After spending the night at Abernathy Farm, Piper and I got ready to make the trip up to Ridge. One final detail Winter showed me, before leaving for her own journey down to Concord, was one of the improvements she'd made to the plumbing on the water tanks. There were enough farmhands at that point that Blake and Connie's bathtub really wasn't enough for everyone, and so she'd installed showerheads on the water tanks when she refitted all the plumbing lines. The shower was cold, but if nothing else it woke me right up. I made a mental note, however, to look into more options for bathing. Indeed, I wondered if Ridge had any good options at all other than a sponge bath.

 

 

While Piper took her turn under the cold spray, I asked her about her expectations for Ridge. 

 

"I think my biggest question," she said, "is how they see themselves fitting into your society. Have I got it right that they're basically an independent settlement that's just loosely aligned with you?"

 

"That's where it stood before I took my 'vacation' to Diamond City. I know the crew from Sanctuary - especially Holly Ainsleigh - have been working on them" She'd been friends with Bart Cole, the de facto mayor of Ridge, back when they both lived in Wolfburg, and we'd had a number of conversations about her hopes that Bart would lead his people into formally joining Vault 111.

 

"You think they'll join up?"

 

"I'd really like to have them on board. They're good people, and more to the point, I'd rather have Vault personnel guarding our radio tower."

 

 

"What's the significance of the radio tower?" Piper asked.

 

"There's a rocky overlook north of Sanctuary, where we built a radio tower. In the early days, we turned it on from time to time to try and attract settlers to come join us. A little while after we ran it up, we found Bart squatting on the land not far away. When I found out her had experience with the Wolfburg guards, we basically gave him a land grant in exchange for him protecting the radio tower. Over time, he built a little town up there, and they have a good relationship with Sanctuary."

 

"But they're not part of the Vault."

 

"No, they have sort of a, what, a protectorate relationship with us? There's an understanding that they're tenants on our land, but they aren't bound by our laws and we leave them to mind their own affairs."

 

"Hmm, sounds like the relationship between DC and Goodneighbor before things went sour. You want my advice?"

 

"Sure," I said.

 

"Either drop the whole landlord thing and just give them their place - and trust them to be good neighbors - or make them join the Vault. Having second-class citizens just doesn't sound like your kind of bag, Blue."

 

"Tell you what, Piper. Walk the streets, see the sights, and talk to the people, then tell me if you still feel that way. Honestly, I suspect you will, but I don't want to you making the suggestion blind. Then give me advice again - I can't promise I'll follow it, but I'll think on it hard."

 

We passed through Sanctuary to get to Ridge - it's really the only way to make the trip without a huge detour - and passed by the Red Rocket station on the way.

 

"Why haven't you set up a settlement here?" Piper asked, pausing to look into the garage.

 

 

"We don't have the numbers, not yet," I explained. "If we hadn't stood up the garrison at the quarry. If we hadn't needed to stand up the garrison, we'd probably have a small operation here. At a minimum, we'd have some folks assigned to strip down the service station for valuable parts and materials. As it stands now, however, we need to wait until we grow more. There's half a dozen locations around Sanctuary where I'd love to set up small, narrowly focused camps - like at the old water filtration pump on the east shore, for example. With a few mechanics and guard assigned to it, that could become a reliable source of clean water for the whole area. But we have to be patient for now, because there are bigger strategic problems we need to address."

 

"Push out your borders first, then exploit the interior?"

 

"Yeah, exactly. We've run a lot of raider gangs out of Concord and the surrounding areas, and now there's kind of a no-man's land around us that has a power vacuum. If we don't fill it, someone else will, eventually. And if its someone nasty, like the Rust Devils, that could become a big problem for us."

 

We also stopped at the statue just outside town. Piper took a good long look at it. "Is that the Minutemen statue?"

 

 

When I nodded in agreement, she snapped a few photos. "Sounds like Preston chose the perfect place to rebuild the group," she added. I bet he'll get more volunteers if I write about what he's doing."

 

"You should schedule some time to do an in-depth interview with him," I suggested. "He's got a lot of big ideas for the future - I think he'd impress you."

 

"When you let me sit in on your meeting with him earlier, he seemed really sharp. A slender, wiry guy like him's not who I'd imagine as the heroic general raising an army, but I could see he had a lot of passion." She chuckled and added, "have you gotten in his pants, Blue?"

