The door to the roof slammed shut. Footsteps stomped from door to the stairs, down the stairs, through Nick’s room, and to the office. Ellie pretended that she didn’t notice that Nick didn’t smell like a fresh cigarette as he passed her desk grumbling to himself.

“All I ever wanted was something I could call my own,” he muttered as he threw the pack of cigarettes onto his desk.

Ellie suppressed a sigh. Nick had done the same thing, and said the same thing, every time he tried to go out for a cigarette since he came home to find Piper had broken in the day before. Every time she asked him what happened when he returned Marian’s backpack to her, Nick simply told her not to worry about it and then threw himself into a case with more attention than it really deserved.

She was pretending to do the bookkeeping and not listening to Nick’s grumblings, when the front door opened. A very angry MacCready entered. “Nick! I have a bone to pick with you!” he shouted before slamming the door behind him.

“Ellie, can you leave us alone for a moment?” Nick asked calmly.

She stood up and started making her way around her desk to exit the office.

“No!” MacCready insisted. “If she’s here, I’m less likely to kill you.”

Ellie stopped moving and looked at Nick. The synth quietly looked up from his case before closing it. “Okay, you have my attention. What can I do for you?”

MacCready seemed more upset by Nick’s reaction than Ellie expected. “Fu…I mean, I can’t believe you. The way you’re treating Marian. It’s not fair to her.”

Nick kept his calm, but Ellie could tell he wasn’t happy. “Not fair…to her? She’s the God Damned Brotherhood of Steel member, and I’m not being fair to her?”

“She’s not,” MacCready let out a sigh and regained his composure. “She’s not a member of the Brotherhood of Steel. She hates them and what they stand for.”

“Then why the HELL is she carrying around those holotags if they aren’t from someone she cared about? We both know it’s a lifetime occupation. One that someone doesn’t date outside of.”

“You mean the tags that belonged to Peter Monroe?”

Ellie couldn’t stop herself from letting out a gasp. She hadn’t told Hancock who the tags belonged to, the fact that MacCready knew who’s tags they were showed he knew about them.

Nick seemed to be caught off guard as well. He lost all of his bluster and anger and was now calming looking at MacCready. “You know about them? Do you know who he was?”

“They are her brother’s,” MacCready explained. “He joined the Brotherhood of Steel to get connections that would get her out of the Capital Wasteland. He died while she was a teenager, before she was old enough to leave. I thought you would have asked her before doing whatever you did to her.”

Nick was silent for a moment. “I didn’t do anything to her,” he finally said.

“Bull…I mean…I don’t know what I mean. I listened to her talk about you every time she came to Goodneighbor. She talked about what you had to say about her favorite books, and how you were feeding her. She seemed happy, and now it’s like you took the whole reason for her to be happy away. That’s worse than if you had just ignored her all together.”

“Is she…is she alright?” Nick asked. Ellie knew he had to be worried about Marian. She knew he liked her, even if he never would admit to it.

“Right now, Hancock is making sure she doesn’t die of alcohol poisoning. Since I’ve never seen her try to drink herself to death before, I’d say no, she’s not alright.” MacCready let out another sigh. “It doesn’t matter,” he told Nick. “In a month, we’re going back to the Capital Wasteland. You won’t have to worry about her then.”

“I don’t see why you have to go. It was always her goal to return, not yours.”

“She needs someone to watch her back. I figured if anyone is going to risk their life for Duncan, it should be his dad. Don’t worry, she’ll be out of your hair then.”

“I never meant for…”

“Shove it!” MacCready broke in. “I don’t care what you meant, I just know you hurt her, and she doesn’t deserve it. I’d say goodbye, but I’m sure she’ll figure out some way to get me back safely.”

He turned around and left the office. In the silence, Nick sat quietly.

“You didn’t tell me you told her to go away,” Ellie berated him.

“Not you too,” Nick whined.

“What do you expect? For me to act like nothing is happening. Do you think I didn’t notice how you asked all of your clients if they were brought here by her? You like her Nick, and you know it.”

“I liked someone who wants me dead!”

“I want you dead right now!” Ellie fired back.

“You aren’t a member of the Brotherhood of Steel.”

“You really believe she is one? After all the time she spent with you, and with all those ghouls? I don’t think she can be one.”

Nick rubbed his temple with his metal hand. “It doesn’t matter, you heard MacCready, they are going back to the Capital Wasteland. I’ll never see her again.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“All the more reason for you to talk to her,” Ellie countered. “You have one month. You better talk to her before she leaves.”

“Or what, you’ll never forgive me?” Nick teased.

Somehow, Nick’s teasing was worse than usual. It upset her more than it should have. It was as if he didn’t take her seriously and needed to highlight that for her. She just didn’t want to deal with him at that point. She had work to do. “No. If you don’t talk to her before she leaves, you can find yourself a new secretary.”

She went to follow MacCready out the door, when Nick called to her. “Where are you going?”

“I have something to do,” she said. “You aren’t the center of the universe you know!”

She made sure to slam the door behind her as she left the office. She went down the awning and turned left instead of right. She figured MacCready was heading back to Goodneighbor, and she didn’t want to bother following him. She also didn’t want to risk running into Piper at that moment, not when she was still mad. She took the back way to get to the Dugout Inn and approached Yafim.

“It’s good to see you again,” Yafim greeted her with his strong constants.

Ellie sighed, letting all her anger at Nick go. “Thanks, Yafim,” she responded.

Before she could go into detail about the latest news, Yafim placed a gentle hand on her upper arm. After a beat, he spoke up. “Ellie, my friend, what is wrong?”

