The radio was playing Magnolia singing “I’m the one you’re looking for”. Nick was enjoying the slow jazzy purr of his favorite living singer while making notes on his latest case. He needed to document how he actually solved the case and the results. A detective never knows when he has to reference his past accomplishments.

Ellie was sitting at her desk, reading the latest issues of Publick Occurrences. Nick had already read it, unfortunately. It was another fluff piece talking about how refugees were feeling accepted by Commonwealth locals.

Piper’s fluff pieces never sell as well as her investigative work. She was never as happy working on them either. Nick had thought about suggesting she become a war correspondent in the Capital Wasteland, but he didn’t dare speak the idea. He doubted the Brotherhood of Steel would allow journalistic immunity and didn’t want to lose a friend to that war.

He took a sip of coffee before he turned his attention back to his chaotic notes. He knew Ellie would clean up his thoughts later. She was always good at that.

The sound of his front door slamming open echoed through the office. The sound of a body falling onto the wood flooring followed so quickly after, it had to be the body that opened the door, not someone carrying the body and dropping it inside his office.

“Nick…...Valentine….” he heard wheeze from near his door. Each word was sputtered out quickly, making it hard for him to be sure that he was understanding them right. There was a gasp and a gulp before she could finish her short sentence. “Help.”

Nick turned to see if the owner of the voice was who he thought it was. Before he could look around the front desk, Ellie answered his question.

“Marian!” she shouted. His secretary was on her feet and bolting around her desk in less than a second. She bent down in front of the still open door, disappearing from Nick’s view. “Here, drink this.”

Nick was soon out of his seat, not nearly as fast as Ellie, but he was just as concerned about Marian. He moved to see Marian on her hands and knees in front of Ellie’s desk. Ellie was holding a tin of purified water to Marian’s mouth. The bodyguard was getting as much water on her chin and floor as she was getting into her mouth. She pulled away to go into a coughing fit.

“Easy,” Nick ordered both women. “You don’t want to suffocate her. Ellie, why don’t you go get some power noodles for our guest? While you’re at it, get two extra bowls, one for each of us.”

Ellie looked helplessly up at Nick for a moment, before she stood up, gave the water to him and left the office, shutting the door behind her. Marian was looking down at the floor so he couldn’t see her face, but she still managed to look more helpless. Nick knelt down and wrapped an arm around Marian’s shoulders before holding the tin to her mouth.

“Just a sip,” he ordered gently.

When she reached up to get more water, he took the tin away from her mouth.

“Breath, the water will be here, but you can’t overdo it.”

She seemed to have already accomplished that. Her backpack was full, but it was over her gun. She had multiple cuts and bruises over her body, as if she had run through danger and ignored any attacks on her.

He placed the water on Ellie’s desk before helping slide the backpack off of her back. There was a distinct clinking sound of glass as he moved it. It had more heft to it than usual as well. She must have been visiting her friends. Nick heard Hancock helped them move to a place more suited for them and for her visiting. Nick couldn’t help but suspect that the fact The Glowing Sea was between their new home and The Capital Wasteland was another reason for the new location.

After placing the backpack in a corner, he then turned back to her. He gave her another sip of water before putting his hands under her elbows and moving her onto the chair in front of Ellie’s desk. Her breathing was becoming steadier, letting him know she would be safe if he let her drink. He gave her the tin to finish off. She managed to spill a large portion down the front of her shirt and jacket, but that was nominal compared to the sweat that was collecting on her clothing.

“Are you okay, Doll?” he finally got around to asking. He could see the answer, but he wanted her to feel comfortable.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she started stammering, running her fingers through the light brown stubble on her head. She was looking everywhere but at him. “I know I’m not supposed to come here, I know you told me to leave. I didn’t know what else to do.”

Nick put his hands on both of her shoulders and knelt to her level. He looked up at her, trying to force her to look him in the face. “It’s ok, Sweetheart. I’m glad you came. Just tell me what’s wrong.”

Marian looked at Nick, her eyes looked so large and scared. Like a child who got caught breaking the rules. “But you told me to get out.”

Nick remembered, months ago, yelling at her to leave. He forgot that he did that. Somehow, he expected her to forget that as they got closer to each other. He realized he never saw her in his office since that day. Even when she swung by, she never fully entered the house. She always just talked from the doorway.

The synth placed his hand next to her face. He hated the sight of his cold metal hand on her warm, soft, living face. He wished every time that he touched her that he wasn’t a synth, but a man. The type of man she deserved to have touching her cheek. Instead, she got a stupid, sentimental synth touching her.

“It’s okay, Doll,” he cooed. “I like having you here. What happened then is in the past. I want you to feel safe visiting me. You are always welcomed here.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Marian looked straight at him. Her face was somewhere between forced neutrality, and confusion. Her eyes searched his face for a second. She must have found what she was looking for because she smiled her gentle, trusting smile and said “Thanks.”

Nick wished he would be rewarded with a hug. He wished he could lean forward and kiss her, giving her as much reassurance as he could while they were together in this private moment. Instead, he smiled back at her, took his hand away from her face, and gently patted her arm.

“Ellie will be back soon with some food for all of us, if you don’t want her to hear something, let me know and I’ll dismiss her after she returns,” Nick said as he sat down behind the desk.

“No,” she sighed taking her gun off of her back and moving it onto her lap, “it’s fine. I just...I’m sorry about bothering you like this. It’s just that…I don’t know what else to do. I don’t…I don’t think I can do this on my own. I don’t know where she is. They didn’t even tell me she was missing until I was there for several hours.”

