"Are we done yet?" MacCready asked impatiently. Katherine ignored him as she tied his bowtie for him. She finished it and walked into the Home plate's bathroom where she fixed her hair. "It's been two hours!"

"Not long enough, MacCready." Katherine responded. MacCready groaned and began pacing the floor. Katherine walked out and gestured to herself. "Well? How do I look?" MacCready, who was laying on the couch, crumpling his tux, looked Katherine up and down a few times with his eyes, mouth open.

"Uh, do I have to be professional with my response?" he asked. Katherine threw a dishrag at him and walked up to the stairs to her room. She clipped on her Pip-Boy despite the bulky object not fitting her outfit or the event at all. She was at Homeplate, a house smack dab in the middle of Diamond City. So while everything was going on just out her front door, she was getting ready. Katherine cursed herself as she pocketed a snub barrel .44 pistol into her hidden holster. James had purchased both items and insisted that she wore it at the event.

Katherine thought back to the inception of this meeting.

"Hold on." Preston said. "The CPG? Do we need to make a country here?"

"To be able to effective engage the Brotherhood, yes. If the Commonwealth declares itself a sovereign nation, then the Brotherhood's actions will become severely limited within our borders." Katherine responded.

"Wait that's how a country works?" James asked. Katherine gave him a strange face and nodded.

"And if they don't respect the borders and do whatever they want anyways?" Preston responded.

"Then it would be considered an act of war."

"So what?"

"Then we can mobilize the Minutemen and get settlement support."

"We have artillery."

"And they have vertibirds, power armor, and most of all manpower."

"We have those things too."

"The Enclave troops here are extremely limited. Besides Sanctuary and a few safehouses, we don't have anything. The Enclave is spread thin. The P-80s aren't going to be able to do much when the Brotherhood starts deploying troops en-masse rather than the isolated patrols we've found so far. Not without support from the Mobile Crawler."

"How far away is that?" Preston asked.

"Eden says that it has just left the Pitt after helping to rebuild a few things and setting up a small outpost there." James responded.

"How long will it take to get here?" Preston demanded. James shrugged.

"Depends on what they encounter. Even Eden doesn't really know. Maybe a year?"

"Jesus." Preston muttered.

"So we need to set something up in place of a huge military organization. The CPG."

"But everyone knows that the last meeting was sabatoged by synths. What'll make it different this time?" MacCready interjected.

"They'll have the Minutement and the Enclave." Katherine responded.

"Alright, fine. But we can't really just host it in Sanctuary. This place's perimeter is still too soft to repel an invasion. We only have about thirty or forty people living not including the troops patrolling the area. Where can we host the meeting?"

"What about Diamond City?" James asked. "It's the safest place around and everybody knows about it."

"You know that's going to be expensive right?" MacCready asked.

"Well, if it's money we need then no problem. I can get us the venue." James said.

"How?" Katherine asked.

"I own most of the trading caravans that travel through this place. I can probably get them pool their caps together to give me my cut and I think I know how to influence the Upper stand residents to lend a hand." James responded.

"What do you plan on doing?" MacCreaedy asked.

"I think if I steal the deeds to their property, they'll be more than willing to lend some money to prevent me selling their houses to some poor needy folks." James responded.

"Y'know. I always thought the Lone Wanderer was a good guy." MacCreaedy commented.

"Well, I'm doing it for a good cause. What's a crime or two in the process right?"

"How many caps you got just for the caravans around here?" Preston asked.

"Dunno. Never counted. Too many to worry about."

"How did you come to own these caravans?"

"Made a couple deals while I was at the Pitt. Made a lot of friends. Can we move on?"

"So we get a CPG so what then?" Preston asked.

"Then we get them to starting funding an army."

"To do what? Now there's going to be another army?"

"What? No." Katherine exclaimed. "They send recruits and caps to the Minutemen. The Minutemen gets big and well-trained. We'll use the caps to upgrade Minutemen equipment. Then we make a show of force."

"Doing what?" Preston asked.

"We take out the Gunenrs, eliminate a couple raider gangs. Show them whose boss. Build up some confidence in the CPG. Then, once things are stabilized. We start dealing with the Railroad."

"Why all that preamble just to deal with Railroad?" MacCready asked.

"Because they've been hit hard and they're hurting right now." Piper said walking in suddenly with Nick Valentine.

"I looked around a bit. Found their headquarters at Slocum Joe's. Whole place is crawling with Gen 2s."

"Railroad's gone underground. More so than usual." Piper said. "I think they've been hit harder than they ever have before. They're vulnerable so they aren't going to trust anybody walking up to them."

"I've also tracked them to the Old North Church. While in there I found a secret door. But I can't figure out the code." Valentine said.

"That means until the Railroad comes to us, they're going to be out of contact." James concluded.

"Thanks, Nick." Katherine said and smiled.

"What about me? I worked too!" Piper protested.

"Just be glad we got out of there alive." Nick responded.

"Alright, fine. I'm convinced." Preston said solemnly.

"That took a lot of convincing. Didn't you say I'm the general of the Minutemen? Why do I have to explain everything?"

"I just don't want to put all our cards on the table like the last guy." Preston responded. "I don't want the Minutemen to fall again.

"We won't." Katherine responded. "This will work."

"Now we just need to decide on the date." James interjected.

Katherine blinked as she stood on stage before everybody. MacCready stood by her side, glaring at the crowd. Currently, McDonough was giving a speech at the microphone. Katherine saw all kinds of people in the crowd as she looked at them. She was onstage with other leaders of various settlements. Then it was voting time.

"Goodneighbor votes yes."

"Abernathy Farm. We vote yes."

"Coastal Cottage says yes."

"Diamond City says yes."

"Jamaica Plain says yes."

"Croup Manor votes no."

"Nordhagen Beach votes yes."

"Covenant votes no."

"Taffington Boathouse says yes." Katherine stepped to the center microphone.

"Sanctuary Hills votes yes." And the list went on.

"15 yes and 10 no. That's a majority." Katherine announced on the microphone. "The CPG is officially a sovereign nation."