The weather was exceptionally nice that day. Nick Valentine decided to enjoy the weather, a smoke, and a good book all at the same time. He told Ellie to take it easy while he went up to enjoy the picnic furniture that now rested on top of his house.

Nick knocked off the ash from the cigar he had picked up at the Boylston Club while paying attention to the legalese of early Victorian inheritance rights setting the stage for Sir Percival Glyde’s motives. Wilkie Collins was one of Old Nick’s favorite authors, “Woman in White” was a book he had read many times.

The thought of Marian depressed him somewhat, and yet, he was exposing himself to her name about five times a page. She was prettier than her literary namesake but had all of the same strengths. He hadn’t seen her since she verbally attacked Ellie and Yafim, a situation no one was giving him much information about. He spent three days trying to keep Ellie from crying, and Yafim had become even quieter than usual if that was possible. In the end, Nick decided to let the situation sort itself out.

He turned the page, reading about two lawyers trying to negotiate a twenty-thousand-pound dowry. Nick deserved this break. He had been working himself ragged for several months, with Marian bringing in so many people who needed him. Many of his cases were suddenly closed with the end of the Rose Gang. Nick didn’t even mind the loss of income; he was happy for the chance to take a day off. He still couldn’t quite get over the sense that he was taking advantage of her. He was going to figure out a way to pay her for everything she’d been doing for him. Something she wouldn’t be able to wiggle out from.

Nick took another puff on his overpriced cigar as he listened to a door behind him open and shut. He heard footsteps move closer. He knew he should be more on edge; he did have enough people out to kill him, but some days he just didn’t care.

“Ellie told me you were out here,” Piper said as she took a seat on the other side of the table. “I didn’t really believe you were going through with the whole making your office smoke free. Seems like a hassle to me.” The brunette pulled out a cigarette for herself.

“Your job is about making other people uncomfortable, mine is about making them feel comfortable,” Nick pointed out as he held out a lighter for her. Piper moved her hair out of the way as she leaned forward to light her cigarette. “What can I do for you, Piper?”

“I need a story,” she admitted.

“What happened to the one about me getting kidnapped? I gave you permission to publish it.”

“You gave me permission, which is great. The problem is the two people who were responsible for rescuing you. One doesn’t want me to write about her, and the other one doesn’t exist.”

“That does make the story interesting to tell,” Nick admitted. He placed his book on the table, careful not to give it too much attention. If Piper hadn’t figured out the significance yet, she probably hadn’t read the book, but there was no point in tempting fate.

“Good book?” she asked.

“It’s slow right now,” he told her. She didn’t need to know that it got much more interesting as it progressed. “What happened to you knocking on the mayor’s door? I thought that was your favorite hobby.”

“It was, until after everything with Nate. Then he asked me to lay off Mayor McDonagh. I agreed, of course, I had months’ worth of stories then.”

“But not now,” Nick finished for her.

“Everything is dry as a bone. There are about a dozen half stories in the works, but every time I start working on them, something happens, and I miss another deadline. I’m not publishing, so I’m not getting money. I know there’s stories out there, but the ones I find, Nate, or should I say X6, tells me to back off.”

“He’s not even talking to you himself?” Nick asked. “I could only imagine X6’s feelings about being an errand boy.”

“I can also,” Piper agreed. “Thing is, I’m starting to wonder about Nate. Why hasn’t anyone seen him for months?”

“Have you asked around in Sanctuary? If anyone would know, you’d think it would be Danse.”

“I did, Danse seemed depressed. I don’t think he knows why Nate has disappeared. I get the feeling that Codsworth knows something, but he won’t say anything. He just gave me the run around, which he’s bad at. I stopped asking anything before he blew a wire.”

Nick puffed on his cigar for a moment. It didn’t seem worth the price that its original owner paid for it 200 years ago. “I don’t know what to tell you, Sweetheart,” Nick admitted. “Other than war reporting, but I don’t know how well that will sell right now. Seems like the only people who would be interested don’t have the caps to spend on a paper.”

