29. Treasure Seeker
MacCready POV
While roaming the shops in Diamond City, Beth heard something about treasure in Jamaica Plain. Naturally, this sparked her curiosity. So, where did we head? Well, not back home, that's for sure.
We grabbed Dogmeat, boarded the boat, and made our way to find the "treasure" everyone has talked about for decades. We were both kinda nervous to have Duncan with us, but we kept telling ourselves that he has to get out in the world at some point. Plus, with Dogmeat by our side, my boy—our boy—would be fine.
We cleared out the ghouls hanging around the town in a short amount of time—and considering there were at least a dozen, it was quite impressive. I have to admit, it was sort of hard to shoot straight with a five-year-old clinging to my leg, but I managed with Beth's help.
"It has to be in Town Hall," Beth says, standing in front of the broken down building. "I wonder if it's in a basement or something." She prods the door open with the end of her rifle. "Let's find out."
As we descend into the basement of the once-thriving city hall, I hear a squeak come from behind me. "Dad! There's a radroach!" I look to where he's pointing—a good ten feet ahead of our little party.
Beth sees it after a few seconds of searching, and grins at him. "Good eyes, Duncan." She raises her rifle to end its existence. Putting my hand on her arm to stop her earns me a confused look.
"Maybe we should let him kill it? Practice and all that." She looks uncertain—and a bit scared—but ultimately, she nods, shocking me a little bit. I look around the room for something to use as a weapon, but come up empty. Beth surprises me yet again when she hands him her own personal combat knife—the same one she used to make her first kill after hiring me all those months ago—has it only been five months?
"Here," she says. "You can have it, if you want it." She signifies our rifles, "We both have guns, so I don't need it as much—besides, it's time you have a weapon, too." As he takes the knife from her hand, he looks as shocked as I feel.
"Wow," he manages to get out. "Thanks, Mom."
He starts to walk toward the radroach hanging on the wall, however slowly. Once it sees him, it jumps off and leaps toward him, making him yelp a bit. It takes me a moment to realize it just bit him on the forearm he used to block his face. Bounding forward and in front of him in two large strides, I place my boots on either side of it, trapping its legs underneath my feet.
"Are you okay?" I ask him. "Lemme see it." With the radroach unable to go anywhere, I take my time to seem calm. He raises his arm up again to show me what seems to be a couple marks—no more than scrapes, really. "Okay. It looks fine," I assure him. Feeling better about it, he takes the knife, and grips it in his hand, only to be stopped by Beth.
"Hey, Duncan. When you hold a knife, it's best to hold it like this." She takes the bladed weapon and repositions it in his tiny hand, which is almost too small to hold it in the first place. "Alright, go ahead." She takes a step back, watching and anticipating how he'll execute his first wasteland kill.
As he strides back up to the giant insect, having jumped back a bit, he raises the knife, and pauses. A moment later, he puts the knife on the ground next to his feet, carefully—as if he'll break it. "I can't do it." He looks up to me, then back at Beth, like he feels he's disappointing us.
"Why not, buddy?" I ask him. "It can't hurt you now."
"I know," he replies. "I just… I don't know. I just can't do it."
Beth steps back up to him and pats him on the shoulder. "It's okay. Want to just watch us for a while?" He nods, still looking afraid to have disappointed us. "That's okay. May work out better. Who knows." She pops a single bullet into the roach and picks up the knife, trying to hand it back to him. When he shakes his head, "You may need it at some point. At least keep it with you, for our peace of mind." He reluctantly takes it and situates it in one of his belt loops.
When we get to the lowest level, we're glad we left Dogmeat on the ground floor to act as lookout. He would have run straight through all forty-nine laser tripwires. Luckily, Beth found an alternate route, and Duncan has the opportunity to see lockpicking first-hand. He is very interested in it as she performs this task I've yet to learn, asking all sorts of questions as she pulls bobby pins from her pocket to replace the broken ones she uses. Once it clicks, and we're on the other side, it's only a matter of time until the big door is open, too, and all of the "treasure" is laying before us.
"At least I wasn't expecting much to begin with," I tell Beth as she looks through the glass cases lining the walls with Jamaica Plain's finest prizes tucked safely inside.
She sighs. "Yeah. I shouldn't have been expecting much, either, but… a girl can hope." She lifts up the small stack of books in her arms. "At least I found these."
"What've you got there?"
"A few history textbooks about Massachusetts, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and I guess someone thought it'd be funny to include Dracula and Frankenstein due to it being near Halloween when this display opened."