 

"Off the record? The closest we got was sharing a shower. But it was a really nice shower. Probably the closest I've got to really feeling 'that kind' of chemistry with a man since I got unfrozen." 

 

"I bet," Piper said. "Are we going to stop in Sanctuary for lunch?"

 

I shook my head, "no, let's press on for Ridge. I think we'll want to spend the whole day there, catching up with Bart and his crew."

 

As we cut through Sanctuary, Ada - the robot I'd met during my mission to find a fission battery - stopped me.

 

"A pleasure to see you, ma'am, are we ready to depart?"

 

 

"Hello, Ada," I said. "I owe you an apology for keeping you waiting so long, don't you?"

 

Piper leaned in, "Blue, who's this?"

 

"Ah, speaking in things I should apologize for, Ada, let me introduce you to Piper Wright. She's a reporter from Diamond City."

 

Ada bobbed her torso forward and back in a rough bow. "I am delighted to meet you, ma'am."

 

Piper groaned, "I'm too young and pretty to be a ma'am. Maybe a ms., but definitely not a ma'am."

 

"My apologies," said Ada. "I have updated my vocabulator settings. But the question remains, ma'am," she said this last part as she turned back to me, "are we ready to depart for the General Atomics factory?"

 

I grimaced. "I'm sorry, Ada, but a complication has come up. To avoid a conflict with one of our neighbors, I had to promise not to conduct any security operations on the south side of the Charles river. I think we have to delay your expedition, at least until Preston has better established the Minutemen and can launch the mission under their authority."

 

To the extent that a robot could, Ada seemed crestfallen. "The death of my friends weighs heavily on me, ma'am. But moreover, I am worried about the implications of leaving the hostile robots in place. Even this far west, I'm sure you've seen signs of their presence."

 

I thought back to the several encounters we'd had with hostile robots in our travels since I met Ada, and I nodded in agreement. "I have indeed. The best I can offer right now is to ask Preston to raise the issue when he visits Vault 81 to coordinate with them. But realistically, I think we're facing a long wait before we can mount an attack on the factory."

 

Ada whirred for a moment, processing that. "Ma'am, with your permission I would like to travel to Vault 81's territory to lodge my own case. Is that permissible."

 

I checked the robot to see if she had any Vault 111 markings on her chassis; when I confirmed there were not, I nodded in assent. "I don't see anything that would cause the 81ers to say we've broken the agreement. If you think you can persuade them, then please go - with my blessings and support."

 

"Thank you, ma'am," Ada said. "If you will excuse me, I will prepare for departure."

 

When we'd come to Ridge to defuse the hostage situation earlier, I'd noticed that the settlers here had thinned out the trees, but looking at it now I was really impressed with just how much they'd transformed the site. Most of the trees and dense shrubs in the center of the town had been removed, and the land itself had been leveled and graded. Before, navigating Ridge had been something a combination puzzle-solving and rock-climbing exercise. Now, I was able to easily make myself to the center of town, where Bart Cole was directing some farmers.

 

"Charley Ellison," he said, waving me over, "I was expecting a visit from you."

 

 

"Sorry I couldn't make it sooner, Bart," I apologized. "This is Piper Wright, by the way. She's a reporter from Diamond City who's here to learn about Vault 111."

 

"And to understand 111, you have to understand Ridge, right?" He quipped.

 

"That's true, you're an important part of our story. But also I wanted to give her a chance to meet your people and find out what life is like here. Most folks outside 111 haven't even heard of Ridge, I suspect, since you're see far out of the way."

 

"Well, far be it for me to try and keep our little place secret. Ms. Wright, please feel free to talk to anyone here. We're an open book for you."

 

"Thanks, um, what do I call you? Mister Mayor?"

 

Bart laughed, "just call me Bart. We don't really hold truck with fancy titles. Probably the 111 folks' influence there. Charley told you about all her crazy ideas about not having any 'class divisions' and stuff?"

 

Piper nodded, grinning, "oh yeah, she can talk about it for hours."

 

The reporter peeled off from us, leaving me alone to talk with Bart. 

 

"So how are things, Bart?" she asked.

 

"Walk with me, and I'll show you."

 

 

Bart proceeded to take me around, showing off the houses his people had put up and the little farm plots and salvage workshops they'd squeezed in between the the lines of what had once been much less regular, much steeper-sided, hills. 

