Note: I'm at a stalemate. Most everyone I know IRL is voting for "Nice Mouth McSwooshy Hair"―the nickname my sister gave to Danse―but I feel there might still be something I can do for MacCready. I haven't been working on his character as much as I ought to, as I started the story after the established character quests for him.
That is not good, and I want to work on that. Taking advice, I also upped his swearing a bit. If it doesn't work as well, you'll have to let me know.
I have almost convinced myself to write another story with him as main love interest, if anyone is looking forward to that. (Maybe drop me a line and let me know what kind of SS you'd like to see with him, hey? I welcome all kinds of reviews and PMs.)
MacCready hit the ground running when Ruby did, moving away from the bullets that whizzed through the trees toward them. Whoever it was shooting at them was too far away to see, and he'd weathered enough trips in the wastes with her to know she was going to duck and run. When the enemy could see you but you couldn't see them, she argued, the bad guys had a distinct advantage.
He'd turned for a brief moment, looking through the fallen trees covered with moss and hoping he could figure out who was firing at them. Ruby was ducking through the trees with well-practiced movement, jumping fallen logs and brush easily and not bothering to look back. Never mind that they would have to come back through the area, to go back to the Hills. Better to deal with the threat head on―
Couldn't tell who it was, though. MacCready gave up and kept his eye on her as they fled through the rocks and bushes, trying to keep up with Ruby―that was an impossible task, sometimes―and he wasn't paying full attention to what was in front of him.
That's when he got a face full of tree. One of the branches she pulled to the side, as she ran over the rocks and downed trees, came back on him and smacked him flat in the face. Would almost be funny if we weren't being shot at!
He ended up on his ass and sore from taking a jab to the eye, and when he sat up Ruby was gone. He couldn't see or hear her moving around and the gentle breeze that swept through the trees had died down, leaving behind an eerie silence.
Goddammit. Not the first time that had happened, but he didn't like it anyway.
MacCready pushed himself up from the ground, blinked away the pain, and looked around. She'd been running north, toward higher ground. Nothing much out that way but for Stingwings and the occasional ghoul.
"Ruby!" he yelled, brushing his ass free of dirt. "Hey!"
No answer. Well, that was just great. MacCready adjusted his hat over his eyes and squinted. It was still daylight out, so he should be able to catch up with her pretty easy. He sighed and rubbed his neck.
It was funny. Ruby had swapped out her Brotherhood uniform for the first time in ages, choosing to go out wearing her Vault suit. MacCready's eyes drank in the sight like a thirsty dog even if he didn't want to, because he'd been right. She did pull off the blue and yellow jumpsuit as good as her dead husband did. Maybe even better...
It was funny, though, because she was wearing something so highly visible and now he'd up and lost her. Lost her and gotten a tree branch to the face for his troubles. Felt just like the last time he'd tried to watch her back. And sucked at that, badly.
MacCready didn't want to think about that anymore than he wanted to be out in the wastes, alone. He started walking, trying to distract himself. Moving over the dirt and brush and keeping his eyes peeled for Ruby, he searched his mind for something else to think about.
...Thought about Vaults. Specifically, about Ruby's Vault. 111 was almost pristine inside, kept safe from the decay that had affected so many other Vaults. Kept Ruby safe, alone for all those years, trapped on ice in one of the most fucked-up experiments he'd ever heard about.
'Course, everything in the wastes was one shade more or less fucked-up than everything else. He wouldn't have been able to handle what she went through, on his own. Like she had... until, he guessed, she'd met Preston. The Ruby he'd met, when he first saw her, was a lot quieter and a lot more sad. Her hope was all but gone at that time, but she still tried. Still kept moving.
Not like him. He'd lost hope, before he'd met Ruby. Somehow, along the way, she'd made him remember that hope. And damn, was he ever glad for that.
MacCready remembered the day she showed up in Goodneighbor, how she'd watched Winlock and Barnes talking shit at him. She'd been quiet, watched them scuttling away like the good little radroaches they were, then wondered aloud if she dared to hire him. It wasn't amusing, really, but he'd let it go. She was a pretty woman. He knew his weaknesses.
"How do I know won't end up with a bullet in my back?" he'd asked her.
"All I can give you is my word... and a bunch of caps," she'd answered. Nothing special about how she'd said it, really. But that tired look in her eyes when she'd paid him, and the tiny half-smile she'd given him... she didn't act like anyone else in the Commonwealth. Almost like she was from a whole different world―
MacCready paused for a moment to stare up at the sky, frowning. He'd figured she was a scavenger when she started hauling all that junk, deliberately grabbing everything in sight. Didn't know why she was willing to pay him the high price of two hundred fifty caps just to watch her ass, until they'd found those raiders at the Corvega plant.
Ruby hadn't been great at shooting people. He was. He didn't worry about it, he just did the job. Her being so bad at combat reminded him of Lucy, reminding him of when she'd tried her hand at it, and his brain kicked him in the ass about Duncan.
