A/N: nsfw. Last 1,000 words or so get a little heated, a little tame love for anyone who needs it. :) The next chapter will move past a decent chunk of time. Still have chapters in the works for more. Thanks.

Hancock sat up in his bed. He opened his eyes and found himself in a dark room. It was nighttime and the cool air from fall had found its way under his skin and he began to shiver.

He sat up upon realizing his clothing had been removed and that the sheets were wet from his own sweat. His heart was beating erratically and his head was pulsing. He took in a deep breath and felt incredible pain.

"Did a Brahmin dance on my chest?" he asked himself while swinging his legs over the side of the bed.

The only response to his question was a dog bark. Hancock looked down to find a curious Dogmeat sitting at his side.

"Well who are you?" Hancock asked, realizing it hurt him to speak.

Dogmeat only let out a soft whine.

"Do you know where my clothes are?" he asked Dogmeat jokingly. Hancock didn't expect for the dog to put its nose under the bed and pull out his familiar garb.

Hancock said "thank you," now slightly unnerved that this dog could understand him. He stood up, put on his pants and tied together the top with an American flag. His abdomen was still bare, but now he felt less chilled that when he had woken up.

"Where am I?" Hancock asked. Looking around the room he recognized the familiar layout of the room as it was from his dream, except it was definitely not still in pre-war condition.

"How did I get here? What the hell happened? Who undressed me? …I need a fucking drink."

Too many thoughts was making Hancock's head spin. He gave the helpful dog a nice pat on the head before he stepped out of the room. He looked down a dark hallway, across the hall was another room, and perhaps Nora would be –

Hancock stopped; he only took one step into the room before he realized where he must be. Yet, it was curious to him how he had managed to dream all of this. He had been asleep; he had never been here before, yet here he was looking at a baby's crib. This had to be Nora's home, her pre-war home. Why had he dreamt about this?

"Nora?" he called out.

There was silence.

Hancock walked over to the crib; he toyed with the broken rocket ship mobile and picked at the rotting wood. There were block letters on the floor, a dresser in the corner, all the components of a nursery still lingered after all these years. Suddenly the pain Nora had shared with him the other night became so very real.

He remembered his dream and thought how odd it was that he had dreamt he was here, with Nora, before the bombs…

Hancock could hear a commotion coming from outside. He returned to the bedroom where he awoke, and knelt on the bed. He pulled aside the makeshift curtain which allowed him a good view of what was going on outside.

"Garvey, leave me be." Nora told him.

Hancock watched as this, Garvey, grabbed Nora's arm and pulled her back towards him.

"General, you can't just disappear like that!"

"I can do whatever I want Garvey, I don't have to be here. The minutemen are large enough that they can take care of themselves."

"We need you, we need a leader, I need you, General." Garvey said.

"My name is not General. Stop calling me that." She said angrily.

Nora tore her arm out of Garvey's grip and made her way up the steps to her house. Hancock quietly stood from the bed and tried not to make any sound as an angry Nora flipped over what sounded like a large piece of furniture.

Dogmeat ran past Hancock straight to Nora the dog hoping to give its master some sort of help.

"Hey boy." Nora said, kneeling to pet Dogmeat, and giving him a scratch behind the ears. "How's he doing?"

Dogmeat barked.

"I'm fine." Hancock answered, stepping out of the darkness of the hallway, "got one hell of a headache though."

Nora looked to her left and found a shirtless Hancock standing in her hallway. His lean body was scarred but still so strong. Her face felt hot from staring at him, she sort of hated that she found him so attractive.

"I imagine so, been out for awhile now. All those chems working themselves out of your system."

"What the hell happened?" Hancock asked. "Haven't done it that hard in a while. At least tell me it was a party worth remembering."

"No party, and I can't imagine you've done that before." Nora said, "Your heart stopped. Twice by my count."

"Shit, how the hell-" he asked.

