Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Can we go see Nick now?” Shaun asked from the doorway.

Sunny groaned and pulled the blanket up over her head. She hadn’t even climbed out of bed yet.

Hancock walked around Shaun with two mugs of hot coffee. “Hey, champ, give mom a few minutes to wake up, huh?” He sat on the edge of the bed and set one mug down so he could pass the other to his wife without spilling it.

Shaun sighed. “It’s been a week since Ellie’s radio message aired. She said it was urgent.”

“We’ve only been home a week,” Sunny reminded him. They were still recovering from the chaos and fun of Nuka World.

“Shaun, Nicky’s been at his job at least sixty years. If this job is really urgent, he would have started it already.” Hancock rubbed the lump under the blanket. “Mornin’, Sunshine.” A nickname he’d given her out of sarcasm when they met, now the only name she responded to. Hancock only used it out of affection anymore. Sleepy hazel eyes met his as he pulled the blanket down. Hancock leaned down to kiss his wife and wrap her cool hands around the warm mug.

The first frost had rolled in with the fog during the night. The Old State House had warmed up since the wood stoves were lit, but the morning chill made them appreciate hot coffee that much more.

“But Ellie was calling for mom,” Shaun insisted.

“That’s ‘cause mom’s the one who rescued Nick from Vault One-Fourteen.”

“Nick can handle most things by himself,” Sunny mumbled with the mug at her lips. “Ellie worries like she’s his mom.” She made a noise of appreciation through the first sip of hot coffee. They were lucky they had it. Actual coffee was uncommon anymore, most people used substitutes of teas, coyote tobacco, or select mushrooms, all imported from the Crimson Caravan out west. When they found actual coffee, it was more of a treat saved for cold days.

Shaun groaned with slumped shoulders and teetered in the doorway. “But it’s Diamond City.” As if everyone wanted to visit Diamond City.

“Shaun, Diamond City is just a baseball stadium people live in. There’s nothing special about it,” Sunny told him.

“And they still don’t like ghouls,” Hancock reminded.

“But mom’s famous there.” Shaun’s eyes bulged.

“Dad is infamous there.”

“Shaun, you don’t even like any of the kids there,” Sunny reminded him.

“But I want to see Nick again.”

“Why do you want to see Nick so bad?” Hancock asked. He rubbed his wife’s arm through the blanket and drank his own coffee. Even though it was hotter than he liked, the heat blossomed through him as it trickled down his throat.

“He doesn’t know I’m a synth, too.”  

Hancock looked at his son. The truth about Shaun’s origin had come out in their recent vacation to Nuka World. Shaun hadn’t taken the revelation well, but learning Sunny and Hancock still loved him had helped him cope. Nick Valentine already knew, but Shaun didn’t know others had kept the secret. And Shaun found Nick fascinating because Nick was a prototype Generation Two synth who was self-aware, unlike the robotic Gen Two’s from the Institute. 

It seemed being synthetic was the bridge that connected Shaun to the detective he idolized.

“You can’t just write Nick and tell him you’re a synth?” Sunny asked.

“Like a letter? Who’s going to deliver it?” Shaun asked.

Sunny sighed, eyes closed with the steaming mug at her face. “I guess us.”

“Yes!” Shaun grinned. “Thanks, mom!” He ran back towards his room.

“But not till I finish my coffee!”

Chapter Text

Diamond City was closer than Hancock was comfortable with. Even though he and Sunny had outed the mayor - Hancock’s own brother - as a synth after they’d blown up the Institute, the Great Green Jewel still harbored disgust for ghouls.

And Hancock and Sunny were both ghouls. Even though the city knew they blew up the Institute and they’d seen Sunny’s progression with ghoulism, prejudice was still rampant. Hancock’s synth-replaced brother had drilled that prejudice into their minds when he first became mayor. Sunny was becoming less and less the Wanderer from Vault One-Eleven and more something the Diamond City residents wanted to sneer at.

The only reason Sunny agreed was to make sure Nick Valentine wasn’t being held hostage again.

At least this time, Ellie had prepared the guards that Nick’s partner the Woman Out of Time was arriving. Instead of guns in their faces, all Sunny and Hancock got this time were guards with tight mouths and glares that their sunglasses didn’t hide.

