"Fuck." Alexia sighed, breathing deeply. A single drop of rain had fallen on her cheek.
"What's up, sister?" Hancock asked when he caught up to her.
"Radiation storm is coming in. We don't have much time. I don't have my power armor. If we hurry though we can make it to the settlement Preston marked down for us." Alexia pulled up the location on her Pipboy.
"Doll, don't push yourself too hard. I don't need to drag you all the way to Dr. Amari with radiation poisoning."
"Unless we stumble across some kind of shelter along the way we have two choices, stick it out and head back to sanctuary or head towards the settlement." She paused briefly, fiddling with the dials on her Pipboy. "It's the same distance."
Hancock huffed. "Lex, swear to me that you won't keep going if we find suitable shelter. Your death will not be on my hands. As nice as Garvey is he won't wait to send the minutemen to avenge their general. Not to mention Danse is just itching for a reason to use his mini-gun on me."
Alexia let out a laugh, one of those rare laughs Hancock loved to see. He grinned in satisfaction. "Yea, John. I fucking swear." She winked and held up her middle finger.
Hancock chuckled lightly and wound his middle finger with hers. "Crosses don't count, sister." Alexia held up her other hand to prove she was being honest. Hancock's heart warmed a little every time she did that. As silly as it was it was something that was theirs. A small inside joke that only they understood and appreciated. Satisfied with her deal Alexia popped a few tablets of Rad-X as a precaution and headed south towards the settlement. Hancock followed a few steps behind her.
He'd made the excuse that the only reason he dragged behind was to get a better view of their surroundings when in all honesty he liked to sneak peeks and Alexia's curves. She was voluptuous; an asset that most women in the common wealth lacked. Some lost what little curves they had due to lack of proper nutrition or the overzealous chem use. She didn't do that to herself. She always made it a point to keep her strength up. She cooked often and never passed up multiple meals. She wanted to be strong when she found her son and throughout all the time that Hancock and Alexia traveled together he'd only ever seen her use chems twice. Mentats when she needed that extra boost to get information on finding Shaun, and half of a hit of psycho when they stumbled across a deathclaw in the old Salem museum. She was a good girl; too good for Hancock's playboy ways but that didn't stop him from letting his eyes wander as far as his mind did.
"Go around the back and take out the two inside. They won't notice you as quickly. I'll catch the stragglers out front." Alexia motioned for him to start their assault as she crouched down behind a rusted out, pre-war car. She drew her hunting rifle and lined her scope. She waited patiently for Hancock to enter the old shack. When he was clear out her sight she pulled the trigger taking out the first feral. The other two perked their heads momentarily before turning her way. Calmly she lined up her scope with the ghoul closest to her and pulled. The bullet met its mark and the second ghoul collapsed in a withered heap. She peaked out above her scope to locate the last feral but it was nowhere to be seen. She cursed under her breath and turned just in time to catch the feral ghoul running at her. She swiftly dived out of the way just in time for the ghoul to land next to her in a flailing mass. Out of instinct she used all of her strength to drive the butt of her rifle into its skull. It was stunned long enough for Alexia to jump up and fire a bullet into its brain for good measure. Only when the ghoul stopped twitching did she lower her weapon.
"I really fucking hate when they do that." She used an old oven mitt to wipe the brain matter off her gun before heading towards the decrepit shack ahead. When she made it to the door Hancock was dragging the corpses of the ferals out the door.
"I got this. You can go ahead and set up for the night." She nodded and walked through the surprisingly intact door. More than a few boards were wiggly and the shack itself seems to be lopsided but the walls were solid and the windows were boarded up. Someone had obviously attempted to make this habitable before they ghouls came. Inside a metal bed frame stood and what was left of a dresser remained in the corner. A chem cooler and a suitcase were atop it. Alexia briefly raided them and found two bottles of whisky, a stimpak, and two inhalers of Jet.
Setting down her pack she began to put together their temporary home. She used a large cooking pot she had found and some of the wood from the dresser to put together a makeshift fire safe enough to not burn anything down but efficient enough to keep them warm and provide some light to the otherwise dark shack. She was unrolling the sleeping bags when Hancock walked back in, closing the door behind him.
"Well damn." He smirked. "Aren't you efficient?" Alexia smirked.
"We're gonna be stuck here for a while this storm is the biggest I've seen in a while, I wanted us to be comfortable." She collapsed on her sleeping bag and pulled out a bottle of whisky from her pack and tossed Hancock an inhaler of jet. She winked, "Chem brake." Those words were some of Hancock's favorites. He never failed to smile when she said them.
