Nate's head ached as he slowly got pulled back into consciousness, his vision blurred his nearby surroundings.
He eyes focused on a light attached to the ceiling, with fan blades slowly turning around it, pushing hot air around the room.
He slowly came to his senses, although the massive headache remained. He slowly turned his head to his left.
Good, no one was there. He breathed a sigh of relief, as he twirled the golden ring around his finger.
The memory of Nora and her untimely death still burnt bright in his head. Her corpse frozen in time, was unable to get out of his mind. He couldn't move on… he wouldn't move on.
He wondered what had happened the night before, but he knew that the drinks served their purpose. He had one night where he couldn't feel anything, his son, his wife, anything that was tearing his mind apart was numbed away with the alcohol.
Looking back on his reasons for getting blackout drunk, Nate found it a bit pathetic.
Shrugging it off he grabbed his things and walked out the door.
He opened it into a small hallway, so short he could see the bar from his door.
He walked over to the bar and asked the friendly looking Russian, "So, how much is the tab?"
Vadim smiled and said "It's no worry, Piper said she will pay"
"That's nice… do you know where she is?"
"Yes, she left here about an hour ago… Hey, personal question, but what is deal between you and Piper?"
"She just helps me in the wasteland, the odd supply run and such"
Vadim raised his eyebrow and nodded, "Sure, but uh, I think Piper may have slightly different way of saying it"
Nate felt the awkwardness setting in and changed the subject by asking, "What happened last night?"
"Ahhh, it is no wonder you don't remember a thing. I lost track of the number of bottles you drunk. You didn't seem that different, you just sat in chair and talked with Piper. Very weird"
Nate almost laughed at how boring his night was.
"See you, Vadim" Nate said, walking away.
"Be sure to come back!" Vadim shouted, "You bring in a lot of caps"
Nate opened the door and was greeted by bright sunlight and fresh-ish air.
Taking in the air he slowly began to worry about what happened last night.
If all he did was talk, what did he say?
He walked over to the Publick Occurrences building and knocked on the door.
"Come in" a voice said.
Nate opened the rusted door and was greeted by Piper sitting on the couch to his right.
"There you are. You sure are a late sleeper, Blue" She said with a smile.
"Yeah" Nate chuckled.
He knew he already asked Vadim, but he just wanted to make sure.
"What happened last night?"
"Well, I found out which kind of drunk you are. You're the really sad kind" Piper said, "kept on rambling about the things before the war"
"What things?" Nate said as he folded his ring finger into his hand, covering it with his other fingers.
"Something about a bike, I think? I cant remember much more than you"
Nate breathed a sigh of relief and loosened his left hand. "Whew, okay"
Piper tilted her head. "You got something that you don't want me to know about?"
Nate shook his head. "Maybe another time Piper, we have stuff to do"
"You and your damn secrets are going to drive me mad, Blue" She said jokingly. "So, where to next?"
"I need to find someone, do you know anyone that can help?"
"Yeah, there's a bucket of bolts 'round the corner. He should be able to help" Piper said.
Nate's confused look prompted Piper to add "You'll understand when you see him"
Nate waved it off and opened the door, Piper got her gun and walked out with Nate following behind.
"This guy's real good at finding people, so he's your best bet"
Around the corner was a neon sign that read "Valentine Detective Agency" It looked oddly small for such a successful detective.
Nate stopped Piper from going in first, saying "Look, I'm sure I can get him to help, you can wait out here"
It was obvious to Piper that he just wanted to keep something from her… again.
Piper rolled her eyes, "Jesus Blue, your gonna have to tell me what your hiding at some point"
Nate replied, "Sure, but for now, I only think the detective should know"
Piper didn't bother fighting, it was clear Nate didn't want her to know anything.
Nate opened the door and walked into a small room, being greeted by a woman sitting at a desk.
"Hello! Is there anything we can help you with, sir?"
"Yeah, I have a missing persons case, I was hoping you guys could help"
The secretary shook her head, "Theses ones are always the hardest" she said under her breath. "Nick, someone's here to see you" She called.
"Coming Ellie" Came a voice with a light Boston accent.
After the sound of a few footsteps out walked a figure from around the corner of where Nate was standing.
The figure took notice of Nate and stretched out his hand for Nate to shake.
Nate stood there for a few seconds staring into the man's bright, glowing, synthetic eyes, looking into the holes in his skin to see mechanical parts shifting and moving. Nate, still confused, shook the mans, metallic hand, the coldness of his fingers caught Nate by surprise. The man noticed Nate's confusion and said, "What? Never seen a synth before?" With a wry smile.
Nate tried to normalize the idea of a humanoid robot in his head, and replied with, "It's a long story"
"Well, try to give me the short version" The man said as he walked over to a desk just behind Ellie.
He pulled up a chair for Nate and gestured him to sit.
"So, as the sign says outside, this is a detective agency, I'm Nick, that's Ellie. What do you have for us?"
"Okay…" Nate said, trying to summarize his entire story so far. "200 years ago, my family went into a vault when the bombs dropped. We thought we'd be safe, but it turned out they had some cryo experiment thing going on in there. We were told to get into these pods that froze us, it was like we were guinea pigs" Nate's voice suddenly dropped, he was trying to get through the story as quick as he could, but he couldn't go through this part quickly. "What I think was a few hundred years later, three people came into the vault, two in hazmat suits and one looking like a merc. I could see them open my wife's pod and…"
Nate swallowed; he was staring blankly at the ground.
"They took my son and shot my wife" Ellie's chair turned around, and Nick was taken by surprise.
"That's… That's awful" Ellie said from behind Nate.
Nate was still staring at the ground in an attempt to not be over taken by grief. Nick blinked rapidly and came back to his senses.
"I'm so sorry" He said in quite, sympathetic voice. All Nate could do was nod.
Nate took breathed in deep and got control of himself.
"So that's why I'm here" He said
"To find my son"