Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1

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Somewhere.

Somewhere down below, within the bowels of rusted metal, doors, and rooms, an alarm was sounding.

And somewhere down there, the chill of the past was warming up to the current timeline….and it was not going to be a gentle re-awakening. With a hiss and swift movement, the door to the cryopod opened to unceremoniously drop Amethyst to the hard concrete floor. Coughing and sputtering, shivering deeply from what felt like the depths of her soul, her eyes slowly opened.

No, you can’t take him!!!

The thought exploded like a firecracker in her mind, intertwined with a high level of confusion. Looking around in a wild-eyed daze, trying to remember where she was, she also wondered why her body wasn’t responding to her pleas to just move. As her eyes began to focus, she looked down the row of glass paneled pods. Furrowing her brows, trying to remember back to find something, anything, from before she was spit out on the ground. Flashes suddenly started hitting her brain.

A gunshot.

A baby’s wail.

“Backup.”

Her eyes widened.

Oh my god, NATE.

 SHAUN!!!

Looking to the pod directly across from her, she knew who was inside. Pulling herself along the floor since her legs weren’t really responding, eventually she made it to the pod. With every ounce of effort, she grasped the control panel on the side of the pod and pulled herself up as far as her weak arms would allow. Searching for the release button, with one eye closed (to help her still-semi-swimming vision), she found it and pressed down.

Another hiss filled the chamber as the doors to Nate’s tube opened.

But he didn’t fall out like she had. He seemed a little….stiff.

In fact, he looked a little….sparkly…too. Like he was covered in millions of tiny diamonds.

She reached out to touch his pants. Her fingers became incredibly cold, and wet.

Ice. He was sparkling because he was frozen.

She looked up to what she could see, from this angle, of his face. Her straining eyes caught sight of the red drop at the end of a short trail, shining from the middle of his forehead.

Right underneath the hole that should not have been there.

Her eyes widened in horror when the memory came back in a rush. The man with the scar on his face, the person in hazmat gear at the control panel for the pod. Nate’s pod opening as he groggily wondered what was going on. Shaun starting to whimper and cry. Hazmat suit trying to take Shaun from Nate’s arms. Scarface saying something with a chilling, uncaring tone. Nate yelling. The gunshot. Her banging on the glass weakly from inside her own tube when it wouldn’t open. Scarface looking directly at her, saying something about being a “backup”. Then nothing but cold.

What had happened? Where AM I??

Trying to think even harder now, what had happened before all of this?

I remember being with Nate at his house. And Shaun. And Codsworth. A man at the door wanting Nate to agree to being on some sort of list. The TV saying something before going to the test screen. Running. RUNNING. An elevator down….down….into the depths below Sanctuary Hills.

Wait.

BOMBS going off in the distance before the elevator shuddered and moved down, just as the first shockwave passed overhead.

Oh, dear LORD.

The vault. That’s where she was. But hadn’t they just gotten into the pods to prep them prior to being moved further into the vault? “Decontamination”, or something like that?

I bet that was a lie.

She wondered what else had been a lie. Goddamn Vault-Tec.

A tear slipped down her cheek as she looked at Nate again. My brother didn’t deserve this. Shaun didn’t deserve this! And now they’re both GONE, she sobbed bitterly, her hot tears carving a path down her lukewarm face to fall down to her chest.

With a sudden wave of panic, fearing that Scarface and hazmat suit may still be in the vault, she quickly looked around and strained her ears to hear past the horrendously loud alarm. It looked as still as a mausoleum in here. Just how long had it been since her last memory? She needed to get out, and get out NOW. She steadied her breath before it became erratic.

Looking at her non-responsive appendages, she rubbed her legs to further help the circulation to her feet so she could try to stand. She knew she wasn’t getting out of here on all fours; what would happen once she got out of the vault? Looking up to the wall past the row of pods, she spotted a First Aid kit mounted to the wall by the door. Locking her jaw in determination, she slid herself along the floor. Pulled herself up the four stairs. Used all her might to latch onto the door frame to pull herself up to the kit. Opening the kit, she found two blessed Stimpaks and a canister of purified water. Taking one of the Stimpaks and sliding back down to the floor, she used half on one leg, and half on the other.

I can’t wait around for my legs to get back to working order….I hope this speeds things up so I can get the FUCK out of this death trap.

Feeling a warm sensation coursing down her legs, she felt her big toe wiggle when she asked it to. Waiting a few more agonizing minutes, her legs began to respond to her need to leave.

Slowly, she pushed herself onto her knees.

Cautiously, she tried getting to a standing position without pulling on something. Her legs threatened to buckle, but took her weight. She slowly walked in small steps around the room to get her blood pumping to her arms and legs, grasping out to solid items to lean on when her legs wobbled.

Looking around and glancing briefly into each glass panel, she began to wonder if anyone else needed to be released from their pod. They all looked like Nate, although with far less blood behind them. They all looked…..long dead.

An overwhelming sensation of being alone suddenly swept through her soul, and the dark tendrils of terror began to intrude on her vision. The familiar yet hated closing of her airways, the struggle of trying to draw breath, the feeling of the room shrinking to just around her frame, the need to just GET OUT enveloped her, and a new tear escaped down her cheek. What a great time to get a panic attack, she cursed to herself. Hastily wiping away the tear, she focused on her breathing. She didn’t have her usual coping mechanisms for this, so the cheap fix would have to do. Air in through the nose, hold, breathe out through the mouth. Lather, rinse, repeat.

After a few cycles of this, she started feeling her airways open slightly. The room expanded back to its usual size slowly.

All you need to do is find the Vault-Tec scientists. Then the way out. Simple, right?

She gritted her teeth and continued her slow stride out of the chamber.

As she staggered down the hallway, she thought she saw movement on one of the windows. Was that a…? No, couldn’t be. No way they could be THAT large. Laughing to herself, knowing the old saying that THEY would be one of the things to survive a nuclear apocalypse, she dismissed it as her eyes playing tricks on her. But then the corner of her eye caught the green glow, and her heart dropped as her eyes focused on a chittering, GLOWING cockroach that was staring at her hungrily through the glass. Her vision strayed everywhere for something, anything, that could be used as a weapon. A security baton sat on a plastic box to her left, and she lunged for it.

…pitter…patter….pitter….patter….

That wasn’t the dripping of the overhead pipes. Smaller, non-glowing versions of the monstrosity in the next room peeked around corners further down the hall, vibrating their wings (WINGS?!? They can FLY now???) in anticipation. Her grip around the baton became death-like as her eyes widened in fear. All at once, four cockroaches leapt from the shadows towards her. Panic dripped down her spine, and then something akin to a whisper grated through her mind, a familiar yet haunting voice.

‘How many adversaries are you facing?’

‘What are their potential weaknesses?’

‘You have a weapon. Use it.’

She felt a ‘click’ in her brain, like an old-time power switch being maneuvered to the ‘on’ position in those old monster movies Nate loved. All panic immediately subsided, and her movements became more automatic, less hesitant.  Her legs now more responsive than ever, she moved forward…..and then there was a flash in her vision. She blinked. Looked around.

She was at a different part of the hallway now. Looking behind her, she glanced over the four smashed bodies of the cockroaches of unusual size.

When did I….?

She couldn’t remember even using the baton. Pulling the weapon up to her line of sight, it dripped with goo. Part of a leg. Pieces of carapace.

Cringing, she pressed on down the hall, turned a few corners to the Overseers office, the sign above the door backlit by a flickering bulb. She pushed a button on the left of the door, and the door opened with a hiss.

A skeleton leered at her from the chair at the desk, a green haze shining on it from the computer monitor. She carefully pushed the chair aside to access the keyboard. Scanning the screen, she skimmed through the files left behind.

It appeared that things went sideways about 8 months after the vault locked down, 3 months after they were supposed to get an ‘all-clear’ signal from Vault-Tec.

Her brother, Shaun, herself (listed as Nora though – how odd), and those that came into the vault with them had been frozen immediately upon entering the tubes. We WERE a cryogenic experiment, she lamented to herself with a sob.

Supplies ran out for the scientists monitoring the vault. Chaos ensued. Apparently, the Overseer had locked every major exit, including the main vault door, so no one would let in radioactive contamination trying to get out.

Her eyes strayed to the skeleton and turned the chair slightly. A large hole revealed itself on the side of its skull.

Was that self-inflicted, or…?

There was a 10mm gun on the desk, but it looked like it had been in the process of being reloaded. Without thinking, she grabbed the weapon, and all of the ammo scattered around it. She filled the rest of the clip and slid it back into the grip and pocketed the remaining bullets.

Finding the door unlock override command on the computer, she selected it, and a door at the opposite end of the room shuddered open, until it jammed about halfway up.

Dammit. I guess I’ll have to limbo my way out.

Scanning the rest of the room for any additional supplies that might help her, her view fell on a locked compartment on the wall. Is that a weapon…?

Gliding over to the case, she studied the lock. That ethereal voice that came to her in the hallway drifted through her brain once more, like a guiding light through the fog.

‘You can open this compartment. You need this weapon.’

The bright flash appeared in her vision again.

The case now stood open. A bent bobby pin in one hand, and a flat metal bar in the other. When did I grab a screwdriver…?

What the ever-loving FUCK is going on here?!?

Squeezing her eyes tight, Amethyst pulled in a shuddering breath to try to ground herself from the confusion that threatened to rupture her entire being. Reaching out, she grabbed the weapon, put the strap around her shoulder, and added the few spare fuel cells stored in the protective case to her pockets.

Finding her way to the main vault door and flipping the plastic cover over the red button on the control panel, she pressed it….with no effect.

There’s gotta be a key or something for this she thought as she scanned the area. A skeleton on the floor had a contraption on its wrist, covered in dust and grime. Pulling the device to her, the dried arm bones within clattered to the ground. Unclasping the latch, she pulled it onto her wrist and secured it.

Her right hand immediately went to the side of the device and pulled out a plug; it fit into an outlet next to the red button. How did I know about that…?!

She tried the button again.

A new alarm cried out, as a light started flashing rhythmically.

The vault door opened with a loud grinding, setting her ears and teeth on edge.

She made her way to the elevator, and rising on the platform, she shielded her eyes against the early morning light.

Devastation surrounded her.

Am I truly the only one left?

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Her legs refused to support her at that moment, and she dropped unceremoniously to the edge of the platform. Breaths were getting hard to draw once more, and now a steady stream of tears plummeted down her face.

Everything….everything was gone. Wiped out in minutes, seconds even.

Her thoughts strayed to her husband back home. Did bombs drop there too, or was it just here?

Dustin is probably dead, just like Mom, Dad….and everyone else she had ever known.

At the point of uncontrollable body-wracking sobs, she released a choked, guttural cry to the wind. Unnervingly, no sounds responded back. No birds, no insects buzzing…..nothing.

The sun was slightly higher in the sky when her legs were strong enough to stand again. Looking around the platform, she searched through any container she could find for more supplies.

Pocketing a bobby pin or two, a hammer, some duct tape, and a pen, her feet automatically led her to the same path she and Nate had dashed up when the sirens were sounding throughout the neighborhood. It felt like that was only hours ago, but seeing how badly things had deteriorated, deep in her heart she knew that she had been underground for a while.  Just how long remained to be seen.

Hopping the backyard fence to Nate’s house, she made her way around the building to the front door. A glint of semi-rusted metal casing caught her eye as it busied itself amongst the very dry, and very much dead, hedges along the front of the house.

“Codsworth?! Is that you?”

“Who’s there? I have the means to protect myself, so you better…..Miss Amethyst? By jove, you’re alive!”

“In a manner of speaking. I can’t believe you’re still here! I thought you had been destroyed by the blast, along with everything else….”

“General Atomics advertised that we could withstand whatever was thrown at us, and they weren’t kidding. Although, I don’t know if they had planned on throwing nuclear bombs at us,” he stated.

“Just…how…long has it….been…since….?” she stammered, leaving most of her question unfinished.

“A little over 200 years, give or take a few years from dings to the ol’ chronometer after the blast. I think it may be closer to 211 years.”

All the color drained from her face. Tears returned to the corners of her eyes.

“If I may ask, Miss Amethyst, where is Sir Nate, and young Shawn?”

The floodgates opened, and her face became a raging torrent of despair.

“They…..they….Nate…he’s….oh my god,” she quietly stuttered. “Nate’s dead. Someone came in and….and….” She couldn’t finish.

“And Shawn?”

“He was…taken….”

“Oh, Miss Amethyst….I’m so terribly sorry. Maybe there’s a settlement nearby that you can ask if they have seen him?”

“There are settlements?? People survived the bombs?”

“Indeed! Although, most seem to be rather rude. I had to defend myself the last time I went to Concord to look for supplies.”

She thought on that for a moment. No doubt she would need to start looking for supplies too, but she needed to prepare with more ammo, and definitely something else to wear other than the blue onesie-type monstrosity she had on now. Apparently, it would not last much longer, seeing as it was over two centuries old at this point, and could probably walk away on its own with how dirty it was. She knew Nate was meticulous in preparing for the “inevitable end” after one of his last deployments, as she had joked with him about it, but would she be able to find the key to the cellar he had added under his house?

“Codsworth, do you know where Nate kept the key to the cellar? I need to take stock of what is in there. I’m hoping there’s still something of use that survived the blast.”

“Yes, Miss Amethyst! It should be somewhere in the bedroom….or was it in the kitchen in the sugar bowl….?” he replied as he glided to the front door.

Following the robot through the front door as he was deep in thought, she wandered into the living room. Everything was exactly as it had been, although a bit more…drafty, and the furniture looked like it might spontaneously combust into dust at any moment. Fuck, even Nate’s cup of coffee and Grognak comic were still on the counter from…that… morning. A heartbreaking sigh escaped her lips. Just like that, everything had gone from…normal….to this nightmare.

She heard rustling in the kitchen, and plenty of muttering. Glancing up, she saw Codsworth going through the cabinets.

“I’ll go check the bedroom. Where do you think it would be?” she inquired.

No answer.

“Ok then…” she sighed quietly and turned towards the hallway.

Shuffling down the hall past the bathroom, she slowly peered around the door frame, not sure what condition things would be in. Piles of disintegrated wood sat where the bed should have been. The windows were either broken, or missing. But amazingly, the dresser wasn’t in bad shape. The clothes in the closet were….just hangers. I wonder if the safe is still in the closet….

Digging her hands into the pile of debris at the bottom of the closet, her fingers rubbed against something hard and cold.

Bingo.

Pulling out a bobby pin, she made quick work of the lock and opened the safe. Inside she found several folders filled to the brim with paper, a holotape, an envelope with some money, a silenced 10mm pistol and a box of ammo, and….and two keys on a Nuka-Cola bottle keychain.

Briskly walking out to the back yard from the front door, she rounded the corner and nearly tripped on the slight rise of the ground covering the cellar doors. It had been surrounded by bushes at one time, but those had since broken down to sticks in the dirt. Using a wood plank from the partially fallen fence, she dug around the edges, and once she found the outline, worked on clearing off the rest of the dirt. Facing the doors, she fit the key into the lock and strained to open the doors simultaneously; her arms began to shake, so she dropped one door closed and pulled the other open and slowly made her way down the ladder, shutting the door behind her as quietly as she could, hoping to not draw attention to what she was doing if anyone was remotely close by – she had no idea how many survivors could be out there.

Feeling her fingers along the cold metal wall, and bumping into a flashlight, she grabbed it and moved the switch to the ‘on’ position. Guiding the light beam around the entrance, a lamp and a flip lighter sat on a shelf, which she quickly lit. A warm glow permeated part of the dark of the cellar, forcing it to retreat to the far edges of the room. A very large safe sat along the furthest wall. Good lord Nate, what is this thing made out of? And how the FUCK did you get it down here??

Trying the other key on the keychain instead of her last bobby pin, the safe door opened with a slight sigh. Her eyes widened painfully, and she moved the beam of the flashlight to get a closer look.

Shelves filled the safe, and sitting on those shelves looked to be nearly pristine holotapes. Hanging on the inside of the safe doors were a variety of weapons; guns, knives, boxes of ammo, even a Revolutionary sword? Where the hell did Nate get that?

Her eyes skipped down the rows and columns of holotapes. Even facing the possibility of an apocalypse, he stored a treasure trove of music. And not the kind you’d hear on most radios. Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, Queen, Ten Years After…oh fuck….Black Sabbath?! Nate, you wonderful, prepared bastard. A tear snuck down her cheek. Picking up the Ten Years After holotape, she opened the compartment on her….what was this thing again?...Pip-Boy.  She pressed play, and at the start of the song she was suddenly whisked back home, to the park down the street from their grandparents’ house. It had been the summer before Nate was deployed the first time, when they had met up for a barbecue on a whim. Nora was with him; they had just started dating. Nate said he was going to “change the world”, as he sang along with the song that played on his radio.

Feeling a pit opening in her stomach which threatened more tears to fall, she took a deep breath and continued to search the safe. Glancing up, she noticed a small compartment in the corner. Using the key, she opened the cover and found a thick, stuffed red folder with a holotape inside an inner pocket, on top of other folders of varying colors; she glanced at it and set it aside to peruse in better lighting. The glow from the flashlight glinted off something at the back; she reached in the compartment for it and came into contact with a small glass bottle. Her eyes widened when she pulled it out. My Autumn Leaves perfume, she thought. No wonder I couldn’t find it that previous week!

Opening it just a crack, the smells of long-gone apples, berries, cedarwood, cinnamon, and pecan shot up her nostrils and tugged loose another memory. Allowing yet another stray tear to escape down her cheek, she tightened the lid and carefully dropped the bottle into her pocket. I’m going to be dehydrated by the time this is all over if I keep crying over EVERYTHING, she thought morosely to herself.

Her eyes glanced over a huge rifle on the right side of the safe. Reaching out, her fingers slid lightly over the surface; this must have been the surprise Nate wanted to show after his speech at the veteran’s hall…that…night. He had said he pulled a few strings to get clearance for something, and he hadn’t been able to stop secretly gushing about it to her since the new weapon was rumored to be in development ages ago, so naturally she figured this was it. What had he been saying it was called? A Gauss Rifle, a familiar but haunting whisper supplied into her head. Developed by West-Tek and, eventually, transferred to the Enclave to manufacture and produce. She remembered the hushed story Nate had told her a month or so before everything had turned upside down. She had been skeptical about the new assignments her brother had been getting just prior to the bombs, especially with the multitude of problems sweet Nora had been experiencing during her pregnancy, and after Shaun’s arrival. That was one of the big reasons why she was here, now, and not back home when the bombs dropped; if Nora hadn’t needed so much help, she wouldn’t have been staying here to make sure the house stayed tidy (and by extension that Codsworth was working as he was manufactured to), Shawn was cared for, that Nora got rest, and taken to her many doctor’s appointments, all while Nate was out on his “missions”.

She sighed, letting the memory loose from her mind’s grasp and drift away to be revisited later, she pulled the Cryolator from her back, and swapped the strap to the Gauss in the safe. Hanging the Cryolator in the Gauss’s place and strapping the Gauss to her back, she looked through the boxes of ammo for the 2mm EC rounds she needed. Finding five boxes, she picked up four and walked them over to the ladder, so she would remember to bring them with her on her way out.

Nate had said this weapon was the most powerful in R&D, and not knowing what she would face outside of this ‘bubble’ she had once called a “home away from home”, she needed to hang onto any advantage she could find. Armor was her next concern, so she could get rid of this Vault-Tec suit, which now she only associated with death and decay. Looking down, her eye caught on to some old faded blue, grey and black camouflaged army fatigues, and combat armor pieces with boots, in the bottom corner, along with an all-black box that looked like a slimmed down version of the….Pip-Boy on her wrist. She put this by the clothes she found.

Huh. Was Vault-Tec working with West-Tek? Nate had been part of West-Tek, and that would explain why that Vault-Tec rep had been trying to reach him with such insistence that day…

Unzipping her vault suit, she shrugged out of the ancient clothing to pull on the fatigues, then piece on the armor; the fatigues were a little long, even for her lanky stature, but not baggy by any means. These must have been Nate’s, fondly remembering her younger brother being taller than her; she had only come up to the bottom of his ears. Rolling up the cuffs of the pants, she stuffed them into the tops of the boots that were a bit too big for her. She’d have to find a way of cleaning herself up later, once she could find some supplies, like water that wouldn’t melt her face off. She transferred everything in the onesie’s pockets to her cargo pants.

Boosting her confidence up a slight bit now that she had functioning clothing, she decided she wanted to keep most of these valuable items down here, since they hadn’t been discovered yet; she wouldn’t be able to carry them all anyways. Plus, she didn’t know how easy it would be to refill things like her ammo. But she still needed to gather some more holotapes, and a bag to hold her ammo. A melee weapon wouldn’t hurt either - since everything on the surface was gone, she was pretty sure ammo refills would be in incredibly short supply, if available at all, and not having something to protect herself terrified her deeply.

Pulling a long, serrated combat knife from the wall of the safe along with a smaller switchblade with a lightning-fast and solid blade extension, she slid the big knife into a leather holder on her belt and hid the blade in a pocket at the belt line in the back of her pants. A combat shotgun joined the Gauss at her back, as well as Nate’s well-used but modified hunting rifle, and a 10mm pistol was shoved into the holster at her hip. Finding a backpack pushed to the back of the safe, she filled it with boxes of ammo, the ammo from the pockets of her Vault-Tec onesie, and a few purified water bottles and Stimpaks she found on the shelf. An empty first aid box provided room for her holotapes, of which she chose carefully which ones to bring with her, and which ones stayed behind. The black Pip-Boy also disappeared into the bag. Quietly, she closed the doors to the safe and locked it with the key.

Situating the bag on her back, she moved to the ladder to add the ammo she had placed there to her bag, and made sure to blow out the lantern and return the flashlight to the wall. Pushing the door open, bright sunlight shone down as she climbed up the ladder and back out into the decayed world she had found herself thrown into. Suppressing a groan while shutting the one side and locking it with the key, she then covered the doors with dry clumps of soil until the heavy panels were buried once more. She hoped the soil displacement didn’t attract attention from anything who happened to wander through; she couldn’t just roll strips of sod back over it like Nate had.

Her feet moved her back to the front of the house, where she almost ran into Codsworth, who had pulled himself from his reverie in the kitchen to find where she had disappeared to.

“Miss Amethyst! How wonderful that you found a change of clothes, and that you got rid of that awful suit – you would stand out like a sore thumb wherever you went if you had to keep wearing that monstrosity any longer.”

“I couldn’t agree more, Codsworth.”

“Were you able to find any food down there?”

She realized she hadn’t even paid much attention for food; her foremost concern had been the means to keep her safety as top priority.

“If there was anything down there, I didn’t want to take it; it’s probably too old or expired to be of much use anyways. I’ll have to take Nate’s hunting rifle out to see if I can find something to eat.”

“Miss Amethyst, please do be careful. The world has…changed….SO…MUCH…from what you remember.” the hovering metal robot stated at almost whisper level.

“I’m not going to go far. I’m not ready to face the whole nightmare of this new reality just yet, but I at least want to get an idea of what I’m dealing with,” she said. “Will you be able to stay here to keep watch on the house? Now that I dug out the cellar doors, I don’t want anything tampering with it.”

“Of course, Miss. I shall be here upon your return! And then we can sort out how to look for Shaun.”

Squeezing her eyes tight to fight yet another onslaught of tears, she nodded and headed inside the house to take inventory of exactly everything in her possession, and organize her haphazardly-packed backpack.

Sitting on the couch in the living room, she placed everything in the bag on the coffee table. Boxes of ammo would need to go in last, as she felt that was something she would need to grab at a moment’s notice. Her First Aid kit box with her holotapes could go in the bottom; before placing the box within, she pulled out a different holotape and set it next to her on the couch. Straps on the outside of the bag would be good for the weapons she didn’t want to carry on her person, so she used one of the straps to lash the shotgun to the bag. Stimpaks and bottled water moved to the pockets on the outside of the bag.

Now in better lighting, she pulled out the black Pip-Boy and surveyed it against the one on her wrist. Noticeably slimmer, it had all of the same knobs, same size of screen, and the similar plug and wire she had pulled out on her bigger Pip-Boy to open the vault door; it seemed more aerodynamic, she chuckled to herself. Swapping the device on her wrist for the newer version, she turned the device on, and the familiar, cartoonish face of Vault Boy came up while it loaded. While she waited, her eyes darted around the outside of the device to try to find any other differences from the older version. Her eye fell upon an almost hidden compartment, which her fingers casually flicked open. A small, rounded piece lay within. The screen showed that her movements had been detected, and now it asked if she wanted to connect with the earpiece that had been charging in its port.

She chose “yes”.

“No input detected” came up on the screen.

Ejecting the holotape in the older Pip-Boy, and swapping it for the one on the couch, she placed the exchanged holotape into the black version, and gently stuck the earpiece in her left ear, and selected a track when the playlist came up on screen.

Music began to play quietly into her ear, releasing some of the tension that had begun to form at the base of her neck and across her shoulders. She closed her eyes with a smile.

Sliding the device around to a more comfortable position, she felt a quick, sharp prick; that must have been the transmitter connecting to her body’s functions so it could monitor her health and rads continually, and she gave it no further thought.

Knowing it would not be a good idea to keep Nate’s keys on her in case she lost them, she opted to put them back in the safe in his former room, along with the Pip-Boy she no longer needed, and her preciously delicate bottle of perfume after she applied a small amount to her wrists and behind her ears. A little aromatherapy with the one scent left of home, of her past, revved her adventure motor, and she gathered her bag and weapons to head out. Her hand brushed a pocket in her camo top, and within sat a pair of wraparound sunglasses – she quickly placed them on her head and strolled out the door.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2

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Amethyst said goodbye to Codsworth, and began walking down the road leading her to the bridge of Sanctuary Hills, and the decimated world beyond. Carefully she maneuvered around the crumbling beams to the other side of the bridge, where she found the remnants of combat between a man, and a large, hairless dog-like creature. Neither survived. Deciding that any supplies on the man were no longer needed, she rummaged through the articles of shredded clothing and found six .308 bullets, a half a pack of cigarettes, a gold flip lighter, and a canister of jet. The items quickly found their way to various pockets of her camo pants.

A Red Rocket station loomed ahead of her on the side of the road, and she decided to take a peek for any supplies there too, if it was empty of any inhabitants. As she rounded the small hill, she saw a fuzzy blur run from the road to the building, and back again – was that a German Shepherd?!

The blur stopped to look at her, its tongue lolling from the side of its mouth, which stretched into a grin. At least half a dozen large cat-sized bodies lay scattered around the station grounds.

“Hi pupper! What are you doing out here by yourself? Was that your owner up the road by the bridge?” she inquired, searching its intelligent eyes, as she moved to go through the station to look for anything she could grab and put into her bag. She also opted to pull the earpiece from her ear and returned it to the Pip-Boy at her wrist; she needed to keep focused being out in the open, and music in her ear would probably just distract her and get her killed.

Head cocked to the side, it seemed to think about her questions, but then shook itself vigorously and ambled up to her hand, where it shoved its nose into her palm and huffed.

“Ah. I take it you’re alone then, just like me?”

A soft “wuff” in reply was all the response she needed.

“Would you like to join me?”

A subdued bark echoed back to her.

“Let’s go,” she said, heading out the door and down the road to the nearby town center.

As soon as the buildings began to race skyward on either side of her, she began to feel uneasy; there were too many vantage points where a sniper could lay hidden.

“Doggo, let’s head along the edge of town. I’m not feeling brave enough today to charge down the middle of Main Street.”

Another quiet wuff emitted from the dog, and they veered right to skirt the outer edges of town.

Suddenly, echoes of gunfire erupted from the far edge of the buildings, seeming to come from down the street by the Museum of Freedom; she had remembered visiting it with Nate and Shaun the week prior to the bombs. Upon hearing the ricocheting sounds, her body tensed up, and her head and eyes went on a swivel, searching for the sources while her hands pulled the silenced hunting rifle from her back. That ethereal voice spoke to her again, like it had in the vault; the voice seemed to have multiple “entities”, because it sounded like she was in the middle of a meeting in a conference room where everyone was speaking at the same time, but everything said had the same voice behind it.

“What is the source of these sounds?”

“Where do they seem to be coming from?”

“Duck down, and use slow, methodical movements. Keep silent so you can hear.”

“Check all of your surroundings.”

“Make sure your weapon is loaded and ready.”

She checked the rifle. Locked and loaded.

“Find a good vantage point up high so you can see any possible adversary before they spot you.”

Locating a fire escape near to her position, she wordlessly told the dog to stay, and as silently as she could, she advanced up the ladder to the roof. Hopping over an old AC unit, she wound her way amongst the rises on the roof until she had a clear view of the main road through town down to the museum without being easily seen.

A group of seven people rushed down the road to a figure on the balcony of the museum, who was shooting a laser rifle of some sort at the ones who were closest to the building. Settling down in her vantage point, she propped the rifle on the edge of the roof and put her eye to the scope. Locking one of the figures in the street in her sights, she quietly expelled a breath to steady her hands, and upon slowly drawing another breath, moved to tap her finger on the trigger.

The brilliant, blinding flash overtook her vision once more. No noise, no distinction between shapes or colors. Only the brightness.

As the flash faded and she surveyed the road below her, seven bodies lay upon the street. Spent bullet casings were littered around her feet.

A frustrated noise emitted from her mouth; again, she had no recollection of her movements, only the sights of the aftermath. She strapped her rifle on her bag, made her way to the fire escape and joined back up with the dog.

“Let’s head over to the museum to see what the ruckus was about.”

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Rounding the corner, she and the dog headed cautiously towards the main door for the museum, where she was greeted by the man on the balcony.

“Hey! Did you see who took out those raiders in the street?” he yelled down at her.

“Raiders?” she questioned back.

“I’ve got a group of settlers inside! The Raiders in here are almost through the door! Grab that laser musket if you need to and help us! Please!!”

She and the dog broke into a run at the same time as she pulled the shotgun from her bag. Opening the door, she snuck inside with the dog, who amazingly needed no instruction from her to stay at her side. Stealthily, she and the dog swept each room as they made their way through broken walls and floors while looking for a staircase. Each time her ears heard someone nearby, the bright flash would happen, and a body would be laying at her feet shortly after the brightness dimmed, and she came back to reality.

I seriously need to figure out what is going on with this, she thought to herself. What happens if I ‘blank out’ and shoot someone who shouldn’t be shot? She knew she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself if she couldn’t control her actions around someone that didn’t deserve a bullet, but she also definitely didn’t know where to begin to address this issue. This will need to wait until later, these people need my help NOW.

Winding her way up to the third floor, and after what she hoped was the last bright flash, she carefully picked her way around the holes in the floor to a closed door.

Knocking somewhat softly so to not startle the potential inhabitants within, she called out, “I think I took care of everyone keeping you stuck back here. It should be safe.”

The door opened a fraction, and an eye peered out; once the eye saw that she was alone, the door opened the rest of the way.

The man who had yelled at her from the balcony stood before her – a cowboy-type hat sat on his chestnut head, with the brim bent up on one side; a tan overcoat covered his slightly ripped clothes underneath; gloves enveloped his hands, which held the laser rifle she had seen firing down on the attackers in the street.

“Man, I don’t know who you are, but your timing’s impeccable!” he said with relief. “A month ago, there were twenty of us. Yesterday there were eight. Now, we’re five. I was afraid we weren’t getting out of here.”

“You were lucky we were in the right place at the right time – I almost decided to head another direction than to come straight through Concord. I’m glad I didn’t, and that I was able to help.” She smiled lightly while she scratched at the back of her neck, feeling a little sheepish for the attention focused on her. Wouldn’t anyone else do the same if they were in her shoes, especially if they had the ammo to do so?

“Well, in that case, thank you again. I’m Preston Garvey of the Commonwealth Minutemen. The big guy next to me is Sturges. Over in the chair by the desk is Mama Murphy, and Jun and Marcy Long are behind the desk.”

“Nice to meet you all. My name is Amethyst, but most people just call me Amy.”

“Amy,” the man with the overalls, who she assumed was Sturges, said, “let’s get the rest of these raiders so we can leave. I know there were more hiding in the buildings on the main strip, but I have a plan….

I don’t know if y’all noticed it on your way in, but there’s a crashed Vertibird on the roof with a little cherry on top; I found a mostly intact suit of T-45 power armor by the wreckage. Only problem is, there’s no fusion core in the suit. I did happen to see a fusion core downstairs, but it’s locked behind a security door with a damn terminal. I’m no egghead; I prefer to fix things, so computers ain’t my forte. If you can hack it, we can get that core into the suit, and you can then use the suit to rip off the minigun attached to the bird on the roof and take out the rest of the raiders.”

Power armor. Nate had mentioned about that supposed military “crowning achievement”, but he also said these suits can be more cumbersome than functional at times, especially when it comes to the fusion core, and some weak spots in the armor itself. Damn fusion core, and damn terminals and locked doors, she thought to herself, frustrated. I’m no egghead either, but maybe it’s not too hard to hack?

Calling the dog to her side, she made sure her bag was secure on her back, and with a hopeful nod to Sturges and Preston, she turned to go back downstairs.

Arriving at the terminal, she activated the screen and waited as the screen loaded all of the possible password options. She sighed and closed her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes again and used the keyboard to move to her selection. Wrong. She tried again. Wrong. What about this one…..wrong. She only had one more try until the terminal locked her out. She decided to back out all the way and give the terminal a rest. She sighed again. The familiar whisper reached out to her.

“Start the process again.”

“Look at every word. These words share letters, and you can decipher which letters might be the password, and which will not work.”

“Use the likeness rating to your advantage – that will give you a clue if you are close to the password.”

“Select an enclosed set of brackets – you might reset your available number of tries, or it can delete options that are not the correct password to help narrow things down.”

These whispers unnerved her. Where was this disembodied voice coming from? And WHO was behind the voice? Just like the flashes, she was no closer to figuring it out. At least it didn’t seem to be occurring more than when she really needed the assistance, which was helpful; but what happened if it ever steered her in the wrong direction? Or it didn’t show up at all when she was desperate? She had better be careful on how much she relied on this “help” from beyond her understanding.

She nibbled on her lower lip and activated the screen once more. Breathing deeply, she moved to her first choice. Likeness of 3. Close. She chose again, unlocked the terminal, and found the door unlock option, which she selected. The door opened with a slight groan on aged hinges. She darted into the room and grabbed the fusion core from the power generator and made her way back upstairs.

Once Preston and Sturges came back into her view, she held up the fusion core for them to see.

“Let’s get this done”, she stated simply.

Heading up to the roof, she and Preston saw the outline of the armor against the afternoon sky. She slid the fusion core into the back of the suit, and with a little bump of her fist she got it to lock into place. Turning the manual override, the suit opened with a hiss. Sturges let out a low, slow whistle in appreciation of the mechanics working before him as he walked up behind the pair.

She looked over at Preston, who made no move towards the suit. Then over to Sturges, who just looked at her and shrugged.

“I think we’re all in the same boat on this in not knowing how to work it, but me personally, I’m not going to start.”

Amy rolled her eyes behind her now closed lids, squeezed her eyes shut even tighter, and sighed. Pulling her bag from her back, and holding onto the Gauss, she handed her pack to Preston for safe keeping. Placing the Gauss down, she made her way over to the suit and pulled herself in, where the suit closed shut with a clang. Once the helmet came online and she could see through the visor, she moved the helmet to try and find the minigun Preston had mentioned. Seeing it on the other side of the Vertibird, she climbed through the bird and grabbed the handle of the gun and yanked it free with little effort, thanks to the suit. Hopefully there’s ammo for this, otherwise this is going to be a short attempt at a rescue.

Darting her vision down to the street below, she heard voices drifting up, but didn’t see anyone. They must still be inside the buildings or hiding around them. Suddenly, a prehistoric-like roar came from below a cover on the road at the far edge of town.

“What the ever-loving FUCK was that sound?!” Amy cried, not caring about her usually carefully-controlled sailor mouth making an appearance in this situation.

Eyes shooting over to Preston and Sturges, she saw both men’s skin pale many shades lighter at the noise. This CAN’T be good if they are both looking like this, she stressed to herself, some of their panic beginning to leech into her.

“I…I…think that’s a Deathclaw,” Preston quietly stammered, hesitantly moving towards the edge of the roof to get a better view. His body stiffened as he stared straight down the street ahead of him.

Joining Preston at the edge, Amy lined up her eyeshot with his, and now she knew why the men drained of all color at the predatorial roar.

“Is that….a dinosaur? Or has Lucifer just manifested on our plane? Are all creatures in this fucking hellscape that large??” she shot at Preston, anxiety pushing it out faster than she intended.

A curious but dumbfounded look overtook Preston’s face, not really paying attention to much of her verbal barrage. “You don’t know what that is? Unless you’ve been living under a rock, everyone has either heard of one, seen one….or been ended by one. And yes, most of the animals out in the ‘wealth are that big, or close to it.”

She was glad for her helmet, so these men couldn’t see the abject look of pure horror on her face.

“Even better you got that ol’ fusion core into that suit – we’d stand no chance otherwise.” Sturges lamented.

She glared at Sturges.

“Are you suggesting that I go down there to fight that…. monstrosity…hand-to-hand?” she paled.

“I’d do as much damage from up here as you can, then you may have a fighting chance of knocking that beast down to the ground,” he replied simply. “Otherwise, you’re just meat in a can to it.”

Gritting her teeth, she grasped the minigun with a newfound determination and kept her eye on the creature as it meandered down the street, munching on the scattered dead bodies as it moved along. I don’t like this, why is this all up to me, why wasn’t it Nate who survived instead, he’d be better at this…thoughts swirled around in her head relentlessly, causing her head to ache. A gurgling roar broke through her torrent of inner monologue, and she brought her focus to the nightmare on the street down below.

Then the voice drifted straight through the storm in her mind.

“Check on your ammo. How much do you have?”

“The power suit’s integrity isn’t at the greatest level, so use what tools you have, from up here, to weaken it first.”

“Try going for its stomach area. Generally, that is one of the weaker areas of the body for any animal. Keep your best weapons with you as backup so you aren’t left without anything to defend yourself.” Thank the gods her Gauss was nearby in case she ran out of ammo for the minigun.

Revving the minigun up, she fired a quick blast at the Deathclaw to get its attention. One bullet dug itself into the right side of its jaw, but most of the others ricocheted off the hard scales on its arms and back. Blood running down the side of its face, the Deathclaw stretched up to full height and roar-screamed at her, knowing she was the cause of the injury. She opened up the gun completely and released a maelstrom of metal at the overgrown lizard. Fury and pain reverberated in its throat, like it was trying to damn her to the depths of hell for shooting it.

The minigun whirred to a stop within minutes. Out of bullets.

GodDAMNit.

She let the minigun drop to the roof with a loud clang, and she reached for the Gauss, made sure the weapon was loaded, and brought the beast into the crosshairs of her scope. The soft underbelly was being elusive though as it moved, and she was having a hard time locking onto it.

“I need to get down there to get a better shot of its stomach area – what’s the fastest way to get down from here, so I’m not falling through floors with the weight of this suit?” she directed at Sturges, hoping the man at least had some helpful advice to give this time.

“Jump down! The suit negates any fall damage, as far as I understand,” he replied.

She looked down; it was a 3-story drop, and her fear of heights was putting up a fight. The flash had not come up yet, and the whispers were silent, so this was all on her.

“Maximum effort,” she whispered absentmindedly to herself, hoping that Sturges was right about the suit, and stepped off of the edge of the roof.

The suit made a deep crater as she landed, semi-superhero-style, but thankfully she was able to stay mostly upright and bring the gun to firing position moments later. A vicious snarl to her right turned her focus, and there was the bright light again. It wouldn’t stop this time though, and it seemed to only get brighter; she thought Preston’s and Sturges’ voices drifted into her ears, but they seemed so distant. She fought against the brilliance so she could see again, her brain almost recoiling at the strain. Pain erupted from behind her ears and reached across her scalp, ebbing and throbbing in tune to her erratic breathing. What seemed like hours were only mere minutes as the flash appeared to be fading, just in time for her to see the Deathclaw drop with a loud thud in front of her, intestines and other organs sliding across the road from the large hole in the beast’s abdomen.

This was just getting irritating. She did not like the loss of control of her own body, her own consciousness in fact, when this ‘flash’ decided to take the wheel. The pain was new to the equation though.

Taking a moment to steady her breathing, she started hearing gunfire coming from one of the buildings, and she took off in that direction. The flash made more appearances as the Raiders were silenced one by one by the deafening shots of the Gauss, leaving her to view the aftermath each time.

As she stood to gather her bearings, she strained to hear any further discharge of weapons, of which she heard none; voices began to drift from the direction of the museum, so she turned and made her way back to the group of refugees. They had gathered around the Deathclaw, and Sturges had a knife out to collect dinner from the carcass. Preston handed her back pack back to her, where she attached her Gauss and removed her hunting rifle to save on the potentially rare ammo for the energy weapon. She sort of hung the pack from one shoulder since the straps wouldn’t reach across her back while she was in the suit.

When she had stomped up to Preston a few moments before, their chatter slowed to a halt, and all eyes went to her, wide and in…fear? Or was it awe? No, definitely a small twinge of fear, with something else mixed in that she couldn’t quite place, which suddenly made her uncomfortable. This made her fidget in the suit, and the desire to be out of the claustrophobia-inducing shell she continued to stomp around in began to increase quickly.

Preston eyed the horizon, and noticing the sun getting real low, he announced to the group that as soon as Sturges had finished gathering the meat from the mountainous corpse, they needed to move quicky towards a place known as Sanctuary Hills.

“Preston”, she quietly said (as quiet as possible with her being in the suit) as she clambered up to him. “I, uh, know Sanctuary pretty well. There’s plenty of places there to fix up to livable condition, but there’s one house….um…would you be able to leave it alone?”

He gave a puzzled look, but nodded.

“I’ll fill you in on more info once we get there,” she stated. “I don’t feel comfortable doing that out in the open like this, and I’d like to get everyone settled before it gets too dark out.”

“Let’s get there as quickly as possible, and then we can sort out getting the place as secure as we can get it for the night. Once we’ve got that completed, we can discuss things over dinner.”

“Understood. I’ll lead the way then,” she said as she turned to head down the main road out of Concord.

Scanning the surrounding areas with her as she plodded along the road, the dog sporadically kept its nose to the ground and caused the occasional dust cloud to form after a long sniff and huff at something interesting. She kept her gait in the suit slow, as the ragtag group behind her were not able to keep up a grueling pace like she could; she was surprised any of them had any energy left at all. The last rays of the sun shone over the hills as they all carefully crossed the bridge to Sanctuary Hills.

Leading the group to the yellow house across the street from Nate’s, she turned to Sturges and asked where she could store the suit. He pointed at a tall, yellow, metal stand at the far end of the carport. “That there’s a power armor station. It’s designed to hook up to the armor when it’s not in use, so it doesn’t fall and crush someone.”

“Thanks.” She moved towards the station, turned around so her back was facing it, and opened the back of the suit so she could step out. She closed the suit back up, and removed the fusion core for safe keeping, and so no one would steal the suit.

Taking a deep breath of fresh-ish air, she glanced at Preston and asked what she could help with. He started listing a bunch of things that needed to be done, but knowing she didn’t have much left in her before she collapsed from exhaustion, she queried what needed to be done for the night. There would be plenty of time for the rest of his list after everyone could get some sleep. She opted to join Preston in securing the perimeter, while Sturges went to work getting some metal parts put together for a cooking station to cook the meat he harvested from the ‘mythical’ beast she slew in Concord. Mama Murphy found a chair to sit in, and Jun and Marcy gathered parts for Sturges.

Preston matched pace with Amy as they meandered around the neighborhood, which was a feat within itself since she was almost a head taller than him, and his legs were short compared to hers.

“We’ll need to work with Sturges to get some turrets built at the bridge, and I’d imagine some of the collapsed houses could give us some building materials for some walls, maybe a water purifier..,” he added as he drifted into his mind to include them on whatever lists he kept stored there.

“What needs to be done for the night?” she repeated gently, trying to derail his supercharged train of thought before it rammed into the depot.

“Since we don’t have walls, we’ll need a team of two for guard duty around the house. We’ll keep the perimeter tight for tonight, and we’ll see what we have to work with when morning comes around. All of these houses on the outer edge of the area seem to be clear for tonight, but we’ll need to be vigilant in case something decides to take shelter in one of them during the night.”

“I’ll need to take second watch. I’m about ready to collapse and need some sort of sleep before I can feel comfortable enough to be vigilant,” she sighed, hoping the couch in Nate’s house would work for a few hours of sleep.

A delicious scent began to waft in their direction, and with synchronized, quiet movements, both turned their direction back to the yellow house.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Preston’s gait quickened, and Amy rushed to keep up. She must not have been the only one who was starving. Sturges could be seen flipping pieces of meat over a fire, and an audible growl came from her stomach. Well, it has been over 200 years since I’ve had anything to eat, she convinced herself.

“Sturges! That meat almost done?” Preston questioned.

“Just ‘bout, one more flip should do it,” he replied.

A couple minutes later, everyone was gathering around the fire to carefully grab some of the steaming food. Chairs had been pulled from some of the houses and circled the cooking area. Amethyst took enough for her and the dog and found an empty chair to collapse into. She reached down and let the dog gently take the meat from her hand, then she dug into her portion.

“For ugly creatures, they sure do cook up pretty good, don’t they?” Sturges joked, glancing over at her as she ate.

She chuckled, nodding both her approval for the meal, and the laugh.

Grateful murmurs emerged from various places around the fire. Nodding to Sturges to start patrolling when he was done, Preston took the moment to then move his chair closer to Amy.

“So….do you have some time to answer a few questions? Nothing bad, I assure you,” Preston inquired, holding up his hands to placate any worry.

Inhaling a steadying breath, she replied, “Yeah, we need to air things out a little if we’re going to be staying here together. I don’t know much about your group, and no one really knows much about me. Except for Codsworth, the Mr. Handy who hangs out at that blue house, but even then, he doesn’t know much.”

Turning his head to watch the robot hovering in the doorway, he nodded.

Quietly he began to recount the events of the past few days for his group, the deception and massacre in Quincy, the escape up north, and almost meeting their end in Concord after mistaking the museum for a safe place to regroup. She saw the pain and loss pull at his eyes, and her chest ached for them all. What an ordeal to endure, for so many continuous days.

He sighed. “I’m hoping to get the Minutemen going again. We can get settlements running, and on our side, and spread out throughout the Commonwealth as a system of hope and support. We lend a hand to those that need it, whoever they are. If you’re willing, I would love for you to join me – I know I can’t do this on my own.”

“I would be honored to assist, but I need help finding someone first. I came to Concord to see if I could find other survivors, to get information…my nephew, he was kidnapped when my brother was killed. My nephew was just a baby, he…” she started softly sobbing, and she struggled to get any more information out.

“Where did you come from? You said you knew of Sanctuary, were you all sheltering here?”

“We…we were in Vault 111.”

“Vault 111? I haven’t heard of that one. Where is it?”

“Up the hill from here,” she turned her head slightly and nodded to the hill at the back of the settlement.

“Did someone break in? What happened?”

She told him about the bombs falling, rushing to get to the vault, the deception where they were cryogenically frozen instead of being decontaminated, Scarface and the hazmat suits, the gunshot. He didn’t interrupt once, and as she began to trail off, she noticed conversation around the fire had stopped. Everyone was looking at her with varying emotion behind each glance – sadness, disbelief, empathy. Ducking her eyes down, she longed for the minutes before when she wasn’t the center of attention.

“I’m…I’m so sorry. You were there for the bombs? Like the Great War? Don’t meet too many who can say that, aside from the ghouls. People disappearing is unfortunately common, but not a baby, at least as far as I know. Raiders may have broken in for ransom, but who would have known you were down there if you were still frozen? Hmmm. Possibly the Institute..” Preston eventually silenced his thought process.

“Institute?” she asked, not sure of the term.

“The Institute is a group who have hidden themselves from the rest of us, thought to be scientists from an old school somewhere in Boston before the Great War. They developed robots that look like humans, called synths. Some of them, you can tell they are robots….but they’ve gotten more sophisticated, and those newer versions, you can’t tell a human apart from them. They bleed, they have skin. It’s hard to know which are friendly, and which you need to keep your gun ready for. No one knows where they are based out of, so fear is pretty rampant out there that anyone can get snatched by them anywhere, and at any time.”

Her eyes widened. “I don’t know, the man with the scar on his face, he was dressed a little like those people outside of the museum…Raiders…right? But since he had those scientists with him…it could have been the Institute. I don’t know where to even start looking.”

A gruff voice from a few seats down said, “You need to find the Great Green Jewel of the Commonwealth. Someone out of time, not much unlike yourself, will guide you through the chaos of the man with the scar. He dwells within the jewel.”

Amy turned her head to look at the old woman, extremely puzzled by what she just said.

“Mama Murphy, have you found chems again?” Sturges chided.

Glaring at him, Mama Murphy shook her head to give a negative response, and turned back to Amy. Mama’s eyes bore into her soul, unwavering.

“You. The Dragon with Emerald Eyes. The Sight has seen you. Frozen through centuries, you reawaken to bring justice to those who have broken so much. It won’t be easy. You have been given gifts, but right now they are hindering you because you do not know how to use them. Listen to the echoes of the past until you can gain control.”

Slumping down in her chair, the old woman rested her head in her hand, exhaustion evident on her face.

Amy was speechless. Great Green Jewel? The Sight? What did any of that mean?

“Um, ok, someone will need to interpret that for me. What is the Jewel?”

“Sounds like she may mean Diamond City, one of the biggest settlements in the ‘wealth. It’s southeast of here, maybe a day or two, depending on how fast you can travel,” Sturges commented.

“And the ‘someone out of time’? Is that like a time traveler or something? The white rabbit being late for an important date?” Her sarcasm was starting to emerge the more her frustration grew. She needed rest to suppress it; this has certainly been one long fucking day.

“Not sure what she meant by that, sorry,” he replied, a little lost, not sure if she was joking or serious.

Amy rubbed her eyes. Exhaustion was catching up to her quickly, and her brain was going into defense mode, so she asked Preston to wake her for second watch. She pointed to Nate’s house, where she would be staying.

“I’ll come and get you when it’s time,” he said.

Pulling her bag from the ground, she lifted it to her shoulder and began walking across the street. Codsworth floated into the house behind her after she entered. Keeping its distance from the robot’s thruster, the dog snuck around the side of Codsworth and circled around to the front of the couch. Amy followed and sunk down into the cushions, placing the bag on the floor, keeping at least one of her weapons within reach. Stretching her long legs down the length of the couch, her feet hit the armrest before her legs were fully extended. Breathing out a frustrated huff, she curled her legs up until she fit. Exhaling another deep sigh, she slowly drifted off to darkness to the sounds of the dog finding a spot on the floor to sleep, who seemed to be just as exhausted but restless as her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A hand gently pulled her from the abyss a few hours later.

Her eyes were moist, and wet tracks ran down her face. She waded past the dream pools in her lashes to see a fuzzy outline of a bent cowboy hat above her head.

“It’s time, I’ll be around the back of the house,” Preston whispered.

Groggily sitting up, she reached for the hunting rifle on her bag and eased the strap over her shoulder. Turning a knob on the Pip-Boy, she found a playlist on her holotape and placed the earpiece in her ear. Adjusting the volume down so she could still hear the music, and still keep an ear out for anything that decided to go bump in the night, her feet led her out on patrol around the yellow house while her brain desperately struggled to keep up. The dog silently kept pace with her as they made their rounds by the house.

As the first blushes of sunrise began to stretch across the horizon, Amy got up from the chair by the fire where she had briefly rested to warm her hands up. Her eyes scanned the neighborhood as she had the past couple of hours, not seeing or hearing anything….until a slight buzzing caught her attention. Turning her head towards the big tree in the roundabout, a fuzzy black ball was haphazardly floating its way towards her. Pulling the hunting rifle from her shoulder, she lined up her eye with the scope, and brought up the crosshairs so it centered on the flying dot. Finger nearing the trigger, she felt the bright light start to spiderweb at the edges of her vision, but it didn’t completely overtake it with brightness like before; she was able to lock in on the oversized insect within moments and pulled the trigger. It exploded into a gooey mess while the brightness around the edges of her vision faded.

That was….odd. Why did the flash seem more subdued this time around? Was it due to the size of the enemy? She had only fought big enemies up to this point, so it might be possible.

She couldn’t make sense of it though.

Preston circled the corner in a hurry, gun raised, eyes wide.

“It was a bug of some sort. Looked like a huge fly,” she explained.

Relief and understanding crossed his face as he lowered his weapon. “Damn things are a nuisance,” he stated. “Be careful though, they like to spit at you as a defensive maneuver.”

“I didn’t let it get close enough for that.”

He nodded in agreement. “Best way to take them down, as long as you have a good distance weapon.”

She cleared her throat. “Preston, how do I get to the Jewel? Where is it exactly? I need to help my nephew, and with not knowing how long it’s been since he was taken, I didn’t want to waste any more time.”

“I’ll add the coordinates to your Pip-Boy.” As he reached to turn a knob, his hand jerked back slightly as his eyes scanned the device. “Is that even a Pip-Boy? I haven’t seen something like that before.”

“It…was my brother’s. He was in the military during the war, and he had access to things like this. I’m guessing it’s a Pip-Boy,” she shrugged.

He turned the dials and entered in the coordinates. She lifted her wrist up so she could pull up the map on the screen – it looked like a long walk that would require finding somewhere to stay overnight at least once, like Sturges had explained the night before. She needed supplies before she could head out. She wondered if another trip into Nate’s cellar would be a good idea; she barely knew these people, and if she left, the entrance would be vulnerable, and they would know where it is from her making noise to get down into it. She needed to make a list to make sure a trip would be warranted.

“What kind of supplies should I bring?” she questioned, hoping to get some ideas.

“Water, Stimpaks, ammo if you have extras, caps…”

“Caps? Is that like a chem?”

“Caps are used to exchange for goods and services.”

“Like a form of currency?”

“What’s currency?”

She chuckled while she sighed, knowing she was not ready for that kind of conversation. “Do you have any caps on you, so I know what to look for?”

Preston reached into his pocket and pulled out a cap for her to see.

“A bottle cap?! That’s a ‘cap’?” She had seen some in the museum, but didn’t pick them up, thinking it was garbage, or someone’s collection, like she had seen with stamps. Now she was kicking herself.

“If you have any Rad-X or RadAway, that would be helpful too, especially if you run into any ferals,” he cringed at the thought.

“Ferals?” A blank look took over her face.

“When the bombs dropped, some people got huge doses of radiation. Of those people, some were able to go on living somewhat normal lives, but had become ‘disfigured’, for lack of a better term. Those are ghouls. They’re just like you and me, only with an obvious ‘skin condition’.

“Ferals, on the other hand, look like ghouls but they’ve lost it mentally somehow. They can’t think, and they only seem to act upon instinct to attack. And they’re FAST and like to hide in weird places, so be cautious. They can give a good dose of rads with a scratch or a bite. Their eyes tend to glow, or reflect light a bit, whereas regular ghouls’ eyes don’t. Ghouls also tend to have very red-rimmed eyes, or be completely black. Good differences to remember between the two so you don’t make a costly mistake.”

Zombies are a thing now, gotcha, she sarcastically responded in her head. She nodded in understanding, even though she wasn’t really sure she did. She would need to see them for herself.

“Food is also a good thing to have on you. Take some of the meat left over from last night. Fires are not generally a good idea..” he began.

“..because a fire can draw attention to your position,” she finished for him. He shook his head in agreement.

“Ok. That gives me a starting point. Were any supplies found earlier from around the neighborhood? I’m hoping I don’t have to dive into more ruins than needed, but I don’t know if we have all of those items here.”

“I’ll ask around and see what had been found.”

“Thanks.”

She needed to go back to her brother’s cellar; she didn’t want to take what meager supplies this group had, as they would need as much as they could get while she was gone. Notifying Codsworth of her plan after grabbing the keys from the safe, she quietly slunk around the corner to the back yard in hopes she didn’t attract any attention. He drifted out to the front yard and began busying himself with the very dead shrubbery, keeping his three optical appendages on anyone who passed by as he snipped the twigs.

Uncovering the door to the cellar this time around took less effort, and soon she found herself back in the underground darkness. She took the flashlight and lit the lantern; she needed to take an inventory of the safe before she left to ease her anxiety. On one of the shelves lining the side of the room she found various bottles and containers of food, purified water, and medications that she had only skimmed over in her first trip down here. She added two bags of RadAway and a bottle of RadX to her bag, along with more water. A sleeping bag made its way to a strap on the bag; she doubted she would be able to sleep much along the way, but it would help to keep her warm if she did find the time and safety to rest. She grabbed a canister of jet and a bottle of something called Day Tripper too and added it to her bag.

Unlocking the safe, she made her way to the corner where she had found her perfume. Pulling out the red folder, she flipped through the pieces of paper quickly, skimming each page before she moved on to the next. Looks like a mission report, something pretty high level she guessed to herself. West-Tek, Enclave, and Vault-Tec logos and mentions are all over it too….that can’t be good. Reaching back to that corner, she replaced the folder within and looked inside the space. More folders were stacked in the center, and a small cylindrical container sat to the side. I’ll need to come back to these once I return. This seems like too much to try to dive into now. I need to focus on Shaun for Nate.

Scanning her eyes over the remainder of the contents of the safe, she mentally took record of everything she could see, from the weapons still hanging, to the stacks of holotapes, and everything in between. Satisfied, she closed the doors and locked them, blew out the lantern and replaced the flashlight on the wall, and ascended the ladder.

Burying the doors once more, she glanced around in hopes no one saw her. She went around the back of the house this time just to be cautious, and entered the house from the carport. The keys went back into the safe, and she replaced the debris over it, hoping it looked undisturbed.

She walked out of the house and crossed the street towards Sturges and Preston. Turning her head and squinting, she eyed the sun’s location; she would need to head out in the morning since the sun was much lower than where she had anticipated. No way she was going to travel at night, and she would need to find shelter quickly if she left now. “Hey guys, I think I’ll be heading out in the morning, so I can take first watch tonight. Anything I can help with until then?”

Nearly simultaneously turning towards her, the men smiled and shook their heads. “We’ve got things handled. Hang out by the fire for a bit, food should be ready shortly.” Preston replied.

She thanked them and dropped into a nearby chair. She then noticed a soft tune encasing her ear; she had forgotten about the holotape and the earpiece, which she returned to its compartment to charge.

Leftover Deathclaw pieces were handed out, along with an odd purple fruit that had been found growing wild around the neighborhood. It had an odd tang to it, almost metallic, but still sweet. Once she finished her meal, she got up from the fire to begin her watch. She placed the earpiece back in her ear as she and the dog guarded the group as they disappeared one by one into the yellow house, eyes always scanning the dark woods beyond the buildings.

A few hours later, she nudged Preston awake and he took over. She collapsed onto the couch at Nate’s shortly after, but rest was nowhere to be found. All she could muster were nightmares of men in white lab coats housed in bright, sterile lighting, and something kept her tied to a table. Needles jabbed her endlessly, and pain echoed throughout her body. Spasms in her arm roused her, and she sat up, breathless and covered in a thin sheen of sweat.

If I’m going to be any help to Shaun, I need to get these episodes figured out – I don’t need to short circuit and put him in danger. Maybe there’s a head doctor somewhere that can take a look.

Hopefully Diamond City, the Jewel, would hold some answers for her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the first soft rays of sunrise streamed in every crack and crevice, one particularly big beam found its way right into her face. She grimaced and grabbed for her sunglasses, which she placed around her head, giving her eyes the relief she was hoping for. I’m not even hung over, she morosely complained to herself. Does alcohol even exist out here? That would be a good thing to find out, because for some reason she was desperately craving a drink, even though she had been (somewhat) sober for almost two years before the bombs fell. Having that sudden thought in her mind disappointed her. She had nearly died because of alcohol. And now her brain wanted to go right back to that method of self-destruction through toxicity.

Clenching her jaw, she pushed the thoughts from her head as hard as she could, and got up to look for Preston; she decided if it was possible to get herself cleaned up a bit before she headed out, she would do so. No use in caking on more dirt and grime if she could clear most of it off now, and she stunk. Bad. Plus, focusing on that may help keep those booze-induced demon thoughts from coming back.

Preston and Sturges sat by the embers of the dying fire as she walked up to them. “Hey guys, is there any water that I can use to clean up? I figured the river water was out of the question with the radiation, but I didn’t know if another source like a well had been found.”

Sturges chuckled from deep in his chest. “You’re in luck, little lady – Jun found a hand-powered water pump out behind one of houses, and it seems to pull up water that’s low in rads, but you’ll need to use that device on your wrist to confirm. I have schematics in mind for a water purifier, but we’ll need materials we don’t have here before we can build it. Hey, since you’re going to Diamond City, can you keep an eye out for a few supplies and bring them back? I can give you a few caps to help if you need to buy anything, but I don’t have much, so as much as you can salvage would be best.”

Having a mission for the way there eased some of the stress she had started feeling about her upcoming trek, and she smiled in agreement. She entered in the items into her Pip-Boy.

“Ames, please consider my offer of rebuilding the Minutemen. Can you check out a couple of places on your way that may make good settlements? And if anyone is in need of help, if you’re able to without putting yourself in danger, please do what you can and let them know the Minutemen are glad to assist,” Preston added. “There’s more to do, but this will aid the cause until you return.”

Her smile became strained; of course she wanted to help anyone she could, but she needed to get to Diamond City, and fast. She didn’t have endless supplies for her trip, nor the caps for more, so any further delays would cause her to have to stop to scavenge more often. Plus, she was never a fan of that specific shortening of her name, and with it making an appearance again even after all this time, it grated on her nerves. How did everyone wind up calling her that? Was there a memo she missed, or a meeting? But seeing as they had already helped her so much, she gave in and agreed. Preston entered the locations on her map. 

Picking up a bucket she found by the power armor station, she followed Sturges’ directions to the water pump and filled the bucket, carefully carrying it back to Nate’s. In the bathroom, she stripped her clothing so she was in her birthday suit and scrubbed every inch that she could reach, using a bar of soap that had hidden itself behind the toilet, and a piece of decaying towel that had been on the towel rack. Pulling her hair from the ponytail she had last fixed up before the bombs, she did as much as she could to get the past two centuries’ worth of oils and grime from her locks. Once completed, she looked into the mirror to return her wet hair to a ponytail.

Green eyes with flecks of hazel, sat within dark circles, stared back at her; the lack of good sleep after her 200+ year ‘nap’ wasn’t doing her any favors. Opening her lips and clenching her teeth together to check their condition, her square face seemed even more square with the strain of her muscles going all the way down her long neck. The ridge of the scar that crossed from her right temple, diagonally under her right eye down her cheek to her nose, then straight down to the corner of her mouth and to her chin hadn’t changed; she had only received that scar months before the bombs and it had still been a bit angry and red then, but with the passage of time it had shrunk down to a slight, jagged line. Eyeing the rest of her body in the mirror, she noted that any muscles she had from before were either minimalized or gone, and her bones showed through a little more than she remembered. Her eyes closed and squeezed shut against the self-disparaging thoughts that threatened to come out; she had not been much to look at before (even with her tall stature), and with these changes, she would need time to adjust. Body negativity had been a consistent struggle for her for most of her life, and being centuries in the future didn’t change that.

Pushing a frustrated sigh out, she dried off as much as the limited surface area of the towel would allow, and pulled her almost-shoulder-length auburn hair back into a ponytail, except she fashioned it into a tight bun this time. No need to ‘expose’ more of her hair to the grungy atmosphere of this place than needed.

Her clothes found their way back onto her, piece by piece, along with her armor, and boots. She poured the used water down an old drain.

“Codsworth”, she called out to the robot. “I need you to do a few things while I go to Diamond City.”

“Yes, Miss Amethyst?” he came up to the bathroom doorway.

“Aside from keeping an eye on the cellar door and the bedroom safe, can you try to help out Preston and Sturges if they ask for it? Their survival until I can come back is important. I don’t know how long this trip may take me, and they may need help with protection.”

“Miss, do you need to even go? It’s so dangerous out there, you should just stay here.”

“Codsworth,” she began despondently, “I need to find Shaun. Nate isn’t here anymore to take care of him, and I need to at least be there for the last family I have in this godforsaken place, even if it winds up being closure on Shaun’s whereabouts, gods forbid. Diamond City has someone there who may be able to help me.”

“Then take me with you! What happens if you don’t make it there, or back home?”

She cringed at the word “home”. This place wasn’t her true home, it had been Nate’s and Nora’s. Home to her was very, very far away in Colorado, in the ‘Four Corners’ Commonwealth, and she probably wouldn’t ever see ‘her’ mountains again in her lifetime. Her eyes became misty at the thought.

“I need someone here to watch over Nate’s house. That cellar has important items in it, and since I’m not 100% sure on exactly what everything in there is for yet, I don’t want anything of Nate’s to get into the wrong hands. Also, I’ll take the dog with me so I’m not traveling alone.”

Computing this latest series of tasks, Codsworth reluctantly agreed to keep watch, and to help if Preston and Sturges required it.

Amy sat on the couch and inventoried her bag one more time, hoping she didn’t forget or neglect something important to include. Satisfied, she swung the bag onto her back and walked out the door, the dog following next to her.

Mama Murphy called out to her as she exited Nate’s house. “Dragon with Emerald Eyes, if you’re taking Dogmeat with you, take these too.” She handed two cans of dog food to her.

“Dogmeat?”

“That seems to be the general consensus of the dog’s name.”

“Does Dogmeat have an owner? I didn’t see anyone at the Red Rocket, except for that body on the other side of the bridge.”

“Dogmeat decides to follow those who need him. He has no specific owner, but everyone seems to know him.”

Glad at the reassurance that she wasn’t stealing someone’s pet unknowingly, she thanked Mama Murphy and headed towards the bridge out of Sanctuary.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Amy decided to head southeast-ish towards Preston’s first marker for potential settlements after reviewing the map once more; it looked to be the drive-in movie theater she remembered passing by on her way to Nate’s from the airport. From there she could head south to Greygarden and Oberland Station, and then a bit more southeast to Chestnut Hillock Reservoir; once there she would need to turn east to put her close to Diamond City. That was the plan, anyways.

And as everyone knows, even the best laid plans don’t go according to schedule.

Starlight Drive-In could be a decent settlement; there’s plenty of room to build, if the radioactive water pit in the middle could be cleared, and the skeletons scattered around removed and buried. Aside from the medium-dog-sized creatures that popped up out of the ground and scared the shit out of her, it seemed to be a great central location to the other spots on her map. Unfortunately, her search for supplies didn’t turn up much. She made notes on her Pip-Boy and they moved on to the next location, choosing to put in her earpiece for the duration.

Deciding to follow some railroad tracks that headed to the west around Lexington and the Corvega plant instead of cutting through the small town (the tall but crumbling buildings made her nervous), she and Dogmeat eventually made their way to Jalbert Brothers Disposal. They had to tread carefully around the tracks, as a few wrecked box cars had spilled numerous barrels of nuclear waste. Her Pip-Boy clicked with such ferocity that she immediately put as much distance as she could between her and those barrels; hopefully she would be able to avoid using her limited RadAway. More of those medium-dog-sized creatures were at the junk yard too; one of them even had a familiar sickly-green glow to it, just like the roach in the vault. Between her and Dogmeat, they made quick work of the creatures and moved on to Greygarden, which was just down the hill.

She was not prepared for a garden run completely by Mr. Handys.

Supervisor White seemed to be the only one she could clearly communicate with; Supervisor Green appeared to be programmed from daytime garbage TV game shows and turned out to be a bit cryptic.  Supervisor Brown only reiterated what Supervisor White had told her, but used less words – a nearby water treatment plant required someone to go through it and find out about the dropping water pressure to the Garden. She added that to her growing list of Minutemen responsibilities, and she would have to return after her Diamond City excursion. She thanked Supervisor White, and descended down the hill, across the railway bridge over the river towards Oberland.

The two women at Oberland welcomed her and Dogmeat, and opened their cooking station to her so she could warm up their leftovers. Knowing more travel was on her horizon, she inquired about staying the night.

“We’re more than happy to have you stay, but we’re limited on space in the control tower, so it may be a tight squeeze,” one of them had said.

Maybe she could stretch out of the doorway at the foot of their beds up there; at least she’d have part of a roof over her head, and she would be off the ground. Dogmeat would need to stay at the base of the stairs though.

Once the leftovers were ready, she shared what she had with the ladies and Dogmeat. Quiet conversation ensued; Amy discussed the Minutemen and what Preston was hoping to accomplish, and while the ladies seemed interested, they were wary of making any kind of agreement due to the small size of their settlement. She left it at that – just planting the idea in their minds, and hoping it would sprout into something positive, for both theirs and Preston’s sakes. They all settled down for the night after dinner, but restorative sleep once again eluded her and left her more exhausted than it had the day before. At least she didn’t have the sterile nightmares again, and she didn’t scare the crap out of her hostesses with whatever came out of her mouth while she was out of it.

As dawn was starting her ascent through the sky, Amy gathered her belongings and started out on her way to Chestnut Hillock Reservoir.

The trip wasn’t supposed to take long according to her map, but they ran into more of those oversized flies, and once they got to the reservoir, multiple mosquitos nearly the size of Dogmeat flew directly at them from a decimated corpse at the shore. Her hunting rifle stilled their erratic movements quickly. How is this a reservoir again…? she wondered to herself. There’re houses all the way around it, and it’s almost in downtown Boston…it’s just a glorified pond. This was definitely not something she was used to seeing back home, where reservoirs were either surrounded by open land, or up in the mountains…surrounded by open land. She cautiously made her way around the lake to the northeast, and breathed in a few deep breaths as she headed into the outskirts of the city, not knowing what fun, deranged, murderous creatures awaited for her within.

She didn’t need to wait long for horrors of her worst nightmares to come into focus, as large, green men began to yell and shoot at her from upper levels of multiple broken-down buildings. Dogmeat suddenly began to growl ferociously as a massive, green-tinged hound from hell, with teeth big and numerous enough to chomp through solid steel, bounded around a corner and began to howl at them. Fuck me running, we need to get our asses out of here! She swapped the rifle for her Gauss, spiderwebs beginning to form at the edges of her vision as she lined up her shot. One, two, three….four… five…she counted quickly as the hound and some of the green men all dropped after one shot each, most to the head or upper torso. As she caught her breath, her open ear picked up a distinctive beeping that quickened in pace, and got louder as it got closer. Not wanting to know what was heading her way, she took off at a run with Dogmeat close at her heels, zigzagging through alleyways and along the sides of streets to keep from being an easy target. Dashing to a clearing at the end of the road, she ran until she was stopped by a large metal gate at a large building. A woman in a red jacket and a paperboy hat was yelling into an intercom, angrily attempting to convince someone on the other end to let her in.

“You can’t do this to me! Danny, I know where you live! Let me in!” she cried.

“You should have thought about that before printing what you did in your paper, Piper. You know the mayor would do something about it,” replied the voice from the intercom.

The woman fumed in frustration, growling out an angry yell. Turning her direction, the woman’s quick gaze landed on Amy and Dogmeat and beckoned them over to the intercom.

“If you don’t let me in, Danny, I’ll just tell my new friend here to turn her trading caravan around. I’m sure Myrna will be happy to hear about the loss of caps and supplies,” she coaxed the box while eyeing Amy.

“Ugh. Fine. Wait just a minute,” the voice responded.

“What the hell is going on here?” Amy hesitantly whispered, wondering what she was just drawn into.

“If you want to get into Diamond City, play along,” the woman hissed between her teeth as the door began to grind open. “Name’s Piper, by the way.”

“Amethyst. Glad to know I finally found the Great Green Jewel of the Commonwealth,” she muttered back, rolling her eyes slightly as a rotund man walked toward them from behind the gate. Amy stood a little straighter and a little stiffer as he approached, not liking the vibe she was getting from his tight-assed walk.

“Piper, I told you that I would lock you out if you printed those lies,” he fumed.

“I live here McDonough! Nat is inside, I need to get to her,” she pleaded in frustration.

The fat man’s eyes roamed over to Amy and widened in embarrassment at the argument she was overhearing. “I’m sorry you got involved in this, ma’am, and I hope it doesn’t tarnish your view of our great city,” he persuaded. “Please, come in! Welcome to Diamond City!”

“Uh, thanks,” Amy mumbled, not really liking his version of a “welcome” to a newcomer.

“What brings you here? Can I show you around?”

Amy shuddered internally at the thought of being around this bucket of flab more than she needed to.

“No thanks. I’m trying to find someone,” she replied as she started to skirt around him towards the entrance. Amy caught a glare from Piper to McDonough.

“See, Mayor? Someone else has gone missing! What are you going to do about it?” Piper sneered.

“Our security can’t look into everyone’s missing person reports, Piper,” McDonough chided, eyeing Piper with contempt. “They still need to focus on safety both inside and outside of the wall. But, you can check in with Nick Valentine, our resident detective. Just look for his neon sign.” With that, it was amazing at how quickly the bulky man turned and left.

“Hey,” Piper sidled up to Amy. “You’re looking for someone specific? I can walk you to Nick’s.”

“Thanks. It seems a little confusing here,” she replied, sidestepping part of the question while looking over what once used to be a ballfield. Fenway, I think? Damn, Dad would know this….she wistfully thought, her throat getting a little tight at the thought of her family, and how she would probably never see them again.

“It’s not so bad once you get used to it,” Piper shrugged. “Nick’s is over this way.”

A few more turns and down an alley got them to a door with a bright pink neon sign. Piper strolled up to the door and knocked before opening it.

“Hey Ellie, how are you? Is Nick in?” she greeted Nick’s secretary as she entered.

“Piper, hi. Yeah, he was but he stepped out to follow a lead in the Upper Stands. He should be back soon.”

“Ok, thanks. We’ll be around the marketplace if he gets back here before we do,” Piper replied.

“Guess we have some time to kill. Are you hungry? We have the best noodles here if you’d like to try them,” Piper said as she spun around to leave.

“Um, I don’t have many caps. I didn’t really have much luck finding any on the way here.”

“I’ve got it covered, but next time, it’s your treat,” she joked.

Amy felt the corner of her mouth inch up into a slight grin. “Ok, deal.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The noodles were heavenly.

The robot serving them was a little odd though, and wasn’t much of a conversationalist.

Not seeing Nick, they decided to head back to the agency and get out of the crowd that had begun to form as the sun dipped lower in the sky, and the merchants started the process of closing for the day. They wove through the walkways and arrived back at the glowing pink sign.

Piper knocked again, pushing the door open wide enough so the both of them could fit through. They were greeted by an almost overwhelming cloud of cigarette smoke.

“Nick!” Piper exclaimed, while her companion desperately tried to keep the look of shock off of her face as her eyes locked on the figure sitting at the desk.

I’ve woken up in a sci-fi movie. Robots looking like men? The man in front of her was missing part of his face, and gears and metal parts showed through the openings. One hand was devoid of the same ‘skin’ and was completely mechanical. I wonder if this is the synth that Preston spoke of.

Amy attempted to casually observe the marvel of technology in front of her, but her fascination overtook everything, and she wound up staring instead.

“Take a picture, it might last longer,” Nick chuckled, with humor in his voice.

Amy’s face flushed a bright red, and her eyes grew as big as saucers. “Sorry,” she stammered, her eyes immediately darting somewhere, anywhere else other than the figure in front of her. “This is all a little new to me.”

A ridge that was supposed to be Nick’s eyebrow raised slightly.

“Not from around here, I take it?”

“Long story, no. Short story….also no.”

Nick laughed again. “How can I help you? Ellie told me you had been looking for me earlier.”

Amy took a deep breath, knowing what was coming next and tried to mentally prepare herself. “May I sit? It’s been a long couple of days.”

Nick gestured to the chair in front of his desk while putting out his cigarette in the overflowing ashtray at his elbow. “Please. I should have offered as soon as you came in. You look like death warmed over, no offense intended though.”

Amy laughed weakly. “You don’t know the half of it.”

“Let’s change that. Please, start at the beginning.”

Amy began recounting everything that happened in the last week. Piper had found a seat at some point, enraptured in the tale, and even Ellie had paused her filing to listen in. Nick would ask a question here and there, but he otherwise allowed her to continue uninterrupted. By the end, she was even more exhausted than when she walked in the door to Diamond City, and tears ran down her face freely.

Silence filled the room. Nick pulled a pack of smokes from his pocket, and held the pack out to Amy.

“I haven’t smoked in years, but after everything this week, I may wind up starting back up,” she quipped dryly as she pulled a cigarette from the pack.

“I don’t blame you. That’s quite a lot for one person to go through, in just under a week nonetheless! And no hard feelings with the stare earlier. You took it better than most who see a synth for the first time, to be honest.” He held out his lighter so she could light her smoke.

Her face went red again. She didn’t want to be known for being unwelcoming to anyone she met, unless they were an asshole to begin with, like McDonough.

“Well, Amy, we need to get a better picture of the man with the scar. That’s the best lead we have, especially since we don’t know when they came into the vault and kidnapped Shaun. We should pay a visit to Dr. Amari in Goodneighbor; she has a way of ‘replaying’ old memories, but that would mean…”

“…needing to relive my brother getting shot, and Shaun taken.” she finished for him, looking down and fidgeting with the Pip-Boy on her wrist absentmindedly. This was going to be more difficult than she thought.

The weathered detective nodded.

Amy closed her eyes tight, and a heavy sigh escaped her lips. A tear snuck out of the corner of her eye, and she let it course down her cheek uninterrupted.

“Can we wait a day? I feel like I’m going to collapse from lack of sleep, even after my unintended 200+ year nap. Is there somewhere I could stay that doesn’t cost a lot, and would allow a dog? I’m a little light on caps at the moment, and I’m sure there’s not many options for me, other than going back out of the city and finding somewhere to bunk down…” she trailed off.

Nick’s brow furrowed as his eyes clouded with concern. “I’m not going to kick anyone needing help to the curb, let alone send them back out into the wastes with nowhere to go. I have a bed here that I don’t use. You’re welcome to it for as long as you need, and when you’re ready, we can prepare to head to Goodneighbor,” he gently responded.

Tears began to pool again in Amy’s eyes as she was overcome with the generosity being shown to her. Between Piper, Nick, Preston, and Sturges, she was grateful for their help, and was quickly regarding them as friends….and her stomach began to twist into knots as memories from her freshman year of high school came bounding back to her with reckless abandon. The ‘friends’ she thought would always be there for her. The ‘friends’ that unceremoniously ditched her when she switched schools, and who told her they only let her hang out with them because ‘they felt bad for her’. She shook her head, trying to escape from the memories that haunted her, even after all this time. These people are different, they won’t leave you, and this isn’t some religious, all-girls high school either, Amy, she chided herself, suddenly angry with how easy her brain went right back to being so very insecure. Apparently, her frosty nap didn’t diminish that charming characteristic.

When she looked up again, all she saw was pure concern from everyone focused on her. “Sorry,” she mumbled, not sure how to begin explaining the thought process her brain dragged her on all the time. “Got lost in thought for a minute.”

Piper smiled and patted Amy’s shoulder, and Nick nodded, but with that concerned look hovering in the background. Ellie handed her a container of purified water, which she gratefully accepted and emptied within moments.

“Hey Blue, I’ve got to get back to my sister at home. You gonna be ok?” Piper said, looking over at her. Amy gave a small, sad nod. “Make sure you let me know before you leave, I have an idea on something that I would like to run by you. I’d do it now, but you’ve been through an ordeal already, and you need some rest.”

“Sure, Piper. I’ll come find you.”

Grinning, Piper exited the door, shutting it softly.

Nick cleared his throat, if that was even possible for a synth. “Let’s get you some shut eye, doll. You’ve told your harrowing tale, but I’m afraid it sounds like it isn’t over, and you’ll need your strength to get through whatever else winds up getting thrown at you.”

A slight smile emerged on her face. “Yeah, you’re right. We’ll discuss things more later.”

Nick led Amy around the corner to a bed, clean sheets sitting on top. “Ellie, you’re an angel,” he said as he leaned around the corner to look over at his secretary.

“I didn’t want you docking my pay,” she cheerfully returned, sarcasm scattered lightly within.

Rolling his eyes with a smirk, he pointed to a dresser. “You can put your bag on top there. I’ll be out at my desk if you need anything.” He turned and wandered towards a filing cabinet. Dogmeat shuffled into the room after Nick departed, and found a spot on the floor to curl up. She gave his ears a good scratching, and began taking off her boots and armor, which she placed next to her bag on the dresser. She tried to stretch out on the bed, but much like Nate’s couch, it was just a tad short for her. With a slightly frustrated huff, she brought her legs up and mimicked the dog in curling up into a ball. She stared at the wall, wondering if she would even be able to sleep as her eyes closed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She was in a sterile room, people surrounding her as she was strapped to a table. Monitors outnumbered the people, but that didn’t alleviate her fear. She couldn’t move her head, and multiple IV lines connected to her arms.

“Ok, Nora, we’re going to start the procedure. I want you to stay as still as possible,” a voice spoke to her.

Nora? I’m not Nora, that’s my sister-in-law, she tried to say, but her voice wouldn’t work.

A white lab coat held her arm and inserted a needle into one of her IV lines.

What are they giving to me? What am I doing here? Where’s Nate??? she attempted to yell, but either the dream mechanics weren’t letting her, or her voice was truly on hiatus. Then the pain surged through her entire body, from the tiny hairs on her forehead, all the way down to the nails on her toes. She felt like fire was consuming her from the inside out, and she thrashed on the table. Everything went dark.

She came to on the floor, Dogmeat giving her a confused look, and the hurried steps of Nick racing around the corner. “Amy? Are you alright?”

Shivering from the sweat that drenched her, she looked up at him with wide, frightened eyes.

“You said that Dr. Amari is a head doctor? I’ve been having these…” she paused, not sure if she should share further. Gritting her teeth and deciding to trust Nick against her mind’s arguments, she continued. “…these episodes ever since I woke up in the vault. It’s always the same place, but I don’t recognize it at all. I’m on a table, and there’s IV lines everywhere, men in lab coats…” she collapsed even further into herself and began sobbing heavily. Nick kneeled and held his hand steadily on her shoulder, trying to ground her as she cried.

“Sweetheart, breathe. You’re not there now. You’re here with me, Ellie, and Dogmeat. You’re safe. Come and sit on the bed.” He grasped her arm gently and guided her back to the mattress.

After a few minutes, her sobbing had downgraded to choked sniffles, but her body still thrummed with panic. She felt like she could vibrate herself off of the bed again with how much she shook. The detective sat down next to her and put a comforting arm around her shoulder.

“We’ll make sure to ask Dr. Amari about that before anything else. You can’t survive much longer like this if you aren’t able to rest when you need to,” Nick reassured her. “You let me know if you think you’re going to need more than a day to recoup too. Why don’t you take a bath. I know that always used to help me get over the jitters when I couldn’t sleep.”

Confusion lit up Amy’s eyes as she looked into his; how was he able to take a bath without short-circuiting himself? Nick saw it and coughed. “Right. I haven’t really told you about me yet, and it seems a bit rude of me at this point not to.”

Calmly delving into a story, he recounted how he woke up in the trash bin of the Institute. Memories from a pre-war detective had been inserted into his processing unit, so he didn’t know who he was when he awoke. He told how he wandered around, trying to figure everything out after being launched a century into the future. He spoke of the kindness of the strangers that took him in and made him feel more human than he had a right to feel, knowing his body couldn’t possibly pass for one. The inner turmoil he had each day.

Amy wiped at her wet cheeks as a deep ache filled her chest. No matter what year it is, people still find a way to be biased, she lamented as she shook her head slightly. She reached out for his hand, his mechanical hand, and held it lightly. She didn’t have words yet for him, so she let her eyes convey the sadness she felt for him as she sighed deeply.

“I’m…I’m not quite sure what to say, Nick. I had hoped that maybe time would improve that particular cancer within society, but I see it hasn’t changed a bit. I’m so sorry.”

“All you can do is keep trying to move forward, right?” he sighed.

“Yeah. Can’t give up, otherwise they win.”

Nodding in approval, he got up and moved towards the stairs. “The bath is upstairs. I’ll start getting some water ready for you.”

“Thanks Nick. For everything. It’s been rare for me to come across people who are willing to help, and I doubt I’ve even seen a small fraction of the Commonwealth.”

“No problem at all, doll. It’s not every day you run into a vault dweller who has emerged from being frozen since the bombs. You can use the assistance trying to adjust.”

She smiled. “Would you be able to fill me in on some of the creatures I’ve run into out there sometime? I don’t really have a good frame of reference for any of them, and I don’t know how many more surprises I can handle,” she joked.

A deep laugh rumbled from his chest as he turned to face her directly. “You betcha. Knowing what you’re up against puts you at a better advantage of survival, so we’ll work on that tomorrow, ok?” Turning back, he continued upstairs. Amy laid back down on the bed while she waited.

A few minutes later Nick walked back downstairs when the bath was prepared, brought his thumb and forefinger up to his fedora with a nod, and disappeared around the corner. She wandered upstairs and undressed.

Baths never used to be her thing; she couldn’t even remember the last time she HAD taken a bath. But this one felt like heaven, knowing how rare they were out here. One thing that hadn’t changed was not being able to fit in the tub comfortably. She chucked to herself. Scrubbing thoroughly while allowing her thoughts to meander, the water was cold by the time she stopped with the washcloth.

As she dried off, she thought about how much upkeep it would be to keep her hair long, with how dirty everything gets. Remembering a barber on the way into the market area, she hoped she had enough caps for a haircut. She’d have to keep her hair up until they opened in the morning.

Returning into her fatigues, she did feel a little more relaxed. Maybe she could attempt to give sleep another try, but she didn’t hold out too much hope as she descended the stairs and climbed into bed. Even after all her worrying, rest did not elude her this time.

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Murmurings coming from the other room roused her from a solid sleep. She didn’t even think she moved, and her head felt groggy. I must have been more exhausted than I realized.

Amy reached down and found Dogmeat’s ears, and gave them a good scratching. “Did you sleep well, Dogmeat?”

A wet tongue on her hand was the response, and she laughed.

“Let’s get up. We’ve got a big day ahead of us.”

As she turned the corner, she saw Nick at his desk, but he seemed to not be focused on anything, and was staring straight ahead. Closing the gap between the bedroom and the desk, she cautiously walked up to Nick and waved a hand in front of his face. “Nick?”

His eyelids closed, and his eyes darted back and forth behind them for a few seconds before reopening and focusing on her, eyes widening in surprise. “Amy! Sorry, was running a diagnostic. Thought it would be a good idea before heading out into the ruins. Hard to get repairs in the field.”

“No arguments there. Preparations are good to do.”

“Well? Do you feel up to heading to Goodneighbor today? If we leave soon, we should make it there by nightfall.”

Apprehension still coiled its way around her spine, but she pushed it down. This needs to be done, not only for my sake, but for Shaun’s. “Let’s go before the butterflies in my stomach get any ideas to band together and riot.”

A momentary look of confusion appeared on Nick’s face before a huge grin broke it. “Nothing to worry about. I’ve been to Goodneighbor plenty of times.”

“Let’s start with some reconnaissance. I saw large green men on my way to Diamond City yesterday. I know they weren’t selling vegetables. What the hell are they?”

“Vegetables?” he said, a little perplexed.

“Do you remember the Green Giant brand vegetables? ‘Ho-ho-ho, Green Giant’?”

His eyes widened in remembrance, and he started laughing hard, even slapping his hand down on the desk. “I never put the two together, and I’m one that tends to dwell in the past quite often,” he said as it seemed like he was trying to catch his breath. “Now I’m not going to be able to think of them otherwise.”

He chuckled a little more before continuing. “They’re a little more sinister than a corporate marketing campaign, but I’m not sure by how much. The Enclave, and West-Tek, started developing something called an FEV, or Forced Evolutionary Virus, sometime before the war. From my understanding, the Enclave all but disappeared after the bombs, but had a headquarters somewhere near DC where most of their research files were stored. I haven’t heard how West-Tek fared, though. Somehow, the Institute found a sample of the virus and started their own testing. Creatures, eventually what became known as super mutants, began appearing across the Commonwealth. And they keep appearing.”

“What about their dogs?”

“Same thing.”

“Sounds like the Institute has their hands in a lot of cookie jars.”

“I’m sure we don’t even know the half of it.”

“Best way to take them out?”

“Head shots. Especially the suiciders.”

“Suiciders?”

“Those are the ones that run at you with a mininuke. You can tell them from the beeping.”

“Good thing I ran when I heard beeping yesterday then!”

“If you can take them out before they set off the bomb, that’s usually the best option; if you don’t have a clear shot, run like hell. Your instincts aren’t too far off, so color me impressed.”

“We should probably get going. You can fill me in on the rest of these wasteland surprises along the way.”

Amy disappeared around the corner to get her armor and boots on, and Nick grabbed his .44 and some ammo. They met by the door and exited together. As they neared the exit to the city, Amy remembered about getting her hair cut and stopped by the barber shop. “10 minutes. I need to cut this off so it’s not such a nuisance.”

“I’ll head over to Publick Occurrences and let Piper know we’re leaving while you’re getting your mop chopped,” he returned.

She decided on a longer pixie cut; not too short, but not long enough where it would get into her eyes or hang down on her neck. Something simple and manageable. She almost felt ready to tackle what the ‘wealth would throw at her today.

Hair considerably shorter, and meeting up once more with Nick, they climbed the stairs to the exit as Nick took the lead.

Chapter Text

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                                                                                                Chapter 5

“We’re going to head north until we reach the waterfront. Then we’ll head east to Swan’s Pond. Be on the lookout for our ‘corporate sponsors’; they’ve settled in pretty heavy in the downtown area,” Nick explained as they walked, chuckling to himself at the reference he made to their earlier conversation. He heard her snicker.

Amy filed the directions away in her memory and pulled up her map so she could mark an approximate location; only one body of water was coming up on the map this deep in the city. She also placed the earpiece in her ear and started her playlist on low volume, and chose to use her Gauss. Those super mutants were nothing to fuck with, and she wanted them down in one shot if she could help it, even though her shots would echo throughout the entire city. The Gauss had proven to be the most badass weapon she had, especially since it packed as much of a punch as a super mutant hopped up on Psycho with a power fist.

As they neared the pond, Nick stopped her, grabbed her arm, and focused his yellow eyes directly into hers. “There’s a beast in the pond up ahead. I think it is what’s known as a behemoth, or a supersized mutant version of a super mutant. It goes on a rampage anytime anyone comes too close to the pond, so we need to be quiet and careful. We’ll follow the old Freedom Trail from there. If we wind up waking up Sleeping Beauty, treat it as you would a suicider and RUN.”

Amy nodded in understanding, not liking where this was going. But she needed to get to Dr. Amari, and if she needed to dance with a BFG (a big fucking giant, not the friendly version), then so be it.

They had made it to the fence around the pond when she heard frothy, guttural growls emitting from under a truck nearby. “Ferals,” Nick sneered. “Be ready, as this may be what wakes up Frankenstein’s monster.”

Knowing her Gauss was loud, she strapped it on her shoulder and pulled the rifle from her bag. Spiderwebs danced on the edge of her vision when one feral began running at full speed directly at Nick, and another splitting off in her direction. With a quick breath and even quicker aim, she pulled the trigger. The rotted ghoul flew back against the truck, a neat hole in the middle of its forehead. Quickly she turned and took the shot as the second feral began to launch itself at her, and the reverse momentum from her bullet sent it cartwheeling back to its twin at the truck. Hearing two more as they emerged from a nearby building, she rapidly turned to face them and gave them matching head wounds.

Silence came to the park once more, and Nick dashed over to a red line in the road. “I don’t think we should tempt fate and wait for any more ferals to make themselves known. This is the Freedom Trail,” he whispered as he silently pursued the red line further into the city. Attaching her rifle back to her bag, the Gauss made a reappearance as she and Dogmeat followed quietly behind Nick.

Something exploded in the distance, and she could make out huge bags of red hanging around the base of one of the skyscrapers up ahead. “Vegetable sellers?” she murmured to Nick.

“Yep,” he muttered back. “Keep an ear out for suiciders and hounds. They’re usually out on patrol.”

The spiderwebbing was back, and fast. “Nick, something’s coming. Quickly. Get behind me.”

She only had a moment to pinpoint and aim at a second level window, where a super mutant stood aiming a rocket launcher directly at them. She fired, and the mutant fell through the broken pane of glass to the ground below. Turning to her left, she spotted another mutant with a flashing light, running in their direction.

“Suicider!” Nick yelled. “We need to run! It’s too close for a shot!”

“Nonsense,” Amy stated plainly as she took aim, fired, and leaned back from the scope within moments. The suicider’s head had exploded everywhere; thankfully, that was the only thing that exploded.

Her eye was then drawn to a mutant in armor towards the back of the first floor. His head exploded too.

Then her eyes shot over to the hound that bounded over the rubble and spikes outside of the window; it didn’t get far, as its face splattered into bits of skull and teeth while its body impaled on a spike.

“I’m not detecting any more in the general area. Let’s go before any that are upstairs decide to come down.”

Nick looked at her with a mixture of awe, suspicion, and curiosity; he had never seen someone take down that many super mutants, with those intensely accurate shots, in such a short timeframe before. The merc he knows in Goodneighbor comes close, but she might actually give him a run for his money. “Are you sure you’re not a synth, doll? That was some impressive shooting, and I know some pros that can’t even blow a candle in your direction.”

She stared at him for a split second, and in return he thought he saw no recognition in her eyes, like she had gone off on a daydream and was slowly returning back to reality. That recognition came back not a second later, and she looked questioningly back at him. “What did you say? I was kinda jamming to this song.”

“Song? You’re listening to the radio? I don’t hear anything,” he admitted, curiosity sparking in his yellow eyes.

She turned her head and pointed to her earpiece, and then held out her wrist with the device. “I found this earpiece hidden in this Pip-Boy – my brother must have had access to it with his job. He had it with his stuff that I found at his house.”

Nick’s eyebrows shot up in surprise as he eyed her wrist. “Your brother was military, I take it?”

“West-Tek, Enclave, Vault-Tec – it seems that he was quite invaluable to them.”

“Enclave….West-Tek….huh…” Nick trailed off as he mumbled to himself.

“Anyways, he also had a bunch of holotapes of music he stored, probably for me. I would have gone nuts if I hadn’t found them. The music seems to keep me pretty calm through these kinds of situations,” she gestured around her, not sure how to describe things.

“Interesting,” he mentioned as he scratched his chin.

“Are we close?” I would really like to not be on edge all the time. The music helped, but there was still that underlying grip of anxiety and panic that tightened on her from being out in the open, and it built up more and more the longer she was out here. She was beginning to get a little dizzy too, but she brushed that off as just being hungry; she couldn’t really stomach much for breakfast before they left Diamond City.

“We need to take a right at those junk fences up ahead, and that road will take us to the entrance.”

“Let’s hurry.”

They jogged to the fence, turned, headed down the road, and she saw a glowing neon sign in the distance.

As they approached the door, Nick spoke. “I need to get a message back to a client first, so why don’t we meet up outside of the Hotel Rexford. It shouldn’t take me more than a few minutes.”

“Okay. I’ll find you,” Amy replied. Nick turned and opened the door to Goodneighbor and let it shut behind him as she raised her fingers to her eyes, rubbing them briefly to clear her vision. She shook her head and things came back into focus. Tossing the strap of her Gauss over her shoulder and readjusting her bag, she pulled open the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hancock was not in the mood for Finn’s extortions today. Fahrenheit had warned him twice this week, and from the looks of it, he was getting ready to do it again. Goddammit. Looks like I’m gonna need to give him a more direct lesson, he lamented to himself. Leaning on the wall in the shadow of the State House, he pulled a half full pack of smokes from his pocket and a lighter, watching the door to the town start to open slowly. He’d wait until he could catch the bastard in the act.

“Fahr, get ready. Finn’s gonna go and do something really fucking stupid, again, and I’m gonna have to intervene,” he grumbled to his bodyguard next to him.

She nodded and grunted. “Bound to happen sooner or later. Glad it’s now, I was getting tired of waiting, and him not listening.”

His scarred hand reached and fingered the handle of his knife, hidden in a leather holder at the waistline of his back. His other hand brought the cigarette to his lips, and whisps of smoke slowly spiraled upwards out of the space where his nose used to be. His dark eyes focused on the scene unfolding in front of him.

A woman in military fatigues entered, followed by a dog. And there was Finn, sliding his way up to her. Here we go, this guy has just dug his own grave without realizing it, he thought, not knowing how accurate his statement was going to be.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Amy entered the town, she scanned the small entrance. Two stores stood on her right, and she saw Nick speaking to someone outside of “Daisy’s Discounts”.

“You new here?” a gruff voice said to her, returning her attention front and center.

A man dressed in dirty road leathers stood a few feet away from her, by a short wall. He glared at her with a cold stare.

“Yeah, why, am I not welcome here?” she responded, her gaze shifting over to Nick and flitting back to the man in a flash, her hand straying to the knife hidden in her waistband.

“It’s not like that. You’re gonna need insurance. These streets are pretty rough, and you’ll need someone to make sure you don’t run into any…accidents.”

“Accidents?” she repeated, a calculating look on her face covered by a coy grin. Her eyes glittered as they narrowed.

Anyone who could have recognized a look like that would have backed off, but Finn wasn’t exactly sober enough to notice.

“Big, bloody ‘accidents’,” he reiterated.

The spiderwebs went almost halfway over her vision, even with the music in her ear. In the blink of an eye, her hand pulled out the hidden switchblade, her feet crossed the distance to him, and she curled her arm and placed her left hand on his chest for leverage. With her right hand, the knife spun around in her fingers deftly and the blade disappeared into the base of his head. She hit the end of the handle hard with the heel of her hand to drive it in deeper. All of this happened in fluid motions so quick that most witnessing the confrontation didn’t catch what was happening until Finn started gurgling as he stood, his eyes widened in shock.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hancock and Fahrenheit both watched the exchange slack-jawed and wide-eyed from the shadows, unable to comprehend the speed and ferocity they just witnessed.

“Is she on something?” Fahr wondered out loud but still at a whisper, and Hancock was inclined to agree with her, but he just couldn’t land on what she could be on. “There’s no way someone sober is THAT fast and ruthless.”

“Seems that our new visitor has some tricks up her sleeve. Until we get more of her story, keep an eye on her. I doubt she’ll cause more trouble, but I’d like to be prepared, just in case,” he responded back to his bodyguard as he readied himself to make an introduction, and to lay a few ground rules if needed. He definitely didn’t want to end up on the business end of her switchblade.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You mean like this ‘accident’?” She purred into his ear as she pulled the knife out.

He crumpled to the ground. The spiderwebbing disappeared.

Using his jacket to wipe off the blade, her eyes darted around her. It was self-defense she told herself. Any one of these people could be your witness.

Her hand replaced the blade to her waistband just as fast as she took it out, and she saw a movement of red to her left. Her vision focused on a man in colonial clothing casually drifting over to her, his completely black eyes shifting quickly from Finn, directly to her. She couldn’t get a good read on his face due to the uneven scarring covering it, but a smirk was reaching out from one side of his mouth. This must be a ghoul, remembering what Preston had told her.

“Ya walk into town, get accosted by this bastard, and show your dominance with the most proficient knifework I have seen outside of my hands,” his gravelly voice tumbled out as his mouth broke into a large grin. “I’d say I’m impressed, but I don’t think that word even comes close to describing it.”

She straightened at the compliment; at least, she thought it sounded like a compliment. She was never good at trying to distinguish a well-meant compliment from a joke being made at her expense. Hopefully she didn’t just condemn herself with her actions.

He flicked his cigarette off to the side and reached out his gnarled hand to her, blowing the remaining smoke to the side.

“John Hancock, Mayor of Goodneighbor.”

She returned the handshake; his hand didn’t feel as rough as it looked. “Amethyst.”

“Welcome to our little slice of wasteland heaven. Goodneighbor is of the people, for the people, ya feel me? Everyone’s welcome here. Finn here wasn’t getting the message, and ya just did me a huge favor since he couldn’t bother to listen.”

Amy looked down at Finn. “Fucker deserved it.” She paused. “Sorry for making a mess though.”

Hancock waved his hand, not concerned with the body that lay near his feet. “What brings ya to our fair town? Need a place to sleep? Something to eat? Trading?”

She spotted the worn fedora and trench coat heading her direction. “Actually, Nick and I are here to see Dr. Amari.”

The ghoul followed her gaze and turned with a wide grin to the detective. “Nicky! How’s my favorite bucket of bolts?”

The synth smiled back at him and pulled him into a tight hug. “John. I’m doing well. Been staying out of trouble?”

“Nah. That’s no fun,” he chuckled.

They pulled from the brief embrace, and both sets of eyes returned to Amy. She felt her face grow warm at the attention.

“So, Dr. Amari, huh? Ya might have to wait until morning, I think she was pretty booked today…. unless it’s an emergency.”

“Nah, we can wait. We’ll get a couple of rooms over at the Rexford to hold us over until then.”

“Why don’t ya join me at the Third Rail once you’ve gotten settled? I’m sure you guys are probably starving. Well, probably just you,” Hancock corrected while looking directly at Amy. “Would you like to join me for dinner?”

His stare was intense and unwavering; not callous or cruel, but curious and gentle, with a small gleam of pride mixed in. It was almost like an entire universe dwelled in those inky black eyes, and she could feel herself getting pulled down into the darker depths within. She jolted from her reverie with embarrassment, and noticed a slight, sly smile form in the corner of his mouth, almost like he knew what she was doing.

“Uh, yeah, let’s do that,” she stammered, suddenly wanting to disappear as her embarrassment started to envelope her.

“Great! Let’s meet up around 8. That will give ya a couple hours to rest up.”

“Thanks, John. We’ll see you down there,” Nick finished.

With a graceful, dramatic spin, Hancock disappeared into the Old Statehouse, his bodyguard following close behind him.

“The Rexford is around the corner. Might have to pay a few extra caps for Dogmeat, but he should be allowed in. Let’s head over there.” Nick explained.

“Please, lead the way,” she replied, exhaustion starting to weigh her legs down like a bunch of bricks. “I could use a nap. My legs are about ready to give out on me.”

Following the detective, Amy and Dogmeat traversed the narrow alleyway, past The Third Rail under the statehouse, and into Scollay Square, which housed the Rexford and The Memory Den. Veering left, they crossed the distance of the square to the big double doors of the hotel and ducked inside.

Nick spoke with the woman at the front desk, and came back to her and Dogmeat with two keys.

“Claire wasn’t too happy hearing about a dog needing to stay with you, but when she saw which dog, she didn’t charge extra,” Nick detailed with a little relief.

“Damn dog apparently gets around more than I do,” she mumbled under her breath, and she heard Nick chuckle.

“You don’t know the half of it. He’s even helped me on a few of my cases.”

She arched one eyebrow at him quizzically as a smirk spread across her lips. “He’s earning his keep then, huh?”

Laughing, Nick nodded and headed towards the stairs.

“I got two rooms next to each other. I figured you’d like some privacy, but I didn’t want to be too far away in case you had those nightmares again.”

Embarrassed at first, but then realizing he was right in his observations, she nodded. Pressure formed in her chest, but it wasn’t uncomfortable; she was coming to realize that the help she was getting, from Nick especially, was as precious and rare as clean water, and she savored the warmth that spread through her. He continued on his crusade to watch over her well-being, like a well-meaning father figure.

“Let’s try to get you some rest before dinner. I’ll stay in the room this time, and if you do ok, we can work out arrangements for later.”

He turned and directed himself towards the stairs, and Amy followed with Dogmeat behind her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hancock sprawled out on the couch in his office, a canister of Jet dropping from his hand to the floor, vapors escaping his mouth and nasal opening after a moment. Fahrenheit paced the room, and eventually picked up the discarded canister and tossed it over to a container in the corner of the room. She looked down at her boss and huffed.

“Are you planning on doing any actual work today, or are you just going to pretend you did something?”

He turned his glassy gaze to his second in command and grinned.

“Well, Finn pretty much handled himself, didn’t he? I don’t have anythin’ else on my agenda until dinner,” he retorted, reaching for a half full bottle of whiskey on the table. Fahr noted it from the corner of her eye and went to the cupboard to retrieve two glasses, setting them down on the table next to the bottle.

“So,” Fahr started.

“So,” Hancock repeated. “What?” He poured a few fingers of the whiskey into one of the glasses and handed it to Fahr. He then poured double that amount in the second glass and downed it in one gulp.

“The newcomer. What do we do about her? She puts me on edge.”

“Everyone puts ya on edge, Fahr. That’s nothin’ new.”

“I’m all for ruthlessness and savagery to get the job done, but she’s on a higher level.”

“That was the work of a master. Do ya know how hard it is to shove a knife in the back of someone’s skull? Let alone a switchblade? Especially with how fast she did it, and with the flair right before the knife went in?”

Fahr snorted, and Hancock wasn’t sure if it was from grudging admiration, or worry that the same could be done to him just as fast. Maybe a combination of the two.

“Fahr, I know you’re apprehensive. She’s here with Nick, and if he’s not worried, you shouldn’t be either.”

“How do you know he’s not worried? Did you even see the look on his face when she put Finn’s head on a mini pike?”

He frowned. He hadn’t noticed Nick until Amethyst had looked over at him after the fact, now that she mentioned it. He had been completely enraptured with Amethyst’s movements as she glided like an angel of death, arriving in Goodneighbor to relieve Finn of his mortal body.

“I’ll have a little chat with him. I need to catch up on a few things anyways.”

Fahr grunted and turned to head downstairs. “I need to follow up on a few things with the Watch myself. I’ll be back at some point.”

Taking off his tricorner hat, he let his head fall backwards onto the back of the couch, a little harder than he was expecting, and he closed his eyes. The only thing he could think of was wrapped in blue, black, and grey camo, topped with the greenest eyes he had ever laid his dark orbs on. Such a rare color, green. He knew she had been pulled, mesmerized, into his eyes when she stared at him earlier, like many others before her, but what she didn’t realize is how much farther he had fallen into hers when he looked back at her, how utterly transfixed he had been, and the smirk she had drawn from his lips. I think I’m well on my way to being truly fucked, he told himself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It seemed as though sleep was going to avoid her forever, even after the somewhat-great working relationship they had before the bombs. Amy tossed and turned in frustration. Not knowing how much time she had before dinner, she gave up and pushed herself out of bed. Dogmeat’s head popped up from the floor on the side of the bed, hoping she had some food. Nick must have gone out for something, as he was not in the room any longer.

“Sorry, Dogmeat, we’ve gotta wait a bit,” she sighed.

Dejected, he put his head back down on his paws, but he still gave her side eye just in case she was holding out on him. Noticing his look, she laughed and gave him a good scratch behind the ears.

A soft knock sounded on the door. “Nick, is that you?” she called.

“Yeah, it’s me, doll,” he replied through the door. “It’s almost time for dinner. You ready to head down?”

Quickly making her way to the door, she opened it and left it ajar so Nick could enter.

“I guess I’m ready. There’s no dress code, right?” she smiled as she joked, returning to the bed.

Nick chucked heartily at that. “Sweetheart, I don’t think there’s a dress code anywhere nowadays, unless you find yourself joined up with a faction.”

“I’ll just need to make sure I never do that, then. I’ve always hated uniforms.”

Nick cocked an eyebrow noting what she was wearing, but didn’t say anything. He knew there was more to that story, but didn’t feel the need to press further, at least not now.

“Let’s go get something to eat, ok? I can hear your stomach protesting from over here,” he chided good-naturedly.

“I think that was the dog,” she quipped, looking down at him with a grin.

Laughing, Nick shook his head and waited for his guests to follow him downstairs. Amy knew she probably didn’t need her arsenal bag with her, but she kept her 10mm in its holster at her hip, and both knives stayed put in her belt. As soon as Dogmeat was out in the hallway, she shut and locked the door and placed the key in her pocket.

Crossing the square, they made their way down to the old subway station that had been repurposed as a bar. A sharp-dressed ghoul stood at the inner doorway, and graciously pointed them down the stairs. It was a clever use of the space, but Amy wondered how their drunk patrons handled the stairs, and how many injuries were sustained in the process, thinking back to the random bruises she would get during her heavy drinking days. They descended down, and the stairs opened up into a large room built on the old subway tracks.

