The radio hummed with gleeful tunes on the desk, drowning out the sound of the pouring rain pitter-pattering on the roof and the occasional creak of the metal walls. Jack sat at the desk, working on paperwork and switching the radio station every few songs. Aside from the lamp next to him, the lit cigarette resting in the ashtray, and the dim light coming from the radio, he was sitting in mostly darkness. With a sigh, Jack flipped the station back to Diamond City Radio. He was about to turn it back to the other station when he heard Travis talking about the usual news, but the topic he was speaking about made him decide against switching.

"Well, folks. It seems to be that 'The Ripper' has vanished from our city. No one has seen him for a week now," Travis started. "Although, six guards were found dead around the Thirty-Yard Bunker, where the Ripper was speculated to be hiding out. The bunker was recently investigated by Diamond City Security, but it seems like whoever was there packed up and left. That's one less thing we'll need worry about here in Diamond City. Now, back to the music, shall we?" With that, Travis's voice cut out and the radio returned to its jolly pre-war music. Scratching his head, Jack went back to his work. He had been working well into the night on schematics for a new house. Their current house was a bunker that only consisted of one huge room. Jack wedged his cigarette in between in his lips as he scribbled down more lines and notes onto the paper, and then erased some lines. Draw, erase, draw, erase… He growled to himself as he pulled the cancer stick from his lips and blew smoke out of his mouth, placing it back down on the ashtray. Jack could just not figure out how he wanted to plan it all out.

Piper strolled over to his chair, pulling her hair out of a ponytail and sliding the elastic band onto her wrist. "Jack… come to bed. It's three in the morning."

At hearing her voice, Jack put his head down on the desk with a sigh. "But I'm almost done with it," he opposed, switching the radio to the other station for the umpteenth time that night. "If I just had a little more time, I could finish it."

The voice on the radio came on, catching both of their attention. "You're listening to OWT. That's Old World Tunes. Now, back to the music." With that, the music started playing. Piper grabbed his hand, urging him to stand up, swaying a bit to the music.

"Oh no, I am not dancing," Jack told her, standing up anyways. "I can't dance to save my life."

"Come on, it'll be fun!"

"At three in the morning?" he retorted, running his free hand through his messy hair.

"And you're just realizing this?" Piper asked, laughing. "I'm not the best either, but it'll be fun either way. Please?" As the chorus of the song started, Jack agreed but only because it's you asking. He quietly began to sing along with the music, lips curling up into a smile.

Why do you build me up, build me up, Buttercup, baby, just to let me down, let me down, and mess me around?

Piper clutched both of his hands in hers as she stared up into his eyes, never looking away. The couple stepped away from the desk, the light coming from the lamp still covering them. Jack nearly stepped on Piper's feet, much to his own dismay. "I told you I wasn't good at this."

"Shh," she shushed him. "Don't worry about it, alright?" Jack nodded in response, letting Piper lead until he got the hang of it. "You're doing great, Blue."

And then worst of all, worst of all, you never call, baby, when you say you will, say you will… but I love you still.

As Jack took the lead, the two finally began to move in synch with the rhythm of the light-hearted song. Piper's giggles filled the air, mixing with the music that lingered in the room. Jack wrapped his arms around her waist, picking her up into the air and spinning her, earning more giggles and a squeal.

I need you, I need you, more than anyone darling, you know that I have from the start. So, build me up, build me up, Buttercup, don't break my heart.

As he put her down and took her hands in his, he moved in a silly way, forcing Piper to laugh harder. For once, they could forget about everything and just focus on what was happening now. No Institute, no ghouls, no raiders… nothing. Just them, the hum of the radio, and the rain pouring outside. Jack laughs along with her until the song finally cuts out, and the voice of the radio host cuts back in.

"Wasn't that one a doozy? Well here on Old World Tunes, we play nothing but doozies. Up next, we've got Maybe by the Ink Spots. A classic," the host says before the song he mentioned comes on. Jack hummed as the familiar rift in the beginning. Without thinking twice, he motioned Piper to come closer.

"You're kidding, Blue," Piper said, giving him a look of bafflement. "Slow dancing?"

"Yes. I'm shit at it but you have made me confident," Jack started. "Now c'mere." Piper listened to what he said, and wrapped her arms around his neck, fidgeting with the ring on her finger as his hands fell to her waist. The two swayed together to the slow and soft sound of the song that played on the radio. Piper's usual scent of ink and newspapers filled his nose. He loved her scent. "You're so special."

"Jack," Piper began, lips curling up into a smile. "Don't make me blush."

