Note: This might be the only Fallout 4 fiction you'll see from me. I had the same reaction as Ruby when I got in there. Devastating to me.
Mostly this is just me exploring the various characters and how I'd write them. Have to get some feedback on that before I decide anything.
Last warning, there are spoilers here.
"You with the Minutemen?"
Every time she turned around, there was someone looking for her. Someone who needed her to say it was okay that this had happened―that that had gone on. Someone who needed a friend gotten out of a jam or a problem dealt with. Someone who wanted to know where to put the newest shipment of wood or the last batch of screws that came into town.
"Got something a little different for you, ma'am."
Every time she turned around, one of the people she'd roused from the Commonwealth had to be behind her, watching her. Never a moment to herself, never five minutes without someone coming up and scaring her into pissing herself. Never a moment alone, even in sleep, because someone was always watching over her.
"Hey, can you help? We're really in a bind here."
The last time she'd pulled her pistol on the man, and scared him half to death in return.
It was... it really was too much. She couldn't handle it―
"Where's―" MacCready stared up at the sky for a second. "Garvey! Where's Ruby!"
Garvey's head poked out over the edge of a roof. Looked down at the former Gunner for a moment, his eyes shaded by the wide brim of his hat. He glanced around the settlement for another long moment, and MacCready was about to walk away when the quiet man called out, "Thought I saw her heading up the rocks."
"I swear―" MacCready rubbed his cheek and closed his eyes. Everywhere is rocks, man. Thanks for being so honestly vague.
"Over there," Garvey indicated, motioning to the northwest. "She probably went up to the Vault."
"Oh, da―man," MacCready muttered, staring up at the rocks. Corrected himself again. Needed to get better at that. "Rock paper scissors, see who goes to get her?"
Garvey only shook his head and went back to work. "Leave her alone, MacCready. Only one reason she'd go up to the Vault."
Yeah, but... MacCready turned and stared up at the little outcropping; the small outbuilding atop of it stood lonely against the trees. He'd never been inside the place, but it was a Vault. Vaults weren't all that much different from one another. Prisons, hells, what have you. Places you didn't want to be inside of.
"We're getting all kinds of requests for help on that radio of yours," MacCready called out to Garvey. "People are getting antsy."
"Listen, MacCready―" Garvey poked his head out over the roof edge again. "These people, they need Ruiz. We all need her. But Ruiz needs herself, too."
"Cryptic, much?" MacCready pulled the brim of his hat down a little further, trying to keep the sun out of his eyes.
Garvey shrugged. "You don't like being alone, that's fine. Some of us need the time to sort ourselves out. Ruiz goes up to the Vault to be alone. You go on and bug her―" A loud bang sounded as Garvey nailed something down. "She might tell you to hit the bricks. You'll be alone for sure, after that."
"Dammi―" MacCready stopped himself. "Dangit."
Garvey chuckled, and the sound carried over the breeze. MacCready listened to the work sounds going on, staring up at the little building on the outcropping. After a few minutes, he moved on. The radio was still banging off like gunfire, people calling in for various reasons, when he returned to the workshop.
I ain't a damn secretary, he thought to himself. C'mon, Ruby.
"What are you doing, Knight Ruiz?"
Ruby sighed, stared at her hands on the chair she was moving around, and turned her head to look at who was asking her the question. Knew who it was. Didn't much care to answer, but if she didn't she knew what would happen.
After a moment, Danse would repeat the question a little more firmly. And she would be compelled to answer him because he was a superior officer. Even if she was the damn General of the Minutemen, his devout attitude toward military style would demand she answer.
"I'm moving this chair into the corner," she said, tiredly. "Was there something you needed, Danse?"
"Garvey's watch reported movement in the west, probably ghouls. We should eradicate the threat before it becomes pressing." Danse looked down at the chair. "I could help you with that, you know."
"Thank you, Danse, but sometimes you just want to do things by yourself," she muttered, pushing the chair across the crumbling linoleum.
"All the same, if you need assistance, I am available."
"Hey, Blue!"
Ruby blew out a deep breath and took her hands off the chair, rubbing her forehead and closing her eyes. "Danse... Garvey can take care of the ghouls. You can join him if you wish." She turned her head back to the door. "Tell Piper I'm in here, won't you, please?"
Danse watched her for a silent moment, then nodded swiftly, and turned. His armor was loud as he walked away. She felt the beginnings of a headache coming on.
Ruby waited for a moment before moving to the door and staring out of it. Piper was across the cul-de-sac, distractedly talking to MacCready again. She'd already forgotten whatever it was she'd wanted, what she'd called out for. Ruby leaned against the door frame and watched the two of them, wondering.
