Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Blue didn’t look so good. If Piper was being really honest with herself, Blue hadn’t looked well for a while. Piper had so far managed to pack those thoughts away into a small, dark corner of her mind and forget about them, but watching Blue stagger around the Third Rail had them all swimming up to the surface again.

She popped another gum drop in her mouth and sighed as she chewed. Careful to eat it with the side of her mouth that still had all her back teeth. Commonwealth dentistry left a lot to be desired. While Dr Sun did what he could, he was fighting an constant, and expensive, uphill battle against radiation. And Piper always swore to herself that she’d walk right up to a deathclaw nest before she let Dr Crocker near her face, even if it would have meant spending a lot less caps. If Blue thought that replacing her vault suit for a rusty set of armour and a few scars and burns could help her fit in here in Goodneighbour, she was dead wrong. The double row of clean, white teeth gave away how little time she had really spent out in the wasteland.

Nick had left for Diamond City hours ago to settle things and hand over to Ellie. Just in case they didn’t come back from the next trip Piper supposed, though it had all gone unsaid. She wasn’t really sure what she was doing here, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave either. She had already agreed to watch Dogmeat while the dynamic duo disappeared into the wastes that were much too radioactive for a dog. Piper knew that if Blue could find a small enough hazmat suit or tiny set of dog shaped power armour then he’d be staying by her side.

She had infiltrated Fort Hagen with him, Nick had been there for the journey but Blue had sent him packing as soon as they arrived. Said it was something she had to do alone, obviously Dogmeat didn’t count. Maybe he was the only one she trusted. Piper didn’t blame her for that, there was so little to trust left in this world and anyway, Dogmeat couldn’t talk to tell her secrets.

Piper had assumed that the scheduled meeting with Dr Amari in the Memory Den could possibly bring some answers, but she hadn’t expected the chaos that had descended on them when Blue had pulled a piece of brain out of her pack.

Not just any brain either. Piper winced at the thought of it. She was sure that if she was in Blue’s footsteps looking for Nat she would have killed the guy too, hell she had never liked Kellogg in the first place. Not even when he was a neighbouring resident and she’d occasionally see him at the noodle bar, but she still wasn’t so sure she would have reacted exactly the way that Blue had. Namely, arriving back in Diamond City wearing the guys blood covered clothes and waving around his gun, her pockets full of cybernetic parts looted from his corpse.

Security had nearly put her in a cell for the night till she calmed down, but Blue had managed to evade their clutches somehow and had appeared in Valentines detective agency. Piper had already been there trying to get Nick to give her some information; something, anything she could print about the 200 year old woman who had appeared in town less than a month before. Then Blue herself had stumbled in, her hair slicked to her head with sweat and grime, her eyes wild, wearing that damned armour she’d seen Kellogg wear so many times before. They had finally calmed her down enough for them to all make the short but often perilous trip to Goodneighbour, the Super Mutants near Boston Common nearly outgunning them in their haste.

Even once they managed to drag themselves to the Memory Den, it had nearly all gone wrong again. Blue had made a lot of terrible jokes, compared Nick to a toaster and then hopped straight into the machine. Not phased at all by being hooked up by the doctor she’d mildly insulted when they’d met literally three minutes before. Piper wondered if she’d be as reckless if she had nothing left to lose. Sometimes it seemed that Blue was wandering around in a dream, maybe she didn’t think any of this was real yet. Her luck had certainly held out.

Not many people could have made it all the way from Sanctuary to Diamond City, let alone killed a deathclaw. And Blue had been wearing a vault suit, with only her dead husbands 200 year old rifle to defend herself. If the stories were true that is.

Piper hadn’t heard as much as a peep out of Preston or any of the other remaining minute men for a long time on her travels, it was possible that the woman who would wear her enemies clothes and steal their weapons had killed them all too. She shook the thought away, Blue was a good person, she reminded herself for the millionth time today. She was just a bit lost.

Piper knew deep down that the stories probably were true, why wouldn’t they be? After all, the woman had been wearing a full set of ancient power armour when she had first met her outside Diamond City. Anyway, there were going to be a lot of deathclaws in the glowing sea and she was hoping that she would see Blue and Nick again. The stories gave her hope that she would. 

