Paladin Danse lay on his cot, unable to sleep for all the thoughts running through his mind. The Prydwen had been updating on their progress and they would be arriving in the next few days. He was looking forward to getting on board again, eager to be assigned to new missions, and seeing his brothers and sisters again. Most of them, anyway.
He also thought of Lillian, hoping she was safe. Was she closer to finding her son? He had hoped she would've stopped by, so he could check in with her, make sure she was safe, and have Haylen set up that messaging system Just to check in on her progress with finding the missing recon team, of course.
"Ahem."
He opened his eyes and saw Haylen standing over him. "Yes?"
"Sorry to bother you, sir, but Head Scribe Bates is wanting to speak with you."
"Bates?" Danse quickly stood up and looked at the clock on the wall. "It's two thirty in the morning."
Haylen shrugged. "Says it's urgent."
He inwardly groaned and followed Haylen to the radio. Bates had always been a thorn in his side, and always seemed to go out of his way to be irritating to the field soldiers but not enough to be reprimanded or demoted. Proctor Quinlan seems to like him, anyway.
Danse sat at the radio and cricked his neck a couple times before pressing the button to talk.
"Paladin Danse speaking."
"Dansey boy, how've you been?" Bates's overly cheerful voice came through the speakers causing him to frown.
"What is the purpose of this transmission, Scribe?" Danse said sternly, trying to retain some sort of decorum.
"What, no 'howdy, how you doing?' Rude, no wonder you were promoted to Paladin."
"What do you want, Bates? What's so urgent you needed to get hold of me in the middle of the night?"
"As you know, we on the Prydwen are on our way and are looking at the, hold on, Boston International Airport for docking. Is it clear?"
Danse gritted his teeth before replying. "No, it was full of ferals. My squad barely made it out ourselves."
"Tsk-tsk, I did read your report about it. Shame about Dawes, though. Probably shouldn't have gone to Fort Strong after failing to secure the airport."
"Is there anything else, Bates?"
"Yes, Scribe Haylen has informed us of the strange readings. Has anything come of that yet?"
"Negative. They're too brief to pinpoint exact locations and with there being only three of us–"
"Four, isn't it? I have a file here saying you have recruited a new member, Initiate Lillian Parker."
"Yes. She is currently on mission to locate the whereabouts of Recon Squad Artemis." Or so he hoped.
"On her own? Hm. You seem to be putting a lot of trust in someone you just met."
"She is very capable."
"How pretty is she?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"How pretty is Initiate Parker? Like, is she a stunner like Knight Swanson, or is she uglier than a super mutant's ass? Or just a plain Jane like Haylen?"
"I will not have you talk about Scribe Haylen like that! And Lil-, I mean, Initiate Parker's appearance has nothing to do with her abilities in the field."
"Ugly, huh? Shame. Would've thought you'd finally get lucky."
"Scribe, that is highly inappropriate and I will bring this up to Proctor Quinlan."
"Damn, you sound pent up. You sure there aren't any horny Commonwealth girls nearby to—"
"I am ending this and you will be reprimanded."
"Oh, come on, it was just a–"
Danse slammed his hand on the radio power, ending the transmission. Prick. He rubbed his eyes, now aware of his throbbing headache. Maybe he could try to sleep it off.
He stood and was startled by Haylen still standing there.
"Bates sounds just as charming as always," she smirked.
"I apologise you had to hear that."
She shrugged and smiled. "It's fine, I'm not bothered by it."
"Transmission wasn't even that urgent." He passed Haylen to return to his cot.
"You know, she is quite pretty."
"What?" Danse turned back to her.
"Lillian, she's quite pretty. Don't you think?" She smiled slyly at him.
"I haven't noticed," he lied and quickly left as he felt his face start to heat up. He grabbed his laser pistol and headed outside for some air.
Lillian was conventionally attractive, he supposed, and certainly not ugly. Actually, she was quite striking, even when her hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail and her lightly freckled face was smudged with dirt. Her smile and green eyes could light up a room. He had seen a picture of her in another article in the newspaper archives Haylen had saved, and she was even more stunning on stage. Her husband was a very lucky man.
Danse sighed and shook his head. He shouldn't be thinking like this about her. What would she think if she knew? What would her husband think?
"Everything alright, sir?" Rhys interrupted his thoughts.
"Yes, just needed a little bit of air. Everything clear?"
"All clear, sir."
