STOP. There are major spoilers in this chapter. If you haven't played through the main storyline, do not continue.

Don't blame me if you disregard this warning.


IN WHICH Renee returns from the Institute and is unable to cope with learning the truth about her son.


"I'm heading back to Diamond City. I'll be in my office waiting for you to tell me about the Institute when you come back!"

It'd been a few days since she told Renee that. Piper did her best to concentrate on the paper, writing articles, and helping Nat with homework, just like she did before Renee entered their lives. It all seemed so mundane now. Boring, almost.

One evening, she finished up her latest article a little earlier than planned. Just a short piece, interviewing John from the barbershop about some of the latest styles and techniques he was using. Superficial, yes, but it beat just not having any article to publish at all. Nat was already asleep and the alarm clock on her desk read just past eleven. Piper smiled. She had some time to herself.

She crept out the door and down to the Dugout Inn for a drink. She hadn't been there for quite some time, and she honestly missed the Borbrov Brothers' banter. As soon as she opened the door, she was shocked to see a familiar auburn-haired woman at the bar. "Blue?"

Renee slammed the empty bottle of moonshine on the counter. "Another."

"Eh, I don't think you need any more." Vadim stood nearby, cleaning a glass.

"I said another, damn it!"

Piper jogged up to them. "Blue, are you all right?" She placed her hand on Renee's shoulder.

"Get offa me." Renee shrugged her off. "Fine. If you don' wanna serve a paying customer then I'll get my booze somewhere else!" She slid off the stool and staggered to keep her balance. "Room's spinning…"

"How many did you give her?" Piper gripped her arms to steady her.

"I… I lost count. Yefim! How many did she have?" Vadim gathered up the beer bottle.

Yefim shrugged. "I don't know, brother. You kept giving them to her." He sighed and looked at Piper. "She has been here since, uh, since supper, yeah. Asked for a bottle and hasn't stopped."

Piper looked down at the woman. "Oh my god, Blue…"

"Don't feel so good." Renee shook her head. "Feelin' tired."

"Come on. Let's get you home." Piper pulled one of Renee's arms around her shoulders and wrapped an arm around the woman's waist.

Piper half-dragged Renee toward the Homeplate. Renee babbled something about the Institute the entire time, half-formed, incoherent sentences that Piper couldn't really understand. The reporter managed to get her inside the small apartment and onto the couch. "There. Just relax, okay?"

"P-Piper…"

She gazed down at the Vault-Dweller, who was now sniffling and tearing up. "Oh no. It's okay, I'm not mad. I've been drunk before too. It's okay, Blue." She sat next to the woman.

"They… The Institute, they…" Renee buried her face in her hands.

"Hey, you're home now. You don't need to think about them anymore." Piper pulled the Vault-Dweller in for a hug. "You should probably go to bed, yeah?"

Renee nodded and rubbed her eyes.

"You're gonna have a hell of a hangover tomorrow." The reporter led her upstairs and made sure she made it into bed. "I'll be by in the morning, okay?"

"G'night, Piper." Renee's voice was muffled where she laid face-down on the blankets.

"Good night, Blue." Piper smiled slightly and left the room, closing the door behind her. So much for time to myself.


The following morning, Piper let herself into the Homeplate after she saw Nat off to school. "Hey Blue, I'm back!" She hung her hat and coat on a rack nearby, shucking off her boots next. Renee liked to keep a clean home. "Blue? You up?"

She walked into the kitchen to find the woman standing over the sink chugging a bottle of beer. "Blue, what the hell are you doing?"

"What are you doing here." Renee didn't turn. She rested the bottle on the counter, her hand tightly curled around the neck. Her knuckles were white.

"I brought you home last night after you got yourself drunk at the Dugout Inn! Why are you drinking again? And so early in the morning?"

Renee grimaced. "I wouldn't expect you to understand." She brought the bottle to her lips again.

Piper closed the distance between them and tore the bottle from her hand. "Stop it, Blue. Something's wrong."

