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Song mentioned in this chapter: Sweater Weather by The Neighbourhood

Also, warning: implied things towards the end.

Enjoy.

/\/\/\/\

Jack slowly stood up from his bed.

Searing pain shot through his shoulder and into his neck as he held onto the wall next to him. He knew he shouldn't have gotten up, but something in the back of his head told him he needed to get up. Jack lumbered over to his bag and rummaged through it, pulling out a stimpack. He injected it in his shoulder, and then proceeded to inject one near his wound in his stomach. He threw his bag onto his bed before stumbling out the door, holding onto his shoulder. It seemed like his shoulder was in more pain than his stomach was.

Jack spotted Nick, Piper, and Albany over at one of the old houses. He could barely hear the three chattering away as he walked past them.

"Blue? What are you doing?" Piper called out as she walked over to him, placing a hand on his chest.

"M-Michael is doing a f-follow-up. Checking my w-wounds," Jack told her, lying through his teeth.

"Okay. Just please be careful. I'm gonna go help Albany get around and then I'll be back at the bunker home, alright?" Piper informed him as she pecked him on the lips before returning back to Nick and Albany. Jack smiled as he watched her walk away. What the hell did I ever do to deserve someone like her? All I've done is kill people.

A settler approached Jack with something in their hands, holding it out to him.

"Hey, I heard what happened back there. We all chipped in to buy this ripper for you, since we all kind of feel bad that we let that raider stab you," the woman said.

"Thank you," Jack thanked her, gladly taking the weapon. "Don't feel bad. I was the one who let it happen."

The settler trotted away as Jack walked over to his workbench, placing the ripper down. As he began to modify it, he could hear Deacon snickering away behind him. Jack turned his head to see why he was laughing.

"I guess we can call you, 'Jack The Ripper' now," Deacon explained. Jack shook his head and continued to add modifications to the weapon. Y'know, that's a good nickname.

"Just stick with Bullseye, alright, Deacon?"

"Whatever you say, Boss," Deacon continued to snicker as he walked away. After adding an extended blade and a better grip, Jack held the weapon in front of him. He pressed the button on the handle as the weapon's saw-like blade whirred.

This is going to be a fun weapon to use.

As he turned around to return to his bunker home, Michael ran up to him.

"How are you feeling, sir?" the medic asked.

"I'm feeling alright. Still in some pain, though," Jack explained.

"Alright. Keep using your stimpacks, and taking the Med-X, and you should be good in a few days," Michael told him before walking away.

/\/\/\/\

Piper searched through the books Jack had on his bookshelf, waiting for him to come back.

She planned on reading some of the books he had picked up over the few months he had been out of the vault, but at the moment, she was just trying to distract herself from her worrying thoughts. When she saw him, he seemed to be in a lot of pain. She tapped her foot nervously as she continued to search through the books.

Piper squealed quietly to herself as she found her Blue's notebook, the one she found a drawing of herself in. She quickly flipped to the page that contained said drawing. Piper still blushed seeing it again, knowing that he cared about her so much that he had drawn her. She turned the page to see what notes he had written down that other day. To her surprise, there were small doodles of her written on the back of the previous page. A ridiculous grin spread across her face as she looked at all of the drawings. From her sitting on the bed, to her fiddling with the radio.

Piper noticed multiple lyrics scribbled into the page, all declaring his feelings for her. She found herself mumble an, "Aww, Blue," under her breath. As she continued to look at what he had drawn, she heard heavy footsteps approach the door and open it, a loud noise coming from the door. Realizing it was her Blue, she swiftly shut the notebook and tried to put it back on the shelf, failing miserably as the other books fell off the shelf. She tried frantically to catch all of the books before they fell to the ground, to no avail.

She looked up at Jack who had one hand over half of his face, trying hard not to laugh. Piper tried to keep cool as she leaned her hand against the top of the shelf, crossing one foot over the other and placing a hand on her hip.

