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They spent the next week and a half to clear out some buildings by the police station, as well as in the downtown Boston area. Slowly, they were becoming a bit more used to each other. They worked well as a team, though Danse often found himself annoyed with her at times, as she tended to be a little reckless. He still was impressed at how quickly she became a good shot, especially for a vault dweller.
For the most part, she tended to keep to herself. They didn't talk too much, aside from when they needed to. Danse figured that she was just a private person.
Isabelle at first felt suspicious of Danse, as he seemed pretty quick to invite her into their ranks, as well as how quickly he volunteered to join her. It made more sense as the days went on though, when she would listen to his rants (at least, what sounded like rants to her) about synths and how they needed to be destroyed. And if the Institute was behind Shaun's kidnapping, she was glad to have a faction who was set on destroying them on her side. As for synths themselves - she was personally neutral in regards to them, as she was to most things, because all she cared about was her son and her friends back in Sanctuary. Speaking of which, she took note that she needed to head back there soon at some point. She figured that Preston was probably wanting an update, and if she doesn't visit soon, he may end up sending Minutemen to check up on her. Isabelle also wondered how Dogmeat was, she often found herself missing her furry friend, especially at night. Danse didn't seem like the cuddly type, like Dogmeat was. Damn I miss that dog, she often thought to herself, even though it was hard to be sneaky with him around.
They'd finally cleared out Hubris Comics and Faneuil Hall before deciding to head back to the station. It was the first time that Isabelle had even encountered a "glowing one" type of feral ghoul, and she hoped it was going to be the last. She remembered how Danse ordered her to keep her distance, since those types of feral ghouls needed more than a handful of bullets to take them down. Not only that, but if they get close enough to you, you'll be enjoying a pretty big dose of radiation, hence their nickname.
The pair was making their way back to Cambridge, and began to cross the bridge above the Charles.
"Hold on!" She called out to Danse, who was leading the way. She paused momentarily, it was just that she hadn't seen the Charles River in so long she almost forgot what it looked like. One of her fears was that she would end up forgetting what her beautiful home city looked like before the war. She was often so caught up in the moment that she didn't take the time to really take a good look at the Commonwealth and take in how different it was now. How different everything was.
Danse walked towards her, slightly annoyed. He just wanted to get back to the station and get some rest, as well as check up on everyone back there. "What's wrong?" He asked, not too interested in sightseeing at the moment.
Isabelle leaned against the guardrail on the side of the bridge, "Nothing, it's just...it looks so different now. Different from-" she cut herself off before continuing, as she forgot that she never mentioned that she lived before the war. How was she supposed to bring something like that up?
"Different from what?" He caught that she was hiding something, but wasn't too sure of what.
"Nothing, it's just...different. That's all." How would she go about saying this? It was something that just never came up, she didn't talk too much about herself aside from the first night she met him, when she talked about her son. Most of the time, they were too busy covering each other's asses, that or sleeping.
Danse had a feeling of something being off, her not knowing who the Brotherhood was, how some things appeared to be a complete shock to her. He took note of how she reacted to some creatures of the Commonwealth, like how freaked out she was when they encountered a nest of bloodbugs, hell even bloat flies, or how she called Brahmin "those two headed thingies". "Did you grow up around here?"
"Yeah I did actually. It's just it was a lot different when I grew up. A lot...nicer."
Now he was confused, he didn't grow up in the Commonwealth but he sure as hell knew that it's looked the same for the past 200 or so years. She was either hiding something from him, or she was crazy. Either way, he wanted to know what she even meant and why she had to be so cryptic, "What do you mean? I'm sure everything has looked the same...for quite a while now" It was as if she set out to confuse him. Danse was used to straightforward people, not people like her, who often raised more questions than not with her actions and words. He couldn't deny that she was a strange woman.
A bullet whizzed by them before she could explain herself. "Fuck!" She breathed out before taking cover. She couldn't peek out from cover without the risk of getting shot at, so she figured she'd let them come to her.
"Come out you fucking cowards!" Sounded just like raiders. She felt a little relieved, surprisingly. Anything but a deathclaw or a pack of feral ghouls.
"I want the little bitch for myself!" Another one yelled, couldn't they have been a little more creative?
