"Look, pal… I think we need to talk."
"I don't know that we do." Hancock avoided Nick's yellow gaze, contemplating catching up with Nadia. She had gone to the market to replenish their supplies, leaving him alone with the detective. She sure was a sneaky little devil.
"I know you're mad at me, John. I'm just not sure why."
"Huh, maybe you're not quite as human as I thought." Hancock mumbled, already regretting the hurtful words. Nick exhaled slowly, but didn't reply. "You're my best friend, Nicky. You know all my dark, dirty secrets. You took a chance on a charming kid that was little more than coward junkie. You took me in, mentoring me, but I thought over time our relationship had evolved. I thought we'd moved past the one-sided thing we had goin' and that you considered me a friend, not just another one of your charity cases."
"You are one of the only true friends this old sack of bolts has. I didn't tell you about Jenny because I can't talk about her. It just hurts too damn much, John." Hancock looked up at him and saw the depth of his pain in the set of his mouth, in the way his normally proud shoulders hung, defeated. It occurred to Hancock that Nick didn't even have the ability to cry. He couldn't even shed a tear for the girl he loved. How fucked was that? Hancock was feeling more ashamed by the moment. "I didn't even know her, John! I've never even touched her, yet still the memory of her hands on me haunts me. She was dead long before I was even made. I have to not think about her at all or else it's all I'd do. But I think there's more to this than you're letting on. So spill, Mayor. What's really got ya all riled up?"
Hancock exhaled sharply, looking away. It all led back to Nadia, like everything these days. His every thought somehow led him back to her.
"Nadia still doesn't know everything. You know," he looked up, gesturing to himself with a flourish of one hand, "about how I came by this stunning complexion. She thinks I was chasing a high and this was just a by-product. She doesn't know the real depth of my cowardice. But you do and yet you still keep me around, even trust me, I thought. Your trust in me was the one thing that made me hope that maybe she could understand and, possibly, believe in me, too. But then…" he chuckled humorlessly, shrugging, before continuing. "If you don't even trust me, then how can I expect her to?"
"Of course I trust you! Did all those chems finally scramble your brains, or what? You and Nadia are the only two people in the whole Commonwealth I would trust to watch my back. Me not telling you about Jenny had everything to do with me and nothing to with you. Not everything's about you, ya know?" Nick placed a hand on Hancock's shoulder, squeezing tight enough with his metal fingers to make the ghoul look up at him. "I think you need to talk to Nadia. I think someone is mad at himself and taking it out on his poor, synthetic best friend."
"Yeah, pal… sorry about that... But shit, man. How am I supposed to tell a woman as stunning as Nadia that I'm in love with her? Do you know what it's like to be in love with someone who is so much better than you are? Someone so outta your league there's no way you could ever deserve them?"
"Actually," Nick replied quietly, "I do. Let me tell ya a story."
Nadia took her time at the market, knowing Nick would need plenty of time to sort Hancock out. She knew there was more going on than he had told her, but she wasn't one to push. She was standing next to the noodle stand, looking around, unsure of where to go next. She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Piper smiling what Nadia would later refer to as her I've-got-a-great-idea-for-a-story smile.
"Fancy meeting you here!" The reporter made a show of looking around, hand shading her eyes dramatically. "And Ghoul free to boot! Imagine that! Must be my lucky day!"
"What's up, Piper? Can I help you with something?" Nadia knew she sounded annoyed, but she couldn't help herself. The woman was exhausting.
"As a matter of fact, you can!" Piper's eyes lit with excitement as she threw an arm around Nadia's stiff shoulders, leading her away from the market. Crap. "I still need that interview you promised me!"
"I don't know that I actually promised…"
It was too late, though. Piper pulled her into her office and Nadia looked longingly over her shoulder at the quickly disappearing view of Diamond City until the door closed with a foreboding thud, blocking out the sight of freedom. Nadia sighed and turned to the reporter, faking a brilliant smile.
"Let's get started."
It was late when Nadia and Hancock finally collapsed into their bed at the Dugout Inn and both of them were tired both emotionally and physically. Nadia rolled into his waiting arms, pressing a kiss into his chest and nuzzling close as he wrapped her in his arms. They laid there, just enjoying the press of their bodies, the comfort of the other's closeness, for quite some time. Hancock had almost drifted to sleep when Nadia finally spoke.
"I take it you and Nick worked things out?"
"Of course. That pile of scrap ain't gettin' rid of me that easy." He laughed, kissing the top of her head and settling back into the pillow. He closed his eyes, but apparently she wasn't finished.
"There was more to it than you told me, wasn't there?" Her voice was feather soft, her body held completely still. Hancock considered lying to her, but she deserved nothing but the truth from him.
"Yes." He heard her release the breath she had been holding as she looked up and placed a kiss on the underside of his jaw, sending a shiver of desire through him.
