[#002] Collateral Damage (Fallout 4)

[etoile_noire]

Theme Prompt: 002 - Heartbreak
Title: Collateral Damage
Fandom: Fallout 4
Rating/Warnings: Main Quest spoilers
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 246
Summary: Parent and child reunited.


She was twenty-six; he was sixty.

He was laying on his deathbed, dying from cancer. Once he’d been an infant, laying in his crib and babbling up at a mobile. She had a hard time meshing those two images. It would be one Hell of a lot easier if she hadn’t given birth to him at twenty-five. But that had been two-hundred and ten years ago.

And now, he was on his deathbed.

Shaun was scolding Nora as if she were the child and not his mother. He had dismissed her, his cold fury audible just below the surface. He’d known she was his mother, if only in an academic way. Even still, she had hoped they could have had some relationship.

“Goodbye, Shaun,” she said quietly, her voice trembling.

She turned away from him, leaving him to die in his medical bed. They still had a job to do. They still had to blow the Institute. Because even without her son, his people would carry on with what they had been doing; they would see it finished.

A sob caught in her throat and she forced it down. All the blood, and sweat, and tears she’d shed; all the pain she’d endured. All of it had been to find him. And now, she prayed silently for him to die, and fast. She prayed that he wouldn’t still be alive when she blew the reactor. She prayed that the cancer would kill him before she did.

Comments

[autobotscoutriella]

Oh, this brought tears to my eyes. I don't know the fandom, but this is unbelievably vivid--and incredibly sad.

Well done! (I mean that entirely sincerely--it takes quite the fic to make me tear up.)

[etoile_noire]

Thank you! I'm glad it moved you.

[anneapocalypse]

This very well captures the complicated emotions of the sole survivor in this terrible catch-22 they never asked for. That last paragraph especially really nails it.

[etoile_noire]

Thank you! I'm glad you think so.

[peaked]

I'm not familiar with Fallout 4 at all, but even with being canon blind, I still felt really sad reading this. I felt like Nora really kept it together in the beginning, with everything being stated almost like a fact, and then completely fell apart at the end where it became more emotional. Poor Nora and poor Shaun. You captured a lot of emotion — love, hope, grief and regret — within a small amount of words. Well done!

[etoile_noire]

Thank you! I'm glad it was moving even with you being canon blind :>

[acequeenking]

Jesus this punched me in the gut.

I went pro-institute the first time just because I felt so BAD about disagreeing with Shaun

[etoile_noire]

I went railroad my first time. And I sorta meandered, so I was as far in the rr questline as I could go by the time I got to the Institute. By then, I was too invested in stopping them and then it was just owpain the rest of the way.

Glad to have caused you owpain with it.

[acequeenking]

I love the railroad line. Desdemona is probably the best of the leaders, I think!

[etoile_noire]

Yeeeeeeeeeeees. I love her.

[dray]

Oh oof, what an impossible scenario to be put in. Poor Nora. (Poor Shaun for that matter, though it sounds like he was responsible for a lot of pain and suffering of others.)

[etoile_noire]

Yeah, that entire family goes through way too much crap (tho yeah, Shaun caused a lot of pain for people).
Thank you for reading!

[sunspot]

ffs Shaun, look what you did to your mother. Aw, my heeeeart.

[etoile_noire]

ffft, right? XD

[rivulet027]

That's so sad! Also it made me think of Cable from X-men a bit, but I really like the pov you picked even though I don't know the fandom. It was really good!

[etoile_noire]

I can see how it could make you think of Cable, yeah.
Thanks for reading.

[alobear]

Wow - powerful stuff - sounds like a very complex and heartbreaking situation.

[etoile_noire]

Oh, it issss.
Glad you liked it!

[badly_knitted]

Unkown fandom, but such an emotional, time-twisting story.

[etoile_noire]

Thank you!

[canadiandiamond]

Wow, very moving indeed. I've been very lax in playing Fallout 4 and knew there were spoilers going in, but this was pretty powerful, I can only imagine how difficult a call it must've been in game. You've made it just as impactful in so few words here though, well done.

[etoile_noire]

Thank you!

[sarajayechan]

Well, that hurt. This isn't my fandom, but jesus, reunited with her kid only to lose him.

[etoile_noire]

XD Yeah, the entire main quest series is just pain and more pain.
Thanks for reading!