I apologize for taking such a long holiday break. Also, I am going to add a warning for this chapter because the reader should expect; a small amount of sexually-driven conversation, implied intercourse, and mentions of severe injury/death. Now, please feel free to enjoy the story.

Goodneighbor was in much the same state they'd left it in; a little dusty and rough around the edges, but still a close-knit community of outcasts. John was a bit put-out that Jack had still not woken up, but he had other, more personal matters to attend to.

He ushered Bet upstairs with Fahre not far behind. Fahre didn't appear to feel up to talking; her fatigue was smeared across her face, probably along with some long-dried flecks of Deluca's blood. To be honest, Hancock had to admit that all three of them were definitely worse for the wear. He, too, had the odd splotch of blood and, under that, his skin itched with the grainy sensation of dried perspiration. He wasn't entirely convinced that Bet had overworked herself; she had dark, heavy bags under her eyes, which were dull with exhaustion.

He shut the door to his lounge once Fahrenheit had left, locked it, and flopped down on the couch. "You and I need to talk." He stated bluntly as he slipped a single Mentat into his mouth. His typically took them three at a time, but he still, even after the encouragement, couldn't bring himself to take more around her. He was even debating giving up Jet entirely now that Deluca was permanently out of the picture. He didn't want her to mentally associate him with Bobby in the slightest of ways.

"John, about what I said-" She began hesitantly.

He held up a hand and she stopped. "Nope, just hear me out first, 'kay? Was it just a heat-of-the-moment kind of thing or is that honestly how you feel?"

She bit her lip. "It's true, John. I'm sorry," She got up. "Maybe I mistook your friendship and kindness for something else and that's my fault. I didn't mean to embarrass you. I…I can just go."

He stared at her in absolute wonder and laughed to himself. "Goddamn it, woman, come here." He opened his arms wide to her. "Why the fuck would I be embarrassed? A gorgeous, badass woman tells her ex-asshole to go fuck himself because she wants me and I'm supposed to be embarrassed?"

She still hesitated. "I'm not badass." She protested.

He rolled his eyes. "Yes, you fuckin' are and you're the most goddamned beautiful woman I've ever seen. Now, get over here and kiss me or I'm going to go over there and kiss you." She made no move to close the distance, so he sighed and ran his hand under his tricorn. "Maybe I didn't make myself clear, sweetness." He wanted to say the words and badly, but they stuck to the roof of his mouth. Clearly, the Mentat hadn't started pulling its weight in the conversation yet. "It's you and me." He gestured back and forth between them. "This is all that matters and the rest of the world can go fuck itself for all I care." His mouth felt like it was stuffed full of cotton, so full that he could only work his jaw around nonsensical noise. He begged her with his eyes to understand what he couldn't say, but her eyes were guarded and sad.

"John, maybe we shouldn't do this." She took a step back and her words stabbed through him. "We're amazing together as friends. I…I don't want to ruin that. I love you more than I've thought I could ever bring myself to love anyone. I want you more than anything or anyone, but I'm…just…" She was a coward, she knew that to the depths of her being. She knew John would never intentionally hurt her, but she was still quite terrified to take the plunge. She was petrified of failure. She was afraid to fail him, of all people, by forcing him to deal with her problems and her baggage. Her scars felt like they were lead weights burned into her skin that cursed her to shuffle uncomfortably through life. She didn't want him to feel obligated to share that burden.

"It's not me, it's you?" He managed a conniving grin, that looked more than a little wild and frantic. "Don't try to feed me that bullshit now, babe. If you didn't want this, I'd back off, but now I know I've just gotta sell it." He let a foreboding chuckle rumble through his chest. He stepped forward to negate her previous retreat. "I've spent my life running. I've got no problem running after you, if I have to." He smirked. "You wouldn't catch me complainin' about the view."

How could she possibly say something to counter that? "John, are you sure?" She hoped he was, but she wanted him to know that he had a way out. "I don't want to trap you."

"I've never felt freer." He snagged her by the waist and pulled her flush with him. "Gimme a chance, doll. I'm only askin' for tonight, but I promise I'll make ya beg for forever." And then he suddenly blinked and grinned. "Damn, I'll have to ask what the hell Fahre put in my last batch of Mentats because I swear I've never pulled a line like that before."

"It was pretty smooth, even for you." She agreed with a small smile. "So, just one night?"

He winked. "Yeah, no strings attached." His smirk turned devilish. "Unless, you're into the bondage thing." He pressed his hips lightly against hers. She tested her own limits by shyly copying his movement, which pulled an appreciative noise from his lips. "Fuck, are you lookin' to drive me feral?"

She backed away, embarrassed. "Sorry, should I stop?"

