A week's hike through the Commonwealth in the company of Kellogg and an Institute Courser was the ultimate Road Trip from Hell, at least in Deacon's opinion. When he first spotted the Courser, he immediately thought 'Oh, hell no, they've rumbled Old Man Stockton.' The thought was accompanied by a stab of panic. When he realized who the Courser was with, his reaction was, 'Shit, are they going to take out all of Bunker Hill?' The stab of panic turned into something like the little get-together Brutus and friends had organized for Caesar on the Ides of March.

However, then the old trader lady showed up, and rather than start a bloodbath, Kellogg and the Courser had signed as guards for a trip into the middle of nowhere. What the….?

Although Deacon had no idea what was going down, he knew one thing: he had to go along and find out. So using his incredible powers of charm and charisma, he persuaded Carla to hire him too. Almost a week had gone by, and he still didn't know what was going on.

Now they had reached their destination, or what he assumed was their destination, the settlement of Sanctuary. Deacon had once lived in a place rather like this, back when Barbara was alive. University Point, where Kellogg had gone to find something and had instead left everyone dead. But here they were doing something he had never seen at University Point or anywhere else: they were having a community party, with a feast and what looked to be a dance floor for afterwards.

Nobody was heavily armed, although there was some serious artillery on the turrets, something like Mk. 4 or thereabouts. That wasn't bad, it was enough to protect a community against threats like raiders or ferals, but against Kellogg and a Courser? Those two would chew up Mk. 4s and spit out the bits.

Glancing at the tables, Deacon recognized Preston Garvey, the last of the old Minutemen and the first of the new—and then he saw Nick Valentine, seated next to a young woman he'd seen several times. Raina Queen. She wasn't a beauty, but there was something very appealing about her.

She had turned up just as Piper was pounding on the gates to Diamond City—and then a day and a half later, she was in Goodneighbor, trading with Daisy and acting like ghouls were no different than anyone else. And Raina Queen was good friends with Valentine, the only synth brave enough to live openly. Somebody worth watching, in other words.

Well, he had told Kellogg he wanted to go to Sanctuary on account of a girl. Raina Queen was a girl and if anyone here was prepared to help take on Kellogg and a Courser, it would be Nick Valentine. "There she is," he said, and flashed his scary ass companions one of his best smiles. "Wish me luck."

However, even as he started toward her, she got up and approached the newcomers. "Carla! It's good to see you again. And you have guards now? That's smart. Welcome to Sanctuary. Please, take a seat and join in, all of you. Let me tell Jonny to get you some cider…"

There weren't any empty seats until a few settlers got up and invited the newcomers to sit, they were done and they were going to start the music now anyhow.

Deacon went for the seat by Valentine, far enough away from Kellogg's and the Courser's seats for a degree of comfort. "Mr. Valentine, I know you don't know me," he began, but the synth interrupted him.

"Know you? No, but I've certainly seen you around. Sometimes you're Diamond City security, sometimes a drifter hanging around Goodneighbor, and maybe once or twice I've seen you around Bunker Hill." Valentine tapped his temple. "People tend to remember the outward details, like clothes and hair. Facial recognition software tracks people by the things that ain't so easy to change. Which is not to say you don't make it a challenge. You're quite the quick change artist."

"Thanks." Okay, if he was getting recognized, he had to stop putting off his next facial surgery. "Oh, thanks!" The second thanks was to the Mr. Handy who gave him a bowl of stew. Deacon inhaled a heady mix of something that smelled even better than Salisbury steak, but first things first.

"I dunno why you're here, but did you see the two guys I came here with? They're like, seriously bad people. I don't know why they came all the way out here, but I know it wasn't to join in the square dancing."

"Both of them, you say?" The detective regarded him with special interest. "Let's say I have an inkling, and measures are already being taken against one of them. The elder, to be specific. It won't be any trouble to add the other one to the mix. Now I suggest you eat up before it gets cold, and enjoy the music."

The settlers who had left the table were setting up along one side of the dance floor, doing the twiddly things musicians did when they tuned up, and soon they were picking out a sprightly tune.

In the meantime, Deacon was eating stew, because he really was hungry. He recognized radstag and carrots, but the rest of it was a mystery and he didn't care one bit. It was that good. Of course the girl returned when his mouth was full. It always seemed to work out that way.

She raised an eyebrow when she found him in her seat, and Valentine got up. "You can have my spot. This is…I don't think I caught your name, pal."

"Deacon," he replied, hastily rising. "It's Deacon."

"Raina, this is Deacon. Deacon, Raina. If you'll excuse me, I've got to see a bot about a man," Nick touched his hat in farewell and left them.

Raina smiled at him, and gamely said, "I'm so glad Carla has guards now. When I first met her, some raiders were giving her a hard time." Up close, she made an even better impression. Nice skin, pretty near perfect teeth, warm smile… Where did this woman come from, and were there any more like her at home?

He shook himself mentally. "Raiders? Yeah, we ran into some of them. Plus a lot more. Let tell you the time I took out three Deathclaws with one shot..."

Meanwhile, X6-88 was not enjoying himself at all.

Besides being full of insanitary meat cut from a wild animal, the stew itself was an assault on the senses-too colorful, too flavorful. At least a dozen different flavorings and foodstuffs of unknown origin had gone into it, and he wanted to gag after only a few spoonfuls. He would much have preferred a safe, nutritionally balanced food packet from the Institute's cafeteria.

Then there were the people. Everywhere they had been over the last week, it had been the same. Miserable, wretched creatures whose lives were almost as brief as soap bubbles, living out those lives in squalor, poverty and dirt. Everywhere, despair amid decay, the way of the world after the War. Thank Father he was a synth from the Institute, and not one of these degenerates.