Nick patiently listened to her half sentences. Marian normally tended to enunciate her thoughts as carefully as her words. She normally tried to speak in a way that would minimize confusion between her and the person she was talking to. Her face seemed to show her distress mounting as she talked, with her eyebrows attempting to touch each other, and she kept touching her temple as if she could rub the concern away.

“Don’t worry about it,” Nick insisted again. “Finding people is what I do. Trust me, if you like someone too much, it doesn’t matter how good you are, you’re going to make stupid mistakes.”

Marian went silent for a moment. Nick wasn’t sure why she was so quiet. Then he remembered that she found him on her last “case”.

He was about to say something to help confront her concern. He knew she still wanted him to hate her, but she seemed to be failing at making that particular emotion mutual. The door opened and Ellie walked into the office before closing the door behind her. “You wouldn’t believe the attention you got running here,” Ellie told Marian. “Everyone wants to know what happened.”

“What did you tell them?” Nick asked as Ellie placed a bowl of noodles in front of Marian.

“The usual stuff. Professional discretion and all of that,” she said as she placed another bowl in front of Nick.

“That’s a good girl. Nothing for you?” he asked her.

“If I got one for myself, it’ll be cold before I would get to eat it,” she said. “I’ll get myself a bowl after I get your notes put together.”

“Then let’s get to work, no point in making Ellie go hungry, right Marian?” Nick was trying to be upbeat. He needed her to feel reassured.

Marian’s face still had a frozen, scared look to it. She took the bowl and poked at the noodles. She loved Takahashi’s Noodles. She practically inhaled them every time he bought them for her. Now, she looked at them like they were live worms.

Nick ate some of his own noodles while he waited for Ellie to get into position. As soon as she was ready, he started talking trying to sound casual. “Now, why don’t you start with who’s missing.”

Marian looked up from her noodles. She was looking better ever since he started feeding her regularly, but she still had a look of someone who’s always hungry. She was chewing on a bite, swallowed, and started talking. “It’s my friend, Lisi,” she explained.

“The ghoul?” Nick asked.

“Yeah, one of the ones who came with me,” she answered.

Nick already didn’t like where this was going. He could already guess that Marian was blaming herself for bringing Lisi to The Commonwealth. It didn’t matter if Lisi would have been dead already in The Capital Wasteland. She brought her friend here, and that made her solely responsible for her friend’s fate.

“What happened?” Nick asked.

“I’m…I’m sorry, I didn’t think to ask,” she stuttered. “They just told me that she went out for a few weeks and hadn’t returned by moving day. I panicked and came here.”

“It’s okay,” Nick cooed. “It’s easy to panic when someone you care about is missing. You’ve already told me a lot. It’s my job to fill in any gaps, it’s just that the fewer gaps there are, the easier my job is. So, Lisi went missing before your friends moved to the bunker. Can you guess where she went?”

Marian was still forcing herself to eat. It was painful for Nick to watch. “No,” she finally said. “Maybe. She likes to collect mugs. I used to explore The Capital Wasteland with her to help her find them. She had to leave her collection behind when we came here. She has been trying to rebuild that collection since we got here. Why didn’t she have me escort her? I would have helped her out. I would have…”

“It’s okay, Sweetheart,” Nick insisted. “You helped me out a lot. We’ll find your friend. Don’t worry.”

“We?” Marian asked. She was finished with her noodles and had placed the bowl on Ellie’s desk. She was fingering the drum magazine on her gun.

Ellie had taken her cue and was sitting at Nick’s desk, cleaning up her notes.

“You know your friend better than me,” Nick explained. “I want you with me when we look for her. I think you’ll be able to help me find her faster.”

Nick was used to seeing hope and fear on faces in his office, he was still surprised seeing that mixture on her face. “I don’t understand,” she confessed. “Why do you think I’ll be any good. You said that I may get in the way because I like her too much.”

“I said that people panic and miss clues when they are worried about someone they are looking for,” Nick clarified. “I don’t think you’ll get in the way. You have a knack for this investigating stuff, you’re just inexperienced at it. I think you’ll help me figure out what is and is not a clue. Normally in cases like these, the sooner we find someone, the more likely they will be safe. I think you’ll be able to help me shave some time off our search and find her.”

“Okay,” Marian gave in. Nick was glad he didn’t need to breath, there was no way he could have hidden the sigh of relief at that moment.

“Done,” Ellie said. She stood up and walked over to Nick, “I have all the notes ready. There are some extra sheets for any notes you have. Is the file on the last case done? I can clean that up while you’re out.”

As Ellie was talking, Nick slipped his pack of cigarettes into her desk as discreetly as he could. He didn’t need to have them on him for temptation. He didn’t want to start a fight with Marian that didn’t need to happen. He wondered for a second if synths could go through withdraws.

“Thanks, Ellie,” Nick said standing up. He knew she saw what he did, but she was good at discretion herself. “The notes are almost finished. There are a few details missing, but I think I can add those in without ruining your hard work too badly.” He took the file and put it in his pocket before turning his attention back to Marian. “You ready, Doll?”

Marian silently stood up. Her shoulders were too square, and the grip she had on her gun made him grateful that gun safety was almost instinctive for her. Fear and determination were both on her face. Lisi must be a really good person to deserve so much loyalty from someone like Marian.

“Let’s start by going to The Crater House,” Nick said as he walked to the door. “With luck, she was just late to dinner, and you can show her where her new home is.”

Nick hoped she was just late. He wanted to spend more time with Marian, but the thought of how she would react if something happened to her friend was enough to make him willing to not be near her, at least not for this reason.

He opened the door for Marian. She slung her gun over her shoulder and accepted his kindness by walking out. He took one quick moment to exchange concerned glances with Ellie before following Marian out, closing the door behind him.