Nick didn't know what Piper had expected him to do. Nora was a grown adult, able to spend her time doing whatever with whoever she chose to do. He couldn't very well scold her like some petulant child. Piper had implored him that all she would need to do was talk to her, sure, as if that was the easiest thing in the world, to just walk up to the woman whose heart who stomped to pieces and then demand she mourn you in a way that you find more permissible.
Then again, Piper had a good head on her shoulders, and she could read a room like nobody else. If she was concerned about Nora, there was a damn good reason. So he made his way back to Diamond City, and kept to the shadows he knew so well from years of stakeouts. He'd expected to find them at the noodle bar, but there was nobody there. It was too quiet. The last thing he wanted to do was just knock on her front door, so he headed to the office instead to decide his next move. Might as well pick up a file or two while he was in town as well, get some work done. He probably wouldn't see her until the next day anyway, if he saw her at all. He was halfway there when he was stopped by a member of DC Security.
"Hey Nick! You lookin' for Nora and Hancock?"
He grimaced. "Wouldn't say 'looking for' exactly. Piper asked me to stop by, make sure things were on the level. Doin' her a favour, is all. Just another day on the job.."
The guard scoffed. "That ghoul? On the level? Nick, is your programming screwy?"
"I'm beginning to wonder."
"Well, you won't find them here. They took off yesterday, with nearly all of Solomon's stock. Heading back to Goodneighbour, and good riddance to them. Do you know they got themselves banned from the noodle bar? A Diamond City first!
"Shit. How'd she look?"
"Honestly? Good. Did somethin' to her hair. But I dunnno.. something ain't right... She's different. Shifty, almost. Couple a times during my late shifts? I spotted her up on that roof of hers, building and using... shame. Hate to see her go down that path, after all she's done for everybody and everything."
Nick could feel a gear somewhere, literally grinding inside his head.
using all the chems... like you used up her.
"Using what, exactly?" he asked, ignoring that sinister voice at the back of his mind. "We talkin' hard chems here?"
"Pretty sure, but I hope I'm wrong. Coulda just been cigarettes, maybe?" He shifted his gun to his shoulder, and sighed. "I know that between the two of them, this city is pretty dry when it comes to smokes now."
"Thanks for the recap, officer. I'll check out Home Plate. You say she was on the roof?"
"Yeah, yeah... and listen, Valentine? I hope she's ok. You two seemed happy. Whatever it is that's got her down, I'm sure it'll pass. Just maybe get her out of that ghoul's influence, you know? Before he does too much damage?"
It wasn't exactly breaking and entering if you had a key, was it?
Nick remembered the day she'd slid it across his desk. "You and Piper both have one. I feel safer knowing that you two can keep an eye on things. I trust her like a sister, and you... well... I trust you most of all." She'd blushed, admitting that to him, and he'd been damn proud to hear it, happy to claim the key and water her plants from time to time... everything had been so much lighter then.
The way things had shaken out for them... was that trust gone now? Would she still want him with a key to her home, able to just open the front door without her around and stroll on in?
probably not.
Switching on the lights, he swept the room with his eyes, looking first, not wanting to disturb the "crime scene", as it was. The smell of stale smoke hit him hard, and he sighed. He was a hell of a detective but he felt like even if he wasn't, he would have been able to tell Nora wasn't in a good place. The place was a mess, littered with empty mac and cheese boxes, dirty noodle bowls, and enough open and empty liquor bottles to make his insides seize. The coffee table was also covered in empty syringes and turned over mentats tins. They had better all have been from Hancock, he thought. It also looked like every ashtray she'd ever scavenged had been dragged out and put to use. She'd never seriously smoked before, only borrowed one or two of his when situations became too stressful for her, so where had all these empty cigarette packages come from?
She'd never let this place get so messy, not once. It had actually been the opposite. Cleaning had been a way for her to shut down her mind, and he had once teased her mercilessly when he caught her organizing his case notes in order to distract herself from Preston's constant pleas for help.
Finished with the living room and kitchen, he made his way up the stairs, not quite comfortable snooping in her bedroom yet. Nora had made up a second sleeping area there for whoever she was traveling with in case they had to crash for a night. More mentats containers, a few stray shotgun shells... and a perfectly made bed.
According to Piper, Hancock had been staying with Nora for several days already before she decided to visit. That meant the ghoul had been here nearly a week and yet the bed he should have slept in was as neat as a pin.
you're assuming they slept.
He switched off the entire train of thought.
Instead he headed for the roof, climbing up the metal ladder and pushing the hatch door open with his shoulder. The fresh air felt good. He took a deep breath, and then let it out in a completely defeated sigh as his gaze fell to a wooden milk crate bulging with empty drug canisters.
He had really, really wanted that guard to be wrong.
He took in the lawn chairs, and yet another overflowing ashtray. He could tell which were hers, marked on the ends by her pinkish lipstick. But there were other colours too, one a deep red, and one that seemed almost black. Visitors? Or just trying new shades? Reinvention was quite common after heartbreak, sure, but reinvention with Hancock at her side?
Nick sat down heavily on one of the chair and drew out a smoke of his own. He lit it, inhaling as deeply as his mechanical lungs would let him. It wasn't that he didn't like Hancock. Hell, he considered him a friend! Hard not to, with all the years they'd shared, all the events they'd been a part of. Being a synth meant Nick had seen a lot of people grow up and he'd buried a lot of good people who had simply outlived him. Hancock understood what that was like, and the two had a strange bond because of it. Still, even if he was a friend, Nick knew he was the type of friend that was best in small doses. Hancock's idea of a party had never been to Nick's taste. As a detective, he'd seen what too many doses of Jet or Med-X could do to a person all too often. Relationships destroyed, families divided... that was the side of chem life Nick was familiar with. It was the morning after, never the night of. Hancock could live any way he wanted, and Nick was fine with that
He was not fine with that kind of life claiming Nora.
Rooting through the box, he had expected to find mentats, probably jet, anything that counted as a low level chem. They'd been there, sure, but what had caused him to curse loudly was what he found at the very bottom, hidden away under crumpled paper and still damp-from-tears napkins; three empty syringes of Psycho.
He couldn't get to Goodneighbour fast enough.
