Chapter Twenty-Nine
Stepping Along

"Nora!" Haylen woke me up by literally bursting into the room. I immediately sat up on the bed, ready and alert.

"Scribe Haylen!" I addressed her as professionally as I could while still laying in bed. "What time do you call this?"

My mind was simple - if I hadn't woken up on my own yet, it was too early to wake up. As simple as that.

"It's half past nine, ma'am!" Her tone changed into one of a soldier surprisingly quickly. "And, may I add, I've tried knocking..." She drifted off when she noticed Danse lying beside me.

"Oh." She blushed a very deep shade of red. "I'm sorry, sir, I wasn't—I didn't—" She quickly looked down at her feet. I actually didn't think a person could look more embarrassed.

"You were saying?" I cleared my throat.

"Oh. Yes. It's half past nine already. And it's today. We're running Liberty Prime's final tests today." She still refused to look at either of us. I didn't know how to respond. Thankfully, Danse took over the initiative.

"Thank you, Haylen. We'll be sure to report on the airport as soon as possible," he said calmly. "You may go now."

"Yes, Elder. Thank you. Sir." She quickly backed out of the room and shut the door behind her.

"You know," I said with a small laugh, "I do not want to know what she thought."

Danse smiled, but it was only a small, weak smile.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked, tilting my head slightly.

"Women, always so intent on talking everything through. Do you think we did something wrong?"

"No..."

"Then there's nothing to talk about. I meant every single word I said yesterday and I just hope you know I won't say any of that again."

I blinked. "What?"

"I will not say any of those things again to anyone, ever in my life. I love you, Nora. Those words from me are meant strictly for you, and nobody else."

"I hate you," I whispered.

How did he even come up with things like this?

"No, you don't." He helped me up. "Now come on. We've got work to do."

"We do?" I was still a bit sleepy. I rubbed my eyes.

"Did you not hear what Haylen said? We're testing Liberty Prime today."

"Oh." I laughed nervously. "That. Yeah, I'll... I'll be right there. Just give me a moment."

He nodded. "Of course." He left the room, gently closing the door behind him.

I smiled widely. I had no idea why I was even feeling like this, but I wanted to jump and laugh and—This wasn't like me!

I looked at my reflection in the mirror. The smile on my face was all too obvious. My hair was messy, though...

I grabbed my jacket and threw it over my uniform. Whatever happens now... I'm ready for it. I knew I had to get to that test site soon, but first things first—I needed breakfast.

I managed to take a handful of apples out of the officers' pantry without anyone noticing and ate two of them on my way to the airport. I found Proctor Ingram near the armory, fixing something up. I waved to her from afar.

"Apple?" I asked with a cocky grin.

"Don't mind if I do." She took it from me. "Huh. You're early, actually. That's a first."

I pouted, pretending to be offended. We walked to the test site. Liberty Prime was fully assembled now, and thus kind of impossible to hide from both any Institute's spies and literally everyone else in the Commonwealth - the robot was well over twenty meters tall.

"This is gonna help us fight the Institute?" I asked, trying not to sound disrespectful—it was still very impressive.

"Doesn't look like much, I know, but Prime's power isn't in his appearance. This robot is an engineering marvel."

"I believe you," I said with a small smile. "Wouldn't have risked my life so many times if I didn't."

She laughed good-heartedly and patted me on the back. "That's a good answer."

We were interrupted when Danse and Kells joined us on the test platform.

"Elder," Ingram nodded her head at him.

"Proctor Ingram, Doctor Li." Then, our eyes met, and he smiled warmly. "...Nora."

I looked down at the ground, careful not to look at him as they joined up with Doctor Li at the control panel.

Ingram raised an eyebrow. "Oh." She laughed. "And Taegan owes me two hundred caps. Nice!"

I immediately looked at her. "What?"

"You know, because he said it would take you two more than a month to get together."

I blinked. "What?"

"Oh, please, Danse is smiling? You're all dressed up and cheerful this early in the morning? I'm not an idiot, Paladin."

"Hold on, you were betting on when we would get together?" I exclaimed.

"It was more of a pool, actually. Cade said it was never going to happen, but Grimes was convinced it would take you only a week. I said two weeks and Taegan said a month."

"You. Were betting. On us getting together," I repeated, this time slower. "You knew?"

"Well, you weren't very subtle, either of you. I've known the Elder for like a decade, so I know when he likes someone - and I've never seen him care about anyone as much as he cares about you. Now, if that's not love, I have no idea what is."

"He's a synth. Isn't that, like, ultimately wrong?"

"He's a synth, says who?" She tilted her head. "Cade didn't know anything about it when I asked him. Quinlan didn't read the list after decoding it, he just sent it straight to Maxson. The only person who ever said anything about anyone from the Brotherhood being a synth was Elder Maxson. Who, conveniently, was having problems with Danse at the time."

She saw that I was about to protest and shushed me.

"I know! I know this is just a conspiracy theory - that's exactly what it is!" She smiled widely. "But if it's gonna save you two all that trouble, I'm down with it."

