TIMELINE

SHATTERED ILLUSIONS

Fractals

FRONTIER DREAMING

The Wasteland Train Robbery

By Way of Arizona

Home Springs Eternal

BOSTON RISING

The Commonwealth Interviews

The Reporter

"It's on, Piper. Or at least… I think it's on," said Nat.

The ancient and battered holorecorder was a triumph of a find for Publick Occurrences. As the best (and only) news outlet throughout Boston, having something more substantial to record with than a pen and paper was an absolute coup. Piper -owner, manager, and chief reporter of Publick Occurences- no longer needed to drag someone into Travis Miles' sad little trailer to do an audio interview.

And that was prize enough. Travis, the clinically meek DJ of Diamond City Radio, was a nice enough guy, but his nervous twitches and general demeanor got exhausting. That was Piper's opinion at any rate, harsh it may be. She described herself as good, not necessarily nice. The distinction mattered.

Or it had mattered. Piper thought on that as she took a long drag on her cigarette.

Piper was seated at the end of a long, once ornate table that she'd managed to beg, borrow, or steal and drag into her home. Papers, books, files, and folders littered it. At the far end was her sister, Nat, who was fiddling with the holorecorder. It hummed as if it were on, but none of the lights were functional, so it really was a guessing game at times.

Tech-savviness had skipped a daughter in the Wright family. Piper was hopeless. Nat, however, had shown a knack for electronics. She ran all the maintenance of their printing press and their desktop terminal. Piper tried to encourage her interest in technology every chance she could. There had to be a brighter future amidst circuit boards and wires than as a muckraker in a politically corrupt city.

Well… a formerly politically corrupt city.

Piper took another drag on the cigarette. Lots of purview shaking news these days.

"So… are we ready?" Nat asked, prodding Piper to start.

Piper nodded and dropped her cigarette down the neck of an empty bottle of Nuka-Cola. It hissed out in the dregs of the sugary puddle at the bottom of the bottle.

"We probably better before the power craps out," she said.

Thunder boomed outside, shaking the walls of their home in Diamond City. The storm had rolled in from the coast just shortly after Piper had decided to start this story. She refused to accept it as an omen. Omens were for charlatans and hucksters. Rain started pattering against the metal roof and windows in staccato beats.

Piper stood up from the table and walked over to a set of cabinets and pulled out two bowls, one empty and one full. She placed the empty one on the floor and returned to the table. A few seconds later water started to drip from the ceiling directly into it.

The second bowl was full of gumdrops, Piper's master vice. She held the bowl out to Nat who accepted one, and then tossed one into her own mouth. She chewed thoughtfully and looked at her assembled research materials.

"Let's do this, kiddo," Piper said before swallowing and clearing her throat. She sat back in her chair and drummed her fingers on the armrest a few times. Nat held three fingers up and lowered them one at a time before pointing at Piper.

"This is Piper Wright reporting for Publick Occurrences. It is…" She checked the clock on the wall. "8:48PM on February 11, 2289." She looked out the window at the storm. "It's raining."

Piper and Nat listened to the rain for a few seconds. They both knew this wasn't going to be an easy story to put together.

"Piper?" Nat said, prodding her sister to start talking again.

Piper turned back to the table and snatched another gumdrop.

"Okay… okay, okay, okay. I paid MacCready a buttload of caps to get all this for me, so let's use it. Today's subject, you probably guessed it, Nora O'Hare, Sole Survivor of Vault 111. Or as she preferred to be called… Just Nora."

"I figure that most folks want to talk about everything that just went down. We all want answers to some very big questions, and you all look to us to try and find those answers." Piper took a deep breath. "But… I don't think the answers to your questions will paint a full picture. If we want to understand everything that happened, then we need to understand Nora. And I don't think any of us did."

"We all liked to imagine that Nora's story started the day she exited the Vault. For all of us that's when it did start. She exited the Vault and BOOM life started getting better for all of us. That was the Nora we knew, the Nora we had. It also wasn't Nora."

Piper's eyes flicked up. Nat had stiffened as she said that. It was a hell of a statement to make.

"Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to craft some character hit-piece here," Piper said in an attempt to clarify. "All I'm trying to say is we didn't know Nora. We didn't really know what made her tick, or why she did things, or who she was. We all thought she was our Nora here to make life better and save the day. We never looked deeper. I think that bit us in our collective asses."

Reaching onto the table, Piper snatched up a battered newspaper copy. She unfolded it to look at the full front page. A black and white photo of a bashfully smiling woman in a vault-suit dominated the page.

"View from the Vault… we stretched it across three issues because you all ate it up, but we first met and interviewed Nora on May 18th, 2287 right here in Diamond City." She chuckled. "I was locked out by Mayor-" Her voice caught. "By former Mayor McDonough. Nora found me at the gate. I spun some bullshit about her being a trader from Quincy. She didn't bat an eye, just helped me get back in the city."

"I barely thanked her," Piper said wistfully. "A quick howdy, thanks, and come by the office for an interview." Piper sighed.