A Mr. Handy with a bowler hat floated behind the bar, going back and forth between customers, emitting a coarse attitude with a British accent. At the end of the bar Amy saw a familiar shade of red sitting at one of the barstools; that’s when she noticed that Hancock’s eyes were fixed on them as they made their way through the crowd. Nick led the way, and soon a smile appeared on both men’s faces as they neared each other. Hancock shot up from his stool and started heading to a back room, beckoning them both to follow.

“Thought ya could use some privacy while eating,” Hancock suggested as he continued into the room. Amy’s shoulders released whatever tension she had unknowingly been holding onto. She hated eating around others due to her anxiety, especially if she was the only one eating, and thankfully he was saving her from being even more nervous than she was already.

“Go ahead and pick whatever seat ya want,” he said to Amy. Realizing there was someone already in the room, Hancock turned and notified the occupant.

“Mac, sorry to kick ya out of your home office, but I’ve got an old friend that I need to catch up with, and this lovely lady is in need of some privacy with her dinner.”

A young man with a well-worn hat and dirty, shredded duster scoffed, but didn’t complain. “You’re the boss, Hancock,” he said as he got up to leave. “Don’t hog the room all night though, yeah? I still have caps that I need to make.”

Hancock laughed. “Nah Mac, we shouldn’t be too long. Tell Charlie I said ya can drink for free while we’re in here.”

Mac was dubious. “He won’t believe me, but I’ll let him know,” he retorted as he left.

Turning back around to his guests, Hancock guided Amy to a table, and pulled a smaller table next to it for Nick to sit at. “I’ll be right back, I’ll put in an order to Charlie for some food. Would ya like anything to drink?”

That booze-riddled demon showed its ugly face again, and before she even realized what she was saying, she asked for a Nuka Quantum and vodka. Do you really want to be in pain afterwards? she chided herself. Or worse yet, dead? You KNOW what alcohol did to you not that long ago.

I know, she argued back, but I haven’t had any pain since I’ve woken up. Maybe it’s gotten better the longer I pickled in that freezer? I want to test it.

She squeezed her eyes shut, let out a deep breath, and reopened her eyes. Both men were looking expectantly at her, and her face reddened. “Got lost in thought, sorry guys.”

She could see concern in Nick’s eyes, but Hancock’s showed only slight confusion, mixed with patience. “I’m not sure if we have any Quantum; if we don’t, what would ya like instead?”

“Whiskey. Straight. Beer chaser.”

“Now that I know I can do. Nicky, ya need anything? More smokes? An oil change? Coolant topper?” he was giggling by that point, amused by his own jokes.

A deep eye roll was Nick’s response, but a smirk danced across his face. He was used to Hancock’s playful bantering.

“Another pack of smokes. Forgot to stock up before I left the office.”

“Back in a few minutes,” Hancock called out as he left the room.

Nick turned to Amy, questions that he had stored carefully away were itching to come to the surface. “So, doll….I was wondering where you go when you’re taking out bad guys like a firestorm. You had a distant look in your eye when you mentioned you were listening to music.”

She pondered about that for a moment, as the thought never really occurred to her before.

“You know what, I’ve found I’m not really able to think too much when the spiderwebbing happens in my vision. It’s like my brain is on a mission and the rest of me is along for the ride. I tried to fight it for control once before I was listening to music all the time, but it hurt, so I haven’t really done it since.”

“’Spiderwebbing’?” Now that completely confused him. “What’s that?”

“Ever since I left the vault, when stressful situations come up, like when I need to defend myself from something, at first I would get this bright flash of light that would overtake my vision. I couldn’t see anything, but somehow I was still moving and doing things, and when the brightness would go away, dead bodies would be there instead of what was threatening me. I discovered in Sanctuary that when I have music on, the brightness only comes to the edges of my vision, like a spider web. I can still see and mostly control myself, but I’m still not 100% in control. And I don’t know who else has their hands on the wheel, and it’s terrifying me each time it happens. What if it gets worse? Or I can’t control it and go on a rampage? I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I caused harm to others that didn’t deserve it.”

“Is that what happened earlier today at the entrance to Goodneighbor?”

Her face paled. “You saw that?”

He nodded solemnly.

Pausing to take a deep breath, with the exhale she replied, “Yes.”

“This ties in with the nightmares then.”

“I’m thinking so.”

Reaching his hand out, similarly to what she did to him the night before, he grasped her hand and squeezed lightly. “That’s part of why we’re here. I hope Dr. Amari can help you. It sounds like you’ve got a mess in there that needs sorting out. No offense meant, of course.”

“None taken. It was a mess in there before the bombs,” she lamented. “I don’t know how I’m functioning with it being worse now.”

Hancock glided into the room with a plate of food, a glass with amber liquid, and a bottle of beer. Once he set these down on Amy’s table, he fished in his pocket and pulled out a pack of smokes, tossing it in Nick’s direction before taking a seat. He caught the pack one-handed.

The aroma of cooked meat, vegetables, and some sort of creamy sauce made her mouth water. Dogmeat decided to place his chin, quite forcefully, on her leg, eyeing her plate with utmost attention. She laughed and began cutting a medium-sized portion of the meat off for him, taking the piece and handing it to the dog. She smiled as she scratched his ears briefly, then dove into devouring her meal.

“So, Nicky, how’ve you been? Busy?” Hancock asked, his eyes that had momentarily drifted over to the scene across from him returned to look at the detective.

“Always a constant stream of cases. Few have come up with dead ends. Working on this young lady’s case now,” he gestured to Amy.

Hancock’s eyes darted back to her as she ate. “Hey, I’ve got some questions for you, but I’ll wait until you’re done. You’re eating like you haven’t seen food in a week.”

In between bites, she said, “You’re close.”

Where his eyebrows had been raising slightly, he nodded, but let her continue with her meal. It didn’t take long for her to finish, and with a wave of her hand, let Hancock know he could proceed with his questions.

“Look, sister, that phenomenal display of blade handling earlier has my bodyguard spooked. Ya won’t be making a repeat performance of that, right?”

She cleared her throat before responding. “As long as no one attacks me, I think you’re all safe. But that’s part of the reason why I need to see Dr. Amari; I need to make sure I’m correct in my assumptions.”

“She’s the best at what she does. I’m sure she’ll find some answers for ya.”

Amy grinned as she took a hearty sip of her whiskey. Oh, how I don’t miss that burn, she cringed as she swallowed. She reached for the beer to chase away the sting, and she coughed as the stale liquid hit her throat, making the situation even worse.

“How is the beer worse than the whiskey? I thought it was usually the other way around,” she coughed.

The tricorner hat almost left its seat on Hancock’s head as he tossed it back, roaring with laughter. “You’re not wrong on that,” he gasped, a tear forming in the corner of his eye. “That’s why I stick with the hard stuff.”

Holding up her glass, she narrowed her eyes at the liquid within and downed the remaining amount in one gulp, breathing out a forceful breath once it cleared her throat, a pained look on her face. Hancock’s eyes went wide as his eyebrows raced up to his hat; that was easily a shot and a half at once, maybe even two. He asked Charlie to be generous with her serving. Her eye caught his, and she winked. “I used to be a pro at this shit. Had to quit because it nearly killed me. Figure if I’m still alive 200 years after my manufacturer’s expiration date, one drink probably wouldn’t hurt.”

“200 years?!” Hancock was perplexed. “How..?”

“Cryogenic stasis. Vault-Tec. Some other shit I need to ask Dr. Amari about.”

“Cryogenic stasis? Like you were put on ice? In a vault?” he pieced together.

“Bingo.”

He sat back, running through all he just heard in his mind. His hand absentmindedly dove into his pocket and pulled out a tin of Mentats, removing two and tossing them into his mouth. He placed the tin on the table, inviting Amy to some of the chalky tablets if she wanted them.

She held her hands up in a declining gesture. “I should probably go light on the chems for now until tomorrow morning.”

He nodded. “No worries. Didn’t want to be a stingy host.” Now it was his turn to wink at her, but he added a slight smile to it.

Nick cleared his throat and turned towards Amy. “Doll, we got an early morning tomorrow. Want to call it a night? You can use the rest since you didn’t really get much once we got to the Rexford.”

She nodded and moved to rise from her seat, but Hancock was faster to stand and held out his hand. Her eyes locked with his, and she placed her hand in his. He helped her up to her feet. “I’ll walk ya both back over to the Rexford,” he grinned.

Nick got to his feet, as did Dogmeat. The group exited the room, and made their way back upstairs. Opening the door to the square, a heavy, green haze was everywhere, and lightning flashed brightly.

“Shit, radstorm,” Hancock commented.

“Radstorm?” Amy asked.

“It’s a storm that blows east from the Glowing Sea, ground zero, from the bombs dropped during the Great War,” Nick explained. “The storms that have this green tinge to it, where the thunder sounds like it’s echoing in a large tin can, that’s when you know you need to take cover quickly. Lots of rads come from these storms.”

“It doesn’t bother me though. More like a radiation recharge,” Hancock piped in, snickering.

“Let’s walk quickly, it’s not that far,” she called as she headed out of the door.

Catching each other’s glance, they hurried after her. “She’s got RadAway, right?” Hancock muttered to Nick.

“Yeah, at the hotel,” he responded.

They followed behind as she speed-walked over to the hotel, and everyone wound up getting soaked regardless of how fast they moved. She stopped at the doors to wait for them, still in the rain. As they joined her, both men’s eyes focused on her face, mouths agape in shock.

“What? Why are you guys looking at me like that? Do I have something in my teeth?”

“No,” Nick stammered out. “Your eyes…”

“….they’re glowing!” Hancock finished, his jet-black eyes mirroring his face with awe.

Chapter Text

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                                                                                                Chapter 6

“What? My eyes are GLOWING? Or is that just a euphemism?” she responded, getting a little worried.

Nick placed a hand on her shoulder. “No euphemisms here, doll. It’s like there’s a light bulb behind them, lighting them up. Kinda puts mine to shame, to be honest.”

More worry sunk into her stomach. “Is it the radiation? Does this happen when someone takes in too many rads?”

Hancock popped a Mentat and caught her gaze. “Sister, I’ve been in these wastes for a long time, and I ain’t never seen eyes that glow like that before. Maybe with Glowing Ones, but not with a regular human.”

That worried look was back in Nick’s eyes. “How do you feel? Are you getting nauseous, or is your skin getting itchy? Those are usually the first signs of radiation poisoning,” he quipped with concern. “We should get you inside and get some RadAway into you, just in case.”

“I honestly feel fine. Just like I would feel from standing out in the rain in any old storm,” she shrugged. “I hate to waste a RadAway if I can help it, I only have two with me, and I’m still extremely low on caps.”

“I can talk to Daisy if ya need more, sister. On the house. Ya don’t want to wind up lookin’ as good as me by skippin’ it,” he quipped with a chuckle.

She heard a deep tug of concern in his voice through the laugh, and it gave her skin the shivers, which cascaded into goosebumps. She smiled at him.

“My Pip-Boy isn’t even registering rads in my system. Look,” she held her arm out so both men could see the screen at her wrist. Background rads were numerous according to the device, but the specific rad counter for her body showed none.

“Ya might just be an anomaly,” Hancock spoke softly near her ear. “Maybe you’re naturally rad-resistant?”

“Highly doubt that. I was overly sensitive to just about everything before the bombs. I was actually wondering why everyone was so cautious about rads when I wasn’t feeling the same, knowing that I should technically be the first one to show issues.”

“Let’s move this conversation to the State House. We’re not making the situation better by standing out in this storm,” Hancock urged as a flash of lightning lit up the darkening sky, with a loud roll of thunder following. Turning to the back entrance, he beelined to the door as Nick, Amy, and Dogmeat followed him inside.

Upstairs in Hancock’s office, Amy took a seat on the couch, and Nick sat on the other couch across from her. Hancock waltzed to the counter at the back of the room and grabbed a bottle of whiskey, a bag of RadAway, and a canister of purified water, handing the water to Amy while the whiskey wound up on the table between the two couches. He rolled an IV bag stand from the corner of the room over by her, so she could get a dose while they talked.

“Hey, sister,” Hancock quietly said, “Let’s get ya hooked up with this.”

Eyeing the needle apprehensively, she held out her arm and even pointed to a vein she knew would be easy to administer the drug into. With precise, gentle hands, he poked the vein on the side of her right wrist and inserted the needle fully, placing a piece of duct tape over it to keep it in place. Hancock wandered over to the end of the couch where Nick sat and slumped down into the seat, eyes still on her, making sure she didn’t have a reaction to the meds.

Nick coughed as he gathered his thoughts together. “I think there’s a lot more to your story than you’re even aware of, doll. I’m getting the feeling you may have been part of more than just cryogenic experiments by Vault-Tec, given your nightmares, and your, *ahem*, fighting style. Tell me, did you have any weapons training before the war?”

“Only what my brother taught to me at the shooting range when he was a police officer, before he transferred to the military. Which I guess would just be beginner to intermediate level.”

The two men glanced at each other, each with a look questioning the other, knowing what they had witnessed already. No way that was beginner or intermediate-level skill.

“I sure hope Dr. Amari can find some answers for you on this. Who knows what else is hidden away, waiting to appear at random?” Nick thought out loud.

“Nick,” Amy began, a little unsure if she should share this with Hancock present, since he wasn’t up to speed on everything like Nick was, and she wasn’t 100% sure yet that she could trust him. But, if Nick trusted Hancock, she trusted Nick’s judgment and continued, adding in details that would benefit Hancock, even though Nick was aware of them already. “My brother had a house in Sanctuary with his wife, Nora, and Shaun. He had a cellar that he turned into a makeshift bomb shelter that wound up being storage. That’s where I got all of the guns I have. While I was looking through his safe to take inventory before I left for Diamond City, I had found some military files in there. I didn’t look too much at them because I didn’t have the time, but maybe some answers might be in there? Some of the files almost felt classified; one of them was red, thick, and had a holotape in a pocket.”

“We’ll make our way to Sanctuary after we’re done here,” Nick decided, “and I’ll take a look through them, and help you decipher what’s in there.”

“Nick, are you sure? You’d be gone from your office for even longer than you have been already.”

“Your case isn’t done yet, and we haven’t gotten any closer to your missing nephew.”

“These new problems weren’t part of the original agreement though,” she sighed, as she felt guilty for taking up so much of his attention to begin with. “Plus, even if we find answers, it doesn’t mean that it will fix whatever is fucked up in my brain.”

“Amy, for you, I’d like to help. You’ve been thrown into a world you don’t recognize, let alone how to navigate, and if I can aid you in getting past all this and be able to thrive on your own, then I will. That includes finding your nephew, too.”

Hancock had remained quiet as the two conversed, moving only to take a hit of Jet, pop in a Mentat, smoke a cigarette, or take a swig of whiskey. He was doing all of these mostly to conceal the fact that he was quickly becoming just as invested in this former vault dweller and her circumstances as Nick; he didn’t want to make it obvious and scare her off, so he decided to remain aloof. He needed to stop staring at her at some point though – she was going to figure things out if he couldn’t, but his brain simply refused to listen. The glow in her eyes was gone now that the bag of RadAway was almost empty, so technically he didn’t even need to look at her….but goddamn, it was hard not to.

Then she smiled such a genuine smile that it reached her eyes, and now he knew why he couldn’t stop staring. The sparkle that shone in them only when she smiled like that was enough to pull at his heart strings happily, and he wanted to keep feeling that melody as it played throughout his body. I did it, he thought, I finally found something better than chems. Even though the smile was directed at Nick, he didn’t care; his new purpose was to get her to smile like that at him as often as possible so he could get lost in the warmth that followed.

A yawn suddenly escaped from Amy’s mouth just then, and that didn’t help his situation, except for turning his thoughts a little more impure. He shifted in his seat and his eyes darted to the RadAway bag, which was now completely empty. Hopping up from the couch in hopes of hiding the reason for his ‘adjustment’, he made his way to the IV stand and reached for Amy’s wrist so he could remove the needle. (THAT wasn’t going to help him either, but he did it anyways.) Sliding his fingers gently from her hand to her wrist, trying not to get caught up in just how smooth her skin felt, he murmured close to her ear, “Hey, let’s get this IV line out, yeah? No need to keep the needle in there now that the bag is empty.”

She turned, and smiled that same sparkling smile at him this time. His heart skipped a beat, he was sure of it. “Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Between you and Nick, you’ve both been so kind and gracious with me. When I stepped out of the vault a week ago, I wasn’t even sure if anyone had survived the bombs. I’m glad the path I took from Sanctuary led to the both of you.” A light blush spread over her cheeks as her eyes lowered, and Hancock was almost positive he was well and truly fucked. He pulled the needle from her wrist as lightly as possible, and held pressure to the spot where the needle had been. I don’t want to let go. He wanted to keep holding her wrist, but withdrew his hand knowing it would get awkward soon.

“Let’s go and get you some shut eye, doll,” Nick said, noticing how low her eyelids were drooping.

“Here’s hoping I actually catch the sandman tonight,” she quipped, with a light, dry chuckle. She and Nick rose to leave, and Hancock walked behind them to show them out.

Amy opened the back door that led right to the Rexford, and held it open so Dogmeat and Nick could follow. Just before Nick exited the door, Hancock touched his shoulder and leaned into his ear, keeping his voice low. “Hey, could ya let me know when ya go and see Dr. Amari? I’d like to know if there’s anything I can do to help.”

Nick’s eyebrow raised in amusement. “You’re invested in this too now, huh? Sorry to drag you into it unwillingly.”

“It wasn’t unwilling; I could have let ya both go back to the Rexford in that storm to continue your conversation. She just has this....indescribable pull, and like you, I’d prefer to see her happy and not weighed down by extra shit, outside of the usual Commonwealth chucklefucks, of course. I don’t think this is going to be an easy fix though, and ya may need someone with connections and resources.”

Nick sighed. “I know. I’ll come get you before we head to The Memory Den.”

Hancock patted Nick on the back with his hand. “Thanks.” He paused before continuing. “I may owe you a huge one for this.”

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Amy had decided upon returning to her room that she wanted to try to sleep without Nick there, hoping she wouldn’t later regret it if the nightmares made another appearance. She gave her key to Nick after opening her door, just in case he had to get into her room quickly.

“See you in the morning, doll,” Nick smiled as he shut and locked her door.

Any tiredness she had felt while at the State House was now gone, and she was reduced to staring at the ceiling, which she did for an indeterminate amount of time. She huffed in frustration. Noting that the room also included a shower (!!!!), she thought back to her bath the other day and wondered if a shower would do something similar to help relax her exhausted muscles.

Fuck it, let’s give it an ol’ college try, she thought.

She didn’t have any soap, but it looked like there might be some in the bathroom, so she undressed, putting her belongings on the floor, along with her Pip-Boy, and turned the knob to the shower. The water was…somewhat warm? She wasn’t sure what she was expecting, but at least it wasn’t shooting out frozen icicles at her. There was no shower curtain, and water sprayed droplets in every direction, but it was running water.

She took her time under the shower head to really scrub at her skin and hair, causing the water cascading off of her to run a dirty brown at the bottom of the tub. And this was after she had taken a bath only a little over a day ago with rigorous scrubbing, a good amount of soap, and a haircut. Does anyone really ever get clean out here, or is this just another aspect of pre-war life I need to forget about?

There was one aspect of pre-war life that she missed and needed though, and she couldn’t accomplish that without someone else’s…skilled….help. Her consciousness had been at a standoff with her heart over it, and she was still conflicted. Ever since her thoughts had begun to drift over to the ghoul mayor more often than not, that always-present voice in her head would remind her of Dustin every chance it got. What would he think about this? You’re still technically married to him, you don’t even know IF he’s dead, doesn’t matter that it’s been over 200 years, so on and so forth….and then those smokey black eyes would appear in her mind’s eye, a worn and gnarled hand with delicate fingers would draw her in with a gentle touch, and the soft rumble of his voice would melt her core like butter. Her eyes closed as the water ran down her pale skin.

She wondered what his hands would feel like on her breasts, teasing her nipples gently, then gliding down to her hips, slowly sliding somewhere warm….her own hand strayed down between her legs, finding her sensitive nub as it begged to have friction. Slow, rhythmic circles eventually changed to nearly desperate rubbing with mounting pressure as a warmth began to build within her, making her throw her head back as the need pushed her forward towards release. Within moments she choked back a relieved moan, knowing the walls of the room were thinner than paper, and Nick next door would be listening for any odd sounds that indicated she was having a nightmare. She stood there for a moment until her legs stopped shaking, so she wouldn’t slip on the tiles.

She thought she heard the hallway door to her room close, and she didn’t turn off the shower, but she snagged a towel from the rack and wrapped herself up in it to check. The towel didn’t go all the way around her, and made her feel like she was trying to cover up with a washcloth. Stepping into the adjoining room, she carefully looked around, not seeing anyone. She immediately went to her bag and made sure it hadn’t moved, or had any items removed. Everything was there. Dogmeat hadn’t even moved from his spot by the bed. Huh, that’s odd. Maybe I was just hearing another door down the hall. She returned to the bathroom and shut off the water, and finished drying herself off.

Immediately regretting not having a change of clothes, and not being able to clean the clothes she had been wearing, she sighed dejectedly until her eye caught something on the dresser by the door. It was a folded stack consisting of a t-shirt, jeans, a button-up flannel, and a note.

“Thought you might need a change of clothes to have on-hand, since you said you were low on caps. – H.”

The realization that he had been in here while she was in the shower didn’t alarm her at all; the thought of him watching her while she pleasured herself, however, roared the fire she had just extinguished in her belly back to life in an instant. But then her insecurities caught the spark at the same time, and her face began to burn the more she considered it. She knew she was a wreck, both physically and mentally, and she dropped her head in shame. He probably ran from the room after he saw you naked, she chided herself, not allowing even a glimmer of hope to shine from his direction. You’ve seen yourself in the mirror. Cover up your beanpole ass and try to get some sleep.

Deciding to wear only the t-shirt Hancock left for her and her underwear, she returned to the bed and fell onto the mattress, keeping her 10mm within reach. She didn’t need to struggle with sleep this night; it found her and enveloped her in a cocoon of dreamless rest.

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A knock at the door roused her from slumber, and she was pained to have to get up. Quietly groaning, she pushed herself out of bed, grabbed the 10mm just in case, and went to the door, opening it to find Nick and Hancock standing in the doorway. She lowered the weapon to her side.

“Hey guys,” she yawned, rubbing at her eyes and attempting to wake her brain up. “Is it that time already?”

Neither spoke or tried to make eye contact with her, and then she remembered what she was wearing and paled a bit. The only tell for her realization was the widening of her eyes briefly, and she quickly turned to briskly walk to the bathroom to gather her fatigues. She called from the bathroom, “I’ll just be a minute. Have a seat anywhere you can find room.”

As she changed back into her dirty army gear, she heard talking in the other room. They’re probably laughing at me, she thought. At least you were clean while being nearly naked in front of them, you big dummy, she retorted back to herself. She squeezed her eyes shut and smacked her hand against her forehead for being such a dunce.

As she exited the bathroom, she directed herself over to her bag and placed her pistol and knives back into their holsters.

“Should I take my stuff with me? Did we need to check out by a certain time?” she asked. She wasn’t sure how things worked with hotels now.

“Go ahead and keep your stuff here until we know more from Dr. Amari,” Nick replied. He handed her key back to her. “May need to have a few visits if things are complicated, so we might be here for a few days.” She pocketed her key.

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Hancock hadn’t meant to see what he saw, either time he’d been in her room. The first time was completely innocent; all he had wanted to do was give her a change of clothes, so she had an option of changing into something clean. He knew what it was like to not have caps, and to have only the clothes on your back. Nick had said she was probably sleeping, and he could be silent enough to not wake her and leave the clothes for her. He used the key Nick gave him to enter, and when he didn’t see her in the bed and heard the shower running, he had turned to leave just as fast….but then his eyes strayed to the bathroom out of curiosity. Yeah, curiosity. That’s what they’re calling it now, huh, ya damn voyeur? he chided himself.

The Venus he saw before him took his breath away, and he couldn’t do much more than stand and admire the lithe goddess, aside from almost drooling. Without the fatigues, her form was so much more feminine than he could have ever imagined. And goddamn, she was tall – standing next to him, she wasn’t more than a couple of inches above him, but admiring her long form at this distance exacerbated her height. And then he saw her hand stray down between her legs and stay there…he knew he shouldn’t be standing here, watching a private and intimate moment unfold in front of him, but he couldn’t pull his eyes away. And when she threw her head back and held in that moan….he almost came right then and there. Readjusting himself quickly, he forced himself to exit the room; the situation would not be good if she found him in her room, erection standing tall while staring at her after she just pleasured herself. At least he got an amazing mental image for his spank bank for later.

When she opened the door just now, it took all he had to make it look like he wasn’t taking everything in at once, even though covertly he was, regardless – the hardness of her nipples poking against the luckiest shirt on the planet, her underwear peeking out just below the shirt to say hi, her legs going for miles to the ground…and he would need to find a way to see all of her tattoos. He saw a few at a distance when she was in the shower, and the ones on her forearm when he administered the RadAway, but he had a feeling that wasn’t all of them. Thank god he took a hit of Jet just before the door opened so time had slowed for him to take it all in, inch by glorious inch.

It was then that he realized he was hopelessly smitten, and he had blown past the point of no return. He was well beyond fucked, and he knew it.

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Making their way downstairs and out of the hotel, the group made a direct route to The Memory Den. Nobody occupied the pods on the main floor as they entered, and Hancock led them to the stairs to Dr. Amari’s office in the basement. Dr. Amari appeared to be writing notes when Nick knocked on the door frame, trying not to startle her.

Without looking up, she said, “We’re closed, you’ll need to come back at a later time.”

“Hi Dr. Amari.”

Recognizing his voice, she looked up from her work and turned.

“Nick! It’s been a long time. How are you?”

“Just fine, Doctor. Hope you’ve been well.”

“I have been, thank you. I take this isn’t a social call?”

All eyes went to Amy.

“This young lady here is needing some help, and I think you’re the only one who might be able to give her some insight.”

Dr. Amari smiled and directed her to a chair in front of one of the two pods sitting at either side of the room. “Please give me a little more detail on what’s going on.”

Amy was becoming a pretty good storyteller after having to tell her tale so many times since she left the vault. She left out no details. By the end, Dr. Amari had retreated to her chair, and it took her a few minutes to process all of the information given.

“It sounds like we’re going to need a memory dive. Thankfully, what memories we’re looking for may be pretty close to each other, so we shouldn’t have to search much. Please have a seat in the pod behind you, and we can begin. If you feel like you need to stop at any point, there’s a release lever here,” she pointed to a bar within the pod, on the side, “and it will stop everything.”

Nick and Hancock helped Amy into the pod, and the lid closed when she was situated.

“Now, just focus on the screen in front of you.”

She did, and within moments she had drifted away from reality.

Next she knew, she was in some sort of dreamscape; it was grey and formless around her, but she could hear Dr. Amari’s voice clearly.

“It looks like we’ve got a grouping of memories around the same time. I’ll start here, and if this isn’t what we’re looking for, we’ll move onto the next. Please proceed to the first memory.”

Amy moved forward, and she was back at Sanctuary, the neighborhood as pristine as the day she arrived to help Nate. It WAS the day I arrived to help Nate, she realized. Nora was in the doorway to greet her. I didn’t pay attention to how bad she looked even then. Nora looked….haunted. Like something had just scared her half to death. Did I even register that at the time? The scene faded away when Dr. Amari’s voice came through.

“I’m not sure if that is what we’re looking for. We can always go back and revisit it if we need to, but let’s keep moving along.”

She was back in Nate’s house. He was at the door with the Vault-Tec rep. Oh no….she couldn’t stop as the scene replayed for her. Shaun was crying in his crib, the news anchor on TV informed of bombs being dropped, Nate appeared with Shaun in his arms, the sirens sounded, they were running, running, up the hill…the vault entrance right there, Nate with Shaun moving to the middle of the platform with her right behind them….then the flash in the distance. The initial shockwave passing just over their heads as the elevator dropped into the darkness. Being herded off of the platform into the vault, a vault suit handed to her, more herding down the hall, the cryopods open to receive them….and sudden cold. Tears streamed down her face.

“I’m….sorry you’re having to go through all of this again,” she heard Dr. Amari say with sorrow in her voice. “There’s another memory right by this one.”

She was not prepared for this memory, because she didn’t remember it. At least, not directly.

It was the room she found herself in her nightmares. Her hands in the pod gripped the armrests tightly.

A handful of people in sterile lab coats stood around her on the table as she came to completely. Monitors circled the gurney she was laid out on. She tried to look next to her, and across the room she saw another gurney….with Nate strapped in as much as she was. One of the lab coats was speaking to her, no, he addressed NORA. Why did they think she was her sister-in-law? Did they not know she had passed away days before the bombs fell? Another lab coat was at her side, administering something in a very large syringe to her IV line. She tried to get a good look at it, but the strap holding her head still wouldn’t allow her head to move. Removing the now empty syringe, all of the lab coats stepped back as she started feeling the overwhelming pain everywhere. She thrashed and spasmed. While she lost control of herself, she heard one of the lab coats speaking to the fellow lab coat at his side.

“If she tolerates this dose, we’re on schedule for the next four. Is the military immersion recording ready for her pod? It will need to start as soon as she is back in there to maximize the results.”

“Yes. It is ready.”

She was wheeled back to the cryopod and placed within. When it closed around her, she gasped. That voice! The one she heard when she was at Concord, it was playing in the background! It was relaying technical information to her as she began to feel the deep cold once more.

“There’s a couple more memories that are similar to this; I don’t want to put you through that pain again, though. We can at a later time if we need to. Let’s move on for now.” Dr. Amari’s voice drifted to her.

She was back in the cryopod, but now she saw Scarface at Nate’s pod. She banged on the window, which was more like a weak slap, now that she was seeing it again. Scarface’s gun went off, and she squeezed her eyes shut. They shot open again as soon as she heard Shaun’s cries when the lab coat took him from Nate. Scarface appeared in the window to her pod. She thought she heard Nick’s voice cry out in surprise, but she couldn’t be sure. “We’ll keep this one here, for backup,” he said to the lab coat while staring at her. He left, and the cold returned.

“All I’m seeing now are more recent memories. Let’s stop here,” Dr. Amari stated as the pod began to open. “Please, tell me how you are feeling. I want to make sure there’s no adverse side effects.”

Amy was groggy, her face was wet, and her whole body was sore. “I…think I’m ok.” She attempted to pull herself from the pod, but two strong hands kept her in place. Nick and Hancock were side by side, each with a hand on her to keep her still.

“Doll, give yourself a minute to recuperate. Being in the memory recall pod can be disorienting.” Nick murmured to her.

She laid back in the chair and looked around the room. Dogmeat had found a place by the door to curl up, and Dr. Amari was typing away on the computer at her work station. Nick had his hand on her shoulder still, and Hancock had his hand on her wrist. The amount of concern written on their faces said more than any words could; they must have seen it all too. Hancock’s hand squeezed her wrist, and her eyes were drawn to his; a small smile spread across his lips as his thumb absentmindedly caressed the inside of her wrist. “How ya feeling, sister?”

“I’m not sure. I’ve got more answers than I had before, but they still make no sense. At least I know where that voice is from now.”

“Voice? The recording?” Nick interjected.

“Yeah. Before I figured out the music loophole, I would hear voices, almost echoes, telling me what to do before the bright light would take over. I haven’t really heard it since I’ve had the earpiece in though; it’s like the music drowns out the voice itself, but not what it was saying, er, telling me to do. It’s like my brain already knows it and doesn’t need directions.”

“At least now we have a better idea of how you might have gotten most of your military training – I think it’s called ‘hypnopaedia’, or sleep-learning. Valentine, the real Valentine, had buddies at the station that underwent some procedures for that after some pretty heavy cases so they wouldn’t suffer from PTSD.”

“But what about the syringe? I’ve never seen one so big.”

“Since you weren’t able to get a closer look at the time, we’ll need to dive into those files you were talking about. There may be more answers in there. I have a feeling I may know what it could be, but I’d rather look into it rather than make speculations. It might have been a different project that you got tangled up in, so I could be wrong.”

She sat up. Hancock’s hand had dropped back to his side, but Nick’s remained on her shoulder, and it gave her a quick, hard squeeze that brought her attention to him.

“I know who Shaun’s kidnapper is. A man named Kellogg. He’s a merc with the Institute. He had a place at Diamond City, and he had a kid with him at the time…”

“You saw Shaun?”

“I’m…not sure it was him though. The kid wasn’t a baby, he was older, like 11 or 12.”

“Then…that means there was a period of time between Shaun being taken, and when I woke up?”

“It’s possible. I think we should make our way back to Diamond City and check out Kellogg’s place, and then we can start heading to Sanctuary to peruse those files.”

She nodded in agreement. “It’s the best lead we have.”

Nick turned to Dr. Amari. “Thank you, Dr. Amari, I think we have some good information to work with. We may need to come back if we need clarification on anything, though.”

“Of course, Nick. I’m glad I could help. Please let me know if you need anything further.”

The group ascended the stairs and exited the Den, heading back over to the hotel. Amy fished the key out of her pocket and opened the door to her room, leaving the door open so her companions could enter. She walked over to her bag and carried it over to the mattress, where she started emptying contents of pockets and larger areas to take inventory, hoping she didn’t need to restock much.

“So,” Hancock started, “ya heading out to Diamond City right away?”

Nick nodded. “Best to get whatever clues we can find as soon as possible, assuming there are clues left to find.”

Hancock coughed to clear his throat. “I know this seems like an odd request, ‘specially with needing to go to Diamond City, but thought ya both might like some company. It’s been a while since I’ve been on the road, and after that debacle with Finn, I thought it might be a good time for me to take a walk.”

Her eyebrow shot up, and Amy looked at him. “But, you’re the mayor – can you do that?”

“Mayor’s still the mayor, whether in residence or not. Fahrenheit’s taken the helm when I’ve needed to step out before, so it wouldn’t be anythin’ new. I may need to come back to check in though, depending on how long we’re gone. But I’d like to help ya, just like Nicky here is. It’s not every day a case like yours comes up.”

“You’ll need a disguise for getting through the gates then,” Nick interjected.

“Disguise? Are competing mayors from other towns not allowed in?” Amy asked, not sure why he wouldn’t be let in to the city.

“It’s…not quite that easy. Ghouls aren’t allowed in the city due to mayoral decree.” Nick sighed.

“That’s….fucking awful. No wonder why I couldn’t stand that asshole.”

“What asshole?” Nick and Hancock said in unison.

 “McDonough. He had tried to lock Piper out for printing something he didn’t like in the paper when I arrived, before she brought me to Nick.”

It could have been her imagination, but Amy swore Hancock visibly shuddered at the mention of the name. Interesting.

“All right, if you’re coming with us, go get packed and we’ll meet you by the gate,” Nick directed at Hancock, and he gave a half-assed salute back. Amy thought she saw a big grin on Hancock’s face as he turned to leave, but she could have been seeing things.

Chapter Text

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                                                                                                Chapter 7

Nick, Amy, and Dogmeat left the Rexford after turning in their keys and gathering their belongings.  They were approaching the corner of the State House when they heard Hancock speaking loudly to a crowd that had gathered below the balcony outside of his office. He was letting his citizens know that he would be out of office for a while, and that Fahrenheit would be in charge. Even from this distance they could sense the charisma bellowing from him into the crowd; they stood at rapt attention to his every word, and she began to understand part of the reason why he was mayor. I’m sure there’s more to the story, she said to herself, determined to find out more.

Hancock turned his head slightly in their direction as he was speaking, nodding to them as he wrapped things up. Cheers of “Of the People, For the People!” and “Goodneighbor!” erupted, and slowly the crowd began to disperse. Hancock disappeared from the balcony to reappear around the corner a few minutes later, a bag on his back, shotgun in the crook of his arm, and a cigarette in hand.

“Did’ja need any supplies before we head out? I need to pick up some ammo from KL-E-O,” he stated.

“Are electromagnetic cartridges common? I could probably use some more shotgun shells and .308 bullets while I’m at it too…” Amy asked, really hoping to refill her Gauss ammo.

“Let’s go check, sister!” he replied as his face broke into a grin. Flicking his smoke to a nearby alley and holding his hand out to her, she shyly accepted it with hers and they walked towards Kill or Be Killed.

“Guess it’s just you and me, Dogmeat,” Nick chuckled. “Let’s go see what Daisy is up to.”

KL-E-O was nothing like Amy had been expecting. Hancock filled her in about Assaultrons, and instructed her that if she saw one out in the wilds, to keep clear of the large “eye” that could propel a large laser blast.

“Difference between life and death, baby,” the sultry, robotic shopkeeper cooed.

Ammo restocked, they meandered to the neighboring shop and the woman behind the counter straightened as she saw them.

“John! How’s my favorite Mayor today?”

“Daisy, ya charmer. I’m good. Where’d ya hide Nick? I think he went this direction.”

“He’s in the back looking at the new merchandise that arrived with the latest caravan. This must be our newest addition to the Neighborhood Watch, right?” Daisy said with a grin and a chuckle, looking at a blushing Amy.

“Just one of the good ones watchin’ out for the little guys,” he replied, a smirk lingering on his face.

Amy walked forward and held out her hand. “Amethyst, but most call me Amy.” Daisy grasped her hand warmly.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance, sugar! I’m Daisy. So, I hear you’re a vault-dweller?”

“Sort of. I woke up in one, so not really sure if that fits the “dweller” description.”

“Woke up?”

“From a 200+ year frozen nap,” they heard from the back of the shop. Everyone at the front of the shop laughed; Nick’s hearing was impeccable.

“Ah, so Vault-Tec got their claws into you? Guessing the frozen part was the experiment in that vault?”

“Appears to be just one of them. We’re trying to figure out what else.”

“I’m so sorry, my dear. I knew when Vault-Tec started their vault campaigns during the war that they were up to no good.”

“Me too. I wasn’t originally supposed to end up in one.”

“You’re pre-war?”

“Saw the bombs drop as they got us into the vault,” she sighed with sadness.

Daisy quickly walked around the counter and pulled Amy into a tight hug. “They were just gettin’ you ready for us, darlin’,” Daisy whispered into her ear with a smile and a wink. “You make sure y’all come back to us in one piece, ok? Look out for these daredevils,” she said as she eyed the ghoul and synth, “they both tend to attract trouble more often than not.”

“I do not!” a retort shot up to the front.

“Oh yeah? What about Skinny Malone?” she called back over her shoulder.

“That was just a misunderstanding….on both sides,” came the reply. Daisy laughed.

“I’ve got their backs, Daisy, don’t you worry,” Amy interjected with a large grin.

“Alright, we should get movin’ so we’re not travellin’ in the dark,” Hancock spoke over everyone.

“You have a disguise with you?” called Nick from the back of the shop as he headed up to the front.

“Yep. Ready to get this freakshow on the road.”

The group said their goodbyes to Daisy, Amy put the earpiece in her ear and readied her rifle, and the door shut behind them.

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Following the similar route that Nick, Amy, and Dogmeat took to get there, the journey started off well thanks to the quick work she had made of the nearby super mutant encampment days before. They decided to avoid Swan’s Pond this time though, which led them right into a Raider hideout.

Not seeing a good path around, Nick and Hancock debated on where to go since they both knew the area. While they were busy, Amy snuck around a corner with her rifle and, with the spiderwebbing forming in her vision, she took down seven of the Raiders in quick succession. Within moments the men were behind her to back her up, but all they could do by that point was stare and congratulate her.

“Should I clear out the rest?” she asked as she swapped her rifle for the shotgun on the side of her bag.

“Might as well, since ya probably already took care of 90% of the bastards,” Hancock jested.

“I’ll hang out here with Dogmeat if you wanted to finish things,” Nick offered.

Joining glances, Hancock and Amy nodded to each other, and Hancock led the way to the dilapidated building.

Before entering, she placed a hand on Hancock’s shoulder. “You should let me go in first.”

“No way,” he quietly argued. “Ghouls can heal quicker than smoothskins. I’ll take the brunt of anything that comes around the corner, and you can take out anyone else.”

She stopped him and gave him a stern look, but a gentle touch to his arm. “Hancock, I need you to trust me on this, especially if we’re travelling together.”

His dark eyes searched hers, paying attention for a ‘death wish’ look, or anything to indicate she was trying to bring harm to herself; seeing nothing but concern and determination, he sighed and gave in. “Lead the way.”

As soon as the door opened, the gunfire began. Eyes darting everywhere, dodging shots that came in her direction, she moved with stealthy grace from room to room, taking out any poor soul who happened to peek around a corner, or not be prepared as she came thundering in like a hurricane. Hancock picked off a few Raiders who were hidden in rooms as they quickly swept through, but it was mostly her taking them out, and he couldn’t be more enraptured with her tenacity. So fluid and lithe were her motions that by the time they got to the top floor, he had to pause.

“I must be more outta practice than I thought,” he grimaced.

“Or you’re just travelling with an over 200-year old manufactured weapon of the U.S. Military,” she replied with a sly, but sad, sarcastic smile. All he could do was stare back at her in awe. What did I do to deserve meeting this woman? There’s not much.

They rejoined Nick outside, and continued on towards Diamond City.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Noticing the large lights of the old ballfield in the distance, Nick looked around to find a safe place for Hancock to change into his disguise, and finding something tolerable, began heading towards a boarded-up diner.

“Let’s head in here so you can go undercover,” Nick directed at Hancock.

“I’ll keep watch out front if you won’t be long,” Amy offered.

Ducking inside, Hancock found a table to set his bag on while Nick hovered in the doorway. As he began to change out of his mayoral duds, he stopped.

“Hey Nicky,” he began, his voice low so it wouldn’t carry outside. “How do you think she’s holding up? She’s been through a lot, and I’m not gettin’ a good read on her.”

Nick glanced out the door at the lone figure with the rifle wandering around the perimeter.

“She seems to be doing ok. Haven’t really had much of a chance to check in with her though.”

“Does she always run headfirst into things? Or is that the training?”

“Might be a combo of the two, the latter taking up much of the weight. But, she’s almost a different person when she’s not in ‘combat mode’, as I’m sure you’ve picked up on.”

Hancock nodded. An angel and a devil in one; two sides of the same coin. He could relate.

After a few minutes Nick exited the diner, with an odd mix of a Raider, Gunner, and settler following behind him.

Amy couldn’t help but chuckle at the hodgepodge outfit when she came around the corner to check on them. “Ready to continue?”

A muffled reply came from under the gas mask of their “new” companion. “Ready to get out of this getup.” He shifted uncomfortably and scratched at the gloves covering his gnarled hands.

Taking point, Amy led the group further into the city, with Nick directing her on which way to turn. Dogmeat trotted along with Hancock at the rear.

They had no problem getting past the guards at the gate, and they wound their way through the market and alleyways to arrive at Nick’s office. Nick opened the door for the group, and shut the door once everyone was inside.

“Ellie must be out,” Nick observed as he entered. “John, did you want to stay here so you can take off some of that getup for the time being? Shouldn’t take long to go through Kellogg’s place, as long as we can get in.”

“Might be a good idea so we’re not drawing a crowd.” He pulled off the gas mask and inhaled deeply. “Damn, that was gettin’ hard to breathe in. Hurry back, ok? This place puts me on edge.” He pulled a canister of Jet from his pocket.

“We’ll be back in a jiffy,” Nick replied as he walked out the door.

As she was leaving, she caught Hancock’s gaze. “Thanks for putting up with all of this,” she said. “It means a lot to me that you’re here, and that I’m not trying to sort out this clusterfuck on my own, because I don’t know if I could handle it all.”

His eyes brightened as he took in her approval. “Anything for you, sister. All ya gotta do is ask.”

All you gotta do is be the goddess you are, and I would follow you to the ends of the earth, he wanted to say, but he was going to keep that next to his heart. He didn’t want to scare this angel away. Play it cautious, play it cool.

Nick led Amy and Dogmeat to a vacant dwelling amongst the old ballfield stands. He cursed when he observed the lock. “Why have such a heavy lock on this place? What’re you hiding, Kellogg?” Nick murmured as he unsuccessfully tried to pick it.

“Let me try,” she stated.

Gesturing her forward, he watched as she kneeled down to work the lock with conditioned ease. Hearing the lock disengage, she stood and removed the lock from the door before opening it.

“Didn’t know that lockpicking was part of the military repertoire,” he joked.

“Neither did I. Picked up an awesome weapon from the vault before I left because of those ‘skills’ though,” she said, “so I guess it has its uses.” She shrugged.

“Start looking around for any clues. There’s gotta be something in here to help us.”

Surveying the room, it appeared awfully small compared to the outside walls.

“Is this it? Does this seem, I don’t know, confined in here opposed to the size of the whole building?” she asked.

Glancing around, he hummed in agreement. “You may be on to something. Start looking for anything out of the ordinary.”

They split off to scour different parts of the apartment. Noting a desk towards the back, she made her way to the drawers and pulled each one open. Nothing, not even items that could be of use. She started to turn to look elsewhere when she noticed a button on the inside of the desk. She pressed it, and the far wall began to move, causing Nick to jump back.

“Think I found it,” she stated with a grin.

“Might make a detective out of you yet,” Nick returned her smile with one of his own.

They stepped into the hidden room, and Nick reached for a box he spotted on a table.

“San Francisco Sunlights. Not a common brand. Pretty expensive too if I’m remembering correctly.”

“There’s a partial in the ashtray. Think it may have a scent we can use? I’m not really seeing anything else that would work…well, maybe that beer bottle….there aren’t even clothes in the dresser.”

“Only one way to find out,” Nick said. “Dogmeat, come take a sniff of this.”

The dog, with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, padded over to the detective and took a deep huff at the end of the cigar. He began to bark and head to the door, and Nick and Amy looked at each other.

“I’ll get John. We should follow the trail.” he said.

She sat with Dogmeat while Nick disappeared out of the door, absentmindedly scratching behind his ears. Her thoughts began to diverge in many different directions; she was getting closer to finding Shaun, and she was getting answers on what was wrong with her. But there was one thing that had been taking up most of her thought process that only confused her more, and it all started with her fall into those dark eyes in Goodneighbor.

The brief, stray touches he gave her. The looks, when he thought she wasn’t paying attention. How he dropped his duties to follow her without a second thought. He doesn’t even know me, why does he want to help me? She wasn’t anyone special. Just someone who happened to have a downright fucked up set of circumstances that landed her in this timeline. Her thoughts then went to her husband back home. If the bombs didn’t get him, the amount of time that now separated them did. She missed him terribly, and had held back on sharing anything about him with anyone; he had been her best friend, her confidant, and she hadn’t been able to spend any time to properly mourn him, let alone be able to speak about him. If only she hadn’t agreed to help her brother, she wouldn’t have flown out here to eventually wind up in a vault. She would have been with him…but long dead by this point. There must be some reason she wound up being mixed up in all of this. She sighed and put her head in her hands, bouncing from being grateful in being alive, to being the most selfish person on the planet that she was alive when Dustin wasn’t. The guilt ate away at her, and she wasn’t sure how to stop it.

Nick made his way back to Kellogg’s apartment with Hancock in tow. As he entered the open door, he saw Amy sitting on the floor with Dogmeat, sniffling as she wiped at her cheeks.

“You ok, doll?”

She dragged her hand under her nose and looked up. “I guess so. Just having an existential crisis.”

He placed his hand on her shoulder. “You’re here now, and you’ve got friends who would do anything to help you. Are you thinking about people you left behind…when you got frozen?”

She nodded between sniffles.

He rubbed her shoulder with his thumb. “That’s the tricky thing about life. There’s no rhyme or reason to anything, and all we can really do is go with the flow we find ourselves in. It wasn’t your fault that you’re here now and they aren’t.”

“I know. It doesn’t make it any easier though.”

“Give it time. The pain won’t go away, but it will lessen. You’ll see.”

He rose and joined Hancock outside. She let another tear or two fall down her cheek before she roughly wiped her face and got up. Taking a deep breath, she joined them, and they followed Dogmeat as he traced the faint scent of Kellogg out of Diamond City into the ruins beyond.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They wove their way through the ruins of Boston until the buildings began to disperse, then Dogmeat led them to some railroad tracks; she wasn’t sure if these were the same tracks that led her to Diamond City, or not. Nose to the ground, he wasn’t paying attention to anything else around him and trotted over to a small pond. Sitting and making a sharp “yip” sound, Nick joined him and spotted another cigar by an empty bottle of beer by the water’s edge.

“We’re on the right track, no pun intended,” Nick casually mentioned.

Sniffing the ground once more, Dogmeat departed the pond and returned to the tracks, moving quickly enough that the three following him had to jog to catch up. A branch snapped not feet from the group as they slid to a halt, followed by an ear-splitting roar. Hancock’s shotgun was out and firing before Amy could get the Gauss’s scope up to her eye, but it wasn’t enough to hinder the beast, and it took a swipe at his arm. Always quick on his feet, Hancock deftly sidestepped the massive arm and claws of the yao guai, turned, and held the shotgun at point blank range to the creature’s head. He fired, and blood sprayed everywhere, but still the animal danced around him, more pissed off than before. It stood on its rear legs and bellowed. That was all Amy needed to line up her shot between its eyes and pull the trigger. Her arm spasmed a bit and the shot went a little wide, grazing it just above its left eye as it dropped back down to all fours. Furious, it took off at a run directly at her, and she began to hip fire, not using the scope to aim. The beast was on her in moments, massive claws raised, and brought its arm down in a swing with such force that it tossed her back several feet and crumpled her to the ground.

Nick had his .44 out and directed all of his shots at the wounded face, while Hancock dashed around the sides, shooting and reloading as quickly as he could while staying out of the animal’s reach. Their combined bullet arsenal chipped away at the creature’s stamina and eventually it slumped down to the ground, struggled briefly to push itself back up, and fell still. Hancock walked up, stuck his shotgun to the yao guai’s right eye, and fired. Reloaded. Fired again. Took out his knife and stabbed it through the top of the beast’s head, and removed it. Satisfied, he quickly spun and ran to where she had landed.

Nick slid as he came to a stop at Amy’s side, gingerly reaching his hand out to move her from her side to her back. Hancock joined him as both of their eyes darted everywhere, looking for injuries. Her camo was dark enough that they didn’t see the tears at her abdomen right away until red began to seep through. Nick pulled up her shirt, and three deep, angry gashes ran from her right side diagonally down to her left hip. He grimaced. Hancock didn’t waste a moment in removing his bag and digging through it to find three Stimpaks, handing one to Nick.

“These need stitches, but we can’t do that out in the open,” Hancock observed, panic beginning to build.

“There’s an underpass up ahead. I’ll carry her, you clear the way,” Nick responded as he began to carefully lift her into his arms bridal-style, to try to keep the wounds from opening further.

They hurried to the underpass and gently laid her down in the stairwell, Hancock pulling out a small satchel out of his bag, and a bottle of vodka. Removing a needle from the satchel, he popped open the bottle of vodka and poured some over his hand and the needle, over the gashes on her stomach, and then took a small swig for himself. With deft hands, he sutured up the wounds and administered a Stimpak to her right side. He nodded at Nick so he would inject one on her other side. They waited to see if the third would be needed. Her skin began to meld itself, but not as quickly as it should have.

“Do we give her another? Usually, two would be enough for wounds like this, but they don’t appear to be working,” Nick asked, unsure of what to do.

Hancock didn’t respond, only removed the lid to the third Stimpak and stuck it directly into the middle of her stomach. They waited.

Her eyes began to flutter, and slowly opened. She began to move, and her eyes quickly squeezed shut, with a sharp intake of breath.

“Hey, hey, need to stop movin’ there, sister,” Hancock murmured, a hand on her shoulder.

“I guess that naked bear KO’d me, huh?”

Nick laughed, while Hancock looked between them, confused.

Seeing Hancock’s puzzled look, Nick explained what a bear was, and what ‘KO’ meant. Shaking his head in partial understanding, he grinned and scanned her one more time to make sure she didn’t have any other unseen wounds.

She tried to sit up, but feeling the tight pull at her stitches, she stopped. “Feels like he got me pretty good.”

“Good enough that I need to find more suture material,” Hancock replied. “We gave ya some Stimpaks too, but they don’t seem to be working as fast as they should. Give it a few more minutes.”

She groaned but agreed to stay put. Nick, suddenly realizing that Dogmeat was not there, got to his feet and left the stairwell. The dog hadn’t gone far; he sat in front of a bloody piece of cloth hanging just in front of the doorway. “Good boy, you find another clue?”

Dogmeat barked in response, his tail swishing from side to side, proud of himself.

“We’ll start back up on the trail as soon as she feels like she can walk, ok?”

The dog huffed in frustration, but sat in place while Nick disappeared back into the stairwell.

As Nick returned, he found her sitting up slightly, while Hancock was digging in his bag again.

Pulling out another syringe, he turned as he explained to her, “This is Med-X. It’ll take the edge off the pain, if you’d like some.”

She nodded weakly. “It feels like my skin is on fire.”

Without another word, Hancock carefully took her arm, inserted the syringe, and depressed the plunger. All of her muscles seemed to relax, and she laid back down on the hard concrete.

“We’ll have to camp out here for the time being. I’ll take a look around to make sure we don’t have any more surprises,” Nick suggested.

Hancock nodded and turned his attention back to Amy as her eyes became a little droopy; he hesitated slightly before cupping his scarred hand to her cheek, thumb rubbing her skin. “Stay with me, ok? We need to keep alert in case we need to head outta here in a hurry.”

“Shouldn’t have given me such a big dose then,” she quipped with a dopey smile, leaning into his palm a bit.

He chuckled, stroking her cheek once more before carefully removing his hand. “Honestly I’m surprised ya don’t need more.”

“I haven’t tried getting up yet.”

“Touche. I don’t have much, but if ya need more, we’ll find a better place to hole up and I’ll give ya some.”

Amy smirked and held his gaze.

“Thanks, Dr. John.”

The gentle rumble of a chuckle from his chest made her grin wider.

“At least that yao guai didn’t rip that sense of humor from ya, sister.”

“Never. I think it’s permanently embedded in me. I’m gonna go out with a joke on my lips.”

Not before I can touch them first, he kept to himself, grinning on the outside to cover his true thoughts. His heart ached.

“The best way to go, except I’d prefer to give Death the finger, too,” he said.

“It’s almost a requirement in this place, honestly.”

He nodded, enjoying this playful banter they were having, but his gaze became soft as he saw her grimace a little after shifting her weight. “Rest for a few minutes. I’ll be right back. Dogmeat,” he called for the dog. “Hey boy, keep an eye on her, ok? I gotta go find Nicky.”

Rising, Hancock exited and ran into Nick on his way back to the stairwell.

In a low voice, Hancock spoke to Nick. “She seems to be doing ok, but we gotta get outta this stairwell. I’m not sure if she’s able to move on her own yet though. Those wounds are still pretty angry.”

“Agreed. I think Dogmeat picked up the trail, he found a bloody cloth just outside here. Maybe we can find something along the way?”

“Ya think that’s wise, to be continuing when we’re not sure she can?”

“I can carry her. I think there’s an old fort not too far away that has a Red Rocket we might be able to utilize. I don’t want to lose the trail, but you’re right, she needs rest before we can move on.”

“Best option we got. I’ll carry her bag.”

The men returned to the stairwell, and Nick kneeled down to place his hand on her shoulder. “Amy, we need to move from here, it’s too out in the open. Dogmeat found another clue, so I’m going to carry you to see where it leads us. If we’re heading in the direction where I think we are, I know of a place we can go.”

With heavy lids, she looked up at him and nodded. “This concrete is cold anyways.”

Smiling, as gently as he could, he picked her up and maneuvered her so she was riding piggyback on his back. The group left the stairwell and followed Dogmeat as his nose took them through the woods, around some ponds, to the outskirts of Fort Hagen, where they found the Red Rocket Nick had spoken of. Dogmeat took care of some Radroaches inside, and Nick and Hancock found a mattress in a back office. Setting her down, they left to secure the rest of the building.

As Hancock rounded the rear of the building, he noticed a group of discarded barrels with the distinctive “Radioactive” symbol painted on the front, partially buried. Stomach dropping, he rushed to find Nick.

“Not sure we can stay here, Nicky, there’s barrels of rads behind the building.”

“Check her Pip-Boy and see if it’s registering any rads. The walls of the station might be enough of a barrier where she won’t absorb much.”

Walking quickly, he ducked into the station and beelined back to the office. She had fallen asleep, but her Pip-Boy was still on, and every so often he heard a click of the Geiger counter.

“Dammit. It’s not much, but it’s rads she doesn’t need to be takin’ in,” he muttered under his breath. He turned and walked back out to Nick.

“It’s not clickin’ much, but it is clickin’. Can’t stay here long without needin’ to give her RadAway too.”

“We’re going to have to stay put. I don’t think she can handle more travel, especially if those wounds aren’t healing.”

Releasing a frustrated grunt, Hancock pulled out a pack of smokes from his pocket, taking one, and offered the pack to Nick. He pulled one from the pack, and both men lit up their respective cigarettes. The sun was beginning to set, and they needed to figure out accommodations for the night.

“I’ll take first watch if ya wanna take a seat by her,” Hancock offered.

“You take the seat,” Nick side-eyed him with a sly grin, having an idea of the turmoil his old friend was in. “Dogmeat and I will keep an eye out here.”

With an appreciative smile and a quick “thank you”, Hancock returned inside. He found a chair and carried it into the room, where he sunk down into the seat as he removed his hat. He ran his hand over his face, and his gaze darted down to her, letting a small sigh of worry escape as his thoughts became tied in a knot. She’s not as invincible as she thinks she is. She’s, in fact, more fragile than she realizes. He reached into his pocket for a canister of Jet, and a tin of Mentats. Placing the inhaler in his mouth, he sucked in the vapors and held them, releasing the chemical mist through his open sinus cavity a few moments later and placing a chalky tablet on his tongue, letting it roll around absentmindedly. We coulda lost her today, after she just found us. He leaned forward and rested his elbow on his leg, cupping his chin in his hand. His mind began to wander back to their first encounter in the courtyard of Goodneighbor, then to their dinner at the Third Rail, his accidental ‘intrusion’ of her ‘shower’, and when she woke up the next morning…

He must have seriously dozed off at some point, because a sound caused him to jerk upright in the chair. She was sitting up and rummaging through her bag, pulling out items and setting them on the mattress.

“Hey sleepyhead,” she whispered, eyes looking up through her lashes at him, a slight red tint coming to her cheeks.

The sky was beginning to take on orange and pink hues that bathed the room in pastel, and he wasn’t sure if he was awake, or still dreaming.

“Mornin’, sunshine,” he purred, sleep still clinging to him as he returned her gaze. “How’re you feelin’?”

“Still a little sore, but good enough to sit up at least.”

“Definite progress then.”

She nodded. “Hey, do you have a smoke? I’ve got a bad craving right now, and I doubt coffee exists anymore.”

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the pack, plucked two cigarettes, and lit both. He handed one to her.

“Thanks,” she said as she took a deep drag, leaning her head back to blow the smoke above her.

How is everything about her so…long? he wondered as he observed her slender neck stretching, desperately wishing his lips could feather soft kisses on that smooth skin of hers, run his tongue along the side of her neck, up to her ear, nip at her earlobe... He took a drag of his own cigarette, pushing down his impure thoughts as much as he willed his morning wood to recede, hoping it all wasn’t showing.

Nick appeared in the doorway, a smile breaking on his face as he saw Amy sitting. “Hey doll, you get some rest?”

She returned his smile with one that made her green eyes shimmer in the morning light. “Some,” she returned, “but I’m still pretty sore. It was hard to get comfortable.”

“Can you get up? I don’t want you pulling any stitches trying though. John used up most of his suture supply, so we won’t be able to fix any tears.”

“Maybe if you help lift me up..?”

Nick grasped her left arm, while Hancock held onto her right. Slowly they pulled her up from the mattress while she grimaced, but she made it to her feet.

“There you go! No suture rips?”

“I don’t think so.”

Nick released her arm, and Hancock was getting ready to do the same, until a slight weakness in her knees caused her to stumble a little. Hancock gripped her arm tighter, circling his other arm around her, drawing her closer to his side so he could steady her, but being mindful of her wounds at the same time. “Careful. Those meds may still be workin’ their way through your system.” She gripped his arm tightly as she steadied her footing. Eyes drifting to his, she smiled that bright, enchanting smile at him, and that heartstring song made a repeat performance and thrummed through his body. I could survive purely from that feeling, if only she would let me…

“Can we try walking around a little?” she sheepishly asked.

“Of course. Slow steps, Sunshine, slow…”

With small movements, they shuffled outside, and began to walk a lap around the station. Desperately trying to think of something, anything, to talk to her about, she broke the silence first.

“Do you like music?”

“Of course. Not the Diamond City radio that much, but the classical station is ok in a pinch.”

She giggled. I could get used to hearing that, it sounds like angelic bells announcing her presence.

“I’ve tuned in to Diamond City radio, and those songs are so old, they were that way even back in my time. I’m guessing not much else survived?”

“Not that I know of.”

She stopped, and pulled something from her ear and placed it in her Pip-Boy. Turning dials and flipping a switch, she found what she was looking for on the screen, and turned one more knob before dropping her hand. Pulsing guitar chords began to play from the device, and she continued her slow walk.

“I’m gonna need to give you some lessons in GOOD music. This,” she beamed as she spoke, “is Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze”. In my opinion, one of the greatest guitarists to ever live. Not something on a lot of radios in my time, so I’m not surprised it didn’t survive. I’m lucky to have these holotapes, honestly.”

The melody was hypnotizing. Conversation, then their feet, paused as they listened together. Her head began to sway with the guitar, and her eyes closed as her soul grasped the musical notes from the air and drifted away for a moment. And all he could do was hold on as tight as he dared, the music pulling him right behind her.

As the song ended, her eyes opened to his dark spheres searching hers, pulling them in like they had before in Goodneighbor. Fueled by a sudden need to be closer to him, her face leaned into his, and her lips soon found his ruined ones. They were much softer than she was expecting, and her mouth opened further to invite his tongue in, which didn’t take much convincing. Tips tentatively touching at first, they began a slow dance around each other, his tongue finding the smooth barbell that ran through hers, a quiet groan rumbling from his chest as his tongue encircled hers. She leaned in more, reaching up to grab the lapel of his jacket when her stomach spasmed. She pulled away slightly to grab at her stomach, a sharp intake of breath sucked through her teeth. Hancock stepped back slightly, following her gaze to her wounds.

“Sorry,” she hissed in pain. “It’s starting to itch at the same time as it hurts. I think those meds finally wore off.”

“Can I look? Ya might’ve pulled a stitch or two,” he said as his fingers grasped the hem of her ripped shirt, beginning to lift it up. She hummed in agreement, and he continued, moving the shirt up to inspect his sewing skills. Eyes widening, he stared at her stomach, reaching down to run his fingers along the claw marks, softly at first, then applying more pressure.

“It looks like…they’re….healin’ at a rate I’ve only seen on me before,” he stated in awe, unable to believe what his eyes and fingers were showing him. He kneeled down to get a closer look (fighting back an impure urge), fingers still running over the raised ridges as they reduced in size. Rising, his gaze went from her stomach to her eyes, and they widened even more.

“You’re glowing again…,” he whispered. His head quickly moved to look behind her to land on the barrels he found the night before. Her head followed his gaze, and then shot to look at her Pip-Boy. The Geiger counter wasn’t making noise because of the music playing, and they hadn’t noticed where they stopped when the music took hold of them.

“Is that shit healing me?”

“Sunshine, I think ya might be part ghoul, or somethin’. Yeah, it’s healin’ ya. I need to take those stitches out before you heal over ‘em. Let’s go back inside.” He grasped her hand, threading his fingers in hers, and led her back into the station.

Chapter Text

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                                                                                                Chapter 8

As they reentered the station, Nick glanced up from where he was standing. Noticing her eyes, he moved towards them, getting ready to grab Hancock’s bag for some RadAway. Hancock waved him back. “We’ve gotta get you up to speed on somethin’.”

Releasing her hand, he nudged her to show Nick her wounds while he went to collect his suture kit. She lifted up her tattered shirt and showed the healed wounds.

“We gotta get the stitches out before she heals over ‘em,” Hancock said as he returned, his removal tool in his hand. He grasped her hand and led her back to the mattress, so she wasn’t standing while he took them out. He helped ease her down, and she unbuttoned half of her shirt so she could keep it out of the way as he worked. If only I could have her finish unbuttoning the rest… Nick stood in the doorway, watching as Hancock’s quick fingers snipped and pulled the sutures out.

“I’m thinkin’ she’s part ghoul,” he said as he gently moved along her old wounds. “We wound up by those barrels out back for a bit, and the wounds started botherin’ her, so I checked to make sure she didn’t rip a suture. They were healin’, right before my eyes, like I do in a radstorm. That’s why we had to hurry in here.”

They had healed so much that they barely registered as scars; slightly raised lines were all that was left of the deep gashes after all of the sutures were taken out.

“I’m leaning pretty heavy towards that serum you were injected with being some form of FEV after this little revelation,” Nick stated, his eyes not believing what he was seeing either.

“Did we lose the trail?” she asked, not trying to change the subject, but wanting to get the question out before her mind strayed too far and she forgot. She sat up, rebuttoning what she could of her shirt.

“Nah, doll. Dogmeat was being professional and found a new clue while we were getting you patched up. While you were out, he and I followed it for a bit when we saw this station in the distance, so I figured it was a good idea to get closer. I’ve got a hunch we need to head to the main building of this fort just behind here. It looked pretty well fortified from where I was looking while on watch. We can continue when you’re ready.”

Looking around at her scattered mess from her bag, she flushed. “I need a few minutes to repack my bag.” She paused. “Do we have anything to eat? I’m getting kinda hungry.”

“I think there’s some Cram in my bag…,” Hancock started to say when Nick cut him off.

“I’ll go find it. Why don’t you help get her bag put back together?” He waited until she turned her head to the items surrounding her, and he winked at Hancock.

His eyes glittered in thanks as he cleared his throat, and squatted down to reach a box of ammo to hand to her.

Setting it next to her leg so she could add it to the bag when she wanted, he extended his arm over to another box when she reached for his chin with her finger, directing his head to face her. He froze, his eyes locked on to hers. She dropped her eyes for a moment in thought before she brought them back up.

“I hope I wasn’t….too forward…back there. It felt right at the time, and I didn’t think on how much I could have messed things up…” her eyes shone as the words tumbled out of her mouth in a ramble.

Placing a hand on the ground to balance himself, he silenced her with his mouth slamming into hers, tongue darting in to swirl together with hers and toy with her barbell as he cupped her cheek with his free hand. He dropped his knees to the ground to even the balance and lean more into her, bringing his other hand to her opposite cheek. He held her face in his hands and almost knocked his hat off in his rush to consume her. His tongue couldn’t get enough of her taste, and he twirled and stretched his tongue further in to deepen the kiss. His hands caressed her soft skin as she let a short, breathy moan echo into his mouth, and that went immediately south, getting him to half staff quickly. She’s got me hook, line, and sinker. One cast from her was all it took…

He didn’t want to pull away, but now was not the time to be moving the direction he (and his member) really wanted to go, so he slowed his ministrations and caught her bottom lip lightly with his teeth, dragging his tongue slowly over it before releasing her completely with a sigh. He dropped one of his hands to regain his balance, but kept the other on her cheek, rubbing her skin with the pad of his thumb.

“Sunshine, you didn’t mess a damn thing up,” he said as he gazed deep into her emerald pools. “Ya just made me the happiest guy around, as a matter of fact. I’ve been wanting to do that ever since I shook hands with ya.”

A deep blush bloomed on her cheeks and she beamed, truly fitting the new nickname he gave her earlier.

“We should finish getting my stuff packed,” she stammered, losing herself again in his eyes. He handed her the box of ammo he had originally reached for, and his finger strayed to glide along her wrist as she reached for it. “Of course. You up for findin’ a murderous fucker? I could take on at least five Deathclaws right now.” He puffed up his chest a little, flexed his arms, and grinned.

She leaned her head back in a deep laugh, and he fought the urge to attack her neck with his tongue. He beamed instead, knowing he was the one responsible for that laugh, and that would do for now. But when he could get her alone, the things he would show her…do to her…he shivered as his mind raced.

“Deathclaws.” Her laugher subsided. “I learned about them at the same time I had to fight one earlier this week, same day I got out of the vault, in fact.”

His missing eyebrows shot up into the brim of his hat. “And ya didn’t get hurt?”

“Found some power armor and a minigun,” she grinned at him devilishly with a raised eyebrow.

He felt a twitch in his pants. His eyes locked with hers, and he suppressed a hungry growl.

“Ya might just be the devil in disguise,” he purred, a rumble forming in his chest.

“They’re delicious, by the way,” she licked her lips slowly, eyes still locked with his, and he was about to lose it when Nick popped his head in the room. The man’s a great wingman, but has some REALLY bad timing at the worst moments, he thought with a groan and a laugh. Their gaze broke and they both turned towards the doorway.

“Found a hot plate, and the Cram’s warmed up enough,” he said as he observed the room. Nothing had gotten into her bag, but he knew something else had gotten into them, and he grinned to himself. John deserved someone who could keep up with him, and this Vaultie might just be his match. “Hot plate is up at the front when you’re ready.”

With many strayed glances, soft, lingering touches, and a few comments between them, they got her bag repacked and joined Nick at the front of the station. He handed her a spoon and an oven mitt he found. Stomach grumbling, she beamed at both of them and dug her spoon into the ancient processed can. Shoving the bite into her mouth, she grimaced at the stale flavor, but her stomach urged her on and she swallowed. “Needs garlic,” she mumbled as she scooped out another bite. Nick laughed and turned the hot plate off. Raising a non-existent eyebrow, Hancock looked at her. “Garlic?”

“It was a seasoning, or herb, used to enhance the flavor of food,” she said as she reminisced. “God, it was so good, especially on bread with some butter…”

“Might have to ask some of the caravans about it. There’s still some ‘old world’ food around, but it depends on where it can be grown. I can check on it if ya like,” he said with a wink and a grin.

“I’d like that,” she returned his wink. Finishing her portion, she handed the remaining half of the Cram to him, and he finished what was left.

Discarding the can in the corner, Hancock left to grab his bag; Amy strolled through the doorway and found Nick outside, smoking a cigarette.

“Could I get one of those off of you? I’ll have to grab a pack when we find one,” she asked.

He held one out to her, and once she had grabbed it, he passed the lighter in his fingers to her.

She sparked the lighter, and held the end of the cigarette to the flame until a cherry formed on the end, and she extinguished the lighter. She held it out to him, and he deftly plucked it from her grasp. Cigarette in her mouth, she removed the earpiece from her Pip-Boy and placed it in her ear, the music beginning to play. Taking a drag, she closed her eyes as she blew out smoke rings in front of her, another old habit scratching its way to the surface. Why are the things I tried to bury the deepest one of the first things to come back? What’s next, biting my nails? Sleeping with a bunch of random people? Not checking food labels before I eat? Forgetting to check both ways before crossing the street? She grumbled to herself in frustration.

“That tongue of yours is pretty talented,” a rough voice rasped in her open ear, expelling the dark thoughts in an instant and sending pleasant shivers down her spine, directly to the fire that smoldered in her belly. Oh fuck, she moaned inwardly, opened her eyes slowly and turned her gaze, eyes once again locking with his. One side of her mouth arched up in a sly grin.

“You have no idea,” she purred as she licked at her lips, eyes glittering in delight.

She noticed a raging fire barely contained deep within those dark orbs, and she knew the flames in her own eyes were burning just as bright.

A cough severed their hunger for each other temporarily, and in unison they turned towards Nick. “Figured you two would like to continue with the trail before we lose daylight,” he jested as he beamed, knowing things were progressing with the lovebirds quite well. He was happy his intuitions and observations were still sharp.

“Let’s go fuck that asshole up,” she grinned as she pulled her hunting rifle from her bag, heading to the building behind the Red Rocket. Hancock was at her side in moments, and Nick and Dogmeat brought up the rear.

Leading the group around the corner, she signaled them to stop as she heard whirring from up above.

“Sounds like a turret,” she whispered.

They all snuck around to the front door, which they found to be barricaded and partially buried.

“Need to find another way in,” Nick said. “Might have luck on the roof, but if there’s more than one turret, that way might be more trouble than it’s worth.”

Bright colors catching in his peripheral, Hancock pointed towards them. “Maybe that’s a way in?”

They followed the red and yellow paint to an underground parking garage, which had a door to the basement of the building. Looking back at the group, and lingering a moment longer on Hancock in particular, she grinned devilishly and opened the door, crossing the threshold, the two men and dog following along closely behind. Once inside, she swapped her rifle for the Gauss, and began to maneuver quickly and silently through the halls.

She heard metallic voices echoing from a room to their right, but also heard a turret to her left.

“Should we split up?” she whispered.

“After the past 24 hours, we’re doing things as a group,” Nick muttered back. “The Institute doesn’t play nice, and after that yao guai, I’m not too keen on letting you head out on your own just yet.”

“I’m not letting ya outta my sight, Sunshine,” Hancock grumbled, a slight edge to his voice.

She raised her hand to caress his cheek, and his eyes closed briefly while leaning into her palm. “Stay close to me then, I’ll be moving quickly.” She dropped her hand as his eyes reopened. And she did move quickly.

Already around the corner and rapidly surveying a room, once she was completely in the room’s confines, Hancock joined her, walking backwards with his gun drawn, checking every hidden area and darkened corner. She checked some desks and filing cabinets for items, while he did the same across the room. Odds and ends went into their bags, and she even found a biometric scanner for Sturges that went into her bag as well. Nick and Dogmeat kept watch in the hallway as they maneuvered from room to room like this. The voices got louder the further down the hallway seemed to angle, and soon a silhouette of a synth walked into view. A moment later it was down on the ground, a hole in its midsection as a loud echo reverberated through the rest of the basement from her Gauss.

Visibly cringing at the noise, she then shrugged and continued to focus on other targets as the synths began to multiply. Nick’s handgun fired repeatedly, and she heard Hancock’s shotgun blasts behind her. A voice began to speak over the intercom.

“Look who it is, the frozen TV dinner. Shouldn’t have left you next to the ice cream and cobbler; should have given you a bullet too. I know why you’re here. You should turn around and leave. Now. While you still can.”

“You killed my BROTHER and KIDNAPPED my NEPHEW. Why would you think I wouldn’t come after you?!” she seethed as she found a staircase heading down. She followed it, with Nick, Hancock, and Dogmeat right behind her. She unlocked the door at the bottom, which opened up to another hallway. The intercom crackled to life.

“Since you made it this far, and aren’t planning on turning around, the door ahead is open, and the synths are standing down. We’ll talk.”

She turned to face Nick and Hancock. “Keep Dogmeat back if you can, so he doesn’t get hit with any crossfire. I’m going to try taking him out quickly, hopefully he doesn’t try to talk too much. Keep to either side of me, and fan out if there’s a lot of synths in there,” she whispered her instructions. Remembering something, she asked Hancock, “Do you have any Jet on you?”

Eyes wide in wordless adoration, his hand was in and out of his pocket in a flash, and he placed the container in her hand. Concealing it, she straightened and walked into the caged room where Kellogg waited for her.

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“I’d like to be able to help you, but Shaun isn’t here,” Kellogg began as she descended the small staircase into the room, Nick and Hancock closely behind her. “But he is somewhere safe, and being taken care of. A little older than you might expect, but in good hands. He’s at the Institute.”

“How do I get to the Institute,” she spit, “and you better tell me while you still have your head.”

“You don’t find the Institute. The Institute finds you.”

She had enough of this; he was being cryptic, he was stalling, he was trying to distract her, and he knew he was going to die. The spiderwebbing quickly made its way around the edges of her vision. “Looks like your time is up.”

In a flurry of seconds she took a hit of Jet, dropped the canister, and raised her Gauss to eye level, finger on the trigger. Kellogg’s chest exploded as her gun continued to fire. One….two….three…four…she counted as she confirmed headshots on the surrounding synths, and all five bodies dropped at the same time. She let the vapors drift from her mouth and nose as she turned back to make sure Nick and Hancock were ok.

“How…,” Nick began.

She smiled sweetly at him. “I remember Nate saying he would use Jet in combat, and I figured it would give me a couple more seconds’ time to get my shot lined up than the spiderwebbing seems to do, so I figured now’s as good a time as any to try. I didn’t want to leave anything with this dickhead up to chance.”

Hancock was still in shock, with his mouth open and at a loss for words, possibly for the first time in his life. Seeing that, she picked up the canister of Jet she had discarded during combat from the floor, took in another hit, and swiftly pulled him in closer to her by the waist as her mouth took in his, the vapors drifting over for him to inhale, and he breathed in hungrily. Her tongue slowly encircled his as the Jet took hold, and his free hand ran up and down her back in slow circles. Her eyes caught his, and their ministrations stopped as she began to slowly suck on the remaining skin of his lower lip before letting it go.  She felt a shudder course through him, and she gave him a devilish grin; they had done all this with their weapons in their hands.

“There’s more where that came from,” she quietly teased, her eyes holding his hostage.

“Sunshine,” he whimpered. “Ya GOTTA quit teasin’ me like this....at least for right now.” His pants were extremely tight, and he didn’t know how much longer he could hold himself back.

“Or what?” she challenged him with a cocked eyebrow.

A look she hadn’t ever seen before, a deep, desperate, borderline feral look, barely remained contained within his eyes. His voice lowered almost to inaudible levels, but she felt it as she held him. “Or I’m gonna make you forget your own damn name by the time I’m done with ya.” His gaze did not waver.

The tightening coil in her lower abdomen threatened to release right then and there as he spoke those words, and her eyes fluttered shut as she fought against losing it completely.

“You promise?” she murmured back, opening her eyes slowly to look at him through her lashes.

“Promise,” he breathed.

She leaned in to give him a light, lingering kiss on his cheek, which drifted gently to what was left of his ear. Her tongue cupped his lobe, letting her barbell graze the edge as her teeth gently followed. The sharp intake of breath he took made her smirk.

“Accepted,” she grinned. “Let’s get the fuck outta this hellhole.”

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While the two lovebirds were “involved”, Nick poked around the caged room for more information. He checked every medical box, every filing cabinet, every desk. He rummaged around the computer he found at the back of the room. A message spoke of sending Shaun back to the Institute, and looking for a former Institute scientist. Not much to go on. He moved on to Kellogg’s body, hoping something might be hidden in his pockets.

“Nice gun,” Nick commented to himself as he pocketed it. They were busy, they wouldn’t even know it was missing. Need a new gun anyways.

Something glinted from the back of Kellogg’s destroyed neck, chest, and shoulders. “What the…?” He found a knife on Kellogg’s belt and cut the object out, holding it up to the light to get a better view of it.

“Seems you weren’t 100% human there, pal. We’ll see what you had in here.”

He wrapped the object in some cloth he ripped from Kellogg’s shirt and pocketed it. He got up and glanced over at the two he abandoned on the other side of the room, and it looked like they were gaining control over their combined libidos, finally. He walked noisily over to them to give them more time to separate. He chuckled to himself. To be young and infatuated again, he reminisced wistfully.

“Ready to get the fuck outta Dodge, Nicky?” Hancock called over to him.

“I was ready about 10 minutes ago, but you two certainly weren’t,” he teased. He laughed as Amy’s face went a light shade of red and her eyes shot over to Hancock’s longingly. Oh no, I hope that didn’t get them riled up again, Nick lamented.

Dogmeat barked at the top of the stairs and effectively brought them all back to reality.

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They found an elevator up, and it took a few minutes to convince Dogmeat that the rickety coffin on a steel rope was ok to get into before everyone could follow. After pushing the button, the elevator rose. As the doors opened, it looked like they had been taken to the roof; after exiting, a distant rumble of engines began to get louder. Slowly, a huge airship drifted into their view, and all three stared at the aircraft when a voice on a loudspeaker announced: “People of the Commonwealth. Do not interfere. Our intentions are peaceful. We are the Brotherhood of Steel.”

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting…..dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before,” Nick muttered as he watched the ship fly towards the far side of downtown Boston.

“Ho-ly shit,” Hancock gaped. “Brotherhood knows how to make an entrance. I’ll give ‘em that.”

“Not getting good vibes from these guys at all,” she concluded. “Who’s the Brotherhood of Steel?”

“Murdering asshole bigots,” Hancock quickly retorted.

“They’re a religious faction that scours the ruins along the East Coast for ‘old-world technology’. They also like to dispose of ‘non-humans’ like yours truly, and John. They think we’re ‘abominations’ and don’t deserve to be alive.”

A look of pure horror overtook her. “What. The. Fuck. You guys are more human than those wastes of skin could ever be.”

Nick and Hancock looked at each other and smiled; they knew they had a hell of an ally standing with them, and she wouldn’t take any shit. “Thanks, doll. That means a lot to these old circuits, and to this crochety mayor, I’m sure.”

“Let’s get the fuck off this roof and the hell out of here,” she stated as her eyes darted to the airship in the distance, ears straining for the sounds of any nearby. “There were smaller ships flying out of that big one, and we’re sitting ducks up here.”

Hastily realizing what she was telling them, they found the scaffolding ramp that followed the side of the building down to the ground. They made their way back to the Red Rocket and decided to stay put; the sun was descending quickly, and they wouldn’t make it to Sanctuary before night soon fell. Settling into the lobby of the station, Hancock found the hot plate they used earlier, and used it to heat up a can of pork ‘n beans. Nick had gone outside to do a quick perimeter check, and Amy sat close by Hancock, fiddling with her Pip-Boy and exchanging the holotape once within it for one in her First Aid container. They both turned to Nick as he walked up to them, and Hancock sat down next to Amy after he moved the hot plate.

“I can take watch for the full night if you kids wanna get some sleep,” he stressed as his eyes glinted in merriment at their squirming. “And if I hear anything other than sleeping, you’re both taking over watch.”

“Yes, sir,” Hancock gave a mock salute as he stirred the can. “No hanky-panky.” He grinned.

She held up two fingers. “Scout’s honor,” she said with a straight face.

“Alright then,” Nick agreed. “I’ll be out front if you need me.”

Using the oven mitt, Hancock removed the can from the hot plate and placed it on the tile between them to cool. Looking over at her, he asked, “Ya think we’ll both be able to fit on that mattress?”

She held his gaze. “I think we can find a way.”

“I think I gotta agree with Nicky though; we do need to get some sleep. If I’ve waited this long for someone like you, I can wait one more night, or longer, if necessary. I don’t know how much sleep we’ll be able to get, though.” He smiled a soft, longing smile at her, reaching out to lightly brush the bottom of her jaw with his thumb. She closed her eyes at his touch and sighed.

“I know. I wouldn’t be able to make it halfway to Sanctuary if I don’t at least try to sleep, and I don’t think you’ve had much since we left Goodneighbor. We’ll both drop if we don’t.”

He gently cupped her cheek and pulled her in for a quick kiss. “Let’s eat first, alright?”

“Yeah, we need that too,” she chuckled.

It didn’t take long to share the small can of well-past-expired beans. Each grabbing their respective bags, they drifted to the back room and set their bags by the door. Hancock’s hat went on top of his bag, as did his coat. She unzipped the sleeping bag stored on her bag to use as a blanket, and they both settled on the mattress, making sure the bag covered both of them. Without speaking a word, she settled into the curve of his torso with her back, becoming the little spoon. One of his arms wrapped around her waist protectively while the other bent to become a pillow for her. His head fit into her shoulders as he snuggled into her, and he reached over and placed a chaste, lingering kiss on the back of her neck.

“Good night, Sunshine,” he murmured into her ear. A guy could really get used to this. She fits into me just like a puzzle piece.

“Good night, John,” she quietly replied. She felt him shiver again, and she smiled to herself.

He held her close all night, and nightmares didn’t even come close to interrupting her dreams.

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Pink and orange bathed the station as his eyes blinked open; fucking thing was bright already.

“Can’t someone turn that damn thing off?” he grumbled, as if someone could grant such a request. He pulled the long, lithe body in front of him closer, not wanting to lose the soft warmth that rested next to him through the darkness of the night. He nuzzled the back of her neck with his face. She hugged the arm that circled her stomach tighter. She could tell that he was really awake now as she pressed into him (oh MY GOD, by the way), and she didn’t want to part either. Her hips responded by rubbing against his length, and he groaned into her shoulder to silence himself.

“What a way to wake up, Sunshine,” he nipped at her neck lightly with his teeth, following with his tongue, and she giggled.

“You woke me up first,” she argued playfully, pushing her hips against his a little harder and wiggling a little.

“You’re a little minx underneath that long, gorgeous body, aren’t ‘cha?”

“Nah, a baby giraffe.”

“Aren’t giraffes those animals that have really long necks?”

“Yep.”

“Well, you’re not wrong on that aspect,” he chuckled as his lips barely brushed along her neck, causing goosebumps to form. She giggled again.

“Let’s get this show on the road so we can get back to some sort of civilization,” they heard Nick’s voice carry from just outside of the station.

“That synth knows how to cock block like none other,” Hancock laughed, half-assed thoughts of robo-cide coming to mind if he did this a third time.

She chuckled as she reluctantly pushed herself up from the mattress. “I hope Sanctuary has better beds by now. It sounded like Sturges has a knack for building stuff, so I won’t feel bad if we break it.”

“Here’s hoping for a bar, too,” he jested, trying to steer the conversation away from him perpetuating his hard on, which he was finding with her and her quick banter, it was getting increasingly hard to do.

She tossed his hat at him, then his jacket; they fell on him haphazardly since he didn’t even attempt to catch them. She pieced her armor over her still-torn fatigues, rolled the sleeping bag back up and attached it to her bag, swung her bag onto her back, and checked her Pip-Boy, fiddling with the knobs after she put the earpiece in her ear. Turning, she bent over purposefully to hold her hand out to him, looking to assist with getting him off of the mattress, knowing full well her shirt opened to give him a view. His eyes darted down her shirt, and he suppressed a groan at what he saw before accepting her hand and allowing himself to be pulled upright and to his feet.

Swinging his own bag to his back, he carefully grabbed her chin and brought his mouth to hers, tongues briefly connecting before he pulled away.

“You’re gonna have to wait for more of that, and you better keep up with me on the way if you do,” he taunted, and she made the most adorable pout at him.

I’m DEFINITELY gonna have to get her to do that again later, he vowed as he left the lobby.

She smacked his ass as she caught up to him, and they heard Nick laugh.

“Are you two done, or did you need a few more minutes?” he asked between chuckles.

Hancock grabbed her hand, weaving his fingers in hers, and grinned at Nick. “Ready when you are, circuit breaker.”

The pair led the way, hand in hand, and Nick and Dogmeat brought up their quickly-becoming-usual place at the back.

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Eventually the pair separated to keep both hands on their weapons, but they still walked close to each other. A few bloatflies had caused them to separate, and they didn’t want another yao guai situation to come up, either.

They came up on an old campground with cabins, and she asked if they could stop for a minute while she checked things out; this may be a great place for a settlement. She swapped her Gauss for the hunting rifle, and Hancock reloaded his shotgun. Checking each cabin, they found a couple of ferals, but weren’t planning on a Glowing One at the cabin in the back. That took a little more ammo than they were hoping to use; the bastard just wouldn’t go down. As they turned to leave, they saw a Mr. Handy circling the building in the center of the campground. The computer terminal in the building said it was ‘Dr. Feelgood’, and of course Hancock made an inappropriate innuendo to make her laugh. She in turn laughed so hard she fell and rolled on the ground, holding her sides.

Nick was loving their chemistry.

After they crossed the dam below the campground, ‘Sunshine Tidings’ (“Appropriate name,” Hancock grinned at her), they had to slow down before reaching a flooded building with red bags hanging everywhere.

“Vegetable sellers,” Nick and Amy said in unison, eyeing each other with a grin.

“Huh?” Hancock said, knowing he had not been included on the joke.

“Super mutants,” Nick clarified. “I’ll tie you in on the rest once we get to Sanctuary.”

“Shit, alright,” he said, readying his shotgun while Amy swapped the rifle for the Gauss. She started moving quicker as the spiderwebs inched more into her vision, spotting a suicider before he had seen them, and created a hole in his chest. A super mutant butcher tried coming up behind her, but Hancock shoved his shotgun into its back and fired. Twice. It dropped to the ground as she looked back at him.

“Ya ain’t got nothin’ to worry about with me coverin’ ya,” he called to her, winking.

Grinning, she turned back to two more mutants coming out of the dilapidated, flooded shacks. They dropped to the water below moments later.

“I sure hope this is water,” he yelled, and she couldn’t agree more.

She waded back over to her friends, and not hearing any more angry voices, they continued down the road. “I think that might have been the water plant that Greygarden settlement needed cleared out,” she mentioned. “I’ll have to come back to clear the inside later. Don’t let me forget to tell Preston.”

“Let’s get back to Sanctuary before we start planning our next vacation,” Nick laughed.

 They followed the same tracks she had followed days earlier to avoid Lexington, and they passed the drive-in. Eventually she saw Concord on her left, and the Red Rocket coming up at the top of the hill. Before long, they were across the bridge, being stopped by guards at a gate.

“Holy shit, you guys have been busy!” Amy exclaimed when she saw Sturges run up to the bridge.

“You made it back! We were beginnin’ to wonder if you made it to Diamond City,” he replied.

“She did,” Nick piped up. “I’m Nick Valentine, detective based in Diamond City.” He held out his hand to Sturges, and he shook it warmly. Sturges looked over to Hancock, and he held out his hand.

“John Hancock, Mayor of Goodneighbor,” he said with a smile, holding out his own hand. He shook his hand in the same manner.

“I’m Sturges. You’ve got some mighty good company with ya, Amy, from what I’ve heard of these gents,” he applauded. “Follow me! I want to show you what we’ve accomplished first.”

Hancock jogged to catch up with Amy as she followed Sturges through the settlement. They had walls up, a few turrets, and a garden was starting to take shape behind the yellow house. There were also a few more people milling around, and she was happy to see that things were thriving so well for them. They stopped in front of Nate’s, and Sturges said, “We got a few things fixed up in your brother’s house. Codsworth didn’t think you’d mind, since you’d need the stuff anyways, like a new bed, and made that couch a little more stable. Didn’t touch anything else.”

“Thanks, Sturges. You guys are amazing. Is Preston around?”

“He went over to Abernathy Farm, just on the other side of Concord. I think he was plannin’ on bein’ back tomorrow.”

“Ok, let me know when he gets back. I need to fill him in on some potential settlements. Oh!” She pulled her bag from her back and reached in, giving him a biometric scanner and a few other items he asked her to keep an eye out for.

“You got ‘em! I didn’t think we’d be able to find these,” he beamed. “We may be able to get that water purifier running now.”

“Glad I could help,” she touched his arm, that genuine smile radiating from her. Hancock was swooning. Tough as nails, but has a heart of gold. I must’ve died at some point and I’m in heaven now, he convinced himself. She picked up her bag and headed to the blue house across the street, a Mr. Handy in the doorway. She waved for Nick and Hancock to follow her in.

“Codsworth!” she said excitedly. “How are things? Have you been keeping an eye on that spot?”

“Of course, Miss – I made sure to keep them at a distance when they put up the fence too.”

“Thanks. This is Nick Valentine,” she gestured to the synth, “and this is John Hancock, Mayor of Goodneighbor.”

“Pleasure to make your acquaintances, sirs,” the robot politely replied.

“They’re going to be staying with me while we’re here,” she continued, a little quieter. “Some of the things I found in Nate’s cellar I need to have Nick review, so we’ll need a lookout when we go down there.”

“Of course, Miss. Happy to serve.”

She turned to her companions. “Dogmeat,” she said, “you can go by Mama Murphy if you want.”

With a happy bark, the dog bounded back out of the door and ran over to the porch of the yellow house. She could hear excited chatter not a moment later, and she smiled.

“It probably won’t be a little while until dinner,” she explained, “so you can roam around and do whatever you like. Nate’s cellar is in the back yard, so try to keep away from there until we’re ready to go down. I don’t want to attract too much attention to it.”

“I hear ya loud and clear,” Nick said, and he turned to head back out the door too, a grin starting to spread on his face, knowing immediately what she was doing from the sidelines and taking the hint. “I’m gonna go and chat with Sturges for a bit, see if I can help with that water purifier.”

“You’re a saint, Nick,” she beamed.

If an earlier model synth could show emotion, she swore he would have been as bright red as she gets. He smiled at her and walked over to the yellow house.

She shut the door, locked it, turned, and looked at Hancock, the most devilish of grins spreading slowly across her lips. “Wanna go test that bed out?”

Chapter Text

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                                                                                                Chapter 9

He didn’t even let her finish before he grabbed her hand and instructed her to show it to him. She led him down the hall, and by the time she got to the doorway, he spun her around, and his mouth was on hers in an instant, hands roaming everywhere, from the back of her head, down to her ass, as her hands did the same to him. They hungrily twirled their tongues together, stumbling backwards in an attempt to find the bed. The backs of her knees found it first, and he guided her down to sit on the edge of the mattress as his tongue desperately explored every inch of hers. A low, aching moan escaped into his mouth from hers, and he met it with one of his own. They broke apart to catch their breaths, chests heaving, hearts fluttering, trying to function with the overwhelming stimuli that encircled the pair as their foreheads rested against each other, eyes reflecting. She cupped his face, staring hard into his eyes.

“You hold the moon and stars in your eyes,” she breathed, her gaze transfixed on him.

“Your eyes glow with the brightness of the sun, especially when ya get some rads into ya, Sunshine,” he purred, bending over just in front of her as he cocked a non-existent eyebrow, mouth moving to her neck, just under her ear. He guided her to lay back on the mattress as he placed a knee next to her leg, so he could lean in and gently suck at her neck. She shivered and moaned, and his voice drifted as a whisper into her ear. “And ya don’t know just how bad I want to get my rads into ya to see your eyes light up.” He began nipping harder at her neck, using his teeth, and started moving his mouth down her neck to her collarbone before pulling back. His fingers began to unbutton her torn shirt as he leaned over her, moving from one button to the next in quick succession. She sucked in a breath as he finished and opened her shirt, deftly reaching around her back to unclasp her bra one-handed, revealing her ample breasts. He audibly groaned as he reached for them; he had no idea her nipples were pierced. “Oh my fucking GOD,” he whispered, fighting a shiver as his mouth immediately shot to her left breast, his tongue darting around the hoop encircling her nipple, teasing the nub and causing it to harden quickly. His hat fell off in his rush, forgotten somewhere on the side of the bed.

She reached for his jacket to slide it off of his shoulders, and his mouth reluctantly left her nipple so he could stand up and let his jacket fall to the floor. Her eyes glued to his movements, his fingers started to unbutton his shirt when he paused.

“Are….are ya sure you wanna do this? The rest of me…how I look…I don’t want to scare you off…I can keep most of my clothes on….” he stammered nervously, self-doubt raging within him now that his dreams were barreling towards becoming a reality.

She pushed herself up and off of the bed, and stood before him, hand cupping his cheek, her breasts swaying with the movements of her arm.

“Only if you want to continue,” the same self-doubt ate at her as she gazed into his eyes. “You’re looking at a recently thawed, pre-war, out of shape, middle-aged woman who almost got her guts spilled by a naked and pissed off bear.”  She leaned in to lightly kiss his cheek. His eyes closed at her touch. “I don’t see scars,” she whispered in his ear. “I see resilience. Strength. Determination. I see your kind, caring heart. You’ll always be beautiful to me, no matter how you happen to think of yourself.” Her mouth sought his, and finding it, their tongues resumed their dance with fervor, her hands roaming to the buttons on his shirt. One by one she unfastened them, and he let the shirt slide from his arms to join his jacket on the floor. Her hands danced in exploration of his skin, lightly tracing lines and ridges on his chest and stomach, his shoulders and back, hands taking in every texture. He reached for the waistband of her pants, undoing the button and started pulling them down, forgetting that her boots were still on. She pulled back from their embrace.

“Hang on, I’ll sit back down,” she chuckled as she sat, untying the laces.

He kneeled and placed his hands on hers, causing her to stop. He picked up her foot and removed one boot, placing it at the foot of the bed, and did the same with the other. He motioned for her to stand so he could slide her pants down, and once freed, she stepped out of them. Only her underwear remained. He guided her back down to sit at the edge of the bed, then laying her back, he dropped to his knees and began to focus on the sight in front of him, tracing a finger along the edge of her panties at her stomach, following the seam around, and dropping down to the seam at her legs. Drawing his face closer to her mound, his breath ghosting all around it as he breathed in her scent as much as his noselessness allowed, that caused her to shudder and moan. His finger drifted from the seam of her underwear and found its way underneath the material to her seam, and his finger lightly traced the line. Her breath caught as his skilled finger sank further between her folds, becoming wet with her arousal, gliding back and forth until he lingered on her sensitive nub. He pressed light circles on and around her nub slowly, and she began to writhe and whine. He hooked his finger on her waistband and pulled, stopping his movements on her momentarily so he could remove the one, final barrier in his way to her. The material fell to the floor, and his face dove in, mouth and tongue seeking her small bundle of nerves, pulling it into his mouth with suction and keeping it there as his tongue explored and kept the seal tight as he sucked.

Her back arched, and his eyes drank it all in; her breathless gasps, her breasts rising and falling as her breaths became shorter, her legs as they tightened around him. His fingers lazily wandered around her folds, saturating in her arousal and his saliva, and he slowly traced the soft edges to her entrance, tentatively plunging in a fingertip before he pushed two of them within her, twisting them around so he could curl them and reach that special spot to make her see stars. Her legs suddenly grabbing and pushing his head further into her mound was all the confirmation he needed to continue, and he proceeded to massage her from within while his mouth kept suction on her nub, tongue flicking and sliding, effectively unwinding all of the tight coils in her belly as the pressure burst and released with sunsparks in her eyelids. A long, low moan drifted from her lips, his fingers getting pulled in further and squeezed as she rode out her wave of bliss in front of him. Slowly his fingers retreated from her soft warmth, dragging juices with him, covering his digits. He brought them to his mouth and groaned as he sucked on them, making sure to take in every drop. His mouth soon became laser-focused on her entrance, and he dove in, tongue reaching in as far as it would go, exploring everywhere. A carnal rumble of desire began in his chest, his hands drifting down to the flag at his waist while his tongue was occupied, unraveling it with skilled ease and it fell to the floor. He unbuttoned his pants and let them slide down.

His mouth briefly left her, and she whimpered at the loss of heat and friction, bringing her head up so she could see why he stopped.

“I forgot about my boots too,” he cursed. She pulled herself up on her elbows and cocked an eyebrow and a corner of her mouth at him, pupils still a little blown out, but the deviousness still sparkled within.

“Do you need help?” she sat up as he stood, his pants pooling at the top of his boots, and his very hard erection tenting his boxers. She slid from the mattress to the floor, ghosting her face just past his member on her way down, landing on her knees in front of him, and looked up at him through her lashes, the emeralds of her eyes twinkling radiantly.

“Oh FUCK, Sunshine,” he drawled as he looked down at her, taking in every detail so it was etched inside of his mind for all eternity. His hand dropped to trace the edge of her jaw, and her mouth opened just a bit. He placed his hands on her shoulders, and with a catch in his throat, he managed to get out, “You’re gonna need to pull them off when I lift my foot up. I need out of these clothes now.”

He balanced by placing pressure on one of her shoulders with his hand, and he lifted up his foot, and she removed the boot. Repeating the process on the other side, the other boot was removed. His hand dove into a pocket and pulled something out as his pants fell and disappeared, and his boxers began to drift down. She reached for his member, first slowly spreading her hand around his girth, and then cupping her hand around it. She slid her hand up, gathering a drop of pre-come at the tip and spreading it with her thumb before she began to slowly pump him. His hand brought a canister of Jet to his mouth, and he pressed down to release the vapor into his throat. He inhaled, held his breath for a moment, and let the vapor escape his nasal cavity as he brought his gaze back down to the devil with angel’s wings holding his cock, just as she was bringing his length to her mouth, enveloping it and taking in as much as she could without relaxing her throat. Time slowed to a crawl as she feasted on him, her barbell rubbing against the underside of his tip and down his length as she took him all in, and he let his head roll back, a yearning moan escape his lips, all while his hands drifted around her head to run through her short hair as she bobbed on his length, occasionally letting his tip hit the back of her throat when she could relax it. Feeling her chin hit his balls when she did take it all in....she was going to make him lose it before he was ready.

Quickly he clamped his hand on the base of his erection, easing himself back from the edge she was rocket-boosting him to, and she slowly released him from her mouth, a pout forming on those slightly swollen, pink lips.

“Sunshine,” his voice dripping with desire, “I need ya to get on that bed, on your hands and knees, please. Can ya do that for me?”

The pout disappeared, and a devilish grin slowly curved her mouth upwards, a glint of anticipation forming in her evergreen eyes. She maneuvered feline-like up to the mattress and looked over her shoulder at him as she waited on all fours.

“Ready and waiting,” she purred, lowering her arms, shoulders, and head down to the mattress and stretching to the head of the bed while keeping her hips up in the air.

The low, carnal growl she heard come from him only once before started in his chest as he pulled himself up the mattress and positioned himself on his knees right behind her, moving the head of his member along her slick folds, teasing her. She sucked in a quick intake of breath through her teeth as her body thrummed, begging for him to enter her. With one fluid motion, his hips started sliding his length into her, going slow so she could adjust to fit him, and he gripped one hand on her hip, and the other going to her shoulder to help leverage his push inside. They groaned in unison as he stretched her completely, their hips meeting as he went to the hilt. He moved his hand from her hip and snaked his arm around her waist and up between her breasts as he thrusted, and pulled her to him so they were both kneeling, his chest pressing against her back as he continued to rut up into her animalistically. His mouth strayed to her neck, and he nibbled and nipped at her as he pounded, delicious moans and cries escaping her mouth each time their hips contacted. As his thrusts started becoming a little erratic, and her hips began to tremble, he slowed almost to a stop but kept his length buried in her warmth, loosening his arm across her chest so she could drop her arms down to the mattress. He started pumping into her again, slowly, and he reached his arm around her thigh so his fingers could rub circles on her nub. Soon he felt her walls surrounding his cock throb and contract, and he had a feeling she was close. Hastening his pace with his fingers, his hips increased his momentum, going as deeply as he could with each thrust. She couldn’t control the sounds coming out of her mouth any longer, and she buried her face in the mattress in an attempt to muffle her vocalizations as his pace quickened, hips beginning to stutter.

“I-I’m close…Sunshine…I’m gonna come,” he faltered.

She pulled her head up, and turning to look at him with those precious emeralds, as steadily as she could, she moaned, “Come for me while I come for you.”

That’s all it took. He snarled as he released into her, his member throbbing as he catapulted off of the edge, the carnal growl cascading from his throat as he pressed his chest into her back. The moment of his release sent her over her own edge, and she spasmed and throbbed around him, not wanting the pure bliss she was riding to stop. He held her, still inside, still sliding, as the waves of ecstasy receded for them both. Placing soft kisses on her back, he reluctantly pulled himself from her warmth and joined her on the mattress, wrapping his arms around her as her glassy, pleasure-blown eyes sought out his. They lay on their sides, facing each other, neither breaking their gazes.

She moved her arm to cup her hand to his cheek, caressing his uneven skin, and she moved her face closer to his, seeking his mouth. His mouth found hers first, and their tongues reunited joyfully, desperately, and she could still taste herself on his tongue. He slowed his ministrations to grab her lower lip with his teeth, sucking lightly and gliding his tongue on it before releasing her. His dark orbs sparkled as he caught her gaze once more, her eyes glowing with a soft radioactive radiance from the seed he had just deposited inside of her. His heart swelled at that physical manifestation of their lovemaking; it made the green in her eyes even more breathtaking.

“I don’t think I’ve ever come that hard before,” he said, still a little breathless, as his fingers traced circles on her back, eyes searching hers. “And I made your eyes glow, as promised.” He beamed.

She moaned in agreement, her eyes closing briefly to grasp a wisp of the pleasure that had surged through her body not moments before, and her core tightened knowing she had completely unraveled him.

“I haven’t showed you all of my tricks yet,” she purred, and she was well on her way to reigniting his hard on. Then she smiled that genuine smile, just for him, and when it reached her eyes, he knew his heart belonged to her; the song his heartstrings played for him spoke of nothing else.

He pulled her into his chest, and she curled up into him, fitting his form like a glove, and he rested his head on top of hers. They descended into a post-bliss slumber, holding onto each other with their arms, and their hearts, their souls forever intertwined.

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As they emerged from Nate’s house hours later, the sun was beginning its descent to the hills in the west. Arms entangled, fingers woven together, they laughed and spoke in hushed tones as they looked for Nick. They found him sitting on the porch of the yellow house, chatting with Mama Murphy while Dogmeat lay at her feet.

As Nick heard their voices, he turned his head to watch them approach and grinned to himself. They finally got that first one out of their systems, he chuckled. It had sounded like Hancock had moved the sun and the stars for her, if the vocalizations that had carried from the broken windows during their coupling were any indicators.

As their eyes met Nick’s, he grinned at them, not hiding how happy he was, and giving them a clue that he, and everyone in the settlement, knew what they had been up to. Hancock saw Nick’s grin and winked at him, which pulled a chuckle from the synth, as that indicated that of course John knew, and he didn’t give one good goddamn about it. Amy seemed just as carefree as he was, and if Nick had a real heart, he knew it would have swelled in joy for them. To go through all of that and to find this on the other side, she must have quite the luck, he mused.

Mama’s raspy voice greeted the lovebirds, and she encouraged them to sit down with her and Nick. They found a couch so they didn’t have to separate.

“The Sight is calling to me. Got some Mentats?” she directed at Hancock, and Nick laughed out loud.

“At least she knows the right one to ask,” Nick joked.

Hancock pulled a tin from his pants, and handed three tablets to the elder across from him.

“If ya need more than that, just ask,” he added.

Mama nodded and tossed the tablets in her palm into her mouth. Her eyes closed, and crease formed between her eyebrows as she squeezed her eyes tight.

“Your travels…will take you across the sea of death, and much further beyond. You’ll seek answers, you’ll seek help from voices silenced long ago. Answers, so hard to find, now that everyone’s gone…” she drifted off, taking a deep breath and shaking her head. Something was off about this.

“It didn’t want to show me everything, it said it was too soon,” she muttered, “we’ll have to try again another time.”

Amy reached forward and grasped Mama’s hand. “We’ll try again when you feel it’s time. Just let me know.” She smiled and thanked her.

Hancock looked over at Nick, and nodded towards the fire where Sturges was preparing dinner. “Food almost ready? We’re starving.”

Nick let out a hearty laugh. “Yeah, Sturges said a few more minutes.” He knew what caused that hunger.

He motioned to Hancock so they could all find a more secluded place to speak, and they decided to go to Nate’s. She shut the door behind her after everyone had entered, and she lit the lantern on the counter in the kitchen. Nick had taken the recliner, and Hancock was on the couch. She settled next to Hancock and put her head on his shoulder. He wove his fingers with hers as he held her hand, his gaze focused at the sight, like it was going to disappear if he looked away.

“So,” Nick began, and their eyes snapped up to him. “While you two were, *ahem* occupied after taking out Kellogg in Fort Hagen, I had some time to search for some information. There wasn’t much, even on his computer, but I did find this.”

He held up the piece he recovered from Kellogg’s head. Hancock’s jaw dropped.

“He was a synth?”

“He was more machine than human by this point. Started out human, got parts replaced over the years. I’m wondering if Dr. Amari can pull anything from this.”

“If anyone could, yeah, it’d be her. So, back to Goodneighbor?”

“We need to peruse those files of Nate’s that Amy told us about first, and if we need to bring anything to Dr. Amari, we can take it with us when we head out.”

“It’s too dark to do anything now; it gets pretty dark in there even during the middle of the day, so we’ll need another lantern or two,” she interjected.

“Would be too conspicuous now anyways, doll – we’d need light to find the door,” Nick agreed. “How about we meet back in here around 6am? I’ll come wake you, so you better be decent when you go to sleep tonight,” he side-eyed them with a knowing glance, and a chuckle. “These old optics don’t need to be seeing things that would burn them out.”

“Sounds more like a challenge to me,” Hancock joked. Amy was lost in thought, absentmindedly tracing her fingers along Hancock’s jacket sleeve, moving the velvety fabric as her finger glided over. Nick’s gaze softened at the sight. “I think that’s the most relaxed I’ve ever seen you.” She looked up, a content smile on her lips.

“I didn’t realize how much stress I had been carrying until today,” she teased. “I think it was a couple of centuries’ worth.” She looked over at Hancock and grinned. He returned her smile and squeezed her hand, starting to lose himself once again in her gaze.

