AN: I'm departing a bit from the storyline of the game, but it needed to happen otherwise what was the point of writing this... I could have just been playing the game. But like I said... a few times now... I have no plan, I just write what's in my head at the time. Please review. Thanks Tuckerdoo for you review of the last chapter... it made me laugh.

Chapter 21- The Great Green Jewel

Preston met them at Sanctuarys gate.

He took up step beside Max and Danse as they headed up the hill to the Vault.

"How'd it go? Tower up and running?" Preston asked as they walked, noting Maxs buoyant mood.

"It went splendidly." Max sang expansively. "I have a few splinters in my arse that Curie will need to look at, but other than that, it went fan-fucking-tastically."

"Ah… ok…? Do I need to know how you got the splinters?" He asked looking very confused.

Max drew breath to answer but Danse cut her off, his cheeks colouring. "No. You don't"

Max sniggered suspiciously but didn't elaborate.

"You know, I never did get that steak." She reflected happily as she walked onto the elevator platform and turned to face them. "What food's on offer, Preston.?"

"You're in luck," Preston supplied. "The team down in Murkwater managed to finally take down that Mirelurk Queen. They sent us a good portion of the meat in the last consignment. The old lady was quite big and they had a heap to spare and didn't want it to spoil."

"Mmmmm, Queen meat. Sounds glorious." She was acting weird, Preston looked hard at her. What had happened while they had been out? He looked at Danse as well. He was staring at the floor as if it was the most interesting thing he'd ever seen, the colour in his face darkening to that of a tato.

"I'm going to see Curie and then eat and then I'm gonna head over to the airport to have a little tet-a-tet with Arthur." She hopped off the elevator platform and sauntered towards the infirmary.

"I have to go…" Danse strode off down the other corridor towards the office.

Preston looked after both of them with a confused look on his face. A slow look of comprehension spread over his face and he grinned widely. Danse was definitely going to have his work cut out for him if he planned on keeping up with her. A small part of Preston was a little disappointed that she hadn't looked to him for that kind of companionship, they would be good for each other he supposed. He shrugged his shoulders and walked after Danse towards the office.

Max lay face down on the gurney as Curie tweezed out the final splinter from her butt. Curie had not asked how the splinters had come to be there and Max was not forthcoming. She smiled to herself remembering how the slithers of aged wood had ended up in her… end. That Lowboy, Danse dragging her to the edge and what had happened next. And later that night when they had finally gathered themselves after the initial shock and turned in for the night. Max had run her hand down Danses broad back as they lay next to each other in the big bed. He had rolled towards her and they had engaged in round two.

They had not talked about the 'incident' since. Max supposed that they needed to work on their communication skills as it was certainly something that she would like to explore further. Danse needed time to wrap his head around what had happened between them. It took him much more time than her to process things.

Max thanked Curie for her diligent care and made her way to the common area and grabbed a plate of food. Codsworth was on duty in the mess and he made sure that Max got the choicest cut of meat. She had grinned at him and asked him how everything had been going for him. They chatted companionably for a while before Preston entered the room and looked around. He hurried up to her when he picked her out of the crowd in the mess.

"We're needed at the gate… we have visitors."

Max was on her feet and walking in an instant. "Who is it? Not the Brotherhood again?"

"No." Preston shook his head looking worried. "The watch said that they looked like city folk, maybe a dozen or so of them."

Max looked at him questioningly.

As they reached the elevator they were joined by other members of the 'senior staff' of the Minutemen and Danse. They broke the surface and all hurried down the hill to the gate and the group of bewildered people gathered just inside of it. Max was surprised to recognised Nick Valentine as one of the group and rushed to his side. If anyone could explain this, it would be him.

"Max," He started, relief evident in his voice. "We're glad to finally make it here, we never thought we'd get here in one piece and we weren't sure you'd be here when we did."

"Nicky, what's going on? What happened?"

"The Brotherhood of Steel have taken over Diamond City." Nick explained regretfully. "We're the refugees."

