Juniper felt the blissful warmth from the sun on her skin. The soft scent of roses filled her senses. The crashing sounds of the ocean in the far distance, and she felt she was finally at peace. Her eyes opened and she was overlooking the ocean on a cliff side garden, everything was lush and the sky was clear. In the back of her mind this seemed too good to be true, but she didn't care. The white stone railing felt cool to the touch and she ran her hand along the edge. The trees rustled and a soft wind blew through her hair, it was down and wasn't straightened. How long had it been since the wind just blew through her hair? How long since she hadn't been worried about someone trying to shoot her or, worse? Her curls tickled against her bare skin and she shuddered. In the distance she heard a baby crying, turning she started to follow the stone path through beautiful rose bushes towering above her. They varied in shades but all had soft red, and violet tones, each had a slightly different scent as she grazed up the corner of her white dress she felt the moss between each stone while she walked barefoot. The conservatory came into view and she crossed the short bridge over the glistening stream. It was large and connected to a beautifully white large estate. Following the white stone stairs, she was met with a strong feel of familiarity tugging at the back of her mind. The doors were open and she walked to the side of the glass room and found a white bassinet tucked away behind a flowering lemon tree. Juniper pulled back the top covering the bundle and was met with piercing green eyes and a tuft of ginger hair. She felt herself smile and reach out towards the small fingers reaching back for her.
She jerked up and was met with the familiar smell of mustiness. She looked around and saw she was still at the dugout inn, and she felt an undeniable dread. Her hand was extended and she slowly moved it down, feeling the familiar emptiness she felt everyday. She threw her head back down and sighed, looking up at the ceiling. Was that real?
It felt almost painful to think about her dream, the lushness of it compared to the present. The door opened, and her eyes darted over towards the doorway, where MacCready was walking in. He looked over and held up his hands.
"Am I interrupting something?" She relaxed her expression and shook her head.
"Sorry, what time is it?" She pushed herself up in bed and looked around the room sleepily.
"10, you got big plans for today or what?" He sat down and started to shove supplies into his pack.
" I...I think i'm ready to go after Kellogg." She watched him stop and look up at her. " But first I want to take care of your gunner problem, for good." He sat up and put his arms on each side of the chair, looking over at her with a serious aura.
" You sure about this boss? These aren't some loosely organized pack of raiders in an alley." He looked at her almost expecting her to retract her offer.
She inched to the edge of the bed and started to slip into her vault suit under the blanket. It zipped up to her stomach, and she got up and finished zipping it over her white cropped tank. Her hair got wound up in a loosely twisted bun, and she looked over at him. He looked back over at her around the same time, and looked embarrassed. Fuck.
Quickly she looked away and cleared her throat.
" I said, I'd do this for you and I meant it." She grabbed her pack and let it slide into place, heading for the door. It was hard for her to say something meaningful or witty after that dream. Not to mention the splitting pain deep inside of her head, made her more impatient. Along with the fear that she wasn't sure if she should remember what happened so far in the past. It was too painful, most days to even think about what an area had looked like before the bombs fell. She'd blink and be walking down pre war streets, and navigating through crowds of people. She didn't want to talk about it, especially to MacCready...Maybe Nick would understand. He'd been working on a backlog of cases whenever she'd go to visit the office. Juniper sighed and pushed the Inn's entrance open, and was met with the now too familiar commute through the old baseball field.
"Are they seriously shooting at that brahmin?" They both were crouched behind a huge pillar of the old highway. The sun was high and she felt sweat on the back of her neck, annoyed Juniper grabbed the top of her vault suit and tried to air it out. Above them gunners were cheering and laughing while the brahmin struggled to avoid the heavy laser fire. " Take out the guards by the lift, with all the other noise it's going to get drowned out." MacCready nodded and steadied himself, watching the first guard's movement through the scope. Within a second the guard was on the ground and the cheering continued. It was impressive, but also a little unsettling. She adjusted her footing and watched his scope follow the next guard.
He took out the second guard when he walked around the shack by the lift. The third was farther away and Juniper took him out easily with her combat rifle. They both sighed with relief when all three deaths had gone unnoticed.
" Do you have a plan for this? Or are you just gunna go in guns blazing?" He curled his lip a bit and gave her a side glance. Juniper shot him a look.