He sat down on the sleeping bag neighboring hers and pressed the inhaler to his lips. With a deep breath he sank further down the wall he was propped up against. Alexia took a rather large swig from her bottle. The familiar burn warmed her insides.
"This is great." Hancock sighed. "I never thought I would enjoy being stuck in a rad-storm."
Alexia laughed. "That is until you realize you have to keep me entertained. Talk to me. We haven't had enough time to 'bond'." She made quotation marks with her fingers and smirking at her own sarcasm.
"Well I mean I had better ideas for entertainment than talking." Hancock avoided her swatting hand with a wink. "Fine, what would you like to know?" He smirked as she took another large gulp of whisky.
"I don't know honestly." She paused and thought for a moment, "How about you? Anything you want to hear from me?"
There was plenty he wanted to know about but he settled on what topic seemed like the vaguest. "What was it like, you know, before the bombs fell?"
Alexia took an abnormally large swig. Hancock quickly covered his tracks. "If you don't want to talk about it don't feel obligated. Somethings are better left unsaid." He gave her a warm grin. Letting her know that it was okay.
"Nah, it's been long enough. To be honest I probably need to get used to talking about it and who better than you." Hancock had to control the grin that was brewing inside of him. "Well um, I'm not sure where to start," another swig. "I was a lawyer. Nate was in the military. We'd been together since high school. Life was very routine. Nothing like it is now." She took a sip and checked to make sure Hancock was still listening. He was leaning towards her, attentively, so she continued. "I had a routine after Shaun was born. Wake up, tend to him, clean, get Nate off to work, cook, clean more, listen to Nate talk about his day, bathe, sleep repeat. Thinking about it now that I've been through everything I could never see myself living that way again."
"Whatdoya mean?" Hancock slurred.
"Like, now everything is an adrenaline rush. I can literally do anything and there is nothing to stop me. I was the law. I locked people away for their wrong-doings, the days now are different. There are so few constants. Even the company I keep changes. John, you're the only one who I feel like won't walk out because I've helped out one team or the other." Out of the corner of her eye she saw him stifle a grin. "It almost feels like I'm free. It's such a wonderfrul feeling." She was starting to trip over her words. She took another swig out of her bottle.
"I'm not leaving, Lex. Not unless you start mass murdering innocents." Alexia laughed loudly and Hancock joined in on her. He pulled a small tin out of his coat pocket and popped a handful of Mentats; his tone turned more serious. "Can I ask you something personal? If you're even slightly uncomfortable you don't have to."
Alexia took a swig, "Yea, John. Anything." He loved when she called him John. He'd gone by Hancock ever since he put on the red coat of his forefather.
"What was Nate like?" He asked quietly avoiding her eyes. He'd always had the lingering question in the back of his mind but he'd never gotten the courage, or timing, to ask. They'd been traveling together for a long time now and it was something she never spoke about, with good reason of course.
She glanced at the remaining whisky in the bottle and downed it, tossing the empty bottle into her pack. "Well, um, there's no need to lie anymore. I guess. Just give me a second." She took a deep breath and ran her fingers through her dark hair.
"Doll, you really don.." Sloppily Alexia placed a finger over his lips, efficiently shushing him.
"I need to. It's time I told someone everything. I've stayed silent for too long." She leaned her head against the wall. "I. . . I'm not sure how to say it," She pauses. "Things with Nate changed after he joined the military. He was always kind of a hard ass but when he first came back he . . . just . . . changed." She hiccupped. "Things that he used to just roll his eyes at or tease me for he would blow up about. I remember the first time I really noticed something was wrong. He slowly been getting more and more paranoid about little things. He'd accuse me of cheating if I left the office fifteen minutes late. Or if I'd forget to put salt on the table at dinner he'd get snappy at me. All of these little things I just kind of dealt with quietly but this day was the day I started to think about finding a way to leave. It was about two months before the bombs fell." She stopped and wiped at the tears that threatened to fall. "I had gotten dressed to go to a meeting dealing with one of my cases. Nothing special or out of the ordinary. It was normal attire for me, a fitted top, black skirt, heels, hair and make-up done in a casual style. Nothing out of the normal," She repeated she took a second to compose herself, her voice was starting to break. "I'm pretty sure that I've left out the house the same way before but for some reason he was in a rage. I leaned over the table to give him a kiss good-bye before leaving and he avoided it. Nothing had changed for me to have upset him. So I calmly asked why he'd done that and it was like a switch flipped. Within a split second I was pinned against the counter and his hand was on my throat. He was screaming at me. I don't even remember what he said I was so terrified." Tears started rolling down her cheeks and she held her face in her palms.
