Well, she had done it now. All she had wanted was to make a few more quick caps, maybe make some contacts that could help her find her son, and of course anything that hurt that bigoted jackass of a mayor out in Diamond City was a plus. Instead, she had found herself standing clueless in Hancock's storehouse, surrounded by his various hired guns and his second-in-command Fahrenheit. Since the mercenary already hated her guts, Rose had been certain that she was going down… but instead of opening fire, Fahrenheit had given them all a chance to bail out.

Rose accepted the offer immediately, but Bobbi had other plans. She had intended to rip Hancock off from the start, and it seemed she had on some level anticipated the confrontation. But being duped hadn't gone over well with Rose, and when Bobbi refused to listen to reason, she didn't have much of a problem helping Fahrenheit to put her down.

Rose was grateful that Fahrenheit had a merciful streak hidden somewhere deep underneath that killer exterior, but she was still in hot water. She may not have ended up stealing any caps, but the property damage caused by blowing out the foundation to the storehouse was anything but minor. Fahrenheit had insisted that she go tell the news about her loyalty to the mayor herself, but even though it was supposedly good news, Rose still had the persistent sensation of being sent to her father's office for a spanking after she misbehaved. Though she'd be more than a little stunned if taking her over his knee was how Hancock decided to handle things. Not that she'd mind, exactly…

Whoa. It was not the time to be having those kinds of thoughts. She had just very nearly robbed the man, for pete's sake. And she needed to stay focused on finding Shaun.

Rose took a deep breath, and pushed the doors to the conference room of the Old State House open. Hancock was leaning against the wall; he didn't seem surprised to see her, but she figured that would be the case. The man seemed to know everything that happened in Goodneighbor.

"Hancock," she said, inclining her head.

"Look who it is… our little vaultie, turned criminal mastermind," he said, causing her to cheeks to redden. "I heard that grand theft isn't workin' out so hot for you these days." He tossed a small bag at her; she could feel caps clicking inside when she caught it. "Here. For protecting my stash. Wise decision, putting Bobbi down like that."

Rose grimaced. "She tricked us both… I should have known she was lying. I am sorry, by the way; if I'd have known your storehouse was the target, I'd have backed out long ago. You were not the target I had in mind."

Hancock shrugged. "Hey, this is Goodneighbor. No hard feelings."

"So we're cool?"

"We're cool." Hancock sighed. "Lemme tell ya, this classy little tricorner hat of mine is getting heavy. Am I turning into the man? Becoming some kind of tyrant? Seems I spend all my time putting down people I woulda been proud to scheme with just a few years ago."

Rose shrugged. "Keeping power will do that to you."

"I need to take a walk again. Get a grip on what really matters: living free."

She wasn't sure what possessed her to do it, but on an impulse Rose found herself saying, "I have some things I need to take care of south of here. If you're serious about taking a break from Goodneighbor, you could come with me. I've noticed that the wasteland kind of gets more terrifying the farther south you go… I wouldn't mind having someone to watch my back."

Much to her shock, Hancock grinned. "Yeah, I like that. You could be just the right kind of trouble. Just let me have a quick chat with my community, give them the news."

"Really?" What did I just get myself into? "Alright, then. I'm going to gather my things from Hotel Rexford. I'll meet you by the gates in an hour."

Did you really just do that? Rose asked herself as she left. At the drop of a hat, she went from being on her own to traveling with a strange man that she knew barely anything about... A man who happened to have a penchant for drugs and violence. It was a scenario the woman she had been a couple centuries ago wouldn't have ever imagined… or condoned. Especially not as a married woman. Well, technically still married. Or widowed, she supposed.

Still, Hancock had defended her against one of his own people when she had first entered the city… a little excessively, true, but he could have easily just stayed out of the whole thing. And he had the opportunity to put her down when she was caught with Bobbi in his storehouse, but instead he had Fahrenheit spare her life. And then he paid her. Those weren't the acts of a person who'd betray their companions, or so she hoped. And she really did need someone to watch her back… Preston had filled that role for quite a while before installing himself at the Castle, and she had been dreading heading back out into the wasteland without backup.


True to his word, Hancock was waiting for her by Goodneighbor's main gate within an hour, one of his ever-present cigarettes dangling from his fingers and a sturdy double-barrel strapped to his waist. He studied her closely as she approached, and she fought the urge to look down or hide her face. What was he looking for? The scrutiny made her feel like she was being x-rayed.

