"These are good fuckin' noodles," Nora said, speaking through a big mouthful of them. "How much I owe you?"

Piper shook her head. "This one's on the house," she said. "Best thing for a hangover, in my experience." After the interview had ground to a halt the previous night, Piper, lacking hard liquor, had taken Nora to the Dugout Inn and introduced her to Bobrov's Best Moonshine. One bottle was enough to knock Nora out, and Piper paid for a room for her for the night. She checked on her the next morning, just in time to find her waking up, and offered to buy her breakfast.

"I don't have one — I was something of a party girl back in college." Nora winked at Piper, then shrugged. "But hey, if it gets me free noodles, then yes, not only do I have one now, I will have one forever." This elicited a laugh from Piper. "Hey, Takahashi," Nora said, addressing the robot chef. "I will suck your robot dick for free noodles."

"Nan-ni shimasho-ka?" Takahashi replied.

"Okay, but you're missing out," Nora chided. "Not to brag, but I've probably smoked more pole than anyone alive."

Piper was swallowing her own mouthful of noodles, and that line made them pop down the wrong pipe. After a coughing fit (and Nora bizarrely hugging her from behind for some reason), she got back to business. "Okay, if this isn't the best time I would understand, but would you mind if we continued the interview?" Piper asked, rubbing the back of her neck. "If you don't want to, that's totally cool."

Nora slurped down another mouthful of noodles quickly so she could answer. "Oh, no, by all means go on," she said, giving a 'go ahead' gesture with the hand that held the chopsticks.

"Great!" Piper said, pulling out a notepad and a pencil from one of her pockets. "Okay, so, next question: do you think the Institute is responsible for your son's kidnapping?"

"Can't say," Nora said with a shrug. "Could be? I guess they're the bogeyman du jour these days, but I really don't know enough about them one way or the other to say." Nora took another big mouthful of noodles and thoughtfully chewed them. "'At least we still have the backup'," she murmured through the masticated food.

"What was that?" Piper asked, since she wasn't born with the gift to understand people who talked with their mouths full.

Nora didn't hear the question. She was mulling over the last thing Baldo Murderfucker had said after popping Nate. What did he mean by that, 'the backup'? It almost sounded like some science experiment shit. Being preserved in a vault for centuries… maybe it had something to do with the DNA? Maybe they needed Shaun's stem cells, not that Nora was sure newborn babies still had those. But stem cells from a baby who had never been contaminated with nuclear fallout, let alone whose parents and grandparents and great-grandparents had remained fallout-free, likely had more medical use than a baby who was the latest in half a dozen generations to be born in a world where you got the equivalent of an X-ray's worth of radiation every ten minutes, or something like that. And Nora was the backup because there might still be some stem cells in her own body — again, she wasn't clear on the medical nitty-gritty, so she could be way off the mark.

It occurred to her that some group looking to create robots that bore an uncanny likeness to humans would have great use for stem cells. Why bother manufacturing synthetic skin when you could just grow real skin in a vat?

"Yeah, maybe it was them," Nora finally said aloud, not bothering to explain her thought process.

Piper could tell there was something going on under the surface and frowned, but nodded. "Okay…" she said, jotting down Nora's response. "My last question: What do you have to say to somebody who's lost someone important to them, but is too afraid to go looking for them?"

Nora whipped her head around to face Piper, an angry glare in her eye. "You're afraid? Bullshit, motherfucker. Just over a month ago, subjectively speaking, I was a fuckin' housewife. The worst thing I had to deal with was getting my husband to put his underwear in the damned laundry hamper. Then I watched the world explode, and I lost absolutely everyone and everything that meant anything to me… except my robot butler." Nora broke the gaze with Piper, surprised at accidentally derailing her own point. She took a deep breath, looked back up at Piper, and continued. "I was able to rise up past all that and start looking for my son. You really think you've got it worse? You really think you have something left to lose after your heart and soul were torn out in front of your own eyes? Go fuck yourself, you chickenshit cockstain, because you obviously never loved your missing 'loved one' in the first place."

Piper's pencil was working overtime, jotting down every one of Nora's words in shorthand. "Holy shit, Blue, what an answer!" Piper said, giving her a savage grin. "I don't think I'll be able to actually print a word of it, but damn, woman, I think I'm in love!"

Nora's cheeks warmed with a blush, and, quite unexpectedly, she felt the tiniest flap of a butterfly in her heart again. Now that was unexpected as hell.

XXX

Nora watched with interest as Piper set the type on her printing press and set it going. "You know, I took auto shop for two years in high school," Nora said. "I could have a look at that thing for you later, if you'd like."

Piper raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Well, I won't say no…" she said, trailing off. "I wouldn't be able to pay you much, though."