He didn't know what to do, at the time. Tried to figure out what in the hell he was gonna do about Duncan's medicine, about Med-Tek. His best bet would have been to hire Gunners to get him into the hospital, but after he broke his contract―well, that was a bet he couldn't make anymore. Not the first time in his life he'd been at a disadvantage, but it was the first time he'd been without a real friend to get him out of a jam.
After the Corvega plant and him seeing how screwed Ruby was... after going 'round the Commonwealth with her, watching her speaking to people and earning money and arranging shipments back to some place she called Sanctuary Hills... after going to the Hills and learning from Piper what her deal was and finding the community that looked up to her as a savior and guide...
MacCready had been surprised that she was such a big shot. And after a few impromptu lessons while out on scrap runs, she even turned out to be a decent shot. She was quiet but firm, soft but hard. Not all all what he'd expected from the demure woman who approached him in the Third Rail.
Every time she went out without him―she brought back someone new. Someone important to the wastes, someone strong like she was. Made him feel better about her hiring him. A little ego stroking was what he'd needed, back then.
Slowly, he'd come to the realization that he might trust her just enough. She might understand his situation. She might be able to get him out of his scrape with the Gunners. He'd tried on the idea, when he felt his hope had reached a higher point, and hoped it fit.
Ruby was soft-spoken but she came down like a mini-nuke on the Gunners, after he worked up the gumption to ask her about it. She'd rigged up a double barrel and went to town on the Mass Pike Interchange, but refused to let him have any of the grenades she was tossing at those assholes.
Didn't blame her for that. There had been an incident with a Molotov cocktail and a fuel tank, resulting in some singed hair and a burnt hat, that took him ages to live down. He grimaced at himself. He could shoot, but explosives weren't really his forte.
MacCready paused his thoughts for a moment, paying attention to the area. The air around him shifted slightly, moving in a different direction. He poiked his head out over a sharp outcropping of rocks and saw the sinkhole in front of him, water draining steadily into the bottom. He moved around the left side, trying to keep himself from sliding on the dry ground. Didn't need to get any more dirty than he was, already.
Ruby fixed up his coat for him, too, after she made him her semi-permanent scrap run partner. Destroyed the original unintentionally, but made him a new one without saying a single word. Didn't tell him how she'd managed to fit it so well, especially with the special material sewn into it. He never was one to turn down a freebie, though.
Everything she did, she did well... even if she screwed it up at first. Kept going, made it better, even if she hurt inside. He wished he were like that. Might feel a little better about―about Lucy, about not being able to take on Med-Tek without Ruby―about being useless―
He didn't want to think about that, either, but his brain wasn't gonna let him stop. Got stuck like that after Lucy, and Ruby's problem up at the Vault made it flare up again. Wasn't her fault. He was the one thinking about it, and he needed to let it go so he could move on. Move on like Ruby had, after losing her husband and her son.
He hadn't lost Duncan. Thanks to her.
MacCready rubbed his eyes and stemmed the emotion that started swirling inside of him. He was useless. No one wanted him around, when all he did was complain. Liked him just fine, but never wanted to count on him for the important stuff.
Like Ruby, when she'd landed in his lap. He'd tried to show her he was willing. And she'd gone quiet. Shut him off. Barely talked to him for a long time. He'd pushed the issue, and went nowhere with it. She was occupied by her grief even when he'd hit on her, and that made him―
Feel even more useless.
MacCready stopped himself, looking around the area and squinting at the setting sun. Had to find Ruby, and soon. Wasn't gonna leave her behind, and it would be too hard to see in the dark. As bad as things were between the two of them―it could be a lot worse.
He really, really, didn't want to be alone, right now. Even if she hated his guts.
As he was staring around, trying to figure out where she might've gone, something hit him in the side. He spun with his weapon out, searching for the culprit. Buzzing caught his ears, a quick motion in his periphery alerting him to―
Stingwings. Like he needed to get poisoned today on top of everything else―he aimed and brought it down quickly, then turned and looked around for more. His vision swam, the world unfocusing around him like he'd dunked his head in water. ...Damn thing did get him! Shit!
A noise behind him made him spin around again, hitting whatever was there with his pistol out of caution. A yelp and the surprisingly soft resistance to the smack made him pause, blinking rapidly and trying to focus his attention on what―who―he'd hit.
Ruby? Her blue and yellow suit stuck out in his blurred vision under the expected blonde hair and wide eyes, now just a dark blob in her face.
Damn! MacCready tried to think of something to say―an apology, at least―
She backed up in a surprised jerk, wobbling dramatically, and registered the pain with a funny look on her face. She stumbled, as he tried to find the words to say sorry―then she started falling backward―
It sort of happened in slow motion. MacCready snapped a hand out and grabbed her with one hand, holding her wrist with the sort of force that he reserved for desperate moves, as her feet scrabbled on the loose rocks for purchase. His balance was off from reaching out and he was pulled forward when she fell from the rocks, down toward the sinkhole.
