"I'm going to be honest with you, Mr. Baxter." Jim said with a slow sigh. "Mrs. Watson is awfully kind and forgiving, but she is a bit too forgiving, if you ask me."
"What do you mean?" Adam asked back.
"What I mean is there is a reason that I am not a teacher anymore. She is an idealist. I'm a realist."
"Alright I'll bite. What is it you are trying to say?" Jim seemed to hesitate before he sighed again and then stared Adam in the eyes, seemingly preparing himself to tell a long story.
"Before I lived in Midway, before I was a father, I… was a raider." He said with all the seriousness in the world. "I was going around being… less than gentlemanly to anyone and everyone who got in my way. Got in more than one fight too." He lifted up his hand showing off his missing finger. "Paid my prices too." He sighed. And then leaned back.
Adam remained silent, letting him speak, seeing as he clearly had more to say.
"I was at it for years. Never paid any mind to who I hurt or why… but it was around a few years ago when my 'buddies' were doing their thing, fuckin' with people… and I got… sick… real sick. My stomach turned inside out and I felt disgusted by the whole affair. Line was crossed when they started to hurt the kids. Whole world went red… When I realized what I was doing all my former raider buddies were dead and I was cradling the crying kid in my arms. I still don't know what happened, but I stopped doing that shit and tried to turn over a new leaf. Protect the kids I could. It's been… hard… for an old raider to try to live a normal life but I've been trying…." He paused and turned to look back to the other room where the kids are. "To teach them not to end up like I did." He paused, looked down at the ground and then looked into Adam's eyes again. "I am still a violent man, but my violence is directed to healthier impulses. I've been in more than one fight since I've moved to Midway, but it's always because people ain't treating the kids right. I do not regret my actions… but it's the reason I am no longer allowed to work in the school. Apparently attacking a parent who is beating their child in front of me is grounds for dismissal."
Adam paused and took a slow deep breath as he processed everything he had heard. Formulating a response before actually speaking.
"I have a lot of friends." Adam punctuated. "A former legionaire, a former NCR ranger, former brotherhood, an assaultron, a super mutant, even, yes, a former raider." Adam paused. "I do not judge someone based on their past actions. What matters is how they are in the here and now. That includes you." Adam generally points to Jim.
Jim looked off to the side for a moment before folding his hands in his lap and looking down.
"I'll be honest had Mary not brought me here and recommended you to me I probably wouldn't even be having this conversation. I'm not exactly looking to bring a violent raider into my home." Adam paused. "But I have killed more men than I care to admit. And not all of them while at war. Just being out there, in the wilds, forces us to make choices that civilized folks don't have to. So you tell me you had to get your hands bloody to protect some kids? I say, you did the right thing." Adam said seriously. "But I need to know, with the truth only you can speak, that you are no longer the man from the past, that you truly intend to turn over a new leaf. That you are serious when you say you are a father."
"Mr. Baxter. I can't change the past but I have made every choice I have made for the past 3 years in an attempt to raise these kids in a real home, not like the one I grew up in. In all honesty, if I were you, I wouldn't trust me. Why would you? An old raider who is as violent as he comes being asked to be a teacher? A child worker? Nah, fuck that. I wouldn't trust me as far as I can throw me. That's why I'm here, living day to day as a day laborer to make ends meet."
"And that's why I can trust you." Adam said back, to Jim's surprise. "A man who is asking to be trusted is either being duplicitous or absolutely desperate. A man who is saying not to trust him still has some honesty in him."
"Either that or he's playing a long con." Jim throws in. Adam lets off a dark chuckle.
"Yeah, that too. But I don't think that's what you are after. You asked me about experiments, about the kids' safety. And more than anything, Mary trusts you. If you are the man who Mary thinks you are then I think I'm willing to give you the chance you need to turn over a new leaf. You want to help kids? We have a number of kids who need the aid of someone who is looking out for their future. Making sure they don't end up raiders." Adam said, leaving the statement out in the air, and Jim remained silent while he processed the words.
"This is a woman's job." Jim said back, in a strangely sexist way of wording it. However, despite the words being sexist the tone itself felt more like a way to try to convince himself he wasn't worthy of the job. Self deprecating as it was.
"And?" Adam said, one eyebrow raised. "Maybe that's how things used to work in the old nuclear family. But those nukes fell, the world ended. This one has changed. If you can do it I don't see why you can't." Jim sighed and then looked up at Adam with a softly raised eyebrow and an awkward smile.
"Is the vault nice?"