Nick slammed the paper onto his desk. It didn’t have the impact that slamming a prewar paper had, but papers then tended to have more than one article a week. They also tended to have more than one employee and a kid sister on staff. Still, he felt a little better taking his anger out of the offending article. He was tempted to tear it up, but Ellie hadn’t had her turn with it. Destroying it would just mean he would have to spend caps on another copy for her.

“Something wrong?” Ellie asked.

“The article is bullshit,” Nick explained.

“The one about how you and Marian saved the caravans?”

“The one about how I saved the caravans. The article seemed to have forgotten to mention Marian,” the synth growled.

He sat back in his chair and took out a cigarette. He should be focusing his attention on his backlog of cases. Cases from desperate people looking for a missing loved one. Nick looked over at his pile of case files. Most of those people were brought to Diamond City by Marian. With her bringing in someone almost daily, Nick seemed to have been spending more time agreeing to take cases than working on them. Now it seemed like he was almost caught up on his backlog.

“Ellie, go get Piper for me,” Nick finally said between puffs on his cigarette.

Ellie quietly stood up from her chair and hurried out of the office. Nick pulled on his cigarette before taking a file and opening it up for his inspection. He gazed through the overview of the case in Ellie’s handwriting with notes about the case in his own handwriting. Even though he tried focusing on the case, his mind kept drifting to the news article that sat next to his right arm, and the woman who was absent from it.

The door soon opened. He didn’t bother looking up. He knew that whomever it was would announce themselves. He listened to two sets of footsteps walking along the wood floor before the door shut.

“I’m surprised you sent for me,” Piper said. “Normally when you want to talk to me about something, you come to my house.”

“I’m expecting a friend, I want to be here to greet him.” Nick replied before grabbing his coffee cup. It was completely empty, and he knew the coffee pot was as well. “Ellie, take some money from petty cash and go get some more coffee.”

Once again, Ellie obeyed. Most likely she knew Nick was angry and wanted to get away before he started yelling. She always was smart.

Piper moved farther into the office. She was one of the few people who was allowed to fully enter his office. Nick stood up to be on the same footing as her.

“Do I know this friend?” Piper asked.

“It’s Codsworth,” Nick explained. “I asked him to do a favor for me.”

Piper seemed a little disappointed by the lack of gossip that statement created. “Ellie told me that you read my article. What do you think?”

“I hate it,” Nick responded flatly.

“What?”

“You seemed to have left out a major detail and I want you to correct it,” he told her. Piper was one of the few people who was not intimidated by the fact Nick was a synth. He liked that, he liked having at least one person around who he didn’t have to censor himself for.

“You know I will gladly. I wish I had known before I published,” she told him. “What is it?”

“Marian Halcombe,” Nick answered, drawing out the name.

“Nick! You can’t say you’re upset that she was left out. You’ve been spending weeks just trying to figure out if she was a mob lord. Now you’re wanting her to get publicity?”

“I want her to get the credit she’s due,” Nick corrected. “She was the driving force in the case. If she hadn’t done the things she did, I would have declared the case cold in any of a dozen different times. She saved everyone and deserves to be recognized for it.”

“I know she was a big part of that case. Everyone I interviewed made that very clear. Everyone except for her.”

“Say what?” Nick asked as he put his cigarette out in the ashtray.

“Don’t you think I’m a good enough journalist to have interviewed everyone? I heard her name so many times, I was ready to scream. Hell, you talked about her in our interview enough to know I couldn’t have accidentally overlooked her.”

Nick took out another cigarette and put it in his mouth before offering one to Piper. She accepted it and leaned into Nick’s lighter. He then lit his own. The brunette took a drag on her light while Nick took his time thinking about what she said.

“So, why didn’t you mention her?” he finally asked. “I know you’ve been more suspicious of her than I have been, but you wouldn’t omit someone who risked their life for strangers over a petty grudge.”

“It’s not over a grudge!” Piper argued. “It’s about the fact that she didn't want to be in the paper. I did search her out for an interview, she wasn't easy to find. I almost died three times before I found her.”

“Did you try Quincy?” Nick asked.

“She was nowhere near Quincy. It was more like she found me than the other way around. The entire time she was yards away from me. I tried asking her questions, but all she said was she didn’t want any reference to her in my article. Or in my paper. Ever.”

It sounded like Marian was doing worse since he last saw her, not better. He should have known she would have issues with her trauma. All the hostages were, but they had each other. She was on her own, dealing with who knows what that brain of hers would come up with. He never should have let her go off alone. He should have stayed in the Wasteland with her to help her recover. He felt like he closed a case before it was truly finished. That normally got people dead.

