Nora breathed a sigh of pure relief when Austin finally woke up from his coma. Hancock couldn't help noticing her pale and pained expression as she watched the young boy reunite with his adoptive mother. He averted his eyes before she caught him watching her; she was normally able to hide her pain pretty well. However, it was always the kids that re-opened the raw wounds of her past. It was the same when they'd helped that ghoul kid Billy find his parents. The same heart-wrenching, gut-rending, agonized longing had crossed her face.

As her friend, Hancock felt like a failure. He'd spent the past year with her, and everyone's favorite detective Nick Valentine, hunting down the Institute to get her the revenge she deserved as well as trying to rescue her son. Instead of a ten-year-old boy, they found a bitter, brainwashed, old man who barely cared a wit for the mother who'd crisscrossed the Commonwealth in search of him. He was there with Nora when she decided to take the child synth to Doctor Amari to have his memories wiped. He helped her find a good set of adoptive parents through the Railroad. He'd been there with her when she nearly gave herself alcohol poisoning. Hancock and Nick had taken turns to make sure she didn't aspirate her own vomit that night; all the while listening to her heartbroken sobs.

He was brought back to the present by several cheers from the onlookers by the door of the clinic. He wasn't sure when they'd shown up, but somehow it seemed like the entirety of Vault 81 knew within a few minutes that Austin was alive because of Nora's bravery. The overseer even gave her an honorary home in the vault and so many people came up to her with awed looks or amazed compliments. Hell, the resident chem head even pledged to get clean because she agreed to clean up the mess he started. He knew Nora hadn't been looking for fans, but now she had a whole vault full of admirers. While she mostly remained strictly polite with the adoring adults, she was sweeter with the children. She even agreed to tell a few stories to the kids while they were in class.

They came out of the classroom and Nora was obviously looking forward to a hot bath, and then sleeping in an actual bed for once. Except there was one problem; a young woman was standing in the hallway. She snapped to attention at their approach and a nervous smile stretched across her face. "H-hi, my name's Betty Stillwater. My grandparents run the cafeteria…um…they told me all about what you did for Austin and I wanted to say…you know…thanks." She bit her lip and looked down at her shoes.

Nora, in an effort to remain polite when all she wanted to really do was tell the girl to go away, put on a tiny smile. "I'm just happy Austin is going to be fine. It was nice to meet you, Betty." She made to turn away.

The young lady straightened up her shoulders and reached out in Nora's direction. "Wait!" She blushed when she realized that she'd accidentally yelled at Nora. "I…I mean, please wait. You're from the surface and I've always wanted to see what it's like up there." She rushed through an explanation of how she'd begged and begged her grandparents to let her go ever since she'd turned eighteen, but they had always refused. "They always said 'no'…until today." She took in a deep breath. "They said that if you agreed to take me with you…well, they said they trust you more than any old caravan hand and if I could convince you to take me with you-"

Nora interrupted her with a sigh. "I'm sorry, sweetie, but…" She looked Betty up and down with a critical eye. Betty was scrawny; only about five feet tall with a very slight build and almost no muscle. Her absurdly wild, chestnut-brown hair was held out of her face by two thin side braids that met at the back of her head. Her hands were tiny and weren't calloused by hard work or the rough grip of a gun. Nora doubted the girl had ever even seen a gun in person, much less held one, and she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Look, I don't want to hurt your feelings, but I've got a lot on my plate right now. I just met someone who has already asked me to take her along. She doesn't have any combat experience, either, and I can't watch your back, her back, and my own all at the same time."

Betty shook her head. "I understand! I promise that I absolutely do! J-just hear me out, okay?" She pulled out a decent sized pouch of caps. "I've saved up enough caps to buy myself a gun and plenty of ammo from Cricket. I know she's camped outside the vault right now. All I'm asking is that you just walk with me until we're out of sight of the vault and then I'll leave you alone, I promise!"

Nora tilted her head to the side. "Why do you want to leave so badly? It's really dangerous out there, honestly, you're so much better off staying put."

Betty's mouth snapped shut, she averted her gaze, and several seconds passed before she replied. "It's not important." She rubbed her eyes and glared at the floor. "Please, this is my one chance. I promise I won't be a problem. You don't even have to see me again after we leave." She lifted her eyes up from the floor and pinned Nora with a pleading look. "I'm not totally useless. I've read tons of Guns and Bullets magazines and every book on survival that I could afford. I know how to build myself a shelter and how to boil water to clean it. I've asked every caravan to describe the edible plants they know of and how to recognize radiation poisoning. I have a small stockpile of Rad-X, Rad-Away, and a handful of stimpacks. I know how to properly clean and re-assemble most types of guns and I've memorized which ammo types go with which guns."

