Crawl out through the fallout, baby
Into my loving arms
Through the rain of Stronium-90
Think about your hero, when you're at Ground Zero
And crawl out through the fallout back to me

VERONICA

The sky was turning a sickly green above us, neon clouds clashing together to create eerie lights that danced along the horizon. Here we were, the edge of the Glowing Sea. Life seemed to disintegrate the closer we came; albeit a scattering of withered trees, there were no plants or grass to be seen. It was just a mass of solid, cracked dirt and a few dusty rocks. The air even seemed thicker here, and my rad meter began to beep like a heart monitor.

We'd stayed at the police station overnight, then packed as many supplies as we could carry before making the journey to where we were now. The heat was getting intense, so Danse and I had removed our helmets in order to breath easier. MacCready had been quiet, which was a revelation in itself. He was now climbing a rather large boulder in front of us, using the height as a vantage to scout for potential danger ahead.

"Seems pretty clear," He announced from his pedestal. "Take some Rad-X before you go. It'll help combat the sickness."

I nodded and reached into my satchel to retrieve the pills, dry-swallowing so that they lodged in my throat uncomfortably – I wanted to ration the purified water that Scribe Haylen had provided us with, not including the entire bottle I'd guzzled before we'd set off. I'd not drank actual water for little over two hundred years prior to that.

MacCready jumped down from the boulder and tenses his shoulders, forcing a tiny smile. "So, I guess this is it."

"I'm coming back, you know." I reminded him. "Sit tight on this rock. I won't be long at all."

"Take as much time as you need, just make sure you come back in one piece."

And then I did something without thinking – I pulled him into an embrace. Awkward at first, because of my armour, but he slowly sank into it. As soon as we were holding each other, I knew it was a mistake – I didn't want to let go. However, something had been hanging over us like a dark cloud since Goodneighbor and I just wanted to feel like we were connecting again. MacCready gave a muffled whispered into my shoulder. "Yeah. Okay, so… yeah. Good luck out there."

"We should take advantage of the time of day," Danse sniffed, and MacCready pushed me away, rolled his eyes and leant against the boulder with his arms folded. A part of me felt empty all of a sudden. "We don't want to get caught in a Radiation Storm at night."

"Sure thing," I agreed. We both placed out helmets back in with a satisfying harmony of clicks and began to move forward into the green atmosphere. I didn't look back at the man I was leaving behind; I couldn't let my emotions get in the way of finding my little boy.

#####

The deeper we wandered into the Glowing Sea, the creepier everything got. The air was so misty that we had to turn out headlamps on. MacCready had been right about this place – danger was literally everywhere we turned. Luckily, Danse was extremely prepared and had the military training necessary to combat most obstacles that flew, or crawled, our way. I'd dealt with Bloatflies before, so I was able to show off a little of my skill in that area, however the number of giant mutated bugs was getting out of hand and I wasn't entirely sure how I was coping. At one point, a huge mosquito-like creature the size of my torso came straight at me and I screamed like a child. Danse punched it own from the sky and squished it under his foot, splattering the bottom half of my power armour with blood and gunk. Apparently, that had been a Bloodbug, and they were very deadly. I shuddered and thanked him for the rescue.

As I watched him work, I couldn't help but compare him to the other man in my life. Where MacCready was cocky and sarcastic, Danse was serious and collected. There were no quips when he hit a target, just an actual confirmation, as if we were part of a unit or squad. He also had a strangely perfect face, shaven and clear – unlike MacCready, who's tired eyes and messy goatee made him appear twice as old as he was. It struck me as quite odd, considering everyone I'd met in the Commonwealth had that same aged look; perhaps there was something I didn't know about Danse, a secret to his handsome features and youthful vigour. He reminded me of Nate - I didn't totally hate that. I sighed loudly.

"Is something troubling you?" Danse asked in his cool manner. The tone of his voice always seemed so level and measured. I missed feeling as calm as that.

"I just…" I sighed again. "I just want to find this Virgil guy and get it over with."

Danse cocked his head to one side a little. "What is the purpose of locating a man who clearly does not want to be located?"

"He may or may not have some useful information." I scrunched up my face and shrugged. "I should just be straight with you. My son is missing. Well, not missing as such, I know exactly where he is, but… it's complicated. It's a place I can't get to and Virgil could hold the key to the front door."

A sudden and bone-chilling howl ripped through my sentence. We both instinctively crouched low to the ground and checked our ammo. In the distance I could see dirt being kicked up into the air, creating a miniature sandstorm. It was on high ground, not too far from our current position.

"We should avoid that," I suggested to Danse. "Whatever it is, it looked and sounds angry. I say we sneak around."

"We'll do no such thing," Danse disagreed, cocking his gun. "If it lives here, it's a plague on humanity and must be eliminated."

My jaw dropped as he walked away, towards the ruckus ahead. What did he mean, a plague on humanity? Surely, if it was capable of throwing that much sand and debris into the air, we should leave it be? I thought back to the many times MacCready had let me use the cautious approach and sneak past a potential threat. I cursed inwardly that he wasn't here now.

