Over the flickering flame of his gold-plated lighter, Hancock watched Lily squirm like he'd never seen her squirm before.

The dress was part of the problem. A real flashy one he'd called it, and there was no denying that'd been true at one point. The glossy material glimmered in the fluorescent light; not as shiny as the red, sequined, gem of a piece Magnolia wore, but bright enough to draw an eye whenever she moved.

Two years ago, before the General and the Minutemen, Fahrenheit had shown up at his door one night wearing that dress. One hand on her narrow hip, other planted halfway up the doorframe in an uncharacteristically feminine pose she'd probably picked out of a Pre-War fashion magazine and practiced for this exact moment. In his time he'd seen a fair few women in that pose, though none had ever tilted their head and dared him with their eyes to say anything that wasn't: You look absolutely perfect in that dress.

Lily did not look perfect in that dress. Not even close. It cinched tight around her waist and squeezed her shoulders into a permanent shrug. With every breath the pink fabric across her chest strained, threatening to come apart if she tried anything other than short, shallow, swallows. A collar of lace that was supposed to spread across her shoulders was instead looped around her neck in a frilly necklace. She'd obviously pulled the whole thing on like a T-shirt and had yanked upwards until what was once a low-cut, sensual piece of clothing now looked like a straight jacket. The black pants poking out from under a hem that only reached knee-height just added to the absurdity that was Lily Tourette in a dress.

"You look perfect, Lil." Hancock said with a smile.

Lily looked down and blushed, which widened his smile a little. Heck she looked happy, even in a straight jacket.

"W-Who died?"

His smile faded. He glanced at Fahrenheit, the other reason for Lily's constant fidgeting. Her arm was hanging around Lily's neck, fingers buried in her frilly collar, expression unreadable.

"That's one way to ruin the mood!" She said with a small laugh, hand snaking upwards to run through crimson hair. "Why can't we talk about this cut of yours? You trying to copy me?"

Lily's blush deepened, but she slanted her head to brush off the touch.

"You said someone died." She repeated. "I heard you."

Fahrenheit tutted disapprovingly. "You shouldn't be spying on us, tato-head. And this is my spot, remember?"

Lily hopped off the sofa before Fahrenheit could follow up with a shove, moving over to the armchair. Her dress hung open at the back, exposing pale skin streaked with more scars than he'd like to count.

"Is this about that woman from the Memory place?" She asked him.

"Who, Irma?" Fahrenheit raised an eyebrow. "What about her?"

"Amari." Hancock muttered. "Stabbed, right in her own lab."

"There's a synth here to find out who did it." Lily added, swiveling towards Fahrenheit. "He's at the bar!"

Fahrenheit's attention was on him, head tilted expectantly. He shook his head.

Not now. Not in front of her.

"You wanna go see him?" Lily asked, teetering on the edge of her seat.

"I've seen synths before, Lil. Saw a lot of crazy things out in the Commonwealth."

"Like what?" She asked, eyes wide. "You've seen synths before?"

"Plenty. Course, none of em were as fresh as our boy Nick but yeah, I've seen some synths." Fahrenheit said, still looking at him. "They're more common down South, past the old University."

"Oh." She poked the inside of her cheek, thinking. "Did you see any ahd-wolves?"

Fahrenheit froze. "A what?"

"Ahd-wolf." She mumbled again, avoiding their incredulous stares. "It's a…hyena."

"And what, Lily, is a hyena?"

Silence.

Fahrenheit smiled, stretching out until her head rested on the armrest. "Nope, no ah-wolves. Saw some mutts over by the river. Didn't stop to ask em what they were called." She shrugged. "Mighta been ah-wolves, or hyenas."

"See any Unicorns while you were out, Fara?" Hancock asked with a wink. "Any horses?"

"Nope." Fahrenheit's finger on her lips shushed Lily's flustered follow up. "I know what you're gonna say, darling. No, didn't see dragons either."

"Princesses? Any dumbasses in armor riding horses?"

"Still no, Hancock." She sighed, feigning disappointment. "I searched all over, Lil. No dumbasses in armor."