Danse nodded and went back inside. He lay back down in his cot, but instead of going to sleep, he wondered how much longer until the Prydwen arrived. And how much longer he'd have to wait for Lillian to come back.
Lillian woke up so early the sun had barely started to rise. She sat up, feeling a little stiff from sleeping on the worn couch, and stretched her arms over her head. It was quiet, apart from the familiar sound of Codsworth roaming about.
She stood, did a few more stretches, and wondered if Nick had found anything. Her stomach churned with worry. What if he didn't find any clues? What if he did?
She wandered into the kitchen and started to open and close some of the cupboards and drawers. There were a couple of cracked bowls and a single old fork which she had found in her neighbour's cellar. The dishes she and Nate received for their wedding from his grandparents were long gone, but she still hoped to see them again, impossible as it may be.
After wiping away a tear, she headed down the hallway, stopping at the bathroom. She sighed, wondering what it would take to get proper plumbing set up again. Abbott in Diamond City had set up some plumbing for her place, but it was very basic and there was no hot water, which definitely made bathing unpleasant.
What she'd do just to have a hot shower again.
She ran her fingers on the rusted sink, thinking back to that last morning.
Lillian was passing the bathroom when she noticed Nate was bent over the sink.
"You okay, honey?" she asked. He quickly stood straight.
"Oh, yeah. Just dandy." Nate turned the sink on to wash his face.
"Nervous?"
"Why? Do I look nervous? Because I'm not."
"Is it the speech at the Veteran's Hall?"
Nate sighed and nodded. Lillian hugged him from behind.
"Well I think you're going to be just fine."
"How do you do it?"
"I've never done any speeches. Apart from the few I had to do at college, but I was usually hungover."
"Heh, no, I mean how did you perform on stage? And in front of so many people?"
"Well, I cried the first time I danced on stage, if that makes you feel any better."
"How old were you?"
"Five," Lillian giggled.
"Gosh, I feel so much better now," Nate turned around to hug her tightly and kissed the side of her head. "I don't think I can do this."
"Yes, you can," she kissed him back and looked at him. It was almost unnerving how tense he was, a thin layer of sweat covered his forehead, and his eyes were more serious and worried than she had ever seen. "Why don't you think you can do your speech?"
Nate looked down and away. "Do you remember Brett Henderson? His family will be there. So will Seth Billingsley's family. How can I stand there and talk about my supposed achievements in front of them?"
"Then honour them. It's not too late to edit your speech, is it?"
"I guess not."
"I think you'll be okay, and the Hendersons and Billingsleys will appreciate what you have to say."
"You think so?"
"I know so. Now hurry up, I still have to get ready too."
Nate smiled and kissed her again before turning back to the mirror to wash up and rehearse his speech again.
The mirror had long been broken, probably shattered in the blast. She wished she could just have one more morning with them. A shuffling sound from the bedroom interrupted her thoughts.
Lillian found Piper asleep on her bed and for a moment she felt a surge of anger run through her. Then she sighed and left. Piper couldn't have known that she preferred that no one else sleep there. At least Shaun's room was empty of unwanted visitors.
She was about to sit back down on the couch when she saw Nick walking along the road. She hurried out to him.
"Hey, sleep okay?" Nick asked.
"I guess," she shrugged. "What did you find?"
"Not a whole lot, to be honest," Nick shrugged. "Someone had overridden the controls to the pods. It doesn't say who but they had the password and they only opened your husband's pod to take your son. But there's still no indication of who or why they would take a baby."
"Well, I guess we're no closer to finding any answers," Lillian said sadly.
"There is one more thing," Nick said. "Now, I will understand if you get upset but I had to gather as much evidence as possible. I opened your husband's pod and I was able to retrieve a 44 caliber bullet. It wasn't in his body, but lodged in the material behind him. It's not much, but it's something." He reached into his pocket and showed her the remains of a bullet.
Lillian turned away and tried to keep herself from bursting out sobbing. She felt Nick's hand gently touch her shoulder.
"I'm so sorry," he consoled her. "I left him be."
"So there's no way we can find the man who killed my husband and kidnapped my son?"
"Well, we could always ask caravaners. They travel all over the Commonwealth so perhaps one of them has seen something. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack, I know, but it's all we got right now."
Lillian sniffled and wiped her face with her sleeve. She nodded slightly and walked away. What now? It felt so hopeless, that she'd never find out what happened to Shaun. He was the only thing she had left.
She wandered past the houses that were still standing and ended up down by the river. She sat on a large rock and looked out into the water, watching the rising sun rays shimmer in the gentle waves.