 

"To tell you the truth, we're practically self-sufficient here. We trade with Sanctuary for some high tech parts and equipment, and we supply them with salvage and especially timber for building projects, but they mostly leave us alone. And that's... well, that's the problem."

 

"Tell me more," I said.

 

"When those raiders rolled in, there wasn't anything we could do to stop them. Everyone here's armed, I learned my lesson from Wolfburg about only letting the guards bear arms, but by the time we'd scrambled for cover and were ready to start shooting back, they'd already grabbed hostages. I'm glad you came, but I'm not sure I like your solution."

 

"Didn't have a lot of good options, the way I see it."

 

"No, you didn't, and I don't hold it against you. But now the word's out - you hit Ridge, you get caps for your trouble. We can't have that."

 

Eventually, Bart let me up to a wooden platform situated near the radio tower. It looked down into a fairly flat depression between Ridge and the stream that ran alongside the west part of Sanctuary.

 

 

"We're also running out of space on the Ridge proper. I want to build houses down in those flatlands. Houses and farms. Hell, half the farm plots up here won't be any good in a few years. The soil's not great and we don't have enough space for crop rotation."

 

"That's a smart move," I agreed. 

 

"So now," he said, counting on his fingers, "we need defenses, not just up here but down there too. We need more people, to work the new farms, because they'll be bigger and better than the ones we have right now. We need water purifiers, to irrigate those farms, which we can't fabricate the parts for. And we need more of those ASAM sensors, because I don't have people with the expertise to start up a large farm without help."

 

"OK, I agree with you point for point. So what's the sticking point."

 

"Well, we can build defenses, but we don't have the bodies to man them. Same for the farms, and moreover that land down there doesn't belong to us. That belong to you. We can't make ASAM sensors on our own and any trader who has them's already sold them all to your people before they get to us - if they stop here at all. We can trade with you for the water purifiers, but again - we don't own any water rights to your stream."

 

"Sounds like you want a trade agreement, and maybe defense assistance."

 

"Maybe," Bart said. "Let me ask you a question. One of the raiders surrendered to you, and you took him away. What did you do with him?"

 

"Turns out we captured his girlfriend a while back. We reunited the two of them, they're doing grunt work for us - kind of a 'work off your debt to society' deal."

 

"OK," said Bart, "how many more folks do you have in your 'program?'"

 

"Just those two. Most of the other raiders we capture either refuse or they've done things we can't forgive them for - cannibalism, stuff like that. They go to the gallows."

 

"Fair. How many raiders do you have waiting on death row?"

 

"We have three right now, we're questioning them about raider activity north of here."

 

"When you're done asking questions, don't hang them. Give them to me. I'll put them to work on the new farms."

 

I paused to think on that. "I'm not sure how I feel about selling you - or even just giving you - people. That sounds a lot like slavery."

 

Bart frowned. "Charley, I was a guard up in a much rougher part of the Commonwealth than this. I know about slavers and slavery. This isn't that. You'll just commute their death sentences to life with hard labor. And if they reform themselves, who knows? Maybe we'll let them be part of Ridge. We'll make the decision though, they'll be out of your hair."

 

"I don't know, Bart. Back before the war, way back before it, America tried to get rid of slavery, but they left the door just a crack open. They said you could still practice slavery as punishment for a crime. I loved America, hell, I still love it. I want it back. But those fourteen words can stay dead. 'Except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.' No, it's not an excuse for slavery."

 

"You know what I call that opinion, Charley?"

 

"I'm guessing that's a rhetorical question."

 

"Damn right it is. I call that opinion bullshit. Come here," he led me down to the very edge of the overlook.

 

"You're not going to push me off of there," I joked-not-joked, "right?"

 

 

He gestured down into the fog below. "You know what's down there, Charley? Concord. Concord is down there, and you're using two slaves for menial labor." 

 

"Those two both joined us out of their free will," I protested.

 

"No, they joined you because one of them didn't want to die, and the other one wanted to be with his girl. And now they're both your slaves. What do they do? Sweep the streets? Carry water?"

 

"Clear debris from the streets."

 

"Exactly, they're doing work that no one in your town wants to do. And they don't get a choice about it. They. Are. Slaves. You," he continued, "are. A. Slaver." 

 

"Now hold on a fucking second," I said. "You're way out of line!"

 

"Am I? What are you going to do? Cut us off? Take away our land? If you want me to lie to you and tell you what you want to hear, then just say so. But I thought you believed in everyone being equal. In not having 'special' people who were better than others."

