Cait didn't sleep for long.
Even after they'd made their way back to their rented room at the Hotel Rexford, sometime between five and six in the morning, the sun just starting to give some cloudy lighting to the streets. Curie had fallen asleep easily. For a while, Cait had watched her from the mattress next to hers, watched her breathing peacefully in her sleep. An autonomic function. For all Curie had worried about forgetting to breathe, it came naturally enough when she wasn't thinking about it.
Cait had timed her short breaths with Curie's, tried to relax. There was still Psycho in her veins. Less than there could have been, though. Like trying to sleep with a light pointed in your face. Irritating, but not impossible. And Cait had been awake for days.
She slept for a few hours. Two or three. She dreamt of her parents, and all the gruesome holes she'd pumped into them.
She hadn't returned with the plan to murder them. Maybe some fantasies of hurting them. But that had never been the goal. She had still wanted that love that had never existed. She had wanted to come back and make them answer for what they'd done. To make them tell her how sorry they were. To make them regret it. To make them realize she was worth more than the measly caps they'd sold her for.
When they saw her, the expressions on their faces. The shock. Then her father had started to open his mouth. That's what had done it. Those words, the last words she'd ever heard him say, when he sold her. Payment up front. They were the only words she'd imagined him saying for five years of enslavement. And when he opened his mouth, she had been so sure she was going to hear them again. And that she had to stop it.
So she'd opened fire. And in her few, scattered dreams, that was all she saw. The muzzle flash of her shotgun, the splatter of gore on the inside of a trailer. After a few hours of that, she gave up, rolling out of bed while Curie continued to sleep beside her.
Since leaving Curie to wake up alone hadn't ended so well last time, Cait left word at the front desk that she was just headed across the street to the old state house. Clair harrumphed her and told her she wasn't a post office, but Cait knew if Curie came looking Clair wasn't going to be an ass about it.
Hancock was in his usual spot, high as shit on Jet, Fahrenheit standing in the shadows. Cait gave a nod and a knowing smirk to Fahrenheit, remembering her practically stuttering the other day around Curie. She didn't flinch, but Cait hadn't thought she would.
"Hey Hancock," Cait said, taking a seat on the sofa opposite him and resting her boots on the table.
"Cait," Hancock said, still leaning back, slowly breaking out in a smile. High as balls. "How's my little scout doing? You find out what's happening at Pickman Gallery?"
"Let's just say Pickman's art isn't going to have much resale value once those bodies start decaying," Cait said.
Hancock blinked once. Too high even for Cait's level of subtlety, it seemed. She sighed.
"Pickman's Gallery was home to a sicko named Pickman, who hunted raiders and used their bodies to make art. That's why the area was silent. But I iced him, so you don't gotta worry about 'quiet' no more, that's for sure."
Hancock sat up, shaking some of the Jet haze off of him, sucking air between his teeth.
"Woah," he said. "Seriously? That's...messed up. Even for this town. You say you iced him?"
"Yeah. He's real dead."
"I was only paying for reconnaissance, Cait."
"Well, you hired a blunt force weapon, and you got a blunt force weapon. What, you mad I killed him?"
"Not a chance," Hancock said. "But it sure was a hell of a lot more risk for you. You didn't have to do that much."
"What, are ya tryna talk me into a bonus? I'll take one, if you're offerin'."
Hancock snorted.
"Nah," he said, "I was just surprised. You've helped me out big time, twice now."
"I was gettin' paid."
"No harm in that," Hancock said. "Fahrenheit? It was two-fifty for this job."
Fahrenheit nodded and started rummaging around in a drawer.
"Look, I'm just saying," Hancock said, "I appreciate it. Love to have you work for me again sometime."
Cait nodded, taking a sack of caps Fahrenheit handed her. She didn't bother to count it.
"Maybe," Cait said. If she lived through the week. "Depends. You know any place where eggheads gather? Near Diamond City maybe?"
Hancock sat back, absentmindedly taking a puff from his inhaler.
"Eggheads? What kind of eggheads?"
"I dunno. Curie likes science shit. And I need a reason to head to Diamond City. I'd like to give her a reason, too."
"You don't think she'd come with otherwise?"
"I think she would. But then I'd have to tell her my reason."
Hancock's face softened, an empathy settling there. His black gaze walked up and down her hollowed-out cheekbones, her collarbones jutting out from her chest, her sickly pallor. It wasn't hard to put together, when you were a junkie yourself.
