Chapter 419 - Unwanted Advances

The revelation about what the Brotherhood did to children was a scary one... How had he not noticed sooner? It should have been obvious now that he was thinking about it, not ever seeing someone with a birth defect shoulda clued him in...

Miles and Melissa lead Afton to a private room where he tells them about his travels... Though, he wasn't all that committed to the conversation right now. Not to mention the rest of the group aside from Veronica looked like they wanted to leave. Probably not wishing to see what Hardin's reaction would be once he wakes up.​​

Fortunately for them, Afton didn't intend to stay long, instead he just wanted to catch up with those he was close with. Apparently, Miles and Mellisa were dating now, yeah Afton say that one coming... Melissa wore the trousers in the relationship while Miles just nods and smiles like an obedient 'boyfriend'.

That was another reason Afton had no wish to chase Melissa, aside from her generally annoying personality, trying to mould her into something appreciatable would be too much trouble in the long run.

Regardless, catching up with the duo was more look going through a soldier's file... Other than training and getting together, literally nothing of interest had happened... Another reason Afton left. The only real thing of interest was the fact Miles had to beat the shit out of Lars Taggart for trying to molest Mellisa while she was apprenticing under him, man, Afton would've loved to see that.

Soon enough they were visited by some familiar faces who wanted to see him before he left again. Knight Torres enters the room and grins at him, "I know you'd be fine... I am wondering where that Gauss rifle I lent you was though..."

Afton gives a sheepish chuckle and scratches the back of his head, "Er, well... As soon as I left I ran into a Deathclaw and had to throw the thing at it..."

...

Torres just sighs, "Only you Afton.

Next who comes to visit is a certain elderly woman who practically raised Afton... Adah Lindgren. She slowly walks inside and smiles at him, "It's good to see that you're still alive, Afton... You're parents would never forgive me if you'd gotten yourself killed prematurely."

He gives the woman a light hug, memories of his antics as a child springing to mind as he does so, "Yeah? Well, I'm surprised you're still alive, you must be, what, one-hundred-years old now?" he jokes and receives a light slap on his shoulder.

"What happened to respecting your Elders?" she jovially asks.

Afton shrugs, "That died when I started getting punished for asking women's ages. You can't be eternally young and an Elder at the same time, you gotta choose one... Like Karl over there." Afton thumbs at him, "He's older than dirt, uh, never mind... He acts like an elderly woman when you ask about his age anyway..."

"I will shoot you brat." Karl comments from the side with arms crossed, but the grin on his face shows he isn't taking things seriously in the least.

After some more small talk, the last, unexpected visitors arrive... Both Afton and Veronica scowl as they enter, and both are weighing whether or not shooting them would be acceptable... Christine's parents, Darian Royce and Susan Royce.

"What're you doing here?" Afton almost spits, drawing curious gazes from the rest of the room.

"We just wanted to see you before you left again..." Susan mutters

"Why? You do know that I despise you right? I thought the feeling would be mutual." he states, and the duo looks down at their feet guiltily.

"Af-Parker... While you were outside, did you find Christine? That's why you left isn't it?" Darian asks while tentatively holding his wife's shoulder.

Afton scoffs, "Even if I did find her, why would I tell you? Bigoted ass holes like you don't deserve to know about her, let alone be involved in her life."

"I doubt she'd even want to speak to them, especially with how they acted when she left." Veronica adds, causing Susan's eyes to water, as if she were about to break down int otears.

Afton shakes his head at them, "You made your choice when you alienated your daughter, it isn't my role to bring her back kicking and screaming. You want to see her? Find her yourself and prove your determination, otherwise, fuck off." he states, pointing towards the door.

Susan bursts into tears at this points and Darian glares at Afton as he pulls her away, out of the room and hopefully, out of Afton, Veronica, and Christine's life forever. "Pieces of shit." Afton mutters.

The group continue making small talk, Afton doesn't explain any of his plans for the future for fear of the Brotherhood finding out, but he does let the group know he'd probably be setting up in Novac for a long while if they ever wanted to contact him.

He did try to get Torres to sell him some weapons and armour, but as he'd left the Brotherhood he was restricted from their armoury... Though, that didn't preclude Veronica... As a result, they purchased a few Thermic Lances, Gatling Lasers, Plasma Rifles, and Gauss Rifles. They tried to buy some extra Power armour, but that was restricted to even Veronica for one reason or another...

Pressing Torres on it, apparently, the Chapter was actually running out of armour to use... The losses at Helios One and the lost scouts had made Power armour a rare resource to keep protected.

With everything said and done, the group exited the Brotherhood of Steel, carrying their 'spoils or war' after collecting their weaponry from the guards. They stash all of it in Dirt-Hod with Afton and Veronica giving some parting words to their friends in the Chapter...

With that, they drive off, but not before looting the Legionary corpses for loot... First come first serve when it comes to looting after all.