"Aw, shit." He pulled her to him again. "I didn't mean it that way, doll. It's just that we need to save the good stuff for when this whole thing with Jack blows over. Though, I've gotta admit I've been havin' more than my fair share of impure thoughts lately." His eyes raked over her body and an evil grin appeared. He smoothly undid the first three buttons of her shirt so that a tiny bit of cleavage was showing. He gently pulled out the hairband that was securing her ponytail so that her now moderately long hair fell to her shoulders in curly-cues. She'd allowed it to grow out in the months since leaving the vault. He picked up a particularly wild curl and let it run through his fingers. Without warning, he plunged both of his hands into the mass of curls. He seemed fascinated as he massaged her scalp. The texture of his fingers combing through her hair was pleasurable, but this seemed to be more for him than her. His breath was hot on her neck. "Some of those impure thoughts involve these cute little curls of yours."

"Oh, um.." She honestly couldn't think of what to say. She'd always found dirty talk a bit mortifying and the thought of being expected to be sexy back was slightly intimidating. However, she would do almost anything to appease John."What other thoughts did you have?" She did her best imitation of a coy pin-up girl's expression, which was remarkably awful.

He was nuzzling her neck now. "Just imaginin' how cute they'd look framing your face with my cum all over your lips."

She squeaked a little and hid her reddened face by tilting it away from his. "That's…erm…that sounds…messy. I…I mean, oh god, I don't know what I mean." She sighed while he had a laugh at her truly inept attempt. Perhaps, it was best to forgo the dirty talk.

He nipped a little just under her jaw. "You're too cute, stop it." He withdrew a little and smiled at her. He wasn't being wildly charismatic or mischievous; this smile was so sweet and genuine that it took her breath away. He truly looked content and happy simply to be there with her. There was a softness in his pitch-black eyes that was made from a heart-pounding mix of pent-up desire and deep-seated joy. One hand stayed wrapped in her hair while the other moved to her cheek. His thumb traced her lips and she kissed it. His eyes closed and he slowly met her lips. It was gentle and chaste, but held promise. He ended it with a flick of his tongue from her bottom lip to her upper lip. He made a frustrated growl deep in his throat, swung her around, and then pushed her up against the wall. "Thought I told ya to stop that."

She looked at him with surprise. "I'm not doing anything. I have no idea what you're talking about." This earned her a rather sharp pinch to the ass. "What was that you said about waiting until after-"

"You know, I really think that should go in the 'fuck it' bucket at this point." He purred in her ear.

The next morning, they were both woken abruptly by Fahrenheit pounding loudly at the door. Hancock groaned and opened one eye lazily. "Hold on, hold on!" Once they were both decent, he speedily walked to the door. Fahrenheit stepped into the room with an air of urgency and got right to the point of her visit. "Jack woke up."

Hancock's expression of drowsy irritation disappeared and the three of them soon found themselves taking the circular stairs two at a time. Bet, as per usual, stumbled several times, but they managed to make it to Amari's lab in decent time. Amari was waiting by the door anxiously and her face was pale, yet her mouth was set in a willful and determined line. She put a hand out to stop them entering the room. "He's been spouting nonsense and gibberish for the past half hour. Whatever happened to him has possibly shattered his mind." She warned gravely.

"NO!" Bet jumped as a familiar voice screamed shrilly from within the laboratory. "NO! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! HE'LL COME FOR US ALL! HE'LL KILL US ALL!"

Amari sighed. "You see?"

Bet stepped closer to the doorway. "Have you tried asking him who 'he' is?"

Amari frowned at her out of annoyance. "Of course, I have! He just keeps saying the same insane things over and over."

"Did he say anything else, doc?" Hancock inquired respectfully. "Not tryin' to undermine ya or anythin', but maybe we just need to really think about what he's sayin'."

Obviously, the doctor doubted the sanity of her patient to the core of her being, but she kept any further protests to herself. She begrudgingly allowed them into the room to try to speak to Jack. Jack weakly grabbed Hancock's sleeve. "Mayor H-Hancock! You'll listen…you gotta listen to me!"

Hancock nodded solemnly. "I'm listenin', Jack. Just try to calm down, eh?" He glanced at Amari. "Can we give 'im a hit of Calm-X?"

Jack jerked at the material in his hand. "NO! No, I don't need anythin'! I need you to listen!" His eyes were wide with fear as he spoke. "He's coming, Hancock. He's coming for us all. He's coming for the ghouls. He wants us all. He's gonna take us all, cut us open to see our insides; he wants to know about us. He wants to know why us. He's gonna take over the Jewel. The greedy ones will listen and they will follow. The rest...they're doomed!"

"Who's coming, Jack?" Hancock calmly asked.

"Him." Jack said insistently. "The man in the golden crown. The man who tore me open!" He was shaking like a leaf caught in a breeze.

Amari wordlessly took over at this point, brandishing a syringe, and removed his hand from Hancock's person before sliding the needle into the panicked ghoul's arm and pushing down the plunger. "I tried to warn you." She said in an uncharacteristically sad tone of voice. "He's out of his mind." Jack's shouts and aggravated demeanor slowly calmed until he was finally staring blankly at the ceiling.