"She doesn't know you're in withdrawal?"
"She knows a little. Not enough. And I don't...I don't wanna disappoint her any more than I already have."
Hancock nodded, thinking for a moment.
"It's a stretch, but...there's the science center, right in Diamond City."
"Sounds perfect," Cait said, furrowing her brow. "It's called a science center? Why's it a stretch?"
"It's, eh..." Hancock scratched his jaw. "I guess you could say it's usually more for kids? They've got a school there in the city, and the kids go over there for field trips. It's got some good equipment, though, and it's run by Doctor Duff and Professor Scara. They're good people."
"Right," Cait said, standing. "Well, that's at least a better reason."
"Now if you really wanna find Curie some serious science shit," Hancock said, "track down one of those old vaults. They're dangerous, and pretty fucked up if you ask me, but those Vault-Tec motherfuckers knew some science. The data in those vaults is priceless, in the right hands."
"Thanks, Hancock. I'll keep it in mind."
"Good luck," he said. "And come see me if you're in search of more work. I'll pay you better than I would a stranger."
"Funny," Cait said, "I thought I got hired 'cause I was a stranger."
She made for the stairs, satchel of caps in her hand.
"See you around, Hancock."
Back in the Hotel Rexford, Curie was lounging, half-asleep, on one of the sofas in the waiting room. Cait nudged it with her foot.
"Ya know, we rented a room," she said. "With a bed."
Curie stretched, yawning.
"I did not intend to fall asleep down here. I wanted to wait until you got back."
"What, no chasing after me with a laser pistol this time?"
Curie grinned.
"I cannot always go running after you. People would talk, no? Besides, Clair told me where you were. I was not worried."
Cait sat down on the couch next to her, gesturing at Curie's laser pistol.
"Where'd you get that thing, anyway?" she asked.
"I bought it. From ze store, Kill or be Killed. I figured, it is not so different from ze laser on my old body, no?"
"I guess that's for you to say. How'd you find aiming it?"
"Difficult. KL-E0 showed me how to operate ze weapon once I 'ad purchased it, but I used to have a very advanced targeting system. Now, I 'ave only guesswork."
"Well," Cait said, "your guesswork saved my life. Thanks for that."
"Of course. You 'ave saved my life many times, too. We are friends, no?"
"Friends," Cait agreed.
They settled into an amicable silence for a moment, before Curie admitted:
"I...may need to buy another toothbrush."
"What?" Cait asked. "You need two?"
"No, I - " Curie hesitated. "My first attempt to use it did not go...smoothly."
"I - " Cait stopped, a little shaken. How many ways were there to fuck up brushing your teeth? Cait couldn't claim to be well-practiced, but -
"Do not - do not laugh," Curie said, quickly, and Cait saw how self-conscious she was all of the sudden.
"I ain't laughin. Not about to throw bricks from a glass house, here," Cait said.
Curie half-smiled, then shifted again, wringing her hands together. After a moment, she spoke.
"I owe you so very much, and I do not mean to sound ungrateful. But...I fear I am barely holding myself together."
"Hey," Cait said. "I'm here for you, Curie. Just like how you're here for me."
"I - " Curie started, "I struggle just to master basic functioning. How to brush ze teeth, how to operate with only two hands, et cetera. I find myself running out of energy every single night, like clockwork. How can I be expected to do anything worthwhile in just 16 hours every day? And, too, I am so full of inconsequential thoughts, feelings. How do you do everything with this whirlwind in ze head?"
Cait wanted to be there for Curie, but she doubted she was qualified for giving out life advice. Her answer to a whirlwind in her own head, or even a single emotion, to be honest, was a strong drink.
"You're managing well so far. You stormed Pickman's Gallery yesterday."
"But not like you did! You make it look so effortless. Like breathing. But for me, it is so hard to focus. To do research. And inspiration is as elusive as ever. I fear I will never contribute anything to the world."
Cait remembered watching her breathing last night, natural when she wasn't thinking about it. Autonomic.
"You've been human for a day," Cait said. "Give yourself a week, at least."
They both laughed, and Cait was grateful to see genuine humor come over Curie's face, banish some of the anxiety there.
"But really," she said. "I know you can change the world, Curie. Just give it time."
Curie gave a light grimace. Not agreeing, not disagreeing.
