"Hope you didn't mind the reception," Deacon introduced himself. "When you tango with the Institute, you have to be careful when someone new gets on the dance floor."
"Hope you don't mind me telling you that your password fucking sucks," Nora responded.
"Hey, to be fair, how many people these days can even spell 'Railroad' in the first place?" Deacon asked, shrugging. "Hey, though, it's all good now, right? I vouched for you, nobody got shot… still, I would consider it a close, personal favor if you didn't sell us out to the Institute. Thanks."
Nora turned to Piper. "Holy crap, there's two of me!" she said, grinning. Piper groaned.
"So, Dez wants me to make you a 'tourist'," Deacon said, and he actually used air quotes, the pretentious bastard. "That's what we call someone who helps out with the odd job here and there." He shook his head. "What a waste." He pushed his mirrored sunglasses up on his face. "I'm just going to come out and say this: the Railroad needs you."
"Hey, quick question," Nora said. "Who's Dez?"
Deacon looked a little chagrined as he glanced at the tunnel behind him. "Oh, our esteemed leader must have forgotten to introduce herself while you were discussing the finer points of human-robot relations. Her full name is Desdemona, but don't call her Dez. Only I can get away with that."
"Cool, cool," Nora nodded. "So, how needful is this need? Dezzy didn't seem too peachy-keen on acquiring my help."
Deacon laughed. "Oh man, Dez is gonna haaaaaate that name," he said, grinning. "Promise me I get to be there to watch you lay it on her. But no, seriously, she's just trying to think of the time and manpower it'd take to train you. And if you were some hick from the 'burbs that didn't know your ass from a rocket launcher, she'd be right."
"I dunno, if I eat enough Mexican food, it's really hard to tell the difference," Nora said. Both she and Deacon laughed and high-fived. Piper idly felt the weight of the pistol in its holster, and weighed the pros and cons of killing them both for just a brief second. The only thing that really stopped her was the thought that she'd be stuck with Strong, and nobody else would be damnfool enough to take him off her hands.
"I'm betting, though, that someone like you just needs a few pointers and a target." He gave her a confident smile. "I've got a job. Too big for me, just perfect for the two of us."
"Uh, three of us?" Nora said, pointing at Piper. Nora opened her mouth to ask about the job, then ground to a halt as something really important occurred to her. Nora looked at Piper again with intense scrutiny.. "Hey, Dezzy didn't grill you about joining the Railroad! Didn't ask you a single fucking question! What the hell?"
Piper gave her a playful little smirk. "That's because I went through that particular song and dance months ago, Blue."
Nora swatted her on the shoulder. "Bitch! Thanks for telling me you were in a top secret club this whole time, NOT! And this one's for trying to trick me into walking the entire damn Freedom Trail!" She gave Piper another swat, but the newswoman simply dodged out of the way and cackled, immensely pleased to have gotten one over on Nora for once.
"As I was saying," Dean continued, smirking at the bickering. "You help me out, we turn a few heads, and then Dez invites you into the fold. After that, the Railroad will have your back."
"Oh hey, is Nick a part of this outfit?" Nora asked. "I want to know if I owe him a wallop for being a jerk, too."
"I can neither confirm nor deny," Piper said, grinning.
Deacon raised his hands up. "Hey, sorry, operational security. If Nick Valentine is part of our outfit, I can only tell you if I kill you after."
Nora scowled at being picked on. "Well, how about Strong? I doubt he's part of your little jerk club!" she sneered.
"No, Blue, Strong is not in the Railroad," Piper said, sighing. She turned to Deacon. "Strong is… well, he's a super mutant. A bit eccentric, since he doesn't want to rip peoples' heads off at first sight —"
"Yeah, I'm a little familiar with him," Deacon nodded, cutting her off. "I can confirm we do not, in fact, have any super mutants in our ranks, but for your large friend, well, I can run it by Dez, see what she thinks. You can probably bring him by whenever, though — something tells me he won't go tattling on us to the Institute."
