As soon as they open the airlock and step into the sub-level, Willow and MacCready are greeted by a dense wall of stale air. MacCready coughs.
"I think we're the first ones down here in a long time." he remarks, and Willow's eyes flit about the room. She hears the buzz of a turret and her eyes widen as she shoves MacCready back behind the wall and then narrowly avoids getting shot herself as bullets tear into the thick glass in the airlock corridor. She grabs her chest and lets her head fall back against the wall as a laugh escapes her lips.
"Yeah, and we almost fucking died two seconds in, holy crap." she muses. MacCready himself snickers as he steps out from cover and snipes the turret off the ceiling, and then the two head into the room without the threat of a machine ending their existences looming over them.
The mercenary wanders to a door on the other side of the room and attempts to pry it open to no avail, while Willow circles a desk. "So... You think they were maybe studying the disease your boy has down here? Before the bombs dropped?"
"That's what Sinclair said." MacCready says distractedly as he searches for something he could use to pry open the door. Willow, meanwhile, sits in front of yet another terminal and flicks through the screens.
"We're really putting a lot of faith in Sinclair." she says asidedly.
MacCready smirks. "Yeah, well, he's been right about a lot of stuff so far, hasn't he?"
"You're right."
"I know."
"Ugh..." Willow groans and rolls her eyes but she can't quite fight the smile which spreads across her face. She chuckles softly as she spots on the screen the option to turn off the turret which had just nearly turned the two of them into swiss cheese, then peers up in time to see MacCready using a piece of scrap from said turret to try and open the door. She raises her eyebrows and lets him struggle for a moment, before she turns back to the screen and chirps, "Let me get that for you," then uses the terminal to open the door.
MacCready's eyes flick to her, and she looks so smug sitting at the desk. He rolls his eyes genially then waits for her to come to his side before they move on.
The ghouls down here are a lot more sparse than they are upstairs, and MacCready and Willow easily pick them off one by one as they move deeper into the sublevel of the facility. "This place is a mess." MacCready comments as they wade through debris and rubble, and Willow's brow furrows.
"You know, it just occurred to me that if these ghouls are down here... They had to have been here before the war. Right?" She crosses her free arm over her body as she surveys their surroundings while they walk. MacCready grimaces.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." he mutters. "God, can you imagine being trapped down here for 200 years?"
"Ah, well, y'know," Willow tuts and quickfires on a feral before it can even turn to face them, "It's pretty homey down here."
Her words are sarcastic, of course, and MacCready riffs off of them effortlessly. "Yeah, I mean. I guess with the right person, it wouldn't be so bad down here."
When Willow feels his gaze on her at the comment, her cheeks flush and she just knows he can see how red her ears get when she is flustered. Her mouth opens and closes a few times as if she is going to speak, but she can't seem to find a witty response and so she is relieved when they step into another room and MacCready's focus shifts to the ghouls within it.
"See?" Maggie giggles as MacCready takes care of the ghouls in the room. "I told you he'd move on. He's totally laying the moves on you now."
He's not, Willow thinks. He's not, they've always bantered like this. Right? Yeah, yeah of course. He isn't flirting with her. This is just their ordinary back-and-forth.
"You just have to find the cure before he does." the child reminds her, then disappears again. Willow brings her palm to her forehead and squeezes her eyes shut in an effort to flush Maggie's words out, but they cling to the inside of her skull and drip down the sides until they've coated her entire conscience.
MacCready has his back to her as he strolls into the room and observes two ghouls, both trapped in separate cells and screeching furiously as they watch him and Willow from behind glass. He frowns and shakes his head in disapproval. "How could they get away with doing this to people..?" he mumbles and hurries to an elevator. "Come on. The sooner we get out of here, the better."
Willow nods and hurries over. This time, she so generously lets him press the button, and in return, he prompts for her to press the buttons inside the elevator. Which she does, and MacCready chuckles. He is so consumed by his own excitement that he doesn't really notice how stiff Willow's movements are. They're close. They're so damn close. He stands right at the door of the elevator, holding his rifle in anticipation, and Willow hangs back and makes sure her own gun is loaded.
With a ding, the door opens, and the two step cautiously out of the elevator and immediately scan for threats. "Turrets!" MacCready says, and snipes one while Willow gets the other. Neither turret stood a chance.
"It's even worse down here." the mercenary complains of the smell, and Willow shrugs.
"Smells no worse than that bedroom at the house."
MacCready shakes his finger at her. "You've got a point."
The basement feels more and more maze-like as time goes on, and eventually Willow can't even tell which way is up or down or left or right. At least they're leaving a nice little trail of dead ghouls in their wake so they can find their way back out.
Finally, guarded by three more feral ghouls, they find a lab deep in the sub-level with a terminal mounted beside the door. This has to be it, Willow reckons, so she rushes to the terminal while MacCready deals with the ferals with little issue. It is when the doors slide open that they are faced with a real challenge: a ghoul, glowing fluorescent green unlike any of the others. It, along with two other ordinary ferals, perk as the doors open, and Willow hesitates a moment.
MacCready lifts his gun and starts unloading into the creature, though it seems hardly phased as it rushes him. Willow gasps and finally snaps to action, attempting to assist MacCready with the glowing one but her focus quickly shifts to the other two ghouls as they lunge at her.