"In this maelstrom, it is hard to see the shore. The saving grace in all of this is you. As a robot, I had much appreciation for you. But now... it is deeper. I am still loyal. But now I do this because I want to. Because you are...you are very important to me. Last night I was constantly realizing - if harm should befall you - "
"I think you're falling into the whirlwind again, Curie," Cait said, noticing how her breathing was speeding up. "It's no use focusin' on what could happen, or what could have happened. Right now, we're both safe. That's what matters, ain't it?"
"Yes, I suppose so."
"And hey, toothbrushes are cheap."
Curie laughed again.
"I - I broke mine. Snapped the poor thing in two with my fingers. Too tight a grip. It is a delicate instrument, zis toothbrush."
"Can I laugh now?"
"No, you may not," Curie said, laughing herself.
"Well," Cait said, "after we buy a new toothbrush, I was thinkin' we could head to Diamond City."
"Oh?" Curie asked. "What is in Diamond City?"
And here came the lie. Well, a half-lie, half-truth. Cait's tongue felt numb in her mouth.
"There's a science center up there. Hancock told me about it. A Doctor Duff and Professor Scara run the place."
"Is zis an institute of learning?" Curie said, sitting suddenly on the edge of the sofa.
"So I hear," Cait said.
"Zen we must leave immediately!"
Curie was already on her feet, laser pistol in hand, ready to storm the Commonwealth. Her stomach growled, loudly.
"Maybe some lunch first?" Cait said.
"Per'aps zis would be best," Curie admitted.
They ordered some cheap canned food from the front desk, ate it right there on the couches in the lobby. Cait didn't have her backpack anymore, just the satchel the caps had come in and her shotgun. She was low on ammo, too. Most of her rounds had been in her backpack. She thought about going back for it. Pickman's Gallery was pretty much clear, after all. But...all of her Psycho was there, too. And she didn't want to have to make the choice between taking it or not.
They picked up ammo and a new toothbrush on the way out of Goodneighbor. The effects of withdrawal were starting to wear on Cait, and she had a couple hour's walk ahead of her, so she grabbed some booze to tide her over as well. Daisy didn't have anything good, just some shitty moonshine. Not like she could actually taste with her tongue at this point, though.
It wasn't far to Diamond City after that, and the route was relatively familiar. They'd paced a lot of this area when they'd first met, tracking the courser. Things had been so different then. Cait had barely bothered to speak to Curie, hadn't really even considered her human. Why bother talking to a toaster? But even before Curie had started to look human, she'd saved Cait's life, again and again. Caught her when she fell in the Greenetech Genetics building. Called her a friend. It had changed their dynamic. Somewhere along the way, their travels had begun to be filled with light, playful banter. And now, they could broach deeper topics, as they picked their way through the rubble.
"Zese traveling doctors," Curie was complaining, as she gingerly picked her way through a pile of crumbling bricks that used to be a shop wall, "zey hoard their knowledge. In my travels with Nate, it was a Doc Weathers who told me zat most people look at medicine as a business these days, and zat it 'makes no sense to share stuff with your competition'. It is abominable. How can zey expect to expand their knowledge if they do not share their findings with fellow academics?"
"Most people around here are focused on the short term, love," Cait said.
"Well, I am not so near-sighted. I plan to organize a conference of fellow physicians. So we can share our theories. The medical arts will not advance unless we share our findings with each other."
"Yeah? That'd be tough. Maybe doable, though. If you could prove it was worthwhile."
"One day, I would like to establish a hospital. Where medical practitioners could come and learn and perform dangerous procedures. I could base my conference out of zis hospital, make it a center of learning known across ze Commonwealth!"
"You got big plans, dontcha?"
"I - " Curie started, then hesitated. "I do not know. I feel - zey could be bigger. But then, can I even accomplish zis? When I must sleep all the time and eat all the time and cannot even hold a toothbrush without it breaking?"
Cait chewed her lip. She didn't know much about big plans. She'd never had any. Her biggest plan had only ever been to run away, and she'd gotten mixed results with that one. She didn't know anything about the kind of goals Curie was chasing after. The kind of heights she wanted to achieve. Curie always looked at the world as though there was an adventure there that was only just beginning. Cait had always looked at it as a painful ending that dragged on too long.
"A friend once told me," Cait said, "that neither of us needs to be invincible, as long as we've got each other. Support. I'm not much for science, Curie, but I've got your back."
Curie smiled.
"Thank you. Zis makes me feel...better. Calm."
"One step at a time. We'll start with this science center. Maybe the scientists there can be your first members."
