Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was dark.

It was cold.

Freezing, even.

Nick Valentine coughed as he came to a very small space, feeling incredibly weak.

“What the hell..?” he said, voice hoarse.

Nick felt around in front of him - his hands met with a smooth surface covered in ice. He couldn’t seem to find any opening.

Breath hitching in panic, Nick pressed against it with force. With a mechanical creak, the surface budged. That’s it- he thought. Summoning all the strength he had, he rammed a shoulder into the pod door. It dislodged and rose up with a hiss, and Nick collapsed onto the cold vault floor. Spots danced in his vision as he sat up, shivering.

“Where am… oh. Oh. ” He remembered now, looking at the rows of pods from outside. The bombs. The Vault.

“They froze me like a goddamn popsicle!” Nick muttered, furious now. He shakily got to his feet.

“Is anyone here? Hello?”  Nick called into the dimly lit corridor. No response.

“Hrmph.”

He glanced into a neighbouring pod.... And immediately felt sick to his stomach.

Looking back at him was the grinning face of a skeleton. “How long was I in there for?” Nick asked to no one in particular. Come to think of it, the layer of dust on the floor was pretty thick. Nick stepped away from the pods, running a hand through his damp hair. “No way.”

Was there anyone alive in here??? Nick checked the rest of the pods. All of them contained corpses, some less decomposed than others. A few were actually still frozen, but he couldn’t get them open either way.

“God.” Nick muttered. Got pretty damn lucky, he thought.

He couldn't seem to warm up in his current clothes- the now thawed vault suit was soaking wet and very, very cold. His entire body ached from what he presumed to be years of being frozen. Sounded pretty impossible, but bodies didn't become skeletons overnight. Perhaps it's all a sick prank, a voice in the back of his head suggested unhelpfully. No, reasonable thought butted in. It'd have to be an incredibly elaborate prank. Drop a nuke on a guy and stuff him in a freezer, hilarious.

He was too old for this sorta crap.

"Doesn't seem like theres anyone alive here, then." Nick said to himself.

So, he prepared to leave. He didn't feel like dying in a grave like this. 

He found his old clothes and replaced the ridiculous vault outfit they’d required him to put on when he’d entered the vault. If he’s gonna face whatever’s left on the surface, he might as well be dressed comfortably.

It wasn’t the best, as his clothes were much older and danker than he’d last worn them…. But they were familiar. That and his trenchcoat had a significantly larger amount of pockets than the vault suit.

The exit door, a computer's voice told him from a speaker, needed some sort of authorization card to open. That complicated things. He opened a door to the side. "Time to get searching, I guess." Nick said to himself... he stopped in his tracks.

On a window at the end of the corridor was a massive bug. Nick jumped back with a yelp. The bug dropped from the window and scuttled off. It had been on the side of the glass opposite from Nick.

“Not in Kansas anymore, huh.” Nick says, catching his breath.