"How did the world come up with you?" Jack replied, ignoring what she told him. She looked away shyly before their eyes met once again.

Maybe you'll think of me, when you are all alone. Maybe the one who is waiting for you will prove untrue, then what will you do?

Jack closed his eyes and continued to hum along with the song, much to Piper's delight. Jack leaned forward, allowing his forehead to meet with hers as they continued to sway back and forth. "I love you."

Maybe, you'll sit and sigh, wishing that I were near. Then, maybe you'll ask me to come back again, and maybe I'll say 'maybe.'

"I love you, too," Piper replied, snuggling her face into his shoulder and neck. Jack couldn't help but grin like an idiot. It still amazed him how after all the stuff he had done, she still cared about him. Despite all the blood on his hands and the skeletons in his closet, she was still there. As the song faded out into brief static, his arms snaked up her back and into a hug. As he looked down at her, he realized Piper had fallen asleep. He carefully shifted with her still leaning against him and picked her up bridal style, pressing his lips to hers and then to her forehead.

Jack carefully laid her down in their shared bed before turning the volume down on the radio, peeling his plaid shirt off, and lying down next to her. "Night, Piper." Sleep came easily to him as he closed his eyes and slipped into dark oblivion.

/\/\/\/\

The sound of knocking at the door awoke the two. Jack sat up, yawning and stretching before latching his pip-boy onto his arm and checking the time. 8:32 am, March 3rd, 2288. The knocking at the door got progressively louder and more consistent. "Yeah, yeah, I'm comin'. Gimme a moment," he mumbled as he pulled on a grey t-shirt over his white tank top. He opened the door to reveal a Minuteman. She was covered in burn marks, and fear was plastered across the woman's face.

"I-I hate to bother you, General, but one of the nearby outposts just got attacked by a rather large group of synths. We could use your help," the Minuteman explained. Her voice shook as she spoke. Jack looked over his shoulder as Piper came up behind him, grabbing onto his hand.

"Of course. Give us a few minutes to prepare, and we'll meet you at the bridge," Jack said, saluting.

"Thank you, sir," the Minuteman replied, saluting back before leaving.

"Looks like our fun has ended, huh," Piper stated as the door swung close.

"That can happen later," Jack said with a wry smile, earning a blush from Piper. "But right now we need to go help the guys out."

"Right," Piper mumbled before pressing her lips to his cheek. Within a few minutes, the two were ready to head out. When they arrived at the Sanctuary bridge, Preston stood with his laser musket in hand. A small group of Minutemen waited, idly chatting and checking their supplies.

"General," Preston greeted, tipping his hat. "Are you ready to head out?"

"Ready," Jack and Piper both said in unison. Luke, one of the other present Minutemen approached them, nodding to Preston before speaking up. He was one of the most loyal men the Commonwealth Minutemen had to offer; Jack was considering promoting him to Preston's rank of officer.

"Great to see you, General," Luke said, shaking Jack's hand before starting forward, the others following him. "We were just scouting out the area as normal when we were attacked by maybe thirty or more GEN1 and GEN2 synths, with a courser leading them. The damned bots killed a few of our men and injured several of us."

"Another courser?" Piper inquired, curiosity yet surprise in her voice. "There was one in Diamond City two weeks ago." Jack looked down for a moment, remembering the events from two, almost three weeks prior. You were a killer then… not anymore. He pulled himself from his thoughts; now was not the time for thinking about the past. There were more important things to be concerned about now instead of his mistakes.

"There's been multiple courser attacks throughout the Commonwealth, actually," one of the others spoke up. "A courser hit Goodneighbour just the other day. Luckily the security there was able to stop them."

"Goddamn," Preston mumbled, pausing for a moment. "You know, I wish I knew what the Institute really wanted from such a messed-up world."

"I think you speak for everyone here, Preston," Jack added. "Speaking of which, we need to come up with a plan to take them out."

"We need more strength before we can even begin thinking of a plan," Preston began. "I mean, we have some pretty decent fire power with what we have now, but we're going to need a lot more to take on the Institute. I've been eyeing the Castle- Fort Independence for a while. Perhaps once we get a bit stronger, we'll be able to retake it."

Fort Independence, Jack thought. He remembered visiting the fort multiple times back before the bombs dropped; for school trips when he was younger, and even with Nora after they got married in 2074. Jack lazily dragged his gloved hand across his face, trying to rid of the exhaustion that made his eyes feel heavy. The more he thought about the good ole days, the more his headache grew and with it, his exhaustion.

Piper gripped his shoulder. "You look tired," she observed, speaking loud enough to be barely heard over the chatting of the other Minutemen. "I told you; you should have gone to bed earlier last night."