Cait hated to get Curie's hopes up about something that would probably be a bust, but hey, who knew. They were still scientists. An egghead was an egghead, even if they were used to working with kids, right?
Cait had never been to Diamond City, for good reason. Goodneighbor was about as civilized as she'd ever been capable of handling. Diamond City was the kind of place where they took offence to people fighting in the streets. Might even shoot you for it. They didn't allow ghouls, super mutants, or synths. Cait had warned Curie to keep her synthetic status on the down-low in Diamond City, but she was worried about her own status as well. She had more scars than your average scavver.
The city sprawled out before them as the came to the top of the stairs and climbed their way back down again. The main stairs led right into the market, where vendors were hawking services like haircuts, chems, scrap, and baseball bats. There was an open stand to the right called the Mega Surgery Center, where a man with black hair in a lab coat was brewing something in a flask, the only one not hawking his services. Doctor Sun, maybe?
Their path was suddenly blocked by a guard dressed in old, marked-up baseball gear and a helmet. He stepped up to them, threatening, forcing them to stop in their tracks. Cait's fingers itched into a fist, but punching a Diamond City guard was a good way to get both her and Curie killed.
"I know an ex-raider when I see one," he growled at her.
Cait's blood froze in her veins. Was she about to be shot, here, on the spot? Was she that far gone that she automatically registered to people as a raider, even if she wasn't hostile? Suddenly, Curie was between Cait and the guard.
"And I know a bully when I see one, Monsieur," she said, almost standing on her tiptoes to catch his eye.
Cait couldn't help but smile. Fuck 'em up, Curie, she thought. The guard glowered down at her for a moment, then stepped away.
"Make sure your 'friend' plays nice inside the wall, you hear?" he said.
Curie directed her middle finger at him.
Well, that was one way to enter a city.
They got directions to the science center, which was a little down some alleyways but not so far that they got lost. A big blue building, with tons of whirring computers and lab stations inside, two scientists arguing lightly with each other in the back.
"Professor! I have a new theory on how the institute makes synths!"
"Oh no. We banned talking about this, remember? After last time? The shouting? Me sleeping on the cold floor of the lab for three nights?"
"That was your choice - "
"And seriously, growing synths from the ground using recombinant plant nuclei? I mean, how could they even - "
"Ah ha! You do want to talk about it!"
"Uh...oh look! We have a visitor," one of the arguing scientists said, gesturing towards Cait and Curie hovering awkwardly in the doorway. "Doctor Duff, dear, if you could bother them while I walk away from this conversation..."
"Think you can take it from here?" Cait asked, as Doctor Duff approached.
Curie stiffened in surprise.
"Do you have someplace else to be?"
"I didn't get much sleep last night," Cait said, truthfully. Half-truth, half-lie. "I'll pass out if I stand much longer. Besides, I wouldn't be able to follow."
"You underestimate yourself," Curie said. "But yes, you should rest."
"I'll get us a room at the Dugout Inn. Good luck here, Curie."
"Thank you. Rest well!"
Cait nodded shortly and stepped backwards out of the door.
She couldn't help glancing over her shoulder as she walked across the marketplace to the Mega Surgery Center. Seeing if Curie ran after her, for whatever reason. At this point, she'd be caught in an addiction and a lie. But no one followed. Cait found the man in the lab coat, no longer brewing a concoction but writing observations on a clipboard.
"Are you Doctor Sun?" she asked.
"A new patient," the doctor sighed, almost to himself, looking Cait up and down, "a new file to open. Do you have a legitimate medical concern, or this about our Facial Reconstructive services?"
"No, I'm, uh - " Cait stuttered. This surgery was too open, too out in the middle of everything. Fred's basement had been leagues better. Creepy and musty, but private at least. "I've - I've got an addiction. To Psycho. Fred Allen up in Goodneighbor said you might be able to help."
Doctor Sun grimaced, stepping towards her and shining a light in her eye, taking her pulse. Cait forced herself to hold still, tried not to lash out. She didn't want Curie to know, but god, she wished she were here right now. Just having her nearby would have made it better.
"You're strung out all right," he said. "I got something that can clean you up."
"Not addictol," Cait said, voice a little hoarse. "I've tried. Again, and again. Doesn't work."
"Yes, I doubt it would, with your level of addiction. Addictol's a quick clean, for the blood, but I suspect your long-term use has saturated your tissue to a deeper extent than the addictol can reach. I have a solution, but it won't be pleasant. Or cheap."
