.passing the torch.

.piper.


Piper took the freshly washed shirt from Dean and hung it beside her own drying laundry. "That the last of it?" she asked Dean and Danse, who were coming to their feet after having knelt over washboards in soapy buckets all morning. Piper dried her hands on her pants and picked up two of the four laundry buckets they'd used in their operation, each with their own varying degrees of feral blood, dirt, and residual soap bubbles. Piper hated cleaning up after a nasty fight, because the clothes had to be washed separately from anything else, and had to go through a "de-gunking" before getting a proper washing. Sometimes, she wondered if she could slip the Bobrovs a few caps to access their washers. "We just need to dump these out back, and we're set."

Danse lifted the other two buckets before Dean could get to them. Piper led them outside and around the back of her home, then had the dirtiest buckets dumped first, which she rinsed out with the water from the cleanest buckets. Leaving those to dry, she waved her guests over to towel off their hands and arms, then put a few caps into Nat's hands before taking the men through the market to Nick's office.

"Nick's probably the best in his field," she said, passing Moe Cronin's store and rounding the corner onto Nick's street. The Valentine's Detective Agency sign glowed in the morning shadows. "Don't leave anything out, seriously. You might think a detail is silly, but you'd be surprised what leads he can snatch from those things."

"Were we in any other situation, I'd caution against such an action," Danse said to Dean.

"Right, because he's a synth or a 'spy' or whatever. I'm sure he's never heard that before."

"Piper, if I'm not mistaken, I'm sure it was your reckless speculation that caused Diamond City to be wary of any who might be a synth, resulting in the death of a man."

Piper swallowed. "I had a duty to talk about the boogeyman, Danse. It's not up to me to teach people how to manage their emotions."

"I agree. I merely think it is unwise to let speculation run wild. I have never seen Nick in action on the field, but I hope it at least knows well enough to not let speculation overcome rational thinking, or in its case, rational processes."

"He, Danse. Nick is a he, whether you like it or not. He doesn't respond to 'it,' so try to cut it out before we get there." She stopped before the door. "You know, it can get a bit cramped in here. I'm thinking you should wait out here. Yeah, let's do that."

Danse took the order. "Yes, Piper."

She gave the door a knock before opening it. Inside, Ellie stood beside the corner desk, nursing a steaming mug of coffee and a thick, open file.

"Ms. Wright, please, come in!"

"Hey Ellie," she said. She motioned to Dean. "This is Dean Winchester. He's looking for a missing person, and uh, actually I'm looking for a missing person too."

"Two separate—"

"Ellie?" Nick's voice, upstairs, coming from the bed he didn't sleep in. "Is that Piper?"

"It's me," Piper shouted over the sounds of his feet hitting the stairs. The group collectively waited for Nick to arrive. Once he did, he nodded at the chair opposite the one he took. Ellie leaned on the desk. Piper shrugged her brows at Dean to take the chair. She leaned on the wall behind him, more to guard the door than to take comfort. Once everyone was settled, she answered Ellie's question. "It's two separate people, Ellie. One is Dean's…uh, Nick Valentine, Dean Winchester, Dean, Nick."

Nick offered his skeletal hand, and Dean shook it after eying it warily.

"Sorry, Nick. Don't take offense." Piper didn't really want to defend Dean, but she figured his hesitation had less to do with Nick being a synth and more to do with having never shaken a robotic hand before. "He's not from around here. Like really not from around here."

"None taken," said Nick.

Coffee appeared in Dean's hand, then Piper's. She took a calming whiff of the coffee as its heat soothed her water-wrinkled fingers.

"Anyway," Piper said after a sip. "His case is related to mine, because…uh…." Her throat tightened. She tried to swallow the lump it formed with a gulp of coffee, but only ended up scorching her throat. "Er, Blue is missing."

Nick's brows arched in horror. "What?!"

How can Danse think Nick's not human? "She's gone, Nick. We think she's been zapped into Dean's world through some kind of interdimensional portal."

Silence. Ellie gaped at Piper, and Nick's eyes flitted between Piper and Dean.

"I can understand why you wouldn't risk putting that into a message. You're gonna have to start at the very beginning, Piper. Dean, I'll let you know when you can fill in the details of your story."

Piper took a deep breath and explained all she knew to Nick. He nodded, recording the information in his head while Ellie took notes at a hand-cramping speed. Piper paused mid-sentence during one key part, realizing she had forgotten her notebook and pen at home in her exhausted attempt to get Nat caught up, everyone fed, and the laundry started. She'd have to log Dean's story in her head too, maybe double-check some of her mental notes against Nick's and Ellie's. When she realized she had paused for what felt like an eon too long (but she could tell felt like nothing to her audience), she banged the door with her elbow, just to dissuade any Brotherhood ear that might be leaning against it, and continued.