 

"Go on," I said.

 

"I need labor, right now, so I can take my people off farming and make them guards. I'd prefer to set up new, better, bigger farms down there, but even if we can just hand off the plots up top that'll be enough. I want your convict labor to do it, because new settlers are coming too slow."

 

I thought back to Piper's advice before and had to concede that she was right. 

 

"Bart, can I be straight with you?"

 

"That's the way I like it."

 

"I'm pissed off with you right now. I need to sit down and cool off. The way I see it, there's two ways we can go forward on this that I can live with. Either I give you the land you're on and then end our 'relationship,' treat you like any other settlement, or I tell you to put on the vault suits and formally join us. And right now, after all this talk about Slaving, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with either option. So I'm going to find somewhere to sit down, and I'm going to wait until my ears stop burning so I can make a rational decision."

 

Bart let out a long breath.

 

"Charley, I..."

 

"I'm not ready to give you a fair hearing yet, Bart. Give me some time. Go talk to Piper maybe, tell her about life up here."

 

I found a chair out in front of one of the shacks and sat down, soaking in the rain. I just stewed. I didn't know what pissed me off more - Cole's plan to start a slave farm, or the way he called me out as a hypocrite. In retrospect, I'm confident it was the latter. I was so intensely pissed, I was sure the water must have just been boiling off my body.

 

 

"Hey, are you Charley?"

 

It was a young woman with straight black hair, standing in the door to the shack. "Yeah, that's me," I answered.

 

"Wow, I hoped I could meet you some day. I'm Sue. Come in out of the rain, you'll catch a cold."

 

I followed her into the shack and Piper, who'd apparently been creeping up on me, followed me.

 

 

"Shit, Blue, you look angry."

 

I shook my head. "It's nothing, just have a lot on my mind. Sue, thanks for inviting me in. Have you been here long?"

 

"I moved up here from Natick maybe a month ago. Bart helped me get situated and well, I've been here ever since."

 

"Natick, huh?" Piper asked, "don't see a lot of folks from there."

 

"Yeah," Sue agreed, "it's kind of a hellhole. Full of raiders, but it's kind of like 'raider neutral ground,' you know, where they all come to blow off steam, so if you don't get them too interested in you it can be safe. Sometimes."

 

"How'd you make a living there?" I asked.

 

Sue wiggled her micro-skirted rear end at me, "turning tricks mostly. Wasn't really what I wanted from life, but we gotta put food on the table, right?"

 

"Fair point. And what are you doing up here?"

 

"Not turning tricks, that's for sure," she laughed. "Everyone's too tired and too broke for that profession. No, I tend the chicken coop. It's honest work, though I can't remember the last time I had clean fingernails."

 

Piper chuckled, "yeah, I guess that makes sense. How's Bart as your leader?"

 

"Honestly?" Sue shrugged, "he's one of those motivational types who's more about helping us lead ourselves than just barking orders at us. Nice change of pace from Natick, by the way."

 

I considered her, noting the little charm hanging off her choker.

 

 

"You have a girlfriend?" I asked, pointing at the pendant, "somebody special?"

 

"Ha, I wish. That's more of a 'help wanted' sign then a 'no vacancies' one. You saw that lounger I have, just the right size for two to snuggle."

 

"I hear you there," I said. As we talked, I felt the anger slowly oozing out of me, my head clearing. "How do you feel about the situation with Ridge and Sanctuary?"

 

Piper perked up, paying more attention but not adding anything.

 

Sue thought for a second before answering, "Charley, you mind if I say something you might not like?"

 

"Go ahead, everyone else is today."

 

"That deal's kind of screwed up. I respect Bart a lot, but he sort of turned his personal deal with you into a fuckin' town charter, and if you think about the details too much it doesn't make sense. Like, all of us are just up here to guard that radio antenna? What happens if you don't need it anymore? Plus, you're down this in your amazing fuckin' town, and we're up here in the dirt, and supposedly we're partners, but I don't see a whole lot of vault suit sugar tits and swingin' dicks all the way up here. Now that I talk it out, it kind of sucks."

 

Piper drilled in a little, "when you came here, were you expecting to be part of Vault 111?"

 

"Nah, I just thought it'd be a safe place to start over. But now I look back and I'm like, if I took the other road, over the old bridge, I'd probably be sitting on a comfy couch flicking my bean while I waited for the oven to do its thing. Just dumb luck, right?"