" As a general of the minutemen, I always go in with a plan." She said smiling, but MacCready looked away rolling his eyes, and when he looked back she was gone. He stood up and saw her dashing towards the lift, while everyone above was distracted.
" Gunna get us both killed..." Holding back a smile, he slung the rifle over his shoulder and ran after her. Right when he made it on she had activated the lift, he was still riding the adrenaline, realizing he was finally about to take out both winlock and barnes.
" I'm going in and i'll clear a way for you." Juniper readied her laser rifle, Danse had given her. And nodded at MacCready. " Hang back and move forward after I clear the first few." The lift stopped and she slowly crouched and moved forward.
"Scanning…" Juniper froze with fear when she heard the metal voice, and looked up at the vacant bus and saw a red glow. She lowered her hand slowly onto her grenade belt and reached for a pulse grenade, and slowly tossed it into a window. She heard the assultron's core intensefiying, moments before the grenade went off.
" New plan Mac" She looked back at him, " Don't die." He turned to his 2 o'clock and fired. She turned and saw that he took a gunner down moments before he shot at her. Fuck
"Eyes up front, they're moving in fast." MacCready yelled towards her and she complied by sprinting to the far side of the bus. Through holes in the metal she saw, a gunner looking through the same hole and she jumped backwards. She fell down and kicked a new hole through the bottom and shot at the combat boot she saw. He tumbled down and she now had a clear shot at the back of his helmet.
"Fuck! She shot my fucking foot!" Before he could saw anything else she fired once more and his helmet melted from the laser. The smell of burning flesh washed over her and she turned her head to see MacCready shoving the stock of his rifle into a gunner's neck. The gunner's neck twisted unnaturally and she watched him fall backwards through the bottom of the freeway. MacCready looked over at her, chest breathing heavily. He raised his rifle again and she felt the vibration of the shot run through the concrete. Juniper got up and ran back over to the other side of the bus. Right when she rounded the corner, Barnes tackled her causing her to fumble backwards towards the elevator.
" Should have never came here." He snarled thumbs pressing hard into her trachea. Her eyes water and she felt his weight on her completely pushing the air out of her body. Tears ran down the sides of her temples and she felt things getting hazy. No not like this...Shaun…
Then the image of Shaun ran through her mind, then she saw the baby from her dream. Her eyes focused on Barnes and with whatever she had left in her body she threw her knee straight into his crotched. He screamed and loosened his grip enough for her to pushed him to the side freeing her right hand. Her hand scrambled and felt the laser rifle she breathlessly unloaded into the side of his face. His body slumped down and Juniper coughed heavily as she pushed herself away from him. Her hands felt tingly and it made it harder to crawl behind a concrete barricade. MacCready's voice broke through her haze.
" Taking heavy fire over here!" His voice sounded strained and she pushed herself up with the rifle and ran through the next bus. It was cut in half and she saw a gunner in power armour about to reach MacCready behind his Barricade.
" Hey, Nosebleed!" Juniper raised her rifle and shot through the gunner's leg that had no power armour attached. He fell backwards, and MacCready got up and leaned against the concrete and shot through the power armour helmet. The first shot cracked the glass and after the fourth, a trickle of blood ran through the cracks onto the concrete. He let out a breathe that he had been holding in and sat on the barricade. Juniper steadied herself and walked gingerly towards him. She sat down next to him on the barricade and half laughed and wheezed. MacCready scoffed and looked up, steadying his breathing.
" So, how does it feel being rid of the gunners." Juniper managed to say just above a whisper, and looked at him from the side. The tension in his face eased and he raised his eyebrows not opening his eyes.
" Like, I finally don't have to keep looking over my shoulder." She looked down and saw crimson soaking through his right thigh.
" You're bleeding, how do you not feel that?" She searched through her pockets and found a stimpack and jabbed it into his upper thigh. He hissed and slowly he breathed a sigh of relief.
" It's just a scratch from the metal in the barricade." He motioned towards the edge of the exposed concrete. "Don't tell me you use to be a nurse before all this." She scoffed and nudged him. He chuckled and looked at her. She watched his gaze stop on her neck and she shrugged.
" What happened to your neck?" His eyes darkened and he reached out towards her. Juniper felt her heart stop when she felt his fingers graze her what must be bruised neck. She winced a bit and he retracted his hand. " Is that why you're breathing harder?" He rummaged through his battered trench coat's pockets. Juniper forced a smirk and lowered onto the floor so she could rest against the barricade.
