"Hey Piper! Look at what I found! You still getting down that I love blowing shit up!?" Nora shouted from across Fort Independence's Courtyard to the reporter standing upon the adjacent wall. She had found a rocket launcher within the Fort's interior and began waving it around dramatically.
"Oh yeah Blue! Looking good!" Piper waved back enthusiastically, completely going along with her friend's shenanigans as per usual. The giant man in Power Armor had scowled and tore it away from the woman however, and they got into yet another squabble. Piper just laughed and covered her mouth.
The mission had gone off without a hitch. A quick eradication of an army of mirelurks and a sweep of the Castle's interior to destroy any remaining eggs later and here they were.
Nora had chose to command the remaining Minutemen in a Pincer attack, just as the Brotherhood had taught her. Flank each side and close in on the enemy. One of the few tactics of hers that Danse had actually approved of. Enthusiastically so even.
While the big guns closed in, Piper, Nora, and MacCready had stayed behind in cover to provide firing support. Well...Nora and MacCready. Piper was really just there to watch and log the whole skirmish. The Minutemen comeback story would sell like hotcakes if Piper had anything to say about it.
Right after most of the commotion had died off, Nora hopped down to join the rest of the men...her men. Piper didn't know if she would ever be able to see the woman as a General. Absolutely absurd. As per usual.
"I don't get any of this. Why the heck would you people follow her around for free? I mean, she's nice and all...but...I don't know I'm just really confused as to what's going on here." MacCready sat down next to Piper, a foot dangling languidly off the wall's side. He watched as the argument below unfolded into more and more colorful and ridiculous insults from the small woman as the man held the rocket launcher sternly out of reach.
"Well...I don't think anyone else in this whole world would help out Preston like Blue's doing. She has a huge hobby of sticking her neck out on the chopping block for friends in need….you know and she never really does ask for anything in return."
"Hmm...well, that still doesn't explain you and the giant grouchy tin can."
"Well…" Piper smiled, "Blue has a penchant for getting herself into trouble. She's one of those types of people who are bigger than they first appear. Her whole life is just a crazy adventure story waiting to unfold." she winked, "and I plan on capturing it all."
"Ahh…" he leaned back and folded his arms with a smug look upon his face, "so you are in it for the caps. You think reporting on an old prewar relic will end up in mucho denaro." They had told MacCready earlier about Nora's story...definitely crazier than being the mayor of a town filled with only children in his books.
"No! Don't get me wrong, getting paid for your hard work is satisfying of course. But she's actually my friend...probably the best friend I've ever had….she helped me a lot in different ways. And...if being by her side helps a little, well, I suppose I owe her."
"And the trashcan man?"
She grinned mischievously, "Isn't it obvious? They're clearly in love."
MacCready barked out a laugh and thrust his open hand out in their direction. "Those two clowns? All they do is fight and grumble. They're constantly at each other's throats." He shook his head and grinned, "Lady, you're a lousy reporter if you fall to such crazy assumptions."
She stuck her tongue out at him, "I'll tell you where you can put that in a minute MacCready! Look at them though! They fight like an old married couple. And they do it all the time, all day. I really think it's because they go looking for it. Those two like the pain."
"Well, clearly Nora does. Her heart isn't really into it. Look at her grinning like a psycho down there as he scolds her." He said as he toyed around with something in his pocket absently, " If ya ask me, these two are totally incompatible."
"No no no! Look at him too! He's purposefully overreacting. I think he does it because he'll do anything to be close to her. It's like a comfortable, unconscious game they play with each other." He just stared at her skeptically. "What? Seriously it true! Honestly, you think he would act like that if it were either of us walking around with a rocket launcher? He'd be wary, give us a warning, and then if that failed he'd probably just roll his eyes and scoff at us."
"I think that's more indicative that they want to fu- bang." MacCready corrected himself.
Piper gave him a squinted, sidelong glance that said, 'you're ruining everything'.
They sat in comfortable silence while watching the scene below them unfold. Preston was down there as well, with the rest of the Minutemen. He looked exasperated and helpless as he shook his head at his General and took to commanding the rest of the Minutemen to clean up duty. Nora was trying to climb up Danse's Power Armor now to reach for her launcher. Definitely not working out in her favor.
"Hm...what exactly do you think those two are saying to each other anyways?" MacCready asked while fiddling with the sight of his gun. He had been used to odd jobs like shake downs for people who acted too big for their own shoes, or as protection for a crime lord gone patsy...but a job taking back a freaking historical Castle from crab monsters had definitely taken the cake.