 

"I guess so," I said, my thoughts distracting me from the conversation. 

 

"Sue, I think I need to have a talk with Bart. Maybe you should tell Piper more of her story, sounds like she's really interested in hearing more about Natick."

 

"Oh, no, Blue, don't shake me off when you're upset," she said, following me out of the shack. Then she added, "you stay right there, Sue, I'll be back."

 

 She pushed past me and plopped down on the chair. "OK, what went down between you and Bart?"

 

 

"He wants the prisoners from Olivia to work on his farm."

 

"Great," Piper said, "three less people to hang. What's the issue."

 

"I don't like treating people like property. I don't want to get involved in the slavery business. And when I told him that, he called me out and said I was already in the business because of those two raider loverbirds we've got clearing the roads in Concord."

 

"Well," Piper said cautiously, "he's kind of got a point there."

 

"I know!" I snapped, "and I hate it!"

 

"So what are you going to do about it?"

 

"Part of me wants to wash my hands of them, end the deal, tear down Ridge, send them all packing. But the thing is, I think I really just want to get rid of Bart. I don't want to send Sue away or any of the others."

 

"Good," Piper said.

 

"And I thing the real reason I want to throw out Bart is because he called me to the carpet about Willy-Bones and her idiot boyfriend."

 

"I agree," Piper said levelly. 

 

"I... I just, wait you agree?"

 

"You're definitely pissed off that he called you out. When was the last time someone really did that to you - or at least did it, and didn't immediately back down?"

 

"MacNamara." 

 

"Yeah, and how'd you deal with that?"

 

"Not... my most diplomatic."

 

"Uh, huh. And before that?"

 

"Fuck," I muttered. "It had to be before the war."

 

"Can I make a suggestion?"

 

I nodded, chewing my lip. "If you really need to lash out at someone, kick out Bart. Maybe send him to Sanctuary to work with Holly. Get him out of the leadership position. But honestly, that's not a great idea. He's a natural at running this place."

 

"I can't disagree with you there," I admitted.

 

 

"For the rest of them? Put them in vault suits and make it official. No more land deal, they're Vault 111 citizens and they can work all the Vault 111 land. And being official, you can send the prisoners here to work as part of their sentence without feeling you're selling them as slaves to 'foreigners.' Sound good?"

 

I hemmed a bit, "I've still got reservations about using labor as a punish- hey!" 

 

Piper was absent-mindedly reaching for a cigarette that Sue had apparently abandoned when the rain started.

 

"I thought you were trying to quit?"

 

"I am, but your negative energy has me all stressed out, and I need to put something in my mouth."

 

"Then stand up and come over here, and I'll put my tongue in there."

 

"Now I like the sound of that," she purred.

 

I pulled Piper into an embrace and we traded little pecks before I leaned in and offered her the promised tongue. I also started to slide my fingers down the front of her pants, but she stopped me with a gentle squeeze of her hand.

 

 

When she released me from the kiss, she nipped at my nose before saying, "I don't need you making me cum in front of the whole town. Sort of undermines my journalistic gravitas."

 

I smooched her a little longer and did manage to hook my thumb under the band of her pants, treating myself to the rough texture of her pubic hair against the top of my digit. While we were making out, I heard a little gasp behind us. I think Sue had come out to see what the delay was and was surprised to see us going at it. Whether she retreated inside or stayed to watch... I have no idea.

 

Once we finished up, Piper went back to interview Sue some more, and I went off looking for Bart. I found him casting about in one of the salvage shops, looking through the newest take.

 

"Bart," I said, "let's talk."

 

He turned and considered me cautiously. "So how bad did I fuck things up?" he asked, at length.

 

 

"I'm not used to people calling me to the carpet like that," I said, "but once I calmed down I realized you weren't wrong. I also talked to one of your people, and she opened my eyes a bit. Things can't continue like this, Bart. Your people deserve better and frankly, you deserve better."

 

"So what? You're going to give us the land and cut us loose?"

 

"Jury's still out on the cutting loose, at least when it comes to you. But no, I'm bringing you into the family. I'm going to offer everyone here Vault 111 citizenship. No more land disputes, no more trading for building materials, you put on the vault suits and join what we're building here."

 

"And if some of them say no?"

