MacCready
"Did Paladin Danse and your companions leave already?" I look up at the brotherhood woman that had been put in charge of my care.
"Yeah, they left a couple hours ago." I say standing up as she applies another stimpack to my arm before pulling off the gauze around my shoulder and my arm.
"Looks like the treatment worked, you are ready to get back out there." She says with a smile.
"HAYLEN, HAYLEN OPEN THE DOORS!" My blood runs cold as she sprints to the main doors opening them for Danse and Deacon. Deacon who is holding an unconscious Avery in his arms. I move out of the way as Deacon lays her down.
"What the f- heck happened out there?" I question grabbing Deacon by his arm seeing him wince. My eyes trailed down his back seeing scars and burns running down it.
"There was a super mutant suicider when I tackled Avery to cover her from the blast she hit her head pretty hard. She may have a concussion." Deacon mutters his voice filled with guilt.
"Get some better clothes on. Go! I will stay with Avery." Deacon nods walking away as I crouch down next to Avery taking her small pale hand in mine. Her eyes flutter open as she groans sitting up placing a hand on her head.
"Hey there doll, how's your head feeling?" I whispered so it wouldn't irritate her ears. She looked at me for a moment before she was sliding off the bed her arms wrapping around my waist tightly. I sigh hugging her just as tightly back placing a gentle kiss on her forehead.
"Nate…" She whispers sniffling quietly and I feel my heart sink.
"Yeah, I'm here beautiful. It's okay." I whisper looking up at Deacon who is staring at us, his lips pressed into a thin line as he clenches his fist.
"I missed you Nate… please tell me it was all a dream." She whispers into my shoulder. I feel my whole heart breaking, I don't want to pretend to be someone I'm not.
"Shhh, you hit your head pretty hard doll. You need to get some rest." She pulls away for a moment looking up at me with heavy lidded eyes, leaning in for a kiss. I feel my face flush because she wants me to oblige her despite everyone in the room. I shake away my inhibitions and lean down pressing my lips to hers as her arms wrap around my neck. I press a few kisses against her lips before Deacon is pushing me off of her. I glare at him as he stands between me and Avery. She blinks finally realizing where she is and what's happening.
"You are a piece of fucking work MacCready." I want to hit him for separating us, for trying to come between me and Avery. Things are different with her, I feel like I can be a better person if she stays by my side and Deacon wants to ruin that.
"I'm a piece of work? What about you? Trying to take what doesn't belong to you. Avery will never feel for you what she feels about me." I hiss as Avery steps between us.
"Stop both of you. I don't understand why you have to fight about this." Her eyes are dull as she looks up at me finally realizing that I'm not her late husband, I feel a pang of hurt at the thought.
"I'm angry because this asshole is using you and you don't deserve that." Deacon says turning to Avery whose staring at him stunned.
"Please don't yell its hurting my head… How could he use me?" She asks staring at him painfully gripping her head.
"He failed to mention his wife Lucy…. or his son Duncan." She blinks at me like she can't understand what the hell just happened.
"W-wife and son..?" I have to grit my teeth at the look she gives me… I'm not ready to talk about Lucy or Duncan to her. Deacon smirks at me while Avery just sits back on the bed not saying a word.
"Everyone out, I need to sleep. Get out!" She screamed at everyone making them scramble to make their way into a new room. But I don't leave I stand there looking at her because Deacon may have just ruined one of the best things that ever happened to me. Deacon shoots me a glare before heading out of the room with Danse, Haylen and Rhys.
"Didn't you hear me? That means you too MacCready." She says placing her face in her hands.
"No, im not going to let Deacon ruin what's happening between us." I say kneeling in front of her and taking her hands in mine.
"Is it true what he said?" she whispers softly her steel eyes meeting mine.
"Yes." I swallow hard seeing the look of utter defeat on her face.
"Thank you for all of your help up until this point MacCready, but I'll be fine on my own from here on out. I will also handle Winlock and Barnes." Something inside me breaks when I hear those words leave her lips. I shake my head looking up at her pleadingly, as she slips from my grip walking past me.
"No, I told you doll. I'm not leaving you alone. I promised you that remember?" I say standing watching as she paces behind me.
"No. I'm not asking you to leave MacCready… I'm telling you, you are dismissed." I walk in front of her halting her pacing for a moment to wrap my arms around her.
"MacCready, let me go… Goddamn it.
Let me go!" she hisses pushing me away but I only hold her tighter as she struggles.
"Shhh doll, shhh its okay." I feel her trembling in my arms her whole frame shaking as she starts to cry. We both slide to the floor as I attempt to hold her closer, she doesn't want me to. She pounds on my chest with her fist trying to gain some distance from me and I feel my heart breaking.
