How many times does a man get to say "trust me" before he starts asking too much?
"General, why do we need to lock up the regulators?"
"Trust me."
"Tell me the old bastard isn't actually siding with the Brotherhood."
"Just trust me."
"Why are we waiting on the bridge."
"Trust me, Knight, I know what I'm doing."
Thus far, Allen and Piper hadn't so much as made eye contact.
"I don't really want to do this," Allen suddenly confessed to the reporter quietly, so that the knights standing watch near them wouldn't overhear.
"Then why are you?" she asked, looking over the horizon, "Cause, and I mean this as nicely as possible, it doesn't seem like there's a thing in this world to make you do something you don't want to."
"Maxon isn't going to let me apologize and let bygones be bygones," Allen explained and if Piper was looking, she would have seen his eyes and the layers beneath. "It's either this or war with the Brotherhood."
"Weren't we already preparing for that?"
"Not here," he shook his head, "Not now."
"And if I tell you to stop?" she asked, still pointedly not looking at her friend, "That I won't stand by you for this?"
"I'm locked in, Piper, I need to stop this," Allen pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes, as if wiping grime from them. "The next little bit won't be my best, but please trust me, wait until the end and if you still hate me, than you never have to see me again."
Finally, Piper turned to Allen. Maybe she had a plan, had something to say, but she recognized the look in his eyes. The reluctant resignation, whatever he was planning, whatever he wasn't telling her, there was no way she was going to stop him.
The night continued on, and everyone stood by the bridge waiting, simply waiting.
"Are you sure that he's not going to sneak in?" one of the knights asked, "We're banking a lot on him taking the front entrance."
"Liam's a lot of things," Agent Marks replied, shifting in place, "Subtle's not one of them. If we throw down the gauntlet, he'll pick it up."
It was sunrise when Liam finally arrived at Sanctuary.
'Hey gang," he shouted from his side of the bridge. "All this for me? I'm flattered."
"Leave this to me," Agent Marks ordered his squad, stepping forward and addressing Liam, "You have no idea what kind of shitstorm you've started!"
"Yeah, I've started a war with the Brotherhood," Liam confirmed, also stepping forward, "There's a right and a wrong side of history here, I expected you to choose right."
"You expected me to get my people killed?" Agent Marks asked, "Expected me to let good people die fighting good people?"
"I expected you to have balls," Liam said, finally meeting his counterpart in the middle, "Guess I should have known better." He wiped at his brow, "Just for the sake of asking, just to say I tried, is there any way out of this with both of us alive?"
The spy shook his head, "We're all guilty now, simply by harboring you. Either I kill you or Maxon starts a war."
Liam only shrugged. "With any luck, they'll say I tried."
They drew their knives, and the fight began
There are few things more unnatural than the hesitation of a fearless man, but that was all this fight was, hesitation and tentative probing strikes.
Agent Marks circled Liam, occasionally reaching forward to attempt an attack, but he almost seemed afraid to get to close. Each time he tried, Liam struck out, his dagger akin to a snake's fang, longing to sink into this clever little mongoose.
But just as reluctant as he was to close the gap, so was Liam to throw himself forward. All he had to do was expose his back, and soon he'd find a dagger in his spine. So the Agent circled and the Lone Wanderer spun in place and each time the former tried to go for a kill, the latter caught another piece.
It wasn't much, small cuts along the hands and arms, but it was enough to get him to drop his knife.
Liam finally showed his teeth.
But it was as if each of Agent Marks's limbs had their own mind. No matter how quickly Liam tried to catch a bit, they moved out of the way just a little bit faster. This came with it's own drawbacks, as soon there was no more room between Allen and the water, but all it took was one sloppy swing of Liam's dagger, and he swung them around so that it was Liam on the edge.
Liam panicked and tried for a desperate downward strike, but Agent Markscaught Liam's wrist with his forearm, stopping the strike in its place. With his free hand, Agent Marks pushed the blade down and with both Liam's and his own strength, caught Liam in the gut.
The Lone wanderer took a surprised step back and fell into the river.
