Nate sat in his room in the Dugout, pulling on the boots of his Vault suit and fastening the buckles of his leather armour. He had finally fallen asleep a few hours beforehand, but Vadim had woken him abruptly by hammering on the door and demanding he get up and get out. Checking out of motels was definitely not what it used to be, he decided. The time he and Nora had spent going on a road trip before Shaun had arrived had been one long succession of single-night stays in backwater towns and big cities alike, but not one proprietor had hammered on the door with what had sounded like the butt of a shotgun and told them to hit the bricks as soon as the sun had come up.

Another first for his growing collection, he supposed.

He rubbed at his eyes, finished assembling his various pieces of gear, tucked his pistol into his waistband and walked out into the stale atmosphere of the bar itself. It stank of spilled beer and overturned ashtrays – and in one corner, the sticky, acidic tang of dried vomit – but Vadim seemed as jovial as ever. "Hope you enjoyed your stay, friend!" he exclaimed as he cleaned out a cracked glass, before he inclined his head towards the bottles on the shelves behind him. "Sure I cannot get you anything for road?"

Nate shook his head. "No, I'm… I'm good, thanks." He jerked a thumb at the lumpen puddle in the corner. "You should probably clean that up or someone might complain."

He expected Vadim to throw him out for that, but instead the Russian man let out a loud guffaw. "Trust me, stranger, people have seen worse than that in here. Now they think it part of this place's charm!" He picked up his glass again and started running the cloth around the rim. "I think you should know," he said in a slightly more serious tone, "that Miss Piper was not happy when you leave her last night. I think she deserves an apology, don't you?"

"Yeah," Nate said, rubbing his face with his hands. "God, I was such an asshole to her."

"Yes, you were asshole," Vadim said bluntly, his smile abruptly falling away from his face for a moment. "Miss Piper is good person and she did not deserve that. I give you a room because you pay for it, but I am giving you advice for free: go to her today and say you are sorry, and she will most likely forgive you, no questions asked." He chuckled. "Her little sister may not, but that is risk you will have to take, I think."

"That's not going to be fun," Nate said ruefully. "Did you know that that kid threatened to kill me the first time we met?"

"It sounds like you are facing uphill battle, friend," Vadim told him. "I will keep fingers crossed for you."

"I appreciate the thought," Nate said, "but I don't think good thoughts on their own are going to help me fix this."

"See Myrna at Diamond City Surplus if you want," Vadim suggested. "She is… odd, but she may perhaps have something you can use as peace offering."

"Thanks, Vadim. I'll bear that in mind," Nate said, before he turned and left the bar, stepping out into the morning air and feeling the sunlight draping itself gently across his cheeks. For once it didn't seem like an unpleasant day, which was always a welcome change – too many days began with radioactive animals trying to make him their breakfast for him not to appreciate a simple sunny morning with no problems on the horizon.

No physical problems, anyway…

"Why don't I serve you? Because I don't know you!" Myrna snapped at him angrily after he had greeted her for the first time. "You might be a synth! I don't serve synths!"

Nate took a step back, stunned by Myrna's outburst. Vadim clearly had a talent for understatement when he had said she was simply "odd". He held his hands up to try to make it clear he was not a threat. "I'm not a synth," he said in a calm, even tone. "Trust me, I'm as human as the day I was born."

Myrna narrowed her eyes. She didn't seem completely convinced, but she visibly relaxed in any case. "Okay," she said, "but don't you try anything. I know what synths do when you're not looking."

"Don't worry," Nate told her. "I'm just here to shop." He paused, looking at the piles of scrap, food items and assorted junk on the shelves behind her. "What kind of stuff do you have?"

Shrugging, Myrna waved a hand at the products on display. "We sell just about anything," she said before she jabbed a finger at him for emphasis, "but none of it is scrap, okay? Scrap is for synths. They eat it. I know they eat it."

"Well, I don't," Nate replied, trying to steer the conversation away from her peculiar obsession for the sake of his own sanity. "I just want something practical, for a… friend." He imagined that women of this time wouldn't settle for the kind of frivolous gift-based apologies he would give Nora when he screwed up, so he decided he would probably be better off getting Piper something she could get some decent use out of. After all, he thought, based on his limited time with her she really seemed like the kind of girl who would have hated flowers or chocolates even before the war. He also decided it should be of at least equal value to the amount of caps she had used to buy him treatment and drinks the night before, with a little on top as a way or paying her back with interest.

Suddenly concerned about coming up short when it came time to settle the bill, he rummaged through his pack and the pockets of his leather armour for something to barter with and found several stray magazines of ammunition for guns he didn't own, or just plain didn't like to use, as well as a small assortment of random items including some slightly bent gears, a broken toaster and a gold pocket watch which had long since stopped working. It wasn't much, but someone, somewhere, would surely find a use for them.

He stopped worrying about that when his eye fell on something he thought would be perfect. He pointed at it and asked "What's this worth?"

