27. Longing: A peaceful day is interrupted
It took Hancock a few days to notice something was wrong. At first it was little things; Nora not laughing as much, or taking longer than usual to do a perimeter sweep. Then it escalated to her giving weak smiles and zoning out while someone was talking to her. Hancock finally took notice when Nora stopped talking altogether and had completely zoned out and stopped doing anything.
"Hey, babes?" He knocked on her bedroom door in Sanctuary before opening it. She was still just sitting in her armchair, just as she had been the past two days. Dogmeat's head perked up, he whined and lowered his ears. "I hear ya, bud." Hancock kneeled down just enough to give Dogmeat a head scratch. "Babes?" Nothing. "Nora?" She blinked slowly, but other than that, gave no indication that she had heard him. Hancock groaned in frustration, if he hadn't known better he would have suspected a bad hit of jet. A really bad hit of jet.
But Nora didn't touch his kind of chems. This wasn't a bad high that wasn't wearing off, this was something else, and Hancock was going mad trying to fix it. He let out a breath he had been holding as he flopped down on her bed. "Babes, I don't know what to do. Kind of hard to help when you won't talk." He lifted his hat off his head and laid it over his face to block out the sunlight. "If it's something I did, I'm sorry," he started rattling off the kinds of things girls liked to hear. At least , what girls from his time liked to hear. Nora was different from the pretty faces of his youth. "If you want me to walk into a Deathclaw nest, just let me know—"
"Hancock."
He shot up right, but it wasn't Nora who spoke up. Nick and Preston stood in the doorway.
"Come on," Preston nodded out to the hallway. Hancock glanced at Nora, who was still just looking out the destroyed wall of her home, and at Nick, who seemed upset and uncomfortable to be standing there. Slowly, Hancock pushed himself up and walked around the end of the bed.
He stopped and laid a hand on Nora's shoulder. He kneeled down beside her and whispered, "I'm sorry, Sunshine." He stood back up and gave Nick a courtesy nod as he passed by. Nick returned the nod, a frown set on his metallic mouth. Nick entered the room as Hancock left. As he walked away Hancock could hear Nick say something softly, and Nora started to cry. Hancock's heart shriveled and ached. Why couldn't he be the one to comfort her? Why wasn't he able to get to her? Why didn't she let him in?
I'll be honest, I struggled with this one