number of tools and medical equipment to avoid being over encumbered with too much weight but took several stimpaks and gauze.

The 13th floor had plenty of clean water for them to drink, but the food supply in the refrigerator was minimal and they were sorely lacking for several other essential supplies.

“How long do you think this food will last?” Lucy asked Cooper, nervously shifting from side to side.

“It’ll last us a few weeks until they get the main power back on but we will definitely need to stop by the other floors of the vault to stock up before we head out into the wasteland.”

“Okay,” Lucy bit her tongue, not wanting to ask what would happen if the food ran out before the elevators started working again.

When they had looted all they could, one of the terminals on a desk in the far corner caught Lucy’s attention.

“Sometimes these terminals have override codes. Maybe we could find an option to divert power to the elevators or at least see if there’s any useful information on there.”

“Don’t bother, it’s locked,” Cooper said.

“I bet I could hack it with this though,” she held up Chet’s Pip-Boy with the master key.

Cooper looked uneasy as Lucy approached the screen.

“You might not like what you find,” he cautioned.

“Huh?”

“The doctors that experimented on me kept their notes on that thing. There’s some pretty grizzly stuff in there, just warning you.”

“Oh,” Lucy’s eyebrows knitted together in concern, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. If you don’t want me to read it, I won’t.”

“No, no, you’re right, there could be something useful on there to help us escape. And it’s not like we have much else to do in way of entertainment.”

“All right, I’ll see what I can find.”

Lucy plugged in the cable of Chet’s Pip-Boy into the terminal’s port until the screen was populated with random words and symbols. It took her three attempts, but finally the computer was unlocked and its contents were available for her to peruse.

Lucy quickly skimmed past all the log entries with copious notes about their experiments, but unfortunately there was no option to divert power to the elevator or any other useful commands.

“Rats, it looks like this one was just used for notes. I don’t need to read them though, I don’t want to invade your privacy.”

“Darling, I’ve spent the better part of the last decade completely naked with dozens of scientists coming and going to observe me in that cage. My concern for privacy went out the door a long time ago. Besides, there could be a nugget of useful information buried in one of the journal entries. You can read them.”

“Okie dokie,” Lucy still hesitated slightly before opening the first log entry and starting to read.

Cooper walked around while she read but stayed within earshot.

As Lucy pored over the notes, she became more and more horrified at what was going on in this lab.

Her face grimaced and eyebrows creased as she continued to read entry after entry detailing the cruel torture they were performing on Cooper all in the name of scientific discovery.

“Oh, Cooper,” Lucy could feel the tears welling up in her eyes and couldn’t help but feel guilty for letting him endure this torture another ten years after he told her the truth and begged her to release him.

If Lucy hadn’t been so naive and quick to believe her dad and Barb, she could’ve helped him get out years ago.

Cooper saw that she was starting to cry and came over to see what was wrong.

“Cooper,” she choked out, “I’m so sorry.”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, it’s not your fault, you didn’t know,” he pulled her gently into his chest for a comforting hug, which Lucy leaned into until he held her more firmly and buried her face into his warm chest.

“I’m so sorry for not coming back for you when I was fifteen, but I swear I’m gonna do everything in my power to get you out now. I’m not leaving without you.”

Lucy looked up at him, her big eyes glistening with emotion, and could feel his breath stutter just a bit as he inhaled and met her eyes.

“I know you put your trust in the wrong people in the past and it burned you, but I promise that I don’t have any ulterior motives and that you can trust me. We’re in this together, Lucy,” his thumb rubbed a comforting circle into her back and Lucy made no move to pull away.

Finally, after savoring his body heat and gentle touch for a few more moments, Lucy pulled away.

“So all of these ‘experiments’, all this torture, it talks about how it was research into immortality, or at least extending human lifespans? And it was all done at the behest of Overseer Barb?”

Cooper let out a tired sigh.

“It was. I suppose I owe you the truth about her. See, before she was Overseer Barb, she was my wife Barb Howard. Just like your daddy, she was alive before the war too and used a mixture of cryostasis and experimental chems to unnaturally extend her life. She worked for Vault-Tec even back then but I divorced her about a year before the bombs fell when I overheard her say that Vault-Tec would be willing to drop the bombs themselves to ensure a return on investment for their shareholders.”

“Wait, you divorced her a year before the bombs dropped?”

“That’s right. I wanted nothing to do with her or Vault-Tec after I found out that the vaults weren’t meant to protect people but were intended for rich people to have unwitting lab rats to experiment on. I was so ashamed that they had tricked me into being their poster boy and honestly kind of glad when they blackballed me and switched to that idiotic cartoon vault boy.”

“Hold on, you were the original vault boy? How did I not know this?!?”

“Yup. Imagine seeing Cooper Howard wearing one of those blue vault suits with a grin and thumbs up on every poster, magazine, billboard, and holotape instead of that blond cartoon.”

“Huh,” Lucy thought about having even more posters of Cooper around the vault and seeing his handsome face on her Pip-Boy, not just his movie posters in her bedroom but shook the thoughts from her head to get back on topic, “so if you divorced Barb over 200 years, how did you end up in the same vault as her?”

“Barb and I had a daughter. Janey,” he said her name as if it caused him physical pain, “if not for her, I probably would’ve left LA to be a rancher out in the country, but I wanted to be close to my daughter so I rented a crappy little apartment and took jobs as a children’s birthday party entertainer to be close to her after Vault-Tec blackballed me from the film industry and used their connections so that I couldn’t even book a Gatdamn soap commercial.”

“I never knew that Cooper Howard had a daughter,” Lucy mused.

“We tried to keep her out of the media as much as possible, give her a normal childhood and all that,” Cooper’s words were staring to sound more and more choked up the longer he talked about her.

“What happened?” Lucy asked as gently as she could and hoped that she wasn’t pushing him too hard.

“She died,” Cooper confirmed Lucy’s suspicions, “she was with me the day the bombs dropped at a birthday party because it was my one Saturday a month with her and I refused to let Barb take that away from us. Even though the end of the world was just hours away, none of us at the party really believed they would actually do it until we saw LA become engulfed in nuclear explosions. My daughter, Janey,” he said her name with a quiet reverence, “Janey and I tried to flee the party on my horse, but we didn’t make it very far until Barb’s goons in the blue Vault-Tec van found us both and ‘took us to safety’ as they put it, but really it was just kidnapping.”

“So the two of you made it to vault 33 and that’s when they started experimenting on you?”

Cooper shook his head.

“Not at first. Their original plan was to have us all wait on ice in cryo until we could ‘become integrated into the fabric of the vault’ like the other mid-level managers in 31. They probably would’ve unfrozen me and turned me into a breeder for my ‘unique generic material’ eventually, like everyone else in 31.”

Lucy’s mind briefly considered the alternate timeline where Cooper Howard was preserved for 200 years in a cryochamber only to be unfrozen so he could be married off and bred with the other residents. She wondered if he would’ve been deemed an eligible suitor for her and if she could’ve ended up marrying Cooper Howard instead of a raider in this alternate timeline. Lucy shook herself of those idle fantasies. That life was behind her now and she needed to focus on her future in this timeline.

“What changed?”

“The radiation,” he said, “by the time the Vault-Tec goons scooped us up, Janey and I had already been exposed to more radiation than we knew. In the weeks that followed, my skin began to peel away and my hair started to fall out. The same started happening to Janey. The Vault-Tec scientists didn’t know what a ghoul was at the time so they didn’t know how to treat it or slow down the process. To her credit, Barb tried everything in her power and used every connection to try to save our little girl, but it wasn’t enough,” he paused and looked down at the ground.

“Cooper, I’m so sorry,” Lucy slowly reached out and spread her fingers out on his back, rubbing them slowly to try to comfort him.

“It was a painful few weeks as we watched our daughter deteriorate, only instead of becoming a ghoul like me, her… her young body couldn’t handle all the radiation and she passed away,” Cooper couldn’t stop the tears any longer and his body shook as he cried for the daughter he lost.

“I’m so sorry,” Lucy repeated, “you don’t have to talk about it anymore if you don’t want to,” she tried to offer him an out.

“No, no, it’s… I haven’t actually talked to anyone about it in 200 years, so I’d like to continue, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course,” Lucy’s heart broke at the thought that he’d had to keep all this bottled up for two centuries. Listening to him was the least she could do.

“After Janey died, something broke in Barb. I knew that she could be cruel and calculated, that was one of the reasons we got divorced to begin with, but there used to be some good in her. Some semblance of the woman I married who always tried to do the right thing. But when Janey died, Barb became untethered. She resented me for being able to live in this altered form when Janey couldn’t and when she found out that ghouls are immortal, she became obsessed with prolonging life and warding off death as long as possible. She put herself in cryo to halt her own aging and ordered the vault scientists to do whatever experiments necessary on me until they found out the secret to my immortality. She would unfreeze herself every so often to get a status report, but it took multiple generations of scientists to find something. Apparently they were closing in on a breakthrough about 26 years ago, so she decided to join the vault as overseer and kept her old Executive Assist Henry MacLean by her side.”

“Oh my gosh, Cooper. I can’t even imagine how you managed to keep going all these years. I’ve read stories about prisoners kept in solitary confinement going insane and don’t know how you did it with all the torture and experimentation on you. You’re officially the strongest person I know for putting up with that for two centuries,” she rested her hand on his bicep but pulled away when she felt him tense up and hoped that she hadn’t overstepped.

“Those first few years after Janey died were the hardest. At first, I was only staying alive to spite Barb because I knew how angry she was that I was immortal and she couldn’t figure out how. The next century or so blended together with a few new scientists as the old ones aged and died, but much of the same. Then things got significantly worse around 25 years ago.”

“When I was born and they were close to a breakthrough so Barb came out of cryo?” Lucy recalled.

“Exactly. Once Barb was unfrozen, she made the scientists work around the clock to find the secret to my immortality and the experiments ramped up until I was being poked, prodded, cut up, and injected almost every hour of the day and night. It turned out they weren’t as close to a cure as they had led Barb to believe, so she took her anger out on me. That continued for about five years. The day you found me down here… the day we first met… I had just gotten out of a particularly cruel experiment where they injected me with so many drugs, I couldn’t even form complete sentences. I’m sorry for scaring you, but I want you to know that you saved me that day. I was in a dark place and was seriously considering finding a way to end it all when in walked little five-year-old Lucy MacLean chasing her little ball, and for the first time in two centuries, I had hope that someone else finally knew I was down here and might one day get me out. You didn’t know it at the time, but you saved me. You saved me, Lucy,” he repeated, his eyes welling up with tears.

Lucy couldn’t hold back her tears either and immediately took the opening to nestle herself back against his warm chest for another long hug while the pair quite literally cried on each other’s shoulders.

“But then when I came back when I was 15, I didn’t believe you and I left you down here another decade! How can you say I saved you when we’re still trapped down here and I’m part of the reason why!” she sobbed into his firm chest and he pulled her closer.

“Because you gave me hope, Lucy, and hope is a very dangerous thing for a prisoner to have. And I already told you that I forgive you and I don’t care that you chose your family over me when you were fifteen. You’re here now and that’s all that matters.”

“But if Moldaver and her crew didn’t show up and I married a normal vault dweller, I never would’ve come back here! I would be on my honeymoon right now and planning to start a new life without you.”

“Mm, I think you would’ve gotten bored of married life eventually and come down to find me. Maybe not today, but eventually you would’ve come back to me. But none of that matters because you're here now. I’ve forgiven you for your actions ten years ago and I think it’s time you forgive yourself too,” Cooper’s breath tickled the bangs on Lucy’s forehead and his words made her look up into his soft brown eyes.

They were in their own little world for a moment, just the two of them tucked under the brim of his hat.

Even though this man had the skin of a devil, the way he constantly showed her mercy, patience, and forgiveness, Lucy thought he could be a god.

Lucy briefly thought about closing the distance between them and finding out if his lips were as rough as the rest of his skin or if they would be soft and smooth, but she couldn’t quite work up the courage and instead tucked her face back into his chest so he couldn’t see the blush beginning to form on her cheeks.

Cooper rested his chin on the crown of her head and they stayed like that for a little while longer, swaying back and forth like they were slow dancing to a song only they could hear.

Lucy could tell immediately that Cooper would be a much better dancer than Monty and her fantasy about marrying Cooper Howard in the intravault exchange came rushing back.

“Okie dokie,” Lucy finally agreed.

“Hmm?” he mumbled into her hair.

“If you forgive me then I guess I forgive me too.”

“Good. Now doesn’t that feel good?”

For a second, Lucy thought he was talking about his warm hands rubbing up and down her spine and she was about to tell him to rub a little lower, but thankfully she realized that he meant forgiving herself and just nodded in agreement.

The longer their hug went on, the more cozy Lucy became.

The 13th floor was kept quite cold, so being in Cooper’s warm embrace was like having her own weighted blanket.

Lucy must’ve dozed off for just a moment because the next thing she knew, she was drooling on Cooper’s shoulder and he was pulling away from her.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” Lucy tried to wipe away the drool, swatting at his shoulder and surprisingly firm pec in embarrassment, “I think recovering from the stab wound is making me extra tired, I didn’t even know it was possible to fall asleep while standing!”

“It’s okay, sweetheart, you weren’t out very long and it’s my fault for not being a very good doctor and making you go to bed sooner. I didn’t realize how late it was getting.”

“Do you wanna share the bed with me tonight?” Lucy blurted out before she could second guess herself.

“Ah, I probably shouldn’t, I mean, the cot is awfully small and would not be very comfortable with me in it too,” he protested, but Lucy could tell that he could be convinced if she kept asking.

“I saw how stiff your neck was this morning from sleeping on the floor. Please, after everything you’ve had to endure, you deserve a little bit of comfort.”

“You want me to sleep in the bed because you feel sorry for me after I told you what I went through? I don’t need your pity. I’ll be just fine on the floor, thank you very much, Miss MacLean.”

Lucy knew that she had said the wrong thing and only had one more chance to try to fix it.

“I don’t want you to sleep with me because I feel sorry for you, I just want you to sleep with me!” Lucy saw him raise a hairless eyebrow before she heard the double meaning and added, “I mean I want you to sleep in the same bed as me because I want you there, it has nothing to do with feeling bad for you. Besides, those sheets are threadbare and it’s freezing down here. I get to use your body heat to stay warm and you don’t have to wake up sore in the morning from sleeping on the floor. It’s a win-win!”

“And you’re sure about this?” Cooper asked hesitantly, but the fact that he didn’t immediately shut down told Lucy that her barter skills had worked on him.

“Positive!”

“Alright, fine, we can give it a try, but if you get uncomfortable at any point, just wake me up and I’ll go sleep outside the cage again.”

“Deal,” Lucy couldn’t help the joyous grin from lighting up her entire face as she extended her hand to shake his and officially enter into their agreement.

He sighed and shook her hand, but he couldn’t hide the slight smile on his own face from Lucy.

Lucy washed up as best she could in the tiny lab sink before making her way to the cot where Cooper was standing, waiting for her.

“I uh, wasn’t sure if you wanted the right or left side,” he mumbled.

“Oh, I can take the right side. You like being between me and the door, right?”

“Yes, but I didn’t want to make you feel trapped.”

“It’s okay. After what you told me, I’m way more scared of the scientists coming back down here than I am of you. I would feel safer with you between me and the door too.”