Nora made a 'buzz off' gesture with the flapping of her hand. "Nonsense, I'd be glad to do it as a favor to you."

Piper again found her eyebrows propelled upward with surprise. "Really?" She narrowed her eyes some. "You're nice. Suspiciously nice."

"What can I say?" Nora said with a shrug and an innocent smile. "I'm a people pleaser."

Piper crossed her arms and scrutinized Nora. She didn't really much care for having a favor hang over her head. "Tell you what, why don't I show you around Diamond City some, maybe introduce you to some of the storekeepers, and someone who might be able to help you find your missing kid."

Nora beamed. "I'd love that, Piper. I actually have something that might be a bit unusual, I don't know if anyone here would be interested in buying it." She unzipped her backpack and stuck a hand in, rummaging about.

Piper resisted the urge to smirk. With an introduction like that, she was sure it was going to be some piece of shit garbage that, who knows, she picked up from the side of the road or something. It took her almost thirty seconds to process when Nora dropped the motherfucking gold bar on the floor between her feet. "Whhhoooaaaahoooooly shiiiiit," Piper said, which managed to eloquently get her feelings across. Her eyes widened when she realized Nora was still digging through her backpack. Within moments, the gold bar was joined by a second, and then a third. "That's… that's gotta be worth a thousand caps, easy!" she finally managed to blurt out. "Maybe a few hundred more, if you're persuasive enough!" She took off her cap and ran her fingers through her hair. "I mean, God, Blue, where the hell did you get all that?"

"My home. Sanctuary Hills." Nora shook her head. "Well, not technically MY home my home, but the neighborhood I lived in before the war. One of my neighbors had a do-it-yourself fallout shelter in their backyard, and they had three gold bars just layin' around inside." She narrowed her eyes and mumbled, "Too bad it wasn't 37 gold bars." Piper crinkled her eyebrows together at the non sequitur — why 37 specifically? — but chose not to pursue it. Nora shrugged and spoke up again. "I mean, if their great-great-great-great-great grandchildren show up, I'll gladly hand it over to them, but I don't really see that happening, uh, ever."

Piper slapped one hand to the side of her face. "Wait, that's the gold my great-great-great-great-great granny always told me about!" She and Nora stared one another down for a solid ten seconds before they both laughed. "Seriously, though, Blue — maybe I should start calling you Gold — everyone would be willing to pay top cap for those bars. Arturo'd probably be willing to let go a pretty decent rifle for one or two bars, along with a lot of ammunition."

Nora pursed her lips. "I don't really need a better gun… at least, not right now. I guess I'm more looking for mechanical and electronic parts… seeds… basically, any kind of scraps or other helpful raw materials to help a budding settlement."

Piper grimaced. "Well, Diamond City Surplus would probably be your best bet, but…"

"Buuuut?" Nora prompted.

"Myrna, the owner, is, uh, just a bit nuts." Nora gave Piper a 'go on' gesture. "Well, it might be kinda my fault?" Piper said, shrugging her shoulders a little. "I mean, she was more or less normal up until a few years ago, when I started up the paper and began putting out articles about the synths. She liked them at first — and liked me for writing the articles — but she kept trying to tell me how this person is a synth, or that person is a synth. She actually said Arturo was a synth because he's too nice, and Abbot, the guy who takes care of our wall, is a synth because he's too mean." Piper threw up her hands in exasperation, getting worked up over the memories. "I finally told her to stop bothering me with her crap — much more diplomatically, mind you — and she accused me of writing about synths to cover up my being a synth!"

"Well, are you?" Nora asked, a playful smile on her face.

Piper almost rose to the bait, but turned away and gathered herself for a moment. "No," she finally said when she turned back around. "I am not, in fact, a synth, although admittedly that's exactly what a synth would say."

Nora's smile widened to show more teeth. "So if I said I were a synth, that'd be proof that I wasn't?"

"Don't do that!" Piper shouted, then took another minute to calm herself. "Seriously, do not let Myrna hear you say that, or you'll be banned for life from her store." She chuckled. "Well, during daytime hours, anyway. Her Mr. Handy works the store at night."

Nora gave two thumbs up. "Synths are vampires and can only go out at night, good to know!"

XXX

Excerpt from "The Rise and Fall of the Institute"

…despite her brilliance, Nora's deductive leaps were occasionally… lacking.

XXXXXXXXXX

Nora telling Piper that she was a party girl is a nod to the perk of the same name. I'll try to note all the ones I sprinkled throughout, but if I miss any, you probably won't care, hahaha.

The bit about 37 gold bars is a reference to the New Vegas DLC Dead Money, where you could find but (normally) be unable to take all that lovely gold. Begin again? Let go? Fuck that! I'm getting PAID!