“Diamond City finally has a new mayor, huh?”

Hancock turned to see Nick Valentine approach the noodle stand with them. “You better not be talkin’ about me.”

“You see any other mayors around?” Valentine asked. Nick wasn’t shy about his disapproval of the City Council that had replaced McDonough. Piper was the only Council member who didn’t live in the Upper Stands, so her concerns were often brushed aside.

“Is that any way to greet an old friend, Nicky?” he teased. Hancock accepted a cigarette fresh from Nick’s new pack.

Shaun spun and gasped. “Mr. Valentine!” No one ever looked more excited to see Nick than Shaun always was.

“Hi, kid.” Valentine lit a cigarette. “Kill any super mutants on the way here?”

“Nah.” Shaun looked a little disappointed. “I think we’re starting to scare them off. I haven’t seen one in weeks.”

“That long, huh? Maybe I ought to look into that,” Nick mused.

“Woah, hey now,” Sunny interjected. “One case at a time, please? Buddy?”

“Speaking of.” Nick gestured toward the alley that led to his office. “You have any trouble getting in?” He asked as they started off.

“Funny enough, no. This is the nicest they’ve been all year,” Sunny told him. Since the biggest change in her ghoulism happened.

Nick made a noise of approval with the cigarette in his plastic lips. “Good. Ellie went above and beyond again. She reminded them you stopped the Institute while the guards let them infiltrate the city with McDonough. Between you and me, she grows more bark as the years pass.”

“In that case, I oughta take her out for a drink,” Sunny said.

“Dames night out, huh? Thanks for the heads-up. At least I’ll know to bail you out later,” Nick joked.

“Hey, I’m game for that,” Hancock piped up. “I could use a men’s night in, myself.”

“And while you and mom are getting drunk, what am I going to do?” Shaun asked.

Hancock gave the boy a double-take. “Huh? Oh, hey. Yeah, that’s right, I got a son. Hey, Sunny? You know we got a kid?” he teased.

Shaun glared at him. “Very funny.”

“You can help me, of course,” Valentine told him. “I know I have an extra trench coat somewhere.”

“Yeah, that’s a good plan. Shaun has big news for you, too,” Sunny added.

“Oh, yeah!” Shaun perked up like he’d already forgotten.

The stale cloud of cigarette smoke that clung to air in Valentine’s office was a welcome reprieve from the stuffy, arrogant eyes that had followed them through town.

There was no ladies’ night out or men’s night in. Instead, Ellie had dinner delivered. For a while, it was a quiet night in with friends that both Sunny and Hancock often forgot they had. Valentine responded to Shaun's news as the boy hoped. When at last they got around to discussing the case over drinks, the night was pretty damn good.

The Nakano case seemed easy enough. The daughter was missing and the father was upset, but the mother just wanted her daughter happy. It seemed like a case of a runaway teen, and most teens could survive the wasteland alone. Assuming the girl had run off for a boy, the case was as simple as tracking the girl and telling her to write home. To Shaun’s delight, Valentine offered to accompany them; for a Gen Two, he was as restless as Sunny. The road to the Nakano residence would also take them north of Coastal Cottage, and Shaun had a friend whose family settled there.

Compared to their last vacation, this one didn’t seem so bad. Their only worry this time was the autumn frost.

But reaching the Nakano residence brought an uneasy feeling upon all of them. It wasn’t just north of Coastal Cottage, it was isolated. It was so far from any settlement and trade routes that it was a miracle raiders never took over the place. They wanted to believe the Nakano girl ran off for a boy, but a girl who never saw anyone but her parents would have no boy to run off with.

A holotape locked away in a safe revealed Kasumi Nakano had taken her father’s boat to a place called Far Harbor. The situation grew more curious when they asked the parents about it.

“She went to Far Harbor?” Kenji echoed. His eyes darted through a dreading sigh. “No wonder she took the boat.”

“I’m guessing Far Harbor is… a ways away?” Sunny asked, looking from Nick to Kenji.

“Yes, it’s up north,” Kenji’s wife Rei said. "Past Old Port." 

“What used to be the coast of Maine,” Valentine explained to Sunny.