 

I shrugged, "if you've done as good a job as it looks like, they'll all sign on. Maybe one or two will leave, but we can funnel new citizens up this way to fill their shoes."

 

"And the raiders?"

 

"I'd still prefer to hang them rather than put them to work against their will, but I feel a lot better having them serve a Vault 111 sentence up here then selling them to a neighbor, albeit a respected and trusted one, as chattel."

 

"And where do I stand?"

 

"For now? You're still in charge. But you're on probation. I need to really come to terms with the argument we had. Part of me wants to depose you and send you down to Sanctuary, maybe to work with Holly, but not as a leader. The other part of me wants to send you to Concord and make you one of my advisors."

 

"That's... a pretty broad set of options you're tossing out there," he observed.

 

"Well, I'm feeling pretty broad-minded today. Gather up your people. Find out who's staying and who - if anyone - is going. And choose the colors for your suits. I'll be back with them tomorrow."

 

I let Bart part with me, and after a few minutes I heard a bell right and listened to Bart' wife Ellie call everyone to gather around. I watched from the sidelines as Bart explained what I'd told him. Some people - Sue included - seemed excited. Other people scoffed, turning away and muttering. Dismayingly, it looked like almost half the town was going to refuse to join. 

 

 

But Ellie carried the day. She pointed out how the deal to guard the tower was never supposed to turn into a town charter, and talked about how teaming up with 111 would let them really improve everyone's quality of life. And she talked about getting some of the settlers off the farms so Ridge could properly guard itself. That one back one man right there, who'd apparently been afraid that Sanctuary was going to send in guards to take over the settlement.

 

The debate continued for a while, and in the end only a couple people wanted to leave. And for those two, the fact that all their friends were staying convinced them to give me the benefit of the doubt. From that point, the talk switched to colors. In the end they decided on a two-tone green, with blue highlights. They decided the blue would show our ties to Sanctuary and the vault, while the green would show that first and foremost they belonged to the forest. I kind of liked that. 

 

After a little more conversation, the meeting broke up and Bart came back to me. I'd heard everything, so there wasn't much for him to tell me. Since there was still sunlight left, I went back to Sanctuary that day to get the Workshop running fabricating the suits. Piper and I settled into the bed in my old house, and she asked me, "will you make beds like this for them?"

 

I rolled over and gazed into her eyes. "Maybe not at first, but eventually yes, I want everyone to have a standard of living like Sanctuary. It'll take a long time, but we'll get there eventually."

 

Then I fucking pounded her doggy style until every last bit of anger was out of my system. Piper was a good sport, I knew I was playing too rough and she could have stopped me with a single sharp word, but she let me hammer her until I'd gotten her thoroughly wet. From there, I worked up a good smooth rhythm, listening to her gasps and groans as they gradually raised in pitch until she shuddered and screamed as I finally pushed her over the edge. 

 

 

I gave her a few good, deep strokes as I slowed down, sweat running down my brow, and Piper turned to look up at me. "Damn, Blue," she said, "Bart really got under your skin."

 

I was panting a little from my last surge of energetic fucking, and I took a second to catch my breath before I answered. "He shouldn't have. It wasn't his fault. He whole plan was good. But God dammit, I didn't want to do that 13th amendment bullshit. This is supposed to be a second chance. I didn't want to do it... and he caught me out and showed me I'd already started doing it on my own."

 

"It's OK," Piper said. "You were more fair to those raiders than they deserved. Don't forget the alternatives."

 

"I know, I know," I said, feeling the pressure in my head start to coalesce into tears. "But if I fucked up this prison labor stuff, what else am I going to fuck up? Everyone's trusting me to do this right, to fix this... this what? This town, this Commonwealth? They're trusting me and I proved they can't trust me."

 

 

"You're focusing so much on that one thing that you aren't seeing the big picture. This is only an issue to you because you're doing such a good job with everything else that you think you have to be perfect. You're not perfect, Charley. You're not some robot brain that never makes a mistake. You're a human being, and you're a good human being. Now get off me and let me turn around."

 

Piper rose up and faced me on her knees. "You like it when I clean off your cock, don't you?" she asked, "it makes you feel special, right?" Piper leaned forward, sliding her mouth over the strap-on and leaning in practically to the hilt.

 

 

She drew back, lips locked tight on the toy, peeling most of her juices off of it and into her mouth. A few more strokes, and the strap-on was practically dry.

 

"Now take that off and lie down. I still owe you for yesterday."

