Goodneighbor, lowest place in the Commonwealth, and Nick Valentine was rolling through the city. He didn’t visit the city often. He didn’t like the place; despite the friends he had living in it. Truth was, he felt dirty by the amount of crime and corruption that existed in the city. Hancock loved it, so Nick knew it wasn’t going to change anytime soon.
If he could, he would never visit the city and leave the rats to feed on themselves. But his job brought him around often enough that the city of filth had become like a home away from home. Rather he wanted it to be or not.
Before he got to the front gate, he saw people he recognized as members of the city working construction with some members of the Neighborhood Watch standing guard wielding their submachine guns. It looked almost like they were trying to wall the Fallen Skybridge in. A single bird was perched on the construction, watching their progress. The synth walked past them, whatever they were doing was Hancock’s business, not his. He saw the bright neon lights welcoming visitors to the city and entered the gates himself.
“You smell that, that’s the smell of freedom,” one of the guards said.
Nick kept his opinion of what freedom smelled like to himself. Instead, he walked to Kill or be Killed and bought a box of 5.56 ammo. He then made his way through the city until he reached the Memory Den. He entered the spacious renovated theater.
“Nick Valentine,” Irma called out from her lounger, “it’s been too long. I thought you didn’t care about me anymore.”
“Irma,” Nick said walking to the stage that she waited on, “I don’t think it’s possible for me to ever stop thinking about you.”
“You always were an old flirt,” she responded. “Are you here on a case?”
“I am, actually,” Nick admitted. “A runaway child. I believe he may have come here to see Mr. Connolly. Can I see him?”
“Oh, you mean that sweet boy who was here the other day?” Irma cooed, “Poor thing seemed so scared and just wanted to talk to Kent. I gave him some food and took care of him until Kent came out of his pod. He told me he was trying to get away from his brother. I hope he’s not in trouble.”
“So do I,” Nick agreed. “Is Connolly able to have guests now?”
“He just came out of his pod a few minutes ago. He should be finished cleaning up. Why don’t you go say ‘hi’?”
Nick waved his gratitude to Irma and went to Kent’s room. He walked in to see the childish ghoul sitting next to his radio, listening to a holotape that was on a permanent loop.
“Hey, Irma, I didn’t know the pod would be ready so soon,” Kent said without looking up.
“It’s not,” Nick corrected.
Kent looked up and saw Nick’s face. The ghoul stood up and backed himself into the table he was sitting at.
“Hey, look Valentine, I don’t know why you’re here, but I didn’t do it,” Kent said.
“Calm down Connolly,” Nick reassured him. “You’re not in trouble. I’m hoping you can help me with a case.”
Kent visibly calmed down and sat back in his chair. “That’s good, sorry for panicking like that, Nick. It’s just, normally when you’re in Goodneighbor, you’re out for trouble.”
“That’s reasonable,” Nick agreed. “But I’m here looking for a kid named Davey. I believe he visited you recently. Do you remember him?”
Kent’s face lit up at the memory. Thank god the ghoul had a poor poker face, for a ghoul. “Oh, yeah, I remember him. He was a great kid. He came here and we talked about the Silver Shroud. He asked me if I had more episodes than the ones I play. But I don’t. I wish I did though. Oh, that would be great. To play all four-hundred and nineteen episodes, plus the Christmas special. Too bad the show didn’t have a chance to wrap up before the bombs dropped, though. Did you know there was an episode where the Shroud adopted a kid?”
“I did not know that,” Nick said as he lit a cigarette.
“Oh yeah. It was episode one-hundred twenty-three. The kid was originally supposed to be a sidekick named the Copper Cloak, but the writing team changed mid-storyline, and the idea of the Copper Cloak was scrapped. It would have been fun though, seeing the Silver Shroud with a sidekick. Can you imagine?”
