The front door could be heard opening, followed by footsteps, and then the door slamming shut. Ellie ignored Nick’s entrance while she continued washing the grime off of Marian. It didn’t surprise her to find so much dirt on her friend, she lived out in the wasteland. The only real advantage she had over Sheffield is that she had connections, she knew how to get a meal regularly. Water, especially purified water, would have been too valuable to use for anything more than drinking for Marian.

“Ellie! Are you here?” Nick called.

“I’m in your bedroom,” she shouted back as she put the dirty rag back in the bowl. The water was so dark, Ellie was starting to wonder if she was doing more than moving the dirt around.

She heard the footsteps move from the office to the bedroom. She looked up for a moment to see Nick glancing at her before dropping Marian’s backpack in the corner. Ellie had worked with him long enough to know his moods at a glance. She went back to washing around the bandages she had already put on the worst of Marian’s injuries.

“Was it really that bad?” she asked sarcastically.

“I ran into Piper,” Nick told her. “She let me know what she thinks about my relationship with our guest.”

Ellie looked at Nick in shock, “Oh, Nick, I’m sorry. I know you and Piper were good friends before Marian showed up.”

As if in compliance, Marian started moaning. She had been moaning for a bit before Nick came home, but she was silent for a time. Ellie preferred hearing her moan, at least then she knew her friend was still alive. Tears were in the corner of the unconscious woman’s eyes which seemed to be shut tighter than usual.

“Here,” Nick insisted gently moving Ellie off his bed and out of his way.

Ellie wanted to protest. She didn’t know how comfortable Marian would have been having Nick so close to her when she was naked, but she didn’t say anything as she watched Nick take out a syringe of Med-X. He tapped on the needle a couple of times before placing it on her arm. The point slid in almost methodically before stopping and depositing its contents. It then was slid straight out and put away. Marian’s moans quieted, her breathing was still shallow, but regular, even her face looked calmer.

Nick stood up and moved out of Ellie’s way before picking their conversation back up. “It’s okay, Kid,” he said halfheartedly. “It’s not your fault. Piper has a way of not being able to let go of something once she gets ahold of it. Usually I can talk her down, but she just won’t quit on Marian. The fact that she’s sure my emotions are clouding my judgement doesn’t help with talking sense into her.”

Ellie sat down next to her friend and resumed dabbing at Marian’s skin with the cloth.

“Not that I’m complaining, but why is she naked on my bed?” Nick finally asked.

“I thought that maybe some bandages would help until the caravan from Goodneighbor got here. After taking off her clothes, I cleaned her wounds to dress them. It just didn’t seem right to clean a few inches of skin when the rest of her was caked in dried blood and mud and who knows what else.”

“So, you decided to clean the rest of her body?” Nick finished for her.

“I didn’t know what else to do,” Ellie explained still focusing on the task she was preforming. “It’s all I could think of. Maybe being clean would help make her a bit more comfortable. I don’t know, Nick.”

She heard a wood drawer slide open for a moment, then close with a slight thud. His footsteps moved closer to her.

“Here,” he said quietly. Ellie looked to her right to see a folded freshly laundered rose dress being presented to her. “You can put this on her when you’re done.”

The secretary put the rag back into the discolored water for the last time. “I think I got her as clean as I’m going to,” she declared. “Would you mind helping me dress her?”

“Sure,” he said.

It wasn’t an easy task. It was hard enough moving her around enough to get bandages wrapped under Marian’s body. Manipulating her arms while dealing with her dead weight made getting her dressed even harder. Before they even put the dress on her, Ellie insisted on removing her blood-soaked bra to clean later.

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Marian moaned as they moved her around, forcing them to be more cautious with their work. This wasn’t the first time they had dressed someone together. They had dressed other unconscious people that Nick had brought home. Ellie had even helped Nick dress the occasional corpse.

They were both adept to what they needed to do in such a task. It didn’t make it easier this time. Ellie kept stopping Nick to make sure they didn’t open a wound or move the dressing. Nick was unusually patient in their task.

After they got the dress on, Ellie took off Marian’s panties for cleaning as well. Then they took the time to adjust her skirt, so it laid around her legs without any bunching. The dress did look good on Marian. If she had more color to her skin than her permanent sunburn, she would have been beautiful in that color. Instead, the blood loss made her as pale as if she were already dead.

“I can get some makeup for her,” Ellie told Nick. “Bring out her color again.”