"Is it funny?" I ask.
"A little," she chuckles. As she says this, we notice Duncan has been really quite. Looking over to him, she asks, "Find something, kiddo?"
He points to the case. "That's the smallest car I've ever seen."
I walk up to the display and see a toy car about three inches long. "You already have, like fourteen million," I razz him.
"But I don't have one like that! The sign says it won something! I want a winning car." I sigh dramatically, rolling my eyes and arching my back—definitely laying it on thick—and give him an exaggerated, Okay. "Yay!" He goes to open the case. "Um… It's stuck. Help?" I sigh again—more to my spoiling him than anything—and open to case, handing him the small car. He smiles and tucks it into the small bag hanging off his shoulder. "Thanks."
When we make our way topside, I ask Beth, "So, you happy you got to see the great treasures of Jamaica Plain now?"
She gestures to her own bag. "Sorta. I mean, I did find some more books and stuff. And they're in excellent condition, thanks to their being buried away all these years."
With Duncan and I having left practically all our belongings near Arefu in DC, we're both in need of some additional clothing—him especially. Since we're not too far, I suggest we head over to Fallon's Department Store and try to find some. Beth obliges and we make our way to the big store seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
Luckily, as the three of us, plus Dogmeat, are walking to the department store, we hear the din of gunfire before we can get too close. Hearing this, we slow our advance considerably to assess what the situation is. Shortly after noticing the scuffle, a large explosion goes off—appearing to be a nuclear bomb, we suspect either Gunners with a Fatman or super mutants with a suicider. While hiding out in an old car showroom, the warfare in front of us ceases.
Although it appears that super mutants had made their lair in the department store itself, they all seemed to have went outside to join their brothers in the fight. This, thankfully, leaves the entire store empty of the nasty, green giants. With the recognition of this, our party is free to roam the building without the fear of our arms being ripped from us.
Beth POV
"If only you'd known," I laugh as I tell Robert, pointing to an entire display of rings in the basement of the store.
He chuckles. "Oh, well. Wouldn't have worked out the way it did if I'd waited." He pecks me on the cheek as he continues by, glancing inside the other displays.
"True," I chuckle. "I still think it was neat—Danse helping you out like that. Nice of him to offer them in the first place. Kind of like two of the most important men in my life got to give me this ring." He just gives me a look, saying he feels weird about my statement. I giggle, "Hey. I only said 'yes' to one." He rolls his eyes with a small, lopsided grin.
After a few minutes of strolling the jewelry, Robert asks, "Hey, babe?"
"Hm?" I look up from a rather nasty looking pendant.
"I was going to look around this level for a little bit. Want to go help Duncan look for some clothes? I know he'd love your help."
I smile. "Sure."
I find the young boy about thirty feet from us, sitting on the floor and looking at some burnt comics. He notices me coming over and jumps to his feet. "Mom! I found something Dad would like!" He hands me an issue of The Unstoppables and smiles at his find.
"Good job! He'll love it." I tuck it into his bag. "Since we came here for clothes, you think we can go hunt for some now?"
"Sure, Mom."
We walk up the flight of stairs and start our search among the completely-void-of-clothing racks and shelves. As we keep searching, I spot some changing rooms and feel some luck on the horizon. "Maybe in here?"
Walking into the little rooms, I sigh in relief. "Hey, Duncan?" He comes around the corner with an inquisitive look. "Look what I found." I hand him a small pile of fabric and point to the decent-sized mound in the corner of the room. "Have at it."
I'm turning to leave, offering privacy, when he asks a quiet, "Mom?" I look at him. "This place is kinda big, and… a little scary. Don't leave, please. I don't mind you staying." He pats the bench next to him.
"Alright." I say as I take a seat.
He changes into the first outfit—a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt. I glance around for a mirror, but realize it must've been taken—or broken—long ago. He seems to not even notice. Probably never been used to mirrors. He seems pleased with the fit and quickly gets out of the clothes to try on the next outfit—some slacks and a button up. "Why, don't you look dapper," I tell him, earning a shy smile. I lick my hand to run through his hair—to help shape it as much as mess with him—when I instantly regret it. Tasting a menagerie of dirt, gunpowder, and just germs in general, I gag hard and nearly throw up. Duncan just laughs at me. "Not funny!" I say with my tongue hanging out, and run out of the room to find a sink ASAP.
With running water being a thing of the past, it's no use trying to find a sink to rinse my mouth out with. And since my mind is otherwise inebriated from the disgust, I completely forgot about the water in my bag. I take a bottle out and gargle a mouthful of it thoroughly before spitting into the sink in front of me. However, I still can't help my stomach from retching. This is how I'm found.