"I didn't ask!" Lily cried, getting a small chuckle out of him and a bigger one out of Fahrenheit. "I'm not twelve!"

"I can tell."

"What about the synths?"

Fahrenheit's smile soured a little. "You wouldn't wanna see them, Lil. All beat up and broken, tossed on the floor like broken toys. Like somebody got bored of 'em."

"They're all dead then?" Lily pressed. "Nick's the last one?"

"Nah they've just gotten better at hiding." Hancock muttered under his breath.

Lily's lips parted, questions already swirling at her tongue. But Fahrenheit spoke first.

"So what's cooking up North, Lil? How's your sister?"

Lily's face fell.

"Tommy said she's missing." She said softly, eyes on the floor. "Came here looking for me."

"Oh." Hancock ignored Fahrenheit's pointed look to grab some more tobacco for his pipe.

"I'm sure she's just fine. Rachel's tough as nails, isn't she?"

The younger redhead seemed to cheer up a little at that. "Yeah she is."

Silence followed. An awkward one for Hancock, mostly cause of the looks Fahrenheit kept sending his way. But Lily seemed comfortable in it, smiling at the floor, picking at the hem of her dress. She'd pulled it up so high that the shoulder straps were sticking out above her collarbone, flapping in the air like miniature wings as Lily shifted on the armchair.

Bounce. Bounce. Bounce. Maybe she thought they were part of the costume. Little fairy wings straight from the storybooks. He couldn't help a smile.

"Lily's Pip-Boy is broken, Fara. That's why she's here."

Lily looked up, nodding. "The map doesn't work." She held out her arm. "See?"

"And you came here?" Fahrenheit asked, after taking a glance at the black-and-green display. "Why?"

"I thought you'd fix it."

Hancock rolled his eyes. Fahrenheit groaned.

"Come on, Lily! Who'd you think was gonna fix something like that?"

"I don't know!" Lily cried. "This is the only place I could think of! I'd have gone to Diamond City if the stupid map worked!"

Hancock snorted and Fahrenheit's lip curled in disgust.

"Actually, probably a good thing you came to us."

"Maybe Amari could have helped you out." Fahrenheit shrugged. "Not that it matters now."

"Nick's working the case."

Fahrenheit let loose a low whistle. "This goes way up then. Best keep your head down, Lily."

"I know, I know." She muttered, prodding at her Pip. "Where do I get this fixed then?"

Hancock leaned back in his chair.

"Vault 81's your best bet."

"Curie's from there!" Lily blurted out. "I'll ask her!"

"Fat chance. Swarming with Minutemen."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Heard from a trader that McNamara finally gave up and accepted a Minuteman garrison."

"Not to mention, I'd have to go around Diamond City." Lily chimed in.

"Alright, forget what I said before. Your best bet is Bunker Hill."

"No Minutemen there?"

"Nah, Kessler's a stubborn woman." Fahrenheit added, with a small hint of respect in her voice. "Plus, Bunker Hill is supposedly close to the Railroad Headquarters."

Lily's eyes grew wide with awe.

"The Railroad?" she asked, a mixture of fear and excitement in her voice.

"Don't get too excited." Hancock warned. "Minutemen wiped them out a long time ago."

"That's what people said about the Minutemen!" Lily cried. "And they're still around, aren't they?"

"What Hancock meant to say is that the Railroad's gone into hiding." Fahrenheit explained. "They haven't been active on the surface for a long time."

"And the Minutemen figured out how to identify synths. Every trashcan fire from here to Greygarden's got a Minuteman giving out SAFE tests."

"What's a SAFE test?" Lily asked, trying and failing to look anything but clueless.

Fahrenheit grinned and winked at Hancock.

"You are approached by a frenzied scientist, who yells, 'I'm going to put my quantum harmonizer in your photonic resonation chamber!'"

"What do you do?" Hancock asked, now wearing the same grin.

"W-What?" Lily stammered, eyes darting between them. "What's a phot−I mean−I don't have a resonation chamber!" She frowned. "Do I?"