Jack yawned. "Yeah… I probably should have," he admitted, scratching the back of his head. "I'm exhausted." For once, it wasn't a lie.

"Hey, Jack… I was curious…" Piper began, fiddling with the scope on her hunting rifle. "What was your family like before the war?"

He swallows. Jack never talked about his family. It was almost a sacred thing to talk about for him. "It was… weird. Odd. Not like any normal family you'd see. My father… Edward. He was a great man. He was an army man just like my grandfather, my great grandfather, and my great, great grandfather before him. He's the reason why I am who I am. My mother- her name was Elizabeth- never cared much for what I did," he paused, uttering a dry laugh. "Sometimes she was a real negative influence on me. But I still loved her."

"Did you have any siblings, Blue? You rarely talk about them."

That's the point. "I, uh… I had a sister and a brother."

"What were they like?" Piper inquired.

Jack sighed. "My sister, Sadie, she became a psychiatrist… She, uh, she helped people who had experienced traumatic events. You know, talked to them about it, helped them get through it… that kind of stuff."

"She sounds like a really great person," Piper added.

"She was," he started, chuckling. "I remember when I came back from the war, Nora had me go to her for help. I felt so weak… going to her, but I had no choice. My PTSD had gotten so bad, that any sounds that even slightly resembled the sounds I heard on the battlefield would set me off. Hell, I don't remember half the things I did after I came back, it was that bad. From what Nora told me, sometimes I'd still be a soldier; barking orders and ducking for cover at the slightest noise." He looked down for a moment, staring at his rifle. "The moral of the story is, my sister was a wonderful woman and she helped me after I came back from the war."

"I guess she did her job, then?"

"Yeah. Well, at least until the bombs dropped and wiped her existence clean off the earth," Jack said without hesitation, despite the dark tone of his choice of words.

"Well, uh… what about your brother?" she asked. Her curiosity was getting to her. Curiosity killed the cat.

"We don't speak about Jason," Jack blurted out. It was true. No one ever spoke about Jason. His… demise, if you'd call it, was too untimely. "They… they never found him." His words confused Piper greatly.

"What do you mean?" she asked, bewildered. Jack sighed in response.

"He went missing. Jason, he… he was also drafted into the army. He wanted to become a musician. His career choice was probably the tamest out of the three of us. Sadie and I's ideas for a career were a little out there. She was never good with people, and my grandfather said I was destined to be something other than an artist. But Jason… music flowed through his bones," Jack explained, pausing for a moment. "He was the youngest of the three of us. He never deserved whatever fate fell upon him."

"When did your brother go missing, Blue?" Piper asked, holding her rifle in her left hand and grabbing onto Jack's hand with her right. He gripped her hand tight.

"Well, he, uh, he was drafted into the army not too long after I was and uh… near around the time I retired, he went missing. No one had noticed… he just, left. He was there one day and then gone the next. They never found a body or any evidence whatsoever that pointed to an explanation as to how he disappeared. They declared him dead in 2075," Jack finished. He released his grip on Piper's hand to pinch the bridge of his nose and to rub his eyes. "Sorry, the topic is just r-really hard to speak about sometimes. Hence why we never talked about Jason after that."

Piper wrapped her free arm around his neck, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Don't be sorry."

"Have I ever told you I loved you, Piper?" Jack asked, a smile forming on his lips.

"Yes, Blue. Many times," she chuckled. "I love you, too."

"Alright everybody, get ready!" Preston called out with a raised voice. "The synths are right around the corner. We have some men holding them off right now, but they aren't going to last. On three, we storm in, and take 'em out. Got it?"

The group responded with a "yes sir," in response. As Preston counted to three, everyone checked their rifles and supplies as if they were a bunch of paranoid heathens; which they sort of were. Synths, no matter what generation they were, could still beat the absolute crap out of anybody. And the Minutemen were a great example of that. Being paranoid was just being safer at this point. One. Two. Three. As Preston finished counting, the Minutemen stormed into battle, shouting and firing rapidly. Synths fell, their synthetic organs and robotic parts clashing against the ground. Minutemen fell too, their blood splattering across the broken pavement, some even disintegrating into nothing but ash from the laser rifles.