“Maine?” Sunny searched Nick’s plastic face. So few people used old world territory names that they sounded almost foreign now. Then she turned her head and tried to conceal a sigh. “You mean Bar Harbor? The Acadia National Park island?”  

Nick searched his memory with a hum. “Yeah, now that I think of it. Huh. Wonder how Bar became Far. Not much in the way of creativity. You’d think the residents would have chosen a better name.”

Sunny gave an empty smile to the Nakanos and tugged on Hancock and Valentine. “Excuse us for a minute.”

“Ma’am.” Valentine tipped his hat at Mrs. Nakano as Sunny dragged him outside.

“Oh, boy, what now?” Hancock asked his wife when they were out on the dock out of earshot of the house.

“I am not setting foot in Bar Harbor. Far Harbor. Whatever it’s called now.” Sunny shook her head.

Hancock sighed as quiet as he could. “Something else Nate did before the bombs?”

She glared at him. “In a sense. That was the start of my nightmare with him, I just didn’t know it yet. His parents ran the Visitors Center at the National Park, so I had to have my honeymoon there. I didn’t have a choice. Nate promised me France, but when we got to the airport, he told me Change of plans!” She gave another empty and irritated smile. “I was young and naive and Nate glamorized it with false promises on buying our dream home with all the money we were saving on our honeymoon in Maine. It wasn’t remarkable then, and I promise it won’t be remarkable now.”

“To be fair, I never promised fun,” Valentine said. “It’s a case of a missing child, after all.” Sunny glared at him now.

Hancock could only shake his head. “You had a boring honeymoon there, so you don’t want to go now?”

“John.”

Hancock shrugged. “That was over two-hundred-ten years ago,” he reminded her. “If you’re worried about his parents, I doubt they’re still alive.”

“I’m still alive,” she pointed out.

“A fair point.” He nodded. “But the bombs changed the Commonwealth, so Far Harbor might’ve changed too.”

“Okay, but why would a young woman who loves to tinker take a boat to a fishing island to ask if she was a synth?” She asked. “If that was the case, the girl would have tracked down some clinic or scientist, like the Memory Den. Anywhere closer than two states away.”

“Another fair point,” Nick admitted. “We can ask her when we find her, if she’s still there.”

“It’ll just be a quick trip,” Hancock assured his wife. “Right, Nicky? We’ll take the boat up there, ask about the girl and make sure she’s not dead, then we’ll come home.”

“It’s a good week’s trip by boat,” Sunny told them. “Without storms.”

“If I knew a way through on land that wouldn’t take us months, I’d have suggested it,” Nick said.

Sunny looked at Nick’s yellow eyes. “What do you mean? Why would it take us months to walk there?”

“The last memory I have of Old Port - formerly Portland, Maine,” Nick told her, “it was barricaded. Tall junk walls from Portsmouth to Montreal. And as far as I know, the entire coast of Maine is cut off from the rest of the land. The Islanders, they call themselves, “ he explained, “are a different type of human than anyone who lives inland. They made their own walls to keep mainlanders out.”

“Different how? Ghouls?” Hancock guessed.

“No,” Nick shook his head. “Descended from hunters and sailors, right? They’re more rugged and harsh than anyone you find in the Commonwealth. No common raider would survive a week up there.”

Sunny sighed in defeat. Her eyes narrowed at Shaun who was listening to Kasumi’s holotapes on her projects. “I… guess it’s a good thing he’s a good shot.” She sighed again and turned away to pace and light a cigarette. “Remind me to ground that boy when we get home.”

Chapter Text

It was dark when they arrived at Far Harbor. The trip had been filled with boredom with bouts of nausea that Sunny called sea sickness. Hancock had never been on a boat before, not one that wasn’t stationary and used as a raider outpost. He and Shaun spent most the time hugging the side of the boat with their heads over edge, fighting the urge to vomit. The only thing keeping Hancock’s stomach under control was the icy wind whipping his face.

“Huh.” Valentine stared at the old billboard welcoming them to Far Harbor. A single dull, flickering lamp illuminated the fog and lit the sign like a whole shelf of bright candles. Some of the image was worn away, breaking up what used to be more words. “The B is weathered away. Well, that explains the poor choice in name.“

Hancock opened his eyes to glimpse the passing sign. Sunny had been right, Bar Harbor became Far Harbor because of sun bleaching. He wished he could say that didn’t reflect the intellect of this world’s people. “That’s great. I just hope they have a bar.” But if he was honest with himself, Hancock wasn’t sure he could stomach even clean water. Sea sickness was a mean bitch.