Whatever those two had to talk about―Ruby shook her head. Probably conspiracy theories and little green men. Things that rightly should have died with the millions of folks who passed in the War―
Ruby's heart hurt, wrenching inside her chest.
She turned her eyes up to the rocks, staring at the place where the Vault was. No. Not today. She breathed out through her nose and felt her teeth grinding against one another. Not... today.
A long time later, after Piper tore herself away from MacCready and made her way over to Ruby, they moved the chair to its place while Piper jabbered in her ear about something that she barely paid attention to.
...Not today.
"You look like hell run cold," Hancock said, flicking at her hat as he walked by. "Take a break."
"Can't," Ruby answered, pulling the cord tighter. She was holding a wall in place, while Garvey nailed in the last bit. A thin sheen of sweat across her brow was chilled by the wind as it picked up, a dark front of yellow-brown clouds coming across the sky.
"Hey!" someone yelled behind her, and Ruby closed her eyes and breathed out. "Hey, there's a radiation storm coming in! Everyone pack it up!"
Garvey turned his eyes out to the sky as she opened hers, and he lowered the hammer he was holding. "General," he said, nodding to her. "You can let go, now."
Ruby loosened her arms, untangling her arms from the cord. She rubbed her wrists and gathered up the cord, wrapping it around her elbow and palm.
"Hancock's right," Garvey said, after a moment. "You ought to take a break."
"Too much to do," she muttered, staring at the cord as it wrapped around her arm. Tucked in the end and pried it from her arm, placing it inside the house that was going up. Too many new settlers to house, all of them wanting their own places. Too much scrap to manage, too much work to organize.
"Two minute warning! Storm's coming in fast!"
"I think we can spare you for five minutes, ma'am," Garvey said, his mouth curling up in a smile. "World isn't going to end again."
"Might, yet," she grumbled, rubbing her head and adjusting her hat. Didn't like the Minutemen hat much, but it kept the sun out of her eyes. Better than wearing those ridiculous goggles she kept peeling off the raiders in the area. "Gotta stay busy. There's not much else I can do, right now."
"Maybe go out and find something to shoot, then." Garvey patted her shoulder. "Take MacCready. He's fairly useless around here." His face crinkled up into a smile.
"No argument there," she muttered. The Gunner was decent at weeding but didn't like handling this framework business. Didn't care about the dirt on his hands, but God forbid the boy get a splinter.
"Might do you good to get away from home for a little while, anyway," Garvey said. Ruby stared at the ground, eyeing the weeds. He knew too much. They all knew too much. She couldn't hide from the past nor the future, anymore.
Sanctuary Hills. What used to be home. Only... it wasn't home if Nate wasn't there―
Or Shaun. She'd had him. She'd had him in her grasp, and she'd―Ruby blinked furiously, keeping the tears at bay, trying not to think about it. It was her own fault―she'd had him and she'd let go―
"Ma'am?" Garvey cleared his throat.
She looked up at the man, blinking. Pulled herself together. "I understand what you're saying, Preston. But with that storm coming on and this place only half finished―hell, half of these people are already borrowing a bed―"
"I know it feels like there's too much to do," Garvey said, squeezing her shoulder. "I asked you to take on the Minutemen because I knew you could handle it, ma'am. Not because I thought you would clear out when given the chance. Everyone deserves a moment to themselves, though."
Ruby sighed, and stared at him. He nodded to her, his head tilting slightly. "Go out and kill some bad guys. Make the world better while you're trying to run away from it. It'll be a better break than you would take for yourself."
Ruby frowned angrily. "What the hell is that supposed to mean―" she started, before they were interrupted yet again.
"Mum?"
She took a deep breath, feeling the pain in her ears, and wiped her eyes of tears. Codsworth. A reminder―of that day―
"Goddammit," she muttered, sniffling.
"Mum, there's a storm coming. Everyone needs to take shelter, and soon." Codsworth, his jets whirring furiously, came up behind them. Garvey released her shoulder and thanked the robot, sent him on his way. He watched Codsworth floating off across the ground for a moment, before turning back to her.
"Ma'am?" he said, softly.
"Preston, I'm going up to the Vault," she breathed out.
"Yes, ma'am," he said. "We'll be here when you get back. No worries."
Ruby walked away, rubbing her eyes and trying to stem the tears before they fell.
Was it too much to ask that they not be?