Jack spotted the courser that led the group, pulling out his sniper rifle and lining up the sights with the courser's head. As he shot, the courser went invisible and then appeared next to him, his fist connecting with Jack's head. The sound the connection made rang throughout the area. His vision blurred and he could hear his heartbeat in his ears. Sounds of Piper's shouting pierced his eardrums, shrouding the sound of the heartbeat. Jack blinked and hit himself in his own head a few times with the palm of his hand before regaining his composure. Piper ducked under the courser's oncoming punch, grabbing his arm and slamming her hand into his shoulder. It made a loud popping noise, indicating the dislocation of the courser's shoulder. She turned and faced him, his arm still in her hand. With one swift motion of her other arm against the courser's throat, she managed to knock him over. The loud crack of his skull against the pavement was apparent.

Fucking hell, Jack thought, finding himself standing still in the middle of a warzone as he watched the scene Piper had created. The whizzing sound of lasers broke his trance. He immediately grabbed his M1 Garand that had been discarded next to his sniper rifle and shot back, the bullets successfully finding their targets. He left his sniper rifle on the ground. Looking over, he found Luke taking cover behind an old barricade. He cranked his laser musket and fired back, only to be bombarded by more and more fire from the enemy. Luke cranked his musket again, not ducking this time.

"Luke!" Jack shouted as a laser beam headed straight for him. Jack ran and tackled him out of the way, but at the price of getting hit in the shoulder with the oncoming laser. "Goddammit, why is it always my bad shoulder!"

"With all respect, sir, what the hell did you think you were doing?" Luke asked, quickly propping Jack up against the barricade and examining the burn the laser had made in his shoulder. "You could have gotten killed!"

"D-Don't… don't w-worry about it," Jack replied with a hiss, biting down on his lip to keep from shouting in pain. He could just barely make out Piper's figure hurrying over to his side as his vision blurred again from the pain. "W-what matters, is y-you're alive."

He shouldn't have spoken so soon.

Jack had barely noticed that the courser was gone from his position on the ground when a loud shot rang out. He left his sniper rifle on the ground. He left his sniper rifle on the ground. Luke's blood splattered on the ground behind him. Jack pulled Piper out of the way, holding her in his arms when the shot was fired. He left his sniper rifle on the ground. He fired back without hesitation, not caring if he hit any synths or not. Before he knew it, though, the courser had gained on his position. He grabbed onto the courser by the shoulder and spun him around so that his back was facing him. Jack pulled the courser down, forcing him to look up into the sky with his feet still planted on the ground. Jack wrapped his arm around the courser's neck. He brought his fist down on his chest before making a loud sneer. Jack finally pulled him down to the ground, his skull hitting the pavement once more.

Jack grinned as he loaded numerous rounds into his head, rendering him dead. The firing finally faded out. He looked at all the bodies lying on the ground. He counted more synthetic humans dead than actual humans. They had won. But at the cost of your best soldier, eh, Killer? His eyes turned to Luke, who was lying motionless on the street. He was taking a nap. No, you imbecile. He's taking a dirt nap.

He left his sniper rifle on the ground.

Piper tugged on the sleeve of his coat, telling him that they needed to go and that they'd come back for Luke later. He felt her lips against his cheek and her hand grip his. He left his sniper rifle on the ground.

/\/\/\/\

Curie hovered at one side of Jack, Piper on the other. He winced in pain as Curie tried her best to treat his burn wound. Piper leaned her head on his good shoulder as he stared off into oblivion. How could he have left his sniper rifle on the ground? He never forgets his sniper rifle. It was obvious that Piper knew he forgot his sniper rifle. Why else would she be telling him it's not your fault, or don't worry about it.

He needs to remember to not forget his sniper rifle next time.

Jack pulled himself out of thought as he heard the whizzing of a vertibird right outside. Before he knew it, Preston walked in, hands crossed behind his back. A much taller figure stalked in with red messy hair like Cait's who looked way too old to be Cait. She wore a power armor frame which made her seem more menacing. Why did she wear that frame, again? Oh, yeah, that's right, Jack thought. Her legs were crushed after she fell a long fall in her power armor back in the Capital Wasteland. At least, that's what she told Jack when he first met her. She wasn't one to talk about what happened in the past, but only focus on what was happening now.

Ingram spoke up, her voice filled with dominance and intimidation greater than even Arthur Maxson. "Knight, the Elder would like to see you on the Prydwen. I realize you are injured, but this matter is very important."

"Why does the Elder want to speak to me?" Jack asked, surprise in his voice. If anything, the Elder despised of Jack. How significant could he be to his plans?

"That is for Maxson to explain. Meet me in the vertibird, Knight. Take a moment to get ready."

Sorry for the late chapter, my friends! My schedule was a little mixed up, and I stated why it would be late on my Tumblr blog. Chapter 39 will be started almost immediately after this one is posted. Hope you enjoyed!