“Okay then, after you,” Cooper awkwardly motioned for her to get into the bed first.

He had taken off his boots and cowboy hat but was still wearing his fringe shirt and pants.

Lucy wondered if he would’ve preferred sleeping naked if he was all alone but didn’t say anything.

Lucy got into the bed and scooted over to the far side to make room for Cooper to get in after her.

The bed shifted and the tiny twin mattress dipped under his weight pulling Lucy closer to him.

“Sorry,” he muttered as his elbow poked Lucy and they both tried to get comfortable.

“It’s okay!” Lucy reassured him.

Cooper grunted when Lucy’s knee jabbed him in the ribs and it was her turn to profusely apologize.

They finally managed to find a somewhat comfortable position on the tiny cot with Cooper on his back and Lucy on her side facing him.

“I suppose this is still better than the floor. Even with your knee in my ribs,” he teased.

“I said I was sorry!”

“I’m just joking, sweetheart,” he chuckled, “now get some sleep.”

“Okie dokie. Good night, Cooper.”

“Good night, Lucy.”

Lucy closed her eyes and nuzzled her cheek onto his shoulder to use it as a pillow.

Lucy could feel how stiff he was and she hoped that she wasn’t making him uncomfortable, but he didn’t say anything, so Lucy continued her invasion into his personal space and slung her arm over his chest until it rested on his left pec just over his heart.

She could feel his heart under her hand and noticed it seemed to be beating faster than normal for just laying down. She wondered if it had something to do with him being a ghoul or the experiments that they performed on him.

Finally, Lucy’s exhaustion combined with the coziness of Cooper’s radiant body heat lulled her into a peaceful sleep.

When Lucy woke up the next morning, she could feel Cooper stiff as a board.

“Mmm. Good morning,” Lucy greeted, her voice thick with sleep. Her eyes flicking up to meet his. Something flashed in Cooper’s eyes before he schooled his expression back to neutral.

“Morning!” he said curtly.

Lucy noticed that at some point during the night, she had slung her right leg over his lower body.

Just as she started jostling and preparing to detangle herself from him, she felt something hard poke her inner thigh.

“Oh,” Lucy said in both realization and curiosity when her still half asleep brain figured out what had happened.

“I’m so sorry!” Cooper scrambled to get out of bed and stood up in a tornado of flying limbs, leaving Lucy all alone in the bed.

Lucy watched as he tried to hide the tent in his pants and looked so embarrassed, she was sure he would be blushing if his mottled skin wasn’t already a permanent shade of red.

“There’s no need to be embarrassed! It’s actually impressive that a man of your age who has undergone so many medical experiments can still get an erection!”

“Lucy!” he groaned and turned away from her, shaking his head.

“Really, nocturnal penile tumescence is really quite common and a sign of adequate vascular blood flow, indicating that you are actually quite healthy, so… congrats.”

“Please stop talking about my dick like it’s a Gatdamn science experiment,” he still couldn’t look at her.

“Oh my gosh, you’re right, I’m so sorry. I was just trying to make you feel better, I didn’t mean to sound like… to sound like them.”

“It’s okay,” he said through gritted teeth, Lucy could tell that the tent in his pants hadn’t subsided one bit.

“Chet used to get morning wood too during the few time I let him spend the night.”

“Chet? I thought you said your raider husband was named Monty.”

“Oh? I never told you about practicing sexual intercourse with my cousin Chet?”

“No, you most certainly did not,” Cooper’s voice indicated a hint of amusement and Lucy thought this was good progress from annoyance.

“Well, teenagers in the vault are allowed to practice having sex with a cousin in order to be better prepared for marriage. As long as proper precautions are taken, of course.”

“Of course,” Cooper echoed sarcastically.

“Exploring your sexual urges with a trusted partner like your cousin is a completely normal practice!” Lucy defended herself.

“Dear God, I have missed a lot these past 200 years,” Cooper couldn’t hold back his laughter any longer and let out a big belly laugh.

Lucy didn’t appreciate getting laughed at, but she supposed laughter was better than him still being grumpy.

“As we already established, there weren’t exactly a lot of other age appropriate suitors up there. It was either Chet or nothing. Anyways, I can walk over there to give you some privacy if you need to take care of your erection.”

“No need, you talking about fucking your cousin was all it took to kill my boner,” he chuckled, and Lucy looked to see the seam of his pants sitting flat again.

Lucy huffed.

“I’m gonna go check on the elevators,” she declared and got out of bed.

Of course, the elevators were just as dead as they were the day before.

With all of the useful supplies from the 13th floor already looted and the terminal information already read, there wasn’t much else for them to do besides talk.

Cooper and Lucy left their bags near the door to be ready to go as soon as the elevators roared to life, whenever that may be.

They spent most of the day walking in circles around the vault to get some exercise and talking more about life before the war and their dreams for what they would do on the surface once they got out.

When it was time to go to bed again, Cooper asked if she was still comfortable having him sleep in the bed with her or if she’d prefer he go back to the floor.

“You can sleep with me,” she insisted, “I was pretty warm and cozy last night and I think it somehow got even colder in here, so I wouldn’t mind having my blanket back.”

“Your blanket? Oh, is that all I am to you?” he teased with a grin as he got ready for bed.

His words were joking, but Lucy couldn’t help but think what was he to her, really?

The Monster from Vault 33 had been so many things to Lucy over the years from an urban legend to the source of her recurring nightmares to the boogeyman that she tried not to think about for years.

But he was also a survivor with an impressive resolve to keep going for two centuries. He also happened to be her favorite actor Cooper Howard, the man who she had a crush on.

She knew now from talking to him that he was a dog lover and had read many of the same classic novels as her and he was also the man who promised her salvation after her world came crashing down around her and gave her hope for a future life outside the vault.

Somewhere along the way, he had gone from a scary beast to a cautious ally and now… now she thinks that she would also call him her friend.

As Lucy kicked off her boots and crawled into the bed, she couldn’t help but stare at him as he stripped off his outer layers too.

Cooper tilted his head and squinted, clearly clocking her gaze and her thoughtful expression.

“You’re staring darling, what is it?” Cooper asked.

“Nothing!” Lucy turned onto her side to face away from him so he couldn’t see her face getting red.

Instead of lying down on his back, Cooper laid down on the bed behind her on his side so that her back was flush against his chest.

“Is this alright?” he whispered close enough to Lucy’s ear to make her shiver.

He no doubt felt her tense up under the sudden unexpected contact and was starting to pull away when Lucy grabbed his wrist to stop him.

“It’s perfect,” Lucy said just above a whisper.

As Cooper’s body relaxed into hers and the warmth emanating from his chest transferred into her back, Lucy’s heart raced.

Her stomach and chest fluttered at their intimate moment and Lucy wondered if this new sensation was normal to have with a friend.

She certainly never felt this way about Chet during the times they slept together after sex.

As Lucy lied awake with the steady rise and fall of Cooper’s breathing behind her, she felt completely safe and secure in his arms.

Lucy wondered how she ever fell asleep without him in bed with her. Her eyebrows creased as she thought about what would happen when they eventually got out of here.

“Are we friends?” Lucy spoke out loud but she said it so quietly she wasn’t sure if he was already asleep or if he even heard her.

“Huh?” his voice was clear. He wasn’t asleep yet.

“I mean, I know now that you’re not gonna eat me in my sleep but would you say we’re friends?”

“Mm, if you keep talking I just might have to eat you before you fall asleep.”

“I’m being serious, Cooper,” Lucy rolled over so that they were face to face in bed, not wanting to have this conversation without looking him in the eyes, “is all of this… are you just pretending to be nice and care about me because we’re stuck together? Once we get out of the vault and are on the surface, are you gonna wanna keep me around or will we go our separate ways?”

Cooper’s eyes were soft with emotion as he flicked his gaze down to Lucy’s face just a few inches from his.

“Well, first of all, I’m not pretending to care about you or using you just because I need your help to escape. I’ve been on the other end of that and know how shitty it feels to be used, so I promise that what you see is what you get with me, ugly mug and all. And second, I have no idea what’s gonna happen to us once we’re out of this damn tin can, but I reckon everyone I ever knew on the surface is long dead, so it would be nice to have a familiar face around if you’d like to travel with me, at least to start with.”

“I’d like that,” Lucy whispered, reassured by his words, “I’d like that very much.”

Lucy’s eyes locked in on his lips and she briefly thought about leaning in to close the small gap between them. Maybe she could write it off as wanting to seal their agreement to travel together with a kiss. That was a thing that friends did, right?

In the end, Lucy took too long in her deliberations and Cooper closed his eyes and adjusted their position so that her face was tucked into the crook of his neck.

Lucy sighed at the missed opportunity but with her face already buried in the soft skin of his neck, Lucy took the opportunity to briefly press her lips to his throat, making it official in her mind.

Cooper adjusted their position one more time and pulled his arms around her until they were both comfortable.

With Cooper’s warmth and promise of a future together, whatever it may look like, Lucy’s mind was content and she finally fell asleep.

Lucy woke up before Cooper the next morning. She was still wrapped in his arms and pulled up against his strong chest. She was starting to overheat a little bit, but didn’t want to break the moment, so she endured a little sweat and watched him breathe slowly and steadily until he woke up.

Lucy let her eyes wander over the scars and pits on his face.

She thought about how this face once used to be the source of nearly all of her nightmares, but after spending so much time with him and getting to know him, it had become normal to her.

Lucy looked at the way his gorgeous long eyelashes rested on his cheek and then traced over every peak and valley of his face in the low light.

Now that she was taking her time to really look at him, she couldn’t help but find unconventional beauty in his sharp cheekbones and deep-set eyes.

She knew now that he was the movie star she grew up crushing on but he looked so different now, hell, he didn’t have a nose! Yet the more her eyes lingered on him, the more attraction she started to feel.

Lucy’s eyes once again focused on his lips and how they looked softer than the rest of his skin. They were slightly parted as he breathed out little puffs of air.

Just as Lucy’s mind began to wander about those lips kissing various parts of her, his eyes opened and he met her gaze.

His expression was soft at first like he was greeting his lover who he woke up to like this every morning, then the rest of his brain seemed to catch up and he schooled his expression and pulled away.

“Good morning,” Lucy greeted, a pout in her voice as she saw him already moving to throw off the covers and get out of bed.

“Morning,” he was already slipping his boots back on and putting on his duster and hat.

“What’s the rush?” Lucy complained, wishing he would stay in bed a little while longer.

“Gonna go check on the elevators,” he said gruffly and walked out the open prison cell door to do just that.

“Okay!” Lucy zipped up her vault suit and got out of bed to greet the day, albeit much slower than how quickly Cooper scurried off. “Still no power?” she concluded when she saw him walking back from the elevator bay.

“Nope.”

“Well, what do you want to do today then?” she asked.

Cooper considered her question for a moment before walking over to one of the desks in the corner.

He pulled out a deck of cards from one of its drawers.

“They teach you how to play poker up there?”

“Gambling was frowned upon due to its tendency to cause conflict and promote inequities,” Lucy cited the Vault-Tec overseer’s manual.

“I’ll take that as a no then,” he said with a chuckle, “lucky for you, we’ve got plenty of time for you to learn.”

Cooper gathered up some caps and chems to wager with and taught her the basics.

They played a few practice hands so that Lucy could get the hang of it before they started making real wagers.

Cooper won nearly every hand thanks to Lucy’s terrible poker face and inability to bluff, but she beat him a few times thanks to sheer luck.

When it was time to break for lunch, Cooper refused to eat the can of Pork N’ Beans that Lucy offered.

“You’re not gonna eat?”

“No, you go ahead.”

“You’re not hungry?”

“I’m… I don’t need as much food as you, so I figured just to be safe, I’m gonna start rationing my portions to make sure that we don’t run out of food.”

“Oh shoot, how long do you think our current supply will last? I shouldn’t have opened this can gosh damn it.”

“It’s fine, Lucy. We have enough food for now, don’t worry about it. I’m just being overly cautious. It’ll last us until they get the main power back on and the elevators working.”

The air hung heavy between them until Lucy finally vocalized the question they were both thinking.

“What if the power to the elevators never comes back on and we’re stuck down here forever?”

“It won’t come to that.”

“But what if it does!”

“Well, then I guess being stuck down here with you is still infinitely better than being stuck with Barb’s lab-coated cronies. We’re a ways away from having to turn my backside into ass jerky for you to avoid starvation.”

“What?!? I wouldn’t eat you! No matter how hungry I get, I’m not gonna kill you. Especially not your…”

“You wouldn’t have to kill me, it would grow back. It’s obviously not our first choice, but all I’m saying is that it comes to it, you have a never ending supply of Cooper Howard meat at your disposal,” he held out his arms jokingly.

“You’re right, it’s not gonna come to that. We’re gonna get out of here,” Lucy changed her tune and Cooper grinned as if that was what he was trying to accomplish all along with his assertions of ass jerky.

They went back to their cards and Cooper taught her a few new games after lunch. When their legs got tired of sitting, they went for a walk in circles around the vault and tossed Lucy’s old ball back and forth.

This pattern of checking the elevator in the morning, to no avail, cards and conversation followed by exercise of walks and games with the ball before cuddling up in bed together continued for the next week.

After a week of conversations about everything from the important life details to the most trivial facts, Lucy was confident that Cooper knew more about her than Chet and Steph pretty sure that he even knew her better than her dad or Norm.

Lucy thought about if she had stayed and gotten married to a normal vault dweller if her husband would ever know her as well as Cooper knows her now.

The most surprising part was that after a week together, neither of them seemed tired of each other’s company. If anything, they were closer than ever before, both totally in sync and on the same page.

Sure, they would’ve liked a little more space, but they had made the most of the situation and made a tiny home out of what was once a prison.

One day when Lucy was especially bored, she decided that it was time to redecorate their home and had Cooper help. Since they didn’t know how long they would be trapped there, they might as well be a little more comfortable.

Lucy and Cooper worked together to pull one of the empty desks inside and turn it on its side so they had a little bathroom stall and didn’t have to keep asking the other to look away while they did their business.

Lucy pulled one of the smaller medical carts inside as well to act as a nightstand and somewhere for her to place her Pip-Boy at night so they both had a clock and lamp.

Lastly, Cooper helped her move another small med cart next to the sink and filled it with Cooper’s chems and other toiletries for them to help wash up and brush their teeth.

Lucy was proud of her interior design skills given their limited decor options, but yearned for a real home up on the surface and wondered if Cooper would help her decorate that one too. She realized that in her fantasy, of course he would help her decorate because he’d be living there with her.

Lucy knew that Cooper was amenable to traveling together once they got to the surface, but he never said anything about settling down and making a home with her, so Lucy needed to prepare herself for the possibility that they would eventually part ways.

As much as Lucy wanted to get out, she also savored all the time she got to spend with Cooper and was grateful that she got to know him on a deeper level this past week instead of immediately escaping with him on her wedding night.

It had also given Lucy’s wound time to almost completely heal thanks to the expert stitches from Cooper’s deft hand.

If Lucy’s estimations were correct, the vault dwellers that survived the raider attack would be restoring the power in the next few days and the elevators would start up again, and if she was wrong, then they would need to start making plans for once they ran out of food.

Either way, Lucy and Cooper’s blissful little bubble where the two of them played house would be ending soon.

After more than a week of sleeping in bed together but never doing more than cuddling, combined with Cooper waking up with noticeable morning wood almost daily, the sexual tension between the two of them was palpable.