“Where did you find her?” He finally asked Piper, ready to run out of the house.

“What?” Piper asked.

“Marian,” Nick clarified, “where did you find her in the Wasteland?”

Before Piper could answer, the door opened again. Nick looked over and watched a familiar Mr. Handy hover into the office.

“I hope I am not interrupting anything,” Codsworth admitted as he took the time to close the door behind him, still keeping one eye on Nick and Piper.

“Not at all,” Nick said. “I really appreciate you doing this for me.”

“It’s always a pleasure to help a friend,” Codsworth chirped in his Formal British accent. “Though I must say, if you want my efforts to have any lasting effect, you may want to forgo smoking in this house.”

“Don’t worry, I was just enjoying one last cigarette before you got here,” Nick explained. “As soon as you get started, this office will be smoke free.”

“Glad to hear it,” Codsworth responded.

“Where would you like to start?” Nick asked.

“I was hoping to start at the top and work my way down,” he said as he hovered toward the other two companions.

“Do you need any help moving the furniture?”

“Pish-posh, don’t worry about that,” Codsworth told him. “I have already enlisted the aid of Mr. Strong and the lovely Ms Ada to help me when that time comes. I hope you don’t mind if I focus on one piece at a time. Deep cleaning like you're requesting does take a considerable amount of concentration.”

“I’m just fine with that. When Ellie gets back, I’ll have her help you.”

“It’s always good to see you as well Ms Wright,” Codsworth greeted.

“You too, Codsworth,” Piper responded.

With that, the robot butler hovered out of the room and into the living area of the house. Nick felt some regret knowing he was forbidding himself from smoking in his own home ever again. The thought of having Marian feeling comfortable enough to visit made it feel worth it. The detective put out his cigarette, before turning his attention back to Piper.

“Nick?” Piper asked.

“Go ahead and finish that one,” he told her. “Just don’t light a new one.”

“Wait, I know what’s going on here,” Piper accused. “MacCready told me that Marian is allergic to cigarette smoke, and it’s residue. You’re having Codsworth clean your house for Marian.”

“No,” Nick corrected. “While finding out that she is allergic is a factor that inspired me to call Codsworth, it is because I realized that there may be other people who are just as sensitive to it as she is. When I have someone trying to convince me to take their case, the last thing they need is the physical discomfort of an allergy on top of the fear they have for a friend or relative.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“What about you?” Piper asked. “Cigarettes are your comfort. And now you’re quitting for her.”

“Does it look like I’m quitting?” Nick asked. “I can get some patio furniture on the roof and smoke out there. Besides, I’m a robot, I don’t need to smoke.”

“Did she tell you that?” Piper accused.

Just then the door opened up again. Nick was expecting Ellie, so he didn’t bother to look at the door. He was trying to not give any ground to Piper and her accusations.

“Nick, I’m sorry to bug you like this, but I need your help,” MacCready said. His voice sounded like the voices of dozens if not hundreds of other people who had been in that office had sounded. Shy, chagrined, scared, and trying to hide it all.

“Piper, I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” Nick said letting his accent get heavy.

“What?” Piper asked, “It’s just MacCready.”

“I don’t care how well the three of us know each other, as of right now, he’s a client,” Nick said. “So, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“MacCready,” Piper said turning to the young man. “You don’t mind if I stay, do you?”

Nick was ready to strangle her. She knew MacCready had a crush on her. The way she cocked her hip and played with her hair showed she was using that against him.

“I don’t know,” MacCready responded. “Will it get us that one on one interview?”

“Never going to happen,” she insisted and walked past him and out the door.

Nick was impressed by how well MacCready handled Piper. The influences he had been getting from home had definitely changed his attitude. Nick hoped it remained for the better.

“Sorry you had to do that,” Nick said as he sat behind the reception desk. “Take a seat and get comfy.”

“Thanks,” MacCready said as he sat in the armchair in front of the desk.

“I didn’t know you would do that,” Nick pointed out.

“It’s one of Marian’s tricks,” MacCready told him. “I’d seen her do something like that a few times when we were doing the caravan runs together. She said something about using other people’s weapons against them or something. She was really violent back then, always hitting me and stuff. She never hurt me, but I was kind of afraid of her. I still trusted her to protect me. She saved my life about as often as she hit me. And I had seen her disarm a slaver before killing him with his gun. But she did it with words a lot, too.”

“Like how you over flirted with Piper?”