"H-Hey, Blue!" Piper choked out, her voice suddenly going higher than she wanted. "W-When did y-you get here?"

Jack couldn't help but laugh to himself as he walked over and helped her pick up the fallen books. Once the two finished picking up the books, Jack pulled her into a passionate kiss.

"You're cute," he admitted as they both pulled away. Piper blushed a scarlet red.

"S-Shucks," was all Piper could say. Jack chuckled. "W-What?"

"You're adorable when you're flustered, and I love it," Jack admitted. "Nora had her shortness, and you have your adorable flustered reactions."

Piper blushed harder as he grabbed her hand and laced his fingers with hers. "Love ya, Red."

"Love you too, Blue," Piper returned the meaningful phrase as the two embraced in a hug. As the two let go of each other, Piper pulled out her notepad.

"I might as well start working on this article," Piper admitted, turning to the terminal and sitting down in front of it. She heard Jack shuffle behind her and lay down in the bed next to the desk. As her fingers clicked against the keys, she could hear her Blue quietly humming a song she had never heard before.

"All I am, is a man, I want the world, in my hands…"

/\/\/\/\

Piper found herself having a case of writer's block.

No matter how many times she re-wrote the article, Piper could not word it perfectly to save her life. She slumped around the bunker home, exhausted, trying to figure out how to write the article. Eughhhh.

"Ughaehh," Piper made random, incoherent noises as she continued to lazily slump around.

"Do you need help with the article, Piper?" Jack asked her.

"Nooooooo," Piper groaned, covering her face with her hands as she fell into the wall. "I need words."

"Damn, I wish there were still dictionaries around," Jack added.

Piper sat down at her terminal, hands in the air. "MAKE SOME DAMN WORDS, YOU FUCKS," she shouted.

Jack laughed silently at her frustration. "Come on, Piper. Let me help you. Please," Jack pleaded.

Piper responded with yet another, "UGHHH."

Jack slowly stood up, grimacing at the pain before lumbering over to her desk. He pulled over a chair from his own desk and sat down next to her, looking at the terminal.

"Here are the notes," Piper said, plopping down her notepad on the desk in front of her Blue. He scanned the notes, and pushed Piper over slightly so he could type. By the time he was done, he had multiple paragraphs typed. Piper looked on in awe as she read what he typed.

"Damn, Blue. You're pretty good at crafting a few paragraphs yourself," she admitted.

"I used to write a few short stories back in my day, especially during the Resource Wars."

"Hey, uh, do you mind drawing a few covers for the paper?" Piper asked as she turned to look at him. "I've seen what you can draw."

"Yeah! Of course-" Jack froze in place. "W-What have you seen other than what I've shown y-you?"

Piper turned as red as her trench coat. Goddammit. Piper didn't want to lie. "I-uh," he cut her off before she could even confess.

"D-Did you look at my notebook?" he asked, his face starting to turn red as well. Piper slowly nodded as she fiddled with her hands nervously. She expected him to be furious.

"I-I guess I didn't really need to h-hide it anymore," Jack said. "You're not, like, creeped out?"

"Not at all," Piper replied. "Actually, I think it's kind of cool and cute."

"Really?" Jack asked. Piper nodded.

"You're an amazing artist, Blue. I mean it," she told him.

"I'm glad you think so. I erased so many goddamn lines when I was drawing you," Jack laughed. Piper wrapped an arm around her Blue's neck, pulling him closer. Jack kissed Piper on the cheek before he kissed her on the lips, the kiss filled with love and compassion, and a bit of tongue. Piper reached over and turned on the radio, her lips still locked with her Blue's lips, as One More Tomorrow played.

The two pulled apart, both wanting to continue despite the lack of oxygen. Piper pulled off her coat and wrapped it around the frame of the chair and placed her hat down next to the terminal. She hummed along with the cheesy yet romantic tune as she heard her Blue mumble, "mercy."

No words were shared as Piper looked over the article that her Blue wrote, changing a few things along the way to make it sound more as if she wrote it. Of course, she'd give him some credit.

