"Hey, Manya," Emily called, walking up to the bus.

"Hello, dear," Manya said, turning to her. "Such a dreadful thing, your house coming down like that. It's been a long time since I've seen anything like that happen. Are you alright?"

Emily crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the ground. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"That's good to hear," the old woman said, and smiled at her. "Do you need anything, are you hungry? I've got some mirelurk cakes around here somewhere..."

"I'm alright, Manya, thanks." Emily sighed and stared down at the middle of town. It was still so unreal, seeing the empty space where her house had been. She caught a glimpse of Jericho walking up the ramp, and turned to Manya. "Can I talk to you in private?"

"Of course," Manya said, and opened the door to her home. Emily followed her inside.

"Um," Emily started, sitting on the wheel well of the bus, staring over at Manya. "I don't want to be nosy, but I really gotta ask some questions, and you've been here the longest..."

"Fire away, dear," Manya said, taking a seat at the table. Emily felt a little like she was back in the Vault, talking to Old Lady Palmer. She smiled at Manya, but it faded all too soon.

"Sheriff Simms asked me to... to be a deputy here in town," she said.

Many clapped her hands together. "How wonderful! I'm sure you'll be a great help."

"...He also asked me to live in his house." Emily crossed her arms.

"Oh," Manya said, lowering her voice. "I hadn't realized you and the sheriff were―"

"We're not," Emily replied, quickly. She stared at her feet. "He says he wants to keep an eye on me."

Manya was quiet for a moment. "I gather you're asking because you're concerned about him," she said, slowly.

"I need to know why Jenny was so startled when Simms asked," Emily answered. "Seemed like something was going on. Simms said it was gossip."

"I suppose," Manya said, and patted the tabletop. "It was a long time ago. Harden was a baby when it happened."

"Can you―" Emily sighed in frustration. "Will you tell me about it?"

Manya cleared her throat and stared into the darkness of the bus for a moment. "Well," she began, "my memory isn't entirely free of mistakes, you know."

"That's fine," Emily told her, "anything you can tell me would help."

"Very well," Manya said. She looked at Emily. "Come sit at the table. It's a long story."

Emily moved to the table and sat with her chin in her hands, staring at the old woman. Manya cleared her throat again and began to talk.

"Sheriff Simms used to be a Regulator," Manya said. "Out in the wastes, dealing with criminals. It's one of the reasons we all agreed that he should be Sheriff." She looked over at Emily. "Very respectable way of living, you know. Pays very well."

Emily nodded, listening carefully. She'd never been on the wrong side of the law, but she'd heard rumors. Thought about seeing if she could join, once or twice, but she never had the aim for it. She grimaced at herself. It would have been embarrassing, and she'd probably be dead, if she'd tried.

"Before he settled here, for good, he was in and out of town all the time. Never said why, but on the last trip out he came back with a woman. It was pretty obvious," Manya smiled widely. "The man was taken by this little slip of a thing, and had been looking for her all over the place."

"Harden's mom?" Emily asked, staring at the old woman.

"Yes. She called herself Sunny. Like the song? 'Please don't take my sunshine away'," Manya sang, chuckling softly. "Sheriff Simms was never all that happy until she came. When he finally had her here, he was about as happy as all get-out."

"Sounds romantic," Emily said.

"Oh, terribly so," Manya agreed, waving a hand. "Sheriff Simms and she got married and moved into that house up on the craterside, and everything was peaceful for a time. He was the new Sheriff, and she kept the house. Didn't really come out of the place too often. Some of us wondered what was going on, but Sheriff Simms said she had her own ways, just as we do." Manya nodded to herself, agreeing with the sentiment. "Didn't mean she wasn't the nicest woman around, though. When you got her to talking, it was a flood. This woman was a real sweet thing, guess that's how she got her name." Manya's face crinkled into a smile.

"I get it," Emily said. She looked down at the table. A little like me, she thought, and made a face. She always talked too much.

"We hardly got to know her, like that. Until one day... Sunny came flying out of the house and right down to Doc Church―and we were all so glad to hear she was going to have a baby." Manya sighed. "I missed my chance. Sometimes I wish that Nathan and I had been so blessed."

Emily glanced up at her. "And then Harden was born?"

"Oh, my, yes. Never heard a child cry so loud. You could hear him in the night all the way over here!" She shook with laughter. "He was a good baby. So tiny and adorable. Sheriff Simms was awful proud, when he was born. Everything seemed so happy..."

"But?"

"...Well, you know as much as I do how quickly things can change."

"Yeah," Emily said, sucking snot up into her head. "Yeah, I know." She sighed and looked down at the table again, sadly. It was true enough for her own situation, even. "What happened?"

"It seems our Sunny was not the happy woman that she acted," Manya said, her voice becoming strained. "Sheriff Simms had found her out in the wastes. She was a stranger until Harden was born, and even then... bad habits still remained." Manya breathed out in a snort. "He didn't tell anyone where he'd found her, but it turned out she'd been a raider."

Emily stared at the old woman in disbelief. "Seriously?"

"Yes. He found her out at a Metro somewhere to the west, and took her in out of the goodness of his heart." Manya rubbed her nose. "After Harden was born, she started acting much different. Causing fights, stealing things, general foolishness. Sheriff Simms tried his best to reign her in, keep her at home with Harden, but her wild spirit was too much."