Rage bubbled up in John but for her sake he tried to retain it. Nothing could be done about it now. Nate was dead. He couldn't hurt her anymore but at the same time he should have never done it in the first place. He opened the second bottle of whisky and handed it to her. Her shaky hands took the bottle and she brought it to her lips and passed it back to Hancock.
"We can stop talking about this if you want." Hancock said through gritted teeth. He tightened his grip on the neck of the bottle. His heart lightened only slightly when she tried her best to give him a weak smile.
"If it's okay with you. . . I'd like to get it off my chest." Hancock nodded and took a swig from the bottle. This was about her; not his anger.
"Go for it, I'm here for ya, just don't push yourself. We can always take another chem brake later." She nodded and continued her story.
"I never told anyone. Domestic violence was unspoken of back then. Even if I had reported it no one would have helped me. I was married, we were high school sweethearts. If anything it would have been turned around and twisted to be my fault. So I stayed quiet and hoped that someday he'd just . . . stop." She wiped tears from her eyes, she held her voice steady. "He didn't though. We'd have period of silence where the eggshells I walked on didn't break. The rules he set were steadily getting more ridiculous. I couldn't wear make-up if he wasn't around, no clothing that showed and semblance of cleavage, no pants that showed my ass, I couldn't speak to men. If I even acknowledged another man presence I was accused of cheating." Her tears stopped and she started to grow angry. Her voice grew tight. "The night before the bombs fell was the first night he physically hit me. I'd been slapped and pushed but never hit. When I watched him get shot some part of me was relieved and the nice, house-wife part still feels guilty for feeling that way."
"You should never feel guilty about that." Hancock bolted up pacing the floor in front of her. "How could some scum even think it's okay to hit someone the claim to love. Husband or not; I'm a hair-line away from being feral and I know better than that." He takes a hit of jet and faces Alexia. She stands and meets him mid stride. Her cheeks were covered in tears and it was the first time that Hancock saw her as vulnerable as she looked. "I'm sorry, I know me being pissed isn't helping but it just makes me so angry. I've been high to the point that I hated everything and everyone but even when whatever floosy was around said something to piss me off I have NEVER laid a hand on them. You just deserve better, Lex, so much better." Without a word Alexia wrapped her arms around him and buried her face into his chest. Hancock was at a lack for words. It was the first time she'd ever been that close to him. The feeling of the heat of her skin directly on his and the earthy smell of her hair overcame his senses. He slowly wrapped his arms around her, scared that she would bolt any minute. She started to sob into his jacket, her grip on him tightening. He let the sobs rack through her small frame until they subsided. She slowly looked up at him.
"Sorry. I can be such a baby." She hiccuped.
"Don't be." He walked her back to their makeshift beds, hand still on the small of her back. "How about I tell you how I became major by assassinating some prick."
She smiled at him as she sat down unsteadily in her drunken state. "I'd like that."
Hancock started his story still frustrated from the information he had just learned but eventually he'd loosened up and was livelier about it, bringing a smile to Alexia's face. She had never felt this safe with Nate, not even before he changed. John was different. He liked his chems but he always seemed so in control, a trait she envied. Her feelings for him had been building for the months they'd traveled together but she had tried her hardest to conceal it. At first she tried to ward them off by using his ghoul state as an excuse but over time she steadily forgot about this factor. It didn't matter; RadAway and Rad-X were a thing and it wasn't something that necessarily repulsed her. She'd actually found the rivets in his skin fascinating to some extent. It wasn't him that was keeping her from being happy it was her. She was the one that was stopping herself from experiencing the possible relationship; that is, if he even wanted one. They had made small talk on the topic of a possible romance but she had never really confessed everything. She though that he was only joking about his "impure thoughts". He was a playboy, he didn't have a need for a relationship, especially one with someone so different. Someone so fragile. He had girls and ghouls lined up to be with him. But, he hadn't even so much as flirted with another woman since their companionship. Maybe he really did care about her the way she desired. The whisky was talking again. He couldn't possibly feel for her the way she felt for him. She took another swig of whisky and in a split second she decided that it was worth the heartbreak if he denied her.
". . . and so naturally we couldn't have that. Of the people, for the people . . ." His sentence was cut short by her lips crashing to his. The half-empty whisky bottle discarded to the side, completely forgotten about.
His hands stayed suspended in the air and his breath caught in his throat. He'd wanted this; he'd always wanted this. He placed his hands on her shoulders and regrettably pushed her away. He looked in her eyes; she looked so broken by his action.
"Alexia," He paused. "Is this what you want? This isn't the whisky talking? Please tell me this is you." His heart lifted when he saw the large smile cross her face; relief, she was feeling relief.