The bubbles hadn't even stopped popping when Agent Marks turned away and met back up with the Brotherhood knights.
"Get to the vertibird," he ordered, "We go back to Maxon, now." He turned to Preston, "Send one of the Regulators home. Tell them that Regulators are no longer welcome in the Commonwealth" With that, he moved to follow the knights to the vertibird.
Preston called after him, "Only one, what about the other?"
Agent Marks paused only for a moment. "What are you supposed to do with people who don't need to be alive?"
Loyalty is a funny thing. When you feel it, it feels unshakeable, eternal, but the fact of the matter is that loyalty is easily shaken, especially when you're loyal to a person, a person with faults, who can act rashly.
Allen wasn't gone for so much as a minute before much of the loyalty he had earned, was shattered.
In fact, his vertibird hadn't even lifted off, and with only the whirring of the blades to mask his words, Preston started defying a man he once thought had earned his undying loyalty.
"Get Liam out of that water," he whispered to Glory, "Quick as you can."
Glory nodded and ran off.
"Alert the infirmary," he said to Piper who also nodded and took off, "I want the Regulators here to have round the clock protection."
Liam was still breathing when he was dragged out of the water, though he was barely breathing when he had been set on the infirmary table.
Liam wasn't breathing when Percival arrived.
"No! No! Goddamnit, you will listen!"
Two Brotherhood knights stood guard outside of the conference room where Maxon and Allen were currently arguing.
"I will not let you hold my people accountable for the actions of one man!"
"You harbored an enemy of the Brotherhood!"
"It's your fault for leaving him alive!"
"Watch your tone, Knight!"
"That's General to you, Maxon."
The knights outside winced. "If you want to come into my home and take down the Institute, that's fine, but I will not let you hold us accountable for the actions of the Capital Wasteland."
"You court war with the Brotherhood, Knight."
"And you risk your primary mission, Elder. Would you really risk letting the Institute continue because you threw good lives away fighting the Minutemen?"
This went on, until finally both Maxon and Allen left the room, looking unhappy and tired, but lacking the rage they had felt seen coming in.
"The Elder and I had a frank exchange of views," Allen explained as the knights escorted him to the bridge, "And while we determined that, while I have not exactly covered myself in glory, I will still serve the Brotherhood, not as a knight, but as it's ally in the Minutemen. Needless to say, I need a ride back to Sanctuary Hills."
Liam was breathing again, small mercies.
Percival would have taken offense to it being called luck, but it was better than "miracle."
Liam was alive, and barring any dramatic changes, he was going to stay that way. With John on a rooftop a couple hundred yards away, and Lauren refusing to leave Liam's side, he was protected from most dramatic changes, however, the sounds of an incoming vertibird did not bode well for Liam's immediate future.
"Stay inside," Preston ordered Lauren, going outside to greet Allen, who hadn't even waited for the vertibird to fully settle before hopping out and dismissing the Brotherhood.
"Where's Liam?" Allen demanded,
"General, you've crossed a…" Preston started to accuse him, before being cut off.
"Yes, I know," Allen dismissed, "but I also know you fished Liam out of the water as soon as you could, is he alive? Where is he?" Allen made his way to the infirmary, before stopped by a plasma shot cutting off his path.
"He could have hit you, you know." Lauren warned, coming out of the infirmary, and approaching Allen, "And you won't so much as touch Liam. The only reason we haven't killed you know is…"
"Lauren!" Liam shouted from the door, "Is that Marks!" His steps were labored but purposeful as he approached.
"Liam, you dumb mother-" Was all Allen managed to get out before catching a collapsing Liam.
"Yeah, I know," Liam reassured him, trying to give Allen a hug, but managing only to weigh the poor man down. "But your idea sucked anyway. 'Pretend to snap my neck,' even the Brotherhood's not so stupid as to not check your work."
Clearly, the two men knew something everyone else didn't.
Allen had to explain himself.
"The fact of the matter, is that Brotherhood operations will always come first to the Brotherhood."
He and Liam were on trial. Perhaps not literally but something close to it. Preston and the Minutemen, Glory and the Railroad, Piper, and the Regulators were all eager to hear Allen and Liam justify themselves.