Fahrenheit matched her frown, eyes narrow with suspicion. She looked over at him.

"You think she's a synth?"

Hancock scratched his chin thoughtfully, fighting to keep his expression neutral. "Don't know."

"I'm not a synth!" Lily yelled, blue eyes wide with panic.

Hancock chuckled mildly, but Fahrenheit burst into laughter. Her brown eyes glimmered in the lamplight, her clear voice ringing through the room. Another look at Lily's stunned expression launched her into another fit of giggles, which quickly devolved into a smattering of giggle-snorts as she desperately tried to catch her breath.

"Oh come on, Fara" Hancock chortled, still trying to look serious. "She might still be a synth."

Lily frowned, tossing an empty inhaler at Hancock.

"Very funny." She muttered. "I'm not a synth."

"Yeah well that's what the SAFE test is. A bunch of random questions that can apparently identify synths." Fahrenheit explained, still breathing hard.

"Does it work?"

"If you believe the Minutemen, it works like a charm." Hancock remarked, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, apparently every person who fails the test ends up being a synth." Fahrenheit snorted. "What a coincidence."

Lily was starting to catch on.

"So the Minutemen use the test to get rid of people they don't like?"

"Exactly. So if they saw someone who looks like a raider…"

"Smells like one too." Hancock added, giving Lily a disapproving look.

"They'd lock that person away for a good long while." Fahrenheit finished. "And if that person happened to be Red Tourette's kid sister then well, the General's got plenty of rope lying around."

Lily swallowed hard, and Hancock wondered if they'd taken it a little too far. She looked terrified.

"Don't worry, Lil. Your neck's safe here in Goodneighbor." Fahrenheit reached over to pat her head. "Just stick to the rules and you'll be fine."

"You told me already I know." Lily frowned. "We'll just go to Bunker Hill then."

"It's Bunker Hill or bust, Lil."

"Wait. Who's we?" Fahrenheit asked, shaking her head. "Hancock's not coming with you."

"She means Curie." Hancock said quickly, before the redhead could reply. "Friend of hers."

"Is she a robot?" She leaned forward with sudden interest. "Like Charlie?"

"What? No!" Lily laughed. "She's human. From Vault 81."

"Oh." Another quick glance in his direction. Another shake of the head. "Then where is she?"

"She…" Lily paused, frowned. "She was at the bar with us." Turned to look at him. "Wasn't she, Hancock?"

"Throwing looks at every guy she saw, yeah."

Lily stopped bouncing, suddenly stock still on the armchair. "She was?"

He nodded. "Can't blame her. Not a lotta options in a vault, y'know? Find a nice guy, get all cozy with him, just to find out he's your cousin or half-brother or grandson."

"Grandson?"

"Crazy people, those vault dwellers. The General, McNamara, even your friend. Said so yourself."

"But she's so…" Lily bit her lip, searching for the word. "I mean, she's not−she doesn't…understand that kind of stuff."

"Really?" He chuckled. "Innocent as an angel, eh?"

"No, but−"

"Worry about yourself, won't ya? Got your own date coming up."

"With who?" Fahrenheit asked, giving her a curious look that broke into a sultry smile. "Already? Couldn't wait a day?"

"Hancock!" Lily scowled at him, readying another inhaler. "Stop it!"

"Best part about Goodneighbor, Lil. Nobody's gonna look at you wrong for doing what you do." He waved at the pile of used chems at his feet. "We're all a bunch of sinners."

Lily glanced at the chems. The inhaler, in prime chucking position, drooped a little as she tried to make sense of him.

"Sinners?"

"Who's she dating?" Fahrenheit interjected, leaning over the armrest to straighten Lily's wild red weave a little. "Bethany?"

"Magnolia." Hancock answered, delighting in the small jerk the name got from the two of them.

"Dressed like this!" Fahrenheit cried, jumping out of the sofa. "Over my dead body."

"I just want to talk." Lily muttered, but Fahrenheit wasn't listening.

"I've got some powder you could use." She said, heading for the door. "And you'd better be out of those pants before I get back."

