Italics indicate thinking

Foreman's POV

"Hmm." I fiddled with my lighter "Come on."

I was still in a sour mood, Tannis had been missing for a couple weeks now and I was on a personal mission to find her, Roland offered me help but I told him it would be best to let me handle this alone and if he needed any explosives Tina could handle it in my place.

"There we go." I got my cigarette lit "Now…where were we?"

"Let me go you bandit scum!" a Hyperion Engineer yelled thrashing around in the chair I had him pinned too.

"Hmph, no." I blew out smoke "So I suppose I'll ask again."

I looked over at him with a glare "Where's Tannis.'

"Like it'd tell you, kiss my ass-AHHH!"

"Wanna think about that a bit more?" I growled grinding my cigarette into his skin leaving a burn "Because I don't think you even tried!"

The man cursed under his breath as I stared him down. I told Roland to stay out of this because I knew he wouldn't approve of my aggressive method of dealing with this.

"So again." I said slapping the man on the head "Where is Tannis?"

This time the man was silent.

"I know you're not dead." I said rolling over a generator "Better hurry, I mean unless you don't care if you never have kids."

I tapped a few cables together to make them spark.

"Alright I'll tell you!" he cried out "She's in an outpost on the edge of the Dust! They're trying to get more information out of her!"

"See that wasn't so hard." I smiled dusting my shirt off "you were much more cooperative than the last two guys, so messy."

"Now let me go I told you what you wanted." He said.

"I never said I was letting you go." I glared wiping my hands off.

"What?"

I threw a ticking device at him as I left the shack.

"See ya, I'd stick around but I just cleaned up and I don't wanna make a mess all over myself again." I smiled closing the door.

"You psycho!" he yelled.

"Hmph, around here we're all a little crazy." I said hopping into a Runner and driving off "Wonder how long it'll take him to realize that's a fake?"

LATER

"Getting in shouldn't be hard." I looked down at the small complex they had Tannis in, nothing more than a couple of little Hyperion pop-up buildings. Scouting it out I only saw a small handful of workers, and no sign of Jack or his major players, either they were baiting me and that guy lied, or they got what they needed from Tannis and moved their resources elsewhere.

I decided to get to work, I slid down the cliff face and into the camp, walking right up to a guy and blasting him with a shotgun.

"It's one of the Vault Hunters!"

"Yeah that's me." I threw my exploding disk out and clicked the trigger setting off a chain blast that blew multiple men away and collapsed the wall of the main building.

I walked through the camp tossing out grenades and taking shots at any one in my path, laying waste around me with a heavy scent of gunpowder in the air. With most of them out of the way I kicked in the door of the holding area and found Tannis in a cell tied to a chair with some sort interrogator standing over her.

"GRR!" I growled "You crap stain!"

"Die Bandit!" the man ran at me with a knife.

I dodged his stab before punching him in the face. He recovered right away and stabbed down at me, I moved my head to avoid the blade before pulling back and headbutting him, quickly turning his wrist and pushing his own knife into his chest.

"Pain in the ass." I said pushing him off me "Tannis."

"Hngh…" she groaned half-conscious in the chair, her body covered in cuts and more.

"I'm sorry, I should have stopped them before they took you." I frowned.

"I'm…fine." She mumbled.

I cut her free of the chair and gave her a second to collect herself.

"Did you do this to her?" I walked up to the interrogator who was bleeding out very slowly, he'd probably make it if a medic got here soon enough.

He just smirked at me "Sure, it was easy to get her to scream-!"

*BANG! *

I pulled out my pistol and emptied a whole clip into him, killing him.

"Come on." I went over and helped Tannis up, putting one of her arms around my shoulder to support her weight "Let's get out of here, we need to get you to Sanctuary. It'll be safe there."

"They killed him…" she mumbled "Phillipe…"

"Right, sorry I wasn't fast enough." I told her.

"Why did you come for me?" she asked.

"I've told you." I said getting her over to my Runner "I'd be sad if you died, I like you Tannis, I…care about you."

I smiled at her a bit.

"Tannis, even if you never understand how I feel." I looked at her "That's okay."

"I don't understand emotions." She frowned "But when I was there, I thought I was dying…"

Earlier

NO POV

"GAH!"

Tannis gritted her teeth as she felt a slash of a blade on her thigh.

"Why won't this bitch just talk." The Hyperion Interrogators grumbled.

"I know all she does is mumble useless crap about chairs and shit." The other said.

"I heard this bitch is crazy." The first said "Least that's what Miss Nisha and Jack said when they were here last time, all her notes are half nonsense."

Tannis' head fell forward, her body was losing a lot of blood, she's been getting tortured and cut over and over for the last two weeks and it was beginning to be too much for her. Yet she felt no sense of fear somehow, something else kept coming to mind.

"You should run." she coughed hearing noise outside "You might…still get away."

"I'm taking a look outside." The one said "Keep pushing her, if we don't get anything by the end of the day let's just kill her."

Tannis felt another gash get cut into her side but before a third could be made the interrogator was attacked.

"Tannis!"

"HNGH…" she looked up; her vision cloudy with exhaustion only to see a man turn away "Foreman…you…came…"

Present

Foreman's POV

"Thank you…for saving me." Tannis said softly.

"It's fine." I smiled at her.

"Like I said I do not really understand emotions but perhaps you could…teach me about them some time." She asked "If it's with you, I think I may be able to tolerate such…feelings."

"Are you asking what I think you're asking?" I smiled "Cause I just wanna make sure we're on the same page here."

"I wish to try out the practice of courtship and romance…with you." She nodded "Are we in understanding?"

"Sure thing, Patty." I smirked.

"Must you call me such a ridiculous name." she huffed "I'll respond to Tannis, Doctor Tannis, even Patricia sometimes but never Patty."

We drove for a while before getting to Sanctuary. I helped her out of the car and towards the city, it was an old Dahl mining ship but it had a defense grid we could use, and space for refugees.

"Well it's now dig site but it's got it's charm." I smiled "Ready to head in?"

"Before that I must ask you something." She looked at me.

"A feelings and emotions question already?" I laughed.

"No, I will use all my research to help the Crimson Raiders, I will help you take down Hyperion and in exchange." She looked at me with a rare determination "Make Jack suffer."

I smirked "You didn't even have to ask."

"Very well than let's be going." Tannis nodded.

"Come along then." I said taking her hand.

"HNGH!" she coughed "Perhaps maybe you should let my hand go…I think I just threw up in my mouth a little."

"Guess that was a little rushed." I smiled "We'll take it slow and work up to more obvious displays of affection."

"Very well then." She nodded.

"Well whatever this 'experiment' is." I laughed "I look forward to trying it with you, darlin."

"Such nicknames." She sighed.

AN

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