"What in the fucking-" Sturges muttered as he looked over the unpacked contents of the first container.

"I agree with Sturges..." Preston's mouth was wide open, "You are one lucky bastard, I can tell you that."

"Lucky? Maybe so. It certainly is the single best haul I've ever scavenged in my life."

"This?" He looked between me and the robots, "This is something that could make us the safest place in the Commonwealth. You know how much those words mean? It's- It's more than a lucky find..." He was laughing, "Once word spreads of Sanctuary... Hell, we'll quickly grow into the largest settlement out here."

"Hold your horses there, Sturges." I chuckled, "We're still far from achieving that, though I like that you're thinking ahead. We expand too quickly, and we'll be the prime target for the other big ones of the Commonwealth. The last thing we want is to paint a massive target on our backs, screaming for the gunners, or some super mutant warlord or fuck knows what to come get us. Let's just say that we'd disappear faster than my will to live after noticing a deathclaw heading toward me."

Preston patted his friend's shoulder, looking at the list in his hand. It had once been some important vault-tec document, but the ink had long ago faded into non-existence, effectively recycling the paper. He flipped it over multiple times, as if not believing some of the items on it.

Hell, I could barely believe it.

An entire day had passed since finding the contents of the crates, out of which the only time I had been at home was to sleep at night. At first light, I had been back here again. Meanwhile, with the help of the four newest members of our settlement, the others had gone back to Concord to scavenge what we’d left there. A deathclaw carcass still awaited my return to properly carve it up, but that could wait for now.

Jeremy and Carrie had settled back into their old homes, the latter of them letting the Callahans join her. A grave for Denzel Williams was now the first member of the settlement's cemetery. Things were slowly playing out for us.

Never had I thought I’d be leading a Settlement during what was unofficially my retirement, but I guess why the hell not?

Of all the shitty things I’d done in my life just to survive, maybe I could do something nice for a change.

"You know how many caps all of this stuff is worth? How much it'd cost to buy all of this?"

"I am well aware, which is why I'm happy we didn't have to. I mean, there are boxes filled with every type of ammo we could need, fusion cores by the crateload and as far as I'm aware we've also got a means of recharging them. Hook that bad boy up to the vault's reactor and we're golden, the power armour suits in the top container are never running out of power ever again."

"And the robots?"

"I'll have to tinker around in their heads a bit before I turn them on, just so they don't go haywire and kill us all, but that'll probably be done in no time."

"Alright... Where can we help?"

"This is a one-man job, unfortunately, but don't worry I'll keep myself company. Why don't you take some of those weapons with you? They'll be a massive upgrade over the pipe weaponry looted from the raiders, and they sure as hell won’t explode in your hand randomly."

"I'm pretty fond of my laser musket, not gonna lie," Preston muttered, looking over his rifle that had probably never seen better times.

"It's a pain in the ass to use, that's what it is," I walked inside the weapon's container and picked a laser rifle off the rack, "Here!" I yelled, throwing it to Preston.

"But-" He started as he caught it.

"No buts... We can modify them later to better suit your taste, but until these robots are working, we keep security high, and we can't do that if you've got a twenty-third-century retrofit of a seventeenth-century weapon. Take these two for the Longs." I threw over two more rifles, "And here are three assault rifles for the others. Sturges, you fancy anything?"

He chuckled, "I'm a mechanic, not a fighter. Though that pistol looks nice." He pointed at one of the few hand cannons I had found.

"That thing will send someone’s head flying… If you aim it correctly, that is. May it serve you well." I handed it to him, before striding back outside and looking at the sentry bot once more, "I'll at the very least have this thing up and running by the end of today, have it patrol this area to keep visitors away… Not like there's enough space for it to leave this hilltop anyway." I snorted, "If I have the time, I'll get at least one of the assaultrons active too, that way we can all get a good night's rest, have that patrol Sanctuary instead of us."

"I won't mind that." Preston smiled, before his eyebrows scrunched up, "What about the vault itself? What did you find down there?" He pointed at the vault door, "You never gave us much of an explanation as to who the new people were."

"Nothing much. The security staff mutinied after their food supplies ran out half a year in. They're all certainly dead by now. As for what the experiment was, they were testing the long-term effects of cryogenic stasis. Half the inhabitants died due to... Well, I don't exactly know what. Carrie's husband, he died from his pod malfunctioning and the others... As you can see, they're confused but still alive."