“Supper’s on!” they heard a voice call from outside. In unison, Hancock and Amy both turned their heads and scrambled to get up, him beating her and rushing out the door ahead of her. She laughed as she ran after him.

Waiting a few minutes, Nick rose from the chair and strolled outside to join his companions as they ate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After their meal, they decided to head back to Nate’s, seeing as the night watch was covered for the evening. Gathering once more in the living room, Hancock pulled out a bottle of bourbon he found at the fort from his bag, and she found three containers that could serve as glasses. He poured enough for everyone and handed a glass to Amy, then to Nick.

“The journey continues, eh?” He raised his glass. They laughed and joined him.

They drank from their cups, the burn hitting Amy’s throat before it hit Hancock’s. They wheezed a little, in unison.

“Good thing I don’t have taste buds,” Nick quipped with a chuckle, taking a sip out of courtesy and placing the glass on the table in front of him. He pulled three smokes from his pack and handed one each to his companions. Hancock helped light Amy’s, while Nick lit his own.

“You’re…not…wrong…” Hancock sputtered between sudden coughs, clearing his throat. “Damn, that shit was rough.”

“All…alcohol…is like…this now?” she wheezed.

“Unless ya can find something freshly made, it’s this or nothin’.”

“Good…reason…to quit again,” she laughed as she coughed.

“Always got chems, Sunshine,” he grinned as he winked at her.

“I miss weed,” she sighed. It was Nick’s turn to cough, his eyes widening.

She saw his look, and she laughed. “I wasn’t one of those ‘prim and proper’ pre-war ladies, Nick. I’ve got tattoos and piercings. Weed just fits with that typical stereotype, so it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise.” She took a drag of her cigarette and blew the smoke upwards, towards the holes in the ceiling. Hancock stared at her as his eyes drifted along her neck, admiring her muscles as they stretched.

“Guess that stuff is better than most of the chems people inject themselves with nowadays,” Nick lamented, thinking back into the original Nick’s memories on the drug.

“I think I might be able to find some for ya,” Hancock nudged her.

Her head snapped to face him and said, “Really?”

“I’ll ask around once we get back to Goodneighbor,” he smiled at her.

She quickly dove in to steal a kiss from him. “You’re amazing,” she sighed, her head dropping to his shoulder. Hancock grinned.

“You’ve come a long way, John,” Nick observed the two. “I’m proud of you.”

His grin widened. “That means a lot to me, Nicky. You’ve been like a father to me since my pop passed.”

“How long have you two known each other?” Amy lifted her head, remembering she didn’t have much background on these guys. Not like it mattered; she knew they were both good people, no matter what their past contained. She sat up straight and crossed her legs, waiting for either one of them to start telling a story.

“Since I was, what, like 12? When my brother first brought us to Diamond City, I think,” Hancock tried to remember.

“Yeah, I think so. You boys were pretty lost when you got there, and you needed someone to guide you. Not sure why your brother turned out the way he did though.”

“Neither do I. Still don’t.”

“Still don’t know why he did what he did.” Nick eyed Hancock. “Did you want to go into this story another time? I don’t want you to feel like you have to tell it now if you’re not ready to.”

Hancock sighed. “Nah, it’ll need to come out sooner or later.” He continued.

“My brother was a standard big brother. He’d tease me, liked to shove rotten tatoes down my shirt and slap my back, ya know.”

“I used to do things like that to my little brother,” she blushed.

“I could tell ya were a big sister,” he nudged her. “It’s that protective vibe ya got.”

She grinned. “Please, continue.”

“Things were ok until he decided to run for mayor. Ran a campaign, ‘Mankind for McDonough.’ He got elected, and pushed the ghouls out, people that we knew, that raised us. I begged….BEGGED…him to change his mind. He just said, ‘I did it, John. It’s finally mine’ after he won the election, and said all he wanted to do was carry out the will of the people. I didn’t know who he was any more, and even though I didn’t have to leave since I wasn’t a ghoul yet, I couldn’t be in that place after what he did, so I made my way to Goodneighbor, tried to get others to follow. Most couldn’t adapt to the Goodneighbor lifestyle, and they left for the wastes. I didn’t see most of them again. My brother basically signed their death warrants.”

 “Your brother…is that asshole?” she whispered.

He nodded solemnly.

“And you weren’t a ghoul yet? When…?”

“Not too long after I decided to stay in Goodneighbor. Found this experimental drug, one hit only, but MAN was it worth it, though. Best high of my life (until I met you, he wanted to add). Became the sexy King of the Zombies ya see here,” he grinned.

“I still think he’s a synth,” Nick commented.

“I don’t know. I’m not sure I buy it. I don’t think they could have copied his tight…”

“…assed walk,” she finished for him, grinning. “That was my exact thought when I met him my first time at Diamond City.”

Hancock began to swoon again, distracted by her. “God, you’re amazing.”

She beamed at him, and leaned her head in for a kiss. His eyes glittered as they parted.

“I think I may sit and do a diagnostic for a while, if you don’t mind me parking these ol’ circuits on your chair,” he looked over to them.

“Of course not, Nicky! Will we bother ya if we’re in here? Or should we…”

“You can stay. I’ll just be offline for a while.”

“Alright. Once yer done, you can take the livin’ room for the night, if ya like,” Hancock offered.

“I’ll come get you two in the morning,” he smiled as he faced forward, eyes going blank.

They eyed each other, evil grins spreading on their lips, and they quietly retreated to the bedroom.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Moments later, with the door shut, their clothes scattered over the floor, and John on the bed, she crawled on top of him and pulled the sleeping bag over them both, straddling his hips and his length. She pulled herself up to his mouth, trailing her heat and wetness along his member in the process, and invited his tongue in to dance with hers, which he accepted enthusiastically. She ground her entrance down on him, and he groaned into her as his tongue thrashed in response, his hands reaching back to grab both globes of her ass. Lifting her up, she caught his cue and moved her hand to his length, positioning it just at her entrance, rubbing her arousal on the tip. He moaned again into her mouth, and catching his eye, she winked and slid all the way to the hilt, bottoming out at his hips. He broke their embrace to emit a low, rumbling growl from his chest, throwing his head back in pure ecstasy. She lifted herself up on his member, so only the tip remained bathed in her heat, and his eyes shot to hers. She immediately sank down, taking him in completely once more. She threw her head back, mouth open in pure rapture, and his heart almost burst at the joy she gave him.

Rocking forward to press in closer to him, her breasts rubbing gloriously in his face, she continued to ride up and down on his length, drawing her legs in to hold onto his hips, angling him just right within her to start seeing stars. Rubbing his hard cock directly on her hidden pleasure pocket, picking up speed, her body began to tense, and she began clenching around his length, the coil in her belly unraveling and releasing as she covered her mouth with his neck, teeth scraping his skin as she came hard and fast. He grabbed her hips and continued the momentum, thrusting up into her with reckless abandon, carrying her wave of pleasure further and stronger as she loudly moaned into his neck, clenching around him again, almost pushing him out with the force. Hips stuttering, he joined her in release, and their waves crashed into the stars, their souls intertwined  once more in ecstasy as they fell into each other’s arms.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He held her again, his chest against her back, arm wrapped around her waist, arm bent to give her head something to rest on as his head lay on her shoulder. He breathed in the scent of their lovemaking on her skin and sighed, pulling the sleeping bag over them.

He moved his head to place a kiss on her neck, scarred lips brushing her skin. She’s so soft…so smooth. He shivered as she snuggled into him more, and he pulled her in tighter.

His mouth formed the words his heart longed to tell her as his lips drifted along her neck, but it was too soon. Too soon for him to be feeling this deeply about her. Too soon for her to understand. Too soon for the chance of her returning it to him. So, his lips would whisper it to her skin instead, each time he held her in his arms.

Chapter Text

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Chapter 10

Just before dawn, she began to stir, and he pulled her in tighter to him, not wanting to part from their slumbering embrace. But Nick was true to his word, and they heard a light knock at the door.

“Five more minutes,” Hancock grumbled, hoping his morning wood could get a little attention before they had to get up....her skin felt delectable against him as he clung to her.

“I’m starting to hear people moving around outside, so now would be the best time to head to the cellar,” he heard Nick’s voice say from the other side of the door.

“Ugh, FINE,” he replied, as she chose that exact moment to turn over to snuggle into his chest.

He kissed her forehead. “It’s time, Sunshine. Up and at ‘em.”

“Can’t,” came a muffled reply. “I’m too comfy.” He could feel her trying to burrow further into him.

“If ya get up now, let’s see if we can sneak away here in a bit for some ‘quiet’ time,” he murmured.

“I don't think we CAN be quiet,” she teased, pulling her head from his chest to gaze at him with sleepy eyes.

“Hard to be quiet when ya bring me to places pleasure has never taken me before,” he returned with a grin. He brought his mouth to hers, and soon their tongues were slowly swirling around each other, and his hand encircled her breast, just overflowing his hand, eliciting a stifled moan from her.

“Didn’t you two get enough of that last night?” they heard Nick say from down the hall.

Their kiss broke when they both chuckled to each other. “GodDAMNit, Nicky. I seriously need to check his wingman contract, and if cock blocks are part of it, we need to renegotiate.” Hancock quipped with a laugh.

She slid from his embrace and flipped the sleeping bag off of them both, and she immediately regretted it; with the broken windows, it was cold in the room. Her nipples confirmed that fact as they stood at firm attention when she rose from the bed, and she shivered. She began to walk around the room to warm up, picking up clothing from the floor and placing them on the bed, all while his eyes followed her every movement. She stopped in front of the windows briefly to watch the first dustings of dawn spread across the sky, and her naked silhouette reminded him of the Greek goddess statues he saw illustrated in a history book he had in his library at the statehouse.

“Look at you, from only being in my dreams to here, right before my eyes,” he purred.

She turned to him and gave him a warm smile and a wink, and fuck he just wanted to dive right into those perfect tits. “I guess dreams really do come true sometimes, huh?” she replied with a grin.

“Damn right,” he growled happily, bouncing out of bed quickly to wrap her in his arms and nuzzle at her neck. She giggled and pushed him away playfully.

“Let’s go see what we can find in Nate’s cellar. I think he has some chems down there...,” and she didn’t even get to finish her sentence. How he moved that quickly, she wasn’t sure, but somehow he already had his pants partially on, missing his boxers though, boots still in a pile at the end of the bed, and he was grabbing his shirt and jacket.

“You better get your pants AND your underwear on. We don’t need Nick to fry his optics seeing your incredibly sexy ass,” she teased.

He stopped and turned to her, poked his naked ass in her direction, licked his finger, and pressed it to his bare skin and made a hissing sound. She leaned back and laughed hard, and it took her a couple minutes to recover. In that time, he had redressed with his boxers under his pants, shirt on and buttoned, and jacket to complete his signature look. He even had his hat in his hand.

“And here I thought you just had a smart ass, smartass,” she smirked at him. His mouth broke into a sly grin, and he turned and disappeared down the hall.

She walked back to the clothes she had been gathering and began dressing, choosing to wear the jeans, t-shirt, and flannel Hancock had given to her. Seeing his boots, she chuckled and picked them up with hers, walking into the hallway to deposit them in the living room. She found Nick and Hancock lighting up cigarettes, and she remembered that she needed the key to the cellar; she ducked back into the bedroom to retrieve Nate’s keys. Pulling a bobby pin from her fatigues on the floor, she kneeled down at the closet and cleared away the debris hiding the safe. With quick maneuvering, she picked the lock, and grabbed the Nuka-Cola keychain, and her perfume, which she applied to her wrists and behind her ears. She placed the perfume back in the safe and shut the door, and wandered back to the living room.

“Alright guys,” she said in a hushed tone, “we’ll head out of the door by the kitchen over there. The doors down to the cellar are heavy, so try to be as quiet as you can, ok? We should probably only open one of them, so one person can close it when they go down the ladder. Do we have extra lanterns?”

Nick raised his hand, displaying two lanterns. “One if by land, two if by sea...,” she thought she heard him mumble, and she laughed.

“Thanks for finding those, Nick. You two ready to go?”

They nodded, and she led the way out of the house to the doors in the backyard, trying to keep out of sight of the common area of the settlement on the other side of the house. Codsworth must have overheard their conversation, as she heard him at the shrubbery around the corner, keeping watch for any curious bystanders that may have seen the group. Using a fence post, she uncovered the doors, and Nick opened one side so they could enter and handed Hancock the lanterns. Once Hancock and Amy had descended, Nick followed and brought the door down with him until it closed with a quiet pang.

Knowing where the flashlight hung on the wall, she felt along the hard surface until her fingers bumped into it.  Nick was already working on getting one of the lanterns lit, while Hancock brought the one in his hands to her, a soft glow emitting from it.

“Guess I don’t need the flashlight now,” she remarked.

“And I guess your brother wasn’t playing around,” Nick observed, looking at the safe.

“That was pretty much my same thought when I was down here the first time,” she agreed.

Hancock was already at the shelf with the chems with his hands behind his back, leaning forward to read the labels in the dim lighting.

“Let me get the safe open,” she said, pulling the keys from her pocket and turning the lock. The doors swung open, revealing Nate’s treasure trove. Nick made a low whistle (somehow?), and Hancock slid his hands around her waist, placing his chin on her shoulder as he scanned the contents with her.

“Are those all holotapes?” Nick questioned, stepping forward to read the labels on the stacks in the middle of the safe.

“Yep. All music. My saving grace with this conditioning they forced on me.”

Placing her hand on Hancock’s at her waist to release her for a moment, she stepped from his hold to walk over to the small compartment in the corner and unlocked it. Opening the small door, she reached in and pulled out the stack of file folders and handed them to Nick.

“There may have been another file around here, so let me know if you’re missing anything,” she stated. “I think there may be a fold-down table somewhere around here too.”

She led him to a corner near the safe, bringing a lantern with her, and unlatched the table that was stored on the wall. Hancock found a chair and brought it to the table.

“Thanks guys. Might take me a bit to dig through these files, so go ahead and get comfortable.”

“Let’s get some music going for this study session! I’m fresh out of coffee though.”

She fiddled with her Pip-Boy, removing it from her wrist and placing it on a shelf. She turned some dials and flipped a switch, and gentle guitars began to drift from her device.

Grabbing her wrist and giving her a devilish grin, Hancock pulled her back over to the safe, where they were at just the right angle where Nick couldn’t see them from where he was sitting, and his mouth plunged into hers without hesitation. She returned the embrace with enthusiasm, and their tongues resumed the tango they danced earlier, her hand dropping down to rub on the front of his pants, finding that he was already at half-staff and quickly getting harder. He swallowed her choked moan, and his hands cradled her mound through her jeans, moving his fingers between her legs, discovering the dampness starting to seep through. It was her turn to quiet his moan.

“Sunshine,” he coaxed in a hushed whisper, “is this for me?”

The look she gave him, with her teeth biting her lower lip, was the only answer he needed, and his hand slid down into her pants, unbuttoning them along the way, his fingers exploring further to find her slit, where they disappeared into her arousal, teasing her nub with his thumb as his remaining fingers found their way to her heat. He pushed in two fingers, sliding them out and back in, curling his fingers within, his thumb still toying with her clit. She sucked in a breath and bit her lip to keep herself from crying out, and she plunged her hand into his pants after unbuttoning them, grasping his hard member and pumping with equal intensity. His mouth sought hers again, and with tongues twisting and sliding, hands moving with focused intent, they increased each other’s bliss quickly to a breaking point; she began to shudder and shake as ecstasy washed over her. He motioned to her to take his length into her mouth as his head fell back; he was close. She slid to her knees and took in his length in one swallow, and as he felt her barbell glide further and further down his shaft, his release shot into her mouth and down her throat, so salty and tangy. She looked up at him then, his cock half buried in her mouth, her eyes beginning to glow faintly. He almost came again at that sight.

Hearing movement from Nick’s direction, they quickly parted and readjusted their clothes, tucking things back in, secret looks and grins passing between them. He leaned into her ear and whispered, “I’ll get you to be a full-fledged exhibitionist one of these days; next time we won’t be hiding around a corner.” He gave her the most wicked grin, and with flashing green eyes, her mouth crashed into his, their tongues lashing with renewed intensity.

“Oh, SHIT,” they heard from around the corner, and their oral battle royale halted. They looked at each other and rushed towards where Nick sat focused on the red file folder, halfway through the pages.

“Nicky? What’d ya find?” Hancock asked as he slowed to walk around the corner, trying to look like he hadn’t just gotten a hand-blowjob combo by the woman who held his heart. She decided to hang back a bit, hoping her eyes would begin to lose their giveaway, irradiated iridescence soon.

Nick was mumbling to himself before he responded, “I don’t know if this is good.”

“Nicky, you’re worryin’ me. What’s goin’ on?”

“It looks like this was some serious top-secret stuff, not even sanctioned, or known, by the government. I know not even a third of what Vault-Tec did was ‘government approved’, but what I’m reading puts that to shame.”

“We kinda figured that was the case after our Dr. Amari visit,” Hancock returned.

“No. It looks like her brother was part orchestrator of the whole thing.”

Her heart dropped. She knew about the secrecy of Nate’s work, but was he directly responsible for her being a lab rat?

“And he had signed up Nora to be part of the trials. Not sure if it was agreed on, or forced though.”

“WHAT?!” She couldn’t believe her ears. She rushed over to Nick and began reading over his shoulder, and after a few moments, her vision went static and she stumbled backwards, away from the table, unable to focus on anything. Hancock had to quickly grab her arm to guide her down to the floor, otherwise she would have fallen.

She thought back to the first memory she dove into at Dr. Amari’s office, how Nora had looked....haunted when she arrived to help her with the final stages of her pregnancy with Shaun. Was that the same day she had been told by Nate of the project he was working on? Or why Nora died days before the bombs?

She sat on the floor, curling up as small as she could get herself, bending her legs and tucking them into her torso as she absently rocked in place, her head resting on her arm as tears wound their way down her face, her train of thought rocketing down several tracks at once. Her eyes darted everywhere but saw nothing except for glimpses and whispers from the past, trying to see clues she missed at the time. The stress levels Nora had right before Shaun’s birth. The unclear circumstances with her death. It was beginning to make sense. Amy had attributed it to the pregnancy, and Nate being gone more often than not.

“Sunshine?” Hancock held onto her arm, trying to get her to look at him, worry lacing the edges of his voice. He hadn’t ever seen her literally collapse in on herself like this before; he had never seen her so...small...and vulnerable.

When she responded, she sounded distant, like she was merely a conduit providing information.

“Nate didn’t tell me much about what he worked on. It was mostly classified, but he would let me in on bits and pieces, like the Gauss. He got special clearance to have that gun out of a military facility since it was a prototype of sorts, I think? He was supposed to show it to me after he spoke at the veteran’s dinner that night...the day the bombs dropped. And Nora...when I arrived to help her with the last trimester of her pregnancy, she was so distant. So....traumatized about something. I thought it may have been related to the pregnancy, like how some new mothers get depression pretty bad with all of the hormonal imbalances. Nate must have told her something about this, but how much did he tell her?”

Free-flowing rivers of tears ran down her face as she looked up to her companions. “Why did he involve me? Did he involve anyone else in our family? Our parents...?”

“I’ll have to look through more of these files, but I don’t think I saw anyone else with his last name mentioned. Yours isn’t even in there.” Nick replied in a hushed tone.

“I think he duped the Vault-Tec representative that came to the door the morning of...right before the sirens...Nora and I looked similar, but I was much taller than her. Did he know about the bombs beforehand? Did he know they would be dropped, and he got me into the vault to save me, or was it to be part of his little experiment since Nora died?  I saw him on the table too, when I was in that room...he was getting the same treatment as me...” she covered her face again and sobbed.

All Hancock could do at that point was sit and hold her as her body shook with grief and shock. Nick even came over from the table and held them both.

“I’m so sorry, Amy,” Nick whispered to her as he held them. “I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear.”

“I wish he was here so I could ask him myself. There's probably so much that we don’t know, and that we can’t find out since this project seemed so...covert.”

“I’d like to finish going through these files to make sure I get every detail I can. That way, I can reach out to some contacts that I have, and we might be able to dig up more information than what we have here.”

“Of course, Nick. Take all the time you need. I need to know what’s going on with me, and just what the hell my brother was involved in, and why he dragged me into it.”

She sat and stared at the wall for a while, her eyes occasionally darting back and forth as she was thinking. Hancock remained holding her, tracing delicate circles on her back to help keep her grounded. He looked to Nick questioningly, like asking what they should do. But this was out of the range of knowledge for both men, and they felt helpless.

“You smell wonderful, Sunshine,” was all that he could think of to say, trying to come up with a different subject. “And I can’t smell everything because, well....ya know...no nose.”

Sniffling, she smiled a weak smile and turned to him. “It’s my favorite perfume from...before. Nate had it stored in the safe. Why would he even do that, if I was supposed to be subjected to testing?”

He pulled her in closer and held her tighter. “It’s hard to know what was going on for him before the bombs without him here to tell ya. All we can do is pick up the breadcrumbs that were left behind, and hope we get some luck in finding some answers from piecing things together.”

“I need a smoke. And some music,” she whispered.

Hancock got up, grabbed her Pip-Boy and handed it to her, and sat back down, reaching into his pocket for his pack of cigarettes. He pulled out two, lit both, and handed her one.

She leaned on him as they smoked, and she blew out smoke rings like a fire dragon blowing smoke from its nostrils, ready to scorch the town below.

“I’ve never been able to figure out how to do that,” he muttered.

“I don’t even know how I do it; all I know is it took me ditching class most of my junior year of high school, sitting at a neighborhood coffee shop, trying over and over again. I probably smoked so much that year,” she chuckled.

“I bet it’s got somethin’ to do with that gifted tongue of yours,” he whispered as he winked at her, and she grinned and stuck her tongue out at him playfully. She turned her attention to her Pip-Boy, and ejected the holotape in the device. She got up and strolled over to the safe, eyes moving amongst the cases, looking for something specific; once she found it, she placed the holotape in her hand back in the safe, and carefully pried the one she wanted from the stack, popping it into her device. Turning some knobs, music began to softly play as she sat back down with Hancock on the floor, putting the Pip-boy back on her wrist.

He sat and listened with her, and soon he found his toes tapping along with the beat.

She noticed, and grinned, the biggest she had smiled since before they came down here. “You like this song?”

“I dig it! It’s catchy,” he agreed.

“It’s called ‘Uncle John’s Band’ by The Grateful Dead. One of my favorites. It helped me when I had to go sober about two years before the deep freeze.”

“I’d been meanin’ to ask about that. What happened with the alcohol stuff?”

“I used to drink like a fish, like someone who had a subconscious death wish, for a good decade or so, mostly because I could, at first. Started drinking in my late teens. I eventually got to the point where I couldn’t function day to day without it, got the DTs, and the more I drank to push them back to function, the more it killed my pancreas. I was in the hospital for a month on a feeding tube after I nearly died.”

He got really quiet after that, choosing his words carefully before he spoke again. He turned and gazed right into her eyes, brushing his hand on her cheek. “I’m really glad you didn’t die in that hospital. I would have been lost and adrift my entire life if I hadn’t found you.”

She gazed right back at him. “So am I, if I hadn’t fought back then, I wouldn’t be here now.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes before she spoke again. “I should probably tell you something that I hope doesn’t change things between us, but that is important you at least know about, regarding my past. It’s something I haven’t been able to talk to anyone about since I left the vault, not even Nick.”

His heart soared at the level of trust she was showing him, but he was apprehensive; rarely does anything following a statement like that have good news included.

“I....was married at the time the bombs dropped. He was back home in Colorado while I traveled out here to help Nate and Nora, so I don’t know if bombs dropped there too, or if he survived somehow, but by now I guess it’s a moot point. 200 years after the fact, I don’t think anyone could have survived that long, aside from someone like Daisy....” she sighed. “I feel like an ass for not saying something before, but with how soon it felt to me between the bombs and waking up in the vault, the distance of him at home and me here, and so many unknowns in between, I still had hope that maybe he could still be alive. It’s finally starting to sink in that I’m probably never gonna see him again.”

“I don’t want this to change what we have. I know it seems like it’s too soon for me to be feeling this way about someone I met not even two weeks ago when I have lost so much, but if I didn’t find you, I don’t know if I could have made it through all of this now. You’ve quickly become a rock for me, and I don’t know if I could ever thank you enough, or repay you.”

“No need to repay me for anythin’, Sunshine. Having you in my life, that’s all I could ever hope for.” He leaned over to her and gave her a long, slow kiss.

“I’m sorry things wound up the way they did for ya. I know you loved him very much. I’m here for ya if things get hard with coming to terms over things. I know I’m not him, but I hope he knows somehow that I’m here to take care of ya since he can’t be.”

Big, fat tears fell from her eyes, and she turned to give him a tight hug. “You don’t know how much that means to me.” She burrowed further into him, moving her long legs so they rested over his.

“Sunshine...if we’re clearing the air on things in our past, can I let ya in on some things in mine? I don’t want them to change what we’ve got either, and I don’t want it coming back to bite me.”

She sat up, eyes glassy but focused on him. “Of course.”

“Remember last night when me an’ Nicky were talkin’ ‘bout my brother? And the ghouls?”

“Yeah. I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

“Well, that ties in with what I’m about to tell ya. Before I became the best mayor ever, I was someone who ran from things a lot. I ran from Diamond City when I couldn’t convince my brother to change that decree, which led me to Goodneighbor, which at the time was run by this guy named Vic, and his gang. He’d let his boys loose from time to time, and they would unleash on the populace at large, and use us drifters as their personal piggybanks. We had nowhere to go to try to avoid them. The one time I watched his boys beat the crap out of a fellow drifter, they cracked his head open on the pavement like a can of Cram. And we didn’t do anythin’. Just sat there, just let it happen.  Eventually, I ran from that too. I would go on these wild tears, takin’ whatever chem I could find, which is how I found that experimental drug I told ya about. I knew what it could do to me, but I didn’t care. Either it would change me to a ghoul, or it would kill me. I just couldn’t stand lookin’ at the person in the mirror that couldn’t do anythin’ about the ghouls gettin’ sent to their deaths, or my fellow drifters bein’ the targets of Vic. I felt like next to nothing.”

“After the death of that drifter, I went on a bender like none other and got so high I blacked out. Woke up on the floor of the statehouse in front of the clothes of John Hancock. Those clothes spoke to me, and I broke the glass, put them on, and left John McDonough behind to become John Hancock. Convinced KL-E-O to loan us some hardware, and gathered some drifters and we went out into the wastes to train, and vowed to be ready the next time Vic and his boys unleashed on us. Didn't even touch chems during that time. So, we sat back and waited, and when they were good an’ fuckin’ drunk one night, we got the drop on them. Didn’t even have to fire a shot, but we sure fucking did. Took Vic from his room in the statehouse and hung his ass from the balcony. When I saw the people gathered below, felt like I had to say somethin’, and “Of the people, for the people” came out, and that was my inaugural address as mayor. I vowed to never stand by and watch ever again.”

She pulled him in close and held him. “You may have run, but you always ran for a reason, John. And the fact that you didn’t continue to sit by and let bad things happen to good people...that makes a difference.”

“I tried tellin’ myself that, but hearin’ it come from someone like you...means the world to me.”

"I'm here for you, John, just like you’re here for me.”

He placed a finger under her chin, not so unlike what she did to him days ago at the Red Rocket, and looked deeply into her eyes. “I’m not goin’ anywhere without ‘cha, Sunshine. I’m done runnin’.” He leaned in for a kiss, and she returned it with earnestness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I think I’m just about done here,” announced Nick, rising from his seat. “We’ll need to take a look at this holotape eventually too; I didn’t have your Pip-Boy to play it on. I’m not sure where you’d like to discuss what I’ve read, but this cellar seems as secure as any place.”

She took a deep breath and pushed herself up from the floor. Carrying over two more chairs, she sat them at the table and took a seat. Hancock scooted his chair closer to hers so he could hold her hand, intertwining his fingers with her shaking ones. His other hand strayed to her back, letting his fingers lightly caress wherever they drifted.

“It seems Vault 111 was part of the Enclave’s Project Safehouse with Vault-Tec, but the form of FEV injected into you was all West-Tek, so you were correct on your collaboration assumption. Project Safehouse entailed using Vault-Tec's underground shelters as a big social experiment on the people contained within. With Nate and West-Tek, they had a form of the FEV that they called Civ-FEV, which was produced to be injected into civilians to create super soldiers, many of them sleeper agents, to be ‘awoken’ at a later date. By a combination of the Civ-FEV, and the hypnopedia, they were hoping to create soldiers out of just about anyone, and the Civ-FEV would allow these soldiers to heal on their own with radiation, increase muscles at an exponential rate, and give a big boost in intelligence and dexterity to aid in combat. But it appears Nate, and by relation, you, had something interesting in your DNA that melded amazingly well with the virus, beyond any of their expectations, and they were hoping to replicate it for further testing and application. Nora did not have this unique trait, but they did find something alarming with her DNA, however – she had the ability to pass the virus along to offspring.”

“So, Shaun could have been born with this virus.”

“If she had been injected during her pregnancy, yes, but I don’t see record of that. They did inject her shortly after Shaun was born, however. The plan had been to get her pregnant again to test it...”

“...and Nate had gone along with it. How could he have done that to her...”

“I don’t know. It seems like your brother was in pretty deep.”

Hancock squeezed her hand reassuringly. She glanced over at him and gave him a weak smile.

“So, he and I were part of a super-secret project? Did he have the recording like I did, while he was frozen? That would mean Shaun would have listened to it too, right?”

“I don’t think he would have been able to figure out language like that at his age, but who knows what else they did that wasn’t recorded? There’s quite a few redactions in these reports.”

She rose swiftly, almost pulling Hancock up with her. He looked at her with concern; all she could say was one, brief phrase: “Drink,” and she slowly sat back down, a little dizzy after getting up so quickly, her hand at her head.

He let go of her hand and rushed over to the shelves with the Stimpaks, purified water, and chems. Picking out a bottle of whiskey and a container of water, he brought them back over to the table.

“It’s gonna be harsh,” he lamented, “’cause you’re gonna need to drink straight from the bottle.”

She snagged the bottle from him, removed the cap, and tipped her head back. After a hearty swallow or two, she brought it back down to the table and slid it back to Hancock. He repeated her motions.

“There’s a few holes in these files that I need to see if I can find out more information on. I’ve got some contacts in the Capital Wasteland, which used to be Washington, D.C., and I know the Enclave was known to have a base somewhere around there. I also know a couple of people with ties to the NCR, or what became of California, so we can follow up on the West-Tek aspect. I’ll need to head back to Diamond City after we visit Dr. Amari.”

“Let’s plan on leaving in a day or two,” Hancock said, thinking she might need time to recover after the rug getting pulled from under her feet today.

“Do we need any supplies? I mean, while we’re down here...?” she asked.

“Can we take that bottle of Day Tripper?” Hancock gave her some puppy dog eyes, and she smiled.

“I beat you to it; I’ve got a bottle in my bag already.”

“And you didn’t tell me? OR share?!” he said with mock astonishment.

“I forgot I had them in there, to be honest. But it’s yours, just remind me about it and I’ll put it in your bag.”

She glanced over to Nick. “I think we should keep the files here. That information may be valuable to someone, and I’d rather not have it on me, or either of you for that matter.”

“I agree. That information shouldn’t be out in the open. If we need it, we know where it’s at. We shouldn’t forget about that holotape, though.”

“Yeah, ok. I’ll see if I need anything else....I’m hoping there’s another army fatigue shirt to replace the one that damn bear destroyed, at least.” Scanning the safe, her eye may have caught something that would work.

She rose from her chair and wandered over to the safe, occasionally kneeling to get to a low shelf, bending over to reach the back part of a shelf, sometimes stretching up to pick up something from a top shelf. Hancock was enjoying every minute of it, and he would need to get something special for Daisy for picking out those jeans.

Nick was returning the files to the small compartment when he saw the cylindrical container.

“What’s this, doll?” He pulled it out and held it out to her.

“I....don’t know. I had seen it before, but I didn’t really look into much of what was in that compartment at the time.”

Nick opened it, and almost dropped it. She looked inside, and it was a vial.

“Is that...? Is that Civ-FEV?”

“It may be. I thought this stuff needed to be refrigerated though.”

“Since we’re not sure what it is, let’s keep it here.”

He placed the files back in the compartment, and slid the cylinder next to it. She closed the door to the compartment and locked it.

Before closing the safe, she ran her hand along the stacks of holotapes with adoration. “I’ll be back, my lovelies.” She shut the door and locked it as well. While Hancock was helping Nick, she slipped a tin of Partytime Mentats in her pocket for him as a surprise.

The lanterns were extinguished, and cautiously they left the cellar, closing the door silently, locking it, and they covered the doors with more dirt, so it didn’t even show that the doors were there. They went back into the house through the kitchen, and gathered in the living room, Nick in the chair, Hancock and Amy on the couch.

Nick wordlessly passed out smokes to everyone. “We’ll get more information on this. I promise, some way or another, we’ll find out more.” Nick spoke in hushed tones. He lit his cigarette. Hancock lit Amy’s, then his.

The mood grew more somber as the silence spread, until a knock came at the door.

“Come in,” she called.

“Ames! You made it back from Diamond City! Sturges said you were here.” Preston exclaimed as he entered.

“Preston!” She rose to greet him. “I did. I’d like you to meet Nick Valentine of Valentine Detective Agency in Diamond City.”

Nick stood and extended his hand, and Preston shook it warmly.

“And this is Mayor John Hancock of Goodneighbor.”

It was Hancock’s turn to stand, holding out his hand. Preston took his hand with a smile.

“It’s nice to meet you both. Thank you for helping her out. I would have gone with her to Diamond City, but I had people here to protect. I couldn’t lose them too, especially so soon after Quincy.”

“I managed ok, Preston. I knew you had to stay here.” She smiled at him. “I found out more about those settlements you wanted me to stop by too.”

His eyebrows raised, and a hopeful grin appeared on his face.

“That’s great news!”

“Starlight Drive-In would be a great trading hub, but it needs some work, mostly cleanup. I need to go back to Greygarden to finish clearing out the water treatment plant up the road from them. And Oberland might be interested in joining the Minutemen, but there’s only two people there, so they’re hesitant. Oh! I did find a settlement that should be ready for occupation – Sunshine Tidings, it’s north of Fort Hagen.”

“I’ve heard of it! You’ve been of great help. Any luck with your nephew?”

“We’ve got another clue to follow, so we need to head back to Dr. Amari in Goodneighbor, probably tomorrow or the next day.”

“Since you’re heading that way, could I put a few other locations on your map? One in particular is a place known as The Slog. It’s a little further north than where you’re going, so just stop by if you’re ever in the area. And any place you do stop at, don’t forget to mention the Minutemen if you’re helping them.”

“Of course, Preston.” She held out her wrist with the device out so he could get the coordinates entered in.

“It was good to see you, and it was a pleasure meeting you gentlemen. I’ll see you at dinner.”

He exited the house, and shut the door behind him.

“He’s a little ambitious, isn’t he?” Nick observed.

“You have no idea. He’s got a heart of gold, but he’s trying to take on too much at once to rebuild the Minutemen. I’d like to pitch in more, but I’m kinda swamped myself. But the settlement stakeouts I can do.”

“Lemme know when you plan to head by The Slog, I’d like to check that place out. I heard it’s run completely by ghouls.” Hancock quipped.

“No shit? We’ll make a special trip then.” She winked at him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nick sat and worked on one of his mechanical fingers with a screwdriver, and Hancock reclined with Amy leaning on his shoulder, his arm around her, her legs across his lap. His fingers caressed her wrist.

“Have ya thought about where you’re gonna stay after we see Dr. Amari?” Hancock asked quietly.

She raised her head to catch his gaze. “Do you have room for me at the statehouse?” She snuck him a sly grin.

“I was hopin’ you’d say that,” he grinned back. “I’ve always got room for ya.”

She snuggled into him.

Hancock glanced over at Nick, and he returned the warm smile the synth was giving him.

“We’ll head out in the morning to Goodneighbor. I can stay at the Rexford if I need to if we have to wait for Dr. Amari.”

“Nicky, nope, I’ve got a room you can use. I owe ya a lot, remember?” He winked and looked down at the woman who was quickly falling asleep at his side.

“Alright. Might want to carry her to bed for a nap, she’s had a pretty rough day to add to her pretty rough almost two weeks above ground. We’ll wake her up for dinner.”

Hancock carefully got up, moved his arms underneath her, and picked her up bridal-style. Navigating the hallway, he wove into the bedroom and gently laid her down on the bed, and took off his hat and jacket so he could join her. Wrapping his arm around her, he pulled her close and kissed her neck softly, letting his lips trace the words he longed to say to her on her skin.

Chapter Text

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 11

Nick heard the warning call for dinner drift inside, and he rose from the chair to get Hancock and Amy in the bedroom. The door wasn’t shut, and he could see them cuddled together on the bed, asleep. He hated to wake them, especially since the deep worry lines were finally gone from her face, and she wasn’t having any nightmares. He placed his hand lightly on Hancock’s shoulder and whispered into his ear, “Dinner’s ready. We should get some food if we’re making the trek back home tomorrow.”

Hancock stirred a little, and softly responded, “Thanks, Nicky.” His arm tightened his hold on her as he passed the message on. She turned over and buried herself in his chest, mumbling something in protest.

Nick left the room to give them privacy, and he wandered out of the house and over to the fire where the settlers were beginning to gather for food. He saw Preston and Sturges and decided to join them.

“Hey guys,” he said as he approached. “How are you?”

“We're doing pretty good, Nick, thanks.” Preston greeted him warmly.

“Nick!” Sturges beamed. “Doing well! Are the mayor and Amy coming out for dinner?”

“She’s.....had a rough day, and she wound up falling asleep for a while. They should be out in a few minutes.”

“Stuff related to her nephew, I take it?”

“Well, it’s along family lines, yeah, but more to do with her brother. That's all I can really discuss unless she wants to give you more details herself.” He paused. “I’m sorry we’ve been a bit reclusive while we’ve been here; this hasn’t been easy on her, and you and your settlement have been very gracious with us.”

“Understood! By the way, I know you don’t partake, but food should be ready in about 5 minutes.” Sturges stirred the kettle he was watching. “Technically it was Amy who was here first, so we’re sorta borrowing the area from her. We’re lucky she doesn’t mind us being here, otherwise we wouldn't have had anywhere else to go.”

“She’s pretty selfless when it comes to things like that, so that doesn’t surprise me.” He looked over at the house. “If they aren’t out in that time, I’ll go back in the house and let them know. Thanks, Sturges.”

Nick walked away from the pair and found Dogmeat by Mama Murphy. He sat down on the chair next to her so he could give Dogmeat a good scratching behind the ears.

“Mama Murphy, it’s nice to see you again.”

“Detective,” she acknowledged, “you’re getting ready to head back to the Jewel, aren’t you?”

“In a few days, once I drop Amy and John off at Goodneighbor. Did you need something?”

“You both need to keep an eye on the Emerald-Eyed Dragon. I sense many forces out to try to get her, for not only what she’s been through, but what she holds within her as well. And if the man of radiation is serious about her, he needs to let her know sooner rather than later. He may not get another chance if he doesn’t let her know quickly.”

“Thank you, Mama. I will relay the message to them,” Nick replied, an ominous feeling growing in the back of his circuit boards.

They still hadn’t come out of the house, so Nick got up and walked back to Nate’s. As he was stepping into the doorway, they exited the hallway and were rounding the corner to where he was. She looked tired still, but not as broken as she had been earlier.

“Hey,” Nick said. “Dinner’s ready if you are.”

Her eyes perked up. “Thank god, I’m starving!” She jogged past Nick and out of the door, meeting up with Sturges as he was passing out bowls.

“John,” Nick said in hushed tones. “We’ve got some problems to worry about.”

“Fuck, seriously?” Hancock replied.

“Mama Murphy had some help from her ‘Sight’, and she said that something may be out there that is looking for her, not only for the experiments she was part of, but the virus she has in her.”

“How would anyone know about that....outside of us? I thought everyone part of that fucked up experiment was dead?”

“I don’t know. But Mama said we need to keep an eye on her.”

“Ok. Good thing we’re going back to Goodneighbor. The town will be willin’ to pitch in to keep any outsiders away from her. We’ve got the firepower for it.”

“I’m hoping the Institute isn’t involved....that may make things impossible, especially with any replacements.”

“Me too, Nicky. Me too.”

“Mama said one more thing, and I didn’t want Amy overhearing.”

That set Hancock on edge, even more than he was already.

“Mama said that if you’re serious about her, you need to let her know as soon as possible, or you may not get another chance.”

Hancock stood silently, mulling over everything. “Fuck. I didn’t want to spring that on her now with everything else she’s got goin’ on, but Mama’s Sight has been pretty accurate so far....except about the ‘sea of death’. Not sure what she meant by that. But I’ll figure out when and how to tell her. Thanks, Nicky.” He pulled the synth into a hug. “For everything. I mean it.”

“You’re welcome, John. Let’s go get you some food.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She had been so hungry that she was nearly done with her bowl before Hancock and Nick came over to join her. They had been discussing something in the doorway of Nate’s, and she was curious as to what it was about, but she wasn’t going to press on it. If it was important, she’d hear about it at some point. Hancock grabbed a bowl on his way over and carried a chair with him to sit by her, and Nick did the same, but skipped the food part.

“Thanks for letting me sleep, guys. Apparently, I needed it.” She worked on cleaning her bowl.

“Anytime, doll.” Nick smiled warmly at her.

“I’m down for anythin’ that involves snugglin’ with you, Sunshine.” He grinned as he ate. “Hey, this is pretty good, Sturges!” he turned and yelled, and Sturges waved his hand in thanks to him.

“Should we keep Dogmeat here? I don’t want to keep putting him in harm’s way by dragging him with me, and he really seems to like Mama. Plus, he would be extra protection for the settlement.” She had been thinking about this ever since she knew she had to go back to Dr. Amari, and she wanted to make sure she was correct in her assumptions before leaving her first Commonwealth traveling companion behind.

“I think it would be wise. We don’t know what Dr. Amari will find for us, or where we may need to go next.”

“Goodneighbor ain’t the greatest place for a dog anyways, no grass or open spaces, not like here,” Hancock added, finishing with his food.

“Agreed. Hey, can I grab a smoke from one of you?”

Simultaneously, they both pulled out their packs, and she laughed. “And here I thought great customer service didn’t exist anymore. You guys are wonderful.” She beamed at them as she pulled one from Hancock’s, because otherwise she would have taken one of Nick’s last ones. Nick provided the lighter though.

“I think we should take a walk real quick, get things sorted for tomorrow,” Nick offered in a low voice.

“Sounds good, Nicky. Lead the way.”

“What route should we take to get back home?” Nick asked openly in hushed tones, but he mostly directed it at Hancock, since they had a somewhat secret mission of their own to complete. As Hancock popped a few Mentats and pondered, they wandered down the only street in Sanctuary, as Nick was trying to guide them away from the more populated area of the settlement so they could get away from any ears that may overhear. He cut through some bushes, past a few houses, and they came to an old playground close to the river. The group paused.

Keeping his tone low, he said, “What about going north of Cambridge, by Wattz Electronics, to Greentech Genetics and crossing the bridge there?”

“There’s a Deathclaw rumored to be hiding somewhere around Cambridge Crater. If we can skirt the place, that might be ok. The bridge by Monsignor Plaza may work too, but that place is usually packed with super mutants and Raiders, especially at the top of those tall apartment buildings by the bridge.”

“We could always go the route I took to Diamond City, kinda along the same way that we took to get back here, minus the side trip to Fort Hagen,” she offered. “Some of the areas closer to Goodneighbor might still be cleared out from when we last went through there.”

“Not a bad thought, doll! I just hate to use similar routes as before.”

Not wanting to use the same route. There’s something that they’re not telling me. “Is someone trying to find me, Nick?” she asked quietly but directly, having a feeling this is what the two men had been discussing before dinner.

Hancock and Nick looked at each other, and Nick’s head sunk down a bit. “There's a pretty big possibility of it. That’s our main concern right now.”

“Do we have any idea of who we need to be watching out for?”

“No. We just know about the potential interest of a group, possibly more than one group, trying to find you. Nothing confirmed for sure, but since it’s just the three of us, we shouldn’t take any chances.”

“Fuck.” She huffed in frustration. “I guess any route where there would be low chances of an ambush would be best, so less buildings, the better? Bridges too, but we’re kinda out of luck with that one – there's no way to avoid either of those if we want to get into downtown Boston. I remember having problems getting Nora to one of her doctor’s appointments when the river flooded, and it was advised to avoid any bridges...I had to track way south and loop around north.”

“Valid points. That's why we’re working this out now, and not on the road.”

“Most direct route would be best, I think, Nicky,” Hancock said. “Less time spent traveling, and less time needed to stop somewhere for the night, the better. Even though we’d have’ta swing a little north to avoid that Deathclaw, I think going by Monsignor to the bridge may be the way to go. Hopefully the bridges aren’t swamped with Raiders.”

“I’m leaving this up to you both. I know a few places around here, but nothing like you two do,” she concluded.

“Alright. Let’s just try to relax for the rest of the evening, and we’ll head out early tomorrow morning.” Nick started walking back to Nate’s, and Hancock grabbed her hand and followed behind him.

Before they reached the house, she said to Nick, “I think I need to let Preston and Sturges know about the cellar. Not what’s in there necessarily, but that it’s there, in case anyone tries to come here after we leave. They have the right to know, at the very least.”

Nick nodded, and Hancock added, “Let’s go now. I’ll come with ya.”

“I’ll come too.”

The group diverged to the fire, where some of the settlers were still sitting and conversing, and they found Preston and Sturges in the yellow house, listening to the radio while Sturges was repairing something by lamplight.

“Hey, Preston? Sturges? Can we talk to you guys for a few minutes? We’ll meet you in, er, my house I guess it is now?” she stammered.

“Sure thing, we’ll be over in a sec,” Preston responded.

Gathering once more in the living room of Nate’s house, Preston and Sturges entered, and she offered them seats before she, Nick, and Hancock joined them.

“Ok, guys, this is a bit of a story, but I wanted to let you know about something before we need to leave tomorrow.” She told them bits and pieces of what Nick had found in the files, but not of the files themselves. She explained what she knew about the testing she was forced into, and that she may be the target of groups looking for her. She also told of the cellar doors in the backyard, and asked if there was any way to reinforce the doors temporarily so access would be greatly hindered if anyone tried to get into it.

“I could try puttin’ a metal plate over them and riggin’ it so we’d need special tools to get it off in order to open it,” Sturges suggested.

“Anything that you think would work in deterring someone from getting in there is fine with me, Sturges. I feel awful enough needing to leave so quickly, but if there are groups after me, I don’t want to draw them here by staying. I’m so sorry guys. It was never my intent to bring you into more danger. Had I known, I would have directed your group elsewhere to settle. I didn’t know of my exact involvement in all of this until the past day or so. I wish I had better details to give, but I’m still trying to find out most of it.”

“You’re doing everything you can, given your circumstances. We appreciate the information, and the heads-up. We’ll get that secured, and I’ll call on a few settlements to see if they have extra people that can come and help if it comes down to it. Might have some extra turrets built too, just to be sure.”

“Thanks guys. If you need us as extra hands for watch overnight, please let us know.”

Preston stood before Sturges did, and he walked around the couch and opened the door for him. They exited the house with quiet murmurs, and Nick shut the door behind them.

“Quick drink before bed?” Hancock asked.

“Not that bourbon from Fort Hagen,” she shuddered.

“Nah, I brought that whiskey up from the cellar. We had put a big dent in it already, might as well finish it.” He shrugged.

“Valid excuse. I would have accepted that you were thirsty, too,” she laughed.

Hancock disappeared down the hall and into the bedroom, and she took a seat on the couch. Nick wandered around the kitchen, seemingly lost in thought. Codsworth drifted into the kitchen from outside, and hovered to the couch.

“Miss, are you leaving?”

“Yeah, Codsworth, I have to. Nate involved me in some of his military operations, and I may be drawing the wrong kind of attention, so we need to keep these people safe by getting far away from here. Preston and Sturges know about the cellar, and I gave them permission to put a cover over the doors so anyone trying to get in, can’t. Just make sure they don’t go in when they’re covering it, ok? And keep an eye on Dogmeat. I need to keep him here for the same reason; safety.”

“I understand, Miss. I wish Sir Nate hadn’t brought you into his mess.”

“Do you know what he was working on? Right before the bombs?”

“No, but whatever it was, it made Miss Nora terribly upset.”

“I realize that now. I saw it, but it didn’t register at the time. I wish I could have done something back then, to help her.”

“I don’t think that would have changed things; Sir Nate was....stern at the time.”

“Stern?”

“Very demanding. His word was the final word. Wouldn’t let mum talk much.”

She sat in silence, rolling his words around in her head so they made sense with what she knew of her brother. Forever trying to be Sherlock Holmes, sorting out mysteries, she lamented. Hancock had retrieved the bottle, and was hanging out with Nick in the kitchen, listening to their conversation. “Thanks, Codsworth. You’ve been a great help since I got out of that vault. Keep hanging out here, ok? These people can use that help you gave me. I’ll still come back and visit, as soon as it’s safe to do so.”

“Of course, Miss. I’ll keep things tidy while you’re away.”

He hovered into the kitchen, and Nick and Hancock moved to the living room, taking their same seats that they had claimed over their past few days staying here. Hancock had poured the whiskey already, and he placed glasses in front of the group. They all picked up their respective glasses, and held them up for a toast.

“For safe travels,” Nick said.

“Quick travels too,” Hancock added.

“To two of the best people in the Commonwealth, my best friends; I wouldn’t be sitting here right now if it wasn’t for them,” she finished, looking at her companions with her genuine smile, eyes sparkling with adoration.

“We wouldn’t be here, together, if it wasn’t for you, doll,” Nick returned with a big smile and a wink.

Hancock snuck his arm around her shoulder and nuzzled her neck. “Wouldn’t be this happy without ‘cha, Sunshine,” he whispered in her ear.

She turned her head to him and gave him a kiss, with a little tongue to tease him before pulling away, a whisp of a devilish grin on her lips to show her agreement. Turning her attention and raising her glass once more to look at the liquid within, she pushed out a breath in preparation, and downed the glass in one gulp.

“That stuff isn’t terrible,” she wheezed out, and Nick laughed.

“That bourbon almost took you both out, so I’d say it’s an improvement,” he reminisced with one eyebrow raised, chuckling.

“I’m leanin’ towards that stuff bein’ made recently and locally, badly, but locally,” Hancock interjected, emptying his glass.

“One of you want this? I did that for ceremonial purposes,” he said as he held up his glass.

“I’ll take it, Nicky.”

Hancock grabbed the glass, drank half, and handed the rest to her. She finished it off and set the glass on the table.

A bright flash suddenly shot through the windows, followed by a rumble of thunder.

“Looks like a storm’s coming in. Regular one,” Nick observed.

“Damn, hope it moves through fast. Otherwise, it might delay us,” Hancock replied, not really relishing the thought of moving through downtown Boston in the rain. The smell sticks to everything.

“I love thunderstorms,” she murmured, thoughts drifting. “The ones back home could be pretty intense though. Savage beauty, heading to the plains.”

“Plains?” Hancock was a little confused.

She laughed to herself. “Sorry, I forget that it’s not easy to travel now, and you probably haven’t been out that direction before. The Great Plains, in the middle of the continent. They go from the Mississippi River right up to the Rocky Mountains. Pretty much flat land for many thousands of miles, and the area was used for farming for a long time. I used to live right on the cusp of where the mountains met the plains.” She smiled wistfully.

“I bet it was beautiful there,” he whispered.

“It was. I’d love to show you, but that’s quite a trek to get there on foot.”

“I’m not sure I’m down for walkin’ that far.”

“Neither am I. This place is quickly becoming my new home, so I don’t have reason to go back. Now, if you had a car or a plane, I’d be willing to rethink that,” she laughed.

More thunder began to roll through, and rain began to softly fall. A breeze drifted through the open windows, and the scent of petrichor was carried in with it. She closed her eyes, and breathed in deeply, relishing the familiar scent.

Hancock watched her intensely; her chest as she drew in the breeze, her eyes soften as the scent enveloped her, her pulse slow for just a moment. Everything about her set his heart on fire.

“Maybe we should get some rest,” he murmured. His hand strayed to her cheek and brushed it gently, so he wouldn’t startle her. She opened her eyes, slowly, and nodded.

“Nicky,” Hancock turned to his friend, “would you wake us up again?”

“Of course. Goodnight, you two.”

“Night Nick.” she said with a smile.

“Night, Nicky. See ya in the mornin’.”

Hancock grasped her hand and led her down the hall to the bedroom. She sat down on the bed, listening to the rain hitting the roof, while he shut the door. He removed his hat and jacket, and set them on his bag in the corner of the room, adding his boots just in front. He sat with her on the bed, and he reached down and picked up one of her booted feet. Pulling the lace, he loosened the knot and removed her boot, setting it down on the floor. He did the same for her other boot, setting it by its mate. Sliding her legs so she could stretch out on the bed, he moved his own legs onto the bed and wrapped his arm around her. They listened to the sounds of the storm while she turned over to snuggle into his chest, burrowing closer against the chill that the storm blew through the broken window panes. His lips placed a kiss on her head, and she sighed contentedly.

“Promise me, John,” she murmured.

“Promise what, Sunshine?”

“That you’ll hold me like this during rainstorms.”

“Every time. Promise.”

They gently drifted to sleep, the rain falling lulling them into very different dreamscapes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She was back in the room. The lab coats surrounded her, machines beeping.

She couldn’t move.

She heard Nate’s voice; not what he was saying, but she could tell it was his.

He had a bitter edge to whatever he was saying.

An arm came into view, holding a syringe. It fed into the IV line on her arm.

The pain. It spread lightly at first, then it surged ahead and rushed to every part of her body. Everything spasmed, everything convulsed. She cried out, but no sound escaped her lips.

Slowly, her vision started to fade.

Then everything was grey, and she slipped between the clouds of mist, drifting away…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He wandered corridors, looking into every room, every hallway. He was looking for something, but he wasn’t sure what it was. He knew he’d know what it was as soon as he saw it, though.

Eyes darting everywhere, scanning every object, it wasn’t here.

In one room, there had only been mirrors. All of them broken.

Another had a chem station. He stopped for a chem break at that one.

So many rooms, so many hallways, so many corridors.

Until he came upon a room with a broken door. Cautiously opening it, he saw a bed in the corner. Someone was on the bed, curled up, asleep. This, he thought. This is what I’m looking for.

Reaching his hand out gently, he placed an arm on the sleeping shoulder.

The form turned to him, and it was her. She stared at him, love and adoration fighting with pain and anguish within her eyes. He moved his hand to her face, and she smiled.

The next moment she was gone, her form dissipating into mist, his hand holding empty air.

And then everything went grey.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He pulled her further into his chest the moment he woke, and that’s when she began stiffen, shake, and tremble, gasps escaping her mouth. She’s having a nightmare, his sleep-clogged mind said. He held her steadily, and whispered into her ear the words he’d been wanting to tell her while she was awake. A step in the right direction, I hope. I need to do this. Her movements calmed, and she burrowed into him. He couldn’t sleep after that, so he just held her so she could, without any more nightmares.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was still dark out, but the very beginnings of sunrise were starting to tease the edges of the horizon, so Nick got himself up from the chair and walked down the hall to the bedroom. He peeked in the open doorway, into the room, and he saw Hancock half sitting in bed, holding her in his arms.

“Nightmare?” he whispered to Hancock.

He nodded while caressing her wrist.

“We should leave when it gets light out,” he murmured.

Nick hummed in agreement. “I’ll be in the living room when you two are ready.”

He turned, shut the door most of the way, and returned to his chair.

Hancock watched the door shut, and ran his fingers through her hair.

“Let’s get up, love,” he whispered, so softly that even he almost didn’t hear it.

She stirred, but didn’t acknowledge him.

Five more minutes, he thought. I’ll let her sleep for five more minutes.

He continued to run his fingers through her hair as he stared out of the window, towards the coming dawn. Please, let me get her back to Goodneighbor, so I can keep her safe.

He closed his eyes for a few minutes, setting everything to memory; the gentle lines on her tattoos. I’ll have to ask her more about those. The jewelry in her ears. Her long, slender neck. His mouth moved to her neck, lips feathering kisses on her skin. “Hey beautiful, Nick just came in. Let’s get ready to head out.”

She squeezed him, and her head rose up so she could look at him. “Ok, John.” she mumbled as she smiled. The sun chose that moment to sneak a few rays in the window, and caught her eyes just right. The smile he gave her radiated just as brightly, and with reluctance they parted to rise from the bed.

He didn’t need to do much to get ready, other than add his jacket and hat to his ensemble, check his shotgun, and swing his bag onto his back. She had to change into her fatigues for the journey, and his gaze feasted on the parts of bare skin she showed him as she redressed. He wanted to stay like this forever, but he knew they weren’t safe here.

She slung the strap of her bag over her shoulder, and walked over to where he was standing. She slid a finger along his jawline, drawing his face to hers, and her mouth sought his. He eagerly accepted, and tongues hungrily twisting around each other, they pulled each other into a deep embrace. Her hand drifted to the back of his head, and his strayed from her back to her ass, where he squeezed lightly and grinned.

She pulled back from him, returning the grin and searching his dark eyes, she murmured, “Let’s do this. I want to go back home with you.” He gave her a quick kiss on those delectable lips.

“I couldn’t agree more, Sunshine. Let’s go home.”

Finding her hand, he grasped it and led her out of the room to meet up with Nick.

Chapter Text

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 12

Saying goodbye to Preston and Sturges, they waved to the rest of the settlers as they carefully crossed the semi-stable bridge out of town; the day was cool, and a low fog hung sporadically in the trees.

Her hunting rifle was out, her earpiece in, and her sunglasses sat like a headband on her forehead; Hancock held his shotgun in his hands, and Nick had a wicked-looking .44 in his hand.

“Hey Nick, where’d you get that upgraded piece at?” she asked as she eyed the weapon.

“Kellogg didn’t need it. It’s been a significant improvement to my arsenal,” he admitted with a grin.

“No shit! A hand cannon like that, you don’t need to do much.”

They passed by the Red Rocket station, and followed the road down the hill to the left of Concord. As they walked by the tall houses, overpasses began to hover over the horizon; it was a little hazy, but their outlines could still be seen. Starlight Drive-In soon appeared at the bottom of a hill, and they continued past the railroad tracks. Their path led them right below the crumbling sky highways, and eventually they passed by an old nursing home almost directly underneath it.

They swung wide of a gravel pit, and followed a road through an old military checkpoint. A suit of power armor sat behind a locked door with a terminal; she marked the location on her Pip-Boy for later retrieval. Wattz Electronics stood in the haze as the road curved, and they followed the road until houses began to line either side of the street. “Keep alert,” Nick kept his voice down. “We’re starting to get close to Boston.”

As they kept low, the men led her past a church, and buildings were hovering all around them. Keeping to the sides, the three followed a road past a badly faded Nuka-Cherry sign on the side of an old pizzeria, up to the Mass Chemical building next to a liquor store, where they turned right. They sidewinded through a small common area edged by a canal, coming to a cluster of houses. Something felt off. The spiderwebbing began at the edges of her vision, and she directed them to fall back behind her. Bringing the scope up to her eye, she scanned until she found three Raiders in quick succession, and two more as they came running out of a gate.

“I think there’s more, but they’re further that way,” she pointed. She moved forward to the gate she just cleared while Hancock and Nick followed closely behind her, scanning tops of buildings and broken windows as they passed. With a quick motion, she told them to stop, and in a flurry of movement she had the scope up to her eye, and they heard a scream as it descended in the distance, until it abruptly stopped. Continuing on, and passing through the gate, her eyes darted upwards with the aid of the lens on her gun.

“There’s Raiders way up there,” she hissed to them as she sunk down to try and find a pathway with some kind of cover. The men followed her example and ducked behind a broken and rusted vehicle. Popping up, she aimed quickly upwards, and high above them, a figure began to fall, landing with a crunch to the ground below. This seemed to be the kick that stirred the hornet’s nest, as they heard yells coming from every direction.

“Shit, seems they really set up shop here,” Hancock swore, knowing they couldn’t really turn around now.

She had moved to a corner, where her gun darted with a silent grace through the air, finding new targets to aim at. “There’s a lot of them,” she agreed, as loud as she could muster without giving away her location.

Then they heard the super mutants yelling from an alleyway a half block away, getting agitated from the Raiders’ yelling; they weren’t concerned with the voices, they were paying attention more for the telltale beeping. Thankfully that sound hadn’t echoed down the narrow pathways through the city as the sound from the super mutants faded behind them.

Taking cover behind a corner, she took out a few more Raiders, and things began to get a little more quiet, except for the pain-laced cries and whimpers from those an arm’s length away from Death collecting them. Even the tops of the apartment buildings had been silent; anything she picked up was a good distance away, probably on the other side of the bridge, so they kept moving towards their destination.

They moved towards the barricaded bridge, dodging behind cars and along walls, when the sound of a rifle cracked from one of the roofs above them, and now she felt where the one Raider she couldn’t get a lock on earlier was. Hancock gave a surprised cry as he dropped to the ground.

“John!” she squealed in quiet panic, trying not to make much noise, turning to rush to him. Nick was at his side before her, grabbing his uninjured arm to pull him to cover. Carefully they moved him to a side alley, behind a car as he growled at the pain, his face contorting into a grimace. “I’ve gotta pinpoint that fucker before he takes another shot,” she quickly said as she stepped away from her companions. She went back to the corner of the alley, scope pointed up, searching one building in particular for the shooter.

Nick gingerly pulled the jacket up from Hancock’s shoulder to look at the wound; it looked deep, but he wasn’t sure if he had been shot straight through, not without being able to turn him over. Blood had already begun to stain his shirt.

“They got you in the shoulder,” Nick told him as he held pressure to the wound. “Stay still, we need to get a Stimpak in ya, and I think they’re all in her pack. Hang in there, ok?”

“Fuck, Nicky, it’s buried. The bullet’s still in there, I can feel it,” Hancock hissed with clenched teeth. “Can’t use a Stimpak till we get that out.”

“And we can’t stitch you up until we get to Goodneighbor,” Nick interjected, getting frustrated and a little panicked. “Stay with me, John. We’ll get you back home.”

Her gun fired, once, twice, and she cursed. She fired again. The bastard was ducking, then standing to take shots like he was doing aerobics, she thought bitterly. She paused, took a deep breath, and released it slowly. As the head came into view from behind a brick wall, her finger tapped the trigger. The figure’s head exploded, and the body fell from her view in the scope. She turned and ran back to Hancock.

“John, JOHN, how bad are you hurt?” She searched his eyes in a flurry of panic, seeing the blood creeping out on his shirt from under his jacket.

“Shoulder, Sunshine. Bullet’s still in there, no Stimpaks yet. Gotta get to Goodneighbor,” he stuttered out.

“Fuck. John, stay with me, please,” she stammered as tears rimmed her eyes, her hand grabbing his desperately. “Can you walk? We need to move you, and I think I hear Raiders on the other side of the bridge, so we’re gonna need your help to at least get over to the other side. Nick may be able to carry you from there.”

“If we can get this bandaged to keep some pressure on it...” Nick trailed off.

Her hand darted into her bag; she knew Hancock had put some medical supplies from his bag in with her Stimpaks and RadAway. Fingers finding the material, she yanked it out and worked with Nick to cover the wound. Hancock grumbled as he tried to move.

“It’s...gonna...be tough...but I think I can...get across...the bridge..” he managed to get out while his eyes were tightly shut from the pain. “Wish we...found more MedX before...heading out.”

“I’ll hang onto ya. Amy, lead the way, try to take out as many as you can.” Nick said as he cradled Hancock’s good arm in his, pulling him cautiously to his feet, after which he was able to stand on his own, a little shakily though. With his good arm, Hancock kept his shotgun as close to ready as he could, and slowly they made their way to the barricade.

Her gun pointing at the opposite shore, using the barricade as cover, she found two figures on overhead walkways, and their shadows fell as her finger tapped the trigger. This caused commotion at the gate on the opposite side of the bridge, and it was like shooting fish in a barrel at that point. One by one they dropped, and when the spiderwebbing began to recede, she motioned to the men to join her. With her aid, they serpentined the bridge as they maneuvered around the holes in the pavement to the other side, where she dropped her support of John and readied her rifle again the closer they got. She saw a head appearing around the corner to the bridge entrance, she fluidly brought the weapon up and had the man down in moments.

Once they had gotten off the bridge, creeping along using cover of a nearby building, they turned right down a side road, and took their next left. Cautiously they followed the road until they saw the Mass Fusion building, where even though they saw the neon glow from the Goodneighbor signs, Nick guided them into a narrow pathway between Mass Fusion and a pile of debris. Once they cleared the path, Nick pointed out a mailbox with some sort of logo painted on it.

She leaned it back to the wall as he instructed, and they helped Hancock down the ladder to a tunnel. Nick instructed her where to turn, and they made their way to a hallway. It looked like Dr. Amari’s office in the distance...her steps quickened. “Dr. Amari’s office is just up ahead,” Nick’s voice echoed her thoughts.

Stopping at the door, she knocked quickly and briefly before she opened it wide enough so Nick could help Hancock in. “Dr. Amari?” she said as she looked around.

“She must be upstairs,” Nick said. He guided Hancock, who was barely able to keep up with him, to a stretcher along the wall, and helped him onto it. “Stay here with him while I find her.” Nick said as he disappeared out of the room.

Feet moving swiftly, she was at his side in moments, his hand in hers.

“John,” she whispered, terrified. “John, are you with me?”

He moaned and stirred, but he didn’t answer.

She lifted his jacket to check his wound; the blood stain had spread, and it was soaked near his shoulder. Not sure how much blood he’d truly lost in the dash across the bridge, and getting through the streets and tunnels, she placed her hand on the bandage, pressing down to hold back the bleeding. She couldn’t hold back her tears though, and they fell unobstructed to his jacket.

“You can’t leave me,” she whispered as she sobbed, her head dropping to his chest. “I just found you. You can’t leave me, not when...not when...” she trailed off as more tears flowed. “Not when I wanted to tell you that I love you, John. I should have said it before, said it sooner...I didn’t think you would....I didn’t think that I could, so soon....John, please stay with me...”

Nick rushed in with Dr. Amari, and Amy’s head lifted. Her hand remained on the wound until the stretcher was wheeled further into the room, under a large overhead light. Dr. Amari opened his jacket and then his shirt, removing the crude bandage. “We need to get the bullet out, yes? Nick, hand me the surgical tray over there..” Amy moved out of the way so Nick and the doctor could work without a barrier (her) blocking their way. She backed up to the wall by the door, and her knees gave a little, making her slide down to the floor. Her perception of the activity in the room became faded as the shock set in.

She must have been out of it for a while, as she only focused back in when Nick was touching her shoulder, concern written on his face. She had been staring somewhere between the bed and the floor the entire time he and Dr. Amari worked.

“Amy, are you ok?” he asked with a hushed tone. He was kneeling in front of her.

“Nick? Where’s John...?”

“He’s asleep on the stretcher back there. Got the bullet out. It was hitting a nerve, and just barely nicked a vein. Must’ve been pushing on that nerve more though, and he wound up blacking out from the pain once we got him in here. It was close, but we made it in enough time to save him.”

Tears began again as she grabbed what she could of Nick and brought him into a hug.

“Thank you,” she quietly said in his ear, eventually letting him go after a few minutes. He helped her up and walked with her to Hancock’s bedside. She grasped Hancock’s hand as soon as she could and brought it up to her lips. She then moved her face to his forehead and placed a gentle kiss on his scarred skin. His breathing seemed to calm with her touch.

Dr. Amari returned to the room, and seeing his visitor, she said quietly, “You can only stay for a few minutes. He’s sedated, but he needs to rest. He’s lost a good amount of blood, and I need to find some nuclear material to help speed up the healing process. But, I also need to stay here and monitor him.”

“We’ll go and get that for you,” Nick answered without hesitation. “Amy, let’s go to Daisy’s.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Crossing the square, they wove their way down the alley to the storefronts to Daisy’s shop. Daisy looked up from the magazine she was reading, and seeing the urgency in their steps, started walking around the counter to them.

“What do you need? Is it John?” she said, keeping her voice down, seeing he wasn’t with them.

“He got hit when we were getting ready to cross the bridge by Monsignor Plaza. Too many Radiers, we should have chosen the bridge by Greentech Genetics. Sniper at the top of the apartments. Dr. Amari got the bullet out though, and he’s under her supervision. Need some nuclear material.” he said in hushed tones.

Without a word, she nodded and walked briskly to the back of the shop. Within moments she returned and held out a canister to him, and they turned and ran back to The Memory Den.

Arriving at the bottom of the stairs and closing the distance to the room, Nick handed the canister to Dr. Amari as he walked up to her.

“Thank you, Nick. Give him a couple hours. I’ll move him over to the statehouse when he’s stable.”

“You’re a lifesaver.” he returned.

She only nodded and returned to her work. Nick walked back to where Amy had stopped in the doorway. Guiding her with an arm around her shoulder, together they walked up the stairs to the exit, and halted at the square.

“Think I’m gonna get a room at the Rexford and just sit and stare at the wall for a bit after that adventure, if you’d like to join me,” Nick offered, his dry humor being a little too dry at the moment.

“I appreciate that, Nick. I think I need a drink first though.”

“I’ll let you know what room I’m in.”

She smiled and nodded, and turned to dazedly wander over to The Third Rail.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She wasn’t sure how long she had been sitting at the bar, staring at the same glass of whiskey, her elbow leaning on the bar and her chin resting in her hand. Nick had already stopped in and let her know his room number, and he left shortly after so she could wind up here, staring. Charlie had made a comment to her after giving her the glass, but seeing the look on her face (and already hearing the news going around the Neighborhood Watch about Hancock), he kept his circuits in check and just kept an optical arm focused on her if she needed more booze.

Raising the glass to watch the contents shift and swirl at the bottom, she blew out a breath, and downed the liquid, cringing as it carved a burning pathway to her stomach. The robot behind the bar motioned to her, asking if she wanted another. She shook her head no. Turning on the stool, she rose and walked from the bar, up the stairs, outside, and over to the Rexford. She hoped there had been some kind of news.

Stepping in the double doors, she walked quickly across the lobby and to the stairs, up to the second floor. Finding Nick’s room, she knocked, and the door cracked open.

“Hey Nick,” she replied. “Sorry if it took me a while. I wound up staring at my first and only drink forever, and I’m not sure how much time went by.”

“I’ve been doing the same thing in here doll, minus the drink, so you didn’t miss much,” he countered with a slight chuckle.

“Any word?”

“Nothin’ yet. Dr. Amari knows where I’m at. Do you want to rest? We’re kinda in limbo for a while.”

She nodded. “I feel like I could sleep for a week. I know it’s not gonna happen, but I can try.”

Placing her bag near the bed, she crawled onto the mattress and curled her legs up into herself out of habit, falling into a restless sleep. Nick resumed his seat in the chair and kept his silent vigil, waiting for good news.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hancock awoke with a gasp, his shoulder radiating some pain when he moved it. He didn’t feel the bullet as he moved. Looking up, he saw a ceiling; what ceiling? Did we make it into Goodneighbor? He sat up as much as his shoulder would allow, and looked around the room. Dr. Amari sat at her computer, her fingers tapping the keys quickly.

“Dr. Amari,” he rasped, his throat dry. She turned, and seeing him sitting, she smiled.

“You’re awake, that’s good,” she stated. “You’ve got quite a concerned crowd waiting on you. Fahrenheit has been by, as has Ham and Daisy. I’ve got to go and let Nick know you’re up.”

He dropped back down to the mattress. “Thanks, Doc,” he sheepishly said. “I know this ain’t your usual gig.”

“Timing was critical, and Nick and Amy used the tunnels to get you directly here,” she replied. “We’re lucky Daisy had nuclear material at her shop. You lost a lot of blood to get over that bridge.”

“I was worried about that,” he said, as he got lost in thought.

“I’ll be back. Please, stay put. I should be able to release you if you’re feeling ok, but there’s still some tests I’ve got to run first.”

He nodded as she left the room, and he stared up at the ceiling.

I remember getting shot; Nick pullin’ me to an alley by a car.

The bandage being applied so they could get me across the bridge. Avoiding those holes so we didn’t fall in the river. Some more streets and narrow paths, tunnels...being on the bed, fading in and out of consciousness from the pain...

Pressure on his shoulder, a soft voice...a moist drop landing on his exposed chest...the weight of a head as it rested on his breastbone....I love you, John...his breath caught.

She had said that to him. He remembered the pain as it burned white-hot in him, so he hadn’t caught it when she said it. His eyes widened. No one outside of my family had truly said that to me before, not even Nick. Well, not really. Sure, flings in the past would throw those words around to get something, mostly chems or favors from him, but they never had any sort of meaning behind it. This had tears, sorrow, fear, happiness, joy, everything behind it, and it hit him harder than a yao guai at a full run.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She couldn’t move fast enough when Dr. Amari got to the door. In a blur she was past the doctor, down the hall, flying down the stairs, and blowing through the double doors. The Memory Den was just colors as she sped through the lobby and down the back stairs, into the room with a figure in a red jacket sitting up in bed. She almost launched him off of the bed with the force of their collision, her arm carefully wrapping around his good shoulder. Her mouth was instantly on his, her tongue searching for and finding his expectantly. The room disappeared around them; it was only their two souls in that space at that very moment, nothing else mattered. Their tongues entwined and glided, dancing a more desperate dance than they ever had before, not being able to satisfy their need to be closer.

A wrong move of his shoulder shot a grimace to his face, and that brought them back down from the clouds. They reluctantly parted for the moment as he fought back the pain, eyes still on each other.

He brought his good hand up to her cheek, not wanting to look away from her adoring, emerald gaze. “I love you too, Sunshine,” he said as he pulled her back into his embrace with fervor, tongues thrashing in a frenzy, his heart once again swelling with the knowledge that she felt the same way about him. A quick cough slowed them down, and broke their contact.

“Good to see you back up and running there, John,” Nick quipped, holding back a grin.

“Ya gotta stop that, man,” Hancock replied with a laugh. “It’s becomin’ a bad habit.”

“Only if you two could keep your hands off of each other for a few minutes,” he retorted with a chuckle. “Every time I turn around...”

“Can’t help it. Not with this one lookin’ at me the way she does.” His gaze was completely locked on hers.

Dr. Amari entered the doorway, and looked at Hancock with a slight smile. “I take it you’re feeling better?”

“You know it. Am I clear to go, Doc?”

“You need to take it easy for a couple days, but you are free to go.”

“Thanks, Doc.” He motioned to his companions. “Drinks at the Rail?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A crowd had gathered around the table as Hancock shared his harrowing tale, embellishing a few details when his were fuzzy, but still enrapturing those who were listening. His arm was in a sling to limit movement, and it gave added emphasis on the severity of the situation. He wanted to tell this tale to show his constituents that Amy was a valued member of the community, even though she was new to most of them, but so they would also (hopefully) be willing to defend their town if it were attacked because of her presence within. Many shook hands with her in thanks for saving him after Hancock concluded, and he knew that word of mouth would do the rest. The three companions were finally able to relax once the last of his audience had left.

Charlie brought a bottle over to the trio, and two glasses, and placed them on the table. He brought a pack of cigarettes for Nick instead of a glass.

Pouring out a generous amount in each, Hancock returned the bottle to the table and picked up his glass with his good hand.

“To the best friends a ghoul could have,” he toasted. “I wouldn’t be sittin’ here without ‘cha.”

She raised her glass in salute, and sneaking a sly wink in Hancock’s direction, she tipped her glass back and took the whole contents in one gulp, and he followed her lead.

“I gave that piece to Dr. Amari. She’s supposed to let me know when she finds out more about it, and if anything can be retrieved off of it.” Nick said casually as they recovered from their drinks.

“Good timing for this guy to take it easy, then,” she commented, with playfully stern eyes on him.

“I probably got some mayoral duties to attend to,” he started, but she stopped him.

“I talked a bit to Fahrenheit while you were out. She’s gonna keep things running for a couple more days until you can handle them, because there’s a pretty big backlog of items needing your approval. I’m going to help with a few of them, but you need to stay in your office, ok? I’ll still have her come and see you to get you caught up, but that probably won’t happen until tomorrow. It’s a little late in the day today.”

Without a word, he leaned over and captured her mouth with his, teasing his tongue around hers in a quick, voracious movement before slowly pulling back. “You’re fucking amazing. You better not be doin’ this because you think you owe me for takin’ care of ya after the yao guai.”

“Well, I do owe you guys. I’m not sure what happened with that one. It should’ve been a quick head shot.”

“Nah, doll. That’s what family does for each other out here. We watch each other’s backs.” Nick replied simply, not really realizing what he just said for a moment.

They all looked at each other, realization hitting each of them. Out of the harshness of their environment, they could be considered a haphazard-type of family, and they smiled at the idea.

“I like the sound of that, Nicky,” Hancock agreed. “That mean ya gonna relocate yer office here?” He was half-joking, but he wouldn’t mind having the synth here instead of that godforsaken city.

“If I can...” He thought about it for a minute, seeming to seriously consider it. “We’d need to clear up the routes to Goodneighbor so it’s easier for travelers to get here. No business if they can’t make it through.”

“Valid point! I’ll see if I can work somethin’ in, if you’re serious about it.”

“Let me talk with Ellie. She might like coming back this way, but that’s completely up to her.”

“Let me know when you know,” he smiled. His face quickly contorted into a grimace for a second after he moved his shoulder on accident.

Seeing this out of the corner of her eye, she took the cue to get Hancock back to the statehouse for some rest, and she moved to help him up. “I’ll go grab your bags from the Rexford and bring them over,” Nick said as he rose too, heading towards the exit.

The pair slowly got up from their seats, and once they had sidestepped the table, their hands joined and they ascended the stairs to the exit.

“You gonna be my nurse?” he whispered devilishly into her ear as they stepped out into the square.

“Someone’s gotta look after you and administer your pain meds,” she retorted with a grin.

“Ah, you’re the angel of mercy then,” he joked, pulling her closer.

He opened the door to the statehouse, and they rounded the spiral staircase to his office. He practically collapsed into the couch, while she went to the counter to get a clean ashtray, and a pack of smokes. She lit two as she walked back, and handed him one.

“So,” he started. “About that bottle of Day Tripper...”

“It’s in my bag.”

“We’ve got some time until the morning,” he continued. “Would you like to join me on a little...trip?”

She grinned. “Only if you let me play some music.”

“I’m lovin’ your music tastes, Sunshine. Makes me wish more stuff like that made it through the bombs. Things aren’t so bad with the right kind of beauty in the world, ya know?”

Her eyes glittered at him. “That’s why we’re here – to enjoy all the amazing moments hidden between all of the hard edges of life.”

“Makin’ me want to pop a Mentat instead.... you’re gettin’ all intellectual without me,” he teased.

Nick appeared in the doorway with both bags in tow, and he placed them by the door.

“Have a good evening, you two. I’ll come get you when I hear from Dr. Amari. I’ve got a few messengers to contact before I go back to my room.”

“You wanna stay here, Nicky? I’ve got that room if ya want it.”

He thought back to their conversation at the Rail. “Yeah, let’s do that. I’ll return my key to Claire, and show me where the room is at when I get back.”

Hancock beamed. “You got it.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Nick returned, Hancock showed him to a room around the corner from his office, where they conversed for a few minutes, said good night once more, and parted. She already had their bags with her, and they crossed the stairwell to his room on the other side of the building. He shut and locked the door. Pulling out the bottle of Day Tripper from her bag, she handed it to him, and he placed it on a dresser. She removed the Pip-Boy from her wrist and set it on a shelf by the door, and turned up the volume so they could hear the music from anywhere they decided to sit. She took one pill while he took two, and with the aid of some purified water, they sat together on the couch by his bed.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been on Day Tripper,” she admitted. “I wound up getting into the acid crowd for a bit instead.”

“Acid? Like LSD?”

“You know your drugs,” she complimented him. “that’s impressive, especially since it probably doesn’t exist anymore, and hasn’t for a very long time.”

He shrugged. “I read a lot. I’ve hung out with a lot of chemists while cookin’ chems, and we got to sharin’ stories. When you’re a ghoul, not many people wanna hang out for long, so ya gotta occupy your time somehow.” He motioned to the bookcases along the wall, filled with varying titles.

Her eyes widened. “So many books...” she breathed as she stood, moving towards the books to scan the spines with excitement.

“They’re my semi-private collection, so try to keep ‘em in here, if ya can.”

“You have a private collection too, then? If this is only semi-private?”

“I’ll show you sometime,” he said with a sly grin. Hmmm. I wonder what he’s got in that stash…

She returned to the couch and sat next to him, encasing his hand in hers, and resting her head on his good shoulder. The Day Tripper was starting to kick in, and all she wanted to do was be next to him, to his warmth. His thumb caressed the inside of her wrist.

“Can I ask ya somethin’, Sunshine? And if you don’t wanna  answer, that’s ok.”

“Sure, John. Go ahead.”

“When did you first know for sure that you...loved me?”

She sat and thought for a moment. He could see she was really searching for an answer by the way her eyes darted everywhere as she thought....but maybe that was partly the chems too.

“I knew for sure at the Red Rocket, when we went on that walk. It had been building up until then, little piece by little piece, but yeah, the Red Rocket. You in Dr. Amari’s office,” she paused, eyes closing against the reminder, “was my wakeup call that I should have figured it out and said something to you much earlier.”

He nodded as he brought her hand up to his lips, placing a gentle kiss on the back of her hand.

“What about you?” she asked.

“That night I gave ya the RadAway in my office. Knew my heart was yours. I think my realization moment, the icing on the cake, might’ve been when you came to the door in just that t-shirt I brought ya, and your underwear, gun in your hand, all sleepy-eyed...” His mind began to wander to replay that image of her in his head.

“You sure it wasn’t when I was in the shower, before then?” she arched her eyebrow playfully.

Mind shooting back to the present conversation, his eyes widened. “Did you know I was in the room at the time?”

“Only when the door shut. I put the pieces together after the fact. I don’t think I have been so turned on before, knowing that you watched me, while I was....” she trailed off, her eyes shutting slowly, a shudder echoing through her as the confirmation of her voyeur brought all kinds of thoughts to her mind.

God, he wanted to jump her as he felt her shiver, wanted to feel that from inside of her, but the chems in his system kept him locked to the couch. “I wanted to join ya in there, but I figured that wasn’t the best timing.”

“I would have let you.” She snuggled into his side, and that took great effort with the couch lock effect keeping her in place too, the chemical euphoria spinning its colorful web over the pair, effectively tying their limbs to the furniture.

“It’s a date for another time then,” he said happily.

She turned and looked at him, his eyes surrounding and pulling her into their stormy depths, and she knew she didn’t want to be anywhere else at that moment. Her free hand caressed his cheek, and his return stare faltered as his eyes fluttered shut with her touch.

“You are a goddess,” he whispered to her, eyes reopening as he spoke. “I don’t know what I did to deserve ya, let alone your love in return. But I plan on showing ya how much you mean to me each and every day.”

She smiled at him, and he thought back to what she said just a minute ago for a moment, and added, “And if ya liked the thought of someone’s eyes on ya as you pleasured yourself, we can work our way up to someone watchin’ me bend you over my desk in my office.” His voice had lowered a little as he spoke, which made it a little rougher, and he noticed her shiver return, a little harder this time. Oh, is this a kink coming to the surface? A bit of auralism? This is gonna be fun, finding out her little turn-ons...

It may have been the chems, but her pupils were huge, and he was stuck to this damn couch cause of the chems. Somehow, she was able to move, and she slid to the floor and landed on her knees, sliding herself between his legs, all while keeping her gaze steady on him. She looked almost predatory, and it was his turn to shiver. With a fluid motion, the flag at his waist was gone, and her hand was at his pants, finding the button. In no time, the front of his pants was open, and his member stood at attention in the open air. He sucked in a deep breath as her mouth sought his length, and she took him in most of the way to slick him up, and his head fell to the back of the couch and a moan escaped his lips. She relaxed her throat and took in the rest of him, and his hips bucked as his tip hit the back of her throat.

“Sunshine, holy fucking shit your mouth feels so good,” he purred as she bobbed on him, saliva coating every inch of his member. His hand drifted to the back of her head, and he ran his fingers through her hair as she feasted on him, her barbell sending delectable, almost overwhelming sensations through his cock as she moved up and down on his length. The colors that swirled around her when he could keep his eyes open just enhanced the building orgasm he was getting from her mouth taking in every part of him. His hips began to shake, and she quickened her pace; he couldn’t even give her warning before his release shot into her mouth, and an almost startled groan escaped him as his fingers dug into the couch cushion. She continued to keep her pace, moving even faster, the barbell hitting just right under his tip, bringing him to the edge once more and he released again, harder and faster than the first time causing him to curse, his eyes rolling to the back of his head, and every nerve firing off in his brain, shooting sunsparks inside his eyelids.

He was out of breath as she slowly released his length, her barbell teasing him deliciously as she popped off of his tip, her tongue catching a drop that hadn’t made it into her mouth and pulling it in. He was speechless as he sat, staring starry-eyed at the vixen in front of him.

“That was one trick,” she purred with a grin, one eyebrow arched, eyes aglow, her tongue peeking through her pink lips.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After he was finally able to move, they somehow made it over to the bed. He laid flat on his back, while she rested her head on his chest, mindful of his wound, drawing circles on the skin peeking through the opening of his shirt. She listened as his heartbeat slowed, and she snuggled into him, his good arm wrapped around her.

“Just wait till I get healed, love. I’ve got a few tricks of my own to show ya.”

Chapter Text

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 13

The Day Tripper had run its course sometime during the night after they had fallen asleep on his bed, and he woke to find himself as the little spoon this time, her arms holding him protectively, legs tucked behind his, her breasts pressing against his back with every breath she took....good thing he was the little spoon, he would have woken her up poking her back if their positions had been reversed. His morning wood wanted more of that delectable, tantalizing mouth of hers, and who was he to say no?

A knock at the door was the one to make that decision.

She stirred but didn’t wake, and he carefully, albeit reluctantly, pulled away from her arms. Pushing up from the bed with his good arm, he stood and walked to the door, unlocked it, and opened it to find Nick.

“Hey Nicky,” Hancock said with a sleepy grin. “You’re up early.”

“It’s almost 9am, John,” he replied with a laugh. “Not early in my books. At least you’ve got clothes on.”

“Yeah, your’re lucky on that one; most times that’s not the case. Let’s go over to my office, so we don’t wake her,” he said as his eyes drifted to the angel in his bed. His soul ached to be with her, but duty was calling, and calling loud.

The men walked around the stairs to the other side of the building, and upon entering the room, Hancock went airborne as he hopped the couch arm, landing on the cushions with a bounce. He stretched lengthwise down the couch. Nick took a seat at the couch across from him.

“I’ve got a few messengers out to get some more info, but I still need to try to reach a few more. I’ll have to go back to Diamond City to do that.”

“I hate for ya to go back there alone, Nicky,” Hancock said apprehensively. “Seems like more Raiders and super mutants are out there than normal, even the Gunners to an extent, and if I can almost get taken out by a Raider sniper...” he trailed off and left the rest of his sentence unspoken.

“I know, John. I’ve thought about that. And I’ve tried to do most of this without having to go back, but these contacts, I can’t reach them from here.”

Hancock’s brow furrowed in thought. “What if I had Mac escort ya?”

“Think the kid would be up for it? I know he might consider escorting below his pay grade.”

“If there’s enough caps involved, he would be. I think his business has been pretty slow lately, so that may give added incentive.”

“If he’s willing, I’m open to it.”

Hancock hopped up from his seat and wandered into the stairwell, his voice low as he spoke to one of the Neighborhood Watch. The man he spoke to nodded, and rushed down the stairs. Hancock returned to the office and rejoined Nick on the couch opposite.

“Mac should be up in a few minutes.”

“I also got word from Dr. Amari on that hardware from Kellogg. She thinks she can access what’s on there, but she’ll need my help. I figured I could get the messengers going since we’ll be waiting for a while on word back from them, and then when I get back, we can dive into Dr. Amari’s plan for that piece.” Nick concluded.

“Sounds like a good idea.”

They heard the soft patter of bare feet crossing the stairwell, and both pairs of eyes went to the door as she entered.

“Good morning, doll,” Nick said with a smile.

“There’s my Sunshine, as radiant as ever,” he beamed at her.

“Morning, guys,” she sleepily said, trying to fight back a yawn as she joined Hancock on the couch. Her hand immediately reached for his and latched on, and she leaned over to give him a quick kiss. Hearing boots on the stairs, their lips parted and they both looked towards the office door, where MacCready was entering.

“Hey, boss,” he said as he stopped at the doorway. “Watch said you may have a job for me?”

“Hey Mac, come on in,” he waved him over to the couch. “Yeah, I’ve got an escort job for ya, if you’d be interested.” Mac sat down on the other end of the couch from Nick.

“How much? What’s involved?”

“350 round trip to take Nick to Diamond City and back. Normally I’d take the big lug back myself, but Doc Amari says I gotta stay here and rest for a couple more days with this shoulder thing. And I can’t send Amy with him, not with the heat on her. It’d put them both in more danger.”

“Well, fu-frick, Hancock, what kind of trouble are you guys in that Nick of all people needs an escort?”

“Long story. Maybe Nicky can fill you in on some of it on the road; I don’t want too much gettin’ out here in case the walls have ears. He needs to get some stuff done in Diamond City, otherwise he’d be stayin’ put here in Goodneighbor.”

All of this trouble just for me, she thought. It’s not right. She felt awful putting her friends, and now Mac, in danger like this. Her head hung down and her face dropped.

Hancock saw this from his peripherals and squeezed her hand. “This isn’t yer fault, Sunshine,” he leaned over and whispered to her. “It’s the people lookin’ for ya’s fault for trying to find ya. We're just being extra cautious.”

She sighed. “I know, John. I just can’t help but feel responsible for putting everyone in danger like this.”

Mac looked at her, and stood, realizing they hadn’t been introduced. He held out his hand to her. “I’m Robert MacCready, by the way. Saw you that one night at the Rail in the VIP room.”

She stood too, nodded, and accepted his hand. “Amethyst. Everyone calls me Amy though. It’s good to see you again.” She smiled a bright smile at him.

They both sat back down. She cleared her throat and looked at Hancock. “What if I went with them? I’d feel better about doing my part to keep Nick safe. Having two snipers with him is better odds.” Mac’s eyebrow raised at her comment, but he didn’t say anything.

“Defeats the purpose of keepin’ ya here for safety purposes. Plus, I got word that Fahr needs some extra hands to help with somethin’ around here, and seein’ as I only got one workin’ arm at the moment, I need ya to fill in for me.”

She remembered her conversation earlier; Fahrenheit had been a little gruff with her at first, but after their semi-in-depth conversation upon returning to Goodneighbor the other day, she was actually looking forward to seeing what the fiery redhead needed help with.

“Just let her know I’m ready, and let me know if I need to bring anything with me,” she said as she grinned.

“She’s supposed to come back here around 11, so you’ve got some time to get somethin’ to eat if ya need to.” On cue, they could hear a grumble from her stomach, and everyone chuckled.

“Can’t blame that one on the dog this time,” Nick joked.

“When are we leaving, Nick? I’ll need to go and get my stuff and pick up some ammo from KL-E-O,” Mac pressed, trying to keep his part of the conversation business-like.

“Whenever you’re ready. I’ll be at Daisy’s, and we can leave from there.”

“You got it. See you there in a few.” He got up from his seat and disappeared down the stairs.

Nick rose to leave as well, and she hurried to get up from the couch to give him a big hug. “Please be safe, ok Nick? And come back quickly.” She looked directly at him as she released him from her hold. He gently grasped her hand and gave it a quick kiss. “You know I will, doll. We’ve got a case to solve when I get back.” With that, Nick said his goodbyes to Hancock and Amy, and descended the stairs as they returned to Hancock’s office and sat down. Her stomach already began to twist into knots with worry, forgetting about the hunger that yelled out not moments before.

“Do you think they will be ok?” she asked quietly, wrapping her hand around his once more and leaning her head on his shoulder.

“Mac’s one of the greatest shots out there – well, at least before I knew what you were capable of,” he winked as he explained. “Kid’s been shootin’ that rifle since he could stand.”

“But even I wasn’t able to get everyone at Monsignor..,” she started, “and that resulted in you almost getting taken away from me.” Her eyes reflected her deep worry.

He pulled her into him, and they slid down on the couch so they were both stretched out length-wise and she was in his arms, laying her head on his chest. Feeling the bare skin of his chest peeking through his shirt on her face, she sighed. He kissed the top of her head, and let his fingers run up and down on her back to try to soothe her nerves.

“That place was saturated in Raiders, Sunshine. You took out 99.9% of ‘em. That’s incredibly impressive, for anyone, let alone someone who just woke up to this irradiated hellscape two weeks ago.”

She smiled a weak smile in response. “But it wasn’t enough where it counted.”

He had an idea come to mind suddenly. “Hey, how ‘bout sometime today you go to KL-E-O and put in an order for some ballistic fiber? Like enough for linin’ my getup, your fatigues, and Nick’s trench coat, and we’ll reinforce ‘em. That way, we’ve got a bit more protection to even out the odds. I know it won’t do anythin’ for this trip of Nick’s since KL-E-O will need to collect the material, but it’ll help if he needs to make any future treks back that way.”

She didn’t answer back right away, and he figured she was thinking it over since he couldn’t see her face completely to get a read on her. “Yeah, ok. I do like the idea of that,” she finally said. She moved to get up from the couch, but his arms kept her there.

“You can go in a few minutes. I can tell this is gonna be a long day, and I wanna just hold ya for a little while longer, while I still can.”

She responded by snuggling into his chest, and he tightened his arms around her. He took in a deep breath and sighed, and he could still smell her perfume as it clung to her skin. He imagined that was exactly how devilish angels should smell; a little spicy, a little flowery, and a whole lot of ethereal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The pair almost fell asleep again if it hadn’t been for Fahrenheit knocking on the door before she stomped in and sat down heavily on the couch. Hancock’s eyes opened to meet with hers, and he gave her a soft smile.

“Hey, Fahr,” he said in a low tone, not wanting to startle Amy if she had fallen asleep.

“Hey, boss,” she returned, seeming almost slightly apologetic of being noisy on her way in. Almost. She sat for a moment, looking at them cuddled on the couch, and the beginnings of a smile started showing on the corner of her mouth. “You’re in pretty deep, huh?”

He closed his eyes as his fingers ran through the hair of the angel laying on his chest, returning the smile he caught on his second-in-command. “Yeah, you could say that.”

They sat for a few moments in silence. “You picked a good one, then,” she finally said. “Is she ready...?”

He tightened his hold on her, placing a kiss on her head. “Sunshine...,” he said as he rubbed her back.

She responded first by snuggling further into him. “I’m awake,” she mumbled, even though she didn’t sound like it.

“Fahr’s here.”

Amy turned her head while still laying on his chest, opening her eyes as she met Fahr’s gaze. “Hey, ya badass bitch.” The women grinned at each other. “Give me a sec. He wouldn’t let me get up earlier, and then I got comfy...would’ve been ready otherwise.”

“He can be a sweetheart when he wants to be, on occasion.”

"Hey, keep that on the down low. I don’t need it tarnishin’ my reputation,” he responded with a shit-eating grin and a wink.

With a heavy and reluctant groan, Amy pried herself from his arms and stood by the couch, giving herself a moment to bring her brain into focus before she moved her legs. Soon, the sounds of her bare feet disappeared out of the office as she made her way to his room and shut the door to change into her fatigues.

“I was wrong,” Fahr said when she was gone.

“Wrong? About what?” he asked.

“Initially, about her. She’s a different person when she’s not in ‘kill mode’.”

“Can’t always judge a book by its cover. I learned that too with her.”

“Sometimes, it’s necessary. Anyways, I am sorry about that.”

“It’s all good. You were just doin’ your job. Speaking of which, what’cha got planned for today, and what do I need to be focusing on while you ladies are out?”

“We’re gonna get some of the Watch to help us reinforce the gate, check on our sniper roosts, and patch up a few holes around the walls. If we need to be prepared for a possible large assault, best to get it done now while we have the time.” She sat for a moment, itemizing all of the things that needed his attention first. “You’ll need to review the caravan routes. Two of ‘em aren’t able to get close to town without Raiders, Gunners, or super mutants causing problems. If we can get a group together, we can head out and clear the way so they can get through to us, but that’s only a short-term fix. I also have a stack of paperwork you’ll need to go through, and that’s on your desk. We can work our way to the rest later.”

“I don’t think I ever said thank you for lettin’ me walk outta here at the last minute,” he replied. “You’ve done a helluva good job at keepin’ this place together while I was out.”

“Well, at least someone can work without their hormones taking over...” she began.

“Hey now, who let’cha be MIA for days on end while you chased that pretty little thing around a couple months back?” he cocked an eyebrow at her with a knowing smile.

“It was worth it,” she grinned. “Fuck, was she ever worth it.”

“Now ya know where I’m at,” he returned with a wink.

Hearing boot steps heading their direction, they both rose from their respective seats and headed to the door. Amy popped her head into the room and asked, “Is there anything specific I need to be bringing with me before we head out? Wanted to grab it while I’m still up here.”

“One of your sniper rifles is fine, since we need to check those nests. We’ll need a good scope to use.”

“I’ll get my hunting rifle.” She turned and headed back to Hancock’s room, and was on her way back moments later. Her Pip-Boy was on her wrist this time, sunglasses as a headband, and her earpiece in her ear, along with the rifle strapped to her back. She swiftly walked up to Hancock, grabbed his ass and crashed her mouth into his with a flurry of tongue. She slowed, and grabbed his lower lip gently with her teeth and sucked it delicately before she released him. “Don’t work too hard, I’ll be coming back to check on that shoulder.” Her green eyes flashed with mischief.

He almost melted in her gaze. “Glad ya make house calls, Doc,” he played back as he slapped her ass.

“Let’s go before you both decide to give us all a show,” Fahr joked.

“Don’t tempt us,” he replied with a somewhat serious look on his face. She rolled her eyes at him, and the two most important women in his life walked down the stairs to help keep his town defended.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sun was racing across the sky today. From late morning to mid-afternoon, Fahr and Amy moved materials, set up metal beams to prop the walls around the door up, cleared trash and debris (the entryway into Goodneighbor actually looked nice now!), and sealed some formidable holes at various points in the wall surrounding the town that the Neighborhood Watch pointed out to them. They had fun while working; the back-and-forth banter they had was something else. It continued to get more raunchy and depraved as the afternoon wore on, and soon all they had left to do was check on the sniper nests. Following Fahr down an alley, through a hole in the wall, up some stairs, and across a rickety wooden walkway, they stopped to take a breather as they surveyed the bustling town below.

“You could spit on someone from up here and they would never know where it came from,” Fahr had commented.

“If you’re really pissed off at someone, you could get creative. Too bad hot sauce doesn’t exist anymore,” Amy said with a laugh.

“It’s also a good place to come and think, if you need it. I’ve snuck a few people up here for some…fun while I’ve been on the clock too,” Fahr admitted quietly. “It’s hard to find a secure, private place within the walls at street level.”

“Anyplace you can sneak off to is a treasure,” Amy returned. “And I’m all for some play time if the job gets done.” She winked.

“So,” Fahr started. “I’ve heard a bit about your story, like with the vault and all, but Hancock has been pretty close-lipped otherwise. Where’re you from? I gathered you didn’t live in this area before the bombs dropped.”

“Colorado. Used to be part of the Four Corners Commonwealth out west, maybe a state or two away from California and the Pacific Ocean, if you’re familiar with those. Have you seen maps of the US before? You know of the different Commonwealths across the country before the bombs?” She knew she would probably need to explain things, like she had to with Hancock.

“I found a few in the archives in the attic before we moved everything down to storage. The country used to be huge. You could really get from one coast to the other in hours?”

“If you flew in a plane, sure. That’s how I got out here from Colorado. Cars took longer, but you could still make the journey with ‘em.”

“What did you do before the bombs?”

“I was an administrator at a real estate brokerage.”

“Real estate?”

“For whatever reason, people back then thought they owned specific parts of land, and real estate brokerages would help with buying and selling that land, and buildings. Boring shit. I like things now, to an extent, of course. The wildlife now is….something else.”

Fahr nodded and turned her gaze towards the sun lowering in the horizon. She cleared her throat before responding. “Did people in your time get chastised for things, like who they are on the inside?”

“All the time. Would even get persecuted for it if you came across the wrong group of people who were looking for an easy scapegoat. Back then, most people didn’t like people like me, those who didn’t conform to society ‘norms’ and who tried to rock the boat with ‘outlandish ideas and practices’. Chem use back then was called drug use, and it was still frowned upon, like it can be to an extent here. I was probably just as involved in that scene back then as Hancock is with chems now; I don’t see much difference. And my ‘unconventional tastes’ in who I would share my time with was another thing to be cautious of.”

“’Unconventional tastes’? I assume that means…?”

“My door swings both ways, ladies, guys…didn’t matter at the time, and still doesn’t.”

“I guess things haven’t changed much between my time now, and back then for you. And it’s a good thing Hancock is pretty accepting and open, otherwise I’d probably still be wandering around the wastes.”

Amy put her arm around Fahr, as best she could with the armor at her shoulders. “People can be pretty cruel, whatever time period it is. That’s why, when you find your tribe, you hang onto them as hard as you can. It was tough before to find people even similar to you, but it’s much, much harder now, so that makes them even more precious.”

Fahr turned to look Amy in the eyes. “I can see why he fell for you. You’ve got a genuine soul. Don’t let anyone take that away from you.” She smiled and moved to get up. “We’ve got one more nest to check before I’d say we can call it a day. You ready?”

“Let’s get it done. I’m ready for some food, a smoke, and a drink.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It didn’t take long to secure the last nest, and with the last rays of sunlight filtering through the tall buildings surrounding Goodneighbor, the women made their way back to the statehouse. Coming to the door of his office, they heard numerous voices in the midst of a discussion. The door wasn’t completely shut, but Amy was apprehensive on barging in while he was busy. Fahr didn’t have that apprehension though and walked through the door and stood a few feet within the doorframe, arms crossed. Amy stopped just behind her; gun still strapped to her shoulder.

Hancock looked up from his desk, and nodded to the women, not disclosing any kind of emotion in front of his visitors. One of the three men in front of him continued on his tirade, and Fahr made a gesture to see if they needed to be removed. A short shake of his head confirmed Hancock was ok, and his gaze fell back to the man seated directly across from him.

“I can’t supply purified water and food if these shipments are getting compromised every time,” he continued. “We need some sort of security if you want these to get delivered.”

“My second hand here,” he gestured to Fahr, “has some plans for clearin’ things out for ya. I haven’t had a chance to get together with her to hash out the details yet since I got back, but trust me, it’s next on my list. I don’t want ya losing supplies just trying to transport them to where they need to go. We wouldn’t last long without those shipments either. Can you come back tomorrow, once I’ve had the chance to work this out?”

“Yeah, sure, Hancock. We’re at the Rexford for the next day or so. Come and let us know.”

The man sitting in the chair got up, and walked towards the door, his two companions following behind him, and they filed down the stairs and out of the statehouse.

“Fuck, Fahr, you weren’t kiddin’ about those supply lines. Things are much worse than I thought,” he said once the men were out of the building.

“Yeah, they came by twice while you were out.”

His head fell to his hand, and he rubbed his eyes. He looked exhausted.

“You about done here? Want to head to the Rail for some dinner?” Fahr inquired.

“I’m starving, actually. And I don’t think either of you two ate earlier..?”

“I did before I came here this morning. I don’t think she had anything though, so she’s probably just as hungry,” Fahr stated as she nodded towards Amy while walking towards Hancock’s desk. “We got a lot accomplished today.”

“Nice to hear some good news for a change,” he mumbled. “It’s been doom and gloom since you both left.”

Amy quietly made her way to Hancock, and stopped at his chair, bending down in front of him. “Can I see your shoulder? I’m past due on checking it.”

His eyes glittered when they met hers, and he pulled his arm out of his jacket and unbuttoned his shirt further down so she could pull the fabric out of her way. Her fingers gently pressed the area around the wound, and her eyes scanned for any discoloration, as his eyes went down her shirt and stayed put.

“Any pain today?” she asked.

“Just those pains in my ass that removed themselves a few minutes ago,” he joked as he tried to refrain himself from diving into the front of her shirt. He instead pulled her over to him, and sat her across his lap, long legs going up and over the arm rest.

“I missed you,” he whispered into her ear as he lightly kissed her neck.

She slid her finger along his jawline, and brought his mouth to hers, tongue twisting around his briefly before she pulled back to gaze into his eyes. “Missed you too.”

“Wanna get some grub?”

“Yeah. I think my stomach is starting to eat itself.”

He helped her up out of the chair, and then rose out of it himself, readjusting his shirt and jacket, and grabbing his tricorn hat. “Let’s go then. I’ve got myself a date with two gorgeous women, and I ain’t passing that opportunity up,” he said as he grinned, looping his arms so Fahr and Amy could each take hold of one.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The group made their way from the statehouse to the Third Rail, and Hancock led them to the VIP area.

“I’ll place an order for dinner. Any drink requests?” he asked.

“My usual,” Fahr replied.

“Can I get a pack of smokes, and a lighter if Charlie has ‘em?” Amy wondered. “And I guess I’ll go with whiskey. No beer this time.”

Hancock chuckled and nodded as he headed back towards the bar.

The women sat next to each other at a table, and Fahr tossed Amy a cigarette and her lighter. “For the wait until you get your own,” she winked at her. Amy grinned as she lit it and inhaled, and blew out smoke rings on the exhale.

“Can I ask you a personal question, while he’s out of the room?” Fahr said, her tone subdued.

“Of course, what’s up?”

“How long has it been since you’ve been with a woman?”

“Two centuries and some change. Went completely straight when I got married; had to suppress that side of me ever since, now that I think about it.”

“But now you don’t have to, right?” a hopeful sparkle in her eyes.

“I suppose not …as long as John doesn’t mind…”

Fahr nodded, getting lost in thought as Hancock returned with their drinks, setting the glasses and a bottle of whiskey on the table along with a pack of smokes.

“Can I grab one of those, Sunshine? I left my pack up in the office,” he winked at her.

“Of course, you’ve let me take so many of yours already,” she replied with a grin.

Pulling one from the pack and lighting it, he grabbed a glass and held it up for a toast. “To the two most important women in my life. I’d probably be in a gutter somewhere, gettin’ gnawed on by Radroaches if I didn’t have ya both.” He smiled and knocked back his drink. Amy raised her glass and followed suit, as did Fahr. Placing her empty glass on the table, Fahr reached for the bottle and poured herself another.

“Feelin’ like havin’ a liquid dinner, Fahr?” he asked, a brow cocked in curiosity. “Food should be here in a few.”

“Got a lot of things to sort through,” she trailed off.

Hancock looked between the two women and smirked to himself. Looks like someone is a little smitten with a certain lady, just like me. He was tempted to let this play out without his interference, as that would be incredible to see his Sunshine with another woman, especially Fahr. But does she even swing that way…? He shook his head. Woman that gorgeous, probably not. She doesn’t even know about your swinging yet, you big yutz. What’s she gonna think about THAT one, huh? Best to let that come out naturally instead of forcing it; it might make things more awkward than they needed to be.

Plates of steaming food arrived in the next few minutes, and the thought was pushed to the back of his mind, where it began to twist and evolve in his realm of fantasies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What do we do about the supply lines? I can take some of the Watch with me to clear things, but we’ll have to do it all again by next week. We need a more permanent solution.” Fahr explained.

“I know there’s problems everywhere along the way, but where is it the worst?” Hancock asked, trying to narrow down his options.

“Over by Gwinnett Brewery and Andrew Station, to the south,” she replied. “they’re getting’ hit before they come into downtown. Big John’s Salvage is always a clusterfuck with shit gettin’ blown up by the Gunners, too.”

“Can we just nuke that entire area?”

“Not feasibly.”

“Damn. Guess we don’t have much option other than what you’ve suggested. We don’t have a huge group to begin with, and we can’t send everyone down there without anyone here to protect the town. It’s more than we’ve been able to do while I was gone, so it’ll have to do for now until we can get something else figured out. I’ll let them know in the morning.”

