Hancock stood at the window in the State House, watching as a troop of companions led Nora through the gate. Nick's estimate was spot on – it was just a little after noon.

Nora observed his town with poorly disguised trepidation. Perhaps it was the journey here, weighing on her. Perhaps it was the lack of people.

As soon as he stepped through the gate, Hancock set to work getting everything in place for her arrival. His first stop: Fahrenheit and the heads of the Neighborhood Watch. Pulling from his personal stash, he arranged a big party at The Third Rail with free liquor and chems. Tasking the Neighborhood Watch with spreading the word, he set off for The Memory Den. He kicked out their small collection of clientele. Irma and Amari were more than understanding when he explained the situation. Kent said he'd stay in his little room until he heard the all clear. The Third Rail wasn't really his kind of place, he explained, crumpling his fedora, and he'd do anything for the Shroud.

He returned outside to nearly empty streets, the last few drifters being herded towards the bar. Unused to the eerie quiet, a handful of his guys collected in the main square. Hancock directed his fellow ghouls to join the party, keep order, and keep everyone inside. A couple of the smoothskins would patrol the town, while he sent the rest into the city to clear some of the nearby hotspots. He promised KL-E-0 a favor (whatever that meant) to go with them. Daisy closed up shop for the day, content to bunker down with a cup of tea and a good book. Ever the mothering soul, she gave him some words of encouragement and a rare box of cinnamon candy.

As she read the signs hanging over the closed shops and conversed with her companions, Hancock wondered if the sights sparked anything in her memory. His proud little slum had become her home away from home, though one of many, ever since she fell for its slumlord mayor. He wondered what she would say, now, if he met her at the gate the same way he did the first day he saw her – blood on his knife, Finn's body at his feet, and a cocky grin. She'd probably turn around and march right out the gate.

When she disappeared from view, guided to The Memory Den, he took a deep breath. Amari would fix this. The Commonwealth needed Nora. He needed Nora.

He slipped into The Memory Den on stealthy feet, his approach more befitting a thief than the building's proprietor. Hearing voices, he determined they were too faint to be in the main parlor. Irma must have already guided them down to the basement. He kept his steps light as he descended the creaky staircase, the voices growing louder. Dogmeat sulked in the stairwell, tail thumping weakly when he saw the ghoul. Beside the doorframe, his back to the wall, he eavesdropped on Nick reassuring Nora that the memory lounger was perfectly harmless. They'd be monitoring her the whole time. Though she sounded unsure, she agreed to the procedure if it meant restoring her lost memories.

When the clear dome sealed in place and her eyelids sagged, Hancock was immediately pressed against the glass.

"I'm loading the program now," Amari reported. MacCready sat, head bowed and foot bouncing rapidly, while Piper twisted her cap in her hands. Curie stood with the doctor, fascinated by the process and monitoring readings from the machine. No one spoke as the doctor typed then paused, typed then paused.

"There seems to be a problem," she announced after a while.

Striding over to her controls, Hancock looked over the doctor's shoulder, her screen displaying lines of code. "What's wrong?" he grumbled.

She explained, "I am accessing the part of Nora's brain that deals with recently formed memories. We would expect to see something that happened in the last three to nine days. However, when I lock on to an intact cluster and run them through the simulation, this is all that comes up."

A few keystrokes later, the screen toggled to a first-person view of grass and a yellow house. A shiny new Corvega rolled down the street, its occupant waving as it passed. To her right, an automated bassinet rocked newborn Shaun.

"I've got the ice," a male voice exclaimed. Bursting from the front door and holding a plastic cup, the dark-haired man rushed over to kneel in front of them. He examined the baby, fingers rattling the frozen cubes. "Are the hiccups gone?" He sounded somewhat disappointed.

"I told you," Nora's voice playfully admonished, "they go away on their own."

Nate sighed, putting the cup down. It looked like he was reaching for the screen, though it was really her dream face. "I am so glad you know how to do this."

"Don't sell yourself short, honey," she replied. "Your parenting instincts are spot on. The panic-all-the-time phase goes away soon, I promise."

He kissed her cheek. In the pod, Nora's lips formed a trembling smile and tears ran down her face.

"That's not right," Hancock said. "That's her life before the bombs. We need her to remember something that happened recently."

"I've never had this problem before," the doctor said. "According to the chemical signatures in her brain, these should be some of her most recent memories."

"Hm, try looking somewhere else, doc," Nick suggested.

"Alright. Let me fade out the current memory and initiate another one."

The screen gradually transitioned to a crowd of people, all dressed in crisp suits and fancy evening dresses. Round tables decorated in red, white, and blue were scattered among the many bodies in the large ballroom. People came up to Nora to clasp her hand and compliment her gown, making small talk about the party and their "handsome boys."