 

"You were supposed to eat me out at Ridge," I observed.

 

"I'll do that too, if it gets you out of your funk."

 

I scooched forward to the edge of the bed and she encouraged me, "that's right, let me see that giant clit."

 

 

Piper leaned in, examining my slick and, for the moment, still-hairless pussy. "I think I'd like you to keep shaving that for a while," she said, licking her lips. "I love how I can see your fucking clitdick - is that the right word?"

 

"Ask Doctor Cain next time you see her."

 

"Well, I love to see how it puffs up and pushes against your hood. It always gets me hot. Your pink hair is cute, too, but it hides so much."

 

"Are you going to eat my pussy or not?" I teased.

 

 She gently pushed me back onto the bed and crawled towards me.

 

"I want to see the inside of your pussy, Charlie. Like when you had it all stretched out for your plug. I want to see in side you."

 

I obliged her, spreading my legs further and using two wide-splayed fingers to open myself wide. 

 

 

"You like the view?" I asked.

 

"It's so red!" Piper commented. "I bet it's hot in there, all that blood right at the surface. You must be like an oven."

 

"Why don't you take a taste and find out?" I suggested. 

 

Piper obliged, sliding her middle finger between mine and scraping along the top of my canal. "You're burning up," she gasped before sliding her finger into her mouth. "And you're pungent. You really worked up a sweat earlier."

 

"Are you going to keep teasing me or are you going to fuck me?" I blurted.

 

Piper leaned in started gently licking me before transitioning to sucking on my swollen clit like a pacifier. I shivered as the sucked and tugged and generally drove me crazy. 

 

"Uhhh," I groaned, "hey Piper, do you want to fuck my pussy?"

 

"With the strap-on?" she asked, rolling my clit between her thumb and forefinger while her mouth was otherwise occupied.

 

"No, I want you to put your fist in my pussy and fuck me until I cum."

 

"Will it fit?" she gasped.

 

"You saw that plug I wear for the suit," I countered. "You'll be fine. Just start slow and work your way up."

 

In retrospect, those were terrible instructions, but Piper did a pretty good job. Still, she had me screaming in as much pain as pleasure once she had got first four extended fingers, then four fingers and her thumb, and then her balled fist inside me, sliding back and forth.

 

"Rrrr," I groaned, "deeper! I want to feel you punching my tonsils!" 

 

Thankfully, Piper didn't take my advice literally, only going deep enough to push lightly against my uterus, but it scratched the itch I was feeling that night. I'd got my aggression out, now I needed to be punished. And Piper did a good job obliging that.

 

After a long time and a lot of screaming, I came hard. Piper yelped as my muscles clamped down on her hand, and a jet of Skene fluid and piss gushed out all over her. Each intense contraction came with another squirt until both my girl-prostate and my bladder were empty and we were both soaked. 

 

 

Piper plopped down next to me while I moaned softly, not quite able to close my legs but still massaging my clit and panting.

 

"Please don't tell me you need more," said Piper.

 

"No," I gasped out, "I think I'm good."

 

"Then let's move up out of the wet spot you made and try to get some sleep, OK?"

 

"Yeah," I agreed, "that sounds good."

 

 

When morning came, I felt good in every sense except for the feeling of walking a little bow-legged. Still, Piper had really exorcised my demons, at least for the time, and I was grateful. I made us some breakfast, then pulled her into the shower with me for what I planned to be a quick rinse but nearly devolved into more shenanigans. After quite a bit of kissing and rubbing bodies together, we finally broke free and headed over to the Workshop to collect the uniforms for Ridge.

 

 

We set off to find ourselves facing a bright and sunny day with no sign of rain and a warm breeze on the air. Perfect weather for a bunch of settlers to get naked. We made our way back up the path to Ridge and started gathering up the settlers for their change of clothes. Fittingly, Bart and Ellie went first, and Sue was in line right behind them. She seemed particularly satisfied to shuck off her streetwalker's outfit and pull on the Vault Suit, and I noticed, like me, that everything below her neck was shaved clean. Freshly so, it looked like.

 

I raised an eyebrow and asked, with enough warmth that I hoped she knew I was teasing, "are you imitating me?"

 

"What can I say?" she answered with a wink, "you're an inspiration."

 

Once everyone was changed, I took a moment to appreciate the latest Vault 111 c itizens.