Nate held his gift clumsily behind his back as he approached the front door of the Publick Occurrences building, only to see Nat Wright glaring a hole in him as he did so. When she realised he was coming towards her she hopped off her box and blocked his path to the front door, her small fists clenched so tightly that her knuckles were white. "You hurt Piper!" she snarled, her eyes lit with the same kind of fire he had seen in the eyes of her big sister. "I knew you would. You're just like all the others!"

"I know I hurt her," Nate said in a low tone, "and I want to make it up to her."

"Liar!" Nat cried. "You liar!" She lashed out with both fists, hitting him in the stomach as hard as she could. Even though the impact was cushioned by his armour and the padded, insulated nature of his Vault-suit, Nate could feel the girl's anger and frustration as she bashed her hands against his body. Her visible fury made him wonder just how many times she had had to repeat this cycle of disappointment.

"Not interrupting anything, am I?"

Nate looked up to see Piper framed by her open front door, her uncombed hair and sour expression indicating that she had only recently woken up.

"Piper, I –"

"Save it, Nate," she snapped, deliberately using his given name. "You made me look like a real prize idiot last night. Why should I listen to you now?" It took her a moment to notice he still had his hands resolutely held behind his back. "Wait," she said, pointing at him. "Wait just a moment. Did you bring me a present to apologise? You did, didn't you?" She snorted. "You might have been able to buy a girl's forgiveness back before the war, but you can't buy mine, mister." She stepped out of the doorway, sticking her finger in his face. "I'm not that easy, okay?"

"I wasn't trying to buy your forgiveness, Piper," Nate said. "I was trying to square things, plus a little interest, so I got you this." Awkwardly he shifted the bag containing his gift around and held it out to her. "Here."

Piper drew her lips into a thin line and raised an eyebrow. She hesitated for a moment before she took the bag out of his hands, almost dropping the entire package as she took its unexpected weight in her hands before she cast the fabric covering to the ground as she drew out its contents.

It was a typewriter, which was a little rough around the edges but in otherwise good shape. Piper stared at it, very obviously confused as to what she was holding. "Why'd you get me this?" she asked, incredulous.

"You're a writer, aren't you?" Nate said. "I thought you might like something to write with." He shrugged. "So can we call it even?"

"Not even close," Piper said flatly, "but we can call it a start. You're not off my shit-list just yet, buddy. If you want me to gloss over what you did, you have to earn it." She took a few steps back into her house and deposited the typewriter on the table just to the side of the entrance. "Come and find me again in a couple of days, and we can work on this some more, okay?"

When she had closed her door, Nat gave him another searing glare. "You got off lucky this time, mister," she hissed. "You're lucky she didn't kick your ass."

"Seems that way," Nate said, scratching at the back of his neck before turning around and walking towards the open gates of the city, having decided that a visit to Goodneighbor might take his mind off things. There were always distractions there, after all, whether they were of the physical or chemical variety. Perhaps there might even a little mercenary work available; the Limey Mr Handy behind the bar of the Third Rail was good for facilitating that kind of thing on behalf of the town's mayor. Whatever the case, there would almost certainly be something there to help take his mind off his stupid decisions. "See you around, kid."

Piper closed her front door and then leaned back against it, banging the back of her head against its metal surface three times in frustration. She knew she had every right to be annoyed at the way that Nate had treated her, but she also knew that she would almost certainly never see him again now. It was not the first time she had let a story slip through her fingers because she had done the wrong thing, but that man had to have been the biggest scoop of her entire career and now he had very probably walked out of her life forever. She looked down at the typewriter he had bought her, its flaking paint already beginning to crust off onto the table it was resting on.

"I'll say this for him," she said, "he does pick good gifts." She wondered if he had been so insightful with his wife.

Abruptly she frowned. No. This was what he wanted, she was sure of it. Picking a nice gift. Saying he was sorry. Getting back into her good graces just by spending a few caps.

"No," she said. "Sorry, Nate, you're not getting off that easily." She crossed the room, climbed her stairs and threw on a random set of clean clothes underneath her trenchcoat and hat before picking the typewriter up and walking over to Diamond City Surplus. She held it out to Myrna, who looked at it in surprise, clearly recognising it as the same typewriter she had just sold. "How much for this?" Piper demanded.

"Twenty caps," Myrna said flatly. "No more."

"I'll take it," Piper replied, handing over the typewriter.

Returning to her house she grasped Nat by the shoulder. "Sorry for doubting you, kiddo."

"It's okay," Nat told her with a small smile. "I love you."

Piper returned her sister's smile with a muted one of her own. "Love you too." She exhaled briefly. "I'm gonna be heading out of the city again now. I have a lead on the Institute I've been meaning to follow up on for a couple of days now, so you'll have to look after yourself until I get back, all right? There's mac and cheese in the cupboard if you get hungry, or you can go eat at Power Noodles if you want. Here, you can treat yourself." She handed over the bag of caps Myrna had given her. "Just make sure to tell Takahashi I sent you. He'll give you a discount." Nat giggled at that. Piper always thought it was good to hear her laughing. "That's the spirit," she said. "I'll see you when I get back, okay?"

"Where are you going first, Piper?" Nat asked her as she began walking towards the gates of the city.

"Same place I always go first," Piper told her. "Goodneighbor's a hell of a town."