I looked at her. "Proctor Ingram, have I ever told you how absolutely amazing you are?"

"Yeah, well... Not everyone here is going to see it the same way, so if you could just, I don't know, be discreet about it."

"About him or about us?"

"I don't know, Nora, whichever's easiest. Look, the Elder of the Brotherhood of Steel, who is also a runaway Institute synth—a Courser, at that—happens to be your boyfriend now. Just choose whatever's the strangest part of that sentence and throw it out."

I nodded with a bitter smile. "Thanks so much for not judging me."

She rolled her eyes. "Deal with it." She went to the rest of them, but I stayed in that exact same spot.

That was... surprisingly reassuring. I found myself smiling.

"Paladin!" Danse called me sharply, making me realize they were waiting only for me. I quickly ran up to the group. "You're distracted."

"Sorry, sir," I mumbled.

"You've got to be focused," he said, now more kindly. "All of us have to. The fact that we haven't heard of the Institute for so long is distressing."

"Right on point, sir," Kells said. "According to scout reports, there have been numerous energy readings recorded in Cambridge during the last two weeks that might have been their teleporter. However, no confirmed reports of Institute intervention or sightings of larger groups of synths." He narrowed his brows. "If you're asking me, they're up to something."

"Well, nobody's asking you, Captain." Doctor Li leaned on the wall behind her. "I know the Institute far better than any of you ever will. If they were doing something, you would know. No, this is simply the preparation."

"For what?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Hell if I know. I wasn't exactly among the senior staff down there—and even if I were, I'm on the wrong side now."

"Which brings us back to the matter at hand," Danse noticed. "Liberty Prime must be ready for whenever the Institute decide to attack. And since that could be any moment, we have to hurry." He looked in Ingram's direction. "How goes the work?"

"It's practically done," she said reluctantly. "But... there's still one piece missing. Prime needs something that will power him. We've been doing some basic tests and he's running just fine, but he wouldn't fare in battle." She nodded at the robot. It still had many wires and such attached to itself and didn't look practically done. "So far we've been feeding him power from the Prydwen's engines, but that clearly won't work long-term."

I smirked. "That look on your face says you've got a way to solve this problem."

"Right on target, Paladin. Proctor Quinlan and Doctor Li did some digging through a lot of technical documentation and there's practically one place in the Boston area with a possibly running beryllium agitator."

"One?" Kells seemed suspicious. "That's certainly convenient."

"You think so? Then lemme tell you this: it's in the Mass Fusion building, right in the middle of downtown Boston. There's super mutants and ferals on every street. Even if you do avoid all that, there's still the interior security to deal with. Nora, please indulge me and tell us—how were all those big companies with their security?"

I sighed. "During the war? Ultra-paranoid."

"We're talking sentry bots, Protectron robots, Assaultron battle androids, automatic machinegun turrets, you name it. And even if you get through all that, there's still the agitator itself. There's gotta be a shitload of radiation in there after 200 years of sitting idly. You grab it, it turns off. But the real trick is in not dying before you grab it."

"Gotta be a ghoul or a super mutant to survive that," I muttered. Yet none of the ghouls I knew would be willing to work with the Brotherhood of Steel.

"Right then." Danse grabbed his laser rifle. "We'll have to prepare for a retrieval op. For now, we'll keep on monitoring every Institute activity. I'm holding a senior staff meeting to discuss it, in about 100 hours."

Everyone agreed half-heartedly.

"You should attend too, Paladin," he said, clearly talking to me.

I didn't answer, blankly staring ahead.

"Nora."

He gently touched my arm. "Nora?"

I stirred, somehow panicking, as I began to take in my surroundings again. Danse was looking at me with concern.

"Are you alright?"

I could only nod my head. I couldn't muster more of an answer than that.

"You really don't look alright," Ingram said. "You're pale."

"I just... got caught up in my thoughts," I explained. "It's nothing."

I ended up going to the Prydwen with the both of them. I enjoyed having people that cared about me, but some people were overdoing it.

We were somewhere along the mess hall when Knight Rhys caught up with us. He was tired like after a long run.

"Elder!" He stopped to salute. "What's the status on the Mass Fusion retrieval operation?! We've not sent a single team yet!"

"What's the hurry?" I asked with a small laugh.

"You haven't listened to the radio?" he asked. We all looked at him, equally confused. He paled. "You have to listen to the radio."

Ingram narrowed her brows, but she pulled out an SW radio and tuned it to Diamond City Radio.

The voice that sounded from the speaker wasn't Travis Miles.

"—and we are real. It is true, but it is not the whole truth. We are here and we are the future. Our superior technology represents the best hope for the Commonwealth."

I felt my blood run cold. The Institute. They'd taken over Diamond City Radio. So everyone was now hearing this... That was what the bastards wanted.

"Today, we launch our nuclear reactor—ensuring that we will persevere long after the world aboveground has ceased to exist."

