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Nick couldn't help but feel a little discouraged at the sight of the landscape before him. He remembered driving up this road on his way up to Sanctuary with Shaun. Back then the trees were rich and healthy, the leaves were beginning to turn yellow, and flowers scattered on the ground were colorful and calming.

Now the trees were long dead, charred and blackened, with the leaves and flowers now nonexistent. Seeing everything so deteriorated really put a damper on Nick's otherwise content mood.

"Hey, you okay?" he heard to his left. He turned to face Judy, and inquisitive look on her face. "You seemed bothered by something." she said.

"Nah, I'm fine. It's just… seeing the way the world is now. It's a little, well… depressing." Nick said as they walked. Music was still playing over his pip-boy, but he lowered it to talk to her.

"I think I can understand why you'd say that" she said, eyeing the trees to their right. "What was it like back then?"

"You could be a little more specific Carrots. If you mean that forest over there, it was a whole lot prettier."

"Well yeah, I know things were more green. It's just… what was life like back then, you know?" she asked, now looking directly at Nick.

He had to think about this question for a moment. On one hand, you had the world at home. It was a peaceful existence, full of luxuries once thought the realm of science fiction. One the other, you had the world as a whole. Countries engaging in massive conflicts over the last drops of oil. That part, he didn't miss, but the first part? Absolutely.

"I drove from Boston to Sanctuary in a little over an hour when I moved up there. I didn't have to fear that anyone would attack me, or rob me for everything I had. Mammals didn't have to do that back then. Life here, as in at home, was amazing. I can't speak well of the rest of the world though. Everyone just kind of, started fighting in the last few years before the war. Rather than find solutions they could all use, countries were more interested in looking out for themselves."

"Wow." she said, her eyes now turning in front of her. "You don't really hear much about the rest of the world. It's pretty common knowledge about the fighting with China, but everyone else? That's a little..."

"Depressing?" he asked.

She nodded her head. "When we think of pre-war life, we think of relative peace, and never having to worry about food or water. Not about international politics."

"Oh, so politics is still a thing? Might as well give up on this world now." he said with a sly grin.

"I'm hoping that you won't see much of it in Diamond City, but yeah, we still have that charm."

They walked along the ruined road, passing by lonely log cabins in the woods, as well as the occasional rusted down car. None of them would work, according to Judy, which was really a shame. If they could fix one up, they could be at the city in no time at all.

Nick eyed his handkerchief tied to Judy's left leg, still there from when he'd wrapped up her wound.. Quite a bit of time had passed since she received the injury, so he should probably check up on it.

"How's your leg treating you?" he asked, pointing at his handkerchief. She looked down, moving her leg slightly in different ways to get a feel for how it was doing.

"I don't think it's fully healed yet, but it doesn't hurt much anymore." she said.

"You sure you don't want a stimpak? I have some spares."

"I told you, I don't need one for something this small. Besides, those things always make me a little dizzy." You couldn't get rapid healing without a few side effects unfortunately. They seemed to vary for each species. Foxes luckily didn't have that bad of reactions to it, but bunnies would sometimes get a bit disoriented.

"Suit yourself. Enjoy bloodying up that handkerchief." he said with a grin.

"It's red Slick, I don't think it'll show up that well." she said, returning his grin. He would've responded, had it not been for the godawful DJ speaking up again.

"This is uh... it's me, Travis. Anyway… uh… here's some more music." the DJ said, and the track began to play.

'At least he has good taste in music. Otherwise I'd be listening to classical the whole trip.' he thought.

They continued to walk, chatting idly and listening to the radio, which had a surprisingly good selection considering all the time that'd passed. They eventually came upon a peculiar scene. A wolf and a cougar, standing outside an old Drumlin Diner, shouting at someone inside.

"We had a deal Trudy! Hand over the goods, you owe us!" the wolf said. A female zebra inside the diner responded.

"I ain't giving you poison shilling chem pushers anything! Do you know what that junk has done to my boy?" The zebra said.

They'd told Nick about chems back in Sanctuary. It's what most mammals now called drugs. They'd given him a brief rundown of the stuff to avoid. Pshyco and jet were the most notable new ones, but it seemed that mentats, buffout, and even day-tripper, which were all made before the war, were still occasionally found around the wasteland. Nick turned down his radio, wanting to avoid detection for now.

"He bought them fair and square, Trudy!" the wolf continued. "Ain't our fault if he's strung out. Now don't make me come in there and shoot up that little trading post of yours!" Upon hearing this Judy rushed forward, much to Nick's dismay.

'What are you doing you dumb bunny?' he thought. The dealers saw Judy move forward, and raised their weapons.

"Whoa, whoa, easy there little bunny. This doesn't involve you." the wolf said, his revolver aim directly at Judy, who stopped in place.