Not to mention the weirdos involved with it all. Colonial dressed pseudo-policemen, insane vault people (his life seemed oddly plagued by them), an overly honorable yet aggressive trashcan, a dog and a nosy assed reporter was definitely the weirdest group of people he'd ever worked with.
And he was still sore about the missing 50 caps that little snake wormed out of paying him. Maybe taking a huge share of and gorging himself on mirelurk meat would help the bitter taste in his mouth over his financial woes. Yep. He was definitely going to eat his emotions. He looked up at Piper who seemed to not have heard him. At least the women were cute to look at.
"Hey did you hear me?"
"Hm? Oh yeah. Watch this." she paused for a moment and pointed at Danse as he began talking. Syncing up and deepening her tone the best she could, she pretended to be his voice as his mouth moved, "Citizen, you could've hurt yourself. Your weight class is far too light to handle heavy munitions. Precaution instructs me to confiscate this from you and write you a long boring letter of stuff nobody cares about. Blah blah blah, I like the rules and am very boring, blah blah but my butt looks great and I'm totally in love with you but GOD I AM A VIRGIN I'M SO SCARED."
MacCready barked out a laugh and stood up to stand beside her. "That's pretty good stuff. Let me give it a try."
Nora backed away as if she were going to leave the conversation with Danse down below. Then, in a pathetic attempt to fake the ex Paladin out, she jumped at him again in another attempt to climb up his Power Armor. "Oh Danse!" MacCready's voice squeaked girlishly, "I need to climb on your bones right now! Take me you stubborn fool! I don't care leave the armor on! I've been frozen for over 200 years! The ice thawed, but the wetness of my clothes have nothing to do with that and everything to do with how horny I am for you!"
"Oh gross!" Piper punched his arm after a fit of giggles, "and why the heck did you give her a southern accent?"
He snorted, "Buh, I dunno it just sorta came out that way."
"We're pretty big jerks." she grinned.
"Yeah...but being jerks is funn-"
The whole ground began to violently shake as an earthquake quake ripped it's way through the Castle's courtyard. Piper and MacCready immediately huddled close to the floor, wide eyed and unsure as to what the hell was going on.
Down below, fight completely forgotten, Danse dropped the launcher and shoved Nora to the floor in an attempt to shield her from the brunt of any rubble that might fall from the battlements surrounding them. The Minutemen scrambled for cover, except for Preston. He grabbed his rifle, charged it up, and ran towards the caved-in southern wall facing the bay.
"I know what this is!" he roared as the quake died down. Briefly looking away from where his laser musket was trained, he continued, "Get ready! This is gonna be the big one. I heard rumors...almost legends. I didn't want to believe they were true."
MacCready grabbed at Piper's arm, flustered and furious, "What the hell is he talkin' about?! What the hell have you people dragged me into?!"
"What the hell has Garvey gotten us into?! I'll kill him with his own-" Danse began and was immediately cut off by an ear piercing and inhuman shriek.
A mirelurk of behemoth proportions scraped and clawed it's way through the hole in the Castle's defenses.
Time seemed to slow down as Nora's heart leapt into her throat. This colossus was as eerie and nightmarish as an HP Lovecraft story...this...couldn't be reality… could it? Had the local fauna been this badly tainted and warped by man's past arrogance? The thing was bubbling and choking up acidic radiation all over the ground, with little rivulets of smoke snaking up from everything it dripped on.
She might've just lead nine people to their deaths.
A wave of panic struck her as she reached for the sniper rifle upon her back and grabbed at nothing but air. She must've left it upon the Eastern wall with MacCready and Piper! Was she really that careless? That profoundly stupid?
She unholstered her magnum, knowing it would do absolutely no damage to the beast. She had to think of something.
Danse had immediately bent over to pick up the fallen rocket launcher and charged ahead to Preston's side as she had momentarily froze. There was no hesitation. No fumbling over a sight that even he couldn't register. There was no thinking. Only muscle memory, a will to protect, and above all else that same instinctual urge to live that had been hammered into him.
After seeing that the Minutemen's laser muskets doing little to no damage, Danse readied himself and fired the launcher.
Contact made as another penetrating shriek shook the the entire area.
That must've done it. Danse lowered the launcher and wiped a worried hand across his brow. As the adrenaline that had just coursed through his veins waned, the shaky after thought of what had just happened started to register in his mind.
He'd never seen anything that massive. Deathclaws reached close, and we're certainly quicker and more agile, but that thing…
Suddenly, a torrential spray of green acid rained down on the ex Paladin, with only enough time to reflexively shield his face with his arms.
Nora watched helplessly as the Queen, now angered, charged into the Power Armored man with the full force of a pre-war bus.
