AN: Thanks again guys! Your reviews make me blush! Seriously. I've been playing Smash Brothers since Bayonetta's been released and I adore her! I do have a Smash Bros fic in store for the future. It's no Fallout but yeah. Anyway, here's the chapter you've been waiting for, because there's more to this with an interesting, perhaps revealing detail. Enjoy!

Chapter 8

MacCready's Take

Only the suicidal take on the world alone.

Not the motto that MacCready lived by, personally, but it was the way he had perceived the woman of impossibilities.

She happened to cross him in Goodneighbor and hired him for his services. She seemed blank as an individual but the smile she wore said otherwise. She held an air of beauty that surrounded her, not that he would admit it. She was definitely something else. For all those he'd met previously, the way she was, just seemed to contrast.

His work as a mercenary just held him by for the caps he desperately needed. Any sane person who wanted to travel the Commonwealth had to have someone watching their backs. Delta swung on by and proved his word. He would take this on just like any other job, like any other person who's ever hired him. It was supposed to be like that...but he didn't feel the way he wanted to.

Perhaps it was just...what ever it was, the way Delta was...calmed him. She was a talented woman that had taken on the Commonwealth alone before. But having the company wasn't the worst idea to her. Their talks lead to her revealing the smallest of details. They had a lot in common.

Dead spouses...and a son left behind in it all. But she didn't leave her son willingly. Mac didn't either but, he had those he could depend on to take care of Duncan. Delta's loneliness wouldn't let her avoid the chaos of the world for long. Especially when she was hunting down her son. You would definitely need a helping hand.

Within their travels, they blended together as battle buddies. They were on each other's six's and it felt good, rather than the boring people he'd aided in the past. His feelings betrayed him yet, he didn't mind it. The world was harsh, violent and cruel to the point the only part of it you clung on to were the people that existed to help keep you alive no matter how much you hated them and the reality of the Commonwealth before them. In truth, that one woman made it seem good again. Like Lucy. God...just like Lucy. He missed her dearly. In the breadth of his own self to ensure the standards were left dull, it failed miserably. Because Delta helped jump start the erase of his doubt of a light left in the darkness that made it all okay. It wasn't as bad.

Not that it mattered too much. It was just significant to him that was all. To be considered unique was a bonus in his book. Someone he could eventually depend on. When ever it was, they had become friends. The guilt bore into him when she told him her side. That she saved his son before her own. The complexity of her heart drove him made sometimes.

"After a while, I gave her caps back." He told Nick in their discussion.

"It didn't seem right."

Nick could write down the man's story. It seemed to only say the exact summary of Delta's ways.

"A parent's love. You and her know the importance of the child you helped to bare. Your gut tells you they matter. Their futures matter."

Mac couldn't agree more.

"Right...yeah it meant more to me someone didn't use me as ya know, as a tool. Not that I mind. I prefer to keep distant to my clients. It was supposed to be more about the work, not the fu- not to spill out our personal lives."

Nick adjusted himself as he pulled out a cigarette and gave it to him, lighting it up for him as Nick got out another for himself. MacCready nodded in thanks.

"So the story goes. You get all close as tacks, you gave her everything. She doesn't judge..."

Man Nick was good as they say. He took a puff and his body seemed to relax slightly.

"Well y-yeah. I mean, who does that...they have this gift to gut your emotions. Like I said, would have been completely content without that being shoved in there. Dunno if being a parent had much to do with that..she lost her son. If I was in her position, perhaps I could have done the same thing for hers. I know you're a synth n' all. Like you'd expect from everyone you speak with, they aren't in my good graces. You thinkin' a synth took her?" He asked.

The Detective didn't even seem to be bothered by that comment. General Commonwealth standards didn't bring a lot of love to them but Diamond City treated this one far better than any he'd encountered in the past.

"Someone like me? Haha...make sure they include the warranty on that one. Gotta cause some scars for sure." Nick joked.

Still didn't make MacCready feel at ease. It was the norm of the Institute wasn't it? The way they just felt like they had the gall to come and take people when ever it pleased them. It made MacCready feel better every time one of his bullets took one out. One less synth mongrel to worry about.

"In all likelihood, it's a distinct possibility we're working on. We're all thinkin' the same scam. Though we're taking all points. So if it was them then yeah, if not...then Heaven help the poor bastards that did...they won't get away with it for long." Nick explained to him.

He knew it. Had to be the Institute for sure. Assholes. It was always them. If he could, he'd storm into their hidy hole and blast them all to the depths of the hell they made for themselves. They were like the Gunners. Those he'd like to just bury so damn deep that the devil himself would come to claim them. Speaking of the Gunners, MacCready shot up as he recalled something Delta and he discussed. It could have been important.

How could he forget one of their many adventures together. No matter the mark on himself, the way Delta acted was...incredibly strange. While they could joke and speak like ordinary adults would, much to MacCready's inner child's disappointment, a day that became so...unclear to him that he wasn't sure what he had to make of it at the time because when it was approached and done and dusted, it never ever came up again...and Delta turned back to normal after the initial awkward behaviour she showed. He knew something was up about a week later, when she no longer needed his services.

"While you're here...I figure I'd let you know...while the problems with the Gunners was fixed up, Delta and I found something on one of their terminals. Didn't seem important but the way Delta reacted to it, could be of some help."

