There were tracks nearby, and the city was just north of the warehouse. Marian made mental notes about the location of the warehouse that had a tunnel to Goodneighbor. She rubbed the stubble that passed for her hair before she turned back into building locking it from the inside. A bird watched from the warehouse roof as she hurried into the tunnel and back to the building on the other end. Valentine will be waking up soon.

She wanted to stay with him the way he stayed with her the night before. She watched while he laid down like he was going to sleep, and started the diagnostics check she insisted on. It didn’t take long for her to realize she had nothing to do to keep her occupied while he slept. Faenus was still clean from when she striped it the other day.

She reached into the back pocket of her backpack for the book Ezra promised her. Unfortunately, she quickly realized he had decided to play with their running argument over the worst book ever written. She tried to read “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” the author’s liberal use of foreign phrases and way of taking forever to get to the point, caused Marian to lose focus on the pages within a chapter. She will try to read the book, one day she will have it, but every paragraph was a drudge.

Giving up on the book left the bodyguard with little to keep her occupied while she watched Nick. She had considered going to The Third Rail to check on RJ and his friends. Maybe get one last free meal before she leaves Goodneighbor for the foreseeable future. But the thought of leaving the safety of the house and being surrounded by people was too much for her. Instead, she found herself exploring the tunnel out of the house while she waited.

Marian returned to the house proper, to find Valentine still working on his diagnostics check. She wondered if he needed to lay on his side and close his eyes for practical reasons, or if he did it out of consideration to her. She was grateful either way. The sight of him lying on his back with his eyes open would probably make him indistinguishable from a corpse instead of a sleeping man.

Valentine’s hat was next to the mattress and his arm was tucked under his head. He looked so human in his posture. The missing skin at his neck and the edges of his face exposing the gears and his metal skeleton were unmistakable, but that didn’t matter last night as he helped her move from one nightmare to the next. Each time he would hold her until she woke up enough to know the nightmare was over. Normally it took enough time for her own skin to start itching with the proximity of Valentine’s tobacco-soaked clothing.

Still, every time she felt so comfortable. Somehow when he told her it was going to be alright, she truly believed him. She conversely felt safe and in danger through the whole night. Valentine was going to get her killed. It was just a matter of how.

The synth finally opened his eyes and looked around. He sat up and turned towards Marian. “Should I wonder why you’re standing over me?” He asked.

“You said four hours,” Marian responded looking away. “Are you ready?”

Valentine stood up and put his fedora on. “I was ready four hours ago,” he pointed out. “You’re the one who insisted on me doing that diagnostics check before we left.”

“You wanted a job done, and I wanted payment,” she pointed out. “It’s not like you lost any caps in the process.”

Marian reached for her backpack to watch Valentine snatch it away from her. She glared at him as he threw it over his shoulders.

“I insist,” he told her.

“It’s not as heavy as it was before,” she pointed out.

“That’s the problem. Your friends overloaded you with supplies, and you’re already a quarter empty. At this rate you’re going to be without anything by the end of the week.”

“And you carrying it will make it harder for me to grab a quick bite while we travel?” Marian retorted.

Valentine growled slightly at her comment. “Let’s just go,” he said as he walked past her and out of the room.

The bodyguard hurried behind him. Marian took the time to lock the house before continuing down the alley. She would have to make sure to return the key next time she visited Hancock. As she pocketed the key, she turned the corner of the alley and stopped moving.

She saw all the people walking, or just loafing around. They were going on with their lives and didn’t see her. The moment someone looked at her, the moment she made herself visible to them, she would be vulnerable.

Marian stepped back one step, staring at the forms who were oblivious to her presence. The only thing that bothered to look at her was the single bird in the square beneath Hancock's balcony. No one wanted to hurt her. No one cared about her enough to want to hurt her. She repeated this mantra in her head, trying to hide her fear. It was a stupid, childish fear that she shouldn’t be feeling. She wanted to run back into the house and exit the city through the tunnel again.

As Marian thought this, she found herself watching Malta move away from her. The bear was strapped to the outside of the backpack, staring at her blankly with plastic eyes. She stared back at him until Valentine turned the corner and he, the bear, and everything she owned disappeared. If she didn’t follow him, she was going to be vulnerable to him. The thought that he would know about the fact she couldn’t be around people was worse than anything those people could do to her. She walked briskly down the rest alley and turned the corner to catch up to her client.

“I have everything a man needs to show a girl a good time,” KL-E-O called out as Marian and Valentine passed by her.

Valentine stopped moving in the direction he was heading in and turned to approach Kill or be Killed. Marian had no choice but to follow.

“I thought we were in a hurry,” she said.

“I just need to get something,” Valentine explained.

“Good to see you again, Big Boy,” the assultron flirted. “I’ve got a weapon for every situation. Hunting, protection, cold blooded murder, HOT blooded murder.”

