"Jesus, what on earth happened to her?" Doctor Amari exclaimed as she took in the sight of Rose's battered body. She had never been a huge fan of Hancock, but she admitted them as soon as she saw Nick.
"Raiders," Nick said, unable to keep the icy tone out of his voice. "Kidnapped and tortured her for three days."
"Set her on the cot there," Amari ordered, going to the sink to scrub her hands. "And then get out."
"I don't think so," Hancock said. "We're not going anywhere."
Amari fixed him with a firm stare. "Mr. Mayor, I'm going to need to remove what's left of her clothes to judge the extent of her injuries. Miss -Piper, is it? - can stay to help, but you and Mr. Valentine need to wait upstairs until we're done."
"Let the doc work, Hancock," Nick said gently, taking him by the arm. "Piper will keep watch over Rose. She's not going anywhere."
After a moment, Hancock gave in, following Nick upstairs to wait in the Memory Lounge lobby. The room was thankfully empty. Nick took a seat while Hancock paced, lighting up a cigarette to help steady his nerves. God, he would kill for a hit of Jet right about now. Or a hit of anything, really. Anything that would take away the godawful chaos in his head.
"She'll be alright, John," Nick said, after watching the ghoul for a few minutes. "How did you two meet, anyway?"
"She came up into town looking for leads on her son," Hancock replied distractedly. "That sonofabitch Finn tried to scam her not two seconds through the doors, and I put him down when he wouldn't back off."
"Made a hell of a first impression, I imagine."
"I would have thought so too, but Rose, she just rolled with it. Shook my hand and everything. Didn't so much as flinch."
"She's a tough cookie, that's for sure," Nick agreed. "Doesn't much surprise me that she agreed to travel with you either; Rose has a bad habit of seeing the best in people."
Hancock crossed his arms. "Let me guess, you think she's too good to be hanging around a degenerate like me, am I right?"
"It's not my place to make that judgment for her," Nick replied coolly. "And I know that what happened to her wasn't entirely your fault, much as I'd like to blame you for it right now. She's got her own enemies, could have been any one of them that lashed out at her. But she's a good person, Hancock, and you've got a reputation for making bad choices. You've been my friend for a long time, but…"
Hancock started to retort, but at that moment Piper appeared at the top of the stairs.
"Dr. Amari says that you two can come see Blue now, if you want," she said. "She's a little out of it - Amari gave her a pretty big hit of Med-X to help with the pain until the stimpaks and stuff kick in. But she's conscious, for a little while anyway."
Nick immediately got up and headed to the stairs, but Hancock hesitated. On the surface, he wanted to tell the authoritative synth to shove his judgments up his metal ass; deeper down, though, Nick's words hit a nerve. Ever since Rose had been taken, he had been rethinking his decision to travel with her. She was a little too easy to like, and he had let her get closer than anyone else had in a long time. He wasn't sure if he could deal with the guilt of what he put her through, or if he was willing to stick around until one of them ultimately got hurt. Or in Rose's case, hurt again.
At Piper's questioning look, though, he put out the cigarette he had forgotten he was holding, and followed the pair down the stairs.
Rose was propped up on the cot, eyes still closed wearily as they entered. Her color was already improved, though, and she breathed more evenly; it was a good thing that stimpaks worked as quickly as they did. Her skin was covered in the yellowing patches of healing bruises, and she had a few bandages wrapped around the worst cuts on her arms and her wrists.
Amari stopped them as they walked through the door.
"I reset any broken bones, and a few large stimpaks over the next couple of days will take care of the worst of the damage," she said. "I can't speak as to her mental state, though, so you three need to be very careful. She went through a horrific ordeal, and may have trouble bringing herself out of that mindset. Or she could completely repress it; it's hard to say. For now she is sedated, though, and should stay reasonably calm."
Amari hesitated for a moment, and then continued. "Though I want to protect her privacy, I do think it prudent to warn the two of you-" here she looked at Nick and Hancock, "- that it is very possible that she could have a violent reaction to any male presence, if you catch my meaning. It may be best to hang back and let Piper approach her first."
Nick exhaled in a long sigh, his clenched fists the only visible sign of his anger for his friend. Hancock went pale, but otherwise only nodded and went to lean against the wall, hat tipped down to hide his eyes. He had been afraid of that, and didn't trust himself to respond just yet.
Piper, meanwhile, moved next to Rose, gently putting a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, Blue," she said quietly. "You with us, huh?"
Rose jumped at her touch, flinching away until her eyes focused on her friend.
"Piper?" The words came slow on her tongue. "What are you… where am I?"
"In the Memory Den, in Goodneighbor. We got you out, Blue. You're safe."
Relief flooded Rose's face, and she closed her eyes again, letting out a long, shuddering breath.
"I remember hearing gunshots… I thought it was just more raiders," she said at length. "You took them all out yourself?"
Piper chuckled. "Yeah, I'm not a superhuman like you, Blue. It was the three of us."
For the first time, Rose's gaze flickered over to Nick and Hancock. She tensed momentarily, but relaxed as the rational part of her brain reminded her that they were friends. After a few moments, she even smiled.
"Nick!" she exclaimed, reaching out to take the synth's hand. "I guess we're even now, huh?"
"I guess so," he replied, giving her a warm smile. "Good to see you on the mend there, Rose. You had us pretty worried."
Rose looked over at Hancock, confused as to why the ghoul was keeping his distance.
"You actually came for me," she said, voice soft. "I wasn't sure that you would."
Hancock shrugged. "Hey, what do I always say? Help people that need helpin', hurt people that need hurtin'. You needed help, and they sure as hell needed to be hurt. Glad to see you're doin' alright, doll."
She nodded, and wanted to say more, but her eyelids were getting intolerably heavy. She barely noticed as Amari quietly ushered her friends out the door, with promises to keep her under observation 24/7. Exhaustion took over, and she drifted back into a dreamless sleep.