Fahr nodded and stretched in her seat. “I think I’m gonna call it a night. I’ll stop by in the morning before the caravaners come back to your office, give ya some moral support this time.” She smirked at him.

“Thanks, Fahr. Get some rest, and we’ll see ya on the flipside.”

She downed the last of the whiskey in her glass, placed the glass on the table, and rose from her seat. Throwing a half-assed salute to her boss, and a half-smirk to Amy, she turned and left the room.

He left the chair he was sitting in and offered his hand to Amy. “Let’s call it too, Sunshine. Another busy day awaits us in the morning.” She placed her hand in his, and he pulled her up from her seat. Hands still joined, they made their way out of the Rail, back to the statehouse, and into his bedroom once more.

Locking the door behind him, he tossed his hat on the couch by the bed, along with his jacket, and tackled her into the bed. Laughing, she pushed him off of her and said, “We still need to take off our boots. Again.”

“If I didn’t need the damn things, I’d never wear ‘em,” he chided with a chuckle. “Does help keep all of my toes on, though. ‘Cept for that one toe…”

They sat side by side as they removed their footwear. She stood to pull off her pants, where they pooled at her feet, and she stepped out of them and went to her bag to get the t-shirt Hancock gave her. Taking off her fatigue shirt, she let it drop to the floor, and removed her bra. The t-shirt took its place, and she returned to the bed, where amazingly he was just in his boxers and a look of contentment on his face as he watched her.

“You move even quicker than I do,” she laughed.

“I’m ready to get some snugglin’,” he said with a wink. “Not sure if I have the energy for much else tonight though, even though I’d love to take advantage of any alone time we do get.”

She sat back next to him on the bed, and pulled him down with her on the mattress so she could lay her head on his chest; he pulled the blanket at the foot of the bed up and over them first, and she settled into him.

“You’re still recovering, and you’re doing a lot of makeup work. I’m surprised you’re still awake at this point,” she teased. His arms encircled her, and he tightened his hold.

“I won’t be much longer, now that I’ve got’cha in my arms,” he said with a yawn. She raised her head off of his chest, and captured his mouth with her own, tongues moving in a lazy, deep, and slow fashion before she pulled away. She gazed into his eyes.

“I love you, John.”

He kissed her delectable lips once more.

“I love you too, Amy.”

She put her head back on his chest, his arms back around her completely, and they both fell to sleep within minutes.

Chapter Text

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 14

The first rays of dawn shone through the wooden slats in the windows…directly into her eyes. Squinching her eyes even more shut, she tried to block out the brightness, but it wasn’t happening unless she moved. Which she couldn’t. He had her in an armlock, like he was afraid she would drift away at some point during the night. She slid herself out of his hold, and as she was doing this, she felt him…elongate. Her abdomen rumbled, but not from stomach hunger. She hoped he wouldn’t mind this unconventional wakeup call….

With stealthy, gentle movements, she pulled his member from his boxers, and engulfed her mouth with his length. She slowly worked her way up and down, pushing his cock further and further down her throat, barbell gliding along the underside. He released a low moan, his hand going to the back of her head as she worked to swallow him completely.

“Sunshine,” he purred sleepily. “You sure know how to wake a ghoul up the right way.”

Eyes focused on his face, she continued to take him in, her chin touching his balls, and that feral growl began to rumble in his chest. That’s when she slowly let him slide out of her mouth, releasing him completely, and moved her hands to her underwear, which she slid off and tossed aside, and then she crawled on top of him. Lining him up with her entrance, already slick with her want, she slowly took all of him in again, but not with her mouth. Her t-shirt was gone in a flash. Her eyes closed at the delicious stretch, and she rolled her head back as she moaned, riding his length with slow, languid movements. His hands went to her hips and up her back as she worked herself on his very erect member, one of his hands strayed to a nipple; he pinched and teased it before his head came up to encircle it with his mouth, toying it with his talented tongue.

She moaned again as his tongue played, and soon his mouth was moving everywhere; her breasts, her chest, her neck. She pushed him back down to the mattress, and grabbed his good wrist with her hand (she wanted to do both wrists but was mindful of his injury), pinning his hand above his head as her hips picked up the pace, making sure to angle his member just right within her as she began to feel her coils tighten. He felt her constrict around him, and knowing she was going to lose her concentration as soon as she unwound, his hips followed her movements so he could take over. She soon rushed to her edge and plunged over, waves of euphoria rocking her with shakes, her womanhood clenching around his member tightly. He pistoned into her, forcing her wave to expand and strengthen, and she let out a not so quiet moan as he rutted into her, chasing his own edge. She shook even more as another wave threatened to break in addition to the one she was still riding on.

“Are ya ready for me to make your eyes glow, Sunshine?” he rasped as he neared his breaking point.

“I’m..ready…” she started to say, her orgasm changing her words to moans as he joined her this time, releasing his seed deep within her as he growled and nipped at her neck, switching over to kisses and tongue as their waves began to slowly recede. With reluctance, she allowed him to slide out of her, and she collapsed onto him, and he took her into his arms, placing soft kisses wherever he could reach on her bare skin. She snuggled into his chest.

“Were ya dreamin’ ‘bout me and had to have the real thing as soon as you woke up?” he playfully asked.

“You had me in an armlock, he (she eyed the spot between his legs) was up when you weren’t, and I was hungry,” she replied with a grin. He laughed.

“What kinda ghoul would I be to let ya starve like that? You can wake me up like that anytime.” He pulled her in closer and kissed her head.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They were hanging out in his office on the couch, Hancock sitting upright, her head resting in his lap with her legs over the arm of the couch, smoking cigarettes when Fahr stomped into the room about an hour later.

“Saw the caravaners on their way over to the Rail for some food, so they’ll be up in a few,” she reported.

“Thanks, Fahr.”

“I’m gonna go over to KL-E-O about that fiber since I didn’t get to it yesterday,” Amy mentioned. “I gotta check with Daisy about something too. I’m sure you don’t need a crowd for your meeting.”

“Sunshine, you’re welcome wherever I am, regardless of business.” He smiled down at her and caressed her cheek with his hand. She leaned into his hand and closed her eyes, not really wanting to move, but knowing she should.

“Ok. I’ll go get my boots on and be back in a bit.” She got up and made her way to the bedroom on the other side of the building as two pairs of eyes watched her leave.

Fahr took a seat on the couch across from Hancock and motioned for a smoke. He tossed her one, and she lit it and sat back as she exhaled a big cloud of smoke into the room.

They heard footsteps come back to the office, and Amy peeked her head in the door to let them know she was leaving, and her footsteps descended the stairs.

“Are ya feelin’ better today?” he asked.

“Yeah, why? I was fine yesterday too,” she retorted with a little waver to her voice.

He cocked an eyebrow at her, gaze unwavering, leaning towards her. “Seems like ya were a little pent up last night over somethin’.”

She fidgeted in her chair. “It’s nothing.”

He nodded solemnly, but with a grin growing on his lips. “Suuuuure. If ya want to talk about it, lemme know.”

Taking another drag, and shifting in her seat, she sighed as she exhaled.

“Alright, I’m a little sweet on your girl.”

“Uh huh…” he urged her to continue her thought. “And?”

“Would you mind if…I..and she…,” she started turning red. This is my BOSS, and I’m asking to fuck his girlfriend, she thought. He’ll never go for it.

“Only IF she’s interested, and I’m allowed to at least be in the same room. I may want to just watch, but then again, I may want to join in.” His devilish smile spread wickedly as her eyes widened. “I take it ya got confirmation that she swings that way?” His imagination started running wild and free with that little nugget of information. Fahr wouldn’t be this worked up over something if she didn’t know for sure.

“Yesterday afternoon when we were talking in between securing sniper nests.”

The devilish smile got bigger, adding a gleam to his eyes. “I’ll make the arrangements, unless you would prefer to…?”

She shook her head. “She’s gotten me all awkward after she told me yesterday, my mind can’t think of anything else. I think you better handle it and let me take things from there.”

“Of course. I’ll let’cha know. Always willin’ to help my second-in-command out,” he said as he winked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Amy walked out of the statehouse and went directly to KL-E-O’s. The seductive Assaultron had some ballistic fiber in stock, but nowhere near enough for all of their clothes, so she placed an order for more and bought what she had, courtesy of Hancock. She also picked up some more ammo for her Gauss, and her hunting rifle.

Once she was done at Kill or Be Killed, she wandered over next door to Daisy’s Discounts. Daisy was in the back of her shop, and Amy called out to her.

“Amy, darlin’! How’re you doin’, sugar?” the ghoul beamed at her.

“Hi Daisy!” Amy returned the smile. “I’m doing pretty well! How’s things been?”

“Ah, you know, the usual. Anything I can help you find? Or are ya lookin’ for something in particular?”

“Yeah, kinda looking for a few specific things. Not even sure if anyone finds them around anymore, or if some of these can be found in my gargantuan sizes…”

“I’ll put my feelers out. What’cha need?”

“First off….a razor. Like a disposable one, or something similar.”

“OOOH, that’s a good one – hard to come by sometimes, but not rare. Haven’t needed one in a few centuries, so not on my radar usually. I’ll check my supply in back, and if I don’t have one, I’ll add it to my supply list.”

“Next would be some clothes. I can’t wear these fatigues all the time, and I only have one change of clothes.”

Daisy took a moment to size her up and down.

“You’re not kiddin’, darlin’, might need to look at men’s clothes so you get the length in the pants. The ones John picked up for you the first time was a lucky find; they were still a little short of what you need in the legs, and I don’t come across ones longer at all, so not sure if I can get more like ‘em.”

“Not the first time I’ve had to do that, so if that’s what it needs to be, that’s ok. I’m not terribly picky.”

“You need other clothes, like shirts, bras, underwear…?”

“Everything. A jacket too, and a knit cap. I get cold in the winter, and that’s just around the corner.”

“Give me what sizes you know fits ya, and I’ll add them to the list.” Amy wrote them down for her on a piece of cardboard that Daisy had on the counter.

“You’re a lifesaver, Daisy. Along those lines, what do we do about cleaning clothes here..?”

“Bring ‘em to me. I’ll get ‘em cleaned up for ya. Let me go see about that razor, and what clothes I have in stock. Want to follow me to the back?”

“Of course!” She moved around the counter to follow Daisy to her stock area.

Daisy rummaged through some drawers and pulled out a few shirts and set them aside. Moving from drawer to drawer, box to box, she eventually cried, “Aha! Thought I might’ve had one buried somewhere around here,” and handed her a reuseable razor. “See if either of these shirts fit too.”

“The replacement blades will be next to difficult to find, but we might be able to resharpen them at KL-E-O’s when you need it. I’m surprised you’re still able to grow hair, with ya being…you know…like me.”

“Wish I knew more about what they stuck me with, trust me. I’m still learning all of the nuances.” She chuckled.

“I’m sorry, darlin’. Wouldn’t wish that shit on anyone. You’re too good of a person to have that happen to.”

Amy smiled, appreciative of her kindness. “Well, I think that’s all I needed for the moment. I’ll let you know if anything else comes to mind.”

“I’ll pass word along when these items come in for ya. I know where you’re at most days,” she winked.

“Thanks, Daisy,” she grinned, and grabbing her items, she turned and walked back to the statehouse.

As she rounded up the stairs, she heard several voices in Hancock’s office, so she turned the other direction once she got to the top of the staircase and went to their bedroom to hang out until his meeting was done, placing her items by her bag next to the dresser. She wanted to look closer at his book collection anyways…and what a collection it was. And this is only his semi-private collection…?

Tomes and volumes ranging from history, to literary greats, to mythology, and almost everything in between took up every available space on the shelves. She picked up the book on mythology carefully and brought it with her to the couch. Placing it on the couch cushion so she wouldn’t move it too much, she opened it and began reading. After a half hour she paused to take a smoke break. Not wanting to smoke by his book (knowing he was protective of this collection), she moved herself with an ashtray in tow to the chair closer to the door and lit one up. Leaning her head back against the wall, she lazily let the smoke drift out of her mouth and watched as the smoke tendrils spun and wove amongst the rays of sunlight that made their way through the boards.

When she was almost done with her cigarette, she heard the voices exit his office and head down the stairs. She snuffed her cigarette out in the ashtray and walked back over to the couch to continue reading. She got so engrossed in the book within minutes that she didn’t hear him approach, nor did she notice as he leaned against the doorframe, watching her with admiration.

“Did you just start reading that?’ he asked quietly, hoping not to startle her. It did anyways, a little.

She looked up at him and smiled. “Yeah, when I got back in from KL-E-O’s and Daisy’s. Your meeting had already started, and I didn’t want to interrupt.”

He pushed off from the doorframe, walked over to her on the couch, and sat down next to her. “This one’s a good one.”

“I love mythology. Most of my tattoos are based on mythology from different ancient cultures.”

His eyebrows raised. “Really? I guess I haven’t had the chance to get a good look at ‘em in decent lighting.” He ran a finger over the tattoos on her forearms. “Could you give me a tour?”

Noting what page she was on, she smiled and closed the book, setting it on top of the dresser.

Turning to face him, she pressed her forearms together, wrists up, and said, “These are Chinese language symbols. The top one,” she motioned to the top of her forearms, close to her elbows, “is ‘mountain’ when my arms are together like this. The ones underneath on my right arm are ‘summer’ and ‘star’, and on my left are ‘autumn’ and ‘moon’.”

She unbuttoned her fatigue shirt and dropped it down her right arm. “On my right upper arm, a wyvern with a phoenix.” She pulled it back up, and dropped the left this time. “Same thing with this side, but this one’s a dragon with a phoenix.”

She turned around so her back was facing him. Pulling the shirt back to expose her right shoulder, she said, “Chinese dragon, with the Chinese symbol for ‘dragon’.” Moving the shirt back to normal, she pulled up the hem of the back, so her lower back was exposed. “Two phoenixes connected at a rose stem.”

“I’ve got two tattoos on my calves, but that would mean I need to take off my boots to show you.”

“I’ll try to remember to ask ya the next time I’m enjoyin’ ya nude,” he teased.

“I wanted more, but they cost a lot, and it was getting harder and harder to find a decent artist. Not sure if that’s even an option to get more at this point, so at least I’ve got the ones I do. I designed most of these too.”

His eyes widened. “You can draw?”

She smiled, but it was sad. “I used to. I started getting a tremor in my hand a few years before the bombs, and it made it almost impossible to continue.” She held out her right hand, and it held still. “Seems like that stuff they injected me with might’ve taken care of that though, but now there’s no art supplies.”

He sat, tapping at his chin. “There’s always a chance at findin’ stuff, Sunshine. Sometimes ya just gotta know where to look, or who to ask.”

His eyes widened in remembrance. “Which reminds me! I asked a few people about that weed you were talking ‘bout in Sanctuary. Might’ve found a source, but it may take a bit to get delivery. Are ya still interested?”

It was her turn for her eyes to show surprise. “Yes! Holy shit, that would be awesome!”

“I’ll get the ball rollin’ on it, then.” He moved to lean his back on the arm of the couch. “Come over by me. My next meeting isn’t for another hour.” He opened his arms to her, and she practically dove into them. His arms wrapped around her immediately, and they stretched out on the couch together. She inhaled deeply as she relaxed into him; he had a unique scent, one that she only got bits and pieces of before. But now she could smell it strongly; smoke, gun oil, leather, and something a little…spicy. Almost like clove. To her, it was the smell of home. Where her heart was.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She wound up falling asleep on him again, and Fahr had to come in to get Hancock for his next meeting. He wound up picking her up bridal-style and carried her over to the bed, and carefully tucked the blanket over her and shut the door behind him as he left.

He swore he was going to go crazy by the end of the meeting; they didn’t make any headway, and he would have to repeat it again next week because of it. He felt dejected. As he sat on the couch, with Fahr on the opposite couch, he popped a Mentat and took a hit of Jet to calm his nerves.

“Some days, it doesn’t feel worth it to be mayor, Fahr,” he lamented.

“Only on the days where things don’t work out like you want them to,” she replied.

They heard two pairs of footsteps coming up the stairs, and they turned to the open door to see who it was. Nick appeared in the doorway with Mac.

“Nicky!” Hancock exclaimed, jumping to his feet and walking quickly over to the synth to give him a big hug. “Mac, so glad you guys made it back in one piece. Any trouble?”

“Not for us. But got wind of some stuff that might be.” Nick said quietly. Hancock took the hint and moved to his desk to get Mac’s payment. Pulling the bag from the drawer, he returned to the pair and handed Mac the bag of caps. “Even threw in another 50 for ya.”

“Thanks, Boss. I’m going to get this over to Daisy so she can send it on for Duncan.”

Hancock placed his arm on Mac’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Hope yer kid’s doin’ ok.”

“He’s hanging in there. Thanks, Hancock.” He said appreciatively. “I’ll be at the Rail after if you need anything else.” He turned and walked back down the stairs.

Turning to Nick, he whispered, “Should we let Fahr in on this? Does it have to do with any attacks on the town?”

“Might be, so it wouldn’t hurt. I’ll fill her in on the basic background of Amy’s situation if you want to go and get Amy. Is she…?”

“Sleeping. Seems to be doing that a lot lately, but she probably needs it. I’ll get her.” With a red flurry, he walked quickly across the building to his room. Slowly he opened the door. She was still curled up in bed, but the blanket had been pushed off of the bed, and she was shivering; her clothes were damp with sweat. She must’ve had a nightmare while I was in that damned meeting, he lamented. He gingerly sat on the edge of the bed and leaned over to pull her into his arms.

“Hey, Sunshine,” he whispered into her ear. “Nicky just came back.”

She awoke almost instantly. “Nick?”

“Yeah, Sunshine. He’s in my office.”

“Fuck, guess I was sweating a bunch while I slept.”

“Nightmare?”

“I can’t remember. Not the one from before. It was something different this time.”

Helping her up from the mattress, he found one of the shirts she must have gotten at Daisy’s and handed it to her. “Might feel better if ya get some dry clothes on.”

It was a blue Nuka-World shirt. She had heard about the place from Nate, but they hadn’t made it over there before the world ended. She wondered if it was still there. Standing slowly to counteract the sleep she was trying to shake from her brain, she stood and began unbuttoning her shirt, and once unlocked she threw it on her bag and placed the t-shirt over her head. Hancock was just sitting and taking in the view, a smile on his face.

She held her hand out to him, and enclosing her hand in his, he got up from the bed and they walked down to his office. As they neared, the synth on the couch got up and walked towards them with a grin on his face. “Hey, doll!” She grinned at Hancock and dropped his hand as she hurried over to give Nick a hug.

“So glad you guys made it back ok,” she said. “Did you get everything you wanted to do, done?”

“Mostly. Had to cut the trip a bit short, but yeah, I think I got things squared away. Let’s go have a seat.” He motioned them back to the couch. When everyone was in the room, Hancock leaned in and spoke with one of the Watch before he shut the doors behind him.

“Amy, would you mind putting your Pip-Boy with some music by the door? I’d like to try to block out any potential ears that might be trying to tune in.”

Nodding, she wordlessly got up from the couch and slid the Pip-Boy from her wrist and set it on a broken display case by the door. Turning some knobs and flipping a switch, she brought up a playlist and turned the volume up. Some Benny Goodman would work to cover their voices, she figured.

They wound up gathering close to the far edge of the room, to put as much distance between themselves and the doors as they could.

Nick looked between Hancock, Fahr, and Amy. “Mac knows a bit about this, but he knows to keep it to himself. I’ve filled Fahr in on most things, but let me know if I overlooked anything,” he said as he looked in her direction. She nodded.

“One of my contacts said there’s word going around the Capital Wasteland of Enclave movement from the south of them. Said they may be heading north, but he can’t get a good source for the info on that. As we know, the Brotherhood IS in our area, and that’s who we need to be most concerned with. The grapevine I tapped into says that they got wind of parts of that experiment you were part of, and others with Vault-Tec and West-Tek, and are trying to find any kind of sample of the FEV that they can, which Amy happens to be a treasure trove of.”

“Fuck, Nicky, we can’t take on the Brotherhood.” Hancock muttered.

“I know.”

“What exactly do they need from her?”

“I don’t know if they’re looking for samples of blood, hair, whatever, or if they need her in general.”

“We need to get more info somehow. Do we know anyone that might have ties…?”

“I’m working on that part.”

Amy pulled a pack of cigarettes from her pocket and pulled four out and handed them to those around her. “I need a light though,” she murmured.

Three lighters appeared before her, and she took one, lit her smoke, and placed it back.

She stared at a spot on the table, smoke rings popping out as she rolled the thoughts around her brain. “Wasn’t there a launcher that could launch mini nukes released during the war?” She looked at Nick, hoping they could take them out in one fell swoop.

He scratched at his chin. “Yep. Hard to find now though.”

“Damn. Explosive rifle rounds?”

“I haven’t seen any.”

Amy huffed. “What if we went and asked them what the hell they want from me?”

All three faces looked at her like she went crazy.

“Go into the belly of the beast? Are you nuts?” Hancock’s voice got a little testy. “Sunshine, you’re a ghoul, what they consider an abomination. If they know about that experiment, they KNOW WHAT YOU ARE. They’d shoot ya on sight, just like me or Nicky.”

“I can’t keep hiding out though,” she stated quietly.

“If ya’d like to stay alive, it might be a good idea, at least for the time bein’,” he countered.

“So, what can we do here and now?” Fahr interjected, not liking where the conversation was going. “We can get more patrols around the gate, and turn away anyone with the Brotherhood…”

“No. Goodneighbor is of the people, for the people. Increase patrols, and if any of those tin cans come into town, they can be civil, or they can choose to get themselves 86’d.”

“I don’t think we should give them the chance to walk in the door,” she retorted. “They may be a scouting party with vertibirds ready to fly at their signal. And I’ve seen how bad those dipshits are at flying those things. They could take out the whole town with one bad turn.”

“Valid point, Fahr,” Nick agreed.

There was a knock at the door, and Hancock dashed to answer it. He cracked the door open, and after the member of the Watch gave him the message, he shut the door. Turning around and returning to the group, he sighed.

“Looks like they made the decision for us. There’s two knights at our doorstep. The Watch said they just came in, and are looking to meet with me. Nick, I think you need to take Amy back to my room and stay put for a bit.”

“Damn, ok. Doll, let’s go.”

They got up, and on her way out, she grabbed the back of Hancock’s neck and pulled him into a brief, deep, tongue-filled kiss, sucking on his lip a little before she parted.

“I’m just a room away if things go south. Make noise if you need us, my gun will be ready to take those fuckers out if they try anything.” Her eyes flashed as she caressed his cheek with her hand before parting from him.

She grabbed her Pip-Boy and put it back on her wrist on her way out of the room, with Nick following behind. They shut the door behind them when they reached the bedroom.

Hancock turned to Fahr and grumbled, “Let’s chat with the fascists. Make sure you’ve got weapons handy.” He made sure to check the knife at his back, and that his shotgun was by the desk. He informed the Watch that if any of the knights were in power armor, the suits would need to stay out of the statehouse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 The two knights were perturbed that they had to leave their power armor suits in the street to meet with the mayor, so they removed the fusion cores, so no one tried to do anything with them while they were away, and made their way upstairs. Another member of the town’s security pointed them to the mayor’s office.

“He’s a goddamn ghoul,” a knight spat under his breath. “It’s not worth our time.”

“He’s the one the Elder told us to speak with,” the other muttered back to him. “We’re following orders.”

The bigger of the two stepped forward and entered the office. He kept his tone civil, even though he agreed with his partner. “Mayor, thank you for seeing us on short notice.”

“Not like ya tin cans left us much choice,” the ghoul growled. “Mayor John Hancock. State your business here in Goodneighbor.”

Straight to the point. Ok then. “Mayor, I am Paladin Danse of the Brotherhood of Steel. Elder Maxson sent us here to speak with you about someone that has been seen in your town.”

“Oh? Has this person done something wrong?” He emphasized the word so the two remembered where the hell they were.

“No. Nothing more than interest in something that this someone carries with them.”

“That’s pretty vague.”

Danse huffed in frustration. “Fine. We’re looking for a woman who was part of an experiment back before the bombs, and who recently woke up from cryostasis from a Vault-Tec vault.”

“And why are you looking for this woman?”

“She has a version of a virus that we would like to have our men study.”

“Sounds like ya want to make her a lab rat.”

“No. We just need to get a blood sample from her.”

Hancock stood at his desk, arm leaning on the top. “Nothin’s ever that cut ‘n dry with you guys. So, what does this woman look like? A name? Not sure if I can help ya if you don’t give some details.”

“She’s tall, maybe 6’2”, about 30-35 years old, aside from the cryostasis hibernation of 200 years. We don’t have a name; she was listed as one Nora Stevenson in the records of the experiment that we recovered, but we’re not sure that was accurate.”

“Haven’t heard anyone by that name around here.”

“Anyone matching the description, at least?”

“Not that I’ve seen. Fahrenheit, have you or anyone on the Watch seen someone like that?”

“Nah, boss. Everyone who comes through here is short. Only ones tall like that are the muties around the corner.” She stood with her arms crossed.

Hancock smirked. “If we happen to see anyone matching that description, I’ll be sure to notify you.”

“If we hear you’ve been harboring this woman…” Danse started as Hancock cut him off.

“That was a mighty big IF there, crew cut, in case ya missed it. I might not be so inclined to help if we’re being threatened.” Hancock was losing his patience.

“No threat. We just need that sample.”

“I’ll keep an eye out for her and keep ya posted.” He worked his way behind his desk to get his pack of cigarettes, and pulling one out, he lit it, all while keeping an eye on them.

“Elder Maxson appreciates your time.” The men turned and went back down the stairs. Fahr watched them from the window as they got back into their power armor and stomped out of the gate.

“I guess that confirms that the Brotherhood is actively looking for her,” she muttered to Hancock.

“And now we’ve got a bigger problem on our hands. Go get Nick and Sunshine.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A knock came to the door of Hancock’s bedroom, and Nick answered.

“Fuckers are gone. You need to follow me.” She turned and walked briskly back to Hancock’s office. Nick followed with Amy closely behind him. Once everyone was inside, Hancock shut the door. His face was lined with worry. His gaze went directly to the synth.

“They’re lookin’ for her, Nicky. They say they only need a blood sample. I’m not buyin’ it.”

“Neither am I. What if we just send a blood sample to them?”

“Then they know she’s here, and if they need more than just that sample…they feel like they can come and take her. They said they would and use force. We can’t take on that kinda firepower.”

“That’s exactly why I just wanted to blow that fucking ship from the sky,” Amy countered. “Take ‘em all down at once.”

“But if they have orders from their highest-ranking officials, it means that other Brotherhood groups do too, and they’d just take the place of the ones we blew up.” Nick said sullenly.

“And now we’re right back to where we were with Sanctuary,” Amy added. “I don’t have anywhere else to run to.” She sat down hard on the couch, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it with Nick’s lighter that he handed to her. She gave it back to him. Taking a large drag, she filled the room with her exhale before she spoke again. She looked down at her feet, trying to hold her thoughts together before they drifted into an incoherent, nonsensical mess.

“We don’t have a choice in this now. It comes down to me going on that ship, or this town potentially getting destroyed because of me. I’m not going to let that happen.” She stood and began to pace.

“You’ll know where I am. I can take someone with me, maybe Mac or Fahr; I don’t want to take someone like John or Nick,” she looked to them as she spoke, “where you’ll be in just as much danger as I probably will be. That defeats the purpose. I need to look more into this thing on my wrist to see if it has tracking capabilities, that way if they do try and take me anywhere, at least you’ll know where. But if it’s truly only my blood they’re after, I’ll give that to them, then they can fuck off. Do we have a radio in town? I need to set up a meeting with the Brotherhood.”

“Sunshine, NO. I can’t let you do this.” Hancock was adamant, his jaw locking from his resolve.

She looked at him with tears rimming her eyes. “What else can I do, John? I refuse to let anyone die at the hands of those bigots because of me, and they’ve got me between a rock and a hard place,” she responded softly. The dam broke, and tears flowed freely down her cheeks.

He crossed the room in a few steps and gathered her into his arms, holding her tight. She held him back just as hard. “I can’t lose you, Sunshine. I just can’t,” he whispered. He was shaking.

“I can’t lose you either, John. If I set up a meeting with them, on my terms, we may have a chance. Maybe I can get them to disclose what they know, too.”

He pulled away to look in her eyes for a moment, bringing both hands to her cheeks. He pulled her to him, and he embraced her deeply. I don’t want to let her go, but they’ll take her if I don’t.

Parting from their embrace, he held his forehead to hers. “Come back to me, ok? I’m lost without you,” he whispered.

She placed her finger under his chin to raise it, catching and holding his gaze.

“Nothing can keep me from you. Nothing.” The emeralds in her eyes flashed dangerously.

With that look, he knew she was right.

Chapter Text

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 15

The group brainstormed their plan the duration of the afternoon. Mac would go with her to the Prydwen to provide protection. Hancock, Fahr, and Nick would get the Watch together in case any of the Brotherhood should show up around town. Kent, the ghoul who hung out at The Memory Den, had radios for them to keep in contact with each other, and she would also use his radio to contact Elder Maxson about the meeting. KL-E-O had gotten a little more ballistic fiber in stock, enough to cover Amy’s and Hancock’s clothes, and Amy worked with the Assaultron to integrate it into her fatigues first. Daisy said she would help Hancock with his while he was prepping the Watch; it was weird to see him out of his signature red while she was fixing it.

It took a couple of days to get everything prepared, and Amy still needed to contact the Brotherhood to arrange that meeting. She walked quickly over to The Memory Den and greeted Kent as she entered.

“Hi Kent. Thank you for allowing me to use your radio. I need to get this disaster over with as quickly as possible. Do you know the frequency the Prydwen uses?”

“I can find it, give me a few minutes,” he replied, happy to be helping her. He scanned the frequencies with headphones, and as soon as he found it, he removed the headphones and showed her how to hail them. They waited for a response.

“This is the Prydwen, state your business,” came a voice over the airwaves.

“Greetings, Prydwen. This is Amethyst Stevenson, I believe you have been looking for me. I would like to arrange a meeting with Elder Maxson to discuss the reason why.”

“Please wait while we get confirmation from the Elder.”

They waited a few minutes before the voice returned. “Be at the Prydwen at 0900 tomorrow.”

“Understood. Over and out.”

Kent clicked the radio off. “I’ll let you know if any messages come in, Amy.”

“Thank you, Kent. You’ve been a huge help. I’ll stop by before Mac and I leave so we can get our radios.”

“Amy, you can actually link up the radio through your Pip-Boy – that’s a much more advanced version than the ones you usually see around, so you can use the earpiece to communicate; it has a microphone on it too.”

Her eyes widened. “Can anyone listen in on it?”

He shook his head. “Not if you don’t have the function equipped.”

“Can it be used as a tracker too?”

“It should. Let me show you.” She removed the device from her wrist and gave it to Kent. He fiddled with it, turned some knobs on his radio, and handed it back to her. She placed it back on her wrist.

“You’ll be able to communicate with us and I have it set up to track your movements, so make sure to keep it on you.”

“Would you let Hancock know how to do all of that from this end? They’ll be needing to coordinate everything when I leave.”

“Of course.”

She thanked Kent again, giving him a hug, and she left The Memory Den to head back to the statehouse, where she assumed everyone should still be gathered.

Rounding the staircase, she heard a heated discussion going on between Mac and Hancock.

“If ANYTHING goes awry, come directly back here, ok? We can do more as a group.”

“Fu-frick, Hancock, I might be her only chance if it comes down to it! Minutes, maybe even seconds, will count! You’re gonna make me come back here first?!”

The discussion halted as soon as both men saw her standing in the doorway.

“0900 tomorrow. At the Prydwen. Go and see Kent about the radio when we head out – he was able to get the radio to feed through my Pip-Boy, and he got the tracker working on it too.”

“So, all we do now is sit and wait?” Nick asked.

“Gonna have to. I couldn’t get him to meet any earlier.”

Hancock walked over to the counter at the back of the office and pulled out a bottle of whiskey from the cabinet, along with four glasses.

“Thinkin’ we’ll need some of this,” he mumbled, more or less to himself.

Amy sat next to Fahr on the couch as Hancock poured and distributed glasses. He raised his in a toast.

“May this mission go well, and may the Brotherhood get the fuck outta The Commonwealth afterwards,” he saluted. All raised their glasses with him, and everyone tossed the drinks back.

After clearing up some last-minute details, they agreed that Mac and Amy would head out just before dawn in the morning; it was a bit of a walk for their planned route, as they were going to head up towards Bunker Hill so they could make a U turn nearby the U.S.S. Constitution and head down the peninsula to the airport.

The group decided to disperse for now and meet back up later. Nick left to go talk to Daisy, Mac went back to The Third Rail, and Fahr wandered downstairs to speak with members of the Watch. Hancock grabbed Amy’s hand and led her to their bedroom.

“Since we still got some time before you need to go, we’re spending it together,” he stated matter-of-factly, giving her the most borderline feral look.

He shut and locked the doors behind him, and he threw his hat somewhere across the room as he closed the distance between them. They launched into each other; mouths and tongues sparring, hands touching and caressing everywhere, clothes falling off and being discarded to the floor. He grabbed her ass and picked her up as she wrapped her legs around him, and they slammed into a nearby wall, mouths still desperately exploring each other, his hard member finding its way into her expectant, slick entrance and he began thrusting, making her throw her head back with a loud moan as he stretched her and pushed deep. His mouth went to her neck and began sucking and nipping as his hips rocked his length inside and out of her in a steady motion.

 One of her legs came loose from his hold and dropped to the floor, and she used it to steady herself as he continued to pound into her relentlessly. Her wave built within her quickly, within moments she was shuddering, clamping down on his cock, her juices free flowing down to his balls. He wasn’t stopping though, nor was his wave even close. He picked her up again, still within her, and moved her to the bed, laying her down on the mattress, where he bent her legs over his shoulders and pushed even deeper and harder, eliciting a stream of swear words from her mouth as she held onto him for dear life and pulled him closer, her coils tightening hard.

“God, that dirty, gorgeous mouth of yours, Sunshine,” he growled, lust dripping from every word as he stared into her forested eyes, his member continuing to push her to pure ecstasy. She stared right back at him, pupils dilated, until the moans and screams escaping from her in an unrelenting torrent forced her eyes shut as her next wave of release hit her like a freight train. Slowing down for a moment, he captured her mouth in his, tongues twisting and wrapping around each other in a desperate hunger, only pulling away when he decided to fuck her against the wall again.

Withdrawing temporarily, he rose from the bed and pulled her up with him, leading her over to face the wall, and pushed her against it, hands drifting down to tease her nub within her folds while he lined his member up with her entrance, pushing inside quickly and groaning as he slid deeper, up to the hilt, and his hips pursued a feverish pace. His fingers continued to tantalize her bundle of nerves, building the coil within her once more, until it burst from her in a full body shudder, and he had to hold her upright. His hips quickened the pace, and his breathing became short as his own hips began to shake; her coil was quickly tightening again feeling this, knowing that she was unraveling him too.

“I’m….there….Sunshine…fuuuuuuck I’m gonna come,” he rasped, pounding her hard as her moans filled the room, and her walls began to clench around him, even tighter this time.

“Fill me up…John…fill me up,” she breathed as her climax rocketed, sending him over his own edge, and he bit into her shoulder as he released his warm seed within her with a drawn out, gutteral growl. He leaned his head on her shoulder as his member twitched inside her heat and his heartrate began to slow. She couldn’t stop shaking from the bliss they shared, and he didn’t want to pull away from her, but he knew he would have to. She leaned on the wall as he leaned on her, and she let out a satisfied sigh.

He sprinkled her with kisses up and down her back as he slowly withdrew from her, hands caressing her breasts. She turned around to face him, and he sighed contentedly at her softly glowing eyes.

“I’m never gonna get tired of seein’ you all aglow after I finish with ya,” he murmured as he caressed her cheek with his hand, eyes exploring every part of her. “Sorry if that was a little rough. I needed you bad.”

Her lips fell into his, their tongues curling and twisting, her hands roaming to the back of his head to pull him in closer. Catching his bottom lip with her teeth, eyes on his, she bit down slightly, her tongue then dragging on his lip, slowly releasing him.

“Not hard enough,” she whispered as she arched her eyebrow, that mischievous gleam sparking in her eyes.

The State House almost didn’t survive their second round; the couch sure didn’t, and the bed probably needed repairs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A couple hours later, they emerged from his bedroom to wander back to his office. Cigarettes were lit, and Hancock settled on the couch lengthwise, and Amy stretched out on top of him, her head on his chest. He leaned forward and down to place a gentle kiss on her forehead.

“Have I told ya lately how amazing you are?” he whispered to her. She grinned.

“Not today,” she jested back.

“My dreams of ya don’t even compare to the real thing,” he purred, his hand tracing the skin on her arm.

They heard heavy bootsteps coming up the stairs, and a moment later Fahr entered the office.

“Watch is all set,” she stated. “’Cept now all the chatter is about the house almost coming down because of you two.” She grinned, eyes lingering on Amy as she finished her smoke and put it out on the ashtray on the table. She took a seat on the opposite couch.

“Eh, let ‘em talk. Nothin’ new that they haven’t heard before.” He was grinning too, because he knew how loud they had been. He didn’t care.

“Oh, so sexual deviance is a theme around here?” Amy joked.

“Pretty much wherever he’s at,” Fahr quipped, chuckling.

“Sounds like me in my 20s,” Amy reminisced with a laugh, then snuggling into his chest with a sigh.

More footsteps coming up the stairs, and Nick appeared in the doorway.

“Nice to see you two out and about. Thought we were gonna need to do a search and rescue if the place collapsed,” he said, grinning as he joined Fahr on the couch.

“Gonna have to go harder on me next time, we’ve got a reputation to uphold now,” she whispered to Hancock with a giggle.

“Don’t tempt me, I can carry you back to the room,” he playfully threatened, eyes flashing deviously.

“Anyways, I think things are all set to go for tomorrow. We should all be up before dawn, so make sure everyone gets enough sleep tonight.” Nick said, his gaze lingering on the two on the couch. Hancock gave his regular half-assed salute, and Amy smiled.

“You got it, Nick,” Amy replied.

Hancock motioned for Amy to get up, and she sat upright on the couch. Hancock got up from the couch and wandered to his desk, pulling open a drawer and rummaging through it. He plucked a small item from the drawer, and palmed it, walking back to the couch and sitting down.

“I gotcha somethin’, Sunshine,” he said, holding out his closed hand to her.

Turning to him, she held her hands open, and he dropped the item into her palm. It was a metal flip lighter with “Sunshine” engraved in elegant script on the front. Her eyes widened and shot to his, a huge grin on her face.

“How did…?” she began.

“I had KL-E-O help me with that shortly after we got back to town, while I was recoverin’,” he said. “I wanted to make sure I gave it to ya before you left. You’re always askin’ for one, and I figured since Mac doesn’t really smoke as often as we do, you may need it.”

She dove in to hug him tightly. “You’re the one that’s amazing,” she whispered into his ear, and a smile spread on his face. She kissed his cheek.

“Glad ya like it.”

“You two are so sweet my teeth are hurting,” Fahr joked. He just winked at her.

“I say we all go down to the Rail,” Hancock stated, rising again from the couch. “I don’t know ‘bout the rest of ya, but I could use some food and booze. Plus, I think Mags is workin’ tonight, and I don’t think Sunshine’s heard her sing yet.”

“You have a singer at the Rail?” Amy was intrigued.

“The best,” Fahr agreed, almost dreamily.

“Haven’t heard her perform for ages,” Nick added.

“Sounds like everyone’s in agreement then! Let’s go,” Hancock motioned to the door. Hancock grabbed Amy’s hand and pulled her up from the couch, and Nick and Fahr rose from their couch. The group headed down the stairs and out of the door to the courtyard outside.

Making their way down to the Rail, they greeted Ham at the door and descended the stairs. Magnolia was indeed working, and her sultry voice hit them as she started on her next song. They chose to sit at a table in the back so they could watch her performance while Hancock took everyone’s orders and passed it to Charlie at the bar. Bringing drink orders back to the table, and settling onto a bench seat, Hancock wrapped his arm around Amy’s shoulders as she sat entranced by the dark-haired siren on stage.

“She’s phenomenal,” Amy whispered. “Her vocals are something else.”

“I’ll have her stop by once her set is done,” Hancock replied, “so you can tell her that yourself. She loves compliments.”

He noticed a rosy flush appear on her cheeks. How she swings, confirmed for sure. That gives me an idea…she’s gotta come back after tomorrow though, he thought to himself, eyes darting between Fahr, Mags, and Amy. He downed his drink, and Amy followed suit.

Charlie motioned to Hancock that their food was ready, and he let the group know that they would eat in the VIP section. The group got up and moved into the room, and joined Mac, who was already seated.

“Hey, Mac! Are ya hungry? I can have Charlie make another plate,” Hancock said.

“Sure, Hancock, I’ll join you guys,” he replied.

Plates were brought in, and conversation paused while everyone ate. It didn’t take long before empty plates began to appear, and Hancock took them back to Charlie. On his way back to the VIP room, Magnolia sauntered over to the bar, and he detoured to speak with her in hushed tones. Nodding, Magnolia walked with him into the room.

“Amy, I’d like ya to meet Magnolia,” he introduced the singer.

Face slightly flushed again, she stood and held out her hand. “Nice to meet you! Your vocals are amazing.”

“You flatterer,” she purred with a sultry grin as she grasped Amy’s hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well. Always wonderful to meet my fans.” Magnolia’s eyes drifted up and down and nodded her approval.

“She’s delectable,” Magnolia leaned over and murmured in Hancock’s ear.

“Hey Fahr, come with me for a minute, you too Mags,” Hancock gestured for the women to follow him. Amy watched as he led them out to the bar, and then Mac sat heavily next to Amy, drawing her attention back and causing her to sit again.

“Hey, you ready for tomorrow?” he asked.

She took in a deep breath and expelled it. “About as ready as I can be. Not really sure what to expect out of those assholes. You familiar with the route there? Anything we need to be concerned about before we head out?”

“Not that I know of. Not much in between here and the old airport, most trouble will be from Goodneighbor to Bunker Hill, so should be quick. Just make sure you’ve gotten stocked up on ammo.”

“Already way ahead of you. Stocked up the other day, haven’t used any since then.”

“Weapons cleaned and ready to go?”

“Yep. I clean ‘em after I use ‘em each time.”

Hancock and Fahr walked back into the room, and Mac called out to him. “Hey Hancock, thanks for dinner. I appreciate it.”

“No problem, Mac,” he replied. “Just make sure ya keep her safe, and I’ll tell Charlie you can eat for free from here on out.”

“Dam-dang Hancock, thanks! That’ll help me save on caps.”

“Anyone need a drink refill?” Hancock called to the group. Mac shook his head no, and Fahr was still working on hers, so she did the same. Eyes drifting to Amy, he wordlessly asked if she wanted another drink, and she nodded. He ducked out the door and returned a couple minutes later with two glasses and handed her one as he sat next to her. He clinked his glass against hers.

“To you comin’ back to me in one piece,” he quietly saluted.

“To you and this town staying safe until I get back,” she returned. They downed their drinks in unison, placing the empty glasses on the table.

“We should probably get some shuteye, yeah? Early mornin’ tomorrow.”

“Yeah, good idea. Plus, if Mac sleeps in here, he needs the space emptied out so he can sleep too.”

Rising from his seat, he helped her up from hers, and announced to the group, “We’re gonna turn in. See you all in front of The Memory Den before dawn tomorrow. Let Nicky know if ya need a wakeup call.”

“Better not hear the call of the wild coming from your room,” Fahr teased the pair, eyes set on Amy, though.

Smirking, thoughts going a sudden, devilish route, Amy quickly closed the distance to Fahr and leaned into her, causing Fahr’s breath to catch. Her lips sought the redhead’s, and finding them, her tongue dove in and swirled deliciously around Fahr’s, eliciting a hungry, stifled moan from deep down in her chest. Slowing her ministrations, Amy grabbed and sucked on Fahr’s lower lip gently before releasing her, and Fahr’s eyes closed for just a moment in rapture.

“You’ll be joining me after I get back,” Amy taunted demurely, and a shudder echoed through the bodyguard’s armored body as all she could do was stare back at the eyes in front of her.

The room was quiet as all three men stared with open mouths. Amy turned and walked out of the room with a grin on her face, motioning to Hancock to follow her. Hancock gave a two-finger salute to the rest of the group as he left to hurry after his goddess.

“Goddamn,” whispered Mac, forgetting his promise momentarily to watch his mouth and his swearing.

After a moment, Fahr mumbled, “You got that right.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once they were back in their room, Hancock sidled behind Amy, his arms going around her waist.

“So, what was all that about, Sunshine?”

“Been wanting to do that for a while. The whiskey told me it would be a good idea to go through with it now, before tomorrow.” She smiled a little devilish smile.

“You’re gonna give her a big head now, and that’s not gonna let up until you get back, you know that, right?”

“That was part of the plan; to leave my audience riveted. Might give some added incentive if you guys have to fight those assholes, too.”

“And the rest…?”

“I need to ask you about that. I probably should’ve asked before I kissed her, but that would have defeated the surprise if she got wind of it at all.”

“Actually, Fahr mentioned something along these lines to me already, after your conversation the other day with her in the sniper nest….and that made my imagination go wild.” He held her tighter and nipped at her neck lightly with his teeth.

“So, you know I go both ways then,” she observed.

“Yeah. And I don’t mind, if you don’t mind me bein’ the same way,” he whispered in her ear.

Her eyes closed slowly at the thought, imagination taking off, a shudder coursing through her as she felt her coils tighten. “So….fucking…hot…” she stammered out, turning around in his hold and embracing him deeply. He slowed their movements and pulled back, gazing deep into her eyes.

“God, I love you,” he murmured to her.

She caressed his cheek. “I love you, John. With everything I have.”

They embraced again, and piece by piece, removed their clothes and collapsed into bed, her being the little spoon while he held her protectively in his arms.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning arrived quickly. She had been restless at first when they went to sleep, until Hancock had turned her around so she could snuggle into his chest. She didn’t think she had moved for the rest of the night after that, until Nick came knocking on the door.

“Hey guys,” he said quietly from the other side of the door. “It’s time.”

She was the first to get up, and she got dressed in her improved army fatigues and pieces of armor. She picked up Hancock’s jacket and inspected Daisy’s work; she hoped this was enough to keep him safe while she was away. He should be wearing armor under this. Her Pip-Boy went back on her wrist, a new holotape inserted and playlist started, wraparound sunglasses around her head like a headband, and her boots on. She needed to make sure all of her ammo was in her bag. While checking the contents of her backpack, her fingers brushed a tin of Mentats. Partytime Mentats, I forgot that I grabbed this for him, she thought. Being sneaky, she found a piece of paper and a pencil, and quickly scribbled a note and inserted it into the tin, placing the tin in his jacket pocket. She set it back on the floor as he stirred on the bed.

“Sunshine? Time to go?” he asked sleepily.

“Yeah, my love. Nick was at the door a few minutes ago.” She walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge of the mattress.

“Glad you heard it. I sure didn’t.”

“Let’s get going,” she murmured to him as she gently rubbed the textured skin of his back. She felt a vibration, and it seemed almost like he was purring at her light touch.

“I can feel that; it feels good. Now I can see why it calms you down so much.”

She smiled. “C’mon sleepyhead.” She got up and stood by the bed to make sure he was getting up.

He stretched before he swung his legs over to the edge of the bed, rising slowly. Her eyes immediately went to his hard member, standing at attention, and she licked her lips. He saw this and chuckled.

“Incentive to come back home,” he drawled with a grin and a wink.

She shook her head and dropped to her knees in front of him, quickly taking his entire member in her mouth, and his head fell back with a groan as her barbell ran down his length. She only bobbed on him for a minute before releasing him and rising to stand.

“To be continued,” she promised with a smirk and a quick kiss to his cheek.

He growled in slight frustration, but mostly desire for more. “My devilish angel,” he purred. “I’m gonna ravage you later for that.”

Once Hancock was fully clothed, they walked downstairs and out into the alleyway, turning to head to The Memory Den. Mac was out front, as was Nick. Fahr was just exiting the Rexford. Kent walked out of the Den and saw everyone standing in front, and he greeted them all.

“Hey everyone. I’ll bring the radios to you as soon as I get them set up for Amy and Mac first. Follow me,” he gestured to the two, and they followed him back into the Den. Reemerging a few minutes later, they were now prepared to leave.

Amy walked up to Nick first, and gave him a huge hug. “Keep these troublemakers in line, ok? Let us know over the radio if anything comes up.”

He grasped her hand and placed a kiss on the back of it. “I’ll do my best, doll. You keep yourself safe as you can, ok? And get the hell outta there if things go sideways.”

“You know I will.”

She moved to Fahr, standing in front of her. She placed her hand on Fahr’s cheek, and gave her a quick kiss. “Keep the place standing until I get back, so we can rock it down to the ground, alright?” she said with a grin. “Keep a close eye on John for me too.” Fahr returned her grin and nodded.

The moment she didn’t want to come was here, and she sidled to Hancock. He stepped forward and pulled her into a tight hug. She hugged him back just as hard.

“Keep us updated as much as ya can, ok Sunshine?” He pulled back enough to look her straight in the eyes, trying very hard to keep his worried look under wraps, but not being very successful.

“I’ll make sure one of us keeps you in the loop,” she promised. “I got you something. Check your jacket pocket.”

His hand dove into his pockets, and he pulled out the tin of Partytime Mentats, his eyes shooting back up to hers in surprise; she knew he had been eyeing them in Sanctuary. He placed it back in his pocket and pulled her into another hug, resting his forehead on hers, eyes locked on her.

“I love you, Amy,” he whispered.

“I love you, John,” she whispered back. “I’ll try to make this quick so I can come back home.”

Before she lost her resolve and decided to stay put, she turned to Mac and gestured with her head to start towards the gate to Goodneighbor, and they both turned and walked in that direction. As they passed by the shops, they stopped to say goodbye to KL-E-O and Daisy and made their way out the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As soon as the door shut, her hunting rifle came out, as did Mac’s.

“Lead the way, I’m not sure which direction we need to go,” she said quietly.

“This way. We need to head north.”

They kept to the shadows and walls, working their way around piles of debris. The road ahead looked blocked; a semi with garbage built up all around it sat diagonally across the road. But, it looked like there was a pathway up to the top of the semi trailer. Might be a good spot to scout ahead.

Ducking while she picked her way up to the top of the truck, she brought her rifle back up as it flattened out. The edges of her vision started webbing, and she dropped to a knee and took aim. She picked off three Raiders in a compound just on the other side of the truck before Mac could scramble up and take aim himself. He took out two that had come out running from a gate.

Pausing for a moment, using her scope to look as far within the compound as she could, she carefully hopped down from the trailer, satisfied that the rest of the Raiders she could sense were further in.

“Stay behind me, Mac. I can aim pretty quickly.”

“Gotcha, I’ll cover you as best I can but be careful around those corners.”

Walking slowly at a crouch, she edged up to each corner and listened. Hearing voices, she dropped down further and scouted from a half wall. Bringing the rifle up in a flash, one Raider on a fire escape fell, as did another running towards her with a pool cue.

“I think that’s all of them.”

“Head left at that clock post.”

Passing by a mailbox and a pink car, they came upon a plaza with a broken water fountain, where they turned and came to a bridge sitting under an overpass. She could see a row of townhouses, and was that a fucking ship in the buildings? She must be seeing things. But she could see an obelisk in the distance too, so now she wasn’t sure what her eyes were showing her.

Mac instructed her to head towards the ship, and as they came to an intersection, he had her turn down a side road to the left. They passed by the obelisk, and she stared up as they walked by.

“Bunker Hill,” Mac muttered. “Trade center. Traders and caravans from all over come here.”

They turned right and followed an alley to continue heading towards the ship, when the webbing came back quickly. Pulling her rifle up and aiming, she took out two Raiders wandering further down the street. Mac told her to turn right down an alley when the street ended, and she spotted another Raider just…sitting in the middle of the road. He wasn’t sitting for long. Passing by the corpse, to the right was the back of the ship in the building, and it had….rockets on the back? To the left was another bridge.

“Take the bridge,” he said, “we need to hook back around using the shore to get to that other bridge over there,” he pointed in the distance.

They jogged across the bridge at their feet, surprisingly with little interruption. They followed the shoreline, passing by a structure that reminded her of the world globes that were always present in her classrooms as a kid. Carefully they kept low around a bus at one end the bridge, and they saw a diner on the other side.

“We should stop at that diner and check in,” she mentioned, seeing the sun coloring the horizon. He nodded and began scoping out the area as she snuck low around the perimeter and found the door facing the canal. Checking all areas within the diner, they both deemed it clear, and Mac took a seat at one of the booths. She picked a spot in the booth next to him and lit a smoke.

“Come in Big Red,” she quietly spoke to her Pip-Boy, turning a dial until she got the signal Kent set her radio to. “Big Red, come in Big Red.”

Static crackled, and her favorite voice came across the airwaves. “Good to hear your voice, Angel.”

“We’ve made it out of downtown and are a little ahead of schedule, so we’re momentarily camped out in a building just outside of the end point. We just got by the U we needed to take at the canal. I’ll let you know when we’re heading out.”

“Understood. We’ll stand by until then.”

“Over and out.” She turned off the radio.

Mac was scanning the edge of downtown through the window when she came around and sat with him in his booth, still smoking her cigarette.

“Hey Mac, gotta question for you.”

“Shoot.”

“Why do you catch yourself when you’re swearing? You should know that we all speak bad English, and we don’t mind if you do, too.”

He looked at her with his blue eyes, and she could see the battle raging on whether he should tell her, or if he should keep quiet. Eventually, it looked like he relented.

“I made a promise to Duncan, and to Lucy too, a while ago that I would try to clean up my act.”

“Was Lucy your….girlfriend?”

“Well, more of my wife than anything. She died trying to keep me and our son safe from ferals.”

“I’m so sorry, Mac. That must have been very difficult for you.” She paused for a moment. “Where is your son now…?”

“Back in the Capital Wasteland. He’s….got some sort of illness, and I can’t take care of him, so I send any caps that I make back to the people who are able to care for him.”

“Can you bring him here? Or go back to him?”

“He wouldn’t be able to make the trip up here while he’s sick. And I’ve burned too many bridges back there to find work.”

She nodded solemnly. He thought for a moment, and asked, “You’re part ghoul, right? Or all ghoul? Did I hear that part of what Nick told me correctly?”

“As far as I understand things, yes. Ghoul enough where rads don’t hurt me.”

“Maybe you would be able to help me when we’re done with this little adventure. There’s rumors of a cure for what Duncan has, but it’s at Med-Tek, and the place is crawling with ferals. And from what I know, the cure is in a highly irradiated room. Would you be able to help me get it?”

“Consider it done, Mac.”

“Really?” He blinked in surprise. “Just like that, you’re willing to go?”

“Yeah, why not? Seems my acquired skills would come in handy, and I want you to get back with your kid. Sounds like he needs you just as much as you need him, and this cure would solve a few problems of yours.”

“Wow,” he started, “I’m not really sure what to say. Usually everyone tunes out when they hear about the irradiated room.”

“I’m still not sure what a lot of radiation would do to me, but if I’m hurt at all, I at least know it heals me, so I figure it shouldn’t bother me too much.”

Mac sat in silence for a few minutes. “Hancock is right.”

“About what?”

“You really are something, like an avenging angel flying over the wastes. If he’s gotten so attached to you so quickly, there’s definitely something special about you.”

“I didn’t know that was the general consensus on me,” she laughed. “I’m far from any kind of angelic being. I’m just a 200+ year old lab rat who got thawed out, and who still has a bad attitude.”

He laughed. “With a good sense of humor. That’s pretty rare around here.”

“You guys don’t have movies or comedians anymore, so I don’t blame humor for almost being extinct.”

“Hard to laugh often when just about everything is trying to kill you.”

“Touché. That’s when my dark humor comes out though,” she laughed.

They sat in comfortable silence for a while. She listened to the waves in the canal as the wind picked up and blew through the broken panes of glass.

Eyeing her Pip-Boy, she sighed.

“Guess it’s time to figure out what these chucklefucks want with me.”

“Don’t forget to let them know we’re leaving,” Mac reminded her.

“Fuck! Thanks, Mac.”

“Big Red,” she spoke into her Pip-Boy. “Big Red, you read me?”

“Go ahead, Angel,” came the gravelly reply.

“Heading to the big dick in the sky, maybe about a half hour to an hour out from it. Will check in if needed, otherwise will update when we’re outta the lion’s den.”

“Copy. Be safe in there. Standing by.” She felt the emphasis of that middle sentence come through her earpiece, and her chest tightened a little.

“Over and out.”

Leaving the diner, they followed a road past the East Boston Preparatory School, which had a couple of Raiders out front. She and Mac took turns picking them off, creating a bit of competition between the two. Once cleared, they proceeded to a square where four roads converged in an intersection. Seeing the Prydwen in the distance, they followed the road pointing to it past a flooded-out tunnel. It was beginning to get a little foggy out, and the sun rising further into the sky caused the area to look golden, but it decreased how far ahead of them they could see. They took their time walking past an area with crumbling buildings halfway underwater, making sure nothing popped up at the water’s edge. She could see the gate, just barely, in the distance. They were still early, but it’s not like they could effectively travel like she used to and get there right on time.

“I’m planning on doing most of the talking, since I’m the one they are looking for.”

“Probably better. I don’t like those di-jerks.”

“Neither do I, so that’s why I’ll try to keep it short and sweet.”

Pressing forward through the fog, they could barely make out the gate, and a soldier in power armor guarding it.

Chapter Text

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Chapter 16

“Stop. State your business,” the guard in power armor said.

“Amethyst Stevenson here to meet with Elder Maxson,” she replied.

“You’re early.” Another guard in maroon Brotherhood armor walked up to them.

“I realize that. Don’t really have timely and consistent means of travel, so it was either be early, or be late. If we have to wait, that’s fine.”

“Stay while we notify the Elder.”

The maroon guard left to use the radio. Her gaze wandered, and the breeze caught her hair as it blew through the airport grounds.

Returning, the guard informed her that they would need to wait for the vertibird to come down to ground level, and she nodded. She and Mac watched as a vertibird detached from the ship above, and descended until it landed further down the runway on a helipad.

“Follow me,” the maroon guard stated. She complied, with Mac behind her. Walking to the helipad, she and Mac hopped into the open door and took their seats, strapping themselves in. The vertibird rose slowly, eventually hovering as it maneuvered to dock with the Prydwen. The pilot turned and motioned that they could disembark and head in.  

A man in power armor stood waiting for them at the end of the steel catwalk running the length of the underside of the Prydwen.

“Amethyst Stevenson?” the man asked.

“Yes, that’s me.”

“I’m Paladin Danse. I’ll take you to the Elder.”

Giving him enough room to turn and maneuver around, she waited until he had a good lead before following him through a door, down some stairs, and to and observation room where a man stood before glass windows that spanned the entire length of the room.

“Elder, Amethyst Stevenson here to see you,” Paladin Danse said, and then turned to station himself just outside of the room.

“Amethyst. Thank you for coming. I’m Elder Maxson,” the man stated.

“Elder. I wasn’t really given much choice. Didn’t really want you hunting me down any more than you have been already.” She tried to not let her attitude over the whole situation control her tone, but it slipped; Hancock was definitely an influence with his sass when he got testy, and it was showing through her right now. Maxson picked up on it and turned slightly from the window.

“That was regrettable, but we didn’t know your location.” He paused. “You brought someone with you, I see.”

“Yes, for protection. This is Robert MacCready, my business associate.” Mac nodded to Maxson. Maxson side-eyed him before turning back to her.

“You don’t trust us.”

“Not since you sailed into the Commonwealth on this ship. I’ve been hearing rumors and stories from people who have come across your group before, even more so now. I didn’t feel like it was a good idea to come here alone.”

“We’re here to protect the people while we continue our mission of finding old world technology.”

“Right. Which brings us to the reason for me being here. Why do you need me?”

He turned from the window to face her; he was tall, but not as tall as she was. His head was shaved on either side, and the hair on top of his head was long enough to slick back, which it had been. The full beard he wore was meticulously manicured. His black Brotherhood uniform was almost completely covered by a long flight jacket lined with fur on the collar. The epitome of a high-ranking officer for a cult, she thought.

“Let’s get straight to business, since that seems to be the direction you are taking things. You were part of a combined Vault-Tec and West-Tek experiment started during the Great War, but not carried out until just after the bombs had dropped. You had been injected with a form of FEV that the Brotherhood has not seen before, and we would like to study it.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to study a sample of the virus itself?”

“Sadly, we have not been able to locate such a sample; the trials appeared to be in the beginning stages and not many were produced; what was produced, was used. The FEV that has bonded with your DNA will have to do.”

“Why is this so important? I thought your group detests ghouls, and from my understanding, FEV is why there are ghouls.”

“It is a military-based interest.”

“So, you want to try to create super soldiers, just like they were trying to. But in order to do so, that would be going against your code, from what I’ve heard of it.”

“We would like to see if there is a way of successfully replicating the results we’ve seen without,” he paused, as if to readying himself to spit the term out from his mouth, “ghoulification.”

“Ah. Gain all the benefits while cutting out the downfalls.” Exactly like the rest of mankind throughout history has done, in some way, shape, or form. War never changes. “Well, I hope you can find what you’re looking for after today. I am not planning on giving anything further other than the blood you requested.”

“I would think you would be a little more open to what our doctors are able to find out about it through giving your time accordingly, and allow collection if additional, different samples are needed.” Maxson sneered. “It may help you know what exactly you’ve been injected with, and if a cure can be found, too.”

“If it requires me to be stuck in a cage to do that, no. I have matters that require my attention throughout the Commonwealth, and I’m doing just fine with how I am now. You can do your research without me present. I may be interested if you find information that I may not know about already, but that’s the extent of it. I wasn’t a willing participant to begin with, and that’s not going to change now that the expected result has been altered.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Maxson’s fist clench slightly, which made her jaw do the same.

“If we can’t convince you…,” he began.

“Convince me of what? To be a prisoner here? To be treated like you treat any ghoul or synth you come across to “study’? I’m sorry that your track record has preceded you; if I hadn’t known any better about your organization before coming here, I might have been more willing. But, after that experiment I was part of, now that I’ve been grouped into what you term abominations, it’s not as easy as asking nicely.”

“Then you would have us retrieve you by force, if we require more than what you provide today?” he asked, his eyes narrowing.

She took a moment for a few deep breaths before she responded. She really wanted to use her Gauss on this guy.

“I will give you what you are looking for, but it has to be on my terms, on my schedule. I’m not coming back here weekly for a new sample collection.”

“I see we’re not going to come to an agreement easy for both sides. While I would prefer for you to remain here while testing is being conducted, your point about the FEV turning you….ghoul…already, it would upset our soldiers to have you on board, and I would be concerned for your safety for the duration of the study. I will give you clearance to board the Prydwen when required, and if our requests for more samples go unanswered for a long length of time, we will locate you to retrieve you for them.”

“So, you’ve just given me a bigger cage, but without bars this time.”

“We could keep you here by force,” he returned icily.

Fuck, this twatwaffle needed a shot to the forehead. She saw Mac’s hands getting twitchy too.

“Fine. Contact me when more samples are needed, and I will give you a location to find me to give the sample, or to pick me up if you need me to come here. If this gets out of hand, though, we’re going to renegotiate.”

“We’ll see. Please go to the medical bay so we can collect your sample.” He turned back to the window, and she had to push back an urge to hip check him through it.

“Am I free to leave after?”

“Yes. Dismissed.”

She turned and walked out of the room, Mac following close behind. Paladin Danse motioned to the ladder on the other side of him. “Please go up the ladder and see Knight-Captain Cade. He will be drawing your sample.”

“Thank you, Danse.”

“Paladin Danse.”

“Apologies. I’m not used to your rank system.” Dammit, Hancock.

“Acceptable, civilian, but it might be to your benefit to learn them if this won’t be your last time on the Prydwen.”

She gave him a resting bitch face before she responded. This was one of the reasons Nate couldn’t ever convince me to join the military. “We’ll see how long this arrangement lasts,” as she ascended the ladder with Mac just behind her.

Knight-Captain Cade stood waiting for her by a medical gurney. “Mrs. Stevenson,” he greeted her. “I’m Knight-Captain Cade. Please have a seat.” He gestured to the gurney. She used her arms to push herself on to the pad to sit. Mac stayed close and watched every movement the doctor made.

“I’m going to ask you a few questions related to the trials, then I will draw the sample. May I begin?”

“Hit it, Sherlock.”

“Is your name Amethyst Stevenson?”

“Yes.”

“Nate Stevenson is your brother.”

“Yes.”

“Nora Stevenson is your brother’s…”

“Wife.”

“She passed before you were directed into the vault.”

“Correct.”

“You and Nate were cryogenically frozen shortly after nuclear bombs were detonated outside of Boston.”

“Yes. Didn’t know either of those were going to happen though.”

“And the trials began after that.”

“I assume so.”

“Were you aware of the trials as they occurred?”

“I only remember bits and pieces. Wasn’t aware of them before, or after, really.”

“How did you come to find out about them if you don’t remember much?”

She knew she had to be careful with her answers, or she could put Sanctuary in danger.

“Recurring nightmares.”

“What did they involve?”

“Me being on a stretcher like this, getting injected with something, and being in a large amount of pain.”

“You don’t remember seeing anyone that was part of the trials? Or what else was going on around you?”

“Scientists in lab coats and monitors. That’s all I could see. I was strapped to the bed when they injected me.”

“Thank you. We required some clarification on some aspects of the trial.” He turned to a surgical tray with a syringe and picked it up. “Please roll up your sleeve to your elbow.”

“Try my right wrist, here,” she pointed to her vein, knowing any other vein in that arm would be problematic. Sterilizing the needle and her arm with a bottle of clear liquid, he pressed the needle in and began to draw the sample. After a few minutes, he removed the syringe and placed a cotton pad on her wrist and motioned for her to hold it in place.

 “That was all I was ordered to collect, so if anything additional is required, I assume the Elder will contact you.”

“Thanks. I hope it won’t be for a while.”

Pulling her shirt sleeve back down, she hopped from the gurney and started heading towards the ladder, Mac only steps behind her, muttering that they needed to leave ASAP. It didn’t take them long to reach the vertibird; within minutes, they were back on the ground. She followed the road back past the East Boston Preparatory School and was on the way to the diner before she spoke.

“I hope I didn’t just fuck us all over, Mac. What happens if I don’t know they’re trying to reach me, and they come after me?”

“Way I see it, not much you could have done. At least you’re walking away right now. You almost didn’t.”

“Valid, but I just don’t like that guy, and I’m not expecting him to play by the rules.”

“All we can do is keep an ear out for when he might be summoning you.”

“Let’s take a quick break at the diner since we know it’s clear. I need to send a message ahead, so they know we’re on the return trip home.”

“You got it, boss.”

Mac decided to wander along the water’s edge and around the perimeter while she ducked inside, finding a seat at a stool at the counter.

She fiddled with her Pip-Boy and tuned in to the radio frequency Kent set for her.

“Big Red, come in Big Red.”

Static. She waited a minute and tried again. “Big Red, you copy?”

“This is Little Red, Big Red’s on his way over. Angel, is that you?”

“Affirmative.”

“Good to hear from you. Mission complete?”

“Yes. On our way back to base. Things in the clear on your end?”

“No activity that we’ve seen.”

“Should be there within a couple hours, pathway should still be clear from earlier. Will radio if any issues come up. Over and out.”

She closed the radio and returned to her playlist. “Mac, you ready?” she called as she got up from the stool.

“Yeah, let’s try to hurry so we don’t need to stop for the night,” he called, keeping an eye on the horizon. “We should be ok, but you never know what we’ll run into on the way back.”

Readying her weapon, she joined Mac by the water’s edge and looked out across at the downtown skyline. It was actually clear enough to see it this time through.

“Back into a different belly of the beast, eh?” she said with a smirk.

“At least this one we’ve been through already,’ he returned, chuckling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He decided to keep to a similar route to the bridge back into downtown, and ran into a stray Raider or two along the way. At least a new group hadn’t taken over the area they just cleared, but they still heard gunfire in the distance.

“Maybe we can sneak around wherever it’s coming from,” she offered.

“I’m all for keeping the shooting to a minimum. It saves on needing to spend caps for more ammo.”

They walked tandem down the road to the buried semi, retracing their steps over the top of it and back down to the garbage heap below. They both saw the neon signs of home in the distance, but they also saw a blinking light around the corner. Scopes up to both of their eyes, sneaking as best they could, they shot almost simultaneously as they cleared the corner enough to see, and the blinking stopped. They heard a hound tearing around the corner, and he fired first while she strayed her aim to the mutant with the missile launcher on top of a pile of garbage. It rocketed backwards from the force of her shot, and blood sprayed everywhere on the wall behind it.

“Was that all of them?” She muttered as she scanned the little corner of the building the mutants had claimed.

“I’m not hearing any others…”

“Neither am I. We’ll move quickly.”

They dashed through the streets to the gate, and hurried inside.

As they entered, Daisy ran out from her shop to greet them.

“Mac! Amy! You made it back!”

“Daisy! Everything been ok here?”

“Yep, pretty quiet. Except for the Watch, they’ve been busy with patrols.”

“I’ll catch up later with the details, ok? I need to change. I feel so dirty after being in that place. I just hope their bigotry didn’t soak into my clothes.”

Daisy laughed. “Don’t blame ya, sugar. Hopefully you can rest a little easier now too.”

“We’ll see if they keep up their end of the bargain.”

She gave Daisy a hug and turned to walk towards the statehouse. Mac grabbed her elbow as he was passing by her.

“Glad we made it back. I’ll be down at the Rail for a while after that trip.”

“Thanks for coming with me, Mac. You can really hold your own out there, and I was glad to have you along.”

“I was happy to help,” he said with a smile as he turned and disappeared down the alley. She pivoted to the door of the statehouse when it was opened by one of the Watch, who held the door for her as she entered.

“Thanks! That’s some awesome timing you’ve got,” she said as she grinned.

 He nodded, and she passed by him to walk up the stairs. She heard Nick’s voice before she reached the top.

“They should be back here by now, if they didn’t run into more problems on the way,” Nick stated, worry evident in his voice.

She was stepping onto the landing as a bunch of eyes darted her direction. All she saw next was a red blur, and strong arms enveloped her a moment later.

“Sunshine,” he whispered. “There ya are.” He nuzzled at her neck.

“John,” she pulled back a little to look directly at him, her eyes softening as he gazed into hers. “I told you nothing would keep me from coming back home to you.” She caressed his cheek with her hand.

He captured her lips with his, tongues joyfully reuniting as they pulled each other closer. Their tongues danced and spun until he grabbed her lip with his teeth, gently nibbling before he let it go.

“I’m glad you both made it back ok,” he said a little breathlessly. She grinned.

“I can tell,” she purred in his ear, leaning her hip into him a little. His hand grabbed her ass, pulling her closer.

“Ya still owe me from earlier,” he returned, his voice dropping and becoming rougher. The look she gave him, the one of hunger, desperation…fuck, he loved that look on her.

“Alright you two, there will be time for that later,” Nick chuckled as the two parted and turned his direction at the sound of his voice. “Come and take a seat first, you’ve been on the move since before dawn. You look exhausted.”

She laughed. “At least the outside reflects what I’m feeling on the inside.” She placed her hand in his as they walked back to his office. Nick rose from the couch, and she separated from Hancock to give Nick a huge hug.

“Glad you’re back, doll,” he said as they parted. “You two have any trouble?”

“A few Raiders on the way. We definitely should have gone that route instead of the one by Monsignor. The bridge was pretty much clear.”

“We’ll keep that in mind if we need to head that direction again,” Nick noted. He led her to the couch, where she dropped her bag on the floor and collapsed into the cushions. She pulled out her pack of smokes and her lighter, and she saw Hancock grin from the corner of her eye. After pulling a cigarette out and lighting it, she gestured to him, asking if he needed one. He shook his head and pulled out his own pack as he sat down next to her. Nick took a seat across from her, next to Fahr.

 “Well, I’m not so sure how it went. They did want me to ‘stay’ while their tests were being conducted, but I was able to convince Maxson to contact me if more samples are needed instead, so I can either have someone come to me to collect it or go to the Prydwen directly and provide it. I think if Mac hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have been able to leave. They wouldn’t have given me an option. They’re still going to locate me forcefully if I don’t respond, so even though I walked out of there, I don’t know how much good I did.”

“Any new information that you weren’t aware of?” Nick wondered.

“They haven’t been able to find a sample of the virus. But I don’t know where they’ve been looking, either. They also knew a good amount of info on me, so what they did find must be legit. I know why they’re doing the testing though.” She sighed. “To make more people like me, but minus the ghoul part. They want to see if they can replicate it without ghoulification, so it fits their ‘morals’. They really want to try to start this project up again to make soldiers.”

Hancock grasped her hand and squeezed. Nick was shaking his head.

“Let’s hope nothing in your blood helps them accomplish that. They would be unstoppable if they had sleeper agents everywhere.”

“I’m hoping so too, Nick. It’s bad enough with how they are now.” Putting her cigarette out in the ashtray, she rested her head on Hancock’s shoulder. “That Maxson bastard is the worst of them all, from what I’ve seen. I think Mac wanted to headshot him too.” She chuckled.

Hancock leaned his head on hers. “So, no knowin’ if or when they need ya again?”

“Not until they send a message for me to return.”

“Assholes. Now they probably think they have ya on a leash. But we need to be one step ahead of them somehow, so they ain’t houndin’ ya.”

“I’m open to any suggestions.”

The group remained silent as their minds went into overdrive.

“Could we find someone on the inside…?” Nick offered.

“If you can find a high-ranking someone. Sounds like the testing is pretty hush-hush.”

“Maybe intercepting their radio transmissions?” Fahr suggested.

“We’d have to see if that’s even possible,” Hancock replied as he lifted his head a bit. “Kent’s good, but I’m not sure how far his knowledge goes, or if he has the right equipment in order to intercept anything. It’s worth a shot though.”

A few more ideas were tossed around, with silences in between, but conversation stopped when they heard gentle snores coming from Amy.

“I’ll get her to bed. We can revisit this in the mornin’,” Hancock said as he looked down at her.

“Night John.” Nick headed towards his room. Fahr stood and gave a mock salute to him.

“See ya in the morning, boss.” She lingered for a moment to gaze at the woman asleep on his shoulder before catching his eye and wandering to the stairs.

He gathered her gently in his arms to carry her to the bedroom, where he gingerly placed her on the mattress. Shutting the door behind him, he sat next to her and began untying her boots when she sighed.

“What’cha doin’..” she said sleepily.

“Gettin’ ya out of these boots,” he whispered back to her.

“Thanks. I’ve been in ‘em too long.”

He pulled off both boots and placed them next to the bed. He took off his hat and tossed it towards a chair, making it most of the way. Sliding his arms around her waist, he pulled himself next to her on the mattress and spooned her.

“I was worried ya might not come back, especially when we weren’t hearin’ from ya,” he murmured into her ear. She turned around so she could snuggle into his chest, and he readjusted his arms around her. “I….I started thinkin’ the worst.”

“He almost didn’t let me go. I don’t want to go back, John,” she whispered back. “What if they don’t let me go next time?”

“I know ya don’t, Sunshine,” he rasped as he traced circles on her shoulders and kissed her on the forehead. “We’ll figure somethin’ out.”

She lifted her head so she could look into his eyes. His hand brought a finger under her chin, bringing her mouth up to his. Resuming their oral reunion from before, it deepened into slow, hungry movements of their tongues. Hands moved to buttons, and her mouth parted from his to drift down to his exposed skin, his breath catching as her tongue ran slowly down his neck to his chest, tracing every crease and fold as she moved.

Her hands coaxed his billowy shirt from him and tossed it over the edge of the bed, her shirt joining it a moment later, along with both of their pants and his boots. Soon, they both felt the cool air on their bare skin, and they collapsed into each other, yearning to feel every inch of nakedness as hands slowly explored, just like their tongues were doing to each other once more.

He pulled away from her to turn her, so her back was up against his chest, and his hands reverently massaged her breasts as his mouth traced slow, tongue-filled kisses on her neck, causing her to arch her back into him. She could feel his hardness pressing against her, lengthening as his hands moved over every part of her bare skin, one of which ended up gliding to her mound, where she sharply inhaled as his fingers danced along her slit. One finger tentatively pushed into her folds, sliding along her clit and quickly disappearing into her heat, his thumb stopping at her nub to give friction. Her head rolled back and hit his shoulder, a breathy moan escaping her lips as he worked his finger deeper within her, and soon added another finger, and another until her hips bucked from the stretch.

She opened her legs and lifted one to angle it just behind him, giving him more open room to explore her wetness, which he did with fervor, his hand becoming slick with her want as his fingers danced within her. Eventually moving from her entrance to position his member there instead, he slowly slid his erection inside of her, and both let out a low moan as his member steadily reached deeper, stretching her as his hips pushed. His fingers returned to her heat, finding her nub and rubbing it deliciously, and she reached back to hold his hip as he began to slowly pump into her.

His mouth returned to her neck, sliding his tongue along her soft skin, taking moments to suck and caress every spot he could as his hips kept up a punishingly slow but steady pace. He soon moved his hand from her folds to her hip, his hold tightening as he was able to get just a little further into her, and his head rested on her upper back as he pressed himself to the hilt, a low rumble echoing from his chest. He could feel her coils building as his edge began to take shape, and he yearned to give her his seed like nothing he had ever felt before.

He decided to move her, so she was laying on her back on the mattress, and with practiced maneuvering, he stayed within her heat as he pulled himself around to be on top of her, his mouth joining up with hers once more, tongue reaching and curling around hers with a barely contained urgency, like he was enjoying the finest meal but he was starving. She arched her hips up and grabbed his ass with her hand and held it, using it to direct his member to rub tantalizingly on her spot within as he began to pound her a little harder. He moaned into her mouth as his hips picked up speed, and he could feel her starting to tighten around him, her coils continuing to build. Their lips parted as they both breathed heavily from their exertion, moans and sighs escaping into the room.

Looking into her eyes, he felt his heart fuse into hers, beating in tune together, knowing he was right where he belonged. She pulled him closer to her at the same time, and he lost all sense of trying to take things slow, to just take time to feel everything about her, inside and out; he needed to claim her as his, now.

He began to rut into her, and moving his mouth to her neck, he sucked hard at the same spot using a little bit of teeth, knowing it would leave a mark; his tongue gently caressed the spot after his teeth were done, and he moved to another spot on her chest and repeated his motions. A low, continuous moan drifted from her mouth as he worked to leave his mark on her more, and all she could do was hold onto him desperately as he sucked and pounded her with reckless abandon.

His hand grabbed her shoulder for leverage as he pushed as deep as he could go. Her coils unwound first, starbursts forming behind her eyelids, her body shuddering and tensing everywhere, and he continued to dive into her unrelenting, sustaining yet reshaping her wave at the same time until it was almost too much for her, when his edge finally caught up to hers and he threw his head back with an unrestrained, animalistic moan as he pulled her body tightly to his, releasing his seed deep within her warmth.

She thrummed around his length, constricting and tightening hard on his twitching member while dragging her nails on his back, and this caused him to quickly hop over another edge, adding more to the warm release he just gave her. Breathing hard, he cupped his hand on her cheek as his heartbeat raced, his thumb caressing her damp skin as he got lost in the glowing forest of her eyes, everything else around him fading from focus. He could happily stay lost in those woods.

With a soft, lingering kiss to her lips, he eventually slid to the side of her, his member retreating from her, and he wrapped his arms around her and tucked his legs in behind hers.

“John,” she murmured, “don’t ever let me go.”

“Don’t think I could ever do that, Sunshine,” he purred back. “Your heart melded with mine tonight, I felt it.”

She hummed in agreement. “When you were looking into my eyes. That’s why I pulled you in closer.”

“My goddess,” he whispered as he tightened his hold on her, and they both drifted to a dream-filled sleep.

Chapter Text

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 17

Hancock woke before her, the rough edges of a really weird dream fading quickly from memory as his eyes blinked against the bright rays of sunlight filtering in between the boards on the windows. She had burrowed into his chest at some point while he was sleeping, her favorite place to be, and he stayed as still has he could so he could take in every part of her as she slept. His eyes roamed over her form, and his fingers lightly caressed her bare skin, from her shoulders, down her back, to her hips and ass. His fingers felt two horizontal scars on her lower back, crossing over her spine, and jagged scars along her hips, like she got attacked by something with sharp claws or teeth. So many scars. I bet each one has a story.

As his gaze drifted, he could see the tattoos on her calves that she told him about the other day; he could just barely see two dragons on one leg sticking out from the blanket, and an animal-headed figure on the other leg. He loved the artwork she carried with her on her skin, and his fingers began to absent-mindedly trace the lines of the dragon on her arm. She stirred, wrapping her arms around him more before she began to snore softly.

He placed a soft kiss on her forehead. He didn’t want to move. With the sunlight coming in, it bathed her skin in a warm glow, personifying his radio nickname for her.

He really didn’t want to get up, but then he remembered that Nicky was going to ask her to go with him to Dr. Amari’s to pick apart that synth piece he found, and with extreme reluctance he carefully moved her from his chest to the mattress and covered her with the blanket. He found his pants amongst their pile of clothes, and he had just gotten them pulled up and buttoned when Fahr opened the door a crack, looking for him. He tiptoed to the door, opened it just enough where he could slide through, and he shut it behind him.

“Mornin’, Fahr,” he whispered.

“Hey boss. The Watch wanted to run something by you, and I think Nick was looking for you too.”

“I know what Nicky wants. I’ll go and chat with the Watch first.”

Even though he was only wearing his pants, he walked through the statehouse with confidence, and descending the stairs, eventually he found the member of the Watch that had been looking for him. He said that two people who ‘gave off bad Brotherhood vibes’ had come into town earlier that morning, and they had gotten rooms at the Rexford. Thanking him, Hancock told him to let the rest of the Watch know to keep an eye on the visitors and to notify him if anything odd or out of the ordinary caught their attention. Fuckers might be keepin’ tabs on her, he thought, and that didn’t sit well with him at all. He needed to let Nick know, so he could keep watch on those people too.

As he headed the opposite direction on the stairs, he saw Nick as he was getting ready to walk out of the statehouse.

“Good mornin’ Nicky,” Hancock called to him. The synth’s head turned in his direction.

“John, morning. Just the person I was looking for.”

“Yeah, Fahr found me and told me, but I had to speak with the Watch first. We should go to my office.” Hancock led the way as Nick followed him upstairs.

Once the door was shut, Hancock gestured to the couches for Nick to take a seat. He obliged, and Hancock offered him a cigarette while he was still up. The men lit their smokes, and Hancock began to pace.

“The Watch told me some possible Brotherhood members may have come into town this mornin’,” he said, his voice strained. “Haven’t confirmed, but if they’re already tryin’ to keep tabs on her…” He let his sentence remain unfinished as his thoughts crashed together.

“They’re never going to let her be free from this experiment she was subjected to,” he finished for him. Hancock nodded.

“I think we need to get her out of Goodneighbor for a bit to throw them off her scent. But I’d like to confirm first so we’re not runnin’ when we don’t need to be.” Hancock drummed his fingers on his desk as he thought.

“Might be the best time to get this thing with Dr. Amari done. We could get a clue leading us somewhere, and she can focus on her nephew instead of all of the factions of the Commonwealth searching for her.”

“Are ya sure ya want to go through with it, Nicky? Sounded like a risk, hookin’ that thing up to your circuit boards in order to access memories of that asshat…”

“If it can help her, you know I’m willing, John,” Nick said with resolve.

Hancock went to a desk drawer and pulled out a tin of Grape Mentats, and popped three into his mouth, rolling them around on his tongue until they dissolved. “If Dr. Amari has time today, let’s see if we can go ahead with it.”

“I was just on my way to ask when I ran into you.”

Hancock nodded. His ears began to pick up sounds coming from his room; it sounded like Amy was up and playing music.

“I think she’s up, I’m hearin’ her music comin’ from the bedroom. You go ahead to Dr. Amari, and we’ll meet ya over there, unless you come back if she’s busy.”

“Sounds like a plan. See you in a few.” Nick got up from the couch and made his way downstairs, and out into the courtyard through the back door.

Hancock walked softly back towards his room, and cracking open the door, he peeked in to find her in the middle of getting dressed, in a t-shirt and underwear, dancing to the music as she sang along. A new song started, and he guessed it was some Jimi; those guitar chords were pretty unique to his style of playing, but it wasn’t a song he heard her play before. She moved so fluidly and gracefully, he couldn’t help but open the door a bit more to watch her.

“Foxy,” she sang, raising her two hands with two fingers pointing up by her head, the tips of her fingers barely moving up and down as she shook her hips, her arms dropping slowly to her sides in time to the music. She continued to sing along, and glide her body with the beat, and all he could do was stand and stare, enraptured. As the song began to wind down, he tiptoed into the room and came up behind her, hands sliding around her waist slowly and pulling her to him. She curled her arms around his.

“Mornin’, Sunshine,” he murmured as he breathed her in. Somehow, he could still smell her perfume. My devilish angel.

 “Morning, love,” she whispered to him, a broad smile on her face. “I figured I could find you by playing my music.”

“That dancin’s just as enticing,” he said as he nipped at her neck with his lips. She giggled.

“I tried to dance to that song at a strip club once on amateur night,” she reminisced. “It didn’t turn out very well since it took a lot of alcohol to get my nerve up to do it, and then I couldn’t stay balanced on stage….” She laughed at the embarrassing memory.

He wasn’t 100% sure what a strip club was, but he had a pretty good idea and seemed to remember that it involved removal of clothing.

“Maybe ya can give me a private dance sometime?” he asked in a hopeful whisper.

She arched her back so her ass rubbed gloriously against the front of his pants as her hand grabbed and pressed in on his ass, pushing him into her butt further. “You bet, sexy,” she said as she turned her head and grinned at him. She turned in his hold so she was facing him, and locked her lips with his, and soon their tongues were the ones dancing. He reluctantly began to draw back from her delicious tongue to catch her gaze.

“Nicky went to Dr. Amari’s to see if she has time today to help him with that Kellogg part,” he spoke in low tones by her ear. “If he doesn’t come back in a few minutes, we need to go meet him.”

“No rest for the wicked, huh?”

“Well….we got some incentive to move forward with it. Watch might’ve seen some Brotherhood assholes that came into town earlier this morning. Already. There’s no way they could need another sample from ya so soon. I got word out to confirm that first before we start gettin’ worried, but it’s lookin’ like we may need to skip town for a few days if that’s the case.”

“GodDAMNit. I knew Maxson wasn’t gonna let me go that easily, or play by any rules other than his own.”

“I know. I figured we could hit two birds with one stone – hopefully get some more info on your nephew, and maybe get a place to travel to for a while.”

Her eyes brightened. “You’d be coming with me?”

“I’m not leavin’ this task up to anyone else, Brotherhood be damned.”

She beamed and gave him a quick kiss. “Guess I better finish getting dressed then.”

“If it were up to me, you’d be able to walk around just like that if ya wanted to.”

She grinned, and he held her closer. “And, if things really were up to me, we wouldn’t leave this room,” he continued. He was the one to give her a brief kiss this time. Sighing, she hugged him tightly before parting with him so she could gather her clothes together.

“You need to get dressed too, don’t you?” She looked him up and down, an eyebrow arched as a lopsided grin formed on her mouth.

“Nope. I’ve walked around completely nude before, many times,” he grinned with pride, almost flexing his muscles a little for her.

“Bet you caused trouble with both the ladies and the gents when you did,” she teased.

“My dance ticket was pretty full the couple of weeks after that, come to think of it,” he said, tapping his chin as he thought back.

She smacked him playfully on the butt. “Your head is getting a bit big there, Mr. Mayor,” she purred, with her hands on her hips.

“You would know plenty about my head, wouldn’t ‘cha,” he teased in return, a devious grin spreading on his face, and he held his hands out in a mock ‘I’m gonna get you’ pose as he crept towards her. She squealed playfully as he chased her around the room, and eventually he gently tackled her to the bed. His lips captured hers, and they and their tongues got lost in each other for a few moments before they slowed and begrudgingly parted once more. She got up from the bed, and that earned her a quick slap on her butt.

“I don’t know about you, Mr. Mayor, but I try to pride myself on not keeping people waiting when I’m supposed to meet them,” she said in a jokingly high-and-mighty tone as she pulled on her pants, choosing to remain in her t-shirt instead of changing into her fatigues. He sighed and picked his shirt up from the floor, and his jacket once his shirt was on and mostly buttoned.

“Yeah, yeah, duty calls and all that jazz,” he returned with a chuckle.

She reached out for his hand, and placing his in hers, she pulled him up from the bed. When their hands parted, a canister of Jet sat in his palm. He looked down at it then back at her, a smile forming on his face.

“Ya know me too well, Sunshine,” he grinned.

“You looked like you could use it,” she returned with a wink.

Giving himself a hit, he handed it out to her, asking if she wanted one. She accepted it back from him and took a hit herself. Her eyes closed as the drug entered her system.

“That’s it, take it all in,” he murmured to her with a grin.

She remained standing like that for a minute or two, letting the chems roll through her before the initial high began to taper off. Reopening her eyes slowly, she carefully made her way to the dresser where her Pip-Boy had sat playing music, and she reattached it to her wrist, and turned the music off. Turning to him, she offered her hand to him once more.

“Ready to go?”

Grinning, he encased her hand with his, and they made their way out of the room, down the stairs, and out the back door towards The Memory Den.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As they entered Dr. Amari’s room below the Den, Nick was conversing with the doctor while she typed away at her computer.

“Hi Nick,” Amy greeted him. “Hi Dr. Amari.” The doctor nodded as she continued to type.

He turned and smiled. “Hey doll. Took you two a minute to get here,” he said as he gave the most fake, disapproving glance she had ever seen come from the synth, and she laughed.

“It’s his fault,” she returned, looking at Hancock with a smirk.

Hancock’s face gave an overly dramatic, shocked look. “Hey! It’s all lies. Lies and slander, I tell ya!” His eyes sparkled in merriment as he looked back at her, grinning widely.

“Yes, well, let’s get going on this, shall we? I’ve got other appointments today,” Dr. Amari said, a little exasperated at the exchange, but a small smile still coming to her lips; she enjoyed the chemistry within their group, and their banter was entertaining.

Nick got up from his seat and moved to a chair placed in between two memory pods and sat down. He removed his bent fedora from his head so Dr. Amari could access his circuitry better.

“Let’s get this show on the road before something else comes up,” he said.

Dr. Amari began connecting wires to the back of Nick’s head, and when everything was attached, she sat back down at her computer.

“Please let me know what you can see, Nick.”

Nick’s face grimaced as he strained in his seat. “Nothing…but static, Doc. I can’t make anything out of it.”

The doctor huffed in frustration. “The memories seem to be encrypted. We can still use you as a bridge to the memories, but I think we need someone to go to each memory to open it.”

“I’ll go,” Amy said quickly, knowing that Nick was doing this to help her, so she would help him in return.

“Go ahead and sit in the pod there, and we’ll see if this works,” Dr. Amari said as she gestured to the pod on Nick’s left.

Amy sat down on the chair within, and the lid closed around her. “I’ll pull up the first intact memory now,” she heard the doctor say. “Go ahead and follow the path in front of you.”

Amy made her way to the first memory, and she saw a boy sitting with his mom, and she heard yelling from a man in the background. She heard Kellogg’s voice narrating; he was talking about how his mom gave him a gun, apparently to help him take out his abusive dad, and he ran away instead. The memory played through and paused at the end.

“This doesn’t seem to be what we’re looking for. Next memory is ahead.”

This memory showed an older man, an older woman, and a baby in a crib. They spoke about what he had to do for work, and the baby cried. “Not this one either. We’ll keep going. There’s a few more to try.”

She went through two more memories that didn’t have any useful information, but it showed how ruthless Kellogg was when he met with the Institute for the first time.

“I think we’re getting warmer. Try this next one.”

It was Kellogg’s apartment in Diamond City. And a young boy sat on the floor reading magazines.

“Is that….Shaun?” she whispered, more to herself than anyone. The child wasn’t an infant, he was closer to 10 or 12, but he had Nate’s stunning blue eyes and Nora’s chestnut brown hair.

All of a sudden, a man appeared in the room after a blinding flash. Kellogg spoke to him, and it seemed the man that appeared worked with the Institute too. There was a mention of a ‘Brian Virgil’ and the ‘Glowing Sea’. The man who appeared was picking up the boy from Kellogg, and in another flash they disappeared.

“So THAT’S how they do it! Teleportation!” Dr. Amari exclaimed with excitement. “I’ll end the program now. Take your time as you come out of it. You remember from the last time, being in the pod can be disorienting.”

Amy heard the pod open, and she took a minute before opening her eyes, so she didn’t become nauseous. Hancock’s hand was on hers as soon as he could reach it.

“Hey, Sunshine, take it nice and slow,” he murmured to her. “I’ll help ya up as soon as you’re ready.”

“I’ve already unplugged Nick, and he’s waiting upstairs for you both,” Dr. Amari stated as she turned back to her computer. “I need to pass this new information on, so unless anything else is needed, I’ll need to get back to work.”

“Thank you, Dr. Amari,” Amy said as she maneuvered her way out of the pod with Hancock’s help. As soon as she knew she could walk without assistance, they made their way back upstairs to find Nick. He sat in a chair by the main door, and as Amy neared him, she heard Kellogg’s voice coming from Nick. “Hope you found what you were looking for in there. Should’ve taken you out when I had the chance.”

“Nick?” she asked apprehensively. Hancock stared at the synth, not sure if his old friend was still in there, or if they needed to take out Kellogg a second time.

Nick shook his head and blinked. “There you guys are!” he said, in Nick’s voice as he smiled.

“Nicky….ya sounded like Kellogg there for a second,” Hancock stammered, not keeping the worry from his voice.

“I did? Well, Dr. Amari said there may be some pneumonic impressions left over…”

“That’s not…a permanent problem, is it Nick? Do you feel different at all?” Amy was anxious. That murdering bastard was DEAD. She killed him personally, and she didn’t want him somehow living on inside of Nick.

“Not supposed to be, but maybe I should keep close to Dr. Amari for the next few days in case it becomes a problem. I feel fine, no extra passengers in the ol’ noggin.”

Amy and Hancock shared a concerned look with each other. “Let’s get’cha back upstairs at the statehouse,” Hancock offered, and the trio left the Den and headed back to Hancock’s office, where everyone took a seat on one of the two couches.

“So, we know that the Institute uses teleportation to get in and out. I know a few people who would be very interested in that information. But what was this about a Dr. Brian Virgil, and the Glowing Sea?” Nick stated.

“It sounded like that was Kellogg’s next target for the Institute, before we got to him first,” she replied. Hancock hadn’t said a word since they got back to his office, and with a tin of Mentats out on the desk, she knew his thoughts were running at warp speed.

“John? What are your thoughts?” She looked to him, and after a moment it seemed like he snapped back to the current conversation.

“The Glowin’ Sea. What Mama Murphy said in Sanctuary is makin’ more sense now.”

Nick and Amy glanced at Hancock, shared looks of confusion on their faces.

“Mama had spoken about a ‘sea of death’, or some shit at the time. I thought it was the chems twistin’ her information. Now, I think she meant the Glowin’ Sea.”

“Neither one sounds appetizing,” she muttered. “So, this Dr. Virgil is out in the Glowing Sea. How is he able to stay out there? I thought that was Ground Zero for the bombs.”

“It is, doll,” Nick replied. “Whole area is highly irradiated, and not much is able to survive out there, except for creatures like Deathclaws and Radscorpions; those things flock to the area. Obviously, there’s ferals out there too, since it was a highly populated place when the bombs…you know.”

“Great. I take it Radscorpions are a much, much bigger version of what I knew of them? Like Radroaches?” she questioned.

“You got it.”

“Fan-fucking-tastic,” she replied sarcastically.

“And we still don’t know exactly how you’ll do with the huge amount of rads that place has,” Hancock added. “So, we may need to find ya a hazmat suit, or beef up some power armor, just in case. We know it heals ya, but not much more than that, so it wouldn’t be worth riskin’ somethin’ worse happenin’ to ya while out in the middle of that shithole.”

All three pulled out their own packs of smokes at the same time, and they laughed. “Nothin’ quite like bein’ on the same wavelength as the ones ya hang out with,” Hancock grinned as he lit his cigarette. “We’ve got that ‘family’ thing down pat.”

Nick nodded, and Amy grinned.

“Seems like we won’t be able to leave as quickly as we were thinking, if we need to prep with one form of suit or another. How common are hazmat suits? I’m not good with fixing things up, and Nate was the one who knew more about power armor. Except, there was that suit behind the locked gate with the terminal over by Wattz Electronics…if we picked up that suit, we wouldn’t have to go back north to get the one I used at Concord,” she rambled. She motioned to Hancock to hand her a Mentat, as her train of thought was chugging along pretty well at the tracks, but she needed a boost to get it a little more organized.

Hancock got up from his seat, picked a Mentat from the tin on his desk, and walked back over to Amy. He held it out in front of her with his fingers, and she reached out to grab it with her tongue, where she curled the tip of her tongue around the chalky tablet enough to pull it into her mouth. She heard a low grumble in his chest as he watched her movements, and she winked at him. He sat down and whispered something into her ear, and a devious smile appeared on her face.

“Later,” she whispered back to him, and he massaged her knee.

“I’ll hold ya to that,” he replied, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek.

“We can check with Daisy about the hazmat suit if you’d like to try that first,” Nick suggested, ignoring the private, and more than likely dirty, conversation that was going on between the two, but also trying to pull them back into their planning process at the same time. “If we can’t find one, or if it doesn’t fit, then we have that suit you mentioned to fall back on. Except we’d use that route by Bunker Hill that you suggested this time around to get there.”

“I’ll ask her, Nick, no need for you to go and do that. I’ve got a few items on order that I need to check on anyways,” she responded. “And that sounds like a solid plan. Let’s see what we can find with Daisy, and we’ll go from there. Are all three of us going to go to the Sea?”

“That’s the plan for now, but let’s revisit it when we get the suit situation handled.” Nick replied, thinking back to what Hancock told him earlier about the Brotherhood. “If the Brotherhood comes knocking too, someone should stay behind to help Fahr with reinforcements.”

“I’m not gettin’ left behind this time,” Hancock muttered. “Last time was almost too much for me, knowin’ how much was on the line with ya going right into the tin cans’ home base.” He sighed heavily and looked down at his hands in his lap.

She reached out and caressed his cheek with her hand. He leaned into it, closing his eyes for a moment at her touch. She leaned in and whispered in his ear, “I’m never leaving you behind again.” She grabbed his hand and held it, giving it a reassuring squeeze. The sparkle that appeared in his dark eyes made her heart ache with joy.

“Nicky, let’s go talk to the Watch. I wanna get you on the same page as them about those Brotherhood douchebags, so ya can help keep an eye out if you’re wanderin’ around town.”

“We’ll be back in a few minutes, doll,” Nick added.

“I think I’ll go over to Daisy’s while you two are doing that, actually, and I’ll meet back up with you when I’m done.” They all rose from their seats and went to the stairs. Amy headed out the door, while Hancock and Nick went to a room on the first floor where the Watch liked to gather during breaks.

As soon as she opened the door, the wind almost ripped the door from her grasp, and she struggled to shut it. Eyes drawn to what part of the sky could be seen from the square, she noted dark clouds starting to blow in. Gotta make this quick, a storm’s blowing in, she thought to herself.

She jogged to Daisy’s and hurried inside. Daisy was in the back of her shop, trying to stay out of the wind since she didn’t have a front door.

“Amy! Did you blow in with the wind?” she joked.

“Just about! The door to the statehouse almost ripped off with the force of that last gust.”

“Storm’s blowin’ in. Not sure if it’s a radstorm yet though.”

“Hey, Daisy, I have a question. Can you feel those radstorms before they come in? Like do the rads do something to the radiation already in your system?”

“My skin gets tingly, but not everyone experiences that; I know John doesn’t, but Kent does. Might have somethin’ to do with when we became ghouls, and what we’ve done since then to survive. Who knows, not like anyone’s doin’ studies on it now.”

“Interesting. I’ll have to pay attention to that the next time a radstorm comes through.”

“What’cha here for, darlin’? Haven’t gotten word on those clothes yet, but I’m expectin’ one of the caravans to come through any day now.”

“A hazmat suit.”

“What for? You’re ghoul, right?”

“Yeah, but we’re not sure what’ll happen to me in a place like the Glowing Sea. The suit is more insurance than anything.”

“Must be a pretty big reason to go out to that awful place.”

“We got a lead on my nephew, and it leads right into the Sea.”

“Damn. I sure hope things get easier for ya, sugar. You’ve been through so much, and you don’t get any time to rest. Always on to the next thing. That would drive me crazy.”

“I’m just barely holding it together as it is now, trust me. If I didn’t have John and Nick with me just about every step of the way, I don’t know if I could’ve made it this far.”

Daisy walked over to her and gave her a hug. “Someday this will all be behind ya. One step at a time, ok?”

Amy smiled sadly. “Thanks, Daisy. I sure hope so.”

“I don’t have any leads on that suit at the moment, but I’ll get the word out that I’m lookin’ for one.”

“You’re the best! Don’t know where I’d be without you either.” She grinned and winked.

“Now you’re just tryin’ to flatter me,” she laughed. “I’m just doin’ what I always do.”

“Keep it up. The world needs more people like you.”

Daisy smiled at the compliment, and the confidence in her. Stepping forward to the door of the shop, she looked skyward and said, “Looks like rain’s comin’ in quick. Better head back to the statehouse while you’re dry.”

“Good idea. Let me know! I’ll see ya around,” Amy called as she hurried out of the shop and beelined it to the door of the statehouse.

Closing the door behind her, she walked quickly to the stairs and was at the top of the staircase in no time. She didn’t see Hancock or Nick, but Fahr was strolling around the office, cigarette in hand, lost in thought, the lightning with the storm illuminating her silhouette. Amy knocked on the doorframe to get her attention, hoping she didn’t startle her.

“Hey,” Fahr said, snapping out of her mindcloud. “I think Nick and Hancock are still with the Watch.”

“No worries. I just got back from Daisy’s and told them I’d meet them here when they were done.”

Amy collapsed on the couch and motioned for Fahr to join her. Nervously, Fahr sat down close to her, and put out her smoke in the ashtray on the table as she turned to her.

‘I know you’ve been busy since you got back, but..,” she started to say when Amy’s mouth effectively silenced her, their tongues hungrily finding and curling around each other. Fahr’s hand went to the back of Amy’s head, and pulled her in closer, deepening their kiss. A low moan escaped from them both. Amy soon realized that she was at a disadvantage with Fahr’s armor, and she slowly pulled away from her.

“We gotta get rid of that armor, I need to feel you,” she breathed as her mouth moved to Fahr’s neck, nipping and teasing with her tongue. Fahr’s head fell back with a gasp, and her hands moved to one of the straps of her armor, unfastening it when a small cough came from the stairs. Their attention on each other broken, both women turned to the source of the sound, and saw Hancock casually leaning on the railing, enjoying himself immensely as he watched the two.

“I think we should take this little party into the bedroom,” he purred, a unique glint in his eye. Rising from the couch, Amy held out her hand to Fahr, pulling her towards the room with a devilish grin. As the women passed by him, he pushed himself from the railing to follow, and once at the bedroom, closed the doors behind him as soon as he entered. They had hastily been unfastening all of Fahr’s armor pieces when he entered, and before long the women joined together once more, desperately embracing each other, hands finally free to roam. Hancock took a seat by the door for an entertaining show, and he made sure he had chems readily available in his pockets. Claps of thunder sounded outside as the storm raged on, but that didn’t deter anyone from their current pursuits. In fact, it added a little bit to the ambiance of the afternoon, making their moves more electric.

Within moments, clothes were dropping to the floor, skin becoming exposed, and mouths were teasing nipples, tongues enticing breathy moans and gasps from each of them. Amy dropped to her knees in front of the redhead’s mound, and brushing her curls to the side, dove straight into Fahr’s nub, tongue twirling and toying with her nerve bundle, her mouth then encasing her nub and sucking steadily, tongue giving friction as she sucked. Fahr almost lost her balance as her head went back, a loud moan rocketing into the room. Amy was unrelenting in her quest to conquer every inch of Fahr’s womanhood, and soon Amy’s long, delicate fingers found their way into her slick heat, a moan coming from Amy this time, and Hancock had to readjust how he was sitting since his pants were getting incredibly tight in the front.

“You’re dripping,” Amy breathed, her eyes finding Fahr looking down at her with such lust that Amy’s coils immediately tightened, and she felt the same wetness between her legs. She returned to her nub with enthusiasm, fingers stretching and curling inside to find her special spot, and Fahr grabbed the back of Amy’s head to slow her down for a moment.

“Let’s…go to the bed…,” Fahr stammered, not trusting her legs to not give out on her. Amy stood, and led Fahr to the bed, where she guided her to lay down. Amy went down on all fours on the bed, crouching lower as her mouth got closer once more to her mound, her bare ass in the air (much to Hancock’s delight at that view), breath ghosting over her slit. Fahr shuddered in ecstasy as Amy’s mouth found her nub once more, and picked right up where she had left off, sucking slowly, but steadily and strongly, fingers sliding back into place on her g-spot. Amy worked her fingers with practiced movements, and soon she could feel Fahr’s walls begin to tighten around her fingers, Fahr’s hands gripping the mattress with a deathlike hold.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, keep going,” Fahr managed to get out as her back arched, another loud moan escaping from her. Amy kept up her pace and her fingers quickened their movements, and Fahr let out another room-filling moan as she orgasmed. Amy didn’t stop, however, and kept up her ministrations, and she built up Fahr’s wave again so quickly that Fahr could only babble her way through the bliss as she rode it out. Amy’s mouth moved up to her abdomen, placing kisses with tongue as she made her way to her breasts, tongue playing with a nipple, and then the other, until she pulled it into her mouth with suction, and then her tongue deliciously swirled around it, bringing more sounds from Fahr as Amy’s hands roamed. She made it to Fahr’s neck before Fahr could say anything.

“Holy….fuck…” was all that she could say, watching the woman in front of her as she continued to unravel every part of her. Amy paused for a moment and grinned.

“Not bad for someone who is 200+ years out of practice, huh?” she asked with a wink. Fahr guided her up to her mouth and embraced her deeply, taking her in like she was her first drink of cool water after being in a desert for weeks. Fahr’s hand glided down to Amy’s ass in the meantime, and finding her soaked heat, pushed a finger in as deep as she could and Amy broke from the embrace to throw her head back, her moan echoing in the room this time. They heard Hancock take a hit of Jet and move to the broken couch next to the bed as Fahr grabbed Amy and spun her around, so she was on the bottom. Lightning continued to illuminate the room with intermittent flashes, and thunder rolled and reverberated amongst the buildings.

“Let me show you where you took me just now,” Fahr murmured to her, eyes still ablaze from her orgasms as she adjusted herself down on the mattress to take in all of Amy’s wetness with the flat of her tongue, then quickly zeroing in on her nub, and sucking hard, tongue spiraling and twisting around it.

“Oh my fucking GOD,” Amy moaned as she threw her head back and her back arched, her hand finding the back of Fahr’s head and running her fingers through her hair as Fahr sucked relentlessly. Soon, a finger found its way into Amy’s heat once more, and then two, and Fahr groaned as she found Amy’s pleasure pocket, effectively tightening up Amy’s coils as she curled her fingers just right.

Her moan lengthened the more Fahr worked her fingers, which eventually became pure swear words as Fahr barreled her towards release. Walls tightening, pulling her fingers in even further and finding that perfect spot, instead of just a mind-blowing orgasm, pressure built and exploded within Amy as more swear words escaped loudly out of her mouth. Fahr pulled back, and her arm was soaked. She grinned as she began to lick every last drop from her skin, eyes closing in pure ecstasy at her sweet nectar.

“I didn’t know you’re a squirter,” Fahr whispered, even more in awe of the woman sprawled out on the bed.

“Not everyone knows what that is,” Amy returned between breaths, impressed, “let alone how to do it. You’ve got some magic fingers.”