I reached for Danse's hand almost without thinking.

"We do not wish to interfere with your unimportant daily lives. We simply wish that you do not interfere with the Institute's operations. Today we embark on a new frontier. Once the switch on the reactor is thrown, and the beryllium agitator cold-starts the fusion reaction, the future of mankind will be secured. So sleep easy, people of the Commonwealth. Know that humanity will prevail, even after you are long gone."

I stared at the radio, more frightened than I had been in a long time. They were going to kill everyone! Danse put his arms around me, not less scared than I was. I could only imagine others listening to this same message right now. Piper and MacCready in Diamond City... Were they facing it together like we were? Or maybe Piper couldn't take it with cold nerves? What of the Minutemen? They had to be affaired. Maybe there was panic. Maybe some were even crying. And the Railroad? I imagined the catacombs beneath that church were now completely silent. I imagined none of them dared to say a word after hearing that. Everyone... Everyone had heard that message. And everyone was afraid now.

I swallowed, my throat feeling sore all of a sudden, as I hugged myself to Danse's chest, wanting nothing more than for it to be a dream.

Rhys turned the radio off. "That's the real reason we need to get our hands on that beryllium agitator."

I blinked. Why were there tears in my eyes? Out of fear? Slowly, I looked up to see Danse's face. He looked like a man robbed of everything he held dear. His eyes were almost empty as he stared ahead.

"I failed," he whispered. "This is my fault." He let go of me to be able to sit down on a chair. I hadn't seen him look so devastated since... well, that day. "I should have greenlighted that operation as soon as possible. Should have... Should have seen this coming."

"Danse?" I bit my lip. "I don't think any of us saw this coming."

Rhys stood by my side. "Requesting permission to assemble a small strike group, sir."

Danse looked up. In an instant, his eyes regained their usual flame.

"Of course," he said. "The sooner, the better. We can't allow them to get away with this. One vertibird should be able to evade any clear confrontation." He stood up. "You must set off immediately."

We nodded. "Yes, sir!"

Ingram exhaled slowly. "Brace the soldiers. There's a battle coming."

oooOOO***OOOooo

I wrapped the scarf Piper had given me around my neck before jumping into the vertibird.

"That's the last of them!" Rhys shouted to the pilot. "Go! Go! Go!"

I held on tight as the helicopter took off. The strike team was actually the first people Rhys came across: myself, Ingram, Evelyn, and two Knights I didn't know. There were six of us. The Institute could be hundreds.

"Hey, Nora." Evelyn sat down next to where I was standing by the door. She fumbled with her uniform for a while until she managed to pull something out of her pocket. "Here. You're gonna need your strength."

"An energy bar?" I laughed. "Thanks, but I'm not hungry."

She shook her head. "I see what you're doing. And... that's probably not the best way around it."

"Oh, really?" I didn't look at her, instead focused on the view outside the window. We were quickly approaching Boston.

"It's okay. I'm not judging you. But you're one of the strongest, most capable people I know. I would hate to see you become your own undoing."

I looked at her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that I like you and I think you're honestly a good person. But I also think that sometimes you try to take too much on yourself to protect the people you care about. And I think that you should cut yourself some slack and from time to time acknowledge that you have some needs too." She pushed the candy bar into my hands. "You need to get your nutrition, for example. You need to eat."

I smiled weakly. "Thanks," I said. "And... for the lecture too. Guess I needed it."

She nodded. "That's what friends are for."

I checked the clip of Righteous Authority, the only gun I had taken with me. (Not very wisely, but we'd been in a haste.) It should be enough.

"There." Ingram took the place beside me, the only other place by the window. "That's the Mass Fusion tower."

It was easily one of the highest buildings in Boston that were still standing more or less on their own. It was also one of the few that hadn't collapsed in the last two centuries.

"I'll try to land on the roof," the pilot said. "Won't be easy, though. Try to hold o—"

I had never before seen someone manoeuver an aircraft as quickly as what happened at that second. Everything shook, of course, and I lost my balance. Evelyn held me when I fell onto her. For a moment, I wasn't sure what had happened, but I understood when I saw beams of energy shooting from the building's direction towards us. That jolt had been an amazing evasion!

"Synths," Evelyn realized. "It's the Institute."

"No," I whispered. "No! We can still win this!" I pushed my way towards the pilot's seat. "We need to land!"

"I can't!" the soldier exclaimed. "I won't get close enough before they shoot us down!"

"This is an order!"

"He can't do it, Nora!" Star Paladin Evelyn, the only person who outranked me here, pushed me aside. "Get as close to the roof as you can, we'll jump!"

"I didn't agree to that," I complained.

She grabbed the collar of my shirt and pulled me towards the door. "Jump!"

I opened the door and staggered, pushed by the sheer force of wind pressure. We were straight over the roof now.

I really, really didn't wanna jump.

She pushed me out! I gritted my teeth not to bite my tongue by accident, just seconds before I hit the hard concrete of the tower's roof. My military training kicked in and I by instinct rolled over to avoid breaking any bones. I wasn't sure if it worked, because everything hurt all the same.