"Reading about something is easy." Nora tried to explain gently. "Applying what you know about the functionality of a gun is not going to be easy when you get into your first gunfight. Have you ever even held a gun before?" Betty remained silent. "That's exactly what I mean." The ex-lawyer sighed heavily again. "Try to see it from my point of view, what happens when I drop by here next time and I have to explain that I have no idea where the hell you've gone off to? Your grandparents are going to think you're dead and what do you think that will do to them?"

Hancock, who had been observing the conversation with mild interest, spoke up. "She can come with me." In his mind, he was helping his friend out. She'd already agreed to take the Miss Nanny bot with her and it was dangerous to travel around the Commonwealth in groups larger than two. Nora caught his eye. "I need to head back to Goodneighbor anyway." He smirked. "Mayoral duties and crap like that tend to pile up after a while. We'll hit the road first thing tomorrow as one big group and then split up after we're outta sight."

Nora crossed her arms. "Are you sure?"

He shrugged. "Wouldn't have offered if I weren't, Sunshine." He arched a non-existent eyebrow at Betty. "Unless she has a problem travellin' with a ghoul."

Betty shook her head vigorously. "No, no! Of course not, I…mean…it's perfectly fine with me." Her eyes were filled with hope and she smiled weakly up at him. "You seem alright. I'm sorry, but I didn't catch your name?"

He extended his hand out and was surprised that she managed to give him a decently firm handshake; he'd been expecting a limp-wristed greeting from her frail hands. "Call me Hancock, sweetheart." He winked at her to put her at ease, but she merely froze and blushed hard before quickly dropping his hand.

"I…I…know I said my name's Betty, but I really hate my name." She confessed to them both. "Can you please call me Bet instead? It's what my dad used to call me." The memory brought a small smile back to her face.

"Sure thing, but it's getting late." Hancock smoothly maneuvered the conversation to an end. "We've kinda had a long day. We'll meet ya tomorrow at the vault door at…ten?" He glanced over at Nora for confirmation and she nodded. "Right, we'll meet ya at ten tomorrow morning."

The next day couldn't come soon enough for Bet. She was there twenty minutes early with a huge pack of supplies. Hancock had to bite back a laugh when he saw her; she looked like a turtle he'd seen in a pre-War book back when he was a kid. She waddled up to them with a wide, eager grin and one could practically feel the energy rolling off of her. Nora stopped herself from letting a dismayed groan escape her throat. She'd hoped their tag-along would lose heart and not show up, but here she was.

"Thanks so much." She said graciously to her new friends. Her grandparents appeared behind her and she hugged them both. "I love you." Her eyes were wet when she drew back. Her grandfather grasped her grandmother's hand tightly as they waved goodbye.

They met with Cricket almost immediately because she was quite literally kneeling just outside the entrance of Vault 81. Her glazed eyes went wild as Bet approached her cautiously. "You…you were asking about a gun last week, weren't ya?" She spoke quickly and dug into her pack. "I've got something special for ya…" She said in a sing-song voice. She pulled out a .10mm pistol with a silencer. "It's modded for a higher damage output despite the lessened range due to the silencer. It's a great beginner's gun…so small and adorable…" She caressed the metal of the barrel lovingly. "Only 110 caps! It's practically a steal!"

An uneasy expression crossed Bet's features. That was a fifth of her entire life savings! Plus, she'd still have to buy bullets, too. "Is there anything…cheaper?"

Cricket sensed that she was losing the sale and immediately jumped into action. "Not so fast, sweetie! I'll sweeten the deal with a free combat knife! Oh, and a discount on the bullets! C'mon, can't you hear her calling out to you?" She petted the gun in her hands with a broad smile.

Bet reluctantly reached for her money pouch made of mole rat hide and emptied out the amount, plus an extra 50 for 100 bullets, into Cricket's outstretched palm. She took the gun and attached the holster to her belt. The bullets went into her pocket, while the knife made its home in her right combat boot. As they walked away, she pulled the gun out to examine it. "How much you wanna bet she has a gun fetish?" She attempted to joke.

Nora rolled her eyes and ignored the comment. "Be careful with that thing." She warned her. "I don't feel like digging a bullet out of your leg."

