Chemical Salvation
Chapter 1
Bright black eyes shifted in the direction of not too distant gunfight. The battle cries of the super mutants that had taken up residents a couple blocks away could be heard clearly in the early evening air. John Hancock tapped out his spent cigarette and made his way to the roof top closer to the fighting. From there he could get eyes on the mutant camp. He'd done so before, he'd been keeping a close eye on the mutants since they'd settled in while he figured out what to do about them.
Hancock took a knee and hefted the binoculars, bringing the mutant camp into focus. Through the holes in the walls he could see a mutant firing rapidly deeper into the ruble. A small streak of dark leather and bright fiery hair darted in low, twin pistols barking. Blood bloomed in a path up the mutant's chest and it fell over backwards. The girl, who couldn't have been more than 25, perched on its bloody chest and twisted back the way she'd come in time to take a graceful leap sideways, rolling to avoid a sledgehammer from another mutie.
The girl glanced toward the flash of gunfire to her right, pulled a grenade and lobed beyond Hancock's view with one hand while swiftly yanking a blade with brass knuckles attached from her belt with the other.
Hancock watched her fight, wondering if maybe he'd gotten a bad batch of jet. Or a good batch depending on who you looked at it. The girl in his binoculars was both graceful and deadly. The way she wielded the blades in her hands, twisting and tumbling in flashes of fiery hair and blood soaked steel. It was like watching a prewar ballerina or perhaps an acrobat.
Hancock knew there were five muties in that camp, it was one of the reasons he hadn't gone over with Fahrenheit to clean them out yet. He wanted to scope out a couple extra gun hands first.
The woman had killed four of them already when the fifth charged into view. It was the master of the camp in full armor. It was armed with a mini gun but it was already panting and bleeding heavily. She must have managed to put a few bullets into it before she'd abandoned her pistols. Its aim was off and she moved in low, rushing forward.
The girl flicked her wrist, catching one knife by the back of the blade and threw it with a precision that shrieked years of practice. The steel embedded itself into the mutant's thick shoulder. It howled in rage and pain but the girl hadn't even paused. She leapt forward, grabbed a fist full of his cage armor and hoisted herself high enough to plunge her remaining dagger into the side of its unprotected neck.
The mutant dropped its weapon and grabbed at her, hurling her off of it's body but it was too late. The big green beast fell dead before she hit the ground.
She rolled as she hit the pavement, springing to her feet with her knife ready in one hand while her other hand was held out in front of her as an aiming device.
Hancock watched her sweep the area, ready to launch into the next attack but there weren't any mutants left. His withered lips pulled down in a frown around the remains of her cigarette as he watched her shoulders droop. She was too far away to see the look on her face but her body language radiated disappointment.
All the fire and the passion drained out of her small frame and she collected her scattered weapons. He watched her wipe the mutant blood staining her blades on her pants before replacing them in the X sheaths on her back.
He tracked her with his binoculars until she move away, disappearing in the ruins of Boston like a ghost.
"Go sister," he muttered under his breath, putting down the binoculars. He relit his forgotten cigarette and watched a few more minutes but woman didn't reappear.
Ginger gazed into her vodka rocks. Since it was hard to come by ice in the wasteland it was mostly vodka but the robotic bartender had managed one lone misshapen cube in her glass.
She had stumbled onto the settle of Goodneighbor a couple of hours after she'd come across a nest of super mutants. Entering the town even in the early evening it had been dark, seedy and with an overall aura of danger. Shapes moved in the black alleyways between the buildings and the hair on the back of her neck had prickled under the mistrustful eyes of the town's residences.
It was her kinda town.
She'd spent an hour selling off the heavy salvage she gathered and a pleasant ghoul named Daisy had let her scrub up in a cracked sink.
Ginger hadn't bother changing out of her bloodstained armor but nobody in Goodneighbor gave her a second glance even bloodstained.
Good.
That had been the point of leaving New Vegas. She was tired of being recognized. Tired of being looked at like a hero. Ginger was looking for retirement from the business of heroing. A big part of that was finding a place nobody knew her. A place nobody would recognize her until she finally found something or someone strong enough to kill her.
Boston had its dangers along with its fair share of problems. Enough so that when she'd done a little asking of the merchants here nobody seemed to have heard of the NCR and Nobody seemed to be getting news from the Capital Wasteland over a few hear say rumors about the Enclave being gone and the water being better.
That was perfect.
Ginger put her drink to her lips, letting the burn ease her into a state of almost relaxation. She'd found a stool at the bar and had been sitting there for twenty whole minutes without anyone whispering and pointing her out to their friends. Nobody had come up to her to thank her or to ask her to solve their own troubles.