"Your..."

"Gone." I cut Preston off, much to Sturges' confusion, "It's a mystery I'll look into once we're settled in."

Sturges cleared his throat and changed the topic, "You mentioned the reactor... What repairs does it need?"

"Discharge regulator probably blew itself out some time ago. Don't know what else it needs, but at some point, we should completely look it over before connecting anything important to it, just in case. Last thing we want is for it to fry everything hooked up to it.”

I stared at the robots silently, Preston breaking the quiet after a minute or so.

"Well, whatever the case, good luck Ghost. We'll bring you something to eat if you don't have the time to come down for it."

"Thanks." I smiled their way before both headed back towards Sanctuary. After thinking things through, I clapped my hands together and smiled at the face of the metal juggernaut sitting sullenly before me, "Show me your secrets, baby!"

----------------------------------------

I climbed atop the robot once more, unplugging two of its wires and connecting them to my Pip-Boy. With a sigh, I looked down at the one inserted fusion core out of two. That way, it wouldn't come to life to kill me.

Hopefully.

As the wires clicked into place, a massive string of data appeared on my screen, as it had done the previous six times.

Slowly but surely, I went through each and every data entry, double-checking every change I had done, making sure nothing was mistyped.

Finally, with everything seemingly correct, I typed in the last line of code.

"Set... Owner... James Teach... Ghost..." I muttered whilst typing. Reading it again, I nodded absentmindedly, before closing it all and unplugging the wires. Anyone trying to get through that would have to know my real name, and I wasn’t planning on sharing it with anyone. Connecting a wireless access point to the cables before reattaching them, I jumped off the back of the metal beast and selected the new signal... Still missing an identifier, "Let's call you-" I scratched my nose, "How about Titan-Alpha?"

Taking a deep breath, I stared at the dead gaze of the sentry bot. I let out that air in a single, short puff and pressed the start button.

Nothing.

I was contemplating climbing back up on the thing when its eyes suddenly ignited with a cyan-blue light. It flashed twice, moving first left, then right, and finally focusing on me.

Its light turned red, and I gulped.

"Authorize." It commanded.

"James Teach" I croaked, much too quietly, so clearing my throat I tried again, "James Teach! Alias Ghost!"

A moment went by where it just stood there, unmoving. It stared me down, and I couldn't help but think about how quickly I could die if it just decided to move forward to crush me under its tracks.

"Authorization complete. Full authorization has been granted to... James Teach, Ghost. Assign command. Warning... Not operating at full power."

I tried hard to wipe the smile from my face.

"List operating parameters."

"Do not open fire unless provoked. Protect... James Teach and Allies. Defend the area around the vault. Obey all requests and commands of... James Teach. Warning... Designation: Allies, requires entries. Warning... Area: The vault, requires coordinates... Error, satellite uplink unavailable... Manual location designation required..."

"Thank you. Designate allies."

"Receiving information."

"Name: Preston Garvey, full authority. Name: Sturges, full authority. Names: Marcy Long, Jun Long, Bonnie Callahan, Jeremy Russell, Gerald Callahan, Mama Murphy, Carrie Able, protect. Name: Codsworth, domestic-model Mr Handy, cooperate. Name: Dogmeat, dog, protect."

It was silent for a moment.

"Information received and implemented. Please provide facial and voice recognition for these individuals as soon as possible."

"Good… Designate area of the vault."

"Listening."

I walked over to the fences, "This fence is the perimeter inside which you are free to shoot anyone that is not on your list, though give a warning before opening fire. If they are hostile or do not comply after two warnings, proceed with your programming. Grade A protection is granted to the contents of these containers." I pointed at the haul I had found, the robot's head swivelling around, "Grade B protection is for everything else. Understood?"

"Command understood."

I strode back to it and shoved the second fusion core into its holding port. The robot whirred both of its chain guns as it received the energy of the second core.

"You may start."

It started rolling around the yard, crushing skeletons underfoot.

Turning around to look at the assaultrons, all eight of them, I couldn't help but smile at the sight. These were no normal assaultrons, but dominator variants. Whoever had ordered these containers must have had a lot of pull with the government, because as far as I was aware these were only made for military use.

