The sun was out. Marian was vaguely aware of this as she woke up. She wasn’t used to waking up in a settlement when she wasn’t waking up in a doctor’s office. She looked around and saw Nick sitting at a desk, looking through a folder.

“Good morning, sleepy head,” he said.

“You make it sound like I slept in,” she responded as she sat up. She rubbed her face before standing up and slinging Faenus over her back.

“Not too long,” Nick told her. “It’s only seven. Dogmeat is ready to go. Go ahead and get some breakfast and we’ll head over to the Oceanological Society.” He closed his folder and stood up before walking over to her.

Marian started heading for the door, when Nick gently grabbed her arm. “Hey,” he quietly called her. She looked up to see what he wanted and saw it all over his face. She couldn’t help but smile before kissing him. “You’re a doll,” he told her.

She couldn’t help but blush at his comment. He was really beautiful, why was he wasting his time with her? She couldn’t think of anyone who didn’t have anything that would attract him as much as she did. Piper and Hancock both seemed like better candidates for his attention, but he was giving it all to her.

Nick cooked some food, mirelurk meat was easy to find in the area. She got a large helping of mirelurk omelets for breakfast. Nick made a second plate for himself. Probably to be sociable. She felt guilty about wasting the meat from the queen Nick killed, but there was nothing to be done about that now.

As he sat down, he took her hand and kissed her palm almost like a premeal prayer. The two detectives ate and talked. Nick knew a lot about poetry. She missed having someone teach her in the way Xenobia used to teach her about literature. Maybe Nick would teach her how to appreciate poetry. He wasn’t Xenobia, but Nick had a certain patient compassion that was similar to Xenobia’s. A type of patient compassion that made her feel safe. She never got it from anyone other than Xenobia before.

They finished their meals and left the few settlers to tend to the garden while they headed East. Dogmeat ran ahead while Nick and Marian watched out for danger. “Be on your guard,” he told her. “There tend to be a lot of ghouls around here. And not friendly ones either.”

Luckily, they didn’t see any before reaching their destination. The flat squarish building next to the house was unmistakably their destination. As they approached, Dogmeat stopped running. His body tensed and he lowered his head. His ears were pinned back as he growled. Marian looked in the same direction. A mirelurk topped an incline and was heading straight towards the small group.

“Looks like we’re not alone,” Nick announced.

Marian took careful aim and shot at the thing’s face. She hit it twice before Dogmeat broke away from them and went to fight with it. She heard a chittering noise and saw another one running towards her from her right. Nick fired at its legs, slowing it down. They went to take shelter in the trees before resuming the fight.

“Is this really the last face you want to see?” Nick shouted as he fired on the one nearest her.

The comment confused Marian. She could see why some people wouldn’t like looking at him. He did look beat up, but he was still beautiful. It was obvious that whoever first picked his face was choosing one that was aesthetically pleasing.

She killed the mirelurk that was being harassed by Dogmeat, before turning to the other one. Dogmeat ran after it to attack, too. She fired one more shot at this one, but it was getting too close. She slung Faenus behind her and pulled out her knife. She was about to slash at it, when Dogmeat was able to kill it.

“Hard to believe these things used to be delicacies,” she joked as she kicked one with the bottom of her foot.

“They were a lot smaller than,” Nick said. He was obviously harvesting the other one for its meat.

Marian didn’t have time for that. She could do that after checking for Lisi. She stood between the house and the concrete building, trying to decide which one was more likely to have the most coffee cups. She decided to go right, she could check out the other building later.

As soon as she opened the door, the smell of decay hit her in the face. A gentle hand was placed on her shoulder. “Better let me go in first,” Nick offered.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Marian stepped aside, letting Nick enter first. He had his revolver out as he entered. Dogmeat followed before she stepped inside and closed the door behind her. The place was humid and bright. She could hear a circular saw accompanied by chittering.

Nick and Dogmeat raced down the stairs. Nick fired his weapon while Dogmeat made warning barks. “Lights out for you!” Nick called as he fired. Marian positioned herself from the catwalk, aimed and fired, trying to hit the mirelurk without hitting Dogmeat or the Mr. Handy that was fighting the creature. The marine creature slumped and succumbed to its injuries. The Mr. Handy floated away, as if nothing unexpected was happening around him.

There was hope that the decay smell was another mirelurk. Things decay faster in the water, and the shallow water at the floor of the giant room would offer an environment for rapid decay. Marian wanted to call this another dead end and leave, but she knew that it was wishful thinking. She wanted it to be a dead end, she wanted Lisi to be sitting in the house, sipping on some two-hundred-year-old coffee.

