#clickbait title - Alastor strips for Charlie?! :O

[lowqualitygarbage]

Fetch Quest

This was it. The last part she needed to repair the Hotel's old water pumps was only a hundred yards away, according to the coordinates she downloaded onto her Pip-Boy. The trees began to thin, moss and twigs giving way to grass and pebbles as they approached the long-abandoned build site.

Her face fell as she took in what was at the center of this new clearing - something must have dammed the nearby stream some time ago, and now a small pond completely enveloped the construction site.

"Well, it looks like this plan's sunk!" Alastor chuckled at his own awful pun as Charlie wandered closer to the banks, her geiger counter starting to click sluggishly as she approached the water.

Vaggie followed her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. We can always backtrack to MacGuffin Manufacturing and see if there's another one we may have missed."

"We spent hours hacking their old intranet for all the manifests," Sir Pentious whined. "This was the only model MGU1028 flange within 100 miles!"

Vaggie shot him a venomous glare over her shoulder as Charlie began fidgeting with her Pip-Boy gloomily. "Maybe we can see if Voxtech has any parts close enough to fit? There's gotta be some other options."

"Husk, go in and get it."

The ghoul turned to Alastor incredulously. "What?"

Alastor's smile tightened in irritation. "It's a pond of irradiated water. The shipment was made the evening before the bombs fell; they probably never had a chance to install the parts. You won't get poisoned going in for a quick dip to grab a box. "

"What? Fuck you. I might be immune to rads, but I still gotta breathe, asshole!"

Charlie turned back to the group, looking thoughtful. "You can't swim?"

Husk made an odd noise that may have been a derisive snort if he still had a nose. "Not a lot of swimming holes out in the Mojave Desert."

Niffty waved an enthusiastic arm, as if waiting to be called upon in class. "I can't swim either!"

Angel Dust turned to Charlie and Vaggie. "Don't some vaults got like, swimming pools and shit? Can't you girls swim?"

"666 wasn't really a luxury vault." Vaggie explained as Charlie shook her head sadly.

Angel looked over at Sir Pentious, who also shook his head. "Figured. Wasn't really somethin' to learn in the city, neither."

There was an awkward silence for a few moments before Alastor sighed in disgust, leaning his rifle against a tree and shrugging off his pack. "Hand me the Rad-x."

Charlie jumped a little and stared at him in shock as he started to untie his bowtie. "Uh, Al?"

He handed the accessory off to Niffty who appeared obediently at his side, and paused in unbuttoning his vest to gesture at Charlie to hand over the pills. "Nola is one of the Sunken Cities, and unlike you Wastelanders, we actually bothered with basic survival skills. I suppose it's up to me to fetch the parts for your little project."

"Seriously?!" Charlie didn't bother stifling her squeal of delight, rushing forward to hug him in excitement before backing off when he stiffened in discomfort. She cleared her throat awkwardly and handed over the bottle of Rad-X. "Here you go. Ohmigosh, thank you so much for this, Alastor!"

Husk turned to the radio host, pissed off. "If you could do it, why the hell ask me to do it, asshole?"

"Because, even if I know how to hold my breath, I'm still susceptible to radiation." He tipped out several pills and swallowed them dry before dropping his vest on Niffty's head. The maid giggled and folded the item carefully, following Alastor as he approached the water line. "Now, if you wouldn't mind turning around?"

When the others just looked at him in confusion, he rolled his eyes. "I'm not about to spend the rest of the day trooping around in radiation-soaked clothing, nor am I willing to put on a show for you all. So turn around if you want me to go through with this."

Charlie obediently turned on her heel and gestured for the others to do the same. Angel protested when Vaggie grabbed him by the shoulders and forcibly turned and held him in place. "Why are you actin' like I'm gonna sneak a peek or something, geez?!"

There was another minute or so of rustling as he undressed, and then Charlie had to steel herself not to turn around at the sound of him wading into the pond with a pained hiss. When she could no longer hear him moving through the water, she chanced a peek over her shoulder. The only sign of Alastor's presence was some ripples on the surface of the pond.

The others joined her in watching the surface. After several long moments with no sign of the man, Charlie started checking the time on her Pip-Boy nervously. Husk turned to Angel and Sir Pentious standing next to him with a smirk. "Fingers crossed he gets eaten by a mirelurk down there."

Vaggie couldn't quite stifle her laugh as Charlie gasped in horror. "Oh my God we never checked if there was anything in the water!"

Niffty huffed in irritation at the the others from her place as an impromptu clothing rack. "Don't be silly. There's no nests or tracks anywhere. Mister Alastor wouldn't have just walked right in if there was anything dangerous around."

Charlie tried to let Niffty's confidence bolster her, but as more time crept by without anything disturbing the surface, she couldn't help but start pacing anxiously. "How long can people normally hold their breath?"

Husk canted his head in a way she figured meant he was rolling his eyes, though their solid black color kept her from knowing for sure. "Your first mistake is thinking he'd do anything normally, princess. He's just -"

He cut himself off as Alastor surfaced and took a deep breath, trying to shake his soaked curls out of his eyes before glaring at the crowd assembled near the shore. "Really?"

He was met with sheepish smiles, before Charlie seemed to remember something and swung down her pack to dig through it while the others turned back around. The man narrowed his eyes at her, treading water awkwardly while trying to hold the container and keep his head above water at the same time. She shot him an apologetic smile, and placed her prize on top of Niffty's stack of clothing - her spare blanket for cold nights. "Here, you can use this to dry off!"

She obediently turned back around and listened as he swam back to shore, much less gracefully than before. There was a scrape as the box was dragged ashore, and she wondered if they should have just struck up a camp and started a fire despite the early hour. She wasn't sure if Alastor would be up for any more walking after an extended dip in radwater. To distract herself, she fiddled some with her Pip-Boy's map, wincing at a muffled coughing behind her while Alastor pulled on his clothes.

At the sound of slightly uneven steps from the shoreline, she turned around and winced again. Despite his careful pace, Alastor's gait was still unsteady, and there were livid pink patches visible above his collar and on his pale face. His shirtsleeves and vest were unbuttoned, adding to his disconcertingly disheveled appearance.

As she weighed if it'd be worse to bruise his ego by suggesting resting or letting him walk around like this, he dropped to his knees by his pack and fished out a bag of RadAway. With a practiced hand, he uncapped the needle and found a vein in his arm. He massaged the IV bag a little as he slowly got back to his feet, using his rifle to help prop himself up.

Before she could open her mouth, he pointed at the box on the shore. "There's your flange, dear. Husk, grab my pack; I'll get it from you later."

Vaggie jumped in, eye narrowed suspiciously. "'Later'? Where are you going? You're going to wander off on your own without supplies?"

His tight grin made Charlie wonder how he was able to keep the some sort of smile on his face no matter what was going on or how he was feeling. It looked like his gums might be bleeding a little. "That's my own business, my dear. You should head back to the Hotel and make those repairs straight away now that you have the parts."

With a dismissive wave, RadAway bag tucked into the shoulder of his vest, he started off in the opposite direction.