"I know you still have secrets and I'm okay with that, but do you think that maybe one day you might be ready to tell me?"
Hancock wished that day could be today, but there were some things they had to do first. He couldn't come clean with her until they had found and killed a courser, because there was no way he was going to risk her going up against one without him.
"Yes, but in the meantime, I think it's about time we found ourselves a courser. "
"I think you're right."
They didn't speak anymore that evening, they just fell asleep in each other's arms, Nadia content in the knowledge that one day her partner would finally reveal the missing pieces of his puzzle.
Finding a courser had been extremely easy, as Virgil had said. They had used the interference to track him to the Greenetech Genetics building. She glanced over at Hancock and Nick, pulling the door open at their simultaneous nods of affirmation as they brought their weapons up in preparation. The room they first entered was a wreck, but that wasn't surprising. Almost everything was a wreck these days. The dead body sprawled over the counter in front of them was a little more foreboding, granted not as foreboding as it probably should have been. Nadia took one look at the corpse's green shirt and almost cursed out loud. Gunners. She found herself hoping the courser had taken most of them out as they crept forward, still following the steady beeping coming for Nadia's Pip-Boy.
They made for the stairs on the far side of what used to be a lobby, climbing them and coming out on the next level, which overlooked the main floor. There was another dead body of a Gunner, only this one was partially hanging over the railing. Nadia headed for the next room, flanked by the men. As soon as they entered, she could see the shots from a laser weapon through a window up and to the right. She turned in the direction of the commotion, following the path towards the elevator that was right in front of her as everything went quickly to hell around her. She could hear the explosions of grenades, shaking the ground as they landed. She reached the elevator and pounded the button, but it was obvious that it was out of order. She turned to the left just in time to see the turret pointed at her. She dove, for the walkway, yelling a warning as she did. The men immediately unloaded into the turret as its spray of bullets whizzed over her head. She rose to a crouch once she heard the blast indicating the boys had finished off the machine. She made a break for the hall in front of her, boys close behind. She peeked around the corner and found another turret waiting to their left. She lobbed a grenade at it and looked to her right, just in time to see the gunner pointing his weapon at her. Fortunately the explosion from her grenade distracted him just long enough for Hancock to step in. He pulled the trigger of his combat shotgun twice, in quick succession and the shot tore through the Gunner's chest, killing him quickly.
Hancock stepped over the dead man's body, waving for them to follow. The hall was littered with dead bodies and they made their way quickly down it, lest they join them. They were nearing a door and a bend in the path when two Gunners popped out at them, weapons raised. Nadia dropped to a knee, quickly aiming her pistol at the head of the man to her left. She popped off three shots, effectively dropping him as Nick dropped into a roll. He jumped up in front of the second man, knocking the weapon from his hand. Nick grabbed the surprised Gunner and threw him to the ground, Hancock stepping in to finish him off with a shot to the head.
"Stealing my moves, Nicky?" Hancock said with a laugh as they headed further into the building.
"Yeah, kid. Sure. It's not like I'm the one that taught you how to fight or anything…" Nick said with a shake of his head as he followed. "Your brother might still be shoving tatoes down your shirt if it weren't for me."
Nadia smiled, happy to see the two of them back to their good natured ribbing. She popped into the offices on their left, grabbing some ammo and chems they had left out, before following them up the stairs. She could hear them shooting ahead and peeked around the bend in the stairwell before running up to join them. They had dispatched another two Gunners in her absence. She took the lead again, heading toward the doorway up on her right. She poked her head in through the door, seeing yet another room of offices. There was a woman at the far end of the room, but she was turned to the side and hadn't seen Nadia yet. Silently, she motioned for the men to stay back and then she entered the room, dropping down to a knee. She aimed down the barrel of her 10mm and squeezed the trigger twice, her target's brains blowing out through her temple on the opposite side and splattering against the wall. Nadia stood up, turning to smile at Hancock as he entered the room.
Hancock smiled back at his girl, but something in his peripherals caught his attention. Fuck. Hancock dove at Nadia desperately as the shot rang out, oddly satisfied at the pain as the bullet set his arm on fire. He noted with an odd detachment that his arm lined up perfectly with Nadia's center. He landed hard on his injured arm, a cry escaping his lips as he rolled off it onto his back. Nadia was down next to him, pulling him by his right arm to cover while Nick laid down cover fire. He smiled up at the worry creasing Nadia's brow as she leaned over him, inspecting his injury.
"I'm so sorry, John! Damn it. I should have been more careful…" she looked away as she slipped her bag off her shoulder and turned to reach into one of its pockets.
"Little Dove, it's not your fault. We all need someone watching our backs from time to time." She turned back to him, hands full of medical supplies.