"I met someone from a Vault before," MacCready was saying, putting his feet up on the end of a couch in the half-finished bar building. Crackling noises came from another corner, where Paladin Danse was standing and watching his radiation counter. Outside of the bar, the storm had picked up, rolling directly overhead in a matter of moments.
Piper rolled her eyes. "Like you said you met those aliens, down in the Capital?" she asked, popping another piece of bubblegum into her mouth.
"You don't believe me, that's alright," the young man said. "I used to live in this little cave town called Little Lamplight. I met the Lone Wanderer, back when I was thirteen."
Piper snorted. Danse shot the man a glance. MacCready leaned back on the couch and pulled his hat down over his face, shrugging and crossing his arms. "Came from Vault 101. Tough as nails." He smiled. "Didn't want to put up with my smart as―behind, that's for sure."
"I don't doubt," Piper said, but her tone indicated she did. Very much so.
"I'm serious," MacCready said. "I was there when they started up that purifier and everything. Made the whole place a lot more tolerable."
"The Capital was a very violent place, even after the Lone Wanderer arrived," Danse said, working his fingers inside his gloves and properly fitting them. "And you weren't old enough to have 'been there' when the Brotherhood freed the purifier," he added, with finality.
"I meant I was in the Capital, get off my back," the young man whined.
Ignorant civilian. Danse looked up through the open roof of the building, the corner where he was sitting exposed directly to the sky. He was relatively safe from the radiation in his power armor, but these folk were taking the direct brunt of it―excepting maybe MacCready, after Ruiz outfitted him with his special armor. Ruiz had taken him out into the wastes more often, lately. Danse suspected it was because the man was a nuisance inside the settlement.
Piper stared up at the sky, as well, and sighed. "She's off at the Vault again, isn't she?" she asked, softly. They both knew who she was referring to.
Ruiz had been going up the Vault a lot more frequently since her brief visit to the Institute. Danse had been there when she returned; he knew how long it had taken her, exactly. When she reappeared, she'd fallen to her knees and mumbled out an apology to Elder Maxson. The Elder had been very displeased with her behavior.
Danse had never seen Ruiz as close to tears, as he had that day. It was disturbing to see, in such a strong woman.
"Probably. Don't know why she does," MacCready said, closing his eyes and making himself comfortable on the couch. "Nothing to do, up there. Nothing but mope."
"Reflecting on times past, perhaps," Danse said, attempting to end the conversation. "Hardly moping."
"She has to be lonely," Piper said, leaning an elbow onto the table in front of her. "Her whole family's gone, no one she knows alive... but for Codsworth." She glanced over at the Paladin with a concerned face. "Think one of us go up and see if she's okay?"
"It's not our place to get involved with someone's private business," Danse put in, growing more agitated. It certainly wasn't.
"Garvey keeps telling me not to bother, too," MacCready said. "But, man... wouldn't you just kill to get into that place, see what it's like up there?"
"No," Danse snapped, and calmed himself. He was not particularly worried about Ruiz, but―
She deserved more respect than the impudent young man was apparently willing to give her. He would not understand the concern that Danse had for his sister in the Brotherhood, such as Ruiz. He had broken his contract with the Gunners―admittedly, an ignoble group―over personality problems.
Piper raised an eyebrow at Danse's hard tone. MacCready pushed his hat back and glanced over at him. "Don't bite my head off or nothing," he said, amused. "Just curious, is all."
"It's none of our business. Ruiz needs the time alone." Danse narrowed his eyes at the man. "You aren't guiding the people toward freedom in the wasteland. Don't presume you know what's going through her head."
MacCready sat up and planted his feet onto the wooden floor, staring across the room. He nodded, after a moment, making a popping noise with his mouth. "You're right," he said, thoughtfully. "Hey, Piper, you got any more of that gum?"
Danse stared up at the sky again, wondering how long it would be until the storm passed. With companions like these two―not wanting to put any serious thought into the coming fight―it was no wonder that Ruiz had to hole herself up inside the Vault. Just for a moment of freedom from the inanity.
He closed his eyes against a spattering of rain and felt the cool breeze swirling into the building. As much as he had dissuaded the two from visiting the Vault, he himself had ulterior motives to explain away his presence.
Perhaps it would be best to mind the Knight. She hadn't been very acquiescent to action, lately.
She might need someone to shore up her defenses, too. She'd... patiently listened to his problems, even though her own eyes were hurting and his questions were a drop in her bucket of problems. Afterward, he'd felt very uncomfortable for piling such trouble onto hers, and weighting her down with it.
Perhaps he owed her an apology. It was the least he could do.
He found her curled up inside the Vault. No one had bothered her, when she was there before. He didn't know quite what to expect.