"We figure he probably worked for the Institute at one point," Nora said, going on to explain what she, Piper and Polly had found out.
"…Birds, huh?" Deacon said, a little flabbergasted. "Almost sounds like a theory Tom would appreciate, except you've got some good reasoning and solid evidence. When I tell Dez we have to worry about being seen by birds, I think she really will kill me." He chuckled. "Back to my job, though — once I finish telling you about it, then you can unload any and all wild theories and disturbing personal revelations on me. Up front, the only thing I'll say is it's going to be a wild and dangerous ride." He spread out his arms. "Definitely nothing new for someone like you, though."
"I'm in like Flynn Taggart," Nora affirmed.
"Perfecto!" Deacon cheered. "Let's meet up at the old freeway outside Lexington. I'll fill you in once you get there."
XXX
"Are you sure you don't wanna come?" Nora asked.
"I'd like to, but Deacon emphasized it being a two-person job," Piper pointed out. "He takes this kind of thing seriously, so I say let's follow his lead, okay?"
"Okay," Nora said. "Do you just wanna wait here until we're done with the mission?"
'Here' was a Slocum's Joe close to the on-ramp they'd just cleared out. They'd been making their way towards the meeting point when Nora had spied the road littered with landmines, and the synths camped out in the old coffee shop. She'd snuck forward, disarmed a few of the mines, then activated them and tossed them into the diner in quick succession, her and Piper rapidly finishing off the survivors of the explosions with a few good shots each. Nora had found another intact Institute laser rifle among the fallen and convinced Piper to carry it (she'd always fussed about Piper's sole weapon being a pistol, constantly fretting about its ineffectiveness towards the nastier residents of the Commonwealth).
"I can wait here for a while," Piper agreed. "If it starts getting close to sunset, though, I'll head up to the outpost you and the Minutemen have set up at Starlight, okay?"
"That's fair," Nora nodded, hugging the woman before leaving. She waited in a place where she could keep an eye on the highway up above. With no Nora (and no impressionable Nat), Piper felt free to pull out a cigarette and light up, relishing the sensation of the stale, stale tobacco filling her lungs. She smoked a lot more before Nora came into her life, and while the older woman hadn't spoken out about it directly, she did give her the stink eye whenever Piper would light up, or make an offhand comment about how she figured dying of old age was a statistical unlikelihood given all the other hazards the Commonwealth offered, so what was one more. Sure, Nat had needled her over the habit plenty of times, but there was just something about Nora's approach (or maybe just Nora herself) that, well, made her want to quit. (She still found all the foul looks and remarks aggravating, though).
Within the hour, she saw two figures making their way along the highway, most likely Nora and Deacon. She watched one of them (probably Nora) wave their hands around animatedly, something Nora did when she really got going on one tangent or another. After a few minutes, they stopped, and a third figure popped into view. They talked for a few minutes, then the one she pegged as Nora came to the crash barrier and leaned out. "Hey Piper!" she heard Nora bellowing. "Did any more synths show up there in the past hour?" Next to her, the other figure — Deacon — let out a guffaw of laughter loud enough to be heard across the distance.
It took another hour for them to make their way back to the Slocum's Joe. Deacon laughed when he saw Piper and clapped her on the back. "I tell you, Piper, you know you recruited your secret agents good when one of them clears one leg of your secret mission not only on their own initiative, but without even realizing it was part of their mission in the first place."
Piper smiled. "So, should I clear out, or…?"
Deacon shook his head. "Nah, you can stay. You and Nora are the actual duo, it seems, and I'm just now finding out I'm the third wheel."
Nora gave Piper a calculated look. "Hey Piper, I know we've had a lot of, ah, emotional tension between the two of us, so I've been meaning to clarify this before things progress much farther: Would you mind if we ever had a third wheel? Or more?"
