Nick looked down at the pack of cigarettes in his hand for the fifth time that hour. It was still dark, and he could barely see it, but that wasn’t what bothered him. She hated smoking, she admitted as much as she gave him the packs. She was just short of putting one in his mouth and lighting it. Marian was a frustrating woman.
He looked over at the dark form that lay on the mattress. He could only see the shadowy outline, but there hadn’t been much movement since they settled in for the night. Marian cuddling up to her damn assault rifle, and Dogmeat, pressed against her back, his head lying on top of hers. Both of them slept soundly. It was a wonder she hadn’t slept through an attack from a pack of deathclaws the way she sleeps so tightly.
He immediately took that thought back. It wasn’t fair to her. She looked tired almost every time he saw her. Her facial muscles sagged in such a way that it looked like she never really slept, which she probably didn’t. He sometimes wondered if anyone else saw those dark circles under her eyes. But when he’s on a case with her, her face would stop sagging. Those circles would fade away. It was almost as if she only slept when they were on a case together.
He hoped that she would sleep that well while working with him. He liked it when her blue eyes were alert. When her smile was genuine and not looking like she was hiding her sleep deprivation. He allowed himself to fantasize that it was enough for her to decide to become his partner full time. That was something he didn’t focus on too much. He wasn’t sure if he could handle her choosing not to work with him.
The sky was turning grey, hinting at the coming day. Nick could just make out the different forms on the mattress in front of him. He pocketed the cigarettes and moved over to the sleeping forms. The synth gently brushed Dogmeat with his hand. The German Shepard whimpered as he woke up.
Nick hushed him as he continued to stroke the furry companion. “Shhhhh, it’s okay, boy,” he whispered. “I need you for something really quick, then you can go back to sleeping with her.”
Dogmeat let out a large yawn, before getting to his feet. He seemed groggy, and not fully awake. Nick couldn’t blame him. Marian moaned slightly as Dogmeat stood up, almost as if she could tell that her warmth was gone. Nick felt a little guilty about that, but he needed to have this done before she woke up.
Dogmeat moved around Marian, as if he was being as careful about letting her sleep as Nick was. They moved a few feet away from her. The animal looked up at Nick. Nick could just make out his form in the dark, but he could tell by Dogmeat’s posture he was excited to help him.
Nick reached out and scratched Dogmeat’s ear. The dog pressed his head into the synth’s metal hand, enjoying the sensation. “What do you think, boy?” Nick started. “Can you find some medicines for me?”
Dogmeat let out a quiet ruff before pulling away from Nick’s attention and lowering his nose to the ground. Nick was glad the dog was discreet enough to stay quiet while there was someone sleeping nearby. He watched as Dogmeat moved in small circles before looking back up at Nick and whimpering his failure.
“It’s okay,” Nick responded and played with Dogmeat’s ear, “you did your best. Go back to sleep.”
Dogmeat yawned again and then went back to where he was before Nick woke him up. Dog and woman were sleeping soundly in a few moments. Damn, Nick was hoping that Dogmeat could find some extra stimpaks before Marian woke up.
Nick kicked himself for leaving her backpack in his office. He couldn’t have expected her to think about it in her panic, he knew people forget things when they panic. He should have remembered it. Instead, all he was thinking about was the possibility to spend time with her. Now she was paying the price for his selfishness. It seemed to be a going theme for them.
The detective accepted her plight and sat on the floor on the opposite side of the room, watching her. He wanted to look over his notes, but it was still too dark for him to see them. Instead, he looked out for anything that might pose a threat to her and waited until she was awake.
Dogmeat woke up first as the sun rose. He stood up and stretched before running to Nick for attention. The detective was more than happy to provide the requested attention, playing with Dogmeat’s ears and petting him until the dog was satisfied with his place in their relationship. He then made a quiet but playful bark before running off, probably to get some breakfast.
Marian murmured when Dogmeat first moved away from her but she was soon back into a deep sleep that caused Nick to check to make sure she was breathing before he pulled out his case file and started reading over it and making notes about their findings from the day before.