I followed Danse up the hillside and onto the ridge where the commotion was happening, trying my best to silence my hydraulic steps and keep low to the ground. If he wanted to go in all guns blazing, so be it, but I was taking precautions. We neared the top and I had to stop myself from crying out at what I saw.

A Godzilla-looking, humongous lizard had a ridiculously sized scorpion in a headlock. There was literally no other way of describing the scene before me. They both appeared to be roughly ten feet in stature, one with scaly skin and claws the size of my arms, the other plated with exoskeleton and armed with two deadly pincers and a sharp stinger. I hid behind a nearby boulder whilst Danse, on the other hand, threw himself at the two monstrous things and began to open fire. They ignored his presence and continued to brawl. I wanted to shout at him to leave them alone and run while he still could, but I didn't want to reveal my hiding place, so I watched desperately and willed the whole thing to be over. I'd had enough of animals being larger than they should be or having multiple heads. I was sick and tired of being attacked.

Suddenly, the lizard lifted the scorpion into the air and plunged a jagged claw into its stomach, pulling out the innards, all the while bellowing a war cry. The scorpion, defeated, wailed and flopped to the ground. After a breath shout at the air, the victorious monster turned its attention towards Danse, who was still shooting at the devil in vain. How were his laser beams not doing any real damage?

The creature ran to Danse with incredible speed before almost casually casting him aside in one swipe. He tumbled to the ground like a piece of screwed up trash; now was the time for me to do something. I only had my laser pistol, having left my regular one with MacCready, but the beast was limping and wounded from the fight. I said a quick prayer under my breath and leapt out from my safe place, trying my very best to aim straight before pulling the trigger – my body was shaking in terror. It roared tremendously and darted towards me like a demented chameleon. I backed up quickly, still firing, trying to hit its face whilst also watching where I was going. If I stepped too far, I was going to fall down the ridge. A small voice at the back of my head told me that I was going to die… I imagined it was Shaun.

It took mere milliseconds for the reptile to catch up to me and before I knew it was being scooped up at least fifteen feet into the air. I kicked and punched, adrenaline coursing through my veins, but the creature just roared in my face and pulled its other arm back, ready to pierce my stomach just like it had done to the poor scorpion. If it could rip through exoskeleton, it was probably okay with tearing open my armour. I closed my eyes, clenched my jaw and waited for the pain to rip through me.

I heard an ear-piercing screech and snapped my eyes open to see Danse closing the pincers of the dead scorpion around the lizard's neck from behind, squeezing as hard as he could. The grip it had on me loosened so I wriggled free, landing hard on my ankles with a sickening crunch. No time to check for broken bones, I gathered myself rapidly and pointed my pistol once more at the creature, this time aiming for the throat as Danse clamped down harder. One deep breath, like MacCready did so often, and I pulled the trigger.

The beam hit on target, colliding with the already weakened neck, allowing Danse to fully close the pincer and completely crush the tendons; the head lolled to one side, the roaring died out and the giant lizard slumped.

"Oh, my God," I cried out. "Oh, my God! What the hell? Ow, my ankle! Ow…"

"It was a Deathclaw," Danse explained, calmly. "And the other thing was a Radscorpion. Are you not familiar with Bostonian wildlife?"

"Clearly not," I breathed, clutching at my foot and checking my joints. "I don't think I broke anything but it's definitely sprained. The power armour most likely helped."

"You can find Deathclaw's in the Capital Wasteland too, just as aggressive as this one," He continued, ignoring my injury and instead choosing to tutor me. "Some say they're even more fearsome than the mighty Mirelurk, but those same people probably haven't been up against a Queen Mirelurk, so I wouldn't take that statistic too seriously."

"Sure," I muttered, pretending to understand. Danse didn't know that I was new to this world. He didn't need to know. We began to skid back down the other side of the ridge, being careful not to trip, when I saw huts on the horizon. I squinted and began to whoop for joy. "People! I can see people!"

"In this place, they're probably Ghouls," Danse sniped coldly, which threw me off. "There's no other way anyone could possibly live in this environment."

"Maybe so," I glared at him. "I don't care, I don't need to know how they're surviving this dump. I just want directions."

#####

MACCREADY

Veronica had told me to stay on this boulder and wait for her return. Perhaps it had been a joke, perhaps she didn't expect me to actually follow those instructions. What else could I do, though? I would be anxious no matter what I tried to distract myself with, worried that she was going to get radiation sickness or even poisoning. Maybe a horde of Feral Ghouls had torn her apart or a Deathclaw had used her as a stress toy. The possibilities were making me edgy and I wanted nothing more than to dive in and retrieve her.

But it hadn't even been a day yet, and who knew how long it would take her to find Virgil? I had to trust that she knew what she was doing. I had to trust that Danse would protect her. I had to trust that she would come back to me.

I was going to tell her about Duncan when she returned. She deserved to know my truth, even if that meant she despised me for it.

Ever since she'd chosen to save me from the Gunners. Ever since she'd looked me in the eyes and I could see a genuine smile on her face. Ever since she'd shown that she actually trusted me, liked me, maybe even cared for me.

I couldn't go on denying it any longer.

I was in love with her.

Goddamn those big, beautiful blues.