"Who is this child? What happened?"
Daniel climbed the three rickety stairs that led into Bunker Hill's infirmary shack, his heavy boots thudding on the plywood floor beneath his heavy weight.
The shanty looked to be built of splintering, centuries old wood strewn together with rusty nails and duct tape. A disturbingly ugly amalgamation of yet more splintering wood, rusted sheet metal and what used to be a good-looking blue bedsheet made up the meager roof that barely kept rain away from the Doctor's well-stocked infirmary.
Dan moved toward a nearby gurney and lay the thirteen-year-old upon it as gently as his thickly-muscled bulk would allow and wiped a sheen of sweat from his brow.
"Me and Curie found the kid and his little sis two miles away scavenging. We talked and then the big guy took a tumble." Dan answered.
"My preliminary diagnosis is severe malnutrition, Doctor Kay." Curie advised.
Bunker Hill's sole medical practitioner raised Ezra's shirt displaying the unhealthy lack of muscle development among the boy's torso as well as his protruding ribs.
"Boy sure hasn't been eating his Wheaties, for sure." Kay said gruffly.
"It's all my fault!" Syble whined from behind Dan and Curie.
All three turned to look at the small girl.
"He was feeding me and he barely ate anything at all. I tried to make him eat but he wouldn't. He just told me I needed food more than he did."
Tears filled her eyes as she blamed herself. Her own darkened mind whispered to her that she deserved to be where Ezra was. Her twisted thoughts told her that she was to blame.
If I were never born, then maybe he would be safe. If he didn't have to feed me then he would be awake right now. Syble thought grimly.
"A girl's gotta eat." Dan said, "It isn't your fault."
Syble turned her head away.
"If I wasn't…" she breathed.
"No need for any of that now." Dan said smiling his most reassuring smile at the girl.
He knelt before her and touched her chin, a silent gesture for her to look up at him.
"I heard that. It's a huge load of mole rat scat."
Syble lowered her eyebrows and scowled.
"Bad jokes aside I'm willing to bet you argue sometimes but the boy sure loves you."
"You don't know anything about us!" Syble shot back.
"No, little girl, I sure don't," Dan admitted with a chuckle, "But I'd sure like to. Stick around a while and see if you don't come around. Hmm?"
"Lovely," Kay deadpanned as she snapped a pair of gloves onto her hands,
"Curie, I need your injectors. And I'll need something from you Dan as well, so get your butt over here."
Kay swore as she prepped a tiny dose of Buffout in a beaker.
"Of course, Doctor Kay, I am happy to be of assistance." Curie spoke, her French accent lilting.
Curie floated toward Doctor Kay and hovered before her, offering up one of her four segmented metal arms. Out popped a sterile syringe, still wrapped tight in its protective plastic packaging.
Kay ripped the plastic away from the syringe and discarded the plastic protective covering from the sharp needle. Kay poured the diluted Buffout into the syringe and flicked the utensil with her fingernail assuring there were no bubbles to be found in the liquid inside.
"Alright, Curie inject him please." Kay announced.
She turned to Daniel as his robotic companion gently pressed the needle into Ezra's skin.
"Daniel, I need you to make a trip. Take the shortest route to Diamond City. Find Doctor Sun and tell him I need an IV bag. He should have several."
Kay began writing on a small piece of paper as she spoke with the pen's cap between her lips.
"What I will need is an infusion of water, electrolytes and nutrients. I don't expect you to remember the medical language, so I am writing it down. Give this prescription to Doctor Sun and return here with the I.V. in less than twelve hours. Is that possible?"
"Should take less than ten if I book it. Get the lead out and all that jazz."
"Good. Leave now. Curie and I will watch the girl and make sure the lad is stable until you arrive. If he wakes then we will introduce food and water slowly, but the I.V. is probably the quickest way to rehydrate and nourish him without risk of him getting sick. So, in other words, get going."
Dan grinned wide and clapped the Doctor on the shoulder.
"Adios it is then."
Dan tipped his top hat to the ladies present, winked at Syble who glared at him and made his exit.
The hike to Diamond city was uneventful as Dan knew the alleyways and shortcuts like the back of his hand. He was able to avoid all raider entanglements and although he nearly awakened a sleeping ghoul, he caught himself and crept through the house as silently as he could. He managed to escape that battle which would cost him precious time.
