Note: I've been holding onto this one for a while.
Preston was standing outside of the bar when the last of the fireworks finished, a final barrage lighting up the skies. He'd not really understood the allure―seemed a bit gaudy, especially to show off the Hills like that. Was practically sending up an invitation to the bad elements of the wastes. Come attack us now, it said, we're all drunk and having a party.
Except they weren't. Well, Hancock was drunk. Preston had seen him wobbling out of the bar waving the flag he used as a belt in the air, waxing poetically about stars and stripes. Hadn't struck him as the emotional type, before, but tensions had been high before the coming battle with the Institute. Maybe it was better to get it out now.
In case it all ended for them, very soon.
He didn't want to think like that. Had dealt with his demons from before, worked out the idea in his mind. Kicked himself for a few weeks after meeting Ruby for offering up the Minutemen to the first person who hadn't ducked and ran at a gunfight. But she'd stuck by. Gotten this place up and going, well before he knew it used to be her home.
He'd thought that his asking her like he had, in the Hills, was lucky. Probably would've never known, if Piper hadn't spread her story all over creation like she had. She called that journalism, but it was fine propaganda for the Minutemen.
Preston stared up at the fading display, his hands on his musket shaking slightly. Maybe it wasn't just the hard-partying ghoul who was emotional tonight. Just knowing that the Minutemen were in good hands was enough to send his heart soaring up with those fireworks.
Hadn't thought he'd ever see them do good again. He sighed to himself, watching the stars coming back into existence. After... well, after the mess in Quincy, anyway.
That was when he'd been forced to admit that the tide wasn't coming back. After Colonel Hollis called in reinforcements, and no one showed. Was just twenty people including the settlers in Quincy, after Clint―
He sighed again, looking down at the ground. Hoped his hat was hiding his face.
Jamaica Plain. Lexington. Concord. One trouble after another followed or waited. He'd led those people through Hell, trying to keep them safe. Lost too many men in the Plain, to keep going. Couldn't surrender; had to push on, had to keep going, or else.
Lexington drove them into the Super Duper mart, lost more there. And when they'd reached Concord and he'd seen the last of the Minutemen fall at the doors, his squad and his friends all dead and gone...
Ruby was an angel in blue. He remembered her walking slowly down the road, the German Shepherd at her side. Watched her through his scope, raising her pistol, the look on her face the same as his had been when he watched Jason fall at the door. But―
Her face stopped being sad the minute she fired that gun. She set her mouth, lowered her eyebrows, and she loosed an unrepentant rage that saved his and the settlers' lives. Ruby'd showed the first signs of her strength, under the bright sun that shone in Concord that day.
He'd barely been able to keep himself together. Between Mama Murphy's visions―Sturges was the only one who really believed in her, even now―and Jun and Marcy's hot and cold attitudes... He'd felt the crushing sensation in his heart, knew he wasn't going to be able to keep going.
They would have died, all of them. He couldn't stop it from happening.
Preston closed his eyes, feeling the soft swirl of the air around him as old and new settlers streamed around him, standing in the middle of Sanctuary Hills and thanking whoever was watching over him. That she'd shown up. That she'd been a beacon of hope.
A warm current occupied the space beside him. He opened his eyes and saw Ruby standing there, her hands on her hips and eyes to the sky. She had the pinched-in face she made so often, but it fell into an easy-going smile when he turned his attention onto her.
"Hey," she said, smiling at him.
"Ma'am," he said, his voice barely escaping him.
Ruby frowned, looking at him. Even as dirty as she was, the bright blue and yellow struck out at him in the darkness. If she hadn't come along...
"Do you..." he started, before clearing his throat. "Do you have a minute?"
"Something on your mind?" she asked, blinking at him. Garvey wasn't normally this nervous. It worried her, a little.
"I know I don't normally... ask for your undivided attention," he started, lowering his laser musket. Looked away from her, toward the south. "I wanted to thank you."