"Uh…" Piper struggled to not turn away as she usually did. "…No, I wouldn't mind, but I'd be a little worried about the third wheel's axle being too big to, uh…" She trailed off with the realization that extending the metaphor didn't really work if you knew nothing about wheeled vehicles apart from 'Run away if they start shooting out flames'. "Basically, I'm not saying no, with the exception of Strong."
Nora cocked an eyebrow. "Well, I was talking more in general terms, like if I had partners other than you, but it's really nice to know you're open to a threesome."
"Oh hell," Piper grumbled, blushing.
"I should let you know ahead of time that I am a eunuch, for religious reasons," Deacon said. "I am a worn out rubber tire with no air valve."
Nora opened her mouth to say something else, then Piper saw the telltale wrinkle of her nostrils. Busted. Nora ducked back out for a moment and returned wearing a skull bandana over her nose and mouth. Piper sighed — two steps forward, one step back.
Ironically, going through the Slocum's Joe to their goal proved to be impossible, since an access path through the basement didn't have any power. "Guess we'll have to take the back door after all," Nora said, dejected. She gave Piper a look. "Not that I object to the back door under, ah, other circumstances," she clarified, cocking an eyebrow for emphasis.
"Where exactly are we going?" Piper asked, trying to steer the conversation away from randy insinuations.
"The Railroad's old headquarters, before we moved to the church," Deacon explained.
"We gotta find some important something or other," Nora added.
Piper gave Nora a look. "Is this an 'I forgot' something or other, or 'Deacon didn't tell me' something or other?" she asked.
"Deacon didn't tell me," Nora said.
"She forgot," Deacon said, simultaneously.
Nora gave Deacon a scandalized look. "You ass!" She took a swing at him with her foot, barely missing his ass as he darted out of the way, laughing.
Once they entered the drainpipe, Deacon explained what they were looking for. "We're retrieving a prototype developed by our good Dr. Carrington."
"Oh, a prototype, of course!" Nora said, sarcastic. "That explains everything! Except for 'a prototype of what', 'what does it look like', and my personal favorite, 'can I use it to become incredibly wealthy'."
"It's a prototype of 'top secret', it looks like 'top secret', and 'probably not, since the real treasure was the friends we made along the way,'" Deacon responded.
"Aww, friends!" Nora cooed, forcibly hugging Deacon, who returned the hug with equal friendliness.
"Weirdos," Piper muttered.
They walked deeper in the subterranean passage. A chalk marking was on the wall next to a corpse. "Someone left a rail sign here," Deacon said. "This one means danger."
Nora looked down at the corpse splayed out next to the rail sign. Someone, indeed. "I'd say the corpse is a pretty good sign of that," she pointed out, bending over to examine him. "Poor Roger," she remarked, going through his pockets. "He died so that we may live."
Deacon's good humor evaporated in an instant. "What did you call him?"
"Oh, she likes to make names up for people, and sometimes items of clothing," Piper said, dismissive. "It's one of her many quirks I've learned to steadfastly ignore."
"You don't get it, Piper. His name actually was Roger." Deacon adjusted his sunglasses. "Wait, so you're saying she's done this before?"
"Yeah," Piper said, now alarmed at the prospect that it had some basis in reality.
"Well, on the bright side, that probably means she isn't a synth who knew our agents on sight and was involved in this raid," he said. "On the other hand, that's indicative of, what, some kind of psychic ability? That's the kind of thing way outside even my paygrade. Maybe Tom will have some ideas, if and when we complete this mission."
"Never a dull minute, Blue," Piper remarked, before the three continued onward.
They continued on farther, disposing a few synths and Nora noting the names of each corpse she passed by: Maven, and Ms. Boom, and Sly Nicholas, and Mr. Mathers. "Okay, I don't mean to be a killjoy, but that's actually really unnerving," Deacon said. "Could you please stop?"
"Oh, sorry!" Nora said sincerely. "I won't do it again!"
Piper narrowed her eyes. "…Did you just say you won't do it again?" she asked. "Does that mean I could have asked you to stop doing anything I found obnoxious, and you would have just done it?"