Nick saw Judy's paw twitch near her pistol. He needed to intervene or this could get out of hand fast.

"Hey, hey, hey, let's just calm down here. No need for things to get violent." he said, placing a paw in front of Judy.

"Should listen to your friend, bunny. Last thing anyone needs right now is a few bullet holes in em, but I'm getting what's mine, even if I to go through you." the dealer said.

"There's no need for any of that. Right Carrots?" he said, piercing his eyes at Judy.

She looked furious. She obviously wanted to help the zebra inside the diner, but it certainly wasn't worth getting shot over.

"No, there isn't." she reluctantly said, and relaxed her paw at her side.

"Good. Maybe you'd like to give us a hand then?" the dealer asked.

"We are not helping you two shoot up that diner! They owe you caps, not their lives!" Judy yelled.

"Well if you don't want a fight to break out, maybe you can talk some sense into Trudy. Show her she needs to pay up." the dealer said.

Nick thought it over for a moment. The zebra inside seemed very reluctant to pay her debts. He doubted that even with his smooth talking skills he would be able to convince her. The dealers on the other hand, he could possibly work with. He had to associate with some drug dealers back in the day, and knew that only two things mattered to them. Getting their money, and getting more product, which of course would result in getting more money.

The money part he couldn't help with. He only had a hundred caps to his name, and wouldn't really be willing to pay for the zebra's debts anyhow.

The product part though? Well he had an idea for that.

'Time to get into character.'

"How about we make a trade instead?" Nick asked, forcing himself to relax and put on his best salesman smile, earning a questionable look from Judy.

"I doubt anything you got in that bag is worth enough to cover the cost, vault boy." the dealer said.

"Oh I'm not talking trading goods." he said, advancing slowly towards the two dealers. "I'm talking information."

"Information? On what?"

"Well, let's say that somewhere nearby, there's a group of raiders that had the unfortunate fate of going toe to toe with a few Minutemen. Let's also say that that same group of raiders just so happened to be doped out of their minds, and more than likely still had a fair amount of goods on them when they quite literally bit the bullet."

"Pssh, yeah. You expect me to believe that, fox? Even if that is true, how the hell do I know you haven't already taken any chems off them?" the wolf asked.

"Oh, I'm trying to stay clean. That stuff always makes me go a bit crazy. Now I know for a fact that the Minutemen did gun down those raiders. I was there myself, as well as my… associate." he said gesturing to the rabbit behind him. "And even if we did already take the chems, which we didn't, They still have guns, ammo, and who knows what else just lying around, ripe for the taking."

The wolf seemed to be at least considering it, if his conflicted face and occasional glance to his partner were any indication.

"Now I would be completely willing to point you in the right direction. If you agreed to… oh, I don't know, let our striped friend in there off the hook?" Nick said, pointing over his shoulder at the diner.

The two dealers exchanged glances once again, and luckily for Nick the looks on their faces showed that they seemed to be thinking over their options.

"So, do we have a deal then?" Nick said, extending his paw to the wolf, his bright salesman smile shining.

'Okay, he is definitely hiding something.' Judy thought.

Nick hadn't lived in the Commonwealth for even a full day yet, but apparently he just magically knew exactly how to get a chem dealer to forget about the caps they were owed? Likely story. This guy either dipped his paw in a few drugs back in the day, or at least worked around those who did.

She never fully believed his 'ice cream shop' story. His friend who had a hobby in lock-picking convinced her that, at the very least, he wasn't telling the full story.

Now she just had to call him out on it.

The dealers had agreed, and Nick told them to head to Concord and grab as much as they could carry. The zebra in the diner, Trudy, was grateful that he convinced them to leave, saying that even if that was all a lie and they came back for her late, she would at least be ready for them. She gave him fifty caps in return for the help.

They began to head southwards down the road once again, continuing their journey. After the diner dropped out of sight, Judy decided now would be the time for answers.

"So, were you able to sample many drugs working at that ice cream shop?" she asked, turning to him with a 'how dumb do you think I am' expression.

"Carrots, I think you're smart enough to realize my apparent drug history back there was part of an act. I haven't used any stuff like that since my teens." he said.

"Right, right. Why don't you tell me what you really did back then?" she said, still giving him the same look.

"I told you, I worked at an ice cream shop just before the bombs fell. I never lied to you."

"Okay what about before all that?" she asked.

"That's a different story." he said, putting on his sly smirk.

"Okay so, what did you do then? Sell drugs? Make them?"

"Oh God no, only thing close to that I did was run some messages between warehouses back in Boston when I was a kid."

"So you- wait, when you were a kid?"