"Well, considering the things we've learned just by living here in the Commonwealth, not to mention all we've seen since meeting Nora, some of this seems easier to believe than I initially thought." Nick turned his sights on Dean. "Alright, Mr. Winchester. What were you doing before you and your brother were teleported to our world?"

Dean told him the same story he'd given the Companions the first time, and when Nick pressed him for more, the "we've world-hopped before" detail revealed at Sanctuary came out.

"Is it possible that Castiel somehow created this problem, given his abilities?" Nick asked.

After a beat, Dean shook his head. "No. I called Cas and it happened right after. Cas has no reason to just put Sam and I in a new world without warning. Even when he's ported us before—"

"To another world?"

"Just around our own world. He'd show up, grab us, and then do what he had to do. I never even saw him arrive this time."

"How would you describe your friendship with him?"

Dean laughed through his nose. "Well, complicated."

"How complicated are we talking?"

Dean rubbed his chin, then seemed to chew on his cheek. "Okay," he muttered. "It's gonna come out sometime…" He huffed out a sigh. "Like I said, Castiel is an angel. He was sent to rescue me from Hell. It was the first time I met an angel, and I had no idea. I just had this handprint burned into me."

Okay, there was no way Piper would forget that whopper, and neither would Ellie or Nick, she figured, but they were professionals, and had since lost their incredulous miens. It was good, to make sure you believed your interviewee, because you had to consider that they believed their story, even if large swathes of it seemed unbelievable or just plain not true.

"Go on, what else can you tell me?"

Dean scratched his head. "Uh, well, he and I haven't always gotten along, but he's like a brother to me. We've made our mistakes, probably because we make them in the name of trying to make each other better or see reason."

"Could you list all of your motives for finding him?" said Nick.

"Is that important?"

"It would help. I need clear confirmation for my notes," Ellie lied.

Dean bought it. Piper'd have to file that technique of Ellie's away for future use. "Well, I care about him," Dean began. "I can't just leave him behind. But he's also our best shot at getting home." Dean nodded as if he had to force himself to believe that. "But I'm also worried about him here. I have no idea if he still has his powers. And he's weird, okay? I'm talking awkward, a little clueless, but in that kind of adorable way that people can take advantage of." He seemed to stop, as if counting the many times his friend had been manipulated. He shook his head of it. "If he is powerless here, and this world kills people just because they uh, sorry, think they're like you, only less able to tell, then yeah, I've got to find him before someone or something else does."

Nick nodded. " 'Awkward' and 'a little clueless.' That's helpful. You got that, Ellie?"

"Sure did," she replied.

"That's a good place to start," Nick said. "I'm sorry to tell you that your fears about his safety aren't unfounded, but because of that, we might be able to track him down, especially in a place like Diamond City. Now I don't recall any strangers coming our way recently, but that doesn't mean a caravan hasn't heard a rumor or two." He folded his hands on the desk. "Now we need to talk about you. Where would Castiel go to find you or your brother?"

"Anywhere with a bar or something strange going on," Dean said. "I know this city's got to have at least one bar, but so did Sanctuary, and my version of weird seems to be commonplace around here." Dean leaned back. "He's kind of drawn to lost puppies, actually."

"Actual puppies? Or misfits?"

"Misfits, people who go against the grain and are punished or put in danger because of it."

"So…people like me and Nick," Piper said.

"Precisely," said Nick. "Piper, you said Preston Garvey had sent a team to Goodneighbor to investigate." She nodded. Nick looked at both her and Dean now. "I think you two should stick around here a couple of days. Sounds like Castiel would avoid places that look too imposing, so I think we can set aside looking at the Brotherhood airship unless evidence suggests the Brotherhood has him somehow, and right now, it doesn't. If he's a survivor, he'll know how to keep his head down, and if he cares as much about you and your brother as you say, I doubt the Commonwealth has eaten him alive just yet. Preston's gut was right—a guy like that is going to head to here or Goodneighbor. Despite our security force, we've got me and Ellie and Piper here to lure him. Stick to Preston's plan, for now. If things change close to our deadline, Piper, we can send word back with Paladin Danse. His methodology will only get in the way."

Piper smirked. She'd be more than happy to get Danse out of her hair. "That's a plan."

"Just let me deal with the caravans," Nick said. "I have a bad feeling about them, Piper."

"Really?" Piper mulled that over. That was the kind of story that would invite bullets her way. Or more poison. "Anything solid yet?"

"Not yet. I wanted to talk to Nora first before we did anything."

Blue… Her chest tightened. "We need to get her home, Nick."

"We'll get her back," he said. "Not sure how, but we'll do it. She got over there somehow, didn't she? Anyway, we both know she can handle herself. Hell, maybe she deserves a little reminder of the world she came from."

That garnered a fleeting smile from her. "Right, of course." Except if Blue liked it too much over there, she might never come home.


Author's Note - I'd love to hear from you! Your feedback, no matter how quick or in-depth, would mean the world to me. Let me know what you think so far!