Goodneighbor welcomed the two with its usual creak of the wooden gate, the drug-hazed glare from loiterers, and an even larger amount of trash piling up in the nooks and crannies of the streets. By the time they arrived, the sun had already balanced itself directly above them. The town, with its homeless and steady stream of cartels coming and going, appeared to be busier than they expected.

"Smell that?" MacCready asked happily, taking in a heavy breath through his nose.

Remi sniffed and arched a brow. "The urine?"

"Yes, the urine," he replied dryly. "No! That's the smell of making it back alive yet again!"

Through the window of her shop, Daisy's beady eyes settled on them. She called out, waving them over impatiently. "Well, look who the cat dragged in," she remarked as the pair rushed to her. Before anything else, she took notice of the broad grin stretching across MacCready's face. "What did you get into this time?"

MacCready had begun his gleeful announcement before the Ghoul had finished speaking. "I got it, Daisy. I found the cure to Duncan's disease." He leaned over the counter that separated them, holding the capsule between his thumb and middle finger.

"Oh my God," Daisy whispered, the wrinkled flesh where her eyebrows once were lifting. "That's wonderful news! How'd you do it? Last time you tried, the ferals almost chewed you to bits."

She turned her attention to Remi and studied her. Under Daisy's scrutiny, Remi shrunk in on herself, clasping her hands together in front of her waist. The woman intimidated her and she couldn't seem to put her finger on the reason why.

"I didn't do it alone," MacCready explained. "As it turns out, Remi has a knack for saving my butt."

Remi could've sworn she saw the edges of Daisy's lips tug into something that might have been a smile. "Is that so?" came the gravelly voice. "Maybe you're not as helpless as you look."

"Thank you?" Remi answered, unsure if it was meant as a compliment or an insult. Either way, a warmth began to form inside her belly.

Daisy held out a creased hand to MacCready, who gingerly placed the cure into her palm. "All that trouble you've been through was for this," she mused as she lifted it to her face to inspect it. "It looks less...complicated than I expected."

Remi, unable to hide her smile at the way MacCready's eyes glistened with a childlike excitement, asked, "You can get it to Duncan, right?"

"Of course. After everything MacCready has done for me, it's the least I can do." Reaching underneath the counter, Daisy provided a dented, orange metal box and cautiously placed the capsule into it. "I'll get the sample on the first caravan leaving the Commonwealth. The driver owes me a few favors, and he's reliable." She glanced toward the mercenary. "It will arrive at your homestead in no time, MacCready."

"Thanks," MacCready replied, almost breathlessly. "You're a doll."

He and Remi turned to leave, but a firm grip on Remi's wrist halted her in place. Turning her head, she came only inches from Daisy's face. The two jet black eyes pierced hers, leaving her with an overwhelming sense of anxiety. When Daisy spoke, Remi could almost taste the lingering whiskey on her tongue.

"You take care of MacCready, do you understand me?" Daisy said, a hint of danger tracing her words. "He's one of the good guys, and well" – her eyes flashed upward toward the man of subject, then back down to Remi – "he finally looks happy. You hurt him, and I'll destroy you." As if the warning had never happened, she gave the blonde a quick pat on the head. "Come see me later if that ear of yours starts to give you any trouble."

With a slight tremble, Remi nodded and retreated to MacCready's side. When he asked what Daisy had said, Remi simply shook her head and replied, "She was just wondering what had happened to my ear." She forced out a wispy laugh. "I told her you got hungry."

(~)

"What the absolute fuck?"

MacCready's hand tightened around the broken doorknob as Remi stepped through the threshold of his home. The furniture had been overturned, holes had been punched through the walls, and the windows had been shattered, leaving a mess of broken glass shards at every step. They crunched underneath her shoes, and she hoped an especially sharp piece wouldn't pierce the rubber that guarded her feet.

Remi whipped around to face her companion, anger lashing through her. "Who the fuck did this?!" she hissed through a tight jaw.

To her surprise, MacCready seemed hardly shocked. His tired eyes scanned the wreckage, his hand dropped from the knob. "We can't stay here," he decided calmly.

"Well, obviously. The place is trashed. Looks like whoever did this tried to light your bed on fire."

As if something had kicked him into gear, MacCready shuffled his way past Remi, holding onto her forearms to steady himself as he stepped over what was left of the fridge. He huddled near the corner of the room where the toys had once been and fiddled with a rusted box she hadn't noticed before. At first glance, it was camouflaged with the rest of the debris.

