When Phoenix saw the skyline that she knew so well, she almost collapsed. She wouldn't be lying if she said a tear sprang in her eye.

"Holy shit," The Courier said, seemingly dumbfounded at the idea of being in the Commonwealth. "I've never walked so far in my motherfucking life."

Phoenix smirked at her. "And how are you getting home?"

The Courier stared forward for a good minute before Phoenix was startled with a thunderous "Fuck" escaping the helmet.

The Courier didn't speak again until they were at about the perimeter of Boston. Phoenix was now leading the pack, being in familiar territory. "I think I have a plan."

"Oh?" Phoenix answered, a smirk forming on the corners of her mouth.

"Yeah. I'll just live here forever. Fuck the NCR, I don't want to walk that much ever again."

Phoenix laughed. "Or I can just rent a vertibird to take you back."

The Courier stared at her in awe. "You can do that?"

She waved her arm. "I'm a Paladin in the Brotherhood of Steel. I have a little power on this side of the country."

The Courier fell to her knees, then grabbed one of Phoenix's legs. "Oh, thank you, great one!"

Phoenix kicked her leg. "What the fuck, man?"

Although Phoenix had to put the key in the lock, it was the Courier who rushed forward to kick open the door. "Hello boys!" She yelled into the house, although she knew nobody in it.

"Jesus Christ," Phoenix whispered to herself. Steve patted her back.

Soon enough, there was a large convergence of people outside of Phoenix's house. After that, people in the marketplace took notice. "Is that the General?" "That's Phoenix...I thought she was dead…" Whispers flooded the place, rumors spread.

Unsurprisingly, the news reached Piper. She considered herself a damn good reporter, and that could only happen if she had eyes and ears all over the place. Within a minute, Piper had ran from the Publick Occurrences office to Phoenix, and immediately trapped her in a bear hug. "Dammit, Blue," She whispered in her ear. Phoenix returned the hug even stronger. Piper let out a small "Oof."

Other than that, the Avengers were happy to see their leader, Rogers, once again. They had converged just outside of the house, away from the people. They had already began to formulate a plan regarding how to get home. Stark and Banner had figured out most of the details, but he needed to figure out some of the intricacies. Like supplies. And space.

"Welcome back, Cap," Natasha was the first to speak.

He sighed. "It's nice to be with the team again. Were you all in the area? How long have you waited?"

"No, Hawkeye here and I were teleported near DC."

"Thor and I appeared God-knows-where. The other guy was in control the whole time, and we moved fast. On the bright side, Kellogg's definitely dead. For good, hopefully."

Steve shook his head. "I didn't even think about that."

Nat crossed her arms. "X6 and I were nearby. We've waited for about three months. Banner and Hulk showed up soon after. MacCready, Barton, and Stark arrived about a month ago. Now you. Where were you?"

Rogers smirked. "A hell of a long ways away. Las Vegas."

"Ah, Cap, I didn't know you were a gambler!" Stark commented.

Rogers chuckled lightly. "We didn't do much gambling. We were only in Vegas for a day. Not as nice of a place here. Before that we killed a Deathclaw. I'm not excited to do that again."

"That sounds completely made up," Barton said out of the corner of his mouth.

Rogers was ready to retort when Phoenix slung her arm over his shoulder, guiding him back into the house. "Too many people," She whispered in his ear. "We need to talk in private."

As she lead him into the house, the rest of the team followed suit, including Lacey. The Courier, while everyone else was preoccupied, snatched a lone Nuka Cola Quantum from Power Noodles, storing it in one of her satchels. She entered the house whistling obnoxiously.

Phoenix had regrouped the team in a circle, adding herself. "Stark, I really hope you have a plan,"

"Somewhat. I've got the general plan, I just need the materials and space to do it."

"Done." She answered, knowing just the place.

"Done?" Banner asked.

"Yeah. Done. I know the place, I know the guy."

"Maxson," Lacey offered up, entering the discussion.

Phoenix nodded, slightly frowning at the girl. "Yeah. Him. I'm sorry, who are you?"

Lacey faintly smiled. "I'm from DC. You may have heard of me. Lone Wanderer?"

Phoenix knitted her eyebrows. "Yeah, sounds familiar. Maybe through...Three Dog?"

Lacey laughed. "Yeah, I did some work for Three Dog. How do you know about him?"

Phoenix shook her head. "Local disk jockey. Mentioned him sometimes. Sometimes we can get transmissions out here, if it's a really clear day and we use some of the nearby radio stations. He said that name, Lone Wanderer, before. I never quite knew what it meant."

"I've heard of you, for sure. I see a lot of myself in you. That's kind of weird to say, we're about the same age, but I do a lot of the same stuff you do now, or I did about ten years ago. I took an early retirement."

"Were you a vault dweller?" Phoenix asked innocently.

"Yeah, of course. You think a wastelander can have a face as pretty as mine?" Faint chuckles came from uninterested members of the group. "Kidding, just kidding. Vault 101, born and raised."

"Vault 111, frozen for two hundred and ten years."

Lacey looked sympathetic. "I heard. Anyway, enough about us, back to the Brotherhood."

Phoenix crossed her arms. "I'm not sure how willing they're going to be to help me. I didn't really invite them to blow up the Institute."

Lacey disregarded the statement. "No big deal. They still owe me a few favors."

"Favors? From the Brotherhood? You must be one hell of a soldier."

Lacey smirked. "They started to rebuild Liberty Prime, right? I saw him about a month ago."

"Yeah?"

"I was on the mission that destroyed him in the first place. I fixed a water purifier in DC for them. I even won their war for them. Maxson may have changed the direction of the Brotherhood, and I probably won't be appreciated for my previous alliance to Lyons, but I've known Maxson since he was small. You could almost say that we're friends."

"I didn't know that guy could have friends."

Lacey laughed. "He's more soft than you think."