The Sentinel was the second highest ranked Brotherhood soldier in the Commonwealth. There was no way he could be wrong about anything. So… why was he spending his time with a ghoul who looked to be on the break of going feral?
With a sideways glance, Madelyn looked at the ghoul in question. It wore the strangest red coat she'd ever seen with a flag for a belt and a tricorner hat covering its bald head. Right now it had a lit cigarette drooping from its lips giving off a faded line of smoke as it looked around. The Sentinel was wearing his fatigues with no armor, his weapon at his hip, ad a heavy bag thrown over his shoulder supported by one of his hands. It seemed stupid to her for him to leave himself so unprepared for combat, at least the ghoul was ready to shoot if something jumped out of the ruble.
Madelyn had constantly been on squiring missions since the Prydwen had entered the Commonwealth. She had basically made a game of keeping off the airship. She'd gotten pretty good at reporting to Kells and going on another mission back to back, and when none of the knights would take her she would just go to Proctor Quinlin. Quinlin was more than happy to send her with the scribes to pick up any technical documents they may have missed or just to carry the things they didn't want to. She didn't much care for the research patrols, but she did enjoy the Commonwealth experience. This was going to be more than just a 'Squiring Mission' though, and she could tell just based off of the first ten minutes, let alone three hours of travel.
"Hey, keep up, Maddy," the ghoul's voice caught her attention. She was starting to lag behind. Frustrated that she had to be corrected by an abomination like that made her choke on her words, keeping her from replying to it like she wanted to. "Nothing to say?" it asked as she jogged up next to it and the Sentinel.
"Let her be, Hancock." His words weren't an order, and there was no threat that she could hear behind them, which disappointed her, but the ghoul lifted its hands in surrender. She couldn't understand how the Sentinel of the Brotherhood of Steel was not only traveling with a ghoul willingly, but treating it like it was a person. "What's going through your mind, Squire Dangerfield?"
The ghoul chuckled, which turned Madelyn's thinking face into an all-in glare. "Nothing, Sentinel," she promised, composing herself before looking up at him. She hoped the brim of her hat had hid her facial expressions well enough to convince him, but the look on his face told her he wasn't buying it. When he raised an eyebrow prompting her to explain, she winced and gave a loose gesture to the ghoul, "I still believe that the ghoul is unnecessary…. Sentinel," she added, avoiding eye contact.
The Sentinel opened his mouth but was cut off by the sound of a double barrel shot gun firing directly behind Madelyn. The squire spun around to see a splatter of blood across pavement and long, tan bits of Bloodbug scattered about. The ghoul turned around and gave an awkward smirk. "That was real, right?"
"Yes, good job, Hancock." His words had a hint of relief? Was it common for the ghoul to fire on things that were not real? This only irked Madelyn more and she found herself glaring again.
"Hah, looks like I am necessary," the ghoul boasted, putting its face in Madelyn's. She shifted her tongue and spat, landing a decent sized ball of saliva right between its eyes. Never in her life had she managed to so quickly respond with such a disrespectful physical response, but she had never been around such an irritating being. The ghoul nodded as it straightened up, though, which surprised her. "Thanks, I needed some moisturizer." Obviously she hadn't conveyed the correct about of distain.
A groan from behind her said the Sentinel was not so amused. "Come on, we aren't even half way to the Castle yet, I don't need you two killing each other."
"Oh, I don't know, Nate, Preston has a tendency to make you wish you were dead." With that new information, Madelyn was very curious as to who this 'Preston' was and what about him made you wish for death. She noticed that the Sentinel had a faint grin on his lips, as if what the abomination said actually held some truth, but he said nothing, telling her he did not want to confirm nor deny it. "Not that I think this squirt could manage it."
Oh that did it. "Squirt?" Squire Dangerfield turned on the ghoul, pulling her knife out and freeing the blade in a practiced movement.
"Where the hell do you keep that thing?" the ghoul raised its arms, showing it was only trying to get a rise out of her, but she didn't miss how its wrinkled fingers stayed wrapped around the shotgun in a way that would make it easy to shoot if needed.
Eer… eer… eer… eer… eer….
Squire Dangerfield had heard that sound before, so habit took hold. The other knights had always told her to get behind them and then run back so that she would be protected from the blast. But they had been in power armor, and neither the Sentinel nor the ghoul was wearing a suit that could withstand a Super Mutant Suicider. While she moved back, adjusting herself so that she was behind the other two, the Sentinel dropped his duffle bag and knelt down, grabbing the barrel of a sniper rifle. The ghoul turned to face the three oncoming green skins, his shotgun up, ready incase they got in range.
Eer… eer… eer… eer….