Everywhere except here there was despair. In Sanctuary, there was a undercurrent, a leitmotif of excitement, of optimism. Here people smiled more, chatted and laughed. Next to him sat a woman with an infant in her arms, the second infant he had ever seen in his life. It was only slightly less grotesque and disturbing than the first time. She smiled at him and said, "You're not eating? It's all right, nobody's going to come asking you for caps."

"It's too rich for me," he replied, and went on to lie, "I have a weak stomach."

"That's too bad," she sympathized. "At least have some of the mutfruit cider, it's barely fermented at all, just enough to kill the bugs."

"Thank you." He drank, if only to blend in. It was mild in flavor, and thus easier to get down than the stew, although it was a little sweeter than he expected. "Very pleasant," he commented.

The woman nodded. "It's made from our mutfruit. See, a few months back, when I had this one here," she bounced the baby a little, "I was in a bad way, and my milk wasn't coming in like it should, so the baby was poorly too. Ms. Raina came every two or three days with nettle tea and chicken soup for me, till I was better. This little man pulled through too, as you can see, so we named him Joshua Rainer. Since then we've been part of the Minutemen."

"How nice. Who is Ms. Raina?" he asked, because she said it as though whoever it was, was someone prominent. He was a far better killer than he was a conversationalist, but he knew the rudiments of socializing.

"You don't know? Raina Queen, the founder of Queen of the Commonwealth Seed and Plant Company?" That was the man on his other side.

"You mean the one who brought the seeds out of the Vault with her?" X6-88 fervently hoped the answer was yes. Then he could immediately transfer back to the Institute with her while Kellogg secured the materials. Anything to get away from this festering cesspit and end the prolonged ordeal the past week had been.

"Uh-huh."

"She is here tonight? Which one is she?" X6 looked around at the gathering. Logically, the person they were looking for would stand out from the rabble.

"Yes...don't see her right now, though."

"I would like to meet her," he said.

"Stick around, then. I'm sure she'll come back."

As a Courser, he had been trained and schooled in the arts of assassination, pursuit and recovery. It had been impressed on him to never let his guard down. But while he was a synth, he was also engineered from human DNA, and it is not possible, physically or mentally, to keep on a state of full emergency alert 24/7. No matter how stressful and dangerous a situation, gradually it becomes the new normal, and so the organism adapts and relaxes. The settlers were clearly no threat to him physically nor were they sufficiently armed, and they were behaving like the mindless sheep they were. So he relaxed, and drank his cider, while around him the musicians began to play. But threats can come from all directions, and take the most unexpected forms.

Kellogg was not as disgusted by the stew as X6 was. He was a man who appreciated sensual pleasures, like a Sunlight cigar or a bottle of Gwinnett stout, and the stew was as hearty and flavorful as anything he had ever eaten. He thought the cider was weaker than piss, but he drank it anyway. The musicians opened with a song he remembered from a long, long time ago, 'Lilibulero'. This settlement was unexpectedly well off, what with two Mr. Handys, the fields and the feast.

Halfway through his second mug of cider, he saw Carla trying to slip away, so he went after her, caught up with her before she could get to her Brahmin.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked.

"The privy," she snapped. "What's it to you?"

"I think you're going the wrong way, then."

She scoffed. "What do you know about this place? Even if I was leaving, the deal was that I lead you here and then I would be free to go."

"Yeah," he said. "You're free to go. Heaven or hell, it makes no difference to me."

The blade he stabbed her with was more like an ice pick than anything else, mostly point and very little blade. It had been designed to leave a minimal hole in the flesh and cause minimal bleeding, and so her dying scream was more of a startled yelp. In any case, it was drowned out by the music. He left her in the gap between some bushes and a fence, and returned to the gathering. The Mr. Handy offered him a second bowl of stew, and he accepted. This bowl seemed greasier than the last, probably because no one had stirred it this time. No matter; the grease added depth, and... a hint of fruit?

A young woman in a pink dress was being urged to join the singing, and after a little teasing, she stood up. The musicians began another old tune, one he knew as 'Green Willow' The chorus began 'All around my hat, I will wear the green willow', and went on from there. The young woman sang the verses, and the rest joined her for the refrains.

Some of the lyrics were different than the ones he remembered, though 'Fare thee well, old winter, and fare thee well, cold frost. Nothing have I gained, but my own true love I've lost.' The girl had a decent enough voice, he allowed. She wasn't screechy and she didn't try to hit notes nature never intended her to reach. Although she was nothing like as good as a pre-war singer, what she lacked in polish, she made up for in feeling. 'He's a false, deluding young man. Let him go, farewell he!'

When the song was over, there was a lot of applause, and a few shouts of "Raina!", which had to be her name. He saw that X6 was trying to get his attention. When they made eye contact, the synth jerked his head toward the young woman with a special significance.

'Her?' Kellogg mouthed. X6-88 nodded. All right, it was time to act. He stood up, began to circle around toward the back...and then the pain and cramps hit him. It felt like a Supermutant Behemoth had gripped his stomach and was trying to squeeze its contents out through his intestines like someone squeezing toothpaste out of a nearly empty tube. He made a break for the nearest privy, and only just made it.

A/N: This chapter would not come together for the longest time, and might not exist if not for Guestman, who talked me through what had to go down and brought it into focus. This is for him, with my thanks. The song Raina joins in on is 'All Around My Hat', by Steeleye Span. 'Lilibulero' is a traditional march/dance tune, and both can be found on Youtube.