I jumped to my feet, mumbling swearwords under my breath, and drew my gun without even thinking about it. There was a synth maybe ten meters away from me and I fired a round from Righteous Authority at it. Two more were closing in on me from the left. One of them fell, shot down by Proctor Ingram. She looked all fine in that power armor—not at all hurt from that fall. That made me all the angrier. I shot the other one.

"You know," Evelyn said as she ran up to me, "the thing I like about those old synths is you don't confuse them with civilians!"

I had to agree with that. I looked around. There were almost no hostiles inbound at that point.

"Backup is scheduled to arrive in an hour," a Knight informed us.

"Damn," Evelyn swore. "We don't have an hour."

I frowned. "Judging by the welcome committee, we don't even have time for talking now. We've got to find the beryllium agitator before them."

She nodded her head. "You heard her!" she commanded the soldiers. "We're moving!"

We managed to secure the penthouse pretty easily, but the number of synths on the top floor worried me. How many would we have to face on our way down? I glanced around. The building was in as bad a shape as most of the city, but there were some electronics that seemed to be still working. There was a utility elevator, which was like a miracle, but it required an ID card for access.

"Hey, Nora," Star Paladin Evelyn called. I ran up to her place in the corner of the room. "I think this one's still working," she said.

"A terminal?" I asked. "How's that gonna help us?"

Proctor Ingram was less sceptical than me. "A security terminal. Maybe there's a way to bypass the security system in here."

"Gotta get in," I said. I powered the computer on and waited. For a longer while, nothing happened.

Evelyn sighed. "I'm gonna find a fire escape or something."

"Good luck climbing down two hundred years' worth of rust," I muttered.

The screen lit up and displayed a login screen. Of course.

Ingram nodded at the terminal. "Well, go on. Work your magic."

"I don't know the password," I pointed out. "And I've never even tried hacking a computer."

"Seriously?" She looked at me with genuine surprise.

I laughed. "You're wondering how come I've made it this far."

Ingram clicked her tongue. "Not really. I'd wager either you're just one lucky bastard or you've got one hell of a guardian angel."

"Guardian angel?" I laughed bitterly. "You know, I used to call Danse my guardian angel, a long time ago. Before we were friends."

A long time ago.

I noticed they were looking at me and I awkwardly cleared my throat. "Um... Can you hack the terminal?"

Ingram nodded her head. "If I can keep that pile of junk—err, the Prydwen—in the air, I can do anything."

A minute ago, the service elevator was up and running, and we all huddled in the small amount of space it offered. I didn't even pretend I was happy, tucked between Ingram (wearing power armor) and Rhys (also wearing power armor). But I decided to keep my mind on the objective at hand. If we didn't secure that tech before the Institute did, that was it. They would have the power to obliterate everyone on the surface.

That was something we—I—couldn't allow to happen.

So even though we had to fight our way through platoons of synths, I didn't lose my determination. We methodically searched every floor as we went down—funnily enough, the Institute were doing the exact same thing. It was just a matter of time before one of the sides involved found what they were looking for, and everyone in the building was coldly aware of that. We didn't even waste time on speaking to one another, aside from the occasional request to share ammo.

Floor by floor, we somehow managed without casualties. Only three injuries (two of which were me). Eventually, we ran into a much larger group of synths than any of the ones we'd encountered earlier. They were fighting a bunch of other robots which I could only assume were the automatic defense system.

"We've gotta get into that fight?" Rhys narrowed his eyes.

"Nah... I got a better plan." I eyes the fighting robots carefully. I had taken plenty of Rad-X beforehand but I was still feeling a bit woozy. No wonder the Institute had sent their old, metal synths here instead of the new ones—the robots wouldn't have to worry about the radiation. But that still didn't hold true for us. And while Evelyn and Ingram were safe in their power armor, the rest of us were, sadly, not radiation-proof. Any time spent on fighting those synths would be more time spent among all this radioactivity. So all we needed to do now was... "Wait for an opening... Then, run," I said in a whispered.

"Run where?"

"That door. That's what the robots were guarding, so I'm betting it's something important." I narrowed my eyes. "Now!"

I had to give my soldiers that they were well-trained, because as soon as I gave that order, they set off—even before I did. We ran among the fighting robots but didn't engage in fighting ourselves, so as a result, we all managed to get to the closed room. Ingram pulled the door and shut it as soon as we were inside.

Soon enough, we were all gathering our bearings, taking off power armor helmets, catching a breather, and trying to calm down.

"This is it," Rhys said sternly.

I looked up, for the first time really seeing the room we were in. Most notably, there was a huge glass window overlooking some catwalks and machinery on the other side. There was an airlock leading to it, for now sealed shut. And good—I didn't doubt that if it weren't, we'd all be dead or ghouls by now. The Geiger counter from Ingram's power armor UI was so loud I could hear it.