She totted closer, standing on her toes to peer over his shoulder. MacCready opened the box, revealing crumpled papers and mashed cigarette butts. The musty scent instantly began to permeate about the room. "It's still here," he murmured to himself, wrapping his fingers around the wooden figure that Remi had completely forgotten about. It felt as if years had passed since the last time she saw the thing.

"That's what you're worried about?" she questioned incredulously. "A toy?"

Quick as lightening, MacCready turned to her, his eyes squinting into a fierce glower. "It isn't a toy, Remi," he spat. Every ounce of the exhilaration that had filled his body before they entered his home had disappeared in a matter of seconds. Remi flinched away from his tone, confused beyond all hell. A toy – a wooden man – was what worried him? Not the state of his house?

"Okay," she muttered, making room for him as he clambered toward the door. "My bad."

"We can't stay here," MacCready said once more, "in Goodneighbor."

Remi's eyes traced his features, from the way his brows knit together, forming a crease between them, to the deep frown his lips had fallen into. Something was up, but she didn't dare question him about it now. He was a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode. So, she simply nodded and took his hand as he held it out to her, whispering a soft, "Okay."

MacCready's thoughts were already five steps ahead of her inquiries. Just as she opened her mouth to ask where they were going to go, he announced, "We'll spend a night at the Rexford" – his gaze flicked toward the neon sign that read Hotel Rexford – "and then we'll go for the coast."

Remi gasped, nearly choking on her own saliva. "The coast? Why? And why aren't you pissed about your place? That was your home!" Her words began to seep with annoyance. Things weren't adding up, and the more questions she asked, the more popped into her mind.

Sighing, MacCready's tone gave away that he was just as irritated with her questions as she was with his nonchalance. "It was a place I lived in for a few months," he corrected, holding the door to the hotel open for her. "A roof over my head – nothing more."

Remi had never been inside a hotel before. Sure, the Dugout Inn was practically the same thing, but the two establishments held a world of difference. She surveyed the interior as they walked into the lobby, her attention glued mainly to the glistening chandelier hanging from the massive ceiling. Although it was caked with dirt and dust, Remi couldn't remember the last time she'd seen something so beautiful – aside from Nora's face, of course.

To her right stood a sturdy bar, shelves cluttered with a dozen types of alcohol she'd never heard of. The bartender, a tired-looking woman with an ancient scar across the bridge of her nose, stood behind the counter, absentmindedly wiping a glass with a filthy rag. As if she could sense Remi watching her, she glanced up at the younger girl and offered a weak smile. The act of hospitality faltered when she took notice of who Remi had entered with. Her gaze and smile simultaneously dropped, and she resumed her monotonous duty.

"Not this again," Remi heard MacCready mumble. At first, she assumed he was addressing the odd interaction she'd just had, but he stared toward the main desk.

The receptionist, a heavy scowl written on her face, seemed to be engaged in a quarrel with a man greasier than most people in Goodneighbor. Remi took a step closer, straining her ears to eavesdrop, but it soon became unnecessary; the argument rose in volume, attracting the attention of almost everyone in the room.

"...go down and do some work?" came the receptionist's voice. From the impatient glow in her words, Remi assumed this wasn't her first time dealing with the subject at hand.

"Being available to the customers is work!" the man retorted, nervously fidgeting with a broken pencil on the desk. "It's not all about cooking chems, Clair."

Remi's lips twitched into an amused smirk as Clair threw her arms into the air and rolled her eyes into the back of her head. "It's not all about sampling those chems either. Maybe if you stopped using, you could focus."

"What? Where's the fun in cooking if you ain't using it?"

"My mistake. Move on, Fred. I've got customers." Her face lit in realization when she saw MacCready. "Look who came to visit!"

Gliding along in his shadow, Remi approached the desk with MacCready. For a moment, her fingers ached to fiddle with the pencil as Fred had. Something about it just seemed so enticing, but she kept her hands at her sides.

"Clair," MacCready greeted with a charming smile. Remi couldn't take her eyes off it. "As radiant as always."

A deep crimson crawled its way onto Clair's tanned face. "Flattery will get you everywhere," she purred before sizing up Remi. "Another? Where'd you find this one? She looks less...slutty than the others."

Something ugly bubbled up inside Remi, but MacCready quickly calmed whatever it was. "This is Remi. She's..." He trailed off, though his stare remained locked on Remi. He seemed lost in his thoughts, as if searching for the right thing to say. Remi, painfully curious, tilted her head to the side. Finally, he turned to Clair and finished his introduction. "She's very special to me."

