Chapter 15 – Heather

"She is already awake." Curie remarked as she leant over to check Heathers vitals. Just on cue Heather let out a groan of pain. It was not long after Valkyrie and Curie had disappeared downstairs, that the recently spanked Curie called the team down to her sleeping area, as she was planning to wake their patient up. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Nate could see Curie displaying none of the hallmarks of someone having just received a good spanking. Her hair was immaculate, as always, and she looked fresh and enthusiastic as she explained the process of waking Heather and the assessment she intended on carrying out.

"Now I will give her some Flumazenil," Curie explained, holding up a syringe. "This reverses the effects of the sedative I have been giving her." Curie gave Heather the injection into her thigh, and it wasn't long before Heathers eye lashes began to flicker, and she eventually opened her eyes.

"Fuck my head hurts." She said drowsily.

"Hi Heather, I'm Curie and you are safe, in Diamond City, with us." She smiled and showed the team who were all crowded into the small sleeping alcove. Nate chuckled to himself as poor Heather, who had just come round from being unconscious, was greeted by a gaggle of stupidly grinning faces all crowding over her.

"Hi." Heather managed a week smile. "Can I have some water please?" She asked softly.

"Here you go honey," Cait handed her the glass that was sat on top of the nearby set of drawers.

"Slowly please," Curie scolded lightly as she helped Heather take a drink.

"So… what happened?" Heather asked trying to sit up.

"Not so quickly." Curie fussed as she helped Heather raise herself in the bed.

"You have sustained some fairly serious injuries that are healing very well, but the blow to your head is something I need to keep an eye on." Curie responded.

"You gave a good account of yourself, by the looks of the mess you left up at the Cemetery." Nate added sounding impressed. "Do you remember any of the fight?" He asked.

Heather shook her head and then grimaced in pain. "Not much. There was a dust cloud coming from round the lake, the south side, and then nothing."

"A bunch of crazed robots fancied checking out the origin of your radio message." Cait added.

"I know the jingle was terrible, but this is a bit excessive." Heather tried a smile as she pointed to her wounds. The team all laughed.

Nate turned to see Piper hiding out of view from the bed. When Nate indicated that she should join them, Piper shook her head. "I'll stay here for the moment." She mouthed to Nate.

"Well welcome to the team." Nate said. "A fairly unconventional way of getting on board but you are staying here, as our guest until you are at least fit and well. After that you are free to go." Nate instructed.

"Erm… yes, sir." Heather saluted. She then looked at Curie who was sat on the end of the bed. "Is he always like this?" She smiled.

"You have no idea." Cait responded, resting her hand on Curie's shoulder.

"How are you feeling?" Curie asked her patient.

"Like I have lost a fight with a Yao Guai." Heather responded, using the name of the large descendant of the prewar brown bear.

"You look like it, love," Valkyrie chuckled.

Valkyrie's humour was rewarded by Heather laughing and then wincing in pain. "God, please don't make me laugh!" She gasped.

"I think Heather needs her rest and I need to work, so can everyone give us some space please." Curie asked politely.

"Right, fuck off you lot." Cait reiterated, as she started ushering people out of the small alcove.

"Take as long as you need, Heather." Nate said over his shoulder whilst he was being pushed out by Cait.

"Thank you," Heather tried to call back only to be wracked by a fit of coughing.

"Right, you should get some rest, I'll do the rest of my assessment later." Curie ordered and drew closed the privacy curtain dividing the sleeping space with the rest of the downstairs. The remainder of the team headed back up to the living room and soon split to various parts of Home Plate.

"You don't have to hide, Piper. This is your home too." Cait said as she walked up to where Piper was sat, at the computer desk.

Piper turned to face Cait and Nate. "I know, I just didn't want Heather to wake up to a cat fight with me." She shrugged.

"You guys really that bad?" Nate asked.

