So... yeah it's been a few years since I uploaded anything.

Life sucks sometimes and it drains you of good feelings to write. It's now 2020 and we are stuck in a quarantine, and for some reason I found my muse again. I am sorry for the long wait. Mayhaps I will find the desire to finish this story during these difficult times. I hope everyone is safe and as well as they can be.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed and favorited. It helped.

They had laid like that for a while. Just two people enjoying each other's company. Nora hadn't felt so comfortable with another human in… Well, a long time. Over 200 years to be exact. Having MacCready beside her, feeling his warmth, and the strength of his grip as their hands stayed entwined kept her in the moment. She wasn't thinking about the future. She wasn't thinking about her past. All that mattered was the feeling of his skin beneath her fingers and the muted glow of the morning sun as it broke through the cracks of the old building. It was the calmest she had felt since before she could remember. She wasn't over thinking about anything, wasn't worrying about things from the past, or the future. She was present. In the moment. That was a very rare occurrence.

Minutes ticked by. Nora made no move to get up, simply breathing in the moment and existing in the companionable silence. Eventually MacCready began to twitch and wiggle around enough to bring her out of the zen-like calm.

"I think my butt is asleep." He finally stated after they had been laying there for well over an hour. Nora felt him release her hand. She was reluctant to let go of him and didn't want the moment to end. She wasn't ready to face reality. She managed to bark a laugh at him though, watching as he leaned on the side of his thigh and massaged his rear end with ferocity.

"Mine might be too, but I can't feel it anymore." She replied, still watching him with mirth twinkling in her eyes.

He chuckled at her. "Sounds like we should both get up then."

He finally stopped squirming and went to get his feet under him, lifting himself up from a crouch effortlessly. His ankles cracked on the way up, just like earlier in the day. Nora wondered absently if that hurt him, but the way he was stretching out and moving towards the window proved that it probably didn't. That, or it was something that occurred often enough for him to become used to it.

Nora breathed in deeply and tried to force herself to move. She wanted to catalogue the moment for a later date. If things ever got too hard, too dark, this would be another fond memory she could look back on for strength. It would be a nice memory to save her from the dark days.

Slowly Nora was able to rise to her feet, savoring the feel of the pins and needles down her back as she moved herself. The ground underneath her wasn't very forgiving, and would probably be an issue later in the day, but that would be a problem for future Nora, she decided, as she rolled out her back to the best of her ability. MacCready was already shouldering his rifle, peering out of the window into the sunlight. Nora decided to do a few checks of her own since the silence was still permeating and she wasn't ready to address what had transpired yet. Her Pipboy wasn't reading anything dangerous though, so it looked like someone would have to break the silence eventually.

"Are you ready to head out soon?" Nora whispered, turning to pack her things back up into her bag as the question hung in the air. MacCready was checking his rifle out, but turned his head towards her with a smile.

"I go where you go." Came his direct answer. There was no room for buts or what-ifs. It was a statement of fact.

Nora's head was still turned toward her things, but she felt the smile as it tugged it's way across her face as soon as he stopped speaking.

It was going to be a good day, she thought.

[ - ]

After disarming and packing up the ridiculous amount of traps set downstairs, the pair set off into the sunlight. Nora didn't have a destination in mind, but figured it would do them good to stretch their legs. MacCready tended to get antsy if they stayed put for too long. It was a feeling she could get behind, as she often felt the same way. Something about this new world made her want to go explore it. She never really had the opportunity to do so before she was frozen. There was always something going on, something she had to do, work to be done, and it seemed as if there was never enough time in the day to just stop and enjoy the outside.