"What, did you think I was just really out of shape?" She rested her head against the concrete and forced a smile as she shut her eyes.
" I shouldn't have moved forward so fast." He inserted a stimpack as carefully as he could next to where Juniper still felt Barnes's hands against her neck. She opened her eyes and looked over towards him. He was staring intensely at the empty stimpack, looking like he was off in a distant memory." I was so quick to get revenge on Winlock and Barnes…" She tried to meet his gaze and he looked away filled with what looked like guilt.
" MacCready, I made the choice to come up here. Look around, it's done. We bea-"
" That's not the point!" His voice rang through the empty freeway. Juniper jerked back defensively and he saw her recoil. He ran his ran down his face and grunted.
" I didn't mean to yell, I just.." Juniper didn't dare breathe, she just looked up into his blue eyes. The eyes she rarely really looked at. They looked so deeply blue, deep enough to get lost into.
MacCready met her gaze, and felt himself entranced by the deep tone of grey. Like a hurricane he felt drawn in closer. He stopped when he saw her eyes look glassy with tears. He felt pangs of guilt for what happened to her, and how he felt.
" Hey.." He reached out to her and they both froze. He recoiled his hand and looked away. What the heck is wrong with me?
Juniper looked down and felt her face flush, nervously she wiped her tear away and stared at the ground. "Look, you're the only person that's alive that I know has my back. " He cut off and he looked out over the landscape of the overpass. " I have a lot of baggage that I'm not ready to unload." Juniper couldn't meet his gaze. She had gotten use how things were now, how every time she stepped outside a city there was a chance she wouldn't come back. How people expected her to magically fix every problem boston had accumulated over 200 years.
This is so fucking awkward, is this how he sees me? Do I seem that desperate? It wasn't that she didn't like the kid, but that's just it. He's a kid compared to 200 years.
"You're a good person, I ju-" She stood up and forced an awkward smile.
"We should get going." Is all she managed to get out before she got up and walked towards the elevator. MacCready watched her slowly and wordlessly got up to follow her down. He waited for her to move east back towards diamond city, but she never did. Instead she just kept walking north, avoiding hostiles while walking silently. When he got a chance he would sneak side glances over towards her, often staring at the bruises on her neck that he never asked how she got.
Juniper wasn't able to say anything after he pushed her away. She felt humiliated and guilty, what made it worse is that she doesn't know what she was expecting. God, We're both widows and for all I know he could have lost her more recently than I lost Al… She looked out over towards the lake north of sunshine co op. What about Al… She felt herself cringe, she was in between feeling guilty but not at the same time. MacCready had stopped and looked at the lake.
"Beautiful.." He said just above a whisper, she looked at him. He was so memorized by it she felt guilty that she'd seen it before the bombs.
"It is." She replied just as quiet before she kept walking around it towards sanctuary. MacCready followed in tow.
The sun had started to set, and MacCready was anxious. He knew they weren't exactly talking at the moment, but he didn't want to be walking out in the open after dark. He eyed the cliffs to the left of them. He watched the blood leaves float in a swampy body water, and saw a dark reflection on the water. He stopped and reached out for her right arm, she stopped and wordlessly followed his gaze. The dark reflection left the cover of the boulder and appeared about 20 yards away from them.
" Yao guai.." MacCready kneeled down and pulled her down with him. She reached for her laser rifle and he reached for his rifle. The creature was still unsure of their presence, until Juniper reloaded. Fuck. He quickly tried to aim for the mutated bear, and it jerked to the left at the last second the bullet only grazing it's back. He lunged forward and MacCready did something stupid. Without thinking he pushed Juniper out of the way, and it sunk it's claws into his shoulders.