Valentine chuckled slightly, “I know exactly what you mean, but not today. I have some specific stock I need to buy.”

Was Valentine planning on killing her after they left the city? It didn’t make sense, but she probably deserved it. Marian looked around and saw how many people there were near the main gates. How many knew her? How many were looking for her to make a mistake that they could exploit? They can’t, not in the city, she’s supposed to be safe in a city.

Instead of standing around and watching herself be vulnerable, Marian did her best to tune out the people around her. She walked over to the weapons workbench and started tinkering with Faenus. She wondered if it was possible to get someone to pay her with a mod for a drum magazine. She daydreamed the possibility of that as she fiddled with the mod, looking at how it would change Faenus’ appearance. Not that she could ever afford it, but it was a nice dream.

“Are you ready to go?” Valentine’s voice broke through her revelry as he touched her arm.

She didn’t mean to flinch; she just didn’t expect him to be there. She hated how in order to not focus on how vulnerable she was, she had to make herself more vulnerable.

“Is everything alright?” he had to balls to ask.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Of course, it is,” she lied. “Let’s just go, I don’t want to end up spending half this job outside after dark.”

She grabbed Faenus, leaving the coveted mod on the table, and moved out of the store. She didn’t look at Valentine. She didn’t want to find out what he would see on her face at that moment. She just wanted to get out of the city and be where people didn’t hide their intentions but opened fire when they could. Maybe one of them would be more clever than her today. But then she wouldn’t be able to finish her job. She was going to be damned if it took more to kill Valentine than it would take to kill her. She would not die on a job with this man. The thought of him not helping people in the Commonwealth somehow seemed worse.

The two rivals exited the city together. Marian held Faenus at the ready as she swept her gaze over the scenery, looking for any movement or odd shadows.

“Where to?” she asked. She was still upset that he refused to tell her where they were going. Maybe he would at least give her directions.

“This way,” Valentine said as he walked past her towards the building that still sported the gunner skull on the door.

Maybe not.

Marian wondered if it would just be easier to finally take her opportunity to shoot the willful brahmin-hind and be done with him and this damn Commonwealth altogether. No, she still needed to get her ring back. She had to stay until she paid off her debt. How much did she owe the Dugout Inn now? Two-hundred caps? Three hundred? She was trapped in this cage until she had the caps to buy her freedom to go home.

Instead of firing on Valentine, she simply followed him. If he wanted to pay her to take him on a walk, then she will do that job and show him that she was better at her job than her performance the day before proved.

The two of them walked roughly South-East in silence. Marian was always listening for noise, and always watching for a threat. At one point she stopped him from walking when she heard a noise like pistons from a robot’s limbs. They watched together, him with his revolver ready, until the possible threat showed itself.

Three synths turned the corner and looked blankly at the two rivals. They both lowered their weapons letting the synths pass by without any confrontations.

“That’s one thing I don’t understand,” Marian found herself muttering before she and Valentine started walking again.

“What’s that,” he asked calmly.

“You’re the only synth I’ve seen who wears clothes,” Marian explained. “I don’t understand why.”

“It’s because I’m not like them,” he told her. “I was an experiment. I was given a head full of someone else’s memories, his personality, everything. So, I started wearing clothes that he would have been comfortable in, because I was comfortable in it.”

“Are they people?” She asked.

“Are you asking if I’m a person?” Valentine responded.

“There’s no question about that,” she said. “I’ve never been so frustrated by something or someone who wasn’t a person.”

Marian didn’t look at Valentine, she really hadn’t looked at his face since Goodneighbor. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She felt herself flinching again. She turned on him, ready to defend herself. He looked shocked and concerned. How could the question of personhood have created that expression?

“Are you sure you’re ok, Doll?” he asked.

“I’m fine!” Marian snapped. What could he do if she wasn’t anyway? She did a sloppy about face and started walking away from him. He can catch up if he wanted to.

Soon, Valentine was walking beside her again. “I just wanted to say, thank you,” he murmured. “There are a lot of people who don’t think of me as a person. I often don’t think of myself as a person. It matters a lot to me that you do.”

Now he was being soppy. Unable to keep her anger towards him, she let out a sigh. “I wouldn’t have always thought that,” she explained. “I was raised on a very narrow definition of what a person is. I’m not proud of that, and I’m not proud of who I was. I just hope I can work off that damage.”

Valentine didn’t respond. Instead he just started walking two steps in front of her, showing her where they were going. As they left the urban area, Marian wondered if they were going back to Quincy. They stopped by the lone grey house to defend themselves from some raiders. Instead of heading to Quincy, he walked along the waterline, leading her in a direction she had never been to before.