"According to Nora, she'd been out of Vault 111 for just under two weeks. For those of you who have been living under a rock, Vault 111 is the big ass Vault just North of Sanctuary Hills. A check of the surface computers verifies that the Vault did in fact open on May 5th, 13 days before we interviewed her. 13 days to wake up to what could only be a nightmare, save a group of settlers, pilot a suit of power armor and fight a deathclaw, find her way to Diamond City, and meet me. 13 days she did all that."

"Yes, that all sounds wild for a supposed pre-war housewife to do in 13 days. If you want to spin some conspiracy theories, no, no one can confirm that it was Nora who came out of Vault 111 when it opened on May 5th. But I saw her with my own two eyes: that woman had the jumpsuit, she had the PipBoy, and she was Blue as the sky wandering around the Fens. You can't fake seeing a super mutant for the first time."

"And you don't have to take my word for it because we have this." Piper grabbed a holotape off the table, a piece of paper was taped to it. "I visited Vault 111 with Nora once. She was going to… to say goodbye to her husband. I stole the Overseer's terminal holotape. Yes, I stole it from what was quite literally a giant tomb, no I don't feel bad about it."

She flipped the tape between her fingers. "There is a resident list on here. On the list is Corporal Nathan O'Hare, Nora O'Hare, and infant."

"For anyone who didn't read our original article, the Institute broke into Vault 111, found Nate, Nora, and their baby Shaun in the cryo bays, thawed them out, shot Nate, and took Shaun. When I met Nora she was looking for her boy."

She set the holotape down with a clack on the table. "But that's what we already know. Or think we know. This report will be working to examine the veracity of all those 'thinks'. I think it's safe to say Nora did come from Vault 111. I'd love to go snoop around some more, but after saying bye to her husband, we left, and Nora sealed the Vault from the outside. There's no going in and out anymore. Nora wanted it that way, she didn't want to look back…"

Piper paused thoughtfully and idly traced a finger through the air. "Nat… I need a drink." She stood up from the table. "Yep, you heard that listeners, your intrepid reporter is getting a drink." She snatched a bottle of whiskey from the same cabinet she'd pulled the gumdrops from.

"Piper, are you sure this is… professional?" Nat asked.

Piper snorted and poured herself a healthy measure of whiskey and went back to her seat. She took a drink and savored the burn for a moment.

"Nora was my friend everybody. I don't know if I was hers. I don't know if she did the whole friend thing, but she was mine. This is… this is hard." She took another sip. "I keep saying Nora said 'goodbye' to Nate, but she didn't. All she said was 'I'll find Shaun' and then she took Nate's wedding ring and that was it. Lock the Vault and move on. According to Preston, she had her old house torn down for scrap in Sanctuary too. I didn't think anything of it then, but now? Now, I think I'm finally starting to see her. She didn't want her old life back."

She tossed back the rest of her drink and sucked air in between her teeth. "Anyway, we're going to cut all of that, so you'll never hear any of it."

"We know Nora was in the Vault. We believe her husband and child were in there with her. And I think we can prove that. Courtesy of Robert MacCready of Robert MacCready Industries. Need something found? Need someone shot? Robert MacCready Industries!" Piper couldn't contain her snort. "There you go, MacCready, I said it just like you wanted, you poser."

"Our brave Mr. MacCready went trawling through Medford Memorial Hospital, which is swarming with super mutants so suddenly his price tag is making more sense, and he got us this." Piper picked up a folder from the table and took out a yellowed-with-age ornate piece of paper. "Shaun O'Hare, born January 3rd, 2077." She could make out Nora's looping signature at the bottom. She'd seen it written on the new Minuteman Charter that had been drafted. "Mark it. Nora does in fact have a son named Shaun."

The pleasant buzz of the whiskey warmed Piper's stomach and she said in a high pitched voice, "But Miss Piper you just have names! Maybe Nora's just lying about her name!" Nat giggled. Piper went and brought the bottle of whiskey to the table.

"Yes, listener, that's correct. But wait!" She refilled her glass and picked up a second folder full of photos. They showed a man and woman in a tuxedo and gown. Wedding photos. The woman was clearly Nora if not a Nora with her face painted and an out of character demure smile. She flipped the photo over and neatly written on the back in the same looping style as the birth certificate was...

"July 16th, 2076 Nate O'Hare and Nora O'Hare nee Cortez," Piper read. "So take that, doubters. We are in fact dealing with a woman born before the bombs fell. Not an alien, not a synth, not a Mistress of Mystery. Nora O'Hare nee Cortez. Just Nora."

Piper wasn't sure if this fact made her feel better or worse. It was easier to frame Nora and her actions as something larger than life, but here it was in black and white. She was just Nora.

She paused and re-read the date on the back of the photo a few times, brain churning through some math.

"O-ho! Scandalous!"

"What's scandalous?" Nat asked as she leaned across the table, hand straying towards the whiskey bottle until Piper slid the bowl of gumdrops towards her.

Piper tossed the photo back onto the table. "Get a load of that date. Five months before Shaun was born. Juicy, right?"

Nat blushed and took a gumdrop.