The four walked in silence; the only noise was the metallic clicks and whirrs coming from Curie. It wasn't until the road diverged that the group paused. Hancock clapped Nora on the shoulder. "End of the line, I guess." He pulled out a cigarette from within his coat and lit it up. "You stay cool, Sunshine."

She nodded solemnly and mumbled under her breath. "Don't let her get you killed."

He grinned widely. "Aw, you know me better than that." He lowered his voice to be sure that only she could hear him. "Also, try to have a little more faith in the girl. Sure, she's green, but you weren't even this short with Travis. Is somethin' buggin' ya?"

She ran a hand irritably through her short, black curls. "I dunno, she's just a kid. She's got no business wandering around out here. She's liable to get herself killed." Her shoulders slumped with the weight of her burden. "I don't want to be responsible for that." She whispered.

He squeezed her shoulder lightly. "Hey, don't worry. I'll show 'er the ropes. We'll be fine; the worst between here and Goodneighbor are a couple of wild mutts, mole rats, and mirelurks. I'll send ya a letter with the next caravan that passes through town, yeah?" She nodded and sighed as he put out his smoke with the heel of his boot. "Keep smilin', Sunshine. It makes the world a bit brighter." He tipped his tri-corn at Curie before setting off at a confident pace.

Bet struggled to keep up with his long strides; a single step for him was two steps for her. She wasn't exactly sure what to say to fill the awkward silence between them. "So, how long have you two been together?"

He cast an amused glance at her. "Really? That's the first thing yer gonna ask me? You don't ask how I became a ghoul or why I'm dressed up like a pirate."

She furrowed her brow in confusion. "That would be rude."

He chuckled at that. "Yeah, I guess it would. To answer yer question, we aren't a thing. We're just really good friends. What about you?" He pulled out his mentats tin and popped a grape one in his mouth. "You got a man? Or a girl?"

She scratched the back of her neck uncomfortably. "I used to. He…he decided that I wasn't what he wanted." She pushed her hands into her pockets and her head drooped a little.

"Huh, sorry about that, sister." He noticed her newly dour mood. "I'm guessin' that's why ya wanted outta the vault quick, fast, an' in a hurry?" Her barely perceptible nod confirmed his suspicions. He nudged her arm with the tin in hand. "Somethin' to lighten the day?"

She shook her head. "That's nice of you, but I can't. I'm allergic to chems." Her eyes were still sad, but he found an aspect of conversation to steer her away from the mood he'd accidentally put her in.

"No kiddin'? All of 'em?" He tucked the tin back into his coat pocket. "Rad-X and Rad-Away, too?" She nodded with a sheepish air. "Stimpacks?" She nodded again and he sucked in a breath through his teeth. "Damn, how do ya plan on survivin' out here?"

"I...wasn't." Her reply nearly stopped him in his tracks.

"What?" He said sharply. Did she really mean what he thought she meant?

She quickly backtracked. "I wasn't just going to give up. I wanted to die out here…fighting. I was dying in the vault, too…it was just so much slower. Every time I saw him…" She crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm not a strong person; physically or emotionally, but I wanted to do something to prove I can do things." She searched for the right words to explain it. "I want to feel proud about myself."

He scoffed to himself; figures. Of course the person Nora had an interest in keep alive would have a death wish. "So why'd ya bring the chems if ya can't take 'em?"

She smiled ruefully. "I'm not deathly allergic. I break out in hives, sometimes my face gets puffy, and my throat gets tight. The doctor said that if I take too much at the wrong time…I could possibly have a stronger reaction." She kicked a pebble across the road and watched it ricochet off of a broken guardrail. "I'm going to give surviving out here an honest go, but I'm not too upset by the idea of dying."

He shrugged. "That's your prerogative, babe. No judgment from me, but…" He shifted a little to face her while they walked. "Ya want my opinion?"

"Um…sure." She said hesitantly.

He stared her straight in the eye; coal-black meeting pine-green. "Fuck 'im. You ain't good enough for him? Find someone else. There's always someone else, trust me. I mean, I still get a piece of ass now and again, and look at me!" He gestured to himself with a self-deprecating grin. "I look like a slab of old, half-chewed jerky. It's all in the style, babe. Ya talk the talk and ya walk the walk…you'll have guys queuing up to have a chance with ya."

She frowned. "You shouldn't talk like that about yourself."

He raised an eyebrow. "You shouldn't be 'okay with dying'. You're only…wait, how old are you again?"