 

 

"You all look sharp," I said, "it's going to be an honor working with you in the future. When I return to Concord, I'm going to get working immediately on the new farming plan. With any luck, your productivity will be way up and we can work on upgrading this settlement."

 

I answered a few questions about the minutiae of citizenship, before Bart took over nd moved the focus back onto getting ready for the new farms. In the meanwhile, I'd noticed that one settler had slipped off as soon as he suited up. I tracked him down, finding him leaning against one of the shacks, out of view.

 

"You all right?" I asked.

 

 

The man looked at me sheepishly. "I'm sorry, it's nothing you said."

 

"You were one of the last holdouts, you didn't want to sign on with the Vault."

 

"It's nothing personal. I'm just not sure I can, you know, right?"

 

I noticed out of the corner of my eye that his cock twitched while he said it.

 

"You're getting aroused looking at me, right?" I asked, cocking a grin.

 

"I'm sorry," he said, "I'm not trying to."

 

"And you're embarrassed that you'll get aroused looking at Ellie, or Sue, or the other women?"

 

He nodded.

 

"Do you need to jerk one out so you can get some post-nut clarity?" I probed.

 

"I can't," he mumbled.

 

"Don't worry, it's nothing I haven't seen before. Show me what you look like erect. Show me how much cum you can paint on that tree."

 

"No... that's not... isn't it?"

 

"It's fine," I assured him. "Trust me, you'll be used to seeing peoples' bodies in no time - a few days at most. Until then, if you're afraid of getting erect, just rub yourself till you cum. It'll settle down for a while after that."

 

"Do you really have to watch?" he asked.

 

"I'm still incredibly horny from yesterday night, so yes, I need to watch. Get going, buster."

 

 

The settler started doing his thing. He had a really amazing patch of pubic hair. It was deep red, and thick as a thornbush. It actually took some effort to not run my fingers through it, especially since the poor guy had turned his head away from me and closed his eyes. I was making him so uncomfortable and I knew it was terrible, but I felt like I'd earned the right to be a little terrible. 

 

After a little while it was obvious the poor guy couldn't cum with me watching. I knelt down in front of him and gently removed his hand before I took over the rubbing. The guy immediately stiffened - in more ways than one - at my touch, and I could feel his cock literally heat up in my hand as fresh blood pumped into it.

 

 

"That's right," I said, "let me help you out." It didn't take long after that, in a moment later hot ropes of cum gushed out onto my chest. It was a nice sensation I hadn't felt in a while. I leaned forward and sucked the dribbling remains off his cock, savoring the salty, bitter flavor as it started to curdle into rubbery knots in my mouth.

 

"There," I said, "you won't be able to get that up for fifteen or twenty minutes, and you probably won't have the pent-up hots for a woman pushing at you anyway. But some free advice? You do need to find a woman."

 

The settler turned away from me. "Are you done teasing me?" he asked.

 

 

"Hey, listen," I said, the levity out of my voice. "I wasn't teasing you. I'm sorry, I guess I've got too used to the whole free love thing."

 

"I respect you, Charley," he said. "You're like an idol to me. And you're so far out of my league. That wasn't fair to lead me on like that."

 

I put my hand on his shoulder softly. "Listen, you're a good looking guy. Yeah, I'm not really in the market for a man right now, but I had fun helping reign that big boy of yours in. I'm serious when I talk about people being equal. You're not out of my league. Come visit me some time in Concord. I'll teach you some tricks that'll have the ladies falling all over you."

 

The guy still looked upset. "I'll think about it, Charley. I know you mean well it's just... it's a lot to get used to."

 

"I understand," I said. "I'm one hundred percent sure you will not only get used to everything, but that you are going to thrive as part of the Vault. If I'm wrong, come see me, and I'll make it right. Deal?"

 

Finally he turned and looked at me. "Alright, you've got a deal. But next time, let's talk about what you want to do first, OK?"

 

I let him be then, really starting to feel kind of shitty by that point, and I tracked down Piper. She was waiting for me on the edge of town. Piper saw me approaching and said, "think we can make the quarry today?"

 

I shrugged, "I don't know, I think I've kind of blown through my energy."

 

"What happened?" she asked, suddenly concerned, "and why do you have cum all over your chest?"

 

"I, ah. I didn't read the room, and I think I fucked things up again."

 

"You want to talk about it?"

 

"Yeah, let's talk on the way back to Sanctuary," I said, letting out a long sigh.