"How much?"
"Two hundred caps. Chem called Fixer, from out West. It should expel enough of the Psycho from your system to kick the addiction."
"Deal," Cait said, handing over the caps.
It was everything she had, so she just took off her satchel and gave it to him. Doctor Sun looked up from his notes and looked at her, really looked at her, for the first time.
"...people don't usually take that price without arguing," he said, slowly.
"I gotta get clean," Cait said, shrugging.
After a moment, Doctor Sun handed over the chem, a metal tin with a needle and needle kit inside. Well, at least she would know how to use it. Cait closed the tin.
"It's Sun, by the way," Doctor Sun said, pronouncing it like 'moon.' "Sun, not suhn."
"Cait," Cait said, nodding. "Thanks, Doctor Sun."
The Dugout Inn was right behind the Mega Surgery Center, just past the butcher shop. Place was kind of dingey, not as fancy as the Hotel Rexford, but relatively clean and probably safer than Goodneighbor. Cait rented a room with two beds from a man named Yefim.
The room was a little bare. The beds didn't have blankets, but it wasn't particularly cold. There was a single dresser and what was maybe a rug strewn across the floor. Cait sat down on the edge of the bed and opened up the tin. There was a full needle kit in here, for proper injections, not just shooting up the way junkies did. Cait tied the rubber string around her arm, fingers a little unfamiliar with the motion. But the needle was easy enough to figure out. She took off the stopper, took a breath, and plunged the needle down.
She could tell the Fixer wasn't going to be fun before she took the rubber off of her arm. Already, her arm was sweating, felt uncomfortably inside-out. She didn't want to take the rubber off her arm, to break that barrier and allow that feeling to reach the rest of her. She wanted to at least have a drink, to give her a protective haze from what was about to happen. But the Fixer would pull that out too. It would be a waste of booze.
Fuck it. Cait took the rubber off of her arm, feeling the Fixer make its way through her system, the way you could feel strong liquor burn its way down your throat when you drank it. The Fixer burned, it twisted, made her feel like she was at once hollow and filled with acid. She grunted, lying back on the bed and clenching her fists tight.
Rest well, Curie had said.
Cait didn't do much resting.
She thrashed, kicked, muffled screams against the mattress, muffled sobs there too. Her mattress was wet from sweat and she could hardly breathe, could hardly focus. How do you do everything with this whirlwind in ze head? The truth was, Cait hadn't learned how to be human either. She'd just been faking it, getting by on booze and Psycho and bravado. She didn't have any answers for Curie.
It was hours later that Cait finally got ahold of herself. She didn't feel good. Nauseous, dizzy, a little irritable. But the worst had passed. Her mattress was gross as hell. Cait picked it up and flipped it over to the fresh side. Well, fresher side.
The sun was setting when she stumbled out of the Dugout Inn. Curie hadn't been waiting in the lobby, so Cait made her way back over to the science center, hoping she'd be able to fake human enough in front of Curie and the other two scientists. If not, she could always say she was drunk.
But Curie and two scientists was not what waited for her within the science center. What waited for her was a handfull of screaming children.
"No! Look at mine!" one of them said, running by with a piece of corn.
"Your's is shit! Mine is orange," another said, pummeling the first child with a carrot.
"Peter! Language!" a Miss Nanny robot said, herding the fighting children away from each other.
Cait blinked. The Miss Nanny robot whirred a little, just like Curie used to, and took her in.
"Ah! A late arrival. I'm afraid the students have all finished their presentations, and I doubt they can be persuaded upon to present a second time in all this ruckus,"
"I - that's fine," Cait said, spotting Curie in rapt conversation with a child on the other side of the room. "What's going on, anyway?"
"Oh, today is a special field trip day for the children! Last week they all chose a crop to research and present on, and today is the culmination of their efforts!"
"Huh," Cait said. "Well, that's - they seem excited about it."
"Yes. I believe Miss Curie has helped very much enliven them with her questions. It's so delightful to see more adults taking an interest in education. Are you a friend of hers?"
"Yeah," Cait said, smiling to be able to say so. "I'm Cait. You are?"
"I am Miss Edna. I help teach the school with Mister Zwicky - Mister Zwicky is the teacher over there." Miss Edna gestured with her robotic arm. "Isn't he wonderful? I mean - knowledgeable?"
Cait furrowed her brow a bit.
"Right," she said, not reading into that.
Miss Edna's voice lowered.
