As he checked each stingwing corpse, Nick Valentine kept a close eye on his internal chronometer. He also kept one eye across the drain system to watch the formerly abandoned campsite. He didn’t want her to wake up thinking he had left her vulnerable. Or worse, get attacked while she was sleeping. But he also wanted to make sure she had her needs met, and that included her need to eat.

He had collected meat from three stingwings. It was still too dark to find all of them, but that would be enough for a day or two, especially if she was willing to slow down long enough to cook the meat before eating it. Survivalism may not be Nick’s specialty, but he had had enough partners over his many years to pick up a few tricks.

He hurried back to where Marian was resting, counting on her waking up around 6:00 like almost everyone else. He was able to sit at the table and had his case file out to write notes before she started stirring.

“Morning,” he called to her as she sat up, looking like she was unsure where she was. She probably wasn’t sure where she was. He had no doubt that taking in her surroundings was part of her morning routine.

“How long was I asleep?” She asked rubbing her face. Her movements were still jerky, as if her joints hadn’t woken up yet.

“Just a few hours,” Nick tried to reassure her.

She was suddenly standing up, her gun in hand, looking like she was expecting a firefight. “Just a few hours? Nick, it’s daylight already! We have to move! We need to…”

“Hey, Doll, it’s okay,” he interrupted her. “You were tired. We’re partners in this, remember? We both need to keep up on our maintenance to do our jobs right. For you it’s sleep, for me it’s going to be diagnostics checks.”

“How are you doing with those?” Marian asked with genuine concern.

“I’ve been doing them after every case,” he admitted. “I didn’t get one in after this last case, so I’ll have to slip in shorter ones as we go.”

“Sounds like we’re both going to have to fit our needs in,” she said. “Are you ready?”

“Lead the way,” Nick offered.

The two walked in a mostly Western direction, heading towards The Crater House. When they found a place to cook, Nick turned the stingwing meat into filets and did a quick diagnostic check while Marian ate. It was all he could do to keep her from scavenging bloodleaf, melon blossoms, and other foods that were still rich in radiation. She seemed satisfied with the idea that having meat to last them the day was enough, but that didn’t decrease his concern.

After some time with them walking, Nick couldn’t hold back his questions anymore. “That group, The Family, what is your story with them?”

“I met them the first year I was living in the Wasteland,” Marian explained. “There are times when the tunnels are the only way to get where you need to go. I was still careless back then, still thinking of going back home, when I walked into some raiders.”

“Walked into them?” Nick asked.

“Yeah,” Marian laughed. “Just turned a corner, and there were three raiders right in front of me. I only had a broken-down pipe pistol at the time and found myself in a fight with everything against the possibility of me winning. When I woke up, I was in The Family’s strong hold having my wounds treated. I guess they were grateful for the free meal I helped provide. They gave me some food for my tastes and told me I was welcomed to return any time. Which I did, occasionally”

“And you’re okay with them eating people?”

Marian took a deep sigh. “You have to understand what The Capital Wasteland is like, Nick. The Commonwealth is green and vibrant. There is food everywhere, you just have to know how to get rid of radiation. It’s not that way back home. If you’re too sentimental to kill your own dog, or too afraid to fight fire ants, you may go months without meat. Raiders will even announce they plan to eat you when they start fights. I’ve probably even eaten human, but it’s harder to tell since most people will give it names to make it sound like something else. The Family is just more open about it than most.”

“Do you think they will stop, now that they are here?”

“I don’t know,” Marian admitted. “They are pretty good at regulating each other, which is why I could have gone into Covenant, gotten real food, and left without a problem. That may make it harder for them to stop eating people, because they will just encourage each other.”

“I see,” Nick said. He couldn’t help but wonder how right she was, or how wrong she was. He would talk to Hancock later, see if either of them could get in contact with Nate and have some synths or Minutemen keep an eye on the area for the time being. He didn’t want to destroy them. No one who took care of Marian could be all that bad.

It took half the day to get to the Crater House. Nick saw there were some additions that most likely her friends had made in the few weeks they had been there.

“They wanted to give me my own room,” Marian said looking at the ground. “I think they want me moving in with them.”

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When he looked, he could see a small dwelling to the West of the settlement. He guessed that was going to be her room. “Why don’t you, seems like you got along with them pretty well,” Nick asked, knowing he wanted something very similar.

Marian played with the disarmed trap on the barrel next to her. “I don’t know,” she said noncommittally. “They are nice, and they obviously trusted me enough to follow me here on a whim. It’s just that…” she broke off in the characteristic way she sometimes did. Nick waited patiently for her to finish her thought. “I didn’t plan to stay here as long as I have,” she finally explained. “I just wanted to drop them off and head back to get more friends out of the Capital Wasteland. But…I’m a coward and just haven’t been able to go back.”

“You’re not a coward,” Nick insisted.

Marian looked up at him with those blue eyes of hers. There was so much pain in her expression. He couldn’t help but wonder what could have led her to having that much pain. The look she gave him was not something born out of a few months of being away from a war, that was pain he saw when someone’s personal identity had become part of every bad thing they have been told about themselves. Nick wanted to take her into his arms and hold her until she realized that she wasn’t a coward. That everything she thought about herself was wrong and that she should see how beautiful she really was.