"Please just go… I cant handle this. I cant handle being near you." She whispers halting all her struggling.
"I don't want to leave Doll please." I whisper kissing her forehead pulling away to finally see her tear streaked face. I slowly clear them away with my thumbs.
"I care about you Avery." Her small pale hand catches my hand and slowly lowers it.
"If you care then please, do this for me. Leave." I take a deep breath letting her go. I stand up pulling away from her as she looks up at me with puffy eyes.
"I will be back at the third rail if you want to come find me." I said slipping Nate's ring from my finger and leaning down taking her hand to place it in her palm. She stays on the floor her bangs covering her eyes as I walk to my things separating everything that I had been holding on to for Avery. I pick up my clothes stuffing them in my pack as well before walking to the door of the Cambridge police station. I looked around the area making sure there were no feral's before I decide to head out.
"MacCready." I turn looking behind me to see Deacon stand there with his arms crossed.
"What do you want Deacon?" He pursues his lips for a moment before stepping forward.
"Stay away from her. For good." He says and I have to clench my fist to stop myself from punching him in the face.
"I will stay away when and if that is what she wants. She's angry now, but I will explain everything to her and she will come back to me." I growl while Deacon shakes his head a quiet sigh leaving his lips.
"Explain that you turned her into a home wrecker because you can't keep it in your pants?" He doesn't know… He really has no idea…
"Lucy died a while after Duncan was born. Torn apart by feral's, it took everything in me to run away with Duncan. " Deacons whole body went rigid.
"Deac! I've been looking all over for you." We both look up as a man in a strange patched suit runs up to us.
"Hey, what's going on?" Deacon says ignoring me completely.
"Dez has been looking for you, switchboard was attacked. There is a dead drop with the new location of HQ. It'll be in a mailbox by Boston Commons. Keep following the freedom trail." I looked curiously as Deacons whole body tensed up completely.
"I'll be there by tomorrow tell Dez not to do anything reckless." The man nods waving before running back from where he came.
"Looks like you fucked us both over and are leaving Avery with that brotherhood trashcan." I hiss punching him in the face. He lets me falling back on his ass as he rubs his jaw.
"Deacon!" We both look over to see Avery staring at us with wide eyes.
"Go MacCready, Fucking go!" She grounds out as she runs to Deacons side to check his jaw.
"We are going to have to talk eventually Avery." I say before turning my back to them and walking away.
Deacon
Avery knelt next to me her fingers feathering slightly over what was sure to be a bruise tomorrow. I placed my hand over hers halting her movements for a moment. I finally get a good look at her, her eyes are bloodshot and rimmed red from her tears. I hurt her based on some Intel that was wrong. MacCready's wife was dead meaning they could have been together. I open my mouth to tell her but the words won't come out. I don't want her to go after him.
"Thanks sweetheart. I'm okay now though really." She nods helping me stand. We both stare at each other for a moment before she's lifting my shades off of my face. All I want to do is cringe away from her so she won't see what im hiding.
"Thank you for telling me about MacCready. I thought he was serious about me… but now I'm not so sure. I was serious with what I told Danse, im joining the brotherhood." I place a hand on her head pulling her closer so our foreheads are pressed together.
"I hate to do this, but I have to leave too. I have some things that need to be taken care of. I'm so sorry sweetheart." She simply shakes her head before pulling away. It's okay Danse has offered to accompany me throughout the wasteland. I hope to see you again soon Deac…. knowing you it'll be sooner rather than later." I swallow hard nodding, I want to bring her into the railroad but Dez would question it too much. She needs to find us herself.
"Sweetheart if you ever want to see me yourself…. follow the freedom trail." I whisper making her stare at me confused.
"I'm going to pack my things and have a talk with that paladin of yours. Be safe Avery, I don't want anything to happen to you." She smiles leaning forward to place a gentle goodbye kiss on my cheek before allowing me to leave her side and return into the police station. When I get back inside Dog meat passes between my legs running outside to Avery while Paladin Danse is frowning as he looks at Haylen and Rhys.
"You're still here?" Danse says curiously as he turns to face me.
"Yeah, I have to head out. Avery said you'd be accompanying her…" Danse stared at me like I was out of my mind.
"Initiate Avery left already. She told me she would come back to the brotherhood of steel when she had found her son." I sucked in a deep breath.
"She's with that insubordinate civilian isn't she? So why worry." Danse says his face filling with worry.
"No, she told MacCready to leave her." We both ran outside the police station to see not a trace of Avery.
