"Okay, okay. I spy with my little eye, something that is..." Willow narrows her eyes and looks around, before she grins smugly. "Something that is white."

MacCready glances to a tall structure as they pass it by, and he jams his thumb toward it. "Radio tower." he says, and Willow frowns and groans.

"You're a cheater." she accuses. MacCready laughs.

"Please enlighten me as to how you cheat at 'I Spy'." he challenges, but Willow shakes her head frantically because she knows she cannot.

"Your turn." she says dismissively, and MacCready rolls his eyes then looks around, before his eyes settle on Willow.

"Fine. I spy something that's red."

Willow surveys her surroundings, then looks over her shoulder back at the white and red striped radio tower they'd just passed, which she'd just used for her turn. "R... Radio tower?" she guesses apprehensively, and MacCready smirks and shakes his head.

"Nope. Come on. Way too obvious."

"Hng..." Willow whines at the subtle dig. "Um..." her eyes narrow, and she turns her head to look over the river they walk alongside. She points to what remains of Forest Grove. "That... red brick building over there?"

MacCready shakes his head again, this time accompanying the action with a scoff. "That's brown." he argues.

"No. No it's not." she replies flatly, then continues her search for this mysterious red object. "Uh..."

Her eyes narrow and she looks down, and then her shoulders fall and her lips curl. "Is it the blood on my coat?" she asks flatly, and MacCready laughs again.

"Bingo." he replies, making Willow regret starting this game with him. Chunks of tissue stick to her which she cannot quite scrape off. It had happened in the city, when they accidentally stumbled into a super mutant camp. Willow had managed to blow up a suicider at a distance where she was safe from shrapnel but not safe from airborne viscera – both the mutant's and some mystery meat from a bag of flesh. It is unsightly and it smells and Willow has been making a conscious effort to not let her arms fall too closely to her sides lest she touch it and smear it more into the fabric.

She glares at MacCready who looks quite satisfied with himself. "What?" he teases. "I think it looks great on you. Red is definitely your colour."

Willow deadpans him for a moment, before suddenly she grins and lunges at him. "I think it might actually look better on you." she exclaims, and MacCready stops walking, plants his feet firmly on the ground, and holds his arm out to block her advances.

"Oh no you don't!" he snorts as Willow grabs at his arm. Her teeth are bared as she attempts to push his arm out of the way and share her wealth of mystery flesh with him. And though she is not weak, she is definitely not physically stronger than MacCready who easily pushes her backward. Willow watches him with wildly devilish eyes and then jumps at him again.

This time, he steps out of her way and grabs the back of her coat to keep her from falling into the water, and Willow giggles as he pulls her backward. When she tries one final time, MacCready thwarts her attempt by pulling his hat, which still sits atop her head, down over her eyes and stepping around her. "That all you got?" he calls out playfully over his shoulder as Willow takes a moment to pull the hat off and fix her hair before she puts it on again.

She feels a warmth on her cheeks, and she can't even lie to herself anymore and pretend it is from the sudden spike of physical activity. She is entirely infatuated with the man. He is funny, charming, and beyond easy to look at. She feels as though they have a real chemistry, a good banter. And most importantly, she trusts him. He makes her feel safe. He makes her feel consistently happywhen nothing else has in a long while. She hears a 'tch' beside her, and she turns her head to find Maggie, who stands with her arms crossed and watches MacCready as he walks away.

"For the record," she huffs, "I still think this is a huge waste of time."

Willow turns her head forward again, but she side-eyes Maggie for a moment. She isn't happy with Willow. She hasn't been since Willow agreed to help MacCready. Willow has been doing her best to ignore Maggie and her overarching umbrage, though that is proving to be difficult and the guilt of putting Maggie second periodically weighs on her conscience.

But then MacCready stops and turns, and his blue eyes lock with Willow's and her worries melt away as he raises an eyebrow. "You alright back there?" he asks, and Willow smiles and shakes her head.

"Y-Yeah." she says, swallows, and hurries to MacCready's side. The two begin walking again, and Maggie stays rooted in place with a scowl on her face before she sighs and runs after them.

"You're strange." MacCready says as Willow reaches him, though his words are playful and Willow knows this so she gives him a light shove and he chuckles.

"You're a dick."

The two cross a bridge which brings them into a dead forest, where they slow as the interchange comes into view. MacCready looks upward and squints against the blue sky behind the roadway. Even from the ground, he can see the ramp is crawling with Gunners – just as he knew it would be.

Willow stops and does the same scan MacCready is doing, though with his hat on she doesn't need to squint. She huffs – looks dangerous. Risky. She steps toward a stump and sits down, then digs her pack of cigarettes from her pocket. She is running low, but she is sure that one of these assholes up on the turnpike will have a pack on them which she can pluck from their dead body. Yeah, that's why I'm doing this, she thinks to herself flippantly... For the nicotine.

She lights her smoke and MacCready looks over, so Willow sighs and offers one out to him which he is content to take. The duo stand in silence and smoke and watch as Gunners mill about a short distance away. Eventually, MacCready looks back to Willow and he lets his eyes take her in where she sits pensively upon her stump. He chews his tongue.

"You, uh... You sure you want to do this?" he asks, and Willow perks then meets his eyes.

"No." she says with obvious sarcasm, yet MacCready's heart skips a beat as if she were being genuine. "I just thought we could walk all the way here for fun."

MacCready chuffs and turns back to the highway, and his hands tremble with anticipation. Without Winlock and Barnes, his life in the Commonwealth immediately becomes much easier, and he can almost taste the freedom their deaths will grant him. He is still shocked, honestly, that Willow agreed to help him. But he is grateful. He only hopes that nothing happens to her up here; he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he brought her all the way up here and let her get hurt.

"Well?" he says finally, and Willow flicks her cigarette butt into the grass and stands, "You ready?"

"Hell yeah." Willow grins and pulls her brand new lazer rifle from her back. "Time to really put my new toy to the test."

"Heh." MacCready admires her a moment, then nods. "Well... alright. Let's go."

Stealthily, the two creep toward the interchange, and the mercenary makes quick work of the men on the ground guarding the elevator while Willow lays on her stomach in the grass behind him and tries to remain unseen. He manages to pick off all four Gunners on the ground without alerting the men up top, and the two creep to the elevator.

MacCready steps up first, Willow after him, and then he takes a deep breath and reaches for the button. But before he can hit it, Willow's hand darts out in front of his and pushes the button first. He looks up and sees her sticking her tongue out at him childishly, and he smiles fondly and rolls his eyes. His smile fades quickly though, as they begin their ascent and his adrenaline builds uncomfortably within him.

Willow notices he is tense, and she nudges him lightly. "Hey." she says softly. "Do you wanna be the one to do it?"

"Do what?" he replies, and Willow titters.

"Kill those motherfuckers." she whispers of Winlock and Barnes.

A crooked grin crosses MacCready's face, and he blows air from his nose. "I don't care who does it." he replies with a shake of his head, then looks upward as they near the end of their short elevator ride. "As long as they're dead."

Willow shrugs and smiles. "Okey dokey." she speaks far too casually. Then, the elevator reaches the top and she immediately locks eyes with a well-armoured Gunner.