If there was one positive thing to look at in this new life of hers, the ability to just exist in nature, despite most of it being ravaged to shit by the bombs, was nice. She had always been the type of person who found calm in breathing the fresh air, in being outside, and had relished the small opportunities she had before to enjoy the outdoors. In her past life, she had tried to go hiking or go for long walks with Nate, but he didn't seem to be as impressed with it as she was. He would say things like, "why would I want to march out in the open, I did enough of that when I was deployed" or "I've had enough walking aimlessly for one life", and eventually she had stopped asking him altogether. While she understood he had undoubtedly had a multitude of marching orders and aimless walks while he was in the service, she thought things would be different if they were together, but he never budged. He was a stubborn man. Instead, Nora found herself getting into gardening or doing other things to spend some time outside, like reading out on the patio set, or taking long walks around the neighborhood alone.

Now, she was able to exist out in the open entirely. It was a change she was still getting used to. She spared a fleeting thought for her late husband. How would he have adapted to this life? Would he have been better suited for this life? The dark thoughts started to come again. The ones that popped up uncontrollably, telling her that perhaps she should've held onto Shaun instead of Nate. Maybe then she would have been the one laying frozen in time, and Nate would have survived. With his skills, and military background, he would've been able to adapt better than she ever could hope to...

Nora found herself dissociating slightly, her eyes going unfocused, staring at MacCready's back. It wasn't until he got a few steps ahead of her that she was able to shake herself out of her thoughts. MacCready's longer strides were difficult to match with Nora's short legs. She found that even though she had a faster gait, he would always manage to catch up to her effortlessly. Before the bombs fell, Nora would often get teased by Nate about how quickly she could walk. With his injuries after the war, he was much slower than her. Truth be told, she wasn't aware of how fast she walked. Sometimes she would have to alter her gait to keep up with him, and other times she was ahead of him without even noticing. Maybe that's why he didn't like walking that much, Nora thought. MacCready seemed to walk just as quickly as her, if not faster. Trying to keep up with him on her stubby legs was difficult at times. It was another aspect of this new life she was trying to wrap her head around.

With no real destination in mind, and not in a hurry to find one, Nora found herself wandering once more through the wreckage of Boston. Many of the areas the passed seemed familiar to her, as they should have been since she lived most of her life in this place, but everything was so ravaged now. Oftentimes it was hard to distinguish what was once there. She found herself mourning the past Boston in all of its splendor. Looking at all the wreckage…. It was sad. Pieces of buildings were collapsed, monuments were blasted away, and the rest was ravaged by the nuclear fallout and sheer amount of time that had passed. Trash and grime were everywhere, bones or dead bodies often littered the surrounding areas and roads, sometimes making travel difficult. It was depressing. How could something like this happen? There was so much destruction around that sometimes it was difficult for Nora to figure out where they were. Before, she could rely on landmarks in order to help get herself where she was going, but in this new world, the landmarks were often blown away or dissolved with time. She found herself using her Pipboy map more and more, and that saddened her.

Eventually, Nora noticed something familiar… something that tickled the back of her mind and gave her a sense of deja vu. To her left, she could see what remained of the underground metro station. Her curiosity piqued, and the desire to figure out what the heck she was looking at drove her closer to the building, and she was able to read what was left of the sign.

"Hey…. I know where we are…" She breathed, still not fully able to articulate her thoughts.

MacCready found his way over towards her. Nora was staring up at the metro station with a dazed look. Perhaps, he thought, she had been here before she was frozen and was seeing it again for the first time. That would definitely be a weird feeling, he thought, and decided to remain quiet to let her think.

"This is the metro I would take almost every day when I had class… before… before everything…" She mused, still not looking at MacCready and staring intently at the sign above the building. There was an odd feeling in her chest. She was remembering a relatively neutral memory, but inside she could feel a sadness that she could not specify. "I went to college near here." She finally stated, turning to eye MacCready.

MacCready looked up at the building but didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. It looked like your standard crumbling facade, but if it was important to her he would refrain from making a snide remark.

"College?" He asked her, peering over his shoulder at her.

MacCready had heard the term before, or read about it somewhere, but it wasn't a term that was used anymore. He couldn't recall the exact definition but knew it was something related to learning or school. He wasn't sure what it meant, or how one 'went to' it, but whatever it was had enough meaning to make Nora stop in her tracks from her incessant wandering, so it must've been big.