Emily blinked in surprise. "I can't believe it."

"Neither did we, until she started causing trouble. We tried to help, me and Nathan. Watched the boy for her, far too often for our own good." Manya smiled. "He was such a good baby when he was here. At home he did nothing but cry."

Emily put her hands flat on the table top and looked into the corner of the bus, wondering how Manya had kept an infant in the place. It was too small for her and Nathan, even.

"It all came to a head one day, when Sunny dropped Harden off with us. She walked right out of Megaton and into the wastes. I never saw her again." Manya sighed. "Sheriff Simms said they'd fought the night before, and then she was gone."

"Sounds awful," Emily muttered. Maybe that was why Jenny thought it strange that Simms should ask her to live there. Was worried that Simms was going to get himself hurt, if he―she didn't want to think about it, really. She turned her attention back to to the old woman. "What happened next?"

"The raiders up at the school started attacking about that time," Manya went on. "Seemed they knew a little too much about Megaton, about how to get into town. Sheriff Simms and some of the men led the defense against them. When they came back, less two people, the sheriff was a changed man." She looked over at Emily. "Nathan joined them, even when I asked him not to. I don't know who's the bigger fool... him, or me. I married him, after all."

Emily smiled half-heartedly at her. "He would be nothing if you weren't around, I bet," she teased.

"He's a silly old man in love and I'm a silly old woman," Manya replied, wryly. Her face fell. "Nathan told me that the raiders had been getting information from Sunny."

"Shit," Emily said, then covered her mouth. "I'm sorry, I just―"

"It's an apt sentiment," Manya agreed. "Sunny was telling them how to get into Megaton and about our guns. ...But when they came home, Nathan told me that Sheriff Simms had to put her down."

Emily sighed and sucked snot up into her head. "Yeah, I kind of figured that was coming."

"Jenny must have been worried for the sheriff," Manya mused, glancing at Emily. "Not that you are a bad woman, like Sunny was―"

"No, it's okay, I get it," Emily said, quickly.

"He was in such a bad way after Sunny died... and that poor boy had to grow up without a mother. We try not to mention her around Harden. The sheriff asked us not to speak poorly of his mother."

Emily stared at her. "I don't think that the sheriff has any of that kind of intent," she said, slowly. "I mean, I don't feel like that's the case. He thinks I need someone to watch me all the time. ...I guess he figures I'll get into trouble again." She looked down and grimaced.

"Some of the gossip I heard, I wouldn't doubt," Manya said, patting her hand. "You stay away from Jericho. Nothing but trouble if you set him off."

"Yeah, I'm really good at that," Emily muttered.

"You're young," the old woman said, smiling. "We're allowed to do foolish things as young people. But you have to survive those foolish things, or you will die." She sounded more stern than Emily had ever heard her, before.

"Manya―"

"My eyes have seen far more than my heart tells," Manya said, wisely. "I haven't always lived in peace, you know."

"Yeah, I know." Emily flushed in embarrassment.

"And that peace in which we live is provided by our sheriff," Manya added, in a firm tone. "It wouldn't be terrible to have another good person, keeping the town safe. And you would do just fine to listen to his advice."

"Okay," Emily said, feeling chastised.

"Now, you tell me why you even bothered to run around with that nasty old man, and I promise not to lecture you again," Manya said, smiling at her.

"O-kay."

"Sheriff Simms?"

The black man lifted his head from under the pipes where her house had been, glancing back at her. "Just a moment, Miss Emily."

Walter and Simms were examining the pipes, Walter tightening a bolt on a cap over the one pipe. Leo Stahl was half crouched in a hole, riveting metal to another pipe. When the explosions happened, it must have broken some of the pipes, flooding the hole the raiders had dug.

Emily surveyed the crater side and rubbed her face. They were lucky that the pipes hadn't been completely destroyed. At least this was reparable, and the power lines had been put back up without needing much work. Megaton was a hell of a sturdy place.

"How can I help you, Miss Emily?" Simms said, coming up the hill to meet her.

"Did this turn out?" she asked, first.

"Nothing too terrible," he said. "Walter and Leo will put up a walkway tomorrow. If we can borrow some of the siding from your house?"

Emily nodded. "Whatever you need, you guys can use. I got the place for free, anyway."

Simms smiled gently at her. "Did you think about the offer?"

She sighed and rubbed her neck. "Yeah, I did."

"What's your answer?"

Emily looked at the sheriff's hat for a moment, wondering where he'd managed to find a cowboy hat out in the wastes. If he put that sort of determination, finding that thing, into protecting the town... well, it was admirable.

"I'll do it," she said. "I still don't like the idea, but I'll do it."

"Good," Simms said, turning back to Walter. "First order of business is to organize a group and head out to the school."

Emily stared at his hat again. "This is a stupid question, but... why?"

Simms looked back up at her. "Well, for one, we have to make sure there's no more raiders up there, trying to reopen the hole," he replied, patiently.

"Okay."

"Another, I need to gauge your combat experience," he added. "Not sure if I ever had the pleasure of seeing you in action."

Emily flushed. "Um, I might get myself fired on my first day," she muttered, looking away.

"We'll see," Simms said. "Let's go, Deputy Emily."

She flushed even deeper. I hope this isn't a bad idea, she thought, following the sheriff down toward town.