Stealth capabilities and sword blades, as well as its head laser, made it a formidable ambush unit. It was also why it was the only robot produced solely for the military.

Getting at least two of them working by the end of today would be enough to grant us a feeling of safety, with them patrolling the streets of Sanctuary. The others could come tomorrow, and they'd be perfect for creating a safe zone around the settlement.

"Well..." I looked up at the sun, "Still got some sunlight to work with."

----------------------------------------

"You got everything set up?" Sturges asked as I sat down beside him on a makeshift bench.

"Take a look for yourself." I pointed at the two robots now patrolling down the road of Sanctuary, right before they faded into thin air, "When they stop you, be sure to state your name or they'll..."

"I'll be gutted like a fish." He nodded, "I've heard stories about assaultrons, enough for me to respect them."

"Yep. Same goes for the sentry bot up at the vault, though I doubt you'll have much business there."

"Sweet." Sturges smirked, looking around the house, "You like what we did with the place?"

What had once belonged to the Rosa family, was now well and truly Minutemen property. The holes in the roof had been patched, the windows were boarded up and all the junk had been carried outside. The Jahani family's house beside my own had also gotten a bit of a rework, with each room filled with crates and dressers from across the entire neighbourhood. That warehouse was already pretty full of gear taken from Concord.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

"Yeah, it feels... Homely. Far from perfect, but it's already more than what most could wish for in the wasteland."

"What more could we wish for? We've got a source of water that only needs a purifier hooked up to it, a roof over our head and we even found some tato plants and mutfruit bushes, which with enough care can become an actual food source for us."

"Really?” I smirked, “You do realise just how good of a find those plants are? Before the bombs, it would've taken months for them to grow, but radiation has mutated them in such a way that their fruits grow over the span of a few weeks. Mutfruit is the best of the bunch, what with its high sugar content and everything..." I smiled, "I have a nice collection of mutfruit wine and jam with the rest of my stuff heading this way."

Sturges shook his head with a smirk, "It's so hard to wrap my head around that."

"Around what?"

"Well... You. That you lived here before the bombs. I can't even begin to imagine what you must've gone through."

"Many things Sturges, many things." I frowned. I'd pay a fortune to forget parts of my past.

He stood up and stretched, sensing the conversation coming to an end, "You coming inside? Jun's currently cooking some radstag stew."

"Radstag? Where'd you get that?"

"Preston shot it earlier today. It wandered too close to the settlement, so he took the opportunity."

"Good that he did that, radstag's one of the best things out there."

"Tell that to the vault dwellers." He grunted, "Last time we gave them molerat, they were heaving it up ten minutes later."

"It'll take them some time to get used to it all, not to mention their bodies aren't ready for the radiation you consume with a wasteland creature. How much RadX do we have?"

"We found like five bottles of the stuff. Not a lot for four of them."

"It'll last for a few weeks, and we can always find more."

Walking inside, I saw the three minutemen sitting around a table, along with Mama Murphy, whose chair was by far the most comfortable looking out of the rest in the room. Pushed up against a wall was a workbench filled with what was probably every tool in the neighbourhood, one of the laser rifles leaned against it.

"The others?"

"They're still settling in, Codsworth is helping them get some electricity of their own. I don't know why they find it more comfortable sleeping elsewhere." Preston explained.

"It's because no matter how broken their houses are right now, it's one of the few things that still connects them to their previous lives. They'll cling to that feeling for quite a while."

"Weird."

"For a wastelander, perhaps, but they are far from being wastelanders. We may like being in one place, may even get used to living there, but in the end, there are too many factors that can cause a settlement to decay," I stared at the rifle, "Mind if I fiddle around with that a bit?"

"It's all yours." Preston smiled.

Picking it up and placing it on the workbench, I opened the metal cover.

"What're you doing?" Mama Murphy asked curiously.

"Modifying it. I've done this with a laser pistol or two before, the internals are basically the same."

"And what can you do with it?"

"Quite a bit if I have the right resources. This is a standard-issue AER-Nine laser rifle. It's generally good, but it suffers from the drawbacks of mass-produced military hardware. Quantity over quality. Sturges, could you get me some beaten-down electronics I can strip for parts?" I looked at the mechanic as I grabbed a tiny screwdriver to get the crystal array loosened.