Ruby watched his face for a moment. She glanced out toward the south, over the water and away from the Hills. He must be... thinking about back then. About the museum, and Concord.
When she'd stumbled into that fray, being shot at and having to shoot at the raiders that were keeping them stuck, she hadn't really known what to expect. Hadn't even known if there would be people in the ruins, and finding raiders had been a real shock. Finding that civilization was still around... had raised her hopes―
Ruby sighed, staring at the distance. "Preston," she said, slowly turning her head back to him. "You don't have to thank me."
"I do," he said, nodding at her. "If you hadn't come along, pulled us out of that place... We wouldn't have survived."
Ruby rubbed her forehead and glanced back toward the Hills, fighting a smile. "Well―if I'm to believe half of Mama Murphy's stories, I expect she would have killed all the raiders with nothing but some chutzpah and a bobby pin."
Garvey gave a small, sad smile. "Maybe." He shifted his weight, shuffling his feet nervously. "Listen... when we first met, I admit, I had my doubts about you. But you've done nothing but impress me."
Ruby's smiled faded. "I appreciate you giving me a chance, Preston." Something heavy on his mind, tonight. Ruby wasn't sure what to make of it, yet. She straightened herself out and hooked a thumb into her belt, glancing up at the sky again.
"You probably think I was pretty naive, huh?" He put his hands out, lowering his head. "Asking someone who barely knew how to survive in the wastes... who'd never even been here, before, to take on my responsibility." He shook his head briefly. "I guess I was. Still am, too. Even after everything."
She frowned at him. "Why are you telling me all this?" she asked, curiously. Up to this point, Garvey hadn't done much other than maintain a professional relationship with her. Hadn't... opened up and talked to her, very much. Even if his reluctance to bother her had been a source of contention at times.
She supposed he'd known it was another burden for her to shoulder. At the time, she'd been so focused on finding Shaun, on getting herself into the good graces of the Minutemen―after having adjusted to the world as it was, when she woke up from two hundred years of sleep, she realized the importance of having allies. Even a broken and scattered ally was better than none, and she hadn't met the Brotherhood until much later on.
Preston asked her take on the Minutemen. That meant setting up settlements, making the Hills a home for someone else. Retaking the Castle, setting up the base of operations there and leaving Ronnie Shaw keeping the place running. After that... she'd brought Garvey back to the Hills.
Why hadn't she left him at the Castle? He would probably be more useful there, guarding the old fort. Ruby mused on the thought while Garvey stared at his feet, silently.
Well, for one, Ronnie was a good woman. Ruby expected stone would burn before she'd let the Castle go to pot. But the other reason―was the settlers he'd led across the Commonwealth from Quincy. Mama Murphy, Jun and Marcy, Sturges...
They needed to see him doing better. They'd followed him even when the Minutemen started dying, and still followed when he asked Ruby to go with them to Sanctuary Hills. It felt... wrong of her, to remove him from the place, when he'd fought just as hard as those folks had in trying to find a permanent home.
Sanctuary Hills was as much Garvey's home as it was theirs. As much as it was her home, even if she hadn't felt that way to begin with. She looked over the Hills at the settlers tending the crops. It had been a long time coming, but she was proud of the place. It really was starting to feel like home, again.
"I guess... I just need to say thanks. For being different from most everyone else I've run across." He looked sad but thoughtful, as he spoke.
Ruby smiled at him, unsure what to say. "You've run across other people who were frozen for two hundred years?" she asked, and kicked herself in the ass. Dammit, Ruby, way to be rude.
Garvey sighed out, looking down. "You're much better at keeping it together than I've ever been."
"...I'm sorry, Preston," she said, trying to force herself to look apologetic. "You're being serious. I shouldn't have―"
"Listen... I know I put you in an almost impossible position when I asked you to lead the Minutemen." Garvey's face grew somber. "I didn't have any right to ask you to take that on."