I clenched my fists. So close now. We'd made it here first after all. "I'm going in," I said.

"Wait." Ingram grabbed my arm. "No offense to you or your capabilities, Paladin, but that's unstabilized beryllium. There's gotta be a ton of radiation in there right now. And knowing you, you'd probably take it out all violently and destabilize what's already unstable."

I shook her off. "We don't have time!" I growled.

"I'll take it," Star Paladin Evelyn said simply. "Just cover me in case anything happens."

I looked at her, not really sure what I thought of this idea. "...Okay. But be quick."

"Be careful," Ingram corrected me. She turned her attention to the control panel situated under the window. "I think I can power up the airlock from here."

Evelyn smiled gladly and put on her helmet. "Ready."

She walked to the airlock. Ingram turned a few switches on the console and a red lightbulb above the door lit up. Evelyn looked back at us and nodded her head. Ingram pressed a button and that light turned green. Evelyn quickly slipped in and shut the door.

"Powering up the airlock now," Ingram said. "Gotta talk through your SVR now, alright?"

"Got you, Proctor," Evelyn's voice sounded clearly from my walkie-talkie. I smiled. Okay then.

Ingram powered up the airlock. A hissing sound could be heard, as well as a faint clicking.

"Whole lotta rads," Evelyn muttered.

I walked over to the window. I smiled weakly when I saw her on the catwalk below. So far so good.

"See that machinery in the middle there?" Ingram asked. "No rocket science. Just get in there, take out the power source, and get back."

"Sounds simple," Evelyn decided. She looked at me through the glass and showed me a thumbs up.

"Not really okay, though..." Rhys motioned for me to join him by the door. The three Knights had been holding it closed all the while, so I had assumed it was okay... I left Ingram by the console and walked to them.

"What's up?" I asked.

Rhys scoffed at that. "Nothing's 'up'. We're right here in the middle of enemy territory, so you could move it." He tapped his foot against the floor, irritated. "Wanna find out how long till the Institute break in here? Because I don't."

"They're just out there... Waiting," one of the other two soldiers said gloomily. "This is the only way out. We're going to have to fight our way out."

I clenched my fists. That wasn't the best news I'd heard in a while. There were only six of us... Where the hell was that backup?! Next time I see Danse, I'm whacking him on the head, I promised myself. That thought kind of made me feel better.

I turned to get back to Proctor Ingram, but I was stopped by Rhys' voice, uncertain and husky.

"And, Nora..."

I looked back, surprised - this must have been the first time he ever said my name. "Yeah?"

He looked away. "For what it's worth, you're not so bad after all."

I smiled. Thanks.

"Okay," I heard Evelyn from the radio. "I think I got it."

"Try to hold out," I said to the Knights. I joined Ingram by the window and watched Evelyn on her way back.

"Guys?" Her voice, tinny and distorted as it was through the intercom and the power armor, sounded genuinely afraid now. "Something's wrong..."

I looked at the control panel. "Shit!" I swore under my breath. The room had flooded with radiation! It was half the scale and growing.

"You must've caused some kinda chain reaction when you took away the power source," Ingram said quickly into the microphone. "Get the hell outta there!"

I could see Evelyn running towards us on that catwalk, but I could also see the ever-growing levels of radiation in the room.

Ingram had to be seeing the same thing as me, because she angrily kicked the console. "Fucking hell!"

Danse would kill us both for the profanity. I didn't know why I even thought about it. Danse would be angry if he knew. MacCready would be disappointed. For some reason, I couldn't confront myself with what was going on around me—instead, I thought about the people who weren't there with me. The people who should be there with me.

Without my friends, I was nothing.

I couldn't even help Star Paladin Evelyn! I was so fucking close and yet there was nothing I could do!

"Evelyn!" I shouted into the microphone. "Don't you dare slow down!" Her steps were heavy now, she was barely walking. Even power armor couldn't protect her from that amount of radiation. "Evelyn!"

I gritted my teeth, helplessly looking at my slowly dying friend. No... Why is this—This isn't what was supposed to happen!

She coughed dryly. "Nora?"

I hated myself at the moment. "...Yeah?"

"One thing..." She reached the airlock and leaned on the door, not strong enough to stand on her own. Without thinking, I threw the switch, letting her out of the irradiated room. She stumbled into the airlock. "I just... don't wanna... Damn." She coughed again. "Not like this..."

The airlock door hissed and opened and I ran towards her.

"You're not dying," I said, shaking my head.

"I..." Evelyn laughed weakly. "No. No, I'm not."

Ingram shut her eyes. "Oh, no."

Star Paladin Evelyn nodded. "I don't... Can't change into a—a ghoul..."

"I won't shoot you," I protested, tears in my eyes. "I won't do it!"

Weakly, she stood up. She put the beryllium agitator in my hands. It was easily half a meter wide and shockingly heavy. Evelyn looked at us. "Know what happens when you hit the fusion core of a working suit of power armor?"