Dogmeat returned later, ready to return to his search. Marian started stirring around that time, seven by Nick’s internal chronometer, and slowly awoke.
“Morning, Doll,” Nick said as she started sitting up. “How are you feeling.”
Marian made a pained face at him. “My legs can barely move,” she complained. “Fuck, I don’t know how badly I’ll be slowing you down.”
Of course, her legs would be in bad shape, it was two days since her run. This was going to be the day they would be at their worst. Nick would have to watch out for her, maybe make sure she wouldn’t need to bend or run, but he knew her pride would still cause problems.
He stood up and walked over to her. “I’m sorry, Doll,” he responded. “Do you think you’ll be able to make it?”
“Do I have a choice?” she responded as she struggled to stand up.
Nick reached down and placed his hands under her arms before lifting her to her feet. He then handed her her assault rifle. “It’ll be okay, we’ll go at your pace,” he promised. “I’m sorry I don’t have any breakfast for you.”
“It’s okay,” she responded. “I’m used to not eating right away. If we don’t find anything by tonight, we can probably grab something at Croup Manor.”
Nick placed a hand on her back, making sure she was able to move while they followed Dogmeat out of the wreckage that used to be a house. Dogmeat took them back to the peninsula where they ended their search the night before and took them down the stretch of road.
Nick was careful not to rush Marian as they followed him. They searched the gas station with him, before he shot off towards the South. As they were following him, Marian suddenly placed the back of her hand on Nick’s chest.
“Something on your mind?” Nick asked.
Marian shushed him and moved toward a building to her left, facing the same area the whole time. Nick saw that she was hyper aware, and quietly followed her. Dogmeat joined them as soon as he realized he wasn’t being followed anymore. Marian seemed to try to crouch, then stopped trying and stayed standing near the wall.
“There’s people in that building,” Marian whispered, gesturing at the Nahant Sheriff’s Department.
Nick looked over, and once he was paying attention, he could see people in the holes in the wall of the building. “What do you think they are?” he asked.
Marian was silent for a while, before talking. “They aren’t moving right. I think they are ferals.”
Nick pulled out his revolver, ready for a fight. “How do you want to play this?” he asked.
“I’m not sure,” she responded. “They look like a large number. How are you at sniping?”
Nick could already see where she was going with that train of thought. “I’ll go see if I can’t lure them out. See if you can take care of them for me,” he insisted.
Marian looked at him. Her mouth opened for a moment; he could hear her wanting to protest his suggestion. Then she closed her mouth and nodded in a decided manner. Nick was shocked at how easily she took his suggestion before he moved toward the defunct police department. He did his best to keep a low profile. When he was sure he was close enough to get their attention, he raised his revolver and took aim.
There was no doubt that he was looking at a feral as he looked down the sights of his gun. He put the creature out of its misery, watching brains spatter behind it. Its packmates were alerted to the threat and turned their attention to him. Suddenly, they were surging out of the building. As soon as the first one had stepped out, it recoiled to the left and fell. The second one didn’t get a head shot. Nick took care of that one.
One by one, they were taking out the threat, until Nick saw their mistake. Nick’s eyes went wide, and he took a step back at the sight of a glowing one. He took aim but was too late as it stopped among its companions and screamed. Suddenly, eight dead ghouls were standing up again. One fell before it was one its feet.
The reanimated ghouls were on top of him. He was doing his best to fight them off, but he was overwhelmed. He heard barking faintly and yelling from Marian. He couldn’t make out what she was saying, but that didn’t matter. Soon he was on the ground, injured and needing a stimpak.
The ghouls lost interest in him and turned toward Marian and Dogmeat. Nick was trying to get himself back together. He heard the fighting, he knew she was in danger, but he hurt too much. Instead, he helplessly watched as Marian and Dogmeat fought the ghouls. Marian was shooting low, taking out their legs. Dogmeat was fighting any ghoul he could.