A microwave, two hairdryers and a radio were sitting on the floor beside me a moment later, and I was quick to gut them for all their parts. Rewiring some of the rifle’s components and switching out others, I was done just in time for radstag stew.

It was exceptionally good, one of the best stews I had ever eaten, and it was good enough for me to ignore Sturges' and Preston's looks of anticipation.

"You guys ready to see how it works?" I asked once finished, standing up and swinging the rifle onto my shoulder.

Their bowls clattered against the table, and both were beside me in a matter of seconds.

Amused, I looked at the cook, "Jun, can you bring over a metal chest piece from the warehouse? And your rifle, we'll use that one as a baseline."

As we went outside and around the back of the house, the man appeared with what I had asked him to bring a few minutes later.

"Where should I put this?"

"On that tree stump, that's about fifty meters... Have it facing towards us, maybe shove a brick or two behind it." With the four of us standing in a line, I looked at the man holding the unmodified rifle, "Take a shot at that armour, try to hit it."

"I'm not that good of a shot."

"Well, think of this as practice then. Come on, shoot."

He shrugged, and took aim, hitting the armour on the fourth shot. It bounced right off, leaving a dark spot on the armour but nothing more as the rogue laser beam dissipated in the air a moment later.

"So far, that's normal," Preston muttered.

"So far, it is." I smirked, "It'll still give something for the wearer to groan about later, first and second-degree burns and the likes, but they'll mostly come out of it unscathed. Now, let's have a look at the modified version."

Looking down the sights, I pulled the trigger and watched as the armour flew off the stump.

Preston jogged over to it and picked it up, looking it over.

"Holy shit, folks!" He held it up for all of us to see. A hole had been burnt through the front and the backplate was still red hot, "This thing's deadly."

"This baby will keep away any unfriendly neighbours, that's for sure. It might not burn straight through combat armour, but it'll sure as hell cook whoever's wearing it. Power armour will still probably shrug it off, but we've got assaultrons and explosives to deal with them. The only drawback to this design is that instead of the normal thirty shots you have per fusion cell, it's only eighteen now.

"That's an exchange I'm happy to make for more firepower. Will you upgrade the others?"

"Not now, maybe once I've perfected the design. It still needs a better cooling system that can deal with the extra heat generated with every shot, and we've got some military-grade attachments back at the vault that we could shove onto them." I shrugged, heading back toward the house, "Right now, the most important task is to get all the robots up and running, they'll protect us for the time being."

"What about after you're done?"

"We'll cross that bridge once we get to it. Right now, I've got a deathclaw to carve up."

----------------------------------------

The sun was shining in my eyes as I opened them, calmly stroking Dogmeat laying on the ground next to the sofa.

I could get used to sleeping in safety. It felt different waking up, knowing I wasn't going to get jumped by raiders or wasteland creatures. I couldn't even remember the last time I could truly feel safe.

"Good morning, sir," Codsworth called over from the kitchen as I sat up.

"Hi, Codsworth, anything new?"

"Nothing noteworthy, sir. The settlers brought you breakfast."

He placed a plate of mutfruit on the kitchen counter, which I was more than happy to take before striding outside.

Sturges, Jun and Jeremy were standing on the concrete base of the collapsed house beside the Minutemen's base of operations, the rubble cleared off it. A makeshift roof was already built over a terminal, which in turn was hooked up to the nearby car's reactor. All of them were pulling on a massive metal tower, which was slowly rising into the sky, the mechanic calling out directions every now and again.

Carrying the upgraded laser rifle, Preston noticed me and walked over.

"Morning." I nodded, "What are they doing over there?"

"To have an actual settlement, we'll need a tower to broadcast our recruitment signal from. This won't reach too far, but it'll do for starters."

"Well, you'll need something to record a message with if that's the case. We could also make some short-range radios while we're at it, make it easier to communicate, no? You know what, I'll do that. It'll be a nice change of pace from hacking robots."

"I'll help. What do you need?"

"Fusion cells, and telephones. As much as you can find of the latter."

He pulled out half a dozen cells from his pockets and poured them into my cupped hands, before striding off to the temporary warehouse to get me what I needed. Throwing the cells onto Sturges’ workbench, it took no time at all to quickly throw together six radios and a microphone from the remains of yesterday's broken objects.

My helper was back ten minutes later with an armful of old phones, which he promptly dumped on the floor with a grunt.