"So Nate knocks up Nora and they shack up together. That's not quite a perfectly romantic endeavor, but I can't say for certain because we don't really know much about Nate." Piper tapped her finger on the table and addressed Nat. "What've we got on Nate?"

Nat shrugged and looked through the papers on her side of the table. "According to that kooky robot," The robot was Lookout, a Mr. Handy patrolling around the old USS Constitution, "Nate was a soldier. 108th Infantry Regiment, second battalion. He deployed to Anchorage on December 23rd, 2070."

"And when'd he return?"

Nat dug around under a pile of papers and pulled out an ancient calendar. They'd stolen it from Marcie Long, resident acid-tongue of Sanctuary, when they'd recognized what it was. Nora and Nate's calendar that had probably hung in their kitchen.

"February 24th, 2076."

Piper did some math. "Wow, they weren't waiting to get their groove on." she drummed her fingers on a framed piece of paper on the table. A diploma. "Or one of them couldn't wait to get his groove on."

"Nora Cortez graduated from Suffolk County School of Law on May 21st, 2075. Nate deployed and she immediately put herself to the grindstone. She graduated and what, half-a-year later she's knocked up? That's got to burn a little. I think we've got a few old news clippings around here somewhere." Piper gave a cursory search and gave up. The table was overcrowded with paper. "Look, apparently Nora was pretty damned good at her job. Any of you know that raider den out in Charleston? The BADTFL?" She pronounced it as one word. "Apparently before the war that place was in charge of investigating crimes to do with chems, booze, guns, and lasers. Nora was one of their hotshots."

Piper sipped from her whiskey and bristled a little at the thought. Nora had a whole career. And she was good at it! Nate's back and she just shelfs it? The woman tore apart the Commonwealth looking for her son, but Nora never struck her as baby motivated. She was competent, she was wicked smart, and she was driven. Piper had met a lot of mother's that way too, but Nora always felt like a kindred spirit to Piper. Publick Occurences was her baby. She didn't feel like Nora had a choice with Shaun.

It all came down to choice, didn't it? Nora chose to kick ass with the BADTFL. It didn't really feel like she chose to have a kid, to get married. Piper reached for a thin, leatherbound book on the table. It didn't quite feel like she had a choice with Nate.

"We've got a copy of the East Boston Preparatory School 2061 yearbook. Nora mentioned to me one time that she did her schooling there. I know it's hard to believe that kids learned things in that place. Too many chains and cages there now. I don't know. Maybe those were for the kids and the raiders there just reappropriated them. Anyway, 2061, 12 year old Nora Cortez goes to the Halloween Sadie Hawkin's Dance. We've got a few photos here."

"According to the book here, East Boston was a Catholic school for proper young ladies from Catholic families. They held the Halloween dance with D.B. Technical School. You may have seen some of D.B.'s old billboards. 'Learn a trade! Today's skills for tomorrow!'. And yep! Here we are."

Piper stopped flipping through pages and stopped on a photo. In it was a young girl who shared Nora's unmistakably stern eyebrows. Piper had seen that same look whenever Nora had disciplined her dog. Or when Preston said anything. Little Nora Cortez in her neatly pressed dress was glaring at her dance partner. A wrinkly-suit-wearing and pimpled Nate O'Hare.

"I… I don't know, folks. I just don't know. Childhood sweethearts? Or two people pressed together? Willing mother? Or someone forced to choose between a career or a baby? None of this can speak to love or anything like that, but it seems like a great deal of Nora's marriage was a matter of circumstance.

Piper flipped the yearbook closed and tossed it back to the table. She slouched in her chair and massaged her brow.

"We're dealing with a lot of conjecture here, I know. But this is what we've got. This is… Nora. If any of you scavengers out there stumble upon a book titled 'My Diary by Just Nora', you let me know because that would be reeeeaaaallll useful. Nat. Gumdrop me." She opened her mouth and Nat tossed a gumdrop her way. It bounced off her forehead.

"Killer shot, kiddo."

Nat burst into giggles and started shutting down the holorecorder. Piper let her laugh. Her mind wasn't there yet. She was still consumed by the story. This was going to be a lot of work. People did need answers.

She looked out the rain coated window and watched the storm. She needed answers. She really did. Nora had left her mark all over the Commonwealth. She'd left it here in Diamond City. Piper could still see where McDonough's corpse had hung from the stadium seating. McDonough the Institute spy. McDonough the synth.

He hadn't survived Nora.

She stood from the table and walked to the window. Unable to look away from the noose still hanging in the wind and rain. Above it, someone had scrawled a message in brilliant green paint. TRAITOR. The paint was starting to run in the rain, leaving a jade puddle on the ground below. She used to walk Nat to the schoolhouse that way. She shivered and turned away.

Yes, Nora had left her mark on Diamond City. She'd left her mark on all of them.

Would they be able to live with it?

A/N: Welcome to "The Commonwealth Monologues"! This is part 1 of a multi-part series titled "Boston Rising" which will canvas the story of Fallout 4 as I see fit. If you're intrigued and want more of my stories, check out the rest of the "Shattered Illusions" whose timeline can be seen at the very top of this chapter.

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