Steel Waste

Veronica and Christine hug for a few minutes in tense silence before the former begins speaking again, "You... Want me to come with you, where?" she asks hesitantly.

"Somewhere I can't tell you about, I can only show you... Its for your protection Veronica..." Christine says, keeping a tight grip on her lover.​​

"What about our family? Our friends?... Afton?" she asks, not knowing if she could truly leave them all to follow Christine.

"We have to give up people we love eventually. You're only getting the choice of when to do it now." she says slightly callously, though Veronica could see Christine herself was struggling with the decision.

...

"I can't leave... You know what's happening right now, I'd never be able to forgive myself if something happened to them because I wasn't here. I want to protect them, I want us to protect them." Veronica says as she finally comes to a conclusive answer. With the NCR aggression slowly getting worse, there'd be large scale conflict eventually, she didn't know if she'd be able to help at all, but perhaps if she and Elder Elijah found whatever he was looking for it'd completely solve their problem.

Christine had a single tear flow down her cheek as she heard her lovers answer, it hurt that she wasn't her top priority, but she understood... She admitted that within herself, she wanted Veronica to stay and protect everyone, even if it hurt more than she'd like to admit. She slowly nods and hugs Veronica tighter, "I see... Let's not keep them waiting then, when you wake up, tell my parents and Afton, I'm sorry."

Veronica is momentarily surprised by her words when she feels a prick on her neck, "What do, you mean... Wake-" she passes out as the drug she'd been injective with takes effect.

Christine drags her lovers body away from the cliff and props her up against a rock, slipping the discarded holotag into Veronica's hand before laying a kiss on her lips one last time. "Goodbye Veronica, I-... I love you." she states as she turns and leaves.

Afton was starting to freak out, he'd not seen hide nor hair of Veronica or Christine for hours now... He didn't want to report anything as they'd undoubtedly find out that the two women were romantically involved.

His worry for their lives only increased every moment they hadn't returned, had they been captured by the NCR? Raiders? he shivered at the prospect, raiders didn't treat women well, particularly those as beautiful as Veronic and Christine.

As morbid as it sounds, he'd prefer them torn apart by a Deathclaw than captured, it'd be swifter and more merciful.

In the end he decided to trust in the two for a couple more hours and wait, if they didn't return then he'd speak to his father about getting a search party for them. Fortunately, that didn't seem needed as the doors to the facility slid open and revealed the slightly dirty figure of Veronica, her face twisted in immense sadness and despair.

His body moved on its own and he hugged her tightly, clearly feeling how distraught she was, "Veronica? Are you okay? Where's Christine?" he quickly asks, only then realising that he'd asked the wrong question.

She began crying and slowly mumbling things, and Afton dragged her into a vacant room to avoid attracting attention, putting her down on a sofa and sitting next to her with her hand in his.

"She's gone." she states miserably.

"She's gone? Where? The only place we know or belong is the Chapter... Where could she have possibly gone?" he asks incredulously, wondering if Veronica was lying to him.

"She wouldn't tell me where, only that she had no choice... She drugged me and left." she says, looking down at her hand before opening it and revealing the holotag belonging to Chistine. Afton noticed that it was missing the Brotherhood rank records but perhaps she planned to do something with it?

...

"Did she say anyting else?" he asks, not really knowing what to do in this situation.

Veronica nods, "She wanted me to tell you that she's sorry..." she says, causing him to tighten his grip on her hand.

Why would she leave? Had someone blackmailed her? Perhaps someone had found out about the two's relationship?... Afton wasn't able to think straight, the sudden loss her felt didn't quite seem real yet, he was struggling to process he'd likely never see Christine again. The only thing keeping him relatively focussed was Veronica's obviously distressed state, she needed him, and he wouldn't abandon her like how Christine had.

"Veronica, we'll find her one day... I promise, we won't let her get away with such a shitty goobye." he states with determination. For now, he'd keep his eyes open for anything that might give him an indication of why she'd left...

The two stayed there for the rest of the day, eventually falling asleep still holding hands, Afton had missed all of his classes for the day, but he likely wouldn't get in trouble due to how far ahead he was.

In the morning Veronica jolted awake as if she was having a nightmare, her face twisting into a scowl. Christine really had just left like that, huh... She was about to get up but felt something holding her hand, looking down she spotted it was Afton. Her expression softened, the hollow feeling she'd had since Christine had left was a little less harsh knowing that Afton actually cared.

Taking in a couple of calming breathes, she fixed her expression before waking the boy up, flicking his forehead and causing his eyes to flutter open. "You have classes sleepy head, and Elder Elijah will probably want to know where I was yesterday." she states as cheerfully as she could manage.

Afton rubs his eyes and slowly gets up, "Are you okay Veronica?" he asks, knowing that she was just putting on an act.

Veronica nods, "I am... Let's get busy, there's still much to do." she says before leaving the room without allowing Afton to get another word in.