"Let me introduce myself formally." One of the new vault residents said as he offered Adam his hand. "My name is Jefferson Maylord and this is my wife, Teresa Maylord." He gestured to the heavily pregnant woman next to him with his free hand. These two had requested to stay in the Vault for a very simple and rather obvious reason, their newborn. They wanted to raise their baby in a radiation free, safe, and controlled environment where it could grow up without the constant fear that they grew up under. Adam was not about to deny them their request when they had such a reason.
Adam shook the hand of Jefferson and then Teresa in turn.
"Pleasure to meet you both, formerly." Adam smiled.
"I may not be good for much these days…" Teresa began as she gently caressed her belly. "But I do have some experience helping the doctor in town, I only ever assisted, played nurse and such, but I have a little bit of skill. In addition I used to help my husband around the farm from time to time too." She smiled.
"As my wife said I'm a farmer, my parents were farmers, and their parents before them were farmers too." He smiled, Adam chuckled.
"Well there's not much dirt down here to farm."
"Well that's what I came to talk to you about today, young man." He smiled back. "See, as I was helping the others clean the place up I found a room called the Hy-dro-pon-ics bay. As far as I could see it was a growin' room." He grinned. "Now, I don't know much about growing without soil, but I have the greenest thumb in all of Naper, maybe even in the entirety of Chicago!" He boasted proudly. "I ain't ever met a plant I couldn't grow. So if you'd be willing to let me use the space… I could turn it into a proper green house. Grow some actual food down here for the folks to eat. Lest you need to keep running out to buy food for us all. We don't want to impose on you like that." He said, hat now in his hand, over his chest. Adam took in the information slowly and nodded.
"Well certainly I don't mind you making use of the room. I don't know the first thing about farming." Adam laughed. "In fact I'll even help you set things up in there if you need it, is there anything you need to start? Seeds? Soil… oh wait, it doesn't use soil er…" Adam said, showing how little he actually knew about what Jefferson was about to embark on.
"Nope, I brought my tools from home, didn't feel comfortable leaving without them, even with no soil to dig underground." He said as he thumbed his nose with a proud smile. "But more than that I found seeds in the room already, seems they were vacuum sealed or something and thrown into a freezer that still worked, frankly I don't know. But they are still good as far as I can tell. Plus one of the other folks that is going back to Naper is gonna bring some of my crop back with them, so either way we are all set. Water works too. Ain't nothing I need other than permission and a good day's labor." Adam looked at him impressed, with nothing to critique.
"Well then consider yourself the new manager of the hydroponics room." He chuckled. "Let me know if anything changes or if you need something from me, getting food produced down here can be considered a priority since we all will likely be living off your food when it's growing so I'm willing to give you my full support."
"Thank ya kindly." Jefferson said with a great big smile. "Only thing in there that doesn't work is the computer, far as I can tell, but it ain't necessary to work for me to do my job." Adam nodded.
"Well I'll still put it on my list, it will likely allow you to access some automatic farming systems or something, who knows." He nodded to Adam thankfully. Adam then turned to Teresa. "And as for you, focus on nursing your baby, you don't need to exert yourself." She smiled.
"Thank you but I would feel restless doing nothing. Don't worry, I am pregnant, not infirm." She giggled into her hand. Adam nodded to her.
"Alright, then I'll leave it to your discretion. We have a Medbay but obviously no doctor, though there is an autodoc in there so that is something. If you want to, when you have time, go through and organize everything there, just so it's at least not in disarray. That would be helpful."
"Certainly!" Teresa said with a warm smile.
"Alright you two, I wish you both luck, and it will be nice to get to know you better now that we are neighbors." Adam joked softly.
"Us too!" Jefferson said as he then gently held his wife's arm and then led her down the hall back to their rooms.
"Adam~" Eve said as she and Mira walked over as soon as the other two left, perhaps waiting off to the side until Adam's other conversation was done. "You promised us a tour~" She teased.
"That I did." He chuckled. "Come on, I'll show you around the vault and you two can actually pick a room to stay in if you end up staying." He smiled and then gestured for them to follow.
Adam showed them around almost the entire vault, the only exception being the laboratory where he was born, Eve knew, but Mira didn't and honestly, he didn't like that room or have a use for it anyway, so he simply left that door out of the tour. But he showed them all the living spaces, the library, the gym, the communal spaces, and virtually anything they asked to see, though he did not bring them inside the reactor room, after all, the radiation was still leaking there. Eve might be perfectly fine to go inside but Mira and Adam were not, so she could do that on her own time if she is curious.
As they walked around it was clear the folks who stayed were already putting in effort to make this more of a home. It was not yet much, but there were already a few tapestries on the walls, the communal space below the overseer's office was being set up in a more comfortable way, and the residents even brought out some items in storage to make the space feel more alive. The nursery, which really was not much different than a luxury suite with colorful wallpaper, was even being refitted for the soon to be born baby. The community down here was active and excited to turn this metal shell into a home.
"Well~ I must say, this vault is well put together, it's not often an accessible Vault is not in shambles." Eve said as the tour wrapped up.
"I have been to a few Vaults before…" Mira said as she looked around in moderate awe. "But every Vault was already uninhabited and in such disarray that it did not give the most pleasant experience."
"I have been in one still working vault before, but that was over a century ago." Eve said with a shrug.
"Well I have only been in two." Adam chuckled. "And I promise you, this is the far better one of the two."
"I'm not surprised~" Eve said before she leaned in closer to Adam. "Though I did notice your tour didn't include your room. How are we supposed to get intimate if you don't share your space with me?" Eve said with a flirty tone. Adam chuckled and waved her advances off.
"Is it… still okay for me to stay here?" Mira asked, tentatively, still uncertain if Adam's offer was genuine.
"I mean I offered, didn't I?" Adam laughed softly. "Yes, you are welcome to stay here."
Mira gently touched the wall letting her hand gently drag down the rivets that held two steel plates together. "Its been a long time since…" She mumbled quietly to herself, petering off before she finished, Adam didn't pry.
"And what about you Eve? Did you want to stay?" Eve tapped the side of her head with her claw a few times and then shrugged.
"I suppose so. A room here certainly beats my home in Midway. But I might need some time to bring all my stuff over."
"Take all the time you need." Adam smiled at her.
"I'd rather take my time with you~"
"You are proactive today aren't you?" Adam chuckled.
"Only for you~" She said with a sultry tone.
"If you two are going to flirt, do it when I'm not around." Mira said with a roll of her eyes.
"Sorry." Adam said to Mira within a small laugh.
"Oh don't apologize to her. After all, you were the one who invited me to live with you. We have all the time in the world to flirt honey~" Eve said, still as flirty as ever.
"Alright well I'm going to pick a room, have fun you two." Mira said with a deadpan tone as she turned to leave.
"Wait Mira, I didn't-"
"Leave her, after all we have all day to get to know each other." Eve continued, now just full on teasing with a flirty tone, she was clearly enjoying keeping the conversation flowing the way she wanted, regardless if the outcome of her advances were successful.
By now Mira had completely left, leaving Adam with Eve who was ready to relentlessly tease him for as long as Adam could stand it.