"Duncan said you ran in here real quick," I hear Robert say from behind me, accompanied by a small boy's giggle. Another retch. "You okay?" he asks, concern slightly painting his chuckle.
"Fine," I manage to reply. He comes up behind me and silently offers me a bottle of Nuka-Cola, to which I take with gratitude.
"What did you do anyway?"
"She licked her hand!" Duncan answers, as I still have a full mouth of the in-the-moment lifesaver. "You should have seen it, Dad."
"Yeah. I bet it was a sight." To me, "Find anything?"
"Yes. He can show you. I'll… be here. You know, trying not to get sick." They just laugh and walk out of the room.
MacCready POV
Technicolour Beat by Oh Wonder
Always glad to be home.
With our outing to Diamond City, Jamaica Plain, and then Fallon's, the three of us are worn out—with the exclusion of Dogmeat. He seemed to have rather enjoyed the trip.
I'm placing my duffel bag—used for scavving trips—under the bed when Beth walks in and plops herself down onto her stomach. "I'm so tired." I try to keep my sigh of relief from making itself known. She didn't see the bag.
I try to answer as quickly and normally as possible. "Was the 'hand incident of 2288' that exhausting?" I laugh.
Her voice is muffled from her face being pressed into the worn-out blanket covering the bed. "Ugh. Yes."
After I finish winding my watch for the millionth time this month, I set it on the table and crawl into bed, ready for a good night's rest. "Duncan asleep?"
"Yeah." She rolls onto her side. "He loves the new pajamas we found. I think it's gonna be hard to get him out of those for a while," she chuckles. "It's good we found some clothes, too. I know mine sure were getting ratty."
"Doesn't hurt to have some extras," I agree.
"Glad we found some pj's. I was feeling weird wearing practically nothing to bed with a five-year-old sleeping next door." I nod, having thought the same thing.
After she continues to lay down across the bed for another good few minutes, with a chuckle I ask, "Maybe you want to lay lengthwise tonight?"
"I guess so," she exaggerates and moves with big, erratic motions, making me laugh all the more. "You're going to wake our son," I tell her when she pulls the blanket out from under her, producing a particularly loud grunt. She stops immediately and stares at me. "Well, I didn't mean you couldn't move at all, Beth."
"Um," she says. "No, I was just surprised is all."
"That I meant you could move?" I joke.
"No," she repeats. "You've never referred to him as our son before. It just caught me off guard a little." She finishes settling into the mattress.
"I guess not technically. But you know I've felt that way, right?" I ask. "I kinda have said things in that sort before."
"Yeah. But still." She wiggles her way closer to me, allowing me to wrap my arm around her. "Still surprised me."
After we lay here for a bit, I break the silence. "So, I was thinking…" She tilts her head up to look at my face. "Maybe we could head back to Diamond City soon."
"We just got back from there. Did we forget something?" Her brows scrunch in deep thought.
"No, no. Just… thought we could go to the chapel… or something." She gives me another look of shock. "What?"
"To…?"
"Get… married…?"
She blinks rapidly in confusion. "I was kind of under the impression we already were?"
"Why? What made you think that?"
She starts to play with a loose string on my shirt. "I didn't think people actually got married nowadays—I didn't think anyone would have the time. Kinda like, you want to be, so you are. How were you married before?"
"It just kind of happened. Like you said. I asked her, she said yes, so we were right then and there."
"Exactly. You didn't even have rings."
"We didn't need them. But you're used to all this in a different way than people on this side of the apocalypse have been in a long time. I want it to be normal for you. Traditional."
"Don't do it for me," she says. "It's kind of a hassle to go to Diamond City just for that."
"'Just for that?' You make it sound like it's not a big deal, Beth." I gently grab her chin, making her look me in the eye. "You are a big deal, and I want to make this a big deal for you. Let me."
She gives me a big smile. "Thank you." She reaches up and gives me a small kiss, only to lean back in after a second and give me a bigger one. Her hand starts going south, and I know where she's taking us. I stop her from going any further, and earn a look of immense confusion.
"So, I know where we're going tomorrow," I tell her. Where? her blue eyes ask me. "We're going to Diamond City. I was kind of wanting to wait until afterwards. You know, to consummate the marriage. And you know I can't wait that long." She laughs at me just to stop after a moment, realizing she was too loud and might have woken up Duncan.
"Tomorrow then," she whispers.