The Sentinel was quick in his movements, having the gun out, loaded, and aimed all in a time that Madelyn had never seen. He didn't hesitate as he let out the breath she hadn't seen him take, and fired the rifle, using his knee for support. Even with how quick the movement was, Madelyn just caught the glimmer of a Molotov cocktail flying through the air toward them. One of the other green skins had thrown it, but now as the mini nuke exploded, killing all three Super Mutants, the Molotov was accelerated through the air quicker.
The ghoul saw it too and fired its shotgun, shattering the glass before it could consume them all in fire. Unfortunately, that's not how Molotovs work. By shattering the glass, the ghoul only spread out the rain of fire that followed. Instead of hitting the pavement and exploding the fire poured over them, catching onto whatever it could. And the Sentinel was right under the worst of it.
The Sentinel let out an unholy sound. He was on his feet in a moment, running away from the burning pavement around him. Madelyn stood in shock, staring with wide eyes, unsure of what to do but stand there and watch while her Sentinel stripped off his fatigues and fell into the dirt, rolling around to put out the flames that burned his skin. She rushed over to him to try to aid him, but she could smell his flesh burning and it put a horrible taste in her mouth. Then the ghoul's hands were on her, pushing her to the side and then it threw its red coat over the Sentinel to silence the flames. She didn't have time to be annoyed by its touch, before she could have said anything it had released her.
The Sentinel lied stilled on the ground while the ghoul patted out the last of the flames. He was breathing, but Madelyn didn't like how still he was. She moved around to get a better view of his face without getting too close to the ghoul. "Which pocket are your stimpaks in?"
"Front…" he answered the ghoul with little more than a breath. His face was twisted in a pain that Madelyn couldn't imagine. As the ghoul left the Sentinel to retrieve a stimpak, she came forward and looked at his blackened skin. "I'll be fine, Squire…." He hadn't opened his eyes, but somehow he knew she was there with a look of complete concern. Just when she was about to swear something about making him well again or ridding the world of those green skins, the ghoul reappeared and stuck a stimpak in the Sentinel's side. He let out a grunt and then relaxed. She knelt down next to him and watched as the skin healed, leaving behind only faint scars. "Thank you, John…" he whispered and then seemed to fall asleep, going limp and taking slow, deep breaths.
Squire Dangerfield had yet to hear 'John' be used toward the ghoul, but the way he said it sounded more… intimate than just a name. She frowned a little and looked up at the ghoul who was picking up the supplies that had spilled from the Sentinel's duffle bag. She watched it carefully before looking back at the man in question. She didn't like how he was just lying in the dirt, so she rolled him onto his back and dragged him slowly to the slope of the hill next to a car. It was a lot of work to move him, and at first she didn't think she could manage the ten-foot distance, but she did, and she made sure that the Sentinel was sitting at an angle so as to not have a kink in his neck when he woke.
Sighing of relief, she looked at her handy work and then noticed the ghoul was watching her. She frowned at it. "What?"
"Nothing," it said, and came to stand next to the Sentinel. Then it put the duffle bag down and sat next to the sleeping Brotherhood soldier.
"What're you doing?"
"Getting comfortable, we're not going to be able to go anywhere until he wakes up, and that won't be for a little while." She looked around and frowned. They were on an open road with almost no cover, and it was the middle of the day.
"I don't think I've ever heard such a stupid idea."
"I don't believe I asked for your opinion."
"Didn't have to, comes free of charge," she snapped, avoiding looking at it while she tried to locate a better place for the three of them to move the Sentinel to.
"Is the judging extra? I'd hate to have surprise charges at the end of the trip," the abomination's comeback fell on deaf ears as she had located what looked to be a house some yards away.
"I'll be right back," she announced and started to make her way off the road toward the property.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?"
"Just stay with the Sentinel," she waved at the ghoul who frowned at her disapprovingly. She figured it was conflicted between letting her die and keeping the Sentinel safe, or being the one to scope out the building. At least, that's how she would have felt if she were in its boots.
The property had a little white picket fence around it that had been knocked over in some parts. The house itself was in pretty good condition with a doorway that was boarded up and completely inaccessible. Squire Dangerfield turned her attention to the windows. Once she'd stepped through the fence she looked around for any tracks that would indicate the presence of anything that called the house home. Once the perimeter was secure, she moved on to the actual house.
A swift peek inside reveled the house was void of life. Breaking a window on the first floor would compromise the integrity of its safety, allowing anything to just come through the broken window, especially one that could not only fit her, but a grown sized man. The Sentinel had been noted for his size more than once, a feat that few even in the Brotherhood had managed. She'd heard of a Paladin that had rivaled him in size, but that Paladin wasn't spoken about anymore.
Throwing away those thoughts, she focused on the task at hand. Getting into the house without compromising it. Frowning, she studied the face and then moved to circle the property. "Maybe… if I climb to the second story, and break a window up there, I can come down stairs and open a window–" shattering glass interrupted Squire Dangerfield. She found herself rounding to the back of the house with her knife drawn and her arms out in a prepared for a fight fashion.