Lucy had been trying to work up the nerve to ask him if he wanted to have sex for the past few nights, but something always held her back.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, she was eager to wash away the memory of her mediocre wedding night with Monty ever since it happened and she was desperate to feel Cooper’s hard body without any clothes between them, but she was scared.

She was scared that he didn’t feel the same way and that if she asked him to have sex and he rejected her, it would ruin everything they had built and he would go back to sleeping on the floor.

If she admitted that she might want more from him than just friendship and he didn’t feel the same way, there would be nowhere to hide down here and no escaping the inevitable awkwardness.

Lucy struggled with this decision every day and struggled even more with it at night when Cooper held her in his arms and his lips were mere inches away from hers. It would’ve been so easy to kiss him senseless and help him out of his clothes, letting the passion take over until they finally resolved their sexual tension, but despite her fantasies, Lucy somehow managed to find enough willpower to resist giving in to urges.

That is, until she started ovulating.

Tracking menstrual cycles was very important in vault 33 to ensure you always knew when you were most fertile. Lucy knew now that it was all Vault-Tec propaganda as part of her role as middle management’s breeding stock, but that didn’t stop her from feeling the overwhelming horniness that came along with ovulation.

Lucy was especially pent up since spending every night with Cooper and not having any privacy to take care of her needs for a week and a half now; the longest she’d ever gone without masturbating since puberty.

Lucy finally made up her mind; she was going to ask Cooper to have sex with her tonight, consequences be damned.

She couldn’t stop staring at Cooper all day, watching him like a hawk while playing cards as she fantasized about his weathered face and pink tongue between her thighs.

“Everything alright, sweetheart?” Cooper cocked his head to the side in confusion and concern after catching her stare a little too long.

“Everything’s great!” Lucy chirped as she finally looked back at her hand to see what cards she was working with, “royal flush!” she said as she laid the cards down on the desk, thinking it very apropos given the burn of her cheeks.

“Gatdamn, sweetie! You’re getting good at this,” he pushed the stack of caps towards her in defeat.

“I had a great teacher,” she purred, hoping that she was coming off as sexy as her mind drifted to fantasies of him teaching her a multitude of other things that didn’t involve a deck of cards.

“That, and you just seem to be a hell of a lot luckier than I am! A royal flush, I can’t believe it.”

Lucy stared at him, trying to think of something sexy to say so that he would get the hint, but he was too preoccupied with shuffling the cards.

Lucy would just have to come out and say it.

She could do this. It was just one sentence. ‘Cooper, do you want to have sex with me?’ that was it, how hard could it be to just say that one sentence? That one measly sentence that could forever change the course of both their lives depending on his answer.

Lucy took a deep breath, her heart pounding in her chest as she did her best to work up the nerve to ask him.

Yes, it could all go wrong if he declined, but Lucy’s throbbing core reminded her that things could go very right and be mutually beneficial if he said yes.

At last, Lucy took one more breath, licked her suddenly dry lips, and cleared her throat.

“Cooper?” she said, looking him dead in the eye.

“Hmm?” he looked up from his pile of cards to meet her gaze.

“Do you—“

“Wait, do you hear that?” Cooper cut her off, immediately standing up to investigate the source of the whirring sound, “it’s the elevator!” he exclaimed, “the power is back on!”

“What?!?” Lucy jumped to her feet and followed him to the elevator bay where, sure enough, the panel was lit up with power and they could hear the metal cars and cables moving inside.

Cooper let out a triumphant laugh and rubbed his face with his hands in a mixture of shock and relief.

For the first time in the 200 years since he’d been brought to the 13th floor, he was going to leave.

Cooper didn’t waste any time pressing the call button as he gathered up his and Lucy’s gear bags and handed the lighter of the two bags full of supplies to her.

Lucy’s brain was still catching up to what was going on, it all happened so fast. One minute she was working up the nerve to ask him to have sex and the next minute the elevator doors were sliding open to welcome them both with open arms.

Lucy wanted to pump the brakes and make sure they weren’t forgetting anything and that they were actually prepared to go to the surface, but Cooper was already stepping into the elevator, leaving her with no choice but to follow.

She looked over to see tears in his eyes as he looked at the prison that had held him captive for the past two centuries and whispered, “we’re free.”

Chapter Text

Do you even know where you’re going?” Lucy questioned as the elevator began to rocket upwards without a destination.

“I… do not,” Cooper admitted sheepishly, clearly caught up in the excitement of the moment, “lead the way.”

Lucy tapped the number on the elevator panel corresponding to the residential apartments.

“First, let’s go find my brother and make sure he knows I’m okay, then we can get some more food and supplies, and then make a stop at the armory to get some weapons before we head to the outer vault door, sound good?”

“Sounds a hell of a lot smarter than my plan of just charging out the door until I can see the sun again. You see, this is why I need you up here,” he chuckled.

Lucy’s heart swelled. He needed her! He wasn’t going to leave her to fend for herself, they were in this together no matter what the world could throw at them. Lucy thought about how much she needed him too and all his knowledge of the old world and then started thinking about his enhanced strength and senses, which turned into her getting horny again and thinking about how much she needed him carnally.

Lucy looked away from his smiling face to focus on the numbers on the elevator wall as if they were the most interesting thing in the world.

Finally, the doors opened on the residential floor. Lucy led the way to Norm’s room, walking the path that she had tread hundreds of times before.

Lucy couldn’t help but notice as they walked down the winding hallways that the walls and floors that had been covered in raider blood and guts not long ago were now repainted and cleaned up. It was a little unnerving how pristine everything looked not even two full weeks after the grisly massacre.

Lucy supposed that the 33s wouldn’t want any reminder of such an awful day, her wedding day, she thought grimly, but she found it odd that there didn’t seem to be any evidence of that day even happening.

She also found it odd that she and Cooper were able to walk through the halls without running into any other vault dwellers.

She didn’t expect a welcome back party or anything, and was actually glad she didn’t have to explain Cooper’s presence to more people, but she thought they would at least run into a few people on the way to Norm. It was like a ghost town.

At last they arrived in front of Norm’s door.

Lucy found it strange that Norm had his door sealed and locked since she usually had to scold him for leaving it open and playing his music or Pip-Boy games too loud.

“Norm?” Lucy called out as she knocked gently on the door. A few moments later she heard rustling on the other side of the door, “Norm, are you in there?”

Finally the doors slid open and her brother stood before her with a shocked expression on his face.

“Lucy?!? You’re alive!” Norm threw himself into Lucy for a hug and the two siblings embraced, “I thought… after the raiders… you’re alive.”

“It’s okay,” Lucy tucked Norm’s head into her shoulder and let him get out all his emotions, “I’m okay. I’m okay,” she repeated.

Finally, Norm looked up from his embrace with Lucy to notice the figure standing behind her.

“Uh, hello,” he greeted cautiously.

“You must be Norman. You might know me as the monster who lives in your basement but you can call me Cooper. Nice to meet ya.”

“Wait, you’re the Monster from Vault 33?” Norm tried to process this new information, “and your name is Cooper? Wait… Cooper Howard?” Norm deduced almost immediately from the cowboy getup.

“That was a long time ago, kid, but yes, I used to be a movie star.”

“Lucy, can you please explain what the heck happened these past two weeks and why you’re standing here with the sentient burnt corpse of your celebrity crush?”

Cooper grumbled at being called a ‘sentient burnt corpse’ but let Lucy take the lead.

“It’s a long story, Norm, but the gist of it is that Overseer Barb is his ex-wife and she’s been around since before the war and is actually evil and kidnapped Cooper and held him captive on the 13th floor to torture him for medical experiments about extending lifespans. Cooper got a big blast of radiation when the bombs fell so that’s why he looks a little different and can live so long. Apparently there are more people like him up on the surface, they call them ghouls. We’re gonna escape; Cooper and I. We’re gonna go see what the surface is like and maybe meet some other ghouls and start a new life up there and just be anywhere but stuck down here.”

“Let me get this straight,” Norm said, trying to process all this news, “so on the night of your wedding after you found out your stranger husband who you’d never met before turned out to be a raider, you decided to go down to the 13th floor to catch up with our vault boogeyman who has haunted your nightmares for the past two decades, and then you get stuck down there with him for two weeks when the power goes out and now, what, you’re planning on marrying him and leaving the vault together to start a new life?”

“I never said I was gonna marry him,” Lucy laughed nervously. She left out the part about her growing feelings for Cooper and desire to have sex with him, but of course Norm could see right through her, he always could, “I mean, the plan is to stick together up on the surface until things have settled down, you know, strength in numbers and all that but marriage??? Pshhh,” Lucy hoped she wasn’t coming off as too defensive but the look on Norm’s face wasn’t reassuring.

“So… Cooper,” Norm addressed him, testing out the name carefully, “you used to be married to Overseer Barb.”

“I was. We’ve been divorced for about 220 years though,” Cooper explained Barb’s role at Vault-Tec and how he overheard her say that she’d be willing to drop the bombs to ensure a return on investment for shareholders. He opened up and told Norm about how hurt he was when he discovered the woman he married could even fathom doing such a thing and how it stopped being a hypothetical on the day the bombs fell and Barb kidnapped him and held him hostage. He told Norm about just how evil their vaunted overseer was and detailed some of the awful experiments that they put him through, some of which Lucy was hearing about for the first time.

“Wow,” Lucy remarked. She noticed that he left out the part about losing his daughter, and she guessed that talking about Janey’s death was more traumatic for him than reliving the physical torture he endured.

“I’m so sorry,” Norm finally spoke up, his hostility towards Cooper dissolving now that he knew a little bit more about him, “and I’m sorry for any role that our father played in your torture too.”

“Thank you, that means a lot,” Cooper teared up and extended a hand, which Norm accepted for a firm handshake, “and just so you both know, I don’t blame either of you for the sins of your father. I just want to move forward now. As awful as that raider attack on your vault sounded, I am glad they did the world a favor by killing Barb and Hank so that they can’t hurt anyone ever again.”

“What are you talking about?” Norm’s expression turned quizzical.

“Lucy told me about how the leader of the raiders made her choose between staying to save their lives or leaving them behind and she decided to leave so they shot your dad and Barb. I, uh, I’m sorry for your loss, and am sure your father had some redeeming qualities but can’t pretend I’m not happy they’re gone.”

“I don’t know what Lucy saw or thought she saw that day, but Dad and Overseer Barb are still very much alive.”

“Wait, what?!?!” Lucy’s mind raced as she replayed her final moments with them and how she remembered hearing two shots as she left the room, but never actually turned around to confirm that they were kill shots, she had just assumed.

“They’re the reason this whole place is on lockdown to begin with, I’m surprised you two were able to get up here without getting stopped by their goon squad of loyalists in security armor who lock up anyone found roaming the halls after curfew.”

“I guess that explains why the halls were so empty on the way here,” Lucy mused, “Barb and Dad are really alive?”

Norm nodded.

“I saw them yesterday, alive and well and ruling over the vault with an iron fist.”

“And I’m guessing they have the armory and spare food supplies in the storage room locked up and guarded?” Lucy sighed.

“What should we do, darling? You’re the expert here, I’ll follow your lead,” Cooper chimed in.

Lucy paused for a moment to consider their options.

“Even with Chet’s master key to get inside, there’s no way to sneak past the guards in the narrow hallways that lead up to the armory and mess hall. If we ran into any of Barb’s goons then we would have to fight them, and I really don’t want to cause any more bloodshed. Maybe we could just make a break for it and go out the main vault door?” Lucy suggested weakly.

“Without any weapons or food and only minimal supplies? I might be able to scrape by out there, but I’m not risking your safety and rushing into this without proper preparation. Y’all have it pretty good up here and once we go out that big door, I don’t think there’s any coming back. The last thing I want to do is rush you towards an early grave, Lucy,” Cooper held her gaze, his soft eyes searching her face, “I mean, do you even want to leave the vault now that you know your dad is still alive?”

“No, my da- Hank being alive doesn’t change anything for me. I still want to get out of here and see the world, no matter what’s waiting for us on the other side of the door,” Lucy grinned but saw some hesitation in Cooper’s expression, “that is, if Barb still being alive doesn’t change anything for you? Do you still want to get out of here or would you rather stay and get your revenge on her for what she put you through?”

“A part of me is glad that she’s still alive so that I can be the one to kill her,” Cooper admitted darkly, “but if you’re asking me if I had to choose between escaping this rusted tin can or staying until I can find a way to get my revenge, I’ll choose leaving with you every time, sweetheart. Escaping her clutches so that she can’t do any more experiments and never finds a way to become truly immortal is revenge enough.”

Lucy’s heart leapt with joy. Cooper was willing to put her over his revenge! He chose her over Barb! Lucy grinned from ear to ear as she unconsciously took a step closer to him, her eyes flicking down to his lips.

Cooper smiled back, that upward tick to the left side of his mouth that was quickly becoming Lucy’s favorite smile.

Cooper took a step closer to her, and suddenly nothing else mattered. The world narrowed down to just the two of them and none of their problems seemed important in that moment.

Finally, they were broken out of their trance by Norm clearing his throat.

“So you both are in agreement that you still want to leave the vault?”

“Yeah, uh, yes, uh sorry,” Lucy took a step back from Cooper to clear her head of the fog that seemed to cloud her mind when she was in his personal space, “sorry, Norm, I meant to ask earlier, did you want to come with us? I don’t want you to be stuck down here with dad now that we both know the truth about him. Cooper and I could help keep you safe on the surface.”

“No offense, but right now it sounds like you’re going to have a hard enough time keeping yourself safe. I have no desire to be stuck down here with dad either, but honestly, it hasn’t been so bad since we’ve been on lockdown. He’s been so busy with Barb, I barely see him, and frankly, I just don’t think I’m cut out for life on the surface. This place is all I’ve ever known and I’m not the biggest or the strongest guy, so I don’t think I would exactly thrive up there. But mostly I’m… I’m too chicken.”

“I think you’re a lot stronger and braver than you think, Norm, but it’s ultimately your decision to make, I can’t force you to come if you don’t want to.”

“Thanks, Lucy,” Norm gave her a tight lipped smile and went in for a quick hug, “maybe once you guys have settled into your new life up there, you can get me a message if it’s safe enough for someone like me up there and maybe I’ll build a house right next to yours.”

“I’d like that,” Lucy ruffled her brother’s hair affectionately, “I’m gonna miss having you around to annoy me every day, but I promise to let you know what it’s like up there and send you letters. I know you never really liked book club, but maybe you’ll read them.”

“I never liked the boring old books that dad picked for book club, but I promise I’ll read all your messages and write back if I can.”

“I love you, Norm.”

“I love you too, Lucy,” the siblings shared one last hug before separating.

“There’s still the matter of us not having any supplies or weapons,” Cooper reminded them.

“Well, maybe we could just try to knock the guards unconscious without killing them,” Lucy suggested, “do you know how many guards are stationed between here and the armory?” Lucy turned to Norm.

“I counted at least 10,” Norm told them.

“Shit,” Cooper exclaimed.

“And as soon as one catches you, they’re gonna radio for reinforcements and soon the entire security force will be there to stop you,” Norm added.

Cooper let out a long sigh and exchanged a look with Lucy that indicated that they were both on the same page.

“We’re not escaping today, are we?” Lucy said.

“Unfortunately, not today, sweetheart,” Cooper agreed.