She leaned into Fahr and captured her mouth, tongues slowly dancing as their hands explored each other further, delicate touches and caresses going over smooth skin. Fahr reluctantly slowed down to draw back from her.

“I should be getting back to the Watch. I think I was supposed to help with something about a half hour ago,” she lamented, eyes darting to Hancock, who was in rare form of being absolutely speechless after the intense exchange he witnessed. It took him a second to refocus.

“I was here the entire time, so ya weren’t being derelict of your duties,” he managed. “And if you catch any flak for it, send whoever has the problem to me. You were busy.” He winked.

She grinned. “Alright. Guess I better get cleaned up a bit and get dressed.” She got up from the bed and began plucking her clothes from the floor.

Amy pouted playfully. “Maybe we can do this again?”

Fahr stopped what she was doing, and in one motion, she closed the distance between them and was mouthlocked with Amy, their tongues hungrily weaving with each other, and Fahr was the one to grab Amy’s lower lip with her mouth and suck slowly before releasing it this time.

“Guaranteed,” she said with a grin.

After a few minutes, Fahr was completely dressed, and gave Amy a lingering kiss before heading back downstairs.

Hancock was still seated on the couch next to the bed when Amy came and sat down next to him. She had only gotten partially dressed before she stopped to say goodbye to Fahr.

“I don’t know where to even begin, Sunshine,” he said before he leaned in for his own kiss, which she returned with enthusiasm. “All I know is that was one of the hottest things I have ever seen, and ya know how debauched I can be. Just seein’ ya both unravel like that...I don’t think I’ve heard Fahr bein’ that loud before.”

“I was out of practice,” she said with a smirk, “and a little nervous, otherwise I would have invited you to join in. I needed to focus this time, because you can only make one first impression, and I promised her that we would do this when I got back, so I wanted to do it right.”

“Woman of your word. You’re a rare breed around here.” He reclined back on the couch, sliding his legs down, and motioned for her to join him. She collapsed into his chest and nuzzled at his neck, and his arms wrapped around her.

“Guess the Watch will have some new gossip to talk about,” she observed with a laugh.

“Nah, we’ll just have to up our game next time,” he said with a chuckle, but it had a light, threatening edge to it that stirred her coils deliciously.

“When will I get to be the one watching…?”

“Hmmmm. That’s a good question. I’ll hafta think about that one. I’ve been a little picky when it comes to that.”

“So am I. I don’t just go out and screw whomever flicks my lighter. There has to be something else behind it, and Fahr is one badass woman.”

“That’s why she’s my bodyguard. She helped me get established after Vic, and we got things to where they are now because of that badassery. Ya got a good judge in character in ya.”

They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, and then Hancock spoke up.

“I hope I saved Nicky from getting an optical full of you two; I saw ya busy on the couch as I was comin’ up the stairs, and I was able to stop and send him back down to the first floor.”

“Sorry, I didn’t plan it out at all; it just sort of happened, and we got carried away. No more funny business in your office though, I promise.”

“At least without me there. We still need to work on your exhibitionism; I will get you bent over my desk someday soon, with someone watchin’ us,” he murmured, voice low, and that sent shivers down her spine. To have someone watching while he stretched her, pounded her, filled her….her eyes closed as she felt her coils tighten again, and she realized she might need to find a change in underwear.

Chapter Text

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Chapter 18

Hancock and Amy reclined on the couch in their room for a little while longer, carrying on a conversation that varied in topics while listening to the thunderstorm outside, until her stomach began to growl. Sighing, she got up and finished getting dressed, expecting to have to go down to the Rail for some food; she dragged her feet though, not really wanting to leave.

“Wanna stay up here? I can send one of the Watch down to the Rail,” Hancock read her hesitation perfectly. She wasn’t keen on wandering around too much if the Brotherhood might be in town, and especially if they happened to be in the bar to spot her, which was a good possibility.

“I just hate feeling like I have to hide again. Has Kent mentioned about any radio transmissions from the Brotherhood?” she asked as she sat back down next to him.

Hancock paused for a moment to think, then shook his head. “Not that I’ve heard. Any luck with Daisy?”

“She didn’t have anything in stock, but she’s getting word out that she’s looking for a suit.”

“Huh. Guess that means we’re in a waitin’ period.”

She grinned. “More time to spend in this room?” She squeezed his knee, and he smirked.

“I’m sure we can find something to occupy our time.” His voice was low, and he knew what he was doing to her by using it, seeing her eyes close again and hearing her shaky exhale.

“But first…let’s quiet that ravenous beast in your belly,” he laughed as her stomach growled again. Giving her a quick kiss on the cheek, he got up from the couch and left the room to find someone from the Watch to deliver their order down to the Rail.

She wanted to listen to some music, so she unlatched the clasp on her Pip-Boy and set it on the dresser, deciding to dance in the moonlight to some King Harvest. Her feet got a mind of their own and started moving to the upbeat drums and guitars, and pretty soon the rest of her got into the music as well, swaying along to the chorus. Rough hands suddenly wrapped around her waist, and a raspy voice in her ear said, “May I have this dance?”

She turned and smiled, and nodded. Grasping one of her hands and placing his other hand on her waist, he let the music guide them around the room, not really following any specific steps; twirling her every now and then, and drawing her near when the music slowed a little. The brightest smile shone on her face, and he couldn’t help but reflect it right back to her.

“I like this song,” he whispered in her ear as the song slowly ended.

“You haven’t even heard a small portion of the music I do have,” she murmured back, “and I’m sure you’d love most of it. Music is the one constant I’ve had in my life that could calm me when I’m anxious, cheer me up when I’m down, and make a good mood even better.”

“Kinda like chems,” he added, and she laughed.

“Speaking of chems, I was thinkin’ the other day. Since Stimpaks don’t really seem to work for ya like they should, what if we rigged it so it has some sort of nuclear material in it too?”

She thought about it for a minute, then grinned. “Yeah, let’s try it! Would be helpful for both of us to have when we travel. I know that rads are everywhere in the wastes, but there’s not enough around when you need ‘em for healing.”

“I’ve got a chem station in the basement. We’ll go down there tomorrow and do some cookin’.”

“You’re gonna have to teach me. I’ve taken drugs and chems before, but never made them. I flunked out of chemistry in high school too, so that may not help….”

“It’s not too hard. I’ll show ya.” He smiled warmly and held her close.

A knock came to the door, and he parted from her to answer it. Opening the door, it was the Watch, and their food was ready. “Let’s take it in the office. There’s a table in there.” He turned and held his hand out to her, and snagging her Pip-Boy from the dresser on the way, she crossed the room and grabbed his hand. As they made their way across the statehouse, she began to smell the delicious aroma.

“Oooooh, that smells good!” she said, her mouth watering.

Hancock leaned his head up and took in a deep breath, almost looking like Dogmeat when he got a whiff of Sturges’ cooking from across Sanctuary.

“Might be Charlie’s Mirelurk cakes, but I could be wrong. I don’t have the right equipment anymore to be sure,” he chuckled.

They took a seat on the couch in front of their plates on the coffee table, and she didn’t hesitate before she dug in. He joined her a moment later, not being as hungry as she was, but he wouldn’t pass up those Mirelurk cakes for anything, as they tended to be a rarity. The creatures were often hard to kill, unless you knew how to get around their hard, outer shell that covered most of their bodies.

“It tastes a lot like a mix of lobster, crab, and something else I can’t place. I like these!” she said in between bites.

“Lobsters and crabs….were like Mirelurks in your time?” Hancock asked, unsure of how to picture them in his head.

“I haven’t seen a Mirelurk yet, but it seems that with any creature around here, it’s just a bigger, mutated form of something I used to know. Lobsters and crabs had hard exoskeletons, claws, and generally stayed in the bottom of the ocean. They were pretty small too.”

“That sums up a Mirelurk, except they’re as big as people.”

She laughed. “Standard Wasteland Operating Procedure, then – go fucking big as hell, or go home.”

They finished their meal, and as Hancock collected their plates to take them back to the Rail, another member of the Watch knocked on the doorframe.

“Package from Daisy,” he said as he handed it to Hancock. He traded the plates with him. “Thanks for bringin’ this up, and takin’ these back to Charlie,” Hancock responded. The man disappeared down the stairs, and Hancock went over to his desk to have a hard surface to open the package on. Quickly plucking his knife from his waistband, he delicately opened the parcel and motioned for Amy to join him.

“Looks like your order came in for some weed,” he said as he smiled at her.

Her eyes widened. “Seriously? Do you have a pipe, or do people only smoke tobacco in cigarettes now?”

“I’ve got one somewhere around here…,” he began as he rummaged through some of his desk drawers. “But I’m not sure where I left it.” Not finding it in his desk, he moved to go and check the bedroom. “Be right back.”

She pulled up her Pip-Boy, wanting to find the right music to go with the activities they were going to take part in, and she decided on some Pink Floyd, just a little us and them. He soon was back in the room, an elegantly carved wooden pipe in his hand. He held it out to her, and after running her fingers over the intricate carvings, she took it from him as she got up to examine the package on his desk. She picked some of the dried plant material up in her hand to inspect it, and she brought it to her nose to take a sniff. Her eyebrows raised in appreciation.

“Smells like it used to, let’s hope it still does the same job,” she said as she carefully broke apart the compact plant flower into the pipe’s bowl. He was intrigued at the process.

“So, is this like smokin’ a cigarette, or is it somethin’ different?”

“It’s like a cigarette with chems added in, it gets you high,” she said as she grinned.

His eyes widened, and his eyebrow ridges shot upwards and lined up with the edge of the hat on his head, and an appreciative smile formed on his face. “You know I’m always down for tryin’ somethin’ new, Sunshine.”

She wrapped the package back up, placed it in one of his desk drawers, and grabbed his hand to lead him back to the couch. They both sat down, and she fished her lighter from her pocket.

“It’s not unlike smoking tobacco, except when you inhale, you need to hold it in for as long as you can, then exhale. It helps to get the active ingredient in the plant into your blood stream.”

“Kinda like what ya need to do with Jet,” he compared.

She nodded, lit her lighter and barely touched the flame to the crushed-up flower. She inhaled the smoke and held it in for a few moments until she blew out a big cloud into the room. She coughed a bit and handed the pipe to him. He repeated her actions and blew out a larger cloud to mix with hers. He wound up coughing a lot, and she chuckled.

“The phrase that people used to use when that happens is ‘cough to get off’,” she said, “so don’t be afraid if it does happen. It helps to increase the high.” She took the pipe from his hand and placed it on the table. He stretched his legs out on the couch, using the armrest as a backrest instead, and motioned for her to join him. She took her favorite place, snugging into his chest, and they listened as the melodies of guitars, saxophones, and gentle piano playing filled the air from her Pip-Boy.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“Pretty good, actually,” he said as he took his hat off and placed it on the back of the couch, taking a moment to follow the guitar notes drifting in the air. “Relaxed, like my brain isn’t runnin’ 20 different directions at once.”

Her fingers strayed to the open area of his shirt and ran them along his bare skin, her high increasing the feel of the different textures. He shivered a little.

“That kinda tickles,” he whispered, a grin splitting his face. “Haven’t been sensitive enough to be tickled since I turned.”

“I can stop if it bothers you,” she said, “but I love feeling your bare skin. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt before, and I can’t get enough of it.”

“Nah, Sunshine, you’re fine. And that’s funny, that’s exactly what I think about your skin, ya gorgeous angel.” He tightened his hold on her as he placed a kiss on her head. She sighed contentedly.

“Full stomach, music, snuggling, and some weed, nothing better to relax,” she mumbled with a smile as she began to drift off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hancock awoke when a knock sounded on the doorframe. He blinked the sleep away to try to focus his eyes on who was knocking, and she just burrowed into his chest further. Seeing the fuzzy outline of a trench coat and fedora, he blinked again.

“Nicky? That you?” His eyes were pretty dry.

“Hey John, yeah. Sorry to wake you.”

“No worries. Didn’t mean to fall asleep. Charlie’s Mirelurk cakes can do that, though, I suppose.”

Nick chuckled. “Seems like you added some extracurricular activities to that food too,” he noted as he glanced at the pipe on the table.

 Hancock laughed. “Oh yeah, forgot about that. Not bad, if I do say so myself.”

“I’m surprised you were able to find some. Used to be tough, even back in the original Nick’s day.”

“It’s all in who ya know to ask,” he winked.

“I’ve got confirmation on those visitors to town. They are from the Brotherhood, and word is they’re looking for her to collect another sample.”

“Damn it,” Hancock quietly swore. “What do they need now? She was just there.”

“Not sure. I overheard them talking down in the Rail while I was following up with an old client.”

“How much time before they send the cavalry to collect her…?”

“Few more days.”

Hancock sighed. He tightened his hold on her and kissed her forehead, and grabbed his hat from the back of the couch.

“Sunshine,” he whispered as he rubbed her back, “hey, Nicky’s here. He needs to tell ya somethin’.”

She lifted her head, eyes blinking rapidly to focus in on him. “Nick? What’s up?” Hancock helped her up so she sat upright, and she rubbed her eyes.

“Hey doll,” Nick said softly. “Got some bad news.”

She frowned and finished waking up completely at that point. “The Brotherhood is here for me.”

“Yeah. Just confirmed it when I was in the Rail and overheard their conversation.”

“Do I need to go back to the Prydwen, or are they just here to collect a sample?”

“Not sure. Didn’t hear anything about that.”

“Can you send them up here? I don’t want to be left alone with them, but I need to make contact, so they don’t send in more Brotherhood to take me instead.”

“I’ll get one of the Watch to bring them up,” Hancock said as he rose to leave, placing his hat on his head. “Nicky and I will be here, and I’ll see if the Watch can find Fahr too.” With quick movements he was out of the room and had members of the Watch gathered around him within moments, explaining things to them in hushed tones. Two separated from the group and went downstairs. Hancock returned to the office.

“I’d better go get my fatigue shirt on. I don’t want them seeing my Pip-Boy; they’d probably try to take that too.” She dashed back to the bedroom to change.

“They’re puttin’ her through psychological torture with this shit,” Hancock mumbled as he watched her disappear into the room.

“Especially if it continues like this,” Nick agreed. “Now I know why she wanted to know more about the Fat Man launcher. Makes sense to take out the whole ship at once. They may push her to a breaking point soon where nothing’s going to hold her back if she does happen to find one.”

Fahr came running up the stairs and stopped in the doorway. “Watch said you needed me?”

“Yeah, Fahr, Brotherhood’s here to collect another sample from her, and I’ve sent for them to get this over with, so they don’t take her back to the blimp. Wanted you here in case they’re stupid enough to try anythin’.”

Fahr’s face went from curiosity to anger within seconds. “Do I need to get Ashmaker?”

“Wouldn’t hurt, even if it’s for the intimidation factor.”

Without a word she turned and disappeared back down the stairs. Hancock dashed to the bedroom, and said as he began to shut the doors, “Stay in here until Nicky comes to get’cha, ok?”

She was almost done buttoning her shirt as she turned to him and nodded. He turned back around, shutting the doors behind him, and briskly walked back to the office. “You can go and get her when I give the ok. She’ll stay in there until then.”

Nick nodded. He took a seat on one of the couches, and Hancock sat down on the couch opposite to him, pulling his pack of smokes from his pocket, and offered one to Nick. They lit up their cigarettes and waited for the Brotherhood to join them. Fahr’s heavy bootsteps could be heard coming back up the stairs, and she was carrying her favorite minigun. She joined them, but she stood behind the couch where Hancock sat, keeping an eye on the stairs.

The group heard more footsteps coming up the stairs a few minutes later, and they all turned to watch them. A man and a woman walked to the doorway of the office.

“Mayor Hancock?” the man asked. “I’m Knight-Captain Cade. This is Senior Scribe Neriah. Do you know of Amethyst Stevenson’s whereabouts? We came here looking for her to collect more samples. We heard her last known location was here in Goodneighbor.”

Hancock rose from his seat, something between a sneer and a scowl on his face. “Yeah, I’m Mayor Hancock. I didn’t expect ya back on our doorstep so soon after I heard she visited ya the other day.”

The woman, Senior Scribe Neriah, spoke next. “We didn’t get a large enough blood sample when she was aboard the Prydwen, and we’ll need some hair and skin samples as well.”

“Is this gonna be how it is? Every other day ya need a sample from her?”

“We hope not, regrettably we didn’t realize how much of a sample we’d need initially.”

“Uh huh. Right.” Hancock rolled his eyes, but with his dark globes, no one could register the movement. “Tell me that again the next time you’re here for the same thing.”

Knight-Captain Cade cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable being even this close to Hancock and Nick. “Where is she? We’ll be leaving as soon as the samples are drawn.”

Hancock made the slightest nod to Nick, who got up from the couch. “Please, have a seat,” he said as he gestured to the couch.

“We’ll stand, thank you,” Neriah said simply.

“Ya can at least come into my office, so we’re not conducting this in the stairwell.” Hancock returned. The two Brotherhood shuffled into the room, and Nick left to get Amy.

“Do you have anything to sterilize our needles? We weren’t able to bring any with us, our supplies are a little low on the ship,” Cade stated.

Without a word, Hancock went to the cabinet at the back of the office and returned with a white bottle of vodka.

“Hope this works, it’s all I’ve got up here,” he muttered, handing it to Neriah. She opened the bottle and took a sniff, and squeezed her eyes shut.

“You drink this stuff?” she exclaimed, cringing.

“Beggars can’t be choosers, and this is what we find out in the ruins.” Hancock shrugged.

“I thought I told you that I wouldn’t be giving another sample so soon,” Amy stated as she walked up to the doorway, arms crossed, sneering at Cade.

“Wasn’t my choice. I was given orders,” he replied.

“Please make sure to relay to Maxson,” she purposefully left off his rank to irritate them, “that it had better be more than just a couple of days before you need additional samples.”

The two Brotherhood members both glared at her.

“I’m not happy with this whole situation either, trust me,” she continued, “and I know you are just being good little sheep and doing as your dear leader commands, but I would appreciate you passing the message on to him. If Maxson expects the Commonwealth as a whole to allow your group to do your thing, you need to be a little more flexible with us. Using force isn’t the greatest option, and I’m trying really hard not to resort to it myself.” Her eyes narrowed back at them both.

“Can we get this over with? We’d like to get the hell out of here and report back the Prydwen,” Cade spat.

Amy found a nearby chair and picked it up to place it near where they were standing. She took a seat and rolled up her right sleeve. Cade used the contents from the vodka bottle to sterilize three syringes he pulled from his bag, and Neriah took the bottle when he was done to sterilize the sharp scalpel she would be using to collect the hair and skin samples. She handed the bottle back to Hancock, and he placed it on the table, in case it was needed again.

Handing her wrist to Cade, he found the vein he used previously, and it took him a few minutes to fill up the syringes. Cade placed the syringes in a container, which he held while he waited for Neriah to collect her samples. The hair was easy to get, but the skin required cutting a small portion of skin by her scalp, almost at her neck.

“Ya gonna stitch her up after you’re done, or ya just gonna let her bleed?” Hancock grumbled as he looked for something to stop the drops of blood flowing freely down her neck after Neriah gathered the sample. Giving an exasperated sigh, Cade pulled out a small square of cloth from his bag and held it to Amy’s head.

“Hold that there,” he mumbled to Amy, and she took over holding the cloth.

Adding the sample to a glass tube and sealing it, Neriah placed it in the container with the blood-filled syringes, and Cade closed it and put it in his bag.

“Next time, can you announce yourselves when you arrive, instead of lurking? I could have given you these samples sooner if I had known you were looking for me,” Amy stated. “The radio is a hell of an invention too, your ship should have record of the frequency from when I first contacted you.”

“We’ll make sure to note it in our reports.” The two turned to leave, and quickly made their way downstairs and out of the statehouse.

“Fahr, can ya go to Dr. Amari and see if she’s got any suture material? I gotta get that spot stitched up since those useless assholes wouldn’t do it,” Hancock said as he pulled the cloth from Amy’s head, which was quickly becoming soaked in red.

“You got it, Boss,” Fahr replied, setting Ashmaker down on the floor and quickly walking to the stairs and heading down.

“Let’s get this sterilized in the meantime,” Hancock grumbled, taking the bottle from the table and adding a bit to the cloth Amy held to her head. She sucked in a breath and grimaced when it touched the wound.

“Sorry Sunshine,” Hancock murmured to her. “Don’t need an infection startin’ after I get it stitched up.”

“I know, John. Thanks. I definitely wouldn’t be able to see or reach that area to do the stitches myself.”

He kissed the top of her head while he held the cloth pad with her. Nick sat down on the couch and watched his two friends with a smile. Hancock noticed out of his peripherals and returned the smile. “What’cha smilin’ for, Nicky?”

“Just thinking about all of the events in the past almost month, and how we wound up here.”

“Been a hell of a ride, yeah? I wouldn’t trade it for anythin’.”

“Neither would I.”

Fahr returned, a little out of breath, and handed a small packet to Hancock. She made her way over to Ashmaker and picked up the weapon, and let everyone know she was heading back out to join the Watch, to make sure no more Brotherhood walked through the gates today.

“Thanks, Fahr,” Amy said with a gentle smile. Fahr winked and grinned at her as she left.

Hancock pressed Amy’s hand to the cloth, indicating she needed to hold it, and released his hand so he could get the suture tools ready. Sterilizing everything, he quickly stitched up the area, and cleaned it with more vodka.

“This’ll be a good place to keep an eye on when we mix up those Irradiatedpaks, so we can see if it works,” Hancock said.

“Irradiatedpaks?” Nick asked.

“Yeah, had an idea the other day ‘bout cookin’ up a Stimpak variant that adds in nuclear material, since she heals more with rads than the Stimpaks. Would work in a pinch if there’s nothin’ radiatin’ nearby.”

Nick’s eyebrows raised in surprise, and agreement. “Not a bad idea, John! I assume you can use them too, right?”

“That’s the hypothesis.”

Nick nodded approvingly. “Let me know if you need any help finding the materials for them.”

“All done?” Amy asked.

“Yep, you’re done, Sunshine. Is it hurtin’ ya at all? Need some MedX?”

“Maybe later, to sleep. It’s just a little sore right now. How much did they take from me?”

“Not much, more of a slice, but it was enough to start it bleedin’ pretty good. Might need to clean your shirt though.”

She sighed. “Ok, I’ll have to do that tomorrow. I don’t want to bother Daisy with it now.” She got up and started unbuttoning her fatigues as she walked to the bedroom. Hancock’s gaze followed her for a moment until she was out of his direct line of sight.

“Anythin’ else we need to prep for the Glowin’ Sea?”

“Nothing else I can think of, outside of the usual supplies like food and water, ammo….we’re mostly waiting on which suit she’ll need to use.”

“Let’s get a list together and get it over to Daisy and KL-E-O, and I’ll hold onto everythin’ till we’re ready to go. That way we can be leavin’ as soon as the suit’s ready.”

“Alright. Think I’m going to call it a day. I’ll catch up with you two tomorrow, ok? Let me know if you need supplies for those Irradiatedpaks.”

“Ok, Nicky. I’ll see how things are holdin’ up at the chem station when we go down there in the mornin’.”

Nick smiled as he got up, and he made his way down to his room, where he shut the door. Hancock figured his work for the day had concluded as well, so he headed towards the bedroom. He found her sprawled out on the broken couch, in only her t-shirt and underwear, listening to her music softly. Her head turned when she heard his footsteps at the door.

“Hey, love,” she grinned.

“Ya waitin’ for me?” he said as he smirked. He couldn’t pull his eyes from her long, bare legs as they stretched well past the end of the couch. He closed the distance and came to stand right next to the couch, eyes still taking in every part of her.

“Blood somehow got onto my pants too, so I had to add that to what I need to bring to Daisy.”

 “Such a tragedy, you’re almost without clothes…” he chuckled as he trailed off.

“Too bad you’ve got the opposite problem,” she teased with a raised eyebrow. With that comment, he dropped to one knee and, with one hand cupping the back of her head, being cautious of her stitches, he brought her mouth to his, their tongues desperately seeking contact with each other, his getting more ravenous as they entwined, and hers responding right back. His other hand drifted underneath her shirt to her bare breasts, causing a moan to escape into her mouth as he reverently massaged the fullness of one in his hand since he couldn’t encompass it completely. Her hand had strayed to the front of his pants, where she cupped his achingly hard member as it strained against the material keeping it contained.

“God, you’re so hard right now,” she purred as she broke their embrace, stroking him further through his pants, eyes glittering with the desire that flamed up within her.

“I keep thinkin’ ‘bout ya squirtin’, and how I can make ya do that with my cock,” he whispered back to her, unable to keep the lust from husking his voice as he leaned into her neck and began slowly kissing every inch of it and running his tongue along her soft skin.

Her head leaned back, a breathy moan echoing from her lips. “We need…something…where I can…ooooooh…be lined up at your cock…level so you can….stand...and pound me,” she managed to get out as he continued his barrage on her neck, while his fingers tantalized a nipple, gently pinching and playing with it. “The bed’s too low for the angle we need.”

He thought as he moved her shirt to get his mouth to her other nipple, teasing and sucking it as his mind tried desperately to figure out something that would work. He stopped as an idea came to him, his eyes going predatory as he looked at her, a devious grin coming to his face.

“What about my desk?”

Her look was almost hungrier than his had been, and he helped her stand.

“Get your pants on for the walk over there, don’t need to give the Watch more to talk about than they probably already will be.” She quickly got her pants on, and he grabbed her hand as they walked fast to his office. He shut the door behind them and locked the door. She dropped her pants as he worked to clear off the top of his desk, and they both took a hit from the pipe that was still on the table.

Once his computer had been moved, and any paperwork relocated to another part of the room just in case, they crashed back into each other, mouths hungrily twisting their tongues together, her hands removing his jacket and working on his shirt buttons while he slid her underwear down her hips and off, where they fell to the floor. Their embrace broke for a moment so he could lift her shirt off and over her head; as soon as the material passed by them, their mouths joined once again. His jacket and shirt pooled with her clothing at their feet, her nimble fingers untied the flag at his waist and let it fall. His arms pulled her in closer, and then moved to her ass, lifting her to the desk surface and sitting her down. He parted from her to remove his boots and pants, and he kicked the clothing out of their way.

He resumed their embrace as she sat on the desk, and he helped lower her so she was laying on her back, her ass lined up with the edge of the desk. He pulled away to kneel on one knee, his mouth going right for her nub, sucking it into his mouth and keeping it there with his tongue giving it friction, two fingers slickly tracing the edges of her heat as she stretched her neck back and let out a lengthy moan. His fingers dove in, tongue still wrapping and teasing her nerve bundle, and began to pump his fingers deeper within her heat, while his other hand began to stroke his ever-hardening erection, giving himself some much-desired friction before he could enter her.

Giving a few last licks and finger pumps, he stood and rubbed his tip in her slickness, making her body move delectably. He lined himself up with her dripping entrance, and grabbing her hips, he slowly pushed himself inside, relishing the glorious stretch that accompanied it. Their voices joined together in a deep moan as her hand dropped down to finger her nub, continuing the friction he started as he increased his pace with his hips. He noticed she was having trouble keeping her legs steady on the desk, so he placed them over his shoulders, holding onto her hips, delving his length deeper and deeper with each thrust. His cock head was gliding along the perfect spot within her, over and over and over, and her fingers increased their ministrations on her nub until her coil tightened incredibly, and that special pressure began to build as her wave rose higher and higher to her breaking point.

“John, I’m…I…I’m gonna…” was all that she could get out. He quickly pulled himself out and dropped to his knees just as she began to release her sweet nectar into his mouth and down his chin. He groaned as he took in as much as he could, with some regrettably splashing to the floor. He rose back to his feet, his member piercing her heat again without delay, his hands on her hips to drive himself further inside. She sat up to capture his mouth, their tongues in a frenzy as his hips joined in his fevered desire to once more consume every part of her.

 A carnal snarl escaped from him; he grabbed her ass and lifted her off of the desk, hips still rocking his length inside, where he urged her to drop her legs to stand. He briefly removed himself from her heat as he turned her around and bent her over the desk edge, hands gripping tightly on both of her hips, somewhat roughly pushing his member back inside of her, his hips picking up speed as his length went deeper. Her hands tried to grasp anything that she could to keep herself steady as the desk was pushed back up against the wall with his powerful thrusts, the slapping of their skin increasing in tempo. His moans intertwined with her desperate squeals, swears, and screams as he pounded her relentlessly.

Her walls were tensing and constricting so much that his edge arrived a little quicker than he was expecting, and he wrapped an arm tightly around her abdomen to pull her body to his just as she climaxed and shook around him, and with a deep, long growl he shot his seed into her, continuing to pump himself inside of her as she drew out every last drop from him with her contracting walls. His head dropped to her back, knocking his hat off, their legs still shaking from their shared bliss. He kept his member buried in her heat as he began to place feather-like kisses on her back, her shoulders, and her neck, his hand dipping down to glide a finger around her nub. She shuddered and arched her back up into him, his hold on her tightening.

“I wanna keep fuckin’ ya,” he grumbled into her ear, voice low, and he got an exquisite taste of what his voice did to her from the inside; he quickly got hard again as she continued to drip want from her folds.

“Take another hit with me, and make me come again,” she breathed. He started to pull from her, and she quickly placed a hand on his ass and stopped him. “No, he stays where he belongs.” She tightened her Kegels, and his knees almost went weak. “Walk over there with me.”

Still joined at the hip, they made their way over to the pipe and took a big hit each. The high thrumming through them both, they switched positions, used different furniture, and reached the stars above after she reached her climax four more times, and he released in her twice more. Her eyes glowed brilliantly by that point, and he couldn’t stop kissing her.

“Maybe we should make our way back to the room and get some sleep,” he teased.

“We can go back, but I’m not tired yet,” she returned, a smirk forming. “Bring the weed and the pipe with you, and any chems you’d like.”

He gathered some supplies together, and she grabbed his hat from the floor and placed it on her head, picked up their clothes in a bundle, and started heading to the door. His eyebrows raised at her sudden confidence and boldness; he followed her out of the office with equal composure into the bedroom. He had heard the Watch’s murmurs and whispered words of awe as she passed by them, and his heart swelled knowing that she was all his.

Passing by the doors, he shut and locked them behind him and crossed the room into the arms of his awaiting angel, where he pulled her into a close, passionate embrace.

She moaned into him as he pressed himself into to her; he was already semi-hard again, his member sliding along her slit, her wetness dragged along his length as his tongue ravaged hers. He paused his worship of her delectable tongue and purred, “One more,” leading her to the bed. He stopped to get a couple of canisters of jet and the pipe and set them on the floor. He turned back to her.

 “Would you ride me? I think that’s been one of my favorites so far.”

The devilish look in her eyes was the only answer he needed, and he climbed onto the mattress with her following just behind him. Stretching out, he watched her as she reloaded and brought up the pipe, taking a big hit. She handed it to him, and he inhaled an equally large hit, and they wound up expelling their smoke out at the same time. She placed the pipe back on the floor, grabbing the canisters on her way back up and handed them to him. Crawling over to his length, she dropped her mouth around it, taking him in fully, and she coaxed a delicious moan from him as she worked herself up and down on his hardness, barbell sliding and adding a new level of sensation with the high. She soon stopped to crawl on top of him, guiding his erection to her wet entrance, and plunging him in without hesitation. They both leaned their heads back with a moan as she pushed him in deep with a move of her hips.

“Suuuunshiiiiiinneee…” he groaned as her hips slid her heat up and down on him, her breasts bouncing enticingly in front of his face, and he reached out with his mouth to catch a nipple. She sucked in a sharp intake of breath when he did, he sucked on her as she used his length to hit that right spot within her.

The more she worked his cock on her core, the more it tightened; feeling this, he handed her a canister as he held onto the other. Rubbing him faster and faster on her spot, her wave almost peaking, she inhaled from the canister as he inhaled from his, and everything slowed, except the intensity of her building orgasm; it hit at an electrifying crescendo, her cry of ecstasy filling the room, her walls clamping down on his member tightly.

He released into her with a deep growl-edged moan, his entire shaft shuddering as she felt the heat of his seed spread everywhere within her. Her whole body thrummed as she caught his mouth in hers, desperate to have every part of him she could inside of her still, so her tongue entangled with his as her body pressed into him, feeling every naked inch of his skin with hers. As the Jet wore off, she slowed her pursuit and caught his gaze.

“I think I’ve finally met my match,” he breathed, staring at her in awe. “No one’s been able to keep up with my libido, until now, that is….” He grinned devilishly as he stared into her glowing, bliss-filled eyes. “Hence my prior reputation as a ‘ladies’ man’.”

“I was told on numerous occasions that I was ‘too much’,” she replied with a chuckle. “Now I’m keeping pace with a man who is equally as devious and debauched as I am. That’s new to me.” She smirked, giving him a quick kiss on the lips. He pulled her into his chest, and she snuggled against his warmth, his member still within her, soaking up her inner radiance.

“My Sunshine. My heart belongs to you, and I love you so damn much,” he whispered to her.

Rising from his chest a little, she extended her hand and caressed his cheek, her eyes looking deeply within his. “My Moonbeam, with your dark, onyx eyes. You accepted my heart in return so quickly. The love I have for you will never end.” She gave him a light kiss on the lips.

His hold on her tightened. She burrowed further into his chest, and they once more drifted off into restful slumber.

Chapter Text

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Chapter 19  

She awoke to a cold, wet, grey morning as the dim light filtered in through the windows. A calmer but wetter storm had come in at some point during the night, and she could hear the rain as it drummed on the roof. Her exposed skin in the cool air caused her to shiver a little, and she decided to get up and get dressed; she carefully slid from his hold on her and, with a little effort, pushed herself up from the mattress, and pulled the blanket over his still sleeping form to at least keep him warm. Not that he needs it, she laughed to herself , he has a damn nuclear reactor inside of him . That inner heat wound up being the reason she didn’t have a use for the blanket most nights, and she loved that about him, because that’s when she always seemed to be cold.  

Knowing the only clean clothes she currently had were the t-shirt, jeans, and flannel Hancock had given her, she found them in a dresser drawer and quickly put them on to stave off the chill the cloudy day brought with it, adding her Pip-Boy to her wrist, and settling herself on the broken couch. She put the earpiece in her ear to listen to some music while she let him sleep in a little. Billie Holiday was always a good choice in the mornings. She closed her eyes and let the music carry her into a new day.  

It had only been a half hour or so before she decided to have a cigarette, and a hit from the pipe too. She tried to contain her coughs from the pipe as much as she could, so she didn’t wake him, but the hit she took wound up being bigger than she expected, and she doubled over on the couch, coughing her lungs up.   

“Bit off more than ya could chew, huh?” His sleepy voice echoed from the bed with a chuckle, his dark eyes opening to look at her with amusement.  

“Yeah,” she sputtered, “the pipe is a little harsh. I wonder if bongs still exist…,” she trailed off as she pulled the earpiece from her ear and returned it to her Pip-Boy. Pushing herself up from the couch, she took two steps and crawled back into bed with him.  

“Bongs are….a type of pipe then?” His eyes sparkled with interest as he laid across from her, losing himself for a moment in the lush green she held in her eyes.  

“It’s a pipe of sorts, but it uses water to filter the smoke so it’s not as rough.”  

He nodded with absolutely no understanding whatsoever, and grinned. “Maybe we can make one?”  

She laughed. “You sound like my old college roommate.”  

He pulled her in for a kiss, which she returned with enthusiasm. When he slowed their embrace and parted from her, his hand went to her cheek to caress it, his thumb running along her skin.  

“Sounds like a wet day out there,” he observed as he listened to the rain on the roof.  

“Good day to stay inside,” she returned with a smile. A thought suddenly came to her, and her face lit up. “Is tea still around? And sugar? A nice cup of hot tea sounds awesome .”  

Hancock’s brow furrowed. “I’ve heard of someone makin’ some sort of tea from hubflowers, but that’s about it. Coffee seems to be the more sought-after drink item, but that one’s definitely rarer.”  

“Would Daisy have some? Or Charlie?”  

“You’d have to ask ‘em. Doubt Charlie would, though. His irritable circuits wouldn’t offer it if it didn’t have some sort of addictive aspect to it. ‘Keeps patrons coming back’, or some such shit.”  

“I’ll have to remember to ask Daisy next time I’m over there, then.”  

He stretched before he sat up on the mattress, and a huge grin was plastered on his face when he rose. She sat up with him.  

“Ready to get into makin’ some Irradiatedpaks today?”  

“I hope I don’t set things on fire or blow anything up…,” she gave him a look of apprehension.  

“Nah. We’re not makin’ Psycho or anythin’ like that. Stimpaks don’t require the same methods as chems, but since we’ll be testin’ out somethin’ new, let’s hope we can keep any damage to a minimum.” He winked at her.  

“Alright, Mr. Nude, let’s get some clothes on you.” Her eyes strayed to where his hips deliciously met up with his legs and his torso and lingered for a moment, tongue subconsciously licking her lips. He saw her movements and smirked.  

“Your mouth says that, but your eyes and your tongue are sayin’ somethin’ different.” His eyes glittered with merriment as he continued to watch her.  

“You should hear what a certain little lady from downstairs is saying right now,” she returned with a devilish grin.  

“I’ve got a date with her later; I’ll have to ask…thoroughly….” One of his eyebrows raised as his gaze at her went lusty.  

“I’ll hold you to that ‘thorough’ part,” she replied playfully with a wink as she got up from the bed to gather his clothes. “Let’s go see what we can create with your chemistry skills.”  

He got up with her, and after a minute of looking for his boxers, and a few more wrestling into his historical garb, he was fully dressed and ready to take her down to the lower level to do some science.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

She hadn’t been to the lowest level of the Old State House yet. She wasn’t missing much because there wasn’t much down there, other than a makeshift jail, and an odd assortment of empty rooms, but it was nice to see firsthand what it looked like.  

“Does that jail cell get much use?” She figured not, but was still curious.  

“Only when I think it needs to be used. Most of what it’s utilized for are rowdy drunks, and a place for hot heads to cool off if fights break out.”  

She nodded. “Where’s the chemistry station then...?”  

He turned around a corner to a back room. “In here.” He moved to a lantern on the wall to light it. The flood light shining into the jail cell provided some residual lighting by bouncing off of the walls, but the lantern illuminated the table better.  

“I like how secluded it is down here, could be made pretty….soundproof…too, especially that room with the doors by the stairs.” Her eyes caught the lantern light just right and sparkled with mischief. He caught that sparkle, and her innuendo, and grinned.  

“Don’t think I haven’t thought about actually turning that room into a sex dungeon,” he returned. “I didn’t have a strong desire to do so before, but now….I’d be willin’ to reconsider. Biggest concern is heating; it gets fuckin’ cold down here, especially during the winter.”  

“And what would you have in this sex dungeon? Do sex toys and stuff like that exist anymore?”  

He chuckled. “Just like with your weed, it’s all in who ya know to ask, and where to look. Yeah, not much may have survived, but things did survive.”  

Her thoughts spiraled, expanded, and flew at that point, and she smiled to herself as she pulled out her pack of cigarettes and offered a smoke to Hancock. He accepted her offer and drew it out, holding out the flame on his lighter for her, and then he lit his. He kneeled down to check the storage area under the station for ingredients, and he huffed when he wasn’t finding what he was looking for.  

“Damn, thought I had some glowin’ fungus in a jar down here. Did I use those for somethin’ else...?”  

Remembering seeing a faint green glow in the back corner of one of the rooms as they came downstairs, she mentioned it to Hancock. “What parts of the mushrooms do you need? I can go and grab them.”  

“The whole thing – stem and cap. Gotta cut them up into pretty small pieces, and they need to be raw. If ya cook ‘em ahead of time, then you have one of the ingredients for RadAway, and we’re tryin’ to make somethin’ on the opposite spectrum, so it does us no good. We need the rads the mushrooms carry naturally, along with the healing properties.”  

“Gotcha. I’ll be right back.” She jogged to the room where she saw the glow and picked five mushrooms and brought them back to him. He set them on the table, where he brought up a jar with a light amber tinge to it and set it down next to them.  

“Antiseptic,” he answered her unspoken question as she looked at the jar.  

“Next ingredient for a Stimpak is a blood pack, but I’m thinkin’ ‘bout tryin’ some irradiated blood instead. I’ve got most of a bag down here, but I’m not sure it’s gonna be enough. If this works, I want to make a big batch since we’d both be usin’ ‘em.”  

“Where do you get irradiated blood from…?”  

“Any of the creatures out there that has that telltale, bright green glow to ‘em. Sometimes mutant hounds can carry enough, but the tried-and-true source are Glowin’ Ones. They supposedly have enough rads in them to expel a blast of radiation that either heals the ferals nearby them or hurts any smoothskin caught in it.”  

“Interesting. I don’t think I’ve seen one do that before, but then again, I think the only one I’ve ever seen was back at Sunshine Tidings, and we didn’t really give it a chance to do that.”  

“I’ve only heard stories myself, but I trust the sources of ‘em, so it should be pretty accurate.”  

Dropping his almost gone cigarette to the floor, he used the toe of his boot to snuff it out. His hand disappeared under his jacket at his waistband, and his knife spun around in his fingers as it emerged. He set to work on cutting up the fungus while she watched his every move, leaning on the table slightly to get a closer look.  

“You’ve got some skilled hands,” she whispered to him as the knife sliced through the mushrooms.  

“Not as skilled as yours. I think ya got me up to half mast just from your knifework when ya first came to town,” he chuckled darkly, side-eyeing her as he continued to chop. He stopped as a thought came to mind, and he turned towards her. “Can ya do that fancy knife-handling on your own, or is it just when you’re in fight mode?”  

“Great question! I haven’t actually tried using my knife outside of combat. Suppose it would be a good thing to know if I can or not.”  

She straightened, took a half step back, and pulled out the switchblade she always kept at her waist and extended the blade. Closing her eyes, she expelled a long, slow breath to clear her head, and began to move the knife in her fingers. She could hear the slight echoes of the voice that used to visit her when she got out of the vault, and even though no threats were nearby, her hand and fingers responded accordingly. Pneumonic impressions left behind …the weapon glided over her fingers as the knife spun, twirled, and flashed in the low light of the lantern. She ended the display by opening her eyes and balancing the blade tip carefully on her thumb, and with a flick or two of her wrist sent it sailing into a mushroom just to the right of Hancock’s hand. His body movements showed that he was unfazed, but his eyes told a different story.  

“God DAMN ,” he murmured, wide-eyed, once again in awe of the woman in front of him. A slow smile spread across her lips.  

“Guess that answers both of our questions,” she replied with an eyebrow arched.  

Dropping his knife on the tabletop, he took two steps, wrapped his hand around the back of her head, and brought her in for a deep embrace. Her hand went to his waist to pull him closer to her, and she grinned as her hip rubbed against the front of his pants.  

“Looks like I’ve got you standing at full attention this time,” she purred in his ear as she leaned into him more.  

“ Fuck , Sunshine, I’d be worried if I wasn’t fully cocked after that display,” he breathed, reaching out for her lips again and consuming them as soon as they touched his. They wound up backing up into the wall, and his hands shot to her waistband, unbuttoning her pants and pulling them and her underwear down to just about her knees. He parted from her to rasp, “Turn around and bend over slightly.” His hands went to his own pants, opening his fly to release his member.  

She turned and put her hands on the wall, knees slightly bent. She could feel his hands caressing her bare skin, fingers sliding along her already wet entrance until his tip began to pierce it instead. One of his hands grasped her hip as he guided his length inside, which pulled a delicious moan from her.  

“Ho-ly fuck, this setup makes ya tight , Sunshine,” he drawled as he pushed himself in to his hilt, both of his hands on her hips as his own hips began thrusting his member inside her, slowly increasing speed as he pumped. His lips and tongue moved to her neck, and her head fell back to his shoulder as another moan drifted from her mouth.  

“ John ,” she breathed as she felt every glorious, ribbed inch of his length glide in and out of her, effectively tightening her coils. He pulled her closer to him, wrapping an arm around her abdomen as he slammed himself home a little harder, a groan escaping his lips.   

He felt her tighten even more the harder he pounded her, so he kept momentum and pushed a little deeper too; this elicited a beautiful, continuous moan from her, which spurred him to begin rutting hard into her.  

“Keep makin’ those sounds for me, Sunshine, they’re goin’ right to my cock,” he breathed into her ear, his voice lowering. He felt her phenomenal shudder from the inside, heard a breathy moan spill from her lips, and he felt his edge getting closer.  

Clamping down on him, she frantically grasped for his hip to grab onto as her wave crested, and with a few more thrusts he joined her, his seed spilling into her heat. He pulled her close, drawing her back into his chest, one hand gliding along her bare skin as they caught their breaths.   

“An almost fully clothed quickie, I could definitely get used to these if it means I get to be inside of ya more,” he murmured happily as he kissed her neck, his member still, of course, inside of her.  

“Makes it easier to scratch that itch in a hurry,” she chuckled. “And I do tend to get itchy a lot.”  

“My seductive vixen,” he purred, and she felt him begin to harden once more. She took in a long, slow breath as his inches extended, her eyes closing, and he felt her tighten and dampen around him.  

“Wow, I felt ya gettin’ turned on by me as I was gettin’ turned on by you ,” he laughed as he kissed her neck just under her ear. She grinned as she leaned back into him, her hips touching his once again. That kicked his need for another fix of her into overdrive.  

He growled ravenously. “One more. Fuck, I gotta have one more trip into your heaven,” he murmured into her ear as he resumed his thrusting with gusto, and a surprised string of swear words escaped from her lips. His eyes shut as every inch of his member pistoned inside of her, the high her heat was giving him picking up in intensity. He joined her in her relentless moans.   

Their waves and edges took a bit longer to reach this time around; he spent a little more time to focus on feeling every ridge and ripple within her womanhood with his erection as he drew more creative curses from her dirty mouth. With each thrust of his hips, she released more want onto his member, and he could feel it drip down to his balls, making him shudder with delight; he just couldn’t get enough of her, and he showed that by his relentless thrusts. Eventually, he had to help hold her up as her legs shook from the particularly deep wave she just rode out as he leapt from his own edge, his seed warming her from within for the second time. His arms were wrapped tightly around her, and his breathing was heavy as he let her squeeze out the last drops from his length with her constrictions when he heard a board on the stairs creak.  

“We may have company,” he whispered huskily to her, and she nodded as he regrettably pulled his member from her heat, readjusting it back into his pants. She pulled up her underwear and pants and worked on fastening them as footsteps descended further down the stairs. They looked at each other deviously, trying to look casual as Mac headed down the hallway to them.  

“Hey Boss, wanted to run something by you both,” he said as he neared.  

“What’s up, Mac?” Hancock said as he nonchalantly resumed his cutting of the mushrooms. Amy tried to keep her eyes averted, knowing they would betray their recent actions by their glow.   

“I was wondering if I could take Amy up on her offer to go to Med-Tek to see if we can get that cure for Duncan,” he began. “I’ve figured out that I’ve got enough caps saved up where I can have him brought up here if we’re able to find it. But, if it’s dangerous for her, I can hold off for a bit.”  

“How far away is Med-Tek?” Amy asked, curiosity piqued.  

“Remember where we did that U on the way to the Prydwen? We’d go off to the northwest instead from that first bridge. Not much farther from there.”  

“Isn’t that the place swimming in ferals?” Hancock wondered.  

Mac looked over to Hancock and nodded. “No one I’ve asked has been willing to go since the cure is supposedly in a highly irradiated area. I thought Amy might be able to handle it with her being ghoul and all, and she said she would help.”  

“I thought it might be a good time to see how I do in an area with high rads,” she added, “so we’ll have a better idea if I need that hazmat suit or not.”  

“And with all those ferals, might be a chance of findin’ a Glowin’ One,” Hancock murmured to himself as he tapped his finger on his chin. He continued with his thoughts, out loud this time.  

“I’d prefer to come with ya, if that’s ok. If somethin’ happens to her while she’s in that room tryin’ to get that cure, ya won’t be able to go in after her,” he said as he looked at Mac. “Plus, I’m just hopin’ that with the tin cans’ recent visit that she’s dropped from their radar for a while too, otherwise you’ll need some backup.”  

“Good points. Yeah, more the merrier.”  

“Since today’s kind of a wash,” she chuckled, “should we try for tomorrow?”  

Mac grinned. “Yeah, let’s try heading out early, so hopefully we don’t get caught out in the ruins after dark.”  

“Meet us in my office at dawn,” Hancock said. “We’ll help ya get your kid on the mend.”  

“Thanks, Hancock.” Mac smiled at them both. He turned and went back up the stairs, while Hancock went back to cutting up the mushrooms. She moved to stand behind him, so she could wrap her arms around his waist as he worked. She kissed his neck.  

“You’ve got a heart of gold, John. I hope you don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.” She released her hold on his waist to stand by him.  

“Only takin’ cues from the best. I bet ya didn’t even need to think twice before agreein’ to help him, did’ja? Like what would’ve happened if the rads were too much for ya to get that cure, and you’re stuck in that room where Mac can’t get to ya?”  

“No, that thought hadn’t even crossed my mind. I only figured I should put the side effects from that experiment to some good use, and that was a great reason.”  

He smiled in admiration and nodded as he finished chopping the rest of the mushrooms, returning his knife to his waistband when he was done. Setting the mushrooms aside momentarily, he measured out some antiseptic and irradiated blood in a glass jar sitting above a Bunsen burner and added in all of the chopped mushroom pieces and began to stir the mixture. After a few moments he stopped stirring and stood for a second, thinking about something before adding in more irradiated blood and resuming his stirring.  

“This’ll need to stay on a very low heat for a few minutes, then we’ll need to strain the mushrooms out so what remains can get through the needle,” he said as he searched the cabinet for some syringes. Finding four, he placed them on the table and turned around to face her.  

“We’ll use one of these for testing. How’s those sutures on your neck?”  

“Still a bit sore, but not bad.”  

“Good enough. I’ll go get my suture removal tools, so ya don’t heal over ‘em if this works.” He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek as he hurried upstairs.   

She eyed the jar as it sat over the tiny flame, and realizing her knife was still stuck in the table, she pulled it out and placed it back at her waist. Her hand went to her Pip-Boy, and she picked out a song to listen to while she waited. Time to say hello to Mr. Fantasy, courtesy of Traffic , she thought as the music drifted out of the device. Her head bobbed with the bluesy guitars for a while, not noticing for a few moments when Hancock walked back in. He smiled as he watched her. My beautiful music woman, always decorating the room with sound.  

She heard his footsteps as he got closer and turned her music down a little while her gaze drifted in his direction. She smiled as he placed the suture removal tools on the table.  

“Need to strain this stuff first, but are ya ready to test? I’ll do the testin’ with ya, so we’ll know if it works for me too.”  

“Yeah, I’m ready.”  

She watched as he removed the mushroom pieces and filled the syringes, noting all of his movements in case she needed to use them in the future. He paused to remove his jacket, handing it to her as he rolled up one of his billowy shirt sleeves. His other hand disappeared to his waistband, reappearing a moment later with his knife spinning in his fingers. The knife stilled, and he ran the blade through the skin on his forearm as he grimaced slightly; it wasn’t a long cut, but deep enough to draw blood.  

Her eyes widened. “John, what are you doing?!”  

Eyeing her and winking, he said, “Creating an injury. Best way to see if this works.”  

He picked up one of the syringes and stuck it in his arm, close to the wound, dispensing only half of the syringe. Pulling the needle out, he placed it on the table and focused his gaze on his arm. She moved closer to inspect it too. He felt a warmth at the laceration, where he noted the skin was starting to fuse together.  

“So far, so good,” he murmured as he continued to observe. It took a few more minutes, but the cut did eventually close completely, seeing only a slightly raised area where the wound had once been.  

“Alright, let’s try it on me,” she said.  

He ducked down into the cabinet to pull out a bottle of vodka, and sterilizing the needle, he injected the rest of the syringe into her shoulder, close to the sutures. Quickly placing the empty syringe on the table, he picked up the suture tools and watched her wound intently.  

“Are ya feelin’ anythin’? Like warmth at the injury?”  

“Yeah, warmth all over, actually, but concentrated more there.”  

Her skin began to meld, and his hands went into action to snip at the strings and pull them out before the skin fused completely. A few minutes later, she had no more sutures in her neck.  

“Not even much of a scar. We’ll chalk this one up as a win,” he said with a grin. “But that means we’ll need to be on the lookout for Glowin’ Ones while we’re out, unfortunately.”  

She shrugged. “It’s a big benefit to us if we can find them. We’ll need these paks, knowing the both of us and injuries out in the wastes…,” she left her sentence unfinished as her eyes darted to his. She knew she didn’t need to continue; she felt the same tightness in her chest that he felt in his. He reached over and pulled her in for a tight hug.  

“That’s why I’m doin’ this, Sunshine,” he whispered into her ear as he held her, “so neither of us has to go through that again. I’m NOT losing you.” She squeezed him, her eyes getting misty.   

“I love you, John,” she whispered back. He nuzzled her neck with his cheek.  

“I love you too, Amy.” He paused to lift up his head to kiss her forehead. “Let’s get this cleaned up, and try to have a quiet, indoor rest of the day today so we can be ready to get up early tomorrow. Sound good?”  

She caught his gaze and nodded. He rolled his shirt sleeve back down, and she handed his jacket back to him to put on.  

Gathering the unused ingredients, Hancock closed jars and moved them back into the cabinet, and they brought the glass jar that sat over the Bunsen burner upstairs with them, and the syringes. Hancock cleaned the jar out in the bathroom sink while she took a seat on the couch in his office to smoke a cigarette.   

He left briefly to return the jar to the cabinet downstairs and hopped back up the stairs two at a time to join her as she put her cigarette out in the ashtray on the table. He added the syringes to his bag at the desk, and walked back over to her. Sitting down next to her on the couch, his back on the armrest and one leg along the back, he opened his arms, where she dove in to rest her head on his chest, her own legs stretching out as far as they could go, which wasn’t much; she had to keep her legs bent to fit. They could still hear rain hitting the roof as she burrowed into him. His hand strayed to her hip area that was exposed at the waistline of her jeans, fingers lightly gliding over her bare skin. He grinned as goosebumps formed in their wake. Thinking about their upcoming excursion, his thoughts strayed to any supplies they may need to bring with them.  

“Do ya need to get restocked on any ammo before tomorrow? I may need to hop over there myself.”  

“I wonder if I brought my clothes over to Daisy, if they would be done by morning…”  

“Sounds like we’ve got errands to run. I know ya don’t want to go out in the rain, but it won’t be for long.”  

“Damn, I was just getting comfy.”  

“We’ll come right back, and we can get re-comfy.”  

She lifted her head from his chest and brought her mouth to his for a quick kiss. “Okay.”   

They rose from the couch, and he headed over to his desk where his shotgun and bag sat. He kneeled to inventory the contents, and she let him know that she would go to the bedroom and do the same. She kissed his cheek as she parted from him and walked through the stairwell to the room. Grabbing her bag, she placed it on the mattress and began taking out boxes of ammo.  

She was good with shotgun shells, but the .308 ammo for her hunting rifle was getting low, as were her 2mm EC cartridges. Her dirty fatigues sat by the dresser, and she folded them up to take with her, hoping Daisy would be able to have them spot cleaned and ready before the morning. Clothes in her arms, she began walking to the stairs just as he did the same from the office. He held his hand out for her to grasp, and they descended the stairs together. The door opened before they got there, and Nick hopped inside, rain dripping from his hat and trench coat.  

“Nicky! Where ya been?” Hancock smiled as he greeted the synth.  

Nick returned his smile. “Just following up with some of my contacts. Wish they could’ve picked a better day, but information doesn’t stop with the weather. You two have luck with the Irradiatedpaks?”  

Hancock grinned. “Yep, seems to work well for the both of us. We’ll need more irradiated blood though, so we’re gonna tag along with Mac to see if we can grab something from Med-Tek in the mornin’ that’ll hopefully help his son. I’m also hopin’ with all those ferals that there’s a Glowin’ One somewhere in there too, so we can hit two birds with one stone.”  

“Irradiated blood, huh? I’ll keep an eye out for some.”  

“Would ya mind hangin’ around town until we get back? Hopin’ it will only take us the day, but we can use her radio link to let ya know if we get delayed. I don’t want to leave Fahr by herself if those tin cans happen to come back to town while we’re out.”  

Nick smiled. “Of course, John.”  

The friends parted at the door, and Hancock and Amy made a careful dash over the wet bricks of the alley to the shop just across from the state house. KL-E-O was in rare form and wound up giving them some ammo for free when she heard why they were restocking; apparently, she knew enough of Mac’s story with Duncan that she wanted to help. Daisy was the same way when they went over to her shop next; Daisy gave them a bottle of RadX and two packs of RadAway for Mac in case the ferals, and Med-Tek, were too much for his human body to handle.   

Amy pointed out the spots on her fatigues where her blood had dripped, and Daisy said she could clean the spots and have them back to her in a couple hours.  

“Hey Daisy, do you know where I could find some tea bags, or looseleaf tea? Is that common to find?” Amy had almost forgotten to ask.  

“Hmmm. Almost as hard to come by as coffee, but not nearly as popular, so it doesn’t move as quickly when it is available. I’ve got some amazing herbal tea that has melon blooms, wild tato flowers, and hubflower leaves in it if you’d like something in the meantime!”  

Amy grinned. “That would be wonderful! What’s used as sugar now…?”  

“Beet sugar. I think sugarcane went extinct with the bombs. Haven’t seen it in ages.”  

“Damn. Guess I’ll need a bit of that too.” Hancock, at some point, had drifted to stand right behind Amy and wrapped his arms around her waist, his head resting on her shoulder as he watched their interactions.  

Daisy smiled at the domestic scene in front of her as she packed up a small container with the herbal tea and sugar.   

“You both are just too stinkin’ cute together,” she observed as they both grinned.   

“Maybe we can charm any ferals instead of shootin’ ‘em,” he joked.  

“Just make sure ya charm ‘em away from Mac, ok? I’m worried about that kid. I’ve heard stories about how bad the rads are in that place.” A concerned look crossed Daisy’s face.  

“If it’s too much, we’ll have Mac wait outside. I’m not going to risk his health just for that cure. His son needs his dad to come home to. You’ve got my word, Daisy.” Amy stood resolutely as she held Daisy’s gaze.  

“Thank you both, for what you’re doin’ for Mac, and for keepin’ an eye on him. Stop by on your way out in the morning, ok? I’ll send the Watch over with your clothes when I’m done too.”  

“Of course.” Amy beamed at her.  

“OH! Before I forget, I got some items in for ya,” Daisy called as Hancock started to lead Amy back to the state house.  

Daisy dashed to the back of her shop and returned with a bundle.  

“Odd assortment of stuff. There’re some jeans, and a t-shirt or two. I’m still waitin’ on that jacket, but that should come in within the next week or so.”  

“You’re a gem, Daisy. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise,” Amy said as a big smile formed.  

“I packed a surprise for ya in there, so you’ll need to let me know how ya like it,” Daisy said in low tones as she winked at her.  

“Of course, I’ll let you know when we stop by in the morning.” Amy was a little confused, but excited to find out what the surprise was.   

They turned and left the shop, jogging to get back to the state house door before they got too soaked by the rain…and failing miserably. The rain was coming down too hard.  

They wound up tracking water in with them as they made their way back upstairs to his office.  

“I’ll meet you in there – I’d like to get these clothes put away since they’re probably clean,” she said as she parted from him.  

He winked and turned to head to his office, and she went in the opposite direction. Adding the boxes of ammo she got from KL-E-O to the others sitting outside of her bag, she also set the bundle down on the mattress. Removing the brown burlap that had been used as a cover, she set the jeans in one pile, the t-shirts in another, and she saw the surprise that Daisy had included….it was a matching bra and thong set in soft, shimmering black satin, with some light, delicate lace lining the edges. The thong was more string than anything else, and…oh my…was it crotchless?? She took a closer look and confirmed, her thoughts going into full devious mode on what Hancock would say.  

She held the bra up to the weak light coming in from the windows, checking the stitching and hooks for any signs of wear. It seemed to be pretty sturdy. Wanting to keep with the element of surprise, she quickly changed, put on the set, and redressed. The rest of the clothes she stored in their respective drawers in the dresser, and she headed back to his office.  

He had retaken his spot on the couch, as he had been sitting before but with his head leaned back on the armrest, smoking a cigarette and trying unsuccessfully to blow smoke rings. His hat was sitting on the back of the couch, as was his wet jacket.  

“Can I join you?” She grinned down at him.  

He held the cigarette in his mouth so he could open his arms to her, and she curled up on top of him, her head on his chest. One of his arms wrapped around her, and the other pulled the cigarette from his lips to put it out in the ashtray.  

“Right back to where we were before,” he sighed contentedly as he placed a kiss on her forehead. She responded by snuggling into him further.  

“New clothes, eh? More jeans like the ones your wearin’ now?” His hand strayed to her back pocket, fingers caressing the fabric around it.  

She sighed. “No, not quite as form fitting, but they should fit.”  

He hummed in agreement. “I’ll just be takin’ them off of ya anyways,” he chuckled.  

As his hand roamed up towards her hip, he noticed a black strand of material peeking out just slightly from her pants. His eyes widened; is that something that Daisy gave to her? His curiosity was piqued. He had a feeling she was planning something, and his imagination ran wild in the meantime. He wrapped his arms around her, a smile widening across his face.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

Her thoughts were racing. She wanted to show off her newly acquired undergarments, but she also wanted to blow his mind. She knew the latter wasn’t too hard to do (she did it earlier with her knife), but something where she could keep at least the thong on for longer than 0.0002 seconds before he took it off…and then the idea came to her. If he could see her face at that moment, he would have sworn that she went part demon. Her head lifted up to catch his dark eyes.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

His gaze drifted down to her head on his chest, and the eyes that looked back at him were electric, almost like a predator when it first catches sight of its prey. His breath caught as he shuddered a little. She felt it, and that look she gave him ramped up a notch.  

“I think we should go to the bedroom,” she purred in a low tone, lifting herself off of him to stand next to the couch. She grabbed his hand, and he let her pull him up and start leading him to the room. He grabbed his hat, settling it on his head as he followed her.  

On their way, she grabbed a chair, and asked, “Do you have any rope?”  

Oh, fuck me running. His imagination took off into the stratosphere.   

“Yeah, somewhere in the room,” he managed to get out.  

“Good,” she said with the slyest grin he’d ever seen on her. She placed the chair near the bed once they entered, and simply said “sit” as she pointed to the chair while she went back to the doors to shut and lock them. He did as instructed, the anticipation creeping up quickly within him.  

Turning around to face him after locking the doors, she whispered, “Where’s the rope?”  

He nodded towards the dresser. “Top left drawer.”  

Crossing the room to the drawer, she opened it and pulled out a length of silken rope. “I didn’t know you had the good stuff.”  

“We haven’t really had a chance to dive down that little avenue yet,” he returned.  

The smile she gave was pure demon, and he saw it this time. “Let’s change that, if you’re game, that is.”  

He was suddenly out of breath; all he could do was give an affirmative nod.  

“What’s your safe word?” She had guided his hands behind the chair, and was in the process of tying the rope around his wrists and the chair legs as she knelt next to him.  

“Bloatfly,” he rasped out, his eyes focused on her movements.  

Grinning, she moved to stand in front of him, and leaning forward, she captured his lips and tongue with excitement, and he returned the embrace enthusiastically. She slowed to part from him, eyes still laser-focused on his until her eyes darted to her Pip-Boy. Flipping a switch or two and finding the song she was looking for, she removed the Pip-Boy and placed it on the dresser. He recognized the beginning melody of the song she was listening and dancing to the other morning; it was that “Foxy” song.  

She glided to the middle of the room. The guitars started, her hands went up to her head when “Foxy” was sung, and she mouthed the lyrics as she swayed her hips. Her hands danced over her flannel, and with seductive movements, soon it was unbuttoned and falling to the floor. Her t-shirt was next, one arm disappearing into the shirt at a time, until she removed it completely. She sauntered over to him in her bra and jeans and straddled his lap, her lips ghosting by his as her hand thieved his hat and placed it on her own head.  

All he could do was watch her with a longing that built inside of him; he yearned to glide his hands over that soft, bare skin, and he knew why she asked for the rope. She knew him pretty well, and she wasn’t done yet.  

As the song faded away and the next song built up, she slowly got up, turned so her back was facing him, and began running her fingers along the waistband of her jeans. The strip of material he had seen before showed on both hips now as her fingers strayed to the front of her pants, unbuttoning them and teasing them down her hips and past her knees to her ankles. He saw the barely there underwear, and his mouth began to salivate. She stepped away from the puddle of clothes, and slowly dropped to all fours on the floor, stalking him until her hands reached his lap. She slinked herself up and straddled his lap again, and with one hand on the back of his chair, began to lean the chair backwards so the top of the backrest sat on the mattress.  

“You said you had a date with her later,” she purred into his ear as she maneuvered her hips just over his face. “And her new window is wide open.”  

Her slit was now only inches away, and he leaned his head forward and dove in, mouth and tongue searching for her tantalizing nub. Her head fell back with a loud moan when he found it and began sucking and writing a symphony with his tongue. When he said thorough, he meant it, holy fuckballs. Her hand held his head up as he lived up to his ghoul nature, eating her out like she would disappear from the menu if he didn’t consume every part of her. He drew out new sounds and vulgar language from her until he leaned his head back and pulled away from her heat.   

“Release me,” he pleaded. Her eyebrow raised as she moved to catch his gaze.  

“And why should I consider that…?”  

“I…need to feel you…,” he managed.  

The sly grin appeared again on her face as she slid away, raising the chair back to its usual upright position on the floor. Her hands shot to the flag at his waist and quickly removed it, moving to his pants and unbuttoning them.  

“You’ll feel me,” she cooed in his ear as she guided his pants down and off, along with his boots, his incredibly stiff erection bouncing as it was released. Straddling his lap, she closed her hand around his girth and guided the tip to her entrance, lowering herself slowly down his length, her want allowing him to slide deeper within. His head fell back, a deep moan echoing into the room as she took him all in.  

Using her legs, she rode his member up and down, picking up speed as her wave built. She crashed her lips into his, and his tongue desperately sought out hers. She held the back of his head as their tongues explored, and he groaned with impatience. She pulled back to look him in the eyes, and that feral look was back with a vengeance. Her coil tightened just from that look, because that meant he was going to send her to the stars.  

“Release. Me. NOW .”   

Slowing her hips but remaining joined with him, she leaned down and untied the knots at his wrists. His hands shot up to her back, unhooked her bra, and threw it to the floor. His shirt quickly joined their other clothes. His mouth zeroed in on one of her nipples as he picked her up, her legs wrapping around his hips. He carried her to the mattress and parted his member from her briefly to lay her down gently on her back. Lifting one of her long legs and bending it over his shoulder, his length found her heat once again and dove in, pounding her with ferocity. Her breasts swayed with every thrust, and her steady moans became cries of pleasure as he chased his high, and his edge, with ruthless efficiency. As one wave rocked her, another built up just as fast, and she was convinced he wanted to see her come completely undone, because his hips didn’t falter or slow down.  

“John, oh fuck, JOHN ,” she babbled as she grabbed onto him, another wave cresting, her heat clenching down on him with tenacity. Hearing her moan out his name like that threw him over his own edge, and she felt the heat of his seed as he shot it within her, a half-feral growl tearing past his lips as his member thrummed. Letting her leg drop to the mattress, but still keeping his length within her warmth, he dropped one elbow down to lean into her, his opposite hand cradling her cheek, and sought out her lips, embracing her as deeply as he could. He eventually parted from their embrace to stare at her glowing eyes and run his thumb along her blushed skin.  

“I need to get somethin’ for Daisy for findin’ all of these clothes for ya,” he murmured as his eyes and fingers drifted down to her thong, which was the only clothing she still had on her. “I didn’t know that those kinds of underwear even existed. We should try to find a dress for ya to wear with ‘em….so we can find new places for a quickie and be mostly clothed.”  

“I’m glad you liked her surprise,” she grinned back at him, closing her eyes briefly while flexing her Kegels around his member. His eyes nearly rolled into the back of his head as he exhaled a deep breath.  

“God, I love it when ya do that to me,” he murmured. She flexed again, and he shivered. “It’s like a tight, warm hug. Except when you’re comin’…. then it’s like a vice grip that could break me in two.” He nipped at her neck lightly with his teeth, his lips ghosting her skin, and he could feel her want begin to drip once more as her back arched and her breasts pressed into his chest, and he couldn’t help but to harden within her once again.  

Wrapping an arm around her, he thrust his hips deeply as he ran his tongue along her stretched neck muscles as her head leaned back, a long moan escaping her lips. His other hand held onto her hip with firm reverence, aiding him as his length sought to slowly unravel her from within. She raised her hips slightly to change the angle of his repeated penetration, her hand darting to his ass to hold onto, and the new sensation drew a sharp moan from them both. He rested his forehead on hers, his eyes disappearing into her lush, glowing emeralds as his soul enveloped hers without hesitation.  

“Mine,” he whispered as he captured her mouth in his in rapture, his hips pushing her wave higher and higher with every thrust. He swallowed each moan that surfaced from her, every breathy release causing his hips to buck up into her, and her walls tightened quickly around him. She broke from their embrace to throw her head back, a cry of pure ecstasy cascading from her.  

“Juuuusssst like that, Sunshine,” he cooed to her huskily, coaxing her to ride out the wave that had hit her with the intensity of a Deathclaw charge as he continued to drive himself deeper within, her constrictions squeezing him delectably as his own edge neared.  

“Keep….going….,” she breathed, “I want…you to…make me come…one more time.”   

“As you wish,” he murmured as he chuckled, his thrusts causing him to throw his own head back with a groan of pleasure. His hand released her hip and slid to her nub, his fingers drawing out a rush of sensations that built on top of the wave his length was pounding into shape. He felt her clit enlarge, and he sped up his movements until his groan suddenly turned into a moan, his hand grabbing onto her hip tightly, and she felt his warm seed coat her within, his member still being thrusted into her depths with shaky hips. Her fingers quickly picked up the ministrations on her nub, and starbursts formed and exploded in her eyelids.  

“ Oh FUCK ,” she cried as her wave picked her up and threw her oceans away, leaving her shivering and pulsing all over from the bliss.   

“You can say that again,” he murmured as he wrapped his arms around her, his head settling on her shoulder as she rode out the last of her wave. “You pulled somethin’ animalistic outta me today.” His mouth darted to her neck to slowly cover it in light kisses. “I like it.”  

“Let’s see what we can do about a repeat performance when we get back,” she whispered, a grin forming as her fingers traced lazy circles on his back. He sighed contentedly and nodded.  

Chapter Text

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Chapter 20

They both awoke to the sound of soft beeping; she had forgotten about the alarm she set before her little ‘dance’ for him last night. She grinned as she followed along the memories of the previous evening, and she was sure he was thinking about the same as he tightened his hold on her; she felt his hardness along her lower back.

“Good morning to you too,” she cooed as she moved her hips.

His hand strayed to her breasts as his mouth meandered up her neck to whisper in her ear, “Mornin’, Sunshine. Do we have time for…?” His sentence remained unfinished as his hand darted down and before she knew it, he was poking the tip of his member at her already wet entrance and was inside with a few movements, a growl of approval slipping from him.

He cupped his hand over her mouth as she moaned and leaned back into him. “Can’t have ya wakin’ everyone up,” he chuckled. “I know you especially can’t keep quiet when I’m inside of ya.”

“Not much time,” she managed to get out, muffled through his hand as her eyes closed, bracing herself for a delectable, fast, early morning pounding.

“I’ll be quick,” he murmured as his hand gripped her hip hard, his own hips snapping his member into her heat with determination. God, she feels SOOOO fuckin’ good, he thought as his hips sent his length further within her, his eyes rolling back into his head as he felt her breath quicken in his palm. Better than any chem.

His hand didn’t do much to quiet her as her wave crested and his edge neared; he bit into her shoulder in an attempt to silence his own cries as he released into her, his member throbbing while her walls constricted around him.

“Had to have my mornin’ fix,” he murmured through the haze of his orgasm, hips still thrusting every now and then as his hand drifted down to her nub, his fingers rubbing slow circles in her wetness.

She tensed up around him, wanting him to continue, but knowing they shouldn’t.

“You’re a tease,” she pouted. “We need to get up. Hopefully Mac isn’t in your office yet.”

He sighed. “Yeah, I know.” He held her tightly before letting her go. “Let’s get ya cleaned up.”

He regretfully withdrew his length from her addictive heat and helped her up from the mattress. As she moved towards the dresser, his eyes fixated on the mixture of their lovemaking that began to drip down her leg.

“Hold on Sunshine,” he said as he stopped her, dropping to his knees behind her so his mouth could lick up every last drop. She sighed as his tongue danced around her entrance.

“We make a good mix,” he chuckled, parting from her as he licked his lips. She turned to him as he stood.

“Let me taste,” she murmured as she captured his lips with hers, her mouth opening to deepen the embrace. His tongue slowly swirled around hers so she could pick up every tangy nuance. She hummed her approval.

“Delicious,” she whispered as she parted from him, her glowing eyes flashing brighter. He grinned.

Turning, he headed to the dresser, where he found a clean, partial towel in a drawer, and a can of purified water. He wet the towel and looked over to her.

“Gonna need to take off that sexy underwear first,” he said as he motioned her to him. She teased the straps down until she was completely nude, and he began to gently clean her.

“Let’s book a room at the Rexford when we get back, so I can get ya properly clean,” he suggested. “And so I can live out the fantasy that’s been playin’ in my head since that one day….”

“Sounds like we’ve got a date,” she replied with a grin. Her eyes widened as a thought occurred to her. “I forgot about Daisy….did my clothes get dropped off? I didn’t hear anyone knock.”

After using the towel on himself, Hancock strolled to the door and opened it a crack to peek out. Opening it wider, he picked up a bundle from the floor and shut the door.

“We were probably otherwise…occupied…at the time,” he laughed as he eyed a note on top of it.

She picked up the note as he placed the bundle on the mattress.

Amy,

Hope these reach you for the morning. I told the Watch to leave them at your door if you didn’t answer. I think my surprise was well received, from what I could hear from my shop. Still stop by and see me before you leave, ok?

Daisy

He read the note over her shoulder and chuckled. “Guess our reputation stands strong, eh?”

She laughed. “Go get dressed, Mr. Mayor, before anything else stands strong.”

He grinned as he searched for his clothes amongst the remnants of the previous night, pulling on his boxers once he found them, then his pants. In the meantime, she found a clean pair of underwear and a bra, and put them and her fatigues on, layering her armor over everything.

“Can’t find my jacket,” he muttered as he found his pack of cigarettes in his pants pocket, pulling a smoke out and lighting it. He also found his hat on the floor, and after rubbing at a spot on it with his finger, placed it on his head.

“It’s on the back of the couch in the office,” she replied, reaching over to him to ask for a drag. He handed it to her, and she took a long puff before handing it back to him. “Hopefully it’s dry by now.”

She walked over to the dresser and placed the Pip-Boy on her wrist, adding the earpiece to her ear, and worked her wraparound sunglasses onto her head as a headband. Her knives disappeared into their usual spots around her waist, her 10mm at her hip. She picked up her backpack and her boots and wandered over to the couch to sit down. He sat down next to her with his own boots, and they applied their footwear in unison.

“I think we’re set,” she said as she got up, holding her hand out to him to help him up. He smiled at her as he stood.

“Let’s make this a quick trip, ok? Supplies and reconnaissance run only.” He pulled her into a hug.

She returned it tightly. “There and back again. I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna need that shower, especially after a bunch of ferals.”

He laughed as he parted from her. She picked up her backpack and strapped it on one shoulder, making sure all of her weapons were secured tightly as he opened the door.

“Adventure awaits!” He held his hand out to her, and her hand grasped his.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mac hadn’t meant to be early. He just hadn’t been able to sleep, knowing how close he might be to getting the cure for Duncan. He figured he could just wait in Hancock’s office if they weren’t up yet.

They were definitely up; he could hear that much.

Fu-frick, the Watch wasn’t wrong, he laughed and smiled to himself. They really aren’t discreet, but dang, their sounds are so…hot...he shifted in his seat as his pants began to get a little tight.

He was doing a last-minute check on his rifle scope when they finally exited the bedroom.

“Was beginning to wonder if you two would even come out of there,” he chuckled as they neared the room.

Hancock grinned. “Almost didn’t; got kinda sidetracked.” His eyes darted to Amy longingly.

Mac had to do a double take; were Amy’s eyes glowing? He shook his head. Must just be the way the sunlight is coming into the room and hitting her eyes, or something.

“Ready to go, Mac?” Hancock asked as he moved to the backpack by his desk, making sure to grab his jacket as he passed behind the couch. Once his jacket was on, he strapped his bag to his shoulders and held his shotgun in his hands.

“Let’s do this, Boss,” he replied as he rose from the couch.

“I’ll meet you two over at Daisy’s,” Amy said, her thoughts on something specific. “I need to let Kent know to keep the radio on in case we need to reach him for anything.”

“Right, I almost forgot about that,” Hancock responded. “We’ll need to keep Nicky posted if we run into any problems.”

The trio headed down the stairs, Mac and Hancock going out the door to the shops, while Amy went out the back door to the Memory Den. Quietly, she entered and saw a light on under his door. Knocking lightly, she waited until she heard his reply and opened the door.

“Hi Kent,” she greeted him, “hope I didn’t wake you or anything. I know it’s super early.”

“Hi Amy,” he responded. “I was up anyways. What can I do for you?”

“Would you be able to leave the radio on until Hancock, Mac, and I get back? And can I borrow a radio for Mac, so I can keep in contact with him if we have to keep him separated? We’re heading to Med-Tek shortly. Daisy can fill you in on details if you need them.”

A puzzled look crossed Kent’s face, but he didn’t question it. “I’ll keep the radio on this frequency,” he said as he wrote down the frequency after handing her a radio.

“Would you be able to relay a message to Nick if we wind up getting delayed?”

“Of course!”

“Thanks Kent. You’re awesome.” She gave him a hug. If ghouls could blush, she swore that he was doing just that right now. She left as silently as she entered and made her way across the square to Daisy’s.

Mac was the only one at Daisy’s, and she was wondering where Hancock was when he stepped out of the door from the state house and jogged to the shop.

“Had to let Nicky and Fahr know we were leavin’,” he said as he caught up to them.

She smiled and nodded. Daisy was making sure Mac paid close attention to the Geiger counter on Amy’s Pip-Boy while they were in the facility.

“I know, Daisy, I’ll high-tail it out of there if it gets bad.”

She nodded and gave him a hug. “Stop back by when you get back to town, ok? Even if it’s late.”

“You know I will, especially if it’s to hand that cure to you,” he grinned hopefully.

Amy stepped over to Daisy and whispered in her ear, “Thanks for that surprise! If you find anything else like that, please save it for me.”

Daisy grinned. “I thought of you immediately when I saw the set. I’ll keep ya posted.”

Amy and Mac started heading out to the gate, but stopped to wait when they realized Hancock wasn’t with them; he was speaking to Daisy in hushed tones. She nodded and smiled. “Might have something like that, I’ll take a look at what’s in the back now. Got a small delivery coming in today too, so I’ll check there as well.”

“I’ll owe ya for that, and everything else you’ve found so far,” he chuckled. “Name your price when we get back.” He hugged her and walked quickly to rejoin his companions.

Pulling her hunting rifle from her bag, the men followed suit with their weapons. She pulled up a playlist on her Pip-Boy, and caught their gazes.

“Let’s get that cure,” Amy said with a grin, “so Duncan can come home to his dad.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since Amy knew the first half of the route, she led the way. She remembered Haymarket Mall with the Raiders; a new group had already moved in, and she spotted three in her scope as she topped the semi blocking the road, Mac and Hancock close behind her. The spiderwebbing started off slow at first, but then quickly spread as she and Mac began firing at the same time. She caught a bit of movement at the top of a fire escape and hit a Raider in the neck, cutting off the awful remark he had been yelling down to them.

 “Love how a well-placed shot can silence the loudest mouths,” Mac chuckled. Amy winked at him and nodded in agreement.

“I’m not coming up with any others, anyone else spotting more?” She began to check around the corners as they worked their way through the ragtag assembly of plywood.

“Seems quiet this way,” Hancock noted.

“Almost a little….too…quiet.” Mac began to laugh. “Oh man, I’ve always wanted to say that!”

Hancock rolled his eyes as he laughed, but it was hard for anyone to notice that movement in the early morning light.

“Let’s hurry towards the first bridge,” she said as she quickly moved through the market square and headed towards the pink, rusted out car in the distance that marked they were going the right way. Scanning carefully for any new dangers since their last trip through here, she sensed something on the bridge, but she wasn’t sure what exactly; it was large, whatever it was.

“Guys, slow. I’m picking up something on the bridge,” she murmured to them.

“Mirelurk,” Mac responded back, his rifle already up and firing. “Hit those things in the face. Weakest part of ‘em.”

“What the hell does the face look like?” she replied back, taking a shot where she thought it might be.

“You’re close, a little further up from the claws. Just under that dome that goes up and over their back.”

Bullseye.

“Can you see any more? Was that just a straggler?” Hancock asked.

“Think we’re good,” Mac replied. They hurried across the bridge, but slowed at the Mirelurk so Amy could get a better read on the creature up close.

“Sure smells awful,” she said, crinkling her nose.

“Not a great tactical position,” Hancock muttered. “We should get off the bridge. We’re too close to Monsignor for my liking.” He rolled his shoulder subconsciously while his eyes focused on the high rise buildings across the river.

Amy nodded and her pace quickened, and they headed towards, but slightly around, Bunker Hill. Passing by the obelisk, they cut between a semi and a building at the northeast corner of the barricade surrounding the Hill to turn right, and they followed the road until it ended at the U.S.S. Constitution stuck in the bank building.

“Huh. Always thought I hallucinated that thing,” Hancock chuckled as they looked at the back of the ship. Turning left, they started towards the bridge, but paused to allow a trader, two caravan guards, and a brahmin strapped down with a steamer trunk and furniture to travel by them. The rusted-out cars strewn along the bridge didn’t give any other option.

“Ok, once we cross the bridge, just go straight towards the remains of that white house with the vehicle in the road, next to those structures with the balls on top. We’ll need to start cutting towards that chain of red and white towers shortly after.” Mac pointed the direction they needed to head.

“Want me to take point?” Amy asked. “You can just tell me where to go once we get around the towers.”

“Sure.”

Amy led the group past the white house remnants, between the damaged Corvega billboard and one of the towers, and up the rocky hill to the north. She thought she felt the ground rumble, and she motioned for the guys to stop. Spiderwebbing had begun to form, but she was picking up something….underground? Not a molerat. Much, much bigger.

“Radscorpion!” Hancock cried as a huge form burst out from the ground to the left of him. His shotgun aimed for the end of the tail, just by the stinger, which flew somewhere over a rock after he fired two shots at it. Mac caught the creature in three of its eyes, and Amy took out its claws. She spun her combat knife from her waist and sunk it into the top of the creature’s head and twisted it before removing the knife, cleaning it off on her pants, and returning it to her holster.

“So that’s a Radscorpion. These are all over the Glowing Sea?” Amy asked as she stared at the corpse.

“Yep, amongst ferals, Deathclaws, Glowin’ Ones, and other irradiated nightmares that haven’t been named yet, I’m sure,” Hancock said as he cautiously walked past the beast. “This one’s pretty small compared to the ones out there. Remember, the rads make ‘em big and nasty, and there’s plenty of rads to go around in that place.”

“Glad you guys are going and not me,” Mac stated. “Radscorpions don’t play fair because of their digging. That one almost popped out right under Hancock.”

“Is there antivenom, or some sort of antidote, for those things? That might take us down if we get caught by the business end of their tails.” Amy eyed Hancock with a look of concern, which he caught immediately.

Hancock’s eyes widened at a thought. “I should grab that stinger. We could probably make an antidote at the chemistry station.” He ran the direction he saw the stinger fly off at, and finding a spare piece of cloth, wrapped the stinger in the cloth as much as he could and added it to his bag. He jogged back to the group.

“Are you guys seeing that busted brick building down the hill?” Mac asked, surveying the area ahead of them through his scope as they walked up to him on top of the rocky outcropping he was kneeling at. “Med-Tek is just past there, so we should take a break and figure out a plan of action before we head inside.”

Amy nodded in agreement. “Maybe that will keep any more of those damn things from popping up like a molerat and scaring the shit out of us.”

Mac led the way to the crumpled building, but stopped when he heard Amy’s Geiger counter start to click before they reached a point to enter. “There’s rads here?”

Hancock fished out a bottle from his bag and handed it to Mac. “Take two of these now, you’ll probably need to repeat that dose once we get further inside. Grab a handful though and put ‘em in your pockets since ya don’t have a bag with you.”

Mac poured a bunch into his hands and stuffed them into his pocket, handing the bottle back to Hancock. “Thanks Hancock. I forgot to pick some up before we left.” He tossed two into his mouth and swallowed them dry.

Amy smiled at him. “That’s courtesy of Daisy. She knew you might forget, and she wouldn’t let us leave without them. We’ve got RadAway for you too.”

Mac grinned and blushed a little, and cleared his throat. “I’m not used to all of this. It’s been a long time since I’ve had multiple people caring about me at the same time, and even then, it wasn’t that much.”

Hancock wrapped his arm around Mac’s shoulder. “That’s what it’s like to have family that cares about each other. And you’re part of our family, Mac. Duncan too.”

Amy pulled the guys into a group hug. “I like how our family is expanding.” She grinned at Hancock, and he beamed back at her.

Getting distracted and breaking from the hug, Hancock walked into the shell of the building and began rummaging through desk drawers, finding some caps in one, and some toothpaste and a hair brush in another.

“Ooooh, I was needin’ one of these,” Hancock said with a laugh. “My hair is just a mess!” He began to dramatically toss his imaginary hair over his shoulder.

Mac and Amy joined in on the joke, and with enough back-and-forth banter, soon everyone was uproarious. Hancock wiped a tear from his eye as he continued to chuckle while he looked through the desks and filing cabinets. Amy found a large, standalone safe next to some ammo boxes, and was surprised to find four fusion cores hidden away in one of the boxes. Packing them into her bag, she pulled the hidden bobby pin from the waistline of her pants and a screwdriver from her bag and had the safe open within moments. Hancock added the contents of the safe to his bag.

“You two are nothing but a couple of kleptos,” Mac chuckled as he pocketed the caps he found in a duffle bag behind a desk.

“Ah, morality checks from the big and powerful Mac, better get my angel wings on and be on my best behavior,” she laughed as she watched him.

“You can take those off? I thought they were permanent,” Hancock teased.

“Only when I should be wearing my demon wings,” she shot back with a devilish grin and one eyebrow raised. The storms she saw forming in his dark eyes….she knew if she kept this up while they were out, she wouldn’t survive once they returned to Goodneighbor. She had to keep poking the bear while she could though, it was too much fun. Things would get serious as soon as they went indoors.

She swayed her hips a little as she worked her way down the stairs and past the rusted-out vehicles, directing herself towards the oddly shaped grey building. She maneuvered carefully between the wastewater collection pools by the road, stopping briefly once she reached the guardrail to pick up on some guttural growls from the front of the building.

“Ferals,” she whispered to herself as she ducked down, climbing the rocks just beyond the rail and bringing her scope up. She fired twice before her companions joined her as she scanned for more.

“What’cha got, Sunshine?” She felt his radiating heat to her left, and his hand at her lower back.

“Our brain-dead, crazy cousins,” she replied with a flick of her finger, dropping another feral on the roof of the parking garage. “I take it this is Med-Tek?”

“Yep, this is the place,” Mac replied, taking point and finding a path down from the rocks to the front door.

“Mac, hold back,” Amy called, trying not to yell. “We need to get a read on the rads inside before you go in.” He nodded and waved his hand to show he heard her, and she cautiously got up to follow him, making sure there weren’t any ferals in the bushes surrounding the building. She noted the sun’s location as she walked; it had taken them about three hours to get here, and they had quite a bit of daylight to spend, so hopefully this wouldn’t take them long.

“I’ll go first,” Hancock murmured as he passed by her. “You two follow right behind me.” He carefully made his way down the hill and up the stairs to the main entrance, Amy and Mac following behind. Mac paused at the doors as the pair entered ahead of him.

A few lights in the reception area greeted them, and she raised her wrist to check her Geiger counter. “I’m not picking up any rads yet,” she said, eyeing Hancock. Seeing the spiderwebbing, she turned, flicked her finger and nailed a feral coming around the corner in the head, following up with another on a feral stumbling by a wall.

He nodded and exited the doors, returning with Mac a minute later.

“Do we know where we need to go?” Hancock asked Mac.

“Lower levels, I think. At least that was what I was told.”

Amy led the way around the reception desk, and past the unresponsive elevators to a room with a terminal. “Decontamination arches,” she said, bringing the screen to life by tapping the keyboard. She focused on deciphering the password, and soon she cried in triumph. “Got it!”

The door on the far side of the decontamination arches opened, and they carefully wound their way through the corridor to the newly opened door. They found themselves in a large room with a small reactor on the second level, and another reception desk on their left, with a skeleton laid out on the top.

“God, that could’ve been me,” Amy whispered. She eyed her companions, who were giving her either a confused or curious look. Mac turned his attention quickly and fired at a feral that tried to come up out of a hole in the floor.

She turned and joined him in dispatching a feral that started to rush at them from behind a counter.

“I’m picking up some rads,” she mentioned as she neared the reactor, bringing her scope up and taking out two ferals upstairs. Mac took the hint and grabbed two pills from his pocket. Nodding to herself, she headed to the room straight to the back where she began to climb over debris to get through the hole in the wall, which put them into a bathroom, with stairs just beyond.

“You have any idea what all this junk was used for?” Hancock asked, his eyes squinting in the bright lights of the stairwell as he looked around.

“Medical testing, I think,” Mac replied. “Probably why the cure is somewhere in here.”

Amy walked up the stairs, and seeing the reactor, ran past it to the room just beyond and motioned for them to do the same. She heard her companions following quickly behind her. Heading left, she saw two tiny observation rooms, and an elevator just beyond them with a blinking call light.

“Oh good, maybe that elevator works,” she hoped as they all headed towards it, ignoring the ferals locked in the rooms. Mac pushed the elevator call button with his elbow, and they heard the mechanism grumbling as it brought the car up to them. It opened to darkness.

“Let’s load up,” Amy said as she stepped in cautiously, Mac and Hancock quickly filing in behind her. The doors shut, and the car jolted down. It was a good minute before the doors reopened to a window lining the far side of the room, while splitting off to hallways on the left and right. Hancock walked to the window and looked out into the room beyond.

“I hear ferals,” he murmured.

“Let’s go to the right,” Mac guessed. Amy led them down the hallway, which opened into an oval-shaped room with doors and terminals at each smaller room lining both the upper and lower levels. They heard growls and snarls coming from many of the rooms. Hearing a buzzer sounding, doors began to open one by one.

“We must have triggered some sort of release. Eyes up, guys,” she said with a cautious tone.

Eyepiece quickly moving to her right eye, the spiderwebbing directed her to each figure as it emerged on the upper level, her finger tapping the trigger after lining up each shot. Mac took over checking the lower level from his upper-level position, severing an arm of one feral and shredding a torso of another as Hancock aimed his shotgun at a feral charging him on his right.

“I’m not picking up any more up here,” she observed as she moved towards the stairs. The group descended, and she wrapped around to the right of the staircase and beelined to a darkened room with a hole in the floor. Mac picked off a feral that stumbled its way out of a room as she hesitated.

“Should we head down this way? Seems like a lot of stairwells are blocked,” she noted, “but I’m not liking the jump into semi darkness.”

Hancock leaned over the hole and nodded. “Yeah, I think the best stuff usually winds up being harder to get to. Cure must be somewhere down there if it’ll be anywhere.”

The men helped ease her into the gap, and she dropped the rest of the way to land on the tile below. “There’s a hallway,” she began as she followed it, “and it looks like it leads to another big room.” She heard Mac and Hancock as they dropped down behind her. They crawled over more debris piles until her Geiger counter began clicking the closer they got to the room at the end of the hall. She stopped and looked back at Mac.

“Hey, how are you doing?”

“I feel fine. A little nervous over your counter though. I can stay here and keep watch while you two scout ahead.”

“Alright, watch our exit. We’ll be right back.” Hancock said as Amy eased her way into the room, taking out a feral at the top of the staircase in front of her. She darted around some debris and in a door to another room with windows lining the right side. “Mac, rads stop when you get over where I am,” she called out. She saw two figures in her peripherals hurry over to her. They followed her as she cautiously went down the hallway and into yet another room with computers on either side, and a doorway loomed at the back. It led to another hallway that curved, which opened up to a raised walkway and stairs that led down to a large room with a sealed room in the middle. The stairs descended along the outside of the sealed room, and they followed the corridor around to a terminal in front of a metal double door.

“I think this is it, where I need to enter in this password,” Mac said in anticipation. He began typing on the keyboard and pulled out a slip of paper from his pocket.

“Mac, if there’s a lot of rads in that room, you’re gonna get blasted as soon as those doors open,” Amy said as Mac stopped typing. “I can’t tell what the levels are because the room is sealed right now.”

“Fu-frick, yeah, you’re right,” Mac said as his eyes widened in realization of his proximity to the doors. His hand darted into his pocket, and he popped another two pills. “Where would be safe?”

Hancock looked behind him and up the stairs and saw an elevator. “Up those stairs, as far back from these doors down here as ya can get, and take two more pills here in a few minutes,” Hancock replied. Amy took over for Mac at the keyboard, and he handed her the slip of paper. “I’d say you should ride the elevator up and wait for us, but we don’t even know if that thing works. We may be having to backtrack through the building if it doesn’t.”

“Yell if you guys need me,” he said as he disappeared up the stairs. Hancock readied his shotgun.

“I think I saw a movin’ glow in there, Sunshine,” he whispered to her as she typed. “That may be our Glowin’ One.” She paused her typing and strapped her hunting rifle to her bag and removed her Gauss.

“Time for the big gun then,” she murmured as she caught his gaze, and she grinned as she finished typing, clicking the last key loudly. Her gun was up and ready as the doors hissed open. Her Geiger counter began clicking wildly, and her skin started feeling warm. She turned to the terminal in the room and typed on the keyboard to shut the doors behind them as quickly as possible.

“My skin’s feeling a little weird,” she mentioned to Hancock as the doors closed.

“Weird how?” He quickly eyed her with concern.

“Warm,” she replied.

“It’s probably the rads. My skin’s feelin’ the same.”

“Feeling pretty energized too, like I’ve had a decent amount of coffee, or a few lines of coke.” She picked up on some movement to her right.

“You sense that movement?”

“Nah, but I’m seein’ that glow,” he said as he nodded towards it. “Back behind the reactor.”

As their focus went to the back corner of the room, a disfigured, stumbling figure glowing a brilliant green emerged from behind the reactor. It spasmed, hissed, raised its arms, and expelled a cloud of green that fanned out into the room.

“You saw that, right? I ain’t losin’ it?” Hancock said as he raised his shotgun.

“I saw it,” Amy replied as her finger tapped the trigger, and the figure was launched back into the far wall by her shot. As they made their way to the body, she noticed a red container with a needle at the tip sitting on the center exam counters. Picking it up, her eyes widened.

“Mac! Is that stuff we’re looking for called Prevent??” She yelled, hoping her voice would carry through the doors to where he was. Damn, I didn’t give him that radio, that would have helped. She rolled her eyes at her oversight.

“Yes!” There must have been a broken window somewhere, because she heard his response pretty well.

She covered it in a piece of cloth and carefully added it to her bag. “I found it!” she exclaimed with excitement. “We need to get the blood from this Glowing One first, so stay where you are.”

Hancock grabbed a syringe, some tubing with an elbow, and two empty blood packs from a nearby exam tray. Attaching the tubing to the syringe, and the blood bag to the tubing, he jabbed the syringe into the chest of the Glowing One and pulled at the plunger. Dark green but glowing liquid began to quickly snake its way through to the bag.

“How much blood does each Glowing One produce?”

“Usually two bags, sometimes more if they’re big ones,” Hancock replied as he eyed the bag. “You doin’ ok?” He didn’t move his eyes from his task; Mac didn’t have time for him to get sidetracked. They needed to get him away from this radiation ASAP.

“Yeah, I think so. Pretty jittery, but yeah, I’m ok.” She took a deep breath and willed her libido down, which was also running at full capacity for some reason. Now is not the time for that. Deep breaths. Think of that butt-ugly bad guy in that one Cooper Howard film if you have to think of something. She shivered. That guy was creepy ugly.

He removed the almost full bag to replace it with an empty one, and he took a quick second to take a glance at her. His jaw dropped; her eyes were the brightest he’d ever seen them glow. It was like she had two light bulbs in her sockets instead of eyes.

“Sunshine, it looks like I just came in ya fifteen times in a row,” he said as he grinned. He quickly readjusted himself, because just the thought of coming in her made his dick harder than a Radscorpion’s exoskeleton.

Her eyebrows raised. “My eyes are THAT bright?”

He nodded. “Might want to wear them sunglasses, but for everyone else’s protection,” he laughed. She chuckled as she shrugged, pulling her glasses down over her eyes so she didn’t freak out Mac when they joined back up with him.

“At least I know I’m ok with this amount of rads,” she eyed her wrist, “and there’s a lot in here. We need to hurry so Mac isn’t exposed for long; even though I shut those doors, there’s gotta be a broken window somewhere with how easily I heard his response back to me.”

“Just about done,” he replied.

Her eye caught an orange suit on a small shelf. Is that a hazmat suit? She walked quickly over to it and picked it up, adding it to her bag as best she could with the domed helmet. Hancock placed the glowing blood bags to his own bag while she was busy.

“I think we’re good,” Hancock said, so she opened the doors and rushed to the outside terminal to shut them once more after they had both exited. “Mac! We’re clear of the room!”

“Need to get out of here now,” Mac muttered as he hit the call button for the elevator. “Feeling awfully nauseous.” He emptied the contents of his stomach off to the side of the doors to prove his point.

They piled once more into the darkness of yet another elevator car, and she hit the button. The car shook and began to rise. Hancock rummaged in his bag for the RadAway Daisy gave them.

A ping sounded, and the doors opened up to the reception area they first entered from the main doors. Helping Mac while heading to the doors, Hancock saw a sitting area with a lamp and a coatrack to the left.

“Mac, let’s get this goin’ for ya in here. More cover this way, and we’ve cleared this level out already.” He held Mac’s shoulder gently and guided him to one of the chairs. Mac pulled up his jacket sleeve, and Hancock found a vein, inserting the needle and sticking a piece of duct tape over the injection site to keep the needle in place, and he hung the bag from the coatrack. Mac laid his head back on the chair and looked over at Amy.

“You really got it?” His face was pained, but a smile was beginning to form at the corners of his mouth. She grinned as she rushed over to his side and held the Pip-Boy over him.

“I got it, Mac. We’ll head right to Daisy as soon as you’ve had some time to rest first.” She caught Hancock’s attention and nodded her head towards her screen. His eyes widened when he saw the readout.

She whispered to him, “You’ve got that other dose, right?”

He nodded. “Will that be enough?”

She thought for a moment, and remembered she had an additional dose in her bag. “I’ve got one that I’ll never need, if he requires it. We’ll resupply when we get back. We’re gonna need to be here for a little bit until he gets more of this stuff in his system. I’ll have to let Nick and Fahr know it’ll be tomorrow morning at least before we can come back; it’s almost sunset, according to my clock on here. Stay here with him and I’ll radio Kent.”

She wandered to a room on the right as she pulled up her radio menu and found the correct frequency. She spoke into the device.

“Kent. Amy calling Kent. Are you there?”

A moment of static, then a response came through. “Amy, it’s Kent. Go ahead.”

“We’re stuck here at Med-Tek for the night. Mac needs to rest after everything, and it took us much longer than we estimated to get to the lower levels. We’ll have to head out in the morning. Could you let Nick and Fahr know?”

“Of course! Daisy too?”

“Yes, please! We’ll catch everyone up on things when we return. I’ll let you know if anything else comes up.”

“Understood. Keep safe tonight, we’ll see you back here tomorrow. Over and out.”

She looked around the room as she turned the radio off and noticed a safe in the wall. Eh, may as well see what’s hidden in here. Taking out her bobby pin and screwdriver, she quickly unlocked it and rummaged through the contents. Files, wonderglue, a silver spoon, box of ammo. In the back, she found a small, velvet box. Curious, she opened it, and her breath caught.

It was a man’s ring in dark onyx, with white stone inlays delicately twisting throughout the band. It was stunning.

Smiling to herself at this phenomenal find, she closed the box and added it to a pocket in her cargo pants. Closing the safe door, she exited the room and quickly rejoined Hancock.

“Got in touch with Kent. He’ll let Nick and Fahr know we’ll be back in the morning.” She ran her hand along his shoulder as he reached for her waist to pull her closer to him. She gave him a quick kiss on his neck.

“How is he?” She parted from Hancock to kneel close to Mac to use her Pip-Boy to scan his levels. Better, but still not there yet.

“I think he’ll be fine. We caught it early enough, and we’ve got more than enough RadAway. He just needs time to absorb that junk into his system. We should let him sleep.”

“Want to go and sit over there?” She motioned over to a similar sitting area on the other side of the main door, still within view of Mac, but well enough away where they could keep their conversations to a whisper without waking him. They quietly and quickly walked over to the other side of the room.

Hancock sat down and pulled her into his lap. His hand guided her face to his, and he embraced her deeply. His other hand strayed to her breast, massaging it as his tongue twisted around hers. She moaned into his mouth as he played with her nipple through her shirt and bra.

She slowed to part from him, breathing hard, her underwear getting more soaked.

“It took everything I had to not jump you while we were in that room,” she murmured as her ass rubbed on his crotch, her eyes searching his dark orbs. “I knew we had to get Mac out of there in a hurry though. But was it the rads? Are rads an aphrodisiac to ghouls after a certain level? I know we’re both horny on main pretty much any other time, but this was ungodly. I thought maybe I was going feral.”

“Radstorms always seem to make me incredibly energized, oftentimes frisky, but after that blast that Glowin’ One did…all I could think of was poundin’ the everlovin’ hell outta ya. It was hard to focus on gettin’ that blood; I knew I couldn’t even look at ya without goin’ crazy myself. So yeah, ya might be on to somethin’ there.”

His finger traced along the bare skin of her arm, and his gaze drifted over to Mac, who was snoring audibly enough that they could hear it from across the room. She had noticed Mac’s snores too, and she turned back to him with an eyebrow arched and mischief in her eyes. He grinned.

“What’cha plottin’ there, Sunshine? I know that look. You’ve got your demon wings on.”

“Help me move this chair, so the back of it is facing Mac’s direction.”

He might’ve had an idea of what she was doing, but he wanted to see this play out. She was impressively creative, and now that he knew she’s as lust driven as him after all the rads, anything was on the table.

He got up and silently helped her move the heavy, boxy chair so the back of it faced Mac’s side of the room, and she motioned for him to sit back down. She kneeled in front of him and began to remove her boots, leg armor, pants, and underwear. While she was doing this, he removed his flag belt, boots, pants, and boxers, and his member stood at incredibly stiff attention. She turned, leaned forward, grasped his member and took in as much of him as she could in her mouth and down her throat. He gave a sharp cry of surprise at how fast she engulfed him, and her green eyes sharpened on him. He felt teeth. As quietly as she could, she slid his length out of her mouth.

“Quiet, or you’re gonna have blue balls,” she sweetly hissed at him. “Mac’s been through enough that he doesn’t need to hear us being loud and fucking away while he’s recovering. I’m also trying to help the both of us at the same time so we’re not suffering until we can get back home.”

“We could find a room around the corner…,” Hancock whispered back, and she shook her head.

“We need to keep an eye on him right now. I can do that while I’m riding you into the ground.” Her eyes flashed again as she took him in so far that her chin hit his balls. He bit his lip hard enough to draw blood, but no sound escaped this time as his head fell back, his head swimming in bliss. His hat fell and hit the floor, and he didn’t care. She was busy bobbing her head on his cock, her piercing sliding along his length, and that’s all that mattered. He was getting his fix of her and god, did he need it after that huge intake of radiation.

She slowly let his member go from her warm embrace, and crawled onto the chair, straddling his lap, so she could peek over the back of the chair in Mac’s direction to check on him; without looking she grasped his member, slid the tip so it lined up with her entrance, and dropped her heat down on his rock-hard length. She leaned down so her mouth could capture his, and she licked up the drop of his blood that had run down his lip from his self-inflicted bite. He groaned inwardly, and he decided to grab her hips, pulling her down further onto him. She broke their embrace as she started to gasp, and his hand shot to cover her mouth because he knew a moan was just behind it. His other hand held a finger to his lips as he devilishly bucked his hips up, causing that moan to drift through his fingers. He pulled her close so he could whisper into her ear.

“Bad girls who don’t keep quiet, don’t get off,” he purred, turning her little game back on her, and reminiscing back to earlier that morning when he was trying to keep her quiet. She stopped her hips as she flexed her Kegels and looked him dead in the eye. Returning her gaze, his hips bucked his member deeper again, and her eyes fluttered shut while she bit her lip hard.

“Good girl,” he praised with a low tone, and oh fuck yes, there was that impeccable shudder from within; her praise AND auralism kink came out at the same time, and he was here for every minute of it.

“This is in the way,” he murmured to her as he began to remove her armor and her shirt and used one hand to unhook her bra. His face immediately zeroed in on her breasts, his mouth taking in one of her now very erect nipples and sucking hard, while his teeth lightly nibbled. Her momentum picked up as he played with her nipple. He thought she was going to be vocal, but she bit her lip in time and shut her eyes tight as she struggled to keep her voice silent. He broke from his ministrations to whisper to her.

“You’re bein’ so good.” His eyes twinkled as he watched her and felt her tense up from within. He used each hand to palm the globes of her ass, squeezing them as she slid her heat up and down on his member, not giving any signs of slowing down.

Her eyes flicked across the room as her hips moved, and she was relieved to note that it looked like Mac was still sleeping.

“Is he still asleep?” He had noticed her checking on Mac, and she nodded.

He lifted her up, pulled his member from her, and got up from the chair. She gave him a confused look as he guided her to kneel on the chair while he stood behind her. He removed his jacket and unbuttoned his shirt, but left the shirt on. He teased his tip around her entrance, collecting her wetness before he started slowly sliding his length within her, and suddenly slammed the rest in as hard as he could, just testing to see if she could still hold it together. She continued to be good, her hands held a deathlike grip on the edge of the chair and continued biting her lip to maintain her silence as his pounding increased in tempo. The sounds of their skin slapping together began to echo throughout the room, and she didn’t know how much longer she could keep quiet, because he was hitting that really good spot over and over.

They both looked up across the room as they heard movement; Mac had only moved his head and his legs in his sleep though.

Hancock paused his thrusts, member still sitting in her warmth, and urged her to get up from the chair to get into a position that wasn’t so hard on his knees. He led her to the back of the chair so they could both stand, and bending her over, he resumed his thrusts. All she could do was hold on as he became animalistic again and started rutting into her, letting his dick do all of the thinking for him. Pretty soon neither of them could contain their coupling vocalizations, and as her wave built and he neared his edge, they didn’t care. Her fingers went to her nub and began rubbing furiously, and he pounded her so hard that he knew Mac would wake up as soon as she climaxed. Fuck it, he’s not a kid. He knows what fuckin’ is. She’s been good, and she deserves to come.

When she squirted all over him with a cry that carried throughout the building, he answered her call and let out a borderline feral growl as his seed shot from his member into her heat. Breathing hard, he pulled her into his chest as they let their bliss course through them, his hands caressing her bare skin. He peppered her neck with kisses, like he loved to do post-coitus in this position.

“Did we just have angry sex?” He whispered into her ear, and she looked back at him.

“I’m not sure what the hell that was. I’m not gonna complain though, because that certainly scratched an itch.”

He held onto her hip and pushed himself further within her, and she moaned while she pushed back on him. They started on round two; she lifted and rested one of her long legs on the back of the chair, while he held onto both of her hips and began happily pounding away at her as she moaned with each thrust. They were so engrossed in their lovemaking that they didn’t hear Mac walk across the room and sit on the chair in their part of the lobby until he coughed. Hancock slowed down his thrusts but didn’t stop, and they both looked over at him.

“You guys couldn’t find a room?” Mac asked, seemingly a little perturbed, but they saw him palming the front of his pants that were bulging.