But it was the ghoul. It had somehow managed to make it to the house whilst caring not only the duffle bag, but somehow the Sentinel as well. "What the hell?" she came up next to it.
"What the hell what?" it looked over at her with its black eyes. Without breaking eye contact it grabbed the duffle bag and pushed it through the window.
"I thought you were going to wait back by the road? And now you've compromised this position, I had a plan," she waved between the ghoul and the window that gaped at them.
"Are you done? It looked like you were going to stomp your foot…" it said with a slight smirk and then bent to retrieve the Sentinel. She didn't like when it touched the Sentinel with those wretched wrinkly fingers. "Get inside and help me, I don't want to hurt him," the ghoul stated, pulling the Sentinel to his knees. She understood how they'd gotten over here, the Sentinel was still somewhat mobile, supporting himself with just enough energy to keep him from being completely useless.
Squire Dangerfield went to the window, stripped off her backpack and pushed it through, then followed. Once she was in the house she moved the bags over to a couch. The Sentinel's duffle bag was easily five times heavier than hers, probably rounding to about her weight, now that she thought about it. "Maddy, get over here and help," the ghoul called through the window.
She returned, frowning intently at it, but it wasn't looking at her, rather it was assisting the Sentinel with bending through the window. She tried her best to help him where she could, but the man was huge, and awkward. Once he was through the window she helped him over to a loveseat where he hit and let his head bend back, supported against the couch. "Thank you, Squire Dangerfield," he whispered. He had managed to keep his eyes barely open until then, now they shut, relaxing with the rest of his body.
"Sentinel," she saluted his sleeping form.
The ghoul picked up a painting from the ground and leaned it against the window. She frowned at the gesture. It looked over at her, "What's with the judging stare?"
"I don't see your reasoning, you didn't have to break that window, and now you're just putting a picture in front of it? That's not going to keep out ferals." She put her hands on her hips.
"Wow," it frowned and then stepped around her, taking its hat off. It sat down next to the Sentinel and draped an arm behind the man's head. It made Madelyn very uncomfortable. The ghoul seemed to notice. "You should rest, Maddy."
"Why do you call me that?" Squire Dangerfield demanded. The ghoul gave her a shrug as an answer, and nothing more. She huffed and threw a hand in its direction showing she was giving up.
"Do you hate me?"
It took her a moment to answer because its voice wasn't harsh or taunting. It was asking a question, and wanted to know the answer. "Hate is too kind a word," Madelyn frowned.
"What word would you use to describe how you feel about me?" it raised a wrinkled brow.
"Loathing," she answered easily, but it was already shaking its head.
"You didn't have to think about that, you've been trained to say that. How do you feel about Nate?" It switched tactics, using the hand that wasn't resting behind the Sentinel's head to gesture to him.
"Admiration."
"No, not a word, how do you really feel?"
She glared at the ghoul. "I don't understand what you're looking for?"
"I have known Nate since he stumbled into Goodneighbor with only his Vault Suit on his back and Nick Valentine in tow," the ghoul's black eyes drifted off into a memory as it spoke. She hadn't known that the Sentinel was a Vault Dweller. She didn't know a lot about the Sentinel, actually. "Since then I've learned his favorite color is dark blue, he loves dogs, he is too kind to the general public, but has scary good judgment of character based off little interaction." The ghoul glanced sideways at the Sentinel, its black eyes lingering. "I feel many things for Nate, he's my best friend, the most loyal and irritating person I know. He is too good for scum nowadays, and I feel sorry for him. I feel admiration for his strength and the personal hardship he's faced, not the great things that everyone knows about. Random people who will never know him can admire him for destroying the Institute, for becoming the Sentinel of the Brotherhood, for wiping out the Railroad, but those close to him are there to be more than just supporters, we're here to make him feel normal again, after he's lost everything."
Madelyn couldn't take her eyes off of the ghoul as it spoke and she began to understand what it was looking for. "I feel… admiration," she started and the ghoul's head started shaking, but she continued, "for the feats he's done, but I feel confusion on his personal agenda." When it raised a wrinkled brow she continued, "I don't understand how he can be such a model Brotherhood soldier and have such a close relationship with you."
"Why does the Brotherhood hate me?"
"You're a product of man's stupidity, messing with powers beyond–"
"And that's my fault?" That caught her off guard. "Every ghoul was someone who dropped a nuke?"
"I–uh."
"You've been trained to say these things. I am, personally, a product of my own stupidity. I did this to myself, and I do not regret it. But other ghouls, feral or not, they didn't choose this life, they didn't do this to themselves. They did nothing to deserve your Brotherhood's wrath. And Nate knows that." She was speechless. She had no idea what to say to the ghoul. Its points were solid. She suddenly felt horrible. "So, in a word, how do you feel about me?"
After a moment, she met his stare, "Confused."