"Oh right. I guess people don't really do that anymore. Uhh…" Nora was at a loss for words. How did one explain college? She was blanking.

"I guess the best way to describe it would be like school for… adults? Wait, do you know what school is? Do people still go to school?"

Immediately there were ten more questions she wanted to ask. She hadn't even considered the fact that school might not even be a thing anymore. How could you learn if there were no teachers? No books? The thoughts drove her dizzy.

"Yes, Nora. I know what school is. We had school growing up." He answered stiffly. He wasn't sure if she thought he was stupid or generally didn't know, but found that he was a bit irked by her statement. Granted, his school may not have been exactly like hers but it was still something. He learned how to read, he learned how to shoot, and how to take care of himself. What else was there to learn anyway?

"Oh. Well. I'm still new to all of this." She let out another breathy laugh, picking at her fingers and turning away from the building. "Then I guess school for adults would make sense. When you get older you go to college to learn more about a specific topic, or interest. Back then it helped with getting a job. Sometimes you couldn't get one without it."

Nora found it strange to be explaining such a thing to MacCready. It felt surreal. With the way the world was, there was no need for having a higher education, she supposed. As long as you knew how to take care of yourself, survive, and figure out how to make a living there was no need for a degree. Nora scoffed at the thought. All the time she spent getting her law degree… the money wasted. The time wasted...

"That sounds weird, but okay." MacCready answered.

She hummed, "I guess it does, with the way things are now. Back then though, that was the only way."

"Huh. So you went to school around here? Where?"

[ - ]

They had wandered the streets a bit away from the metro and Nora swore she was following her instincts. Years of taking the same route should have made it muscle memory, but the things around her were so different she was beginning to get confused.

"Hold up." She stated, crouching down behind a rusted car. She needed to check her Pipboy to see where they were exactly, and hurt her pride a bit.

MacCready remained silent, coming up next to her to crouch down as well. He had a distinct feeling that he couldn't place in the back of his mind. Something wasn't right, but he couldn't figure out what it was specifically, and that feeling seemed to be making a home in the pit of his stomach.

"Nora… Do you see anything on that Pipboy of yours? I keep getting a weird feeling."

She looked down at her machine, there were no red marks to speak of.

"I'm not getting anything, why, are you okay?"

He could feel the hair rising on the back of his neck - they weren't alone, wherever they were. He could feel it in his gut, and his instincts were rarely wrong. Traveling alone for a while heightened them, and MacCready was already a pretty perceptive guy to begin with. No, something was amiss.

He took the rifle from its place on his shoulder, checking the magazine quickly with his eyes to make sure it was fully loaded, "I think we're either being followed, or there is something close by…"

Nora snorted loudly, heaving herself up from the crouch. "This thing rarely lies to me."

"Well I'm getting a bad vibe," He whispered, making sure the safety was off his rifle just in case.

That's when he saw it out of the corner of his eye - a figure slowly starting to move from its resting place and the hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up. He could hear the god awful cracking as the figure made its way into a standing position and watched as it started to lurch forward on unsteady feet. Nora wasn't aware of what was going on yet, she didn't hear the soft gurgle come from the left of them. The ghoul was woken up by Nora's loudness, and had zeroed in on their location when she went to stand. MacCready watched as it moved almost in slow motion, but his own reflexes weren't fast enough to catch up.

He could only watch as he willed his body to move faster, but it wasn't fast enough to catch the disgusting speed with which the creature moved. The ghoul had started running towards them, and shot itself at Nora's standing position with the wicked speed and reckless abandon the creatures were known for. Nora had been distracted, didn't see it coming, and was completely taken off guard by the charge. The force with which it crashed into her caused her to shoot back, knocking her back into the car and causing a loud groan to leave her mouth. The sound of the impact reverberated off the car's metal, and with that came the loud shrieks and moans of multiple ghouls in the surrounding area.

They had just woken up a pack of ferals. All at once.