"Danse!" a scream tore through her as she charged ahead. She had no way of defending herself. No way of attacking. It didn't matter anymore. She had to help him. Somehow...somehow...
The beast had him pinned to the ground, attempting furiously to pierce through the man's armor with its claws. Acid dribbled down from its maws, as it attempted to build up enough again to end the man's life for good.
Nora picked up the fallen rocket launcher, loaded up another missile, and fired.
The force of it lifted her up, exhaust burning her shoulder and neck, and sent her crashing down against the ground head first.
Everything went black.
"She's gonna be fine guys. Stop crowding her. Geez you're all acting like she's on her deathbed."
As she started to come to she saw Piper hovering over her and facing away.
"How the hell do you know MacCready? Hired guns get extensive medical training? She's been out for hours…"
"Probably because her eyes are opening." He said matter of factly.
Piper looked at her wide-eyed and bewildered. A huge grin plastered across her face. "Nora! Danse! Hey Danse! She's waking up!"
Nora's eyes fully snapped open. Danse. Oh God was he alright? As she attempted to sit up the man in question came over and gently pushed her back down.
"Hey don't sit up- I haven't fully assessed your condition." his words were clipped and cool. Was he angry with her?
She was still outside on the ground, but a blanket had been draped over her. "You're okay...what...what the hell happened?"
"Blue you went full on action hero like out of a comic book. That rocket launcher picked you up and threw you like a bucking Brahmin." Piper answered excitedly. Danse gave her a dark look that said 'don't you encourage her'.
She paused briefly but let the threatening look slide. "Seriously though, your aim sucks. You really need to work on that. I mean, it all worked out for us end though. You hit the wall directly behind the thing and it came thundering down on top of the Queen and crushed her to bits. Luckily, Danse here rolled out of the way. But Geez it was close."
"She won't be working on anything like aim anytime soon. Especially with a rocket launcher. Nora, can you follow my fingers with your eyes?"
Nora ignored his request, "Danse are you mad at me?"
"I don't know why he is. You saved his life for Pete's sake. Yeah, you almost crushed him to death but-"
"Piper!" Nora cut her off, "...please…" she sighed, "can I...have a moment alone with him?" her eyes pleaded that the reporter take her plea seriously.
Piper nodded and smiled softly. She grabbed MacCready by the arm and patted Preston softly on the back as a motion to give the two space.
"Danse-"
He looked exasperated. "Can you please just do as I ask of you...for once? Follow my two fingers with your eyes. I need to see if you have a concussion."
She finally conceded and did as he asked.
"You eyes have full range of motion and aren't dilated. Do you feel any nausea?"
"Just a little dizziness when I tried to sit up."
"Well...I think you might just have a very minor concussion, and your neck and spine seem fine as well. That's why we didn't move you. Everything seemed fine- no bulging vertebrae, not liquids from your ears or blood in the white of your eyes...but I just wanted to make sure-"
"Was it really that bad? Shit Danse I saw that thing - God it was terrifying- I saw it clawing at you and dribbling acid...I couldn't just sit back and watch it happ-"
"You could've gotten yourself killed!" He cut her off, "I explicitly told you that thing would be too dangerous for you to use!"
"I wasn't initially gonna use it Danse! I was just joking around. But shit, was I supposed to just watch you die? I had to do something!"
"Getting yourself killed isn't a tactic I would've thanked you for."
She sat up now, uncaring of his protests, "What the hell is this really about anyways Danse? Are you really that fucking angry over me disobeying you? For fighting to save my friend? What about all of the times we fought together in the Brotherhood and you didn't act overly protective of me then? Hordes of Ghouls and goddamned Super Mutants fought together. I'm you're comrade, I'm going to fight and protect-"
"Nora! What the hell am I supposed to do if you die?!" His brows knit and his eyes looked hurt. Her breath caught in her throat. "What am I supposed to do?...you took...an unnecessary risk. I...so I would've survived. But if you died...for me there'd be nothing else…"
Nora was speechless, and her eyes went bright. Any anger she had towards him washed away. She hadn't expected any of this. "What...what are you saying?" her cheeks became flushed and her mind buzzed dizzily.
"You're all I have keeping me here. I don't have any other friends. I don't have any family. You think any of these people here give a damn about me? You think anyone else in the whole Commonwealth -aside from Haylen, whom I can't even really contact- gives one damn about me?" His eyes were hard and he was shaking a little.
A feeling Nora couldn't quite describe washed over her. Impulsively, and without thinking, she grabbed a hold of him and held him tightly to herself in an embrace. "I'm so sorry I scared you….but I'm not sorry I saved you. Not one bit. Do you hear me? Because I'm selfish and I can't lose another person I care in my life either." she disengaged and held him at arm's length to look into his eyes. A bright smile spread across her lips, "But I will be more careful in the future okay? I promise."