Danse remained in cover while she perked up, taking a quick shot are the raider closest to them. There were maybe three or four in total, so it wasn't going to be too hard to dispose of them. She rushed to the next car, while Danse covered her by taking out the next closest one. Two down, two left to go.
One snuck up on her, but was only armed with a pipe wrench. The junked up man struck her in the arm, knocking her pistol out of her hands and onto the road. She dodged his next lunge and created a distance between the two. Isabelle was never good at hand to hand combat, but luckily she carried a backup knife. When the raider lunged at her again, she quickly moved out of the way and dug her knife into his back. He immediately fell to the ground, gasping for air and tried to reach for the knife lodged in his back. She ran to grab her pistol and finished the job, before pulling out her knife from his back.
There was still one raider who was still in cover, hiding since they witnessed how easily their friends were taken down. She chuckled a bit at the irony, before rushing to their hiding spot. Isabelle elbowed the raider to get them out of their spot before Danse finished the job. She hated when he took her kills, but she never complained about it.
"You alright, soldier?" Danse scouted the area to make sure there weren't any leftover raiders.
"Yep I'm good!" She called out in response. Isabelle started to scavenge through the bodies to see if there was anything useful. At first she felt disgusted for doing such a thing, but over time she realized that they're not gonna need it anymore, so she might as well take it.
They began to continue to cross the bridge and pick up the pace, until Isabelle felt some water droplets land on her forehead. Shiiiiit, she thought to herself. The sky had a slight green tinge to it the whole day, but they figured it was just the radiation. She hadn't been in the wastes for too long, but she knew how bad the storms could get at times..
Danse knew the same too, and the last thing he wanted was for his power armor to rust again. Last time it happened, Proctor Ingram rode his ass and made sure he'd promised to take better care of his armor. He couldn't imagine how Isabelle would take care of hers, considering how...brave she tried to be at times.
They weren't even halfway across the bridge, in fact they were closer to downtown than they were Cambridge. Regardless, they were going to need to find shelter fast, "Let's get moving!" Danse ordered, heading back in the direction they just came from.
"Where?" Isabelle asked as she quickly followed him.
"We can head back to Hubris Comics, since we just cleared it out."
She shrugged and continued to follow in his footsteps. She checked the time on her pip boy, it was probably going to get dark soon. "Are we just staying there tonight?"
"Makes sense to do so, by the time it stops raining - if it does today, it'll be too dark to get back to the station."
She nodded in response, "True… Let's get going then." Isabelle holstered her pistol again to move quicker, they needed to get back to Hubris Comics before the storm would get worse.
We were fortunate to get to the now abandoned building before the storm got worse. But the shitty thing was that my vault suit got completely soaked, as did my bag.
Danse and I made our way to the top floor, where the roof was accessible in case we needed to make a quick exit. We both set up traps on the first and second floor just in case, since we both needed some sleep. Clearing out this building and Faneuil Hall in one day was a lot of work, I was surprised we were still in one piece considering how the latter building was infested with super mutants. Gods they were a bitch to put down.
I tried to keep warm, but it was hard to considering my suit was more or less soaked all the way through. I had backup clothes (a pretty intact ivory dress and an oversized T shirt) in my bag, but they were slightly damp. It was still better than nothing.
Danse heard me shivering, "Everything alright?" He asked, in his usual stiff voice. I wonder if he even cared about my answer. It wasn't that he was a bad guy, it's just I had a hard time thinking there was more to him besides the Brotherhood of Steel. It seemed to be the only thing he ever really wanted to talk about. I still didn't mind his presence too much, the silence was nice once in a while. Other times it did drive me a little crazy.
"Nope, not at all. I'm freezing my ass over here because my fucking suit is completely soaked." I spat out, probably sounding angrier than I intended to. I kept shaking, and sat down to get my boots off, there's almost nothing worse than wet socks - especially in what was left of Boston. I checked my pip boy again, it was 7:14 pm. Damn it. This was going to be a long night, it was already starting to get dark. I was still used to the longer days, but the seasons were starting to change and the days were going to get shorter and shorter. Even if it stopped raining, I don't think either of us are up for the trip back to the station.
I focused on taking off my boots and kept shaking, it wasn't going to get any warmer which sucked. At least I got kind of a shower? That was the one thing I missed about Sanctuary Hills, since Sturges and I got the plumbing to work in some of the houses we were all able to enjoy showers every so often.