“Do you have anything?” Piper begged. “I will even take a feel-good fluff piece right now. Just enough to keep Nat feed.”

“If you need caps-”

“I need stories!” Piper interrupted.

Nick thought for a moment. There were a lot of cases in his filing cabinet. A large number of them were added in since word of the war traveled north along with all the refugees that decided they didn’t want to be part of a civil war that could not benefit them, but could get them killed.

“Go ahead and talk to Ellie,” Nick finally caved. “Let me know what you’re looking at before you start writing, though.”

Piper seemed more relieved than excited. The problem with a feast or famine lifestyle, is there’s no one to help you raise a little sister when the famines are long.

“I know you don’t want to borrow, but I can loan you the caps. You have a kid sister to take care of,” Nick said.

“Okay,” Piper sighed. “Thanks.”

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Piper settled back, looking like the weight of the world had been lifted from her shoulders. Nick pulled out two glasses and some bourbon he was carrying for a rainy day. A sunny day seemed just as reasonable for a drink.

“Care for a drink between friends?” Nick offered as he placed a glass next to Piper.

He poured some of the 200-year-old bourbon into her glass, and them poured some into his. Piper accepted her glass. Reporter and detective tinked their glasses and sat back looking out at Diamond City.

“That’s strange,” Piper said, breaking the companionable quiet.

Nick lowered his glass from his mouth, he didn’t need to eat or drink, but he did enjoy tasting good food and liquor. “What’s that?”

“Marian Holcombe,” Piper said as if that was an explanation. “I haven’t seen her in months, I would have thought she was dead, if Vadim hadn’t confirmed otherwise. And I know I’ve never seen her enter Diamond City alone, or without her backpack.”

Nick turned his attention to the entrance of the city. The bodyguard was there, she seemed to have a way of standing out even when dressed like everyone else. Nick wondered if she did that on purpose, or if it just happened. She was walking fast, barely waving at anyone. She seemed to slow down only near Nat, and then picked up her pace again.

“She does seem to have a bee in her bonnet,” Nick agreed stubbing out the remains of his cigar. “I better get to the office, if she’s headed here, I don’t want to leave Ellie to deal with her right now.”

“What did happen with her and Ellie,” Piper asked.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Nick answered as he pocketed the cigar and book. “I’ll leave the bottle.”

The synth downed the remains of his glass before hurrying back into his house. He was determined to get to the office before Marian did. He found himself running down the stairs, past the bear on his dresser, and into his office.

“Where’s the fire?” Ellie asked from her desk.

“Marian is in town, I think she’s headed this way,” Nick said.

Ellie’s face flushed. The secretary looked around as if she wasn’t sure rather to stay or go.

“Don’t worry,” Nick reassured her as he slid the book on top of its two clones in his desk, “I’ll get her out as quickly as I can.” He had taken every copy of the book from the library to help protect Marian’s secret.

He had barely finished talking when his door banged open. “NICK VALENTINE!” Marian’s voice carried. One thing was certain, the woman knew how to project her voice. “Why the FUCK do you have to keep a business here? In a city that doesn’t allow ghouls to even enter? As if ghouls don’t have loved ones who go missing.”

She did seem to have the dramatics dialed up today. Not that he could blame her, she was probably trying to convince him to fulfill the request she made the last time he saw her.

“It wasn’t an issue when I set up, Doll,” he sniped as he closed the drawer, hiding the evidence of his lies. “Ghouls were allowed to live here until about a decade ago, I have been here much longer. Changes like that are a side effect of getting old.” He could put on a good show as well as her.

“Maybe, you should set up a system where they can get ahold of you then,” she said in a staccato tone.

“That’s what I have you for, Sweetheart,” he told her as he slipped a yellow box from his top drawer into his pocket. “So where is the ghoul in question?”

“Where I stay when I’m in the area. It’s a comfortable room, right outside of the patrol area on the way to the library,” she described. That woman missed her prewar calling, she would have looked good as a librarian.

“I know the place; it was where Connelly stayed after the ghouls were first kicked out.”