"Yeah, I was like twelve or thirteen. Not the kind of job most kids get, I know. It certainly didn't pay any better than the rest."

"Well, why did you do that? How even?"

"Oh I just walked up to them, asked for a job, and they gave me one. Not too difficult at all. As to why, well… no other places would've hired me. Hell, I was lucky enough to get that ice cream job." he said.

"Why wouldn't they hire you?" she asked. He raised an eyebrow at her, and she only became more confused.

"Really? Do I even have to answer that question? They took one look at this," he gestured to himself, "and decided that I'd probably steal from the store if they hired me, or that I'd let my buddies rob the place. The only thing most people saw was a shifty low life who probably picked pockets for a living. I never had a chance, so I did what I had to."

Judy was starting to regret bringing up his past. He had a constant annoyed expression on his muzzle when he talked about his childhood. She always knew that back then, some mammals were not treated as equally as others. Hell, even now there was a bit of animosity towards some species, even foxes, but not to that extent. Most of the hatred was directed at ghouls, not normal mammals. Hearing this just caused her opinion of pre-war life to dip even lower.

"Oh, Nick. I'm so sorry. I couldn't imagine what that must be like." she said. To her surprise, he turned and gave a light grin.

"I think you might have some idea Carrots. Didn't people always try and step on your dreams?" She smiled at this. True mammals never believed that she could join the Minutemen. They always thought she was crazy. Nick's situation was a whole lot different from hers though.

"Nick, I appreciate the thought, I really do. But you probably had things so much worse than I did. I had parents who loved me, close friends, brothers and sisters to be with. You didn't have any of that."

"Oh no, my parents were around. They never married, and I always kinda knew I was an accident, but they were there for me at least. No brothers or sisters though. And not many friends till I moved out of my moms place." he said, looking off into the distance with his ears folded behind his head.

This was only making her more upset. He was genuinely one of the nicest mammas she'd ever met, but nobody had ever given him a chance growing up. She needed to comfort him, or more accurately, she needed to comfort him so he could comfort her.

She stopped both of them where they walked, placing a paw on his arm. His ears were now perked up, and he was looking at her again.

"I really am sorry for you Nick. Those other mammals never knew what kind of guy they were missing out on." she said, giving a soft smile. He returned it with a grin, and raised his eyebrows with a mischievous look.

'He's probably about to insult me in some way, maybe give a small thank you afterwards, along with that stupid smirk.' she thought.

"I know you're a bunny Carrots, but don't be so emotional. You're the one who brought this all up. Thanks though." he said, giving off his usual smirk.

'Yep, got it down now.'

"Ha ha." she said jokingly, her mood already improving. "In all seriousness though, you never did pick any pockets right?"

"Nope. Anything I ever took, the owner willingly gave me." he said as they continued walking.

"How does that work?" she asked.

"You just have to get a good read on the person, know what to say, and how to say it. Convince them that you have something they want, and then presto, you've got yourself a nice profit." She raised her eyebrows at him, and gave off a small laugh.

"Let me get this straight. You, were a con-man." she asked

"I always preferred the term hustler, but yes. Yes I was."

"Okay, now your sudden smooth talking abilities back at the diner make a lot more sense." she said with a chuckle. "So how does a con- I mean hustler, suddenly find himself at an ice cream shop so many miles away from Boston?"

His face lost it's smile once again. He didn't look sad necessarily, more like he was just reflecting on things.

"Well, when you have a kid you start to look at things a little differently. I didn't want Shaun to do what I had to for a living. That coupled with his mom leaving, and I just decided a change of scenery would do us both some good."

She wanted to ask more about the mother, but decided that wasn't the best thing to do right now. That would probably just make him depressed, and she didn't like it when he looked depressed. When Nick had his light hearted, joking attitude, you just wanted to keep talking to the guy. She wanted him to stay like that.

She would've kept focused on their conversation, had it not been for a group of bloodbugs buzzing nearby. Her ears first picked up the sound, and she was quickly able to spot the bugs flying into an old cabin just off the right side of the road. Gunshots were soon heard inside, and Nick and Judy exchanged brief glances before rushing towards the cabin's entrance.

Inside they found four bloodbugs, one of them already dead, and the other three buzzing around the room trying to get an angle on a ghoul inside. He was definitely a feline, but without any fur, it was hard to tell exactly what species he was.

The bloodbugs hadn't yet noticed Nick and Judy, so they were able to easily pop a few shots into them, dropping the insects to the floor.

"Damn, that certainly wasn't what I wanted to wake up to this morning. Thank you both for the help." the ghoul said through his extremely gravelly voice. It was a common trait among ghouls, though some sounded fairly normal.