“I want to help you two escape,” Norm said, “I might be able to help with hacking some terminals to make sure most of the guards are deployed to other parts of the vault and I can help learn their security sweep patterns to let you know the best time to escape. Plus, I can get you some extra rations from every meal and hide them so you have more food and maybe a few stimpaks.”

“Thank you, Norm. You’re right. As much as Cooper and I both want to get out of here right now, we need to take our time and do it right. We really appreciate you helping us.”

“It’s the least I can do,” Norm’s eyes lit up with an excitement that Lucy hadn’t seen in years, “in the meantime, I think the best course of action is just to lay low and act like everything is normal until it’s time to make our move. They won’t know what hit ‘em.”

“Lay low and act like everything is normal?” Cooper repeated, “I think I see where this is going.”

“Cooper,” Lucy turned to him and caressed his cheek with her hand, “I’m so sorry, Cooper. If I could just hide you under my bed, I would, but if the scientists see you’re missing, they’re gonna know something is up and ramp up security measures even more. I wish it didn’t have to be like this.”

“I know. I would much rather hide under your bed too, but I know that I have to go back.”

Lucy could see just how much the thought of going back to his prison pained him and she wanted to kiss the hurt away, but the timing just wasn’t right for their first kiss, so instead she just rubbed her thumb over the rough skin of his cheek.

“I’ll come back for you as soon as I can,” Lucy reassured him.

“And I’ll do everything I can to make your escape as smooth as possible,” Norm promised.

Cooper sighed in resignation but gave the siblings a tight lipped smile at their resolve.

“All right then, time to put the monster back in its cage,” Cooper said.

Lucy and Cooper said their goodbyes to Norm and left their go bags with him before they snuck back down the hallway the same way they came.

Thankfully, they didn’t run into any security guards or other vault residents on the way back either.

Lucy used Chet’s Pip-Boy to unlock the elevator and they rode it back down to the 13th floor in silence, the mood much more somber than their ride up earlier.

It pained Cooper and Lucy to have to put back the desks and makeshift decorations that Lucy had used to spruce up the jail cell, but they had to put everything back to its original place in case anyone came down to check on him before they escaped.

They did one more sweep of the floor to make sure everything more or less looked the way it did before Lucy’s arrival, minus some of the supplies they had looted for their go bags, which they hoped that no one would notice were missing.

“Well, I guess there’s just one more thing left to put back,” Cooper said after they finished straightening up the last of the furniture.

“What’s that?” Lucy looked around to see if they missed a small footlocker or something.

“My clothes, sweetheart. I was naked when you found me, remember?” he had a hint of a smirk on his face, despite the overall sadness of the situation.

“Oh, right,” Lucy could feel her face beginning to flush. She had gotten so used to seeing Cooper in his cowboy getup, she forgot that he wasn’t wearing anything when they first met. It felt so dehumanizing to make him live like that without any privacy, but Lucy guessed that given his hatred for Vault-Tec, he wasn’t too fond of wearing the blue jumpsuit either.

Cooper stood at the threshold of his cage and maintained eye contact with Lucy as he began to strip down.

First, the cowboy hat and boots came off, then his duster and belt.

Lucy coolly accepted the garments as he handed them over but her heart rate spiked as she knew what was coming next.

“It’s a shame I never had the time to teach you strip poker,” he joked, “your poker face is already shit but I have a feeling it would be even worse if we were playing for articles of clothing.”

“Another time, maybe,” Lucy whispered, her throat contracting as she fought back tears. She could tell that he was using humor to deflect his pain and it was his joking manner that made her realize just how real things were about to get.

They had been practically joined at the hip 24/7, never more than an arm’s length away the past two weeks; but now they were about to go their separate ways and they didn't know how long it would be until they could see each other again.

“I’ll think of you every day, Lucy MacLean and dream of you every night until you return,” Cooper’s earnest and heartfelt words sent Lucy over the edge and she couldn’t hold back the dam any longer as the tears started rushing down her face.

“I’m so sorry it has to be like this, Cooper!” she sobbed, “I promise I won’t make you wait another 10 years, I’ll come back for you as soon as I can!”

“I know you will, sweetheart, I know you will. I trust you.”

Lucy threw her arms around Cooper’s neck and crushed her body against his as she savored the warmth of his irradiated body one last time. She cried and held onto him for as long as she could before she knew that she needed to go.

When Lucy finally wrenched herself away from him, Cooper had tears in his eyes too as he pulled off his shirt and finally his pants, folding them up and handing them to Lucy.

Cooper stood completely naked before her but Lucy could barely see his scarred and mottled body through the tears in her eyes, blurring her vision.

It broke her heart to accept the garments from him, and when she closed the cell door between them and locked it with the master key, she nearly shattered.

As she took in his appearance between choked off sobs, she couldn’t help but notice how the same man who made her feel safe and protected suddenly looked so small and vulnerable as he was completely at her mercy.

Lucy reached through the bars to grab his hand and entwine their fingers to reassure him that everything would be okay.

She leaned her head forward and he did the same until the crowns of their heads were touching between the bars.

In that moment, the words ‘I love you’ were on the tip of Lucy’s tongue, but she couldn’t quite get them out.

She knew that it was true. She couldn’t imagine her life without him, but she was going to have to be strong and endure being alone until everything was in place for their escape. As much as she wanted to vocalize her love for him and kiss him senseless through the bars of his cell, she knew that the timing just wasn’t right, so instead, she gave his hand one more squeeze and nuzzled her forehead against his and repeated her promise just above a whisper, “I’ll come back for you.”

The thought of reuniting with him in the near future and starting a life together on the surface was the only way she could summon the strength to finally pull away and turn her back on him.

Lucy put his folded garments back in the locker where she had found them and turned to walk to the elevator bay.

She looked over her shoulder on the way to the elevator to find the Monster from Vault 33’s eyes locked on her.

She spared him one last sympathetic glance. The last thing she saw before the elevator doors slid closed behind her wasn’t a monster at all but the face of the man she loved.

Chapter Text

The next time that Lucy saw Cooper was four days later.

The time she spent away from him was the longest four days of her life.

Her heart started aching on the solo elevator ride back up to her apartment and it wouldn’t stop aching until she saw him again.

Lucy tried to get some sleep and thought that it would be nice to sleep in her own bed again instead of a dirty, uncomfortable cot with threadbare sheets, but she tossed and turned all night, missing the feeling of Cooper’s body pressed against her own.

The next morning when Lucy woke up, she was anything but well-rested. With what little sleep she could find, she felt groggy, irritable and a little nauseous to be up here with all her supposed creature comforts while Cooper was all alone in his cage down on the 13th floor.

Lucy could barely stomach the Sugar Bombs Breakfast Cereal, finding its sweetness too saccharine and cloying.

She wondered how she used to eat this stuff every day. One more thing she wouldn’t miss about the vaults.

After eating as much of her breakfast as she could choke down, Lucy knew that she couldn’t delay the inevitable reunion with her father any longer.

She would need to dig deep to tap into whatever acting skills she possessed in order to trick her dad into believing that she was still his perfect, precious, dutiful daughter who was just happy to be home with her beloved father and had no plans of running away with their vault’s urban legend who just so happened to be his favorite actor.

Lucy gritted her teeth as she thought about how her dad could help Barb and co-sign on the torture that Cooper had to endure. Her father was never the man she thought he was and she could see that clearly now.

When the nighttime lockdown was lifted at 8:00am and residents were permitted to leave their apartments, Lucy immediately sought out her father in his executive apartment that was bigger than all the rest.

Lucy knocked on the door and schooled her features into what she hoped was an expression of concern rather than disgust and hatred for her father.

When Hank MacLean opened the door, Lucy threw her arms around her father for a big hug.

“Oh daddy, I’m so relieved you’re okay!”

“Lucy?!?” Hank exclaimed in shock as he hugged her back, “you’re… you’re alive! Oh, my little Sugar Bomb, I thought that that raiders had changed their mind and… but you’re really here! Where have you been?”

“I got trapped in a store room when the power went out,” Lucy lied smoothly, “I was looking for a stimpak for my wounds from the battle in one of the supply closets when the electronic switch stopped working and the door refused to open. Thank goodness I was trapped in there with enough food and water.”

“A supply closet, huh? I thought that we had sent a team out to check all of those and didn’t find anybody in them,” Hank’s tone was slightly suspicious but Lucy knew that she could still recover.

“Yeah, weird, maybe you guys missed the one I was stuck in or maybe you checked when I was sleeping behind the crate of Pork ‘N Beans. It would’ve been pretty easy to miss me behind that big of a tower of cans,” Lucy hoped she was coming off somewhat convincingly.

“Yeah, maybe,” Hank agreed, “I’m just glad to have you back home, Lucy.”

Lucy put on her best Vault-Tec approved smile.

“I’m happy to be back too!”

“Lucy,” Hank’s voice turned serious, “about what Moldaver said…”

“I’ve had plenty of time to think about her words while trapped in that room,” Lucy said, sprinkling in some truth before a big lie, “and I’ve come to the conclusion that everything she said was a lie. I mean, I’ve known you and Barb my entire life and that evil lady Moldaver just murdered our fellow vault dwellers and gave me no reason to trust her! I’m so sorry for walking out on you and Barb in a moment of confusion and weakness but I’m so glad you both managed to make it out alive anyways and now I hope that we can all move forward.”

“Oh, Lucy, you have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that,” Hank said, seemingly buying Lucy’s act. She supposed that it was always easier to believe something when it aligned with your preconceived notions, even if it was a lie, rather than face the uncomfortable truth.

“I’m just happy to be home,” Lucy hugged him again and hoped she wasn’t laying it on too thick.

“Overseer Barb and I have been busy these past couple of weeks and it hasn’t been an easy road, but I think having you back will help to make things feel a little more normal. We can get you back in the classroom teaching again tomorrow and then when you’re ready, we can try again at finding you a husband. Maybe I can use my connections with the overseer to get you someone from vault 31 this time,” Hank said as if he were doing Lucy a big favor using his position to unfreeze one of the pre-war popsicles in 31 for Lucy to marry.

Lucy bristled at the thought of marrying another stranger after how disastrously things went with Monty, but more than that, when she envisioned herself happily married, she couldn’t imagine anyone else but Cooper. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. She vowed to tell Cooper that she didn’t just want to be travel companions once they got out of here. One step at a time.

“Actually, dad, I think I could use a few days off before I start teaching again. I’m still pretty rattled from the whole raider attack on my wedding day and then being trapped in the store room for so long, not knowing if I would ever get out.”

“Of course, pumpkin, you take all the time you need. I’ve got a lot of work to do today, but I’m always here if you need me.”

“Thanks, dad,” Lucy thought the sentiment would be sweet if she didn’t know what his work actually entailed. She hoped that Hank and Barb’s work today had nothing to do with Cooper and that they would be too busy with recovering from the raider attack still to worry about going down to the 13th floor.

After Hank left her alone again, Lucy decided to check in on how Chet and Steph were doing and let them both know that she was alive.

Lucy went to Chet’s apartment first and he was so happy to see her, she had to wriggle away from her cousin’s bone-crushing hug that he tried to turn into a kiss.

When Chet asked if she wanted to do some ‘cousin stuff’ to celebrate her return, Lucy politely turned him down.

As horny as she was after going without any sexual release for so long, she had no interest in practicing for sex with Chet ever again. The longer she thought about it, the more she realized that she didn’t want to have sex with anyone else but Cooper.

Chet asked her about where she had been and Lucy spun him the same lie as she did her for her father, insisting that she was all alone in a locked store room.

Chet told her about how he had been demoted to trash duty after losing his Pip-Boy during the raider attack and how they refused to give him a new one until he learned how to be more responsible.

Lucy felt bad that she was the reason why Chet’s Pip-Boy was missing but was glad that everyone seemed to be under the impression that a raider took it and didn’t know that Lucy had been using it to gain access to forbidden areas. She hoped that meant that they wouldn’t deactivate it before she could go down to get Cooper.

Once Lucy and Cooper had made their escape and the main vault door was open, she vowed to leave Chet’s Pip-Boy behind with an apology note.

Once she and Chet had caught up, Lucy decided to check in on Steph.

Cooper had told her that everyone from 31 was part of Vault-Tec middle management and that that entire vault was just cryopods, and Lucy knew that Steph was from 31, but she had to see for herself.

Steph had given birth to her baby in the time that Lucy was stuck on the 13th floor, which made for a natural ice breaker.

They cooed over the baby and chatted about how happy Steph was to see her alive and what she missed the last couple of weeks.

The conversation started off pleasant enough, and Lucy nearly forgot that she was supposed to be suspicious of her friend until the conversation turned to Lucy’s wedding and the triennial vault trade.

Lucy recalled that Steph had come over in a vault trade from 31 and asked her what it was like growing up in another vault.

When Steph fed her some bullshit line about how maybe the mashed potatoes were a little bit better in 31, Lucy could tell she was lying and her heart broke.

Not long ago, Lucy had considered this woman to be her best friend, but now she could hardly look at her without wondering how much of Vault-Tec’s plan she was in on and if she played a role in Cooper’s torture.

The one silver lining of Steph’s betrayal was that it would make it even easier for Lucy to leave the vault.

When it was time for Steph to put the baby down for a nap, Lucy took the out and said goodbye to her former friend for what she hoped would be the last time.

For the next three days, Lucy flashed her best Vault-Tec approved smile at everyone she saw in the halls and acted like everything was business as usual.

Meanwhile, with Norm’s help, she was stockpiling extra food with every meal, swiping as many cans of cram and Pork ‘N Beans as she could get away with, and taking stimpaks and other supplies that she hoped no one would notice were missing until after they were long gone.

Once they had maxed out on the amount of food and supplies they could squirrel away without anyone noticing, all that was left was raiding the armory.

Norm had been observing the guards’ patterns for the past few days and had a good sense of when they went on break or changed shifts and helped Lucy figure out the best time to sneak in.

The siblings stayed up late one night and slowly snuck down the winding hallways to the armory.

They waited until there was just one guard outside the door and when he stepped away to go to the restroom, Lucy and Norm made their move.

As quietly as they could, they stocked up on guns and ammo.

At first, Lucy considered only taking a tranq gun and only using force if she had to, but after remembering Cooper’s words about some of the mutants and people even more monstrous than the raiders up there, she decided to go with a 10mm pistol and a sniper rifle for herself and had Norm swipe a lever action rifle and a sturdy looking pistol for Cooper and as much ammo as they could carry.

Careful to not make too much noise with the rattling of the bullets, Lucy and Norm snuck back to his apartment with their newly acquired arms and stashed them away until Lucy was ready to make her move.

Lucy was going a little crazy with no way to communicate with Cooper and get him a message about when she was coming back for him, but she just had to have faith that he would be okay until she could see him again.

The thought of reuniting with Cooper made Lucy smile and imagine all the things she wanted to say to him about her feelings for him and their future together. She was practically shaking with the anticipation of being able to touch him again and hoped that he still felt the same after being back in his cage for the past four days.

On the night of the fourth day when everyone else in the vault was starting to go to their rooms and get ready for bed, Lucy was making her final preparations to escape with Norm’s help.

Lucy grabbed Chet’s Pip-Boy from its hiding spot under her bed and then went to Norm’s room to retrieve their two bags full of supplies and ammo. She strapped her rifle to her back and put her 10mm in a hip holster so that they would be ready to leave immediately out the main vault door after Lucy rescued Cooper from 13.