Nick popped straight to attention. Yeah it was straight as they were taking one of their hideouts that this had happened. A lot of them liked to keep a lot of the data and journals on record. MacCready...if he'd wrote anything, he prefered ol' fashioned pencil and paper. Lucy'd always encouraged him to do that. Said if he needed to ever look back, he'd easily see how far he'd come. He advised Delta of the same.

"Delta has this..habit of going to terminals...hacking them. I personally thought and often spoke of how much of waste of time lookin' into those boxes were, but she was tapping with those fingers of hers, those eyes entirely focused on the screen. My priority was making sure those pri- the Gunners were taken down. I waited as patiently as I could, perhaps what ever she was looking for. It took time to do what ever you did with those things. So I waited, turned around. Then turned again a few minutes latter when it was all went deadly quiet. She went dark. I put my hand on her shoulder and asked her why it was takin' so long."

The Detective was writing this all down. Not sure if he actually had to be put every word down. Maybe the important parts but seriously...even his secretary was jotting everything down too so they could...maybe compare notes. What ever. Mac continued onwards.

"I moved around to the side to face her...it took me a while to realise it wasn't the glow of the screen that was making her turn a funny colour. It was the look of shock and disbelief. She was pale as can be."

Nick rubbed his chin, eager to learn more.

"Did you manage to get a quick glimpse of what she was reading?" Nick wondered.

MacCready recalled squinting and tilting his head once twice. He was just so curious would have made her react that way.

"What ever I glimpsed before she came to...some kind of message? Involving the Gunners talking about some group known as the Paragons? I dunno. Meant nothing to me. She said it was all good and spoke nothing of it again."

Nick froze as well. The machine had to be put back by his assistant after a moments quiet. Maybe the synth had an idea about what it was all about.

"Ring a bell?" He asked. His reaction seemed to suggest he knew more than he was letting on.

He watched as the synth was entirely focused onto a note pad and told himself to look that up later. He then turned back to MacCready, who was puzzled by it all. He'd asked Delta about it, but she repeatedly told him it was nothing. She'd become increasingly distrusting of Mac after that incident. He saw it in her eyes. Bullshi- It wasn't nothing at all! He felt the need to push, but he feared...out of all the weirdest of emotions, feared that he'd pushed Delta too far that she'd dismiss him and never say anything outside of business and casual banter ever again. She did dismiss him but...his reaction was mixed and the reasons for doing so...it was a mixed case of why. He didn't push that hard did her? He was...again, betrayed by the irritability of his emotional side, worried about her. It wasn't anything huge that she was giving away. MacCready could detect the subtle changes.

Then in the end, she told him to go in the most stone-cold way. Besides the emotion she'd been leaking out throughout the week before hand, she showed absolutely nothing. Nothing at all.

He hadn't seen her for five months after that.

"Hmmm...I can work with that. Look I think I've got enough for now. Let the next one in. Thank you for your help. I'll uh...let ya know anymore once we know." Nick replied. His tone changed slightly, but MacCready wasn't going to question it. He just wanted Delta to be safe.

He found it odd how a synth of all people were looking into the matter at hand. But he was glad someone was going to do it. Mac tried to take it as another case but it stuck into him quite painfully that he never could quite nudge it from his head. As Deacon found him, he wasn't expecting anything until he let her name slip from his lips. His eyes had taken head to find connection for what ever eyes were behind those sunglasses. The betrayal erupted. He knew this wasn't something that could be let go so easily, nor did he never change his opinion that this had been definitely larger than Delta claimed it was.

Something wasn't right at all. And now there was the proof that his instinct devoured on the very investigation itself. Nothing physical, but the hints were there. He was now, somewhat glad he wasn't entirely alone.

The same couldn't be said for Delta. Though from what he's seen so far, that loneliness has been far and few in between.

He reluctantly shook Nick's hand, doused his smoke in the tray and went outside. Nick would need his services again, that was noted. His heart skipped as he saw a short haired woman in a tartan shirt who grinned at him. It was more to surprise than anything else.

"Oh is it my turn yes?" She spoke with a French accent.

He paid no mind to the pretty woman and swirled his head around to answer her question.

"Oh, yeah. Definitely. Just give as much as you've got if you're here because what I think you're here for. If it's about Delta...I'm surprised. She never told me she had this many friends."

The woman's expression were more innocent than anything he'd ever perceived. Even with Delta who's face and manner held some experience. This one was far more perky. But this made Mac even more puzzled than before. Part of him didn't actually care for the fact, but...with Deacon, Hancock of all people (though he knew she'd helped him out at some point.) and partially others involved, the question that rang in his mind was the real purpose as why she'd hired him in the first place.

Did...Delta go through the same thought process as he? Maybe he was thinking too much into it, but...these people...Mac sensed they'd been close. She did not want them to get too close as what he was reading it as. Could be that. Could be anything. Could be related to what ever the f-, what ever that Paragon thing was.

The amount of caring was in level with the amount of pain you'd received the manner of a crisis.

MacCready knew that all too well.

He watched Curie go inside as Deacon approached him with a cigarette in his hands and a stupid grin on his face. Another one?

"Here's your smoke as promised. I never lie about deals like that." Deacon joked.

MacCready eyed him carefully as he took it. He'd rather get paid in caps, but everyone seemed anxious enough that a bit of old chemicals running through the veins seemed to make one react better than caps ever could. Caps would be better though.

"I'd rather get paid to lie. Not getting paid at it gets you the honest truth." He commented.

Deacon took out another cigarette and lit them both up.

"So...Delta paid you. You gave the money back. Were you paid not to care?" Deacon asked him.

MacCready answered by putting the cigarette in his mouth.