Well, everyone except John. John was asleep.
"Okay, with you so far," Preston prodded.
"But despite that, they're too dangerous to have as an enemy right now, and even an imperfect ally is still an ally," Allen concluded, "but by going so long without directly working with them and by allowing enemies of the Brotherhood safe harbor in the Commonwealth -"
"You risked your Alliance," Liam concluded, from the infirm sickbed, "So Handcuff here needed to do something dramatic to prove his loyalty, and since no one believed that he would just turn on us for no reason -"
"And since him attacking a Minuteman outpost is out of the question."
"I needed to do something dramatic."
"Like attack a Brotherhood outpost," Glory deduced, everyone's eyes turning to her, "Sorry am I interrupting?"
"Which served two purposes," Allen continued, "The one we mentioned and also to delay the Brotherhood's rise to power. Maxon and my arrangement has allowed me to continue to pursue to Institute on my own terms."
"And has maintained to tentative peace, between the Brotherhood and the Minutemen." Liam concluded, "Questions, comments, concerns?" He offered the room.
"Just one." Glory said, cutting off Preston who had just been about to speak, "Just to clarify, we're not actually going to remain buddies to the Brotherhood, right?" She looked to Allen.
"There is no version of this story that allows the Brotherhood to operate here long term," he reassured her. Glory nodded, seeming happy with this compromise.
"Did you really have to be so convincing?" Preston demanded, "'What do you do with someone who doesn't need to be alive?'" he quoted, "Really? What if I had followed your orders?"
"I knew you wouldn't," Allen responded, "I'm sorry, Preston, but I needed you to act against me, to fish Liam out of the River and get him treated. Any half measures and I risked you reluctantly following my lead."
"I take it being stabbed wasn't a part of the plan," Lauren observed, sitting as close to Liam as possible
"Marks wanted to pretend to snap my neck." Liam scoffed, "So I improved upon the plan."
"You have no regard for your own safety, do you?" Lauren asked, though her demeanor was soft, as if this were an old habit of theirs.
"Hello, I'm Liam Wilson, glad to meet you." He laughed and gave Lauren a half-hearted wave before changing direction.
"John," he called, waking the young man up, "You've been quiet, thoughts?"
"Did it work?" John mumbled out through a yawn.
Allen responded, "Yes."
"We're good." John was back to sleep.
Liam shook his head at the man. "Good ol' John."
"Follow his example," Allen ordered, "Tonight we get you and yours out of the Commonwealth. After all, this only works if Maxon thinks you're dead."
Allen and Co. filed out of the infirmary, leaving the Regulators to rest.
"Glory," Allen turned to her, "Can you head back to HQ? Let the boss know I'll be returning to active duty in a few days."
Glory nodded, gave a casual salute, and walked away.
"I take it Montgomery is going to be in charge again?" Preston asked.
"If that's alright," Allen replied.
Preston gave a vague shrug and walked away, leaving just Allen and Piper.
"He's going to be upset for a while, isn't he?" Piper asked.
"Probably," Allen rubbed the bridge of his nose, "People don't like being manipulated, even if you have the best of reasons." He looked at Piper pointedly. "I'd understand if you're mad."
"Are we at the end?" Piper asked. Allen just tilted his head. "You said 'the next little bit won't be my best,' and told me to 'wait until the end'" she reminded him, scratching her shoulder, "Are we at the end?"
"Yeah," he rubbed the back of his neck, "we're at the end."
If he was expecting the hug that followed, he didn't show it, his body tense, and his arms high above his head as if declaring surrender.
"Blue," Piper murmured against Allen, his nickname noticeably relaxing him, "I'm not happy, but I'm pretty sure you're not either. And if this is war like you said, then I'm pretty sure you're never supposed to be happy in war."
"No," Allen agreed, wrapping his arms around Piper and patting her head, "I'm not, and we're not supposed to be."
"Then I guess we'll both be unhappy, but it will be the both of us," Piper promised, "Cause I'm locked in, Blue, and I trust you." She pressed her cheek against him, before pulling back a bit. "Just give me a signal next time alright, something to say 'I'm still me, I'm still your Blue.'"
