A/N: Jesus H Christ, I completely forgot about that code stuff. Sorry about that, here's the correct version where you don't want to bleach your eyes while reading.
.o.0.o.
They told her she had done it alone.
Two miles through the northeast Commonwealth.
Past a gunfight, mongrel dogs, an old Red Rocket.
She had carried/dragged the woman out of time to Sanctuary, where she had apparently been greeted after her screams for help were heard by Preston.
They told her she had fought Jun and Sturges as they tried to prevent her from interfering with Preston administering combat aid.
They said she had knocked Jun out with the nastiest right hook in history when he suggested Piper let Blue sleep alone.
They told her this after Piper had awoken in an armchair, next to Blue on a sofa in one of the ruined houses (recently converted into a surgery and field hospital, judging by the walls), with no recollection of the past two days.
Now she sat, pen and notepad in hand, trying to find the words to describe the events of days past. Most of the page was covered by doodles, and a sketch of the woman next to her.
.o.0.o.
Piper was awakened by a soft touch on her shoulder. Evening had fallen, almost making Sanctuary live up to its old name in pink and red glory. Her pencil and pad were scattered on the floor, hat lying alongside them. Blue's hand rested on the twenty six year old reporter, reassuring and calm. "Blue!"
"Piper." Blue's voice was gravelly, twisted and torn to shreds, then put back together in the wrong way.
"How are you feeling? Like shit, duh." Piper's mind raced faster than the freeway cars Blue had described, emotions flaring and her intestines twisting. "Can I help you at all? Grab you a pillow? Water?"
"Piper."
"Or I could clean your guns! For when you're ready again."
"I need you to go home."
Blank shock hit Piper with a concussive force. "What?"
Blue locked eyes with her from the bed and took a deep, rattling breath. "Go home. Be with Nat. I can't- I can't drag you into this. I won't put that on your sister. It's not fair."
Anger replaced shock. "Are you kidding me?! We save each other's lives a couple of times and- and- you're DONE?! What happened to taking on the world? What happened to- I thought you and I were-" Piper stood, forgetting her cap and notepad on the floor, "Screw you! I'm staying where I need to be no matter what! Come get me when you pull your head out of your ass!"
She stormed out, without a particular direction, rage blinding her. It was only when the steel door painted with a yellow 111 did Piper realize she stood on top of the Vault.
Hundreds of feet below the warm surface a vault of steel and ice lay entombed in earth, from which only one woman had walked out alive. It was a shadowed mausoleum now, frozen in a time so drastically different it made Piper's chest hurt.
Two hundred ten years ago life here was idyllic, peaceful, and most importantly- life, not just survival. Blue had told her the grass and trees were green, the ravens not murderous, the lizards weren't twenty feet tall, and most people could just be who they wanted to, love who they wanted to. The people weren't untrustworthy, but the- what was it Blue called them? Corporations? They were a part of the reason the world went to shit.
A chill crept up her spine, colder than the usual post-apocalypse November chill, and a ten thousand year old voice spoke from the grave, its voice icier than outer space. We await your arrival.
Piper shivered violently before calling out, "I'm not going anywhere!"
The shadow did not reply, and without running, Piper backed away from the pad. As she approached the old footbridge, she heard shouting. "General! Please! You need rest!"
"C'mon you bat shit crazy woman, leggo!"
Blue had herself entangled between Jun, Preston, and Sturges, who were clearly trying to get the madwoman back to the makeshift infirmary. She spotted Piper, and took a limping run at her, clearly still feeling the injuries of several wounds and the stimpak sticking out of her leg. Piper jerked backwards as Blue took a final leap towards her and wrapped her in a hug, dragging the both of them to the ground from momentum. Blue lay on top of Piper, foreheads pressed together. Piper, wheezed the last of her oxygen and shoved the steel-based woman off to the side.
"I fucked up," Blue rasped, "I want you near me. Please."
Piper looked to her left, somewhere between pissed and amused, "Pull your head out of your ass already?"
"You're my head." She sucked air, "You're my clear thinking,"
Piper felt a warm gooey feeling spread through her, like she'd just binged Takahashi's noodles for an entire evening, crawled under the covers, and started fantasizing about-
No. Piper mentally halted the train of disaster about to follow. "You sure? It seems like you're the sensible one here."
"Oh yeah? Who thought I should stay and rest up, giving me time to teach Nat about life? Who thought I should hang around Diamond City, be a full time resident and good deed-doer? Who wanted me to open my own shop to beat anyone else in the Commonwealth?"
Piper frowned, trying to remember, "Pretty sure that last one wasn't me."
Blue looked towards her, throat bandaged and full of dried blood, hair matted with grass but her eyes were clearer than Piper had ever seen, "Guess that was just me then."
"Are you done being stupid?"
"I don't know if I can promise that."
"Figures. You got a plan now?"
Blue rolled to stand up, and when Piper beat her to the punch by copying and offering a hand, she only hesitated for a second before gripping her wrist to stand. "I've got a better plan."
And she did. Blue stayed in bed for the next week and a half, briefing scavengers on good locations they'd passed, planning defensive fortifications, establishing a supply line to Hangman's Alley and sending traders to the nearby Abernathy Farm to request aid. They refused.
"Can't say I'm surprised," Blue grated, "Most folks are pretty pragmatic. We'll have to pay them a visit later."
