"Nora your home is beautiful." Said Danse as he sat down to relax after he ate. Nora was in the kitchen preparing coffee for them while Danse sat at the bar and watched her. She hadn't made coffee for two in this kitchen in years now. And the last time it had been for her and a man was The morning the bombs dropped. She looked behind her and smiled at Danse. She had begun to feel very comfortable and safe around him after the first 3 weeks she had hung around their compound at the police station and later around the area where the Brotherhood was stationed. She had yet to actually join them but they had taken to keeping her around. She was healing and they could see that. She did want to join but she knew that meant she wouldn't have time for this trip so she postponed it.
"Danse do you know why we're here?" She said as she passed him a mug and sat down with her own.
"Honestly, not really. I know this is your old home and that the vault is right up the hill there but that's about it." He said sipping his coffee to see if it needed anything. It didn't like usual. He never figured out how Nora knew exactly how he liked his coffee. The fact that she usually just fixed his coffee like Nate had liked his was never spoken of.
"I came back here to say goodbye to Nathan." She said sadly. "In the morning I am going to dig him a grave out back and make a marker for him and in the evening I am going to go back to the Vault and retrieve his body, shroud him, and lay him to rest. He deserves better than to be in that vault for eternity. I am not asking you to help with this but tomorrow night I am going to ask you to be there for me. Out of all of the people in the Waste, I think I like you the best. I trust you Danse." Nora was tearing up at this point. She was trying not to say too much but at the same time, she wanted to get her point across. Nora could feel something stirring and she was afraid of it. She was afraid that it would be taken the wrong way and she would end up hurting him and hurting herself as well.
" Nora... I'm happy you trust me, and if it's okay with you I will come to help you bring your Nathan home. I can tell you were wholly devoted to him and need to be able to say your goodbyes. I want to be here for you Nora." He said after a few moments of silence. No one he had ever known had made him feel this way. Every time he looked at her he could feel his heart speed up a bit and heat come to his face. He was very wary of the way she made him feel as well.
"It's going to be a long day tomorrow and I need to sleep." She said suddenly feeling that she had said what she needed to. " If you like you can sleep back in the back with me or in here on the couch. I have a rather large bed and it'll feel strange sleeping in it alone." It wouldn't be the first time she had slept next to him they had had to share a bed several times on the way here. And only once had he ever so much as touched her while she slept.
It was the middle of the night and they were sleeping in a cabin-type place in the woods near the Abernathy farm. There was one small bed in the cabin and no chairs or even a sleeping bag to lie on. Nora had offered to let him sleep next to her on the bed and he gladly accepted. He sat on the edge of the bed and realized just how small the bed really was.
"Nora... uhh the bed is very small." he said sheepishly He looked over at her, she was already laying down on her side and very close to the wall.
" It'll hold us I weigh practically nothing and all your weight is in your big head!" She giggled as she thought about how he could rarely find a hat or helmet that fit. He looked back at her and rolled his eyes. He laid down tentatively and got as comfortable as he could. After a while, he relaxed and felt himself drifting off.
He was awoken in the morning by a small beam of sunlight and the feeling of something very warm laying on his arm making it fall asleep. He opened his eyes and saw a messy crop of black hair with small braids in it. He realized that at some point in the night Nora must have rolled over onto him. He laid there and let her sleep. Her face was much more peaceful than he had ever seen it, with no sadness in her expression or knitted brow. He realized that they were about the same age, well biologically anyway. And he saw that she was quite beautiful. He could feel his heart beat a little quicker the longer he looked, and he felt a smile come across his face.
It was well into the morning when she finally woke up and he had drifted back off to sleep with a small smile on his face. Taking comfort in the warmth she provided and the reassurance that she was there and that she was safe. He had begun to worry about her when she wasn't around him. Nora was a bit embarrassed that she had rolled over and basically snuggled Danse as she had. She slowly crawled out of bed and tried not to wake him up. He stirred a little but stayed asleep. She hoped he hadn't noticed that she was laying on him. She decided to only bring it up if he did.
Morning came early in Sanctuary Hills that day. And Nora had seemingly woken up before Danse. He looked peaceful in his sleep almost like he had never seen active combat before. Danse reminded her so much of her Nathan before he was deployed. She had decided that she was going to start calling him Danse more. Well if he was comfortable with being called that.
"Good morning mum!" Said Codsworth cheerfully as he handed her a cup of tea. "English Breakfast this morning! I managed to find it in the stores we had in the basement!" He said with a cheery tone and went back to trying to shine the rusted icebox door.
Nora sat down at the table and sipped her tea silently missing her nice tea set her great grandmother had passed down to her. She sat there mentally preparing for what may come. Nates' body may have already begun to decompose and rot away leaving her next to nothing to bring back. Or he may still be fully intact and still frozen. She vaguely remembered closing the cryopod door so he would stay inside. As she sipped her tea she realized that while she was home she wasn't alone here. She had Danse. She even had Dogmeat. She wasn't alone anymore. She stood up a little too fast and saw stars for a moment but it was okay. She felt good and strong today and ready to take on the challenges that she was about to face. Walking to the side door under the carport she saw the shovel and her boots. She sighed and pulled on the boots and gripped the shovel tightly. Walking out the grey dawn met her eyes and made them sting a bit. And she broke ground on Nathans's grave.
Danse woke up and groggily got dressed. He could hear Nora outside cussing and crying and digging into her earth. He sighed and walked from the bedroom and warily into the hall. He still wasn't used to the Mr. Handy. But he saw it in the kitchen and it served him some tea as well. He sniffed it and tasted it. He really enjoyed it and asked for another cup but instead of plain tea, he asked for it how Nora liked it. He tasted it and to his surprise, it was better than before. He listened to Nora outside cussing and cursing the world as she dug a 7-foot long 3-foot wide and 6-foot deep hole for her husband's final resting place. He soon heard a man's voice coming from behind the house.
" Nora are you sure you want to do this? Join the Brotherhood? "
"Yes, Preston. I am absolutely 100% sure I want to do this. I won't be coming back here much but would like my home kept nice for me for when I do return, and please remember my rules. No one in other than to clean and no one sleeps in my bed. I will send word 2 or 3 days before I arrive here so have my kitchen stocked before I get back. Most of my canned goods are in the cellar as well as my wines and my beers." She said sternly.
" Okay if you insist." Preston huffed back at her and began to walk off, grumbling to himself.
Nora then began building her husband a coffin. Nothing fancy but she knew he would have wanted one. She could wrap his flag around it and lay him to rest. Nail by nail she put it together like a macabre tinker toy. Danse walked outside and greeted her and asked if he could help her in any way. Unsurprisingly she said no and that she only wanted his company right now. She painted an epitaph on a wooden grave marker
"Here lies Nathan Wallace, Husband of Nora Wallace and father of Shaun Wallace. Soldier and friend to all."
She added his birth date and the date she thought he died. Nora had no real idea exactly what the date was on the day he died but seeing as it wasn't too much of a problem she just estimated. Meanwhile, Danse was attempting to trade with a few of the settlers and was having very little luck. None of them wanted to speak with him. So he went back to Nora who was at that moment trying to get the laces on her boots tight enough around her ankles to support them and readying two sturdy sticks with a large cloth between them, a primitive stretcher to carry Nathan down with. She looked up at him and smiled sadly.
"I think I'm ready to go get him." She said sighing and looking at her handwork. It was a deep clean hole and the marker was lovely. It was the best she could do right now. She looked up at Danse and sighed, she was slowly learning how to trust and actually live again.
And so they began the trek up the mount towards the vault.
+++ Yall I am doing my best a lot of this was written in the middle of the night+++