Shaun made his way around the front edge of the boat to look at the incoming orange glow of lanterns. Thick fog sat in shimmering wisps, reflecting the lamplight in almost a sinister way. “Woah… it looks like something from those ghost stories the Neighborhood Watch guys tell.”

Sunny sighed. “Mutants, cannibals, big bugs, that flying shark…” Not an avian shark, but one that glided out of the water a few seconds at a time. Damn mutant fish had almost cracked their boat by the time they killed it. It had made a good meal, though. “Why not ghosts?” She took manual control of the boat and slowed it down so they could dock.

“Because not enough monsters would be too easy,” Nick joked.

“Right. The Universe can’t function if it’s not making life exponentially harder for us,” she joked back.

As if proving her point, the second they all stepped off the boat, they stared into the barrel of a shotgun. Not only did the welcoming party not like Mainlanders, but they had almost no experience with ghouls that weren’t feral. Not to mention Valentine the rundown synth.  If it weren’t for Shaun who wasn’t ghoulified, the adults in their party might have died the moment they stepped off the boat. And as soon as they convinced the man to lower his gun, the Captain of the town demanded their help fending off an attack. Hancock didn’t have time to get his bearings back before they were all ushered to the top of the hull.

Sunny squinted to try to see past the thick fog that reflected so much light. She peered through her scope. “How are we supposed to see anything until it’s too late?” she muttered. Hancock cocked his shotgun and held it at the ready.

“Something’s coming!” Mariner yelled. Someone fired a rifle.

“Stop shooting! It’s people!” Shaun cried out.

“Let us in! We have wounded!” a man pleaded, stumbling as he reached the barricade.

“It’s too late!” Mariner told the guy.

“Hey!” Sunny looked over. “Open the damn gate! Your people need in!”

“They don’t have any guns!” Shaun yelled over his shoulder. “They’re gonna die!”

“No! It’s too late! Look! Something’s coming!” Mariner insisted.

Sunny sighed in aggravation, then jumped off the hull and ran ahead to put herself between the people and whatever Mariner saw.

“Shaun, stay!” Hancock followed his wife, and Valentine followed him. Hancock shoved his back up shotgun at Sunny. She would need it.

“Someone care to share what they saw?” Valentine raised his voice over the panicking villagers.

Sunny peered through her scope “What the fuck?” Then she gasped and her rifle fired with a spark that illuminated her face for a split second. “Shit.” She tossed her rifle to the ground and readied the shotgun Hancock gave her.

Bounding out of the fog were creatures Hancock had never seen. Shiny, warty, as fast on two legs as they were on all fours, with thick long tails. He saw no teeth, but he’d bet all of Goodneighbor on those jaws able to rip a head clean off in one go. While they went down easy enough, they came from all directions. It was almost as bad as fighting feral ghouls. The second wave was worse. Webbed creatures with long, gangling toes and tiny lights attached to their heads. Those bastards were even faster than the toothless freaks.

Sunny peered over the creatures after the last one fell. She adjusted the flashlight on her PipBoy so it blared bright white. “What the hell?” She leaned closer and lifted the slimy antenna with the light on the end.

“You seen these things before?” Hancock used the toe of his boot to nudge the glowing antenna on another one.

“They look like angler fish,” she said. “But the actual fish used to be… just the head of this thing. And a lot smaller.”

“Mom! Dad!” Shaun ran up to them, then his eyes grew and he gasped. “Is that a salamander? Oh my god! I thought they were extinct! I’ve always wanted one!” He stared down at one of the slimy, warty creatures they first killed.

“Absolutely not.” Hancock glared at the boy. Not even if they found a baby and raised it like a dog.

“Well, no.” Shaun shook his head as if it was obvious. “The ones I read about were really small, like, you could keep them in little glass tanks.”

Sunny moved near Shaun and peered down in distaste. “Yeah, that’s a salamander all right. Weird that these didn’t really mutate except grew huge. The anglers used to be deep water fish with nothing but a couple fins and those freaky lights. They even kept their creepy teeth.”