Nick moved under the catwalk; she could just make him out. It looked like he was examining a body. He came out from under the catwalk and moved up the steps to her. Marian slung Faenus onto her back as he approached her. Her heart was beating in her throat. She could tell by how he was looking at her that the body was a ghoul.

“Marian, I need you to come down and identify the body,” he told her.

She took a step back, almost afraid of what he said. “No,” she whispered as if it would make the truth change.

“It is a ghoul, but I don’t know what Lisi looks like,” he reasoned. “You’ll have to see if it really is her.”

“I don’t want it to be,” she responded. She was not a stranger to fear, but this was the kind that made her want to run away from the source. Made her feel like a helpless child.

“I don’t want it to be her either,” Nick told her. He took another step toward her and placed his hands gently on her arms. “It might not be her. I can’t be sure until you look.”

She couldn’t argue with him. She hoped it wasn’t Lisi. She didn’t want any ghouls to die, especially not good ones, but Lisi was a big sister who deserved to live another two-hundred years.

“She was the first person who ever forgave me,” Marian said. She could feel tears in her eyes. The thought of what Lisi taught her still overwhelmed her with emotions.

“What did she forgive you for?” Nick asked.

“It was early on in our friendship. She loaned me a book with the deal that I would return it by a certain date. I don’t remember what happened. I was just very incompetent and failed to get it back to her on time, which caused her some problems. The next time I saw her, I still hadn’t returned the book. I expected her to be mad at me, or at least disappointed. Something like that would have gotten me scolded when I was a child and reminded I should be responsible enough to keep any promises I make. Instead, she just smiled at me, and talked to me like nothing was awry. It was the first time I can remember truly feeling forgiven.” She looked up at Nick, tears in her eyes ready to wash her face, her nose was stuffed up as if she was getting sick. The inability to smell their surroundings was a cold comfort to what she feared seeing.

An arm was wrapped around her and she could feel Nick pull her into his body. “Someone like that sounds like a great friend,” he told her. He placed his other hand on her head and pulled it in before kissing the top of her head. “I’m sorry that I’m making you do this,” he told her scalp. “If I could identify her myself, I would. But it can’t be helped. You have to take a look. It may not be her; it may be someone else. We can’t be sure until you identify her.”

Marian nodded into the bit of skin that covered his throat. She couldn’t argue, and delaying wasn’t going to do any good. She had to face the truth. She untangled herself from his embrace before making her way to the floor of the room. The water covered her feet and ankles as she moved to the floating body.

Lisi was bigger than her in both height and girth. Flipping her over was not an easy feat, but Marian was strong, and it was doable. After propping the body up so it was leaning against the wall, Marian looked at the face, and sat down in the water.

She didn’t know what else to do, but sit next to the body of her friend, and look at it as if she was waiting for Lisi to stand up and start talking. As if Lisi was only hurt, and a stimpak would make her better. All she had to do was wait.

“I’m so sorry, Doll,” she could hear Nick say behind her.

Doll, Sweetheart, Honey, all sorts of pet names that showed Nick saw her as anything other than what she really was. That he had spent an entire case worrying about the wrong person. And now he was trying to plaster over her feelings rather than acknowledge that a good woman was dead.

“You’re sorry?” she asked, feeling the monster moving her head, ready to strike. “I asked you to go on without me,” she pointed out, “I told you I was only slowing you down. And now all you can say is you’re sorry?”

“Sweetheart…”

“No!” Marian barked raising to her feet. “You were the one who kept delaying for me! You’re the one who doesn’t need to sleep, or eat, or any of that shit! And instead, you had to slow down to compensate for me. You even had to waste hours when I was too foolish to pack rad-a-way.”

“You would have died,” Nick said.

“I deserve to die!” she yelled. “I’m a monster, I’m offal, I’m worthless and useless! Lisi was a great person who deserved to live. My life isn’t even comparable to hers! But you had to have me run around with you because I could identify her? If you had let me die, she could have identified herself!”

Nick was quiet. He had no argument, there was no argument to be had. He should have let her die and saved Lisi. Marian wanted to walk out and leave him with the guilt he should be feeling, but her backpack was in his office, and she didn’t want to start over.

“Come on,” she growled. “I’ll walk you home.”

She walked out of the building with Dogmeat. She didn’t care if Nick was following her or not. She didn’t care about him at that moment.