A week later found Nora in much the same state she had been in that night at the Third Rail. She'd made sure to skip town that morning after she woke up, nursing a moderate hangover. She was halfway to Diamond City by the time she realized that she'd left her jacket at the Third Rail the night before, but going back didn't seem like an option. Not for a while at least. There was this niggling fear that she had gone and ruined everything, and all she wanted to do was run away until it all blew over. That was pretty much as far as her plan went, but she'd be damned if she wasn't going to try to see it through.

She made good time, but not as good as usual. When she'd on uppers, things like resting weren't such a big deal. It gave her more time to think, she supposed. Figuring out what was going on in her head was a lot easier out in the untamed parts of the Commonwealth. Defending herself had just become second nature to her, pulling the trigger like taking a breath. Rinse and repeat. Therapeutic in its own way.

After about a day in Diamond City, she hit the road again, deciding to wander some more. There had been things she'd been meaning to take care of, anyway, shutting up Vault 111 for one. She had been missing Nate, but more and more she was beginning to realize that what she'd felt for him had been infatuation. They hadn't had much time together, getting hitched right before he shipped out and and Shaun being born shortly after he'd returned. That didn't mean he didn't still hold a place in her heart, but she was beginning to see things in perspective.

It hadn't taken long to figure out that she'd grown fond of Hancock. She wasn't exactly sure why or how far that went, but she decided that it wouldn't be a very good idea to go crawling back to him like this. Didn't want him to get any funny ideas, after all.

After picking MacCready up from one of her settlements, she decided to go check on that crazy Cabot family to see if they needed anything else. It didn't come as much of a surprise when they immediately set out on the long hike to Parson's Insane Asylum. The trek was more tedious than it usually was, what with MacCready miming Jack Cabot whole way there. By the time they spotted the intimidating building on the horizon, Nora was about a hair's width away from pistol-whipping the shit outta both of the two idiots.

"Not getting a good vibe from this place, Jack," Nora growled, keeping low as she followed the mad scientist to the front doors, "I knew those raiders were bad news, but I figured there would be less of them."

"Yeah...we should get the heck out of here," MacCready chimed in, "Now would be good."

"Edward's men seem to have given a good account of themselves," Jack muttered, beginning to open the facility, "Not good enough, unfortunately."

The second they stepped in, Nora heard voices and motioned for Jack to get behind her. He looked miffed since he'd asked to take point back at the mansion, but she wasn't going to risk her payout on some hurt feelings. The small team crept their way through to the door that Nora was sure lead to the voices. She gave the door knob a good jiggle, but it was no use.

"The way is barred from the other side," Jack observed, earning a glare from both MacCready and Nora.

"Looks like we're gonna have to do this the hard way," Nora grumbled, letting Jack take point again to lead them through the dungeon that was Parson's.

By the time they made it to the basement, Nora was fed up. Instead of taking down the raiders like she usually would with time and precision, she just pulled out a few frag grenades and pulled the pins before strolling in.

"You let the old man free, and it's your head, Lefty," Nora growled, striding past his lackeys without a backward glance, "I'll give you till the count of three to get your filthy raider ass out of here before we all go up in smoke."

"One."

Lefty seemed stunned, as though still expecting her to start shooting.

"Two."

His two friends were already halfway to Diamond City. Stunned, he began to lower his weapon. Before Nora even had a chance to say "two and a half," MacCready took the shot, splattering the whole room in Lefty's brains.

Nora hadn't been spared, unfortunately. She was left trying to stick the pins back into the grenades while her hands were slick with blood, cursing all the way. Cabot was still yelling at them about the shield gizmo that was keeping the old man shut up, but Nora was all tied up.

"MacCready," she barked out, wrestling with the grenades, "Do me a favor and help the good doctor out, wouldja?"

While she'd been trying not to blow them all to hell; however, Lorenzo Cabot had taken the opportunity to try slithering his way into her sidekick's head. On any other day, Nora might have gone through the polite way of dealing with this new turn, but she wasn't having any of it.

Swiftly shoving the last pin back into its grenade, she dumped them and drew her sidearm. MacCready turned, looking mesmerized, just in time to get a face full of her pistol. He crumpled like a pre-war bag of potato chips. Not taking a second to consider the old man barking at her or listen to whatever bull he was stying to pedal, she turned on the Abremalin switches just like Cabot wanted and tried to drown out all the background noise. It felt like something was trying to worm its way into her head, but she just kept shutting down and retreating even further into herself. It felt like months had passed before Cabot finally pulled her back to the present with a good shake.

"Thank god," he breathed, "I was afraid that my father had harmed you in some way."

"MacCready?" she asked, her voice shaking slightly. The doctor pointed to where her companion lay, a good purple welt forming where she had hit him earlier.

"MacCready!" she called, accepting the hand Jack offered and standing, "Stand, you sorry sonovabitch."

He groaned, but sat up looking as confused as ever.

"What'd I miss, doll?"

It didn't seem to be a very long trip back to Cabot House. MacCready didn't seem to remember what went on in the basement, so Nora decided to let his slip up with Lorenzo slide. She was feeling charitable after finding a few doses of Jack's magic medicine, even giving him a slightly larger share of the reward than promised before sending him on his way.

Before falling asleep in her rented bed in the ruins of Bunker Hill that night, she let her mind drift wondering what she could have done with immortality. There were only a few ideas that didn't involve holing up with Virgil in that cave near the glowing sea and trying to beat her high score in Red Menace, but those few made her reconsider going back to Goodneighbor, tail between her legs. She didn't sleep much that night, and awoke late the next day with a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

A/n: Yeah this chapter didn't have too much, but I'm setting up something big I promise. Also I'm going out of town in a couple of days so I plan to put out as many updates as I can before I go.