All of a sudden, she heard someone walk through the door. Piper violently whipped her head towards the door as she looked at the figure who had barged in.

"The Commonwealth is so cool!" Albany shouted, pumping her fists into the air.

/\/\/\/\

Piper watched as Jack sketched a posing Albany.

She was surprised when Albany agreed to pose for a drawing that would be the cover of the next issue of Publick Occurrences. She looked over at his progress. So far, everything was perfect. Her frame, the creases in her vault suit, the curls in her hair. He truly was an amazing artist, but Piper couldn't understand why he thought he wasn't. Maybe it's an artist thing, Piper thought. She wasn't much of an artist herself, and didn't know much about how an artist would think.

She looked back over at Albany. She stood with her rifle in hands, glasses on, and foot on a rock they had brought in from outside. Every now and then, they took a short break before starting again. Her Blue would take the time to inject a few stimpacks due to his wounds, take a swig of Nuka-Cola, and perfect a few things in the drawing. Piper admired how careful he was with what he drew. He constantly erased lines and slightly moving it, insisting that it wasn't straight enough, or it was too curved, or it wasn't perfect. Heck, only a few seconds into the drawing, Jack had already erased the small line he had drawn.

She watched as he stood up slowly before approaching Albany, moving her arm slightly before sitting back down, biting at his pencil. He kept getting up every now and then and adjusting how she stood very slightly. Piper felt a hint of jealousy creep up every time he did that. She knew that her Blue loved her, and wouldn't do anything to hurt her, but for some reason it crept up on her. She decided to turn to her terminal to perfect a few things in the article.

After twenty minutes, her Blue declared, "Done!"

She turned around to inspect the final project. It looked amazing, as always. He had already drawn out the rest of the cover as well. Albany had already walked over to take a look.

"That's awesome, Jack. You're pretty good at this," she complimented him.

"Thanks. Although I could probably do much better," her Blue admitted. There he goes again, beating himself up.

"Blue, I think it's perfect. You did great," Piper said, draping his arms over his shoulders.

"Say what you want, I really think I could have done better."

She laid a kiss on his cheek. "Well either way, thanks for doing that. It might boost the sales," Piper thanked him.

"No problem, Red. Just let me know when I can do the next one," Jack smiled.

"I hate to be intrusive, but are you two like, a thing?" Albany asked with a curious look on her face.

Piper pointed to herself, to Jack, and then back to herself. "Star-crossed," she joked. Her Blue laughed as he nodded.

"Yeah, I guess so," he replied. "You ever been with someone, Albany?"

"Well, there was Butch. We were a short thing for a while, but it never worked out," Albany began. "And then there was Timebomb, too. I wonder if he's out here somewhere. I haven't seen him in years. He lived in Little Lamp Light for a while…"

"Little Lamp Light? Like, MacCready's Little Lamp Light?" Jack inquired. Piper cringed at the mention of Robert's name.

"Is MacCready here?" Albany was almost jumping with joy. "It's been ten years since I've seen him!"

"Yeah, he's around here somewhere. Saved my life from being killed by that damned raider," Jack explained.

"I have to go see him. See you guys around!" Albany exclaimed as she walked out the door.

"Small world, huh?"

"Yeah. It sure is," Piper agreed.

"Hey, uh… it's getting kind of late," Jack started, looking down at his pip-boy. "Want to head to bed?"

Hell yes. "Yeah, sure," Piper replied. Jack had grabbed her hips and pulled her into a deep kiss that brought them to the bed, Piper slightly giggling the entire way.

This is a good day.

/\/\/\/\

Hey look, Author's Note at the end! Not something you normally see from me. Anyways, I just wanted to say I hope you enjoyed this chapter. This one's purpose was just to let things calm down a bit, and to let Piper and Jack's relationship progress a bit and to also progress Albany. I apologize if the ending feels a bit rushed, it's currently almost one in the morning as I type this. But either way, I hope you enjoyed.

Take care, frens.