Work Text:
Sole gazed up at the pink neon sign for the Valentine Detective Agency; it glowed bright against the evening darkness. It had been two weeks since she left. Two weeks since she had made a fool of herself and run away into a rainstorm. The melodrama of it all made her sick to her stomach.
She raised a fist to the door, but couldn’t bring herself to knock. Embarrassment twisted her insides. But she needed to see him again. He deserved to know where she had been and where she intended to go. She steeled her nerves, took a deep breath, and stepped inside.
She expected to find Nick sitting at his desk, reading something, his hand on his brow, looking as he always did when deep in thought—but he wasn’t there. Sole couldn't tell if she was disappointed or relieved.
Ellie stood over one of the overflowing file cabinets, thumbing through the papers.
“Sorry, we can’t take any new cases right now. We’re way behind already,” she said without looking up.
“Hey Ellie,” Sole murmured. “How’d that date go?”
Ellie turned to her in shock.
“Sole? Oh my God, where have you been?”
“Sanctuary, mostly.”
She met Sole on the other side of the desk and pulled her into a hug.
“Smells like Goodneighbor to me. But wherever you’ve been, I’m glad you’re back. Nick’s been worried sick about you.”
“He has?”
Ellie drew away and gave her a stern look.
“Of course he has. What happened between you two? He wouldn’t tell me a thing.”
Sole looked at the floor, trying to decide how she wanted to explain things.
“Where to start?” she said.
“I can’t imagine he would, but… Did he hurt you?” Ellie said. “I know he’s my boss, but don’t think for a second that I wouldn’t—”
Sole waved her hand in a dismissive gesture.
“No, no, nothing like that. Not physically, anyway. And not intentionally, either.”
“Okay. So what happened?”
She felt herself blushing already.
“Well we were just talking, and we got kind of close, and… I must have misread the signals or something, because I—” She put her hand to her eyes, “I tried to kiss him.”
“Oh honey.”
“I know. Just like me to fall for the first guy not trying to put a bullet in my head.”
Ellie went behind the desk and pulled a bottle of whiskey out of the drawer.
“Have a seat,” she said. “I think you could use some of this. Can I get you a glass?”
“Please.”
They sat down together, and Ellie poured the drinks.
“So now I know why you left,” she said. “What brought you back?”
“I wanted to say goodbye.”
“Goodbye?”
“Not for good. I’ll still visit from time to time. I just think I need some time to get over this. And I wanted to make sure Nick wasn’t upset with me or anything.”
“No, he’s not upset. If anything, he’s been moping.”
“That seems pretty unlikely.”
“I mean, he hasn’t been languishing in bed saying ‘woe is me,’ but he has been pretty quiet. And a little scatterbrained. And more forgetful than usual, but I think that’s just because he hasn’t been paying attention. I even wore a wedding ring one day to see if he’d notice. I figured he’d be sure to say something, but it went right past him.”
“Goodness, did the date go that well?”
“No, the guy was a schmuck.”
“The good ones are too hard to find.”
“And how.”
They drank to that.
“Anyway,” Sole said. “I was hoping to explain things to him in person, but maybe it’s better this way. He probably doesn’t want to see me.”
“Okay, that’s a lie and you know it. He likes having you around. You work well together.”
“Well it can’t be for my sleuthing skills. I’m a rotten detective.”
“God, you two could throw one hell of a pity party. ‘Oh, I’m Institute garbage,’ ‘Oh, I’m not the best private investigator in the world.’ You know, one of these days I’m just going to start agreeing with you guys.”
“Now who’s lying,” Sole said.
“Whatever. Like I said, I know he likes having you around. Take all the time you need, but I hope you’ll consider working with us again when you’re feeling better. It doesn’t have to be soon. Just someday. It would help Nick and I both out a lot.”
“Am I really that useful? I mean, I can shoot a fly between the wings, but that’s not exactly a rare skill nowadays.”
“Listen, whether you want to believe it or not, you’re more help than you think. Aside from knocking out cases right and left, something was different about Nick after you showed up. At first I thought he was just glad to be out of that Vault—but that good mood of his didn’t go away. Did you know that he’s been humming lately? And I don’t mean the ’something’s malfunctioning’ sort of humming. I mean, actual tunes. He never did that before. And he quit doing it as soon as you left.”
Sole’s heart skipped a beat. She ignored it; she couldn’t afford to get sentimental.
“No, I didn’t know that,” she said, then sipped her drink.
“The thing is, even if there’s nothing romantic between you two, he’s better off when he’s with you. I don’t know, maybe he just needed a friend who he could talk to about the old days. I forget sometimes that he wasn’t always used to this place.”