"Um, hey."
She looked up to see a sad-looking man, whom she remembered to be Jun Long of the small group with Preston Garvey.
"Sorry, am I interrupting?" he asked.
"No, it's fine," she gestured for him to sit next to her but he remained standing.
"It's just, I want to thank you for coming along when you did. It's been… it's been a really bad time for all of us."
"What happened to you?"
"We used to live in Quincy, do you know it?"
Lillian nodded. "Though, I knew it a long time ago."
"Well, we used to live there. But then the Gunners attacked, and even though the Minutemen helped us, some of them ended up betraying us to the Gunners. We… we lost a lot of people, including our son."
"I'm so sorry," she stood up. "No one should ever lose their child."
"No, they shouldn't," he said angrily. "I just wish I could've done something more."
"What was your son's name?"
"Kyle. His name was Kyle. We barely just finished burying him before we had to leave. We left everything behind. Anyway, I'll leave you to it."
She watched him leave and looked back out to the river. How many people out here have had to bury their own children? Was Shaun already one of them? Would she ever know for sure? She wished Nate was there, he'd know what to do.
Her vision went blurry as tears welled up in her eyes and before she could stop herself, began to cry again. She hugged her thighs to her chest and sobbed into her knees. It seemed so impossible that she would ever find Shaun.
"The hell you cryin' for?" Cait shuffled over and lit a cigarette.
"Leave me alone," Lillian wiped her face with her sleeve.
"Jesus, you're always cryin'," Cait took a long drag then exhaled the smoke out slowly. "You ever try not cryin'?"
"Fuck off," Lillian sniffled.
"Excuse me?"
"I said, fuck off," Lillian said louder and stood up. "My son is missing and my husband is dead and you're telling me to stop crying about it?"
Cait shrugged. "People go missin' and murdered all the time."
"Why don't you fuck off back to that shithole Piper and I got you out of and leave me the hell alone?" Lillian yelled at her.
"Well why don't you fuck off back into that vault you came out of?" Cait yelled back.
Lillian slapped her hard and knocked her cigarette into the river. Cait slapped her back causing her to stumble back into the rock.
"Fuck you!" Cait yelled and stalked off, leaving Lillian alone to break down again.
Paladin Danse sat in the dark interrogation room, rubbing his temples to hopefully ease his headache. They felt more frequent these days, but it must be from the weather. It was still unseasonably warm for the time of year.
At least things were still fairly quiet. As far as they could tell, the ghouls hadn't returned to the square and while the super mutants were still holed up in the building down the street, they hadn't been venturing out much. Caravaners and travelers passed by, but nothing out of the ordinary.
Still no sign of Lillian. Haylen usually listened to the radio station from Diamond City, but the DJ didn't have any relevant news. Only something about some explosions and a dead behemoth in Lexington, but that was probably from the raiders holed up at the Corvega factory.
"Sorry to interrupt, Paladin, but Scribe Haylen would like to speak to you," Rhys poked his head in.
"Sure, thank you, Knight," Danse blinked hard a couple of times before standing up. The dim light from the hallway still seemed so blinding, but he tried to ignore it.
He found Haylen in the front lobby with a large map spread across the table. She used a ruler to draw a straight line between two markings.
"You wanted to see me, Haylen?"
"Yes, I wanted to let you know that there were a cluster of those high energy readings just south of the water treatment plant," she pointed to the spot on the map. "And there were a few more closer to Fort Hagen."
"Do you think it might be coming from the military base?"
"It's possible. It'll be worth having a look when the Prydwen gets here." Haylen paused. "But there have been readings throughout Boston and also out east, but I haven't been able to discern a pattern yet because I haven't been able to pinpoint exact locations. If I try to triangulate a position, it either centers here at the police station, Bunker Hill, or even Lexington."
"Hm, well I think we can rule out the police station being the source, unless there's something you're not telling me."
"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about my secret basement laboratory," Haylen joked, "But yes, I have already ruled out the police station. I just wanted to let you know about these new readings."
"Thank you, I'll make a note of it." He looked down at the map and tried to decipher the lines Haylen had drawn, but none of it made sense to him.
"Sir?"
"Hm?"
"I can give you a small dose of med-x for your headaches."
Danse looked up at her. "No, I'll be fine. We don't have much so best to save it when we really need it." He turned to leave and heard Haylen sigh in slight annoyance.