"It's a promise."
They left that night, just Allen, Piper, and the Regulators.
It was slow and quiet going. Liam's injury and their constant listening for the whir of Vertibird blades slowed their pace dramatically.
It was an hour into daylight when they made it to the outskirts and decided that it was time to part ways.
"It was a pleasure meeting the three of you," Piper said, shaking John's hand and giving Lauren a quick hug, "Even you, Liam." She gave the man quick two fingered salute, to which he responded with a single crude fingered salute.
"He means well," Lauren reassured her, swatting Liam's head.
"More than I don't," he confirmed.
Allen's farewells were a tad more involved.
"You'll look after that gun, right?"
Allen pointed to the plasma rifle on John's back and the man just nodded and grunted his assent.
"I'll clean it every day."
"Look after the idiot," Allen requested of Lauren, who turned down his handshake in favor of quick but affectionate hug.
"Always. Look after yourself, Allen, men like you are one in a million, don't waste your own chances."
Finally, there was just Liam and Allen. The two men turned to each other as their compatriots fell back; it wasn't quite out of hearing distance, given Liam's tendency to shout, but it was the thought that counted.
"Where are they off to?" Allen wondered, his hands clasped behind his back.
"I think that they think we've bonded over our mutual feeling of the weight of the world on our shoulders."
"Oh," Allen said, "Did we?"
Liam gave a non-committal mumble.
"More or less," he said, before breaking out in a grin, one breifly mirrored by Allen.
"I appreciate the trust you're showing in me," Allen told him, inclining his head in thanks.
"You earned it," Liam said with a shrug, "I'm a lot of things, not all of them pleasant, but I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong. There's a lot of shit here," he offered his trademark half-grin, "But you can handle it."
"Any advice?"
Allen's skull bandana concealed the smile he tried to bare to hide all the little emotions bottled up, and if Liam was any less good at poker, he would have been fooled. But Allen's hazel eyes betrayed a touch of fear.
"Would you actually be willing to take it?" Liam asked, playing along with Allen's bravado.
"I'm a learner."
"None, at least as far as the Brotherhood's concerned." Liam traced the brim of his hat. "But I've got a bit of a warning for you, but you're not gonna like it."
"I've never been one to run from harsh truths."
Liam nodded, putting his hands in his pockets before taking them out and crossing them, hands under his armpits.
"It's not gonna work," he said.
"What's not?" Allen tilted his head, this time in confusion.
"It," Liam emphasised, "You, your son, rebuilding his life."
"What do you mean?"
"Look, Marks," Liam placed a hand on Allen's shoulder, "God hates men like us, he truly does." He let the hand fall to his side, "Everything we have, he takes. Everything we want, he puts just out of reach." He shook his head, "And every good thing we manage to take back is sullied and it's always our fault. Always." Liam was building up his head of steam, but with a quick shake of his head, he stopped. "Whatever you have at the end of this story, it won't be what you're looking for."
"Maybe," Allen allowed, "Maybe, but it's all I got." He covered his eyes with the palms of his hand, "It's all I got keeping me grounded and I can't just let it go. And if there's a chance, even if it's one in a million, that I can get my boy back," his hands fell to his side, "then dammit, I will."
"Then I wish you luck," Liam said, holding out his hand for Allen to shake.
"I don't need luck." Allen shook Liam's hand, lifted it to eye level, and turned away.
Both Lauren and Piper turned to their friends as they approached.
"What was that about?"
"Just saying goodbye," the men responded, one retying his bandana, the other adjusting his hat.
Scientifically speaking, there was no such thing as a unique occurrence. Even if lightning doesn't strike the same place twice, it will continue to strike.
Despite that, there is uniqueness to every occurence, an allotment of errors and changes. It's why every study is repeated dozens, maybe hundreds of times, to make sure the results are reliable.
Liam's story was his own. Allen's story will be his own. And while there will be overlap, and similarities, there was, and will be, differences.
There are always differences.