Rose stared out at the dark hills, taking a swig from the bottle hanging loosely from her fingers. In the quiet of the early evening, things almost seemed… normal. The sun had set, and the dim yellow lights that illuminated her garage were the only light source as far as she could see. The hum of the generator Sturgis had helped her repair and the rustle of the wind through the dry grass dissolved into soothing white noise in the background. She tried to imagine having Shaun there with her, and was rewarded with a painful pang in her chest as she remembered how far she was still from finding him.
"You're beating yourself up again, Sunshine."
Rose glanced back at him with narrowed eyes. "You're getting a little too good at reading my thoughts, Mr. Mayor."
"Who knows, maybe all these chems are giving me the Sight like old Mama Murphy back there." He propped himself up against the wall next to her and winked. Rose rolled her eyes, but a smile tugged at her mouth.
"Speaking of chems…" she said, stepping in front of him and draping her arms around his shoulders. "What're you packing?"
He smirked. "Thought you might need a fix." He brought out a red Jet aerosol, shook it, and held it up to her lips. Rose inhaled the hit deeply and sighed when it spread through her system, feeling her tension unwind as the fumes lit up the serotonin in her brain.
"I can see why that's so addictive." She smiled slightly, and then cocked her head as a thought came into her brain. "Hancock, why are you still here? With me, I mean."
"What do you mean?"
She shrugged. "I don't know many men – or women, for that matter- who would continually put themselves in harm's way for someone else. Or constantly put up with the level of emotional insanity that has become my life, either; at least not without some kind of payoff. What are you getting out of this?"
"I woulda thought that was obvious." He rested his hands on her hips. "Look, if I'd had made a bet the first day I saw you in Goodneighbor, I would've said you'd be picking your teeth out of the gutter by sundown. You put up a good front with Finn, but a vault-dweller all on her own makes an easy target."
She rolled her eyes. "Thanks for the vote of confidence."
"Hey, I'm sure your first impression of me wasn't the most flattering, either."
"You kidding? A real-life revolutionary comes to my rescue and stabs the guy hassling me purely for the sake of gallantry? That's every girl's dream come true."
He chuckled. "I have my moments. Anyway… you kept surprising me, even though I thought I'd just about seen and done it all. It's just real rare these days, finding someone who isn't willing to just take things the way they're handed to them. Too many good folks not willing to get their hands dirty, and too many assholes taking advantage of it. For a long time, I felt like I was the only one who saw how screwed up things truly were, who couldn't just pretend things were fine. And then I met you. You see injustice and fucked-up things happening, and just dive right in, consequences be damned."
"Not everyone would say that's a good thing."
"Yeah, but I do." He pulled her a little closer and wrapped his arms more fully around her waist. "I know I run my mouth, but having someone who sees the world for what it is and is willing to do something about it… that's meant a lot to me."
Rose smiled. "You mean a lot to me, too."
She leaned forward to press her lips against his, winding her arms underneath his coat and around his hips. Hancock kissed her back, but cautiously; she could feel his hesitation in the pressure of his hands at her waist, in the way he held himself back. She knew why he hesitated and was grateful that he was looking out for her feelings, but she was tired of being treated like some fragile, breakable thing. She needed this, needed to be touched in a way that was more than violence or survival.
She deepened the kiss, and boldly slid one hand inside the hem of his shirt to caress the soft, scarred skin at his waist. She felt him tense at the unexpected contact and smiled, using her other hand to guide his own up her ribcage.
"Rose," Hancock asked, when they paused for breath. "Are you sure this is what you-"
She kissed him again to cut him off. "Yes." She pulled back for just a moment and gave him a wry look. "Don't make the mistake of saying no a second time."
Feeling mischievous, she snagged his hat and put it on her own head, disappearing inside the garage. Hancock followed, a jolt going through him when he saw several articles of clothing discarded on the floor. He turned around the counter to the back room and saw her standing provocatively in the doorway. She was dressed solely in his hat, an unbuttoned flannel shirt, and her underwear. A wicked grin lit up her face when she saw his expression.
"Jesus Christ," he swore, as he took in every inch of her curves and smooth skin. "I gotta be hallucinating. There's no way I'm this lucky."
"Why don't you come over here and find out?" Rose replied, beckoning him to her.
Hancock closed the distance between them, and a sigh escaped her as he took her in his arms again. She pulled him back until they were both on the bed behind her, her hands making quick work of his clothes while his learned the topography of her body. She was surprised to find that she loved the feeling of his skin against hers, the scarred texture so different from anyone else she had ever known. More surprising was how readily her body accepted his. She hadn't had any- consensual- sexual contact since the last time she was with Nate, over a year ago, but Hancock slid into her with an ease that made her gasp. She felt him hesitate at the sound, and shook her head.
"I'm fine," she breathed. "God, don't stop now."
She lifted her hips up to meet his, her climax hurried along by the adrenaline that flooded her system. It wasn't long before all of her muscles tensed, driving her over the edge.
"Oh, John…" she sighed, and felt him follow her as the words left her lips. Touch and gaze soft, she caressed the side of his face and brought his lips back to hers, languishing in the afterglow.
"Damn," Hancock remarked, still breathing heavily as he fell back against the mattress and gathered Rose up against his chest. "You okay, Sunshine?"
Rose chuckled. "Potentially the most okay that I've been since I fell out of that cryo tank." She nuzzled against him and closed her eyes sleepily. "For right now, at least."
Hancock stared absently out at the darkness through the window, lost in thought. Rose was still curled against him, her head resting on his chest and her legs entwined with his. She slept peacefully for the first time in days, her breathing even and her brow smooth and untroubled. He was having trouble believing that she had really just seduced him… not that he hadn't been imagining that scenario for weeks now (right down to the damn hat, how did she know that?).
Careful not to wake her, he traced his fingers down the bare skin of her back, following the outlines of the different scars there. It struck him that none of those had likely come from her life before the vault.
His hand stilled as he contemplated everything they had been through to get to this point, and Rose shifted on the mattress next to him.
"Mmm, don't stop now, that feels good," she murmured, eyes still closed.
Hancock chuckled, and began caressing her again. "Sorry, Sunshine. Didn't mean to wake you."
"You should be sleeping," she reproached him; the sleepiness in her voice was adorable. She cocked her head and studied him, her eyes slightly unfocused. "What's up?"
"Just trying to remember how I was able to get here, with you. If someone had told me a year ago that I was going to wind up in bed with a gorgeous red-headed vault dweller, I'd have told 'em to sell me whatever they were smoking."
She laughed. "Welcome to my world."
"Yeah, you do kinda win the award for most screwed-up life." He sat up a bit to see her better. "Hey, speaking of your life… what do you miss the most? Besides your son and your husband, I mean."
Rather than making her melancholy, the question actually made Rose chuckle. "Definitely hot showers. Oh my god. That used to be one of my favorite things. Nate used to make me wait until he was done first because I had a habit of using up all the hot water, especially on my more stressful days." She paused contemplatively. "Though the stressful days I had back then are pretty damn tame compared to the ones I have now."
They both jumped as a long, slow wail echoed through the darkness, followed closely by a second and a third. Rose cursed, jumping out of the bed and hastily throwing on her clothes.
Hancock followed suit. "What's going on?"
"That's Sanctuary's siren," she explained hastily, grabbing her shotgun and making certain it was loaded. "Something's attacking the settlement."