“We had to keep an eye on ya. You were in a bad way for a bit,” Hancock said as he resumed his thrusting with a small groan. “Gettin’ blasted with those rads almost made us sexually feral, so we had to do somethin’ to alleviate it. We were tryin’ to be quiet, buuuut that didn’t work out so well.” He grinned.

Mac didn’t reply; his focus was on their actions, and Hancock took off his shirt and stepped to the side a little so Mac could get a better view of him penetrating Amy’s wet pussy. Mac’s hand cupped along the outline of his erection, and he shifted in his seat.

Amy grinned. “Want us to keep going?” Mac looked at her and nodded, almost desperately.

“It’s been a while since I’ve even thought about sex,” Mac managed to get out. “And you two are fu-fricking hot, just pounding away at each other, not caring if anyone hears, what anyone else says…” Hancock picked that moment to slam himself hard into her, and she moaned delectably.

“Can I jerk it while you two finish?” Mac didn’t wait for an answer and began to undo his fly.

“Of fuckin’ course you can! Any position we can do that would help ya get off?” Hancock smirked.

“Whatever you were doing just a little while ago that caused her to wake the dead when she came,” Mac said as he began pumping his stiff member with his hand. Hancock helped her get her leg down, and they resumed fucking against the chair. Her fingers went to her nub, and Hancock increased his thrusts to a rapid pace. Her moans became continuous, and Mac gave his own vocalizations as he continued to watch them.

Her wave built up just as hard as it did before, and she let out a pleasurable cry as she squirted once more, this time all over Hancock’s legs. Hancock groaned as he shot his seed into her.

Mac moaned. “Fu-frick, I’m….close…,” he managed to get out. Hancock quickly led Amy over to him as they were still joined, and she leaned down to his member, grasping it firmly, and downed his length in her mouth. She glided her piercing along his shaft, and Hancock thrusted his own member still in her heat deep into her as she sucked on his length, and Mac felt her moan vibrate around him. She kept her glowing eyes on Mac as she bobbed on him, and he grabbed her arm as he cried out, his release shooting into her mouth. She didn’t stop though, and continued to suck on his cock until he squeezed hard at her arm again and she got him to orgasm one more time.

“Holy FUCK,” was all that he could get out, his eyes glassy and staring at her.

She smirked, winked, and licked her lips. “Didn’t censor yourself that time, huh?” She flashed a mischievous smile.

“Mac, that’s pretty much what I said when she did that to me the first time,” Hancock laughed as he grabbed her hips and began rutting into her.  

His sudden rush in movement and momentum caused her to lose her balance a little and she fell into Mac, and he held her as Hancock continued to fuck her right in front of him. Mac’s hands and eyes went everywhere, including cupping her mound with his fingers on either side of her heat, feeling Hancock’s cock as he slid in and out of her wetness. His other hand went to her breast and grasped as much as he could. His eyes rolled back and closed, a groan tumbling from his lips.

“Wanna fuck her, Mac?” Hancock rasped as he eyed him with a devious grin on his face.

Mac’s eyes widened. “You’re ok with that?”

Hancock nodded. “You’re family, Mac. I’m trusting that it’ll only happen when I’m around to join in though.”

Mac nodded and looked at Amy. “Is that ok…?” Her glowing eyes hungrily stared back at him while she nodded in agreement.

She began to take off his pants, and Mac threw his jacket and shirt to the floor. Hancock pulled his member from her and helped guide her down to Mac’s chair, where Mac awaited her eagerly. She embraced him deeply as she climbed into his lap and lined his member up with her heat, sinking down on his length with a moan. She began rocking her hips, and Mac grabbed onto her ass as she rode him hard, their pleasure-filled moans bouncing off the walls of the cavernous room. Hancock watched with lust as his angel delectably fucked the shit out of Mac, and he stroked his own length in desperation for friction. Mac’s grip tightened on Amy’s ass.

“I’m gonna come,” he breathed, and Amy pulled herself off him and enveloped his member with her mouth as his seed shot into her throat. Once she swallowed and parted from him, Hancock lifted her up, pulled her back to him, and pushed his length within her, resuming his rutting with intent to get them both off again quickly. Her wave had been building nicely while she rode Mac, but with the abrupt stop to gather his seed in her mouth, it had receded a little. It was back at full force now, and it was about to crest; she cried as her climax rocked her thoroughly, and Hancock almost roared as he released within her. She nearly collapsed, but Mac caught her as her knees buckled.

They all looked at each other as they all caught their breaths, and they laughed together.

“Well, that was a helluva ride,” Hancock said as he grinned.

Amy eyed Mac. “We should get that last dose of RadAway hooked up to you. I’m not sure how much rads I have in me on a normal day, but they probably transfer over via bodily fluids, like his cum does to me.”

Mac nodded. “I don’t really feel up to being nauseous again.”

Hancock strolled over to the opposite side of the room, grabbed their bags, and brought them back with him. “Get your clothes on and I’ll get ya set up.” Mac began putting his pants and shirt back on, sitting down to tie his boots. He waited to put on his duster jacket though, so he could get his sleeve rolled up for the RadAway. Amy wandered to the pile of clothes on the floor and began getting dressed. Mac watched her every move.

“You weren’t kidding,” Mac said as Hancock slid the needle into the vein on his arm.

“Bout what, Mac?” His dark eyes sparkled in curiosity.

“She really is something else. No wonder you guys are always….involved….with each other.”

“She’s my new chem, Mac. I’m 100% addicted to everything about her, and my brain constantly needs a fix.” He smiled broadly.

“You’re a lucky ghoul, Hancock. Better to be addicted to her than to chems. No chance of overdosing either.” He chuckled.

“Should we get some shuteye? We should head out early in the morning,” Amy said as she strapped the last of her armor to her arm.

“I’ll take first watch if you two want to get some rest. You’ve earned it with all that…sex,” Mac laughed. After Hancock got his clothes on, he pushed one of the chairs from across the room over to the two chairs occupied by his companions, and pushing that and Amy’s chairs together, he opened his arms to his angel to come and join him. She settled into his chest, and he kissed the top of her head. She gave a happy, satisfied sigh.

“You doin’ ok, Mac?” Hancock looked at the bag of RadAway and then over to Mac.

“Doing great, Hancock. Thanks for letting me join in. Can we do that again sometime? I’m going to respect your wishes, but fu-frick, I could go for another taste.”

“You betcha. We should try double penetration next time so one of us isn’t sittin’ on the sidelines; better to have a shower or bath close by to get cleaned up after that though. Only reason why I didn’t suggest it tonight.”

“Only if I can nail you first.”

Hancock’s eyes widened and looked at Mac. “You’d want to do that? With me? I didn’t think ya swung that way.”

Mac picked up his RadAway bag and walked over to Hancock. He captured his mouth in a deep embrace, his tongue dancing happily around Hancock’s until he released him and pulled back.

“I’ve wanted to ever since you let me stay at the Rail; I wanted to keep it strictly business, at least at first, I did. I knew you swing both ways.….I just couldn’t find a good time to ask, or if it’d be awkward.”

“Fuck, Mac.” Hancock groaned. “We’re doin’ this when we get back to Goodneighbor then. Sunshine gets a front row seat to the peggin’.”

Mac kissed Hancock deeply again, parted from him, and went back to his chair. “Get some sleep, we’ll leave as soon as it’s light outside. I can’t wait to get back home.” He grinned as he watched the pair slowly drift into slumber.

Chapter Text

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Chapter 21

All that she could see was green, and not the healthy kind of green she had been used to in her pre-bomb life, or even when looking in the mirror to her eyes. It was more of a decaying grass, sickly green that was, well, everywhere. There wasn’t much to block out the green either; gnarled branches of thousands of scorched and blasted trees desperately tried to reach the sky to clear the clouds away so they could see blue again, but the saturated, irradiated ground locked them each in eternal hell. Crumbled and forgotten buildings jutted up out of the ground at every angle, and metal beams twisted and bent in all directions. Distorted sounds from any number of creatures that roamed this nightmare echoed in competition to the building thunderstorm in the distance.

She panicked as she scanned the surrounding landscape for anything familiar – companions, landmarks, something, to help her figure out where she was and what the hell she was doing here. Her skin felt like it was smoldering, but no injury showed when she checked.

She stumbled along, avoiding deep pools of unnatural hues that bubbled and spat noxious fumes, until she came upon a deep crater with bright, glowing green liquid at its center. Surprisingly, sitting on stilts above that liquid was a collection of structures made from scraps of wood and metal, and figures moved about on raised walkways.

Not knowing if those people were hostile or friendly, she did not go into the crater or interact with any of the figures, even though they all seemed to be looking in her direction. She climbed hills, scaled huge rock outcroppings, and found herself on a pathway that led to a cave. But she felt that she wasn’t alone, and soon she saw that she wasn’t. A large, glowing mound ahead of her on the trail began to shift, and she quickly realized that she had awoken a massive Glowing Deathclaw. For the first time since she woke up in the vault, she froze in place and didn’t know where to aim, or what to do. The huge beast crossed the distance from where it had slept to where she was in a matter of moments, and it drew its thickly muscled arm back to swipe at her with its razor-sharp claws. She screamed, and everything went dark.

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She came to on the floor of an abandoned building that she didn’t immediately recognize, frantically looking around as she emptied her lungs in a terrorized scream. Arms surrounded her and held her close, and she heard a raspy but calm voice in her ear.

“Sunshine, shhhh. Hey. Yer ok, yer alright. I’ve got’cha.” A hand rubbed delicately on her back as strong arms rocked her in place to soothe her. A warm torrent of tears ran down her face, and she sunk into the shoulder of a red jacket. It took her a few moments to realize she had woken from a nightmare, and Hancock was the one who was holding her. She clung tighter to him and shook, more tears spilling onto his coat.

Soft kisses were placed on her head, her cheeks, her forehead, anywhere he could reach. She opened her puffy eyes to his dark, comforting orbs, and she captured his mouth with hers in a desperate embrace. He held her even tighter as he kissed her, not wanting to let her drift back into whatever decrepit dreamscape she just pulled herself away from. He slowed his embrace to look her in the eyes.

He whispered to her, “That was a bad one, huh?” She nodded. “Wanna talk about it?”

She sat chewing at her lip, closed her eyes, and murmured, “Not right now. It’s still too fresh. I’ve got to sort it out a bit first.” She shuddered, and not in the way he liked. Something spooked her bad.

He sat with her on the floor, his arms still around her, and continued to rock her until her breathing became even. Mac had been watching everything unfold, and he got up, walked over to the pair, and sat down with them, his arms going around them both. She smiled weakly.

“You guys are the best,” she said as she sniffled. “Pound the hell out of me one minute, and comfort me after a hellish nightmare the next.” The men surrounding her grinned at the same time.

“That’s what our family does,” Hancock returned. “Well, aside from Nicky. He can’t really do the poundin’ part, as far as I know.”

“He does know what to do when I have nightmares though. He sat with me after the first nightmare I had when I had just gotten out of the vault.”

Hancock smiled. “Nicky’s the best. He did somethin’ similar for me when I was young. On several occasions.”

The two men continued to hold her, and she relished the comfort and closeness they gave freely.

She checked her Pip-Boy to see what time it was. 3:37am.

“Shit. Still too early to head out. Sunrise is still an hour or so away.” She huffed and reached into her pocket for her pack of cigarettes and pulled one out. She offered the pack to her companions, and they each took one. Hancock lit his, and Amy lit hers and handed Mac her lighter. He returned it to her as soon as his was lit.

“Let’s go sit on the long chair. This floor sucks.”

The men helped her up from the floor and eased her down into the chair, and they sat down on either side of her. She leaned her head back on the chair and blew her smoke up towards the ceiling and closed her eyes. Her thoughts were going a mile a minute, and she needed them to slow down so she could sort them out.

“How’s all that gonna work with Duncan when you get the cure to Daisy, Mac?” Hancock asked quietly, trying to get a different topic going.

“She’s got a caravan that goes down to the Capital Wasteland, and she’ll give it to them. They know where it needs to go.”

“Then what?”

“Gotta wait for him to get well enough to travel. Then I’ll either meet them halfway if the caravan can bring him up with them, or I’ll have to go and get him myself.”

“What about after?”

Mac frowned. “Haven’t really thought about that part. I know Goodneighbor probably isn’t the greatest place to raise a kid, but honestly, not really sure if anywhere is a good place to raise one.”

Amy’s eyebrows shot up as a thought came to mind. “What about Sanctuary?”

“Sanctuary?” Mac looked at her, confused.

“It’s northwest of here, where my brother used to live, and it’s right outside of Vault 111. It’s away from the downtown Boston area, and most other places, so it’s quiet. I helped some refugees settle there on my first day out of the vault. Their settlement was growing quickly the last time we were there, and there’s plenty of old houses to fix up. You could take my brother’s place if you need to, including the Mr. Handy that floats around. I’d rather have someone I know take it than a stranger.”

Mac sat and thought as he smoked. Amy blew out smoke rings as she leaned her head back, and Hancock’s hand strayed to hers and grasped it, fingers entwining together. Smoke drifted out of his nasal cavity and his mouth as he listened.

“Maybe we could go and check it out together? Sounds like it might work, but I hate being so far away from you guys, especially now that….I’m….family.” It took him a bit to get the last part of that sentence out, mostly so he wouldn’t start getting emotional. His eyes were already getting misty.

“We could work somethin’ out so we can see ya as often as possible. We have to head to the Glowin’ Sea soon, now that we know how she does with lots of rads, so maybe we could swing up that way on our way there, have ya stay there while we’re gettin’ irradiated to fuck in that wasteland, and we can come and get’cha on our way back.”

Mac thought a moment and nodded. “Yeah, I like that.”

Amy smiled, the first actual, big smile since her nightmare. “I can swap out some of my holotapes too while we’re there.”

“Why not bring ‘em all back home with us? Seems like they would go to better use at home, rather than sittin’ in a hole in the ground.”

“There’s a LOT of them, John. Might need a damn brahmin to carry ‘em all.” She laughed.

“I wonder if Kent has a way to consolidate ‘em onto a handful of tapes, so you can keep the originals stored away safely. We’ll have to ask him.”

She nodded and leaned her head on his shoulder. Finishing her cigarette, she pinched the cherry off the end and flicked the butt as far as she could into the room with her fingers. Hancock and Mac followed her lead a minute or so later.

She sat for a moment, her head leaning more into his shoulder, and started to speak quietly. “What does the Glowing Sea look like?”

Hancock took in a deep breath and sighed before he answered.

“It’s hills covered in trees that got blasted apart. Pools of radiation everywhere, destroyed buildings, bones. Creatures that can kill ya in one swipe, sting, or pinch. There’s always a green haze, and it’s why the radstorms are colored the way they are.”

She shut her eyes as a tear slipped from the corner.

“I think I was there in my dream.”

Hancock moved his shoulder so she would sit up and used his hand to turn her face to him.

“What didja see, Sunshine?” He barely spoke above a whisper as his eyes held her face in his concerned gaze.

She started talking about the surroundings of her nightmare, the crater with the houses on stilts, the pathway to the cave, and the Glowing Deathclaw. Hancock sat in stunned silence.

“You just described it. To a ‘t’. The crater has a cult called the Children of Atom, and they worship the radiation. Had a few of ‘em come into town about a year back trying to draw a couple of the drifters to join ‘em out there. Had to kick ‘em out.”

“But the Glowing Deathclaw…when I woke it up and it charged me, I didn’t have my weapons ready, or the spiderwebbing. I froze. I didn’t know what to do. What if that really happens, not necessarily there in the Glowing Sea, but in general?”

“I can help with that,” Mac smiled and patted her leg. “You’re talkin’ to someone who grew up shooting.”

She looked over at him and grinned. “Can we work on it on the way back? Should be plenty of targets to take down.”

“I’d like some pointers too, so I’m not stuck if somethin’ happens to my shotgun,” Hancock added. “I’m not the greatest at distance, but it’ll help if I know what to do if we get into a pinch.”

“We can share my hunting rifle, it’s quieter than the Gauss,” she said as she turned to him and gave him a quick kiss on his lips. He pulled her closer and deepened the embrace, and she leaned into him, her arms going around his neck.

“You guys need space, or….?” Mac laughed. They stopped and grinned at each other.

“Let’s save it for home. We could all use a nap before more playtime.” Hancock looked between his companions, smirked, and reached out to Mac to grab his hand. Mac clasped his hand and squeezed. Amy noticed and raised her eyebrow.

“Was I sleeping when something happened…?”

Hancock and Mac looked at each other and smiled. “Just some plans for when we get back, Sunshine.” It was Hancock’s turn to have a devious grin on his face.

“No. NO, you are NOT going to leave me in suspense with something like that until we get home! That’s a blue ball move,” she pouted.

“Okay, miss I’ll-just-reach-out-and-kiss-Fahr-in-front-of-everyone,” Hancock teased back at her, his grin turning cocky, and his eyes held a playful gleam.

“Yeah, gotta admit, wish I could’ve seen the follow-up to THAT one,” Mac sighed.

“Holy fuck, my man. Probably one of the hottest things ever, and ya know how my parties were back in the day.”

Mac laughed and fell over. He had to catch his breath before responding. “Yeah, I remember.… especially that one night where you had a whole group going up to the statehouse from the Rail…”

“I think I actually passed out shortly after gettin’ up to my room that night,” he sat and tapped his chin, trying to piece that night back together in his head. “I do remember a lot of whiskey at the Rail…and a ton of chems….” His eyes widened in realization as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a canister of Jet.

“Speaking of which…would you like some?” He drew her in with his eyes, and she nodded.

He lifted the canister to his lips and dispensed a puff into his mouth. He quickly embraced her, and she breathed in his hit. Their embrace deepened until wisps of the drug began to drift out from his sinuses, and he slowly parted from her.

“I liked the kiss better,” he murmured, his dark eyes taking all of her in. She grinned.

“Chems are just the cherries on top.”

“What’s a cherry?”

She sighed, not upset that he asked, just a little sad as she reminisced. “A delicious fruit that grew on trees. Cherries were used as cupcake toppers, bartenders would put them in your drinks, they were a natural remedy to help you get to sleep…”

“I’ll ask about ‘em. You should start a list, and don’t forget to add yer garlic, and I’ll see what I can find.” He brought her hand up to his lips and placed a kiss on the back of it.

“You’re too good to me, John.”

“Should I be bad instead?” His eyebrow arched as he glanced at her.

“Later,” she whispered to him, and he grinned.

“Fu-frick, you guys, stop,” Mac chuckled. “I wanna pinch your cheeks. You’re being too cute.”

She looked at Hancock, and they dogpiled onto Mac, their combined laughter echoing in the room as they hugged him.

“I don’t think I thanked you guys for all of this. The trip, clearing this place out, finding the cure, giving me RadAway when things got bad….letting me experience the both of you being hot as fu-frick…you two are the best.”

Hancock and Amy kissed his cheeks at the same time, one on each side.

“You’re right Mac, I am the best.” Hancock smiled smugly, with a flash of sass sparkling in his dark eyes.

Amy playfully smacked Hancock in the chest. “At being a smartass.”

He stuck his tongue out at her. “Takes one to know one.”

Mac laughed. “You guys are gonna keep this up until we leave, aren’t you?”

Amy eyed her Pip-Boy and laughed. “Yeah, only 20 minutes left, hang in there.” She paused. “I should repack my bag before we head out.” She rose and walked over to her bag and carried it back to the chairs where her companions sat. Hancock got up and did the same with his bag.

“You need any ammo, Mac?” Amy asked as she rearranged the contents.

Mac patted his pockets. “Maybe some .308 if you’ve got it.”

She handed him a palmful of bullets that he added to his pocket. “Thanks.”

“Damn suit is taking up too much room,” she grumbled.

“Suit?” Hancock looked at her. He eyed her bag and whistled. “Ya found a hazmat suit?”

“Yeah, down in the room with all the rads.”

“Nice find! No wonder why yer dreamin’ about the Glowin’ Sea.”

“I wasn’t wearing one in my dream. I didn’t even have my armor on, or my weapons. Plus, I’ve never been there before.”

“True nightmare with a touch of premonition then. Not bein’ prepared, not doin’ what you’d normally do in a situation…it was just a possible worst-case scenario we can prevent.” He hugged her in reassurance. She returned his hug tightly. “Plus, ya got a heads-up on the Deathclaw. We’ve got an advantage.”

“As long as I have you with me, I can do this.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Let’s get out of this fu-fricking place,” Mac murmured. “Get back somewhere a little more comfortable.”

“I’d say Med-Tek has officially been conquered!” Hancock said triumphantly as he raised a fist into the air. “On many fronts.” He chuckled darkly as his gaze drifted over to her with an arch to his eyebrow.

“A place isn’t conquered until we’ve fucked in it, is that what you’re saying?” She returned his look with a sly grin and her hands on her hips.

“I’d say so. It’s not always safe to do. And a threesome on top of that, with no interruptions?” He folded his arms over his chest with pride. “That takes some luck and skill. Group effort. I’m proud of all involved.”

Mac and Amy laughed. “Ok, you make a good point,” she replied with a kiss to his cheek.

Removing her rifle from her bag, making sure her sunglasses were still on her head (how did they stay put after last night?), and putting her earpiece in her ear, she stood.

Admiring the men in front of her, quietly she said, “You two ready for some shooting lessons on the way?”

They both hopped up and joined her in readying their weapons. “Let’s do this.”

She walked towards the main doors and looked over her shoulder before she opened them. “Don’t think I haven’t forgotten about this plotting you two have going on,” she mentioned. “I’ll get something out of one of you somehow.” She exited the doors to a brightly colored sky, and her companions looked at each other as they followed her out.

“Don’t give in. It should stay a surprise,” Hancock whispered to Mac. He nodded in agreement.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They followed the same pathway home, over the rocky outcroppings of the hill to the south, following the red and white high voltage power line towers, and to the bridge where the weird ball structures stood stoically by the water’s edge. Amy saw movement in the distance across the river.

“There’s movement over by Monsignor,” she murmured as she knelt down. Mac kneeled with her, and Hancock joined them to listen.

Mac explained how to gauge the wind and adjust the shot, as a good breeze was coming in across the water. How the weapon is just as important as the scope and keeping up with maintenance. How if you could, have a rest to sit the weapon on to keep the shot steady, but not to sit the barrel on the rest itself. They used the railing of the bridge to practice, and she aimed for figures moving at the base of the high rise. Mac watched through his scope as three fell in quick succession.

“Hancock, you want to try?” Mac looked in his direction as Amy handed him her rifle, and Hancock took her spot.

Bringing the scope up to his eye, Mac murmured, “Look up to the top of the building.” Hancock followed his line of sight.

“When you’re ready to shoot, take a few deep breaths, and after the last exhale, as you inhale next, take your shot. Try to aim for the head if you can, or torso.”

Hancock followed his instructions and tapped the trigger. He missed, but Mac saw it wasn’t by much. He aimed again and found his mark.

“Nice shot, Hancock,” Mac whispered. Hancock grinned at Amy.

“Got the bastard so he can’t get anyone else from up there.” She gave him a quick kiss of approval, happy he could get the feeling of revenge, even though it wasn’t on the one who almost took him out.

“You’ll be a sniper yet. Hang onto my rifle for now. I’ll use my Gauss.”

Sidewinding through the cars on the bridge, the U.S.S. Constitution stood guard at the end of the street. They turned right and stopped; a group of Raiders sat in the middle of the street about halfway from them and where they would need to turn at Bunker Hill.

“I’ll take the one on the right; John, take the one in the middle. Mac, get the one on the left.” They ducked to the side of the road and kneeled down, aiming on their targets.

“One, two, three…fire,” Amy said, and all three shot at the same time. Three bodies dropped in the distance.

The trio looked amongst each other and grinned.

Amy picked up on movement from a building right next to where they dropped the Raiders; in a flurry her Gauss was up to her eye and firing on a Raider that had exited the building and stumbled  into the street, and he crumpled into a heap next to his fellows. She scanned the area for any others.

She slowly rose and began to advance down the street, Mac and Hancock just behind her but at her sides, weapons cautiously at the ready. They rounded the corner between the semi and the building where they would need to turn and head south, and the obelisk came into view once again. They skirted to the east and hopped over a truck in the middle of the road, heading towards the bridge that would take them back into the city.

Scanning the skyline, and the water’s edge, she felt a bullet whizz past her ear. Ducking, she motioned to her companions to follow her as they kept to the guardrail.

“Mac, can you see where that shot came from?” His rifle answered her.

“Couple of Raiders at the fountain. More around the corner.” She lined up her scope and took out one who was turning in her direction with an assault rifle. As they neared the plaza, she sensed a big number of threats, mostly up on the roofs, and hidden behind walls.

“Mac, we’ll be ambushed if we go that way,” she said with an edge to her voice. “It’s a bottleneck. Roofs. Numerous targets, behind walls. Can we go another direction?”

“Take a right by that yellow car and go down the stairs,” he responded as he kept his scope up at the top of the buildings to give cover. She ducked and hurried down the stairs, her companions following her lead.

“Keep following the river,” Hancock rasped out. “There’s another way home we can go.” His focus swung from across the river to the one they were on, hoping they took out all of the threats on the top of Monsignor.

“Mac, keep an eye across the river on Monsignor. We kicked the bloatfly nest, I’m hopin’ we got all of ‘em.”

“On it. Keep your eyes up on these buildings by us. Lots of holes for vantage points.”

They hurried along the brick-lined riverwalk, on edge as they felt exposed from many angles, zig-zagging between piles of debris that lined the sides of the barricade by the river, and along the buildings. Eyeing a mannequin hanging from a rope on a tree on their way to the halfway raised bridge across the river, they moved quietly and quickly amongst the shadows cast down by the buildings lining the water’s edge, many of which were crumbling in on themselves. Using a discarded wooden pallet to scale the barricade, they descended to the street below and continued following the river. Tall, wood-planked walls lined the high buildings across the road as a barrier, and everyone’s gaze darted around from building to building, searching for anyone hidden within.

Moving quickly through the intersection of the raised bridge, the river stayed on their right as they passed by a mostly collapsed, red brick building with a pile of crushed brick falling out of it. As they wrapped around the building and passed by the bridge, Amy’s gaze was pulled to a floating piece of wood in the water.

“John, Glowing One on a raft in the river,” she muttered as quietly as she could but so he could hear her. His eyes darted out amongst the waves the wind was causing.

“Damn. We’d need a boat to get that one, unless you’d be down for swimmin’ in toxic soup.”

“Nah. I don’t need to grow a third arm or another head.”

“We’ll keep it in mind if we need more irradiated blood, at least.”

Quickly they came upon a partially crumbled brick building with a Fallon’s billboard along the side. Another concrete bridge spanned the river, and she suddenly knew where they were.

“We need to go around to the left,” she said with urgency. “This is the other side of the bridge Nick and I had to rush you across, John. That cluster of buildings up there will have Raiders. Eyes up, especially.”

Hancock tensed as his eyes moved everywhere, the hunting rifle in his hands up and ready.

They passed under the Fallon’s sign, by a baseball billboard on a building across the street, and past a faded Nuka-Cherry mural on a brick wall. An intersection came up that led to the bridge, and she turned her attention to the end of the road at the razor-wire tipped barricade spanning the edge of the bridge. She fired three times in rapid succession, quickly turning to her left and aiming down the opposite end of the street. Bodies fell as her aim moved from target to target.

Mac kept his aim high and took out two on walkways above going between the buildings on either side of the road. Hurrying amongst the destroyed apartments, the road opened up, and they saw a green, raised pedestrian bridge in the distance. Amy stopped at the side of a wall and checked her map. Mac and Hancock sided close to her.

“John, where do we go from here?”

“Up to that bridge across the road, turn left before ya get to it. We gotta go past Vault-Tec Regional Head..quarters…to…” He stopped, realizing what words just came out of his mouth, and his eyes shot to hers.

‘Wait, Vault-Tec?” She was in disbelief. “Do you think they would…?”

“Let’s go check it out. Maybe there will be somethin’ on your vault in there.”

“When we get inside and it’s clear, I need to radio Kent. Just in case. If something comes up, are we close to home?”

“Yeah, but there’s a super mutant encampment in between here and there.”

“Shit. Well, it’s closer from Goodneighbor to here than it was to Med-Tek.”

She led the way to the bridge, and turned left to the five-story, light blue building. “Is this it?”

“Yep,” Hancock replied. “Door’s over there.” He pointed to the right of a chair next to a campfire. They cautiously entered the metal double doors.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The room opened to a well-lit lobby, with a reception desk at the rear. The tiled floor at their feet was missing a few tiles, so they had to walk carefully. She noted a plastic pumpkin, and Halloween decorations on and behind the desk. Stairs sat to their right, along with a blinking button next to an elevator to the right of the stairs.

“Be on the alert for ferals,” she said to her companions.

No sooner than she spoke and began moving further into the room, the spiderwebbing edged her vision and she spotted a feral in the next room. Easy headshot through the broken glass.

“Amy, what was ‘Ha-lo-ween’?” Mac stumbled on the weird word as he stared at the decorations on the wall.

She laughed. “It was a holiday in the autumn each year where kids dressed up in costumes and went door to door to collect candy.”

His eyes widened. “People just gave away candy to kids?”

“One day out of the year, and only with a costume. The rest of the year, you’d have to buy it like everyone else.”

“Seems like an odd thing to do each year.”

“It had historical basis somehow, and that wound up being twisted over time to accommodate the mass consumerism of my era.”

“I’m kinda glad civilization collapsed. That sounds horrible.”

“You have no idea. I’m not surprised things ended the way it did. Society was rocketing towards self-implosion.” Her eyes widened at something she remembered.

“Shit, I gotta contact Kent.” She brought up her Pip-Boy and spoke to him briefly. She relayed their approximate but not exact location (she was wary of this particular kind of information getting intercepted, mostly because of the Brotherhood and the specific building they were in), and that they were on their way back. Kent would relay the message as soon as they were done. She turned the radio off, and started up the stairs, but the stairwell was blocked after the first landing. Backtracking, she led them in the opposite direction.

Cautiously moving towards the room where she killed the feral, she noticed a collapsed floor leading up to the second floor. They quickly moved up the makeshift ramp and cleared the small rooms surrounding the hole in the floor. A balcony opened at the end of the hallway, overlooking the lobby. Passing by a sitting area, Amy headed down a hall to a room on the right. An intact, glowing light came from the back of the terminal on the desk.

“Bingo.” Amy hurried around the desk and began typing on the keyboard. She scrolled through files and read entries that dated all the way up to the day the bombs fell.

“Nothing in here about any of the vaults specifically.” She rose from the desk, and they continued down the hall, twisting and turning around collapsed ceilings. They found another staircase leading up, and she followed it up. It branched off in two directions; one was to a hallway that had a hole in the floor, and the other looked like it went to smaller rooms. They headed to the rooms to check them.

One had been a conference room, and the other looked like a billiards room. The pool table was halfway through the floor and into the room below. THAT’S where all those pool balls came from.

“Huh. Seems to be…purposefully lacking in a lot, for a supposed ‘regional headquarters’. Like this was all just a front.” She stood and thought for a moment.

“We need to check out that elevator. Maybe somethin’s down below, if this up here is a sham.” Hancock made a good point.

They made their way back down the stairs, and down the collapsed floor ramp to the lobby.

Hitting the call button with her elbow, they heard a ding as the doors opened. “At least this one has light,” she muttered. “The last one made me feel like we were going down to hell or something.”

The robotic voice stated they were going up, even though they felt the elevator descend. “Basement,” it announced as the doors opened.

Carefully Amy led the group out of the elevator and looked around. She felt something was between the shelves just around the corner, and she locked on to a feral hidden amongst a debris pile. She fired, and the rotted body shot back to the shelving behind it. At the back concrete wall, in between a wooden pallet with silver toilets grouped together and a stack of metal bed frames was another call button and sliding doors for an elevator. The button blinked at them.

“Now we may be on to somethin’,” Hancock quipped hopefully. He briskly walked over and pressed the button. The doors opened, and again, in as many days, they were taking a ride down to the bowels of an ancient building in a metal car on a metal cord. She still marveled at how some buildings still had power enough for elevators to work, along with all the mechanics still being in functional order after 200+ years. Elevators, in her experience, were broken down more than they functioned.

The doors pinged open, and rows of desks greeted them, with one desk angled along the entrance into the wide-open room. Cautiously they advanced past the shells of terminals at each desk, heading towards the walled offices at the back corners. Carefully easing the door open, a dark mahogany desk sat towards the rear of the room. This one had a working terminal too, and she was at the keyboard within moments, staring at the screen with hopeful determination.

“Fuck, this is locked up pretty tight,” she said as she grimaced, trying to choose the correct password. This must be a hard lock; the words were long, and there were numerous words to choose from. You’ve done this before; you can get this one now.

Mac guarded the entrance to the room as Hancock wandered around, looking at the picture frames that filled the walls.

“What are these pieces of paper in these frames?”

She looked up from the terminal briefly to the walls around her. “Probably college degrees, or some sort of achievement, like military-related advances. My brother had a couple from his promotions.”

“College was like school, right?”

“Yeah, school for adults. To prepare you for the workforce, for a job, so you can earn money to pay for things you didn’t really need.” She laughed. “What a waste of time, and people’s lives.” She continued to type on the keyboard, groaning loudly when she was about to get locked out.

 Eventually she cried in accomplishment as she unlocked it. She chose to open the freestanding safe in the corner of the room with the intent of collecting the contents later, and she continued typing, going through each file. There were a lot of them, with almost as many subfiles. She dragged a chair over so she could sit at the desk, and Hancock found his own chair and slid it next to her. Mac found a seat by the door and kept watch, but his attention strayed every now and then to the pair at the desk, admiring them as they worked.

The main screen had “West-Tek” scrolled across the top and displayed a long list of files. She opened each one. He read each entry with her and rested his hand on her leg. She looked over at him and smiled.

“Thank you for the unexpected detour. I hope we can find something.” She leaned over and stole a quick kiss from him.

“We need all of the breadcrumbs and puzzle pieces we can find.” He squeezed her leg and winked. Her attention turned back to the monitor, eyes darting everywhere as she read.

She was getting near the end when she opened a file that had another lock on it.

“This….is odd.” She gave a confused look as she worked to decipher the password, another hard one. “I’ve never seen two locks on a terminal before.” It took her a few tries, but she got it unlocked. Her breath caught as she read.

“John…” He scooted his chair closer and read the screen with her, his mouth dropping open as he got further down the screen.

Project Radiating Phoenix

Vault-Tec’s Vault 111, Sanctuary Hills

Subjects: Nate Stevenson, Amethyst Stevenson

FEV Variant: Civ-FEV, potential for combination with Mili-FEV or FEVone

Testing start date: October 31, 2077

“They started this shit days after the bombs dropped. On Halloween, too. And they DID know my name. But why wasn’t it in the official file that Nick researched back in Sanctuary?”

“Maybe your brother doctored the records for some reason? Or these files were started right at the beginning of the testing with fresh information, and those others had older, maybe inaccurate, information?” 

She hummed in agreement with both suggestions as she skimmed through some scientific breakdowns that she didn’t completely understand, but she stopped at a description of the first administration of the syringe on her. The place where her nightmares still held her prisoner while she slept.

Female subject restrained on a gurney and wheeled from cryopod room to examination room in Vault 111. Monitors recording vitals. Initial vial of series administered at 09:15:01. Subject began to show signs of distress 10 to 30 seconds after vial completely dispensed into IV-line, radiation levels increased. Heart rate increased. Cerebral monitors indicate a spike in activity in many regions. Muscles all reacting…positively. Extremely active, borderline damaging to cellular structure but still holding steady. Pain levels are extremely high. Cannot give pain reduction medication, as that will interfere with results.

10:27:23 Subject appears to still be in pain. Will return to cryopod as soon as muscle spasms stop. Recording ready to loop as soon as subject returns to cryopod.

She began to cry. “No wonder I have nightmares. My brain must have rebelled at all of this. The shock from the bombs, the cryostasis, then this testing and the recording in the pod, and who knows what else, all in a matter of, what, a week….how am I still here??” She stared blankly at the floor.

He reached over with his finger, and traced it along her jawline to her chin, and directed her gaze to him. His mouth reached out and joined with hers, and their tongues slowly caressed each other. He drew her into him as close as their chairs would allow and slowed their embrace. He dove deep into her emeralds as he cupped her cheek.

“I’m so sorry, Sunshine. None of this shoulda been allowed. But, this may get worse, the more answers we find.”

“But I need to know, John! How far did this go? What was it for? Is it still going on?? I can’t let anyone else be the victim of West-Tek and this experiment.”

“Whatever’s involved, I’m right here with ya. Every step of the way. I promise.”

They embraced again, his heart aching to fill the cracks in hers that were beginning to form the more she found out about this whole thing. She slowed and sighed as she parted from him.

“This mostly looks like trial notes, but I’m not seeing much on Nate. It’s like the focus was on me specifically, and he was just…backup, maybe? I saw him on the gurney when I was in that room though, so there must be notes on him too, right?”

“Keep checkin’ the files. I’ll go take a peek at the safe ya unlocked.” He rose from his chair and rounded the desk so he could reach the safe in the corner of the room. He knelt to rummage through the contents.

She continued to scan and read, and then she saw it – another locked file, another difficult password. This file was different than the other locked files though. She sorted through a list of cities and facilities. Her stomach dropped. There’s a lot. ALL OVER the COUNTRY too.

“Is there some paper, and a pencil, or pen, around here? I think I need to be writing some of this stuff down.” She slid open drawers of the desk in search of something she could use, until one drawer opened to blank holotapes still in the manufacturer’s packaging. She immediately grabbed one and inserted it into the terminal, and it began to copy the files.

“John, is there a container somewhere that can hold a bunch of holotapes? I found some blanks and I’m making copies of the files.” Hancock looked up from a file he was reading and shook his head. “Not over here. This thing’s full of these folders.”

Mac found a first aid kit attached to the wall, and with a little effort was able to detach it and brought it over to Amy. She stood and gave his cheek a kiss in appreciation. If the lighting wasn’t so dim, she could have sworn that he blushed a little. “Thanks, Mac.”

She emptied the contents into her bag and began to add holotapes to the case as they were ejected. Hancock made his way over to the desk with a stack of manila file folders and set the stack down on the edge of the desk.

“I don’t think I’m findin’ much in here, but I’m not sure if I’m lookin’ for the right stuff,” he admitted as he plucked the file from the top of the stack and continued to read as he sat down at the desk. “Plus, none of these are red, like those folders at Sanctuary.”

“I wish Nick were here, he’d be through this stuff in no time.”

“Maybe we should keep the folders here, and take the tapes with us? We can always come back here with Nicky. We’re not that far away from home.”

She looked over the pile and nodded in agreement. “We don’t have room to carry all of this. The box with the tapes will take up a lot of space that we probably don’t have right now anyways…do you have room in your bag?”

“I could get it in there.”

“I think this is almost done, so we’ll try in a few minutes.”

She found some old paper in a waste container by the desk and began crumpling and adding it to the first aid box, so the tapes wouldn’t move around during their return to Goodneighbor. Knowing that there were super mutants between them and home…hopefully the tapes would still be intact by the time they got to the gate. She slid the last tape into the box and shut the lid.

Hancock had to rearrange his whole bag, but he was able to fit the box, and he strapped his bag to his shoulders again.

“I don’t know about you two, but I could really go for a nap right now. Let’s get this safe reloaded and lock it back up.” She rubbed her eyes as she rose from her chair, wrapping her arms around the files and carrying them over to set them back within the safe. She shut the door and went back to the terminal, and they heard it latch.

Making sure they had everything either with them, or stored away, they exited the room and made their way back to the elevator. The elevator car groaned as it rose to the lobby, and they left the building.

“Which way now?” Amy looked at Hancock. He turned to his right, looking past a rust-covered semi almost blocking the alleyway.

“Straight back that way,” he said as he pointed past the truck. She led them down the alley, over uneven piles of garbage and debris, dodging pieces of metal that shot out from just about everywhere. She slowed as she came up to a building with a green overhang, sensing large forms within. She motioned for them to stop.

“We’re at the super mutants,” she whispered as she ducked and readied her Gauss. “There’s not many, but pay attention for any suiciders.” She rose quickly and was aiming as she turned, firing into the caged but open windows of the building next to her. A deep cry of surprise reverberated out to them, and they heard an angry yell descending from an upper level.

“Head up to that orange half bus up there and turn left,” Hancock said as he kept his weapon ready, scanning both the lower level and up above. She cautiously jogged and made the turn, starting to run on a pathway going between large, discarded tires, sandbags, and fallen air conditioning units.

“Straight down then turn right,” Mac called from behind her as his rifle fired. She hurried through the debris and turned right, seeing the glow from the Goodneighbor sign. She slowed and waited for her companions to catch up, and they walked quickly to the gate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the door opened and all three entered the courtyard, a voice called from one of the shops.

“Mac! Did you find it?” Daisy was walking quickly in their direction. Mac quickened his pace to catch up with her at the small wall between the gate and her shop. He pulled her into a hug.

She pulled back to look at him, a curious look on her face. He beamed at her. “We got it, Daisy.”

A large smile radiated back to him. “You did? You found it??”

Mac looked over to the pair holding hands next to him. “Well, they did. I would’ve died trying to get it.”

Daisy stepped back from Mac and walked over to the pair, wrapping one arm around each.

“You’re saints. You don’t know what you did for him by riskin’ yourselves to get that,” she whispered to them. She also whispered a few words to Hancock that Amy couldn’t hear as she responded.

“Daisy, we didn’t risk anything. I only took advantage of something that was forced on me. You were the lifesaver though. If you hadn’t given us that RadAway…I don’t know if Mac would’ve been able to make it back with the one I had on me.”

She stepped back from them with a look of concern. “Was it bad?”

She paused, but Hancock responded before she could. “Not…terrible…but we caught it early enough and had plenty of RadAway. We were worried for a little bit. Had to keep an eye on him until we were sure he wasn’t gonna start glowin’.”

Hancock’s and Amy’s gaze both shot over to Mac, and they all grinned, knowing what happened after all of that. “He’s back to his normal, smart-assed self now though.”

“Hey!” Mac gave a look of mock hurt.

“That just means ya fit in with the rest of us smartasses,” Hancock said to him with a wink. They shared a knowing grin between them.

Amy removed the straps of her bag from her shoulders. “Can I use your counter? We need to get that cure out so you can get it to the caravan, and I picked up a lot of shit along the way, so I need room to spread out and find where I put it.”

Daisy beamed and led the way into her shop. “Is that a hazmat suit I see sticking out of there? I’ll call of the search for one….” Her voice began to get muffled the further within her shop she went. Hancock looked over to Mac and motioned him closer. Hancock held his arm as he spoke.

“I’m gonna go get the penthouse at the Rexford, and I’m gonna get ya a room too, so you can get cleaned up beforehand if ya want to and get a proper nap. Meet us down at the Rail around early evenin’ – I got word from Daisy that I have a surprise comin’ for both you and Sunshine, so we should start this little plan there.” His eyes sparkled. “I can’t wait.”

Mac nodded and grinned. “I’m gonna get a drink at the Rail, so bring the key down there.” He rubbed his thumb along the inside of Hancock’s wrist and held his gaze for a moment until he turned and walked to the alley, towards the Rail. Hancock exhaled heavily as he watched him disappear. The door to the statehouse opened not a second after, and Nick walked out.

“Nicky!” Hancock’s face broke into a large grin. “Just the collection of circuits I need to talk to!” He jogged over to him and the pair found their way to a bench outside of Daisy’s shop to sit and quietly converse.

Amy stepped from Daisy’s to find Hancock and Nick speaking to each other in quiet tones.

“Nick!” She beamed as he rose to give her a hug.

“Hey doll,” he murmured happily as she returned his hug. “Glad you three made it back in one piece. Thanks for the status reports.”

“We did, and you’re welcome. Was John filling you in on things?”

“Yeah. We’ll need to have a sit down and discuss, because it sounds for sure like our next destination is the Glowing Sea, huh?”

She nodded, a little apprehensively though. Nick noted it with an arch to his eyebrow.

“We’ll get to that. There’s…quite a bit we’ve got to share with you.”

“Sounds like we should set up a time. You two look exhausted, and I’m guessing that Mac went to get some rest himself.”

“If we could, Nick. I….didn’t sleep well, or that much, last night.”

“I heard about the nightmare. We’ll talk more later.” He brought her hand up to his mouth and placed a gentle kiss on the back, releasing it shortly after. His eyes were soft as he gazed into hers, knowing that she must have had a bad one.

“Catch up with me in the morning, John, and we’ll get a time set up,” Nick said as he turned to leave.

“Ok, Nicky. Thanks for holdin’ down the fort.”

Hancock turned to Amy and held out his hand. “Let’s get unpacked. That bag looks like it might explode at any moment.”

She giggled and accepted his hand, and they walked into the statehouse and up to their room. She rested her bag on the floor, taking off her boots and sitting down to remove the contents.

“Shit, I said I’d talk to Daisy when I got back, and Nicky sidetracked me. I’ll be right back,” Hancock said as he gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“I’ll be here, going through things,” she replied. He grinned and disappeared downstairs. She found some music on her Pip-Boy and turned up the volume, and started lining everything up to either put it away, or organize it back into her bag. Finding the pipe and her weed, she added a few hits to her activity, and soon she was singing along with all of the songs as she worked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hancock had a few things to do, but quickly, so it wouldn’t arouse her suspicion. He went to Daisy’s, true to his word, first; she found what he had asked for the previous morning, and she had the bundle wrapped up and ready for him. He handed her a bag of caps.

“I’ll get ya the rest, just name the difference.” He grinned at her, and she just smirked back at him.

“I figured ya might have plans already for it, so I added in some extras, so she wouldn’t need anything else.”

“You bet I do. They’re delicate, so keep it quiet if ya can. I gotta get goin’. Thank you, Daisy.” He beamed at her before he turned and hurried to the Rexford, where he picked up the key for the penthouse and an additional room, and stopped at the penthouse to drop Daisy’s package off. He heard soft music coming from the statehouse as he exited the hotel, and he knew he had enough time to run the key to Mac before she suspected anything. Maybe a quick drink. Hancock saw Charlie for a glass of whiskey and made his way to the back room.

He found Mac in the VIP room, his legs stretched out and resting on a chair as he sat on a couch. A glass rested on the floor next to him, and his head leaned back. Smoke drifted slowly from his lips, and from the lit cigarette in his hand. He sighed audibly.

“Startin’ the party already?” Hancock murmured as he walked into the room. Mac’s head snapped up, and he grinned.

“Nah. If I had a bottle, then yes. I was mostly zoning out until you got here.”

Hancock sat next to Mac and handed him the key and took a long drink from his glass.

“I’ll get her up to the room so we can get cleaned up, and so I can try to get her to sleep a little.”

“I kinda doubt that’s gonna happen if you two are alone.” He grinned with an arched eyebrow, and shifted in his seat as his thoughts wandered.

“Well, yeah, there will be a bit of that, but she does need to sleep, even if it’s a couple hours. We’ll meet up back in here around 6. There’s soap and stuff in your bathroom if ya need it, I asked ‘em to add in the extras.”

Mac dove forward and captured Hancock’s mouth with his, and embraced him deeply, his hand moving to the back of his neck to draw him in further. Hancock reluctantly parted from Mac, his breathing heavy, and he groaned.

“We gotta save this for later,” he said with a twinge of frustration, his hand cupping Mac’s cheek. They embraced once more and parted; Hancock emptied his glass and rose from his seat. “I gotta get back before she suspects somethin’. We’ll see you back here soon, ok?”

Mac’s eyes locked on Hancock’s, and he nodded with a bright grin. “I’ll have a bottle waiting for you guys. Don’t be late, ok? I don’t know how much longer I can wait.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Her findings during their adventure had found homes in one of the two dressers in the room, and she was currently on her second bowl, and dancing to her music. Foghat was taking her on a slow ride currently, and her hips swayed back and forth as her arms moved to the beat. Her singing had gotten a little louder, and she was so into the music that she didn’t see a figure leaning on the doorframe in the doorway, watching her every move intently.

When she picked up the pipe to take another hit, she felt hands around her waist, and a voice rasped in her ear. “Can I join ya?”

She turned and saw dark eyes glittering back at her. Beaming, she handed him the pipe and the lighter, and continued dancing, even though the music had slowed.

He took a hit and put the pipe down on the floor by the bed. He sat down on the mattress, and she came up and straddled his lap, capturing his mouth with hers. He returned the embrace enthusiastically, and his hands massaged her ass cheeks as their tongues battled for dominance. When moans were coming from both of them, he slowed their embrace and pulled back.

“Before this goes any further, I got that room at the Rexford. With a shower, like we planned. Can we…replay that time I saw ya in the shower? But this time, can I do what I really wanted to do that night?”

She embraced him quickly, and pulled his lower lip into her mouth, sucking gently before releasing it. Her eyes were sparkling brilliantly, and his heart skipped a beat.

“Let’s do it. Can we bring some chems or something? And a few of my holotapes?”

“I’ll get a bag ready to bring with us. Grab a change of clothes so ya have somethin’ clean to wear after I get ya cleaned up.” His mouth darted to her neck and began nuzzling and kissing deeply under her ear. She was breathing heavy.

“Need to go now then. I’m getting to the point where I can’t wait.” Her stare when he parted from her neck was intense.

He helped her up and brought his bag onto the bed to empty the contents of their travels and make room for their excursion to the Rexford. Her clothes, box of holotapes (the music ones), and a bag with the pipe and weed went in, and Hancock added some items of his own. He tossed the bag on his shoulder and waited as she put her boots back on. When she was done, he grabbed her hand and led her out of the back door to the Rexford.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hancock unlocked the door to the penthouse and opened the door wide for her to go in first. The room was, by all accounts, larger than the room she previously stayed in, and the bathroom appeared to be bigger too. Even the bed seemed more extensive than normal. The only thing that didn’t differ was the lack of décor, which given the current state of the world, wasn’t surprising. At least the bed had sheets, and it looked like the bathroom had bigger towels. He put the bag by the dresser and sat down on the mattress. He invited her over.

Sitting down next to him, she slid her hand into his and looked into his eyes. He was holding back excitement, that much she could tell. She didn’t realize just how much excitement he was having to restrain.

“How…..how did you want to replay this?” She had never done roleplaying before, let alone reenacting something that she had already done, so she wasn’t sure where to start.

His eyes glittered. “I was thinkin’ ‘bout runnin’ down to the Rail for a bottle, and ya can go ahead and get into the shower. That should put the both of us at about the same places that we were at before, so I can come into the room and…go from there.”

“Do you have any scissors? I’ve got an idea for something.”

“In my bag. I keep it with the medical supplies.”

“Give me maybe about 10 minutes, and then I’ll be in the shower.”

“Ok, Sunshine. I’ll be back in a bit.”

He rose from the mattress and placed a kiss on her cheek. She could feel him shaking a little from anticipation, and that got her excitement ramped up. She began to gather what supplies she would need and headed to the bathroom as he left the room.

She was going to put that razor to good use, finally. She didn’t like how bushy she was down there, but since showers and baths were a rare commodity, and razors even more so, she had let things go a little. She worked as quickly and carefully as she could to trim down most of the hair with the scissors for easier razor removal, leaving one small patch of hair above her slit line long. She turned on the water, and quickly began to shave everything but the patch, including her legs.

She had just put down the razor and was getting her head under the faucet when she heard the door open to the room. She pretended like she didn’t hear though and tried to remember what she had been doing that night he was in her room. She smiled as the memory came back to her. Her hand darted down slowly, and she found her nub. Rubbing slow circles, she started to really get into it when she heard a rough voice coming from the doorway of the bathroom.

“Look at you. I must still be dreamin’.” His dark eyes sparkled with admiration.

She turned her head, slowly, and caught his eye. She kept most of her body facing the other direction, so she could keep her freshly shaved mound a surprise for a few moments more.

“Would you like to join me, Mr. Mayor? And let that dream become a reality?”

She turned around completely, and she noted that his gaze had stopped at her crotch area. His eyes widened as his hands moved in a rush to remove his clothing, letting each article fall to the floor; he almost fell over in his urgency to get his boots off. She smirked as her hand darted back to her nub, with the intent of teasing him visually. Within moments he was clothing-free and walked with purpose to her in the shower.

“I didn’t know angels could get….so…dirty….,” he murmured as his arm reached out and drew her to him, with his opposite hand drifting down to her almost bare mound. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, with one hand moving to the back of his head and brought his mouth to hers in a powerful embrace, which he returned eagerly. Two of his fingers immediately found her entrance and didn’t hesitate before they disappeared within her, and he captured the moan that catapulted out of her mouth. He slowed their embrace, but not his fingers.

“Let’s get back to this shower after I’m done worshipping every inch of you,” he breathlessly exhaled as he pumped, “because you’re just gonna wind up all messy again.”  His fingers withdrew and went directly into his mouth, without hesitation.

He turned off the shower, dried her off with a towel, and picked her up bridal-style to take her to the bed. She kissed him the entire way there, even as he gently laid her down on the mattress, but their embrace broke as he drifted further south so he could get a closer view of her surprise to him. His fingers slowly explored her even smoother skin there, and he groaned.

“I’ve…never seen someone do this before,” he whispered as he caressed her. “I love it. I can see all of you.” His mouth dove in right to her nub, slowly sucking and playing with it with his tongue. Her back arched, and a desperate moan encouraged him to continue. His fingers found their way back into her warmth, and they knew exactly where to go to get her wave building.

He sucked on her harder, his tongue moving with more purpose, and that just caused her to become more vocal, especially when her coil wound up so tightly that it felt like it would snap at any moment. His fingers curled perfectly within her, and it was rocketing her to release.

“John, fuck, keeeep gooooinng,” she panted, her hands almost ripping the sheets, and starbursts beginning to form in her vision until her wave crashed and exploded with a cry, and her muscles spasmed. She felt him chuckle as her bliss completely consumed her.

His face barely peeked over her mound as she looked down her torso at him with a satisfied smile.

“Imph not leafn ths plase,” he said, muffled because his mouth was still in her slit. She laughed deeply, and he drew back from her with a huge grin on his face, his eyes flashing mischief.

“So…I think since I’ve got the demon wings…you must’ve gotten the horns, you devil.”

She lifted herself up on her elbow so she could see him more easily, and he practically flew up to her to capture her mouth in his, where their tongues could not get enough of each other. He guided her back to laying down and grabbed her wrists and pushed them down into the mattress above her head. Using one hand to keep both wrists together, his fingers traced delicately down her bare skin to her slit and teased a finger through the middle on his way to his member. She felt his tip slide through her wetness and disappear within her heat, and her neck arched as she moaned over the stretch.

He was back to using both of his hands to hold her wrists down, and his mouth kissed her neck as he thrust deeply within her. Her vocalizations were continuous by this point, borderline incoherent the harder he pounded her.

“GODDAMN, Sunshine, this is what I wanted to do to ya that night,” he groaned as he felt her beginning to tighten. He released one of her wrists to grab onto her hip.

“I…would…have let you,” she replied breathlessly. “I…was…thinking about…you….doing this…to me…when I was…getting off in…the shower that…night.”

The feral look in his eyes flared to a wildfire.

In no time she was flipped over, on her hands and knees, and he was remounting her from behind, his hands on her hips as he drove his length into her heat repeatedly with a desperate desire to have her scream out his name in ecstasy. Her wave became tidal, and his edge was incredibly close. His thrusts became almost frantic.

“John, JOHN, oh fuuuucking hell…JOOOOOOHN!”

He quickly pulled her up to him, holding her bare goddess body tightly to his, as her heat clamped down on his member so tightly that she made him come almost explosively into her. He bellowed into the void, declaring his undying love for the woman in his arms in the language of lust. As their vocalizations quieted to heavy breathing, his hips instinctively kept thrusting as his head rested on her shoulder, his hand gliding along her bare skin.

“Is that what it’s like to make love to a half angel, half demon?” He was still trying to catch his breath as he kissed her back.

“Yes,” she sighed, “but I think you were a little more demon than angel.” She playfully flexed her Kegels to tease him, and he let out an almost purr-like sound.

“Hard not to be that way. Every…inch…of you…fuck, Sunshine. I crave you like nothing else, and once I get that taste…I gotta have more. Your inner demon brings out mine.” He grabbed her hips and slowly pushed himself deeper to prove his point, which, of course, led to round two, and a harder climax than the last. And then once more.

“I think it’s about time for that shower,” he chuckled. “Except let me get our mixture cleaned up with my tongue first.” He helped her off of the mattress, and kneeling behind her, began to lick up the evidence of their combined coupling from her entrance. Grabbing her hand, he walked her to the shower and turned it on. True to his word, he cleaned every inch of her using a homemade shampoo for her hair and soap the hotel provided. She did the same for him, paying close attention to the divets and valleys in his skin caused by the ghoulification process. He got out of the shower just before her, and when she emerged from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her, she saw the most gorgeous black dress and heels sitting on the bed.

“John? Is this….for me?”

He looked at her with complete adoration. “I asked Daisy if she had somethin’ like this, to go with yer sexy underwear, which is clean and under the dress, by the way.  And since she’s always on the lookout for Mags for dresses like this, luckily, she did. Would ya try it on for me? Maybe we can go down to the Rail for a quick drink too?”

She grinned as she held the dress up to herself, the towel dropping to the floor. It was a sequined black dress with medium-wide straps, and came to her mid-thigh, with high slits on either side. The heels were simple, short, and thick, but went with the dress well. Her bra and underwear set were underneath, as were two containers that looked like they might be makeup. A garter with a knife holster sat amongst the items.

“I’ll be a few minutes, if you wanted to get dressed,” she said excitedly. He beamed as he walked with her to the bathroom to get his hastily-shed clothing from the tiles. She placed the makeup containers on the side of the sink and hung the dress on the back of the door, ready to get a little dressed up.

Chapter Text

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Chapter 22

The containers of makeup held crude application tools, but they were the best mascara and eyeliner that one could possibly find out in the wastes 200 years after the bombs. She did what she could to neatly line her eyes and plump up her eyelashes, and as she stepped back from the small corner of broken mirror she had been using in the bathroom, she grinned to herself and was pleased with the outcome. She pulled up the dress and adjusted the garter on her right thigh, so it didn’t show too much with the high leg slits of the dress. She just needed her knife now.

She took a quick glance out of the bathroom, and Hancock was sitting on the bed, fully clothed, taking a hit from the pipe with a cigarette in his hand. She stepped out, and he turned to her as he was exhaling his hit. He wound up coughing more than he would have if he hadn’t taken in a sharp breath at the sight of her. She laughed.

“Sorry, bad timing on my part.”

He hurriedly put out his cigarette and sat the pipe down on the dresser and walked quickly over to her. He took her hand and spun her around, so he could get a full 360-degree view of the dress on her.

“Simply stunning,” he murmured as he grinned like a kid in a candy store. He admired her for a few moments more before he snapped himself out of his reverie and lowered her hand and let go. She walked over to the dresser and put on her Pip-Boy, and grabbed her switchblade, where it fit into the holster almost perfectly. Her heels went on last.

“Damn, I don’t have a purse. Would you be able to carry smokes for the both of us? And I know the Pip-Boy looks stupid, but I’m not leaving it behind.”

“I got’cha covered, don’t worry, Sunshine. And you do what ya gotta. A piece as rare as that particular Pip-Boy, if it were mine, it wouldn’t come off of my wrist.” He grasped her hand and squeezed. “You ready?”

She beamed that heartstring-plucking smile at him and nodded. Rads ain’t got nothin’ on that glow. His heart swelled, and he walked her to the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They stepped out from the Rexford to the courtyard and headed over to Daisy’s shop. She looked up from the magazine she was reading at the front counter, and her mouth fell open.

“OH, darlin’, you look magnificent! It fits just like a glove.” She grinned widely. “I was worried it might be a little small. And the makeup worked too!”

“EVERYTHING is just right. Daisy, I can’t thank you enough! You really pulled out all of the stops with this.” She stepped around the counter to give Daisy a huge hug.

“This is why I do what I do; makin’ people happy with items not easily found anymore is a rare commodity. I’m glad ya stopped by before your date so I could see the results.”

Hancock was the next one to give her a huge hug. He whispered something in her ear, and Daisy came away grinning and chuckling. “John, you deserve it. Have fun for me, ok?” He gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“We’re off to go cause trouble,” he said with a mischievous grin, grasping Amy’s hand in the process. The pair said their thanks again and turned in the direction of the Rail, turning the corner and down the alley. Hancock looked around, and back at her, and quickly led her down a side alley and around a corner.

“What are you doing, Mr. Mayor?” She smiled devilishly at him as he pinned her against the brick wall and began kissing her neck. “Mmmmm. This doesn’t look like the Rail.”

“Slight detour,” he murmured as his hand slid down to her heat and two fingers easily found their way inside of her, courtesy of her sexy underwear. She bit her lip as he began to pump and watch her face as her eyelids began to flutter. She was having a hard time keeping quiet. She looked directly at him in a haze of desire, and seeing that, he pulled his fingers from her, licking them clean then began undoing his fly.

“Quick taste,” he muttered as he lifted her leg, so it wrapped around his waist, and he slid himself inside. He groaned as his head fell back, almost dropping his hat from his head.

“John,” she whispered, her voice heavy with need as he stretched her deliciously and began to thrust. His mouth went back to her neck, and he kissed her skin like he wanted to consume every inch.

“I’m not gonna get ya to the point of comin’, not this time. I don’t want to mess up yer dress like that quite yet. I just…wanted to feel ya out in the open, in the heart of my town, with that dress on,” he murmured to her, his voice thick. “It’s turnin’ me on like a motherfucker.”

His dark eyes locked onto hers as his hips slowly pumped his member within her heat. Their mouths collided, and their tongues hungrily slid around each other as he fucked her against the wall. Feeling his edge really starting to build, he took the cue to slow down, and he slid his member from her heat. She gave a little whine from the loss of fullness.

“Don’t worry Sunshine, there’s plenty more where that came from.” He winked at her. “I’m gonna clean ya up real quick, then we’re gettin’ that drink.” He readjusted himself back into his pants and dropped to his knees, and she took the hat off his head as he ducked his head under the edge of her dress and began cleaning her up with his tongue, a sound of contentment coming from him. Her eyes shut briefly as she felt his tongue go everywhere.

He pulled back from her and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stood. His other hand went to his pocket, and he produced two cigarettes, where he lit them both and handed her one. She took a deep drag and gave him a quick kiss.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been fucked in a back alley,” she chuckled as she exhaled.

“Won’t be the last,” he said with the most devious grin he’s ever given her.  He looked her over to make sure he didn’t mess her up too much; after tousling her hair a little, he nodded with approval, placed his hat back on his head, and grabbed her hand.

“That drink is screamin’ my name,” he said as he pulled her back to the main alley and around the corner. “Exactly like how ya did earlier.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mac was sitting at the back of the Rail, not in the VIP area, waiting for his companions to join him. As he eyed the stairs for the fifth time in the last 10 minutes, he saw the familiar red of Hancock’s jacket descending, and then he saw her in a short black dress. His jaw dropped as he stared, and he could barely get a greeting out as they walked up to him.

“Hey, Mac! Hope you weren’t waitin’ long. Had to make a stop by Daisy’s before we came down.” Hancock grinned at the look that was plastered on Mac’s face. Surprise accomplished.

“H-hey guys,” he stammered, trying to collect himself. He grabbed his glass and took a quick drink. “Wasn’t waiting long at all. Just got this drink, in fact.”

“Would’ja take her back to the VIP room? There’s a bottle of rum I need to commandeer from Charlie first.”

Mac stood, grabbed his glass and offered Amy his arm. She grinned and accepted it, and they headed to the room. Hancock noted all of the heads that had turned their way as soon as they entered the bar, and as she walked to the VIP room. He smiled inwardly as he walked up to Charlie.

“Can I get that bottle of rum ya got the other day?”

“I’d like some of it back this time,” the robot replied in a testy tone as he set it on the top of the bar.

“I’ll try to drink it sparingly. Gimme a bottle of whiskey too, we’ll focus on that more.”

Another bottle was placed next to the first, along with two glasses. Hancock grabbed them all and made his way back to the red-lighted room.

Placing the bottles and glasses on the table, he sat down on the couch next to Amy and stretched his legs out. Mac was sitting in a chair across from her, and he was handing her a cigarette. Hancock pulled his lighter out of his pocket and lit it for her and slid out his own smoke from his pack and lit that too.

“Was all of this your plan?” Amy looked at Hancock with wide, happy eyes.

“Part of it,” he said as smoke escaped from his nasal cavity, a grin forming on his face. “You’ll have to wait for the rest.”

A smirk crept up one corner of her mouth, and she nodded in understanding. “I see. Well, keep your secrets then.”

“I think a toast is in order before anything else,” Hancock filled the two glasses with Charlie’s coveted rum, and Mac’s when he added it on the table, and handed a glass to each of his companions.

“To family! Even though we don’t have the same blood runnin’ through our veins, we’re tied by the rule of the Wasteland – if ya find good people, keep ‘em close, don’t let ‘em go, and do everythin’ in yer power to keep ‘em safe. And to the three of us for makin’ it down to Med-Tek and back in one piece….and becoming closer in the process.”

They raised and clinked their glasses together and downed their drinks in one gulp, each coughing a little from the burn, which differed somehow from the burn of their usual whiskey.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to that,” she wheezed.

“At least that was better than the Fort Hagen stuff,” Hancock laughed.

“That shit needs to be launched into the sun.”

Hancock grinned at her, and his eyes drifted over to Mac, who was looking a little nervous.

“What’s up, Mac? Ya doin’ ok?”

Mac’s eyes had been on Amy mostly but shot over to Hancock after hearing his question.

“What? Yeah, I’m ok. Anxious to get word back on Duncan, but I know that will be at least a week or two until he gets that cure, and then who knows how long for it to take effect.” He was trying not to give away anything about their secret plan, and hoped Hancock would take the hint, and the lead, and get them back to the Rexford soon. He wanted these two in a bad way.

A knock on the door caused everyone to jump. Hancock stood and walked over to the door and opened it once he saw who it was through the window.

“Hey Fahr, what’s goin’ on? C’mon in,” he opened the door fully to allow her inside.

“Hey Boss, Watch needs you for something. I think it was Curly, and I last saw him in the statehouse on the first floor.”

Hancock looked back in the direction of his companions and sighed. “Lemme go find out what they need.” A devious thought came to his mind just then, and he smiled inwardly.

“Fahr, if yer not busy, wanna come and join us? We’re havin’ a few drinks. I’ll grab ya a glass on my way back.”

“Can’t stay too long, I’m due back on watch here in about an hour.”

“Long enough for a drink or two. Go on in.”

Fahr walked past Hancock into the room, and he waited for her reaction to Amy’s dress before leaving. He was not disappointed; he could have picked Fahr’s jaw up from the floor. He laughed to himself and hurried out, so he didn’t leave the group on their own for too long….and so they didn’t start a party without him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Amy and Mac were conversing quietly when Fahr walked around the corner. Seeing Amy in that black dress….Fahr couldn’t help her jaw dropping. She tried to recover before Amy noticed.

“Hey guys,” she tried to say casually, but it came out a little shaky. “Hancock said I could join you for a drink.”

Amy’s head turned, and she beamed when she saw Fahr. She stood quickly, rushed over to her and wrapped her arms around her, capturing her mouth in an excited embrace, which Fahr enthusiastically returned. As they slowed, Fahr tried to catch her breath before speaking.

“You….look….amazing,” was all that she could get out. Amy’s smile radiated.

“Thank you,” she murmured back to her. “I think John wanted to show me off in it, but I wanted the confidence boost. It’s been ages since someone convinced me to get in a dress, and one that looks damn good on me, too.” She grinned.

“I wouldn’t mind it eventually being on the floor instead,” Fahr whispered, her fingers tracing along the edge of the slit in her dress on her bare skin, her eyes staring right into Amy’s.

Amy’s eyebrow arched devilishly as she stared right back. “Maybe after a drink,” she teased. They resumed their embrace without distraction, and Mac had found himself a comfortable seat, and a new glass of whiskey, and enjoyed the view….except when his pants began to get really tight; he wanted to be free of his clothing.

Fahr’s and Amy’s hands were beginning to explore each other when Hancock returned, and he grinned. He locked the door behind him.

“Get that drink yet, Fahr?” He couldn’t help but tease her.

They slowed their embrace, and Fahr turned her gaze towards Hancock. “Not yet, got a little distracted.”

“Easy to do,” Hancock nodded his head and laughed. “Especially with that angel.” He sat next to Mac on the couch and wound up leaning back on him, the two men watching as things became a little steamy in front of them. Their hands found each other, and Hancock squeezed it in excitement.

Hancock leaned his head over to Mac and murmured, “Should we invite Fahr up? She said she’s gotta go back to the Watch in less than an hour, and I hate to have her join us only to leave right away.”

“Maybe we c….,” Mac stopped talking and both men gaped as Fahr led Amy to the couch across from them, and had Amy recline with her legs spread open so Fahr could dive right in. Fahr stopped for a moment though to admire not only Amy’s new underwear, but the accessibility of it, and her smooth mound.

Fahr’s eyes shot up to Amy’s, and she groaned before her mouth attached to her slit, finding her nub with her tongue quickly. Her fingers traced along every curve of her womanhood, and Amy’s back arched while her desperate moan echoed in the room.

“That couch is gonna get soaked,” Hancock giggled, and he thought he saw a sly smirk on Fahr’s mouth as her tongue sucked and played with Amy’s clit.

 Two of her fingers entered Amy shortly after, and Amy’s lust-filled gaze fell on Fahr, her hand delicately reaching out to hold on to the back of Fahr’s head as her mouth devoured her.

“Fuck, those magic fucking fingers…,” Amy managed to get out as Fahr pumped them in and out, placing pressure on a certain area every so often, and gliding them along every inch of her spot within. Amy’s head fell back, and she delivered a constant stream of moans and cries as Fahr deliciously built up her wave. The men were getting so aroused that they both palmed the front of their pants, unable to take their eyes off the women in front of them.

Fahr kept a tight suction seal around Amy’s nub, and as she worked, she increased that suction as much as she could while her tongue slid and danced. Her fingers picked up speed and pressure, and soon Amy was holding on to what she could of the couch white-knuckled, begging Fahr to keep going, her wave cresting with a cry of pure ecstasy. Fahr had moved her mouth so she could take in as much as she could when Amy squirt-gushed, and even then, small streams formed on her cheeks, and some dripped from her chin. Fahr’s eyes closed in complete rapture as she swallowed.

“Angel’s nectar,” she whispered. Fahr moved onto the couch so she could embrace Amy deeply.

 Hancock looked at Mac with longing, and they embraced too as they cupped a palm along each other’s raging erections, their grips becoming tighter through their pants the more their tongues twisted around each other. When soft moans began emitting from the men, the women slowed and moved their gaze to the couch across from them, it being their turn to stare. They eyed each other and grinned. Fahr laid her head down on Amy’s chest so they could watch together, with Amy’s fingers lightly running through Fahr’s hair.

“Fuck, that’s so hot,” Amy murmured close to Fahr’s ear, and she nodded in agreement.

The men must have realized that they had an audience; they slowed and turned their gaze to the women as their hands kept rubbing on each other’s pants, their breathing heavy. Everyone broke into a grin.

“You ladies got us all worked up,” Mac said.

“Fahr, can ya skip the Watch tonight? Would ya like to come up with us to the penthouse? Looks like we’ve got the makin’s for a fun evenin’,” Hancock asked.

“Only if you go and let them know. Say you need me for bodyguard duty or something.” Fahr turned towards Amy and captured her mouth once more, her hand sliding up her leg to her hip.

“Fuck, alright.” He got up, readjusted not only himself, but his flag belt so it covered more of the front of his pants, and buttoned the bottom buttons of his jacket as an added layer. “Does it look like I got a ragin’ hard-on?”

Three pairs of eyes looked at him.

“You’re good, Boss,” Fahr replied first.

“I’m not seeing it,” Mac said.

“Maybe pull your flag a little to the left?” Amy leaned her head, trying to get a good angle in the red lighting. He moved the belt, and she nodded in approval.

“Now don’t be startin’ nothin’ yet, ok?? I don’t wanna be late to this party I’ve been plannin’.”

The three looked at each other and nodded.

“We promise. But hurry back. Can’t hold back the flood waters for long…,” Amy said as she and Fahr began to embrace again.

“GO, Hancock,” Mac said with a laugh. “Or you ARE gonna miss everything.”

Hancock unlocked the door and ran up the stairs, which was an accomplishment with the rock in the front of his pants. He must have set a record getting to the statehouse, talking to Herbert to fill in for Fahr for the night, and running back down to his blossoming group. Fahr and Amy were still close on the couch, eyes locked and hands moving everywhere, and Mac busied himself with a cigarette. All three looked over at him as he entered.

“Let’s go,” he said with urgency as he walked further into the room and grabbed the bottles and glasses. “Mac, start takin’ the ladies to the Rexford and I’ll get this rum back to Charlie, since he’s bein’ a hardass about it.”

Mac hooked out his arms, and Fahr and Amy grabbed one arm each. He walked them out of the room as Hancock diverted to the bar and set the bottle and glasses on the counter.

“Saved some for ya, Charlie. I’m keepin’ the whiskey,” he said with the bottle under his arm as he quickly walked towards the stairs, taking two of them at a time to catch up to his group. He curled his free arm around Amy’s waist as he pulled her over to him. Mac and Fahr opted to drop their hold on each other, to give the effect that Fahr really was performing bodyguard duty for the night to the rest of the Watch, who were on patrol in the square outside. They walked fast, and soon were in the double doors, up the stairs, and at the door to the penthouse. Hancock unlocked the door and allowed his three companions inside. He shut and locked the door behind him.

Amy went to the dresser to set down the pipe and her Pip-Boy, and Mac found the couch and sat down, legs stretched out. Fahr followed Amy to watch her clean out and load up the pipe, curious in not only the process, but also the drug itself.

“Hey Mac, wanna try this stuff? It’s not chems; it’s kinda like smokin’ a cigarette, but it gets ya high.”

Mac thought for a moment and shook his head. “Nah. I think I’m good on that and whiskey for a bit. Maybe afterwards.”

Hancock walked over to the ladies, and all three took a large hit. Fahr smiled as she exhaled.

“This stuff’s pretty good,” she said approvingly.

“It makes sex phenomenal,” Hancock whispered to her. Fahr arched her eyebrow and looked over at Amy.

“I say we give it a try. I’ve got the night off now,” Fahr said with a grin, and that’s all it took for Amy and Fahr to continue what they started at the Rail. Fahr’s armor dropped, clothes fell, and they made their way to the bed, with Amy guiding Fahr down to the mattress, embracing her the whole time as she crawled and laid down on top of her. Amy slowed their embrace for a moment and looked over at the men.

“I think they should go first,” she said loud enough for them to hear as she looked at Fahr, then to the men. “We got things going…”

“I want to see that,” Fahr said, tracing a finger along the skin of Amy’s back. “I’ve been with a couple men before…..not really my forte. But….seeing two men together…almost as hot as me with you.” She eyed Amy with a smile, but that disappeared as they embraced deeply once more, and Amy’s hand began to drift towards Fahr’s slit. Amy groaned loudly as her fingers slid along her soft lips.

“Goddamn, you are SO FUCKING WET,” Amy murmured as she stared at the redhead below her with awe, and a grin.

“That’s all from you,” Fahr returned, a little tinge of red coming to her cheeks. Amy smiled and winked at her.

Amy’s eyes closed and a shudder echoed through her as her fingers slid around Fahr’s nub and directly into her heat, Fahr’s hips lifting in response. A low groan emitted from Fahr as Amy began to pump her fingers, and she slid down so her face was in line with Fahr’s nub and immediately began sucking hard and using her tongue and piercing to tantalize her bundle of nerves. Fahr’s back arched and her hands gripped the mattress hard as Amy’s fingers found her special spot within. Amy’s free hand went up to one of Fahr’s nipples to pinch with increasing pressure and flick, making it harden almost instantly. Fahr shook and her eyes rolled back into her head as the sensations overtook her.

Amy increased momentum with her hand and fingers, and her tongue, and Fahr’s wave was nearly at cresting when Amy began to hum, letting the vibrations carry through her tongue. That sent Fahr over the edge with a bliss-filled cry, and shudders rocked through her body. Amy slowly released her nub from her mouth, and brought her fingers up to her mouth instead, licking up every drop of release that had gotten on them. She began to place soft kisses on Fahr’s skin, working her way up her torso so she could lay down with her, settling her head on one of Fahr’s breasts. Fahr’s arm wrapped around her.

“Ok, now I’m ready for a show,” Fahr murmured with contentment. They both looked over to where the men were on the couch, and they chuckled.

“Looks like we missed the beginning,” Amy said as they noted how Mac and Hancock were naked from the waist up, deeply engrossed in a fevered embrace. “Hey guys, did you want the bed? We’re done for the moment.”

The men slowed, and Hancock looked over at them while Mac focused on Hancock’s neck, kissing every inch he could reach. Hancock’s eyes closed for a moment as he tried to gather his thoughts through the effective distraction Mac was giving him.

“Yeah,” was all he was able to get out before they began to embrace deeply once more, and then almost seemed to forget all about making moves to the bed as more clothes were removed. Hancock slid down to Mac’s hips and took in his entire length in his mouth, causing Mac to groan loudly.

“FUCK, Hancock,” he managed to get out as Hancock continued to bob on Mac’s member.

“Jesus,” Amy whispered, an appreciative moan also escaping from her lips.

That must have been what was needed to the break the spell, because Hancock released Mac’s member from his mouth slowly, looked over at the two naked women on the bed, and got up from the couch. Holding his hand out, he led Mac to the bed.

“Didn’t ya say ya wanted to nail me?” Hancock asked in a low tone. Mac nodded almost immediately. “Sunshine, would ya get the bottle of lube from my bag?”

Amy grinned, got up from the bed, and went over to his bag and began to rummage around. Finding a bottle, and something else she hadn’t quite expected, she pulled both out and brought the bottle over to Hancock and laid down next to Fahr. Hancock poured out a generous amount and began to lube up his puckered hole as Mac lubed his length. Hancock got on the bed on all fours, and Mac kneeled behind him, running his fingers along his hole. He slid one finger in to get Hancock ready for the sensation, making sure the lube went within too, and after removing his finger, slowly began to let his member slide in in its place. Mac grabbed Hancock’s hips and little by little, began to thrust, and moans from both men started to fill the room.

The women sat up to get a better view, with Fahr holding onto Amy and absentmindedly tracing her fingers over her skin as they watched with utmost fascination.

“Shit, Mac, juuuuust like that,” Hancock groaned as Mac’s head fell back.

“You don’t know how long I’ve dreamed about this,” Mac returned, grunting as he thrusted. Mac hooked an arm around Hancock’s shoulder to pull him up so they were both in a kneeling position, and Mac began to increase the speed of his thrusts slightly.

“Ya don’t need to take it easy on me, Mac,” Hancock purred. “It’s not my first rodeo.”

Mac kissed Hancock’s neck and really sped up his hips where Hancock was the one continuously moaning after each slap of their skin. Amy was getting wetter by the minute hearing him, because it was usually her that couldn’t shut up. She was loving the sounds coming from Hancock.

Amy looked over at Fahr, and she murmured to her, “I’ve got to touch these guys while they’re fucking. The buildup has been something else between them.” She rose to stand in front of them, but they didn’t notice her; Hancock’s eyes were shut from pure ecstasy, and Mac was feeling every inch of Hancock with each thrust, his eyes squeezed shut as his edge was building on a borderline overwhelming level as ages of longing blossomed into pure pleasure. Side tracking to Mac, she kissed along his neck softly, letting her tongue glide along as her hands caressed his back, and his vocalizations increased as she grinned. She made her way back to Hancock and kneeled and leaned forward, taking Hancock’s member in her mouth, getting it almost all the way down as Hancock’s eyes shot open and looked down.

“OH fucking holy shit,” Hancock babbled, his head falling back to Mac’s shoulder, one of his hands gripping tight on Mac’s hip, the other on Amy’s head as Mac continued to pound his member into him. Amy bobbed on Hancock’s cock, deep throating as much as she could and using Mac’s thrusts to her advantage.

Hancock grabbed at Amy’s shoulder to slow her down, and she released him as he looked at her with pleasure-lidded eyes, Mac still pounding away at him.

“Get in front of me,” he rasped. “Mac, let’s move a bit.”

They adjusted their positions diagonally on the bed to allow Amy to get in front of Hancock, and she sat on all fours, with her top half stretched forward and down, her hips ready to accept his hardness within her heat. Mac slowed so Hancock could slide his member into her, and she moaned loudly at the stretch, grateful it had returned.

“Fahr, come here, in front of me,” she said breathlessly between Hancock’s thrusts. “I found something in Hancock’s bag….that I think you might like.”

Fahr did as instructed, and Amy pulled out a rubber, purple dildo and grabbed the bottle of lube to slick it up. Fully lubed, she slid it right into Fahr’s heat.

“HOLY SHIT,” Fahr groaned, her neck arching as her hands clutched at the sheets. Amy resumed her ministrations on her nub while sliding the dildo in and out, and Mac took that cue to resume thrusting, which caused Hancock to do the same to Amy. Soon all participants were vocal, and sounds of pleasure were filling the room at an increasing volume.

Mac increased his speed, and his moans, and it reverberated through the group; Hancock thrusted deep within Amy, and she pumped the toy into Fahr, who was about ready to climax. “Don’t…stop,” Fahr had managed to get out.

“Guys, I’m gonna come,” Mac said through gritted teeth, unable to hold back any longer.

“I’m so close…” Hancock moaned, which made Amy’s walls tighten further. “John, just a little…more…,” Amy cried out.

Waves crashed and edges leapt from as pure pleasure washed over the group, one person climaxing just as another was reaching theirs.

 Mac held onto Hancock, who gripped Amy’s hips while Amy’s head rested on Fahr’s thigh as she gave little kisses wherever she could reach.

Lifting herself to her elbows, Fahr looked down the line at each person as she ran her fingers through Amy’s hair.

“I think I need a damn cigarette after that event,” Fahr said as she chuckled. “I also think that was my first foursome, officially.”

Mac slid himself from Hancock and took a deep breath as he tried to get his shaky legs to respond. “I hear you loud and clear,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m gonna hop in the shower real quick and I’ll join you on the couch.” She nodded and got up, fishing in the pockets of her pants on the floor for her cigarette pack and lighter and walked towards the couch. Mac headed to the bathroom and turned on the water.

Amy felt Hancock start to thrust, and her eyes closed. She grinned as she pushed back, and he pulled her towards him, so they were both kneeling, her bare back held against his chest. With one arm wrapped upwards to her chest, and one sliding down her hip to her mound, his deep thrusting increased. He covered her neck in passionate kisses as her hands traced along his thighs, gripping at his textured skin.

“Told ya we weren’t done earlier,” he murmured to her, resuming his kisses along her neck.

She moaned as he gripped her hip, pushing himself further within. Her head dropped back to his shoulder as his mouth went to her stretched neck, and his hand massaged her breast. Their uncaged moans blended together as his pace increased.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mac moved quietly from the bathroom over to the couch and joined Fahr as she handed him a lit cigarette. They seemed to not be bothered that they were still both nude; their focus was elsewhere.

“Did you know her eyes are glowing? Is that from Hancock’s…?” Fahr murmured as she watched the commotion across the room.

“Yeah, since he’s radioactive and she’s part, or all, ghoul…it has something to do with that stuff she was injected with too.” He thought for a minute. “She glows the more rads that are around.”

The conversation stalled for a moment.

“So, they’re just…,” Mac began.

“Yeah. They never really quit, to be honest. He was still inside of her when we all got off, but he never pulled out, and they just ramped it back up.”

“They do that.” He laughed at the memory of their recent excursion. “It was what I woke up to after getting radiation sickness at Med-Tek. He had her with one of her legs up on a chair, and they were just going at it. Hard. And LOUD. She climaxed loud enough right before then to carry through the building, and that’s what woke me up.”

Her eyes widened as she glanced at him. “Not a bad wakeup call. I’m a little jealous.”

“They let me join in, and she rode me into oblivion, so yeah. But just watching them…dear god, I thought I was gonna bust a nut without touching anything.”

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a more dedicated, and involved, couple like them.”

“Wonder if part of it is due to the rads they both have in them. They got a pretty big blast of rads right before that when we found the cure for my son, and they probably would have been banging in the basement by that Glowing One if I hadn’t gotten sick.”

They paused their conversation to get a little closer to the involved couple to continue watching; the couple had moved from the bed to Hancock holding Amy against the wall, and neither one being quiet as he pounded her.

“How many times in a row do you think they’ll go?” Mac asked Fahr.

“I’ll bet 20 caps it’s at least 5,” she returned with a grin. “They’re on 2 now, if you count the group effort.”

“Wonder if I can interrupt for some double penetration at some point. Hancock said he wanted to do that, and I’ve never tried it.”

“I’d be down to watch that. I’ve heard it can be amazing for those involved.”

“Hate to leave you out of it though….”

“I’m good with loving on my lady while she gets stuffed by you two. She can take a pounding better than I ever could.”

“You’ve tried before?”

“Only a couple times, mostly out of curiosity. Didn’t really do it for me, not like how women make me melt, but part of that may have been from the company I tested the waters with.”

“If you’re down for giving it another try, just let me know. No strings attached. I’m no Romeo like Hancock, but I know what I’m doing, at least.”

Fahr looked at Mac for a moment, trying to decipher if he was serious, then nodded.

“Alright, I’ll think about it.…,” she had to stop speaking because her jaw dropped at what the busy pair were doing now. Amy’s dress was back on, just her dress, and Hancock had her against the dresser, one of Amy’s legs lifted up under his arm as he held onto the top portion of her raised calf, and Fahr and Mac could easily see everything as Hancock’s thrusts went deep.

“GodDAMN,” Mac whispered, and he shifted in his seat to give his cock room to stretch out. He looked over at Fahr, who had watched his growth with interest, and shrugged. “Like I said, they’re hot as hell when they’re going at it like this.” She laughed. “Even just hearing them got me hard as a rock the first time.”

“I’ve made a pretty decently sized wet spot on here, so no judgement from me.” She leaned over a little to show him, and his eyes widened.

“I’d say you did. Can…I… feel…?”

She leaned over more so she was exposed directly to him. He gently ran his fingers along her slit, then in, touching her nub and inner lips, and his eyes shut.

“Yeah, that’s pretty damn wet. Fuck.”

Looking over at the couple, who were now slowly moving the dresser across the room as Hancock pounded her, she grinned.

“Fuck it, let’s give it a go. I don’t think they’re gonna be stopping anytime soon, and I liked how that toy felt earlier. Guessing it’ll be similar.”

Mac’s eyebrows shot up. “Seriously? Any position you’d prefer…?”

“You all seem to like it from behind, so bend me over.”

She got up on the mattress on all fours, and Mac maneuvered himself just behind her, his tip sliding in the slick of her want to get her used to having his male anatomy just outside of her heat before he slowly angled himself inside.

He groaned as he felt her envelope him. “I know you’re not used to this, so I’ll go slow,” he murmured as he took his time. The sharp but pleased intake of breath she gave in response at the stretch urged him to continue. Once he bottomed out, he began to slowly thrust, and one of his hands grasped her hip to help keep his pace toned down.

“I’m….not hating this,” she breathed as she pushed back at him. “You can go a little faster if you want.” His hips increased his pace, and low moans began to emit from them both as his thrusts deepened, the sounds of their skin slapping together becoming competition to the ones coming from the pair at the dresser, who slowed at the sight of the pair on the bed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Joooohn,” she moaned as he massaged her breast while kissing her neck, and his hips responded to her voice by bucking his hard length further into her.

“Sunshine,” he whispered back to her as he held his angel tightly against his chest, his hips driving into her harder. He could feel her start to clench around him, and that spurred him to begin to rut into her as he grabbed her shoulder, and moans cascaded from his mouth each time their hips connected.

“Fuck, John, keep doing that,” she breathed, “let me hear you.” He felt her get wetter the more he moaned, and his edge arrived quickly. He cried hoarsely as he released into her.

“Ya like hearin’ me, huh?” He spoke into her ear as he caught his breath. She nodded.

“I thought I was gonna be in a puddle when Mac had you going continuously,” she grinned as she pushed her hips back in to his. One of his hands gripped her hip tightly.

“I ‘bout lost it when ya went down on me,” he admitted. “Gettin’ pegged by Mac on one side, ya deep throatin’ me on the other….I almost thought I died and went to heaven, the pleasure was so intense.”

“Don’t even get me started about when you went down on Mac…,” she replied.

Hancock groaned at the memory, his cock getting hard again. “I don’t go down on just any guy. Ya got a treat tonight,” he murmured.

“What other kinds of surprises do you have for me?”

He helped her to rise from the mattress with him, his hardness still encased in her warmth. They went to the dresser, loaded a new bowl, and took a hit each. He felt her each time she coughed, and putting down the pipe, he found her dress on the floor and urged her to put it back on. Finding the least damaged section of the wall nearest to them, he pushed her against it, his warm breath on her neck.

“That fucking dress,” he murmured into her ear, “is sendin’ me places.” He grabbed her hip roughly and began pumping her with purpose, and her moans began to carry through the room. His voice joined hers, and soon he felt the want just dripping from her.

He snarled, his hips moving faster as he took in deep breaths of her; her aroma right now was utterly intoxicating, and his movements were becoming more instinctual and animalistic. He carefully slid the straps of her dress down, exposing her chest, and let the dress collect at her hips like a skirt. He slowed his thrusts.

“Come over here,” he purred as he led her over to the dresser. Lifting up one of her legs and holding onto her calf, he leaned forward to capture her nipple with his mouth as he resumed his penetration of her slicked heat.

“This angle, fuck, John,” she slurred as his thrusts began to push her more into the dresser. Not caring that they were having to move along with the piece of furniture they were fucking against, their connecting skin slaps were eventually getting drowned out by another pair on the bed. Hancock and Amy looked over, a huge grin on both of their faces as they watched Mac and Fahr.

“I thought she’s…,” Hancock whispered.

“She is. Maybe she decided to give it another try.”

“Wanna watch ‘em?”

“YES.” He felt her contract, and he held her close to him as they walked over, connected, to the bed and got on the other end. He resumed his thrusting as they observed the rare event unfolding in front of them, but soon they were once again in a world all their own as he got her into the position they started with, his arms holding onto his angel, both of them on their knees as his length continued to disappear deep within her heat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Mac, fuck, harder,” Fahr managed to get out between his thrusts. His hips responded, his member going deeper within, and Fahr let out a loud moan.

“Like that?” He replied with a groan. She nodded, and he picked up his speed.

He felt her walls begin to tighten when they heard a pair of moans on the other end of the bed. Mac and Fahr slowed, but didn’t stop, as they watched the other pair going harder than them.

“You two trying to outfuck us?” Mac asked with a laugh, as he pushed himself deep, resulting in Fahr groaning, which then resulted in Mac resuming his thrusting.

The pair at the end of the bed eyed them, and with a combined cry, they climaxed as Hancock continued to thrust before stopping, but not withdrawing. His hand slid all over her bare skin, his eyes following his hand as he touched her and his mouth following suit with kisses to her neck.

“Nah, just tryin’ to get off,” Hancock grinned, out of breath. “We were just there when we look over and see this tantalizin’ development going on over here….and we had to come over and join in.”

“John, come with me,” Amy breathed. He grasped her hips with both hands as they made their way to the pair at the other end of the bed. She walked on her knees up to Fahr and pulled her into a deep embrace, her hand immediately diving down to Fahr’s nub. Fahr moaned into Amy’s mouth, and Amy picked up her ministrations, hoping to give the redhead the best fucking climax she’d ever had. She eyed Mac and nodded, and he picked up the speed of his thrusts.

“Fahr, holy shit, you’re getting so tight,” Mac said hoarsely, his thrusts faltering a little.

Amy broke her embrace with Fahr to focus on her nub, letting Fahr lean on her as her eyes began to roll back into her head and her hands grabbed for anything nearby.

“OH, FUCK ME,” Fahr cried, her body spasming as Amy held onto her as she rode out the largest wave to crash at her shores. She helped Fahr back down to all fours so she was a little more stable on shaky limbs.

Mac was breathing heavy. “Guys, I’m close,” he said with clenched teeth, still sliding his member in Fahr’s heat but not pounding her like he had been.

Hancock quickly led Amy around so he could get closer to Mac but still be within his angel. He motioned Mac over to him, and withdrawing from Fahr, he got over to Hancock where he took him all in and bobbed on Mac’s cock quickly to keep his edge nearby. Mac grabbed Hancock’s shoulder hard as he released into his mouth with a long groan, his head falling back. Swallowing and letting Mac’s length slide from his mouth, Hancock embraced Mac as he grabbed Amy’s hip, thrusting his newly rehardened member deep within her as she cried out in surprise. Slowing and parting from their embrace, Hancock looked at Mac with a smirk.

“Got another one in ya? Ya haven’t really gotten your taste yet,” he said as he nodded to Amy. Still breathing heavy, Mac nodded but put his hands up in surrender.

“Gotta give me a few minutes,” he laughed. “I don’t have that radiation-powered libido like you two do.”

Hancock smiled broadly, resuming his focus on thrusting into Amy, but then slowing for a moment. “Yeah, let’s all take a break, actually. I could use a drink, a smoke, and another hit.”  

Reluctantly sliding himself from Amy, they got up from the mattress and Hancock found his pack of cigarettes in his pants pocket and his lighter. He pulled out four, lit all of them, and handed one to each of the group as he then walked over to the dresser and moved it back to its original position along the wall.

“We don’t have any glasses, so you’ll need to take a drink from the bottle,” Hancock said as he took a big drink and handed the bottle to Mac. Mac took a swig and walked the bottle over to Fahr, who was still a little dazed on the bed. He slid his finger along her jawline to bring her gaze to him.

“You look like you could use some of this,” he said with a grin as he handed her the bottle. She accepted it gratefully, upended the bottle and took a deep drink, coughing as she righted the bottle and handed it back to him. Mac passed it back to Hancock, and he set the bottle down next to Amy, where she was loading a new bowl.

Mac sat down by Fahr, and she smiled as he joined her.

“You doing ok?” He returned her smile as he read her features.

“Yeah. I, uh, wanted to say thank you for….that. I think that was the hardest I’ve ever gotten off before.”

Mac grinned. “Happy to be of service, then. You, um, felt amazing, for the record.”

“Fahr, ya want some of this?” Hancock held up the pipe. She nodded to him.

Fahr leaned forward and embraced Mac quickly, her tongue just barely grazing along his before she parted from him, her gaze locking onto his as she rose. “So did you,” she murmured, red coming to her cheeks. He watched her as she walked up to the pair at the dresser and brought the pipe to her lips, exhaling a large cloud a moment later. Mac fell back on the mattress, his hands behind his head, his eyes closing as he listened to his companions.

“Now if ya mix flamer fuel with jet, ya get somethin’ that gets yer stamina levels back in the game quick,” Hancock was explaining to Amy. “I’ve got some if we need it…”

“I don’t think you need it, sir,” she shot back with a grin. “All I have…to…do…is…” A sound of heavy furniture being moved to the wall came next, along with smacking sounds and a sharp moan a few moments later and a responding growl, and Fahr’s laughter. Mac smirked, he knew what had happened without even looking. The sound of skin contacting repeatedly, and male and female breathless moans, were the final clues, if he had been unsure.

“You two are a couple of radrabbits,” Fahr said as she chuckled. “But fuck, guys, do you gotta be so fucking hot?”

“It’s all her fault,” Hancock laughed.

Mac gave in and sat up, turning to the group, where he saw Amy sitting on top of the furniture, the backs of her knees on Hancock’s shoulders, and Hancock’s very hard member making her drip down the front of the dresser. Hancock pressed himself in deep and captured her nipple in his mouth, sucking hard, which brought out an amazing moan from Amy. Mac immediately felt his own member lengthen.

Hancock’s gaze caught hers, and releasing her nipple, he placed his hands under her ass and lifted her up with a happy squeal escaping from her mouth. Her arms went around his neck to hold on as he brought her over to the bed, where he set her down carefully and slid himself from her. He got onto the mattress, laying down and stretching out, and she crawled over to him and straddled his lap, her dress still acting as a skirt. She slid her heat along his member until Hancock’s hands locked onto her hips and squeezed. She lifted her hips up, lined his member up with her heat, and slowly sunk down, her head dropping back with a deep moan as her hips began to rock. Mac stroked his member, remembering back when she did that to him. His eyes shut as a small groan came to his lips.

“Mac,” Hancock murmured before he moaned, his neck arching. Mac got up, still pumping, and walked over to the head of the bed.

“Get behind me,” Amy said in a no-nonsense tone, her intense gaze locked on Mac as her hips ground down on Hancock. “Grab the lube.”

Mac didn’t hesitate in his response, a generous amount of lube in his hands and on his member before he was even back behind her. Lifting up her dress skirt, his lubed fingers reverently slid along and around her puckered hole as he watched Hancock’s member go in and out of her heat, and Mac shuddered with excitement. Licking his lips, he did the same for her that he did for Hancock; he inserted a finger, but his eyes shut this time as he took in his next breath slowly, knowing he was in for a ride. He removed his finger and placed his member at her pucker, adding in a little more lube just in case, and slowly began to stretch her. Moans from all parties rippled through the room as Mac buried himself to his hilt.

“So….tight…,” Mac managed as he began to thrust, which forced a moan from Amy. Mac’s eyes rolled back at the sound, and he placed an arm by Hancock’s shoulder for leverage so he wasn’t smashing Amy into Hancock. His other arm wrapped around her waist, his head falling to her shoulder as his hips picked up speed.

Hancock timed his thrusting with Mac’s, and fuck, he could feel Mac as he slid just millimeters away from him….

The men moaned in unison, and they felt her clench at the sound.

“Fuck, do that again,” Mac breathed. Hancock bucked his hips, knocking a moan out of Mac and adding one of his own in the process. She clenched tighter, her own moan mixing with theirs.

“Auralism kink,” Hancock muttered back to Mac with a smirk as they synchronized their thrusts once again. Hancock’s eyes shut, taking in being inside of his angel, but feeling every inch of Mac at the same time.

“Harder, guys,” she whispered to them, and both men immediately obeyed. Her moans opened up and spilled into the room, the men’s increasing in volume the harder they pumped. The fullness of both men was sending her on a rocket ride, and all she could do was hang on as much as she could. She felt one of Hancock’s hands at her hip, with Mac’s arm still around her waist.

Fahr stared at the whole interaction with fascination, watching both men’s members as they pounded Amy, and reaching out to Amy to give her gentle touches and words of encouragement. Little did Fahr know, all of that encouragement just triggered her praise kink, and the men felt it.

On a high unlike any she had ever been on before, lost in a haze of pure bliss, Amy barely registered that the men were getting extremely close until Mac’s arm tightened around her, his hips stuttering, and Hancock’s hand at her hip clutched her hard.

“Come for me,” she murmured to them, and Hancock was the first to spread his seed within her with a feral-like growl. Mac released just after him, yelling towards the ceiling, and that sent Amy’s rocket off to space as she cried out. Mac continued to thrust, not wanting to part from her yet. Hancock groaned.

“Mac, yer gonna get me goin’ again,” Hancock chuckled.

“Feeling the both of you at the same time, I don’t want it to end,” Mac sighed. Hancock sat up as much as he could and leaned in for a kiss. Mac closed the gap and embraced him deeply for a moment before parting from him.

“Won’t be the last time,” Hancock murmured, his eyes focused on Mac’s baby blues. “But next time it’s my turn to nail ya.” Mac grinned, nodded, and slid himself from Amy.

“I should go shower again,” he laughed. Mac began walking back to the bathroom as Hancock tapped at Amy to let him up. Hancock hopped up from the bed and rushed after Mac.

Amy looked over to Fahr, who was watching everything with amusement. Amy rose from the bed, and dropping her dress to the ground, looked over her shoulder.

“Wanna join us?”

Fahr jumped up from the bed and her arms wrapped around Amy’s waist before she could start following the men to the shower, and Fahr kissed Amy on the cheek.

“Thank you,” Fahr whispered to her. “This has been the greatest night.”

Amy turned and embraced her. “I’m glad you were able to skip work. I wish my bosses had been as amazing as Hancock is to you.”

“So worth it. And he’s the best.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the women entered the bathroom, they came upon such a domestic sight – Hancock was carefully soaping and washing Mac down, like he had done to Amy before their evening began. The men looked up as the women entered, and smiles broke on each of their faces.

“There you guys are! Thought you might’ve forgotten about us,” Mac stated as he grinned.

“Or got ‘lost’ along the way,” Hancock laughed as he resumed his focus.

“Nah, not this time. We need to get cleaned up just as much as you two do.”

“There’s another cloth somewhere around here that you can use.” Hancock looked around and spotted it on the sink by the broken mirror. “Over there.”

Amy grabbed it, and walked Fahr to the shower, where she also picked up the soap and shampoo.

“May I wash you?” Amy asked quietly, a very light blush coming to her cheeks as her green eyes sparkled.

Fahr didn’t hesitate before she nodded yes. Amy wound up only using the cloth for scrubbing at certain rough or incredibly dirty areas like Fahr’s arms, elbows, legs, and knees, but used her hands everywhere else, getting down on her knees to reach Fahr’s legs and feet. She took her time with Fahr’s more sensitive areas, and the shampoo, making sure to massage the liquid into her scalp well before rinsing.

“Can I return the favor?” Fahr asked almost as softly as Amy had, but Fahr’s face was a little redder than Amy’s had been. Amy grinned and nodded and took her place on the tile. Fahr took a little more time than Amy had to scrub, but that was because Fahr got distracted looking at the detail of all of Amy’s tattoos that peppered over her skin.

“Did these hurt to get?”

“Yeah, but once the actual tattooing process is over and your skin heals, you’ve got artwork with you for the rest of your life. I’m kinda glad I did, because these are the only remaining examples of my artwork I’ve got left.”

“You DREW these?”

“The design of them. I didn’t tattoo myself. I can’t subject hours of pain on myself like that, but I would love more tats, if it were possible.”

Fahr smiled in admiration. “I don’t know if these could be done now. Do you know of anyone who does tattoos, Boss?”

Hancock looked up from Mac washing him, as Mac was focusing on his hip area, and said, “What?”

The women laughed. Fahr repeated her question, and Hancock’s brow furrowed.

“I’ve seen people with tattoos, so someone out there has the tools and know-how to do it, but I don’t personally know of anyone. Can always ask around,” he replied as he winked at them.

“Thanks, Boss.” Fahr resumed her washing, and the men finished up and dried themselves off.

“We’ll meet ya back out in the room,” Hancock said as he placed a quick kiss on Amy’s cheek, trying not to get himself wet again in the process.

“Ok.”

“I’m gonna dry off and join them, you comin’?” Fahr asked.

“In a minute. I need to try to get this makeup off of me, before it gets everywhere, and I look like I’ve got two black eyes.”

Fahr laughed and gave her a kiss on the cheek too. She wound up joining the men on the bed, who were sitting at the right angle to watch Amy as she finished up in the shower.

“You should give her some privacy,” Fahr teased, knowing full well both men had fucked her completely, and simultaneously, not even an hour previous.

“This is just like how I saw her, shortly after we first met. I knew I had fallen for her hard that next morning,” Hancock reminisced to his companions with an almost lovesick grin.

“Did she know you were in the room at the time? How did you pull that off…?” Mac asked, genuinely curious how he got into her room in full view of her showering without her knowing.

“Nicky gave me a key to her room so I could leave her some clothes; she didn’t have any, other than the ones on her back. Nicky and I figured she would be asleep, but the little minx was in the shower and rubbin’ one out to thoughts of me doin’ things to her, apparently,” he chuckled at the newfound information he learned earlier that night. “I knew I wasn’t supposed to be in the room watchin’ her do that, but fuck, how do you turn yer back on a goddess like that, especially when she moaned so delectably when she got herself off?” He sighed as he stared at her with admiration. “I didn’t think she knew I was in there, but I found out she figured it out quickly.”

“You can’t turn your back. At least, I wouldn’t be able to,” Fahr replied simply, closing her eyes to sear the image into her mind.

“I wouldn’t either,” Mac stated quietly.

Hancock turned to look at them both and nodded in agreement. “Now ya got an idea why I was in so deep so fast.”

Three pairs of eyes locked onto Amy as she stepped out of the bathroom. “What? Did I miss a spot or something?”

“We’re just admirin’ ya, Sunshine,” Hancock murmured, a grin on his face. Amy’s face went red.

“You’re gonna give me an ego complex if you keep that up,” she smirked as she sat down on the bed. Fahr handed her a lit cigarette to share with her, and Amy gratefully took a deep drag and handed it back.

“Guys, while I got ya all here, might as well get ya up to speed on somethin’. Mac knows a little about this, so this is more for you, Fahr, cause we’re gonna need to leave town for a bit. Probably in the next day or two,” Hancock said to the group on the bed. “We’re gonna be chattin’ with Nicky in the mornin’ about it, and I think both of ya should be there too.”

Fahr’s eyebrow raised. “Another adventure, huh? Where to this time?”

“The Glowin’ Sea. Next piece of the puzzle to find her nephew is a doctor somewhere out in that hellhole.”

“The fucking GLOWING SEA? Who the hell can survive out there?!”

“We’re thinkin’ a ghoul, or someone like them damn Children of Atom, or even a synth.”

Fahr thought about something and nodded.

“That’s why you went to Med-Tek.”

“Part of the reason. More of a trek to hit three bloatflies with one shot – see how she does with a lotta rads, so if we needed to prepare ahead of time, we could. Gettin’ irradiated blood from a Glowin’ One for our Irradiatedpaks. And to get Mac’s cure so his son can come home to him, ‘cause no one other than me and her coulda gone in there to get it.”

Mac leaned over and hugged Hancock. “You two are amazing.” Hancock returned his hug and kissed him on the cheek.

Amy rose from the bed, wandering over to the dresser, more specifically to the pipe, and began cleaning and reloading it. Hancock got up to join her and wrapped his arms around her waist as he rested his head on her shoulder as she brought the pipe up for a hit.

“Hey, love,” he murmured. “How ya doin’?”

Leaning her head back and exhaling the cloud of smoke above her, she turned her head and kissed his cheek.

“Good. Getting a little tired, but not too bad. My anxiety is starting to build up a bit though.”

“About where we’re needin’ to go?”

“Yeah.”

He nuzzled her neck and placed soft kisses on her clean skin. “Ya won’t be alone, Sunshine. You’ll have me, and Nicky. That dream…I’m not lettin’ it happen, even if I gotta carry a missile launcher the entire way just to use on that fucker.”

She laughed and grinned. She handed him the pipe, and he took a large hit, adding his exhale to hers at the ceiling. Reaching for her Pip-Boy, she scrolled through her music list.

“I’m gonna put on a mix of Pink Floyd, Jimi, Rolling Stones…,” she trailed off as she turned knobs and flipped a switch. She turned up the volume a little and set it on the edge of the dresser.

“We need a little ‘Gimme Shelter’,” she smirked, as her hips started moving to the beat. His hold on her tightened a little, and they started swaying to the music together.

“Fuckin’ being cute again,” Fahr muttered with a laugh, and Mac chuckled.

“Entertaining too.”

As the song ended and faded into Jimi’s ‘Jungle’, Amy picked up the pipe and, with Hancock still attached to her waist, they sashayed their way over to the pair on the bed. Amy handed the pipe to Fahr, and Hancock let go of her waist to fall on the mattress next to Mac so he could rest his head on Mac’s thigh. Amy walked around behind Fahr and sat down as she exhaled her hit, scooting directly behind her, legs stretching out on either side, her chin sitting on Fahr’s shoulder. Amy’s arms wrapped around Fahr’s stomach, and they swayed to the rhythmic guitars. Amy’s eyes shut as she let the music start to take her away, and she smiled as she drifted off with the song.

Across the bed, dark eyes observed her, and he returned her smile, even though she couldn’t see it at the moment.

As the song began to pick up, Amy’s head rose and began looking for a pack of cigarettes.

“Anyone got a smoke? Maybe some water or something too…”

Hancock rose from the bed and walked over to his bag, retrieving a container of purified water. Fahr handed her a cigarette and a lighter as Hancock passed the water to her, which she opened and chugged before accepting the smoke. Amy fell back onto the mattress, laying down and stretching out. Fahr fell back too, so her head was resting on Amy’s stomach. Amy’s eyes closed as she listened to the music playing, and she took a drag every so often and blew the smoke towards the ceiling. Hancock had resumed his position of laying his head on Mac’s thigh.