Ingram's eyes widened visibly. "Star Paladin—"

"Look, I'm gonna die either way! But if I can take as many of those damned synths down with me as I can, I'm gonna do it!"

I moved away from her. Too much radiation was—well, radiating—off of her. I shook my head... This wasn't good. "What... what happens when you hit the fusion core of an active suit of power armor?" I asked. I wasn't sure if I would like the answer.

"It's like..." Evelyn grabbed her laser rifle. "Like a..." She grunted, clearly in pain, but she kept on walking to the door. "...a self-destruct button."

I shut my eyes. "No," I whispered.

She put her hand on the door. "Let me do this... Please."

Only minutes later, our situation had changed drastically. One man down, our small squad was now weakened, but we had secured the beryllium agitator and the path ahead of us was clear for now.

I swallowed my tears, running down the stairs beside Knight Rhys, things in my backpack clanking with every step down. There was a synth in my way, but I channelled all of my anger and grief into a single kick and it went down. However, it only got more complicated for us from then on. As we went down, I began to realize that the Institute were not only trying to get hold of a power source for their stupid nuclear reactor—they were also probably hoping to secure this whole building. If they had an outpost in the middle of downtown Boston, their influence would only grow! Not such a nice picture.

"If I do have a guardian angel, he's certainly taking his sweet time!" I complained.

The backup that had been supposed to be there long ago was still as nonexistent as ever. I found myself mentally cursing Elder Danse, Proctor Taegan, Captain Kells, and everyone else that had left us to die here. We had to face more synths with every floor we went down. It would probably reach the peak at ground level... If we would manage to survive that far. Our situation wasn't exactly the brightest right now: I was all out of medical supplies, only a few fusion cells remained in my laser rifle. I couldn't speak for the others, but I knew none of us were in a good state.

Pushed by instinct, I ducked to avoid getting shot the moment we entered the lobby. Ground floor? It was hell. Our squad was suddenly outnumbered more than ever before! I tried to stay close to Ingram, but I was soon separated from the other soldiers. Not good when you're outnumbered.

I ended up fighting off a bunch of synths all on my own, barely able to hold my ground against their overwhelming force. I was retreating, stp by step, gradually closer to the wall behind me. Eventually—which was inevitable—I ran out of ammo. The little time that I would need for reloading turned out crucial, though. All of a sudden, I wasn't an opponent anymore, I was just a target. One of the synths used that to charge at me headfirst.

I cried out in pain when I was pushed back with unhuman force. I hit a metal cabinet and ended up lying on the floor with its weight upon me. I felt tears come into my eyes the moment it fell onto me.

I tried to wriggle out from underneath the cabinet, but to no avail. A quick look around confirmed that I was in immediate danger from that same synth and that I was helpless to stop it.

I reached for Righteous Authority, but the gun was simply too far from me. The synth raised its shock baton—

I shut my eyes, waiting for the final blow, and was confused when it didn't come.

I reluctantly fluttered my eyelids open. The synth was still standing in front of me, but its head had been sawed off, now only a shower of sparks.

"I leave you alone for two hours," Danse noticed, pushing the destroyed robot to the ground. There were several other soldiers with him, all of them combat prepared. He smiled at me, his dark hair tangled with sweat and his face dirty with grease. "I hope we're not arriving at a wrong moment."

I wanted to hug him so hard.

I couldn't hug him, so I settled for looking around. The backup—and what a backup it was! Ten soldiers in power armor (eleven if I counted Danse), four Scribes in combat uniforms, and, judging by the sounds from outside, at least one vertibird—must have killed off those last few synths and now were preparing for holding the outpost.

"Alright, come here." Danse easily lifted the heavy metal cabinet off of me. (That's why I should have taken my power armor, too.) He pulled me up to my feet. "Broken anything?"

I flexed my legs. "I don't think so."

"Great." He clapped his hands. "Alright, people! Secure the ground floor, ready for combat! The Institute will most likely try to retake this facility, so we need to be prepared!"

"Have you got it, Paladin?" Ingram asked.

I pulled the compound out of my backpack. "I don't tend to lose important stuff, thankfully."

"Someone's got to take it to the Prydwen before the Institute hits this place. Who knows how long we'll last, if we'll last at all. We can't afford to lose that tech."

"Hell no, I'm not leaving this place while there's still a fight in the air," I protested. "You take it."

"You're more important to the Brotherhood. We can't afford to lose someone like you - I would only let you go if there was someone more important here..."

Our gazes met. "Danse!" we called out together.

"Danse, this is important, you've gotta take this and get it to the airport ASAP," I said, practically pushing the agitator into his hands.

He shook his head. "No... What? No." He looked at me in a very strange way. "No, I'm not leaving here until the battle is over."

Ingram looked like she wanted to die. "Oh, my God. Someone hold me, there's two of them." She grabbed the collar of my jacket and yanked Danse's overcoat. "You two, get!" She pushed us towards the exit.

"I can't—"

"This isn't—"

Our protests were cut off by her angry glare.