"That's still something that happened over a year ago," Hancock said.

"Two hundred eleven, counting her time on ice," Nick added. "Is it possible those two hundred years are interfering with her memory timestamps?"

"They weren't an issue when we connected her to the loungers before," the doctor replied.

"Yeah, but she wasn't the one in the driver's seat," Nick said. "She was just along for the ride. Kellogg and I were sort of controlling that one."

"Actually, we plugged her into the loungers a couple months ago," Amari observed. "Even with two hundred years of cryostasis, we found the memory she wanted to revisit right away."

"Really? What was the memory?"

Hancock rolled his eyes. "She lost her favorite pair of vice-grips at a settlement, but couldn't remember which one. We were in town so she used a lounger to retrace her steps and find out where she left them."

"Do you have that memory downloaded anywhere?" Piper piped up. "I know it's not much, but looking for a pair of vice-grips would give her undeniable proof of the life she forgot."

"Unfortunately, no," Amari replied. "Putting aside the fact that the data storage requirements involved would greatly outpace our capabilities, it would be a gross violation of privacy to keep our clients' memories. Normally, we aren't even monitoring the memories themselves, just the state of the occupant."

"Her memories gotta be in there somewhere," Hancock growled.

"I can go through more, but they all appear to be similar to what you've already seen," Amari said, tapping on the terminal. Images scrolled on the screen – the inside of a car, a park, a scary movie. "I've found one more memory. It appears very strong and clear."

When the screen changed again, it showed a blur. It gradually focused in on a face. Hancock's face. Then Nora screamed. The screen tilted, bouncing as Nora backed up erratically until she tumbled out of bed. Nick rubbed his forehead while Piper cupped her hands over her mouth. In the pod, her face was scrunched up as if in pain. He watched his own expression go from confused to hurt and turned away from the screen. Watching through her eyes, he was reminded of the reason for her fear. He saw a gruesome, disfigured monster.

"Shut it down," he said as Nora's friends rushed into the room.

"John, I," Doctor Amari stammered.

"I said shut it down," he repeated. The memory faded. He paced back to the lounger, pressing his hand against the glass.

"That's all there was?" MacCready asked. "Why didn't it work?"

"I'm sorry," Amari said, "I cannot access her post-war life. The memories simply aren't there."

"So that's it then," Hancock murmured, tracing a finger down the cool surface. "Her memories really are gone."

"Let's not give up hope just yet," Nick said. "Nora's memories could still come back on their own, right doc?"

"I've never used the loungers to explore the complexities of traumatic memory loss," she admitted. "From a strictly medical standpoint, it's certainly not impossible. The human brain is an incredibly elastic mechanism."

The room fell silent.

"It did not work," Curie lamented with her childlike inflection. "I was very much 'oping zat it would work."

"Hold on, it's not over yet," Piper said, getting to her feet. "Nora didn't have the only copy of those memories. They're up here." She tapped on her temple. "We have them! We've all traveled extensively with Nora, almost since the day she climbed out of the vault. She may not remember, but we can. Plug any one of us into that machine – we'll show her what she's missing."

"We could do a tandem connection," Nick said, springboarding off Piper's idea. "Like we did with Kellogg. She'd just be an observer, but being able to look around and experience the memory first-hand would be better than staring at a little screen."

"Is that safe?" Danse asked.

"For her? Completely," Amari replied. "There is a slight risk to Mister Valentine, but he has successfully completed the process before. Since he will once again be acting as the host, it will be easiest to use his memories as well."

"Before you wire me up, doc," Nick said, "let's wake up Nora first. I want to make sure she's okay with stepping into someone else's memories."

"Very well. I will begin the process to pull her out."

Hancock retreated to the stairwell as the glass dome lifted and Nora stirred.

"Wh- what was that? I thought you were going to show me something I forgot," she whimpered. "It was so real. I saw Nate and Shaun. I- it was so real."

"It's alright, Nora. We're all right here," Nick said gently. "We're having some difficulty accessing your memories, so we'd like to try something else." He paused while she sniffled. "We'd like to load you in parallel with one of us. It would be very similar to what you just saw. Would you be alright experiencing some of my memories?"

"Is it safe?"

"You'd be in no danger," the old synth assured her.

"What about you?" she asked after a moment.

A lump lodged itself in Hancock's throat. Even after forgetting who they were, even though she was still wary of robot Nick, kindness and caring were in her nature.

"I'll be fine," he replied.

"Okay," she said timidly. "If you think it will work."