Juniper felt the wind being knocked out of her, she looked back just in time to see MacCready being pinned by the yao guai. No no no. Without thinking she charged the creature and pulled out the combat knife she'd pocketed at the interchange. She plunged the knife into the back of it's skull and kept pushing. She felt hot liquid falling in between her fingers, it screamed out in pain and jerked upwards. Holding on as tight as she could, she kept pushing it further until it slowly slumped down and she fell down with it. Juniper scrambled to get up off of the corpse, she ran over to MacCready and looked down at him. Dropping the knife she slumped next to him, he'd lost a lot of blood. " Mac.." Panicked she searched for stimpacks, her hands shakily jabbed the first two into each shoulder. She tossed them aside and searched for med x, she only had one syringe left and she jabbed that into his left shoulder. If they were going to be stuck out here for awhile, he'd need his left arm to aim. The med x must have started to work because his expression relaxed. " MacCready..? Hey." He didn't respond, and she realized how close they were to sanctuary. Scanning through her pack she found the flare gun Preston gave her, she aimed it straight up and fired. She heard it go off but she didn't look up, either Preston was going to get here or something far worse. She didn't care, all she knew was that she wouldn't be able to carry MacCready to Sanctuary. He was still bleeding, not as bad but enough that her knee closed to his left shoulder was covered in his blood. She felt sick, and dug through her bag and found her nice folded up blanket and ripped a big piece off and ripped that into two pieces. Juniper wrapped up his shoulder carefully, and leaned over to wrap the other one, MacCready moaned softly. She looked back down and saw his arm reach out to her, she took his hand and smiled at him sadly.
" Lu...Lucy." He whispered softly. Juniper felt her chest tighten. Even while he's passed out on death's doorstep.The feeling was so heavy, she could only look away. She held onto his hand tighter, and waited for whatever happened next.
MacCready felt the sun on his face, he tried to shift his weight but couldn't. He opened his eyes slowly, and didn't know where he was. He heard people talking far away, but couldn't understand what they were saying. He looked to the left and saw another bed pushed up against the one he was in. The room was decorated with antiques in perfect condition, and canvases with dirty artwork littered the walls. Is this her house?
While he was looking at bureau, a small preserved notebook caught his eye. He pushed his weight up on his shoulders and tried to make out the letters over the pain.
"Dream Journal?"
Juniper's cut through the other chatter, and he dropped back down onto the bed. He looked over his shoulders and saw they were both bandaged up and he was shirtless. He thought back and remembered the yao guai and tried harder to listen to what she was saying.
"Pressie, calm down I'm fine." The sweetness in her voice, steadied MacCready. She's safe.
"Preston, I'm just one person. A whole lot has happened between the vault and now. If you want to retake the castle so bad we will. I was waiting until our numbers were higher, but obviously you value what could be a pile of rubble over the lives of our men." MacCready felt the long pause and felt the heaviness of the conversation. She's never talked like that to me, or anybody else when I'm around. " If you want me to be a general then start treating me like one. You came to me and asked for my help. I can't keep walking around with the weight of the world on my shoulders."
Hesitantly the other man spoke. "I..I understand General. I apologize, I should put more faith in your leadership." MacCready heard Juniper sigh after a few seconds.
" Preston, come by later and we can talk about it in more detail ok? I..I didn't mean the last part, it's just been a hard few days." She almost snorted, " Ok a hard few months.." Her voice didn't seem as rigid. MacCready looked through the curtains of the room and saw settlers carrying produce and supplies. The streets were lined with oil lanterns, which MacCready smirked at. Just enough light to be safe and not enough to draw a lot of attention."I'll see you later tonight, and try to get some rest general." He heard his footsteps leave the house and saw the man walk towards the front of the settlement. He looked around the room, and saw ripped fabric on the floor. He eyed it closer, and realized it was her good blanket. Did she rip this up for me? A warm feeling spread across his chest and he pressed his hand to his bandaged right shoulder.
" Hey." He looked up and saw Juniper in the doorway. Her hair was still up, and she looked tired. Her button up had the sleeves rolled up halfway and her jeans loosely fit her.
" Man..I could really go for a cigarette" The way he said it, put her mind at ease. Juniper came and sat down next to him. She searched through his bag until she found an already opened pack of cigarettes.
" These things will kill ya you know?" She handed him the pack and her flip lighter smiling at him.
" Not to mention, they're nothing like they use to be."
He gave her a side glance." What won't nowadays?" He grinned back at her, and she looked away from him out towards her settlement. He studied her features from the side.
" I never properly thanked you for helping me be rid of the gunners." He saw her roll her eyes and he waited before he lit his cigarette."Do you remember when I told you about little Lamplight?" he tossed the lighter over towards his bag.
She thought for a second and turned to look at him. " The place where there's no adults, right? Where you grew up?" He nodded exhaling a puff of smoke towards the ceiling fan.