"I gave you a couple forceful stimpaks, and brought you here." She said.

"How'd we get here?"

"Had help from the minutemen, they showed up just in time." Nora said. Nora gave Dogmeat one last scratch before she stood up and gave a patient Riot her own attention.

"So you were the one tap dancing on my chest." Hancock said, "Did you undress me too?"

Nora stood up and smiled. "I'm glad you're more concerned with who undressed you rather than you know… dying."

"You undressing me? Me dying? Worth it." he stated.

Nora stood up and walked over to Hancock who was so proudly standing in her hallway, that smug look of his face.

"You should be resting." Nora said, she placed her hand on his bare chest.

Hancock placed his hand over hers, "I've been asleep for a while now, I could do with a little exercise."

"You weren't asleep all night, I was there, and you –"

Nora's sentence stopped short when Hancock pulled her against his body and kissed her with fervor. His hands snaked around her waist. But Nora pulled away from his kiss, breathing heavily,

"You can't-" Nora began, before his lips met hers once again. "You prom-"

Then she gave in, slightly enamored with his hands finding their way around her waist grabbing her ass and picking her up. Nora responded by wrapping her legs around him.

"Hancock." Nora said with a slight moan.

Hancock pressed the two of them against the wall while they both kissed and Nora's hands explored his skin.

"Call me John." Hancock said.

Nora's head tilted back as Hancock's lips nibbled at her neck and collarbone.

A small "John…" escaped her lips.

Then a very unwelcome knock came at the door.

"General! I insist that you talk with me, civilly." Garvey said while knocking on Nora's front door. Hancock pulled away from her.

"Goddamn it." Nora said. She shook her head and Hancock placed her carefully on the ground.

"I can get rid of him." Hancock said, unbuttoning the top button of her shirt.

"No, I'll take care of him." Nora said. "I was serious about you getting rest. So go do it." She was still grinning from what had just transpired between them.

"I really need you to do that properly…" Hancock said.

Nora licked her lips and reached down between his legs to grab his stiff cock, she gave it a good squeeze.

"Dogmeat will keep you company." Nora said. "He even likes to cuddle, unlike those nasty mole rats."

Nora let go of him and watched this look of pure lust spread across is face - it almost alarmed her – as flirtatious as he was, she had never seen him give such a look.

She slipped out from between him and the wall, walked over to the door and exited.

Hancock let out a large sigh, his chest still hurt, but it seemed to be at ease with his blood being involved elsewhere. He returned to Nora's bedroom and took his spot in the now dry bed, hoping that he could even catch an earful of their conversation outside.

"Where do you get off, Garvey?" Nora asked.

"General, I think that you know. You left Sanctuary with no word to anyone about where you were going, then you come running back, creating a scene, threatening those men's lives, while trying to save some OD'd ghoul." Garvey paused. "I think you can explain to me why you at least abandoned your duties."

"Duties? What duties? My duties are to go clear out an infestation of Radroaches every now and then? Maybe a gang of Super Mutants? I think if I can handle them on my own, a settlement I armed with turrets, guns and very able bodied men can handle them too." Nora was growing very angry. "It's not my job to build beds anymore, or plant crops, I'm done with this life, I can take care of myself and I've taken care of the minutemen long enough."

"General, if this has to do with the institute business… Sturgess said you didn't come back the same."

"Garvey, don't you dare bring up –"

"…and we all know about the Prydwen." Garvey began.

"That's just it Garvey, you don't know. Don't act like-" Nora began.

"I'm sorry General, I thought the minutemen meant something to you. I thought I meant something to you."

Nora was stunned, unsure about what Garvey was really getting at, was he mad she left Sanctuary behind, or left him behind?

"That Vault-Tec Rep said that ghoul hails from Goodneighbor, is that where you've been? Shooting drugs and living with lowlifes?"

