The lazy winter sun had just peeked over the horizon as she marched out the fortified gates of Sanctuary and across the wooden bridge. Mac grumbled behind her, struggling as he dragged his heavy bag behind him - weighed down with a slew of additional 2mm rounds and frag mines she'd forced him to pack. She veered south off the road and into the frozen tundra.

"Keep up. Danse is meeting us in just a few minutes."

"Yeah, yeah." He hoisted the heavy bag fully onto his back and took a few quick steps to catch up. "Can you remind me again why this is a good idea?"

"I don't think anyone ever said it was a good idea. But I can't sit in Sanctuary another second. I'm going crazy cooped up."

"I know, but the boys—"

"Will be fine. Auntie Piper's their favorite, after all." She flashed him a grin.

"Yeah, because she lets them do whatever they want."

"Preston'll lay down the law, don't worry."

"You're four months pregnant - is now really the best time to be hunting for a cliff to leap off of?"

"We're just helping out Nick, don't be so dramatic."

"Helping out Nick implies he asked you to be there. You just badgered poor Ellie until she gave up where he'd gone."

"He might not want to admit that he needs our help, but he does."

"Remember how we used to think about what Nick would say before we did something stupid?"

She leveled a flat look at him. He'd meant it as a warning, but all it did was prove her point. "Right, then did we did it anyway."

He sighed. "You know, there's probably a reason he didn't ask for your help - like he knows it's dangerous and doesn't want you getting hurt?"

"He's just stubborn."

"Yeah, like someone else I know."

"You don't have to come, you know. You can stay with Shaun and Duncan and—"

"Hilarious, Cryo," he scoffed. "Truly hilarious."

"Look," she said, stopping in her tracks to turn and face him. She pointed to her stomach. "Tom modified this ridiculous armored coat so I could both wear it and walk. And this kid survived exposure to a reactor core, and when my heart stopped when I thought you were gonna die, and he's gonna have far worse to deal with once he's out in the shit with us. This is just more practice. It's like prenatal training."

Mac bit his lip and gave her a dreamy look. "You really think it's a he?"

She rolled her eyes. "We're gonna go help Nick investigate this whole missing girl thing, then come right back. It's going to be just fine."

She turned back south and continued walking. Mac quickly fell in behind her.

"What exactly about your time on this earth indicates that things ever turn out 'just fine'?" he asked.

"So cynical, Mac, Jesus."

"I'm just worried. We've never been this far north. Who knows what we'll encounter up there?"

"Slaying radioactive beasts here, or a couple hundred miles north - what's the difference?"

"You saw that rad chicken," he grumbled. "There can be a major difference."

"Exactly. We survived two treks to the Capital Wasteland, and that was much farther. Plus, Danse is going to drop us off right on the island." She swooped her hand toward him and made the buzzing Vertibird noise she knew would bring a grin to his face, despite how much he tried to fight it. "We won't even have to turn our safeties off until we're already there."

Mac's smile faded and he sighed. "I know you're feeling restless, it's not like I don't want you to be happy. I know the adage - I'm not a masochist."

She glared at him over her shoulder. "What are you talking about?"

"You know - happy wife, happy life?"

She stopped and gaped at him, glaring. "I'm sorry?"

"I just mean - I mean, I know we're not—"

"Yeah - we're not. Because last I checked, putting a human in someone didn't give you any claim over them."

The words had hardly left her mouth before she was wracked with guilt over them. Her stomach churned as Mac's face turned crimson. He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked down.

She knew it was just raging hormones whipping her into a frenzy, and she wished she could control it better. Mac hadn't done anything wrong, and didn't deserve that kind of treatment. He chewed his lip and stared at his boots.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly, "You know I don't mean that. I'm just… I can't stay cooped up in Sanctuary for five more months. I have to do something, anything. Feel useful, like I'm accomplishing something. I can't just sit around."

"I know," he said. "That's what I love about you."

