Chapter 2

The sun shone in through the windows of her bedroom catching Nora in the eye and she heard birds chirping outside and decided it would be as good a time as any to get up, when she felt a hand pull her back down into the covers, Giggling she rolled towards Nate and kissed him as he yawned "where did you think you were going hmm?" he smiled and returned her kiss. "Oh I thought I might make us some coffee and breakfast before we went to Fallons today," she smiled sweetly at her husband feeling his loving hands caress her softly she melted into him. She had been so surprised the night before when a light knocking on the door had interrupted her reading, and she had gotten up to answer the door. When she opened the door there he had been, still in his military fatigues and hat with his bag over his shoulder and that great goofy smile that she had longed to see for so long. Nora jumped into his arms Squealing in delight and smothered him with kisses then laughed hard as they both fell over onto the lawn, "Hon as much as i will never complain at this type of a greeting, the neighbors are watching us" "To hell with the neighbors, you were gone for three years and i was beginning to think that i may never get to see you again she breathed heavily as she held onto him and continued smothering him in kisses." Nate smiled and said "I know Hon I've missed you these long years but come on lets go inside so I can tell you all about world and the places I've seen." "Nuh-uh Mister no way are you talking my ear off tonight." she grinned seductively. She let Nate pull her up from the ground then half dragged him into the house kicking the door shut behind them and led him to the bedroom.

Nora snapped awake stifling a cry as tears flowed down her cheeks. "Dream...just a dream" she said to herself in the dark of her now ruined house. She sobbed silently in the dark not wanting to disturb Codsworth or have that conversation with the robot, her tears continued to flow as her memory went back to that first night that Nate had finally returned home from the military, to the night that Shaun had been conceived and her body ached longing for his touch one last time. "Nate, why didn't I have Shaun with me in that hell hole you are so much stronger than I am..." she broke down crying even harder as she remembered watching that bald headed scarred son of a bitch as he killed Nate in cold blood, and vowed she would find him and make him pay for destroying her life and taking her only son from her. She didn't remember laying back down or crying herself to sleep but all too soon Codsworth was humming nearby and trying to roust her from her fitful slumber. "Mum, Mum please wake up" Nora mumbled softly to herself and slowly sat up. As her eyes adjusted she was momentarily confused as to how she had gotten to her old room when she remembered lying down on the couch in the living room. when she failed to remember how Codsworth piped up "you seemed to be having such a terrible time sleeping on the couch that i thought it would have been best to move you here Mum, after you fell off the couch I had to lift you and half dragged half carried you here."

"Thank you Codsworth, but I'm not sure I ever want to sleep in this bed again." Codsworths eye stalks drooped sadly and Nora realized that what she had said upset the robot, "Codsworth hun its nothing against you it's just after what happened in the vault it just doesn't feel right to sleep in this bed." This seemed to perk Codsworth up as he caught on to what Nora meant "I see Mum well then while you go off to concord I shall stay here and try to tidy up the home-front for you!" Nora smiled despite her grief "Thanks again Codsworth." "Proud to Serve Mum" Codsworth replied and he set about picking up the broken bits of dresser and other debris in the area as Nora got up and placed her Pip-Boy on her arm and looked at its display, the time read 8:47 am August 24th 2287. Upon leaving the bedroom she was enticed by a smell that she literally hadn't expected but sure enough there on the counter was a cup of steaming hot coffee, and she eagerly gulped it down in two sips reveling in the taste even though it was quite a bit stale, she wouldn't complain as she hadn't had this in literally two centuries.

"I see you found the mug of coffee i left for you Mum" Codsworth said as he emerged into the living room i figured you may want it so i used the last of what i had here for this morning's pot." "you thought correctly Codsworth," Nora said as she reached for the pot to pour herself some more, as the dark liquid steamed in her mug she reached for her pack of cigarettes and took one out placed in her lips and lit it and for the first time since she woke up in the Vault yesterday the world seemed right, almost normal.

After finishing her third cup of coffee, she had another cigarette then bid codsworth be safe and headed east towards the old foot bridge out of town that lead to the red rocket station just over the hill. Movement caught her eye before she got there however and she drew her pistol just to be safe and saw it was just a cat hunting for its breakfast, and she marveled that the radiation hadn't horribly mutated the furry animal at all inwardly thanking that it hadn't either and shuddered thinking about what kind of monstrosity could have replaced the cat. As she turned to begin walking toward the bridge again something in the house in front of her caught her eye, and she decided to investigate. Upon entering the house she saw another giant roach on the all and shot it quickly so she didn't have to deal with it and the cat she had seen earlier meowed loudly and shot after the dead roach.

As she rummaged through the house the item that had caught her eye came into better focus and she picked up the hunting rifle that someone had left behind, quickly she checked the receiver and chamber to see if it was damaged and it appeared to be in decent shape albeit a bit rusty, she opened the breach and saw the .308 round still ready to fire, and began looking to see if she could find any more rounds. Her search eventually netted her with 16 more .308 rounds plus the five in the rifle as well as some Stim packs and rad away some purified water and a Nuka Cola as well as a small amount of the caps from the bottles. She wondered why anyone would collect the caps from Nuka Cola bottles then surmised that they must not be too plentiful in the world today so she pocketed the caps as an afterthought. Further searching the house turned up an old safe and some bobby pins and a screwdriver, Nora paused for a few moments then figure to hell with it in this world the finders keepers rule definitely applied, and after breaking four of the six pins managed to open the safe, inside was another 10mm pistol and two boxes of ammunition as well as a box of .308 rounds and a few stray .38 rounds as well. The pistol she left behind but the ammunition she took even if she didn't have a weapon that fired .38 she figured she may be able to trade them with someone later on.

After finishing the search of the house she managed to find a decent sized back pack and deposited her new pistol and ammo as well as the Nuka Cola caps and bottle along with the stims and rad x then as she shouldered her rifle began moving towards the old bridge. she stopped on the other side of it when she saw the dead dog and dead man lying there as if they had killed each other and decided that this world was a lot more dangerous than it looked, then bent down and searched the man's body finding some rudimentary leather armor which she hastily equipped, then took a last look in the man's pockets, and oddly enough found more Nuka Cola caps in them. "Hmm it can't be a coincidence that I find Nuka caps in that house and now on this man, I'll have to ask someone depending on if I manage to meet any one friendly out here that is." Nora said to herself.