"I want the full story, but we'll see to your people first." Max was in her element now and the general part of her took over. "Curie & Haylen; I want a mobile infirmary set up over there. Danse, Cait, Sturges; I want a debrief table set up. I want to know who everyone here is and their versions of what happened. Preston; I want the rest of Sanctuary and our other settlements put on alert. Codsworth, Marcie, Jun; They're gonna need food and drink in them and bunks, they'll be tired and will need somewhere to crash and I don't want them to do it on the ground. Preston, sorry man, but can you also get in touch with Hancock as well, let him know what's happened. Goodneighbour might be next. Assemble whatever teams you need to get this stuff done as fast and efficiently as possible. Move Everyone!" Everyone scrambled to carry out her orders. She watched briefly as her team shouted to other settlers to get everything in order.

She turned back to Nick who was looking at her with wide eyes.

"I've underestimated you, kid. You have more gumption than I credited you with." Nick said with admiration.

She gave a quick smile but was all business. "Are you OK to talk now or do you need something first. Are you good?" She looked closely as his ramshackle synth face with concern.

"I'm fine, kid. But let's find a seat, these old pistons need to rest a bit."

Max led Nick over to the picnic table outside the visitor accommodation and once he was comfortably seated with a freshly lit cigarette in his hand she looked to him to explain his sudden appearance in Sanctuary Hills

"They landed inside the city in one of their flying machines, a young fella, looked to be the boss got out and addressed the city. Saying that old MacDonagh was a synth and that the city had had the wool pulled over their eyes. The town welcomed them with open arms, started turning over family members and the like. Taka was beaten into spare parts." Nick took a long unsteady drag from his smoke and looked at her with a wounded expression, his yellow irises wide. "Max, it was like they all went insane. It all happened so quickly. I would be done for if it hadn't been for Ellie. Me and the folks with us manged to slip out, but there were casualties other than MacDonagh, who was executed right quick and Taka... They ate at his stall every day dammit, they way turned on him was bestial." Nick took another drag of his cigarette before he continued. "Sheng Kowolski refused to turn over the purifier, drew a weapon and all. But he was just a kid, dammit he didn't deserve to die. Vadim got into a scuffle with them as well, but it was his brother who bore the brunt of it. Yefim died of his injuries on the way here, Vadim is inconsolable. There are 14 of us, that's it out of the whole damned city."

Nick shook his head sadly and stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray on the table.

Max thought for a moment and the more she thought the more it made sense. Diamond City was ripe for the taking. They already had a hatred of Ghouls as demonstrated by the great expulsion of their kind back in eighty two. They feared supermutants. Preston had told her that the Minutemen came to prominence back in the day when the defended the city against a supermutant horde. And Synths, well, the fear of them had been drilled into them by that 'newspaper' that circulated everywhere. Max had found that the people as a collective were small and acted under a sheep mentality. There were always exceptions of course and they all seemed to be here now.

Max looked over at the refugees as they moved through the welcoming committee of Sanctuarys finest. She picked out the faces of the few people that she knew. Moe Cronin, the Swatter seller, he had one of his wares resting against his shoulder as Curie tended to some minor bruises on his face.

"So I says to him 'this is what a swatter feels like, motherfucker' and Wham! He goes down… true fact!" Moe was saying.

Curie nodded as she worked. "That's so brave of you, Monsieur."

Not far away, Haylen was seeing to Danny Sullivan the Diamond City Guard. Doc Sun had shaken off his fatigue from the long road and joined in working in the makeshift infirmary, he was tending to Arturo Rodriguez the Diamond City Arms dealer. He had been fighting primarily to protect his stock, which the Brotherhood meant to confiscate and ultimately had.

Sitting in front of Danse was a man she didn't recognise. Nick advised her that it was Pastor Clements, the man who had married Mr Zwicky, the School teacher and Miss Edna, the Miss Nanny Robot. In front of Cait, was Travis 'lonely' Miles the Radio DJ and sitting with Sturges was Ellie Perkins, Nicks assistant. Off to the side waiting their turn were Zwicky & Edna, Sheffield, Vadim Bobrov and a woman and child that she also didn't recognise.

Nick pointed towards the latter two. "You might want to have word to Piper, she normally has her ear to the ground. The girl is Nat, her little sister."