Lucy nodded at Norm and the siblings exchanged a determined look as they launched their plan into motion.

Norm went up ahead to ensure the way was clear and to distract anyone who would try to get in their way.

Lucy followed her brother from a safe distance, sneaking around corners and avoiding the sightline of any windows or cameras.

When Norm gave her the all clear signal, Lucy crept the final distance to the elevator bay and plugged the cable on Chet’s Pip-Boy into the terminal.

Lucy held her breath and hoped that they didn’t deactivate the key. The few seconds it took for the loading screen to turn into the menu options were agonizing, but eventually the screen finished loading. She pumped her fist in silent celebration when it worked and she was able to call the elevator to access the 13th floor.

“I’ll meet you at the elevators up on the reactor level,” Norm said, “good luck!”

And with that, Lucy stepped inside and let the elevator doors close between her and Norm.

Lucy’s heart raced as the elevator traveled downward and her mind spun with the possibility of reuniting with Cooper mixed with the fear that he wouldn’t be there or something else would go wrong with their escape.

When the elevator doors slid open and Lucy caught sight of Cooper’s naked form right where she left him, she rejoiced, dropping both their bags on the floor and running to his cage to touch his face and hold him through the bars to make sure he was real.

Lucy thought that Cooper would be happy to see her too, but as she approached his prison cell, the look on his face was fearful and full of trepidation, which made Lucy pause her advance.

She understood why when Overseer Barb emerged from the shadows a few moments later.

They'd hoped that they could make it a few days without any scientists or anyone else coming down to check in on him, but they should’ve known that Barb would want to check on her science experiment when the power started working again after being cut off from the 13th floor for so long.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t notice all the missing supplies and moved furniture?” Barb said as she walked all the way out from the shadows, her expression cold and unimpressed.

“Overseer Barb,” Lucy spit out the title in disgust. She considered playing dumb and acting like a polite little vault dweller who just took a wrong turn, but the fully loaded gear bags and weapons were a bit of a giveaway.

“When your father told me that you claimed to have been stuck in a supply closet for the past two weeks, something didn’t add up. I knew that we had checked every closet and didn’t find anyone, so I followed my hunch and came down here. Maybe one of my less observant scientists wouldn’t have noticed, but I could tell almost immediately that the desks had been moved and some supplies were missing. The Ghoul here swore that it would never tell me what happened, but its reaction to my accusation that it was Little Lucy MacLean was all I needed to confirm it.”

“Lucy, I’m sorry!” Cooper finally interjected, his eyes wet with the beginnings of tears.

“It’s okay, Cooper, it’s not your fault,” Lucy reassured him, wishing that she could reach out and touch him.

“I guess I should’ve known that you would develop feelings for the creature that was once Cooper Howard after your father told me about your asinine crush on him, but what I didn’t expect was for the Ghoul to reciprocate those feelings. Tell me, is it still Stockholm Syndrome if you’re both trapped?” Barb joked but neither of them were laughing, “or maybe it’s only pretending to care about you so it can use you to escape before casting you aside?”

“You know that’s not true, Lucy,” Cooper reassured her, causing Barb to frown at her foiled attempt at creating a wedge between them.

“How can you be so callous and keep calling Cooper ‘a creature’ or ‘it’? I mean, this man was once your husband for crying out loud!” Lucy tried to appeal to Barb’s better nature and talk her down.

Barb let out a humorless laugh, “first of all, I divorced my ex husband long before the bombs dropped, and second of all, I don’t know what lies this ghoul has told you, but it stopped being a human more than 200 years ago and treating it as anything more than a science experiment would be a mistake.”

“I think a part of you knows deep down that the man you once loved is still in there,” Lucy tried one last time to resolve things with her words, “I think you know that even though he’s immortal now and his skin is a little rougher than you remember, that it’s still Cooper Howard in there and that you’re not doing science but torturing the man you once loved enough to marry! There’s still time to do the right thing though. Let us escape the vault without hurting you or any of your security guards and we’ll be on our way. You’ll never have to see us ever again and we won’t cause any more disruption to the vault.”

“I’ve been working on finding a cure for mortality for more than two centuries, do you really think I’m just gonna let you walk out the door with my prized specimen?”

“You’ve had scientists working for over 200 years and they still haven’t figured it out. Face it, Barb, if there is a ‘cure for mortality’ you guys aren’t gonna find it from poking and prodding Cooper, otherwise you would’ve figured it out by now.”

“Maybe, maybe not, but thank you for the reminder that I have a fleet of scientists and security guards at my disposal just one tap away,” Barb raised her Pip-Boy to call for help. If Lucy let her press that button, they would be swarmed with guards in a matter of minutes and all their planning would be in vain.

“No!” Lucy drew her 10mm pistol and raised it so it was trained directly on Barb’s head.

“Well, it looks like Little Lucy MacLean has some teeth after all,” Barb stopped fiddling with her Pip-Boy and raised her hands.

Lucy looked over to Cooper for guidance since she didn’t know what to do in this standoff.

While Lucy waited for Cooper to tell her what to do next, she thought about all the propaganda she’d been fed over the years.

Everything that Lucy had ever been told was about how the overseer was the most important person in the vault that they should never be questioned and that, one day, if she worked hard and followed the rules, she might to ascend to the rank of overseer and follow in her dad‘s footsteps after his turn.

That used to be all that Lucy ever wanted; all that she could ever dream to aspire to under the weight of duty to the vault and loyalty to her father.

She knew now that it was all a lie and that there was a life of adventure waiting for her outside the vault.

“What’s it gonna be, Miss MacLean? We both know you don’t have it in you to shoot the overseer, so why don’t you just put the gun down and you and I can head back up to the residential levels together?”

Lucy looked over to Cooper again to see his reaction but his face didn’t give anything away. Somehow, without exchanging any words, Lucy knew that this neutral expression meant that he would support her decision no matter what. She could shoot Barb and he wouldn’t blame her, or she could abandon him at the 11th hour and go back to her room alone and Cooper wouldn’t begrudge her for it.

“This is your last chance!” Lucy cocked the hammer of the gun and tried to use her words one last time, “let us go and you get to live. Simply toss your Pip-Boy across the room and wait for us to leave the vault and you’ll never have to see us again, or try to make any sudden movements to call for help and I’ll shoot you!”

Barb laughed, clearly Lucy wasn’t as intimidating as she hoped, “even if you two escape, I’ll find a way to bring you back. I have legions of employees both here and on the surface. You wouldn’t last a week up there without getting dragged back here. You’re born in the vault, you die in the vault, Miss MacLean.”

Lucy was at a crossroads and knew she had to make a decision that would impact the rest of their lives.

Lucy had tried to say everything she could think of to appeal to Barb and get her to stand down without any violence, but none of it seemed to work. As Lucy looked between Cooper and Barb and saw just how fractured their relationship had become, she realized that a woman who could let this happen to her own husband, divorced or not, wasn’t a woman who would be willing to listen to logic.

Barb was growing impatient from the delay and Lucy could tell that she wasn’t going to keep her hands raised in surrender for much longer.

“Don’t do it!” Lucy warned as Barb began to lower her hands and reach for her Pip-Boy. With one press of a button, the entire vault would be blaring with alarms and security would be bearing down on them in a matter of minutes, “don’t!”

But Barb didn’t listen. Just as she was about to tap the screen on her Pip-Boy, Lucy pulled the trigger and a single shot rang out.

Lucy’s aim was pure and true from her years at riflery club and the single shot went directly through the Overseer’s head, causing it to explode in a bloody mess.

“Lucy, Lucy, hey, it’s okay, you’re okay!” Cooper tried to reassure her from his cage.

Lucy thought that she would feel horrified by her actions and appalled for taking someone else’s life, but she just felt numb.

There wasn’t time to dwell on what she just did, they had an escape plan to enact and Norm was waiting on them.

Lucy holstered her pistol and walked over to the cell door.

She used the master key in Chet’s Pip-Boy to unlock the door.

When the door swung open, Cooper burst forward and pulled her in for a big hug.

“Thank you for coming back for me, thank you for freeing me, thank you for everything,” Cooper whispered his gratitude into her ear and held her tight, “you did your best to talk Barb down, but she was beyond redemption. Maybe if Janey hadn’t died, she wouldn’t have gone off the deep end, but we’ll never know. You did the right thing. I know that it probably doesn’t feel like it, but I’m certain you gained karma for taking someone so evil out of this world. Thank you.”

“I know. It was either her or us and I choose us every time, Cooper, I…” Lucy nearly admitted her true feelings for him, but she decided against it when she realized that he was still completely naked at the threshold of his jail cell and remembered that they were already wasting precious seconds, “uh, come on, let’s get you back in your clothes and get out of here for good!”

“Right, clothes, uh, sorry,” Cooper loosened his grip on Lucy and allowed  her to peel her body off of his naked torso.

Lucy caught an unintentional glimpse of his impressive manhood as they separated and had to force herself to look away as a rush of emotions came roaring back.

Cooper quickly retrieved his cowboy pants, shirt, boots, and hat from the footlocker and got dressed.

Lucy handed him an ammo bandolier and two holsters for the pistol and mare’s leg rifle that she and Norm had swiped from the armory.

Lucy admired the way the guns and ammo bandolier pulled together his cowboy look.

She handed him his saddlebag full of supplies and held back a blush when he winked at her as he slung the bag over his shoulder in a manner that was far sexier than it should’ve been.

“Shall we?” Cooper held out his hand like an old fashioned southern gentleman in one of his movies.

Lucy smiled and accepted his much larger hand in her own. She had missed the feeling of his skin on hers the last four days and finally being able to feel the warmth of his irradiated skin again felt like coming home.

They grabbed Lucy’s bag and walked hand in hand to the elevator. They spared one last look at the prison that had housed Cooper for the past two hundred years, hoping that they wouldn’t need to come back and this would be the last time they ever set eyes on those four metal walls.

Cooper rubbed comforting circles into the back of Lucy’s hand with his thumb and the pair enjoyed a moment of quiet peace as the elevator ascended to the reactor level that also housed the main vault door to the outside world.

Their peaceful bubble was immediately popped the second the elevator doors opened on the reactor level.

The main entryway was a madhouse with half a dozen armed guards in riot gear.

“Lucy!” they both turned their head to the source of the shout and saw Norm putting up the best fight his small body could muster with three guards draped over him.

“Oh my gosh, Norm!” Lucy ran over to try to help her brother, “let him go!” she drew her pistol and pointed it at the guards holding him but they felt emboldened in their bulletproof vests and helmets, so they didn’t listen to her.

Lucy knew that she was a good enough shot to pick a spot that their armor wasn’t covering, but these people were her friends and neighbors and she really didn’t want to shoot them if she didn’t have to.

“I got this,” Cooper said, setting down his saddlebag and approaching the trio of men trying to restrain Norm.

“Please, try not to kill them unless you absolutely have to!” Lucy pleaded and Cooper nodded in agreement.

“I bet you boys feel real big in that armor,” he taunted, “so big that it takes three of you to take down poor little Norm here. Come on now.”

“Silence, Ghoul! Go back to your cage and let us deal with matters up here,” one of the guards said.

“No can do, boys. Out of respect for Miss MacLean, I’m giving you a chance to run away without any broken bones, but that offer is gonna expire real quick now.”

None of the guards took him seriously and instead tried to readjust their grip on a struggling Norm.

Cooper let out a grunt as if to say, ‘you left me no choice’ and swiftly approached the three men.

Cooper moved with lithe grace and speed as he dodged the guard on the left’s lazy punches.

Cooper moved quickly to take the guard’s pistol from its holster and cracked him over the head with the butt of the gun until the first guard crumpled to the floor.

He used his enhanced ghoul strength to give the second guard a nasty kick in the balls before throwing him across the room so hard he went air-born and slammed into a wall, unconscious.

The third guard hesitated after seeing how quickly Cooper had dispatched his friends, but he still refused to turn around and run.

Cooper stripped the man of his guns and helmet and went around behind him to apply a chokehold to his neck until the lack of oxygen made him fall to the ground too.

“Thanks,” Norm said as he rubbed his sore wrists and arms that would surely have bruises in the morning.

“Wow,” Lucy marveled at the pile of unconscious bodies, “they teach you that in acting class?”

“The Marines,” Cooper smirked and the pair held each other’s gaze for a tender moment. Lucy was quite impressed and a little turned on by the raw power and agility that he just displayed, all without firing a shot. She grinned back and let her eyes wander over his biceps and chest, thinking about the muscles she knew were hiding underneath.

“We need to get moving,” Norm interrupted before their moment could go any further, “I overheard them talking, apparently Barb had a failsafe alarm that would trigger the vault’s entire security force if her Pip-Boy ever detected her heart stop beating. This place is gonna be overrun with even more guards in a few minutes, we have to go!”

“Damn Barb thought of everything,” Cooper muttered as he slung his saddlebag back over his shoulder, “lead the way!”

Norm, Lucy, and Cooper ran as fast as they could towards the main vault door, avoiding security guard when they could but fighting when they were forced to.

They could hear the thunder of boots on the metal stairs and knew that more guards would be there soon.

When they reached the door operation machinery of the main vault door, Cooper had to incapacitate two more guards.

Lucy handed Norm Chet’s Pip-Boy with the key and said, “if you see Chet again, give this back to him and tell him I’m sorry. I hope he’ll understand.”

“I think he’ll be more upset about the fact that you fell in love and ran off with the Monster from Vault 33 instead of him, but I’ll tell him,” Norm joked as he plugged in the cable.

Lucy looked to make sure Cooper didn’t overhear the comment about her being in love with him since she wanted to be the one to tell him, even if it was apparently already obvious to Norm.

Thankfully, Cooper seemed to be preoccupied taking on two guards at once.

Lucy thought about going over to help him, but as soon as she took one step towards him, both guards fell to the ground and Cooper brushed the dust off his sleeve and straightened his clothes. She turned back to her brother for one last goodbye.

“Goodbye, Norm,” Lucy ruffled her brother’s hair, “I love you and I promise I’ll send you messages. Hopefully they won’t punish you too much for helping us escape. You sure you don’t want to come with?”

Norm shook his head, “I’m too chicken. Besides, being stuck in the holding cell for a few days won’t be the worst thing in the world. It might even be kinda nice to get out of sanitation duty,” he joked.

Lucy shook her head and gave her brother one last hug, “let me know if you need me and I’ll find a way to get you help. You were the best brother a girl could ask for, even when you got on my nerves.”

“I love you too, big sis,” Norm said, “now go get your man.”

“Thanks, Norm.”

With the first wave of security incapacitated, they had a short break before the next wave would arrive.

“Okay, get ready, I’m about to open the door,” Norm said.

“Okie dokie,” Lucy and Cooper stepped forward to stand in front of the giant gear shaped door.

“You ready to do this, sweetheart?” Cooper turned to Lucy to gauge her emotions. He looked like he was preparing for her to lose her nerve and change her mind about leaving with him, but Lucy needed to let him know that that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Cooper,” Lucy said tenderly and cupped his face, “I don’t know what life in the outside world will hold, but I know that I want to experience it with you. I don’t want to just be travel companions and eventually go our separate ways, I want to wake up next to you every morning and go to sleep with you every night for the rest of my life, however long or short that may be, but hopefully a lot longer with you watching my back. If you don’t want that and you’d rather just be friends then I’m sorry, but I couldn’t hold it in any longer, I had to say something. I love you, Cooper Howard. I’m yours.”