MacCready swore loudly, whipping his rifle up to fire at the offending creature, until he noticed that it was still on top of Nora and scratching at her face with its long, flailing arms. Nora was shouting, trying to get the thing off of her and protect herself from its swinging while simultaneously trying to stand again after being knocked down. MacCready couldn't fire at the thing while it was so close to her and flailing like that, he was scared he would miss. He would either have to get closer and pull it off, or risk it and take the shot. In the midst of trying to decide this quickly, MacCready saw about five more of the disgusting things sprinting towards them, and swore loudly again. In the back of his mind he could feel panic starting to form. This was a familiar scene. This was dangerous. Something bad was going to happen. The breath caught in his throat. He couldn't breathe. They were all coming at once. He couldn't get to Nora.

The panic intensified. He could feel himself trying to breathe but his lungs just wouldn't and they were closing in and it was still on top of her and he COULDN'T DO ANYTHING.

He heard the gurgles. The retches. He could feel the heat of the radiation from their damaged bodies. He was back in the tunnels. With Duncan. With Lucy… watching as they tore her apart in front of him and he couldn't move.

A gunshot went off behind him. He heard Nora yell. Heard movement behind him, but still he couldn't seem to catch his breath and his chest felt like it was on fire and he was sure he was going to die.

"MAC WAKE UP!" She yelled - pistol drawn and rapid firing as she shot multiple ghouls at once. The group was still charging, but the bullets she was shooting off were causing them to crash into each other, dodge, and move erratically to get away from the shots. It bought them some time, but there was no way she would be able to take down all of them before they were overtaken. With the brief reprieve as the creatures dove around, Nora grabbed MacCready by the scruff of his jacket and pulled, launching into a sprint to try and get some distance between them and the horde.

Mercifully, he complied, and she let go of his jacket as he fell into stride beside her.

Nora chanced a quick glance his way to see what was going on. She had never seen him act that way. He had gone stock still for minutes while that thing was wrestling her to the ground, it was unlike him. He didn't glance back, but she could tell by the way he was taking large gulps of air as they were running that he was already out of breath.

She slowed her pace slightly to give him time to catch his breath.

"Are you okay?"

MacCready couldn't look at her - focusing intently on what was in front of them. He had no idea what had happened back there, but whatever it was had scared the shit out of him. He remembered seeing that thing out of the corner of his eye, and then everything somehow went into slow motion, but seemed to be moving too fast for him to react. He felt his palms become sweaty, and then the flop sweat started on his brow. He remembered feeling his head get dizzy, and then it was hard to see. Watching that thing lunge at her had brought him back to that one moment in time he so desperately tried to forget, but one that just would not escape him. It terrified him.

"I…" He cleared his throat, suddenly there was a lump there that had gone unnoticed, "I don't know what happened."

Nora nodded her head quietly, slowing down her light jog until she stopped completely. MacCready had slowed up beside her within a few seconds. She couldn't hear the gurgles of the ghouls anymore, and was hoping that they had escaped for the time being.

"You nearly let that thing kill me back there."

"I didn't mean to… I-I just…" He breathed, still trying to catch his breath from the aftermath of the attack. Ferals weren't his favorite enemies, but most of the time he just found them to be a nuisance at best. Sure, they were disgusting and had a knack for dodging bullets and causing a few jump scares, but nine times out of ten they were easy to kill. He hadn't felt so shaken to the core like that in a long time. He paused. The last time he had felt that way was watching a similar scenario, except Lucy hadn't been as fortunate as Nora. His memories assaulted him quickly, images flashing behind his eyes even though he tried to shut them tightly.

She watched as he bent himself over, hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. Had they been running that long? Or was he still not over whatever it was that started all of this? He took a few deep breaths and then straightened himself. His breathing pattern seemed to be back after that, but Nora couldn't help but note the shine to his face and the paleness of his features. MacCready took off his hat to wipe at his brow with his sleeve. It wasn't a particularly hot day, but you would have thought it was with the way the sweat was beading at his brow. MacCready could feel droplets forming at the back of his neck, making him even more uncomfortable than he already was. Did he get scared that Nora was going to get torn apart? Was that what had caused the outburst?