"I'm not sure what to tell you…" Danse began, he was so awkward at times, it made me wonder if there was even a person under that armor. "I can go look for something to keep you warm."
"Sure, yeah," I waved him off. "I have to change anyways." I saw him sneer out of the corner of my eye, I still wasn't used to the whole "respecting your superiors thing", and I'm sure Danse was well aware of that. It seemed like he didn't even push me calling him "sir" anymore, because when I did, I usually did so sarcastically and I could tell it got on his nerves. Come on, it's pretty funny to mess with him since he was so stiff sometimes. It was even better when I would (rarely) get him to crack a little smile. I couldn't deny I had grown a tiny bit attached to him, he just...really reminded me of Nate at times. Especially when he didn't laugh at my jokes.
I sighed, and tried to shake the thoughts of Nate away. I missed him so much but I didn't want it to be a distraction while I was out here. I still wished that it was me who was shot back in the vault, he would have probably found Shaun by now. No, no, no. Stop thinking like that Isabelle. Stop.
I tried to distract myself by focusing on changing out of the almost ruined vault suit, hell, even that reminded me of Nate. I wondered what would have happened if I just never got to that damn thing in the fucking first place.
My hands were shaking as I was pulling the zipper down and peeling the suit off of me. The cold air hit my body but it felt a little refreshing, since that suit felt a little stuffy at times. Couldn't imagine power armor being any better.
I wasn't sure what to put on instead, but I just went with the pretty cream colored dress. It reminded me of the ones I used to wear on my date nights with Nate. I bit the back of my hand to not cry, and wondered what it would have been like if Nate was here. A small tear rolled down my cheek but I wiped it away quickly so that I could pull the dress over my head.
"Initiate!" I heard Danse call when he entered the small office I was changing in, which startled me and caused me to trip over my feet.
"Oh! Sorry I- uh I didn't realize you were changing." I wasn't even sure if he saw anything, but his tone kinda gave it away.
I finished pulling the dress over my head and taking the rest of the suit off, somewhat embarrassed over my fall. "Couldn't have knocked or anything?" My voice cracked a little, and I was hoping he didn't catch the fact that I was crying a little earlier. I probably sounded more annoyed.
"Sorry, I'll keep that in mind next time. I found a couple of sleeping bags though, maybe these could help?" He handed me several, which wasn't going to really do much, but it was something to sleep on.
"Thanks," I mumbled before snatching them from him. After I draped my wet vault suit over the desk, I plopped down in a chair by it. It felt like I hadn't gotten the chance to just sit in so long.
Danse remained leaned against the door frame, I hadn't even realized that he was out of his armor for once. He looked much smaller, well I mean he probably had a good half a foot on me, but it just was different that him being in the armor. He had a much larger presence in the armor, but out of it just made him seem more...human.
He stepped in the room to arrange the sleeping bags, "You should get some sleep, Isabelle." He usually didn't call me by my name, so this felt a little weird.
"Yep." I was short with him, I didn't mean to be but anytime I thought back to Nate and all this bullshit going on, it just put me into a sour mood.
He sighed, "I'll be cleaning my armor - just let me know if you need anything." I couldn't tell if he was annoyed with me for being short with him, or just exhausted. I began to feel bad though, I shouldn't be so short with him. Here he was out here with me, risking his ass for me, but I was too busy with my self pity party to recognize that.
"Danse, look…" I began, I was never good with apologies. "Sorry for being short. Just has been a rough couple of weeks. It's not you."
He looked over his shoulder, "Don't worry about it." I didn't know if he was upset. "If you need me I'll be out here." He didn't even turn around and kept walking.
Even though we'd been working together, cleansing the Commonwealth, I still felt so alone. I knew we weren't going to be like best buddies or anything, since he technically was my superior officer, but it would have been nice for him to feel more like a companion.
I crawled into one of the sleeping bags hoping to catch some shut eye. I wasn't feeling any warmer, but hopefully the sleeping bag would keep me warm enough for the night.
It was nights like these where I really, really missed Nate. Damn everything to hell.
Sorry for the kind of rushed chapter, I'm trying to keep on a consistent schedule with posting since I'll be busy again when classes start. Hope everyone is enjoying this so far!