Magnolia had stopped singing and had swayed her way over to Blue, placing a well manicured finger on a slender arm as they spoke. Blue had changed out of Kelloggs blood covered armour for the evening at least, her toned body cut a much nicer figure in the worn pair of jeans and the plain T-shirt. Magnolia certainly seemed to agree. Their faces much too close together for a casual chat. Piper had instantly made a fool of herself by congratulating Magnolia on her ‘real great set‘ and so had decided to sit the rest of the evening out. Yet she couldn’t help but watch with interest as they talked, noting the twinge of jealousy as it rose up, though she was not sure who it was in aid of.

She had only just met the strange vault dweller with the out of date slang phrases Piper had only ever heard on holotapes and terrible sense of humour, but she had also never given Magnolia much more than a passing glance before tonight. Not till the woman was whispering sweet things into Blue’s ear, Blue’s mouth pulling into a smirk. It was the combination of the two of them together that was upsetting her, she thought to herself. Nothing more than that.

She looked down at the bottle, focusing on it much too intently, until the edges of the label blurred. She wished she hadn’t agreed to stay here, wished she had gone back to Diamond City with Nick. They were going to meet back up tomorrow and then leave for the glowing sea immediately.

He had tried to convince Blue to join him on the journey back through the city, but Blue had other ideas. She’d decided that the best plan was to rush straight over to the Third Rail as soon as they left the memory den and drink enough of the warm beers the Mr Handy behind the bar was serving to knock a ghoul unconscious.

Piper had thought it would make her useful to stay, and maybe she’d get a bit more of an interview for a story. But she was just a glorified baby sitter at this point in the evening. She watched as Blue followed Magnolia out of the room and up the subway stairs.

The dog turned to her and whined before he followed after them. Piper sighed and put the Nuka Cola bottle down on the table in front of her. She left a few caps for Whitechapel Charlie, even though she didn’t know what it could possibly spend them on, and followed Blue and Dogmeat. Magnolia supporting Blue as she veered drunkenly as they exited the building heading in the direction of the Rexford. Piper knew exactly what they were planning to do, and the thought made her jaw clench, though she didn’t quite know why. 

It was going to be a long night.

Chapter Text

I’ve got…well…you probably aren’t going to like this…” Blue’s voice was mechanical from inside the power armour helmet, but Piper could hear the fear in it.

She could feel herself begin to hyperventilate inside her own set of armour, as the toxic rain thudded down on the roof upon where they huddled. They were hiding out in an abandoned red rocket. Blue’s pipboy told them that they weren’t too far from the edge of the glowing sea, but the quiet beeping of the gigacounter on Pipers power armour meant they were still much too far away for her liking.

“I got two.” Blue finally finished. “What have you got?”

Piper wanted to throw her head back and laugh hysterically at the hopelessness of it all. They were going to die. They’d made it all the way into the glowing sea, found Dr Virgil and made it half way out at a crawl due to dehydration and exhaustion. It was the biggest scoop she ever got, and they were going to die before she could publish it.

Piper found herself wishing she could see Blue’s face. See if she had any hope left in her eyes. Instead, she checked her gun.

“I’ve got two, too.” She answered finally.

Blue hummed. “Four bullets between us and three rad scorpions following us. Man…that’s not great odds.”

“And it’s raining, which will definitely ruin my notes.” Piper said, Blue chuckled quietly at the attempt at humour.

“Tell you what, if we make it out of here I’ll buy you dinner.”

“Dinner!” Piper laughed. “I want more than dinner, you’ll take me up to the stands so I can see how them rich folks live. I’ve been thrown out of there so many times…”

“Yeah well, they have to let us in once we kill these bugs and sell the stingers.” Piper knew Blue was smirking behind the helmet.

“It’s a date then?” Blue continued.

Piper suddenly glad Blue couldn’t see the flush that had risen in her cheeks, but reasoning that they were about to die anyway she shrugged. “Sure, a date.”

When Blue had said she didn’t trust nick and begged piper to come with her, pipers initial reaction had been to tell her to go fuck herself. Then journalistic integrity had taken over and before she had known what the hell she was doing, Blue was presenting her with her spare set of power armour and helping her climb in. Piper hadn’t asked where it had come from, the blood inside it had barely been washed away. They had left at first light and done the trip in a day and a half, piper wasn’t sure she had ever been so tired. It had lived up to its name, the glowing sea. Almost florescent and bursting to the brim with horrors.

“So, what’s the plan?” Piper asked gently. “We can’t stay here forever, neither of us has much fusion core left.”

She had been watching hers slowly empty for the last hour of their journey. Begging it to hold on. Blue turned to look at her, an eyebrow cocked. “How do you feel about a run?”