She'd taken the elevator down, opened the door to the inside, and made her way down a direct corridor to the cryo-pods. Danse stared down at her for a moment, wondering if she was conscious―there was no way she had not heard his approach, after all―
She was still, though, and did not react to him. Ruiz was on the floor below the dead man's feet, lying on her side and staring blankly into the room. She was holding her hand where her wedding ring was, and twisting the band slowly. If not for that slow movement, she appeared dead.
He turned his head to stare at the body just inside the pod, curled up in death and still frozen. This would be... her husband? He narrowed his eyes. Shot to death, efficiently so. Hands curled up to his chest in a defensive position.
He was not insensitive to losing someone so important. But... in this situation, he did not know quite the way to react. Ruiz was upset and had been crying. He was not good at "crying". Nor did he know how to console a nerve-wracked female who had thrown herself to the ground in her grief.
She had not been this troubled, before. He couldn't imagine what she was thinking, to be so enervated. Perhaps she was... inconsolable. Perhaps his coming here, was a mistake.
"Knight Ruiz?" he asked, after a moment. Only one way to find out.
"What do you want, Danse?" she asked, her voice cracking and dull. "God, why can't you people leave me alone." She jammed her eyes shut against him.
"I think, in this instance, it is probably better that you are not alone," he replied, raising an eyebrow. "You appear to be..." he hesitated, "in distress, and I doubt that allowing you to work yourself into such a state is advisable."
"Stick in the mud," Ruiz sighed, and dropped her hands to the floor, going limp. "Who needs something, now?"
"No one needs anything." Danse sighed. "Pardon my forwardness, but... I'd hazard a guess that you're the one who needs something."
"Yeah," she said, sorrowfully, and opened her eyes. Tears fell from her cheeks, across her nose and to the floor. "I need Nate."
Danse turned to the side, studying the man. "He was a good man, I'm sure."
"The best," she whispered. She closed her eyes and shuddered in a sob.
Danse watched her lying on the floor, not sure what to do. "Would... would you like me to leave?" he asked, carefully. "I can give you privacy, if you'd rather I not be here."
That was awkward. He winced at his words.
But she didn't respond. Danse stepped backward and turned around, then paused when two pairs of eyes met his; eyes that oughtn't have been there. He frowned, deeply, then strode across the floor to the door, grabbing the two civilians by the back of their collars and pulling them away from the sight.
"Did I not tell you to leave Ruiz alone?" he asked, firmly escorting the two away.
Piper said nothing of note, grunting under his hand and struggling. MacCready, the more lithe of the two, wrapped an arm around his and pulled away with strength that shouldn't have been possible for the scrawny young man. Danse deposited them both at the grate leading across the entrance of the Vault,
"You were told not to bother―" he began.
MacCready was up on his feet first, while the woman stared glumly into the darkness and remained in a slumped sitting position on the metal. "You said we shouldn't come check on her," the man said, brushing off his coat. "So why are you up here?"
"Knight Ruiz is my subordinate," he said, coolly. "When she has a problem, so do I."
"Just because you're her boss―" MacCready huffed. "She needs more than a pep talk, Danse!"
Danse stared the man down. MacCready looked away, muttering something under his breath. "If you honestly wish for Ruiz to do better," Danse said, "then you would do well to let me handle it."
"Blue's so sad," Piper whispered. "I... didn't see that, before." She sighed, rubbed her nose, and looked at the floor. "We have to do something. She's... We have to."
"I am doing something." Danse stared at her, now. "I am removing a distracting element so that I might have a private talk with my sister in the Brotherhood. A friend in arms, whom I value very much."
Piper nodded, looking up at them. "I guess... Yeah, that could work."
MacCready scoffed, rolling his eyes. "This is exactly what I meant," he snapped, glaring at the soldier. "A dam―a pep talk isn't gonna fix anything!"
Danse turned his attention back to the man. "What would you suggest?" he asked, frowning. "What good could your cavalier attitude do for someone in such a deep depression?"
MacCready straightened his collar, turned to the side, and stared off into the Vault. "I lost my wife, thank you very much," he said, angrily. "I know more about how she feels, than you would, anyway!"
Piper glanced up at him, blinking in surprise, and Danse narrowed his eyes at the man. "And you think you can negate this fugue through shared grief?"
"I intend to try," MacCready said, striding off into the Vault.
"I think he's got the right tack," Piper said, looking up at Danse. "I mean... he knows how it feels, at least."
"If he makes this worse, I'll shoot him," Danse retorted. "Come on, civilian. We'll let them have privacy."