Nick was feeling like he was losing control of the conversation. He knew that if he let him, Kent could ramble on for hours about the Silver Shroud. That was time he needed to find Davey. “Do you know where Davey went?”
“After I told him about the episodes I had and didn’t have, I told him about how the Shroud was here last year. How he was helping clean up Goodneighbor and was trying to find his son. Davey seemed interested. He asked me where the Shroud is now. So, I told him how the Shroud is now part of the Institute, but no one knows how to get in. I remember telling him that the entrance had something to do with the C. I. T. Ruins. He may have gone there.”
“I see,” Nick said, trying not to react. Super Mutants had moved back into the C. I. T. Ruins. Damn things were worse than radroaches. Nick was worried that this case may not have a happy ending. “Thanks for the tip. I’ll let the kid know you enjoyed his visit.” The detective turned and walked toward the door.
“Say ‘hi’ to the Shroud for me if you see him,” Kent called after him.
Nick waved a hand and left the room. He quietly closed the door leaving Kent to while his time doing what he does when he’s not in the memory pods.
“Thanks for the help, Sweetheart,” Nick called to Irma.
“Don’t be a stranger, Nick,” she called back. “You don’t have to be on a case to visit.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he responded and walked through the building. He snubbed his cigarette out at the ticket booth before leaving the theater all together.
He wanted to run toward the C. I. T. Ruins, he could only hope the kid was still safe. But that would be suicide. He needed to prepare. And he needed to take care of something personal as well. First, he will worry about Davey, then he will worry about his own personal problems.
The synth walked into the Third Rail. He nodded at Ham as he entered, he was going to walk right past the bouncer, but Ham decided to speak up.
“Hey, Valentine,” the well-dressed ghoul called. “Haven’t seen Halcombe around lately. Is she doing okay?”
A question Nick had been asking himself for weeks. For some reason it surprised him more than it should that she made friends with Ham. One more ghoul who cared about her. Did that woman run around the Commonwealth making sure to get to know every ghoul personally? That thought made Nick think that perhaps, she was at The Slog. He would have to check it out the first chance he got. He could only hope she was doing okay.
“I don’t know,” Nick responded. “I haven’t seen her recently myself.”
Nick was going to just keep walking. He didn’t like being in the Third Rail, and the sooner he was out, the happier he would be. Ham reached out and placed a strong hand on Nick’s chest stopping him. Nick turned to make eye contact. The thin ghoul wasn’t much to look at as a bouncer, but Nick knew that if he wanted to, he could do some damage.
“Look, I know you two don’t have the best history, but she’s a good girl. She cares, and that means a lot to a ghoul. Don’t let her get hurt.”
“It’s been my understanding that her career has been based on surviving bad situations, and not getting hurt,” Nick pointed out. “I don’t see how her health and safety when I’m not around is my responsibility.”
“It’s not,” Ham said. “But she needs someone, and you’re really the only person who would be able to look out for her.”
Guilt rushed through Nick. He knew she was too willful for her own good, and too suicidal. MacCready couldn’t protect her from herself, she could outwit him long enough to dodge into danger while he was still figuring out the trick. Hancock wasn’t mobile enough to physically stay with her, he was too busy with the mysterious project he was working on with his city. Cait was the worst babysitter in the world unless there was something in it for her. None of her other friends were good enough fighters to be able to help her with her job. Nick had to admit to himself, he was the only one who could protect her from herself, and he didn’t even try.
“If I see her, I’ll let her know you’re concern,” Nick said, brushing off the ghoul and trying to brush off his own emotions.
He walked down the stairs, listening to Magnolia singing one of her beautiful jazz tunes. It sounded like a new one. Magnolia was the only good part of this accursed place. He was about to turn and walk straight to the VIP lounge, but he saw that Whitechapel Charlie had two of his three eyes pointed straight at him. He knew he had to acknowledge the Mr. Handy before going where he wanted to.