"GARVEY!" Nora said. "Watch what you say… I built your home. I built your minutemen. I can take it all away." Nora said. "We'll be leaving in the morning, and don't worry about seeing me again. I won't be coming back."

"General!" Garvey said, once again grabbing her arm, "Please General, stay with me."

"Garvey, I-" Nora was surprised that Preston placed his lips on hers. But Nora's recoil was fast. Her first instinct was to reach for her gun, but instead she slapped him across the face.

The awkwardness that filled the silence between them was uncomfortable.

"Garvey, you're the new General now. You don't need me." Nora said. Pulling her arm from his grasp. "I've done my job here, now the rest is up to you." She walked away and entered her house without giving Garvey a second look.

She thought now was as a good time as any to leave it all behind, permanently.

Had he really just kissed her?

She took a deep breath and lead Riot to her back bedroom where she found a happy Dogmeant sitting at Hancock's side. She began to fill a trunk with anything she thought worth keeping. Hancock was lying on her bed, still shirtless, Nora wished she had climbed into that bed with him instead of talking to Garvey.

"He's definitely in love with you." Hancock said.

"Shut up. Please." Nora said.

"You guys have a thing or something?" he asked.

"No, we just worked together." She said. "I really don't want to talk about it. I didn't know he was going to do that."

"You mean kiss you? I would. Pretty sure anyone would." Hancock said with a smile. "Why is it you'd want to leave someone like the minutemen?"

"Because I've done my part, I can't keep choosing anymore."

"Choose what?" Hancock asked.

Nora shrugged. "Who I protect. People are going to die regardless, I can't save them all, and they are capable of taking care of themselves... I was a fool to think you-"

"-Me? Me what? What about me?" Hancock asked, Nora could hear an irritation in his voice.

"That being with you would be different. At the bar you promised me that you were a ghoul, you 'weren't going anywhere,' but I barely brought you back from the dead yesterday. I can lose you just like I can lose them. Like I lost my husband, my son…" Nora said.

Nora realized she was letting on more than she'd like to…

Hancock stood up and quickly closed the distance between them, his sexual appeal becoming unnecessarily clear to Nora. Her breathing quickened.

"You've never moved on from that have you? You can't just choose me because I'm not dying of old age anytime soon. What you keep in the next room isn't helping you heal, this place isn't good for you." He told her. His thumb ran over her scar and teased at her bottom lip.

"I've tried, I've left Sanctuary before… Here I live right below the vault that put me to sleep, too close to my husbands frozen body, and in the same home were I brought home my baby, Shaun. I watched him fall asleep in that crib... and I crawled out of that vault and tore apart the commonwealth looking for the bastard who had taken my him." Nora said.

"What happened, exactly?" Hancock asked.

"Someone took him. And I found Shaun, like I said. But he was an old man, withered and ill. We had a short time together, but my son was born and dead all within a year... well at least to me… How is that fair?" Nora asked.

"It's not." He said. Nora's eyes welled with tears, "You don't have to go at this alone. You know, what about you, me, and the commonewealth?" he reminded her. "...one bloody swath."

"The one place Shaun didn't exist was Goodneighbor." she said. "He couldn't be there. That's why I went there, I know it. I didn't have to be the general; I didn't have to be a mom, or a widow. I could just be someone else."

Someone who had a chance to be happy.

"I was in a world that solely existed because of the war, a place you made for people, people that were running and wanted to bury their shit. You made me believe that was possible. Then I found you." Nora said, her breathing was erratic and she realized she was shaking quite violently. "You made me believe…" she said again.

Hancock was bombarded with information, he felt like she trusted him. He felt flattered, he once again forgot about being a ghoul and felt human, with a real human connection.

Hancock stepped towards Nora, she was so upset, and his only instinct was to comfort her, he asked the kinds of questions she never wanted to answer, but perhaps this could be good for her, maybe she could really leave it behind.

"You want to start all over, with me? This ugly mug?" he asked.

Nora looked at him, now aware that his voice was no longer agitated. She didn't say anything.