"I can't go after her…" I whisper looking up at Danse who is also stuck in a bind because he can't leave the police station or his team.
"Dogmeat is with her… she will be fine." I say it but im not so sure. I turn to Danse who glares out at Cambridge.
"We will be here if you come across her again… tell her I will be here waiting for her." I nod walking back inside with Danse who helps me pack up my things. I nod to him before heading towards the dead drop and towards our next HQ where Dez is going to give me shit for not being there.
I sigh turning on my stealth-boy as I walk through Cambridge, everything is quiet aside from random dogs barking in the distance. I look up at the darkening sky, I can't stop worrying about her.
When I get back HQ is really quiet, I step inside to see everyone around us looking completely defeated… even Glory.
"Deacon… where have you been?" Desdemona growls walking up to me.
"Oh… you know fighting off a deathclaw who thought it would be funny to steal my shades." Her face drops realizing that she would never get a real answer from me and at the lie that slips all to easily from my lips. I don't even know why I do it anymore, maybe I just do because I'm scared that Dez will see I don't belong here.
"So what happened?" I question making her face become serious.
"Switchboard was attacked by the institute… We don't know how they found us but the only ones that got out alive are right before your eyes." I look around at the few people left and felt my head start to ache, we really lost a lot of people on this one.
"Let me go check the switchboard… I can do this Dez." She shakes her head looking at the people around her.
"We have already suffered too much of a loss Deacon… I can't send more people in to check a site that is overrun with gen 1s and gen 2s. I won't send you to your death… we still need you." I frown as she walks back into the main room gathering everyone around us.
"Today, we have suffered a great loss to the institute. But what we can say is that they finally realize that we are the enemy. We will do whatever is in our power to continue protecting our synths. You can bet that we won't go down without a fight. They got the jump on us in the switchboard but this won't happen again. Now more than ever we are going to need to organize ourselves so we can win over the institute. The railroad will not allow these slavers to continue hurting the Commonwealth." She says as everyone around us cheer, she was always good at rallying the troops. I smiled at everyone while Carrington who was glaring in my direction.
"Hey Deac." Glory said stepping forward to lean against the wall where I was standing.
"Glory." I mutter looking away from her.
"Where were you… we needed you back there and you were nowhere to be found. While drummer boy says he found you at the Cambridge police station, with some Merc. A police station filled with brotherhood bigots I might add. I made him swear he wouldn't mention a thing to Dez. But what the hell Deac? This isn't like you… What's going on?" I silently cursed the fact that Glory could pick up on so much.
"Glory have a little faith, you know me, nothing is ever up. Stop worrying, I'm gonna try and get Dez to let me go to the switchboard to get it back." I say a frown etching itself on my face.
"If you plan to get to switchboard… I need my prototype, I lost my chance to get it when we were driven out by the institute." We both look up to see Carrington standing next to us with arms crossed.
"Yeah, I'll see if I can find it. If Dez approves the mission, she isnt too keen on letting me go anywhere right now."
"I wonder why." Carrington mutters sarcastically before walking off. I give him the finger while Glory chuckles softly.
"How bout we go out on the roof and have a drink?" Glory says placing a gentle hand on my arm. I look at her slightly before nodding, she grabs a her stash of whiskey and vodka before we make our way to the top of the old north church.
I pull my cigarettes from my pocket and light one up before offering another to Glory who takes it gladly.
"Pick your poison." She says softly opening up the bag of gathered alcohol, I sift through finding a decently preserved bottle of wine.
"bottoms up." I whisper as we clink our bottles together before downing them. Glory lays her head on my shoulder as we look out at the wasteland.
"You think one day we will actually succeed and win against the institute?" She murmurs already half way through her vodka.
"Yeah Glory, we will and it will be soon. The institute doesn't have a chance." She laughs making me crack a smile.
"You are full of shit Deac, but at least we are making a difference in some synth lives right?" I nod slightly dizzy from the lack of food and excess alcohol.
"Deac." I look down at Glory who is staring at me with heavy lidded eyes, more drunk than she expected to be. I blink at her confused as she brings her lips to mine kissing me slowly. I don't know why I don't push her away, maybe because she's easier to handle than what im feeling for Avery. She lays back unzipping her jacket and pulling me over her as she lies there, just a bra shielding her body from me.
I slowly run my hand over her skin making her moan softly. But the sound doesn't do to me what it should, I close my eyes and I see Avery, her soft pale skin on display for me. I realize I can't do this… I don't want to be with anyone else.
"Glory… I can't. I'm sorry." I say pulling away from her making her look at me confused as I book it the hell out of there.
