18. About Time
MacCready POV
When I wake, I swear I smell food. Opening my eyes, I see that Beth isn't in bed—She must be cooking. Dragging myself out from underneath our tattered blanket, I nearly fall down the stairs on my way to the kitchen. Why so early? Sun isn't even up yet.
When I walk in, she's at the kitchen island cutting some kind of meat. "Oh, hey," she greets. "What are you doing up so early?"
"I could—" I clear my throat. "I could ask you the same."
"Couldn't sleep. So, might as well make good use of my time." She continues her chopping and puts the meat in a pot next to the cutting board, taking it to the stove. I walk over, sitting on one of the two bar stools and yawn rather loudly, gaining her attention. "You're tired. Go back to bed," she tells me. "Just because I'm up, doesn't mean you have to be."
"I know," I manage to say through the second wave of yawns. "How come you couldn't sleep?"
"Been thinking." She puts some water in the pot with the meat and covers it with a lid. Turning to me, she leans against the counter. "I'm thinking I need to go talk to Proctor Ingram today." After a second, "What do you think?"
I know she's talking about finding Shaun. "Is he someone that could help us?"
"She is."
"He, she. I don't know."
"But, yeah. She can, I think. She's the most mechanically inclined person on ship. That's why I need to talk to her. If she can't help, I need to find someone that can… And soon."
"Yeah." Another yawn. "When are we going?"
"'We?'"
"Well, yeah. I'm not staying here. I'm part of this, too. I want answers as much as you." How insulting. Did she not think I'd be there with her?
"I thought you'd want to sleep in. You tossed and turned all night, so I figured you were restless." Yeah, dreams can do that. I had a dream about Deacon's visit last night and the story of losing his wife. It's rough stuff, that.
As she puts some cut up tatos into a sauce pan, she says, "I don't even know if she can help. Figured I'd go find out while you slept. I'm so sure the staff on the Prydwen wake up before the chickens—if they're anything like Pre-War military."
"Well, when are you planning on leaving?" Yet another yawn. This isn't helping my case right now, I think as she raises her brow at me.
"Sometime after you go back to sleep." She mixes some Nuka-Cola in with the tatos. "It's apparent you're tired. Let me go alone this time while you catch up."
"Not a chance, Beth. Seems like you'd know me well enough by now. It's a little insulting, to be honest." I stand to head upstairs. "I'll be ready whenever you are, so let me know. Alright?"
With a sigh, she agrees, "Alright." As I head upstairs, she calls, "Give me half an hour to finish this!"
Sitting on the bed to pull my boots on—and dreading the next half hour of waiting—I fall back onto the mattress, saying to myself, "I'm not gonna fall asleep, I swear." But as I was suspecting, I fail completely and return to slumber within a few seconds of laying down.
Seemingly a few minutes later, Beth walks in, saying, "Sorry it took so long—" I sit up immediately, rubbing my eyes. "You went back to sleep, didn't you?"
I scoff, "No. Don't be crazy," while rubbing my eyes still.
She just laughs. "Did you still want to go with me?"
"Well, yeah," I say a bit agitatedly as I finish tying my boots, which I had left completely undone before crashing. "What time is it anyway?" I ask as I stand up from the bed.
"Seven-thirty. Took me a while to finish, but hey—at least dinner's done." As I stand here, blinking rapidly to try and wake up, she suggests, "Maybe I should drive the boat…"
"'Kay," I agree as we leave the house.
Pulling our boat as near to the airport as we can without beaching it, we aboard the small aircraft to take us up to the big aircraft. As I climb off after her, I cringe. "Still hate those things."
"I'm sure you'll get used to them." She just shakes her head and makes her way to the command deck.
"Hey, once you live through a Vertibird-induced cave-in, then you can let me know if your opinion changes." I glare at her with a semi-sour expression.
She nods her head as we walk through the door. "Touché."
Strolling up to the head honcho, Beth does the weird salute I see the rest of the soldiers do. "Elder."
"Soldier." He returns the salute. "It's been a while. Any particular reason you have returned?"
"Actually, Elder… Yes. …I think I may have a way to get into the Institute," Beth seems almost reluctant to share.
"You have to be joking with me…" For once, boss-man is almost speechless.
"No, sir. I have reason to believe that some blueprints I fell upon are to a device we can use to teleport directly into the facility."
"And you just… happened upon these blueprints, soldier?" He seems dubious about the whole deal.
Beth takes a deep breath. It seems she didn't want him to be so curious. "A man that worked for them owed me a favour. This is how he repaid me." I can see the thought of please don't ask any more questions on her face as she stands there.
For a second, the man stares at her as if he's contemplating if he wants to trust her, or to just throw her off the ship headfirst. Finally, "Go see Ingram. Immediately."
"Yes, sir." Beth spins on her heel and heads toward the big ladder with me in tow, a look of mild annoyance toward the so-called "Elder" on my face.
Finding our way back to the gearhead garage, Beth finds who she called Proctor Ingram with ease. "Proctor," she greets.
