AN: Thank you everyone who's favourited/followed/reviewed my first chapter. But just a heads up this is going to cycle through the companions POV. I'm uncertain if I'm going to run through absolutely all of them but I'll try. Next up, Deacon =D

Chapter 2

Deacon's Take

In Deacon's mind, people sucked plain and simple.

But when it came to those he thought to be interesting, he latched on to them with nary a doubt.

Without the Railroad's guidance, or even their hospitality, he would have been lost to a world with everyone's lies and would potentially leave him to be tread on by absolutely everybody. Deacon was hard as concrete, but would have been preferred to be have treated like gold.

So, naturally, he would just go along with the lies that he knew and those he could conjure himself, to see where they went. Made the ride around life a lot more fun.

But, he knew all of the intriguing people in the Commonwealth. He knew all about them by just being undercover just to watch them. He knew their quirks, their habits, their secrets...some of them. But it made them even the more fascinating to watch.

It was when it had come to a point when a young woman by the name of Delta, who happened to have popped out of nowhere and joined the Minutemen. He heard the story of her fighting a Deathclaw in Power Armour and survived. It came alongside the small whispers of other riveting stories, yet she was elusive to him until he got a hold of her and made the decision to keep track. Where did she come from? He had to know. Deacon was the cat of curiosity.

So he followed her around, perhaps a small chance to allow to see her for what she was. He was an expert in the stalking but not actually stalking game. Maybe get to know her better. From a perspective. Conversations that he listened to; without her knowing he wasn't just some innocent bystander. She never even noticed that he followed her around a lot. But time passed and he became convinced the woman wasn't a myth after all. Rather a Goddess of War made flesh. Too poetic? Then in generic terms, she was just the woman who could just kick so much ass you could replace caps with everyone's derrieres. What a delightful image.

So, inevitably, it then came the time she found the Railroad all on her own. It was only a matter of time. She was clever and cunning, yet curious and inquisitive. With what knowledge he gained, he aided Des and vouched for Delta...in his own terms of course, to Desdemona who, while she'd always pick up on his tricks, saw his message for what it was. And it was hard to impress Deacon often. He fangirled in his own way as well, especially with the Silver Shroud business that he'd witnessed.

She helped them out with a smile, getting to know the story behind them. A life is as good as any in their line of work. Wasn't easy but it was better to hear better news evolving out of the bad.

Until two months went by without hearing a word.

Deacon understood that she had work with the Minutemen to deal with. That was okay with them. Despite Desdemona having a low opinion of the militia group, they weren't a threat. Hell, Deacon appreciated what she did for them more than Des did. The Railroad could be very narrow minded at times but their purpose was to have the synths best interests at heart. Since, by reasons that were often misunderstood, the rest of the Commonwealth didn't.

In the atmosphere of it all, especially after hearing about the work she did to find her son, it made him think a lot of his own past. It wasn't entirely storybook but rather that of your typical tragedy. Take ofit what you will. Deacon had his own strengths and weaknesses to worry about but it was as of it was Delta covering those weaknesses when ever they worked together and all worries ceased to be. Since bullets being lodged in ones cranium was more of a concern than what ever happened already.

Upon the five month anniversary of Delta's disappearance, Des had exhausted all options. She was reluctant to believe Delta had died, as there was no proof, no word. Just...poof...like a magician that had caught her with his tricks. Damn those death bunnies. But Deac's agreed with her, as she'd gotten to see the vault-dweller as Deacon did within the tasks she had directed to do without a lot of complaint. Questions of course, but otherwise a blessed competent like Deacon himself.

However in the failure of their own resources to even find so much as a single mention of her location, she had to admit to using the best...aka Nick Valentine to help find their precious Agent Whisper and had promptly sent him to the Synth Detective to see if he could have any clue.

Nick knew of Delta, as per previous discussions with Whisper. Nick got all the details he needed from Deacon (once Deacon dropped his act of course). He wasn't keen on asking Nick himself, but it was Des's orders.

PI Dick...uhh Nick at some point after their meeting, sent a message to the Railroad asking for their presence to Vault 111. Deacon knew that was where Delta had emerged from the frozen womb that gave birth to their agent. Not really, but the image was there and Deacon found it impossible to scrub it out of his brain.

He was the first to arrive at the Vault, noting how incredibly creepy it was. He was talking to himself of course. Like he did before he met Whisper.

He did miss the chats they had when they traversed the Commonwealth. She had to put up with all of his crap but at the end of the day, that clean smile made it all worth it. Made him feel like he meant something to someone. So when she left, it left an emptiness entombed within his cold...ish heart.

So now he's amazed he's still around, surrounded by a Synth, a Paladin and a god damned Courser of all people. With Preston's arrival, it started to make a little more sense. It was Deacon's amazing charm after all that prevented bullets being put into each other's heads. Gotta still be more attentive to ones cranium after all. Still, the mood was charged and one wrong move could release those tiny little pellets in no time flat. Surely the jokes could have lightened it a bit but he was currently dealing with the most assholy people on the planet.

"I totally called it." Deacon stated out loud.