"I-" MacCready started, but he never got to finish his sentence as the pair heard a loud explosion go off in the distance.

Nora's head swiveled to the direction of the noise. She heard a yell, and what sounded like laser pistols firing off into the distance.

"What the heck is that?" She questioned.

Another fainter explosion. This time, instead of hearing the sounds of energy weapons discharging, they were met with more screeches in the distance.

"More ferals." MacCready muttered, placing his hat back on his brow.

"We need to keep moving." Nora commanded, already taking her pistol out of its holster and making her way quickly towards the commotion. "Are you okay?" She asked again, hoping MacCready had enough time to pull himself back together.

"Right behind you."

They set off again, this time at a slower jog. Nora didn't want to further exhaust MacCready but she didn't want to be caught with her pants down again like last time. That sucker had gotten her good, taken her by surprise, and the impact of its body crashing into hers undoubtedly caused bruises. She didn't want to let MacCready know that her head was bothering her, didn't want to worry him. It was most likely from the impact of her body against the car when she was hit. Nora hoped it wasn't anything serious, but she could see the edges of her vision turning blurry. She could still move. She could still fight. She could shake it off. One of them had to remain focused. Nora didn't like feeling out of control, however now that the adrenaline she had been feeling during the fight was wearing off, she felt a distinct pain in the back of her skull. Not willing to waste any stimpacks at the moment, as she wasn't bleeding (that she was aware of) and they were a rare commodity, she pressed onwards.

Nora had led them down an alleyway and the noises of a fire fight continued to get louder. MacCready was close behind her with his rifle at the ready.

"What if it's the gunners?" MacCready questioned. It was a logical one, as they had seemed to be encountering more of the group as the days passed. MacCready couldn't help but wonder if it was related to what Winlock and Barnes had said all those weeks back, before Nora, but decided not to voice that just yet. If it was the gunners, then they very well could have been running into more trouble.

"And what if it's not?"

MacCready shook his head. While Nora had a point, MacCready wasn't the type to waste his life for anyone else. If it wasn't the gunners, then it could be settlers in trouble. Nora had a knack for finding the hopeless and downtrodden while they were on their travels. Nine times out of ten she would stop to help if she could, and usually it involved bullets being sprayed their way. If it was a group of settlers, then Nora would be the first to charge in to try and help. He couldn't tell if the reckless abandon with which she threw herself into things was admirable or crazy. Sure, she usually came out unscathed, but there was always that possibility that something could go wrong. They were very different in that sense. Nora would almost always go out of her way to help someone struggling, and perhaps that was a direct result of her being from another time. MacCready, however, preferred to stick to the shadows and keep to himself. Nothing good ever came out of him sticking his neck out for random people.

He watched as she weaved her way through more rubble. They had made it into the south of the college square. Nora's Pipboy had made an odd sound - it was picking up radio interference somewhere. That, or they were about to be ambushed by a ridiculous amount of enemies. Gunfire and the sounds of lasers continued to get louder and MacCready could smell the distinct scent of burning flesh. Whatever was going on did not bode well, and yet here he was charging into the unknown.

Nora pivoted abruptly from her jog, crouching down behind a few cars. MacCready followed shortly after, taking a knee right next to her as he peered out above the car through his sniper scope. She could still hear the distinct sounds of energy weapons firing erratically, and they had stumbled upon some type of large encampment. The yells she had heard earlier were now more distinct, and she could hear a deep voice shouting out orders from a few feet away. Maybe MacCready was right… maybe it was the gunners. If that was the case then they should probably just leave them to their own devices. If they were getting overrun by ghouls, who was she to interfere? Besides, in the grand scheme of things that would ultimately mean there would be less of them to attack the pair in the future. She peered down at her Pipboy - noting the vibrant red dancing across the screen. This could be a dangerous situation if she was wrong… but there was this feeling in her gut.

"See anything?" She asked him, glancing up from her Pipboy quickly.