The great green jewel caught his eye after three hours of walking and skulking through Boston's many byways. He approached the great yawning entryway and breathed in the smell of dirt, dogs and watered-down beer.
"Feels like home." He said as he nodded to Security Chief Danny Sullivan on his way up the stairs.
Once inside he paused to take a look around. The view of Dan's favorite ball park turned shanty town never ceased to take his breath away.
The only place that held more memories for him was his own home in Sanctuary Hills. He found himself coming to Diamond city – what he knew as Fenway Park more than two-hundred years before – more than his home at Sanctuary. When he wandered through the town house he once called home he found it impossible to break away from the whispers of his wife and child – one dead and one missing. He was haunted by their ghosts day in and day out.
And then there was Gravy.
Dan's grin disappeared and he closed his eyes and rubbed his temples at the thought of that fanatical, starry eyed dreamer who seemed to know only three phrases.
"That's great news. But I know of another settlement that needs your help."
"That's fantastic news. But I've found a spot that would make for a great new settlement. You know how it is."
"That's wonderful news. But one of our settlements is having a problem with raiders/kidnappings/super mutants."
Preston Garvey – or Gravy as Daniel Sorrows liked to call him - seemed to be able only to tell Dan what level of "good news" a certain completed task represented and to immediately tell him of other one-dimensional settlers and the problems they never could seem to solve themselves.
Dan had told Gravy to go fuck himself after the third repetitive conversation, that he might consider doing whatever it was Gravy wanted later. Much, much, much later. Gravy had whined that this wasn't helping the Minutemen's cause and that there were frightened, useless settlers out there who needed their hands held every time they had to take a shit in the outhouse at night.
Settlers who needed help killing the three radroaches that live in their barn.
Settlers who needed their dicks aimed while they piss in exchange for joining the Minutemen. A consolation prize that Dan could honestly believe would be entirely fruitless. Dan scarcely believed that any of these weak pathetic settlers would ever do anything in return for solving their problems all by his lonesome.
Dan sighed with no small amount of irritation at his thoughts. His weathered brown boots crunched the gravel and dirt beneath his heels as he sauntered past the Publick Occurrences building.
"Hi Blue! Ready for that interview?"
"Piss off, Piper. You and your quirky dialogue." Dan muttered as he skulked his way past her.
"Hmm. Maybe another time then." She answered.
Dan ignored her and made his way to Sun's medical shack. He idly wondered why, if every medical station was either located in a crumbling wooden ruin or outside in a field somewhere, more people didn't just die of dysentery.
Dan gave three sharp raps on one of the metal pillars holding the small infirmary standing. Doctor sun turned sharply with a muttered curse.
Dan perked up and smiled at the Doctor. He slipped the prescription note from his pocket and handed it to the Doctor.
"Kay in Bunker Hill needs that… stuff." Dan said, his voice booming throughout the small room.
"Rehydration… nutrients… one of my I.V.s." Doctor Sun mumbled to himself as he moved toward the back wall and a chest of drawers. Opening the middle drawer Dan was surprised to see a shaft of blue light appear from within.
"How'd you do that?" Dan wondered, shifting from standing on one heavy boot to the other.
"I devised this cryo drawer from technology found in vault 111." Doctor Sun stated before placing the I.V. bag inside a hard metal protective case. Dan nodded to Doctor Sun with a closed lipped smile.
"Ahem. Two-Hundred caps." Sun said humorlessly.
"Oh. Right, I suppose you want me to pay for… Oh my God, look, a deathclaw!" Dan tried, pointing behind Sun in mock terror.
Doctor Sun merely cleared his throat, not believing the obvious lie.
"Two-hundred caps." Sun reiterated, holding his hand aloft.
"Fine." Dan sighed, "Let me count them out for you."
"Much better." Sun stated, "Now leave."
"Mighty fine day to you. Much obliged." Dan said before tipping his top hat and leaving the medical stand.
Dan pushed the thought of grabbing a few drinks at the Dugout Inn from his mind. Shaking his head, he thought of Ezra. He climbed the stairs once again to leave Diamond City behind again.
Syble hung back two paces behind the busily working Curie and Kay as they moved left and right examining Ezra's lanky frame. She held her hands to her mouth as if in fear that any noise she made might cause her big brother's condition to worsen. She held her breath before Kay stood straight once more, removing her gloves and tossing them. She swept her hand through her hair and smiled at Curie.