Nick was silent for a moment before he spoke again. “Don’t…don’t bother,” he finally said. “I don’t think she really cares about stuff like that.”

Ellie nodded at Marian’s still body. She was shocked when Nick put a bear down next to her. She looked back up at her boss.

“I took it away from her some time ago, I never had a chance to give it back,” he explained.

His face had a hangdog expression on it. Ellie had seen him with that expression before, but it was heartbreaking seeing it right now.

“It’s going to be alright, Nick,” she insisted. Usually he was comforting her, but she suspected he didn’t have it in him to do so.

“I hope you’re right, Ellie. I hope you’re right,” he responded. “Did you manage to get ahold of Hancock while I was out?”

“He came to the radio almost right away,” she responded.

“What did he say?”

Ellie knew that Hancock wouldn’t let Marian die. He had worked too hard to keep her in the Commonwealth to protect her from dying in the Capital Wasteland. Nick couldn’t have known that. He wasn’t told about how so many of Marian’s friends were trying to protect her from herself. Hancock reassured Ellie of that several times.

For Nick, Hancock would have to choose between helping his estranged brother or letting his friend die. A choice that could have the chances of a coin flip.

“He said that it would take time to get a caravan together on such short notice,” she explained, “but that he would send one as soon as he could. He made a comment about making amends between the cities.”

Nick seemed to take in the information and thought about it for a moment. “Hmmm, he’s been worried about the war in the Capital Wasteland for months now. He’s probably trying to get a unified front before the Brotherhood of Steel get here.”

“You don’t think they are actually coming?” Ellie asked, afraid of what war would mean.

“I don’t know. It really doesn’t matter what I think. What matters is what the people in charge thinks, which include the mayors and Nate if anyone can reach him.” Suddenly Nick went quiet again. Ellie didn’t expect that silence and waited until he spoke. “I just thought about what it would mean if Nate did return.”

“Why? Is it a bad thing?”

“He may want to go back to solving cases with me. It’s funny, I wanted to have him for my partner for so long. But now…I like solving cases with Her,” Nick gestured at the quiet body on his bed.

“Maybe you can work with them both,” Ellie pointed out.

“I don’t know, I’ve never worked with two partners before. Truth is, I keep wanting more from her. I want her as more than just my partner.”

Ellie looked straight at Nick. She didn’t know what to do or say. “Nick,” she said as comfortingly as she could.

“I keep wanting to see her more and more,” Nick said.

Nick wasn’t an emotional person. He normally kept his feelings to himself as much as he could. It often led to him coming off as abrasive or grumpy, but Ellie had learned how to read those surface performances for the emotions he was trying to hide. Now, the floodgates were open, and he was pouring out his heart to her. An event that even Ellie rarely saw.

“I’m not the person I was when you first brought her here,” Nick confessed. “I changed to be someone who she could be around all the time. When I realized what was happening, I got scared and took it out on her. She never asked me to change, she never did anything to imply that she wanted me to. But I thought she was playing me like a fool and told her to go away.”

“Nick,” Ellie responded. She stood up from the bed and walked over to her boss and friend. She gently wrapped her arms around him and leaned into him resting her head on his chest.

Nick returned her embrace and held her to him. There was silence between them for a moment. “I know leaving me would be better for you than staying and taking care of a broken toaster like me,” he finally said, “But I don’t know what I’m going to be if she dies. I’m not going to ask you to stay forever, but if she doesn’t make it…” Nick was quiet for a moment before talking again, “…if she doesn’t make it, I don’t think I can handle having you walk out on me, too. Stay, just for a few months. Just long enough for things to get back to normal.”

No matter what she said, she was going to have to break someone’s heart. Either Nick’s fragile steel one, or Yafim’s quiet flesh one. She knew which choice she would make. “You know I wouldn’t leave you,” she told him. “I was just angry the other day. If I left, it would be two weeks before you would be looking for your socks in the filing cabinet, again.”

She felt a gentle squeeze from him, “Thanks, Kid. Now, why don’t you go get some dinner? I’ll finish cleaning up and watch Isabel until the caravan arrives.”

She had forgotten her date with Yafim. She was sure he would understand, Nick’s hours were unpredictable on a normal day, and Yafim would be as busy as anyone after an attack like they had. She would excuse herself from making any commitments for the time being. She would turn the date from a business agreement to a date. She may still leave Nick for Yafim, but Nick needed her now.