"I actually like her," Piper responded. "Well, liked her. That was when she and Georgie used to pop into Diamond City when Nat and I had only just arrived. They were both so nice and welcoming, it was a breath of fresh air compared to some of the grouchy faced mole rats I had to call neighbours."

"Don't hold back Piper!" Cait laughed.

"Well, you've seen them." Piper shrugged, "Some are fun but others…." She smiled sardonically.

"But then you wrote that article and Heather now has an alive and kicking Boogieman." Nate asked. "Can't you guys make up?"

"I would love to, but she has this incredible ability to get just under my skin with her sarcastic jibes and unnecessary comments."

"Ok, so do you want her gone?" Nate asked.

"Oh, god no. You can't send her out there again, she'll end up getting herself killed. Who tries to sell on the road without even hiring some guards?" Piper responded.

"The girl certainly does have a death wish." Cait remarked.

"You might not be far from the truth," Piper blew out a breath. "She said to me once that life wasn't worth living, now she had lost Georgie, but I know it was raw for her then. Maybe she has chilled a bit since then. I just don't know." Piper shrugged again.

"Ok, but if we keep her here for the moment, there is a chance she may join the team for good, are you ok with that?" Nate asked.

"I think that will be nice, especially if we can make up and she can get over blaming me for Georgie's death." Piper looked down at her hands.

"But when she is better, I will have a word with her. I am not having you two snapping at each other. That doesn't make for a great team dynamic." Nate gave Piper his 'I'm serious' look.

"You won't get any objections from me, boss," Piper mimicked a salute. "But you will have to get her to stow her venom, that's for sure." Piper responded as she turned to carry on typing on the console.

Cait and Nate moved to the small kitchenette and Cait began filling the kettle. "She has a point, you know." Cait looked at Nate. "If she is in the team, do you intend on telling her she'll get a tanning if she doesn't wind her neck in, or is she going to be somehow excused from that consequence?"

"Yeah, not sure this will work." Nate nodded, "Even if we are happy for her to stay, she might not be." Nate took the kettle from Cait and placed it on the stove. "Because I can promise you, I am not having Heathers appearance lead to there being an atmosphere in the house." Nate stated.

"Why don't you let me have a word with her." Cait volunteered. "I'll figure out something. She does owe us her life."

"Yes, I guess she does, but I don't want anyone living here, and accepting our rules, because they feel obliged to. That just feels too…." Nate pulled a face.

"Yes, you are right. She needs to sign up or ship out." Cait nodded.

"Yes, she needs to not only agree with our set up, but wholly support it too. Anything less than that and it won't work, you do know that?" Nate looked sceptically at Cait. "And we can't persuade her or bully her into agreeing, that won't work either." Nate paused, "maybe it would be better just sending her on her way once she has recovered."

"Like I could bully anyone." Cait flashed Nate her best 'butter wouldn't melt' smile. "But I get it. I can be subtle, and I would like to at least try. She doesn't deserve to be thrown out after she gets better." Cait leaned in to give Nate a kiss. "You didn't give up on us and so it wouldn't be right if I didn't fight on her behalf. Even if she doesn't thank me the first time she gets herself hauled over your knee."

Nate squeezed his lovers hand. "You guys are awesome, you know that, don't you."

Cait laughed. "Where did that come from?"

"In the middle of all this chaos, violence and anarchy, here you are, all of you, giving a near stranger a new home and an opportunity to be safe. That's such a kind and caring thing to do." Nate smiled, "you guys make me really proud sometimes."

"Ha! Sometimes? How about 'you guys are awesome all the time." Cait responded, gently pushing Nate away.

"Well, to be fair, there have been a few moments of un-awesomeness." Nate chuckled.

"Not from me there hasn't," Valkyrie responded as she walked in from the Armoury. "You just need to get better at recognising brilliance when it is staring you in the face." She said as she put an arm around Cait.

"Well, he does keep losing his glasses." Cait shrugged.