They were in another urban area, and soon were fighting off some Rust Devils. Marian killed two humans, and Valentine took out an eyebot and a scrapbot. Unfortunately, she missed the tankbot that was heading straight towards Valentine. The synth shot at it, but his revolver wasn’t powerful enough to cause any real damage. She moved behind it, took aim and fired on the combat inhibitor. The tankbot stopped moving and went slack. She started moving towards Valentine.

“Stay back!” he yelled at her.

She didn’t have time to find out why. The tankbot suddenly exploded, sending her flying backwards into a car. She barely managed to register what was going on, when she felt hands grabbing her shoulders. She wanted to fight and get away from those hands, but something told her not to. Instead, she felt them moving her and she let them.

There was another explosion, this one was from the car. She finally had the time to inventory her situation. She was kneeling, on the ground. Valentine had his arms wrapped around her, using his body as a shield to keep her from the explosion. She was still holding Faenus, which was good.

“I thought I was supposed to protect you,” she said to his trench coat.

“We’re supposed to be partners,” Valentine told her.

“I thought that ended with the case.”

“I haven’t closed the case yet.”

Marian looked up, meeting his eyes. “What is there left to do?”

“Paperwork, mostly,” Valentine explained, standing up. He lowered his hand, offering to help her stand up. She accepted it and found herself standing with him. It looked like he had moved her behind the exploded tankbot, mostly likely for shielding. Valentine jabbed himself with a stimpak before giving one to her so she could do the same.

The detective continued walking down the street. Marian stifled the desire to search the Raider’s pockets for much needed caps. She never did that on a job, and she wasn’t going to be any less professional for this man. Instead, she followed him for a few more buildings.

Valentine moved to a guard rail with some hubflowers before he knelt down and placed his metal hand on the cement. Marian watched long enough to assure herself he was intending on his gesture before she moved to the building that looked like it used to be a sandwich shop. She leaned against an outside wall, facing Valentine, but looking away herself. He was obviously here for a personal reason, and she didn’t want to interrupt that. It wasn’t her business; she would just make sure nothing decided to ambush him in this moment.

“It was here where he killed her,” Valentine finally said.

Marian shifted her attention to him. “What was that?”

“Jenny,” he clarified talking to the cement. “My fiancé. I was…the original Nick Valentine was investigating a mob lord, before the war. A real prize. The type of case that make a detective’s carrier. I had all the evidence ready; the net was closing in around him. And then we got word from our higher ups to let him go. He made some plea bargain that got him off the hook for everything. That same day I got a call that…that…” He stopped talking, he just went back to staring at the cement.

Marian wanted to place her hand on Valentine’s shoulder. She wanted to comfort him the way he always comforted her. Why should he find her comforting? He was Nick Valentine, finder of lost souls, and she was just a monster from another land pacing her cage until she could go back home.

“Why are you telling me this?” she finally asked.

Valentine stood up and looked at her. There was no anger in his expression, but there was still the sadness of a two-hundred-year-old memory. “I just thought, you deserved to know about her,” he explained. “After you had to spend sixteen hours listening to me talk to her.”

Marian looked at the spot again. For some reason, she expected to see blood even though she knew it had to have been washed away two hundred years ago. What kind of woman would Jenny have been to have been able to get this man’s heart? “What happened, happened,” she told him. “I don’t deserve anything.”

“I think you deserve a second chance,” he told her as he walked up to her. “I think we started off on the wrong foot. I would like us to start over, as friends.” He stopped right in front of her and held out his hand for a shake.

Marian looked down at that hand. She saw the metal that marked him as a robot. She wanted to shake that hand. It would be so easy. Someone who she can talk to. Who cares about other people and can challenge her in good ways? The way she always felt safe around him. All the reasons why she couldn’t do it.

“No,” she told his hand. “I won’t.”

She didn’t look up. She could picture the look of disappointment on his face. “I thought we were getting along,” he told her.

Marian thought about everyone she had gotten along with in the past. She closed her eyes as she remembered pushing RJ off that building. The look on her brother’s face before the minigun’s bullets tore through her.

“It’s not that,” she told him.

“Then what?” Valentine asked anger in his voice.

If she took his hand. If she was his friend, he would be killed. She can’t protect him. She couldn’t even protect RJ, and he was human. Valentine was asking her why she wouldn’t let him die, and she couldn’t answer it.

“I don’t think we got off on the wrong foot. I think we saw each other exactly for what we are,” She lied. “There is no reason why we should change how things are between us.”

Valentine let his hand fall to his side. Marian couldn’t bring her eyes up to his face. She couldn’t stand to see how much she hurt him.

The bodyguard turned and started walking away from the Slocom Joe’s, and the lone man standing in front of it. She couldn’t stand to look at him at that moment.

“Come on, Soft-boiled,” she announced. “I’ll walk you back to Diamond City.”

She continued walking, leaving him to his thoughts. She knew what she did was for the best. It was better he was hurt and alive. He’ll see her for the monster she is and accept that she saved him from a deadly mistake.