"I don't care what you think! I care about securing this piece of tech and that's what you are gonna do!" She pulled us both outside and ushered towards one of the three vertibirds, its engine running. "Alrighty, this is Lancer Dennis. Dennis – Paladin Nora, Elder Danse."

"It's an honor..." the young pilot mumbled, just as overwhelmed by Ingram's actions as I was.

"Listen closely, whatever these two might say, you're flying straight to the airport. No stops along the way. ASAP." She narrowed her brows. "Understood, soldier?"

Dennis nodded, still scared. "Yes, ma'am!"

A series of shots rang out through the air and I knew the fighting had just begun. I can't believe I'm running away...

"Damn!" Ingram swore. "They're here." She flicked off the safety on her gun. "Okay, go! Go!"

I only managed to grab something when we set off. The turbulence was so strong that but for Danse, who caught me in time, I probably would have fallen out and suffered a quick albeit painful death.

We were gaining altitude quickly, but we were also being shot at.

They had a sniper! I realized that only when a bullet hit the vertibird's wall, missing me just by an inch.

Another shot rang out through the air and, much to my horror, Dennis fell onto the control panel in front of him. He was dead.

Without wasting any time, Danse pushed the body out of the way and took that place himself.

"Do something!" I screamed, holding on for dear life as the helicopter went into turbulence.

Danse turned to me in a split-second. "Do I look like a vertibird pilot to you?!"

"I don't know! I don't wanna die, so be one!"

"I'm not!"

I pushed him out of the pilot's seat and yanked the control lever in my direction. We were still falling, but a bit slower now. The wind was howling in my ears, I could barely hear my own thoughts.

"I don't want to panic, but we're still going to crash!" Danse joined me by the controls.

"Then you do something!" I screamed at him. "I'll try to direct it away from the city!"

If we were going to die, I didn't want to hurt anyone else in the process. A collapsing skyscraper could do a lot of damage.

"Nora, river!"

"What?!" I looked at him, convinced he'd lost it at that point.

"Charles!"

I understood in just a second. Even if I crashed safely, the engine would explode. But if I landed in water... Maybe we'd have more time. It would probably explode too, but... At least the explosion would be contained.

Here goes, I thought, and directed the falling vertibird towards the water.

"Be ready to jump!" Danse ripped out the door—power armor was a scary thing—and threw it out. The wind pressure that immediately filled the helicopter was unbearable, especially as we neared the ground.

I held on to the pilot's seat as not to be pulled out, tears falling out of my eyes.

"We're gonna die!" I screamed. I didn't want to die! Not just yet! I had... I had so much to live for yet— And Danse, there was so much we hadn't done yet— And my friends, Piper and MacCready, and Hancock, and Nick - they wouldn't know what happened to me!

I couldn't stop crying. We were going to crash in that river. I looked to Danse, who was standing by that door, ready to jump out. But if we jumped, we wouldn't survive either!

I opened my mouth, and I realized the words I was about to say would probably be my last.

"Danse, I—"

He grabbed my arm and pulled me closer to the door. "Don't talk, jump!"

I looked at him, terrified with every inch of my being. "No, wait—"

He pushed me out!

I screamed as I fell, for the first time ever realizing that I had no parachute and that I had never even gotten one and that I desperately needed one—!

I shut my eyes in fear just seconds before my body connected with the surface of the water. For just the briefest moment, like a sudden rush of hot water running through my veins, I felt pain. But it only lasted for a moment, just a fraction of a second.

Because then, I felt nothing at all.

oooOOO***OOOooo

I gasped, spluttering water all over my face and neck. I began coughing as my organism suddenly adjusted to breathing air again. I coughed again, trying to get the last of the water out of my lungs.

I sat up abruptly, which caused my head to spin. Danse, who had been watching me with an uncertain expression, now laughed with clear relief.

"Oh, thank God!" He hugged me tightly—almost too tightly—which honestly caught me off-guard. As close as we were, Danse was still not a huggy person.

I blinked. I was completely wet, I was cold, and I was completely nauseous because of the aftertaste of irradiated water that continued to linger in my throat. I wanted to throw up.

"...Danse?" My voice was husky and just speaking scratched my throat a bit. "What the hell—How come am I alive? I was drowning."

"Well, you were drowning." He looked away from me. "I, um... Well... I—I did save you. That's all that matters in the end."

There were tears in his eyes, I noticed. And the hug... Danse was not a huggy person. I could recall maybe two times when he'd actually hugged me before. It just wasn't something he did unless there was really big emotional strain...

Really big. Like... Oh.

"CPR," I said slowly, understanding. "You weren't saving me, you were resuscitating me."

"Nora—" I could see it was painful for him to even think about.

"I... I died?" I shook my head. I couldn't bear the thought. Not because I was scared or because of regret... No, it was him. I only thought about how he must have felt when he tried to get my heart to beat again, when he had to drag my lifeless body on the beach. The other way around? I would have broken down. "I can't believe I actually put you through that. You..."