“You three done looting?” Nick Valentine joined them out in the fog. The strange machines that moved like a rotating fan blew wisps out right at Nick’s height as he walked through. For a second, the fog hugged his face like a thick winter hood, enhancing his eyes into tiny lanterns. “I found out where the Nakano girl ran off to, but considering the local fauna, we oughta stay at the inn for the night.”

Hancock looked at him with a nod. “Yeah.” He dug in his pockets for the rolls of stacked caps. “Hey, bud, go see if there’s a room available, will ya?” He handed a couple rolls to Shaun. “And get yourself some dinner.”

“Okay.” Shaun pocketed the rolls of caps. “What if they only have one bed, though?”

“We’ll figure somethin’ out.”

“Okay.” The young man looked around and held his hunting rifle tight, then took quick steps to hasten him through the town gates.

“Looks like our biggest problem is going to be radiation,” Nick said. “There’s a road up the mountain we can take, and Avery said the fog thins the higher inland we go. But I’m worried about the kid. The townsfolk say the Children of Atom and wildmen called Trappers are the only ones who can wander the island outside the fog condensers.”

“Well, we brought his hazmat suit this time,” Hancock said.

“We shoulda brought his power armor.” Sunny winced. “I really don’t want to leave him here while we go.”

Hancock looked at the strange, dead creatures again for a moment before turning his wife by the elbow. “Maybe we’ll think of something when the vodka kicks in.”

The fog brought a chill that penetrated the walls during the night. It was a chill that kept threatening their bones. They ended up moving the furniture in the room around and Hancock lit a fire in an old barrel to dry the room out. Window cracked to let the smoke out, mother, father, and son huddled together on a single bed to stay warm. When they awoke and learned most residents didn’t sleep amid walls, the Hancocks sat speechless. Sunny shook her head in disbelief, tightening the wool blanket around her as they sat in front of the roaring fireplace on the first floor. It wasn’t long before Shaun and Hancock pulled their own wool blankets around them next to her. And Valentine, as a machine who could not feel cold, chuckled at them with the locals while they shivered with hot drinks.

A harder thought to swallow was how normal the icy chill of the fog was for these people that they didn’t know a better way to live. When the fog at last dissipated and Hancock, Sunny, and Valentine went around trying to get information, they learned the fog weathering was so severe that repairs had to be done weekly. Constant repair sounded exhausting, and it wasn’t limited to the wood that made up buildings and the gate. Weapons had to be cleaned right by fires so there was no water trapped inside when they oiled them. Tools had to be oiled daily to repel moisture. Moss stained every exposed piece of wood and had to be scraped off every day. And every piece of furniture with a cushion - beds, sofas - all had vinyl or rubbery covers on them. It was the only way fabric wouldn’t mold.

And harder yet? Some of the refugees that slept outside in damp sleeping bags with no shelter from the fog were children.

It was hard to imagine these Islanders keeping themselves cut off from dry land on their own accord. But they did. It was as if they liked living with the fog saturating everything they touched.

Talking to the harbormen was almost a separate job in itself. The Hancocks and Valentine were Mainlanders and therefore untrustworthy. Even after they offered to help since they had to hunt for Kasumi anyway, no one seemed to want to talk to them.

Until Sunny asked the weaponsmith, Allen, why he thought the Children of the Atom were to blame for the fog and creature attacks.

“They feed the damn fog,” Allen said. “From wherever they’re holed up, they make it stronger. Avery thinks I’m out of my mind, but those fog condensers? Before the Children arrived, those things were halfway up the damn island. We used to walk around for salvage without a care. Most of us had our own homesteads. Now we can’t leave this damn dock or we risk death.” The guy seemed like the standard suspicious bastard, but his concerns seemed legitimate. The Children of the Atom in the Commonwealth also did what they could to spread radiation. Hancock had even heard stories how some branches of that crazy religion forced people into high radiation exposure to create glowing ghouls. To the Children of Atom, glowing ghouls were like living gods.

“What’s so special about the fog here?” Sunny asked.

“In my daddy’s day, the fog was nothin’ more than a nuisance,” Allen told her. “Now? If it doesn’t give you rad boils and make your hair and skin fall off, you lose your damn mind. You heard of the Trappers? They make ferals look like the lucky ones. The ones that try to attack town are fucking cannibals. You keep an eye on that boy of yours,” he warned, “because they’ve taken six of ours.”