Nick was shocked by Marian’s expression. She was still standing outside of his office, but all the posturing and false rage disappeared suddenly. Her eyes shifted, and it was obvious she was trying to keep from looking down. Nick didn’t know there was a ghoul in the Commonwealth that Marian didn’t like, Kent Connelly being that ghoul was even more surprising.

Pushing aside his curiosity, he decided to try and bring her attention back to the situation. “Why don’t you introduce me to your friend?” he asked, unsure rather to make it snappish or comforting. Somehow it became a wobbly indecisive mess. He accepted the new folder Ellie handed him as he passed her desk.

“You need me to come with you?” she asked.

“Don’t worry about it, you can fix my notes when I get back.”

The sound of Ellie’s groan made Nick smile. He never could make notes as organized as her, that’s why he kept her around. She was in for a lot more work than if he had brought her with him.

“Give Piper access to the closed cases, anything that isn’t locked up,” he told her before joining Marian outside his office and closing the door behind him.

Marian didn’t bother saying anything, she had brought her bravado back and turned to lead him into the alley. “You owe me some Takahashi Noodles,” she muttered. A small price for his life.

“I’ll consider that your commission,” he told her. “I’ll give you three meals a day every time you bring me a potential client.”

“I don’t do it for you,” she insisted. Probably the first thing she said where he believed her attitude in that conversation.

“I know, Honey,” he told her. “But I still want to. It’s a modest price for what you have done to help people find me. And here,” he handed the yellow box to her, “consider it payment for your work last time you were in Diamond City.”

Marian took the box before looking at it. She stopped walking as he turned to enter the market. Nick realized she wasn’t next to him any longer and turned to look at her. She was still staring at the box before looking up at him. Her blue eyes were bigger than he knew she was capable of achieving. If she wanted him to hate her, she was failing at convincing him to do so.

“This is…” she said quietly.

“I saw you eyeing that a while back,” Nick told her. “I figured you saved my life, the least I could do in return was make it easier to protect your own.”

Marian stood for a moment, looking back and forth between the quick eject drum magazine mod and Nick. It was as if she never received a gift before. It may have been a bit more expensive than he normally would have paid, but she lived in the Wasteland, she needed as much help as she could get.

“It’s useless to me,” she said, her voice sounded like she was trying to bring up her bravado.

“Do you have something better?” he asked, half hoping the answer was “yes”.

“I,” Marian was silent for a moment. She was actually at a loss for words. “I never really modified a weapon,” she finally admitted.

Maybe modifying weapons wasn’t something people in the Capital Wasteland did. Nick thought about how clean and maintained her gun always was. He forgot that she was from somewhere else, somewhere she was trying to go back to. She didn’t change to fit in the Commonwealth because she didn’t plan to stay. There was a pang of regret that hit Nick when the thought of her leaving hit him.

“I’ll show you how,” he finally told her. “After dinner, we can install it on your gun.”

She quietly looked up at him. “Thank you,” she said quietly.

Nick wrapped an arm around her shoulder. He found he liked touching her. He liked having that physical reminder that she was there and warm. She didn’t feel any different from anyone else, but when she snuggled into him it caused him to feel calm. A reminder the world was still spinning.

He wanted to take her in both arms and hold her against his chest. He desired kissing her again, even if it was just a quick peck on the lips. But he didn’t take those liberties, she probably wouldn’t have appreciated them. She wasn’t exactly risking her allergies against his trench coat herself.

“Could you hold onto this for me?” she asked him, handing the mod back to him.

“What’s mine, is yours,” Nick said taking the mod back and pocketing it. He gently led her out of the alley and through the Diamond City Market. There was no point in keeping her friend waiting. “You got a place to stay?” he finally got around to asking her. He wanted her to say no, he wanted to offer his place so he would be sure she was safe even if it was for one night. Then he thought of Ellie, having Marian there may not be the best option for them.

“I’m fine,” she said. “You know, Soft-boiled, you’re supposed to hate me.”

“Guess I forgot,” Nick responded. He gently squeezed her shoulders as they passed the Super Salon. “I’ll try again tomorrow.”