"Worry, worry, worry, love is passing me by."
Piper watched Jack from afar as he worked on his suit of power armor, singing along with the song on Diamond City Radio. It was a song she knew all too well, having listened to it way too many times.
"Worry, worry, worry, I'm so painfully shy. Other guys get all the kisses, why am I the one who misses? Worry, worry, worry, woe is me."
She couldn't help but smile as Jack continued. He seemed to have been doing much better since his birthday five days prior, and seeing him in a better mental state was extremely relieving. God knows what he would have done if she wasn't there to talk him down. Since the moment Piper met him, she had seen Jack as a fearless person who, in the wake of his entire world falling apart, still managed to live day-to-day and persevered through everything thrown at him better than anyone else. Just goes to show that he can be suffering but you'd never notice, she thought.
"Baby, baby, baby, I'm a fool about love. Maybe, maybe, maybe, I should go to school about love. When it comes to getting chummy, I'll admit I'm quite a dummy. Worry, worry, worry, woe is me."
Piper was about to go and compliment him on his singing for what seemed to be the hundredth time (because she couldn't think of anything better) when he unbuttoned his flannel shirt and threw it off to the side, exposing his arms and tank-top underneath. She immediately felt her cheeks burning as she adverted her gaze.
Come on, Piper. He's in a damn tank-top. Calm the fuck down. She pinched the bridge of her nose before walking over to greet him.
"I found out that I'm the worrying kind, I'll go worrying right along. Life is fine, but with a worrying mind, so many things can go wrong."
The reporter found herself half singing, half mumbling the song to herself. "Worry, worry, worry, should I hold her so tight? Worry, worry, worry, am I kissing her right? She said 'Joe, it's you I'll marry.' I'm not Joe, my name is Harry! Worry, worry, worry, woe is me."
The song faded out into momentary silence before another song came on, and Jack greeted her with a smile. "Oh- hey, Red."
"Hey," she returned, rolling her wrist. "What're you doing? Well, I mean, I know what you're doing, but—"
Quit talking before you get your foot lodged in your mouth. Since when have you had trouble speaking around him?
"Just fixing the armor up," Jack answered. He lightly tapped his wrench against the leg before standing up. "Would you be interested in going to the Glowing Sea?"
The what now? "Are you crazy, Blue?"
"I never said I wasn't. Besides, Preston has asked me to find a whole small army's worth of equipment and weapons for the Minutemen," he said.
"Do you know how dangerous that is? We could both die!" Piper protested with reasonable concern. I— We don't need to lose him, let alone the both of us.
"Piper, my dearest, closest friend," he said, "you're looking at the man who went to the Institute and survived. You think I'm stupid enough to let the three of us die?"
"Three?"
"We're bringing MacCready with us," Jack said. "We'll be fine, alright? It'll be you, me, and the greatest sharpshooter we know."
She rolled her eyes. "Fine. But if he gets our asses killed, don't say I didn't warn you." I'm only going with you so you don't fucking die.
Jack flashed her another smile before climbing into the portable tank that was his power armor. "That is a lot of metal," Piper said. "I don't suppose you've got a set for me?"
His voice was filtered through his helmet to sound mechanical and slightly muffled. "Of course, I've got a set for you. It's behind the house, next to MacCready's set."
Piper nodded before finding her suit of power armor. The T-60 set donned Minutemen logos, and painted a navy-blue color. She stepped into the suit, nearly losing her footing at first. After taking a few steps, she finally got a handle of walking in the clunky armor— although, it would definitely take some practice.
She joined Jack in front of the house, and a few moments later, MacCready did as well.
"Is everyone ready to go?" Jack asked, rifle at the ready in his metal hands.
"As ready as we could ever be," RJ answered.
"Why are we wearing power armor when we could be wearing radiation suits instead, Blue?"
"Because I'm not going back to Diamond City to buy three suits," he replied. "Now, c'mon. We've got military equipment to find."
[=]
"I swear to God, Blue, we're just in the Glowing Sea so you have something to do that isn't thinking," Piper said, obviously irritated.
"Don't accuse me of things I obviously do," Jack replied. "Either way, we need to find the equipment. The Minutemen aren't going to be able to defeat the Institute with what they have now."
"I thought you guys got stocked up by the Brotherhood?" RJ questioned. "Shouldn't that be enough?"
"They only gave us so much," he answered. "And before either of you say anything, this is necessary to defeating the Institute."
Piper rolled her eyes under her helmet. "Come on, let's just find whatever we need to find and get the hell out of here."
"I second that."
"Alright, fine. The place we're looking for should be around here somewhere—"
Jack's sentence was cut off by the sounds of an angry, growling, irradiated lizard.