"Ready to get this freak show on the road?" he asked, as though running out with complete strangers was something he did all the time. Hell, maybe it was. How was she to know?

"After you," she replied, following him through the gates and back out into the streets of Boston. She reflexively put her hand on the butt of her shotgun and checked the knife she had hidden in her waistband; the ruins of this city weren't a place where one would want to get caught unprepared. She had learned that lesson when a band of ferals had chased her through Boston Commons… she had run out of ammo, and they had nearly overpowered her before she reached the turrets guarding the outskirts of Diamond City. It was a lesson she wasn't going to forget anytime soon.

"So where to?" Hancock asked in a cheery tone as they began walking.

"Do you know the Castle?"

"Uh… no. Can't say that I do."

"It's the minutemen's main site of operations. They need my help with a few things, and may have some important information that I need to get my hands on."

Hancock paused and glanced at her skeptically. "You're with the minutemen? I didn't even know they were still around."

"Um… yeah, you could say that," Rose replied, trying to keep her tone casual. "I helped one of them protect a group of settlers from some pretty nasty raiders and a deathclaw out in Concord a little after I first woke up. He brought me into the fold after that."

Hancock came to a full stop. "Wait a minute. You're saying that you helped take down a deathclaw? How the hell did you do that?"

"With some power armor and the minigun off a downed vertibird."

"What the fuck… now that's a story I've got to hear." He cocked his head. "But hold up a second… you said all of that happened after you 'woke up'? What in the hell does that mean?"

Rose hesitated, unsure of how much she wanted to share. That story could get real personal, real fast. The only people who really knew all the details were her friends Piper and Nick Valentine out in Diamond City, and that was mostly because Nick was helping her investigate Shaun's kidnapping. But if Hancock was going to be traveling with her and helping her, it was only fair that he knew up front what he was getting into.

She spent a moment evaluating how much she should reveal, before finally asking, "About how old would you say you are, Hancock?"

"What?"

"Just humor me."

He gave her a confused look, but acquiesced. "Well, age doesn't tend to matter so much when you're a ghoul… bein' close to immortal and all. But I was in my mid-30's when I left the smooth-skinned life behind, so I guess that puts me somewhere around 40 now." He winked. "Guess that makes me your elder, doesn't it?"

"Not quite," Rose replied wryly. "I'm over two hundred years old."

"You gotta tell me your secrets, then, because you look fantastic for your age."

"I'm not joking." She crossed her arms. "You know that I came from a vault, but I never really lived in one. I was cryogenically frozen for just over two centuries."

Hancock frowned. "Wait, you're actually being serious?"

She combed her fingers through her auburn hair, closing her eyes as the memories resurfaced. "Before the war… the day the bombs dropped, my family and I made it to a vault near my home in Sanctuary Hills. We thought we were being saved, but it turns out Vault-Tec was freezing us as some kind of long-term experiment. Eventually a glitch in the system caused me to de-freeze and wake up. I…" She cleared her throat as emotion began to choke her voice. "I was the only one who survived."

"Well… shit." Hancock still had his eyes on hers, though their expression had softened from incredulity to something that looked a lot like empathy. "I've heard a lotta crazy stories in my day, but I gotta admit, that one's a first. I guess it's a fuckin' miracle you're alive at all."

Rose shook her head to rein herself back in, and began walking so that she'd have an excuse to look at anything else. "I've been more or less on my own ever since, trying to find the people who did this to me."

She wasn't sure why she didn't tell him about Shaun, except that she wasn't ready to surrender that vulnerable information yet, especially since she couldn't be certain where Hancock's loyalties lied. If things went south, the fact that she was looking for her infant boy could easily be used against her. For now it was better that he assumed she was on a revenge mission; there was nothing to lose that way.

"That's rough," Hancock sympathized, as he fell back into step next to her. "Any idea who might've done it?"

"I'm not sure… a few people have suggested the Institute. I guess that's as likely a culprit as any, at this point."

Hancock gave a low whistle. "The Institute? Man, you know how to pick your enemies. I get the feeling that this is going to be one interesting trip."

"Is that a good or a bad thing?"

He chuckled. "I'll let you know. For now, let's get to this Castle of yours. Now, about that deathclaw…"