She stared at him without saying anything. Him having a right to ask her... had never crossed her mind, truth be told. She would have taken responsibility, even if he felt it wasn't appropriate. Nate always did say she was too bossy for her own good―
And at the time, after watching Nate die and knowing nothing would ever be the same... knowing that she had to find Shaun, had to do everything that she could to get him back―well, she'd definitely used the Minutemen to further her own goals.
The thought made her feel a little guilty. She wasn't the paragon that she'd played herself out to be, in the end.
"I still don't know why you said yes." Garvey glanced away from her, briefly. "It doesn't really matter. We've still got a long road ahead of us, but I don't doubt you're the leader the Minutemen needed."
"Thank you, Preston," she said, simply.
"We make a good team, General. No doubt about that." He gestured at the Hills, as if it were proof.
Ruby smiled at him, gently. "I don't know what I'd do if you weren't here, holding down the fort. You've been nothing but helpful, Preston."
"You... really are one of the good guys, you know," he said, returning the smile in a smaller, sadder dose. "Most people are just out for themselves. Even the 'good' ones."
Ruby wondered what he was thinking about. She might have lost her way, but she'd never once doubted that he was a 'good' guy. After losing Nate... finding a "good guy" in this messed-up world had been a light in the darkness. A way to restore her faith in humanity, which she'd sorely needed.
She believed that there would always be good people in the world. Even if she'd never been around, someone would have stood up and taken over the responsibility of the Minutemen―or fought back against the Institute, like she was. People would avail themselves of the necessity.
Meeting Garvey had made her feel downright optimistic about her future. That someone was willing to put such faith in her, without anything to earn it beyond her initial good deed... Nick, Piper, Hancock, Danse... hell, even MacCready had been willing to put aside his son, just to come with her.
All for a promise and a show. A show that they could still make a difference in such a shitty world. That show sold out when she finally got into the Institute―
"Well," she said, lacing her hands together behind her back and stretching her fingers. "I highly doubt anyone would survive if they weren't a little selfish. We all have problems. Who can say what's more important than that?"
"But you're different," Garvey said, pressing the matter. "You really... care about people. Even when it isn't convenient or safe."
Ruby snorted to herself. That was the truth, she knew. Had more scars than she cared to admit, thinking about how often she'd run into a problem and fixed it―usually the hard way. She turned her attention back to Garvey. He looked like he had so much on his mind it was physically weighing down his shoulders, slumping in his Minuteman outfit.
"I just wanted you to know that... well... that it matters. That you're making a difference." He sighed. "I've been thinking a lot. About the Minutemen, what they meant to me."
Her mind sharpened, remembering what he'd told her about the Minutemen―about the corruption in the ranks, about the disappointment he'd felt when the truth was revealed. The General at the time had done his best to keep it under wraps, but...
"...Everything I believed in turned out to be a lie." Garvey blinked and looked away from her, the emotion draining from his face.
She understood. She'd had the same feeling when she came back through the teleporter. When everything had been revealed... and everything she'd wanted was gone. It was enough to reduce her to a mess. She couldn't imagine what Preston had gone through, himself―the grief at knowing that everything was lost―
Ruby shook her head. "I'm sorry that what happened, did, Preston. But you... did your best. You―"
"No," he said, dully. His musket dipped and lowered to the ground, the barrel brushing against the earth. "I failed everyone who ever relied on me. I led them to Concord and we had no hope of getting out alive."
"Oh..." Ruby sighed, lifting a hand and pausing before she touched him. Wasn't sure if that would be okay, really. Preston was always so closed off, when they spoke...
"The thing is... it was actually okay with me. I was ready to die. It was what I felt I deserved. It was what I wanted."
She reached out and grabbed his shoulder, then. "You'd lost hope," she said, gently.
"There were still people counting on me," he continued, without looking at her. "That's the only reason I kept going." He glanced at her hand on his shoulder, and lifted his musket from the dirt. "But... you saved my life. You made me want to keep living again." Garvey made eye contact, then, and smiled a little. "...I guess that sounds pretty sappy."