Nick placed a hand on her shoulder and gently rubbed it with his thumb. “We’re going to find your friend,” Nick finally told her. “Wait here, I’ll go see what I can find.”

He forced himself to take his hand away from her and went into the buildings that sat over the radioactive lake. He moved about, opening chests as he tried to figure out where Lisi kept her possessions. Almost every chest was empty, or nearly empty. Finally, he found one that was filled with about thirty coffee cups. He decided that this was her chest.

He rooted through the mugs, trying to decipher where they may have come from. Unfortunately, almost every coffee cup in The Commonwealth, was made out of white ceramic with little variation from one to the next. Even the stains held no clues since they were all unsurprisingly coffee stains. Probably all of the stains were two hundred years old.

He did find a change of clothes. It was a simple wasteland settler’s outfit. The type he’d been seeing more often as the number of refugees increased. Lisi must have arrived wearing this but had found a new outfit since. That wasn’t surprising either, new clothes were surprisingly easy to find, if the wearing wasn’t too picky about what they were wearing.

Nick took the outfit and closed the footlocker. There was no point in advertising the fact there was anything to scavenge from the location. He stood up and saw a bird staring straight at him.

“What do you think?” he asked the bird. “Is it enough to go on?”

The bird just turned its head, without giving the hint of an answer.

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” he said before walking away.

He found Marian rummaging through a footlocker in her room. It looked like there were some personal effects in it, but nothing that would help her carry any more items than she already had on her. He had to admit, they were stuck with limited storage space for this case.

“I found her stuff,” he admitted to her.

“So, she didn’t come back?” Marian asked, sitting on the chair in the room. It was obvious the ghouls wanted her to feel like she was home when she visited them.

“It doesn’t look like it,” Nick admitted. “What’s worse, there isn’t anything that shows where she may have gone.”

Marian started looking sick. She looked up at Nick again, her blue eyes pleading. “Then, all I can do is hope?”

“Not necessarily,” Nick told her. Now was his chance to show her how good of a detective he was. He could be her hero; he would show her she was right to come get him. The bird from before landed near them with a caw, Nick ignored it. “I have a buddy, one who has helped me on several cases like this.”

Marian’s face lit up. That was the reaction he was hoping for. “Where is he?” Marian asked. “Do you think he can help us?”

“I’m not sure, but it’s worth trying,” Nick admitted. “I’ll call him, it’ll be faster if he came to us. I’m going to give him a whistle, it’s too high pitched for us to hear it, but trust me, he’ll hear it.”

Nick placed two of his fingers to his mouth and whistled. Marian had a disbelieving expression, but she didn’t say anything. Nick had no idea where he was. He was most likely in Sanctuary Hills, but he really could be anywhere in the Commonwealth. It could take hours for him to arrive.

“Now, we wait,” he told her.

Nick wished Marian was able to relax more while they waited. He liked spending time alone with her. He saw she even had a small bookshelf with three books on it. He went to look at what she owned in the way of books. He hoped there was one he could talk with her on that shelf.

“You again,” he suddenly heard her say. Nick heard Marian tromp down the wooden stairs that lead away from the main part of The House. “I didn’t expect to see you here. I may have something for you, hold on.”

Nick moved to the door, to see Marian searching her pockets with an eager looking Germain Shepard looking up at her with his tongue lolling out.

“It’s not much, but it’s something,” she said, holding what looked like an old piece of squirrel bits for the dog’s consumption.

Dogmeat let out a happy bark before wafting down the bit, and then licking Marian’s gloved hand. He was licking perhaps a bit more than necessary. Marian reciprocated by petting his head and playing with his ears.

“I see you two have already met,” Nick said.

Marian looked up, keeping her hand in Dogmeat’s easy reach. “He just kind of shows up every now and then,” she explained. “Normally when I find myself fighting something I can’t handle. I don’t know where he comes from.”

“He’s kind of the protector of The Commonwealth,” Nick explained. “He tends to help out when he thinks someone needs the help. He was the buddy I spoke of.”

Nick didn’t go into detail about how Dogmeat was the best judge of character in the whole Commonwealth. How he was selective about who he helped, and that if he was willing to help someone, that normally meant there was something special about them. Maybe a few months ago he would have needed Dogmeat for that, but he didn’t need him any longer to let him know there was something special about her.

“So, what’s he going to do?” Marian asked.

Nick pulled out the outfit from Lisi’s footlocker. Dogmeat approached and he let him smell it. Dogmeat let out a low whine.

“I know boy,” Nick said. “Ghouls aren’t the most fun to smell, but she may be in trouble. Do you think you can find her?”

Dogmeat let out an eager bark before turning around and running off.

“Looks like he found her trail,” Nick said. “Don’t worry, with luck, we’ll find your friend by nightfall.”

Marian smiled up at Nick. It may have been the first time he saw her truly smile. No second guessing, no pretend joviality, just a pure, innocent smile. Dogmeat had ways of finding people, even ones who were hiding inside themselves.

“I hope so,” she responded before walking off to follow Dogmeat.

Nick slipped the outfit into Marian’s footlocker before hurrying after her. She can return it to Lisi later. Right now, they were playing with time.