The glowing one shouted again, raising all the dead ghouls. The legless ones held themselves up, looking around, almost as helpless as Nick was. Finally, Marian and Dogmeat attacked the glowing one individually. Dogmeat grabbed its arm and pulled, while Marian shot at its head. It finally died, leaving them the freedom to kill the other ghouls at their leisure.
He saw Dogmeat running toward him. Marian followed behind more cautiously. If a ghoul moved, she shot it in the head almost impassively. Dogmeat naturally reached him first and started licking his face right away. He saw Marian reach into her right cargo pocket and pull out a stimpak. She jammed it into his arm. He looked up at he and smiled as he felt his body stitching itself back together and his pain went away.
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“That’s how they put Nick together again,” he said as he stood back up.
He didn’t know she was capable of smiling so big, but she was smiling. “I still don’t understand how that’s possible.”
“That’s the problem with being a prototype,” Nick explained. “No one bothered to tell me how I work. I just know I do.”
Marian went back to schooling her facial expressions, but she still seemed happy. He wished she wouldn’t hide her feelings like that, she was always prettiest when her smile was the biggest. “I’m glad you do work,” she said quietly. She didn’t shift her eyes away from him, but there was something almost Victorian in how she was flirting. Almost as if she was afraid of losing her reputation if she showed too much interest in the man she fancied.
She was trying, Nick had to remind himself. A person couldn’t shut off ten years of habit literally overnight. He quietly reminded himself to be patient with her. Unfortunately, Dogmeat wasn’t nearly as quiet. He was smelling around, whimpering his failings to the other two.
Marian walked over to the German Shepard and started petting his back. “What’s wrong?” she asked him as if she expected a respond from him.
“He lost Lisi’s scent,” Nick responded. He’d worked with Dogmeat enough to know how he communicated. “Probably from all the ferals around.”
Marian let out a sigh. “So, what do we do?”
“We look for clues until we find something for Dogmeat to latch onto again,” Nick reassured her. He almost went into the building that all the ghouls had poured out of but stopped when he saw that Marian wasn’t following him.
She was looking around, as if she was sizing up the buildings around them.
“Is something wrong?” Nick asked.
“She wouldn’t have gone there,” Marian answered. Her voice was quiet, almost ethereal as she thought and spoke at the same time. “She normally avoids ferals. She’s afraid someone would confuse her as one. I normally avoid them because I’m afraid of shooting a non-feral.”
Nick waited silently. She was right. There was no way Marian’s friend would have gone inside that building. He waited patiently as she continued her train of thought, looking out for anything that might violently distract her.
“She would go in there,” Marian said pointing at the shed across the street.
“Are you sure?” Nick asked. He didn’t doubt her judgement, but he was unsure about her train of thought.
“She would have a collection of cups by now,” Marian pointed out. “The ferals would have reminded her that she’s vulnerable while carrying them. She would look for a safe place to stash them until she was ready to head back.”
“Why wouldn’t she be heading back with the cups she already had?” Nick asked, trying to gently test her theory.
“She was getting ready to move. She wouldn’t be sure if she would have a second chance to come by here. Easier to drop some off near places where she could expect were safe until it was time to gather them all up and return home.” Marian walked away from Nick and went towards the shed.
Dogmeat whimpered a bit, and Nick looked down to see the German Shepard looking up at him with his head cocked in confusion. Nick brushed the dog’s head before following Marian.
They entered the shed to find a bag of coffee cups sitting just to the right of the door. Marian took out a cup and held it to Dogmeat.
“What do you think?” she asked as if she expected an answer. “Can you find her with this?”
Dogmeat smelled at it intently and then looked up at Marian and barked happily. His tongue lolled out before he took off through the other door of the shed.
“Looks like he found the scent again,” Nick said.
Marian put the cup back in the bag before hurrying after him. Nick had no doubt that she would have ran after him if she could. They hurried to the entrance of Libertalia. Dogmeat ran past the shattered Mirelurk eggs as he rushed up the plank into the group of abandoned boats.
Nick slowed down enough to make sure Marian was able to climb the plank herself before they went to the first built up boat. Soon Dogmeat started barking which put Nick on edge. Dogmeat never barked like that unless danger was nearby. Nick pulled out his revolver and moved around the dog to see what was upsetting him.