Charlie hovered over to Nick. “So, Mr. Valentine, are you here to order something, or just cause problems in my bar?” The robot asked while cleaning a glass using two of his arms and preparing a drink with two more.
“I guess that depends on you,” Nick accused as he lit a cigarette. “Do you have any bodies in the back room that I’m not supposed to know about, today?”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Why don’t you give me a description so I can say the answer is no,” Charlie responded.
Typical Charlie. The robot was shadier than a Renaissance artist’s palette. Sometimes it amazed Nick how few robots he actually got along with. An irony that never escaped him.
“I’m looking for a kid, about thirteen, cinnamon skin tone, probably staring at everything he sees,” Nick explained.
“Someone like that wouldn’t survive around here very long,” Charlie said.
“He was at the Memory Den,” Nick explained. “I’m hoping he didn’t stop here before he left town.”
“Can’t say he has,” Charlie said. “I can safely say there is no reason for you to check the backroom.”
“You’re all heart,” Nick said as he walked away from the bar and towards the VIP lounge.
MacCready was sitting at a couch, nursing a bottle, talking to a young woman. Nick recognized her as Knock Knock. MacCready’s childhood friend. MacCready was chuckling at something she had said. The girl was putting on a good face, but Nick could tell she was still damaged. It was hard getting through the emotional struggle torture can put a person through. It was even harder in these times when few people knew anything about psychology, let alone used it to help others.
The young companion noticed Nick as the synth entered the room. “Valentine,” he said. It wasn’t hostile, but it was short. He must still be upset about Nick’s decision not to take his case.
“Don’t act like I’m some sort of monster, kid,” Nick said. “I’m here to hire you for a job.”
“Did you finally decide to find …Marian?” MacCready asked. He paused before saying her name, almost like he was trying to remember it.
It wasn’t the first time Nick saw him pause before saying her name. He wondered what name MacCready knew her by. He decided to let that secret rest between MacCready and Marian, or who the hell she was today.
“I’m looking for a kid,” Nick explained. “I have reason to believe he got himself tangled up with some super mutants. I’m wanting to hire you so we can clear the place out and make sure that it’s a dead end.”
“Knock Knock and Knick Knack are still dealing with everything,” MacCready said. “I don’t think I can leave them long enough to go running around the Commonwealth with you, Nick.”
“You never refused a job before. Are you sure you can afford it?”
“You never left my sister to fend for herself before!” MacCready snapped back. “I wanted to hire you! I would have paid perfectly good caps that I can’t afford to find her. Instead, you flatly turned me down. Why the f…I mean why should I help you?”
Nick moved over to the couch across from MacCready and Knock Knock and sat down. He knew he had to make good and explain his motivations. He would have rather had kept his motivations as his pet project. He had imagined letting her return to her brother after he found her and helped her get better. Instead, he had to explain it all to MacCready, and face the truth himself.
“Look, I know I turned you down, and under almost any other circumstance I would have taken the job. But it wasn’t your job to hire me for. It was mine. It was my fault she disappeared, and it would have compounded the fault if I took your money.”
“How was it your fault?” Knock Knock asked. She was a real pretty girl; Nick hadn’t noticed that before when he was helping rescue her. Nick hoped she was smart enough not to get corrupted or killed by Goodneighbor. At least not until she was well enough to leave the place all together.
“She was my partner. I knew she wasn’t dealing well with what happened to her during the case, and I should have looked out for her and taken care of her. But instead, I let her go back out into The Wasteland like nothing had happened.”
Knock Knock shivered a little. She seemed to fold in on herself. Nick tried to be delicate while talking about the torture both women had dealt with, but it was an inescapable fact. Nick took time after the survivors were rescued to read the terminal entries. Nick saw the entry about Knock Knock. He knew things were worse for Knock Knock than they were for Marian and lasted a lot longer than the few hours Marian had to endure. Apparently, the bastards thought it was fun to force the twins to do things with each other. Sometimes, they were lucky enough to only be forced to hurt each other.