"Lean back, the doc will put you back under."

When she was out, Hancock came back into the room.

"Any suggestions regarding what I should show her?" Nick asked as the doctor connected wires to the back of his head.

"Something memorable," MacCready said, earning a swat from Piper.

"Nora's most notable traits are her leadership and compassion," Danse said, shifting the power armor's weight. "Anything that highlights her accomplishments would not go amiss."

"Show her helping people," Piper suggested. "I'm sure there's plenty to choose from."

"Oh yez," Curie agreed. "She 'as 'elped so many find zer way."

"Whenever you're ready, Mister Valentine," Amari said. "Access the memory and push it through to the interface."

Nick's yellow irises dimmed. Back at the control panel, Hancock and Amari observed the readings.

"It's working," she said, typing commands into the keyboard. "Locking in the connection now."

The screen toggled to display a dark closet, pre-war junk lining the nearby shelves. Nora's Pip-Boy shone brightly in their direction, barely illuminating the silhouette of her face.

After a few moments, she spoke, voice lowered. "Okay, I think they're gone."

"Let's make this quick," Nick replied.

Slipping out of the closet, they snuck through the building's hallway, checking rooms as they went. It looked like it may have been an office at one time, or a school. Now it bore all the marks of a raider den – trash, chems, empty bottles.

Finally, they found what they were searching for. In another storage-type room, chained to a cinderblock, sat a crying child. The boy, no older than ten, immediately threw his arms around Nora.

"We're gonna get you out of here," she said, examining the lock and chains around his ankles. "Can you walk?" She pulled a bobby pin out of her belt pouch.

Nick kept watch from the doorway.

The boy nodded. "I didn't think," he said between sobs, "anyone was gonna come for me."

"If you need me, I will always come for you," she promised. The chains fell off and Nora pushed them away. "How are we looking out there, Nick?"

"All clear," he said.

"Good. I think one of the rooms a few doors back had a hole in the floor," she said. "We can drop down to the ground level and then slip out the back entrance."

"Sounds like a plan. I'll follow you."

"We need to be quiet," Nora told the child. "Here, hold my hand and stick close to me."

They backtracked through the hallway, stopping whenever they heard a sound. Most of the raiders were located on the third floor, sleeping off their last bender judging by the cacophony of snores.

Nora slipped through the hole first, calling back up, "Careful. It's quite a drop."

Nick lowered the boy down, waiting for her signal before dropping him into waiting arms. He followed, and from there it was a short walk to the exit.

"We left the power armor over here," she said, leading the way through the overgrown grass. "We'll grab it and be on our way back to your parents' farm."

Suddenly, the child yelped. A raider had jumped out from behind a tree, scooping the boy up and holding him like a shield, a pipe pistol pressed to his temple.

Nora and Nick drew their weapons. "Let him go," she demanded, her voice hard and authoritative.

"I saw the power armor," the raider rasped, squeezing his captive. "Figured it was only a matter of time before you came back for it."

"Let. The boy. Go."

"Oh, I don't think so," he replied gleefully. "See, I know who you are. I know you won't risk shooting me, not while I got the kid."

Her muzzle dipped. "You're right," she said, slowly reaching into her bag. She held out a fusion core. "You can have the power armor, just let him go."

The raider paused, mulling over her offer.

"Go on, take it," she said, and tossed the core at him.

The raider looked up. As soon as he dropped the boy to catch the core, Nora popped her rifle up, shooting him in the head. The man fell.

She rushed over to the terrified boy. "Are you okay? You alright?"

"Thank you," the boy repeated, "thank you."

The machine made a high buzzing sound.

"Her heart rate and breathing are extremely elevated," Doctor Amari reported. "We need to sever the connection and pull her out."

"Do it," Hancock said.

In tears, Nora pushed against the rising lid. Danse and Piper knelt beside her. Nick was still in a trancelike state, slowly coming back as Amari unplugged the wires leading to his head.

"What happened?" Piper asked, grabbing her hands. "What's wrong?"

"I shot someone," Nora sobbed. "I killed him."

"You rescued that kid, Nora," the reporter said. "He would've died if you hadn't been there to save him."

"No, no it's all wrong," Nora continued. "This world is dark, and cruel. And I want no part in it."

"But," Danse said, "if we try again, you might remember-"

"No!" Nora yelled. "I don't want to remember. I don't want to remember killing people. I don't want to be that person." She cried into Piper's shoulder. "Just take me home. Please, just take me home."

MacCready jumped up to escape the heart-wrenching scene and nearly ran into Hancock, waiting in the stairwell.

"You heard her," the ghoul said, his voice empty. "Take her back home. We're done here."