Curie hovered to where Syble was waiting with bated breath.
"Miss Syble, your brother appears to be in stable condition."
Syble allowed herself to breath deeply for the first time in several hours. Tears fell from her eyes and she fell to her backside, relief washing over her.
"The Buffout has given Ezra strength and a stimpack has sort of jump started his immune system and his breathing and heart rate are normal." Curie reported.
"Is he… is he going to…?" Syble began but did not know how to finish the thought.
"He will survive. We have bought the sole survivor some time. He will pull through and you will see your brother standing in another twenty-four hours."
Syble dried her eyes and managed a smile for the robot.
"Thank you, Curie. And thank you Doctor Kay." Syble managed.
"You are welcome. But you both need to be eating right. I will do what I can to teach you after your brother wakes up." Kay admonished before turning back to helping Ezra.
The tinny crunch of glass upon pavement stopped Daniel in his tracks. He held up an automatic combat rifle and switched the safety off. He patted one of his many coat pockets and felt the precious I.V. bag still in its rightful place.
Daniel crouched and made his way along one of the many brick walls that made up the majority of buildings among Boston's skyline. A click of a pistol made Daniel freeze.
"Hold it!" A gravelly voice called from behind him. He wished he could say he did not recognize the voice.
"God damn it! What the fuck do you want rich boy?" Daniel grunted as he turned slowly around, hands raised, only to come face to face with a teenager he knew well as Nelson Latimer.
"I saw what you bought from the Doc in Diamond City," Nelson proclaimed.
"Well if you saw what it is, smart boy, then you know you can't possibly get high on it. Good evening."
Daniel turned to go before he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"You haven't forgotten the hundred caps you owe me, Narco. Selling that I.V. will double my profit." Nelson stated brusquely.
"A guy enjoys one night high as a kite and all of a sudden he's got nicknames!" Dan complained.
With lightning speed, he knocked the hand from his shoulder, captured Nelson by the wrist, spun around behind him and kicked the boy's leg from behind causing Nelson to land painfully on his stomach with a grunt.
Daniel rested with a knee in the small of Nelson's back with the boy's arm wrenched painfully behind him, the appendage held tight in Daniel Sorrow's capable hands. Nelson struggled while grunting in pain.
Daniel unsheathed a kitchen knife from his belt and with a mighty thrust stabbed the sharpened steel through Nelson's hand and into his back.
"Ahh! Don't kill me!" Nelson screamed.
"Relax homie," Daniel spoke calmly and sarcastically, "If I wanted you dead, it wouldn't take much from this position. All I gots to do is push just a bit harder and this knife will push deep into your back and you my stupid, stupid lad, will never experience another hit of Jet."
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry mister!" Nelson shouted.
"You are sorry," Daniel quipped with a grin, "The sorriest excuse for a little junkie bastard that I have ever seen. What the actual fuck would you want with a god damned I.V. that would double your money as you put it?"
"I was… gonna sell it to a contact in Goodneighbor!" Nelson confessed.
"Yeah? And then a little thirteen-year-old boy wouldn't get it and he would probably die." Daniel chastised.
"You don't think much do ya, squirt?"
"Ouch! I'll split it with you!" Nelson promised.
Daniel rolled his eyes and twisted the knife embedded in Nelson's hand. Nelson's screams echoed off the brick buildings.
"Wrong answer, buck. You are just itching to piss me off aren't ya?"
Nelson didn't answer as he howled through the fresh wave of pain that flashed through his hand.
"You see, pissing a guy off who is on top of you with a knife poking through your jerk off hand and into your back is not good for your health. You're gonna have a bad time my dude."
"I'm sorry! I will never try to jump you again! I promise!"
"Now you see, you are an agreeable piece of garbage."
Daniel released his hold on the kid's back and pulled the knife from his hand. Nelson slowly crawled to his backside. But before Nelson could think, Daniel smashed his brick like knee into Nelson's nose and he crumbled to the ground in an unconscious heap.
"Poor little fucking loser." Daniel muttered as he stepped over the would-be mugger and onward toward Bunker Hill, now less than one hour away.