A mirelurk started charging at Nick. He raised his gun and fired, hitting the mirelurk in the face. It took two shots before the creature fell. Nick put his gun away and turned to check on Marian, who was slowly catching up.
“Shit,” she sighed. “I’m sorry. I know I’m supposed to protect you.”
“Don’t worry about it, Doll,” Nick told her. “Dogmeat and I were moving too fast, it’s our fault for not slowing down while you recover.”
Nick went to the creature and began inspecting it. “Things must have taken over after Nate cleared out the raiders last year.”
He looked up to see the eggs that the mirelurk must have been protecting. He considered picking up the eggs and cooking them for Marian. She was going to need to eat.
“Nick…” Marian called.
“One minute, Dear,” Nick said as he started harvesting the fallen mirelurk’s meat.
“Nick…”
“Don’t worry, Dogmeat still has Lisi’s scent,” Nick reassured her. “If she’s stuck somewhere around here, we’ll be able to find her.”
“NICK!” Marian shouted, not letting him ignore her any longer.
“WHAT?” Nick responded, standing up to face Marian. He saw a mirelurk queen charging up the planks, not looking happy. He barely registered the giant creature before he felt Marian’s hands on his chest, and her right foot behind his. The last thing he saw was acid flying above him and the last thing he heard was Marian’s scream before he fell into the water.
He wanted to surface right then a there, but all he would be able to do was to become an easy target for the mirelurk queen. He swam as fast as he could, praying to which ever god will listen to a synth’s prayers. He surfaced on the other side of the queen and crawled onto the planks. She was screaming and spitting into the room that the mirelurk Nick killed had run out of but he couldn’t see inside to see if Marian and Dogmeat were alright. He could hear Dogmeat barking, and saw the queen lean back occasionally, betraying that Marian was shooting at her from inside the room. The queen laid multiple eggs, letting them hatch and mirelurk hatchlings were charging into the room their mother couldn’t enter
Nick swore under his breath and pulled out a cryogenic grenade and chucked it at the queen’s head. It hit its mark and went off, freezing the queen and her hatchlings. He then chucked a pulse grenade and watched it explode, sending ripples of electricity through her. She broke out of her ice and screamed before collapsing.
Nick ran past her and into the room. He saw Dogmeat finishing off the remainder of the hatchlings. Marian was behind him kneeling. Her gun was on the floor, and she clutched it with one hand, the other arm wrapped around her waist. He didn’t need her to look up to see how much pain she was in. The acid must still be tearing through her flesh.
“Hey, Soft-boiled,” she said. Her voice sounded strained from pain. “Looks like you will finally be able to get rid of me.”
Nick hurried to her, wanting to help her. Wanting her to not be in pain. “Don’t talk like that,” he insisted as he pulled out a stimpak and jabbed it into her arm. He waited a moment and saw nothing was happening.
The moments where he ignored that she was eating uncooked food. The fact she was soaked in the garage the day before. The fight with the glowing one just an hour ago. All those little moments came back to him. He gently moved her face to look at him and carefully moved her lips to see that her gums had become bloody. He carefully moved his hand away.
“You want to kiss?” she asked in a strained voice.
“Maybe later,” Nick promised as he reached into his pocket. He couldn’t find any rad-a-way. He normally didn’t carry it. He normally didn’t need it.
He reached into her right cargo pocket, and found three stimpaks, a bottle of rad-x, and no rad-a-way. Nick remembered the click of her backpack. Her backpack would have been full of refreshing beverages. Marian had come to him straight from visiting her friends. One of whom would steal her rad-a-ways to replace them with refreshing beverages.
Nick placed a hand on Marian’s cheek. It had become pale from radiation poisoning. He lowered his head to touch her forehead with his. “I’m so, so sorry,” he whispered.
He felt her cold lips touch his. He pulled back a bit to see her smiling in a goofy manner. “You’re forgiven,” she said.