She had to keep her composure. It wouldn’t do anyone any good if she started crying in the middle of the Dugout Inn. But everything was weighing her down. Between the threat she made in the heat of the moment that will probably force her to go homeless, to Marian’s impending death, to the thought of how Nick was going to take it. Oh, God, how was Nick going to handle Marian’s death?

“I need...I need...” she was trying not to cry, but the fear of losing both Marian and Nick in a short period of time was too much for her to handle.

Yafim quietly shushed her. “Do not worry, we’ll go somewhere private.” He then turned to the bar and spoke just loud enough for Vadim to hear him. “Vadim, Ellie and I need to discuss the business arrangement we have with Mister Hancock. Don’t let anyone into the rooms without paying. And for the love of our mother, please don’t give out any free drinks.”

“Do not worry,” Vadim shouted back. “I will be on my best behavior.”

“That is what I am worried about,” Yafim muttered as he led Ellie to the back room.

The back room was once the showers for the baseball team that used to play there. At least, for the survivors of each game. Now they were filled with washers and driers for customers to use while spending more caps on food, drink, and company the brothers provided. Rumor had it that Nick and Piper were their two biggest clients since they were the only members of Diamond City who got more dirt than body odor on a regular basis. Rumors in the Dugout Inn were hard to pin down since Yafim tended to honor the privacy of his clients, and Vadim loved to exaggerate his stories.

Mildew and sweat wafted through the air as they entered the area. It wasn’t the worst thing Ellie ever smelled, not even close. More than once, she had made Nick march straight to the showers with her carrying a second set of clothes for him before letting him into the office. Those times his smell made even her gag. She wondered what he would do without her looking out for him.

“Okay, now tell me, what is wrong?” Yafim insisted.

The short time it took to get to privacy was enough for Ellie to get her composure back. She needed to focus on the now. Yafim didn’t need the details about her own life, just the parts that concerned him.

“Word just came from Hancock,” she started out. “He’s running out of tricks. Marian’s leaving in a month.”

“Oh. Oh dear. This is not good,” Yafim responded as he moved to the nearest chair and sat down. He leaned forward, looking like he was about to be sick. After the hotel manager took his time to get his breath, he looked up at Ellie. “This is not good.”

“I know, I was really hoping she would choose to stay here. I really could kill Nick right now.”

“It’s not that. I do want her to stay as much as you do. She is a good person and deserves more than she gets. But the problem is, I lost the ring.”

Ellie was taken aback. She found her mouth unable to form words for a moment. The ring was the biggest thing that was keeping Marian from leaving the Commonwealth, and now it was lost. Somehow, the idea that it was Yafim who lost it made it even harder to believe.

“How?” was the only thing she could say.

“Vadim, that idiot brother of mine, he didn’t understand it’s importance. He thought the problem was Marian’s debt. He sold the ring for more than it was worth. I only found it missing this morning, I don’t know when he sold it.”

“Do you know who he sold it too? Maybe we can get enough money to buy it back.”

Yafim shook his head and lowered it again. Ellie never saw him with so much shame before. The loss of the ring was not just another thing that will tear the remains of Marian’s heart up, but it was also an insult to Yafim’s professionalism.

He looked up again to continue talking. “My brother can never be professional. But somehow, he decides he’s too professional to tell me who he sold it to. All he will do is brag how much of a markup he got on it and how happy Marian will be with those extra caps.”

Ellie was not prone to violence. She may threaten Nick often, but mostly, they were just comments made out of frustration for a friend and boss. However, she was wanting to hurt both Nick and Vadim at the moment. Instead, she took a deep breath.

“Ok, I’ll call Hancock, if anyone will know what to do, it will be him. See what you can do to get the location of the ring from Vadim until I get back.”

Before she had a chance to leave, Yafim stood up. “I need to say something. I need to get it off my chest.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m finished with Vadim. I’m tired of how he never listens. I know he cares, and I do care about him, he is my brother, but I can’t work with him anymore. I’m ready to quit the Dugout Inn.”

A wave of understanding passed over Ellie. Yafim’s words echoed how she was feeling at that moment. “I know what you mean. I kind of told Nick I was leaving him at the same time Marian leaves, too.”

“Do you have a plan? I mean, for after you leave him?”

“I guess I would go back to Goodneighbor. I have missed it ever since I moved in with Nick. Maybe Hancock will sell me my parent’s place. I don’t know what I will do for work.”

“Goodneighbor is growing,” Yafim pointed out. “They may need a new hotel, one that is cheaper than Rexford. And, if they do, I may need someone to help me with the bookkeeping.”

“What are you saying?”

“I am not outgoing like my brother. I am not good with flirting or letting a lady know I think she is lovely. I do know business, and I do know I wouldn’t mind going into business with you.”

Ellie couldn’t help but smile. She knew that Yafim was taking a big chance, and there were a lot of unknown possibilities about the possible business, but she was sure that this was the best way Yafim knew to tell her about his feelings. “We will see about starting the hotel, after all, Nick and Vadim could get their acts together in the next month. But I wouldn’t mind spending time with you talking about it. Maybe we could meet up tomorrow night and talk about the details over some Power Noodles?”

“I would like that very much,” Yafim said. “I promise, I will be a good partner.”

“I know you will, Yafim,” Ellie responded before hurrying out the bar.

As she walked home, her mind kept going between Yafim’s confession and the fact that she needed to call Hancock. She wasn’t sure which of the two possibilities she truly wanted to happen. Maybe, Nick would get things straight. Maybe Vadim would give up the ring. Maybe Marian would declare the Commonwealth her home and stay. Those were too many maybes. Either way, she liked the idea that Yafim liked her. Not many people had the courage to tell her how they felt, it was nice when a decent one like Yafim did.