She ducks underneath the arms of one and narrowly avoids the other as she scurries into the lab. "Be careful, Mac!" she calls out, then grunts as she twists and hits one of the ferals in the face with the butt of her gun. This staggers the creature and gives her time to put a bit of distance between it and herself. Enough distance, at least, to lift her gun.
"Here, you ugly motherfucker." She blows the head clean off of one, and then reduces the second to ash. Then, she turns and hurries behind the table for cover and fires at the glowing one, which by now is limping and leaking vile green blood all over the floor. Its' attention remains on MacCready who is doing well to keep himself out of its' reach. Unfortunately, this brings him backward behind the wall and out of Willow's sight, and the woman groans in frustration and moves to hurry after him, but something on the desk catches her eye.
Sitting among notes and diagrams and other telling documents is a red, cylindrical syringe labelled 'Med-Tek: Prevent'. Willow's eyes widen. She reaches out and carefully grabs it, turning it over in her hand; this is it, this is what they came for. This is Duncan's cure.
"Smash it." Maggie's disembodied voice rattles about in Willow's ears. Her grip tightens on the syringe and her heart pounds in her chest. Her eyes flick to the door – MacCready is still out of sight, dealing with the snarling, radioactive beast. He cannot see her.
"Destroy it, Willow. Come on."
Maggie appears in front of her then and reaches for the medicine. Willow swallows and blinks a few times, and her hand trembles as she looks uneasily around the room. If he doesn't have the cure, he won't leave. Maggie's right. He likes her. Maggie's right. He can move on. He can fall in love with her. She can keep him here forever. Maggie's right, Maggie's right, Maggie's right.
Maggie smiles triumphantly when Willow turns sharply and lifts the syringe as if she is preparing to hurl it at the wall.
But she doesn't.
She sprints from the room and through the door, wildly waving the Prevent around. "Mac!" she calls out. "Mac, I—" her voice breaks, "Mac, we've got it!"
Her eyes scan the space frantically, and she spots him just in time to see the glowing one fall limply to the ground at his feet. He looks up and spots the syringe, and his eyes widen.
"That's...?" he gasps, and Willow nods with a glassy-eyed smile.
"Yeah." she whispers.
MacCready doesn't even register that he's moving across the room. Suddenly, he is in front of Willow and she is placing the medicine into his hand and he is looking down at it and it hits him all at once.
"We did it." he whispers in disbelief. "H-Holy crap, we actually did it!" His voice raises and bounces off the cold walls of the room, and Willow smiles softly as she watches him. "We just gave Duncan a fighting chance at life..."
Despite the pain squeezing at her heart, she feels good seeing him so happy. She knows she did the right thing.
Suddenly, MacCready's arms are around her. He grips the Prevent with one hand, and the other grabs at the back of her head and gently pushes her into his chest. He squeezes tightly, and Willow's eyes widen, but she relaxes into the hug and wraps her own arms around him albeit weakly.
"I don't know how I'm ever going to repay you for this." MacCready murmurs, and Willow smiles into his chest.
"How about your binoculars?" she suggests and she is only half-joking. MacCready laughs and loosens his grip on her a bit, giving her the opportunity to slip from his grip and take a step back.
"That's all you want?! You can have them." he says and hurries to unclip them from his belt. He holds them out to Willow, who purses her lips in a smile and takes them.
"Nice." she whispers to herself, and MacCready laughs again.
"Thank you, Willow. Seriously, I... You have no idea how much this means to me. I'm not going to forget this." MacCready's voice softens again.
"Me neither." Willow replies, the words barely leaving her lips. Because this – these past ten days – they've been the happiest ten days of her life. She turns away to hide the tears that fall from her eyes onto her taut cheeks, then gestures with her head. "Come on." she says weakly, "Let's get outta this dump."
Standing on the stone steps outside, Willow turns to MacCready having had sufficient time to get ahold of herself. She forces a mournful smile and looks him up and down.
"So... This is it, huh?" she asks and curses her voice for wavering again.
To her surprise, MacCready furrows his brow. "Huh?" he asks and narrows his eyes.
Willow also narrows her eyes. "What do you mean, huh? Aren't you going back home now?"
MacCready chuckles. "Oh! I mean... Yeah, I am, but not by myself." Willow's brow creases, and MacCready continues before she can ask, "I'll go with one of Daisy's caravans. It's a lot safer and a lot faster, and I'm sure she won't have a problem having an extra gun along for the ride."
Willow nods. "Oh." she says dejectedly, "Then I guess we should head to Goodneighbour." As she is speaking, MacCready is checking his watch and he squints to check the smaller numbers within the center which display the date.
"Well, Daisy's next caravan doesn't leave for another few days." he says – he has the schedules memorized so he knows when to check for mail from Duncan. He looks to Willow through his brow and hums, "Which means..."
He is watching her expectantly, waiting for her to finish the sentence. Willow shifts uncomfortably and crosses her arms. "Um..." she shakes her head and shrugs.
MacCready laughs. "Which means Quincy. Obviously." he says, and Willow's eyes widen.
"What? Really?"
"Yeah, really. What? You think I'm just going to leave you high and dry after that?!" he sighs theatrically, "You really don't know me at all, do you?"
Willow stares after him as he brushes by her to head down the steps. He looks relaxed, content, and his high-spirits are admittedly contagious. She finally cracks a grin and sighs with relief, but before she can follow him, Maggie steps to her side and watches MacCready go disdainfully.
"It's only gonna hurt worse now." she says. Willow frowns only briefly, before she chuckles and shakes her head and begins after him.
"Who cares?"