Hancock shook his head and there was a hard expression on his face. "No, he's not. I know exactly who he's talking about. There's only one 'man in a golden crown' that I know of." He gritted his teeth. "We need to warn Nora and Nick before Lorenzo gets his claws into Diamond City."

"Who the hell is 'Lorenzo'?" Fahre interjected. She'd remained in the shadow of the doorway and her face was ghoulishly lit by the cerise glow of her cigarette.

Hancock grimaced in distaste. "Nora and I took a job a while ago. We were supposed to retrieve a lost shipment of cargo for a man named Cabot. As it turns out, the shipment was a type of serum. Cabot and his entire family were ancient…pre-War and then some. The serum had prolonged their life somehow." He glanced around the room to find that everyone was staring at him in shock. "I know what you're thinkin'. How could someone live that long and not be a ghoul? But that's the truth. Cabot's father, Lorenzo, was the source of the serum. Ages ago, Lorenzo had discovered an artifact, that damnable crown, that changed both his body and his mind. His son concocted the serum from Lorenzo's blood. He tried to convince Nora that Lorenzo had lost his mind and I'd like to think she believed him until she made the mistake of talkin' to Lorenzo. She made up her mind that Cabot had been using Lorenzo like a parasite and freed him. We were there when Lorenzo massacred his entire family." Hancock swallowed hard as if he was trying to rid himself of the taste of something wretched. "Nora was convinced she did the right thing, but the whole thing never really sat right with me. Shoulda said something, but…damn." He shook his head.

"If you're at fault for it, then Nora is responsible, too." Fahre told him bluntly. "In any case, if we sit around playing the blame game and twiddling our thumbs, this 'Lorenzo' bastard will probably hurt more people." She sucked her smoke down almost to the filter and crushed it out into an ashtray that sat on the flat of the handrail. "So, I say we all go down to Diamond City, regardless of any bullshit they have against you two."

Bet made a confused noise. "That's another thing. Jack said that Lorenzo wanted ghouls, but why would he go to Diamond City if he wanted ghouls? Not only that, but Diamond City is the most well-defended settlement in Boston. Why wouldn't he challenge Goodneighbor first? Goodneighbor has a large ghoul population."

Amari's answer was chilling. "Why not convince those who are most ardent in their hatred to rise up against the ghouls?" All eyes were now on her. "If I were to hazard a guess, he may try to fan those flames and convince them to try to 'cleanse' other towns of ghouls. All under the guise of the 'greater good', of course. After all, if he truly is experimenting on ghouls, what better way to obtain ghoul bodies than to arouse ideas of genocide?"

Fahre let out a derisive snort. "Once Diamond City's under his thumb, he could probably try to contact the Brotherhood of Steel. They have pre-existing genocidal leanings. Hell, they'd probably set him up with his own sick little lab."

Bet's heartbeat quickened and she grabbed for John's hand. How many other people would lose loved ones if this maniac wasn't stopped? "We need to go see Kent." She watched her compatriots' faces collectively turn from grave to puzzled.

"Why? Did something like this happen in an issue of the Silver Shroud?" Fahre smirked around her cigarette. It wasn't that anyone hated Kent, but no one took him the least bit seriously.

"No, we can use his radio to get into contact with Nora. She always has her Pip-Boy's radio on. We can make a plan and prepare a surprise attack on Lorenzo." Bet adamantly stood behind her idea to use the radio, even while her friends remained reserved and mute. "Most of Diamond City wouldn't believe us if we try to explain it to them outright, so we have to plan around them. Heck, we might be able to figure something out with Danny. He's the gate guard; he might be able to sneak us in."

Amari cleared her throat. "Well, if you all are going to go planning attacks on lunatics wearing ridiculous headgear, I suggest you do it somewhere other than my lab." She swept them all outside without much in the way of politeness.

Hancock led the way up to Kent's tiny apartment and knocked on the door. "Hopefully, he's not in his lounger." He remarked as they waited.

Finally, after several long minutes, Kent cracked the door open. Once he saw who was at his door, he swung the door wide. "H-Hancock! Heya, glad to see that you're b-back." He smiled meekly around at his guests.

"Kent, Do ya mind if we use your station to send out a special broadcast?"

That was how the four of them ended up crammed into the apartment while Kent repeatedly adjusted and re-adjusted the microphone to ensure it was recording properly. He tapped it and it responded with a banshee screech that tapered down into static. "This is an urgent message for the Silver Shroud!" He paused for a moment and then resumed. "Again, this is an urgent message for the Silver Shroud. Shroud, company is coming. Show them your biggest jewel. Reply immediately if you copy."

"Do you think she'll understand?" Bet whispered as Kent repeated the short message a second time.

"If she doesn't, Valentine will figure it out." He susurrated. "They have a few hours to get it." Hancock wasn't as sure as he sounded. He didn't even know if Nora would believe Jack's story. He just had to hope that she'd consider the implications of Lorenzo being the culprit behind Jack's mutilation.