"Preston." One corner of her mouth hiked up a little, curling into a return smile. "You're still here. That's more important than being sappy. I'm glad to have saved you, Preston."
"If we hadn't met..." He shifted his weight again and raised the musket with both hands.
"I don't think either of us would be here, if we hadn't met," Ruby said, firmly. She patted his shoulder once, and dropped her hand to her side. "And... I know it isn't easy to admit..."
"It feels better finally getting to say it out loud," he admitted. "Thanks for listening, Ruby."
She breathed out, the tension finally breaking. "Anytime, Preston."
The awkward silence that followed was especially so, until Ruby shrugged. "Well, this place isn't going to clean itself up," she muttered, trying to think of what to say.
Garvey chuckled. "World's not going to end again, ma'am."
"It might," she growled, squinting at the trash littering the street. "Yet."
Hancock woke up on the second floor of a house, his head reeling from the excitement and chems and God-knows-how-many rounds of booze. He was slouched in an old pink chair, angled so he could stare out over the settlement from the west side, with an empty bottle in one hand and a cigarette butt in the other. Judging by the amount of empty inhalers and other trash littering the floor, he'd had a damn good night.
He sat up a little straighter, felt his back pop back into place, and dropped the bottle to the floor. It landed with a clinking noise, which was really fucking loud in the quiet of the morning-after―
Someone cleared their throat nearby and he jerked his head up. Tilted his tricorn back on his head and blinked the night's haze from his eyes. Ruby was sitting in another beat-up looking chair, directly to his right, with her knees hooked over one arm. She didn't look at him, just held out a dingy coffee cup filled with something hot.
He leaned forward, grabbed the cup, and chuckled. "Last time I partied that hard..." he mused, pitching the cigarette butt out the opening in the wall.
"You woke up wearing nothing but a party hat," Ruby said, flipping idly through a magazine. "Have to say you didn't do it justice, either."
He spit out the "coffee" and stood up quickly, tossing the contents of the cup out of the house. Grabbed at his belt to dab up what he'd spilled on his lap in surprise, but found it missing―
He remembered waking up with the hat on, and it wasn't on his head either. Back then, he'd not cared if he pissed her off, but―"Christ, but that was mean," he told her, glancing around the room for the missing flag he'd had since he'd gotten the suit. "Who pissed in your Sugar Bombs?"
"Every shot is under the belt, right now," she answered, and her hand moved to point at the ceiling fan above them.
He looked up and laughed. Couldn't help it, the damn thing had been tied to the fan. Musta been a really fucking good night!
After retrieving his belt and settling himself back in the chair, he stared at Ruby. She was sitting all casual-like, reading The Unstoppables, her legs crossed over the chair arm. Didn't say another word. She lifted one hand and scratched her head, staring intently at the comic.
"Alright, I'll bite. The hell I do, this time?" he said, scratching at his chin.
"What do you mean?" she asked, still not looking up at him.
Fuck. This bullshit between them was wearing thin, even if he liked the woman. Musta done something to make her mad, but couldn't say what it was―unless he'd done something real stupid the night before.
Probably would've remembered that, though. Sister always stuck out in his mind, even when he'd been high as a kite or swimming in a sea of scotch. Or crotch. That goddamned party hat, again.
"This feels like a trap," he muttered lowly, but his mood was improved by the memory.
Ruby made a thoughtful noise. After a moment she flipped the comic shut with one hand and rubbed her eyes, turning herself in the chair. "You game to go out?" she asked, staring at him.
"Stomping the 'Wealth with you? Yeah, sister," he said, one corner of his mouth curling up. She was baiting him, messing with his head. Shit, she'd learned new tricks since he'd talked to her last.
"C'mon, Don Juan," she said, waving at him as she walked out of the room.
Ruby tossed the comic to an end table, stood, and stretched out her arms above her head. Hell, she was definitely playing with him now. He couldn't keep his eyes off her.
But that was just how it was gonna be. Hancock rubbed his face and followed, wondering what fresh hell he was gonna go through today.