"Ok, so just because we have a guest, you two think you are immune from my disapproval." Nate mimicked a scowl and held up his right hand.

"Why, do you want to give Heather a full demonstration right now?" Valkyrie signalled that Nate should go ahead of her, down the stairs.

"I shall remember this, you two, you know that." Nate wagged a finger.

"We should so have a statute of limitations on consequences for being a brat." Valkyrie responded, "maybe we should put that to a vote?"

"Maybe I should take you downstairs." Nate moved to take Valkyries arm.

"Maybe you two should make up or take her into the armoury for her spanking." Cait pushed her lover, "In the meantime I am going to be useful and go and have a little chat with our Heather." Cait said to the other two.

"Well, if its all the same to you, Nate I could actually do with some help in the armoury, if you are free?" Valkyrie asked.

"Sure, I'll come now." Nate responded and then turned to Cait. "Good luck and be nice. No forcing the issue."

"I'll be good." Cait responded coquettishly.

As Nate and Valkyrie headed into the armoury, Cait made her way downstairs.

"Is Heather up for a chat?" Cait asked as she passed Curie who was in the kitchen.

"She is awake and having a little soup I made for her. You can have a chat but please do not tire her out, she is still fairly week." Curie responded.

"Of course, but I am only talking to her. I have no intention of arm wrestling the girl." Cait rolled her eyes.

Cait made her way into the sleeping alcove. Heather was sat up, propped against a set of pillows, with a tray on her lap. She seemed to be enjoying the warm soup, and colour had returned to her face.

"You look so much better." Cait smiled.

"I feel it." Heather responded, continuing to eat her lunch.

"You carry on," Cait encouraged, as Heather moved to place the tray back on the bedside table.

"No, thanks, I'm done. That was good. Please thank Curie for me." Heather allowed Cait to help her clear the tray. "She is such a sweetie." Heather indicated outside the curtain.

Cait smiled, "She is one of a kind is our Curie."

"I don't want to sound cruel, or anything." Heather began, "but she is incredibly…"

"Naive." Cait finished Heather's sentence.

"I don't know if it is naïve," Heather pulled a face, "more, simple, I suppose. God! No, that's even worse."

Cait laughed, "I understand exactly what you mean. Did you know that our Curie is a souped-up Miss Nanny Robot." Cait responded, being careful not to mention the word Synth yet, as they all knew how Heather felt about Synths.

"Wow! But how…?" Heather was lost for words.

"You've heard of the Railroad, right?" Cait asked.

"Yeah, the Railroad fights the Institute, which is great, but they want to do it by saving Synths, how fucked up is that?"

"Do you know what they do to the Synths that come to them to escape the Institute?" Cait probed.

Heather shook her head. "I guess it isn't blow their heads off?"

"They offer them a mind wipe." Cait responded. "The procedure breaks the synths connection with the Institute and makes them much less traceable."

"Hmm, lets them forget all the shitty things they have done as well, I am sure," Heather stated dryly, as she reached for her water cup.

Cait collected the glass for Heather and handed it to her.

"I have no idea as I have never met a synth where the mind wipe worked." Cait shrugged. "Sometimes, however, the mind wipe doesn't work and the procedure removes everything from the Synth."

Heather looked puzzled, "how do you mean everything."

"As if they had their entire brain emptied." Cait raised her eyebrows. "I mean they are still breathing, but they can't speak, they have no memories, they are just an empty but moving body."

"Sounds like the best kind of Synth to me." Heather exclaimed.

"It was for us." Cait smiled. "We were told about one such 'body' whilst we were at Dr Amari's place in Good Neighbour. We had done a favour for Nick Valentine and so he introduced us to this doctor who had an idea as to how she could help Curie out."

"I love Nick, he's great. The only synth I don't want to kill on sight." Heather smiled as she looked at her hands. "But wait! So, when you say Curie was a Miss Nanny robot, you mean floating metal ball with arms type Miss Nanny?"