"Deathclaw!" MacCready shouted, immediately taking aim and firing.
Piper and Jack swiftly ran for cover, using the rocks as a hiding spot. The glowing deathclaw dodged every bullet that came flying towards it, much to the group's dismay. It stomped over to the two, slamming its foot into the ground, shaking them off balance. A shot rang out and hit the deathclaw in its snout, and Godzilla immediately turned its attention to MacCready.
"Oh, sh— crap," he said, firing a few more shots at the mutated lizard. Jack jumped out from behind his cover, rifle aimed at the deathclaw's back.
"Jack! What the— what are you doing?" Piper shouted, following him.
Ignoring his companion, the former soldier loaded two rounds of his rifle into the back of the kaiju-like creature. The deathclaw wasn't even phased by it, and picked the power armor clad general up. In an attempt to free himself, Jack shot the deathclaw in the eye, to which it responded by throwing him off to the side. Piper watched in horror as he rolled down a nearby small hill, landing in a large puddle of nuclear waste and irradiated water.
She wouldn't admit it, but Jack sort of deserved it. And you were the one who said we'd be alright. Karma's a bitch, right?
"I could use a little help here!" MacCready exclaimed as he began hitting the deathclaw with his rifle as if it were a baseball bat.
You're an idiot, RJ. Piper switched out her 10mm for her hunting rifle. Multiple shots to the beast's belly pulled its attention away from MacCready, buying him some time to rejuvenate. She jumped out of the way just in time as the deathclaw swiped its claws in her direction. Piper groaned in frustration, shooting again.
Next thing she knew, a grenade landed between Piper and the deathclaw. "Red, look out!" she heard Jack cry out.
Piper swiftly jumped back, falling to the ground as the grenade exploded. Her ears rung from the explosion, her vision blurring slightly. The deathclaw howled in pain in response, and fell to the ground after a bullet went straight through its head.
"Piper!" her name was being shouted, by God knows who. Her ears continued to ring, and no matter how many times she blinked, her vision was still screwed up. "Piper!"
Finally, her ears stopped ringing. "Are you alright?" she could hear MacCready saying.
"W-What? Y-Yeah, I'm fine," she answered as her vision became clear again. A big suit of power armor that housed Robert Joseph MacCready hovered over her.
The mercenary reached his hand out. "Come on, we gotta get Jack," he told her as he pulled Piper up off the ground.
The two found the former soldier resting on his knee. The armor of his left arm was broken in certain spots, revealing the frame underneath, that had several tears in it.
"You guys alright?" Jack asked as his companions approached him.
"We should be the ones asking you that question," MacCready replied.
"I'm fine. Just a few scratches."
Piper scoffed. "A few? Your left arm is fucked up from that deathclaw, Blue."
"Nothing a bit of repairs can't fix," he replied, standing up with his rifle in hand.
The reporter shook her helmeted head. "You are so unbelievably stubborn, Jackson."
"And that's why we get along so well."
"Shut up."
"Quit bickering, guys. We need to get that equipment," MacCready butted in. "You two bicker like an old married couple."
Piper's face began to burn, and she was lucky she had her helmet on so they couldn't see her blush.
"MacCready is right," Jack said. "Let's go."
[=]
"Hey! Come check this out," MacCready shouted, waving his hand so the other two could see him. They quickly joined his side. "Come look at this abandoned shack. There's a basement in it!"
Piper and Jack followed the mercenary down through the trapdoor. Through the door was an office that lead to the main room; a federal surveillance base filled with tons of technology.
"Well, well," MacCready began, "looks like we stumbled into one of the government's dirty little secrets."
"As if there weren't enough," the former soldier said.
The reporter leaned her hands on the railing, looking down. "How far down does this place go?" she wondered aloud. Suddenly, her fear of heights caught up to her, and she backed away. "You know what, I don't want to know."
"Hey, I found a holotape!" RJ exclaimed, handing it to Jack.
He slid it into his pip-boy, and listened. "This is government employee number zero-one-one-nine… oh, screw this government bullshit. This is Buzensky. The sirens… they came so fast. Then the alarm. The only ones we could save were those who were on duty. Stevens had left to get something from his car. Stevens… he's gone. We had to close the door before he could even turn around. Protocol said we had to. I could… I could hear him screaming.
"That was days ago. We're already running out of food. This place was… not stocked as well as they claimed. Goddamn budget cuts. If anyone's listening to this, my name is Jeff Buzensky. Tell my wife, Wilma, that I love her. Goodbye."
With that, the holotape stopped. "God-fucking-dammit," Jack mumbled.
"You weren't wrong when you said pre-war America was screwed up, Blue," Piper said.