"Of course I would have," Nora said. "How else would I know that you didn't actually want me to stop doing something if you don't ask?"
Piper took off her fedora and ran her fingers through her hair, resisting the urge to tear it out. "That would have been really useful information to know when I first met you!"
Nora shook her head. "No, it wouldn't have been," she countered. "After all, you don't really find anything I do obnoxious, do you?" She caressed Piper's cheek.
Piper stammered a bit, before she found a rebuttal. "W-well, your turn to cannibalism, while not entirely shocking or surprising, to be honest, I find a little abhorrent!"
Nora nodded. "Okay, I'll give you that, but that's more of a violation of societal norms thing, not a personal pet peeve." She leaned in close to Piper's ear. "If we were all alone on a desert island — a real one — you'd probably love watching me eating someone's guts right out of their chest cavity," she purred. "You would take one look at my gore-slick face and you wouldn't be able to help yourself." Nora withdrew, gave Piper a big smile, and walked off, further into the passage.
"Damnit, Blue, don't use cannibalistic imagery when you're laying on the sexy talk!" she shouted in a higher pitch than normal. It took her a few moments to follow, as she had a hard time breathing right for a while there and had to get herself back under control. Why did she have to fall for a certified maniac?
The three of them walked through a door and fell into battle with the synths waiting on the other side. After felling the last of them (and after performing her typical post-battle ritual of liberating all the goodies), Deacon started explaining that it was an old secret pre-war base. Nora barely heard him, though, because she found a still-active terminal in an upstairs room and was reading through it. She was so sucked into it that when Piper lightly touched her on the shoulder, she fell out of the chair with a small scream.
"Jeez, Blue, you okay? I was saying your name, like, four or five times!" Piper said, helping her up.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Nora replied, still visibly shaken. "Just…" she gestured to the computer. "It never gets easier reading firsthand accounts of the world coming to an end, you know? Even if this one's just automated computer message shit, it's still chilling as hell."
Piper read through the 200-year-old DEFCON status report, grimacing. "Yeah, this is bleak stuff. I can't imagine what it must have been like living through it." She got out of the chair and gave Nora a hug, who returned it. She had an idea of how to get Nora's mind off of the Great War. "You know, Blue, it's a two way street," she said. "If there's anything you don't like about me, you should let me know. Directly." She pulled out a cigarette and lit it up, smirking as she blew a cloud of smoke directly at Nora.
Nora pulled her skull facemask back into place and gave Piper an arch look. "Piper, I'm not going to tell you how to live your life, but I'll tell you the same thing I told Nate: you ain't ever gonna head south of the border unless you drop that shit harder than an airdropped suit of power armor." She gestured to her waist to make absolutely clear which border she was referring to. She gave Piper a final wink before walking out of the room, leaving the reporter to question her life choices as her libido warred with the part of her brain that craved nicotine.
XXXXXXXXXX
More playing around with Nora's supernatural name-seeing ability, haha. When you first meet Desdemona, she's clear across the room, so you don't actually get close enough to see her nametag (hence Nora not knowing it). And it's odd that you can put a name to the various Railroad corpses in Switchboard, too.
It actually makes sense that Piper (and maybe Nick?) are involved in the Railroad as tourists or whatever. But it's never brought up in game, and you can just bring almost anyone along to the Railroad's secret hideout anyway.
The Railroad also kinda knows about the bird spies — I think Desdemona mentions it offhandedly at one point once, but I cannot recall the specific line.
"In like Flynn" is an old saying regarding being suave like that old dead bastard Errol Flynn. Flynn Taggart is the name given to the protagonist of the Doom games in the novelizations of those games that came out in the 90s. God, I fucking love those books. I wish there were a hundred of them, not just four.
Deacon doesn't actually react if you clear out the Slocum's Joe before you're supposed to. Oh well.
Deacon also isn't available as a romance partner, and I figured the best way to explain that in this story is with his typical over-the-top bullshit, haha.