He pulled his hands out of his pockets and a small, silver band glinted in the morning sun as he rolled it between his thumb and forefinger.

Her cheeks went red-hot. "Mac, what the fu—?"

"Just shut up, Cryo, ok?" he said, leveling a hard, serious stare at her.

She shut up.

"Listen," he began. He took her hands in his and looked down at them as he spoke. "I wanted to do this in Sanctuary - there was a whole… well, whatever, it doesn't matter. I just… I gotta say some shi—… stuff… ok?"

"Ok."

"I know it's too soon, and too late. It's all messy and in the wrong order, it always has been with us. And I know we're both still broken, but… that's just circumstance." He raised his look and met her eye, his grey-blue eyes light, yet grave. "Loving you is both the easiest and the hardest thing I've ever done. I didn't know what it was like to want to live until I met you. To have something to fight for, that I wanted to fight for, that needed me back. With Duncan, I'd… I'd passed him off."

"You didn't—"

"I did," he said firmly, nodding once. "I made him someone else's responsibility. I didn't have the guts to make him my own until I met you. I saw you risking everything to get your responsibility back, while I shoved mine aside and ignored it. And I didn't realize how incomplete I'd been until I had him again. You gave me my son back, and I can never thank you enough for that."

He leaned forward and kissed her forehead, lips brushing against her as he spoke in a low rumble. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"I know it's cheesy," he said, leaning back to look her in the eye again, "but you really do make me a better person. I learned who I want to be - and how to be it - and I'm still learning, but I hope I can live long enough to deserve you."

"You already do, Mac," she assured, but her voice came out weak and breathy. Her hormones had caused her to do a full one-eighty, and she was struggling to keep the wetness from her eyes.

"You and I… we're perfect." He laid a hand on the thick padding of the armored coat on her stomach. "And this… this is gonna be perfect, too. And even if you want to say no, that's fine, because I don't need anything to know how I feel about you, and I don't need to prove it to anyone but you. And regardless of your answer, I promise, every day, to strive to earn that. I'm all in, always have been, always will be. You're it for me."

He looked down at his hands again, turning the ring over in his fingers.

"So, I know we talked about this once before… In this new world, there's no piece of paper or clergyman or boat captain or whatever. It's just what you make it, and I know I'll never be worthy of it, but I promise I'll never stop striving to be."

He looked at her expectantly, and she raised her eyebrows. "Is there a question in there?"

He scoffed and his cheeks reddened even more as he refocused on his hands and the ring. "Dam—… yes. Sorry. Cryo, will you, uh… marry me?"

She waited for a few heavy moments until he raised his worried eyes to look at her, unblinking.

"Yeah," she said.

"Yeah?" His eyebrows raised.

"Yeah."

He pulled her into him and kissed her deeply. He was fighting back a beaming grin as he broke away. He took her hand and pulled off her glove before sliding on the ring.

"Tell me you got this off some corpse somewhere," she said.

Mac let out an effusive laugh. "Uh, it's new, actually. Well… as new as these things get these days. I took it out of a case at Fallon's."

"Aw, big spender."

He grinned. "You know me."

"Wait - Fallon's? When?"

"When we cleared out those super mutants and slept in that awesome pillow-room."

"Oh, right. We were going to live there forever."

"That didn't really work out, I guess."

"Too bad." She raised her eyebrows. "Wait that was like… eight months ago. That was some foresight."

"Only eight months?" He swept a strand of her hair out of her face and pressed his forehead to hers. "I coulda got it on day one."

She grinned. "Oh, very smooth."

"I know, right?" he said, then kissed her forehead. "You can look forward to a lifetime of MacCready smoothness."

"I can't wait." She kissed him again, then pulled away just far enough to say, "If you think this is gonna convince me to stay, you've lost your mind."

He flashed a sheepish grin. "Worth a shot."

She gave him a playful shove, then grabbed him by the collar and dragged him behind her as she continued her march south.