" I told you that after I left, I wandered the capital wasteland for awhile and eventually took up with the gunners. Even when I was with the gunners I was always watching my back, every man for himself kinda thing. That's why I ended up leaving the things I did, the things I saw... it got to be too much." MacCready felt uneasy, and he hoped it wasn't noticeable. " Look I know I can be a pain in the ass...I mean." He paused annoyed. " I know I can come off being arrogant and sometimes I come off like I want to be alone." MacCready stopped again and looked out of the window besides him. " Nothing could be farther from the truth, being alone scares the heck out of me. We've been traveling together for awhile now, and I realized how much I missed having someone I could depend on." He turned and looked at her, his blue eyes focused. " I just wanted you to know that I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that it stays this way. I want to keep being someone you can depend on."
Juniper felt her heart beating so fast it hurt. " MacCready, you don't have to thank me you saved my ass more times than I can count." Besides you're a hell of a shot. There's no way she was going to tell him that though.
" Look I don't forget that sh- err things like that." Before he could say anything else Juniper nudged him with her shoulder.
" Hey you don't have to worry about cursing around me, It doesn't bother me." His eyes saddened and he avoided her eyesight as he sighed.
" I figured you'd say something about it sooner or later. It's not about you, it's about a promise…" He flicked his ashes into the tray next on the bedside table. There's no going back after this.
" When I left the capital wasteland, I didn't just leave little lamplight behind I left my family behind too. The name you heard Vadim mention Lucy, she was my wife. We had a son named Duncan. I promised Duncan that I'd clean up my act and try to be a better person." He chuckled, " It must sound pretty stupid, coming from a guy who shoots people for a living huh?" He took a drag from his cigarette, and she turned her body to face him.
" You must have had a good reason to leave them...well him." She paused and remembered what MacCready had told Vadim a few nights ago. If his wife died who's taking care of Duncan?
" Who's taking care of your son Duncan?"
" My son, he's sick. I don't know what's wrong with him." His voice sounded so far away, and like it hurt to even say the words out loud. "One day he's fine running around our settlement...then he took a fever and these blue boils popped up all over his body. Last I saw him he could hardly even walk, I couldn't ask him to come with me…" His mouth went dry. " I don't know how much longer he's going hold on for." He felt Juniper intertwined his fingers with hers, and he looked at her.
" Why didn't you tell me this sooner? You know I'll help you find a doctor or whatever Duncan needs." He scoffed and furrowed his brows.
" You've already done so much for me, It feels shi- sleazy asking for anything else."
" You're not asking for yourself though you're asking for Duncan, you're son." MacCready couldn't believe his ears. I might be able to finally do this. He laughed, even though it hurt his shoulders.
"Hey, be careful of your shoulders." She frowned and he smiled back at her.
"I'm not sure what I did to be this lucky, but I'm not going to question it." Juniper felt her face flush at his words.
" A-anyway, who or what do we need?" She tried not to stutter and failed. MacCready put his cigarette out in the ashtray and retracted his hand from hers. She felt herself wanting to reach back out for the comfort of his touch. The need to feel someone else's warmth...It was maddening. When she thought about what she was thinking, and she put her hands under her legs. He pushed his feet out of the covers and onto the floor, finding his boots He started to put them on as he continued to talk.
" It's not going to be easy, I'm not going to lie to you. I tried doing it myself before, but there were so many feral ghouls I barely made it out of there alive. A few months ago I bumped into someone named Sinclair, he claimed his friend caught some kind of disease. I Didn't take him seriously until he said his partner broke out in blue boils. He dug up information on a place called Med-Tek Research, they even managed to get the building's security codes." He paused, and pulled his undershirt over his bandages."Unfortunately, he died before they could go. That's no coincidence though right? Med-Tek has to be where the cure is." He looked at her desperately. Juniper looked down and scrolled through her pipboy over to the map.
" I haven't found that place yet, do you have the coordinates?" MacCready nodded, and rushed over towards the other side of the room. He kneeled and looked through the map.
" I'll mark where it is, and we can go out there when you get the chance." He looked up at her, and held onto her arm. "Even if it takes me the rest of my life...I'll repay this debt to you, I swear it. We'll cure my son...Duncan and I'll help you find Shaun..no matter what it takes." Juniper wanted to say something, but hearing Shaun's name flooded her head with emotions.