That was also perfect.
Ginger sipped again and a male voice behind her laughed loudly.
"Holy Sh- ah Crap. If it ain't The Lone Wanderer!"
Ginger choked on her drink, spluttering. She set her glass down sharply, flicking spilt alcohol off her fingers and a strong hand clapped her on the back.
"Sorry! Didn't mean to sneak up on ya' Ginger."
She twisted on her stool to see who it was who'd shattered her anonymity. A young man was grinning at her with bright eyes and wearing army green. He looked vaguely familiar in the smoky bar but she couldn't place him in the low light. He knew she didn't recognize him and he grinned wider, eyes twinkling with both mischief and alcohol. It was the mischief that sparked the memory.
"Mayor MacCready?" She asked in disbelief. Of all the people she could have run into. Of all the bars she could have wandered into…and she walked into his.
"It's Just MacCready now. What brings you all the way to Boston? Last we heard you'd run off to Vegas after…" his voice dropped and looked apologetic. "After…well you know."
Ginger nodded, doing her best to ignore the fresh stab of pain through her chest. "After Lou." She supplied. His name still cut her every time she said it but she could handle it better now.
MacCready let the rest of his grin fade, offering his sympathy without saying it. "We heard about it in Little Lamp Light. Not sure what it's worth to you but we held a memorial service for him. It was Bumbles idea. She made a little doll of him and we said some words and tossed it into the pool."
Ginger chuckled, touched by the kids thought. "Burial at sea. Nice. I think Lou would have like that." MacCready nodded, sparing a glance at the empty stool next to her but to prideful to ask. Ginger saw the look and nodded at it like she didn't care one way or the other. "Why don't to join me, if you're not in too much of a rush."
MacCready made a show of looking around, like he might have something better to do, before he took the offered stool. "I guess I have time."
Ginger shook her head slightly, a small smile playing at the corner of her lips. He was much less of an ass now that he wasn't twelve and starring down at her from the gates of his city.
"So what are you doing here?" he asked.
"Just wandering, but I'm here in the Third Rail looking to… I don't really know." She shot him a smirk and he took notice of how sad her eyes were even in the low light of the bar. "Mostly I guess I'm just looking for a distraction."
MacCready nodded, he knew all about the need for distraction. He looked her over, noting the dark circles under her eyes. There were bruises peeking out from under her armor and the shift of something dangerous behind her irises as she belted back the rest of her drink. She was also thinner then she'd been, not enough to be scrawny but her cheek bone were a little more pronounced then they should have been.
"Charlie, two more. Put them on my tab." He said to the robotic barkeep. The English bot muttered something about MacCready paying his tab but got the drinks anyway.
Ginger cocked an eyebrow at him. "Buyin' my Drinks MacCready? You wouldn't be trying to get me drunk would you?"
He laughed, "No. You were like a favorite Aunt to all of us back in Little Lamp Light. Although a good tumbling from someone else might be good for you. When was the last time you slept more than a couple hours?"
Ginger shook her head. "It has been awhile. I have a partner back in Vegas that I occasionally hook up with but he's not a love interest by any means. It's more of a friends with benefits deal. It works well for the both of us. After Lou… I just don't have the energy to find another romance. That part of me is just…gone. That's one of the reasons I had to get out of Vegas." She growled bitterly, depression tainting the smirk on her face. The exhaustion in her voice got heavier as she let her walls slip down in his presence. "I did it again Mac. I made myself a hero and men were lining up trying to claim me. When it wasn't that people were clamoring for me to go on suicide runs or some other bullshit that was really none of my concern. I couldn't get a moment's peace. Being a symbol of hope is thankless and exhausting."
"Well," MacCready drawled, understanding both what she was saying and the anger stewing just under her skin. "I think I can help with your distraction tonight. And don't worry, your army-of-one secrets are safe with me."
"Mac, don't go out of your way for me." She told him tiredly. "I just want to fade into the background for awhile."
"You and Lou cleaned out Murder Pass." He told her firmly. "You didn't have too, you already had the password to get into the vault but you did it anyway. You did it for us and as Mayor at the time I figured I owe you. I pay my debts Ginger." MacCready got up quickly while he talked. "I got someone you're gonna like and he comes with all kinds of distractions from any past that might be chasin' ya. No strings attached."
"Mac wait-" she tried to stop him but he was already gone, lost in the increasing crowd of the smoke filled room. Ginger sighed and kept drinking. The boy meant well but she really wasn't looking for a new man or even any new friends however temporary they might be. She could slip out but at the same time she really didn't want to hurt Mac's feelings so instead she ordered a shot.