She gave him a half-hearted smile. "Would you believe I'm 25?" Her cousins had always called her a runt and teased her about having a baby-face.

"No, no, I wouldn't." He peered closely at her. "Coulda swore you were barely nineteen. Hell, you're older than Nora by a year." Technically speaking, of course, since one should take into consideration that Nora was actually pushing 285.

She focused her eyes on the ground. "Yeah, I'm kind of a runt. It's the height and the baby-face." She chanced a glance back at him. "It's harder to tell for you…ghouls are kind of…ageless, right?"

He scuffed his boots along the broken concrete. "Somethin' like that, but I'm only 36." He stretched in the sun like a cat, his thin body arching up, his bones cracked a bit and he laughed. "Man, sayin' it out loud makes me feel old." All of a sudden, the sound of twigs breaking caught his attention and he swung out an arm to stop her.

"Hancock?" He immediately shushed her and listened hard. He motioned for her to follow him off the road and into the brush. Her shaking hand went to her gun, but she waited to pull it out until he had ascertained the threat.

Hancock squinted into the distance and strained his hearing. It sounded like humans stomping around; probably raiders, ferals or scavvers. Hopefully, it wasn't ferals. He sniffed the air because one could usually smell a feral before one managed to see it. The sounds were clearer now; they were closer and it was definitely humans.

"-Swear I heard voices, Zain. Could it be a caravan?" Hancock's eyes narrowed to slits. He despised raiders. He slipped his gun off his back, loaded, and cocked it. Following his lead, Bet hastily loaded up a clip into her pistol.

"Shuddup, didya hear that?" Two burly raiders plodded up the hill and within sight of their hiding spot. The pair of goons was packing pipe pistols. Above them, a crow took flight from a branch and the noise spooked one and he let off a shot.

The gruffer of the two grabbed the other's shoulder and shook him. "Damn it, Pete! You nearly took my head off!" He snarled. He stared hard straight ahead. "Hey! We know yer out there! Come out and we'll take it easy on ya! Just give us yer shit and we'll let ya live."

Hancock knew he could manage a couple of lousy raiders by himself, but Bet was a different story. She was pale as a ghost and her hands were shaking. He turned his attention back to the raider scouts. She wasn't ready. "I'll make a distraction and you take off." He murmured to her.

"I'm not leaving you." She hissed back.

"I can handle it." He assured her calmly. He swung himself over the destroyed guardrail and confronted the pair. "How's it goin'?" He quipped as he bashed the bigger one, Zain, in the face with the butt of his gun. He hooked his foot behind the guy's leg to trip him and unloaded both shots into the raider's body.

He'd underestimated how close the other raider was to him and, before he had time to jump out of the way, the raider tackled him and had his pipe pistol right in Hancock's face. A quiet series of pops rang through the air and, suddenly, the raider was howling in pain and clutching at his shoulder. It gave Hancock the opportunity he needed to shove the bastard off him and re-load. He finished the raider off with a shell to the face. He turned on his heel to see her standing there, pale and sweating, and looking like she was about to puke.

"Hey, look who's the hero?" He grinned casually, as if he had not almost died. "Nice shot, babe." She was still not moving, but the gun dropped from her hand. She stared, wide-eyed at the bodies, and then promptly fainted. Hancock clicked his tongue. "Well, shit."

When she regained consciousness a few minutes later, she woke up with a hell of a headache. She'd smacked her head off the broken concrete when she hit the ground. Everything was a little blurry at first, but that cleared up after she had blinked a few times. She groaned as a particularly harsh throb of pain made her stomach roll. "Wha…what…happened?"

Hancock had placed her back in the bushes and was patting her head carefully with a piece of wet cloth. "You fainted." He said with a teasing glint in his black eyes. "After it took ya about four shots to hit the raider who had me pinned, but, hey, I'm still alive." She tried to sit up, but he firmly pushed her back down. "No dice, sweetheart. Pretty sure you've got a concussion. We've got two choices; use a stimpack or wait here until you can walk."

"Stimpack." She mumbled. If only her stomach would stop trying to push its way up her throat, maybe she could concentrate better.

He pulled a stimpack from her pack, but stopped to give her a chance to change her mind. "You sure?" She nodded wearily and he pushed the thick needle into her thigh without another moment of hesitation. She gasped at the slight pain and almost fell back. He had to catch her to keep her from hitting her head again.

