James sat in the playpen, the gate opened as he watched his son. Matthew looked up to the light on the roof, and fell backwards from his standing position down onto his back, and he rolled over to look at James.
"Don't look straight into the light, pal. You'll hurt your eyes. It's just something you get used to down here." James said as he stood up.
Matthew stood up with him, copying his movements, however uncoordinated he was. James bent over and clapped his hands together in Matt's direction to call him, and he spoke to his child in a soft tone.
"Come on over here, son. Come on! Walk to daddy!"
Matthew stumbled a few times, but made his way over to the playpen gate, which he used to balance as he waddled to James. His tiny Vault 101 jumpsuit was almost too small for him as he had hit a state of rapid growth, but it would do. He stumbled into James' arms as he bent down to catch him, and he smiled, making the child smile back at him.
"There you go! My goodness, just a year old and already walking like a pro! Your mother would have been so proud..." he smiled.
James stood once again, sitting his son down on the cold ground of the room they shared in the Vault, and stepped out of the playpen, closing the gate behind him and clipping it closed.
"Listen, kiddo, I know you don't like it when daddy leaves you alone, but I need you to take care of yourself for a minute. You just stay here while daddy runs to his office. You'll be okay, pal. I'll be back in a bit."
James' last view of Matthew was the boy's big blue eyes staring at him in sadness. James had been trained in basic psychology, and knew that his son had been emotionally scarred by the death of his mother. He was too young to understand exactly what had happened, but by instinct he knew that something was missing. He sighed as he flicked the switch to close the bedroom door behind him, and he moved into the only other room they had - a small room that contained a food dispenser, a water tap, a couch, a table and a chest of drawers that contained their few jumpsuits they owned.
He made his way out of their room all together, and closed the other door to protect his child. He locked it, making it only accessible by anyone who had his keycard - which was him, and the Overseer. He walked through the metal hallway, passing several other Vault 101 residents, to which he mumbled a half-hearted greeting, moving towards his office. He made the mistake of once again looking up at the lights, as he did quite often here. The Vault lights were blinding - having to emit enormous amounts of light to illuminate the entire Vault. The metal walls did little to reflect light, therefore forcing the dwellers of the Vault to be exposed to the strong lights, which often caused trouble with people's eyes as years went by. As the Doctor of the Vault, James had seen so many eye conditions that had evolved from exposure to the lights, and it was not something he could help with.
The Vault had to be highly illuminated, or they risked radroach attacks. The radroaches hid in the darkest corners of the Vault, and were highly dangerous in numbers, as none of the Vault residents other than the Overseer and his guards were armed, but the melee weapons they wielded did little against the hordes, and many a death had been seen due to the radroaches over the years.
James continued around the corner, past the diner and up the stairs heading towards the Atrium. Before he took the door to the Atrium, however, he turned off into his clinic, opening it with his work keycard, and he made his way in, closing the door behind him. He walked through the main room of the clinic, that was used for exams, operations, and the waiting room, due to the lack of space anywhere else, and into his office. He sat down at his desk, sighing. He was alone, at last.
Matthew knew that he wasn't in the best mental state, or emotional state, and the last thing he wanted was to dump his problems onto his child, particularly considering Matt was only a year old as of the last December. He looked at the photo he had framed on his desk of himself and Catherine, back when they had been working on the project together that had claimed her life. She had died due to the exposure to radiation weakening her body, and eventually her heart just gave out. She wasn't the first they had lost, but she was the last that James had stayed to witness. The project then wasted away to nothing, and totally fell apart.
After taking a moment to think, he stood up once again and moved to the framed Bible passage on the wall. He had kept to himself that there was a small vault hidden behind there, and it was where James kept his most personal belongings. He flipped the quote back, tapping a code into the vault door, and it clicked open. He swung it open enough to reach his hand in and search around until his fingers found a leather thong, and he pulled it out. The leather strap was a necklace that held a small pendant on the end - a gold coin with decorative markings. It had belonged to his wife, and he wanted Matthew to have it in memory of her. The coin had been given to her by her father when she was young, and he had found it in the ruins of an old museum, so he had turned it into a necklace for his daughter. She would never take it off, and it was the first thing that James had taken from her body after her death. It was a part of her that nobody could take from him.
He closed the little vault, locking it again and sighing to himself. He moved away from the wall and took one last look at the photo on his desk before exiting the clinic, heading back towards his room. He idly flipped the coin in his fingers as he walked, and almost dropped it in shock as the Overseer made his way around the corner, almost walking straight into James.
"Ah, Mr. Radke. I trust you're doing well?" he said to James, giving him a wicked smile.
He had never liked James, and James didn't particularly enjoy his company. There was something about him, something that reminded him of a madman in a place of power - a situation that could never end well.
"Yes, sir. I'm doing just fine."
"Wonderful. And little Matthew is enjoying himself?"
"Yes."
"What is that you're holding? I hope it's not a... Personal posession of any type?"
James hesitated. None of the Vault residents were allowed any personal items that came from beyond the Vault walls. The Overseer believed they were "tainted" from the Wasteland above, and James knew all too well that the coin had originally come from the outside world, and the Overseer would know.
"No, of course not. It's a... Present. That Jonas and I have been working on for Matthew." James stuttered, hoping that the Overseer would not pick up on the faltering tone in his lie.
"And Jonas can confirm this?" the Overseer raised an eyebrow.
"Of course he can."
"Alright, I will check up on that later. Have a nice day, James."
James watched as the Overseer disappeared down the hall, and he made the last few turns back to his room, where he opened the door to find his son out of the playpen, playing with a toy car on the ground. He smiled widely at James, innocently looking up at him as though he had done something great.
"You're quite the little explorer, aren't you? Serves me right for trying to pen you in!" James laughed, bending down to pick up his son.
"Come on over here with me, I want to show you something."
James walked to the small table beside his bed, where he had the same framed bible quote that was hanging in his office. He sat Matthew on the table, holding onto him as he pointed at the frame.
"See that? It's your mother's favorite passage. It's from the Bible. Revelation, 21:6." he looked at his son, who appeared intrigued, and he read the passage to him. "It says.. 'I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.' She always loved that."
Matt made a few baby noises, and James slid the little coin under his pillow, where he would keep it until Matthew was old enough to have it without choking on it. He stood up, holding Matthew, and he picked up the little blue car he was playing with and handed it to him. The baby smiled, and James smiled as well.
"Alright, come on. Let's go see if your little friend Amata wants to play."
Amata was the Overseer's daughter, but the two kids seemed to get alone very well, unlike their parents. They enjoyed each other's company, and both parents knew that they would grow up to be friends. As he walked out of their room once again, Matt began to cry, as if he was in pain. James sat down to look at him, but the child just seemed to fall asleep - or pass out. James, concerned, continued to the Overseer's room. This wasn't the first time this had happened, but of the many tests the child had gone through, none had shown anything that was worth worrying about, despite his blackouts.
Why does everything come back on my son?