"Yes, exactly." Answered Cait. "We found her in Vault 81. Whilst helping out the residents with a Mole Rat infestation, we found a hidden part of the vault where a group of scientists had been sealed away in when the bombs fell. Apparently, they were there to release diseases and pathogens into the main population of the vault in order to try and make disease resistant people. It was wild and, in the end, only three scientists were locked in and of course our Curie. She was there as the lab technician, I guess. Anyway, one of the scientists had upgraded this Miss Nanny robot with all sorts of skills, ability to speak a bunch of languages, her amazing cooking skills, oh and her French accent. Nate loves it, thinks it's cute." Cait mimicked a scowl.

"Oh, are you two…." Heather asked pointing to Cait and then upstairs.

"Yes, we are, and I'm fine with him thinking one of my best friends is cute." Cait smirked.

"Just her accent or …?" Heather teased.

"So far, yes, just her accent, but I'll be keeping my eyes open." Cait laughed.

"So, you met this great cooking, cute sounding Miss Nanny and then what happened?" Heather leant forward, obviously enjoying Cait's story.

"She joined our group." Cait responded. "That was Piper, Nate and myself."

"Oh yes, you guys live with Piper now, I forgot that." Heather's tone turning critical.

"Yes, yes, we do. And now there is also Valkyrie." Cait ignored the comments underlying meaning and pressed on with her tale. "But Valkyrie is a whole other story." Cait waved her hand to dismiss that train of thought. "With Curie, she joined us and for a while it was great. She was a domestic robot, so this place had never looked cleaner and the food…." Cait smacked her lips.

"But that's not what she is now." Heather pointed to outside the curtain. "She's definitely cuter looking now, that's for sure." She laughed.

"Yes, thank you." Cait feigned a disapproving look. "But then along came Dr Amari. She told us that she knew of this synth body that was empty and that she might be able to move all of Curie's consciousness from her Miss Nanny body to this new one. Curie had been banging on for ages about wanting to learn more and the limitations of her robotic existence. So, anyway, they plugged her in, the body was put into one of the memory loungers and boom, one minute the metal ball was floating and speaking and the next, it flops to the floor and emerging from the memory lounger capsule was our real living breathing Curie. It was amazing!" Cait exclaimed.

"Yeah, that does sound pretty special." Heather admitted, "but did it link her to the Institute or anything, now that she was in a synths body?"

"Great question and one we didn't know the answer to. Well not straight away anyway. It was a few days before we could be sure. As you know the mayor here has been accused of being a synth and as I am sure you also know, one synth can tell another straight off. They obviously have some knack or sense or something. Anyway, we had planned for Curie to outright tell McDonough that she was and see what he would do. Surely, if he was a synth and could tell she was, he would get in touch or try some secret shit with her. When she told him he laughed and treated her like she was a bit crazy. We then just waited. Even if he was playing it cool to start off with, his dismissal just a ruse, at some point something would happen. We waited but nothing happened." Cait shrugged, "so we took that as all the proof we needed that Curie wasn't a synth, well at least not to the institute she wasn't."

"And you are sure McDonough is a synth?" Heather asked.

"Well no, but Piper does as does Nick." Cait shrugged.

"But Nick is a synth, so surely he could tell. Hang on, he would be able to see if Curie was also giving off synth vibes, wouldn't he?" Heather exclaimed.

"Sadly, or happily, Nick is an old school synth and never had the connection. Or if he did, they broke it when they threw him in the trash." Cait shrugged again. "But once we had Curie as she is now, she joined the team fully and she has been learning what it is to be human ever since." Cait finished the sentence mimicking a French accent, as that phrase was something Curie used often.

"So, she still has a lot to learn then?" Heather asked.

"Ha! I would say so!" Cait laughed.

"So, is that why she earned herself a spanking this morning?" Heather raised an eyebrow and looked directly at Cait.