Anne finished changing, and the two of them walked out of the room. People didn't seem to notice the two walking by, there was too much work to do to stop and talk to the general. Eventually, they reached the middle of the yard, Preston was sitting at a desk but pulled himself up quickly as soon as he noticed Anne.
"General! How are you feeling? Are you feeling okay?" Prestons normal robotic voice had a worry in it. MacCready couldn't honestly blame the guy, seeing someone you care about skull get cracked open is never something you can stay calm about.
"I'm fine Preston, MacCready took care of me last night," he looked at the ground, feeling his ears burn and a smile tug on his face, "And thankfully I'm much better. That Doctor you have, Jan, worked wonders."
"I'm glad your better General. You have my thanks MacCready." he glanced up at the sound of his name and gave a curt nod, trying to keep the snicker behind his lips.
You have no idea what you just thanked me for.
"What can I help with?" Anne asked, and Preston looked around. MacCready didn't know why it was taking so long; this whole place needed help, everywhere.
"We've got to run some power to the transmitter." he pointed to the large radio tower. Anne nodded, and before more could be said they were walking over.
"You ever done this before?" MacCready asked, and Anne glanced up at him, shaking her head.
"Kinda? I mean I've set up the beacons before," she looked at the panel, "once I power this up, we'll be ready to broadcast." Anne turned around, making her way towards the workbench. MacCready rolled his eyes.
"I could've told you that," he called and Anne waved her hand, brushing away his words.
The next hour was him and Anne putting together sheets of metal, wiring things together. A few times he burned his fingers which caused Anne to laugh, until she burned her own fingers. Eventually they had a large generator up and running. He never was much of a builder, but he was pretty damn proud.
As soon as it was plugged in music with a lot of violins and no words started playing through the castle. Anne smiled to herself.
"Perfect."
Preston walked over, a large grin on his face, "Wow! We really did it! I've been watching the Minutemen fall to pieces for so long I just…" he looked around the castle almost as if in awe and then back at Anne, "this is really something." Preston started walking away, Anne followed, which meant MacCready did as well.
"Now we've got to pay off what we started. Bring the whole commonwealth together, and make it last this time." The Prestons voice was earnest, he truly believed in what he was saying, even if it was foolish. Anne followed silently, just watching him.
That's a lot easier said than done.
"So you know...back to business. But with radio Freedom up and running, we can broadcast alerts to you anywhere, anytime." Anne nodded, looking down at her pip-boy and checking the radio-stations.
"Good, I'll try to keep tuned in. I think we're gonna head back though, my heads still hurting, and I got some stuff to do with tracking my son. You hold down the fort alright Preston?" Anne hadn't even finished the sentence and Preston was nodding. Soon MacCready and Anne picked up their rations and were heading back into the commonwealth.
"So going to tune to your new radio station?" MacCready asked and Anne looked at him, a slight smile on her face.
"Nah, I'm keeping it on Diamond city...but I'll check it every hour." and MacCready laughed. Good, Travis may be annoying but he preferred that over the music the minuteman station was playing.
Three hours of walking went by, with a few run-ins with raiders, bugs, and some dogs. It was mostly quiet though, with Super-mutants shouting in the distance. Anne at some point stopped though and was looking at her pipboy for a while.
"Why we stopping?" he asked, watching Anne chew on her lip.
Anne glanced up at him, then back down, "We have to make a stop at the C.I.T. ruins, just across that bridge. Theirs a courser there, and if we can kill him and get his chip, I can get in the institute." Anne pointed at a bridge, across was a large building. None of the words Anne was saying sounded easy, or promising.
"What's a courser?" He scanned his eyes over the building, not seeing any movement.
"They hunt down run-away synths apparently. They can teleport directly to the institute, and according to that guy I found in the wastes, Virgil, if we can get that we could make a teleporter." all the words that had just come out of Anne's mouth made MacCreadys head hurt.
Run-away synths? Teleport?
"What?" was the only word he could muster to express his confusion.
Anne sighed, "We just have to kill the thing and get a piece from it. They teleport too here, so we should be able to find one." Anne said looking at the ruins again. MacCready could already tell there was no telling her no.
"How dangerous is this?" MacCready asked, trying to keep the defensiveness out of his voice, and failing. Anne had nearly died yesterday, and here she was running back into danger.
"I don't know. But this gets me one step closer to my son," Anne took his hand in her own, "Please Robert." he felt his heart melt.
He let out a groan, rubbing his face with his free hand, "Fine. But be careful, please. I can take point. I don't want to go through yesterday again." He looked down at her, remembering seeing her get slammed into the wall.
A sly smile crossed Anne's face, "Well, I thought it was good!" Anne said letting go of his hand and running towards the bridge. He looked at her blinking trying to figure out what she meant.
You thought getting nearly killed was...oh wait.
"Hey!" He chased after the laughing woman, who was now making her way down to the water. They hoped over some cars, before making their way to the building. Anne paused for a moment, her eyes scanned over windows. MacCready watched her face, noticing nervousness flash past her eyes. She was looking at another step closer to her son, but this was a big step.
"We could come back," he said and Anne looked at him.
"You just want to get back sooner," Anne said, making her way into the building. He hated when she deflected his ideas with sarcasm, but that was something to bring up later, not now.
"Of course I do." He chuckled following behind her, with his rifle in hand. He noticed the music stopped, and instead a low beep was emitting from the pip-boy.
"What is that?" he asked, and Anne glanced back at him.
"It's on the same frequency as the courser to track it. Make this easier." Anne started making her way around the building, her pip-boy beeping. The beeps slowly sped up, but just slightly. They were creeping their way around windows, MacCready now hearing the sound of gunfire from inside it. He was grateful they weren't in there.
They came across a tv, with a two barrels stack on each other, "Modern art." Anne mumbled and MacCready looked at her.
"What?"
"Nothing." She said before making her way past him towards a large wooden gate. Someone had set this up to keep people out, probably people like Anne and himself.
"I'm taking point," he said as he was placed himself in front of her. He heard Anne let out an annoyed sigh.
"Your paranoid." She murmured and he rolled his eyes, and before he could say a witty comeback a raider was walking by ahead of them. He heard them both raise their rifles but he lowered his hand, he waited until the raider stopped moving and he nodded. Anne fired, and it was almost silent as the man's head exploded. Not enough though, as raiders started shouting. The two were running forward, Anne quickly took out a turret, and MacCready was in a fire-fight with another raider.
It didn't take long, but he took a hit too his arm, letting out a yell and making his arm fall too his side. As he raised his rifle too shoot again before feeling something slam into his head. He fell backwards, grunting before looking up at the raider who was pointing a shotgun at his head. His rifle was just out of reach.
"You stupid son of a bit-" the raiders head exploded and he fell backward. MacCready took a moment before Anne ran up, a stimpak already in her hand.
"Thanks." he managed to get the words out as Anne inserted the stimpak. She glanced up at him, smirking slightly.
"We're partners." She said before pulling the stimpak out. They pulled themselves off the ground and looked around. The beeping had gotten faster.
"We're heading the right way," Anne said, making her way forward. They hopped a fence, landing on a road and kept moving forward until a large building appeared. It was almost completely intact, unlike the other buildings in the area.
"I'll bet you ten caps, that's where he is," MacCready said and Anne rolled her eyes.
"I'll lose that bet." She said as they walked up to the doors, which as the pip-boy was beeping faster then MacCready could process Anne switched back to the radio.
"Come on." She said, and they walked in.