Confusion, one of the symptoms of radiation poisoning, Nick had to remind himself. He got up and moved behind her. He saw that the acid had eaten through her jacket and shirt and was busy eating her skin. He took her knife from her and carefully cut the fabric away from her skin. One layer at a time, he undressed her before she was topless in front of him.
He pocketed the knife while he looked around and saw a trunk in the room. He opened it up and was glad his luck was holding out. There happened to be a dirty rag in the trunk. He snatched the rag and ran out the room to wet it in the salt water. He then hurried back to Marian who was looking at a whimpering Dogmeat.
Nick made sure to hit Dogmeat with a stimpak before kneeling behind Marian again. “This is going to hurt,” Nick warned before carefully placing the wet rag against her injuries.
Marian let out a scream of pain. Nick wrapped an arm around her before he started cleaning her again. “I know, Doll,” he cooed. “And I’m sorry. But we have to stop the acid from doing more damage.”
As he cleaned, she reached under his arm and started scratching until she was tearing at her own skin. Nick felt like everything he was doing was hurting her. He had to remember that the fabric from his coat would be exposed to so much tobacco smoke, he would trigger her allergies. He watched her scratch her skin bloody while he cleaned off the last of the acid. He dropped the rag and carefully extracted her gun from her loosened grip before slinging it over his shoulder.
“I’m really tired, Nick,” Marian complained.
“It’s too dangerous to stay here,” he told her. He placed his hands under her arms and helped her to her feet. “Come on. I know a place where you can stay while I get help.”
“I want to go with you,” she quietly moaned.
Nick helped her walk as best as he could. If he ever hated himself, it was at that moment. She was in pain because of him. He wanted to pick her up and carry her to safety, but he could barely even touch her without hurting her. He silently swore that his last cigarette was his last one. Marian mattered more to him than a habit that he inherited from someone who died 200 years ago.
They walked together with his hand at her waist. He did his best to keep any fabric from touching her skin. She quietly moaned as they walked, Dogmeat leading the way.
“I don’t know why you’re doing this,” she whined. “I’m trash, you should just throw me out. It’s all that I deserve.”
“Trust me, Doll. I’ve been thrown out. No one deserves that.”
Marian’s ramblings seemed to be becoming more incoherent. Nick still did his best not to dismiss her. He worried that she would become lucid at the wrong moment.
“Nick,” Marian said again as they walked down the road. “I don’t know if I should tell you this. But I think I’m really starting to like you. But don’t tell Nick, he’s supposed to hate me.”
“I won’t tell him a thing,” Nick promised as they continued walking.
They came to the gas station before the neck of the peninsula. Nick moved Marian to the truck bed with debris on top of it. He helped her climb up the boxes and then across the fallen antenna until she was on the roof. There he moved her to the bed mat that lay on the roof. Dogmeat had followed them and was standing ready on the roof.
Nick knelt down in front of her and placed a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. Her blue eyes were out of focus. He wasn’t sure if she even knew what was happening around her.
“Marian…Sweetheart,” Nick started. “I need you to do me a favor.”
“Anything,” she said. He wasn’t sure if she understood what she was saying, but he had to trust her.
“I need you to stay here until I get back.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to get help. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Marian reached up and touched his cheek with her fingertips. She looked as if she was looking at something strange and fascinating, not someone begging her to stay safe. “You’re so beautiful,” she whispered.
“Please,” he begged. “Promise me you’ll wait for me.”
“I’ll do whatever you want,” she told him.
He had to accept that. He couldn’t waste any more time begging her to be safe. He leaned forward and touched her forehead with his lips, hoping that she would remember her promise. He kept her weapons on him, fearing what she would do if the pain became too much for her while he was gone.
He got up and walked back to the antenna on the roof. “Watch her for me,” he asked Dogmeat before he left the roof.
As soon as his feet touched the ground. He took off running. Kingsport Lighthouse was the nearest location he was sure would have rad-a-ways. He hoped they would still be open by the time he got there. He hoped he would be back in time. He hoped he wasn’t going to fail the woman who thought he was beautiful again.