"Here... Here you go." He muttered, taking a deep breath.

"Thanks," I knelt down and started picking apart the centuries-old electronics, taking the few parts I still needed for the devices to be complete, "I'll be done shortly, then you can tell anyone who needs one to take a radio. I'll have one on me, so if anything happens you can call me over this, and I'll come running with backup."

As I finished up, I pocketed one and made my way back up to the vault, Dogmeat bounding after me. Glancing over my shoulder, I watched as the tower jolted once, before coming to a standstill in an upright position. How far would we be able to broadcast with that?

It took Titan-Alpha two seconds to scan my face and realise I was an ally, after which it recognized Dogmeat, before continuing its patrol routine. With a sigh, I stared at the containers.

"What the hell will we do with these weapons?" I muttered to myself. The radio tower wasn’t exactly good. In the long run, we could use every hand we could, but was it really worth broadcasting our signal out into the world?

If settlers could find the signal, then so could raiders or worse.

I'd worry about that when it was an actual problem. Even if some raiders attacked us, I’d make sure none would be alive to tell the tale. Opening the hatch of the nearest assaultron, I connected it to my pip-boy. With the brunt of the coding already done yesterday, most of the code I had to replace was automatically completed by my wrist-attached terminal.

Three hours went by quickly, at the end of which all of them were done, awaiting a fusion core and orders. Titan-Alpha had been updated with the designation of all the new robots, which it had broadcasted to the two active assaultrons.

Inserting their nuclear-powered batteries one by one, I finally took a step back and activated them through my pip-boy.

Their head lasers started glowing red as they powered up, all their eyes turning to face me.

"Authorize," They chorused.

"James Teach. Ghost."

Silence.

"Awaiting orders."

One assaultron would stay to patrol around the vault, beyond the fence, four would roam around the woods and swamps surrounding Sanctuary, and one would guard the area around the red rocket truck stop. All of them were programmed to attack anything that their computer systems deemed a threat. Humans were different though.

They'd be kept in place until we could arrive thanks to a warning sent to my pip-boy. From there, they had two options. Join us or die. We could not afford them to tell the tale of a settlement of assaultrons for guards.

Each machine has enough storage in its head to keep tabs on a hundred and twenty-eight individual conflicts, which they clear every day after their report and data have been saved to my pip-boy.

That way I'd know what was going on around us without having to place a foot past the river.

As they spread out, I let off a contented sigh. This place was getting safer by the day, and by God, was it a nice change of pace from having to worry about assassins from one of the many enemies I had made during my life.

From mercenary to settlement leader in the span of a few days.

Trotting back down the slope, a ping arrived on my pip-boy, my entire arm shaking as I looked at what it was. A warning from AD-03. One of the assaultrons guarding the settlement itself.

Unholstering my pistol, I sprinted the remaining distance, following the ping to the bridge.

Even from a distance, I could hear a voice talking loudly.

"Look, we want no trouble..." Silence, "Boys, put down your guns for fuck's sake, do you know what that is?"

"Please remain calm. Someone will meet you shortly."

A large host of people stood on the bridge, pack brahmins dotted amongst them. At the head of it all was a short woman, her face marred by radiation and time. I couldn't help but smirk as I put my gun away and slowed down.

"AD-03, stand down," I shouted at the robot from a distance, and instantly the guardian stepped away and melted into its surroundings, like a ghost.

Judy looked at me with a smile, "Is that really how you greet old friends?"

"Sorry, can't be too careful around these parts."

"You're telling me?! This place is a fucking nightmare," She took a cigarette from her pocket and lit it, "Supermutants in Boston, ghouls in Lexington! And don't get me started on the bloody raiders."

"And I assume none were prepared for your caravan marching through their territory?"

"There are some positives to having so many hired guns." She shrugged.

I looked at the caravan guards standing behind her, "Where are my manners? Come in, we've got plenty of space for you. Though food and water are a bit scarce for this many people, I'm hoping my... Let's call them guard dogs, can hunt something for us all to eat."

"Guard dogs? These are assaultron dominators, Ghost! I've never heard a bigger injustice than calling them guard dogs. But tell me, where did you find them? I assume there's more if you mentioned multiple dogs."

"How about we talk around a fire, over a nice bowl of stew?"