“I remember her doing that with a girl once. Girl wanted to wipe both of us clean of caps. Marian started flirting back and managed to scare her off.”

Nick chuckled at the thought of Marian doing such a thing. He regretted not seeing these incidences firsthand.

“So, what brings you to my neck of the woods,” Nick asked.

“I want to hire you,” MacCready said, stating the obvious.

Just as he announced that, the door opened again revealing Ellie. Nick held up his hand to signal MacCready to stay silent.

“Sorry it took me so long,” Ellie apologized. “Myrna refused to sell to me until I listened to her latest argument about why the Institute hasn’t changed in the past year, and how I’m working for their number one spy. But at least I got us the best coffee in town.”

“I appreciate that,” Nick said. “Codsworth is here. Do me a favor and take him shopping. Find out what he needs and make a list of it and how much each item will cost. If there’s anything he needs today, get it for him from the petty cash.”

“It looks like MacCready is a client, don’t you need my help?” Ellie asked.

“Normally I would, but I don’t want you to be emotionally involved in this case. You’ll help me out more if you help Codsworth get what he needs to clean this place. Something tells me he’ll be here for a while. He’s probably airing out your room now.”

“Okay,” Ellie said hesitantly. She disappeared into the sleeping area of the house.

“I heard what you said,” Nick told MacCready. “Give them a moment to leave and then we can talk.”

“Can I have a smoke?” MacCready asked.

“No,” Nick answered. “This office is officially non-smoking.”

“Glad to hear that,” Codsworth announced as he hovered into the room followed by Ellie. “I guarantee you won’t regret it. It will make my hard work last longer. It’s good to see you again, Mr. MacCready. I read about your exploits in the paper and may I congratulate you on a job well done.”

“Thanks, Codsworth,” MacCready said.

Codsworth and Ellie left the office. Nick found the silence with MacCready more oppressive that it should be.

“It’s quiet, too quiet,” MacCready said.

“Agreed,” Nick responded. “So, the job? I have a hunch as to why you’re here. But I want to hear you say it to me first.”

“I want to hire you to find Marian,” MacCready said, confirming Nick’s suspicions.

“Lose your sister?”

“I haven’t seen her since you two did that job together. I’m really worried about her.”

“It’s my understanding that she’s an expert at the disappearing act,” Nick pointed out. “How do you know this isn’t another one of her games?”

“She used to do things like this sometimes when we were on the caravans,” MacCready admitted. “Being around people was often too much for her. She would just disappear for a few days and then reappear like she was with us the whole time. But it was different then. You would catch glimpses of her sometimes. If there was a fight, she would appear, kill what you were fighting, and disappear again. And we were never near a town when she did that.”

“And now there isn’t a trace of her?”

“Nothing! I’m worried that she went back to the Capital Wasteland.”

“What’s so bad about that. I thought that was your home.”

MacCready was getting more and more visibly agitated as they talked. Normally Nick would try to talk someone down to get them calm to get answers, but at that moment, he couldn’t help but feel MacCready was hiding something from him. Nick was going to keep pushing until he found out what it was. MacCready stayed silent for a while, fidgeting and looking around like he expected to see her in the corner of the office. Suddenly the human stood up and moved to the door. He locked it and even took the time to test the knob. He then returned to his seat and faced Nick with more seriousness than Nick ever saw.

It was still several seconds before he could talk, but finally MacCready started speaking again. “If she ever finds out I told you this, she will kill me,” he said slowly and seriously. Nick wondered if he needed to mark her as a troublesome character in her file. “She can’t go back. Going back will get her killed, or kidnapped.”

“Normally those two are put in the other order.”

“Normally kidnapped is the better of the two,” MacCready snapped. “She has a family there, a real family, not like me. They are some pretty powerful bas…I mean they are powerful. They didn’t like…they didn’t like that she left them. I saw people who were trying to get their favor kill people around her as if it would make her return to them.”

“Hancock hinted at something like that,” Nick admitted. “He said you have scars from it.”

“It wasn’t just me; I was lucky. She had a girlfriend once. A ghoul. I saw her date lots of people, but most of her relationships were like her and Cait. There’d be flirting, then she’d get bored and forget to say hi when we got into town or something and it would fall apart in two or three visits. But this woman, she really seemed to like her. They would stay up for hours talking every time we were in Underworld.”

“Underworld?” Nick asked.

“It was a city of ghouls. Marian had lots of friends there, but we rarely visited. Until she started spending time with Zenobia. Then it seemed like we never really left. She always paid her half of the room when we visited, but normally stayed in Zenobia's room for the night,” MacCready went silent for a moment. He lowered his head and started staring at the desk between them.

