Chapter Text
He was sitting on the grass next to the river again. Over the past few days, he kept coming back here. His anxiety was ramping up practically by the hour, and by this point he was so keyed up that he could barely light a cigarette thanks to his shaking hands.
They hadn’t heard a peep from her since she’d disappeared in front of their eyes four days ago. Just last night he’d nearly punched Sturges, convinced that the engineer hadn’t built a working device at all and had only managed to disintegrate her. It had taken Preston, Jun Long, and some random caravaner to pull him back and hold onto him long enough for him to finally calm down, turn around, and storm back to Erica’s house. While he’d apologized this morning, Sturges remained frosty, so it was probably better that he just lie low today.
He heard the approaching footsteps before he saw the shadow.
“What do you want, Preston?” he growled.
“I’ve been reviewing the data with Sturges,” Preston replied. “He got the console up and running again. The signal was definitely hijacked, and she definitely made it in.”
“Sounds like maybe he was a little worried that he might’ve disintegrated her, too, then,” Hancock replied, his voice cold.
“We’re all worried you know,” Preston said, sitting down next to him. Hancock turned to him, incredulous. Preston sighed. “I know it’s not the same. I do. Just… we’re all on edge right now.”
“She should have been back by now,” Hancock muttered.
“You don’t know that,” Preston said. “She was trying to get a lot done, and she only has the one shot. For all we know, she could have come out damn near anywhere and has to travel back here cross-country. For that matter, she could have gone straight back to Goodneighbor with the serum and Nick’s data.”
“You know as well as I do that she’d have had them radio so we wouldn’t worry. You know that, Preston!” His voice was starting to rise again. “Something’s wrong. Either she didn’t make it in the first place or she’s trapped inside and can’t get out! We need to go after her—can’t Sturges just rebuild the damn thing and send us?”
“The signal we hijacked won’t work anymore. We’d need a fresh signal… so we’d have to find another courser.”
“And she has the goddamn Pipboy for tracking it,” Hancock groaned.
Preston nodded. “And all of us came pretty close to not making it out of that mess alive.”
Hancock flopped back in the grass. “Fuck!” His fist pounded the ground in frustration.
“I don’t know what we can do other than continue to wait.” Preston sighed.
Hancock lay in the grass for a while longer, his arm over his eyes. “I can’t just sit and do nothing, Preston,” he finally said. “I’ll give it a few more days and then I’ll… I don’t know. Try to buy a Pipboy off someone. Maybe that functioning Vault over near Diamond City would sell me one. We can grab MacCready and Fahrenheit and…”
“MacCready’s hurt,” Preston interrupted. Hancock pounded the ground again.
“Well, goddammit, I’ll take someone—we’ll raise a fucking army!” His eyes burned and his voice broke. “I can’t just leave her there, Preston. You know that.”
Preston’s hand clapped on his shoulder. “I do know that. I do. I know how worried I am, and I can’t imagine being in your shoes right now.”
“Why hasn’t she tried to reach us?” Hancock’s voice was rougher than usual.
“They’re probably too far underground and she can’t get a signal on the Pipboy. That’s Sturges’s theory, anyway.”
“Weren’t those damn things made to be used underground?”
“Yeah, but they weren’t really designed to get a message above ground,” Preston replied. “Plus, we just don’t know how deep the Institute is. Could be a lot deeper than any Vault.”
“But the courser signals….”
Preston sighed again. “Mayor, I don’t have the answers. I wish I did. All I have is speculation from someone with more knowledge about electronics than I have.”
Hancock glared at the river. He knew Preston didn’t have the answers, and getting mad at the man wasn’t going to help.
“I’m gonna get a drink,” he finally replied. “You in?”
“Sounds like a plan,” Preston said. The two men got to their feet and headed toward the bar in the open air market.
The sun had long since set, and Hancock was half drunk. Sturges had eventually quit his daily tinkering and joined them. The three of them barely spoke, each lost in their own worries. Hancock regretted lashing out at Sturges. The man was obviously doing what he could to get answers. It wasn’t his fault there were none to be had.
“Guess I’ll call it a night,” Hancock finally announced. The stars were cold and sharp in the sky above them, and a crescent moon slowly rose against the horizon. He stood, a touch unsteady, sketched a little salute to Preston and Sturges, and started walking toward the pre-war house, anticipating yet another long night of staring at the ceiling and worrying about her.
He was almost to the door when the night was split by a loud cracking sound and an enormous blue flash. He spun around, his heart in his throat. Could it… could it really, finally be her? He saw Preston and Sturges jump up from the bench they were sharing at the bar and run toward the riverbank, and before he knew it, was was racing in that direction too.
When he got closer, he could see the dark silhouette, balled up in the grass—he recognized her hair. In the next moment, however, he realized… she was alone. Where was her son? Had they been wrong all along about where he was? Or… had something worse happened?
Despite the other men’s considerable lead, he got to her first and fell to his knees beside her, his hat tumbling from his head at the fast drop.
“Sunshine… oh thank God, you’re back—you’re okay!” He wrapped his arms around her and then realized how hard she was shaking. His heart sank. Sudden footsteps told him that Preston and Sturges had arrived. He looked up at them, and in the dim moonlight could read the question written across their faces. He slowly shook his head. Sturges’s head dropped nearly to his chest, and Preston scrubbed a hand across his open mouth.
“Sunshine,” he whispered to her as he slowly rubbed her shaking back. “Sunshine, I’m here. Whatever it is, I’m here.”
At this, she suddenly uncurled and raised her face to the sky, seemingly ignoring him, and the most anguished sound he’d ever heard tore from her throat. It sounded like her vocal chords were ripping themselves apart to produce this cry of pure agony, and his own heart wanted to tear at the sound. He could feel his ruined skin trying to lump into goosebumps and a cold shudder worked its way down his spine.
He wrapped his arms tightly around her and held her while she shrieked her horror and misery to the sky. It was all he could do.