"No problem. Happy to help." Judy said, putting on what she called her Minuteman face, a combination of a serious, but also caring expression. She thought she looked stoic when she did it, though others just said she looked cute. She looked up at Nick to see him staring wide eyed at the feline ghoul. She bumped him on the side, breaking him out of his trance.

"I'm guessing your friend here's never seen a ghoul before?" the feline asked. Before she could answer, Nick spoke up.

"I'm sorry about that. It's just that… I'm kinda new around here." he said, looking down at his vault-suit.

"Don't worry about it. I'll take a few stares over some verbal abuse any day." the ghoul said. They all gave quick goodbyes, and the two of them got back on the road. Once they got some distance on the cabin, Nick spoke up.

"You said they were a bit more difficult to look at, but damn Carrots! You didn't say they looked like the worlds worst burn victim."

"Nick..." she said.

"And those were bloodbugs? You really should've just called them giant mosquitos." he continued.

"Nick!" she yelled, causing his mouth to slam shut. "First of all, try to be a little more sensitive towards ghouls, they get enough crap out here as it is. Second, 'giant mosquito' doesn't flow off the tongue as well as bloodbug does, so please drop it. It's only noon, and we still have a long road ahead of us."

"Whatever you say Fluff." he said, looking ahead with a grin.

"Fluff now is it?" she chuckled. "What happened to Carrots?"

"Oh it's still there. Fluff is just another one I might have to use every now and then. Carrots will still be the main one though, don't you worry."

"Oh boy, I'm thrilled." She said with a sarcastic tone.

Another few hours passed, with the radio's playlist having looped through itself at least twice by now. They were walking by Lexington currently, having just gone underneath one of the old overpasses. They made sure to be walking around the outside of the town, not wanting to run into any feral ghouls. Judy was working up the courage to ask him more about his past, but wasn't sure how get that conversation started again. Luckily for her, Nick was able to do it for her.

"Ah, the Lexington Corvega plant. My buddy Finnick used to work there for a while. Before we became partners in… completely legitimate business endeavors." Nick said.

"You had a partner? You seem more like the 'work alone' type to me." Judy said.

"I was. For a while at least. Then I bumped into him one day, found out he had skills that complemented mine well, and started working together."

"What type of 'skills' are we talking about here?" she asked with a grin.

"Well I had the people skills. He had the 'do what I say or I hurt you' skills."

"So he was pretty much your bodyguard. Was he a tiger? A bear?"

"First off, he wasn't my bodyguard, he just had some skills that I didn't. Second, he was a fennec fox."

"Wha- seriously? Those guys are smaller than me!" she said, not believing his statement.

"It's true. You should've seen how scared he could make an elephant. He used his size to his advantage. We even pulled a few cons where he pretended to be my kid." he said.

"He pretended to be Shaun!?" she yelled. If that was the case, she was starting to question Nick's parental judgment.

"Oh no, Shaun hadn't even been conceived when we were pulling this one. We just dressed him up in the right attire, went about our business, and where able to get some sympathy from mammals who normally wouldn't have given us the time of day."

"Damn. He sounds like quite the character." she said. His face lowered, and his ears folded behind his head again.

"Yeah, he was. Had a bit of a temper, but he was a good guy." he said in a sad voice.

'Great job Judy, way to go out there.' she thought. She'd made him depressed again, this reminding him of the friends he'd had, ones he clearly missed. She made a mental note to stop making him think about all that. He needed to focus, and getting him caught up on mammals who've been long dead was not the way to do that.

Before she could attempt to comfort him, he turned his attention to his pip-boy, probably trying to turn up the radio. A confused look appeared on his face as he fiddled with the device.

"Military Frequency AF95? The hell…?" he said, before activating the frequency. A female voice was heard over the speaker.

"Automated message repeating. This is Scribe Haylen of reconnaissance squad Gladious, to any unit within transmission range." the voice said before a long pause.

"What is this supposed to be?" Nick asked, turning to Judy.

"No idea." she said. She truly had no clue what anything in that message was about. The voice came back, speaking once more.

"Our unit has sustain casualties, and we're running low on supplies. We're requesting support, or evac from our location, at Cambridge police station." After another long pause, the message repeated again. Nick turned off the radio, and turned to Judy.

"Do you think these could be more Minutemen?" he asked. It was unlikely. Not impossible, but unlikely, and she had never heard of a 'reconnaissance squad Gladious' before. Minutemen squads were usually named after whoever led that squad, and she doubted anyone had the name Gladious.

"I don't think so, but whoever they are, they need help. Do you mind if we take a small detour?" she asked. Though she was away from the rest of her group, it was still her duty to protect the people of the Commonwealth, and she couldn't ignore that.

"Lead the way Carrots." he said nodding towards the direction of Cambridge. They picked up the pace, hoping that they would get there in time.