Daylight was fading throughout the commonwealth as Daniel set his eyes on the ramshackle wooden gate that separated Bunker Hill from the rest of a hostile city. Dim beams of golden light filtered through the myriad cracks and holes in the white marble structures that made up the most famous trading settlement in post-war Boston.
One of those gentle beauties touched down upon a sleeping Ezra Banks' face like a golden fairy. Syble held his hand as she trembled, eyes red with a thousand worries. Ezra's face twitched once then twice before his heavy eyelids slowly flickered open. They trembled before sliding open, moist green irises frantically jetting back and forth focusing on nothing before blurriness halted, giving way to sharp detail.
Syble noticed the hitch in her brother's breath and looked up and upon noticing her brother's eyes being opened shouting for joy to Doctor Kay and Curie to come see. Both came rushing to the gurney before stopping in their tracks beside it.
"Oh, my," Curie said happily, "It seems you are a lucky one. No more long sleep for you!"
"Where… am I?" Ezra wondered aloud. Syble took a breath.
"Right now, you are residing in beautiful Bunker Hill, trading hub of the commonwealth complete with a beautiful view of an ugly wall of wood and a beat-up obelisk of white marble. You are currently napping in Chez Doc Kay, esquire." Daniel interrupted as all eyes turned to the sole survivor.
"Do I got a boog?" Daniel wondered, scratching his nose.
"Do you have the I.V. for Christ's sake?" Kay demanded with her hands on her hips.
Daniel gasped aloud before covering his mouth with his hand. He allowed his eyes to take on a panicked look. He paced around the cobbled together wooden shack for dramatic effect.
"Oh my God," Daniel shrieked as he paced, "Between all the hookers and blow I damn well forgot to pick up the fucking I.V.!"
"Damn it…!" Kay began before being interrupted by Dan.
He lowered the hand from his mouth and began chewing his fingernails.
"I spent all of my caps as well! I knew there was something important I was forgetting… But that God damned coke! It clouded my judgement!"
Daniel fell to his knees, causing Ezra and Syble to laugh, Curie to tsk and Kay to grow red with rage.
"Doctor! Please, I need to borrow two-hundred caps from you! We need to save this dear boy's life!"
"All right!" Kay shouted, growing tired of Daniel's unique sense of humor.
Daniel fell to his back, slapping the floor as loud guffaws poured from the tall, burly man's chest.
"Daniel Sorrows, I swear you must be twelve years old. The I.V." Kay demanded, holding her hand out.
Dan picked himself up from the floor wheezing from his gales of laughter.
He wiped tears from his eyes as he reached into his pocket and produced the aforementioned I.V.
"You better be happy. I nearly got a wedgie from that louse Nelson Latimer for this thing." Dan said as he followed Kay to the gurney.
"Looks to me like he's strong enough to go toe to toe with a mutant." Dan said.
"How ya feeling?" he asked a stunned Ezra.
"My mouth is dry and I'm kind of weak, but I'm just happy to be alive right now." Ezra said groggily.
Dan pinched Ezra's toe with an open-mouthed grin. Ezra returned the smile.
"Thank you Dan. Thank you so, so much."
Syble touched Dan's coat sleeve. He looked down at her.
She sniffled, cleared her throat and tried to speak.
"Dan… thank… thank…"
"Hey, what are friends for, huh?" Dan said.
He was surprised when Syble wrapped her small arms around Dan's arm and buried her soft warm face into the crook of his elbow.
"Thank you, sir, and… I'm sorry… I'm sorry for being mean to you earlier." Syble said as she sniffed and tried to keep from crying.
Dan looked to Curie and his playful grin left his face in exchange for a more somber look. He looked back down at Syble and softly, carefully placed his free arm around her back and returned her embrace.
"Hey, really. I mean it. It wasn't a problem."
Syble looked up at him, obvious remorse written all over her features. Dan saw her reddened eyes, the sun-tanned skin, the light trail of freckles across her nose and the wet tracks that evidenced her helplessness and worry and for once he couldn't think of a punch line.
"You're welcome Syble. And you don't need to worry about offending me."
Ezra smiled as he lay back again preparing to have the I.V. injected into his bloodstream.
Dan sat back against the nearest wall and rocked the shuddering nine-year-old girl in his arms. He looked to the orange kissed sky as the light continued to fade with more on his mind than when he had begun.