----------------------------------------

"You've got to be fucking with me!" She laughed, smacking her thighs, "This fucker is the luckiest ass I've had the chance to meet. You found all of that next to an old, abandoned vault?"

"What chance was there for that, huh?"

"Zero... Minus one even. Do you know how many caps you just found? You could retire from just half of it all!"

"In a way, this is my retirement." I motioned around myself.

"You never said anything about starting a settlement when you left for the Commonwealth."

"Things changed, I met Preston and his people being attacked by raiders-"

"And what? You jumped into the fray to help them?" She chuckled, "What the hell happened to you, Ghost? A few months ago, you would've done jack shit, saving yourself rather than others."

"Now, now, I've shown my helpful side plenty of times!" I wagged a finger jokingly her way.

"When?! Tell me one time."

"Fine. How about that small settlement I saved from the Legion?"

She thought for a moment, "Fine... You win this time." I ate another spoonful of stew, smiling, the ghoul going silent for a moment before pointing at Jeremy, "You, vault-dweller!"

"Huh, wuh-what?"

She smiled, which only deepened the man's frown, "You ever watched baseball?"

"Uhh-"

"Come on man, it wasn't that hard of a question. Yes or no?"

"Ye-Yeah. I guess I did, sometimes."

"Which team was your favourite?" Before he could respond she was already talking again, "Mine were the Braves. They were based in Boston, you know." She shook her head, "Could never speak baseball with him over there." She shoved a finger my way.

"Hey!" I exclaimed, "I couldn't exactly watch baseball while deployed overseas!"

"Yeah, yeah! You had two hundred years to catch up, but did you? Did you fuck." She looked at Jeremy who looked unsure of how to respond. With an annoyed huff, she impatiently waved him away, "Maybe I asked him a sensitive question, who knows? Find me when you caught the cat that got your tongue."

Preston looked at her, "So what's your story, Judy?"

"We'd be here all day if I started talking about myself... Let's just say I'm a trader that is willing to go from point A to point B all across the wastes of what had once been the great US of A. I've made quite a profit over the years, though most of it is eaten up by that bunch." She waved her hand towards her guards sitting all over the place, waiting for their stews to finish cooking. Two assaultrons had already brought a total of five fresh radstag corpses back, and as I watched, another was deposited beside us before the robot disappeared, returning to its patrol duty. We'd have to start putting them away as jerky soon.

"And how did you meet Ghost?"

"Uhh," She looked at me, and I subtly shook my head, "I'll let him tell that one when he feels like it." He looked between the two of us with a confused expression, but Judy was quick to change the subject, "So, you guys from Quincy?"

"Well, the folks I'm with are, I grew up some ways north of Boston."

"Really?" I looked at him, "You never told me."

"I was nearing my seventeenth birthday when I left, returned there a few years after I joined Colonel Hollis, only to find it abandoned. I'm still not sure what happened to this day." He looked bitterly into the fire, Judy slowly reaching over to pat his shoulder.

"Don't you worry, it's not the worst thing that can happen. At least your folks might still be alive somewhere... Others aren't lucky enough to say that. Take me, for example."

"Why? What happened to your home?"

"Got nuked by the reds..." She stated bluntly, "It was flattened."

"Shit... And I thought the Quincy folk had it bad, with their city getting massacred by gunners. Surely there can be nothing worse than watching an already broken people die out slowly as they're picked off one by one by the wasteland?"

"Been there, done that, felt shit." Judy nodded, slurping up the last of her stew.

"If it hadn't been for the Lexington raiders, we could've arrived with more survivors. They're the ones that sprang a horde of ghouls onto us, and later cornered us in Concord."

"Raiders? In that Corvega plant?" She put down her bowl, scowling.

"I assume so." He shrugged, "We never got close to their hideout."

"If we're talking about the same gang, they also got one of my boys before they realised they might be biting off more than they could chew. Dirty, feral, fuckers. At least the actual ferals, you can't blame them for the radiation corrupting their minds, but the raiders? They're human, and that's what makes them scary. They're just like us, more or less."

An idea suddenly struck me, and I looked at them both.

Their conversation stopped in their tracks.

"What is it?" Preston asked.

"Ah shit, I've seen that look before." She grunted, leaning back on her hands, "Spit it out, what idea popped into that head of yours this time?"

I smirked, "You know me too well Judy... How willing are you and your boys to help us out a bit?"