Lillian hoped it wasn't too obvious she had been crying as she made her way back into the neighbourhood. She hadn't realised how many people were actually there now, far more than before the war.
"There you are!" Piper ran up to her. "Thought you ran off without me. You okay?"
"Yeah."
"You sure? You look like you've been crying."
"I'm fine."
"Okay." Piper looked skeptical. "So Nick told me what he found, or rather what he didn't find, down in the vault. Guess we'll have to start asking around, huh?"
"I guess."
"Well, that's what I do best, so I'll be more than happy to continue traveling with you."
"Sure."
Piper stared at her for a moment then stepped forward to hug her. Lillian hugged her back, biting her lip to keep from crying again. God, maybe she did need to stop crying so much.
"So, what's the plan? Do you want to stay here for a bit, or head out?" Piper asked.
"I don't know yet." What was the point, Lillian thought.
Piper was about to say something further but was interrupted by Canigou brushing past her to approach Lillian. Lillian knelt down to pet him as he licked her face happily.
"I guess we're staying," Piper said with a smile and scratched Canigou's head. "So what happened to his leg?"
"Super mutant," Lillian stood up. "They fixed him up over at the police station."
"The police station in Cambridge?" Piper's eyes widened, "You mean the Brotherhood of Steel helped you out?"
"Um, yes?"
"We walked right by and you didn't say anything?"
"Apparently?"
"I've been trying to get in there for ages! So who are they? What are they like? Why did they let you in?'
"Well, they were getting attacked by a bunch of those ghouls and I had Canigou with me, so we helped."
"Damn, so what are they like?"
"They're nice," Lillian said, "Well, two of them are. The other one, not so much."
"Wait, there are only three? I thought I'd seen more there before."
"I think they've had some bad luck." She didn't want to tell her too much.
"Oh, so what are they doing here?"
Lillian paused, wondering why Piper wanted to know. "I guess they're just checking things out around here."
"Yeah, I'm sure they're just 'checking things out'," Piper rolled her eyes, "I bet they're up to something. Do you know if there are more coming?"
"I don't know, but Paladin Danse did ask me to look for another missing patrol."
"Missing patrol? Oh my god, tell me more."
"Um, I don't know if I should," Lillian said. Maybe she should tell Piper. Sure she'd probably blab about it in her paper, but at least that's someone else who could help.
"At least tell me how long they've been missing. I don't think I've even seen any other Brotherhood patrols out here."
"Three years."
"Oh. So we're probably not looking for anyone alive, huh?"
"Maybe not, but at least they'll know what happened."
Piper's eyebrows furrowed in thought. "Right, so maybe we could head out, ask around about your son or this Kellogg guy, and also try to find out more about this missing Brotherhood patrol."
Lillian didn't answer right away. Maybe this would be a good distraction, looking for someone else instead. At least she already had a clue of where to find the missing patrol. Who knows, maybe finding the patrol would lead her closer into finding Shaun.
"Hey, good to see you again," Preston walked up. Canigou hobbled over and he knelt down to pet him.
"Hi, so how are things around here?" Lillian asked.
"Pretty darn good, it's really coming together." Preston paused as Canigou started to lick his face. "So I was wondering if you had a chance to get over to Tenpines yet?"
"No, I haven't," Lillian said, "I haven't had time."
"Oh, well, they could still use some assistance if you could get there," Preston stood up.
"You really don't have anyone else to do it?"
"No, we're just getting things started again. I don't have anyone to spare and you're already out there, so…" he tapered off apologetically.
Lillian looked down at her Pipboy's map, scrolling to find the location of the Tenpines settlement. "I guess we'd only need to take a bit of a detour if we go by there first."
Piper looked over her shoulder at the map. "That's more ground we can cover too. So how about we stay here today, rest up a bit, then head out tomorrow?"
"Yeah, sure," Lillian said, marking the route to Tenpines. At least they didn't have to leave that day, and maybe she could find something to distract her.
"What kind of help do those people need?" Piper asked Preston.
"I'm not sure, maybe they need an extra pair of hands for fixing up things or shoring up defenses," Preston shrugged, pet Canigou once again, then headed back down the road.
"Well, I guess we're getting our hands dirty one way or another," Piper said.
"Yeah." Lillian watched Canigou trot away slowly, still clearly getting used to his missing leg. Her stomach rumbled as she realised she was hungry. Just as she was wondering whether or not she'd have to cook her own food, Codsworth approached.