“I can’t imagine wanting to go back out there,” she said.
“She isn’t like that,” MacCready explained. “…Marian is afraid of people. She always has been. She just kinda endures because she has to if she wants to survive. When things get bad though,” MacCready went silent for a moment. “Sometimes, she would give me whatever I could trade, and let me go into a city alone to get supplies, while she slept outside. More than once, she would clear out a nest of super mutants near Rivet City and wait for me there. She doesn’t like seeing people hurt, but I think she thinks no one else feels the same way.”
There was a painful silence that hung between the three of them. MacCready with his memories, Knock Knock with her trauma, and Nick with his guilt. Nick was about to talk, when Knock Knock broke up the silence.
“Why did you hang out with her?” she asked.
“What?” MacCready responded.
“You were never sentimental like that in Little Lamplight. Especially not for someone who had never been in our city. I don’t get it.”
“Do you remember that woman who would sometimes bring back kids who said they were captured by slavers? The one who never said anything, and barely even looked at me?”
“Is that her?” Knock Knock asked. She seemed so excited at the thought that she had seen Marian before. Nick wondered if she was a celebrity in The Capital Wasteland.
“It is,” MacCready continued. “The day I left Little Lamplight, I went to Big Town, like everyone else. But there was a caravan outside, recruiting guards. I saw her there. I guess I wanted to know what kind of person she was, being she always was helping us, but never really even talking to us, let alone asking for anything. So, I just joined the caravan and never even entered Big Town.”
Nick could understand that desire, especially from a kid who saw his hero suddenly accessible for the first time in his life. Most kids in that position learn why they are told to never meet their heroes, Nick wondered if MacCready was disappointed at how human she was in the end.
“I am looking for her,” he explained quietly. “After you left my office, I opened a case and have been looking for her. My problem is that I barely have any leads outside of rumors that may or may not be her, and she is very good at hiding. I will find her, but I can’t let my other cases languish in the meantime. Please understand that.”
MacCready turned his attention back to Nick. The now grown child mayor finished off his drink and placed the empty bottle on the table. He was buying time, and Nick let him.
“If you were talking to her, she would negotiate an exchange of favors,” MacCready answered. “I’ve seen her do it so many times. I also saw that they usually don’t work. Most people don’t care enough to stick to promises if there’s no one forcing them to stick to it. Here’s what I want. I want double our usual rate, and I want her to be your next case. Nothing else but her after this.”
“Deal,” Nick said. He would eat the caps, but MacCready was good at his job, and Nick wanted to be able to hire him again in the future. “But you pay for your own expenses. That includes your food, medicine and any hotels you want to stay in.”
“I can live with that,” MacCready said.
“Good, because that’s all you’re going to get,” Nick insisted. “Go ahead and get ready. I have to talk to Hancock about something. Meet me at his house.”
The synth stood up and walked out of the lounge. He listened to Magnolia singing her “Good Neighbor” tune as he passed through the main lobby and up the stairs.
“Remember what I told you,” Ham muttered as he passed the bouncer.
“Don’t worry about that,” Nick said. It was going to be hard for him to forget it.
He exited the former subway and walked around the same building until he was entering the main house. Nick climbed even more stairs to get to Hancock’s office. The door was open, with Fahrenheit lounging on a couch and Hancock talking to her. Nick let himself into the room. Hancock looked up and gave him a ghoulish smile.
“Nick! It’s good to see you again. Come on in and close the door.” The mayor called out.
Fahrenheit stood up and moved to a corner of the office, lighting a cigarette as soon as she got there. The door closed behind Nick before he had a chance to turn around. Even for a drug addict, Hancock ran a tight ship.
“Take a seat,” Hancock said as he sat in the same place Fahrenheit was in moments before. “What brings you to my home?”
Nick smiled at the warm welcome from Hancock and sat on the couch opposite the mayor. “What brings me to Goodneighbor is a case. What brings me to this office is Marian Halcombe,” Nick clarified.