“Didja want to stay the night, and head back to the statehouse in the mornin’?” Hancock opened the question to their companions.

“I could use some sleep,” Fahr said with a small yawn.

“As long as I can snuggle with this heat conductor,” Mac murmured as his hand traced along Hancock’s arm.

A plume of smoke was Amy’s response, and Hancock sat up.

“Missin’ one opinion here,” he teased her, and after a moment Amy’s head turned in his direction, eyes opening to focus on his face.

She smiled. “We’re already getting comfy, so we could easily call it a night. I can set an alarm.” Fahr moved so Amy could get up and walk to the dresser, where she put out her smoke and fiddled with her Pip-Boy before placing it back on her wrist.

Returning to bed, she climbed back in and resumed her spot, but with Fahr crawling up to lay her head on her chest, and Amy wrapped her arms around her. Hancock moved so he was stretched out next to his angel, his head on her shoulder, and Mac made his way to Hancock’s chest, where he settled in with a sigh. Hancock’s hand grabbed Amy’s hand and held it tight as the group began to drift off one by one.

Chapter Text

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Chapter 23

A soft beeping woke Amy from her dreams, which thankfully didn’t include any nightmares this time. Warm bodies surrounded her, and she grinned. Fahr was completely spread out over her, still using her chest as a pillow, and Hancock had a death grip on her arm while his other arm cradled Mac. Mac remained in almost the same spot he had settled in on Hancock’s chest the night before.

Carefully she moved Fahr to the bed, and pried herself from Hancock’s grip, and got up, making a pit stop at the bathroom before going into Hancock’s bag for her change of clothes. Piling them on the dresser, she stopped to clear out and reload the pipe. Taking it, her pack of smokes, and her lighter she found in her pants pocket, she quietly walked over to the couch and stretched out lengthwise, lighting the bowl as her head fell back to the armrest. Smoke drifted from her mouth as she blew her hit out slowly, trying to curb any coughing ahead of time. Her eyes drifted everywhere as her anxiety woke up with her. Who needs coffee when anxiety is there to force your brain to be wired? She sighed. She lit up her smoke and let her thoughts wander, trying not to fight them.

I hope this is one of the last steps I need to follow to find Shaun. It shouldn’t have taken this long, but at least I know he’s at the Institute, and hopefully safe, wherever the hell that may be. I sure wish you could have left more for me to go on, Nate, so I’m not having to jump through so many hoops just to get answers on what happened right after the bombs, what that shit did, and is still doing, to me…

Tears began to silently stream down her face as she took a few deep breaths to try to steady herself, and to keep any noise coming from her to a minimum. She wound up smoking the cigarette in her hand down to the filter quickly and lit another as soon as the old one went out.

Her arm was over her eyes as she felt a weight sit down next to her. Her arm slid down just enough so she could see who it was, and two dark, sparkling eyes glittered back at her with a look of concern. She opened her arms to him, and their usual roles wound up reversed where he was the one to snuggle into her chest, and she could tell he enjoyed it immensely. She wrapped an arm around him while leaving her other arm free to maneuver the cigarette to her mouth.

“Would you like a drag?” She held up her smoke to Hancock, and he accepted and took a puff. She took a few more drags and put it out in the ashtray that Fahr or Mac must have put by the couch the night previous.

“Couldn’t sleep?”

“The alarm went off. It was still set for before sunrise, so I didn’t want to wake anyone else up over my mistake. Figured I could get everyone up here in a while.”

“Must’ve been sleepin’ like the dead then; I sure as hell didn’t hear it.”

“You usually don’t,” she returned with a chuckle. He nuzzled into her chest further, and she could feel his warm breath on her exposed skin. His fingers danced along the bare skin of her shoulder and arm.

“I can see why ya love doin’ this to me, except ya got some wonderful, cushy pillows to lay on that I can’t offer…”

She laughed. “I think your chest is pretty damn comfy.” She hugged him tightly, and he did what he could to wrap his own arms around her to return it.

After a few moments, Hancock turned his head so he could look at her, and his hand gently reached out and wiped away the residual wetness under her eyes with the pad of his thumb, and he stretched up a bit to lightly kiss her cheek.

“I hate seein’ when ya cry, Sunshine,” he whispered to her. “I never want ya to be unhappy or upset.”

She sighed deeply with a hint of frustration at herself. “I know, I hate it when I cry too. My brain decided it was up and needed to go full speed ahead in thinking about everything and taking over from there. Plus, my face gets blotchy.”

He began to place kisses all over her face – on her eyelids, the tip of her nose, her chin, her eyebrows, which drew a small smile from her. He stopped at her mouth and embraced her deeply, and she returned the embrace just as hard. His arms wrapped around her, holding her as close to him as he could as one of her hands cradled the back of his head, the other hand roaming freely along the bare skin of his back. He maneuvered his hips, so his member rested at her entrance, and she opened her legs to allow him unrestricted access. He paused his embrace to whisper to her.

“I’m gonna distract ya, so yer thinkin’ ‘bout somethin’ else that’ll also cheer ya up, ok?”

Her shimmering pools locked with his dark ones, and she nodded. With a thrust of his hips, he slowly slid inside of her, her eyes closing and neck arching as he stretched her, and his dark eyes drank her in as he watched her physical responses to his movements. His mouth honed in on her neck with slow, passionate kisses as his hips slowly pushed his member deeper with each thrust. She was biting her lip to corral any sounds that tried to break free, and her hands held onto his hips hard. He embraced her again, as deeply as before, allowing her to let some sounds out as he captured each one as they escaped and kept them for himself. One of his hands held the back of her neck, while his other hand gripped her hip, giving him the leverage to thrust as deep as he could go without hurting her. His edge was beginning to take shape, as was her wave, but they weren’t focused on that at the moment. He slowed their embrace to dive into her beautiful eyes.

He placed his forehead against hers, his thrusting slowing a little as their gazes entwined, their hearts reaching out to each other through their eyes. Her hand caressed his scarred cheek, and she brought him in for another deep embrace, and as they each inhaled mid-kiss, to them it felt like he breathed in the essence of her soul as she breathed in his. They broke their embrace at the same time to gasp, both of their eyes wide and staring at each other with realization of what they just shared, and his hips began to move just a little faster out of determination to be as completely within her as he possibly could. She wrapped every part of her around him, arms and legs intertwined with his, feeling every ridge, crevice, and ripple of his bare skin on hers.

Her intense gaze locked onto him, and she murmured one word to him.

“Mine.” He swore he saw lightning flash within that stare after she said that, and he took in a sharp breath.

His eyes shone brilliantly as he captured her mouth with his, his tongue desperately seeking out hers and sighing for joy when they encircled each other once again. His hips moved at a quickly increasing pace, and he continued to steal her moans from her as he felt her tighten around his thrusting member, which brought him even closer to his edge. Pumping deeper into her warmth and wrapping his arms around her, he felt her clamp down hard on him as her back arched, pressing her soft breasts into his chest, and a cry finally escaped her lips into the room. His mouth darted to her neck to kiss her as it stretched back. Having his goddess climax in his arms like that shot him over his edge; he moaned as his head pressed into her shoulder, and he released into her harder than he ever had before. Looking up hastily and cupping her cheek with his hand, he finally responded to her one-word proclamation, a raging storm contained in his eyes as his breaths came quickly.

“MINE.” It was so low that it blended with the growl that followed from deep within his chest, which heaved from the exertion, and the intense bonding they continued to share. She couldn’t pull herself from his gaze. They lost their sense of time for a while, adrift in each other’s eyes.

“I don’t want to part from you,” he breathed to her, showering her face in tiny kisses.

“I don’t want to part from you either.”

“But….we should get those two up. Nicky will be lookin’ for us soon.”

“Can we have some time, just you and me, before we head out to…..that…place?” She shivered even having to think about it.

His hand held her cheek, his gaze solidly locked with hers again. “Yes.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the pair got themselves up from the couch, they quickly looked in the direction of the bed. The two sleeping forms they had left behind were still there; although they had moved since the pair had gotten up, thankfully their attempts at keeping quiet had worked this time. They didn’t want the two on the bed to have seen something as intensely intimate as what they had just shared, because what had wound up happening was just for the two of them.

 As the pair neared the bed, Amy split from Hancock to bring the pipe and her other items to the dresser to set them down. Hancock went to where Mac had curled up and lightly rubbed his back as he whispered in his ear. Mac’s head rose slowly, blinking away sleep as he smiled at Hancock. They embraced, and Hancock helped Mac sit up on the mattress.

After taking a hit and placing the pipe back down on the dresser, Amy quietly walked over to the side of the bed where Fahr was stretched out as Hancock was waking Mac up, and kneeling, she gently ran her fingers through her hair and caressed her cheek. Fahr’s eyes fluttered and opened but took a moment to focus on her and broke into a huge grin when she did.

“Morning, beautiful,” Amy murmured to her as Fahr stretched.

“Best wakeup I’ve had in a long time,” Fahr replied. Amy embraced her briefly but deeply, and Fahr sat up on the mattress while Amy’s fingers traced lightly on Fahr’s skin.

“Anyone need the shower? We should probably get going soon, I’ll have to find Nicky before he comes lookin’ for us and finds us all in another fuck puddle,” Hancock chuckled as he looked at Mac, and his morning wood, and he licked his lips.

“Down, boy,” Amy teased from across the bed. Hancock narrowed his eyes at her but grinned widely at the same time. “Yeah, yeah, I know. I need to heed my own words. But Sunshine, he’s so hard right now, it’s gotta be hurtin’ him…,” and then the puppy-dog eyes came out, and yes, he had that down to a science.

“Later, John. We need to attend to business first. It shouldn’t take that long, then you can go down on Mac all you want.”

Hancock beamed as he held out a hand to help Mac up from the bed, and Hancock leaned in a bit as Mac rose to speak to him in hushed tones. Mac stared at Hancock, then not even a second later began to nod approvingly. Hancock’s hand went to Mac’s member and slowly pumped until Mac smacked his hand.

“No teasing,” he said with a grin.

“Most of ya are bein’ cockblockers today,” he grumbled with a laugh. “Well, not Sunshine, to an extent, and Fahr….ya get a pass.” He winked at Amy as his gaze lingered, and they both knew what he was referring to. Her heart fluttered at the memory, and she longed to feel him like that again.

Fahr leaned over to Amy and whispered, “Did you fuck him this morning? Or is he always like this first thing?’

“Yes, to both,” Amy replied quickly, laughing.

Fahr rolled her eyes and chuckled. “Should’ve known.”

Once everyone was clothed for the first time in about 12 hours, Hancock made sure that everything he brought originally in his bag was packed away, down to the lube and dildo, and even her dress and other accessories, and swung the bag onto his shoulder.

“Mac, ya can keep that room for a few more days if ya like,” he murmured to him, “but I could set ya up in the statehouse in one of the empty rooms afterwards if you’d prefer that instead of sleepin’ at the Rail.”

“I’ll think about it,” Mac replied with a small grin forming at the corner of his mouth.

Checking the room one last time, the group exited and headed down the stairs, out the double doors, and across the courtyard to the statehouse. Amy, Mac, and Fahr stopped at Hancock’s office and sat down on the couches while he went to the bedroom to drop off his bag. A minute or two later, Hancock was zipping by the room on his way back downstairs to find Nick.

“I’ll be back,” he called as he descended the stairs.

Amy pulled out the pipe from her pocket and the bag of weed and reloaded the pipe while they waited. She took a large hit and handed it to Fahr, who did the same. Mac waived his turn.

“I’m still not totally sure about that stuff,” he said, a little apprehensively. “I don’t normally do chems or drugs.”

“Alcohol is actually worse for you than this stuff, trust me,” Amy responded quietly. “But I’m not into peer pressure either. It’s here if you ever get curious and want to try it.” She tossed a cigarette his way instead, and a smile. He beamed back and lit his smoke.

Two sets of footsteps sounded on the stairs, and everyone looked in that direction as Hancock and Nick stepped onto the landing.

“Hi Nick!” Amy got up and walked over to him, giving him a huge hug.

“Good morning, doll,” Nick replied as he returned her hug. “We’ve got a lot to chat about.”

“Yep, let’s get this started.”

They gathered in the office as Hancock shut the door. Mac and Fahr were on one couch, and Amy was at the end of the couch opposite them. Hancock sat down heavily next to Amy, his arm darting around her shoulder, and Nick pulled up a chair, so he was in between both couches.

“First thing’s first. The trip to Med-Tek was a success on a few fronts, I take it?”

“Got the cure for Duncan,” Mac said as he grinned. “Gave it to Daisy, and it’s on the way to him. I should hopefully get word back soon on if it worked. Wouldn’t have been able to get it without those two.”

Nick beamed at the couple on the couch to his right as he looked between them. “Glad you were able to help him out. I know he’s been trying to get that for a while now, and you two were just right for the job.”

“Which brings us to our next accomplishment – she seems to do ok in high rads. Still not 100% clear on all of the reactions she may have though; the Glowin’ Sea is much different than the basement of Med-Tek. But, just in case, she also found a hazmat suit in the same room as the cure, so if things go sideways, we’ve got that as backup.” Hancock squeezed her hand as he spoke. “We also took down a Glowin’ One in the basement, so we’ll be makin’ more Irradiatedpaks here before we leave, along with some antivenom or antidote for Radscorpions. One of those asshats almost burst outta the ground underneath me on the way there, and I shot off its stinger.”

“That’s good to hear about the rads, and the suit. I know it’s bulky, so maybe I can find a bag so I can carry it for you and leave you two room in your bags for the essential supplies. Damn Radscorpions are like a jack-in-the-box! Glad you were out of the way before that thing emerged. I’d talk to Dr. Amari about the antivenom/antidote to see if she knows any methods for making it before you try, so you aren’t wasting that stinger.”

Hancock nodded. “I got a few people I can ask, and she’s one of ‘em.”

“And you three made it back in one piece. Have any trouble along the way?”

“On the way back, at the bridge across the river, we had to divert to the riverwalk because Raiders took over that courtyard area with the fountain and cut off our route home. And along our detour, we stopped at Vault-Tec Regional Headquarters.” Amy noted Nick’s surprised look after her last words.

“I was going to suggest heading over there after you got back, since it’s just a few blocks away, but you beat me to the punch! You went in and looked around, right?”

“Of course. Not much in there – a feral, and some terminals that had a bunch of generic shit on ‘em. Felt like the whole building was a front for something else.” She paused to light up a cigarette. “Went down to the basement, and after taking out another feral, we found another elevator, almost hidden behind some silver toilets and metal bedframes. It led down to a large room, where a back office had a terminal with not only one password required, but additional passwords on a few of the individual files.”

“Were you able to break into them?”

Amy grinned. “Well, yeah.” Nick proudly beamed at her. “But…,” her smile disappeared.

She sighed deeply. “I found a file with my name on it.”

Nick’s eyebrows shot past his hat brim. “Was that a Vault-Tec room, or West-Tek?”

“West-Tek. It seemed like it was a secret headquarters, because I didn’t see any signs or indicators that they were in a subbasement, other than the logo all over the terminal screen. There was a LOT of information in there, Nick. A stack of files in a hard locked safe, too. I copied what files seemed most important on the terminal, but there was so much to go through, and after not sleeping well at Med-Tek, I was exhausted. I just wanted to get these guys back home, especially after Mac got radiation sickness while John and I got the cure from that irradiated room.”

Nick turned to Mac with concern. “Are you ok now?” Mac nodded in the affirmative.

“Did you guys have enough RadAway?”

“Plenty, Nicky. Daisy made us take extra for him before we left.” Hancock eyed Mac and winked at him.

“Did you bring the copied files back here? How did you copy them?”

“I found a bunch of blank holotapes in a drawer. I’ll go get them.” Amy rose and walked quickly to the bedroom, where they had stashed the first aid kit that held the tapes, and brought the case back with her to the office and shut the doors behind her. She handed the case to Nick.

“I don’t know how much any kind of lock or encryption extends to the copies of those files, but hopefully you should be able to open everything from any terminal. If not, we need to make a trip back there. Well, we’ll still need to make a trip back anyways, because of that stack of file folders in the safe, but depending on what we can pull up on the holotapes, it might be able to wait a bit. None of those files were colored like the ones back at Nate’s.”

Nick sat with his chin resting on his hand, and his elbow propped up on his knee. “Seems I’ll have my work cut out for me. It’ll probably take a while to go through these tapes, and I can pretty much guarantee that we’ll need to make another trek down to that basement. Did you lock that safe back up?”

“Made sure I did before we left.”

Nick nodded. “Hopefully that location doesn’t get out to anyone trying to get to you about that experiment, so we can go back and get what we can when we’re able to. While it may have some clues, since it was a small, hidden facility, it may not have everything we need. West-Tek was well-known for not keeping all of their eggs in one basket.”

Amy sighed and dropped her head a little. “Yeah, I came across something related to that too. A list of West-Tek facilities all over the country. And it must have been for secret facilities, because it was in one of the files that was double-locked.”

Nick visibly flinched. “I was afraid of that.”

“That should bring you up to speed about our little adventure.”

“Not completely.” Nick scooted his chair closer to Amy’s section of the couch. “Did you want to talk about that nightmare?” He asked softly as he reached out with his synth-skin-covered hand to hold hers, and she gripped it tightly.

She explained the landscape she found herself in, the crater with the dwellings on stilts, and the Glowing Deathclaw. Nick’s eyes were wide the whole time.

“And you’ve never seen the Glowing Sea, or heard about what it looks like, before then?”

“Not really, just that it was where the bombs were dropped, and that it’s full of rads. Wasn’t sure where I was when I was dreaming, but…when I couldn’t even get my body to respond when that Deathclaw came at me, and I didn’t have any weapons, or spiderwebbing…I…just….,” a tear escaped down her cheek. Nick was quick to release his hold on her hand and brought his thumb up to her face to gently wipe the tear away and recaptured her hand in his.

“I wish I could tell you I knew what it all meant, and what we can do for sure to prevent your dream from coming to pass. Maybe Mama Murphy would be able to give us some insight, since she’s been pretty on the nose with her predictions so far.”

“Maybe it was like my own Sight, or whatever it is she calls her ability?”

“Could be. That experiment you were subjected to did say it increases brain function, so it’s possible.”

“That would work out pretty well, actually. Mac will be comin’ with us, and we’ll need to make a stop at Sanctuary so he can stay there while we go and load up on rads lookin’ for that Virgil guy. He’s gonna check out Sanctuary as a place to possibly raise Duncan when he comes here from the Capital Wasteland,” Hancock added.

Nick looked over at Mac and nodded in approval. “It’s not a bad place at all, and I bet Preston and Sturges have gotten more improvements completed since the last time we were there.”

“I just hate how far away it seems to be from everything. Everyone I know is here in Goodneighbor,” Mac replied with a dejected sigh.

“You’ll have to start thinking about Duncan first when he comes here,” Amy said quietly. “And Sanctuary is a lot safer than being in the middle of a crumbling urban center like Boston.”

Both Amy and Hancock looked at each other and got up from their seats and sat on either side of Mac, and they each held one of his hands. “We’ll help ya get this all figured out,” Hancock murmured to Mac, and Mac’s head fell with a sigh to Hancock’s shoulder. Amy leaned over to give Mac a kiss on the forehead. Nick’s eyebrow raised at their combined actions, but he made no other movement as he watched the trio on the couch. Eventually Amy got up and returned to her original seat on the other couch, while Hancock stayed with Mac, still holding his hand and letting Mac rest his head on his shoulder.

“When were you wanting to head out to the land of split-pea soup skies?” Nick asked as he looked over at Amy.

“Let’s plan on the day after tomorrow, but we can adjust that if we need to. John and I still need to make those Irradiatedpaks, and the antivenom, and get packed up.”

“I need to a find a missile launcher for that Glowin’ Deathclaw fucker,” Hancock quipped. “I’m not lettin’ that thing get anywhere near her.”

Nick laughed. “I know you won’t, John. Neither will I, now that we know it’ll be there.”

“That should just about cover things, I think. Nick, if any questions come up, especially with those files, please let me know. You know I’ll be around here somewhere in town.”

“I’ll need to find a terminal that can read encrypted files, just in case there’s still a lock on them. Dr. Amari may know where one is, so I’ll be heading her direction next.” He stood with the case in his hand and started to turn for the door.

Hancock motioned to Mac to let him up and stood up. “I should go too, and ask about that Radscorpion stuff, so if we need to get any special ingredients, we’ve got time to do it.” Hancock walked to the door and stopped next to Nick.

Fahr, who had quietly listened the entire time, also rose. “I need to get back to the Watch, and prep for covering you while you’re out.” She walked over to Amy and rested her hand on her arm and squeezed a little, giving her a smile. “I’ll be back later to catch up with Hancock about some mayor stuff, ok? Don’t let him squirm out of it.”

Amy laughed. “You know I won’t let him.”

Hancock opened the door, and the three walked downstairs, Fahr splitting off to talk to Herbert, and Hancock and Nick leaving out the back door to head to the Memory Den.

Mac looked over at Amy. “You got a smoke?”

She fished in her pocket for her pack and tossed a cigarette in his direction and pulled one out for herself. She stretched her legs out on the couch as she rested her head on the armrest. Mac mirrored her movements on his couch.

She let out a deep sigh. “I don’t want to do this, Mac.”

He turned his head in her direction. “What? Going to the Glowing Sea?”

“Yep.”

“I don’t blame you. I’ve seen that place from a distance….the Gunners took over a vault right on the edge of the Sea where you can get a somewhat decent view on a good day, and it gave me the heebie-jeebies. Fu-frickin’ pure nightmare fuel.”

“Wanna go over to K-L-EO’s and see what she has in stock? We’ll need to get some ammo before we leave anyways.”

He sat up. “I like your thinking! Let’s go.”

“I should leave John a note, so he knows where we went, in case he comes back before we do.” She found a small, blank half piece of paper on his desk and a pencil and wrote her message. Placing an ashtray on the corner of the paper, she left it hanging over the edge of the table, so he wouldn’t miss it when he walked into the room. They walked down the stairs and out the door, crossing the courtyard to the shops just across the way.

“Hey K-L-EO,” Amy smiled as she greeted the Assaultron.

“I hope you’re buying,” she replied in her sultry tone.

“We need to restock our ammo,” Mac interjected, he was used to K-L-EO being like this. They picked out what ammo they needed, but Amy wasn’t satisfied.

“K-L-EO,” she began, “do you have anything like a missile launcher?”

“Hmmmm,” the robot buzzed. “Not currently, but I do have this grenade launcher rifle; smaller, doesn’t pack quite the same punch as a missile launcher, but still effective. And I’ve got a decent amount of ammo for it too.”

“Do you have a .308 hunting rifle in stock at all?”

“Actually, that I do have.”

“Mods?”

K-L-EO stood as she computed through her inventory. “Yes, some mods, but not all available for that model.”

Amy looked at Mac and they nodded to each other. “We’ll take both weapons, and the mods you have for each, and ammo. Can we use your workbench?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nick wound up staying down with Dr. Amari to use a spare terminal, so Hancock decided to head back to the statehouse. It was getting to be early afternoon, and he was getting a little tired after their group’s fun the night before, and only a small amount of sleep in the past few days. He said his goodbyes to Nick and Dr. Amari and walked quickly back to his office. No one was in there, but he saw a piece of paper hanging from the table, and he picked it up.

John,

Mac and I went over to K-L-EO’s to restock on ammo, and to see if she has that missile launcher. If we’re not back by the time you’re reading this, come and join us – I know you’ll need ammo too, but I wasn’t sure how much you need.

Love,

Amy

He folded up the note and placed it in his pocket. She has the most beautiful handwriting, he thought to himself as he headed back down the stairs, and out the opposite door he came in not five minutes previous. He jogged across the courtyard, and he heard Mac talking, and tools on the workbench getting used.

“Hey K-L-EO,” Hancock said as he stopped at the counter. “How ya been?”

“Itching to test some of my new stock,” she replied with a flash of her eye. Hancock laughed.

“Must’ve gotten some good shit in then.”

“You know it, baby.”

Hancock’s gaze darted over to the workbench towards the back of the shop. Amy was leaning on the workbench as Mac put on the finishing touches to a scope on a .308 rifle.

“What’cha workin’ on?” Hancock said as he walked up to the pair.

Amy glanced up and grinned. “Getting you some additional pieces.”

Hancock’s eyebrows rose as he looked down to inspect the weapon a little more closely.

“It’s kinda like mine, not nearly the same mods, but we got as close as we could. We’ll still need to tweak it before we go though,” she explained. She had the strap to something on her shoulder, and Hancock caught her gaze.

“And that one?”

She pulled the strap off of her shoulder and handed it to him.

“It’s a grenade launcher rifle. K-L-EO didn’t have a missile launcher, so this’ll have to do.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yeah, I did. That thing needs to be in pieces.”

Hancock grinned. “Now yer speakin’ my language.”

Her sly smile made a brief appearance, and his heart fluttered.

“Did you need any ammo?” Mac asked as he picked up the rifle he had been working on to inspect it.

“Yeah, probably. Gotta inventory first though.”

Hancock walked to the front of the store, which had a little more light to see by, and inspected the grenade rifle in his hands. Parts of it were painted light blue, and old stickers looked like they were embedded into the weapon itself; he saw Nuka-Cola, Nuka Quantum, Red Rocket, and Hubris Comics stickers, just to name a few. On the back, where the stock met the receiver, the words THUMP THUMP were etched into the metal.

“Hey, what’s this written here?”

Amy walked over and looked at where he was pointing.

“Must’ve been the previous owners.”

Hancock shrugged and swung the strap around his shoulder. Mac was cleaning up the workbench, and he handed the .308 rifle to Amy.

“I’ve gotta check in at the Rail, make sure I haven’t missed out on any jobs,” Mac said reluctantly.

“You gonna come back to the statehouse?” Hancock looked over at him, his puppy-dog eyes starting to emerge. “She said earlier…that…”

Overhearing his comment, she laughed. “That I did. And that’s up to you two.”

Mac glanced at Hancock. “I’ll come back.”

Hancock grinned. “Ok, see ya in a few.”

Hancock grasped Amy’s hand, and they headed back into the statehouse to put their new arsenal away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He propped the two rifles up along the back wall of the bedroom, since they would be using them soon. Walking over to the couch, he sat down and placed his hat on the corner of the mattress next to him. Stretching his leg out, he didn’t even need to motion her to join him; she flew into his chest and immediately wrapped her arms around him.

“Fahr’s gonna be stopping by later to coordinate some mayor stuff with you,” she murmured as she began to bury herself in his chest. He chuckled as he ran his fingers through her hair.

“Figured we’d need to do that.” His head fell back on the armrest. “Are ya as tired as I am?”

“We haven’t eaten all day, on top of not much sleep the past couple nights.”

“That’d do it. Want me to order…?”

“Yeah, get Mac something too, unless he’s eating while he’s down there.”

“Might be. If he did eat, we can give it to Fahr if she’s hungry. But that means I’ll need to get up.”

“Dammit….”

He laughed. “Only for a minute. I’ll be back.”

Carefully moving her to a sitting position, he got up and walked out to the stairwell and sent the order with one of the Watch.

“We should go back to the office, actually, so we can use the table when the food arrives.” He walked back to her and held out his hand. Accepting it, he helped her up, and they wandered back to the other side of the statehouse.

They smoked on the bowl while they waited. Hancock pulled out her note from his pocket to admire her handwriting again, letting his eyes glide along the graceful lettering. She looked over to see what he was staring at, and she smiled.

“Are you gonna frame that?” Her eyes twinkled with curiosity and merriment.

“Gonna put it somewhere for safe keepin’, yeah. Ya got some lovely handwritin’. Don’t see too much of it nowadays, and the fact it’s from you to me…of course I gotta do somethin’ special with it.”

Hearing footsteps on the stairs, they turned to see Mac as he arrived with three plates.

“Mac, did the Watch convince ya to bring that up? I’ll have a word with ‘em if they did.”

“Nope, I offered since I was on my way back up.” He set the plates on the coffee table.

The trio remained quiet as they ate, and the food disappeared quickly. Mac offered to bring the plates back down to the Rail, and he vanished down the stairs.

“Don’t get comfy, we’re headin’ to the room as soon as he comes back,” Hancock said with a grin. Her eyebrow arched.

“Am I invited? Or is this a guy’s-only thing?” She gave him a sly smile.

He helped her stand and pulled her into his arms. “Can’t have a dinner party without the main course.”

Both of her eyebrows rose this time.

“Yer gonna get front row seats to what we had kinda been plannin’ for last night until I decided to add Fahr to the mix for ya,” he explained.

“Aha,” she said as she smiled. “Now the secret comes out.”

Mac walked up to them and put a hand on Hancock’s shoulder. Stretching his arm out, he pulled Mac into their hug.

“Speakin’ of the little devil, here he is,” he said as he captured Mac’s lips. Surprised at first, it didn’t take Mac long to surrender to Hancock’s advance.

Amy’s mouth moved to Mac’s neck, and she heard him give a muffled moan. She chuckled as her tongue slowly slid along his skin, and up to his earlobe, where she sucked on it gently. Hancock had to help hold Mac up as his knees began to wobble a little, and they parted from their embrace. Amy’s tongue was still teasing Mac’s earlobe as his hand slid down to her ass. Hancock grinned.

“Bedroom. Now.” He began to lead them out of the room, and she let go of Mac slowly. Arms around them both, Hancock walked them across the stairwell and into the bedroom, shutting the door behind him.

He motioned for Amy to sit on the bed, and he turned and embraced Mac deeply, his hands removing clothing as quickly as he could get them undone and off. Mac was doing the same for Hancock, and soon the two naked men joined her on the mattress. She leaned down and grabbed the pipe, and reloading it, she offered it to them with Hancock taking the first hit. Amy followed after him, and Mac actually decided to take a hit of his own, coughing slightly after he exhaled.

Hancock grinned as he urged Mac to lay down and grasped his member and began pumping as he kissed around his hips. Mac’s eyes closed as a soft moan escaped from him. Grinning devilishly, Hancock trailed his tongue to his member and took in all of Mac’s length into his mouth quickly, his chin hitting Mac’s balls. Mac’s head rose as his eyes shot open and locked with Hancock’s as he sucked.

“Haaaanncooooock,” Mac moaned, his eyes rolling back. “Your mouth is amazing.”

As the men became more engrossed in each other, she decided to strip herself down, feeling a little overdressed for the occasion. She stretched out next to the two men, watching each of them with interest. Mac’s head leaned back when Hancock took him in particularly deep, and Amy hurried to Mac’s stretched neck to continue the kisses she had been giving to him earlier, leaning her naked form on his. Mac’s arm wrapped around her and brought her to his mouth, where he embraced her deeply, their tongues encircling each other, until Mac broke away to moan continually; Hancock was focusing on one spot that was driving Mac crazy and causing his toes to curl.

Resuming her kisses at his neck, she began to glide her fingers over his naked skin, finding scars scattered everywhere as they explored. Hancock slowly released Mac and crawled up to the opposite side of him, kissing his neck as he spoke to them both.

“Let’s get up, I have an idea,” he panted. He rose once he got to the end of the mattress and helped his companions down. Walking to the wall, he stood with his back to it and motioned for Amy to stand in front of him. He helped angle her hips and her knees so Mac could come up behind her, and sliding his tip along her slit, he thrusted his member inside of her slowly, causing her neck to arch as he pushed deeper. Hancock’s mouth went to her stretched muscles and kissed her skin reverently as Mac’s pace began to quicken, and the slapping of their bare skin began to fill the room. Mac grabbed onto Amy’s waist, his chest at her back pushing her into Hancock.

“So fucking hot,” Mac whispered between the kisses he placed on her shoulders.

“Yer tellin’ me,” Hancock replied, his gaze going between her face and Mac’s and his hands gliding along her skin. “It’s gonna get a little bit hotter.” His hand dipped down to her mound and his fingers began to focus on her nub, and he captured her mouth in a deep embrace, their tongues joyful in their reunion. His fingers worked their magic, and soon she was moaning into his mouth.

Hancock parted from their embrace to whisper in her ear, “Yer doin’ so good, Sunshine. Takin’ his cock so well.” He lightly brushed her cheek with his fingers.

Her eyes fluttered shut, and Mac groaned when she tightened. His hips thrusted faster, as did Hancock’s finger ministrations. He grinned when she looked at him and he saw her eyes dilating.

“Tight,” was all Mac could get out before her back arched, and Hancock knew she clamped down on him hard as she climaxed, because Mac pulled out suddenly, his hand clutching the base of his member like it would explode if he didn’t.

“Fuuuuuck, almost came when she did,” Mac said through clenched teeth, his breath shaky. Carefully maneuvering himself around Amy, Hancock dropped to his knee and grabbed Mac’s length with his mouth, sliding him all in and sucking hard. Still breathing heavily, Amy turned and kissed at Mac’s neck on her way to his earlobe, where she suckled and traced the curve with her tongue. Mac lost it.

With a cry, he released into Hancock’s mouth, his hand almost leaving an imprint in Hancock’s shoulder from where he grabbed him. Hancock’s eyes shut in ecstasy as he swallowed and slid him from his mouth.

“That’s what I wanted to do this mornin’,” Hancock murmured as he looked up at Mac. Mac’s hand caressed Hancock’s head and urged him to stand, bringing him into a brief embrace.

“You haven’t gotten off yet,” Mac whispered, looking at Hancock with his big blue eyes.

“If we had that shower…,” Hancock began, and Mac stopped him.

“I want to see you two fuck.”

Hancock grinned. “Well, that we can do.”

“I mean, I want you in a position where I can really see you fucking her.”

Hancock eyed the couch, and he had another idea. “C’mere Sunshine.” He led her over to the couch, and he sat down, his hand stroking his member. “Sit with yer back to me, reverse cowgirl style.”

Backing up onto his lap, she grabbed his member and easily slid him inside and down to his hilt, her hips rocking as he was fully within her.

“Spread yer legs,” he murmured to her, and she opened them as Hancock opened his. He leaned her so her back rested on his chest, and wrapping an arm around her, began to thrust. Her head fell back, and he couldn’t resist leaning his head into her neck to passionately kiss her skin while his opposite hand massaged her breast.

“Jooooohn,” she moaned.

Mac was kneeling in front of them, stroking his member while watching them as they chased their pleasure together. His mouth went directly for her nub and sucked hard, and that caused her to grab Hancock’s thigh with a firm grip. Mac grinned inwardly, and trailed his tongue down to her outer lips, where Hancock’s member was quickly working to build up her wave, and flattened it to let it glide along his cock as it penetrated her heat.

“Fuck me, Mac,” Hancock said as his eyes squeezed shut, his head falling back to the couch.

“You two taste delicious,” Mac said, groaning. He went back to her nub, but he used his fingers so he could watch/touch and stroke himself at the same time.

“You get as wet as Fahr does,” Mac murmured, his fingers sliding through her want, watching them intently as Hancock’s pace increased.

“Fuuuuck…I think she…gets wetter than me,” Amy replied breathlessly, and Hancock could feel her tighten the more Mac’s fingers moved. He rutted into her, trying to time his release with hers.

“Mac, she’s close,” was all Hancock could get out before her back arched into him. He held onto her tightly, kissing her and praising her as her walls closed in heavily on him with a long cry, and the pulsing aftershocks that shuddered through her…

“Sunshine…fucKIN’ HELL…,” he bellowed and moaned as he clutched her to his chest in a deathgrip, his member throbbing his release into her, pure pleasure running amok in his veins.

Mac’s fingers went everywhere as they had climaxed, his eyes wide and taking in every movement they voluntarily, or involuntarily, made, the strokes on his own member becoming faster.

Amy saw Mac’s eyes squeeze shut as his breathing came in short bursts, and guessing he was close she pulled herself upright and leaned forward, placing a light hand on his thigh. His eyes hastily opened, and he slowed his pumping to get next to her so she could take him within her mouth, and she sucked on him hard. It only took a few bobs on him before he grabbed her shoulders and shot his release into her with an almost Hancock-like growl. His breath was now coming in large gulps as her tongue swirled around his member, and his grip tightened.

“FUCK, you two and your fucking mouths,” Mac moaned as he slowly pulled away from her, his legs shaking. “You’re both gonna suck me dry if you keep at it repeatedly like this.”

“Don’t tempt me,” Hancock narrowed his eyes with a devious grin on his face.

A knock came on the door. “It’s Fahr,” they heard a voice say on the other side.

“Damn, forgot about that,” Hancock mumbled as he lifted Amy up with him as he rose, and he parted his semi-hard member from her so he could answer the door; but first he kneeled quickly behind her to clean up what he could of their juices. He groaned and licked his lips as he rose. Amy sat down on the edge of the bed, and Mac joined her while Hancock opened the door with a grin, not bothering to get dressed.

“Hey Fahr. C’mon in. Did we need to go over to my office?” He shut the door behind her.

“Maybe for a few things….,” she murmured as her glance darted to Amy on the bed, who was restraining herself from jumping right into Fahr’s arms. Amy knew Fahr was working, and didn’t need the added distraction.

Fahr threw all of that to the wind when she walked quickly over and leaned in front of Amy, captured her in an embrace, and kneeled on the mattress as she gently pushed her down, all while their tongues danced with each other.

After a few moments, Fahr withdrew, breathing heavy, and stared right at Amy.

“Can I have you one more time before you go? So I have something to think about until you get back?” Her cheeks flushed a little, but her eyes did not waver from Amy’s.

“Now?” Amy asked, a smile forming on her lips.

A morose look came over Fahr’s face.

“No. Probably not until a little later on tomorrow. I’ve got a lot of stuff to take care of until then.”

Amy’s head rose to meet up with Fahr’s, so she could kiss her gently, and briefly, on the lips.

“Whenever you can, of course, we can do that. Come find me and let me know.”

Fahr grinned and embraced her deeply once more before parting again. Amy lay back down on the mattress, her eyes still on Fahr while she stretched out. Fahr’s gaze, of course, meandered along Amy’s stretched out form slowly before she came back to her original task at hand.

“I better get Hancock before he gets sidetracked,” Fahr mumbled as she looked around, finding him and Mac engrossed in each other on the couch. She tried not to chuckle and get turned on at the same time.

“Ok, Mr. Sex Addict, let’s get all of this squared away before you need to go stick it somewhere again,” she laughed. The two men on the couch parted, their laughter overpowering their sexual urges for a minute.

“Ya lost the pass I gave ya earlier ‘bout cockblockin’,” Hancock muttered, still laughing at Fahr’s comment as he got up. “I’m only wearin’ pants cause of that, and ya should consider yerself lucky.”

Fahr rolled her eyes at him. “Whatever will help you to focus for a half hour or so, or however long you decide it will take us to get through this shit.”

Picking up his pants, he reached into one of the pockets and pulled out a tin of Mentats and popped three of them while putting his pants on, returning the tin to his pocket once he had buttoned his fly.

Showing her the Mentats on his tongue, he said, “Lead the way, mon amie.” He motioned her to the door. They exited and shut the door behind them.

Amy sat up on the mattress and leaned over to the pipe and her smokes on the floor and tossed one to Mac. Lighting hers first, she handed her lighter to Mac when she was done, and he handed it back to her. Holding her cigarette carefully, she lit the pipe and took a big hit, exhaling the smoke towards the ceiling. She held up the pipe to Mac to wordlessly ask if he wanted some, and he shook his head no.

“I think I’m still feeling the last one a bit.”

Amy grinned. “I always forget how hard it lands, and how long it can last, when you don’t have a resistance built up to it.” She took a drag.

“Can I ask you something, Mac?”

He turned his head, blowing his smoke out to the side. “Yeah, what’s up?”

“I noticed your ‘self-swearing-filter’ kinda went out the window the past day or so,” she teased.

He sighed. “I know. I gave up on it while we were all….having fun, because I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep up with it.” He eyed her as she sat on the bed. “Especially with you two.”

She grinned. “I know, I’m a bad fucking influence.”

He laughed. “Case in point.”

Silence filled the room for a few minutes, and Mac cleared his throat.

“Can I ask you a question? And I know it may be a little….sensitive…so if you don’t want to answer, that’s fine.”

“Go for it.”

“Where did the scar on your face come from?”

She chuckled. “It’s not from something heroic, or anything like that.”

He waited with an eyebrow raised.

“I tripped on the stairs at my old house back home, in Colorado, and went through the glass door that went out to the backyard. Only large scar I got from it, and the surgeon said I was lucky I didn’t lose an eye, or most of my face. Tripped because my foot got stuck in my pajama pants walking down the stairs, and a shard of glass still stuck in the frame caught me as my face went through the door. Blood was everywhere, but luckily it was mostly outside.”

Mac took a few minutes to respond. “I’m glad it wasn’t worse than it was. You could’ve been decapitated or something. But…you’re right. You need to come up with a more badass cover story, to go along with that badass-looking scar,” he chuckled.

“I told a few people it was from a drug deal gone bad, which from what they knew of me, was completely plausible. Once I think I told an old lady it was because of Lucifer’s horn scraping my face while I rode the fuck out of him. I thought steam was gonna blast out of her ears, she got so upset. That old bat really pissed me off though,” she said as she erupted in laughter. His eyes widened for a second before he laughed along with her.

“You seriously told an old woman that?”

“She had a rotten personality, and was blindingly religious too, so I thought it fit.”

“Well, you do fuck a demon in a red jacket, so….yeah, you weren’t far off.”

She chuckled. “I’m the one with the demon wings most of the time,” she laughed quietly. “He’s the one with the horns though.”

Mac’s eyes closed for a moment as he thought of something, and he smiled. “You’re not wrong there.”

He leaned over to look at her Pip-Boy. “So that thing plays music?”

She grinned. “Yeah, wanna hear something?”

Mac thought a moment. “Hancock said something to me about Jimi?”

She broke into a huge grin. “Comin’ right up.”

Fiddling with her Pip-Boy, she brought up Midnight Lightning, a rare, unreleased studio track that she had gotten from a friend in California. Jimi’s guitar began to fill the room, and she got up and set the Pip-Boy down on the dresser and turned it up a little. Walking back to the bed, she picked up the pipe, took a hit, and followed up with lighting up a cigarette. She wandered to the middle of the room and swayed with the music, her arms moving through the air as freely as the music notes that drifted from her device.

She was so enthralled with dancing to the music that she didn’t hear the door open, and Hancock come in and shut and lock the door behind him. Hancock quietly sat next to Mac, who had moved to the bed, and grabbed his hand.

“She been at this long?” Hancock whispered to Mac as they watched her.

“Nah. First song.”

“Nice request. I think I know who this is.” He sat enraptured with her movements, and the smoke rings that would occasionally appear as she exhaled. She glided through the room almost as gracefully as the smoke did. “Long song too. Much obliged.”

As she was turning, she saw the two men staring at her, and she swayed her hips a little extra at the change in the beat as she beamed. Putting out her cigarette, she got close enough to the bed that she decided to playfully tackle them both onto the mattress, and they put up little resistance (probably because she was still nude) as all three fell back with a laugh.

“Love watchin’ ya dance,” Hancock murmured into her ear as his hand slid softly along her bare back. She smiled as she eyed the two men under her.

Mac tried to hide a yawn, but it also caught Hancock, and he yawned even bigger.

“Stop it, you know how contagious those are,” she teased.

“Wanna snuggle before sleepin’? I think it’s ‘bout time to get some shuteye.”

She nodded in agreement. Pushing up from the mattress, she walked over and grabbed her Pip-Boy, turned off the music, put it back on her wrist, and returned to the mattress. She stretched out the blanket at the foot of the bed so it would cover all three of them as Hancock situated himself in the middle of the bed, and Amy and Mac each took one of his sides. Amy burrowed into the left side of his chest, and Mac curled up on his right. Arms around them both, he kissed each of their foreheads and adjusted the blanket over them.

“Sleep well, my loves.” Hancock murmured with contentment. “We’ve got a lot to do before we head into that green-tinged abyssal landscape.”

Chapter Text

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 24

As tired as he was, he couldn’t sleep. Probably those fuckin’ Mentats. Hancock sighed as he stared at the ceiling, and debated on what he should do. He knew he needed to get some sleep, but he also knew that wasn’t going to be possible now, not until the chems worked their way through his system. He also didn’t want to wake the two forms on either side of him, but he didn’t know how to get up without waking them; Mac was practically attached to him and happily snoring away, and Amy had nuzzled deep into the left side of his chest and shoulder.

With careful, subtle maneuvering, he was able to unlatch Mac from his right side, and he gently slid himself from Amy, putting a pillow in his place so her head stayed at the same level it had been on his chest. She stirred a little and turned over, and he froze until she sunk down into the pillow and sighed. He sat and let his gaze drift over her for a few minutes, still in awe that she was all his.

What the HELL did I do in my life to deserve her?! I know it wasn’t how I handled my brother and the ghouls in Diamond City. I know it wasn’t from the lack of action when Vic and his boys got to that drifter and killed him with no remorse. He shook his head, trying to get the intrusive thoughts to leave, but they had latched on pretty tight. Definitely wasn’t from takin’ that damn drug, but turnin’ ghoul wasn’t a bad thing….especially gettin’ this kinda stamina. Yer damn lucky she’s a ghoul, too.

He thought back to all the Diamond City ghouls he had tried to help, and the people who depended on him in this town; Fahr, when she was just a young adult, hell bent on fighting anything and anyone, who would have gotten herself killed if he didn’t give her something positive to focus on, a purpose to fulfill. Mac, when he first wandered into town, trying to act tough when deep down he was worried and a little nervous about his split with the Gunners, and what they may do to him in retaliation; his son having a disease no one had even heard of before, and being hundreds of miles away from him. Daisy. K-L-EO. Charlie. Mags. Dr. Amari. Kent. He had taken them all under his wing, and with what little he had to give, he made sure they were all taken care of to the best of his ability. That’s still not good enough to even meet her, let alone bein’ tied heart and soul to that angelic goddess….what’s to stop whatever was responsible for that miracle from takin’ her away from ya?

Rising from the mattress, he found the pipe and carried it with him to the couch. Reloading it like he had seen her do, he took a hit and held it in, trying as hard as he could not to cough, and expelling it. Then he took another, exhaling his hit slowly. Placing the pipe on the dresser, he returned to the couch and followed up with a cigarette. He stretched out lengthwise on the couch and leaned his head back on the armrest, letting the smoke drift towards the ceiling.

He heard rustling on the mattress, and he sat up enough to see Mac scoot his way over to Amy and snuggle up against her back. He chuckled to himself. Must be needin’ that body heat that I took away when I got up. Resuming his original position, he continued to smoke and think. It didn’t take him long to get through his cigarette, and he put it out in the ashtray by the bed. Getting up, he went to his pants and found a canister of jet in his pocket; he shook it to gauge the contents. About half full. He returned to the couch and stretched out, dispensing a hit into his mouth, inhaling, and letting the vapors float around a bit before letting them escape out of the open area of his sinuses.

His thoughts slowed after his hit, but it didn’t completely stop them. It did help him to feel a little less wound up though, for a few minutes, at least. He sighed. Maybe I just need some fresh air.

Rising again from the couch, he put on his pants and found his jacket; he didn’t bother with his shirt or boots. Silently opening the door to the balcony, he closed it just as quietly behind him and breathed in the cool night air as he leaned carefully on the railing. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it, letting the breeze carry away the tendrils of smoke, and clusters of ash that fell. Curly walked around the entrance to the Rail just below, and Hancock gave him a nod as he passed by.

Staring up at the small patch of sky that could be seen between the surrounding tall buildings, the cold stars twinkled and sparkled amongst the inky blackness. How many times did I stare at the sky at night, wishing, hoping, praying, for someone like her?

Getting a little chilled, he pinched the cherry off of the end of his cigarette and down to the bricks below and flicked the butt towards the trash can at the edge of the square. He re-entered the room just as quietly as he had left and shut the door behind him.

As his eyes quickly adjusted, he glanced at the bed, and his companions hadn’t moved much. But there was a dark figure standing at the edge of the bed, and the formerly locked door to the stairwell was open a crack. His hand immediately went to his knife at his waist; it spun in his hand as he stealthily snuck up behind the shadowy figure at the edge of the mattress and wrapped his arm around their shoulder, the point of the knife biting into the figure’s neck.

“I’d think reeeeal careful ‘bout yer next move,” he icily murmured into their ear. The figure froze.

“We need to take a walk downstairs,” Hancock continued, “so we can have a little chat.”

The figure didn’t put up much of a fight as Hancock moved them outside of the room, into view of the Watch. Multiple pairs of eyes looked in surprise as Hancock emerged from the room with the figure at knifepoint in front of him, and they rushed over to take the figure into custody.

“Turn this fucker around, I wanna see who THE FUCK was in my room just now,” he seethed. The Watch obliged, and a stranger came into view in the low light of the stairwell.

The man was about Hancock’s height, slightly more muscled than him, and wearing similar fatigues that Amy had; mostly blue and grey, but missing the prominent black of hers, with black combat boots. His dark brown hair was shaved around the sides and back of his head that faded to a slightly longer length at the top. Five o’clock shadow clung to his chiseled jawline, and he sneered as Hancock got closer to him.

“Take him down to the cell. And keep a close eye on this guy – he got into my locked room, so make sure ya check him for bobby pins and the like.” The three members of the Watch, one at each arm and one pointing their tommy gun at his head, walked the stranger down the stairs and to the lower level. Eyeing the other members of the Watch, he shut the door to the room and locked it.

“We’ll get to how this happened later. Right now, ya better hope that he was the lone wolf in this. I want three of ya posted at this door. Two more doin’ a sweep through the building, check each room, and figure out how THE FUCK he got in without bein’ seen. Extra men at the gate too, anyone with his kind of fatigues gets extra attention.” He turned and swiftly ran to Nick’s room and knocked hard.

“Nicky. Ya in there? Gotta situation I need yer help with.” The door opened immediately.

“John! What’s going on?”

“Get downstairs to the cell. Found someone at the foot of my bed, not sure what faction he’s with, but might’ve been tryin’ to get to her. We need info before anythin’ happens to him.”

Nick was out the door and down the stairs before he finished speaking, and Hancock returned to his bedroom door and went inside. Quietly darting to the bed, he ran his hand on her shoulder gently to try to wake her up.

“Hey, Sunshine, need ya to wake up,” he hastily murmured to her. She opened her eyes and immediately sat up, knowing something was wrong.

“Talk to me.”

“I couldn’t sleep, and I was out on the balcony for a smoke. When I came back in, found someone standin’ at the end of the bed. Snuck up on ‘em and got ‘em to the Watch, and Nicky’s down at the cell now, tryin’ to figure out who he’s with.”

She was very much awake now, and even Mac was up and alert. Both she and Mac were dressed within minutes, and the trio headed down the stairs.

Nick was sitting in a chair placed at the bars of the cell when they arrived, and he motioned for them to stop where they were. Pausing, they listened in on the conversation.

“You must have a death wish if you were trying to do that by THAT method.”

“I was ordered to.”

Nick looked over to the group. “Seems our friend here is part of the Enclave and was here for a sample of her blood.”

Her flashing green eyes immediately caught the man’s dark brown ones, and when she narrowed them at him, he started backing further into the cell as she beelined to the bars.

“I think you should tell me exactly why you are here,” she snarled, restraining herself from throwing the door open and snapping this guy’s neck. Thank god I put the earpiece in before we came down here, otherwise I probably would have torn this door off by now, she thought to herself, appreciative that she only had her spiderwebbing.

The man didn’t answer right away, and her eyes narrowed further.

“I was on orders from my commanding officer to knock you out and get a sample of your blood. I was not to harm you, in case further live samples are needed.”

“Fuck. Another Brotherhood situation,” she muttered.

“What do you need my blood for?” She stood with her hands at her hips.

“You have a pre-war, rare Enclave-backed virus in your system. Notes were found on a particular experiment that occurred right after the bombs fell, and dots were connected. I was sent here to retrieve the sample from you.”

“And why is this of interest?”

“The testing is to be restarted for….other applications.”

“Such as…?”

“I do not have that information.”

“And who would?”

The man went silent.

Her eyebrow arched, and she nodded as she turned around and walked back to her companions. Hancock was watching her intently, and Nick looked over to her as she neared them.

“Is there a way…?” She didn’t even need to finish.

“I’ve got some methods,” Nick murmured.

“So do I, if his don’t work,” Hancock returned as his hand twitched to the waistband at his back.

All three looked into the cell. The man glared back at them.

“Let’s go and let Nicky do his detective magic,” Hancock said as he started leading her to the stairs. “Nicky, you know what to do if ya need help.”

Nick nodded, and the trio went back up to the bedroom. Hancock shut and locked it and angled a chair under the doorknob.

First thing she did was take a hit of the pipe and lit a smoke, and then took another hit.

“No wonder why I’ve been on edge. Now I’ve for sure got two fucking factions breathing down my neck,” she muttered as she took a deep drag of her smoke. “Maybe going into the Glowing Sea isn’t such a bad idea. Hopefully they won’t be able to follow us in there without putting everyone in power armor. There can’t possibly be that many still around, and in working order….”

“I’ve heard of the Enclave. They’re like the Brotherhood in the fact they hate any non-human, but way fu-frickin’ worse; they mix in a big dose of racism with a sprinkle of misogyny. They were prominent in the Capital Wasteland, and further south into Appalachia, I think,” Mac said quietly. “They tried to take over a water purifier that was being built in DC. Funny enough, the Brotherhood thought they were ‘too extreme’ for their tastes and were one of the groups responsible for bringing them down.”

“Think of the fascists of yer time,” Hancock said as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. “They hate everyone that don’t look like ‘em, or aren’t up to their rigid standards, and ain’t afraid to go to extreme measures to get the result they want.”

“They’re one of the companies responsible for creating the Gauss,” she replied as she eyed her bag. “Thank god he didn’t see that sitting over there. And that I had enough foresight to have my earpiece in, and my long sleeve over the Pip-Boy. Wish I didn’t wear my fatigues though. I think I gave something away by doing that.”

“But if they knew where you were located, guaranteed they probably know where those clothes came from….,” Mac started to add, but he let his comment drop off when he looked at her increasingly worried face.

“Fuck, do you think they went to Sanctuary? To the vault? They shouldn’t know about Nate’s cellar, but still….the vault is so close to Sanctuary. Goddammit. I hope Preston, Sturges, Mama Murphy, and Dogmeat are ok.”

“More reason to get over there soon. May have to speed up our departure time,” Hancock muttered, his gaze locked on the floor as he thought.

“We can’t rush in getting prepared for going into the Sea though, and there’s no settlements in between here and there to stock up if we don’t have certain items. If we skip something in prep, it could bite us hard when we’re stuck out there in the rads.” She began to pace back and forth.

She stopped her pacing when a thought came to her. “What do we do about our ‘guest’ downstairs? Do we let him complete his mission, so they can join the Brotherhood in chasing me all over the Commonwealth for more samples until I die? Or should he ‘go missing’? I don’t want them retaliating on Goodneighbor while we’re out. Fahr can handle things, but not to that extent, and especially not with the firepower I know them to have, and armor I’ve heard they have – their power armor is even more formidable than the Brotherhood’s.”

Hancock sat down on the couch. “Lesser of the evils may be to give ‘em what he came for. If he disappears, they’ll come lookin’ for him, with backup. If he gets injured, it’s the same deal.”

Mac and Amy nodded solemnly in agreement. “There’s no good answer on this one, just like before,” she murmured as she began to stare at a point on the wall across the room, her vision becoming unfocused as the thoughts whirled in her brain. Soon she squeezed her eyes shut in frustration.

“I’m gonna go check on Nicky, to see if he needs a hand,” Hancock said as he rose. “Mac, ya stay with her. I’d rather have someone who knows how to actually keep watch for any threats near her at all times, since my boys aren’t bein’ up to snuff tonight.”

Mac nodded, and Hancock removed the chair from the door and briskly walked downstairs. Not five minutes later, Fahr rushed into the room.

“I just got word from the Watch,” she said, a little out of breath. She hurried over to Amy and wrapped her arms around her and held her tightly for a few moments. Pulling back, Fahr looked Amy over to make sure she wasn’t injured. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah, that fucker didn’t put a finger on me, thankfully. John was up at the time and caught the guy at the end of the bed. Guy is downstairs now, Nick’s been trying to get info from him, and John just went down there to see if Nick needed any help.”

“He picked the lock on this door?”

“That was John’s assumption; the door to the stairwell was cracked open when he discovered him.”

Fahr huffed. “We need better locks on these doors; these ones now are older than you are, more than likely. I’ll work on that while you guys are gone. But first, I need to speak to the members of the Watch that were supposed to be keeping an eye on you guys. I’ll be back.”

She left just as quickly as she had entered.

“So much for getting any kind of sleep tonight,” Amy stated wistfully.

Mac looked at her, almost a little bashful. “Thanks for letting me snuggle up with you after Hancock got up, by the way. I must’ve been cold when I was out.”

She grinned and pulled him into a hug. “Anytime, Mac. I’m not quite the nuclear-powered reactor he is, but I’m not dead yet either. I’ve still got some warmth in me.”

“You’re plenty hot, in my opinion,” he murmured as he left his thoughts at that, so she could take from it what she would. She kissed his cheek.

“Flirting with me, huh?” She grinned playfully at him. “You getting lessons from John?”

“Nope. He runs off of pure charisma. I don’t really have that going for me.”

She laughed. “Neither do I, unless I’ve been able to find some Grape Mentats or take some Day Tripper. Even then, doesn’t come close to his levels.”

Still in her arms, he pulled back a little to get a better view of her face, trying to read her features for any unseen injuries, not just the physical ones. “Are you sure you’re ok? I don’t know how you’re not losing your mind right now.”

Laughing again, she tapped her head with her finger. “Can’t lose your mind when it’s already gone.”

He grinned just as she did, and as Hancock made his way back into the room.

“Hey now, better not be startin’ nothin’ without me,” he said as he crossed his arms in a joking manner, a grin on his face.

“Mac was thanking me for being the heater when you got out of bed,” she replied as she smirked.

“He might’ve been the reason I was able to catch that cocksucker,” Hancock added. “If he hadn’t been latched onto ya, we might’ve had a kidnappin’ situation on our hands. He was gonna knock ya out, and if he couldn’t get the sample, he had cohorts outside the gate to radio. Think they bolted when he didn’t check in.” Hancock looked at Mac with deep appreciation, and the men nodded between themselves.

“Nick’s methods have been successful?”

“So far. And no injuries to him, so no reason for ‘em to come back here if we give ‘em that sample.”

Grunting, she gave Mac a quick squeeze before she let him go. “Do they need hair and skin samples too? Or just blood?”

“We’ll round it out, so he doesn’t need a reason to return. I came back to get’cha over to Dr. Amari.”

“I hate to wake her up. But she’s the only one with the tools and know-how to get what we need.”

Holding out his hand, she grabbed and it offered her other hand to Mac.

“C’mon, let’s get this over with. Maybe we can get some sleep once it’s done,” Hancock murmured to the group.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arriving in Dr. Amari’s basement office, they found her up and working at her computer.

“Ya can’t sleep either?” Hancock asked as soon as they reached the door.

Dr. Amari turned her head slightly, then went back to the monitor.

“You could say that. What can I do for you at such an early hour?”

“We need to get some samples from Sunshine to send along with an intruder that was in our room, so he can get them back to his dumbass faction.”

Dr. Amari spun around in her chair to face them. “You had someone in your room? Just now?”

Hancock nodded. “Enclave. Here for the same reason the Brotherhood came lookin’ for her.”

Dr. Amari’s gaze moved to Amy. “You aren’t hurt, are you?”

“No. He didn’t touch me at all, thanks to John’s quick actions, and being up at the time.”

“So, what kind of samples did you need?”

“Blood, hair, and skin samples are what the Brotherhood had asked for, so we figured that should do the same this time around as well.”

“Would’ja be able to suture her up after the skin sample? Shit, which I should get some more of….we’re headin’ to the Glowin’ Sea here soon.”

“Of course, John. I do have extra of that. And I’d be happy to suture her up. Let’s get the sample first.”

Dr. Amari collected three vials of blood, a small cluster of hair, and she took the skin sample close to where the first one was taken, carefully suturing up the area when she was done. She handed them, and a small satchel, to Hancock.

“Thanks, Doc. C’mon, gotta head back to Nicky.”

The group said their goodbyes to Dr. Amari and went back to the lower level of the statehouse.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nick was sitting in the same chair as they arrived at the jail cell. The man within rose and walked closer to the bars and stopped. Hancock held the items in his hand.

“Ok, we’ve got blood, hair, and skin samples. This should be reason enough for ya to NOT ever come back here, ya feel me? She’s not your lab rat.”

The man nodded. “I’ll relay the message.”

Nick eyed the member of the Watch closest to the cell door, and he unlocked it, pulling it open.

“Escort him to the gate,” Hancock muttered to the Watch, as two of them flanked the man as he left the cell. The group watched them leave up the stairs, and Nick sighed.

“Let’s go up to your office, John. I’ve got some information to discuss with the rest of you.” He led the way upstairs, and the trio followed him. Nick sat down on one couch with Mac, and Hancock and Amy took the other.

Cigarettes appeared in everyone’s hands once they were seated, and they all laughed.

“Our family expands,” Nick commented with a grin. “Welcome into the fold, Mac.”

“Glad to be part of it,” he replied, smiling, “but this faction sh-stuff has gotta go. At least one of us is going to get a heart attack or mental breakdown from it.”

“Would be nice if they’d just fuck right the hell off,” Amy wistfully sighed. “But until I’m dead, I don’t see getting any rest from them. They’re almost as bad as solicitors.” Nick chuckled, and Hancock and Mac shared a confused look between the two of them.

“Solicitors were people who would try to sell you crappy items, usually by phone, or coming to your door. Persistent, nasty bastards most of the time,” Amy explained. The men nodded, somewhat in understanding.

“Ok, so our friend there was one Private First Class Mathias. Low guy on the totem pole, but takes orders from Sergeant Michaels, and Major Elias. They’re up here from DC with a small group. I had been keeping up with my contacts on them, which was why I was out so often, but they moved quicker than my contact could keep track of them. Mathias said he thought the Enclave were trying to revive their plans to create a form of FEV that would obliterate anything that’s even slightly mutated, or irradiated, to basically wipe the slate clean and start humanity over ‘fresh’. Given the current status of things…that would mean most everyone.”

“Modern-era genocide. Thought the bombs did enough of that.” Amy shook her head in disgust.

“Well, we have a helping hand in this a bit. Seems most of their research was conducted in Appalachia, West Virginia to be exact, and it was cleared out shortly after the bombs dropped. So, they would have to start from scratch. I think that’s why they wanted a sample from you, since they couldn’t find a sample of the virus itself. Seems like they’d have to go through quite a bit more effort to even get part of the virus from your blood sample, but what do I know. It’s probably better than nothing.”

“I can’t imagine what would happen if one of these groups DID find a sample….,” she muttered.

“One would be trying to enlist everyone, while the other would be trying to kill everyone not like them. Not too different from days past,” Nick quietly replied.

“War never changes.” She remembered that line from Nate’s speech that he was supposed to give. And damn, was it still accurate.

“Alright, I think we’re mostly done here. I’ll let you kids get back to getting some shuteye. I’m going to see if I can reach out to another one of my contacts, I’ve got some information to pass along that might be useful to them.”

“Ok Nicky, be careful. We don’t know how big of a group they are out there, and if they know yer sniffin’ around…,” Hancock gave his friend a worried look.

“I will. Don’t worry, John. I don’t really need to leave town, so I’ll be close.”

Nick said goodnight to everyone and headed down the stairs. Hancock helped Amy and Mac up from the couch, and he led them back to the room, angling the chair on the door after he locked it, and putting an additional chair on the door to the balcony.

His clothes dropping to the floor, Hancock climbed into bed, his companions following suit.

“Let’s try this again,” he said as they all resumed the original positions they had taken a few hours’ previous, and once they were all cuddled up, all immediately fell asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bright. Too Bright. She held her hand in front of her face before she even tried opening her eyes, because she knew a blast of pure sunlight right to her eyeballs would not be a good idea. She moved her head cautiously and opened her eyes. A sunbeam was shooting through the boards covering the windows but somehow found a direct path to her face. Arms tightened around her from behind as she moved, and she felt worn hands caress her skin.

“Too much sunshine for my Sunshine?” Hancock nuzzled her neck.

“You need some curtains, or some tapestries, or something. Those sunbeams are brutal. And if you’re hungover? Fuck.”

He chuckled. “For the longest time, I usually wound up on the couch, so it didn’t matter much. Different now that the bed is gettin’ use other than for fuckin’.”

“Speakin’ of which…,” he began to kiss at her neck slowly, and she leaned back into him.

She felt him slide his hard member through her quickly wettening slit, and she moved her hips so he could find his way inside. And when he did….her whole body arched at his arrival, and he pulled her closer to him, hands moving everywhere along her bare skin. She opened her legs and angled one of them back behind his leg, and he buried himself inside to the hilt with a satisfied moan and began to pump. He resumed kissing her neck, and his hand found one of her breasts, massaging it lightly at first, but as his hunger grew….his thrusts deepened, his massaging became almost desperate, and she began to get vocal.

“Need you,” he murmured to her, his head leaning into her shoulder as his length slid within her heat.

“I’m yours, all yours,” she breathed, a moan on her lips, and his thrusting deepened even further.

He didn’t care now that part of his brain had tried to convince him that he didn’t deserve her – she was his, and he was going to prove that to not only her, but to himself, each and every time they joined together as one.

His hands and fingers went everywhere along her form as his hips sent his length within her, his mouth worshipping her body with both feather-light and deep embraces where he could reach. He breathed in her increasingly intoxicating scent and groaned.

“Yer perfect, my goddess,” he purred, his penetrations getting faster as he felt her start to constrict around him. “That’s it, I want ya to come for me, my good girl.” His fingers found her nub and didn’t hesitate to rub tantalizing circles as his edge neared. “Gettin’…so….tight, come for me, my love, come for me….”

He held onto her closely with one arm, knowing that she was just about there, and then she clenched down on him, her back and neck arching, her cry echoing into the room, and he rutted into her to follow his goddess into pure bliss.

“Radiate me,” she murmured, and his hold on her tightened even more as he released with a half snarl, half yell, muffled because his face was buried at the back of her shoulder.

As his breathing slowed, he felt a pair of hands on his skin, a warm body sidle up to him, and a very erect member poking at his back. “Kinda hard to sleep in when you two are over here banging away,” Mac whispered to him.

Hancock kissed the back of her neck and squeezed her hip, which prompted her to turn her head in Mac’s direction. She slid his member from her, and carefully climbing over the men, she got behind Mac and began kissing his neck, pressing her naked body tightly against his back, and his breath quivered. Hancock had turned over so he was facing them both, his re-hardened erection rubbing on Mac’s, still slick from Amy’s heat. 

“Shower or no shower, yer gettin’ pegged, Mac,” Hancock murmured, staring into his baby blues as he embraced him briefly, before getting up and going to his bag, pulling out the bottle of lube, and grabbing two pills of RadX. Amy let go of Mac so he could get on all fours, and she watched her boys eagerly. Generously pouring some lube into his hand and coating his length, Hancock crawled back onto the mattress and gently slid his lubed hand along and around Mac’s puckered hole as he handed the pills in his other hand to Mac. Mac swallowed them dry, and as soon as Hancock saw him swallow, he slowly inserted a gnarled finger inside. Mac took a sharp breath, but then slowed the rest of his breathing as Hancock removed his finger, and Mac waited for Hancock to stretch him. Hancock was careful as he pushed himself inside, as he knew he had a little more girth than most.

“Holy FUCK, Hancock,” Mac breathed as Hancock slid further in, and Hancock let his head drop to Mac’s shoulder.

“I could say the same, Mac, goddamn,” Hancock purred as he began to slowly thrust. Eyeing Amy, Hancock glided his hands along Mac’s skin and slowly pulled him up to his chest, and he motioned with his head for her to go down on Mac while Hancock pumped into him. She crawled over in front of Mac and slid her mouth over his member, letting Hancock’s thrusts do most of the work to push him further down her throat.

The two had officially rendered Mac speechless, but not soundless; the more Hancock pounded, the deeper Mac’s member went into Amy’s mouth, and the louder Mac became.

“Sunshine…I think he needs yer warmth,” Hancock murmured before he too began to moan along with Mac. With a twinkle in her eye, she slid Mac from her mouth and turned herself around so Mac could enter her. Hancock slowed to let Mac bury himself to his hilt before he really began to pound him, which reverberated through to Amy. Mac wrapped his arms around her waist as he leaned on her, and Hancock leaned more into him, setting the momentum of their thrusting to pulse their pleasure through to the next person. She reached through her legs to gently fondle Mac’s balls as he fucked her, and Mac’s head fell back to Hancock’s shoulder, a look of pure ecstasy overtaking his face. Hancock gingerly kissed his neck as it stretched, and his thrusts became faster. Mac’s moans became continuous until he had reached his edge.

“I…I…can’t …,” Mac managed, his hand suddenly gripping incredibly tight on her hip, and Amy felt Mac’s member throb inside of her, along with the heat of his release.

“SHIT, I didn’t mean to…” Mac began as he pulled from her, and Amy turned towards him.

“Don’t worry, ok? I’ll have John fuck me again, and that should be enough radiation to take care of it.”

Hancock, with heavy-lidded eyes, looked over at her and grinned.

“Damn right I will,” he mumbled and resumed his pace, his eyes squeezing shut as he rutted into Mac. Pulling him close, Hancock growled as he released hard, and Mac cried out, almost coming again from the throbbing of Hancock’s member buried deep within him. The two men breathed heavy as rushes of bliss pulsed through them.

Amy started to get up from the bed, and Hancock slid himself from Mac. “Sunshine, hold on. I NEED to taste all of us,” as he helped her up and dropped to his knees behind her, placing his mouth around her heat as she began to drip their combined releases from her entrance. He sucked as hard as he could to get as much out as possible, and his head fell back when he couldn’t get any more.

“The mix just gets better,” he murmured mostly to himself as his tongue licked any stray remnants from his lips. “I’m gonna go clean up real quick in the bathroom, so Sunshine, ya better be ready to go when I get back,” he said as he stood. She grabbed him and brought him to her, embracing him slowly, letting her tongue tease his before she stopped.

“I’m ready now, so hurry back,” she whispered to him, her eyes still glowing faintly. He sighed happily as he turned to the dresser.

Finding a small piece of cloth and some soap, he walked confidently, and very nakedly, out of the room to the bathroom around the corner, shutting the door as much as it would allow, and turned on the sink.

“Amy, I’m sorry…,” Mac began, and she knelt back on the mattress and embraced him, catching his gaze as she pulled back.

“Mac, it’s ok. I know it wasn’t intentional. Plus….it felt really good.” She grinned at him.

His cheeks flushed. “I wish I could do it again and not have to worry about…that. I’d love to be able to cum when you do without pulling out, like Hancock can.”

“Maybe if I can get confirmation that my equipment down there is too irradiated to be worried about that, we can work it out.”

It was Mac’s turn to grin, and he tucked away that little fantasy for a later time.

Hancock strolled into the room, closing and locking the door behind him, and setting up the chair on the doorknob. He placed the soap back in the dresser and hung the piece of cloth on the handle of the drawer to air dry.

“Are ya still ready for me?” He grabbed the pipe and sat down on the couch.

A sly smile forming on her face, she slowly got up and walked over to him. She reached for the pipe, but he held it away from her, urging her to sit on his lap. She crawled on top and straddled him, lifting herself up enough to grab and position his member at her entrance, and slide down, her eyes fluttering shut until she bottomed out. He handed the pipe to her, and she took a hit and handed it back, her hips rolling as she exhaled towards the ceiling. His dark eyes watched her every move as he took his own hit.

“Mac…could ya grab this from me?” Hancock held out the pipe, and as soon as Mac took it from his hand, that hand immediately went to her ass and squeezed.

“Ride me, my angel,” Hancock whispered to her, his eyes sparkling as he looked up at her, a grin forming as her hips responded. Hancock’s eyes closed momentarily as he felt every inch of his goddess surrounding his member. He felt her mouth at his neck, and his head fell back, a moan cascading from his lips.

Trailing her tongue to his mouth, she captured his tongue with hers, and he returned her embrace with enthusiasm, his hands rubbing slow circles into her back while her hips ground down on him. She captured his moans as his eyes rolled back and closed. Chasing her wave, she quickened her movements, until he broke away from their embrace to stare directly into her eyes with an almost pleading look.

“Can I get ya in yer dress? Like how I had ya before we went to the Rail…?”

Biting her lip, she nodded, and he helped her up. Going to his bag, he found her dress and pulled it out. She put it on, and his eyes electrified; the desire that radiated from them made her back up to the wall. Immediately he was in front of her and lifted her leg, wrapping it around his hip, his member finding her entrance and sliding right in. Her head fell back with a moan.

“God, I’m gonna miss seein’ this dress on ya when we’re travelin’,” he murmured before he began kissing her neck with intensity, his hips matching that drive. The harder he pounded, the more vocal she became, and he quickly captured her mouth with his, their tongues adding to their desperation for each other.

The sounds of their moans and skin slapping soon filled the room, but they didn’t care. Slowing him down a little to hold her forehead to his, her hand cupped his cheek, and her eyes dove deeply into his dark pools as his length tightened her walls.

“My soul,” she whispered, her eyes flashing, “get this dress dirty.” He grinned devilishly and pushed her further into the wall, picking her other leg up and thrusting into her hard, causing her moan to explode from her mouth. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders to hold on, and their mouths rejoined until she began to clamp down on him, where her head fell back against the wall with a cry. He held her tightly as she climaxed, completely in his arms, and he quickly followed her, releasing deep within her with a loud growl. He carried her over to the bed and laid her down with a kiss, her warmth still encompassing his length.

“Every time, just keeps gettin’ better and better,” he murmured as his eyes locked with hers for a moment before embracing her again. Her arms wrapped around him, drawing him closer, their embrace deepening.

“I concur,” Mac whispered beside them, his eyes still wide from watching the pair. Slowing their kiss before parting, they turned their heads in his direction, and grinned.

Hancock realized something. “Sunshine, ya remember when I said I’d turn ya into an exhibitionist?” He grinned broadly as he gazed down at her, then slowly dipped down to her neck, kissing her deeply. “Yer a natural,” he murmured between kisses, “I didn’t need to teach ya nothin’.”

“Helps that I found out I like it,” she said as she eyed him, then lingered on Mac for a moment, then looked back to Hancock and smiled. She gave a wicked grin and flexed around his member, watching him intently, and he paused on her neck as his eyes shut. When he opened them, a storm raged within as he stared at her.

“We’re never gonna leave the room at this rate,” he whispered as he resumed kissing her neck, and she could feel him harden within her. She moaned in approval, and he thrusted once just to feel her.

“But…,” he paused. “We should try to get somethin’ productive done, if we’re gonna leave in the mornin’.” She pouted, but smiled shortly after, knowing he was right.

He pushed himself up, slid from her warmth, and embraced her. “Let’s go make sure we can make it back here. The more of those paks we can make, the more that increases our chances.”

“I think I’m going to go up to a nest to tweak your .308 while you’re doing that,” Mac said as he rose from the bed. “I’ll still need to show you how to use that grenade rifle, but I’m hoping we can do that on the way, so we’re not accidentally injuring anyone. Can’t really test it in town.”

Hancock rose from the bed too and walked over to Mac. Cupping his cheek, he embraced him briefly. “Thanks, Mac. May need some instruction on it, so I know how to use, and fix, it when we’re in the Sea.”

His blue eyes looked up to Hancock’s dark ones. “I’ll teach you. You gotta keep her safe for us when I can’t be there.”

Hancock nodded, a sigh escaping from him at the task looming ahead of him. The men gathered their clothes and set them on the bed so they could separate whose clothes were whose. Amy got up so she could get dressed too; she made her way to the dresser and found a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and she carefully took off her dress and set it on the top of the dresser, so she could bring it to Daisy for cleaning. Skipping the underwear, the jeans went on first, then her bra, then her shirt. She walked over to the couch to tie up her boots as Mac was getting up after putting his on. She cupped his cheek in passing, and his eyes locked with hers.

“You know where to find us when you’re done,” she said as her eyes sparkled. “Thank you for helping him with this.”

Mac grinned. “Someone’s gotta watch out for you two,” he returned. Giving her a kiss on the cheek, he walked to where the guns rested along the wall and picked up the .308. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

Hancock and Amy watched him leave the room. Eyeing each other, he held out his hand to her.

“Let’s go get somethin’ cookin’.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Down in the lower level, under the chemistry station, he pulled out jars of Glowing Fungus, antiseptic, and the bags of irradiated blood. The Bunsen burner stood on the table, and a larger jar sat above it.

“I’ll help ya make this batch,” he said as he chopped up some mushrooms. “Wanna make sure ya know how in case ya need to make some.” She had been watching him chop, but her eyes darted to his.

“Where can we find antiseptic out in the wastes? I’d see that being a problem ingredient.”

“As long as ya can find Abraxo cleaner, turpentine, industrial solvent, toothpaste, or blood sacs, those all got antiseptic in ‘em. Gotta break it down before usin’ it though, so ya don’t get additional ingredients ya don’t need.”

She fiddled with her Pip-Boy and nodded. “Adding it to this just in case I forget a step.”

“Ya won’t need as much antiseptic for our paks, as the rads do most of the work. But it helps thin the irradiated blood, ‘cause that’s a bit thicker than regular blood, and it needs to get through the needle.”

She watched as he added the ingredients to the jar, and lit the burner underneath, turning it down to barely any flame coming out of the top. He left behind a little bit of the irradiated blood, and she was curious as to why, but she would ask when he was done.

“Needs to warm up. Somethin’ ‘bout the heat helps it mix.” He knelt down and grabbed two handfuls of syringes from the cabinet.  “Hopin’ we’ll be able to fill all of these, but we’ll see how many we get.” He placed them on the table by the burner.

“What will we need to do for the Radscorpion stinger? Is that why you saved some of the glowing blood?”

He grinned. “Ya nailed it. Usually, antivenom’s made by injectin’ a small amount of venom into an animal with a lot of blood, like horses of yer time, and they’d draw out the antibodies. We don’t have horses, but the irradiated blood may fill in some gaps, plus give us the rads we need.”

He pulled out a small vial from the cabinet. “Dr. Amari helped me with this, since she had tools to break into that stinger. We’ll wait ‘till this is done, then we’ll work on the antivenom.”

Her eyes shone in the low light as she took in all of the information, and he grinned with pride. He cupped her cheek with his hand as he caught her gaze. “We’ll make a Wastelander outta ya yet.”

She beamed. “Wouldn’t have gotten this far without you.”

His arms wrapped around her, holding her tight as she wrapped hers around him. “Damn glad our paths crossed when they did. Not sure if it was fate, destiny, or just goddamn coincidence that they crossed, but I’m not gonna waste a moment tryin’ to figure it out.” Drawing back a little, he drew in her gaze once more before he embraced her deeply.

Hearing a bubble pop in the liquid, he glanced over and saw things were heated up enough. He parted from her to turn off the flame.

“Gotta let it cool a sec, burns from that jar take a while to go away.”

His eyes locked with hers.

He grinned. “Yer eyes are glowin’ a bit. Must be the rads from the blood.”

She laughed. “I wonder if they’ll be as bright as they were in that basement when we get to the Sea.”

“I’d have yer sunglasses with ya just in case,” he said, shrugging. “Don’t need a beacon alertin’ everythin’ that we’re out there.”

He checked the jar. Nodding his approval, he began to fill the syringes.

They wound up having an extra empty syringe, which was perfect; that would be for the antivenom.

“This one we don’t need to heat up. Dr. Amari told me about a method to extract it, but we’ll have to let it sit for a while and come back.” He glanced over at her, a smirk forming at the corner of his mouth. “We could find somethin’ to occupy our time…”

Her eyebrow arched. “How much time are we talking about?”

“Hour or so, almost two.”

She glanced at her Pip-Boy and smiled. “Down here, or upstairs?”

He grinned deviously. “Upstairs. Door to lock. Just you and me.”

“Lead the way.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As soon as the lock latched together, so did they; Hancock brought her in for a deep embrace, and their tongues celebrated their reunion, sliding and twisting with each other urgently. Their clothes were on the floor from their combined removal efforts within minutes, and Hancock picked her up so she could wrap her legs around his waist. He carried her to the bed and laid her down, not breaking their embrace for a moment, except when they both needed air.

He paused for a moment as he looked down at her, and the love and adoration her eyes sent back to him made his heart ache in the best way. He cupped her cheek with his hand as he searched her gaze.

“Is there anything more, or bigger, than love? It seems like ‘love’ just don’t come close to what we have,” he murmured to her as he lowered his head to kiss at her neck.

She hummed as she thought, and while he kissed her neck passionately; he strayed on a certain spot a time or two in order to suck hard, and she knew he was trying to leave marks on her.

“Only thing I can think of is being soul mates, but that can happen even if love isn’t involved,” she returned quietly.

Teasing his tip along her slit, she eagerly waited for him to slide inside, and they both moaned when he did. He kept his thrusts slow at first, so they could be completely enveloped around, and within, each other as much as possible. It wasn’t his intent to get them both off quickly. They had some time, and he just wanted to be inside of her warmth.

Her eyes widened in remembrance of something someone had told her once, and he saw that memory spark in her eyes. He languidly thrust his member deeper within her, and her head and neck stretched back the deeper he thrusted. “What’cha thinkin’, Sunshine?”

She moaned before she replied, “Divine love soul mates.”

He stopped to gaze at her. “Divine love soul mates?”

Her eyes glittered as she stared back at him, and she smiled that heartstring smile, and that joyous melody played throughout his entire body as he watched her intently.

“It’s where you get a feeling of having known another person for an entire lifetime moments after meeting them. There’s an intense bond, connection, and friendship that forms and never goes away, and it has the amazing, deep-rooted love most tend to look for their entire lives, but few ever seem to find.”

He stopped his thrusting and thought for a moment and nodded. “I think ya might be onto somethin’. And how appropriate is that? Yer already my angelic goddess, would only be fittin’ for what we have to be divine.” He grinned and resumed pushing himself deeply within her, all while being unable to keep his eyes off of her.

“No wonder we’ve had those kinda moments before, like yer soul was callin’ out to mine, and mine was answerin’ right back without any hesitation.” He leaned down to kiss her neck just below her ear, and her breath shook as his lips touched her. If he still had most of his skin, he would have had goosebumps forming all over him.

Catching his gaze when he moved to kiss the other side of her neck, she murmured, “Like now? Do you have-” she began, but he finished for her.

“-the same tightness in yer chest? Not a bad tightness, almost like an overwhelmin’ feelin’ of somethin’?”

Eyes locked with his, she nodded. He embraced her desperately, and she wrapped her legs around him, hooking her feet together to angle her hips better, and to hold him as close to her as possible. His hips surged forward as his arms encircled her tightly, hers doing the same to him, and his thrusts became focus-driven and steady; parting from their embrace, his eyes held a dark, flashing blaze to match the deep green fire of hers, and the gaze they balanced between each other burned with the ferocity of a raging wildfire. As his hips quickened, their combined vocalizations brought each of them closer to their breaking points; he couldn’t get enough of her moans, and she was getting wetter from hearing his.

His edge was nearing, unlike anything he had ever felt before, and all he could do was hold her tightly as he moved his hips faster; she held him just as tight, as her wave was beginning to crest incredibly hard.

“John, oh my god, come with me,” she cried, and he joined her in a loud moan of pure ecstasy as they climaxed together; they continued to hold onto each other as they each throbbed all over, their breathing becoming synchronized as it slowed.

He nuzzled into her chest, listening to her heart as it beat steadily. She caressed his head with her hands and fingers as the electric pulses she was still feeling after their combined releases surged through her.

“I feel like I just got hit by lightning,” she whispered. She could feel him nod in agreement.

“Divine acknowledgement of our powerful bondin’,” he murmured in response as he placed delicate kisses on her chest, his fingers absentmindedly tracing patterns on her skin. She kissed him everywhere she could reach.

“How long has it been since we got up here?” He didn’t want to waste the antivenom just because he couldn’t part from her, which he was really loathed to do at the moment.

She took a look at the screen on her wrist. “It’s been a little over a half hour.”

His hold on her tightened. “Good, we don’t have to go back downstairs for a while. But don’t let me fall asleep either.”

“I won’t let you,” she purred as she flexed, since he was still inside of her. She felt him begin to harden.

“Ya little minx,” he murmured, leaning up on an elbow as he caught her gaze. She had a devious smile on her face. She closed her eyes and flexed again, even harder this time.

A moan escaped from his lips, and in a few quick movements, she had rolled them over where she was now on top, her hips beginning to rock. His neck stretched back as another moan tumbled from him, and she leaned down to kiss his neck. Sucking hard on one spot, he began to chuckle.

“Are ya markin’ me, Sunshine?”

“Returning the favor would be more accurate.”

He grinned. “Won’t show up quite as much on me as mine will on ya, but I like the idea of markin’ each other. Says yer spoken for.” His gaze held a possessive quality she hadn’t seen much before, and it warmed her immensely.

“As are you,” she replied as her eyebrow arched. She smirked as she closed her eyes and angled his member just right within, so he rubbed her special spot as her hips continued to roll, and she kissed every inch of his neck.

“Suuuuunshiiiiiiine,” he groaned, “I love it when ya ride me.” He grabbed her ass with both hands, and her hips moved quicker.

She raised her head and captured his gaze.

“I love being on top.” She ground her hips down on him, and he let out a moan. “Because I can make you do that.” A devilish grin slowly spread across her face, watching him intently as she flexed. His eyes rolled to the back of his head.

She felt her wave starting to take shape, so she sat upright and really rocked her hips, directing his length exactly where she needed him to be to get her wave to crest. His grip on her ass tensed.

“Yer gettin’….close…,” he managed between moans as he stared at her with awe.

“So….fuck….so are you,” she breathed as her head fell back, her arm outstretched and propped against his chest. He sat up quickly and wrapped his arms around her.

“Come for me then,” he murmured, his eyes glittering at her.

One of her fingers slid under his chin and brought his face to hers, and she drew him in for a deep embrace, their tongues gliding along and around each other with fervor. She captured his groan as she felt him throbbing within her, his hands squeezing her ass tightly as she quickly rocked her hips. She broke from their kiss to throw her head back, clamping down on him as her wave crested, a long moan tumbling from her lips. He held her tightly as she rode out the aftershocks that thundered through her. “That’s my girl,” he purred as he gently rubbed her back. She grinned.

She continued to sit on his lap, taking in every detail of him as her gaze went everywhere. Her fingers went on an adventure of their own, gliding across his chest, his arms, his back, his neck and head…her hand cupped his cheek, and he leaned into it, his eyes shutting for a moment at her soft touch.

“I’ve never met someone as amazing as you are,” she murmured to him as her green forested eyes threatened to swallow him whole. All he could do was stare back in complete adoration as he felt that same happy tightness in his chest, and he saw she was feeling it too.

“You’ve been the answer to my deeply hidden hopes and dreams, ‘specially after I went ghoul,” he whispered after it took him a few minutes to find his words again, his eyes shimmering with gathering moisture as he looked at her. “Never thought I was even remotely lucky enough to have ‘em come true.” He wrapped his arms around her tightly, and she in turn held him just as hard.

“All this was bouncin’ around my head when I couldn’t sleep earlier. I’m glad I couldn’t sleep though. Can’t believe that Enclave fucker had the balls to bust in here to come after ya.”

“My guardian angel,” she murmured as they continued to hold each other, and he sighed as the happy pressure blossomed in his chest from her words.

“I’m no angel though, Sunshine. I’ve done a lotta bad things in my life I ain’t proud of.”

“I’m no saint either, John. Nowhere near the angel you claim me to be.” She caught his gaze and kept him focused on her. “Guardian demon then?”

He grinned. “Probably closer to that.”

She looked at his forehead and smirked. “You would look pretty amazing with some horns though, honestly.”

He pulled her close and nipped at her neck. “What time are we at? Yer gettin’ me pretty distracted.”

She glanced at her wrist. “It’s been a little over an hour. We should probably go check on it at least.”

He placed a finger under her chin and directed her gaze to him, and brought her in for a slow, deep embrace. She was about ready to lean him back on the mattress when he slowed and parted from her.

“Yer right, we should at least check on it. Then we can come back and continue,” he murmured as his eyes flashed dangerously. She grinned.

“Alright. I’m getting clothed under protest though.”

“I’m protestin’ too.”

Gliding her hand on his cheek, she slid his member from her warmth and began to rise from the bed, turning the opposite direction.

“I should clean ya up first. That first round when we got back…felt like it was a big one, and I don’t want ya leakin’ radiation everywhere.” His head leaned towards her slit, his tongue at her entrance in moments. Her eyes closed as he was being incredibly thorough, and she even heard slurping sounds as he was finishing. She giggled.

“What? Ya know I’d be back here all day if ya’d let me, and we didn’t need to go anywhere,” he chuckled.

He let her go, and she went to their clothes pile and carried it over to the bed, and they picked their items out and put them on. Once they were fully clothed, he moved the chair from the door and unlocked it. As they headed to the stairs, they saw Mac stretched out on a couch in Hancock’s office, smoking a cigarette. Hancock jogged over to Mac and surprised him with a kiss.

“We gotta go back downstairs to the chemistry station to check on the antivenom. Wanna come with?”

Mac sat up and grinned. “Sure.” He rose from the couch and followed the pair downstairs.

Picking up the jar that held the venom and irradiated blood, Hancock looked at the separation between the liquids and frowned.

“Not ready yet. Still needs to sit a little longer.”

He placed the jar back on the table. Thinking of the previous time that they used the station, he chuckled as he eyed her with a grin.

“What’s up?” Mac glanced over at Hancock with a curious look.

“Just thinkin’ bout what she and I were doin’ before you came down here to ask about goin’ to Med-Tek.”

Mac laughed. “I bet I could guess.”

“It was fuckin’ hot. Ya almost caught us, too.”

Mac’s eyebrows raised. “I was that close?”

“Yer steps were on the stairs and we were scramblin’ to tuck things back in and get decent,” he said with a chuckle.

Mac laughed. “I thought it smelled like sex in here. Thought maybe it was just a coincidence with whatever you were cooking up at the time though. How…?”

“Just pulled her pants down a bit. Only had my cock out. We were on round two.”

Mac’s eyes shut with a moan at the visual. “Fu-frick, Hancock.”

“I say we go up to the office and wait there. Sunshine, can ya keep an eye on the clock? 20 more minutes should do it, and I don’t want to go over,” Hancock said as he caught Amy’s gaze. She nodded and fiddled with a knob or two on her Pip-Boy. Hancock led the way back upstairs to the office.

They were all lounging on the couches, each smoking a cigarette when Fahr came into the room. Amy grinned as she leapt up from the couch and rushed over to her, wrapping her arms around her as they embraced.

Hancock grinned at the sight. “Hey Fahr.”

The ladies slowly parted so Fahr could respond, and Amy made her way back to the couch.

“Hey Boss. Think I may have an idea of how that twatwaffle got in your room. Spoke to a few of the Watch. One of ‘em said they thought they saw the ‘air get all wavy’ by the door just a few minutes before you came out with the guy at knifepoint.” She found a spot on the couch next to Mac and sat down.

Hancock and Mac looked at each other immediately.

“Stealth Boy,” Mac blurted out. “But how? I know those don’t last longer than 30 seconds or so, and there’s no way he got in the gate, in the statehouse, up the stairs, and picked the lock in that time. And how would he have gotten back out, possibly with her, if he knocked her out?”

Amy sat, staring at a spot on the floor while she chewed on her lip in thought.

“The Enclave may have a different version,” she said quietly.

Everyone looked over at her.

“Nate talked about something at one point that was ‘going to change the course of the war’ and would ‘prevent our soldiers from being seen by the enemy’. I don’t know if it was West-Tek or Enclave-related, but that’s awfully close to the mark. So, I know there’s a possibility that the Enclave may have had its own version of a Stealth Boy, at least in my time.”

“Fu-frickin’ hate those things,” Mac muttered.

“Fabulous,” Hancock replied sarcastically.

They heard footsteps on the stairs, and Nick’s fedora was the first to appear in their view.

“Hey Nicky,” Hancock called out. “Come join us, we just got some info ya should probably be privy to.”

Nick walked into the room quickly and sat down on the chair. Fahr explained what the Watch saw, and Amy explained what she remembered from Nate.

“My contact has heard of it. Stealth Boy Mark III. Comes from Appalachia. Was leaning towards that since no one seemed to see the guy come into town, or into the statehouse. I know the Watch isn’t THAT bad at their jobs.” Nick sat for a moment, his processor whirring as he thought.

“I think there’s a radio frequency that can disrupt their ‘cloak of invisibility’. I’ll need to check with Dr. Amari to see if she might know what it is. We may need it on our trip.”

Looking amongst the faces of the group, Nick said, “We still on for leaving in the morning?”

After a deep sigh, Amy nodded affirmatively. “I think we’re just about ready. Antivenom is probably done,” she noted the beeping at her wrist and looked over at Hancock, “and I think John just needs to get supplied at K-L-EO’s and Daisy’s. Need to find a bag for you for the hazmat suit though.”

Hancock saw her glance and hopped up, darting downstairs to check on the concoction brewing on the table.

“Good, sounds like we’re pretty much ready. Any ideas on a route? We could go the Vault-Tec HQ to riverwalk way since the courtyard fountain area’s been taken over again. I think that bridge by Bunker Hill is still our safest bet, and from there we can go the Wattz Electronics direction.”

“Agreed. I don’t want to go the southern route through yao-guai territory if we can help it. We’ll have enough of that area getting to the Sea as it is.”

“Meet back in here at dawn? Seems the best time to head out. Hopefully the weather holds.” Nick rose from his seat. “I’ll check in with Dr. Amari about that frequency.”

They all said their goodbyes, and Nick disappeared down the stairs just as Hancock was heading up with the syringes of Irradiatedpaks and antivenom. The two men stopped to speak for a few minutes and then resumed their original trajectories. Hancock held the one syringe up for Amy to see as he walked into the room, and she grinned.

“All done. Sounds like we’re meetin’ back up at sunrise, yeah?”

The group nodded back to him.

“I need to restock at Daisy’s first, but I think we should all reconvene in the bedroom for a drink.” His grin had a devious undertone to it. “If ya need to restock on anythin’ too, come with me. Otherwise, stay here, and we’ll be back in a few.”

He held out his hand to Amy, and she rose to accept it. “Will Daisy have a bag for Nick? Or do you have an extra?”

Hancock nodded. “She’ll probably have one. I’ll grab my bag so we can carry everythin’ back to the statehouse.” He jogged back to the room, and after a few minutes returned with his bag.

“I already restocked. I’ll probably go grab my stuff in the meantime though,” Mac said, having a hint of where the evening may lead. He also stood to leave.

“I’ll hang here,” Fahr replied, putting her feet up on the couch as she pulled out her cigarette pack.

“Alright, we’ll see ya in a bit.” The trio made their way downstairs, and Mac split from them as they stepped into the courtyard to head to the Rail. Hancock and Amy stopped at K-L-EO’s first and picked up more ammo, making their way to Daisy shortly after.

Daisy was just finishing up a sale as the pair walked up to her counter, her customer turning to leave. Daisy looked up.

“There’s the cute couple,” she said as she grinned.

“Hi Daisy,” Amy replied. “How are you?”

“Doin’ great, honey. Take it you’re needin’ to restock?”

“Yeah, if we could. Not sure how long of a trip is in store for us, so we’ve gotta be prepared.”

Hancock started walking back to the rear of the store, and Daisy’s gaze followed him. “What’cha need, John? Anythin’ specific?”

“Need a bag for Nick, and if ya have two, one for Mac. Food and water for Mac’s since her hazmat suit will be takin’ up most of the room in Nick’s…but if Nick’s can fit some supplies, that would work too.”

“I should have a couple bags back there. Let’s see what I’ve got.” Daisy turned to follow Hancock to the back of the store.

Amy found her pack of smokes in her pocket and lit a cigarette as she sat down on the bench outside of the store. A light breeze was picking up, and her gaze went skyward to see if she could catch a glimpse of any incoming weather. Some clouds were blowing in, but she felt a peculiar itching, like tiny little shocks were scattering across the surface of her skin. It didn’t hurt, more of an annoyance, as she felt each little snap and pop it made as it traveled all over her. But odd nonetheless since she hadn’t felt it before. Taking a puff, she exhaled as she stared at her skin.

“What’cha lookin’ for?” A rough voice snapped her out of her focus, and her gaze lifted to a familiar silhouette.

“My skin’s feeling weird. Like little electrical pulses are skirting across the top of my skin.”

Hancock sat next to her, a look of concern showing in his features. “Did that just start?”

“When the breeze picked up. Maybe a rad storm is coming in?”

His eyebrows raised in agreement. “Ask Daisy. I know she can usually feel ‘em beforehand.” He kissed her cheek. “I think Daisy will let ya smoke in the store, so let’s go ask her.” Standing in unison, he held her hand as they walked to the back where Daisy was working.

“Hey Daisy, does it feel like a rad storm is comin’ in to ya?” Hancock asked as he rounded the corner. Daisy looked up from the bag she had been stitching up.

Standing quietly with her eyes closed for a few moments, her arms twitched a little as she chuckled.

“Yeah, gettin’ some familiar symptoms of one on its way.”

Hancock glanced at Amy and arched an eyebrow. She shrugged her shoulders.

“Why?”

“Amy’s skin was gettin’ a weird feelin’, and I was thinkin’ it might be a storm comin’ in.”

Daisy looked over at Amy. “Like static electricity square dancin’ over it?”

Amy laughed. “Not a bad description. And yes.”

Daisy nodded. “Guess ya got the gift too,” she said as she smiled. “Doesn’t hurt me, so hopefully it isn’t painful for ya either.”

“Not so far. Just more irritating than anything else.”

Laughing, Daisy nodded. “It’ll help when yer out in the wastes. Usually gives enough warning to find cover.”

Returning her focus to the bag she was sewing, she said, “I’ll be done with this in a few minutes, just need to patch up some holes that could cause problems.”

“Take yer time Daisy. We’re not in a rush,” Hancock murmured as his gaze drifted over to Amy, who was leaning on the wall just around the corner. Silently he closed the distance and leaned up against her, his face inches from her as their gazes locked together.

“With that rad storm comin’ in,” he whispered, “I’ve gotta surprise to show everyone once we get back.”

“I promised Fahr she could have me one more time before we go. She asked if she could,” she murmured to him. “I want to give her something to fantasize about until we get back.”

“That fits perfectly with what I’ve got.”

She grinned, and he leaned in for a quick kiss, but she wouldn’t let him get away that easy. Their embrace slowly deepened, until a rough voice cleared her throat. Parting from each other, their attention went to Daisy, who stood just feet away from them with her hands on her hips.

“I can see the love just billowing off the pair of ya,” she grinned as she rushed over to hug them both. “Warms this ancient ghoul’s heart. Reminds me of better days that I miss, but at the same time, still gives me hope for the future too.”

“Love ya Daisy,” Hancock said as he returned her hug. “We wouldn’t’ve gotten to where we are now without yer help.” Amy nodded and hugged her back too.

“Bags are all done, just pack ‘em up how ya want.” She placed a kiss on Hancock’s cheek, then one on Amy’s, and turned to go back to the front of the shop. “Stop by before ya leave in the mornin’, ok?”

The pair nodded in unison as they moved to finish packing the bags. “Of course, Daisy.”

It didn’t take long to fill the bags up with their supplies, and they each carried one as they left the shop, saying goodbye to Daisy. Hancock reached for her hand, and they walked towards the statehouse. The air was sparking with excited electricity, and that wasn’t just from the incoming rad storm…

Chapter Text

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 25

As the pair entered the statehouse, they heard voices coming from the direction of his office; Fahr and Mac seemed to be having a pretty involved conversation, but they couldn’t quite hear what was being said. Laughter soon erupted as they reached the landing.

“You should’ve seen the look on that mutie’s face when his buddy’s head just exploded all over him! And he was looking around everywhere, trying to figure out where the shot came from…,” they heard Mac say.

“Please tell me you got that one too, like it came from out of nowhere,” Fahr replied, and they could hear the excitement in her voice.

“Right between the eyes,” Mac replied with pride.

“Wouldn’t’ve expected anythin’ less from ya,” Hancock said with a grin as the pair entered the room. “That rifle’s ready to go, I take it?”

Mac beamed as he nodded. “Got it all dialed in.”

“And ya took out some muties in the testin’ process?”

“Best targets for long range.”

“I say that’s cause for a celebratory drink! Everyone in the bedroom,” Hancock said with a mischievous look on his face as he started in that direction. Mac chuckled, wondering what Hancock had up his sleeve.

Once everyone was in the room, and the door was properly locked with the chair in place, Hancock went to the dresser, depositing the bags nearby and going to a drawer, where he pulled out a bottle and four glasses and set them up on top of the furniture.

“Can’t believe Charlie’s still mad that I took this bottle,” Hancock laughed to himself.  He poured an equal amount in each glass and carried all four glasses with him to the rest of the group, who were sitting on either the couch, or the mattress.

Raising his glass, he toasted, “To our growin’ family. May we continue to bring those who need the comradery into the folds of our little freakshow.”

All threw their drinks back at the same time, and as is tradition, all coughed as the alcohol singed their throats.

“And now,” Hancock said with a dramatic flair, “yer probably wonderin’ why I’ve got ya gathered here right now, aside from the drink. I figured since we’ve gotta split for a bit, we’d do it on a high note, so we can have enough longin’ during our absence to do a repeat performance once we get back.” His grin was devious.

He gathered the glasses from the group, and placing them on the dresser, he went to a different drawer and pulled out what looked to be a tangle of leather and metal clasps, buckles, and brackets, and the purple dildo.

“What…the hell is that?” Fahr asked out of fascination and curiosity.

Hancock smiled with a glint in his eye. “A strap-on.”

Fahr and Mac looked at each other curiously, not sure if they knew what he was talking about.

“Now who’s the one holding out?” Amy rose from her seat with her arms crossed, trying especially hard to look pissed off, but only succeeded in being adorable, which drew Hancock over to her, a flicker of the flame she had stared at earlier in his eyes coming out for only her to see.

“Not holdin’ out. Waitin’ for the best time for a surprise,” he murmured to her as he grinned. “Remember, I said that things did survive the bombs, and I brought that dildo as a test the other day. Wanted to see if this would be somethin’ of interest. This kinda thing ain’t everyone’s glass of whiskey, aaaaand it can get a bit awkward to bring up in conversation, especially since most don’t even know what this thing is. I need ya to demonstrate, as I assume you might’ve used one before.”

Amy chuckled devilishly. “I have. And we’re using this when we get more time to ourselves, by the way. Heads-up on it.” Her eyebrow rose to an arch as she smirked.

“It’ll be inspiration ‘till we get back,” he said as he smiled, leaning in to kiss at her neck, the mass of metal and leather dropping to the floor while he started getting distracted by her.

“Are you gonna show us what that is?” Mac said, almost with impatience, but with a laugh.

Hancock glanced over at him, mumbling, “Patience, I’m gettin’ to that,” and resumed kissing her neck while his hands went to her pants and unbuttoned them. His eyes glittered at her.

“No more protestin’,” he murmured. “Lemme see that goddess body.”

She grinned and began to undress, her jeans falling to the floor, and her bra and t-shirt joining them shortly after. Straightening out the straps, he helped her step into the harness and adjusted the buckles, so it fit snugly, but didn’t pinch anywhere on her. Fahr’s eyes were wide as Hancock secured the dildo on the front.

“What…is…,” she managed to get out as she stared.

“A way for Amy to fuck ya,” he said with a wink.

Fahr’s hands were already at the straps on her armor, working to get the pieces off as quickly as possible. Amy walked over to help her, and soon Amy had Fahr laid down on the bed as she embraced her deeply, her fingers already slick as she had two in Fahr’s heat, slowly pumping to get things ready for her to enter with the strap-on. Breaking their embrace, Amy moved back up to her knees and looked down at Fahr.

“Are you ready?” She grinned as she slid the attached dildo along her slit. Fahr visibly shook with excitement and nodded. Sliding the dildo in slowly, Amy began to thrust her hips, sending the somewhat penis-shaped dildo deep within Fahr, and her head fell back, a loud moan escaping from her. Amy grinned deliciously, and Hancock saw her face and beamed.

“Holy fucking hell, Hancock, why did you wait on this?” Mac whispered as the men watched the ladies with rapt attention; they had long ago shed their clothes and sat with two raging hard-ons, each of their hands slowly stroking their own member.

“Was wantin’ to wait for a special occasion, and to make sure ya and Fahr were down with it. Knew ya two might not know what a strap-on is, as it’s a little intimidatin’ with all the buckles and clasps ‘n shit.”

“Where did you even find one?”

“Had to make a special request. One of my contacts eventually found one, but I had to replace much of the leather. I liked where just the dildo was goin’ the other day, so I figured now was a good time for it.”

Silence formed between the two men as they leaned their heads to get a better view of the action in front of them.

“Fuck, Fahr, this makes me wish this dildo wasn’t a dildo, and I could feel you with a cock instead right now,” Amy said as her hips rocked into Fahr. Fahr could only moan in reply, but she had a big smile on her face.

Amy slowed her thrusting to embrace Fahr briefly, and she whispered something into her ear. Eyes wide and staring right at Amy, Fahr nodded and got up onto all fours, with Amy kneeling behind her. Rubbing Fahr’s asscheeks, she slowly slid the dildo in, and began increasing her pace incrementally, holding onto Fahr’s hips as she moaned continuously.

“Oh, good god,” Hancock murmured, his hand stroking his member a little faster. “There’s my dirty angel. Goddamn, look at that ass as she’s thrustin’.” He was practically drooling as he stared.

“We’re getting in line for her to do that to us next, right?” Mac could barely get the question out.

“Absofuckinglutely,” Hancock replied with a grin.

“C’mere, you badass woman,” Amy said as she pulled Fahr up to her, so they were both kneeling. Amy’s mouth went right to Fahr’s neck, causing Fahr’s head to drop back to Amy’s shoulder. Amy’s hands glided everywhere, one holding onto Fahr in between her breasts as she thrusted, the other meandering further south.

“Quit stealin’ my signature move,” Hancock teased.

“I didn’t see a trademark or patent on it, plus, it’s my new favorite, now that I can be the one in the back,” Amy replied, her eyes sparkling brilliantly as she glanced over at him. Finding Fahr’s nub, she began to rub circles, and after a little while Fahr was having a hard time holding herself up.

“Harder,” Fahr managed to get out, and Amy grinned and complied, moving her hips and her fingers faster with a little more pressure. Amy kissed her neck hard, to match her thrusts and ministrations.

“Gonna….make me…come..fuuuuuck!!!” Fahr cried as her whole body spasmed. Amy’s arms held her tightly as the aftershocks rattled through her, and she kissed Fahr’s neck lightly as she came down from the clouds. Fahr’s hands slid to Amy’s thighs and squeezed.

“Best…fuck…ever,” Fahr murmured as she leaned back into Amy with a sigh. Amy grinned wickedly.

“Probably not gonna be the last time I hear that,” she replied as she continued to kiss at Fahr’s neck and run her hand and fingers along her bare skin. Her eyes darted over to the men, who were still awestruck by the women in front of them.

Hancock’s gaze in particular seemed especially dangerous; the feral look in his eyes caused her to smirk, as she knew he would have jumped her right then and there if Fahr and Mac weren’t in the room. He was doing everything he could to restrain himself, including holding his length quite tightly.

“Careful, John, you need to let him breathe,” she purred teasingly as her eyes motioned to his hands. She only heard him rumble from deep within his chest as his eyes locked onto hers. Their staredown broke when Fahr started to move.

“My turn? I need to fuck you, please, after that…,” Fahr whispered back to her. Amy pulled the soaked dildo from Fahr and glanced back over at Hancock.

“Would you be able to help Fahr into the harness? I promised her she could nail me before we leave, and this,” she motioned to the harness, “gives new meaning to that promise,” she said with a glimmer in her eye.

Finally releasing his grip on his member, Hancock joined the ladies on the mattress and helped Amy out of the harness.

“Wait, I need to….,” Amy said as she wrapped her mouth around the dildo to taste Fahr’s juices, and her eyelids fluttered shut as she took it in as far as she could. Bobbing on it deeply once more, she released it with a pop and handed the harness back to Hancock; all three mouths in the room were agape at her actions.

