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“There’s a stranger on the roof, Patrick.” Martha McDonough was pacing around the kitchen, carefully herding her sons away from the windows. They were both at least a full head taller than her, though, so it didn’t make much of a difference to them whether or not she wanted them to see the weirdo. The eldest strode by her sharply, as if he planned on scolding the person away— fuck, it was probably a Raider or some tweaked out fucking drifter. Who knew?
John wasn’t scared of that kind of shit, though, and he couldn’t stand the thought of some poor waster who got cut off in Diamond City or something sitting up on their roof and suffering. He didn’t have much in the way of a stash but he’d be glad to empty out so whoever it was wasn’t detoxing alone on their roof.
Or so they didn’t sneak in and slit his family’s throats while they slept.
He walked outside, a bit smug that his chicken shit brother hadn’t left the doorway. He had a gun aimed at him immediately— of course he did— and behind it there was a kid around his age, at that weird place between probably too green to wander out alone and not green enough to do what they’re told. Her hands were shaking so he didn’t worry too much about getting hit. “Hey!” he called, waving a little.
“Johnny,” ma hissed from the doorway, paralyzed by the sound of the cocking.
“I didn’t know there were people,” the kid on the roof said. She sounded scared, but one look at his brother and pop and John knew that didn’t count for shit. Didn’t matter she had to be at least a few years younger than John— she had a gun and that was that.
“S’all right. Not like you shot any of us,” he returned, his hands still kind of raised. “Just so we’re clear I ain’t armed or nothin’, so if you wanted to put the gun down that’d be cool.”
“What about the other people?” she asked quickly.
“Just me, ma and pop, and my brother. Pop’s got a gun but it’s out of ammo, ma’s got a dinky little handheld thing upstairs in their room, and my brother couldn’t hit a supermutant standing two steps from him,” he said.
“John,” his father snapped, but whatever. He knew when he was fucking right, and the kid in front of him— impressively toned forearms notwithstanding— wasn’t no more of a threat then a stray cat who happened to be standing near a gun. He didn’t doubt she knew how to shoot it, but she didn’t look like she wanted to.
“You can come down,” he said, ignoring his father.
“No,” she insisted, and it just tumbled right out of her like she didn’t even mean to say it.
“We ain’t gunna do nothin’,” he promised.
“‘Cept call security on me,” she snapped. So she wasn’t totally lost— logically speaking, setting up shop close enough to Diamond City to benefit from the protection of the guards without having to actually pay and apply to enter the settlement was a pretty solid move. It was what his own family had done, but his brother kept fucking paying that application fee every time they were rejected.
“No one’s calling anyone,” he swore, taking a step forward. Her chest was heaving with fear, like a bird with its wings broke, but she didn’t object and even aimed away from him when he jumped to pull himself onto the roof.
“John McDonough you get right back down here!” his mother shouted from beneath them.
“Just go back inside ma, it’s fine,” he called back, leaning over the edge. “She ain’t even aiming at me— I’m just gunna see what she’s doing here.”
“We have to report—” his brother started.
“Shut the fuck up. No one’s reporting anything. Just get lost for a while, you’re making her nervous.” He wasn’t actually sure if that was true— the way she was pressed up against the wall of the next connected building, it seemed she was more scared of him than his family on ground-level— but it finally got ma to force pa and the oldest boy back into the kitchen. No doubt they’d be eavesdropping, but he’d take that over gawking.
He finally turned his attention to the kid— upon closer inspection she had to be at least his age— with ratty, tangled hair that was all shaved up except the top of her head. She was covered in burns that looked crusted over, and if he squinted he could kind of make out some faint tattoos, sunbleached on her face. “Hey,” he offered, sitting back on his ass and putting his hands on his knees so she could see them.
“Hi.” She placed the gun down beside her, facing away from both of them.
“John McDonough,” he added, and she gave him a flitting smile like sunshine.
“I heard.” She gestured down to where his mother had been yelling and he grinned crookedly. “I’m Audrey.” A normal name, which was a good sign. Raiders never used shit like Audrey, even when they were trying to be clever. It was like they were too strung-out to remember what real people sounded like. Twitcher is normal, right?
“Good to meet you.” That was basic manners, and the ladies in Goodneighbor always got a kick out of it. She barely noted his attempt at lightening the mood, except to shrug. “How’d you make it to Diamond City, Audrey?”
“Walked.” He snorted and she just shrugged again, like she’d actually meant it.