Hancock took another step forward until there was but an inch between them.

"You died." Nora said.

"But I'm not dead. I must be immortal, what's not to like?" Hancock said.

"John –" Nora began.

"Oh, I like that, say that again." He told her while unbuttoning that second button on her shirt.

"John, I-" she said. And then his fingers met the third.

"One more time." He said, while toying with the fourth.

Nora looked him in the eyes; those eyes that bewildered her and made her forget everything. She could feel his hands on her skin, her bare skin. Nora felt a chill work its way up her arms.

"John, you died." Nora said one last time. Hancock separated the last button from her shirt and slid it off her shoulders slowly, unaffected by her words. The two of them stood silent and shirtless while Hancock used the tips of his fingers to raise goose bumps all over her flesh.

Hancock picked her up again and Nora found herself lying on her own bed with Hancock above her.

"You'll bring me back, Nora." He said. Hancock's lips were working their way down her neck to her collarbone. She felt her bra become unclasped and slid off her arms effortlessly. She shuddered a very shaky "John…" the moment his mouth found her nipple. The sound of his name only caused him to bite down. This was making Nora feel something she hadn't for a long time.

She pulled apart the knot that kept his pants around his waist and watched as he stood up and got rid of them all together. Hancock then tugged at her pants until they slid off; he took time to hold each ankle in his hand while he freed each leg from the confines of her denim. Then he looked at a nearly naked Nora.

"Do you, have any idea how perfect you are?" he asked her, with his hand sliding across her flesh.

He felt her hands slid up his back and over his neck. Nora felt his skin, it was different sure, but in the dark all she felt was the heat – his need for her, his passion for her, she could feel it. She felt the way his fingertips brought a warmth beneath her panties that only intensified when his hand slid underneath them and felt how wet she had become.

"John!" she exclaimed. "I need you John." the slight pant in her breath drove him mad.

There she went… biting that lip again, how could he resist such a face?

"Oh, love… I'm feral now." He said. With speed he tore off her panties in one motion and had himself between her legs, ready to hear his name one more time.

"John." Was all he needed. He didn't need her to beg or talk dirty, he just needed her, and she needed him. He entered her quickly, and all at once, feeling her, and letting her feel him. From then on he went slow, mesmerized by Nora's face in the moonlight.

She came within minutes of him being inside her, and once more when her and John finished together. They both lay breathless, sweaty and clinging to one another as if they let go they would float away. Nora lit two cigarettes and handed the other to John, they both lay in a cloud of smoke, naked and wrapped within the others grasp.

"Didn't expect you to have this kind of lapse in judgment." He said. "But seems to work out pretty well for me."

Nora lightly smacked his chest with the back of her hand.

"Don't be so cocky." She said.

"I just did love, would you like me to again?" he asked her once again crawling in-between her legs.

"How do you have this much energy?" she asked.

"I slept most of the night," he said, "I know cause you were there."

"Was I?" Nora asked him.

"Yes, in fact I had a dream a lot similar to this." He said rolling back onto the bed and placing his arm around Nora. "Best dream I ever had."

The two lovers awoke within a few hours to the sun creeping over the hill. Nora and Hancock dressed, taking her things and her dogs with her when they left that morning. Before leaving Sanctuary Nora found the two men that had helped her bring Hancock back to Sanctuary. She apologized for her rash actions and gave them each a hundred caps to thank them. She also said part of their payment required them to call Preston Garvey the new Minutemen General. She told them that if they got the name to stick, she'd give them each another hundred caps.

Nora looked back at Sanctuary when they crossed the bridge. She took a deep breath and turned back around to find Hancock waiting for her dressed in his red coat wearing his tri-corn, just like the first day she'd met him.

She watched him take off his hat to carefully place a kiss on her lips. Nora smiled at him as he returned the tri-corn to its rightful place.

"Let's get this show on the road." He said.