"Oh, so you noticed?" Renee made a move for the bottle again but Piper kept it just out of her reach. "Don't patronize me, Piper."

"What happened in the Institute?" Piper narrowed her eyes.

"I don't want to talk about it. Give me the beer."

"What happened, Blue?"

Renee growled deep in her throat. "I swear to god I'm going to break your arms if you don't give me that bottle." She took a step forward.

"Renee!"

The Vault-Dweller stopped. It was one of the few times Piper ever called her by name. She backed down, stumbling against the counter. She put a hand to her head and focused on breathing. "What?" She hissed.

"What happened to make you want to just…drink away your problems? I've never seen you like this. This isn't the Blue I know." Piper placed the half-empty beer in the sink. "I want to help you. But you have to tell me what's wrong."

Renee remained silent for several moments. She felt weak, shaky; her head hurt like a herd of Brahmin stampeding through it. "I found Shaun," she whispered at length.

"That's good! Isn't it? That's what you went in there for." Piper tilted her head.

"He's… I was sixty years too late, Piper. I was too late."

"That doesn't make any sense. We both saw Kellogg. He should've been dead then."

Renee took a shuddering breath. "There's a lot of it I don't understand. But… When I got there, I heard his voice. He was…leading me. To a room. And there was…" She collapsed to her knees. "He designed a Synth child to look just like him and I fell for it. I fucking fell for it, Piper. I thought it was the real Shaun but it wasn't, and I…"

Piper sat next to her, pulling her into an embrace as she did the night before. "I'm so sorry, Blue."

"He looked just like Nate." She whimpered as she buried her face in the reporter's shoulder. "He's going to die of old age before I hit forty!"

"I mean, technically you're like two hundred and thirty-something, right?" Piper winced at Renee's grunt of disapproval. "Sorry."

Renee pulled away. "Shaun is the Director of the Institute. They stole him away from me for an experiment with Synths. A fucking science experiment, Piper."

"But… Was he happy to see you?"

"I don't know. I don't care." Renee shook her head. "He… He said Nate's death was just collateral damage. My husband, his father, died to protect him and it was just…collateral damage. I… I have no son."

Piper, lost for what exactly to say, rubbed circles on the woman's back.

"I've been searching for so long, Piper. But I will never have him back. I can't accept the Institute. They're all heartless bastards." Renee gazed over at the reporter. "I want…" She blinked away her tears. "I want to go home."

Piper's brow furrowed. She knew Renee didn't just mean Sanctuary; she meant Sanctuary Hills, with her white picket fence and her husband and infant son, with Codsworth as their Mr. Handy butler and her job as an attorney, with clear nights full of stars and rainstorms that didn't burn the skin. "I know, but you can't. That world doesn't exist anymore…"

"It should've been me, Piper." Renee curled in on herself, hugging her knees to her chest. "I should've been the one to die, not Nate."

"Blue, don't talk like that. You've done so much for the people of the Commonwealth. And for… For me." Piper reached down to grip Renee's hand. "You survived for a reason. And I don't know what that reason is, but I know there is one. So you can't give up." She took a deep breath. "Can you promise me? That you won't give up?"

"I don't know how much fight I have left in me…"

"Then do it for me!" Piper pulled her close again, this time more desperate than the last. "We've been through too much to just quit now, got it? Damn it, Blue, you can't just give up because it didn't end up like you wanted! If I did that every time someone criticized the paper then Nat would've lost me years ago!"

Renee was silent. The only sound in the kitchen was that of their breathing and the faint voice of a radio announcer from the workshop downstairs. She nodded, finally. "…Okay. I'll do it—for you."

Piper tightened her grip. "Thank you."

"Piper…"

"Yeah?" The reporter pulled away.

"I have a seriously killer headache." Renee leaned back against the cabinets. "Mind if we take the day off?"

Piper let out a laugh and nodded. "Take as long as you need, Blue. I'll always be waiting."


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