“Why did you wander to Diamond City?” He couldn’t tell if she was purposely being evasive or if she was just tired. She looked down at her shoes— scuffed out and on their very last leg, so to speak— pulling her hands back to tug at the frayed flannel.
“My settlement got fucked up by Brotherhood, so I ran.” Oh. That wasn’t too unusual— Brotherhood didn’t have a real presence in the Commonwealth, but when a pocket wandered through town they seemed mighty fucking entitled to everything. Wrecking settlements for the gall of telling them to fuck off wasn’t surprising, but it was rare.
He shifted— slowly, so she could see he only meant to take a seat next to her. She let him without argument, their arms only a few inches apart. “Where were you from?”
Easy enough question, but she was quiet for a long, long time. He figured she wasn’t even gunna say, or maybe she was trying to work up the will to tell him without getting wibbly, but after a minute or so of gnawing on her chapped lower lip, she just shrugged again. “I… don’t remember. Only that it got fucked up by Brotherhood and I had to go.”
“You don’t remember?” Maybe she’d hit her head or something.
“I just get… like I know what happened, but not where or… anyone else who was there? I don’t remember knowing anyone else,” she said, stretching out her legs. “I just get these flashes of red light like the laser guns and… I don’t know. Like the inside of a hospital?” She looked up at him nervously, like he was gunna turn on her because her story didn’t make sense.
In a weird, roundabout way, he figured he believed her. Not even a Raider would show up with a flimsy fucking story like this and expect him to eat it, so logically speaking he was either talking to the dumbest person on the planet, or she was telling the truth. “A hospital?” He knew of a few, so maybe she’d just got hurt or something and repressed the memories. He’d heard of shit like that from Doctor Amari.
“Yeah. It’s all… clean and medical. Really bright.” Didn’t sound like any hospital he knew— usually full of fucking ghouls from all the people inside who got slow-roasted in rads until feral. “I just started running and ended up by Diamond City. They wouldn’t let me in so I thought I’d squat for a while until I could remember something.”
He nodded a few times, his head scraping up against the brick behind him. “Why don’t you stay overnight, then tomorrow I can try and take you to Goodneighbor?” he asked. She frowned a little, so he backtracked. “That’s where Doctor Amari is. She’s got these machines that can dig through your head and find stuff you can’t remember, then show it to you on a screen. She can probably figure out some of the stuff you forgot.”
“You think?” she asked skeptically. He grinned, shrugging.
“Yeah, but who cares what I think? Can’t hurt, can it?” She gave him another look and he figured that well, that wasn’t quite true either. She didn’t know he wasn’t some cannibal pervert or something, so he didn’t blame her for being hesitant. “Look, at least spend the night inside. Looks like it might rain later tonight.”
“I… don’t think your family would like that,” she said, looking out at the clouds gathered just a little ways out. “I’ll— I’ll leave if it’ll make them feel better. I know I was waving the gun around earlier, but I don’t wanna shoot anyone. I’m sure one of these other houses are empty.”
“You want some help?” he asked, standing up after she did. She was still looking at the clouds, kind of squinting like she was thinking real hard about something.
“No, but I need it anyway. I don’t wanna freak out another family.” He grinned, trailing behind her as she jumped from the roof and rolled her landing. It was a weirdly… professional-looking move, like she’d trained to do it for a while. He kind of wondered about her story again, then… waved off his own concern. She didn’t have a reason to lie, especially since she’d turned down his offer to go inside. If she wanted to rob them or kill them or whatever, she was either taking a roundabout route or just really bad at her job. “Thanks. For helping,” she added once she got straightened out.
He landed like a gangly fucking mess beside her, scrambling to his feet and grinning again like a fucking hyena. “Hey, don’t worry about it. I gotta ask though— are you all right? You look pretty burned up, and I got stimpaks in the house.” He’d been saving them for his trip to Goodneighbor, but wasn’t no use hoarding them while she crusted over.
Unconsciously, she reached up to tenderly poke at one of the scabs. “I’ll be fine.” She didn’t sound positive, but he wasn’t gunna hold her down and force her to take medicine anyway. “I’m gunna be fine,” she repeated, to herself but loud enough for him to hear.
“I believe it,” he affirmed, jerking his head for her to follow him. There was an apartment for her to squat in just a little walk away from his house, and he wanted to make sure she was at least settled in before he returned to his room.
She gave him a look before she started after him, one that made him think that maybe he’d finally said something a little bit comforting.