The door began to creak and the sounds of metal against metal began to emanate from the door as the internal mechanisms started to move.

“Lucy,” he closed his eyes and leaned into her touch, “I feel the same way. I don’t want to just be travel companions either, I want to be with you. I love you too and I’m ready to face whatever is on the other side of that door together.”

“I’m so happy to hear you say that,” Lucy grinned as tears of joy began to fall down her face, “you make me feel so safe, Cooper. I know that everything will be okay as long as I have you. I love you,” she repeated and leaned in for a kiss.

Lucy’s lips gently grazed over Cooper’s with a slight pressure at first before growing more confident and deepening the kiss.

Cooper opened up his mouth for her and used his wet pink tongue to dance over the seam of her lips before nipping at her lower lip with his teeth.

Lucy sighed and moaned when Cooper tangled his hand in her hair as they both got lost in the moment.

Lucy relished the feeling of his tongue and lips inside her mouth for the first of hopefully many kisses and took the time to truly savor the moment.

They were finally pulled out of their passion by the sound of the door making its final rotation and slamming into place with one last thud.

Lucy shielded her eyes as the pair looked out into the bright and sandy world ahead of them.

“Wow!” Lucy exclaimed in awe. Maybe she was still recovering from the kiss, but her first look at the outside world took her breath away.

“Welcome to California, sweetheart. You ready to go start the first day of the rest of our lives together?” he held out his hand for her to take.

With Lucy’s shock at seeing the outside world for the first time combined with how lightheaded she was from their first kiss, all she could say was, “okie dokie”.

She accepted his hand and the pair walked out the door together hand in hand, ready to take on whatever the world could throw at them.

Chapter Text

As Lucy and Cooper took their first steps outside the vault together and into the sandy wastes, they heard the second wave of guards arrive behind them and demand that they stop immediately and come back to the vault.

A few seconds later, they heard the door mechanism start up again as Norm activated the switch to close it.

The guards continued their shouting, but none of them dared to follow Lucy and Cooper outside, whether it be from fear of the dangerous wasteland or from fear of getting crushed by a moving two ton metal door.

Finally, the door finished its final rotation and the gear slid into place, sealing vault 33 shut and muffling any sounds that may have been coming from the other side, leaving Lucy and Cooper in total silence.

“I hope Norm doesn’t get in too much trouble for helping us,” she bit her lip with worry.

“That boy is too smart to let those security goons call the shots. I bet he’ll have them all tricked into giving him a break from work and extra dessert while they think he’s being punished. Hell, he might even be running the place the next time we see him.”

“You really think so?” she looked up at him with her big brown eyes.

“I do,” he gave her a reassuring smile and kissed the crown of her head.

As they started walking away from the vault door, they noticed dozens and dozens of skeletons, some partially buried under the sand and debris, but some that looked a little newer and were fully exposed.

“Oh my gosh,” Lucy exclaimed in horror.

“Those who couldn’t afford a spot in the vaults but still tried to get in,” Cooper confirmed her suspicions, “I’m guessing this first wave was right when the bombs dropped in 2077 and these newer remains came years later as people tried to get in to scavenge your resources.”

Lucy felt a pit form in her stomach. She had lived her entire life in the vault, a life of privilege and abundance where all her needs were met. She didn’t even consider that there would be people so desperate to be in her place that they would die, clawing at the door to get in.

Lucy felt an overwhelming sense of guilt at not recognizing her privilege and wished that she could’ve shared some of her resources with these poor souls before it was too late.

For a brief moment, Lucy wondered if she was making a mistake leaving the vault behind when apparently the wasteland was so terrible that people would rather die trying to get inside than brave the surface, but then she looked over at Cooper and remembered how easily he’d dispatched those security guards with his enhanced strength and speed and knew that everything was going to be okay.

Cooper had been alive for more than two centuries and had probably endured more hardship than the average wastelander. He was a survivor and no one was going to mess with her with him by her side.

She looked up at Cooper again and smiled, thankful that she didn’t have to do this alone.

While Lucy’s eyes were transfixed by the way his determined brown eyes and rugged skin looked in the sunlight as opposed to the harsh fluorescents of the vault, something moved in her peripheral vision.

Lucy startled and jumped back when what looked like a sharp ball came charging towards them. Was it an animal or some kind of mutated creature she didn’t recognize?

Lucy got ready to draw her 10mm pistol when Cooper’s chuckle made her pause.

“It’s just a tumbleweed, sweetheart, don’t waste your ammo. It’s actually nice to see something I recognize from before the bombs still around.”

“Just a tumbleweed blowing in the wind, right. Because there’s wind up here! Cool! I remember there used to be some of these things in your movies. Maybe this is one of your long lost co-stars.”

Cooper’s entire body shook with laughter at her joke until it turned into a coughing fit and he had to reach into his bag for some of the medicine he'd stolen from the lab.

Lucy’s brows furrowed with worry. She had nearly forgotten about the vials he had to inhale to keep from going feral and worried that they had no idea where to find the stuff other than vault 33. Would they be back here banging on the door in a month or two begging for Norm to let them back in when Cooper’s supply ran out? No, Lucy decided that they would either find a way to get more of the medicine or see if there was a way they could make it themselves. They could start asking around well before he needed more and see what other ghouls did to keep from going feral.

Even though Cooper had been alive and even lived in the area 219 years ago, the world looked completely different and he had no idea where they should go to find the nearest settlement.

Cooper wanted to keep walking without knowing where they were going, but Lucy insisted that they ask a nearby settler for directions.

After some grumbling from Cooper, they agreed to approach him with guns drawn.

“Hi, hello!” Lucy greeted the man tinkering with a water filter in just his underwear.

The man jumped back in surprise at being approached by a ghoul and a girl with guns pointed at him.

“I don’t have any weapons! Or money!” he raised his hands in surrender.

“Oh, we just wanna ask you for directions!” Lucy chirped sweetly and put away her gun but Cooper scowled and kept his raised until she prodded him in the ribs.

The man, clearly intimidated by the ghoul, told them everything he knew about the surrounding area, which admittedly wasn’t much since he had never ventured over the hill.

He told them about the nearest settlement, Filly, but warned them about how dangerous it was and listed off all of his various family members that died there.

When Lucy offered the man a sip of water as thanks for the information, the Ghoul scowled at him until he accepted the bottle, took the tiniest sip possible, and quickly handed it back.

“You’re real good people not shooting me with those guns!” he praised while the duo started walking in the direction of Filly.

“It was really no problem!” Lucy said while Cooper grunted noncommittally, “bye!”

As they walked, Lucy couldn’t help herself from stopping every few miles to pull Cooper in for another kiss and run her hands over the rough skin of his cheeks and the slightly smoother skin of his neck.

“We really should wait until we’re somewhere safer, it’s not good for us both to be distracted if any dangerous creatures come along,” Cooper protested, but Lucy could tell he loved the affection.

“Distracted? Who’s distracted? I’m completely aware of my surroundings,” Lucy tugged him forwards by his shirt until his lips met hers again while simultaneously walking backwards, “see?”

“Well, that makes one of us,” Cooper breathed, opening his eyes long enough to look at her from under his long eyelashes.

Thankfully they didn’t run into any irradiated beasts during the rest of their trek to Filly.

Lucy joked that all the irradiated creatures of the wasteland were steering clear of them because they knew that Cooper was the apex predator of the wasteland and that he would crush them all with his big muscles, which turned into another round of them making out.

When they crested the hill, they saw a large sign made out of junk that said ‘Filly’ with an arrow pointing in the direction they were headed.

“Wow!” Lucy exclaimed as they got closer to the settlement that was really a small city made out of various salvaged scrap, junk, and other creative building materials.

“It looked nothing like this before the war,” Cooper remarked as they walked past rows of vendors hawking their wares.

Most people gave the duo a weird look and then immediately averted their eyes or ran away from them, but a few sneered and spit on the ground in Cooper’s direction.

They continued walking and taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of Filly until they reached a shop in the center of town with a sign above it that read ‘Ma June’s Sundries’.

An elderly woman with a rough and grizzled appearance came out to greet them, but her expression was anything but friendly.

“You know your kind ain’t welcome here, ghoul.”

Lucy was shocked and appalled at the blatant bigotry.

“Excuse me, ma’am, I’m not sure if you’re aware, but what you just said is discrimination and discrimination is wrong. Putting someone down just because of the way they look and telling them they’re not allowed to have the same privileges as others is not conducive to building a thriving community, so I kindly ask that you apologize to him,” Lucy puffed up her chest and looked around, expecting to see others come to Cooper’s defense too, but the crowd was just looking at her in amusement, some laughing or shaking their heads. 

The elderly woman who Lucy presumed to be Ma June scoffed and turned sneered her to Lucy.

“And your kind ain’t welcome here either,” she said.

Lucy looked down at her blue jumpsuit and said, “vault dwellers?”

“Ghoulfuckers,” Ma June clarified, her tone dripping with disdain.

“I’ll have you know that although we have yet to consummate our relationship with intercourse, that there is nothing wrong with two consenting adults having sexual relations. Underneath his rough skin, he’s  still human, you know, and you’re being very rude!” Lucy had gotten worked up in her defense of Cooper and now almost the entire town was watching to see how this would unfold.

“Hey, it’s fine,” Cooper tried to calm Lucy down before turning to Ma June, “we don’t mean no trouble now, we’re jus’ lookin’ to trade and maybe get some information and we’ll be on our way.”

Lucy looked just in time to see him smiling sweetly at Ma June. It was that same Cooper Howard charm that Lucy remembered from his movies. Whether he was just putting on an act and playing a role or he really meant it, Lucy was impressed that he still had it in him to use charm and charisma over guns and violence.

“Well, I guess if you got the caps and promise to leave when you’re done, we could do some trading,” Ma June compromised.

“Caps?” Lucy repeated in confusion.

“Bottle caps? The currency of the wasteland? Ah shit, don’t tell me you don’t have any caps. Waste of my fuckin’ time,” Ma June shook her head.

“How was I supposed to know that the currency had completely changed in the past 200 years?!?” Lucy shouted before taking a deep breath and calming down, “we still have some stuff from the vault we could trade and I took this pre-war paper money if that still has any value.”

“Fuckin’ vault dwellers and their Gatdamn mutant boyfriends,” Ma June muttered, “I tell ya what, just to make it easy on you, I’ll give you a conversation rate of one paper dollar to one cap. You don’t like it, you can go somewhere else.”

Lucy turned to Cooper but he just shrugged, not having any idea either if the conversation ratio was fair or if she was ripping them off.

“Okie dokie,” Lucy agreed and began to fork over bills in exchange for more ammo and a couple more stimpaks, “do you sell any of these medicine vials or know where we can get more?” she held up one of Cooper’s vials.

“We don’t sell them here, but just about every major settlement that caters to ghouls will have them. They’ll cost you though.”

Next, Lucy asked Ma June to mark some other settlements and landmarks in the surrounding area on her Pip-Boy. Lucy grinned when her map was now filled in with dozens of new squares to discover and tipped Ma June an extra two dollars.

When they were done trading and had loaded up on the goods and supplies that they couldn’t get from the vault, Lucy looked at her dwindling stack of cash and frowned.

At this rate, they would be out of money in less than a week.

“Last question,” Lucy said, slapping one more dollar down on the counter, “is there a way that we can earn more money? More caps,” she corrected herself.

Ma June took mercy on Lucy and pushed the dollar back across the desk. She seemed to be warming up to the odd vault dweller and her mild mannered mutant boyfriend.

“One of the settlements I marked on your map, the one just south of Bakersfield has a job board in the main square and they don’t mind ghouls. They don’t love ‘em, but they don’t mind as much as other places. Try there.”

Lucy zoomed in on her Pip-Boy map and set her marker on top of the location box just south of Bakersfield.

“Thank you for all your help! Bye!”

Lucy waved and Cooper tipped his hat as they exited the shop and left Filly without anyone getting shot or dying.

During the three day trek to Bakersfield, Lucy and Cooper came across several giant irradiated scorpions and roaches and a particularly nasty mutated bear that apparently the locals called a Yao Guai.

Thankfully, Cooper’s enhanced vision was able to spot them before the creatures even saw them and they shoot the creatures before they could attack, even though the Yao Guai came close.

At night, they cuddled up close in Lucy’s sleeping bag. Lucy appreciated his body heat even more now during the cold desert nights than when they were trapped on the chilly 13th floor.

As they got closer to the settlement, they  noticed more and more ghouls. Some were not so friendly, but others smiled and talked to Cooper about what everyday life was like for a ghoul and the challenges they faced.

Cooper’s face hardened when the other ghouls talked about some of the discrimination they’ve faced and Lucy’s heart ached at the thought of everyone’s reaction to them in Filly not being an isolated incident and how they were likely to run into even bigger bigots than just little old Ma June.

When they reached the job board in the town square they noticed that almost all of the job listings had a disclaimer at the end that read ‘ghouls need not apply’ or ‘no ghouls, only smooth skins allowed’.

Lucy wanted to go on a tirade about unfair hiring practices, but she held her tongue.

“Do you see any job listings for a movie star cowboy or a kid’s birthday party entertainer?” he asked with a wry chuckle, “God, even the few jobs I might be qualified for like herding Brahmin don’t allow ghouls. This is hopeless.”

“Hey, it’s okay, we’re in this together. We just need to earn enough money, caps, whatever to get you steady supply of vials then we can leave here and go live out in the country away from all these stupid bigots. Everything’s gonna be okay as long as we have each other, remember?” Lucy entwined their fingers and gave his hand a comforting squeeze.

“You’re right,” he gave her a lopsided grin, “as soon as we have the caps to blow this popsicle stand and get our own place out in the country. Maybe a nice ranch with lots of land.”

“You wanna raise those two headed cows we keep seeing?”

“I think I’d want to raise chickens,” he admitted.

“Yeah? I like chickens too,” Lucy grinned back at him, “come on, let’s go make enough caps to buy the best chicken farm in the west,” Lucy got on her tip toes to kiss him on the cheek, not caring one bit about the disgusted scoffs of onlookers.

Lucy found a posting on the job board for a water filtration system that was broken and was pleased she finally got the chance to put her pipefitting skills to use in the real world and get paid for it.

Cooper, meanwhile, looked at the limited selection of job listings for ghouls. The ones that seemed to pay the best all seemed to be bounty hunting gigs for wanted fugitives or dangerous criminals where they didn’t care who did the job as long as the criminal scum was either killed or brought to justice.

They agreed to meet back in the town square at sunset and promised to be safe.

With one last kiss goodbye, the duo went to work at their respective jobs for the day.

Cooper started off with what looked to be an easy 50-cap bounty, starting off small instead of going for the 500 to 1000 cap jobs right out the gate.

At first he had no idea what he was doing, but soon found that he could get a fair amount of information about the bounty from using his old world movie star charm or his terrifying presence as a ghoul if that didn’t work.

By the end of the day, he had found the person he was looking for in an abandoned building on the outskirts of town, successfully hogtied them and collected his bounty from the police station.

When he met Lucy at sundown, she told him how she had made quick work of the water filtration system and took a few more odd jobs to make 50 caps for the day.

With 100 caps to their name, they spent 25 on a hotel room for the night so they could shower and sleep on a proper bed for the first time since leaving the vault.