Danse seemed almost comically bewildered and dumb-struck. His face was on fire, eyes were wide, and lips pursed into a straight line. He had wanted to be angry, but her embrace, her apology...her telling him he mattered to her...caught him completely off guard. "Uhh...I umm...well we can move you inside now…..you have no spinal injuries." And with that he stood straight as a board and awkwardly walked away.
Nora bit her lower lip to stifle a laugh. While everything she said was true, she was counting on throwing him off his guard to wiggle her way out from his anger. She would have to continue to use this tactic in the future.
Her own cheeks were still flushed and she couldn't stop grinning. What a dork. Can't even take a compliment without sputtering furiously. And he was angry with her because he had cared...it was charmingly sweet of him….
Fuck. What was she thinking? Was her line of thought really going in that direction? She laid herself back down and laid a hand on her forehead. No no no no. NO. Just no. She didn't think he was sweet. She didn't really like the feel of his muscles pressed closely against her own body as she hugged him. She didn't watch his ass as if it were a blockbuster hit at the theaters as he walked away from her. That feeling of lightning and butterflies in her chest didn't really happen.
She...was crushing on the man...hard.
"Hey Blue. You done feeling up your man?"
Almost hysterically, in an odd, high-pitched voice, "PIPER I WASN'T FEELING HIM AND HIS MUSCLES UP."
"...What?...pfft what?!" Piper choked out a laugh. "What?!"
"Nothing." Calm and collected attorney Nora immediately took over. She sniffed and pointedly spoke, "Hey Piper. What's going on?"
The reporter's brow shot up and and her grin only grew larger. "Pfft..okay then Blue...anyways, Trashcan man passed us and said you're mostly fine...just a small concussion. Says you'll need bed rest for the rest of the day just to be careful, but you should be fine by the morning." she held a hand out to her friend, "C'mon Blue let's go tuck ya in."
Nora took her hand and immediate wooziness hit her. "Oh God I really cracked my head hard didn't I?"
"Oh yeah...we were all really worried. Thankfully Danse was around. He was the only one of us who had any form of medical knowledge...guess the Brotherhood of Steel gets some things right."
Nora just nodded along as Piper led her into the Castle's interior. "Is Preston alright? I heard Danse saying something about killing him before charging off into battle."
"Well he immediately rushed to your side after jumping out of his power armor. Geez Blue you need to see that thing. The arms are completely busted. The plates are melted to shit. But right after he made sure you were okay he immediately got into Garvey's face and flipped absolute shit. I mean I seriously think he was gonna actually go through with what he said. But, MacCready and I stepped in and broke it up. Just had to remind the two about how you would feel about waking up to a bloodbath. Anyways, he kind of just sullenly sat by your side until you woke."
Another small blush filled her face. Oh god she felt so pathetic for acting like a teenager again.
Piper helped her down into a makeshift cot that one of the Minutemen set up.
"You gonna be okay here by yourself? Preston asked me for help clearing out some rubble in the western wing...:"
Nora looked thoughtful as she wrapped a blanket around herself. "Yeah...can you bring me my pack though? Maybe I'll play a few holotape games until I fall asleep."
"Sure Blue." and with that, the reporter left Nora alone with her pack of holotapes.
Digging around up to the shoulder in her pack, Nora sifted around until she found exactly what she wanted.
Out came a worn out holotape that was simply labeled, "Hi Honey!"
She ran her fingers on the writing and sighed. Nate...his writing was always so much prettier than hers. She chuckled lightly. God she was always such a mess compared to him. He with his ever relaxed, easy smile.
She didn't know how she had nabbed him. She was wild and silly and always high strung. But he would laugh, and play along, and love her with all of her flaws. He was her best friend.
She missed him so damn much.
She popped in the holotape and pushed play.
"*Feedback sound.* Oopsie. Ha ha ha. No, no, no. Little fingers away. There we go. Just say it. Right there. Right there. Go ahead. *baby giggles* Ha ha! Yay! Hi honey! Listen…"
She put a hand to her mouth as she smiled and and tried fruitlessly to choke back tears. She played it until the very end.
"...But everything we do no matter how hard, we do it for our family. Now say goodbye Shaun. Bye bye, say bye bye. Bye honey, we love you."
As the tape ended, Nora reached around her neck and pulled a small chain out from where it was tucked into her shirt. On it, a man's wedding ring glinted. She couldn't bare to part with it like she had own in order to survive.
She held it to her lips and kissed it, talked into it, "Bye honey...I'll always love you Nate. Always."
And she decided to let go.