"Lots of ferals. Lots of laser rifles."

Nora inhaled deeply. Maybe this was a bad idea….

But then she glanced down at her Pipboy and saw a station she had not previously noticed. It was a military frequency she had not seen before.

"What the heck…" She breathed, turning the dials of her device. Once she had the frequency selected, she played it, swiftly covering the speaker on the side of the wrist computer with her unused hand. It didn't offer much muffling, but between the screeching of the ghouls, rapid firing lasers, and other sounds of the commotion, she was sure it wouldn't give away their position now.

"...Our unit has sustained casualties…"

She was on her feet before she knew what she was doing, swiftly turning off the frequency and gripping the side of the car to peer out over it. Someone was in trouble.

"Mac, I think we should check it out."

MacCready didn't acknowledge her statement until his eye was removed from the scope. He looked up at her from his half crouched position.

"You're the boss."

She huffed. Nora didn't like that answer. It made… whatever this partnership is feel weird. She didn't consider herself MacCready's boss. She considered him a friend. Companion.

"Mac.. I.."

He stood to his full height, glancing down at her from behind their cover. "I know who you are as a person, Nora. If someone's in trouble, that's where you'll go."

She hummed and nodded, checking her pistol to make sure the safety was off. Nora did have a habit of throwing herself into danger to save others when she could. In the beginning, when she had first gotten out of the vault, it was a way to numb the pain. If she went in, and didn't come back out then she would be at peace. If she could help someone in the process, then at least she would've done something good in her final moments. Except that she had always come out relatively unscathed for the most part. Eventually, as time passed, Nora found herself getting even better at surviving, and instead of throwing herself into danger to end her suffering, she did it because she enjoyed it. Because she was good at it. Because she needed to do something good in this world to make things feel okay. This was no different.

"Watch my back this time, will you?" She teased, trying to lighten the mood before they threw themselves into danger.

"Uh-huh, just don't go hugging any ferals this time."

Nora threw herself out of cover, scanning the area as she went. The encampment was ahead of them slightly but they had a few cars and buildings to get passed before the entrance could be seen. Nora heard a snarl from her left and pivoted to face the ghoul. MacCready had already clocked in on it before her, as he was a few paces behind. Before Nora could raise her weapon the feral's head snapped back - MacCready had already nailed it.

"To make up for last time." He shouted over laser fire. Nora smirked and kept going. She assumed that was his way of apologizing for letting the other one get the slip on her. They would have to address whatever had happened eventually, but for now the banter was back.

Nora continued moving forward, trying to take cover as she did to inspect the surroundings. Laser fire could be seen just up ahead, and for the most part they hadn't run into any mobs of ferals yet. She assumed that whoever was firing was attracting all the attention. This was good, although dangerous. They could slip in relatively unseen. Peering around the building she was up against, Nora saw what she assumed was the entrance, as there were sandbags and a giant metal blockade with a weird symbol on the front.

Just as she was about to move forward, she could hear the sounds of rushing footsteps behind her. "Pack of ferals - move, Nora!" MacCready shouted from behind her. He watched as Nora sprinted into the metal blockade and hoped to God he wasn't running into something worse. He saw the Brotherhood symbol painted on the metal they were walking into and found himself groaning. In the time he had spent in the Capital Wasteland he had a few run-ins with the Brotherhood. He wasn't a fan of the Brotherhood at all, and hoped whoever was in there wasn't a threat.

Nora had made it into the clearing successfully, pistol trained on the head of one of the ferals as MacCready ran his way to her new position. She provided him ample cover fire, but the damn things were so crazed that some of her shots wound up going into the car a few feet away. She snarled and reloaded as MacCready fired off a few rounds into the horde. There were about ten of them coming their way. That, paired with the fact that she had just ran into an unknown camp, with no idea of who was behind her was also troubling. Nora quickly glanced around and saw a man in power armor, along with two other people squatting in front of the building they were in front of. The man glanced her way quickly, back towards the horde, and continued firing his laser rifle into the mass. Nora found herself sighing with relief that he hadn't pegged them as a threat, as she wasn't sure if MacCready and her could take someone in full power armor right now. For now, they were all on the same team to destroy the feral horde.