Nick wasn’t used to seeing MacCready showing such strong displays of emotion. Usually, he saved those for his family. Then again, Marian was his family.

“She was different then, you know,” MacCready started saying again. “She was silly, and playful. She was always playing tricks on me. I learned how to stay on my guard in the Wasteland because of her. We got lots of good jobs while we were staying in Underworld. Most ghouls had lived long enough to not want to do caravan jobs anymore, but she would give me that open smile and point out that the ghouls have experience, and we have two-hundred years to catch up to them. She was full of those stupid sayings. I missed them.”

“What happened between her and Zenobia?” Nick asked. He had a feeling he knew where this story was going. He lived the story himself, and it was what lead him to become a synth.

“We just finished a job. I don’t think it was a caravan job, I think we were clearing out mirelurks. It doesn’t matter. We went home to see our friends in Underworld. They called her Tink there, you know?”

“I’ve heard something like that,” Nick agreed.

“I think she had a different name in every city, she said it helped her hide. Don’t know how those fuckers found her.”

Nick felt an extra dose of coolant run through him. MacCready had been trying hard to minimize his swearing since he first came to the Commonwealth. He had a habit of stopping himself from swearing in the middle of a sentence. The fact he didn’t seem to care this time showed how upsetting this story was for him.

MacCready pulled out his sniper rifle and laid it on the desk. He started taking it apart and wiping down pieces. Nick would have to clean up the carbon flakes that were already covering the desk before Ellie got back. Nick waited for a long time, watching his young friend dancing around what happened years ago.

“Alex met us at the entrance,” he finally continued. “It was obvious he had waited several days for us. Well, for her. Somehow word got out that she was dating a ghoul. Her family couldn’t allow that kind of a scandal to happen. So, one of them, or maybe all of them, got a bunch of their company together and went into Underworld. They ignored the others, except for Victoria, she tried to stop them and was killed for it.”

It was obvious that MacCready did not take as good care of his rifle as Marian did with hers. Maybe it was because he had been in the Commonwealth so long, he had adopted habits that Marian hadn’t seen a point in adjusting to. The idea that Marian didn’t want to stay suddenly hit Nick like an electric surge.

“They killed her,” MacCready finally blurted out. “They fucking marched into Underworld and murdered her girlfriend all because she was a ghoul and she made her happy.”

This was not a new story to Nick. Powerful family with one rebellious black sheep who the family tried to bring in line by any means necessary. MacCready started putting his still dirty rifle together, slowly.

“Alex had me stay in his room that night. Ah…Marian stayed with Lisi. None of us got any sleep. The next day she just walked out and I followed. We did some jobs together, but she was different. The sister I was used to running with was gone. A few weeks later we were at Rivet City. She told me to go my own way and left.” MacCready put his gun away and looked up at Nick. Tears were threatening a jailbreak from his eyes. “I honestly thought she was leaving me to put a bullet in her head, and I couldn't find a reason to stop her.”

The death wish she carried with her, the way she was friendly with almost everyone but almost nothing more with anyone, the fact she seemed almost afraid to be anywhere. It all made sense suddenly. She really was suicidal, and her best friend was more willing to help her than stop her.

“Why are you telling me all of this?” Nick finally asked.

“Because she seemed happy when you two were doing that case together,” MacCready admitted. “The woman who stole my hat, that was the woman who I ran caravans with. I thought she died that night she was told what happened to Zenobia. But then you two started working together, and I saw her be herself again.”

Nick sat back in silence, there was no point in rushing MacCready through that emotional memory he had. He had made his decision, but rushing answers often caused problems at this stage of the job.

“Are you going to be alright, Kid?” Nick finally asked.

“Please, just find her,” was all MacCready answered.

“No,” Nick finally responded.

“What the he…what the heck?” MacCready snapped. “I thought you two were getting along!”

“Say I find Marian, and she doesn’t want to come back, do you expect me to drag her back?” Nick asked.

“So, you’re not going to even try?” MacCready accused. “Fu…I mean…no, fuck you!”

The young man stood up and stormed to the door of the office. He tried opening it, forgetting it was locked. He unlocked it and left the room making sure to slam the door behind him.

Nick wanted a cigarette, but the office was officially non-smoking. Instead, he went to the coffee pot and brewed some coffee. He poured himself a cup before going to his desk. He took out an empty file. He opened it up and placed a clean sheet of paper in it. He then wrote “Case: Marian Holcombe’s (AKA Tink; Real Name: Unknown) disappearance”.