“Shouldn’t those two be the same reason?” Hancock asked lighting a cigarette before handing the pack to Nick.
The synth accepted the pack and lit one up for himself. “MacCready seems to think they should. But I have a backlog of cases right now. Normally when that happens, I try to focus on the ones that seem like I can solve them in a short amount of time, or if it seems like the missing person’s life may be in danger. Marian doesn’t fill either of those requirements.”
“Then why are you here about her?”
“I’m hoping she’ll turn up on her own,” Nick explained. “I have been hearing rumors of a ‘Mystery Woman’ on the radio, but nothing definite. No one who can identify her by name is adding to the rumors. And, well, I’m worried about her.”
Hancock was quiet for a moment. He drew on his cigarette and breathed out the smoke. “It’s enough to make me want to go back to those drug addled stupors I used to live in,” he finally admitted.
“Don’t, I don’t want to worry about you too.”
“I haven’t seen her since that case I had you two worked on together,” Hancock said. “My spies have reported she has visited Diamond City twice. She’s been trying to pay off a debt she has there. When she’s not there, my spies can’t find her.”
“You have spies watching her?” Nick asked. He didn’t know why he was surprised. Hancock had spies watching everyone of interest. He knew Hancock had spies checking on him often as well. Still, somehow Nick hadn’t considered her as important to the Commonwealth. At least, not as important as Hancock seemed to think she was.
“I want to make sure she’s alright,” the ghoul explained. “Three people we’ve saved from the cult have already taken their own lives. I don’t want Marian to join those numbers.”
Nick was silent for a moment. Suddenly, she did seem to be in danger. More danger than Nick had accounted for. Somehow, even though he knew suicide was a possibility, he never wanted to accept that she would do it. Not until now.
“If you wanted to rub it in my face that I failed my partner, congratulations,” Nick said flatly. “I know I shouldn’t have let her stay out in The Wasteland when she was that way. I heard it from Ellie, I heard it from MacCready, and now I’m hearing it from you.”
“What were you supposed to do with her? Tie her to a chair and force her to get better? If she wanted to go back out into The Wasteland, there was nothing you could do to stop her. I have spies looking out for her, but if she wanted to end things, there’s nothing any of us can do to stop her.”
“You sound sure that she’s still alive,” Nick pointed out. “Three people have already ended things and they had someone to watch out for them. What makes you so sure she hasn’t?”
“She wants to die a hero,” Hancock explained. “Most people who want to be heroes I will kill myself before they get someone else hurt, but it’s different for her. She doesn’t want the praise or the recognition most people trying to heroes go for. She wants to die, but she wants it to have meaning. She thinks if someone else gets hurt, the meaning is lost. Suicide also strips that death of all meaning. I don’t think she’s there yet. At least I hope she isn’t.”
Nick thought about Hancock’s words for a moment. That’s why she was willing to put herself in harms way. Why she tells people she won’t die for an idiot. Nick tried thinking of her behavior patterns, he tried figuring out what she could consider “dying a hero”. There had to be a definition, or a set of rules, at least in her mind.
“I promised MacCready to make her into my next case,” Nick told Hancock. “I’ll swing by after I open her case to see if she’s made an appearance.”
There was a knock at the door, and a guard looked into the room. “MacCready is here to see Nick,” the ghoul crooned.
“I better get going,” Nick said putting out his cigarette before standing up. “If she comes back, tie her to a chair until I can come by and force her to get better.”
“Can’t promise she won’t get out of the bonds,” Hancock teased. “But I’ll do what I can for her until then.”
Nick exited the room to join MacCready. He needed to focus on his current case, not his next one. He needed to get to the C. I. T. ruins and see if Davey was still alive. The sooner he found Davey, the sooner he could start looking for Marian. The sooner he found either of them, the more likely they would both be alive.