Ignoring Deacon's manner, Nick continued on.

"We're not going to jump to conclusions on Delta's reasons for joining your respective organisations. I thought it would have been a great idea to get the people who knew her most to get their sides of the story as to the awareness of her vanishing. First question. Who was the last to see her?"

He turned to Preston first. Of course. The Minuteman. The idealistic cowboy. The one throwing all the orders.

"Last time I saw her was...what five months ago? Doing her regular duties as usual." Preston said to start off with.

Nick nodded, then turned to Deacon.

"What about the Railroad?" The synth asked.

Deacon shrugged. Delta must have planned this. It's far too coincidental. Or not. Who knew?

"Bout the same. We knew of her activities with the Minutemen. They would keep her occupied between jobs, so we never really asked her to do anything unless we really needed her help."

Preston looked at Deacon, who looked back from the corner of his eye. The man irked him a bit. He was just...so normal. He was like your average joe. So boring. Yet, it worked for him. He'd done his homework on Preston beforehand. He wasn't a bad person. Just. He wasn't so sure about him. Whisper worked with him and was his General. In fact Preston made her his General. Seemed pretty weird to promote someone to go above your status. Yet, Preston made her go on all these missions for the sake of the settlement's survival yet never did anything himself and just huddled up in Sanctuary like a coward. It made Deacon feel like it was a type of laziness and Delta was just being his yes-man in disguise.

"Yeah so ordering her to go to place to place while you sit in your comfy chair, sipping whisky all day long is your version of help. You had a real nice, tight and organised arrangement."

Preston's face twisted to anger. It was a nice reaction out of the boring man.

"She did so with the will of the Minutemen. She would not hesitate to help those people. That was her job." Preston corrected.

Deacon could only snort. The truth hurt more than the lies.

"Yeah. Your own commanding officer doing all the field work seems like it's hip thing to do these days. Except when her own subordinates sit around do nothing all day. Perfect life more like it."

Nick groaned. He had to know this was going to happen.

"We could argue who's the lazier one another time...but not now. Paladin, what about you?"

The Paladin seemed to simply observe the situation before him, refusing to make much comment.

"Like these two. Five months. After three months into it we also heard nothing. We got it that she had work to do and you two seem to have explanations as to why we hardly saw her. She'd usually report in once in a while, come in, work for my Scribe or my Knight then move on. I'd come with her on the occasional purge or retrieval. We hardly talked all that much but that being said, I confided in her, as well as unprofessional as that may seem, I felt comfortable with her. I ended up spilling more beans to her than she did to me. It certainly told more about her character than anything she would ever admit to. Until I heard about her son. If that helps with your investigation."

Deacon couldn't agree more. He might not like Danse due to his aggressive nature and his bored-in-prejudice against synths, but he was right about the way Delta was. Just that special vibe she had, the way she carefully worded her sentences that make her voice sound like silk in their ears.

Nick heard the same story three times now from three different people. He then turned to Sicks...or X6-88.

"Let me guess same scenario? Five months...smooth talker, great help in your ideals?" Nick asked the Courser with a bit more sting and a trickle of sarcasm than the others. It was obvious that nobody in the room were fans.

"I do not have permission to reveal a lot of information, but yes. Four is when we decided to act but it has now been five months. The Institute had discussed this anomaly, so we had search parties of a confidential nature. No leads. But records of you, Nick Valentine seemed to be that she had contact with you. Which was why we came to you in the first place." Sicks explained in the most horridly dull tone.

Deacon smirked. If there Synths he didn't like (of the Gen 3 kind) this dude was one of them. The cursed dilemma amongst the safety of the confused and helpless synths. He watched Nick absorb everything and pondered for the moment.

"Fascinating. So she stopped contact with everyone. I wasn't even aware she even had a pattern in her endeavours. Delta was extremely busy. I can see why it's taken a while to find her son."

Deacon looked at X6 grimly. That Courser was hiding something. His face may have been blank, but the Institute definitely had the know how on the son.

"I'm sure Sicks knows all about it, don't you? After all you did kidnap her son."

All eyes were to X6. Whether or not he'd spill or prefer to kill everyone right here and now. Deacon would suspect the later. Coursers were extremely dangerous and well developed and trained. He wouldn't want to risk his own death in all of this. But if he'd gladly take the fall if it meant Delta's safety. But again, the truth held more impact. The greatest assumptions about the Institute came up more often than not. Deacon knew better.

Deacon turned his gaze at Danse. Never had he seen a man so incredibly angry before. Besides himself on the occasion. The Coursers existence was an affront to him. He imagined the hatred running through his veins right now. The Brotherhood were trained to hate synths, alongside anything else that wasn't human, or anything that wasn't brotherhood material for that matter. The irony for that which beheld the attitudes and the appearance of a robot was not lost to him.

But X6 didn't seem to even budge at the notion, for all the lack of emotional responses he'd given out previously. Would he open his mouth or would he open fire?

"I was instructed to only give relevant data." X6 stated.

"All I can say that was she found her son. Her expectations were...described as surprised."

The room went silent.