Ruby went limp, probably the best thing she could have done. He tensed up out of habit. When she hit the dirt she was already rolling down to the water, he fell flat onto his face. Mud in his mouth and a bloody nose were the least of his problems, today.
He cursed whoever the hell was out to get him today, as he scraped himself out of the mud. Ruby made a low groaning noise, then rolled onto one side and coughed, as she pushed herself upward. "MacCready," she half-moaned, half-complained. "What the hell, man..."
He felt himself flushing, not only embarrassed but annoyed. For all the times he'd tried to be smooth―for all his attempts to get on her good side... now, he was right back to the time he'd set her on fire with that Molotov. He wasn't gonna live this one down easily, either!
He opened his mouth to say something but before he could even begin to apologize, an earth-shattering roar sounded from the nearby crate. Ruby was up on her feet in a second, clumsily pulling her rifle from her side as he tried to dislodge himself from the muck and pull his pistol.
Deathclaw! Big one, too―it roared, then did what all Deathclaws did and ran straight at the nearest target, bounding powerfully through the mud, even as Ruby let loose a volley of lasers into it's body.
MacCready was up and shooting at it as soon as he was able, even though he could barely aim with mud in his eyes. Dammit―this could end really shittily―
Ruby backed up as fast as she could but the Deathclaw was faster, grabbing her up with one hand and slamming her down into the mud with a sickening thump. MacCready wiped his face and took a chance, aiming right at the damn thing's eye.
Ruby was making breathy noises and thrashing under it's grip when the bullet impacted a thick skull, glancing off the "eyebrow". His well-placed shot distracted it long enough to get Ruby free―she was ignored, the Deathclaw turning it's attention to him for a brief moment, and she wiggled out, rolling to the side and out of the way.
MacCready kept shooting, keeping attention on himself. Ruby fell into the water, away from the Deathclaw, and he smiled grimly to himself. With her out of harm's way, he could focus on saving his own ass. Which meant...
He fled up the side of the sinkhole, trying to stay out of reach of the monster's arms, and turned again to loose more bullets. His gaze slid to the side to see where Ruby was―she wouldn't run off on him in the middle of something this dire, never had―and saw her floundering in the current of the sinkhole, struggling to break free of the powerful suction.
Without a thought, he dodged to the side and down toward the water. If she drowned―didn't want to think about that―
Ruby made a horrible gurgling noise as he tried to grab at her, but―she slipped under the water and into the sinkhole with a strange popping noise, and the Deathclaw was behind him now, feet slapping through the loud rushing waters the sinkhole caused―
He didn't really have a choice.
MacCready sucked in a breath and dove headfirst into the swirling waters.
The outcome was probably what he would classify as his worst nightmare.
Ruby landed, damn near lifelessly, in the pool of water at the base of the sinkhole. He'd come down on top of her, and collided with her, but he wasn't sure if it was the trip down or his landing that caused it. She was unconscious and face down in the water when he collected himself enough to drag her up onto the rocks and panic about the situation.
He didn't know much about first aid. What to do with someone who was knocked out. Could he use a Stimpak to bring them around? What the hell were you supposed to do?
The basin was small but there was enough room to bunker down for a little while. MacCready spent the first few minutes agitated and moving around the room, searching for anything, trying to keep himself occupied so he wouldn't have to think about what was going on. Trying to find something that might job an unused memory and tell him what the right thing to do, was. To make himself feel better―
Stared down at her on the wet rocks, after a time. Tried to figure out what to do, how to wake her up. Felt useless again, didn't want to―didn't want to think he wasn't worth the caps she'd paid much less all the promises he'd made.
"I got you, Ruby," echoed through his head. He didn't believe it, anymore. He wasn't able to keep her from getting into trouble.
Ruby was breathing, but raggedly. Her breath sounded crackly, like someone was dragging a stick against a corrugated metal wall, popping noises in her chest. He didn't like that, not one bit. And then―
When it couldn't have gotten much worse, of course it did. It always got worse, when he was around.
The goddamn ghouls in the tunnel beyond the sinkhole basin started making noise. A whole bunch of them, just waiting to tear him and Ruby apart limb by limb.
It was just like before.
When he'd left Lucy... except this time he could save her.
He could save Ruby from the ghouls, instead of abandoning her like he had Lucy―like he had when Danse asked for his help that night on the bridge―he could make it better and salvage his own troubles, and kill two birds with one stone, if he dared to even hope he could―
He could dare. MacCready loaded his .44 and waited for the first wave of ghouls to arrive, his mouth pinched and face hard. He might be useless...
He did have hope. Ruby had given it back to him.
And he was gonna keep her safe.