He’s gonna need a weapon.

~~~

After what seemed like hours of searching, Nick found the card. And a gun. If the cockroaches were any indication, he’d need it. He even found a few old cigarettes. he didn't know if they were any good, but he needed a smoke.

Pipboy on his arm, (the guy wearing it previously probably didn't need it anymore, seeing as he was very dead.) Nick stepped into the elevator, bracing himself for whatever waited for him aboveground. 

It hummed to life and slowly rose to the surface.

Chapter Text

The surface, as it turns out, was not as bleak as Nick was expecting.
It was actually pretty damn bright, forcing him to shield his eyes from the harsh sunlight.
Trees, if a bit thin, were standing. The air seemed fresh- fresher than in the vault, at least. The sky was blue and Nick did not die instantly.
Cautiously, Nick stepped off the elevator platform and started the walk down to Sanctuary Hills. He kept his gun in hand and watched his surroundings, ready to shoot at a moment's notice. Nothing jumped out at him. Not even a roach.

Sanctuary Hills looked like.... well, like someone had dropped a bomb on it, really. The entire street was trashed and overgrown. The pavement was in shambles, debris everywhere. Most of the houses were missing a roof, a wall, or had collapsed altogether. He barely recognised his own house - he'd only moved into it just a month before he had been ushered into the vault (but it had been much too cheery for his liking, anyway).

One house, however, caught his eye. It was not by any stretch structurally sound, but it looked like someone had been patching it up. Like maybe someone lived there.
Nick walked up to it and, after a moment of hesitance, rapped on the door. No answer. Not surprising.
The door was unlocked, and he let himself in. The door creaked far less than he would have expected. The living room looked... well-kept. There was no dust, no debris on the floor, and to top it off, the living room table had a small vase with fresh wildflowers. Strangely enough, most of them didn't look like any plants he knew.
Nick wandered further into a house. Maybe they had a lighter he could borrow. Or at least a match.

"Ah, excuse me?"
Nick whirled around and aimed his pistol at-
The chassis of a rusty old Mr. Handy.
"I did not mean to frighten you, sir!" The Mr. Handy, waving a clawed hand in agitation, was hovering back a few steps back.
"Er, it's alright." Nick assured it, lowering the gun. "Does anyone live here?"
"Apart from me? Not at the moment, no." The Mister Handy answered, then paused. “I haven’t introduced myself! How rude of me. I’m Codsworth.”
“Nick Valentine.”
“Nice to meet you, mister Valentine! I’d offer to put on some tea or coffee, but they're a bit stale.”
“A bit would be an understatement, I’d say.”
Codsworth chuckled. “Yes, it would.”
“Do you have a lighter?” Nick asked the robot, pulling a cigarette out of his pocket. “And, follow up question, do you mind me smoking here?”
“No, I don’t. That is, answering both your questions.” said Codsworth. “I do have a built-in torch function, which i believe shall suffice?” Codsworth asked, switching it on.
“Yeah. Thanks, pal.”
Nick lit the cigarette, took a drag of it, and burst into a coughing fit.
“Are you alright, sir?!” Codsworth asked in concern. Nick held a hand up.
“Hhah, yeah. I’m fine.” He wheezed. “Who woulda thunk cigarettes go stale too?”
Guess smoking these was outta the question. Damn. would he still have withdrawal, after being frozen for a couple years?
“Anyway, Codsworth,” said Nick, having recovered, “Have you seen any people around?” “Not around here, sir. I have happened to wander down to Concord a while back, down the road, but the people there had guns and were not in the mood for conversation, to put it lightly. I was lucky to get away with only a graze!” said Codsworth, turning a bit so nick could see a deep dent in the metal.
“Jeez.”
“Perhaps they’d take better to a human, but i wouldn’t count on it, sir.” Codsworth sniffed.
Well, good to hear the human race isn’t extinct, at least.
Now that he thought of it… hadn’t one of his neighbours owned a Mr Handy?
“How long have you been here? It’s a… nice place, you got here.”
“Thank you, I do my best to keep it presentable!” His voice practically beamed with pride. “Although it’s nowhere near as good as pre-fallout standards, I’m afraid… I’ve lived here for quite a while, for about a year before the bombs… My Mum and Master are up in the vault on the hill. I’ve been taking care of their home since.”
“Hey, uh. Codsworth. Your masters… they’re not coming back.” He felt awful about telling Codsworth the bad news but he figured the old robot deserved to know.
Codsworth blinked. “Oh, I know that. It has been two centuries, you know?” A sad chuckle.
Nick sputtered. He knew it’d been a long time, but,
“Two hundred years?!?!”
“That’s a shock to you, mister Valentine?” Codsworth asked with concern.
“Yeah it is, I thought it was about-” Nick had to take a moment. He sat down on the nearest chair to recollect himself. “I thought it was ten- maybe twenty years, at most.”
“Mister Valentine?”
“I was in the same vault. I’m sorry to tell you but… everyone’s dead there.”
“I… see.” Codsworth said.
Damn this. Damn everything! Why’d he have to be the sole survivor. It could have been literally anyone else. It could have been them. He didn’t deserve this.
“What happened? In there?” Codsworth asked hesitantly, snapping nick out of his self-loathing.
“They froze everyone, that’s what. For some damn experiment. I guess something broke along the way and I was the only one who got out alive. Thawed out this morning.”
“I...see. Thank you, for telling me.”
“It’s… ugh.” Nick sighed.

Neither of them said anything for a full minute.

“So,” Codsworth asked, mimicking a cough, “What will you do now?”
“Me? I don’t know.” What was there to do?
The robot mustered something like a shrug. “You could try looking for other people, perhaps. Or you could stay with me. It gets lonely.”
“...I’ll think about it.” Nick said.