Sole wanted to be a good friend to him—she wanted to help him—she wanted to be near him. Yet just saying his name was agony. She wished she could blink and make it go away. Blink away the glowing neon arrow stuck in her heart.
“I think… I think that would hurt too much. To stay,” she said.
Ellie’s look softened.
“Oh, what am I doing?” she said, patting Sole’s hand. “You’re heartbroken and just trying to take care of yourself, and here I am dragging you back because I want a lighter workload. You do what you need to do. We’ll be okay.”
Sole chanced a smile.
“Thanks,” she said.
“And in the meanwhile, let’s have another,” Ellie reached for the bottle and refilled their glasses.
Sole held up her drink.
“To the good ones.”
“The good ones.”
Just as she raised the glass to her lips, the door opened. Nick stepped inside.
“Alright Ellie, looks like I owe you some caps. The guy had a mistress in—” he caught sight of Sole. He froze in his tracks.
“Oh. You’re back,” he said.
“And I’m out of here,” Ellie said. “Bye Nick, bye Sole.”
She grabbed her bag and rushed out the door, leaving silence in her wake. Nick took off his hat and ran a thumb along the brim. Sole could feel him looking at her, but she couldn’t bring herself to meet his eyes. She tapped her glass with her fingernail.
“I… I didn’t expect to see you so soon,” he said.
“Sorry for not calling first.”
He almost laughed.
“Well I hoped you would drop by. I wasn’t sure when you’d come back around, and it’s been so long—”
“Two weeks.”
“Is that all?”
“Yeah,” Sole stood, folded her arms across her middle, and walked closer. “I’m sorry for running off like that. I didn’t mean to worry you.”
“And I didn’t mean to hurt you. Do you want to talk? I—”
“No,” she said, a little harsher than she meant to. “I mean… not yet. For now, let’s just pretend it didn’t happen.”
“Alright.”
A moment passed in silence. She picked at a loose thread on her Vaultsuit. Then they both spoke at once.
“I—”
“So—oh, sorry, were you going to say something?”
“No, no, go ahead.”
He passed his hand over his eyes.
“Look, I—I know things haven't been easy for you,” he said, “and it’s selfish of me to ask, but… it’d be a lie if I said I didn’t want you to stay. You’re the best damn partner I’ve ever had. Been a while since I’ve had someone I trust watching my back.”
Sole could almost feel the arrow cutting her heart in two.
“Oh, I—”
“I understand if you don’t want to.”
“The truth is—I mean, the reason I came back—what I came to say is—” she took a deep breath.
I’m going to go away for a while, she wanted to say. Can’t say how long. I need some time to sort myself out.
He had given her an out, and she had to take it. She began to speak, intent on telling him that she would leave, but all that talk of trust and helping one another and humming—it bounced around her skull and scrambled her thoughts. Before she knew what she was doing, she said,
“I, um… I wanted to offer a hand. Get back to the way things were. See if there were any cases you wanted help with.”
“Are you sure?”
No.
“Yes,” she said. She held out her hand. “Partners?”
“Partners.”
He shook her hand, lingering a moment before letting go. Sole raised her eyes just enough to see his lips. He drew in a breath as though he wanted to say something. He took a step forward, paused, then turned away and put his hat back on.
“There’s a—” he cleared his throat, “a holotape this guy wants me to find. Thought that might be right up your alley, after helping me find those Winter tapes.”
“Sounds fun. I’ll need to catch some shut-eye first, though. Come find me at the Dugout in the morning, will you?”
“Hey, no partner of mine is gonna waste caps on those filthy beds. You can still sleep here; take my bed. If we’re going to get back to how things were, we might as well start there.”
“I guess someone should make use of it. What do you even have a bed for, anyway?”
“What, do you think I like standing up all the time?”
“You’re always standing up for something.”
“And you’re always falling for anything,” he said with a grin.
If that isn’t the truth, she thought.
“Right now the only falling I’m doing is falling asleep. That whiskey went straight to my head. ’Night.”
“Don’t let the radroaches bite.”
Sole went into the other room, took off her boots, and stretched out on the bed. She pressed her knuckles to her forehead.
Idiot, she thought. You were this close to getting away.
Barely a minute had passed when Nick leaned around the corner. He held the doorpost, not quite looking straight at her. His eyes glowed bright against the darkness. The sight made her catch her breath.
“Can I help you, Mr. Valentine?” she said.
“I know I’ve said it already, but I just wanted to tell you that I’m glad you’re back,” he hesitated, then added, “Well, goodnight.”
Then he disappeared back into the office, and Sole was left with nothing but her quiet tears and the arrow in her heart.