Until then, Piper watched as Blue healed, fighting through all of the agony, relearning the use of her limbs. Turned out, when Marcy Long wasn't farming, repairing, complaining, or scavenging, she was actually pretty pragmatic when it came to physical therapy. Her attitude clashed with Blue's unwillingness to compromise.
"You're going to kill yourself if you try that run again." Marcy shouted, as the running shorts clad Blue shot away in a determined hobble sprint to Red Rocket. For as long as Blue could stand it every day ('Smoking', she called it), she would run, do jumping jacks, stretches and calisthenics using junk being brought in. A couple of car wheels served as a bench press, saw horses gave her a balance bar.
For her part, Piper repaired with the other settlers. She learned quite a bit about home repair by screwing it up, and solved by Sturges. Winter had begun to set in, and Sanctuary was going to need good shelter for when the frost set in. More people arrived each week, and with the growing numbers the needs increased. Sturges, thank god, figured out a way to bring heat into the houses by-
"-Rerouting the exhaust pipes of our generators into passageways in the rooms boss. That way the heat won't be wasted."
Blue was out… somewhere… and Preston was in charge. He scratched the stubble on his chin. "Okay. I like it. Start setting it up, and brief the General when she returns from Red Rocket. Hey Piper, do you think you could do a piece on advertising Sanctuary? Might bring more traders up, and we really need that."
"What about unwanted attention?" Piper asked. The possibility of attracting raiders wasn't an impossibility. Some of them could probably read. Maybe.
Preston nodded. "I thought it over. And if they do come, I think we're ready. We've got our turrets, twelve armed and ready, Sturges is fixing that Power Armor, plus the Heap."
The Heap was the affectionate term for the new 'skyscraper' being erected on one of the old (and most stable) concrete house foundations. So far it was four stories of reclaimed wood and corrugated steel, with a topside sniper's post and housed a number of settlers, travelers, and merchants on the second and third floor. The first floor was a restaurant/general goods store, stocked with everything junk or refurbished that could be found or made.
It was called the Heap because Trashcan Carla had once remarked within earshot of everyone, "Good god, what a heap of shit piled together."
And the name stuck.
"By the way, Piper, while she's gone…" Preston steered her to the car port of a boarded up blue house. "I've seen the way you look at her."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't be an idiot. Mama Murphy predicted it, too, and while I don't buy into the idea of 'Sight', that woman is scarily accurate when it comes to predicting things that will come to pass."
"I don't-" Piper started, almost stammering, but Preston held up a hand.
"Look," He said in a placating manner, "I can understand why you like her. Hell, some days I think I feel the same way towards her, but if she's going to- be interested in anyone, it'll be you, given time. Lots of time."
Piper took a seat in the diner booth's seat after buying a Nuka-Cola from the bartender Gerald and began to write her piece in her recently rediscovered notepad (it had been hiding under a dresser). And to totally not mull over Preston's words.
Sanctuary Hills- the Home of the Minuteman
If there were a word to describe the new and booming town of Sanctuary, it would be peace. Sanctuary lives up to its name- providing refuge for those escaping the ravages of the Wastes. The only tenant is to work hard. By day, there is farming, repairing- and building. All of it under the watchful eye of Minuteman Major Preston Garvey, who himself works in whatever capacity needed. Its current wintertime specialty is boot repair and shoemaking. If you can name it, it can be fixed here. Come springtime and you'll see loads of food coming into places like Diamond City, and escorted by the Minutemen themselves. Tucked into Northwest Boston, if you're looking for a safe, hardworking home for yourself and loved ones- this is the place to be. Just cross the bridge. When you've found happiness, you've found Sanctuary.
By the time Piper looked up from editing her article, she realized the early evening had turned almost nighttime black, and Blue was standing in front of her, wearing her eponymous Vault suit, random armor and holding a shiny new laser rifle stamped with a long string of unintelligible words. "Whoa there Blue. Where's your heading?"
Blue cocked her head. "My heading?"
"Yeah. Where'd you go, and where are you going?"
The woman grinned and slid into the seat across the table. "I found some people who needed my help. They're called the Brotherhood of Steel. And I gave them a hand."
Piper groaned. "Blue, you're barely holding together as it is. Besides, I know the Brotherhood, or at least I've heard about them. They're well oiled, ruthless, and egotistical."
Blue shook her head. "Not these ones," She croaked. Preston's combat medicine could only do so much for destroyed vocal cords. "The main guy, Danse, was uptight enough but he seemed- driven, I guess. He wanted to do what was right."
"Trust me on this, they don't care. At all. I've heard of what they've done in the Capital Wasteland. They took over and pulverized anyone who mildly disagreed with them."
Blue shrugged, then winced at her shoulder. "Yeah maybe but they've got some seriously nice gear. I mean look at this. Who bothers taking the time to stamp Latin- a language which has not become any closer to undead- into a rifle?"
"What did you have to give up in return?"
"Oh you know. The usual military stuff. Happiness, hope, and freedom." She snorted.
"Blue."
The seriousness of Piper's tone surprised herself and the Woman out of Time. Mouth slightly agape, she took Piper's clasped hands. "It's okay. I leave on my terms, whether they want me to or not. For the moment, I'm just helping keep feral ghouls off of their front lawn and synths out of their hair."
Blue must have seen the pained look on Piper's face. "Hey. Hey, it'll be alright. I promise."
"Don't make a girl a promise if you know you can't keep it Blue."
And Blue just smiled.