“They prefer kids?”

Allen’s face scrunched in an angry grimace. “The one I personally killed called kids veal. They’re just as bad as the Children. I hate to say it, but at least the damn Trappers don’t try to hide murder with that damn enlightenment bullshit.”

“At least the Children are consistent wherever they go,” Hancock joked, sardonic.

Allen scoffed in the wryness. “If only they were as easy to infiltrate as they are to predict.” He studied Hancock and Sunny for a moment before narrowing his eyes a little. “Huh. We can’t infiltrate them.” His eyes almost glowed with whatever he was plotting. “But you two could.”

Because ghouls could survive the radiation Children of Atom lived in.

“You want us to infiltrate the Children of Atom?” Sunny doubted. It didn’t sound fun. Hancock was all for people living as they wanted, but the Children of Atom tended to be delusional. Delusional people made jobs hard to complete. “To what, convince them to leave?”

“To sneak explosives in. I guarantee as soon as they’re dead, the damn fog will go back to how it was before. Manageable, not this damn blanket we can’t escape.”

Sunny and Hancock shared a glance before looking back at Allen. “Do you know where they are?” she asked.

Allen made a noise of defeat. “No. I’m willing to supply you with explosives, but you’re on your own for locating them. But,” he added, leaning closer and lowering his voice, “that damn synth in Acadia, DiMA? He’s protecting them. I feel it in my gut. Avery spews the exact same crap he does each time he treks over once a year.” Allen glanced around, then set a small trunk on the counter before them. A quick, slight peek revealed a couple mini nukes. “Wherever they are is bound to have live nukes,” he said. “Those nutjobs don’t settle anywhere without heavy radiation.”

“I… am not comfortable carrying those around for that long.”

Allen slapped a combination lock on the small trunk and slid it under his counter. “If you’re serious about wiping them out, they’ll be here. I will contribute to their extermination even if I can't walk in there myself.”

Sunny nodded. “I’ll see if I can get information out of Acadia when I get there.”

“Good. Now buy my guns and ammo before you head out.”

Talking to Longfellow was less helpful than Allen. While locating and killing the Children of Atom might be necessary, it wasn’t part of the job to find the Nakano girl. Longfellow wanted to travel with them, not tell them how to navigate the island without him. It wasn’t hard to see he was a man well past his prime who longed for the days when he was the hero again. It didn’t help that the old man was already drunk, either, and would not get out of Sunny's face. Listening to his stubborn ass was so draining that even Valentine walked out. It took Hancock threatening to hit the old man before the waitress came over to get Longfellow back in his seat.  

Hancock pitied the old man, but at the same time, the guy was old enough to respect boundaries.

Mitch, the bartender, was the easiest to get information out of. He didn’t give a damn about keeping Islander secrets. And he was happy to give out free drinks with every three they bought.

“Hey, dad?”

Hancock did a double take as Shaun came up to him while Sunny leaned over a menu. “Hey, kid.” Shaun had made himself at home in that strange town. Hancock had a feeling he was searching for some spooky story he could take back home.

“Can I have a few more caps for a couple colas or some lunch? I only have three left over from dinner last night.”

“Oh, yeah.” Hancock dug in his pockets for a couple rolls of caps. He usually let Shaun hold most of them, but the whole trip so far had been hectic. Caps had seemed insignificant compared to sea sickness and their arrival.

“Thanks!” But instead of going to the counter or the waitress, Shaun almost skipped out the back door.

Shaun was not one to skip. But this strange Islander atmosphere fascinated him. Maybe the kid saw excitement in all the cold shoulders and gloom-and-doom. 

Right when Hancock was about to brush off Shaun’s skipping as some food vendor out back, the boy entered again - after holding the door open for a girl.

Shaun didn’t look at his parents as he and the girl went to the bar and Shaun paid, nor as he and the girl sat down in a booth.

Hancock held Sunny’s lower back and leaned in like he only meant to kiss her. By some miracle, Sunny hadn't noticed her son with a girl. “Don’t look too long, but our little boy’s on a date.”  