"Ah, Initiate. What do I owe the pleasure?"
Beth hands her the rolled up piece of paper. "Perhaps we can speak in private about those?" The lady looks confused, but ultimately nods and follows Beth to a more remote area.
Once reaching a place with no one other than Ingram, Beth, and myself, the Proctor unravels the blueprints with curiosity. Seeing what they are, she swears under her breath. "Are these what I think they are?" She looks at Beth with utter shock and disbelief.
"Yes, they are, Proctor. Blueprints for—"
"—A teleportation device to the Institute!" She looks back at them with eyes as round as doorknobs. "Where did you get these?!" Looking at Beth briefly—to the look of discomfort on her face—she quickly says, "Nevermind. I don't want to know." She starts stomping toward the place we came from before turning back to Beth. "Did you discuss this with Elder Maxson yet?"
"I did. He told me to come here straight away."
"Good, good. We need to get started right away. There're some parts we'll need, but I can get some field scribes on that ASAP. Who else knows about this, soldier?"
"Nobody except you and the Elder. I went to him and then straight to you, as directed."
Ingram looks around at the other soldiers aboard the Prydwen. "I'll need to get a team together. Maybe Quinlan can help me." Her eyes start to wonder as she goes deep into thought, into planning. Looking back to Beth suddenly, "Thank you so much. We can handle this for now. Come back in a week to see where the project stands. Who better a person to infiltrate the Institute than the person that gave the means in the first place?"
Beth beams. "I was hoping you'd say that."
As I sit on a crate on the flight deck, Beth is busy pacing back and forth, doing a rather good impression of a mongrel pacing the wilderness.
"Beth, pacing isn't helping the time go by quicker." At first, she acts as if she didn't hear me. Then, stopping completely, she turns to face me, a ginormous smile on her face.
"It's finally happening, Robert. It's happening! How can I not pace?!" She turns and resumes said pacing. "I mean, what else am I supposed to do?"
"She said check back in a week. It's been all of twenty minutes. Do you plan on pacing for the remaining six days?" Her movement slows but doesn't stop.
"I know she said a week. But I don't know what to do for now." She stops again, looking at me. "Maybe they'll let me help?"
"Beth." With a warning in my voice, I stand and move to her. "I'm pretty sure they have it under control." I already know what she's going to say as she opens her mouth. Cutting her off with an answer already, I say, "And no. Us helping them won't speed up the process that much. They're supposed to be professionals, right? They got this."
She looks like she wants to protest, but ultimately sighs. "Right. You're right." She looks out to the city. "I need to think about something else."
"Like what?" I ask.
"I don't know. Anything." She looks northwest, close to Bunker Hill then back at me. "We could visit Deacon?" Her idea sounds more like a question than a statement.
"We could," I agree. "Whatever you want."
"That easy? I didn't think you cared for Deacon." Always observant, isn't she?
"I didn't," I admit. "But after his visit back home, and his, uh… story… I can sympathize with him more." I'd been thinking about his motives, putting everything he does together for a little while, and it makes some sense in my mind. Voicing them, I say, "He's careful and sneaky to prevent the people he's close to from getting hurt again. That's an admirable aspect about him."
"Wow. Didn't think you'd just set your jealousy aside like that."
"I wasn't jealous!" I exclaim, feeling redness spread across my face. Seeing it, she laughs.
"Not jealous, huh? Okay, bud." She continues to giggle as she heads toward the Vertibirds.
The Lancer-Initiate lands not too far from Goodneighbor, leaving a decent trek ahead of us. This gives us some time to talk.
"So, Deacon, huh?" I ask her. "What do you want to see him for?"
"I don't know," she answers as she walks in front of me, leading the way as per usual. "Just kinda do. Plus, I thought it'd be cool to tell him about the whole Institute deal. Since he's known about Shaun this whole time…" She shakes her head in confusion or admiration, possibly both. "Anyway… Thought it'd be nice to tell him I have a major chance at finding him now."
"Oh, okay."
She turns, slowing her pace to walk beside me. "Why so short an answer?"
"Didn't know I needed an oral essay of a response," I joke with her, nudging her arm.
She just laughs. "Yeah. Guess I'm just good at looking into things too much, eh?" she asks with a smile.
"Part of being a lawyer, right? No big deal, Beth. I'm pretty much used to it by now," I grin back at her.
As we stand at Old North Church, Beth grabs my arm lightly. "Hey." I look at her, my brows slightly scrunched. "Try not to bring up last night unless he does, okay? He seemed upset in the note he left, and I don't wanna trigger him."
"How could you even tell? It was just a vague note."
"He brought up the part that was most uncomfortable to him, then quickly deflected it. Like I said," she opens the door to the church. "I look too much into things."
A/N: There isn't a song to this chapter, I know. There will be another chapter without a song for inspiration. They just kind of came out of nowhere, I guess. Like how we all wish our lost socks would do one of these days.