The Boylston Club was not what it used to be. Once a place for the local elite to rub elbows, now it was a final resting place for that very elite.

Nick gave up trying to identify any of the remains. He wasn’t there to walk down memory lane, nor was he there to identify 200-year-old corpses. He was there to find a hopefully living kid. He instead moseyed around the club, trying to find signs that Davey had been there.

Nick helped himself to a cigar that had been left abandoned for all the years since its owner decided to “drink the good stuff”. He pocketed the cigar for later. He would enjoy it after he closed the case.

He remembered how this club was the place to be, it was where the richest men in Boston rubbed elbows. At $500,000 annual dues, it would be hard for anyone other than the richest men in the city to join. He remembered how if anyone from that club ended up in his jail back when he was a beat cop, they would be out in less than half an hour for a crime most people would be rotting away on for at least a year. Funny how men and boys who acted so tough as they used their money as a shield, couldn’t last more than a few days once that shield became useless.

The synth wondered what he would have done if he was in the same situation as these men. Would he have joined them, or would he have the drive to continue living? He knew what he decided to do when he woke up one day in this changed world, but he was disoriented and confused. The original Nick’s memories were uploaded days before the war started, and the synth had no idea what he was when he woke up. By the time he had figured out his surroundings and confirmed he was not dreaming, he had adjusted to the world enough to be able to work with it.

Sometimes, Nick wondered what happened to his predecessor. Did he survive the bombs? Was he able to continue in the destroyed world? Help a community start up and create a new life. Find someone who could mean as much to him as Jenny had and start a family? Nick did occasionally see someone who looked just enough like the face he used to see in the mirror that he couldn’t help but wonder.

Or did he eventually find Jenny at the bottom of a bottle?

The synth did try to find his predecessor once. He spent days poring over every document written within 100 years after the bombs fell that he could find. He never found anything that even hinted that Nick Valentine existed, let alone rather he survived the initial explosions.

Nick eventually walked to the bar, leaving the gentlemen where they had chosen to die. He turned on the radio and listened to Travis talk about the news with his usual overconfidence. The man’s information was woefully inadequate compared to how it was when Nate was topside. When Nate was running around, everything was about him. How he took out the gunners. How he aided the Brotherhood of Steel. How he rescued Nick Valentine.

The detective leaned back against the bar, took out a cigarette and lit it. He didn’t really need to smoke, it probably did clog up his air filters, but it made him feel connected with the man he once was. It’s not that he didn’t like being a synth, it had its advantages and disadvantages, it’s just he never asked to be one. Just like he never asked to be tossed out on his ear when the Institute was done torturing him.

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“The latest rumor in the streets is that the Mystery Woman is at it again,” Travis announced. “This time, as the story goes, a family of refugees got cornered by a yao guai. Just as they thought they were done for, none other than the Mystery Woman appeared. The story goes she killed the beast with one shot. The family reported that she led them safely to Kingsport Lighthouse and before they could thank her for her help, she disappeared like she was never there. Could the Mystery Woman be related to the Stranger? We may never know.”

So, Marian was in the Kingsport Lighthouse area? Nick felt a dose of coolant wash over him. she was alright. The detective was still kicking himself over letting her walk away when he did. He knew she wasn’t okay. He knew she was dealing with some bad trauma. He read what they did to her on that terminal. Yet when the case was closed, she left him at the gates of Diamond City, and he watched her return to the Wasteland.

After talking with MacCready, Nick couldn’t help but share his fear that she had returned to The Capital Wasteland to die. When his mind would wander to her, he sometimes feared that she had put a bullet in her head. Nick had seen people he thought would never do such a thing give in to trauma. Even Old Nick had started wondering about how the barrel of his gun would taste after Jenny was killed. The world gave Old Nick all the space he thought he needed when he was a danger to himself. Why did Nick the Synth think it was okay to give Marian all the space she needed when she was in the same situation?

The song “Worry, Worry, Worry” started playing. Nick couldn’t help but smile at the irony. He silently promised himself to find her as soon as this case was finished. He would help her the rest of the way through her trauma, even if that meant having her live in his house. The place may be cramped for three people, but they would find some way to work it out. Marian deserved that much.

Nick grabbed the radio dial and started turning it. He wished he could listen for more rumors about Marian, but he was on a case and needed to focus on that. The dial slowly turned all the way to one end, then he turned it all the way back to the other. Diamond City Radio was playing, as was the Classic Music station, and Radio Freedom. But Nick couldn’t find the Silver Shroud.

The dial rested back on Diamond City Radio. Jasper said Davey liked listening to the Silver Shroud on this radio. But the radio couldn’t pick it up. Nick thought of when he ran around with Nate. Nate liked listening to the Silver Shroud, too. The range for the Silver Shroud was very short, but Nate would turn it on whenever he was in range. Which was normally halfway through the Commons. The other end of the Commons could get the station, but Nate never got it on the far side of the Commons.

Nick put out the stub of a cigarette in an ashtray that hadn’t been used for over 200 years. Jasper said this was where Davey was always going to. Boston Commons was a long way from Hangman Alley for a kid to not even get to listen to the Silver Shroud. Maybe this was as close as he dared to get to Goodneighbor. If the kid no longer fears being punished, why would he stop at the Commons? Why not listen to the show with the man who loved the Shroud so much that he would play episodes to share his love with the world?

It was a long shot, but Nick didn’t have much else to go on at that moment. It wouldn’t be the first case solved on dumb luck. It was worth the try. The detective walked out of the room, leaving the members of the club in their self-chosen crypt.