Clair's brows raised, as did Remi's. She knew there was something more to her relationship with him, but she hadn't expected him to publicly announce it. "We've been through a lot together," she added, rousing a chuckle from Clair.

"Is that so? Well, I can imagine he's dragged you through quite a bit."

Not so much dragged, Remi thought. More like led her through a few life-and-death situations that she willingly followed him through because the mere idea of venturing forth without him seized her heart.

She kept that minor detail to herself and shrugged. "I've been through worse."

"Do you have a room we could take for the night?" MacCready inquired, fishing through his pockets for what little caps he had.

Clair ripped her meticulous gaze from Remi and waved a hand through the air. "You're in luck. I've got one. Put those damn caps away, Robert. You know I wouldn't charge you. Room's on the top floor, last one on the right."

Placing a hand on the small of Remi's back, MacCready winked and said, "You're so good to me, Clair."

Remi waited until they were halfway up the stairs and out of earshot to open her mouth. Once she was sure that Clair's demanding eyes were no longer on them, she turned to MacCready and commented, "You seem to have a way with the ladies around here." The bitter feeling came back with a vengeance, and a snippet of a memory popped into her mind.

MacCready sprawled out on the torn couch at The Third Rail, a drunken glaze over his eyes. The two naked girls in his arms. Their giggles, the betrayed looks on their faces as Remi stumbled into the room, the horrified look on his.

Jealousy whipped through her, white-hot and screeching.

"It isn't what you think," MacCready assured her as they reached the top of another set of stairs. "I used to work as security at this place. Clair would pay me in booze and an endless amount of favors. And Daisy—"

"What about those girls back at The Third Rail?" Remi couldn't help it; her insides were twisting into tight knots.

"Don't tell me you're jealous."

MacCready pushed the door to their room open, revealing a double-mattress bed tucked away in the corner, a worn couch, a writing desk, and a chipped dresser. The windows had been boarded up, leaving the space dark and dismal, save for the light peeking in from the cracks. The two holes in the wall directly above the desk concerned Remi; she hoped whoever was on the other side couldn't see through.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Remi shuffled into the room and leaned against the desk. "I'm not jealous," she lied. MacCready arched a brow; who was she kidding? She huffed out a great sigh and ran a hand over her face. "Okay, yes. I'm jealous. Happy?"

"No."

MacCready kicked the door shut with his heel, crossed the room, and curled his palms against her cheeks. Remi's first instinct was to pull away – nobody had ever cradled her face before. She froze, pondering on the soothing feel of his skin against hers.

"Can I tell you something?" he whispered, resting his forehead on hers.

Remi nearly giggled. From this angle, he looked cross-eyed. "Depends on what it is."

Never in a million years did she expect kissing to be so gentle, so heart-racing, so terrifying. MacCready's lips formed against hers without warning, soft as if he were worried the act may break her. It did. Something snapped to life inside her. Frantically, she grabbed for his coat, shutting her eyes as she drew him closer. The space between them vanished, yet she felt as if he was still too far away.

As quickly as it came on, it was over. MacCready pulled away, their noses just barely touching. He spoke quietly and rapidly, like he was telling her a secret that could change the fate of humanity. "You shouldn't be jealous. Since I first saw you in that church, you've been stuck in my head. When I was with those girls at The Third Rail, all I could think about was you and your smile and that fire in your eyes when you're pissed. Lucy was the only other person who had that effect on me. It's been you, Remi. You since day one, it's been you."

A hard lump gathered in Remi's throat as her hands trailed upward to touch his face. She wordlessly felt the stubble beginning to grow along his jawline, her thumbs tracing his lips. All the while, she watched a fire of his own shimmer in his eyes. Not from anger, but from...from...What exactly was it? Remi had never seen it before.

Her heart pounded against her chest so forcefully that she feared it would burst from her body. Standing on her toes, she kissed him again, this time sloppy and hungry. She tasted the cigarettes and the snack cake they had shared during their trek to Goodneighbor. Most importantly, she tasted him.

Remi's fingers found their way underneath his cap and tangled themselves in his hair. With a throaty chuckle tickling their lips, MacCready lifted her onto the desk. Almost immediately, her legs snaked around his waist, guiding him against her.

Then, a stinging pain seared through Remi's head, starting at her ear. Yelping, she broke the kiss, covering her wound with both hands. "Shit!" she hissed.

MacCready threw his hands up, his slightly swollen mouth falling open. "I'm so sorry!" he rushed to spout. "I-I didn't mean to touch it!"