"Good morning, mum! Awfully nice day for a walk, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is. I'm getting a little hungry, though."
"Well then you'll want to go see Konnie, pleasant chap, been cooking up meals for everyone here," Codsworth said with a hint of disdain, "But if you want a good kebab on the barbeque, I will be happy to oblige!"
"I'll have kebabs later, Codsworth, thanks," Lillian said, amused by the amount of envy he expressed.
She and Piper headed over to a small shack she hadn't noticed before. There were a few people waiting in line plus a few more sat at makeshift tables outside. Lillian paused when she spotted Cait sitting at one of the tables, carving into it with her knife. She stopped when she saw Lillian then waved her over.
"Hey, c'mere," Cait called out. Lillian was about to turn the other way, but stopped herself when the other people looked. She reluctantly joined Cait at her table.
"You going to tell me to fuck off again?" Lillian asked, then was startled by a young woman laughing nearby.
"No, I just want to tell ya I'm sorry for being a cunt," Cait said quietly.
"Whoa, wait, who are you, what did you do with Cait?" Piper leaned forward to feel Cait's forehead, but her hand was swatted away.
"Shut up," Cait leaned in closer to Lillian, "Look, I don't even know if I can trust you, but I don't have a choice. I'm sick, I've been using Psycho but I haven't had a hit in ages and I can't get any and I've been coughing up blood and —"
"Whoa, it's okay," Piper put her arm around Cait's shoulders, "We'll help you, won't we?"
"Yeah, of course," Lillian said. May as well add something else to the list of things to do.
"Really? 'Cause I only know of one way that'll help," Cait said. "It's at some vault somewhere southwest of the city."
Lillian tensed up at the mention of a vault. Not again, she can't go into another vault. It was difficult enough getting Nick out of the one at Park Street Station.
"Okay, so we'll figure out getting there, but maybe until then you can see that doctor here," Piper said.
"I can't afford that," Cait said quietly.
"We'll figure that out too," Lillian said. She looked down at the table to see what Cait had been carving. FUCK U. She yelled out in surprise when Cait stabbed her knife back into the table. The young woman nearby burst out laughing again.
"Who is that?" Piper looked over at who was laughing.
The young woman was painting at another table, giggling loudly. She was quite small and skinny, and seemed to have a developmental disability. Another woman was sitting with her, trying to get her to focus back on the painting.
"Oh, that's Lizzie, she doesn't talk much, but she's funny," Cait said without looking up. "Michelle looks after her. Don't know how they made it out here, but glad they did."
Lillian looked back over at Lizzie who was painting a large piece of cardboard blue while Michelle looked on. They were incredibly lucky to have survived out here for so long, especially someone who couldn't have been able to defend herself.
"Hey, Lizzie, are we going to drink again tonight?" Cait asked.
"No!" Lizzie giggled.
"Do you want to try some beer?"
"No!"
"How about some wine?"
"No!"
"What's your favourite word?"
"No!"
"Yep," Cait smiled and turned back to Lillian and Piper, "Good luck asking her anything, she'll just say no regardless."
"Huh, didn't know you had any kind of compassion," Piper said. "But let's go see that doctor, get something to tide you over until we can get to that vault."
Cait sighed loudly but followed Piper towards the clinic. Lillian stayed at the table and watched Lizzie finish up her painting, present it to Michelle, then immediately started to paint another piece of cardboard.
"How about we do this one in another colour," Michelle said, placing the blue painted cardboard aside.
"Blue!"
"But Konnie wanted different colours. How about red?"
"Red!"
Lizzie started to paint the next cardboard red as a grizzled looking man with an eyepatch approached them.
"My place is going to be the best lookin' eatery in the Commonwealth," he said with a smile. Lizzie laughed loudly then continued to paint as the man went over to Lillian. "Hey, you're Lillian, right? Proprietor of Sanctuary Hills?"
"Um, I wouldn't say that," she said quietly. "I guess I just lived here first."
"Close enough," he shrugged. "I'm Konnie, and if you're hungry I can make almost anything, and if you're thirsty, I have almost anything."
"I am a bit hungry, but don't know what I want exactly. Maybe something kind of light?"
"I got just the thing," Konnie nodded and headed back to the shack, complimenting Lizzie's painting again on the way.
As Lillian ate her mystery soup (she didn't ask what was in it, but it was quite tasty), she thought about her growing list of tasks. She knew she was just trying to put off the inevitable, but she wasn't ready to face whatever truth awaited her.