The room was pretty rundown and dingy, but the queen bed that let them roll over in their sleep without poking each other in the ribs felt like a luxurious upgrade over the tiny cot in Cooper’s cell.

Over the next few weeks, they fell into a pattern of checking the job board for repair work or new bounties in the morning, going their separate ways and occasionally meeting up for lunch and then working their tails off until sundown.

Cooper was terrible at bounty hunting at first and had to stick to the smaller jobs, but eventually he honed his skills in and got more confident that he could handle the bigger jobs.

They came home to their motel room every night and told each other about their days over dinner and cuddled in bed every night, talking until they couldn’t keep their eyes open any longer.

They both dreamed of wide open spaces and chicken farms and having enough money to keep Cooper well-stocked on vials so that he would never have to worry about going feral.

Despite Lucy’s insistence that she would proudly wear the moniker ‘ghoulfucker’ and wanted to have sex with him, the timing was never quite right in those first few weeks. With how exhausted they both came home from work every day, Lucy was usually too tired for sex, which was new for her since she was used to having the highest libido in the vault, but her new more active lifestyle and increased sun exposure was really wearing her out.

Despite all the stress and new life changes, Lucy was thankful when she finally got her period and breathed a sigh of relief that Monty didn’t knock her up on their wedding night. The wound on her abdomen was healing nicely, but it would still leave a huge scar to commemorate her one night of marriage.

One day, Cooper told her that he was going to be gone a few days tracking a more advanced bounty.

Lucy’s heart sank at the thought of going to sleep without him for a few nights and not knowing if he was safe, but she knew that her boyfriend was a survivor and she had to trust that he would come back to her.

She whispered in his ear that she would be waiting for him to come home and gave him an extra long hug and a passionate kiss as a sendoff.

When he left her all alone in the settlement, Lucy’s heart ached.

She wondered if this was how he felt when she had to lock him back up on the 13th floor for those four agonizing days.

Lucy tossed and turned in bed that night, unable to get comfortable enough to fall asleep. She jumped at every creak of the floorboards, thinking it was Cooper coming home early, but it never was.

Lucy was in an exhausted daze the next day from lack of sleep. She made so many mistakes on what should’ve been a simple plumbing job that the shack’s owner cut her pay in half. Lucy didn’t bother trying to find any more job listings for the day.

The next night she didn’t sleep any better and decided that she could take a day off from working, even though it made the time pass by slower and she couldn’t stop thinking about Cooper and when he would be back. She loved him so much and couldn’t bear much longer away from him.

Instead of going back to their motel room that evening, she went to the town’s saloon and ordered a Nuka-Cola and rum to drown her sorrows.

“Hey there pretty darling,” a voice said from behind her.

Lucy whipped around, thinking it was Cooper for a fraction of a second even though the voice sounded nothing like her lover’s.

“Hello,” Lucy greeted in a polite but clipped tone as a man who looked to be in his late 40s or early 50s and a cowboy hat sauntered up to her.

“I couldn’t help but notice you drinkin’ alone and I figured I’d come over and fix that.”

“I’m okay, thank you,” Lucy tried to get him to leave but the man just plopped himself down on the barstool next to her.

“I’m Jessie,” he grinned at her and extended a hand for her to shake.

“And I’m in a relationship already,” Lucy shut him down a bit more forcefully, not bothering to shake his hand.

“Oh, I know. Everybody here knows you’re the town ghoulfucker. Ya know, most men wouldn’t want a woman that’s already been tainted and defiled by undead zombie scum, but at my age, I can’t afford to be picky, and you are a pretty little thing regardless of your proclivities, so why don’t I buy you a few more drinks and then show you what sex with a real man feels like?”

“I’m not interested,” Lucy failed to correct him that technically she and Cooper still hadn’t had sex yet, but she deeply wished that he would defile her as soon as he got back, especially now that she knew it would deter more creeps like this guy from trying to get her into bed, “and I was just about to close out my tab and go home anyways,” Lucy could’ve gone for a few more drinks and the night was still fairly young but she had no interest in getting anywhere close to drunk with Jessie lurking around.

“That’s fine by me, baby, you close out that tab and then we can take things back to your place and I’ll fuck you real nice,” Jessie insisted, not taking no for an answer.

Just as Lucy was about to give him a piece of her mind in a way that was not approved by the Vault-Tec de-escalation handbook, a familiar voice with a honey sweet southern drawl came from behind her.

“She said she’s not interested, so you’d best move along.”

“Cooper!” Lucy whirled around to greet her man, taking her rightful place at his side and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek and a side hug.

They both stared down Jessie until he got the memo.

“Alright, fine, your loss, ghoulfucker,” Jessie muttered the insult as he started turning to leave.

Cooper drew his pistol, clearly intent on defending Lucy’s honor, but she put a hand on his chest to stop him.

“He’s not worth the waste of bullets, baby,” she pacified him until he holstered his weapon.

“Hi,” Cooper greeted softly, staring down at her.

“Hi,” she said back, “I missed you.”

“I know, I missed you too, sweetheart and am sorry I had to leave you for so long, but I promise it was worth it.”

“Oh? It was a successful bounty hunt then?” she ran her hands up and down his biceps, touching every inch of him just to be sure he wasn’t a dream or hallucination and was really there.

“Very successful. C’mon, get your stuff packed up, I’ve got something to show you and if we hurry, we can be there just in time for sunset.”

“Okie dokie!” Lucy and Cooper went up to their room and packed up all their belongings into their bags before checking out of their hotel room.

There were still a few hours of daylight left and they used every minute of it to get to where Cooper was taking them.

They walked almost straight west away from the settlement and surrounding houses until the landscape turned increasingly rural and the mutated beasts they encountered were few and far between.

“Just a little bit farther, we’re almost there,” Cooper reassured her, picking up the pace until Lucy was panting and puffing for breath, “okay, it’s just over the hill, close your eyes.”

“How am I supposed to see where I’m going if my eyes are closed?” Lucy questioned.

“Just trust me. I’ll be your eyes. Now, no peeking, it’s a surprise,” Cooper came up behind her to guide her walk and covered her eyes with his hands just to be sure she wasn’t sneaking a peek.

“Can I open them yet?” Lucy giggled, blindly trusting him not to lead her off a cliff.

“Just a few more steps… okay annnnnnnnnd you can open themmmm… now!”

Cooper removed his hands and Lucy opened her eyes, blinking a few times as she she’s adjusted to the light.

“Oh, wow,” she exclaimed, “Cooper, it’s beautiful!”

Before them lay a modest but sturdy looking ranch house behind a split rail fence. To the side of the house, there was a small pond and the property went on for acres and acres with no neighbors as far as the eye could see.

It was made even more magical by the setting sun casting everything in gorgeous shades of orange and gold.

“I figured we could plant some tatos over there and maybe some maize over there since it’s pretty similar to corn and you know how to grow that, and we could put the chickens over here,” as Cooper gestured around the property, Lucy began to tear up.

It was their dream home. Everything that they talked about, everything that they had dreamed of when they fantasized about their life out in the country, it was all right here. Cooper had found them the perfect home, the home where they would live the rest of their lives.

“It’s perfect,” Lucy whispered and wiped away her tears.

“I’m glad you like it. When I went by this place while tracking my bounty and saw it was for sale, I knew it was too good to pass up. As soon as I collected my reward for turning in that big bounty, I came right back here and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse,” he chuckled, “care to see the inside?”

“Show me to our new home, baby,” Lucy held his hand as they walked up to the porch together, “wait, can you pick me up and carry me over the threshold like the married couples in your old movies?”

“Oh, so we’re a married couple now?” Cooper teased, but Lucy could tell he had a hint of nerves under his smile.

“I don’t see why not,” Lucy shrugged, “I plan on spending the rest of my life with you here and I don’t want to be with anyone else but you. If you feel the same way, it makes sense that we get married, right?”

“There’s my little vault dweller,” he chuckled at her cool practicality before sobering up, “I do feel the same way, Lucy, but I wanna give you a proper proposal and wedding.”

“The bar for the first marriage was pretty low, so I have faith that the second time around will be better,” she joked and kissed him on the cheek.

Cooper pulled her in for a deeper kiss then said, “you deserve a real wedding and I’m gonna give it to you one day but, for all intents and purposes, yeah, we’re married. I can’t wait to officially make you Mrs. Lucy Howard.”

“I like the sound of that,” Lucy pressed her lips against his firmly, letting her tongue swipe over his lips and tangle with his tongue.

They kissed on the porch of their new home for quite a while until they were both out of breath and the sun had completely set.

Cooper needed a second to recover from their passionate kiss, but when he was ready, he scooped Lucy up into his arms bridal style. He made it look effortless with his enhanced strength, which only turned Lucy on even more.

“Welcome to our new home, Mrs. Howard,” Cooper whispered in her ear as he finally carried her across the threshold.

“I love it. I love you,” Lucy cooed as she looked around the modest dwelling. It had two bedrooms and one-and-a-half bathrooms with a small living room and a decently sized kitchen. It wasn’t huge, but it had everything they needed.

Cooper gave her the full tour, stopping every few steps to point out a new feature.

“So the owner said that the bathroom and kitchen pipes need some repairs before we can get the water to start flowing again, but I told him that I knew an incredibly smart and talented person in the Young Pipe-fitter’s Association who could fix them right up,” he grinned.

“Hmm it sounds like you really admire this person and that they’re pretty handy. Should I be jealous?” she joked.

“As hot as it would be to see you jealous, sweetheart, I only have room for one handy-person in my life,” he came up behind her and rested his chin on the top of her head while wrapping his arms around her.

“Well, that’s not very practical, I mean, only having one handy-person. What if something aside from the plumbing breaks and we need to call someone with a different expertise?”

“Shut up,” he uttered in the most affectionate and smitten tone possible. He put his thumb under her chin and turned her face to his so he could kiss her senseless.

The kissing once again escalated until their blood was pumping and they were both breathing hard.

“Cooper,” Lucy whined, any hints of smartassery in her tone completely absent.

“Yes, darling?” he caressed her cheek in between kisses.

“I think we’ve both waited long enough. I’m ready to go all the way tonight.”

“Are you sure?” he searched her eyes for any hint of hesitation or regret.

“Positive. Make love to me tonight in our new home, Cooper.”

“Okie dokie!” Cooper said, borrowing her catchphrase. It sounded funny coming from his lips but Lucy didn’t have much time to laugh before he picked she felt his strong hands on her ass lifting her up off the ground.

Lucy yelped in surprise but it quickly turned into a chuckle as she wrapped her legs behind his back and locked her ankles together.

They resumed kissing while Cooper walked them to their new kitchen table and sat Lucy down on top of it.

Cooper pressed his chest to Lucy’s and laid her down until there wasn’t an inch of daylight between them and their bodies were completely molded together.

Cooper snaked his hand down between them to rub Lucy’s clit through her clothes, which caused her to buck up on the table in pleasure.

He put his thigh in between her legs and let her dry hump it to seek out the friction she craved while his hands went to play with her breasts.

Lucy was already moaning and they were still fully clothed!

Cooper infiltrated her mouth with his tongue and stroked her tongue with his own.

“Oh Cooper,” she gasped in between kisses as she continued grinding down on his thigh, “I’m already close.”

Cooper’s smug chuckle made her whole body vibrate. He plunged his hand down the waistband of her pants and expertly found her clit without even looking or spending any time feeling around.

A few strokes of his finger later and Lucy was falling apart on their kitchen table.

Cooper removed his fingers and licked them clean.

“Why didn’t we do that sooner?!?” Lucy complained as she flopped back on the table in bliss.

“Thankfully we’ve got the rest of our lives to make up for lost time and now you can scream as loud as you want without any nosey neighbors hearing.”

“Have I mentioned how much I love our new home?”

“A few times. How about we christen the bathroom next. I want you to see what you look like coming with my face between your legs in that big mirror.”

Lucy squealed in excitement and let Cooper scoop her up and carry her to the master bathroom.

Cooper pinned her against the wall across from the mirror with his hands on her hips and slowly kissed his way down her body, peeling off her clothes as he went.

When he reached his destination, his lips latched on and he began sucking her overstimulated clit, working her up until she was at the edge before backing off and letting her calm down.

He continued this pattern of getting her almost to the finish line but not quite giving her the pressure that she needed for her second orgasm until Lucy couldn’t take it anymore.

“Cooper, I need to come now!” she begged.

“Don’t you dare close your eyes, look at yourself in the mirror with my face buried in your gorgeous cunt as you come around my tongue,” he demanded. His dirty talk alone was nearly enough to get Lucy there, but she just nodded, her head hitting the wall as her eyes locked on her flushed face before traveling down to her hard nipples on her pert breasts and landing on Cooper’s head between her legs.

When he finally pushed his face forward and sucked on her clit again, she came so hard that she could see stars.

Without a nose, he was able to get his tongue even deeper inside of her and lick up all her juices as she came.

“Cooper!” she exclaimed in pure pleasure and put her hands on the back of his head to keep him there as she rode out her orgasm.

Cooper grinned up at her once she had finally stopped convulsing. He kept his hands on her hips to make sure she wasn’t going to collapse the second he let go.

“You liked that, huh? It was just as enjoyable for me to watch you like that. I can’t wait to do it again another time, but I think you’re almost ready for my cock now.”

Lucy was at a loss for words but nodded vigorously.

Cooper opened up their medicine cabinet and revealed that he had already stocked it with pills and chems, including a bunch of his anti-feral vials that he had bought with money from his big bounty.

He opened up a pill bottle and shook out a few before handing them to her.

“Rad-X,” he clarified, “to keep you from getting radiation sickness from my radioactive spunk.”

Lucy dry swallowed the pills eagerly. Two orgasms in and she showed no signs of slowing down.

Cooper chuckled and once again scooped her up into his arms with his ghoul strength.

He carried Lucy to their bedroom and laid her down on their queen sized bed.

“Please, Cooper, take the rest of your clothes off, I want to see you,” Lucy pleaded.

Cooper complied and slowly removed his boots and unfastened his belt before carefully pulling down his trousers.

When his cock sprang free, Lucy audibly gasped. Sure, she had seen him naked in his cage back in vault 33, but she had never seen him erect and she could’ve sworn that he was nearly twice as big as she remembered.

Lucy reached out to guide him into her mouth, but Cooper put his hands over hers to stop her before she could get a taste of his pre.

“Not yet, sweetheart, there will be plenty of time for that another night, but right now, I wanna feel your soaked cunt gripping my cock like a vice.”

“Okie dokie,” she squeaked and laid down on the bed with her legs falling open to make room for his hips.

Cooper kissed her belly and breasts and nuzzled her neck while he gave her a short break to recover from her previous orgasm.

Finally, both their patience wore thin and they were ready to get to the main event.

Cooper cupped her cheek with his left hand while he used his right hand to line up his cock with her entrance.

He kissed her and advanced his tongue past her lips at the same time as he pushed into her.

Cooper swallowed her moan as she adjusted to his size.

He entwined their fingers and pressed both of Lucy’s hands into the bed above her head while he pulled out and then snapped his hips forward until he was fully seated inside of her.

“Oh my gosh, Cooper!” Lucy exclaimed in bliss, “I need more!”

Cooper was happy to oblige, pulling out and plunging back in slowly before picking up the pace.

“Aw fuck, Lucy, I’m so close already,” Cooper admitted, his pace faltering as his climax neared.

