After wandering around for a bit, I began to slow while Nick and Piper continuing to laugh and chat in front of me. Finally, I stopped. Nick and Piper noticed my absence, stopped, then turned back.
"Vaultie?" Piper asked. I couldn't look up.
"Is something wrong, slugger?" Nick asked. I balled my hands into fists and clenched my teeth.
"I... I have to know something." I informed them, still not meeting their gaze. "Am I just slowing you guys down?" My facade cracked as I rubbed my arms with my sweaty hands; not because it was cold, it was a balmy, radioactive day; I was rubbing my arms because of my nerves.
"You slow us down?" Nick was almost laughing as he repeated the question. "No way!"
"What ever gave you that idea, pumpkin?" Piper inched closer, reaching out. But I took another step back, afraid of what would happen next.
"If I'm not slowing you down, then..." I finally looked up and met Piper's deep blue and Nick's electric yellow gazes. "Why do you follow me? Why don't you leave? I'm just another no good doer in the Commonwealth! Literally hundreds of people die everyday out here, either from others or their own stupidity. I'm no better than they are! What's another meaningless death?" I was rambling in a blind, uncertain panic. "I'm a murderer just like everyone else." I whispered as tears rolled down my cheeks.
Nick and Piper rushed forward and wrapped their arms around me and held on as my ramblings turned into sobs. "I'm just another wanderer looking for a place to call home, but my home has been ripped away from me so many times. Once when the bomb dropped, once with the cryo freeze, once with my husband's death, then Shaun being kidnapped and now Shaun's with the Institute!" There was a pause. I could hear not too far gunfire and I knew it'd be yet another battle; the fifth one that day. I sniffed loudly before continuing. "You guys are my family now. I'm terrified of losing you too!" I clung to them, but they lost their balances and we all dropped to the ground. "I need you two, probably far more than you need me..." I muttered in defeat, my fears finally spoken and manifested into existence.
"Bull." Nick stated in one, low, grunt. I glanced up through my tears. He was using the same threatening voice he saved for especially dirty scumbags, like Kellogg; but his eyes were hurt. "If it wasn't for you, I probably would have been unplugged by that two bit gang you first saved me from a long time ago. Plus, you helped me track down and kill the bastard that took my-Nick's fiancee away from me-him." He stumbled over his words, but their meaning still touched me.
"Yeah and I'd still be making and selling papers in Diamond City. I'm finally getting to live the stories I've been writing about! Do you know how amazing that feels?" Piper clutched both hands to her chest.
I chuckled wetly. "I think I might have an idea."
I recalled all the times my own husband had come home from the war, bragging about his latest victories. He showed me how the latest in military technology worked, while Cogsworth warned me about firing a weapon while pregnant, but doing it anyways just to felt the power from the weapon. Cogsworth still scolding as we kissed. But now that I was out on this constant battlefield, those memories were nothing compared to the real deal; for better and for worse. Piper intruded my thoughts.
"So, can we get going?" She stood up then took the pipe pistol from her belt, pretend aiming while an evil smile spread wider and wider on her face. "I want to know what Super Mutant blood looks like."
"About the same as every other scumbag's." Nick informed her as he rose then offered his hand to me. I took it, smiling up at him in gratitude.
"Yeah, but like, does it explode all over you because there's just so much of it?" Piper wondered. I had a sudden, amusing image in my minds-eye of Piper coated in red, sticky blood, cheering for more as mutants chased after her, only to be killed by Nick and me. I decided to keep this imagining to myself as I looked around.
"Well..." I drawled, taking out my own weapon of choice: a sniper rifle of my own design I lovingly called 'Lucy Fuier'. "There's only one way to find out a Super Mutant's blood count, now isn't there?" I then charged off in the direction of the gunfire that was still ringing in my ears. I soon heard Nick and Piper's footfalls behind me, ready to face our next battle in this endless war. Deep down I knew, no more what happened to the three of us, even if we all died in this next battle! I knew I could always find family, even in the most... Um... Unlikely of places.