Remi gave herself a few seconds to breathe and collect herself before saying anything. "I guess I still need to get used to having half an ear."

Wincing at the agony in her voice, MacCready examined the side of her head once her hands fell into her lap. "I think you have a little more than half. Maybe we should go see Daisy. That mystery goop can only do so much."

A certain sort of newfound dread toward the Ghoul latched itself inside Remi, but she knew MacCready was right. Besides, the constant itching of her ear that she'd been ignoring was beginning to become more than she could handle. She groaned and hopped off the desk. "Yeah, okay," she murmured. "Let's go see what kind of Ghoul magic she can work on me."

By the time they arrived at Daisy's shop, Remi's ear pain had advanced to just short of breaking into tears. She fantasized about ripping the damn thing from her head, though her thoughts were frequently interrupted by MacCready's stream of apologies.

"Seriously," she had struggled to reply through gritted teeth, "it's fine. We were both...caught up in the moment."

Daisy's thin mouth formed into a hard line as soon as saw the pair. She instantly snuffed out her cigarette on the wall, pulled a chair closer to the counter, and patted the seat. "I knew you'd be back. That ear's giving a bit of trouble, ain't it?"

"How'd you know?" Remi asked as she perched herself on the seat and hurried to wipe at an escaped tear.

MacCready stood off to the side, leaning against the wall and watching intently as Daisy rummaged through her supply. "It's infected," she informed them gravely. She grunted in satisfaction and held up a syringe. "I could tell from the moment I saw it. You didn't try to fix it yourself, did you?"

Remi and MacCready shared a guilty glance, earning them both a smack upside their heads from Daisy.

"I hope you've both learned your lesson," she grumbled, peering at Remi's ear once the attack was over. "What did you put on this?"

"I'd bought this cream from a trader a few days ago," MacCready explained as he rubbed at his head. "He said it would heal wounds in seconds. Seemed like a good buy."

Flicking the tip of the needle, Daisy shook her head. "I don't know how you've lasted this long, kid." Her free hand cupped Remi's chin, steadying the trembling girl. The tears were falling freely now; the pain had tripled since they arrived. It took all Remi had to not cry out. "This is going to pinch," Daisy warned.

Remi gasped sharply as the needle pricked at her cartilage. Her body jolted, but Daisy held her face securely in place. Nervously, MacCready shot off the wall, his hands twitching at his sides. It only took half a second for the suffering to fade, forcing a moan of relief from the blonde's lips. Once Daisy released her, her head fell back, her eyes closing.

"Oh, thank God," she muttered. Without thinking, she lifted her hand to touch where the pain had been, but Daisy quickly slapped it away.

"Don't even think about it," she growled. "Are you trying to make it worse? Stimpaks won't heal the hole, but it'll close off the open skin. Don't ruin the process."

"Thank you, Daisy," offered MacCready as he began to take a step closer. "You really saved the day-"

"Daisy! I'm back!"

Time seemed to slow all around them. Three heads turned simultaneously, their attention and thoughts taking off in all different directions. While Daisy raised a hand to greet, Remi's brows knit together in surprise and confusion. MacCready, on the other hand, lunged.

He grabbed the man by the throat, hurling him onto the ground. Daisy and Remi both rushed to his side, grabbing the mercenary by the arms to yank him off. "Get off me!" MacCready hollered, fighting against them. "He's dangerous!"

Daisy, obviously stronger than Remi, took control and pinned MacCready against the side of the shop. Together they fell into their own argument, Daisy demanding MacCready calm down while he supported his own belief that the man needed to die right then and there, and cursed everything for not having his gun. Remi stood motionless, her eyes locked on the man scrambling onto his feet.

"It's you," she whispered, shivering as the hazel eye avoided hers.

Out of his Raider gear, Hazel Eye looked completely normal. Clad in frayed jeans and a stained white top, he could've blended in with the dirty and starved people of Goodneighbor, but the scene he had just caused made him stick out like a sore thumb. Civilians had slowed their brisk pace to watch. Even the Assaultron who ran the shop next to Daisy's clanked over to see what was going on.

"You're still with him," Hazel Eye confirmed, his singular gaze shifting between Remi and MacCready, who had slumped against the wall at Daisy mentioning Hancock getting involved because of the noise. "Why? H-How?"

Remi's mind drifted toward their last meeting back when she and Nora had fended off the ambush on Sanctuary Hills. Questions she didn't have the chance to ask earlier invaded her thoughts, and she found herself moving closer to Hazel Eye. "How do you know Dimitri?" she asked. "Are you working for him?"