She closed her eyes and he thought she might have fallen unconscious again. When she finally opened her eyes again she no longer seemed dazed. She asked him for a can of purified water, which he happily obliged, and she chugged the whole thing. A couple of minutes later and Hancock could see red welts appearing on her skin. They dotted the backs of her hands and ran all the way up to her shoulders. The small exposed area of her neck above the collar of her shirt was also dotted with the cherry-red marks. She was having a little trouble breathing, but she was able to get back on her feet. She reached for her pack, but he snatched it up before she had the chance.

They set off again, but now it was nearing sunset and they were still hours away from Goodneighbor. Hancock reached into his pocket and pushed a handful of caps into her hands. "I got it off the guy you shot." He told her. "Ya earned it."

She smiled at him and thanked him as she placed the money in her pouch. She couldn't believe she'd actually shot someone. She snuck a glance over at Hancock and wondered how many people he'd had to shoot in his lifetime. He seemed pretty comfortable with defending himself and she was reminded of the ease with which he'd taken down the bigger raider. That raider must have outweighed him by a good two hundred pounds, but Hancock had him down and out in the blink of an eye. "Hancock?"

"Eh?" He shifted the heavy pack on his back so he could see her.

She chewed the corner of her lip anxiously. "Have you killed a lot of people?"

"Depends." He replied with nonchalance in his tone.

"On what?" She asked.

"Your definition of 'a lot'. Some would say ten people is a lot, but others would say it's more like fifty plus is a lot."

"Oh…um…more than fifty?" She decided that halfway to a hundred was quite a lot.

"I guess I've killed a lot of people, then." He chuckled darkly to himself. Funny, he'd never really enjoyed killing all that much. It was just that he tended to run into a massive number of assholes who deserved it and he was more than willing to kill anyone who deserved it. He realized that she was staring at him in horror. Did she think he was a monster?

"I…I'm sorry you had to kill so much. It must be awful." She touched the grip of her gun. "I didn't even really kill that guy back there, but before I fainted I felt so terrible because I had just hurt another person-"

"Raiders aren't people." He growled back. "They enjoy killing and hurting people. They bully innocent people who can't or won't defend themselves. They're disgusting." He realized that she'd only been trying to sympathize and there'd been no need to snap at her. "Sorry."

She fiddled with the buckle on her holster. "It's okay." She looked up at the stars to take her mind off the unsettling topic. She'd never seen the stars before and the beauty of the night sky took her breath away. It was like someone had taken a pin and pricked tiny holes in random patterns on a giant, black, blanket. It was smeared with color; blues, oranges, whites, and pinks. "I never thought it would be so beautiful." She said to herself. She'd always been taught that the outside world was drab, dirty, and undeniably ugly. Yet, this was the most amazing sight she had ever witnessed. The scent of the air was fresh and clean. The trees, although they were mostly dead, made for a detailed skyline. If she tried hard she could even see tiny shapes and faces in the bark and branches.

He watched her take in the sky as she walked and couldn't restrain a chortle when she stumbled over a rock because her eyes were locked on the stars. The second time she stumbled he had to catch her by her belt before she face-planted. "Whoa, be careful." He said as he steadied her.

She blushed and stammered out her thanks. A thought occurred to her out of the blue and she blurted it out to him. "What am I going to do once we get to Goodneighbor?" She looked at him with suddenly anxious eyes. "I don't really have any marketable talents…how will I get a job?" She appeared mortified. "I don't have enough caps to make it more than a couple of months! I-"

"You'll be fine." He reassured her. "You can do odd jobs for me or KLE-0 or Daisy or even Charlie."

"Where will I live?" She inquired worriedly. "I can't afford to rent a room every day."

He'd never met someone who was strung tighter than this poor young woman in his entire life. "Relax, babe. If you can't afford the Rexford, you can couch-surf at my place…well, actually there is one place open." He mentioned as an afterthought. "It used to belong to some asshole who thought he could pull shit in my town, but he's…gone." He didn't think it'd be wise to tell her the story just yet, maybe he'd leave that to Nora. "Anyway, it's pretty cheap to buy. It's only 2,000 caps."

"I…I'd hate to impose." She couldn't look at him because of the sheer weight of embarrassment. She'd never even witnessed that many caps exchanging hands before and for him to refer to that price as cheap? She began to wonder who exactly she was traveling with. She'd already decided that she couldn't allow him to baby her; she would sooner buy a sleeping bag or a mattress and sleep in some gosh-forsaken alley before she made herself a nuisance to this man.