"What about Curie?"

"Seriously, Lil. Just leave her be." He softened his tone. "She'll be back in the morning."

"I should check on her." She said, getting to her feet. "Just make sure she's fine."

"And Magnolia?" Fahrenheit asked, arms crossed, blocking the exit. "What do I tell her?"

"Tell her to wait." Lily said, shrugging her shoulders like the answer was obvious. Like telling a woman to wait for her date could ever go well. "I'll check, that's it."

She stood in place for a moment, hands on her hips, waiting for him to argue. He probably should've; he could get her to stay if he really wanted. But he shrugged instead, waved towards the door. And Fahrenheit, to her credit, stepped aside to let Lily pass.

The door had barely slammed shut behind her before Fahrenheit locked it shut, pressing her ear against the wood to make sure she heard Lily's boots thumping down the marble steps.

"Just like you remember her, isn't she?" Hancock asked, tossing the contents of his pipe into the ashy fireplace. "Stubborn as a Brahmin."

"Curie." She said simply, brow knotted. "She's really human?"

Hancock nodded. "Two hands, two feet. Got a pretty voice and a helluvah smile."

Her shoulders relaxed a little. "So she's not the robot they're looking for."

"Nope."

"What're the odds, Hancock? General's missing a Curie, and a Curie shows up at our door?"

"Who knows? Might be a popular name in the vaults."

"And about her sister." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Why didn't you tell her?"

"Why didn't you tell her?" He countered. "You told me."

She sighed, flipping her hair idly as she made her way back to her seat.

"She's the one who shot Finn, isn't she?"

"You heard?"

She gave him a strange look. "They're still scraping brains off the floor. Of course I heard."

"It was her. But," he pointed to a cabinet, the one Lily tried to force open "I took her gun."

"Great." She rolled her eyes. "Could have done that before she killed someone."

"Finn had it coming."

"Then you should have told me!" She cried, and all the frustration and anger she'd kept bottled up for Lily's sake poured out on top of him. "Or done it yourself, quietly!"

"Fara−"

"And letting her stay here? Hancock, you know who was backing Finn."

"You knew he was dead when you came in here, Fara." Hancock said. "Why didn't you mention it?"

"I wanted to know, Hancock. I needed to know that it was her, that you'd killed her!" She exploded, voice breaking halfway. Her eyes glittered, lip wobbling the same way Lily's did right before the tears started.

"Killed her? She's alive, Fahrenheit, and we're keeping her that way."

"And when the General calls? Knocks on that door with that fuck Dyson at her side, holding rope? What're you gonna do?"

"We're gonna make a deal. She's not going to start a war over one girl."

"And you will?" She demanded, fists clenched into balls, shaking at her side.

"It won't come to that."

"One year, Hancock." Trembling hands and fingers. Her voice was breaking again, the sound sending ice-cold daggers into his chest. "We've kept this rat's nest of drug dealers, raiders and mercenaries clean for one year."

"Come on, Fara. Pull yourself together." He got up and reached for her arm.

"No! Fuck you Hancock!" She whipped her hand away from his grasp, swiping at her eyes. "This is your fault."

"You don't believe that." Something he'd said to her many times before, when she was like this. Usually he was right.

Fahrenheit rose, swiping a dirty rag off a sidetable to dab her eyes and nose. She refused to look at him, even when he caught one of her hands and slid his wrinkled fingers up her arm.

"Fara, it's Lily. Our Lily." He whispered, leaning forward till what was left of his lips nipped at her ear. "You really think I'd let anything happen to her?"

She pulled away. Looked him in the eye, finally. Her jaw was set, lips pursed thin. She'd never turned her back on him before.

"Hancock…" She took a deep breath, fingers digging into her shoulder. "Have a plan. Please."

"Always do." He assured her. Stepped forward, half-expecting her to twist away. But she didn't, didn't even grimace when his malformed lips grazed her forehead, moving down past her nose.

Their eyes met. Despair, confusion, hurt. Each stung worse than any Stingwing could. But she nodded. Once.

And his eyes folded shut.