"How's he looking?" Nick asked after killing the asshole that had shot him, leaning over as Nadia eased his coat down off his shoulder. Hancock inhaled sharply as he bent his arm and pulled it loose of his poor battered frock. The wound was seeping blood and the bullet was definitely still lodged in it, but he would be fine. "I'll keep watch while you patch him." Nick turned his back to them, making good on his word.
Nadia didn't talk as she picked up a syringe of Med-X and expertly administered it. Once she could tell the drug was working she picked up the tweezers and gently, but firmly pinned his injured arm down to the ground. She looked up at him and he nodded once, throwing her a cocky wink for good measure. She leaned over his arm and got to work. The Med-X took a lot of the punch out of what she was doing, but it still didn't feel good to have her rooting around in his arm. He held steady, though, clenching his jaw shut and breathing steadily through what remained of his nose. She apparently found what she was looking for because she made a pleased little sound and then pulled, hard. The bullet came out and she smiled in a satisfied way, staunching the fresh flow of blood with some gauze. She pulled out a Stimpak and jabbed it into the wound. He grunted at the impact, but when she looked up at him he just smiled. Well, he showed her his teeth at least. He wasn't sure what he did actually passed for a smile, but she seemed to accept it any way. She wrapped his arm neatly and then helped him put it back through the bloody sleeve of his coat.
"Thanks, Dove."
"Least I could do… Thank you for taking a bullet for me." She helped him up and then pressed a kiss into his lips before turning to tell Nick they were ready to keep moving.
"Anything for you…" he whispered to her retreating back. Some distant part of him was surprised by how true his words really were.
The three of them had made their way to the top of the building and the courser was just ahead in the next room. They could hear hostages in the room with him, but Nadia was pretty sure they were Gunners and while she wasn't going to shoot someone who was tied up, she wasn't going to make their safety a priority. She listened carefully, but she couldn't hear the footsteps of the courser and had no idea where he was. She peeked around the corner and came face to face with the business end of a laser pistol. Son of a bitch. She looked up moving only her eyes and found herself staring into the courser's emotionless ones. She knew without a doubt who she was looking at. He lowered his weapon slightly and motioned for them to stand up. She looked him over and other than his obvious emotional detachment, he didn't look any different from the other Gen 3s she had encountered.
"Are you here for the synth?" He cocked his head to the side as he spoke each word precisely. Mechanically.
Nadia wasn't sure what he was talking about, but it sounded better than the truth, so she nodded in affirmation.
"Yes, of course I'm here to help the synth." The courser didn't blink enough and it was beginning to creep her out. His coat appeared to be made out of black leather and it was the same length as a duster, cinched at the waist with a belt. His hair was slicked back and greasy looking, sideburns fading away into a clean shaven jaw. He had a thin scar down the left side of his face, starting at his brow and ending almost even with the turned down corner of his thin lips. If he didn't have such a prominent brow he probably would have lost the eye. Granted, maybe the Institute could repair synth eyes? She had no idea.
"And you think I'll just hand her over? To you?" He sounded nonplussed, which amused Nadia. "You've been tracking me. What do you really want?"
Well, a lie hadn't worked. Might as well go with the truth. Either way, this courser was about to die.
"I need what's in your head." Nadia smiled, slow and cruel. Nothing was going to stand between her and Shaun.
"That you cannot have." His voice was emotionless as ever as he raised his laser pistol.
"I guess we'll see, won't we?" Nadia dropped into a roll as the boys each dove in opposite directions, the laser shot from the courser's weapon sailing between them, scorching the wall behind them with a sizzle. When she popped up again, the courser was gone. Fucking stealth boy! They all looked around trying to catch the imperfect glimmer of his cover. Nick cried out and she turned to see a scorched hole in the side of his trench coat. The only upside was that they now knew where the asshole was. They all open fired on the faint shimmer as he fired back. He didn't make a sound, even though she was sure the majority of their shots had found their target. She felt the familiar burn of laser shot sear through her skin, but she didn't have time to worry about such trivial matters. She hit the release and the empty magazine fell from her pistol as she reached into the pocket on her belt for a replacement. She rammed it into place, pulled the slide back and then let it go. The slide flew forward into place with a satisfying click.
Hancock watched his girl take several shots from the courser's laser pistol while she reloaded her weapon, a look of fierce determination on her face. He wasn't sure she was even felt the burning wounds. He tore his eyes from her as she aimed and squeezed the trigger, turning to run behind the synth. They were all being as careful as possible not to blow its head off, it would be a real bad day if that chip got damaged, so when he came up behind it he aimed for what he assumed would be the back of the knees. He pulled the trigger and the courser suddenly reappeared, falling bloody to the floor. Hancock almost felt bad for triple teaming him until he remembered all the dead bodies they had passed on their way up here.
Nadia stood over the dying synth, face emotionless as she watched the life leave him.
"I'm so close, Shaun. Just hold on. I'm coming baby."
Was it just Hancock's imagination, or did the courser use his last bit of energy to smirk up at her before finally going limp?