When Charlie set it down she smirked. "Put it on MacCready's tab."
Charlie chuckled, "With pleasure miss."
MacCready's boots hit the top step just as Hancock strolled in from the street, red coat fluttering around his boots. "Hey, just the ghoul I was lookin' for."
"Oh yeah?" Hancock grinned, cigarette clamped between his teeth and riding a pleasant wave of jet.
"Yeah, an old friend just blew in." he told the Mayor. "Knew her from the Capitol Wasteland, I owe her a good one and she's in town looking to forget her troubles. Thought we could work out a deal."
Hancock's grin widened and he flicked ash to the floor. "What kinda deal we talkin' kid?"
"Thought you might be interested in hooking her up with a little chemical distraction. Whatever she wants and I'll pay you back later. I owe her that much from years ago."
"Hey I feel yeah brother, where is this friend. She gonna be cool getting' high with a ghoul?" Hancock asked, happy to help MacCready's friend in need as they descended into the smoky bar. Magnolia was singing her heart out. I'm the one you've been looking for was a crowd favorite. Sometimes in his head he liked to change "Girl" to "Ghoul" in his head. In fact he'd used that a couple times to pick up a pretty face to warm his bed at night.
"Ginger hasn't got anything against ghouls. She's at the bar." MacCready lead the way and Hancock paused is surprise when his eyes landed on the woman MacCready made a beeline for. Fiery hair glinted in the light as she turned and Hancock grinned at the woman he'd been watching earlier. "Hey there Sister. Welcome to Goodneighbor."
Ginger accepted his hand, shaking it firmly. The ghoul Mac had brought her seemed to be good natured with a wicked spark in his black eye. He was handsome in a way only ghouls could be and she had to admit he pulled off the red colonial coat and tricon hat well.
"MacCready tells me you're lookin' for a party. I'm the ghoul you're lookin' for." he grinned, relaxed with one hand in his pocket and the other holding his cigarette. "As Mayor of Goodneighbor it's my civic duty to offer my professional services."
Ginger laughed softly as Hancock claimed the empty stool next to her. "And how do you intend to service me?" she asked, playing along for MacCready's sake. She'd be social for long enough that nobody felt snubbed and then she'd slink off to find a hidey hole to grab a little sleep.
Hancock winked and pulled a box from an inner pocket, flipping open the lid and offering it to her. "Let's start off easy and see where the night takes us. Mentat?"
Ginger took two tablets and popped them into her mouth. She did like the ghoul in spite of her blackened mood, she liked Goodneighbor too. Maybe she'd stick around for a day or two. Maybe not. It depended on a lot of things.
MacCready tipped his hat, his eyes already on a blonde on the other side of the bar. "Looks like you're up to bat Hancock."
"Yeah," he smirked at the younger man. "Don't wait up MacCready."
Ginger washed the mentats down with her vodka and held up two fingers to Charlie. The robot topped her off and poured a fresh glass for the Mayor. Ginger slid the new glass in his direction. "Drink up. You don't want to fall behind."
Hancock lifted his glass in salute to her before he belted back half the glass. "So Sister, you handled yourself pretty well out there in the ruins today. Damned if I wasn't impressed. Thought sure you'd be pummeled when you ditched your guns."
Gingers eyebrows shot up, the mentats made her finger tips tingle and her mind snapped to attention despite the several drinks she'd already consumed. "You must have been a long way off if you saw me fighting and I didn't know you were there."
"I heard the gunshots and saw everything from the rooftops here in town." He told her, pulling a jet inhaler from his pocket and, ever the gentlemen, offering it to her. "Skilled as you are feels like it was lucky you didn't get yourself killed."
Ginger accepted the Jet, shaking the inhaler while she giggled to hide her frustration. "Not so sure I'd call it lucky. I've found," she took a deep lung full of jet, letting her limbs go pleasantly numb before blowing out the vapor. "That I'm damn hard to kill. I feel like I'm near immortal and that I've tested thoroughly."
Hancock let his own hit of jet settle over him along with her words. "Seems like a dangerous lifestyle."
"That's me," she finished her glass. "Risk life and limb to save the people who can't save themselves."
"I knew I like you." He told her, bumping her shoulder with his playfully. "That's what Goodneighbor is all about. Giving a place to the people who don't fit anywhere else. It's a town for the freaks and the outcasts. Everyone's welcome, no judgment. It's of the people, for the people. Ya feel me?"
Ginger smiled pulling a jet inhaler out of her own pocket and offering it to him first. "That sounds kinda magical actually. Wish I'd know about this place six years ago."