Marcie Long trotted over and signalled that she needed a word. Max nodded and excused herself from Nick

"We're short one bed." Marcie fretted "We've freed up four in the vault and there are eight beds free in the visitors house with Haylen choosing to bunk with Sturges. The Handy, Edna, doesn't need a bed. So we need thirteen beds and we have twelve. Can we ask that the lady and her sister share?"

"The visitors house sleeps nine." Max insisted.

"Yes, but Danse has one of those." Marcie pointed out.

"I'll move Danse. Give the whole house over to the male refugees. Put Nat, Piper, Ellie and Zwicky and his Mrs of course, in the Vault" Marcie nodded and moved away to billet the refugees once that had been treated and debriefed. They could rest for a while, clean up and then have a good hot meal. After a good nights sleep they could decide what to do next.

Max ran a weary hand over her eyes. She had not predicted that the Brotherhood would do something like this… but she should have. She looked over at Preston, who was sitting at the gates ham radio. She walked to him and listened as he finished up his call to the castle.

"Should we target that airship?" Ronnie Shaws voice came through the radio. "It's far, but it should just be in range of the heavy artillery."

"Not at this stage Ronnie, but it's good to keep it in mind. Just watch yourself, that's all I'm asking."

Ronnie signed off and the radio went dead.

"You know what?… My day started out so well." Max mused. She shook her head and looked down at Preston. "Did we know about MacDonagh being a Synth?"

Preston nodded. "Yeah we did, but there are so many deployed throughout the Commonwealth we were, probably foolishly, working through the ones in the Minuteman ranks first."

"Maxson wanted a foothold in the Commonwealth… now he's got the largest city at his back." Max grated. "I think I need to go and have a private word with that young man…"

She looked back at the people working on getting the guest settled into Sanctuary. She looked at Danse sitting and talking to Sheffield. He was leaning forward and listening intently to what the Nuka Cola fiend was saying and jotting it down on a battered clipboard, his brow furrowed in that familiar, silly frown. She gave a quick smile and turned away, she would talk to him later, their suddenly intimate situation could wait. She turned instead to the woman that Nick had identified as Piper.

"We haven't met yet." Max introduced herself as she reached the young brunette woman who was sitting on a bench with her arm around a smaller facsimile of herself, her little sister Nat.

"Yeah, hey listen Blue, can I get a little water for my sister?" Piper said looking up from her perch.

"Of course." Max motioned Jun Long over, he had just arrived with a crate of purified water tins. "Blue?" She asked Piper with a raised eyebrow.

"You're from a vault right… I heard you were from a vault." Piper responded. "I know you're not wearing the suit now but…"

"Hmmmm… well, my name is Max" Max said pointedly. "Nick said that I should talk to you… that you had your ear to the ground…"

"I sure do, Blue." Piper replied. "I'm a journalist… You heard of Publick Occurrences? It's my paper."

Max nodded. "So you wrote the story implying that the Mayor was a synth? How did you find that out?"

"I didn't say he was a synth… I was hypothesising." Piper coolly dismissed the question. Her face taking on the holier-than-thou look of someone who thought they were infallible.

"You were scare-mongering. You wrote an inflammatory story based on no facts to sell papers… that's not journalism, that's the tabloids." Max snorted.

Piper straightened in her chair. "He was a synth. He had pulled the wool over the citys eyes, like the Brotherhood said." Piper defended. "But he didn't deserve to die. That's not what I wanted to happen. I just wanted to report the truth, to get people thinking and looking past their own front doors and take an interest in what was going on about them. I'm not the bad guy, Blue."

"Listen, Piper was it?" The brunette nodded. "Piper, you don't know me so I will forgive the little slips. But for future reference, I don't like to be called names that aren't my own. If you insist on calling me 'Blue', I will be forced to smash your face through the back of your head… comprende?"

The woman, Piper, suddenly looked less sure of herself and some of the puff went out of her sails. She nodded again after a small pause "Yes Ma'am."

"Good girl," Max grinned and clapped her on the shoulder, "We're gonna be best friends, I can tell."