" MacCready.." Was all she could say before Codsworth appeared in the doorway.
" Mum, the preparations for tonight's supper are almost complete? Do you have any recommendations for the menu?" Juniper jumped away from MacCready at the sound of his voice and He almost fell over.
" No Codsworth, whatever you make i'm sure it'll be wonderful." The handy unit seemed to hover higher.
" Oh mum. Very good." He hovered out of the room and Juniper looked back at MacCready.
"I know Sturges was looking for me, I'll see you around supper." She stood up and looked back at him scowling. " Try not to do anything that would reopen your wounds." MacCready looked stunned, and grinned.
" I know, I know, no heavy lifting, and don't operate a motorized vehicle." He walked back over to the other side of the bed and put his rifle on his lap. Juniper smiled when she knew he wasn't looking and left the room.
The sun was hung high in the sky, and Juniper had a list of things to do before it went down. Sturges was over towards the far east side of the settlement, steel parts in hand as he eyed the wall. Her plan to surround the settlement with scraps from other projects had been going over well. So far from what Preston told her, the wall had stopped 2 groups of raiders and a lost gang of super mutants. She felt guilty she hadn't been there for the attacks but that's why she decided on the wall to begin with. The radio broadcast had also attracted unwanted attention, but it had brought in 6 new settlers. It unsettled her to think people could tune into their frequency and know exactly where they were.
" Workin hard or hardly workin?" he turned around and returned her grin. His hands always seemed to be covered in something, whether it be dirt or grease. This always made him seem more approachable. Although she always had ideas for the settlement, Sturges was the only one who made them realistic and do able. One morning she'd ran across the street in her sleeping clothes to the workshop, telling Sturges all about her idea of surrounding the settlement in a huge fenced in area. He was usually up before other settlers, and he had just listened to the idea at first. First he had just flatly said no, but Juniper followed him around the whole day making her case. Preston had watched from afar just shaking his head, knowing both parties were equally as stubborn. Eventually he handed her a blueprints for the fence, and she just stared at it. She didn't even realize he had been drawing them up.
" You know me, always into somethin." He looked over behind her and she turned to look. Jun was crouched and handing a carrot blossom to a little girl, she took the flower and gave him a smile holding it gently.
" Looks like Jun is coming around, how old is she?" She looked back at Sturges and he replied without looking back at her.
" About as old as his son was." Juniper looked back and saw Marcy smiling back at Jun when he stood up. He reached out for her hand and she intertwined her fingers with his. When her features weren't so harsh she looked so peaceful. Sturges interrupted as her thoughts had drifted to shaun. "Her parent's were killed by raiders, she wandered around until she found a group of settlers heading here. She needs some time, but eventually she might end up with a new mom and dad." She felt herself smiling, and watched the girl as she sat on the ledge by the workshop. She was smelling the flower and admiring it carefully.
"What's her name?"
" You won't believe me." Sturges chuckled, and Juniper turned back around. He sighed and looked at her, eyebrows raised. " Flower." Suddenly the blossom made sense,she wanted to run over and hug the little girl. Knowing how confused the little girl would be, she turned her attention towards the steel scraps.
" I think it's cute." she almost whispered. "Do you need help with patching the walls of jericho?" She looked at the wall, and pushed on areas to gauge the strength. Not bad for something made with centuries old junk.
" I could always use the help, you know how to weld?" He handed her his blow torch and watched her as she examined it.
" Vaguely, but I'm a fast learner." She smiled and he shrugged.
" I'll take what I can get, seeing as how you're the only other person who builds things... besides yours truly." He lifted up a scrap of steel and positioned it over a slight crack on a plank of metal.
"Do you mind, lending me any notes you have on modifying power armor?" He raised his eyebrow suspiciously.
" If I'm going to be some hard ass, policing the commonwealth, I should at least modify that power armor right? I found some new parts and lugged them back with me, after this could you take a look?" Juniper waited for an answer with baited breath. She could figure it out herself, but that would take more time than what she had. Especially if she wanted to get Shaun back before Christmas.
" Alright, alright, I'll take a look. Here wear goggles, I'm not gunna have you go blind over some scrap fencing." She grabbed the goggles and fitted them over her head, and had her first welding lesson.