"Yes, John. I've been wanting this. At first I just thought it would pass and that I was grieving but it didn't all these months. Every day I've fallen more and more for you. You're the breath of fresh air I needed and I'm tired of hiding it. The whisky just gave me the courage to finally admit it and come to my senses." She leaned back. "That is, unless you don't want this."
Without missing a beat he pulled her back in for a kiss, his rough lips mashing perfectly with hers. "God, Lex, you're the best thing I got. I knew I wanted you the day you walked through those Goodneighbor gates." She leaned back in, her hands finding their way to lapels of his coat. She hoisted herself onto his lap, straddling him. Hancock groaned into their kiss. His hands found their way to her ass. He'd only dreamed of this moment and it was even better than he imagined. It was supple but firm and he couldn't stop groping it. He gripped roughly and guided her hips down against him, she buckled instinctively. She threw her head back with a moan and grinded down against him. His lips went straight to her neck. He smiled with satisfaction when her breathing grew heavy and her hands found their way to the buttons of his shirt. Dear Atom, did he want this but was she sure she did. He caught her hands and looked into her dark eyes. All sadness was forgotten and they were now filled with passion.
"Lex are you sure you want this ugly mug? Do you want this chem driven, sex crazed ghoul?" His eyes pleaded her. "I can't change my appearance. I really wish I could, doll, but I can't. You deserve better. I don't want you to waste your time on me." Her hands dropped from his shirt and his chest grew heavy. The whisky must be wearing off, this was too good to be true.
To his astonishment she dove into her bag and pulled out a bottle of Rad-X, rushing to remove the top she took three tablets and carelessly threw the rest back. Taking his head in her hands she spoke to him.
"John, I swear to God if you don't take this vault suit off of me and show me you care the way you say you do I will fucking leave in this rad-storm." She didn't need to say anymore his lips were back on hers and he was trying to find the zipper of her suit. Her breathing hitched when his rough hands drifted over her mid-section and up to her full breast. When he trailed kisses along her jaw line she swiftly undid the buttons on his shirt exposing the rough flesh beneath it. She felt him tense as her delicate fingers trailed this indentions of his skin.
"It's okay, John. I like the way it feels." She reassured him and shrugged out of her vault suit, discarding it on the flood behind them. Her body was covered by only a red bra and a thin pair of matching panties. The last remaining lingerie she had from before the war. Nate had never seen these. She smirked to herself, these were meant for Hancock.
Hancock swallowed audibly, "Is this what women wore before the bomb because, this," he tugged at the fabric to make his point, "this is nice." Alexia tosses her head back with a hearty laugh.
"Trust me, you'll like it better on the floor." John wasted no time unhooking the red garment. His hands moved up to her now exposed breast and cupped them firmly. He moved his thumbs over her already erect, nipples. She settled her hips move firmly against Hancock's growing bulge. His grip on her tightened. She smirked and swiftly untied the knot in John's belt. Alexia moved her mouth to his ear.
"John, please. Don't make me wait any more. I've wanted this for too long." She breathed, tugging at his pants for emphasis. Her pleading awoke something feral in him. Within a moment she was under him and his clothes lay discarded. He pressed his length against her with a growl. He returned his lips to hers as he felt her hands descend to his manhood. He mumbled a profanity and pressed himself into her hand. Her smooth skin felt like heaven against the roughness of his. She let her hands wander curiously as she their tongues danced. The ridges and waves of his shaft felt interesting in her palm, she guided him to her entrance. He pushed softly at her wet folds. She was wet and wanting and he was there to satisfy. Hancock slowly thrust into her.
"John!" She cried out as he sheathed himself to the hilt. The sheer arousal of Alexia, the passion, the closeness, everything was becoming too much for him but this wasn't some quick fuck. This was more than that, this was different.
"That feel good, love." He spoke huskily into her ear. She responded with a moan as she thrusted her hips up into him. "Mhmmm, do that again, doll." This time she did so with more force and Hancock timed his movements with hers. Together they built up their climax. Alexia was screaming his name as he dove deeper into her with every thrust. Their speed was climbing and so was the ecstasy of their romance. Her nails dug into his back and she clinched around him and he felt her begin to ride out her orgasm. The tightness of her and the way she said his name drove him to his high. He plunged rougher and deeper into her as he felt himself spill into her.
They laid there panting in a tangled heap. Alexia lay her head on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. Her fingers absent mindedly traced the scars that adorned his skin. She was smiling, everything turned out just right.
"Ya know, love, if this turns out to be one huge Jet flashback I'm going to be pissed." She looked up at him and held up her middle finger.
"I fucking swear." He sealed it with a kiss.