Hancock took his hit and smiled. "Six years ago Goodneighbor was a different town. Run by a mob boss that didn't give a damn about the drifters living here."
They ordered more drinks and Hancock told her about how he'd come to wear the clothes of the original John Hancock and how after careful planning he'd organized the people and ended up hanging Vic from his own balcony.
Ginger listened to his story, impressed that he was able to rally from the gutter like he had and she told him that very fact.
Hancock snubbed out his latest smoke and glanced around, realizing the Third Rail was starting to empty out. It must be getting late and the girl next to him carried exhaustion on her face like a second skin. "Where're you sleepin' tonight Sunshine?"
"I don't know, figured I'd find an inn or a dark corner or something after my drink." She told him, "Didn't expect to stay so long."
Hancock leaned close, resting an arm on the bar and pulling a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. "We could move this party back to my place. If not the Hotel Rexford is better than the sidewalk. Tell em I sent you, they'll give you a good deal."
Ginger smiled, feeling very relaxed for the first time in years. She had very rarely partaken in chems before tonight and this was the first time she'd mixed meds. She'd never make a habit out of it but tonight she was glad the heavy weight on her shoulders had lifted as much as it had. "I don't think I'm ready to call it a night just yet. Lead the way handsome."
They left together, Ginger noted on the way out that MacCready was already gone and so was that Blonde he'd been chatting up.
The cool night air cleared her head a little but only a little and she breathed deep. Hancock playfully hooked his arm into hers and she laughed. Hancock decided he liked her laugh and he got the distinct feeling that she didn't let just anybody hear it.
High as kites on a summer breeze and skipping side by side as they made their way to the State House. It reminded her of a time long ago when she and Lucifer had run wild in the wasteland moonlight. Those were memories she pushed away. They'd only kill her good time buzz and she wasn't ready to welcome that all consuming depression back to the front of her mind. Instead she latched on to the feeling of being twenty years old without a care in the world beyond finding out where her father had disappeared too.
Hancock took hold of her hand on the marble steps, leading the way into the Statehouse building and up to his private living area. Fahrenheit was gone and he closed the doors behind them. Ginger dropped her pack and collapsed onto his thread bare couch. Hancock got a fresh bottle from his safe and brought two glasses before settling in next to her.
"How long you been in the Commonwealth?" he asked, pouring his guest a glass.
"Not long, a week or two." she told him, pulling the band the kept her braid in place loose and letting her long hair tumble free. "I lose track out in the wasteland sometimes. I plan on going into the ruins to explore when I'm done here."
Hancock nodded, "Ruins are crawling with raiders, mutants, and gunners but they are easy enough to slip by if you don't want to deal with them. The only place in the city you should really steer clear of is the Boston Commons. Got a real monster in there, it's been squatting for years. Nobody come back from the Commons."
Ginger nodded, raising her glass in a toast. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."
Something flashed across her face and he opened his mouth to ask what she was thinking when she grinned suddenly. It was the first honest full on grin he'd seen on the little red head and his pulse skipped up a few beats in tempo. Ginger was a beautiful woman.
"I got something I've been saving." She told him, digging into a side pocket. "I think you're gonna to like it." She found what she was looking for and shook the inhaler in her hand. Hancock's eyes widened.
"Is that?" he asked, watching her inhale deeply, her eyes rolling up in a few moments of bliss before blew out the vapor.
She handed it to him. "Ultra Jet. That's my last one."
Hancock took the last of it, ecstatic to have a guest willing to share such rare goodies. When he opened his eyes Ginger was leaned forward with her elbows on her knees, finishing off her vodka.
Her whole body was tingling pleasantly and gravity had lost a lot of its earthly pull. Hancock tossed the spent inhaler on the coffee table and stood, holding out his hand. "Come with me."
Ginger gave him another honest smile, softer this time as she took his leathery hand and let him pull her to her feet. He led her across the room and pushed open a door. Inside was a large bed made up in blood red sheets. A dozen candles were lit on the dresser for light, making the warm room smell pleasantly like leather and beeswax.
Ginger looked up into his twinkling black eyes and he grinned down at her like the devil himself. "Your choice sister." He purred in her ear. "I want you in my bed tonight…what do you want?"
Gingers tingling skin prickled in the most delightful way where he was touching her shoulders and she smiled softly, slowly pulling the zipper of her leather vest down. "I want to feel alive." She told him in a husky murmured, shrugging off the leather.
Part 2 will be coming soon. :) Let me know what you think so far. I hope I captured both Mac and Hancock.