“I’m close too, Cooper! I want you to cum inside of me, baby, I want it all. Fill me all the way up and breed me, Cooper!”

Logically, Lucy knew that ghouls were sterile and couldn’t reproduce, but the fantasy of Cooper’s seed taking root and filling her with his child turned her on too much to let logic win out.

“Oh, Lucy, I’m gonna fill you up until you’re overflowing with my cum ahhh,” Cooper’s pace sped up again as he thrust with reckless abandon, fucking her like a wild animal pumping in out until finally he slammed into her one last time and came with her name on his lips, “LUCY!!!”

“Ohhh, I’m gonna cum! Cooper! Cooper! COOPER!!!”

Lucy convulsed around him, milking his cock of every last drop.

They stayed locked in their intimate embrace until Cooper’s cock softened enough to pull out, sending a load of cum rushing out with it.

“Gatdamn woman,” Cooper chuckled and rolled onto his side to look at her.

“Mmmm your cum feels so good inside of me, all warm and tingly. Thank goodness for Rad-X. I can’t wait to suck on your cock later.”

“Gatdamn, woman,” he repeated in his southern drawl, laughing even harder, “your libido is truly impressive, darling but let an old man get some sleep and recover first.”

“And then I can suck your cock tomorrow?”

“And every day after that if you really want to, sweetheart,” he closed his eyes and wrapped his arm around her to pull her against his chest, “this is just the first night of the rest of our lives. We’ve got all the time in the world to break in this new bed and every other surface in this house.”

“Really?!?”

“Really,” he agreed.

Lucy was excited that tonight wasn’t just a one time deal and that he was interested in having more sex with her in the morning. She would hold him to that promise.

“I love you, Cooper.”

“I love you too. Now get some sleep.”

“We’re gonna need some more Rad-X,” was the last thing that Lucy whispered before snuggling deeper into his warm body and falling into a deep and dreamless sleep.

Chapter Text

True to his word, Cooper let Lucy suck his cock multiple times the next day. They made love several times a day in the first few days in their new home.

Now that the dam had broken, they wondered how they ever went so long without sex and could hardly keep their hands off each other.

When they weren’t fucking each other senseless, they were working to set up relationships with the local roving traders and Brahmin caravans to get supplies out to their isolated home without always having to trek into town.

They were able to get some genuine fertilized chicken eggs from one speciality trader and some rad resistant vegetable seeds from a nice Enclave scientist who wanted to quit his day job at the shady pseudo-governmental organization and actually do some good in the world.

They quickly befriended this scientist and learned his name was Siggi Wilzig. They offered him their spare bedroom for a night when he was passing through in exchange for access to his special stash of goods for trade.

While the chicken eggs incubated, Cooper worked on building a chicken coop for them, which resulted in Lucy making several bad jokes about “Coop’s Coop”.

Meanwhile, Lucy was thrilled to have finally gotten to the root of their plumbing problem and used her pipefitting skills to repair the bathroom and kitchen sinks. By the time she was done working her magic, their house officially had clean running water with zero rads detected on Pip-Boy.

Lucy and Cooper celebrated this achievement by showering together, which turned into Cooper teaching Lucy all about shower sex.

One day, when Lucy was tending to the garden and Cooper was making the final preparations for their chickens to hatch, they saw Wilzig approaching from over the hill.

At first, they were excited to see their friend and hoped that he had some good wares to trade, but then they noticed that he was in some distress and the dog he was traveling with was helping him limp his way to their home.

When they asked what happened, Sigi explained that he had finally decided to leave the Enclave and take his dog with him to start a new life, but during his escape he got his foot caught in a bear trap and feared it was infected.

They used several stimpaks on his foot and used all of their collective medical knowledge to try to save him, but the infection had already started to take hold and there was nothing that they could to to stop it.

The wasteland was a cruel and unforgiving place.

Siggi knew what was coming and didn’t want to be in agonizing pain as the infection slowly killed him, so he decided to take some Vault-Tec Plan D instead to speed up the process.

He begged Lucy and Cooper to take care of his dog with his dying breath.

They buried their friend at a grave in the corner of their property.

They honored his wish and adopted the Belgian Malinois.

The dog wouldn’t stop scratching and whining at the gravesite for days but eventually she warmed up to her new mom and dad.

Siggi had told them before he died that the dog had been an Enclave experiment and that her name officially was CX404. They tried calling her variations of that, including shortening it to just ‘Four’, but all the roving traders that stopped by to keep Lucy and Cooper well-supplied just called her ‘Dogmeat’ and that was the morbid name that seemed to stick.

They loved having Dogmeat’s help to keep the chickens from wandering off and she was great pest control, chomping on any radroaches or radscorpions that got too close to the farm. They could tell that keeping the dog busy with work kept her from thinking about her previous owner, so they worked her hard during the days and let her sleep in their bedroom at night in a chicken feather dog bed that Cooper had sewn.

One day, Lucy woke up feeling incredibly nauseous and started throwing up everything she ate the night before.

At first, they assumed that it was radiation sickness even though her Pip-Boy’s rad meter said she was within healthy levels. They gave her some RadAway just to be safe.

When the vomiting continued the next day, Lucy wondered if it was something she had eaten that didn’t affect a ghoul’s heartier digestive system.

After a week of nausea and vomiting nearly every morning, Lucy tried to remember when her last period was, but so many of the days blurred and blended together without her period tracking calendar back in the vault, she couldn’t be sure if she was late or not.

Besides, everyone they knew was adamant that ghouls were completely sterile, so there was no way that she could be pregnant, right?

Working pregnancy tests were extremely hard to come by after 200 years of nuclear fallout, so Lucy decided to just wait and see if she felt better and got her period next month before raising any false alarms and telling Cooper.

They fell back into their comfortable pattern of tending to their crops and chickens with the help of Dogmeat.

Lucy sent Norm several letters thanks to a courier whose route passed by Vault 33.

Norm wrote back and updated her on the status of the vault since she left and how he had gotten relocated to 32 while dad stayed in 33, so they saw each other even less now.

Lucy shared her theory with Norm that she might be pregnant, hoping for reassurances that she was being silly and that there was no way, but when she described her symptoms and missed period, Norm seemed to agree that it was a strong possibility.

Finally, when Lucy missed her second period, she knew that there was no more denying it and it was time to tell Cooper.

She sat him down at their kitchen table and went on a long ramble about how she wasn’t sure if it was the experiments they did on him in the vault that didn’t make him sterile like other ghouls or maybe something that they did to her to make her a more fertile breeder, but Cooper connected the dots and interrupted her ramble to ask if she was saying what he thought she was saying.

Lucy nodded and confirmed that she was pregnant.

At first, she was nervous how he would take the news since they had been having so much unprotected sex because they assumed he was sterile. Maybe he didn’t even want kids, but Lucy’s fears were quickly allayed when Cooper scooped her up in his arms for a big hug and spun her around while kissing her profusely.

There was a certain amount of shock and fear about this revelation, but overall they were both overjoyed and Cooper especially was thrilled to get another chance at being a dad after having Janey ripped away from him far too soon.

Bringing a baby into an irradiated wasteland full of mutated monsters and lawless raiders was a terrifying thought, especially since it felt like they were just starting to get their feet under them in this new life they were building. A baby would turn everything upside down, but after a long chat about all the logistics and extra measures they would take to ensure their child’s safety, they both were in agreement and excited to embark on the journey of parenthood together.

There were a lot of emotions that day that spilled over into the bedroom. They made love for hours that night until Lucy’s hormonal body finally was sated.

In the weeks that followed, Lucy and Cooper worked overtime to make sure that everything would be ready for the baby’s arrival.

Lucy wrote to Norm that their suspicions were true and that she was indeed pregnant and that Cooper took it better than she could’ve imagined and was so exited for the baby to come, doting on her and doing everything in his power to make her pregnancy as smooth as possible. Lucy also told Norm about how Cooper insisted that they follow an old world tradition and throw a baby shower at the end of her second trimester and that Norm and Chet were both invited.

Norm wrote back informing Lucy of new details he discovered about the schism between vaults 32 and 33 and how the original 32ers had figured out the experiment and revolted against management, killing everybody more than 2 years before Moldaver arrived.

Norm also wrote in his letter about how their dad wasn’t nearly as effective an overseer as Barb and his plan to stop open revolt was to just separate the two factions. The loyalists like Steph stayed in 33 while the rebels that didn’t appreciate being experimented on got relocated to 32, including Norm and Chet.

Norm and Chet both agreed to venture out of the vault and see the surface in order to attend Lucy’s wedding ceremony, but they insisted on being escorted from the vault to their farmstead so they didn’t get lost or killed on the way.

By the time the courier had delivered Norm’s latest letter, Lucy was already approaching her 3rd trimester and Cooper insisted that she stay home with Dogmeat protecting her and the chickens while Cooper made the journey to the vaults and back.

Lucy wanted to argue and insist that she could make the journey too, but she knew that risking radiation poisoning, dehydration, and potentially getting shot or stabbed by raiders wouldn’t be good for the baby, so she agreed to let Cooper go alone and made him promise to be careful.

Cooper promised and sealed the deal with a passionate kiss. He brought her to orgasm that night twice with his fingers and once with his mouth to try to satisfy her until his return, even though Lucy could seemingly never get enough.

When Cooper packed his bags and left the next morning, Lucy busied herself by tidying up the house and playing with Dogmeat more than usual to stave off her boredom.

While Lucy was holding things down on the homefront, Cooper was battling radscorpions and raiders with his enhanced strength and endurance to clear a path back for Norm and Chet that would be less dangerous for them on the walk back.

When Cooper arrived at the exterior vault door to 32 and gave the signal, the door began to hiss and metal creaked as it opened up to reveal Norm and Chet standing on the other side.

Chet was terrified at first and looked like he was about to turn back and hide, but Norm urged him to step forward and closed the big door behind them.

Chet was hesitant about traveling with Cooper at first and Cooper enjoyed intimidating the cousin that Lucy used to perform sexual acts with until Norm ruined it by revealing that he was actually the actor Cooper Howard and Chet turned from fearful to starstruck, asking even more questions about his old movies than Lucy.

On the walk back to their farm, Cooper revealed his plan to Norm and Chet that they wouldn’t just be there to celebrate Lucy’s pregnancy with a baby shower, but it would also double as Lucy and Cooper’s wedding ceremony.

Norm was thrilled for his sister and even Chet couldn’t sulk for too long. They couldn’t believe that Lucy was having a baby with and marrying her celebrity crush.

They walked back to the farm without anyone or anything attacking them, thanks to the work Cooper did to clear the path on the way there.

When they arrived outside the modest farmhouse, Lucy came running out the door barefoot to greet her brother and cousin.

They hugged and felt her belly for the baby’s kicks and got to meet each of the chickens individually and Dogmeat. The boys were both enamored with the furry beast that they had only ever seen before in the movies.

Cooper prepared them all a gourmet dinner while they sat and talked about everything that had happened since Lucy’s escape and all the drama with resettling 32.

They continued talking while eating dinner and they joked and laughed just like old times.

After dinner, Norm had the idea of playing a game of truth or dare.

They all agreed and soon they were revealing embarrassing truths and doing disgusting dares like licking the floor of the chicken coop. Eventually, Norm and Chet had to band together to stop Lucy and Cooper from using all their dares as an excuse to kiss each other.

Just like their teenage years, the game went on well into the night. Lucy reminisced on just how much had changed in those 10-plus years since she was dared to spend a night alone with the Monster from Vault 33 and how lucky she was to have a life and a future here with Cooper.

Lucy entwined her fingers with Cooper’s and lifted them up to kiss his knuckles as she felt a mix of nostalgia for the past and hope for the future.

After the group had thoroughly enjoyed their night of eating, drinking, and merriment, it was time to go to bed.

They gave Chet the guest bedroom that would eventually be a nursery and had Norm sleep on the couch since he was short enough to fit without his legs dangling over the side like Chet.

The next morning, Cooper finally revealed to Lucy that tonight wouldn’t just be a baby shower but their wedding ceremony, and he had been planning this for weeks.

He got down on one knee and held up a simple wedding band he had bought from a trader in preparation for this moment.

Lucy said yes that morning and agreed to marry him at the ceremony that night.

The rest of the day was spent in a flurry of preparations from decorating the coop to assembling an arch for them to say their vows under.

Cooper had hired one of their trader friends who always gave Cooper a discount on ghoul vials to officiate their wedding.

When it was finally time for the ceremony, Dogmeat acted as the ring bearer and trotted up the makeshift aisle between their only two guests.

Even though the wedding was small, it was perfect.

By the time they both got through their emotional vows, exchanged rings and kissed to officially seal their union, Chet, Norm, and the officiant were all crying happy tears.

They danced and partied the night away until Cooper and Lucy couldn’t keep their hands off each other any longer and they snuck off to make love for the first time as an officially married couple.

It was infinitely better than Lucy’s first wedding to Monty.

Chet and Norm hung around for a few more days before they decided to let Lucy and Cooper enjoy their honeymoon.

Lucy could read between the lines and guessed that meant they were tired of hearing Lucy and Cooper make love through the thin walls.

They said their goodbyes and Norm agreed to come back and visit once the baby was born. He was excited to be an uncle and promised to come by more often.

Cooper escorted them both back to the vault while Lucy caught up on some much-needed sleep.

In the months that followed the baby shower/wedding, Lucy and Cooper made the final preparations for the baby’s arrival and tried to control as much as they could in a chaotic and unpredictable wasteland, so of course the baby came earlier than expected.

Lucy’s water broke just before sunrise and after four hours of labor with Cooper by her side squeezing her hand the whole time, she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.

Cooper held his breath at first as he counted ten fingers and ten toes and one nose. He had feared that the baby would have mutations or ghoulish features and didn’t know what to expect since all the other ghouls in the wasteland were sterile, so he was relieved when his daughter came out perfectly human and incredibly adorable with her mom’s big eyes.

They decided on the name Linda Rose Howard in honor of Lucy’s late mother. They both cried happy tears as they held their daughter for the first time. In that moment, nothing else in the world mattered.

In the days that followed, Chet and Norm made another trip from the vault to visit and help take care of Linda when Cooper and Lucy needed a break.

While the vault dwellers and Dogmeat doted over the baby, Cooper tended to the crops and chickens and made arrangements with their trader friends to increase their stock of baby supplies and toys in exchange for fresh chicken eggs, meat, and their vegetables. It was a mutually beneficial deal.

It was a simple life but an honest living and a lifestyle that they would be proud to share with their daughter one day.

The time started to fly by with how busy baby Linda kept them, and before they knew it, she was crawling around and talking!

Her first word was ‘chick’ and she adored chasing around the birds and Dogmeat. The birds were less enthused but Dogmeat was happy to play along and roll over in surrender for belly rubs when Linda caught her.

Cooper and Lucy laughed and savored every moment they had with their daughter.

Despite the horrors of the wasteland and the dangers of the surface, they had found a little slice of paradise with their family on their little farm.

Lucy had been taught to fear the outside world growing up, but up here, she was happier than she’d ever been in the vault.

Much like her fear of Cooper before she knew him, what had once been a source of anxiety and apprehension had turned into a source of peace and happiness.

Maybe something scarred and ugly on the surface could actually be beautiful too, and if you’re really lucky, maybe you can find love in such a harsh and unforgiving environment.

And maybe that was all you could ask for in a post-apocalyptic society.