MacCready slipped from Daisy's hold the second she let off. He grabbed the pocketknife on his hip and slipped between Remi and Hazel Eye, holding the blade to the Raider's throat with one hand and pushing Remi back with the other. She stumbled slightly, but caught herself before falling.

"What are you doing here, man?!" MacCready spat, narrowing his eyes. "You'd better start talking or I'll make sure you won't ever be able to again."

Hazel Eye curled his fingers around MacCready's wrist, staring him down dangerously. "He knows what you did...and haven't done."

Silence fell over them, save for the whine of a stray dog begging for food from a woman too high to realize the animal was there. MacCready finally lowered the knife, his body rigid. "Why are you here?" he repeated. There was an attempt at a calm tone this time. "You trashed my place, didn't you?"

"No. I-I got here after."

"How do I know you aren't lying to me?!" Again, the blade was against Hazel Eye's throat, this time nicking his skin. A trail of fresh blood cascaded onto the collar of his shirt. "Are you here for her? Why are you here?"

Daisy and Remi both quipped up at the same time.

"Ethan!"

"What the hell is going on?!" Remi fitted herself between the two men, knocking MacCready's weapon away while Daisy rushed to Hazel Eye – Ethan's – side to inspect the cut. "What are you doing here?" the younger girl demanded to know, crossing her arms protectively over her chest. "Why aren't you with your Raider buddies?"

"I don't do that shit anymore," he retorted bitterly. "Nearly killed me trying to get away from them." Hesitantly, he lifted the bottom of his shirt, revealing an angry pink ridge in his skin that extended from just below his bellybutton, to the middle of his chest. The scar looked fresh – not even two weeks old, if Remi had to guess.

She covered her mouth with her hand, taking a step back into MacCready. He gripped onto her arm in an attempt to move her away from Ethan, but she remained in place. "Who did that?"

Covering his body, Ethan scoffed and shrugged past them. He headed for Daisy's shop. "You should know, Remi," he said. "Dimitri doesn't let one of his go without a price."

(~)

"We have to leave first thing in the morning."

"That was my plan all along, Remi."

In the darkness of the hotel room, Remi and MacCready lay side-by-side on the bed. For an hour, they hadn't said a word. Events of the day still hadn't been fully processed in their minds. Trying to fit in all the details was beginning to give Remi a headache. She flung an arm over her eyes, blocking out the light of the flickering candle.

"How do you know him?" she asked, peeking out from underneath her elbow. MacCready's eyes were open wide, his stare set on the seemingly unfinished ceiling.

It took a moment to get an answer, but when it finally did come, it felt distant – incomplete. "I was mixed up with the Gunners for a little while before I met you. Sometimes I'd have to work with Raiders on certain jobs. He was there once." He scoffed. "Worthless as hell, but his face made a nice shield."

"Guess that answers the question about his eye."

"Guess so."

Remi expected the quiet to swallow them once more, but MacCready had other plans. Propping himself up on his elbow, he took her face in his hand and turned her head toward himself. He didn't focus on her eyes at first. Her ear took up his attention. Remi could see the smile trying to fight its way through to his lips, which filled her with relief. It must have meant her ear was healing. The pain hadn't come back, but she was expecting it to eventually.

"You know I would've killed him, right?" MacCready said. "If he tried to touch you, I would've snapped him in two."

Fighting a grin of her own, Remi placed a hand atop his. "Too bad big, strong Daisy was there to stop you."

"Pfft. Are you crazy? I let her stop me. I didn't want to accidentally break her, too."

She couldn't hold back her fit of laughter. "I'm sure."

MacCready's playful facade fell, his lips tugging down into a frown. "Seriously, I'm not going to let him hurt you. Or anyone, for that matter." He hesitated, contemplating his next words. "As long as I'm here, nobody is going to hurt you."

It left Remi speechless, but smothered in her thoughts. Long ago, her mother had told her the exact same thing, and then she wasn't there. Thinking on it, Remi realized it was the moment she picked up the face she loved with all her heart from the cracked road that everything started rolling downhill. The debts left by her parents, the loneliness and hunger, the countless nights cowering in fear. All of it.

"Don't leave me," she whispered, lifting her body to bring her face only centimeters from MacCready's. "Please, don't ever leave me."

He took her that night, with no spoken promises of staying with her, but she knew. He promised her with the way his lips lingered on hers. He promised her with the gasps and the moans he brought forth from her. He promised her with the way he clung to her afterward, as if she would disappear the moment he let go.

At a point, it had rained. Remi never heard it.