"It wasn't your fault," he said quickly. "It wasn't your fault. I was the one who was stupid enough to let you go on this op."

This op... I felt almost all life return to me.

"The agitator!" I exclaimed. "Oh my God, was it in the explosion?"

Danse raised an eyebrow. "Nora, with all due respect, it's an atomic reactor. If it had been in that explosion, we certainly wouldn't be here now."

"You got a point..."

I sneezed.

Danse immediately looked in my direction. "We need to get you someplace warm or you'll catch a cold," he noticed consciously. "I can't believe I forgot about your condition."

"It's not a condition," I said, offended.

"Of course it isn't."

I glared at him. "Stop partonizing me."

"Oh, I'm not partonizing you," he said in that same partonizing tone. "I'm taking you completely seriously."

As if to prove me right, he took off his overcoat and put it on my shoulders.

I narrowed my brows. "How come are your clothes dry?" At that point, I was sure the universe hated me exclusively.

Danse rolled his eyes. "Power armor."

"Oh." That made sense. I sneezed again, ignored the look he gave me, and looked around.

The sun was setting, so, due to the lack of any nearby outposts, we decided to look for some place to spend the night. We eventually camped up in one of the abandoned houses in the suburbs. It was strange, but we didn't even talk that much - just silence was enough.

We were together, that was all that mattered.

"That's the first time we've been alone in a while," he noticed.

"You mean that's the first time we've been left alone," I corrected him. "You're a pretty important person lately. Seems like someone always wants something with you."

Danse almost laughed out loud. "Are you jealous?" He sounded like it was the most ridiculous thing he'd heard in a while. "Of my soldiers?"

I crossed my arms. "Whatever. You'll get your share of laughing once we finally put an end to the Institute. I won't rest until I know for sure they're no danger."

He grabbed my hands. "Nora," he said softly. "We're doing all we can and you know that. For now all that matters is that we have the beryllium agitator. They're no danger as long as it's with us."

I smiled. "Thanks, Danse, but I'd really rather stand guard. How can I feel safe knowing they're out there?"

We had barricaded the door with Danse's power armor, so we were, technically speaking, safe. Still, I knew better than to trust the Wasteland.

Danse shook his head, tired. "I will protect you if it comes down to it," he said—again, patronizingly. "Is that enough to convince you to go to sleep?"

I sighed. "We can stand guard shifts. Deal?"

He shook my hand. "Deal."

"But I take the first shift," I demanded.

"On one condition." He put another blanket over me. "You stay close to the fire."

I rolled my eyes. "Danse—"

"I'm serious."

I scoffed. "Fine! I'll... stay by the stupid fireplace. I'll have you know, though—" I sneezed. "...Whatever."

I wasn't sick! So people were so damn grandmotherly it was really getting on my nerves. I didn't need anyone telling me when I should be sitting by the fireplace!

...Then again, I wasn't especially keen on getting out of the warmth of my blankets. I didn't dare fall asleep, so I pulled out a Nuka-Cola out of my backpack, hoping the caffeine would keep me awake. I eventually went on to clean my laser rifle, just out of boredom. I couldn't stand being idle and this one time, I hadn't taken anything to read.

Without much hope, I checked Danse's backpack too, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a few issues of Tumblers Today inside. (The idea that he was reading up on lockpicking was unexplainably funny to me.) I found out that it wasn't good journalism, but it was better than nothing... Always a way to pass time. Considering I would swap with Danse in a few hours, it was—

I jumped to my feet when I heard a loud noise from upstairs. I burst into the bedroom, only to find Danse, half-awake, panting heavily as he clutched his chest through his shirt. He looked like he was having trouble even breathing.

"Danse?" I immediately rushed to his side. He was startled but otherwise alright. When I put my hand on his chest, I realized his heartbeat was completely crazy.

Another one of his nightmares? I had no idea what to do in this situation... How do you handle a PTSD attack?! I wasn't a psychiatrist!

"Danse," I whispered. I sat down on the bed beside him. "It's okay. I'm here. You're not alone, I'm here."

"Nora? You're—" His eyes were widened from fear as he frantically looked around the room. "I was—"

He seemed to calm down a bit once he noticed me, but that was still far from how a mentally healthy person should look like.

"It's okay," I whispered. I brushed his hair, completely damp with sweat, from his forehead. "I'm here."

I kissed him slowly, ready to stop if he showed in any way that he was uncomfortable. But all he did was close his eyes and bury his hands in my hair. He pulled away and looked into my eyes.

"Nora—" he whispered, but he didn't get to finish whatever he had been intending to say.

"I know."

I didn't know. I didn't even know what he was going to say, but I couldn't let him overthink anything. It was the only way to ensure we would both go on with our lives. No overthinking. No pondering. No regrets.

Just us.

Footnote: Maximum level.
Temporary perk: Lover's Embrace - after spending some quality time with your special someone, you feel completely relaxed and ready for anything! +15% XP earned for a limited time.