“All clean!” she said, smiling.

“Yer damn demon wings are on,” Hancock murmured with a sly grin as he helped Fahr into the harness.

“Fuck ‘er like I would,” he whispered to Fahr as he winked.

She eyed her boss and grinned. “Yes, sir!”

Fahr turned to Amy, pulled her close and embraced her briefly before parting and pushing her down to the mattress.

“I need your legs on my shoulders,” Fahr murmured to her as she helped Amy get her legs up. Slowly gliding the dildo along Amy’s slit, Fahr quickly inserted the dildo into Amy’s heat and began thrusting hard.

“Holy fuckballs Fahr,” Amy cried as her head fell back, moans tumbling from her lips. Grinning, Fahr picked up the pace, and also began to rub circles on her nub.

“I see what you mean about wishing you had a cock…I would give anything to feel you deep inside right now,” Fahr murmured as one hand grasped Amy’s hip as she thrusted, the other hand glistening as she continued to give her nub some loving attention. Amy was getting more and more vocal as Fahr’s hips sent the dildo further within her heat.

Hancock couldn’t take it anymore – Amy’s moans, without her bare skin touching his, called out to his cock like a bewitching siren song. He had held back the floodgates as long as he could, but more and more precum had been dripping from his tip. Still holding his member tightly, he leaned over to Fahr and whispered a suggestion into her ear. She eyed him deviously.

“Ya might need to ease up on the strength of them thrusts though, it could wind up bein’ dangerous for me if ya jolt her too hard,” he said as he parted from her. She nodded and slowed down before she slid the dildo from Amy completely.

Leaning down to help get her legs down from her shoulders, Fahr caressed Amy’s cheek and helped her up to a kneeling position, then bent her over on all fours. The dildo was quick to disappear back into Amy’s heat, and her head fell back as Fahr resumed thrusting, but toned it down slightly. Hancock got onto the bed in front of Amy, and immediately his member was grabbed and consumed by Amy’s hungry mouth as she took in his entire length and carefully bobbed on him. That rendered Hancock stupefied; he hadn’t even told Amy what he had told Fahr, nor had she heard what he said, but he wasn’t going to complain in the slightest. His hand gently caressed the back of her head as she looked up at him through her lashes, her mouth busy at sucking him down completely, and Hancock groaned at the sight. He saw the raging fire within her eyes, and it set his heart aflame, triggering that happy tightness in his chest.

Hancock’s eyes closed as his own head fell back for a moment, a low, rolling moan coming from him. Mac snuck up behind him and held him tightly, Mac’s head on his shoulder, and the men watched as Amy got poked from both ends, and as she bobbed on Hancock’s member without slowing down.

“I think she may be more of a sexual deviant than you are,” Mac chuckled. Hancock only nodded and groaned, as it wasn’t taking much for him to near his edge. His hand latched onto Mac’s thigh tightly, his eyes squeezing shut as he murmured, “Gonna come Sunshine…that dirty mouth, my god….fuuuuUUUUUCKK!” he cried out as his release shot down her throat. Mac kissed Hancock’s neck as his climax rush started to slow down, and Amy released him from the chokehold she had on him with her mouth.

“Fahr….go much harder…,” Amy managed to get out, now that it was back to just the two of them. Grabbing both of Amy’s hips, she slammed the dildo into Amy, eliciting a delicious, lengthy moan from her.

“She’s….probably gettin’ close,” Hancock muttered to Fahr, his head still swimming with bliss, and Mac’s arms still wrapped closely around him.

With that, Fahr landed a swift, clean smack to Amy’s ass with her hand and then squeezed, and that sent Amy’s wave crashing on the opposite shore with a loud moan, and she nearly collapsed onto the mattress as her legs shook, but Fahr caught her and held her steady.

“I’ve got you,” Fahr whispered to her, kissing her back and shoulders. Slowly she helped Amy up, slid the dildo from her heat and assisted her to sit so she could get a breather.

Now that Hancock was a little more coherent, he helped Fahr out of the harness. Fahr and Mac stood around it, and all three looked amongst each other.

“I want a taste,” Mac said, eyeing the dildo.

“So do I,” Fahr replied.

“I’ll let ya two figure it out,” Hancock said with a grin as he handed the harness to them. Climbing around to sit behind Amy, Hancock scooted himself behind her, and slid her closer to him, so he could feel her back against his chest. His arms wrapped tightly around her, and he sighed happily.

“They’re like a couple of kids in a candy store,” she laughed as she watched Fahr and Mac licking and sucking on the dildo together.

“It’s the crème d’amy, the most delectable treat they’ll ever find,” he murmured to her as he kissed her neck. “I know I’m completely addicted.”

A sudden, loud clap of thunder with a tin-can sound to it reverberated through the walls. Her eyes were wide and alert; she hadn’t even seen the preceding lightning.

Hancock and Amy both started to laugh together. “Holy shit, completely forgot about that radstorm,” Amy said.

“No wonder why I’ve been ready to chomp my own hand off when I was hearin’ ya and wasn’t touchin’ ya,” he whispered. “Still might if I can’t get inside of ya soon.” He nuzzled at her neck.

“Mac’s next in line; he hasn’t gotten off yet.”

“Yeah, he might go feral if ya don’t. Can I get ya at the same time, and you be in the middle this round? I’ll forfeit my turn with the strap-on until we get back.”

“An Amy sandwich? Oh, god yes,” she said as she turned around and embraced him deeply. Their tongues were getting really focused on each other when they each felt a hand on them. They both slowed and parted to look over at Mac.

“Can I join?” Mac asked, his baby blues doing a pretty spot-on, sad puppy-dog look.

“Let’s get’cha back in the harness, Sunshine,” Hancock said as he grinned. Amy kissed Mac’s cheek as Hancock secured her in. Hancock went to the dresser and brought back the bottle of lube.

“Gonna need it for this round,” he said as he handed her the bottle. After she poured enough into her hand, she stroked the dildo, and then her hand went right to Mac’s puckered hole.

“Holy…,” he said as he shook at her touch, his eyes already getting ready to roll backwards into his head.

She leaned closer to him and kissed his neck lightly. “I’m gonna need you to breathe slowly and steadily, Mac,” she whispered to him. “I don’t want to hurt you because you’re too excited.”

Mac physically let out a huge breath he had been holding, and slowly took one in. Calming his nerves down, he nodded when he was ready. She easily slid one of her fingers in, and he shuddered because it was her finger in his ass. Sliding her finger out, she placed the tip of the dildo where her finger had been and slowly pushed her way in, grabbing his hips to help her ease inside.

“Fuuuuck me ruuunning,” Mac groaned as she slid in completely.

She leaned to his ear and murmured, “That’s too hard to do. The dildo would flap around too much.”

Mac laughed and moaned at the same time. “Now I’m wishing you had a cock too.”

Everyone laughed as more thunder boomed outside, and the sickly green color of the storm seeped in between the boards covering the windows when lightning illuminated the sky, as if to remind Hancock and Amy what awaited them in a couple days.

Amy pulled Mac to her as she thrusted slowly. Her hands drifted all over him, as did her mouth over his neck, and Mac looked like he was about to melt into a puddle. Hancock’s rough voice whispered in her ear, “I need inside ya NOW, Sunshine,” as she felt him slide his very erect member along her slit. Slowing her thrusts and holding onto Mac, she angled her hips so Hancock could find his way in, and he held onto her tightly as soon as he fit completely inside. She moaned happily and flexed for him, and his eyes closed in rapture.

“My goddess,” Hancock mumbled into her ear as he started kissing her neck reverently, along with setting the pace for their thrusting. She held onto Mac with one arm, and reached around to the front of him so she could start stroking his member. Mac’s head fell back to her shoulder, and her lips began to dance along his stretched neck.

“Never…been fucked by…a gorgeous woman like this before…,” Mac managed to get out as new and different waves of pleasure cascaded through him.

One of Hancock’s hands had drifted down to her ass, and he held a globe as she thrusted the dildo into Mac, feeling her muscles work. “Never felt… a goddess fuck…. a gorgeous man like this before,” he stuttered as he slid in and out of her heat.

“Never say never again,” she whispered to them both as her pumps on Mac’s hard length began to quicken, her hips following suit as Hancock’s hips really began to surge his member into her. Hancock went back to kissing her neck, the one hand that had been holding her ass moving up to one of her breasts. She let out a moan as he massaged her.

“Keep poundin’ Mac, I need to hear him,” Hancock murmured to her.

She smiled and pulled Mac closer to her, pushing the dildo deeper within him, while her hand continued to stroke his length at a fast pace. A long, loud moan tumbled from Mac’s mouth.

“Atta girl,” Hancock whispered to her.

“Getting….close…,” Mac breathed as his eyes began to squeeze shut.

Hancock quickly slid from her heat and dashed in front of Mac, and within moments his mouth replaced Amy’s hand, which had moved to hold Mac tightly around his chest. Her hips thrusted harder until Mac’s head fell back onto her shoulder; his hand gripped her leg tightly as Hancock groaned at Mac’s release into his mouth. She covered Mac’s neck in light kisses as he slowly swam back to conscious thought, and Hancock joined her on the other side of his neck. Mac’s legs began to wobble, and Hancock held onto him so Amy could slide the dildo out. Hancock sat with Mac on the bed until he was able to sit up on his own. Embracing him briefly, Hancock murmured in his ear, and Mac nodded affirmatively before Hancock stood to help Amy out of the harness.

“Let’s get’cha outta this thing,” he murmured to her, placing stray kisses on her randomly as he undid the buckles and helped her step out of it. Once the harness was sitting in a pile on the floor, the dildo sticking straight up into the air, he grabbed her hand and led her to the dresser, where the pipe and a pack of cigarettes waited. She cleaned out and reloaded the bowl, and they each took a hit, and lit up a cigarette right after their hits floated towards the ceiling. Amy held the pipe up, asking Fahr if she wanted a hit, and Fahr shook her head no.

“I should probably get back to the Watch,” she replied, a little depressed over the group's departure in the morning. Amy walked over to where she was sitting on the couch and straddled her lap, sharing her smoke as the two naked women softly ran their fingers over each other’s skin.

“I’m gonna clean this up,” Hancock said to her as he held the well-utilized dildo in his hand, a bar of soap in the other. She leaned her head back so he could reach her lips, and he embraced her briefly before quickly heading out of the room. Amy’s eyes slid over to Mac, who was sitting on the edge of the bed with a cigarette in one hand, and his head in the other.

“Mac, are you ok?” Concerned, Amy started moving towards him, but he looked up quickly and nodded.

“Yeah, just trying to gather all of my brain cells back together. I think you effectively fucked most of them out of me,” he said with a chuckle.

Amy grinned. “Those kinds of sessions are the best. And glad I could blow your mind while John was blowing you.”

Mac and Fahr laughed. “We’ll do this again when you get back?” Fahr looked up at her hopefully.

“Of fucking course, how could I say no after you fucked me like you did?” Amy embraced her as Hancock walked back into the room and relocked the doors and sat next to Mac. He leaned in to murmur something to Mac and wrapped his arm around him and kissed his cheek. The men looked up to see the women still embracing each other until Fahr moved to part from her.

“I gotta get going,” she said. Amy got up and put out her cigarette to help her dress.

“I’m glad we got to do this today,” Amy said as she traced her finger along Fahr’s jaw to tip her head up for a brief kiss. Fahr looked into Amy’s eyes with adoration.

“I wouldn’t’ve missed it for the world. Come back home quickly, ok? I’m gonna be dreaming about this until then.”

“I’m gonna do everything in my power to get back here as fast as possible.”

Giving her another quick kiss, Fahr turned and left the room, shutting the doors behind her. Hancock got up and locked the doors and placed the chair at an angle.

When he turned back around….the stare she got from him gave her the shivers, but in a good way. She could almost feel devil horns sprouting from her head as she walked towards him quickly, holding his gaze unwaveringly. Closing the gap between them and pressing her body against his, her mouth sought out his like they were the last drops of clean water in the Commonwealth, and they both moaned as they joined, their tongues almost as ecstatic to be together again as they were. She started directing him towards the bed, where the backs of his knees hit the mattress.

She wouldn’t let him part from her as she helped him lay down, and crawling on top of him, she let her fingers glide over his skin as their embrace continued. She felt him elongate, and only then did she slow and part from him. The fire in her eyes burning even brighter than before, without breaking eye contact, she found his member and slid him inside of her. Her eyes slowly closed as she bottomed out on him.

“My dirty little angel,” he whispered, eyes wide and glittering as she began to rock her hips.

“You get to actually feel me,” she said as her green eyes pierced his dark ones, her hands grabbing his wrists and pinning them to the mattress above his head. “Last time I wanted to do this to you, your shoulder was still healing. Now I can pin you down nice and proper.” She moved her hips faster as she leaned down and began kissing his neck. Hancock’s hands clenched as his head leaned back, a long moan drifting from him as he let his goddess ride him as hard as she wanted. He swore he felt phantom demon horns graze his cheek as she sucked hard at a different spot on his neck.

“Mark me, Sunshine, ya know I’m yours,” he whispered. She sucked even harder, even flexing her Kegels while she sucked. Hancock thought he might lose it if she kept going, but she pulled away and embraced him deeply instead, releasing his wrists so she could wrap her arms around him and hold him close while her hips rolled, his member still completely encased in her warmth. His arms wrapped around her, and soon he was thrusting his hips upwards, letting her rest on top of him. She broke from their embrace to close her eyes and let her head rest on his shoulder, and she breathed out a moan deliciously close to his ear.

“Angelic music to my ears,” he whispered as he nipped at her neck, his thrusts slow and languid at first, then as his nips turned into deep kisses, his hips moved his member deeper within her as he held her tightly to him.

“Fuck, I need you so bad right now,” he purred. “I was startin’ to go a little crazy only bein’ able to watch ya, and hear ya.”

“John,” she said with a moan, “I need you so much, please….,” she murmured as her head rose to capture his gaze. “I need you to pound the everloving hell outta me.”

He lifted up his head to embrace her deeply, and his hips began to move faster as she held him tighter the harder he pounded her. He felt her starting to constrict around him, and he began to rut into her. She broke from their embrace, unable to hold her voice back as her wave was turning into a tsunami.

“Joooohn,” she moaned, “keep going, love, gods, keep going….fuck, it’s building up so much, I’m so close…” Her arms wrapped under his arms, and her hands gripped his shoulders from behind as she held on to him with everything she had.

“I can feel it, holy fuck can I feel it. I’m…right…behind…ya Sunshine,” he managed to get out, his teeth clenching as his edge approached at breakneck speed. “Come for me, my divine soul goddess…”

She clamped down on him harder than ever before, and they both cried out as her neck and back arched to the point he was having a hard time holding onto her, but then he barreled past his edge and he shot his hot release deep inside of her with a loud moan as she was still constricting hard around him. With half-lidded eyes, he sexdrunkenly found her mouth and embraced her hard and deep, and rolled her over so he was on top. His mouth drifted down to her neck, and he began sucking hard at a new spot, determined to give visual proof that her mind, body, and soul had been chosen and claimed by his entire being. He could feel her quiver at his touch.

“John,” she murmured to him, “you’re amazing. I don’t think I’ve gotten off that hard before.”

“Likewise,” he whispered back as he kissed her all over her neck. “I hope every time is harder than the last, ‘cause I wanna keep tryin’.”

Catching her gaze and sharing that chest tightness once again, they embraced each other deeply as he held her naked form tight against his own. She flexed around him, and she caught his moan as it tried to slip out.

“I love doing that to you,” she murmured as she broke from their embrace.

“I’m not stoppin’ ya, but that might make me fuck ya against the wall if ya keep it up,” he teased.

“Don’t tempt me,” she replied, her eyebrow arched and a smirk forming at the corner of her mouth. She flexed again with a devilish glint in her eye. His eyes closed.

“Demon minx,” he murmured, and she felt him harden inside of her. “I need a smoke, and we’re goin’ to the dresser together.”

She grinned. He slid from her warmth until she turned over onto all fours, then he slid back inside her with a groan. They got themselves up from the bed and walked together to the dresser. Mac was watching everything with rapt attention.

“Sorry to leave ya out of that last round, Mac,” Hancock said, a little embarrassed. “All of that watchin’ got me really riled up, and I couldn’t hold back anymore.”

Mac laughed. “Hancock, you don’t need to apologize. I wouldn’t have been able to keep up with you both anyways. Besides, that was pretty fucking intense, and I thought it needed to stay between you two.”

Hancock grinned and thrusted into her, and her eyes closed as she smiled.

“Appreciate that. We did wind up having a moment,” Hancock replied.

Amy handed back a cigarette to Hancock, and held up the lighter for him, then lit one up for herself. Hancock wrapped his free arm around her waist, and she flexed for him.

“Love you, my divine angel,” he whispered softly into her ear as he placed a kiss on her neck.

She leaned her head back on his shoulder and whispered to him, “Love you, my divine demon.”

She felt a rumble deep within his chest, and she grinned. She flexed in response.

“Finish yer smoke. One more time, then we’re gettin’ some shuteye.” They took a few puffs, put out their cigarettes, and made their way to the bed. Kneeling together, he resumed his thrusting without hesitation; one arm held her tightly while the other slid down to her nub, rubbing circles in her slick. Her head fell back to his shoulder with a moan.

“Such a good girl,” he murmured to her, grinning, knowing what that would do, and he was rewarded handsomely. His hips thrusted faster as her hand held onto his thigh, and his arm pulled her in closer. “I want ya to come big for me, ok?”

She nodded, and his fingers sped up, as did his hips, and her moans. He wound up joining her vocally as he felt her start to tighten around him, and that just made her more wet.

“That’s it, my divine. I wanna feel ya come,” he purred, tightening his hold on her as his other hand felt her nub swell. Her back began to arch, and he rutted into her as she cried out, her hand gripping his thigh tightly. He surpassed his edge moments later, releasing hard into her with a deep growl. His free hand slid everywhere over her as he softly kissed her neck, bringing them both back down from the bliss-lined clouds slowly. Her hands slid along his thighs in a daze.

“Can I join you in bed now?” Mac asked with a chuckle. “We should get some sleep. Sunrise will come pretty quickly.”

Hancock grinned. “Course, Mac. Let me clean her up first, and we’ll get some rest. Think we all earned it today.” He slid from her warmth and leaned his head down, his tongue picking up every last drop, and sucking on her overly-sensitive nub for a second. She squealed as she tried to get away from him playfully, and that just caused him to chase her down and embrace her once he caught her. Mac decided to climb into bed around them and get situated, knowing they would probably take a while to settle down. He actually didn’t need to wait long, as they parted from each other and Hancock took his place in the middle. Happily sighing, Mac cuddled up to his right side while Amy took his left and pulled the blanket over them. She set her alarm and leaned over Hancock to give Mac a kiss on the cheek. On her way back to Hancock’s side, she embraced him deeply for a few moments and then rested her head on his shoulder.

“Good night, my divine,” she whispered into his ear. “Love you.”

He kissed her forehead. “Good night, my love, my divine, my everything,” he murmured back to her, circling an arm around her.

He leaned over to Mac and kissed his forehead. “Good night, Mac.” He wrapped his arm around Mac as he sighed.

Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He didn’t want to wake up. Things were perfect; Mac was still snuggled into his one side, and Amy held onto him tightly on his other side. But he heard her alarm beeping, and he lightly kissed her forehead to wake her.

“Mornin’, Sunshine,” he murmured to her. She squeezed her eyes shut.

“Don’t wanna,” she mumbled as she held onto him.

“Got to. We get this Glowin’ Sea shit done, we get to come back here and stay here. Plus, it’ll be good to get out. Ya can switch out yer holotapes on the way back.”

She grinned at the thought. “Maybe we can distribute them in everyone’s bags to get more back home. Can we find a holotape player for the room?”

He beamed at how happy she was. “We can probably find somethin’. Found the one for the Rail; Mags uses it for her performances.”

“We’ll need cases or something to carry them in, so they don’t get damaged.”

“Could Sturges make somethin’?”

“I'll ask; I don’t see why not.”

Her hand drifted down, and teased a finger along his morning wood, and soon her mouth was down on him, taking in his entire length.

“Good morning to me,” he chuckled, his eyes closing as he felt her barbell slide up and down with her tongue. Bobbing on him, she quickly brought him to his edge, and he released into her mouth with a moan.

“Need to be focused today,” she said as she licked her lips with a grin. “And we need to start getting ready.” She gave him a quick kiss. “We’ll get some time together before we leave Sanctuary, I’ll make sure of it.” Her eyes were steady as they held his gaze.

Hancock looked at her longingly, sighed, and turned to Mac, giving him a kiss on the cheek. “Hey Mac, it’s time. We gotta get up.”

Mac groaned and sat up slowly. “Told ya morning would come quickly.”

“So did…,” Amy was getting ready to say something else, and Hancock elbowed her. She held back a laugh.

“Hey, I couldn’t help it! Yer mouth is pure heaven,” he protested, and she chuckled. “I know,” she whispered. She gave him a kiss on the cheek to reassure him, and his eyes glittered at her.

Mac looked between the two and laughed, knowing exactly what happened.

Amy was the first to rise from the bed, and she went over to the dresser for a smoke. Hancock quickly followed her and wrapped his arm around her as they both lit up their cigarettes. Mac got up and found his pack, lighting one up as he picked up his clothes from the floor and placed them on the bed. He opted to get one more feel of them naked together, so he joined the pair at the dresser and put an arm around them both, being careful not to burn them.

“Thanks, you two, as always,” he said. “You both make me so happy.”

It was their turn to put their arms around Mac. “I’ve been the happiest I’ve ever been this past month. Love havin’ ya here, Mac,” Hancock said, his hold tightening.

“Same here,” she said with a grin, and kissed his cheek.

The trio stayed together until their cigarettes needed to be snuffed; Mac walked over to the bed and grabbed the ashtray from the floor, and turning back around, watched the pair as he walked back to them. Hancock had her in his arms, their eyes locked together as he spoke to her. She grinned.

“You two really are adorable together,” Mac murmured with a smile as he approached with the ashtray. Hancock thanked him, took the ashtray, and placed it on the dresser.

Their cigarettes now out, the trio split to get dressed; Amy in her usual fatigues, combat armor, and sunglasses as a headband, Hancock in his signature red jacket and tricorn, and Mac with his duster and cap. Handing a bag to Mac, Hancock gathered his supplies, splitting number of the Irradiatedpaks going in his bag in half so she could have some in her bag, and placing the one antivenom they had with them into the medical pocket on the side of his bag. He packed his ammo in with their food supplies and strapped his shotgun, and Thump Thump, to the outside.

“Did’ja leave room for these paks?” He turned to her, holding out the syringes.

Grinning, she grabbed them from him and found an easily accessible spot on the side of her bag where they could go.

“John, they’re in here, in case you need to get at them,” she said as she pointed. He looked and nodded. Closing her bag, she detached her .308 and pulled the bag onto her shoulder. Earpiece in her ear and playlist picked out, Hancock was getting the hazmat suit into Nick’s bag as she walked up to him.

“Need any help?” She reached down and touched his neck gently with her fingers. Hancock’s movements paused as he looked up at her, a smile forming as his gaze locked with hers.

“Nah, just about done. The helmet’s bein’ a bastard though. Can this thing detach somehow?”

“I couldn’t find a way to carry it once it was off of the suit.”

“Gonna keep it attached and have to stick out of the top then. I’ve got food and water underneath.” Securing things as best he could, he tightened the bag shut around the top of the suit.

Standing, Hancock tossed the strap of his bag over his shoulder and held onto the strap for Nick’s bag as he walked to the door. Mac moved the chair and handed him his .308. Opening the door, the trio walked out and around the stairs to the office after Hancock shut and locked the doors behind him. Nick rose from the chair he had been sitting in, a cigarette in his hand.

“Mornin’,” he said as a grin formed from watching the group. “Seems like that radstorm last night skedaddled out of here in a hurry once it finally showed up. Might make things a little…damp…as we’re heading out.”

Hancock cringed. “Hope they got a shower or somethin’ by now at Sanctuary, we may need it by the time we get there.” He handed Nick the bag. “There’s food and water at the bottom, not much, but since we got three of us needin’ stuff…it’ll get used before long, then it’ll be just the suit in there.”

Nick laughed. “Thanks, John. I appreciate the itinerary.” He strapped the bag to his back.

A cigarette in her mouth, Amy checked her scope on her .308 to make sure the glass was clear, pointing it to an empty corner of the room. Satisfied, she put out her cigarette and strapped the rifle to her shoulder and checked her knives, then the ammo in her pockets. Her hand knocked into a small box in one of her cargo pockets; she took a moment to figure out what it was, and she remembered it was from that Med-Tek safe and smiled to herself. I’ll need to find a good time to give this to him.

Suddenly, she felt a hand gently grasp her free hand, and when she turned, dark eyes were studying her with interest.

“Ready to go?” His voice was soft, but slightly curious.

“Yeah, I, uh, just checking my resupply pockets, making sure I got enough ammo,” she stammered. “You got enough .308 ammo for your rifle? Do you have pockets somewhere? I’ve got some in my bag if you need it.”

“I’ve got enough. Jacket pocket – included that when we added the ballistic fiber.” He smiled at her reassuringly. He led them back to Nick and Mac.

“Think we’re ready to head out,” Hancock said as they approached.

“Alright, you two lead the way, Mac and I will take the back. Be careful, I think those super mutants might be back at that one building where we need to turn to get to the alley.”

Hancock led the way downstairs and out of the statehouse.

 “Gotta stop by Daisy’s,” he said as he headed that direction, and his companions followed.

Turning the corner, he broke out into a grin as he saw Daisy behind the counter.

“Mornin’ Daisy! Are ya always up this early?”

“Most days, nah. Couldn’t sleep after that storm last night though, so here I am.”

“Yeah, that storm was a doozy.”

“All four of ya this time?” She looked at the three standing behind him.

Mac walked up to Daisy. “I’m going with to check out Sanctuary. For Duncan, if he gets better. I can’t raise him here, Daisy. But I’d be leaving everyone behind here, if it’s a good place…”

Daisy cupped her hand and held his cheek. “Gotta take care of that kid. When he gets better, he needs a good environment to grow up in. But, make sure it’s a place you’d like too, first and foremost. If you’re unhappy, he’s gonna be too.”

Mac nodded. “I’m staying there until they get back from the Sea. Then we’re heading back home.”

She kissed his cheek. “All of you keep safe, ok?” She looked amongst the group, eyeing each one.

Everyone grinned. “We’ve got each other’s backs,” Hancock said as he hugged her. “Would’ja let Fahr know we left? We had her out before she went on Watch last night, so she might be sleepin’ still.”

“I’ll pass word to the Watch too, if I don’t see her.”

“Thanks, Daisy. Yer a sweetheart.” He started walking towards the gate.

Holding open the door, he let the group go through first and shut it behind him.

“Here we go again,” he muttered to himself, jogging to catch up to Amy at the front.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Upon exiting, they immediately were on guard as they heard gunfire nearby; it sounded like it was coming from the semi to the north, but with the echoing between buildings, they couldn’t be sure. Heading west, once she came up to the corner where they’d need to turn, she told them to hold while she switched to her Gauss.

“Muties,” Hancock murmured back to Nick and Mac, and they nodded.

Quickly spotting a brute sitting outside of the building, she took him out with a quick shot to the head and continued around the corner. She sensed one on an upper floor, but it was too far away to get a good lock on it. Hearing the sound of rotating metal blades, she looked up to see a vertibird begin to circle around the building.

Hancock looked to her with concern. “I think they’re trying to take out the muties,” she said, trying to be heard over the noise, but not be too loud to give away their location. “Tell them to keep close to the buildings anyways, so maybe we can sneak around them.”

Nodding, Hancock relayed the message to Nick and Mac, and keeping an eye on the sky, she turned right at the crosspole, and kept to the right side of the narrow alleyway as the vertibird turned south. Eyes darting everywhere, she started jogging towards the semi by Vault-Tec HQ, and then she heard it – a different vertibird landing just down the street to her left, by a playground in the distance.

“Shit, guys, quick, follow me! I don’t think they spotted us yet, they’re down the street a ways,” she called, breaking into a run along the buildings, nearing the semi she had been aiming towards. The three men behind her kept close, and she continued to run until she saw the green bridge and amphitheater to her left. Turning right, she saw the familiar baseball billboard further down the road, and she knew the river wasn’t much farther past that.

“Cautious, Raiders up ahead, mostly to the left,” she said as she ducked near a crumbling wall to switch back to her .308. Situated, she motioned them forward and they carefully approached the twin apartment blocks by the blocked bridge to Monsignor. Surprisingly, no one saw any movement from the two buildings, so they continued down the street, past the Fallon’s sign, where the road met up with the riverwalk. Before they got out into the open by the river, she looked back to her companions and made sure everyone was closely behind her.

“See anything behind us?” She looked to Mac and Nick, and they shook their heads no.

“Let’s keep movin’, not a great place to be stoppin’,” Hancock said nervously.

She nodded to him and moved on ahead of him to the river. She saw the Glowing One sitting out on the raft in the middle of the river, and catching Hancock’s attention, she motioned her head towards it.

“Still need a boat,” he murmured to her.

Tilting her head, she focused her scope up the road, and two quick shots took down two vicious mongrels. Cutting down to a path right next to the river at the partially-raised bridge, Hancock shot at something across the river, and they heard a cry as a large shape fell to the ground.

“What was it, John?” She came up close to him to ask.

“Not sure. Didn’t have a good feelin’ ‘bout it though. Mutie, maybe?”

“Mac, help him keep an eye out over there, just in case we started a chain reaction.”

Mac nodded and scanned the far side of the river, raising his rifle up to the tops of the buildings.

“Moving on,” she said, continuing down the bricked river path. Once they turned a slight corner, the bridge they needed to cross in view, she slowed them down.

“Careful, that fountain is up ahead. Mac, you might wanna come up front with me for this section.”

Hancock held back with Nick while she and Mac advanced ahead a little.

“Take out the ones who have a direct shot on the bridge. I’m picking up a few of them.” Aiming high, she fired three times; two yells were cut short, and a body fell from the third floor of a building. Mac fired four times further in, towards the road cutting through the opposite side of the roundabout. She located two more, firing twice.

“Get them to me, then follow behind until we’re clear of the bridge,” she directed, and Mac motioned to Hancock and Nick to come his direction. Once Hancock touched her arm, she winked at him, and they started for the bridge. Amy’s scope went everywhere – across the river, the pathway they took along the river to the bridge, back behind them, and down towards the U.S.S. Constitution. Nick jogged up to her as they crossed to the opposite side of the bridge.

“We need to head northwest from here, and go by the BADTFL Regional Office,” he said.

“I’ll help direct,” Hancock replied, motioning to continue, his eyes darting further down the river for any movement. “Need to go left here.” He kept close to her so she could hear him.

They followed the road instead of going straight to Bunker Hill this time and came up on a fountain to their right. Mac fired ahead of them next to the river, and a rounded shape squealed and went silent.

“Mirelurk,” Mac said as he grinned.

“Keep going down the road,” Hancock murmured to her.

“I see mutie poles up ahead,” Mac said quickly as he lined up his scope with the top of a building, firing once. Her scope was up as well, a little to his right, noting a super mutant behind a wall in a concrete high rise that was 2/3 completed. Something in her vision drew her aim to the left, back up the road, and a Raider came up in her scope. She fired once, their head exploding into viscera and blood.

“Good catch,” Mac said.

“We need to go by that concrete building,” Nick said warily. “Super mutants usually camp out in there.” She switched her .308 for her Gauss.

“There’s one on the second level, close to us, but behind a wall,” she said, closing her eyes slightly as she noticed a glow around its form. “I can see it.”

“You can see it?” Nick’s eyes were wide.

“I see a haze, or a glow, where he is when I squint my eyes. Maybe it’s the spiderwebbing concentrating on it.” She kept her sights up as she moved down the alley, amongst the piles of debris on either side. She sensed a form on the fifth level, moving towards their direction, yelling something to another mutant. Firing at its head, it fell quickly to the ground.

“Think we’ve been spotted,” Hancock muttered. “Mac, eyes up.” His went up as well, along with his scope, searching for movement amongst the iron beams and columns.

“Come out here so we can gut ya,” Hancock taunted quietly, and he shot at one that appeared on a beam stretched out to their left. Mac fired twice, knocking out a hound coming in their direction, and a brute running just behind it. She fired twice, getting another on the fifth level, and a final one two levels below.

“Need to go to the right at the fence,” Nick called out.

Narrowing her eyes, she looked across the corner of the lot, past a trailer, and noticed a high-level figure on the other side of a shed further down. As they climbed over a debris pile, they heard a sound.

“No blood to spill today,” a dejected voice echoed to them.

“That one’s a tough one,” she murmured to them. “I feel it from way over here. Seems to be the last of ‘em though, so we can all focus on it if we need to. I’m gonna try taking it out first.” She quietly led them to an entryway partially blocked by shipping containers, and she saw the super mutant she’d been sensing as she crossed into its view. Her scope was up in a moment and firing.

“Got ‘em.”

She cautiously advanced towards the body, knowing from somewhere that it may have some good weapons, or at least ammo, with how powerful it felt to her.

“Legendary brute,” Mac said as he neared the body, “nasty bastards.” He continued walking carefully by large, rusted metal spikes at one side of the street. All of a sudden, they heard a loud whirring noise nearing them quickly, and they all looked up to see a vertibird crash and explode into the overpass further ahead of them.

“How many of those damn things do they have?” Mac wondered. “I see them crash a lot, so…how do they still have any?”

“Question for the ages,” Hancock replied with a laugh. “At least they’re crashin’.”

As their pathway ended at a broken wall, they made their way through a broken section and carefully hopped over some tires beside more metal spikes, and a few torches.

“Down that road,” Hancock said to her as he caught her gaze. He smiled, and she grinned back at  him.

She got a sudden, intense feeling from something to her left. Turning her head, she stared forward blankly, trying to get a better location on it.

“Sunshine?”

“Something BIG over here, John. Deathclaw. Should see it if you go up that fallen concrete slab from the overpass to your left.” Her head almost seemed to follow it, even though she couldn’t see it directly.

He immediately switched out his .308 with Thump Thump.

“Crash course, Mac,” Hancock said as he neared him, getting a little nervous. “How do I use this thing?”

“Use the scope I added to it – line up the crosshair like you do on the .308. Think if that .308 and your shotgun had a baby, that’s what that gun is,” Mac replied quickly.

Climbing up the concrete and putting the scope to his eye, he saw the huge beast moving just ahead, and below, him. He aimed and fired twice, and after two small explosions, he watched its arm fly off in one direction, and the rest of the body soar another direction and crumple into a heap.

“Nice shot, John!” Nick said with a huge grin.

“Haaaancock, the natural with a grenade launcher!” Mac high-fived him.

Hancock was all smiles, and that made her heart soar as she watched him. He caught her gaze as she was watching, and he beamed even larger. She got serious for a moment, arched an eyebrow and nodded.

“Not bad for poppin’ your cherry,” she teased. “Taking inspiration from me, I’m sure…,” she used a high-socialite-type voice as she pretended to fluff her hair and let out a smirk.

His eyes glittered with amusement. “Didn’t have a launcher on ya though.”

“Just a machine gun. And my Gauss.”

They grinned between the two of them. She decided to switch back to her .308, and he followed her lead.

“We can follow this street up, then follow the waterline up to Mystic Pines. From there, it’s a hop, skip, and a jump to Starlight Drive-In, and Sanctuary’s next on the list. Should be able to get there close to nightfall,” Nick said as he looked at the position of the sun.

She started moving on down the street, and her companions followed close behind. They passed by a bridge, and she saw Wattz Electronics across the way to her left.

“Keep an eye out for Mirelurks. There’s less buildings on this route, but more wildlife,” Nick said to the group. Criss-crossing underneath the overpasses that shadowed their route, they followed the water’s edge from a bit of a distance away. They hopped over rocky outcroppings, dodged broken logs, and sidewinded through the dead trees lining the shore. Seeing the military checkpoint they crossed before, she looked further and saw the Corvega plant in the distance.

“Getting closer,” she said to herself. As they passed by Mystic Pines, she saw the railroad bridge that was directly across from Starlight further on down the road. Straining her eyes, she noticed plumes of smoke coming from that direction. Pulling up her scope, she scanned the horizon.

“Mac, are you seeing smoke coming from Starlight, just past that railroad bridge?”

Mac and Hancock lifted their rifles and aimed their scopes in that direction, scanning like she had done.

“Cooking fires?” Mac said, unsure. “Plumes are small.”

“It was deserted, except for molerats and skeletons, when I was last there. Maybe Preston settled it.”

They hurried towards the bridge, but she stopped, and the group slid to a halt.

“Raiders,” she said as she turned her head from left to right, sliding more to the right, and bringing her rifle up. She fired once, turned more to her left, and fired again. The group saw two bodies drop.

“Think we’re good,” she said as she slowly started walking again. They followed the road up to the entrance of the drive-in, where there was now a wall surrounding it. A guard at the gate stopped them as they approached.

“Hi, um, what is this place?” She looked at the guard with a pleasant smile.

“Starlight Drive-In. Part of the Minutemen headquarters at Sanctuary.”

“Sanctuary? Is Preston Garvey here, by chance?”

“Yeah, I’ll send for him. Go ahead inside, I’ll have him meet you at the campfire.”

Her eyebrows raised in surprise as she nodded.

She turned to her companions. “Preston’s here. I’ll check in with him real quick, then we can head out to Sanctuary so we don’t get caught traveling after dark.”

They nodded as the guard allowed them in the gate. Walking inside, her eyes widened.

Oil streetlamps lined the entryway, and turrets whirred as they patrolled their given area over the walls. Lanterns lit the old drive-in concessions stand/projection booth, and a radio played softly from a counter. As her eyes panned the settlement, she saw a water purifier in the middle of the pavement in a small pond, and a generator loudly running close to it; small, hastily built shacks surrounded the pond, and a campfire with small benches circling it sat close to the concessions stand.

Not seeing Preston, she eyed her companions and motioned her head to the fire, so they could take a seat, and they followed her over and sat down. They had been on the move all day, and hadn’t stopped to eat anything they had brought with them, since they had been more concerned about making it here before nightfall. She felt her stomach rumble and pulled out a cigarette instead; she would eat when they got to Sanctuary.

Hancock got up and knelt next to her, catching her gaze. “Doin’ ok, Sunshine?”

She smiled. “Tired and gettin’ hungry, but, yeah, I’m ok. You?”

“Good. I’ll be better once we get to Sanctuary.” He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek before rising to check in with Mac and Nick.

“Ames!” She heard a voice behind her, and she stood and turned towards it. Her face broke into a grin.

“Preston! You’ve been successful! This place looks fantastic.”

“So many people have been joining up, and we’ve had to house a lot of people from settlements close to the old Nuka-World amusement park to the southwest that have been destroyed by Raiders. Sanctuary wasn’t suited for that many people, but this place was perfect. Thanks again for clearing it out; we wouldn’t have been able to settle it without your help.”

“I was surprised at how quickly you got everything up! But, since you had a lot of people helping you, that makes the work go quicker. And, you’re welcome. I’m glad I could help.” A tinge of red came to her cheeks.

“Are you all passing through?”

“We’re going to the Glowing Sea, Preston. There’s someone out there that knows how to get to Shaun.”

“All of you are going?”

“Mac, err, Robert MacCready over there, was hoping to stay at Sanctuary while we’re gone, and we’ll stop back by on the way home to pick him up. He’s looking for a place to raise his kid. Can he stay in Nate’s old house for a few days?”

“Course! That’s your place. I think Sturges made it a little more windproof and waterproof from the outside, but we haven’t changed anything else. Here, I’ll get you a pass to give to the guard at the gate, in case you need it.” He turned to go inside the concession stand, and she followed.

“Preston, I haven’t been able to make it up north yet to that one settlement. I’ve had factions after me, and it hasn’t been the safest to travel, even now. We had the Brotherhood in our area on the way here.”

“It’s not a rush. Between Sanctuary and here, I’m pretty busy, so we’ll get to it when we can get to it.” He found an old scrap of paper and a pen and began writing a note.

“Has…Sanctuary had any visitors? Like the Brotherhood? Or…the Enclave?”

“Not that I’ve heard. But I’ve been here for a few days, so it’s possible if it was recent.”

“Damn. Will Sturges be able to uncover that cellar? I may need down there before we head home.”

“Should be able to. Takes a little time, but he’s up there working on generators anyways, so I imagine he can help.”

“Thanks Preston. We’ll be able to fill you in on more once we get back from the Sea. We should get going though, so we can make it to Sanctuary before dark.”

She hugged him and walked out of the building and back to the campfire.

“Ok, guys, let’s head out, daylight’s burnin’ quick at this point,” she said with a tired grin, and the men rose to leave with her.

Leading them out of the gate and around the walls, they followed the hill up past Drumlin Diner and continued until they saw Concord in the distance. Keeping to a wide arch around it, the Red Rocket soon came into view, and then the bridge. The sun was just beginning to set when the gates opened, and Sturges greeted them with a huge grin.

“Hey guys! Got word ya saw Preston, and ya’ll were on your way up. Are ya hungry? Dinner’s just startin’.” He turned and led the group down the road to the campfire. She stopped at Nate’s house, and said, “Sturges, we’re gonna drop our stuff off here first, then we’ll join you.”

She turned towards the house, and Sturges had indeed improved it; a newer roof covered the top, and walls had been built along the siding outside, with windows along the bedroom and living room. The door opened, and Codsworth floated out to greet her.

“Miss Amy! How good it is to see you!”

“Hi Codsworth! Good to see you too!”

“Are you just passing through?”

“John, Nick, and I are. Mac will need to stay in Sanctuary while we’re out, and we’ll come back on our way home to get him. He’s thinking about moving here to raise his son, so don’t overdo things, ok? I said he could stay here at Nate’s…um…my house while we’re out.”

“Of course, Miss! Can he use your bed, if he asks?”

She laughed. “Yes, I don’t expect him to sleep on the couch.”

“I’m going to put my bag inside. Thank you for taking care of things while I’ve been away.”

“Happy to help you, Miss, as always.”

She walked into the house and turned down the hallway to the room at the end, and set her bag by the dresser, looking at the bed longingly.

“Sleep sounds good to me too,” a rough whisper said in her ear. She turned and saw two dark eyes watching her intently. Grinning, she wrapped her arms around Hancock, and he returned her hug.

“I don’t think I really said thank you for taking out that Deathclaw,” she murmured to him as she held him close. “And I’m chuffed that the grenade launcher works as I hoped it would.”

He grinned. “Fucker in the Sea doesn’t have a prayer. Just point me to ‘em, just like ya did earlier.” He pulled back a little so he could look at her, his hand cupping her cheek. Her eyes closed for a moment at his touch.

“Actually, you and me together, the world doesn’t have a prayer. That Glowin’ Deathclaw is just kid’s play.” He leaned into her, placing his other hand on her opposite cheek, and embraced her deeply, and she readily returned it.

“Hey guys, are you ready for…,” Mac started to say until he stopped in the doorway of the bedroom. “Whoops, sorry! Um, we’ll be over at the campfire for dinner when you two are ready.”

They slowed their embrace and smiled at each other before both turning to Mac. “We’ll be out there in a minute. Thanks, Mac.” Hancock winked at him.

Mac smiled as he turned and walked back down the hallway. Hancock caught her gaze.

“Let’s get ya somethin’ to eat. Heard yer stomach yellin’ since before Starlight.” He kissed her cheek reverently, and his hand grasped hers as he led her out to the campfire.

Chapter Text

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 26

Walking across the street, Hancock and Amy found Nick and Mac next to the stew pot at the fire. Nick grinned as he heard them approach, and he handed them two bowls.

“Thought it was going to take you longer,” he chuckled, eyeing them knowingly.

“Not when her stomach’s bein’ loud enough to wake the dead,” Hancock laughed.

She stuck her tongue out at Hancock playfully as she side stepped him to the pot and filled her bowl. She handed the full bowl to him, and he handed her the empty one to fill. They followed Mac and Nick over to an empty picnic table a decent distance from the fire and from most of the settlers.

Nick watched his companions as they ate. “Did good out there today, all of you. No one hurt, and we actually made good time given the sidetracks we came across along the way.” They all looked up from their bowls and grinned as best they could with full mouths.

Lowering his voice, he motioned everyone in so he could speak to them without too many outside ears overhearing them. “Let’s meet at Amy’s after you’ve eaten. We need to get some things planned out. I’m going to talk to Sturges for a bit while you’re eating.”

“Nick, can you let him know I’ll probably need into the cellar when we get back, so he knows he’ll need to uncover it? Don’t let him uncover it until we return from the Sea though.”

Nick smiled at her. “Of course. See you at the house.”

He rose and walked around the yellow house to find Sturges.

The trio were quiet as they ate; they had all been starving at some level.

“We should make it a point to eat any time before we head out,” she said in between bites. “Won’t help if we’re all getting headaches, stomach cramps, or anything else along the way.”

Her companions nodded in agreement. They all cleared out their bowls, and she picked them all up and took them to the dishwashing station set up next to the yellow house. Returning to her boys, they had gotten up from the table and were starting to head over to Nate’s.

“Let’s go wait for Nicky. I could use to sit on a more comfortable chair for a bit,” Hancock said as he led the two across the street.

Hancock was the first to sit down on the couch, and Amy sat down next to him. Mac asked with a glance if he could join them. Hancock stretched out, Amy leaned back and snuggled into him and motioned Mac over, and Mac leaned and snuggled on her. They were all getting pretty comfy when they heard the door open, and Hancock opened an eye to see who had come in. He smiled as he saw Nick enter and head to ‘his’ chair.

“Seems like the trip took a lot out of you guys,” he said with a grin as he sat down.

“Full stomach,” Hancock replied, “I’m always ready to crash when I get a big meal.”

“Well, can I get your attention for a few minutes? Then you guys can head to bed if you need to.”

The trio sat up and turned towards Nick. He handed out cigarettes from his pack in hopes it would help keep them tuned in to what he needed to tell them.

“I was able to chat with Sturges for a bit. He’s been here for the past two weeks straight, and he said there was a group of 5 to 6 people a couple days ago who had asked at the gate if it was ok for them to travel up to the vault. They were dressed like refugees, but Sturges said he wasn’t buying it; he said, ‘it looked like they were trying too hard’. They came back down not too long after, and he guessed it was because they didn’t have a Pip-Boy to unlock the vault elevator, since no one heard it open. They haven’t seen the group since.”

Amy sat biting on her lip and taking a drag from her smoke every 30 seconds or so as she thought. “There must be something that they’re trying to get to in the vault. The room where they injected me,” she took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment, “is probably in there. Somewhere. I doubt they would have done this experiment if it involved travel to different locations, especially right after the bombs dropped.”

Nick nodded. “That was my assessment too. We may need to head in there when we get back though. I don’t want to go in there beforehand and draw any unnecessary attention to us, or to Sanctuary while we’re out, especially since we’re not sure how long it will take us to get into the Sea, to hopefully find who we’re looking for, and to get back out. Right now, we’re just travelers staying the night and passing through, for all anyone else knows.”

“I’ll try to help keep a lookout for that group too. I’ll ask to go on watch while I’m here,” Mac said.

“Do you have enough ammo for going on watch? I can give you more if you need it…,” Amy had started to say, and Nick cut her short.

“Trashcan Carla stops by a couple times a week with supplies, so I’ll give Mac some caps in case he needs to buy more. They have some stockpiled here as well, but not much; they don’t have many people here who have sniper skills, so they focus on the ammo that they know how to use. We may need all of the ammo you have in the Sea.”

She sighed and nodded, putting her cigarette out in the ashtray on the coffee table. “Good point, Nick. I just want to help keep Mac, and this place, safe when we’re not here…,” she said as she trailed off, her eyes shutting as her thoughts started to run away from her.

“Hey, Sunshine,” Hancock murmured to her. “Don’t let those thoughts carry ya away. We’ll only try to be gone a couple days, ok? Even we can’t stay out in the Sea forever, so we gotta come back somewhat quick.”

“I’ve got lots of ammo. They’ve got a lot of turrets here, and everyone around here seems to know how to shoot and has a weapon. We’ll be ok,” Mac said as he rubbed her back.

A thought came to her, and she stood quickly and ran to the bedroom. Finding her stashed bobby pin in the waistline of her pants, she picked the lock and opened the safe in the floor. She couldn’t help but to quickly apply some of her perfume before she found the yellow cylindrical shape she was looking for, and she shut the safe and hurried back to the group, who had gotten up to follow her. She held up the fusion core to Mac.

“Hopefully Sturges was able to fix the power armor I brought back from Concord. But you’ll need this to operate it. This will give you an advantage.”

“I’ll ask him about it, because yes, that would give us an upper hand!” He took the core from her and found a pocket to place it in. He smiled gratefully at her, and she grinned.

Nick motioned for them to sit back down. “We still need a game plan on our route, because the further south we go, the more our chances of running into yao guais and Deathclaws increases. I was thinking about retracing our steps to Fort Hagen, but we’ve only got a couple of options past that point; most of that area is pretty steep and mountainous, and I only know of two passageways that easily lead into the Sea from there.”

“We should probably keep to the more well-known routes. I don’t feel like trailblazin’ that much,” she said with a chuckle. “And if we have anyone trying to follow us…the Sea will be tough in and of itself if they choose to keep going. We’ll go to Fort Hagen and figure out what’s the best route with the conditions we find when we get there.”

Nick nodded in agreement. “Best to see what we’ve got to work with first.”

“Should we make our destination the Red Rocket, as long as something, or someone, else hasn’t overtaken it, and get things sorted from there?”

“Sounds like a good plan. We can adjust if we need to, but that should be it. Did you want to try to leave in the morning?”

“Yeah, let’s get this trip into the living nightmare over with as soon as we can.”

“If Sturges doesn’t need me for patrolling, can I store myself here for the night?”

Amy laughed. “Of course! That’s your designated chair, Nick. You can do what you need to do.” She grinned at him.

“Evening’s open to all of you, so if you wanted to call it a night, you can. I’m going to go check with Sturges to see if he needs me.”

She nodded and smiled as he got up and left the house.

“I don’t know about ya both, but I’m ‘bout ready to drop,” Hancock said with a yawn.

“I could go to bed. It’s been a day,” Mac agreed.

She smiled at them and said, “You two go ahead. I’d just keep you up if I tried to join you now.”

Hancock studied her curiously, making sure she was going to be ok if he left her alone. She gave him a reassuring smile, and he kissed her cheek.

“Don’t stay up too late, ok? We’ve got an early morning, and a long couple of days, ahead of us.”

Sighing, she nodded. “I know.”

Her boys disappeared into the bedroom, and she lit another cigarette and began to pace. She knew it wasn’t that late, but she also knew Hancock was right: who knows if, or when, or where, they may be able to get rest in the Sea. But something she couldn’t put her finger on was gnawing at her, and she knew her brain wouldn’t let her sleep until she figured out what it was, so she tried to think things through first. That only made her more agitated.

Huffing in frustration, she walked to the door and opened it quietly and shut it just as silently behind her. She walked directly over to the yellow house to a figure sitting in an old-style ornate chair, who had a furry figure laying next to her. Dogmeat’s head raised as she neared, and she could hear a tail thumping against the chair leg.

“Ah, there you are, Emerald-Eyed Dragon. I was wondering when you would come to see me,” Mama Murphy said without turning her head.

“Hi Mama. It’s good to see you. Dogmeat hasn’t been too much trouble?”

A withered, gnarled hand reached down to scratch at one of Dogmeat’s ears. “No. Been the best company I’ve had in a while, to be honest.” She smiled as Amy sat down on a couch close to her.

“You’re getting ready to go into the Sea.”

Amy sighed. “Yes. That’s part of the reason why we’re here.”

“And you have three factions after you?”

“Only tw….wait, who’s the third?”

Mama smiled knowingly. “Someone who has been keeping to the shadows; always observing, but hardly ever seen. Someone who is directly responsible for you being here right now, and who also holds some of the answers you’ve been seeking about your family.”

Amy’s brow furrowed in confusion. “I’m not sure I follow.”

“Some call them the boogeymen of the Commonwealth.”

“The Institute?” Nick said as he walked up to them and sat down with Amy.

Mama nodded.

“How are they responsible for me being here right now?”

“I’m not sure. The Sight wasn’t giving too many details on that.”

“But they’ve been following me?”

“They follow a lot of people, but lately their focus has been keeping you in their regular reconnaissance.”

Amy pursed her lips and squeezed her eyes shut. “Great.”

Tears began to run down Amy’s face in frustration. “Mama, I don’t know if I can keep this up. Anyone who is either around me, or who even knows me, I’m putting them in danger just by trying to find out where Shaun is, and what happened to me. I don’t want good people to die because of me.”

“You can’t do this alone. You will die if you shut everyone out to keep them safe, or if you choose to ignore your past.”

Amy and Nick sat in silence as they shared Nick’s cigarette.

“You need to go into the Sea. You need to find Virgil. He can help you more than you know.”

Upon hearing the name, her ears perked up. “Do you know where to find him?”

Mama smiled knowingly. “You’ve been there already.”

The nightmare. “The cave past the crater?”

Mama nodded again. “Head to the southwest as soon as you enter.”

Hesitating for a moment, Amy eventually asked, “Did you send that dream to me?”

Smiling, Mama shook her head. “No, dear. That was all you. You’re…getting stronger with that every day, along with a lot of other things you haven’t discovered yet.”

Mama’s head drooped down. “I don’t know how much more I can share without chems. That was a collection of visions since you were last here that I needed to share with you before you go. I’ll let you know if I have anything more to share when you get back.”

“We’ll make it back to Sanctuary ok? Mac will be alright until then?”

Mama nodded. “You need to do this.”

Everyone sat silent for a few minutes, then Amy made moves to leave.

“Can I help you to bed, or with anything in general, Mama?”

The elderly woman smiled. “No. Dogmeat will help me when I’m ready. I like to stay up late.”

“Ok. Well, goodnight Mama. I’ll stop by if you’re up in the morning when we leave.”

“Sleep well. You need your rest.”

Nick stood with Amy when she got up to head back across the street and followed her. They stopped in the living room when they got inside the house.

Nick sat down in his chair, and Amy took a seat on the couch.

“I don’t know if that helped me at all,” Amy murmured as she lit a cigarette. “Still have the feeling like I won’t be able to sleep.”

“I don’t know if they have baths here…,” Nick began, and she smiled in remembrance.

“It’s ok. I appreciate the gesture.”

Nick’s yellowish-orange, illuminated eyes locked on her. “Amy, how are you doing? You’ve been on the move for over a month straight now. You should take a break after we get back to Goodneighbor.”

She snorted. “Tell that to everyone trying to confine me, kidnap me, or follow me.”

“I know, kiddo.” He reached over and held her hand briefly.

Her eyes glanced over to her Pip-Boy to check the time. She started fiddling with the knobs to find the calendar.

“Nick, do you remember the date I first met you in Diamond City?”

“Hmmm. I think it might’ve been October 11^th or 12^th? Somewhere around there?”

“So that would have put me getting out of the vault around the 10^th….oh.” She stopped turning a knob and stared at the screen.

“What?” Nick looked at her with concern.

She started laughing. “Of course, it would be that date when we’re going into the Sea.”

“What date are we talking about here?”

“November 17^th. My birthday.”

“I was always told birthdays are lucky days.”

“Let’s hope whoever told you that was right. Well Nick, which age should I be turning? 34, or 244?” She laughed.

“Since you weren’t conscious for 210 years of it….34.”

“I feel the 244 though.”

“You never really answered my question, and you’re dodging now.” He gave her an over-the-top-of-the-glasses look, but without the glasses.

She looked at him, sighed heavily, and her head dropped. “I don’t know, Nick. Honestly. I’ve never been more terrified, happier, worried, or frustrated in my life, all at the same time. Is there a term for all of that?”

He chuckled. “Some may call it insanity….others just call it Tuesday.”

She laughed as she took a drag and put out her smoke. “Little bit of column A, little bit of column B…”

“Since I have my clock up, what time in the morning?”

“We don’t have as far to go, so let’s say you get up at sunrise, then we leave sometime around 7ish or 8.”

She set the alarm and closed out of her Pip-Boy, and then she heard the faint but rolling tin-can echo of a storm coming in quick, and she felt the charge dance along her skin.

“I’m…gonna sit outside for a minute. Radstorm’s coming in.”

“Need a recharge?” Nick grinned as he chuckled.

“You could say that.” She smiled as she got up and exited the house and sat down on the front step. She watched the storm come up from the southwest, green-tinged lightning dancing across the sky as it got closer. Watching her skin, she could see the delicate, laced bands of electricity through the darkness as it snaked everywhere along her bare arms. Holding her arms out in front of her, she imagined the tiny electric trails moving up to her hands and gathering at her fingertips….and slowly, she saw the thin strands join together to make thicker bands as they wound their way up her fingers and watched as the blue electricity balled up at the tips.

She looked at her fingers curiously, then held one hand about seven inches from the concrete and imagined the electric balls shooting down to the ground. She jumped a little from her seat when they hit the sidewalk and burst into little electrical pulses that crawled everywhere.

“….the FUCK?” She mumbled to herself. “Another fun side effect?”

The wind began to pick up as the storm started to really blow in, and she began to feel the first cold drops of rain. She also sensed the radiation increase around her…and she closed her eyes and let it envelope her completely. As she unbuttoned the top two buttons of her shirt to expose more of her skin to the radiated air, she heard a voice at her ear.

“Glad I came outside when I did, if yer gonna be givin’ a show,” the voice said as she felt a very warm body sit right behind her, arms wrapping around her, and lips at her neck.

“Thought I’d try to take a shower when the rain comes in,” she teased.

“Mmmmm. Natural rad shower. Haven’t had one of those in a while.”

“We could go into the back yard and dance around naked like a couple of witches…,” she continued teasing, “I doubt anyone would see us.”

“Nah. I don’t want anyone else havin’ the chance of seein’ my goddess naked, ‘specially if there’s Enclave or Brotherhood snoopin’ around. I don’t like thinkin’ what they’d do to ya if they found us both naked and unarmed.”

“Valid,” she murmured back to him. “We’ll share a smoke then and just sit here.”

“Correction – we’ll smoke this,” he held out the pipe, “share a smoke, then just sit here.”

She turned and kissed his cheek. “You know me too well.”

“I’d like to think that I do. I even sent word for more weed for ya, since yer smokin’ it like a wildfire. Should be there at home when we get back. I let Fahr know to keep an eye out for it.” He handed her the pipe, and she carefully lit it, with his hands attempting to block out most of the wind for her.

She handed it back to him and made a circular motion with her finger; he looked confused, and after blowing out her hit and coughing a little, she said, “That means the ember’s going, or rolling, so take a hit. Sorry, I forgot you don’t know that motion. It’s meant so you can let the next person down the hit line know that they don’t need to use a lighter to take a hit.”

He chuckled as he exhaled. “Drug sign language?”

“When you’re coughing from your own hit, you usually can’t use words, so it works.” She lit a cigarette and handed it to him after she took a puff or two first.

He held her tighter as the storm really started baring down on Sanctuary. Mama and Dogmeat had disappeared from the porch of the yellow house, and no one else appeared to be out, except for one person on patrol through the settlement.

“What time do we gotta get up?” Hancock nipped at her neck, the wind carrying his exhale away from them.

“Sunrise. Nick said we’ll leave around 7 or 8, since we’re only heading to the Red Rocket at Fort Hagen to start. Gotta see how the travel conditions are from there.”

“Got time for a quickie in the mornin’ then.”

She hummed in agreement. “Doesn’t necessarily have to be a quickie, though.”

He chuckled. His head rested on her shoulder as they watched the storm roll through, and when a bolt of lightning hit a tree on a not-too-distant hill, they decided to head inside.

“All recharged now?” Nick looked at them from under the brim of his fedora as they entered, and grinned.

“For the moment. Storm was getting a little too hazardous to be outside,” she replied.

“Raining hard at all?”

“Not really. Enough to make things a bit damp, but it’ll dry pretty quick. Unless another storm comes up behind it…”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. See you kids in the morning. Try to keep the noise down, ok?” He gave one of those ‘over-the-glasses’ looks, but with a soft smile of understanding.

“No promises, Nicky. We’ll try, but no promises.” Hancock grinned.

As they entered the bedroom, she noticed a big difference with the improvements Sturges made; the wind didn’t blow as hard through all of the openings it could find, and even the rain had somewhere to go other than in the room. Hancock quietly shut the door behind them. Mac was sleeping softly on the mattress, and Amy unrolled hers and Hancock’s sleeping bags and zipped one side of them together to make a blanket. They undressed and climbed into bed, and Mac immediately attached himself to Hancock’s side without even waking up.

She snuggled up to Hancock’s other side, and murmured in his ear, “Good night, my divine. Thanks for sitting with me outside.” She kissed his neck. “Love you so much.”

His arm wrapped around her, bringing her in closer to him. “Promised ya I would hold ya during storms, and I knew ya would be out there when I heard the thunder. Love ya more than I can describe, my divine angel.” His kiss to her forehead lingered for a moment until she raised her head and brought her lips up to his for a kiss, where it blossomed into a deep embrace as her hand cupped his cheek. Things started getting hot and heavy, restrained moans briefly escaping, until Hancock slowed them down.

“We’re gonna wake up Mac if I try to move,” Hancock whispered.

“Not if Mac is already up,” he murmured back with one eye squinting open. The pair grinned at him.

“Sorry, Mac. Didn’t mean to wake ya. Would ya like to join us? Don’t think there’s runnin’ water for cleanup, so you ‘n me may need to wait until we’re back home, but we can always take turns with her…”

“Ooooh, tag teaming me?” She grinned.

“I wanna hold ya while Mac fucks ya,” Hancock said, his eyes sparkling deviously at her as he sat up a little, and motioned for her to lay down with her back on top of him. Carefully, she got herself situated.

Mac sat up and moved in front of them on his knees, and seeing her glistening slit, he licked his lips while his hand stroked his member.

“Can I go down on you first…?”

Amy nodded, biting down on her lip in anticipation. Immediately Mac’s mouth was on her slit, his tongue finding her nub, and he started sucking hard. Her head fell back to Hancock’s shoulder as she continued to bite her lip to keep quiet, and Hancock took that opportunity to kiss her neck longingly as his hands explored her naked form. Her neck arched back as Mac slid his fingers in her warmth and began to pump.

“Do you….always…start with three fingers??” She was having a hard time speaking and trying to keep her moans on a low level.

Mac pulled back from her for a moment. “Only with you,” he murmured as he looked at her.

He wrinkled his nose briefly, rubbed the back of his hand on it, and grinned. “That patch of hair you didn’t shave is right at nose level...”

She laughed. “I know, that shave style is called the ‘nose tickler’.” Her grin was devilish.

“Doesn’t bother me,” Hancock said, smirking. Amy leaned her head over and kissed his neck.

“I knew you wouldn’t mind, as long as the hairs don’t go up your sinuses…,” she said as she giggled.

Mac’s eyes shut as his fingers moved within her, and his mouth resumed tantalizing her nub. Noticing how much Mac was enjoying this, Hancock whispered into her ear, “Yer takin’ his three fingers so well. Such a good girl…” Mac stopped sucking as his eyes rolled back from feeling her shudder inside at Hancock’s praise.

“I’m sorry, I’ve gotta…,” Mac started to say as he removed his fingers slowly, licking them as soon as they were out, and replaced them with his very hard member, sliding into her entrance easily through the slick of her want. “Do that again, Hancock, please…”

Whispering more praise to her as Mac began to thrust, Hancock teased and pinched one of her nipples lightly at first, then applied a little more pressure. Feeling her reaction from inside, Mac’s head dropped back as a stifled moan tried to escape his lips, and he laid down on her as he thrusted his length in and out of her entrance. In an almost drunken-like daze, he captured her mouth with his and embraced her deeply, and she returned the embrace with enthusiasm; his hips quickly responded by surging his member into her, and he caught her moans as they tried to escape. Watching them intently, Hancock’s hands roamed everywhere on their naked forms as the pair fucked on top of him.

“This is so fuckin’ hot,” Hancock murmured as Mac broke from his embrace with Amy to embrace Hancock too.

“No joke,” Amy managed to get out as she watched them, and started kissing Mac’s neck as her hands slid down to his ass and held on as she felt him thrust even harder into her. Hancock slowed and parted from their embrace to whisper in her ear, and her head fell back as she bit down on her lip hard. Mac shuddered and moaned at the result, and Hancock murmured more praises to her, his gaze on Mac the whole time.

“Get one of her legs on yer shoulder,” he murmured to Mac. “I like how deep that allows ya to go myself…”

Following Hancock’s suggestion, he got up to more of a kneeling position and lifted her left leg onto his shoulder, and Hancock’s hand immediately went for her nub and started rubbing circles while Mac’s hips sped up, one of his arms wrapping around her leg to help him push inside farther. Hancock saw how much desire and lust were shining through Mac’s eyes as he watched her come undone with rapt attention, so Hancock whispered in her ear again, his fingers picking up their pace. Her eyes fluttered shut, and Mac groaned.

“Starting to get….tight…,” Mac struggled to get out, his jaw starting to clench as his hips thrusted quickly and deeply into her. Her stray moans snuck into the room, and both men groaned quietly at her sounds.

“Think ya can hold back until she comes?” Hancock looked right at Mac, challenging him. Mac eyed him with his baby blues as sweat beaded on his forehead.

“Fuck…I don’t…I don’t know,” he managed. “I’m really fucking close right now, and all my brain is telling me is to come inside of her.”

“Let her leg down and grab the base of yer cock,” Hancock murmured, “ya can still pump into her, but that edge feelin’, ya gotta push back against it, ‘specially that thought of comin’ inside her.”

Mac lowered her leg and grabbed the base of his member, squeezing his eyes shut as he slowed his thrusts to almost nothing, but kept his length in her warmth. Hancock’s fingers moved even faster on her nub as he whispered into her ear, and Mac’s head fell back as she tightened even more on him.

“She’s….she’s so goddamn tight now…god, she feels so FUCKING GOOD…I don’t know how…much longer…,” Mac muttered brokenly.

Feeling her hand tighten on his hip, Hancock stared at Mac. “She’s ‘bout ready, hold out just a bit longer…” He wrapped an arm around her to hold her steady on top of him, knowing she would soon lose control of herself momentarily when she climaxed.

Her neck and back arched as she clamped down hard on Mac’s member and a cry broke free from her, and Mac moaned with her as aftershocks thundered through her, and he felt them all.

“Fucking….HELL…,” Mac grimaced as he pulled out quickly, his hand gripping his member tightly, and he desperately looked to her for her unique assistance in finishing him off. She understood immediately and slid herself down so she could reach his length with her mouth, and she took him all in and bobbed on him quickly as he released down her throat with a rolling groan. Eyeing him, she kept sucking him hard, and his hand suddenly grabbed her shoulder tightly as he released once more with a muffled cry, his legs shaking as she slowly let go of his member. He dropped down to her and embraced her deeply, and she returned it just as hard. Hancock’s eyes sparkled as he watched them, his own length dripping with pre-cum even more, but then he started getting a little antsy.

“Mac, ya wanna take my place and have her layin’ on ya while I fuck her?”

Mac slowed their embrace and parted from her, looking up at Hancock with a grin as he started moving to his place on the bed. Hancock got up, and helped her lay down on Mac, stomach to stomach, her breasts squishing down onto his chest as she got settled. Hancock gently raised her hips up and slid inside, and his head rolled back with a happy moan, mirroring what she did as he entered her almost to a ‘t’.

“Ya got her nice and wet Mac, goddamn,” Hancock murmured as he started his thrusting in earnest.

“Your fingers helped,” he returned with a grin.

“Nah, it’s all about that movement inside her and hittin’ that special spot,” he said as his pace increased, and she buried her face in Mac’s shoulder to muffle her moans, and Mac’s arms wrapped around her lovingly. “Fingers on her clit just gives an added bonus.”

Hancock gently pushed her hips back down and spread her legs out so he could lean more on her, and he reached out to Mac to embrace him, his hips moving quicker as their embrace deepened. Hancock’s one arm leaned on the mattress to the side of her, and his other hand held onto Mac’s shoulder to aid his thrusts, and she began kissing Mac’s neck to keep her moaning muffled.

Mac slowed and parted from their embrace, and Hancock, needing his mouth on something, immediately went to her neck to suck hard at yet another spot, his hips moving faster as he sucked. Eventually his head fell back as he lost himself in her warmth and her increasing tightness; low moans drifted down from his lips as his hips continued pushing his length deep within her.

“Fuuuuck, John,” she murmured as she bit her lip almost hard enough to draw blood. Mac whispered in her ear, and Hancock knew what he said to her as he felt it, and he grinned.

“Gettin’ back at me, eh?”

Kissing at her neck, his eyes met Hancock’s, and he shook his head in disagreement.

“Building her up for you,” he said as he kept eye contact. He whispered again in her ear.

“Gonna need to keep her quiet then,” Hancock eyed him seriously, his chest heaving, “’cause….oh fuuuck….she’s getting…tiiiiiiiight….”

Mac caught her mouth just before her neck stretched back, and her loud moan rocketed into his mouth as her back arched and she clamped down hard on Hancock’s member. Hancock wrapped his arm around her, rutting into her as quickly as his hips would allow. His head fell forward to her shoulder, a long growl rumbling in his chest, and he felt her quickly tightening again.

“Yeessssss, my divine, again, come for me again,” he murmured roughly, and then he jumped from his edge right into her breaking wave, his release spilling into her heat; they silenced their cries as much as they could as she shuddered with bliss. Two mouths were on her in an instant after her climax: Mac’s on her neck, and Hancock’s on her back and shoulders.

She flexed for Hancock in her post-climax trance, and his mouth moved to her neck, opposite the side Mac was still busy with. She could feel Hancock start to harden once more inside of her.

“Fuck, guys, are you tryin’ for a third?” Her eyes closed as her senses went haywire.

“Just worshippin’ ya together,” Hancock murmured, “unless ya want a third…”

“Please….make me unravel completely…,” she said as it dissolved into a moan as Mac’s fingers traveled south to her nub while his mouth found hers and embraced her, their tongues rousing the flames of the smoldering embers of the group.

“Ya want us to ‘unravel’ ya ‘completely’, huh?” Hancock looked over at Mac with a smirk as he thrusted languidly, and Mac slowed down his embrace with her to catch Hancock’s eye. “Whaddaya say, Mac? Ya got another one in ya?”

“What did you have in mind…?”

“Double, you and me at the same time. We’d have to sacrifice one of our water canisters for cleanup, but…I think it might be what she’s lookin’ for.” His eyes narrowed deviously as his grin broadened.

“Do we have lube?”

Hancock’s devious look deepened. “Brought a travel bottle with me, just in case.”

Mac smirked back. “I like it.” He kissed Amy deeply again before Hancock started helping her up and pulled himself from her heat.

Wordlessly, they agreed for Hancock to be on the bottom and Mac to be behind her, so they could both release into her when it came time for it. Hancock resumed his place on the bed, and Mac helped her straddle Hancock’s lap as she slid her entrance back down on his member with a restrained moan. Mac lubed himself up thoroughly, his breath catching as soon as most of his finger was surrounded by her puckered hole. He leaned in, kissed her neck and whispered, “Are you ready for us?”

“YES,” she breathed enthusiastically, and Mac slid his finger out and pushed himself inside, and everyone groaned as both men within her stretched her completely. “My boys, exactly where they should be,” she moaned to them as she grinned. Both men kissed deeply at different spots on her neck in response.

Mac took the lead and started thrusting slowly, and Hancock mirrored his hip movements, his mouth continuing to kiss at her neck as she stretched it back; she was biting her lip hard to keep her noises down, as the sensations from both men threatened to make her moan loudly. Mac leaned forward to wrap his arm around her waist, and to steal a kiss from Hancock.

“Goddamn, I love this position,” Mac whispered as he thrusted, his eyes catching Hancock’s, and Amy’s side eye as she turned her head slightly. “I don’t care what’s involved if it means I can fuck both of you at the same time, and I can come when you both do without having to stop.”

“Fuck, Mac, I love feelin’ every inch of ya…,” Hancock murmured as his head fell back, and she took that opportunity to start sucking hard at a new area on his neck, and he grabbed a globe of her ass.

“Suuuunshiiiiine,” he moaned in a low voice to her, “look at ya, stuffed full of our hard cocks, and bein’ such a fuckin’ good girl takin’ ‘em both at the same time.” He squeezed her asscheek in adoration as his head raised and his dark eyes sparkled, his gaze completely locked on her. He drew near to her ear and continued to whisper praises to her in a low tone.

Her eyelids fluttered as her eyes rolled back, and both men groaned a little louder than they were expecting to as they felt her shudder hard from within.

“Holy fuck, you just got so wet, I can feel it on my balls,” Mac breathed in her ear, his hips moving a little faster with Hancock’s following suit shortly after.

She grinned, but let a moan escape at the same moment, and Mac’s arm around her tightened while he kissed her shoulders and back.

“Can’t…help it…when two hot guys…are fucking me at the…same time…,” she stammered between moans that she tried to restrain. The men held onto her tighter, their thrusts deepening after hearing her praise of them.

“Yes…my boys…fuck me…until I forget…my…own…name…,” she purred to them as her mind scrambled from the overwhelming sensations their two members were pounding into her. Mac and Hancock glanced at each other and nodded, their pace picking up as they both held onto her; the sounds of skin slapping together filled the room as her walls constricted so much it felt like she was going to push Hancock out of her heat. He was determined to stay inside of her though.

“Fuuuuuuuuck, Sunshine, sooooo fuckin’ tiiiiight,” was all Hancock could get out as his edge rushed towards him quickly.

“Gonna….come…,” Mac managed to get out as his free hand grabbed Hancock’s ass.

One of her arms reached back to hold onto Mac’s thigh, and her other wrapped around Hancock’s shoulder, and she pulled them to her as tightly as she could muster.

“Come with me,” she moaned, and borderline demanded, as her back began to arch and the men felt her walls squeeze tightly around them; Mac came moments before Hancock did, Mac’s subdued cry mingling with Hancock’s guttural growl. Mac’s head dropped to her shoulder as pulses of euphoria beat through him. She eventually rested her head on Hancock’s chest, and he kissed her forehead. All the three of them could do for a while was hold onto each other.

“You two continue to blow my mind,” Mac whispered. “I don’t know if I can move.”

“Ya might have to soon – I need a smoke after that one,” Hancock laughed.

Mac slowly slid his member from her pucker and carefully rose from the bed; he wasn’t trusting his legs right away.

“I’ll help ya get cleaned up,” Hancock said as he helped Amy up, got up from the bed himself, and picked up an overturned bucket in the corner of the room. The two men made their way over to Hancock’s bag by the dresser. She found her pants, her pack of smokes, and lighter.

“Do you guys want me to smoke outside? There’s not as much ventilation in here like before.”

Hancock was busy with a small piece of cloth and some soap shavings, taking his time to clean Mac’s member carefully. He paused and looked up.

“This is yer house now, ain’t it? Ya get to call the shots,” he replied with a grin.

“Don’t know if there’s an ashtray around here though…,” she trailed off as she searched the room. After a few minutes she huffed and grumbled to herself. “Fuck it, I’ll just put it out in the bucket when you two are done.” She lit her cigarette as she sat back down on the bed, then leaned back and laid down as her exhales drifted up to the ceiling. A few smoke rings floated upwards as the men sat down on either side of her on the mattress. A pair of dark eyes, and a pair of blue eyes, focused down on her. She gave them a huge grin, and they mirrored it back to her.

“All cleaned up?” She asked Mac as she sat up and handed Hancock her cigarette.

“As clean as one can be without a full shower,” Mac chuckled. “It was worth getting dirty though.”

She smiled as she gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Sorry for the dirty part. But I liked having you in my ass, Mac….especially feeling you when you cum. You were throbbing pretty hard.” His cheeks flushed a little over her praise.

Thunder rumbled in the distance, and her attention diverted through the windows; she saw lightning flashes inside of the clouds that ballooned over the horizon.

“Hope that’s the storm that was just over us, and not a new one,” Hancock murmured as he followed her gaze and handed the cigarette back to her.

“We’ll have to track through mud if it’s a different one,” she sighed deeply, her worries and anxieties about the trek in the morning resurfacing.

She got up from the bed, taking the last puff left of the cigarette and dropping it into the water in the bucket, where it went out with a hiss. Feeling a kink in her hip and her thigh muscle, she used the dresser to balance herself as she lifted, straightened, and stretched out her leg to the side for a few moments, and used her hand to hold it steady as she stretched. She then brought her leg back in, bent and lifted her leg behind her, grabbed her foot to stretch it up just past her shoulder, and leaned forward slightly. Holding it there for another couple of moments, she slowly lowered her leg and stood at the dresser, watching the storm on the horizon. Soon she felt warm arms wrapping around her, and Hancock’s breath at her neck as he began to place soft kisses everywhere he could reach.

“Were ya just showin’ off, or did we hurt ya?” He had a worried undertone to his voice as he spoke between kisses.

“My thigh muscle, and hip, were a little tight, so I figured I should stretch them a bit. I don’t want them locked up by morning. Thinking it was from the fast pace we kept up from home to here; I don’t think it was from you two at all. I’ve been out of shape, especially after being on ice for two centuries, and only back to the land of the conscious a little over a month.” She turned her head slightly so she could look at him, and she placed a quick kiss on his lips.

“Didn’t know ya were that flexible,” he murmured, his eyes sparkling as she turned in his hold, so she was facing him.

“Used to be more flexible when I was doing yoga all the time,” she sighed as she reminisced once again. She had been doing that often lately.

“Yoga?”

“It’s a far Eastern exercise, from India I believe, and it mixed philosophy and spirituality that involved stretches, too. It helped to ‘center yourself from the bustling, busy lifestyle of a modern society’, or something like the shit that was advertised in my time. I liked it because it helped me with some interesting sexual positions…,” she said as she chuckled over memories that flooded back to her.

“Maybe ya could teach us when we get back home? I wouldn’t mind bein’ more flexible…or knowin’ those positions ya were just thinkin’ ‘bout…,” he whispered as he leaned in to nuzzle at her neck for a moment.

“Deal,” she replied as she grinned, and his eyes locked with hers.

“Did we fuck ya good? Enough to where ya forgot yer name for a bit?” He was transitioning to the puppy-dog look, his eyes wide and bright, and she smiled.

“You two are amazing together, in more ways than one, and you certainly know how to please a woman when she asks for it,” she murmured as she smiled, cupping her hand to hold his cheek. His eyes closed briefly as she caressed his uneven skin.

“Not just ‘a’ woman….my divine angel.” His eyes were fixed on her, and serious. She embraced him in response as her arms wrapped around his shoulders, pulling him closer to her. He grabbed her legs and lifted her up as he returned her embrace, carrying her carefully back over to the bed, and sat her down on the mattress next to Mac, who had been watching their interactions with great interest. Hancock parted from her slowly and looked between her and Mac.

“We should get some sleep, but I think Sunshine should be in the middle tonight,” he said with a smile. She grinned and started taking her place in the middle of the mattress, her boys joining her on either side as soon as she got situated. She wrapped an arm around each of them, kissing both of their foreheads as they pulled up the blanket around them and snuggled into her chest.

“Happy birthday to me,” she murmured to herself quietly with a smile as she drifted off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A soft beeping came from her Pip-Boy a moment before she heard a quiet knock at the door. She picked her head up a little and noticed the pastel dustings of sunrise beginning to chase the darkness away through the window.

“Hey guys, it’s time,” Nick murmured through the door to them.

“Thanks, Nick, we’ll be out in a bit,” she replied quietly. The two forms on either side of her stirred at the sound of her voice. Hancock’s arm held her tighter as he leaned to her ear.

“Can we have a quickie, please, love? I don’t know when we’re gonna be able to make love again, at least ‘till we get back here.” She hummed in agreement as he nuzzled at her neck; he started climbing on top of her, and it didn’t take him long to slide his hard member right into her warmth. They mimicked each other again by arching their necks back with a happy, quiet moan as his length stretched her on the inside.

“Mmmmm, my divine demon,” she purred as he wrapped his arms around her and began to thrust slowly. His mouth sought out hers and embraced her deeply as his hips started to move quicker. He caught each of her moans as they exited her throat, and his thrusts deepened with each sound she made. She encircled her legs around him to feel every inch of his bare skin that she could.

He broke from their embrace momentarily to kiss deeply at her neck, and he found a new spot to mark her as he began to suck hard.

“John,” she moaned quietly, “are you gonna leave any space free on my neck, or am I just going to have one, big hickey all over?” She grinned at his determination.

“Nope, no space,” he mumbled between kisses. “Yer mine. Can’t leave empty spots for anyone else to claim ya.” He embraced her again, making sure his tongue coiled around hers as his hips picked up speed. He lifted a hand to her cheek and caressed her skin with his thumb, pausing their embrace for a moment to rest his forehead on hers as his dark eyes dove into her glittering emeralds. His hips still thrusted into her, but he slowed as he became engulfed in her loving stare. He knew the happy pressure blossoming in his chest was residing in her chest too.

“I love you so goddamn much,” he whispered to her.

“I love you so fucking much, John. I still can’t believe how lucky I am to have found you.” She resumed their embrace, but harder than it had been. His hips took the hint and began thrusting equally as hard into her, and it took her a moment to keep her moans in check. She wrapped her arms tight around him, and he felt another part of her wrap tighter around him at almost the same moment.

“Caressing every part of me, eh?” He paused their embrace to tease her.

“Happily,” she whispered back as she flexed. He growled and dove down to her neck, finding yet another spot to suck on. His hips thrusted deep, and her neck stretched back as her wave was reaching a tipping point. His edge was getting pretty close.

“Harder, please, John…,” she barely got out as she bit her lip, and he raised his head to catch her gaze.

“Anything for you,” he murmured, bringing her in for an embrace as he pushed himself harder within her. They held each other tightly as he started to rut into her. As her walls constricted further and further, he couldn’t take it anymore – he gave in and let himself go completely, and she had to capture his yell as he released into her. He continued his thrusts as her back began to arch, which caused her to press her erect, pierced nipples hard into his chest as her warmth clamped down on him, her wave cresting phenomenally. Their embrace only slowed as their bliss receded together, and his head fell to the crook of her shoulder.

“I need to clean ya up,” he mumbled from her shoulder. “We’ll be gettin’ enough rads here soon where ya don’t need to be leakin’ ‘em too.”

“Ok, let me up, I want to sit on your face then.”

He lifted his gaze up and grinned at her. “Get outta my head. I was just thinkin’ the same thing.”

He let her get up so he could lay down, and she straddled his face. He made happy sounds as she felt his tongue lick up every drop that ran from her entrance, and her eyes shut as his tongue moved everywhere it could reach. They heard movement next to them, and Mac rolled over, blinking his eyes at first, then opening them wide.

“Goddamn, guys,” he said as he laughed. “Quite the visual to wake up to.” She heard laughter coming from the area of her slit, and that made her start laughing too.

“He’s just cleaning me up,” she said, chuckling. “You missed the main show.”

“Damn. As soon as you get back then?”

She leaned over and down a bit and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. “Guaranteed. We’re probably gonna be chomping at the bit to fuck, so you better be ready.”

“Can you do that to me when you get back too?”

She embraced him and looked into his eyes.

“I’d be happy to sit on your face.” She felt a tap at her leg, and she let Hancock get up.

“Makin’ plans for us already?” Hancock grinned as he maneuvered himself to a sitting position.

“You know it,” she beamed back at him and snuck in a wink.

She sighed, lifted herself off of the bed, and started to get dressed. She heard the men groan as they got up to do the same. Her camo fatigues went on, combat armor following after. Wraparound sunglasses on her head, she began checking pockets for ammo and brought her bag over to the bed to pull out extras to restock. Seeing the first aid kit at the bottom of her bag, she pulled it out and opened it, popping the Pip-Boy open at the same time to exchange the holotape within. She sorted through the tapes in the case, and picked one out, placing the one that had been in her Pip-Boy in the case and shutting the lid, and sliding the new tape into the Pip-Boy. She went to the closet, pulled out her bobby pin, and opened the safe, carefully setting the case at the bottom. Grabbing her perfume, she applied a small amount behind her ears, and at her wrists. The perfume went back into the safe, and she shut the lid, covering it in the debris at the bottom of the closet again.

Hancock had been watching her, and since he was dressed and packed, walked over to her.

“Yer leavin’ yer music here?”

“Not all of it. I’ll have the one in my Pip-Boy – I don’t want the radiation to ruin the rest. Hopefully the one in the Pip-Boy is a little protected, ‘cause I need something while we’re in there.”

Hancock nodded. “Probably a good idea. Those tapes are invaluable.”

She went back to the bed and repacked her bag, which was helpfully lighter now that the first aid case wasn’t included. She added more water canisters and food to her bag from Mac’s bag, and checking the weapons strapped to the outside, lifted the bag to her shoulders. Hancock had taken out a box of Sugar Bombs from his bag, and the men were munching away on the contents. She held out her hands so Hancock could pour her some, and she ate the cereal surprisingly quickly.

Looking at her boys, she let out a sigh. “Ready?”

Hancock glanced over at her as he replaced the box back in his bag. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

Walking over to the door, she opened it and followed the hallway to the living room. Nick looked up from his chair and smiled.

“Morning, kiddo. Think they may be warming up breakfast if you guys want something hot.”

She grinned. “Anything’s probably better than cereal that, by all rights, should have disintegrated by now.”

Laughing, Nick rose to follow the group outside, where they gathered around the pot by the fire.

“Mornin’ Amy,” Sturges said as he rubbed his eyes. “Today’s the day, huh?”

She forced a smile. “Yeah, gotta do this. Hopefully it won’t take us long. Is Mama Murphy up yet?”

“No, I haven’t seen her.”

“Ok. I told her we’d say goodbye to her if she was up. Let her know we had to leave, and I’ll catch up with her when we get back.”

He handed her a bowl. “Of course. Watch each other’s backs out there, ok?”

She nodded firmly. “We’re all coming back in one piece, don’t worry. Thank you for breakfast, Sturges!”

She began eating as Hancock and Mac joined her, Sturges handing them each a bowl as they walked up. It was some sort of mashed razorgrain cereal with bits of mutfruit, but it somehow was quite delicious for how simple it was. She waited for her boys to finish before she collected their bowls and brought them over to the dishwashing station. Sturges caught up to her as she was placing the bowls on the table.

“Nick said you needed that uncovered when you get back?”

“Yeah, I’m not sure if we’ll need it right when we return, but eventually I do need to get back down there. It’s not too much of a process…?”

“Nah. Just hopin’ the weather holds. Been getting’ into a more winter-like pattern lately, so hopefully it’s not the change of seasons yet.”

“I hear ya. I’ll let you know as soon as we get back, so you have a better idea. Let Mac know,” she gestured to him, “if you need help with anything. He’s a phenomenal sniper.”

Mac turned red at her praise, and Sturges grinned. “I just know what I’m doing,” Mac murmured.

“We’ve got plenty to keep ya busy, but I could use a hand if ya’d like to work on some mechanical stuff.”

Mac smiled. “Yeah, I can help. Give me a few minutes to see these three off though.” Sturges nodded.

“I’ll be in this house when you’re ready.” He walked inside the yellow house by the campfire.

“You three?” He turned to Hancock, Amy, and Nick. “Be careful out there, please. I can’t even imagine what you’re gonna find out there.”

Mac wrapped his arms around Amy and Hancock, and the three hugged each other tightly. “Come back safe, ok? You guys are my world.” Hancock and Amy both kissed a cheek of his.

“We’re gonna go kick some ass, find some information, and be back here before ya know it,” Hancock murmured back. He placed a finger under Mac’s chin, directing his gaze to just him.

“We’ll come back to ya, Mac. I promise. I’ll keep her safe too.”

“I….love you guys. I hope you both know that.”

Hancock embraced him briefly, staring into his blue eyes as he parted from him.

“We love ya too, Mac. Yer part of our family.”

Amy embraced Mac quickly. “Love you, Mac. While we’re gone, just think about me sitting on your face, ok?” She grinned as she whispered to him, and he smiled back.

“How could I not?”

“Are you kids ready now?” Nick looked amongst the trio and smirked.

Hugging again, the group parted, and Nick led the way down the road. Mac waved from the porch as they rounded the road that led them to the bridge, and they waved back until he was out of sight. Amy and Hancock both pulled out their rifles as they neared the entrance to Sanctuary.

Crossing the bridge, they decided to walk up the rocky hill on the opposite side, heading directly south and towards the Concord water tower. She kept an eye on her Pip-Boy as a farm appeared below them.

“I wonder if that’s Abernathy Farm?” She moved some knobs on her Pip-Boy to mark her map so she could check with Preston later. They walked around the settlement and continued south. She also noted an old warehouse with semis parked outside further west down the hill from the farm, as well as a shack. She found a stash of cigarettes and whiskey sitting by a chair inside of the shack, and she handed everything to Hancock to fit in his bag.

Crossing the road by a rusted out truck, they climbed the hill opposite. As the hill crested, a reservoir opened to their view, with Sunshine Tidings on the hill beyond.

“Does this lake have a name?” She was determined to keep her map updated on this trip, so they could find their route back to Sanctuary.

“Not that I know of. Old reservoir for the city, I think.” Nick paused for a moment as his processors whirred.

Hancock fired twice down towards the water, and two bloatflies exploded into pieces at the water’s edge.

“You’re getting’ pretty good with that rifle,” she cooed as she smiled. “I barely picked those up before you had them in pieces.”

Hancock grinned. “Yer rubbin’ off on me.”

A knowing grin flashed deviously on her face, and he returned it, having a pretty good idea of what she was thinking.

“We’ve got to get to that hill just beyond Sunshine Tidings and that overpass,” Nick said as he scanned the horizon. “Should put us at about noon when we get there, pending any sidetracks.”

“Ya know the Golden Rule of the ‘Wastes, Nicky,” Hancock chuckled.

“Thou shalt get sidetracked by bullshit every goddamn time,” they recited in unison, and she laughed. Movement on the dam caught her attention, and she ducked down to get a closer look through her scope.

“Raiders at the dam, where the semi is blocking,” she muttered as Hancock sidled next to her with his rifle. Aiming, they both fired once, and two figures fell to the ground. A third was moving hurriedly around the structure built on the truck, and her aim followed until the figure stopped to lift up a rocket launcher in their direction; he didn’t get a chance to fire at them before his head exploded into bits of skull and skin.

“Clear,” she said as she rose, her rifle lowering. Carefully she hopped down the rocky outcropping to the dam, scanning the area as she jumped over the guard rail to the road. Eyes everywhere, the group cautiously crossed the dam and hiked up the hill to Sunshine Tidings. As they rested briefly, she aimed her scope to the overpass just south of Sunshine Tidings, seeing movement at the top.

“Looks like Gunners are up there,” she said to Nick. “I should take them out from here.”

“Need help?” Hancock looked over at her.

She glanced over at him and grinned. “Yeah, take the far-right end, but not until I shoot first.”

Her focus was drawn to a form that glowed brighter than the others when she squinted, and she took him down in two shots. Hancock got one as she was aiming towards her left.

“One more on your right, behind that barrier,” she said, and he fired a moment later.

Lowering her rifle, she smiled. “Nice shot.”

“Are we clear to move on?” Nick asked in a hushed tone.

“Yeah. I’m feeling more down below though, so we’ll need to travel carefully.” She led the way under the crumbling overpass, and they neared a collection of shacks built around an old military bunker. She picked off a few Raiders as they were detected by her spiderwebbing, and Hancock even found two trying to hide behind the wooden structures.

“Let’s follow this road to Fort Hagen,” Nick murmured to them, and she walked down the road from the Raider hideout to where it joined up with another stretch of asphalt. Noting an old propane shop on her right, she looked further up the hill behind it; they might be able to shortcut up the rocks, but it looked a little steep. She ducked into the shop and found ammo cases, and a fusion core between them, along with some caps and different kinds of ammo.

“Maybe we should cut through this way?” She nodded her head through the broken back wall of the building to a gentle slope.

“That would avoid anyone set up along that main road,” Nick agreed. They quickly made their way through the building, and up the hill. She saw a fenced off area on top of the rocky outcropping ahead of them. “Head around to the left, the hill doesn’t look as steep on that side.”

She led the way on a twisting pathway up the rocks, dried sticks and leaves scraping at her pants as she trudged through the underbrush. Their path opened to a mobile home park further down on their left, but she cut right to head further up the hill. As they rounded a cluster of rocks and the fence at the top came into view, they heard gunfire. She paused.

“Picking up a few at the top of the hill,” she murmured to her companions. “May have to hop that fence at the top too. Puts us at a disadvantage unless we can get them through the fence.”

She carefully made her way to almost the crest of the hill, enough so she could try to get a read on the situation before they walked right into it. Seeing green fatigues, she muttered, “Gunners,” before her scope was up and her weapon firing. Hancock quietly neared her and took a few shots, bringing down another Gunner through the open windows of the crumbling buildings.

“I think that was it around here; we can hop the fence further down that way where it’s partially buried.” She led the way and the trio made quick work of getting past the fence. Just past a semi sat the familiar Red Rocket station.

“Seems clear but be careful. If we found Gunners already, there may be more in the buildings, now that Kellogg isn’t keeping watch on this area.”

She carefully led them to the station’s interior and gathered in the inner room where the mattress was still spread out on the floor. She smiled, reminiscing back to the last time they were here as she sat down.

“Right at noon on the nose,” Nick grinned. “I don’t think we could have made better time.”

“But we’re out of time for travel today, right? How much farther to where we need to go to enter the Sea?” She pulled up her map.

“We’ll need to head southwest from here to avoid Natick and Lake Cochituate – everything’s really irradiated around there, and no reason to surround ourselves with more rads than we already will be getting soon enough. And there isn’t anywhere to stop and rest along the way, I’m afraid. We may have to find somewhere to hunker down while we’re in the Sea, since it’s about a half day to the Mass Pike Interchange and the entry to the Sea, and we won’t be able to travel at night.”

“Fuuuuuuuuck.”

“Yeah, that about sums it up.”

“Guess all we can do is hang out and wait until morning?”

“And get as much rest as possible,” he paused and chuckled. “Why do I feel like we’re having a déjà vu moment here? Last time I said that you two were just beginning to blossom. And now look at you both.” He smiled at them.

“Only gettin’ better since that time, Nicky, that’s for sure,” Hancock replied with a grin as his gaze darted to hers. He sat down next to her.

“There’s time for…*ahem*…that too if you need to get it out of your systems, because I wouldn’t risk it at all in the Sea if I were you. You did pretty good keeping the noise down last night, so it might be a good idea to continue that, so we don’t let any Gunners that may still be around know we’re camping out here. I can keep watch if you need it.”

Hancock smirked; his gaze still locked with hers. “Yeah, let’s use the time we’ve got wisely…,” his sentence drifted off as his mouth went to her neck.

“I’ll be out front when you kids are done,” he chuckled as he headed for the door.

As soon as the door shut, Hancock stood her up and pushed her to the wall as she was unbuttoning her pants and pulling them down to her knees while taking off her chest and leg armor. His fly was open in moments, and his hard member was sliding through her slit, getting her wetter the more she felt his ridged shaft glide along her entrance.

“Get inside me now, please, John,” she whimpered, her legs shaking with anticipation, and with that he slid inside of her in one quick movement. They both forgot to quiet their moans at their reunion, and he wrapped his arms around her tightly as he began to thrust.

“My Sunshine, my goddess,” he murmured into her ear as he felt every inch of her warmth surround his length. “We’re goin’ twice, at minimum. Nicky didn’t give us a time limit, and we’re usin’ that to our advantage.”

Holding in her moans with a bite to her lip, she shook her head. “Minimum is three. Final offer.”

Hancock laughed, then slid into a quiet moan as she flexed to show she was serious.

“Ya have a very convincin’ argument,” he whispered as he kissed her neck, his hand holding her just above her mound to give him amazing leverage to push himself inside of her as far as he could go. He paused for a moment to take in all of the details of her that he could; the hickeys all over her neck, her goddess scent (FUCK I missed smelling this on her), her adorable bare ass, her eyes as they sparkled back at him…his free hand gently caressed her bare skin as his dark orbs took in everything. She flexed for him, severing his observation of his idea of womanly perfection personified.

He thrusted deep within her again, his mouth going to her neck, just under her ear.

“Sorry, my divine. Got lost in ya for a minute.” He chuckled as he kissed her neck. “Needed somethin’ for the memory bank too, in case I need a self-love moment out there in all those rads.”

“I figured you might be doing that. Take your time, love. You’re inside me, and that’s all that matters right now.” She flexed for him again, and his arm wrapped around her tightly, his hips resuming thrusting.

“Ya have that goddess scent on ya again,” he murmured to her as his lips glided along her neck.

“I did that for you,” she whispered back. “And me too, a bit. It helps to ground me. I hope it lasts through the Sea, ‘cause I couldn’t bring it with.”

Breathing her in deeply, his hips moved faster, and she had to bite back her moans.

“There ya are,” he mused as he felt her start to tighten, and he picked up his pace. “Bring that beautiful orgasm out for me to feel.”

“Haaaaarrrrder then, love,” she mumbled, her bottom lip held tightly by her teeth.

His hand went back to just above her mound, and he rocketed his hips, eliciting a cry from her before she could contain it completely.

“Like that?”

“Yeeessssss,” she moaned, and he felt her tightly compressing him. His arm encircled her again to help hold her up when her legs would become shaky in a few moments.

He shot past his edge, biting her shoulder to hold back his moan as she clamped down on him, and kept clamping on him as his thrusts continued.

“Keep…..going….,” she breathed. “There’s another one right behind…”

“Let it out, divine, let me feel it.”

He kept thrusting, her walls closing in on him a second time.

“That’s it, my angel” he purred, “come again for me…”

They moaned together as her wave crashed, and he held her close as her aftershocks squeezed another release out of him. His lips went to her neck, lightly kissing her as she came down from her bliss cloud.

“I wanna get ya fully naked so bad right now to completely ravage ya…,” he murmured as he held her.

She flexed for him, and she felt him shudder. “I know. I feel the same way. But we’re not safe enough for that here.”

She heard a deep rumble come from his chest. “Guess this is gonna be a big test on restraint for us, huh?”

She chuckled. “Yeah. It’s also gonna wind up being the biggest explosion of horniness the world has ever seen once we get back home. Might rival the bombs dropping with the force of it.” He laughed.

She felt him harden within her, and she flexed for him. “Again, love. I need you again.”

“I need ya facin’ me, then.” He slid from her warmth to help her remove her pants completely, and he pushed her back into the wall as soon as she was half clothed. His gaze at her was getting to a near feral-like stage as his lips crashed into hers, bringing her into a deep embrace. He lifted her up, shoving her against the wall, and inserted his stiff member back into her heat. His hips immediately began to thrust hard, and he caught her loud moan before it could get farther than the little room.

Parting from their embrace briefly, his gaze locked on with hers, and he thrusted into her even harder. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders as he pounded her, and she forgot to keep her moans in check for a minute; his eyes closed at her vocals, and when he reopened them, her eyes flashed with a unique radiance as he fucked her hard and deep.

As they stared at each other, he felt the wisps of her soul enter him and firmly latch on to his whole being; seeing the same expression on her face that he felt on his, he knew she was feeling the same thing as the wisps of his soul attached to her being. His chest tightened happily, and he held onto her even harder.

 “Mine,” they whispered to each other in unison, their eyes staring deeply into one another.

He began to rut into her, and she held onto him with all that she had as her wave built up bigger and bigger; the strained look on his face showed that his edge was rapidly approaching too.

Feeling her walls closing in tightly on him, he whispered, “Take me to the stars, my goddess,” and her wave crested as he released with her, joining with her voice as they moaned over their union into the room.

“Ya felt that too a few minutes ago, right?” He murmured to her as he carefully lowered her to stand on her own. She kept her arms around him.

“Yes,” she whispered back, her eyes wide and brightly staring at him.

“Another bondin’ moment…I’m really gettin’ to like those.” He nuzzled at her neck, nipping at her with his lips.

Looking down at his member, she saw a mess of her want and creaminess all over his cock. She tsk-tsk’ed and dropped to her knees.

“You need a cleanup,” she breathed, looking up at him as she took him in her mouth completely, and his head dropped back in rapture, his hat falling to the floor.

“That gorgeous, dirty mouth,” he murmured as she sucked on him. Slowly releasing him, she got back to her feet.

“Your turn,” he grinned as he dropped to his knees, burying his face in her slit. He detoured for a moment to tease and suck on her nub, and her head hit the wall as her neck arched backwards.

“I think…we need to….fit more oral into…our routine,” she breathlessly said as he sucked harder on her, his tongue then moving into her heat to collect his releases. She caressed his bare head with her hand as he worked. He slowed, glancing up at her as he grinned.

“69 is first on the agenda upon returning home then,” he chuckled as he got up, picking up his hat as he rose. “But before all of that….let’s get ya dressed. Nicky’s probably gonna come in here soon if we stay in the room.”

“I could use a smoke, and some fresh air,” she chuckled, gathering her pants and armor to put back on. He helped her with her armor as soon as her pants were buttoned, and as Hancock predicted, a knock sounded on the door.

“Hey guys, let’s take a break, ok? You’ve been in there for over an hour, and I know you’re not sleeping yet.”

They passed a surprised look between them, and Hancock opened the door. “Damn, we were tryin’ for longer,” he said as he grinned.

“You’re like a couple of horny teenagers,” Nick joked as they emerged from the room.

“Can’t help that our libidos are radiation-powered,” Hancock returned with a smirk.

“Will this get worse the closer we get to the Sea?”

“Might. We had bad urges after we got blasted by that Glowin’ One at Med-Tek, but that was a super-condensed blast, so we might be ok in the Sea. I think levels are much lower there comparatively.”

Nick arched an eyebrow. “All this isn’t going to interfere or delay us, is it?”

Amy stood resolutely with a cigarette in her hand. “I don’t want to stay out there one minute longer than we have to. I can’t predict how it will affect us once we get into the heart of the Sea though. I’m hoping we don’t need to delay anything. We both know we need to rein it in for the duration, but….,” she sighed. “This is all still new to me, and to us, Nick.”

Nick smiled reassuringly at her. “I know, doll. Just trying to get things sorted before it can become an issue.”

She sighed heavily. “Thanks, Nick. We know you’re vulnerable out there, just like us, and we don’t want anyone in danger. We won’t delay unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

Hancock had been rummaging in his bag that he brought out with him as Nick and Amy spoke, and finding the hot plate they used before, he began to heat up a can of pork and beans, with a box of Salisbury Steak waiting on the sideline.

“Are ya hungry?”

Chapter Text

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Chapter 27

Her eyes immediately shot over to Hancock.

“Starving, actually.” She gave Nick a glance to pause their conversation before she walked over to where Hancock was hovering over the hot plate.

“Should all be ready in ‘bout 5 to 10.”

“Enough time for a smoke,” she grinned as she pulled out her pack and sat down by him. She handed a cigarette to him before she lit one of her own.

“Mind if I join you?” Nick walked over to them; Hancock motioned with his head for him to have a seat, and he wound up sitting cross-legged on the floor next to Amy.

“Need a smoke?” She handed her pack to him, and he gratefully pulled one out.

“Sorry if I came across as a little harsh there a minute ago,” Nick murmured with his cigarette in his lips, lighting it. His metal, skeletal hand plucked the smoke from his mouth. “I’m just trying to keep an eye out for you two. I know how easily you can get distracted, and distractions can be costly, especially in a brutal place like the Sea.”

She smiled. “I know, Nick. You’re well within your right to do that; we do get easily…involved. Can’t help it sometimes though,” her gaze drifted to Hancock’s as she caught him staring at her. He smirked and went back to stirring. “He’s a charmer through and through.”

“You’re gonna build up his ego to astronomical levels if you keep that up,” Nick quipped with a laugh, and Hancock grinned.

“Nothin’ wrong with a little ego, Nicky,” he retorted with a chuckle. “Just can’t let it consume ya. Gotta stay humble a bit too, ya know?”

Hancock looked at her and murmured, “Ready for some old-ass food?”

She grimaced, but her stomach answered for her. Her companions laughed.

“Gettin’ mixed signals here,” he snickered. “Beans are ready, the ‘steak’ will be another minute.”

He removed the can from the hot plate with the oven mitt to cool while the steak got more focused heat. She flicked her snuffed cigarette butt out of the open door behind her and slid the can closer to where she was sitting. Cautiously she scooped a spoonful, blew on it, and held the spoon for a few moments before placing it in her mouth. She repeated these steps until half of the can was gone, and she shifted the remainder back over to Hancock.

“It’s cooling quick – eat now if you want it warm.” He grabbed the can and ate with gusto as he eyed the ‘steak’ and pulled it from the hot plate.

“Mystery meat’s next,” he said as he slid the tray to her. She cut a small portion of the meat with the spoon and tentatively took a bite.

“Tastes the same as I remember,” she mumbled from the side of her mouth, “which doesn’t say much for it.”

She finished her half and returned the rest to Hancock; it only took him a few minutes to clear the tray completely with a pained look on his face.

“Lack of bein’ able to taste stuff doesn’t help with that shit,” he muttered as he reached into his bag and pulled out their found bottle of whiskey and took a deep pull before handing the bottle over to her. She accepted it gratefully, took a swig, coughed, and handed it back.

“Would you two be able to keep watch for a few? I need to run some diagnostics while we’ve got the time.” Nick looked around for a chair to sit in; he disappeared into the back room for a moment and brought one out close to where his companions were and sat down.

“Course, Nicky,” Hancock replied. “Ya were kind enough to keep watch for us earlier. Time for us to return the favor.”

Nick sat still as his eyes closed, and they heard a soft whirring coming from his head.

Her eyes strayed over to Hancock as his gaze slid over to her at the same moment. When their eyes locked, he scooted closer to her and grasped her hand.

“How’re you doin’, Sunshine?” He murmured to her as his thumb caressed the back of her hand. She rested her head on his shoulder.

“I’m ok, love. Nerves are a little shot, but I’ll manage.” He leaned his head on hers as his eyes closed.

As she stretched her legs out, her foot hit something, but she couldn’t see what it was she hit at first. Then the spiderwebbing started forming quickly in her vision, and she could make out the waviness of the air in front of her when she squinted her eyes. Carefully her hand crept back behind her to her waistband, drawing out her switchblade silently.

Hancock heard the minute click as the blade extended, and he stiffened slightly. There’s someone in front of us, John, she thought, hoping somehow that her thoughts would beam directly into his head as she moved in a blur to get the almost invisible form in front of her into a head lock; the blade spun in her hand, and it wound up angled enough on the form’s neck where she saw a drop of red fall to the floor.

“Show yourself, asshole,” she fumed with clenched teeth. Hancock had already retrieved his shotgun from his bag and aimed it point-blank at the general chest area of the ‘invisible’ figure.

“Suggest ya listen to the lady – saw her stab someone in the back of the head before with that knife. She ain’t playin’ around,” Hancock muttered as he glared at the shimmering air in front of her.

The air became noticeably wavier, and color started forming on the human shape in front of them until it was solid. A familiar face scowled back at them.

“Mathias. Second time yer dumbass got caught with a knife to the neck,” Hancock chuckled as he cocked his shotgun. “Thought I told ya last time she ain’t yer lab rat. Those samples weren’t enough that ya had to follow us?”

“I’m supposed to bring her in for questioning before you got to the Sea.”

“Just how long ya been followin’ us?”

“Sunshine Tidings.”

“Where are yer friends at? I know ya didn’t come out here alone.”

“You took out two of them when you arrived here.”

“They were dressed as Gunners?” She found that a little hard to believe as he nodded; from what she knew of them, the Enclave wouldn’t have lowered themselves to dressing like a small Commonwealth faction. But, if they were trying to get to her like that, they must be desperate.

“And the others…?”

“There aren’t any.”

“If that’s true, how were ya gonna get her back to wherever ya were going to question her at?”

His right hand started going to his pocket, and her knife dug a little deeper into his neck, and a thin trickle of blood ran down to his shirt.

“Not sure what you’re reaching for, but you don’t need it that badly,” she muttered into his ear. Mathias held his hands out in defeat.

“I was going to show you the syringe.”

“Why is it your mission to sedate and kidnap me? Just why am I so damn important to you fuckers??”

Mathias huffed. “If you had a sample of the virus, we wouldn’t need you. You just happen to be the last source of it.”