The laser rifle had done wonders and slaying the monsters, however for some reason they would not stop coming into the clearing. Nora and MacCready found themselves backing further and further into the clearing as wave after wave continued. So focused were they on the onslaught from the front, they did not notice that there were two additional entrances into their position. Unfortunately, the ferals took notice, and with the shouting and gunfire, more began to be lured into the area.

"On your left!" Shouted the man in power armor. Nora hesitated briefly from the new voice, and wound up not turning in time. Nora felt heat on her left side - the stranger had fired at the feral closing in on her, but it didn't go down. She pivoted again to try and face the new danger, and was struck by the creature's long arm before she could stop it. The feral had windmilled it's arms toward her, putting all of its body weight into the attack. Nora managed to dodge one arm, but the other came around swiftly knocking her in the head again. Her vision blurred further, she shook her head to rid herself of it but it wouldn't go away. She took her pistol and fired into the feral's sternum a few times, eventually getting the thing off of her. Two shots to the head in one day? This would not bode well for her, she thought.

MacCready was preoccupied with the forward facing entrance, firing off shots quickly into the heads and shoulders of those he could see. If he stopped shooting, they would most likely be overrun. "Nora!" He yelled, sparing a quick glance to see if she was okay. Once again, he didn't like the position he was dragged into. Nora had rushed them both carelessly into a large clearing with little to no cover. He preferred to stay behind Nora and shoot from a distance during their adventures, as much as he was able to. This was exactly the opposite of that, and he wasn't happy, especially since he wasn't the best at close combat. Firing from the hip as best as he could, MacCready took out the combat knife in his boot and started using that, as well as the butt of his rifle to hammer into the nearest feral. It wasn't his first choice, but you did what you had to in order to survive. He managed to beat the head of the ghoul in front of him with his rifle butt, the thing going down quickly after its head smashed in. The second one came at him with its arms outstretched. MacCready sliced the knife into its neck with his left hand, and pivoted to wind up his right arm with the rifle. He was able to smack the second one in the head with his rifle again, using the momentum from his body for more force. It went down as quickly as the first one had.

That was the last of the ones on his side, but he did a quick glance around to be sure. His fingers were already moving to effortlessly reload his rifle, now that he had time. Nora had managed to successfully kill the remaining straggler that had hit her, and MacCready assumed the Brotherhood soldier had taken care of the rest, as his laser rifle was shouldered and all was quiet. MacCready walked over to where Nora was, she was down on one knee and holding her head.

"You okay?" He asked, getting down to her level and inspecting for any blood.

"That's the second head shot today." She groaned.

MacCready made to help her stand up when the Brotherhood soldier decided to make himself known.

"We appreciate the assistance, civilians. But what's your business here?" The man questioned, still holding onto his laser rifle.

Nora got up on unsteady feet, her head was still pounding and she was having difficulty keeping her eyes open. "Heard.. Heard the radio.." She whispered, trying to shake her head to rid herself of the pain. This was entirely the wrong thing to do, as it only served to make things worse. The shaking threw off what little was left of her equilibrium, pain seared at the back of her neck. Nora groaned, her eyes rolling back to her head, and all at once she felt herself drop. MacCready watched as she started to go down, "S-shit….. Nora!" he shouted, as he managed to grab her around the waist with one of his arms. She hadn't gone down all the way, but her body was slack. Her head lolled to the side, MacCready swore again and adjusted himself so she was leaning more on his shoulder. She was a heck of a lot shorter than him, but was dead weight right now and it was awkward to hold onto her. Now he was stuck with a knocked out Nora taking up his firing arm, and a Brotherhood soldier staring down at him from the steps of an unknown building.

"Uh…." MacCready mumbled. He swore in his head. Great, just great, he thought. What the fuck was he going to do now?