"May I ask you a question, Miss Cait?" she said. "I just...don't get to talk to many adults."
"I just got here," Cait said. "Are you sure I'm the one to ask? I don't have a lot of answers."
"From ze way Miss Curie talks about you, I think you might."
Oh, shite. What the hell had Curie said about her? Cait sighed.
"Alright," she said. "Ask away."
"It's just...family. It is important, yes? This thing called "love" I hear the children talk about. I think they need that to learn."
A child needs love. Curie had said that once. She'd meant it kindly, and Cait had snapped at her. I didn't need anything. Then, or now. She still felt uncomfortable under the weight of the phrase. The absoluteness of it. If a child needed love, and didn't get it, then what? Was that child broken, forever? Faking human with booze and Psycho and bravado?
"A child...deserves, love," Cait said, slowly. "Doesn't mean they always get it, or that they need it, to learn, or grow, or anythin' like that. Kindness can be cultivated in isolation, Curie told me that. But they deserve it, regardless of whether they need it or not."
"They deserve love," Miss Edna mused. "Do you think you can have this love for someone, even if the two of you are very, very different?"
Cait's eyes flashed over to Mister Zwicky. No way. But hey, who was she to judge? She wasn't far from a crush on a Miss Nanny robot herself. Curie saw her, finally, and started almost frantically waving her over.
"I think you deserve love, too," Cait said, pushing herself off of the wall.
"I...thank you. You have helped me make up my mind about something."
"Good luck," Cait said, watching Miss Edna whirr away.
Stranger things had happened.
Curie was very engaged with a kid somewhere between ten and twelve years old, who was quickly explaining relatively simple facts about mutfruit to Curie.
"And it grows on a short little bush-like tree, and it has yellow leaves, and it stings a bit when you eat it, but that's just because of the radiation, um, and they call it mutfruit because it's mutated fruit, isn't that cool? And they're very low-maintenance, which means they don't need too much work to grow, and um, that makes them a pretty popular plant, but it can't be the only plant because one time we got a surplus mutfruit shipment and my family only ate mutfruit for a month and I thought I would lose my mind, but um, then we got some brahmin steak so it was alright, and also they're bumpy around the edges, and the exterior is tougher than the interior to fight the elements, and um - "
"Why, this is all marvelous," Curie said, "but I believe I am hearing some facts repeated, which I have heard from you before. Would it not be more prudent to write everything down, zat way you would know what information is known, so zat we may then explore ze unknown?"
"That's a great idea!" the kid said. "I've actually got a notebook right here, I could - "
The kid stopped, eyes narrowing.
"Hey! Are you trying to trick me into writing a report?"
"By no means! But perhaps reports have more value than you place upon them, no?"
"Maybe," the kid said. "I just think mutfruits are cool."
"A sound hypothesis indeed," Curie said, ruffling the kid's hair.
"Don't use those science-y terms on me. Mister Zwicky keeps trying to convince me to study science and work at the science center when I grow up, but I don't want to! I'd rather be a Security officer. That way I can hit people who deserve it!"
Curie laughed, covering her mouth as if to hide the fact that she was laughing.
"You remind me of someone," Curie said.
"Ha-ha," Cait mimicked. "I think this kid's got the right idea."
"Erin," Curie said, still laughing a little, "I assure you, you can do both. But sometimes, you will get to hit people with science helping you."
"Like - like a super sledge? Or a power fist? Hydraulics and stuff? I could use science to hit people even harder!"
"That's the spirit!" Cait said, a little dazedly.
"Alright, children, it is time we let Doctor Duff and Professor Scara rest," Miss Edna said, gathering all the kids in the direction of the door.
"Yes. Please. Thank god," Cait heard Professor Scara mutter under her breath.
"I think we are a bad influence on children," Cait said.
"I taught Erin the middle finger," Curie said.
"She already knew it," Doctor Duff assured her.
It was dark by now, but there wasn't the usual ruckus in the streets as Cait and Curie found their way to the Dugout Inn to sleep for the night. The usual crashing of bottles, screaming, laughing, was absent. Nothing like the roar of the Combat Zone, or the noise of Goodneighbor, or even the general din the ruins of downtown at night. It was creepy. It was supposed to be safer, but a place like this was supposed to be safe against people like Cait. All the silence made her feel was unwelcome.
But this time, Curie was with her. And with her warmth next to her, it wasn't so hard to accept the fact that she wasn't invincible, after all. That maybe that was okay.