"All they cared about was their damn money," he started. "They never gave a shit about their people. Might have been more humane if they just let all their workers here die in the blast rather than starving to death."
Piper rested her armored hand on his shoulder. "Come on, let's not dwell on it, Blue."
"Yeah. We've got to find the equipment for the Minutemen, right?" MacCready added on.
Jack just shook his head. What's going on in that brain of yours, dollface? Piper found herself thinking.
"Y-You're right. Let's go," he said.
The group climbed down the stairs, looking anywhere and everywhere to find something. Jack stopped dead in his tracks, holding his fist up to tell his companions to stop. "Listen," he whispered. "Synths."
"My servos seem to be malfunctioning," one synth said.
"The area seems to be clear," another synth claimed.
Piper looked over the railing onto the bottom floor below. Four synths patrolled the last floor, their laser weapons at the ready.
"On the count of three, we run down the stairs and attack. Sync?" Jack told the other two.
"Sync," MacCready replied.
"Sink?" the reporter asked in confusion.
"Sync," Jack said once more. "One… two… three… go!"
The three stormed down the stairs, firing the moment they set foot on the bottom floor.
"Enemy contact," one of the synths spoke, only to get their head shot off seconds later.
The synth leader grabbed a shock baton, rushing towards Jack. One swift armored punch was enough to take down the leader. MacCready and Piper finished off the other two synths with relative ease.
"Coast is clear," RJ said. "Now, let's find what we need, and get the hell out of here. Sync?"
"Sync," Jack replied.
"I still have no clue what that means," Piper added, shrugging in her power armor.
"Military lingo," MacCready told her. "The Gunners acquired it from the U.S Military."
The three continued to search the underground government base, looking for anything that may or may not help the Minutemen out. The reporter was starting to get frustrated. They had come here to the Glowing Sea, fought a goddamn glowing deathclaw and synths, all for nothing! Piper wouldn't be surprised if he knew there'd be nothing here. She had taken notice that they were doing everything that wasn't fighting the Institute or building up more settlements. I wonder if he's just distracting himself from everything else…
Whatever. It didn't matter at the moment. They needed to find some military tech and equipment— if there even was any here.
"I swear to God, if there's nothing here—"
"Hey! Come take a look at this, guys!" Jack said, cutting Piper off.
Her and RJ quickly joined him. They found him in front of a large metal door with a terminal next to it. Jack quickly hacked into the terminal and opened the locks on the door. Piper's jaw dropped as they entered the room. It was stocked full with sets of power armor and tons of weapons.
How in the hell did those synths not find this?
"Jackpot!" MacCready exclaimed. "We should grab as much as we can here, y'know, to help out."
The group grabbed everything they could hold; grenades, mines, ammo, small weapons, and combat armor.
"Worth it now, Piper?" Jack jibed, grabbing a few last things before heading out the door.
She followed behind him, RJ in tow. "I mean, yeah, but you almost got killed!"
"I'm fine, Red," he told her. Laughing, he said, "let's get out of here. Hate to irritate you any further."
The reporter only scoffed. "Finally."
[=]
It felt great to get out of that clunky power armor.
MacCready was alright off doing his own thing, while Jack was talking to Preston about getting some Minutemen rounded up to go to the Glowing Sea to retrieve everything else. Bless their souls, whoever goes. They'll need it.
Piper laid down on the bed inside of her companion's bunker home. She grabbed her pack of cigarettes that rested on the bedside table, and lit up a cigarette. She took a drag, and blew the smoke out into the air above her. Closing her eyes, the reporter felt her nerves calming down after that damned trip to hell. God knows she needed it.
She flicked the ashes into the ashtray on the bedside table as Jack walked in.
"Danse went with a group of Minutemen to the federal surveillance center," he said, sitting down on the stool across from Piper.
"He actually went with them?" she asked in utter disbelief. She didn't think Danse would ever help the Minutemen in any way.
Jack laughed. "He knows the deal between us and the Brotherhood. Helping the Minutemen by retrieving things that will help the fight against the Institute means helping the Brotherhood and their fight against the Institute."
Piper still didn't like the idea of the Brotherhood and Minutemen working together. It just spelled trouble in her book. But if it meant the destruction of the Institute, who was she to complain?
"Throw me your smokes, would ya?" he asked. She tossed them to him, and he thanked her as he caught them in one hand.
She took another drag of her cigarette before she said, "so what the hell is with you doing everything that isn't fighting the Institute?"
Jack wouldn't meet her eyes. "Piper, today was a huge advancement. What are you talking about?"
"Okay, fair. The Minutemen are stronger because of today," Piper said, "but what about everything else? It's… it's like you're distracting yourself from doing anything involving the Institute."
"You would too if your only surviving family member was the director of the Institute."