Naturally, Sunny leaned around Hancock to peek.

Hancock chuckled and turned his wife around to give their boy some privacy on his date. “Don’t embarrass him, Sun.”

“Come on, I just want to see. I’m his mom.” She tried to lean again, but Hancock shoved his mouth to hers to block her. “That’s not funny,” she mumbled into his mouth.

He gave another quiet laugh. “He’s twelve, he might be out of the house in four years . Let him be on his date.”

Chapter Text

Sunny grumbled, but snuck a peek over Hancock’s shoulder. Shaun was smiling at the girl as he talked. Nervous enough to bounce his foot under the table, but confident enough to keep eye contact most the time.

“Sunny,” Hancock scolded with a chuckle. “Don’t make him uncomfortable.”

“Isn’t that the same girl who refused to talk to me earlier?” She stopped the waitress by the elbow as she came near. “Hey, who is that girl with my son?”

The waitress, Debby, set down the tray of empty dishes in the sink and came back to the break in the counter. “Oh, that’s Small Bertha.”

“Small Bertha?” Hancock echoed.

Debby shrugged. “Her name is Bertha, but everyone calls her Smalls because she’s like a little, batty, old woman. She’s… a little crazy.”

“Crazy how?” Sunny peered around Hancock again.

Hancock swatted his wife’s ass. “Stop staring.” Her momma instincts were amusing, though. When he met and fell in love with Sunny, she wasn’t sure she wanted to be a mom anymore. Now she wasn’t ready to see her son growing up so fast.

“Well, maybe strange is a better word. She uses big words a lot. I don’t understand her most days,” Debby admitted.

“Big words like what?” Sunny asked.

“Like she’s trying to sound older than she is. But here in Far Harbor, big words don’t mean much. They can’t fight the fog or the gulpers, so…” She  shrugged with a quiet sigh, then smiled at them. “Figure out what you want to eat?”  

Sometime after Sunny and Hancock found Nick outside, Shaun caught up with his parents. And Shaun introduced his date.

“Hello, ma’am. Hello, sir,” Bertha said. Her eyes gave the impression she was curious about Sunny and Hancock’s ghoulification. But her face showed almost no emotion, and she didn’t ask about it. From her self-control, it was clear she was more mature than most kids her age.

Sunny made an obvious attempt to hide the sparkle in her eyes as she looked at the girl. “Hi, Bertha. It’s nice to meet you.” 

Hancock glanced at Shaun, hoping Sunny wouldn’t embarrass the kid. She still saw Shaun as her little boy. Hancock saw a young man, though. A young man who was clearly interested in a young woman.

“Likewise, ma’am. Shaun told me what you’ve done for the Commonwealth. I don’t know where that is, but on behalf of those people, I thank you. It sounds like that Institute could have targeted any of us if you hadn’t stopped them.”

Hancock was impressed at Shaun’s choice. Maybe it was because Shaun only had adults to socialize with back home and Bertha acted like one. “Nice of you to say,” he told his son’s crush. “It’s been awhile since we did that. A lot of people back home tend to forget unless they want something.”

“Then they’re ungrateful, and that’s no way to live. If the Commonwealth is anything like this island, then life is hard enough without depreciating what we have.”

Very impressed with Shaun’s choice. Hancock hoped he didn’t look too intrigued. “You kids have lunch yet?” Pretending he hadn’t seen Shaun and Bertha on their date.

“Yes, sir.”

“No need to be so formal. We’re a casual family. It’s just Hancock,” he told the girl.

“Uh, can Bertha come with us when we find Kasumi?” Shaun asked. “She knows the island. And she’s not drunk and trying to grope mom like that old guy.”

But Bertha shook her head. “I’d appreciate the work, but I can’t leave my brother here. He’s too young to fend for himself even with all the adults around. He’s too young to go around the island, also.”

Before Sunny or Hancock could say anything, Shaun offered, “I’ll pay for a room for him while we’re gone. And meals, too. It can’t take longer than week, can it? That way you won’t have to worry.”

Hancock tried hard not to smirk. Sunny opened her mouth to interject, but Hancock nudged her. He remembered trying to impress girls for the first time. From a man’s point of view, Shaun was doing it right. He was showing Bertha he was willing to take care of her family. In the wasteland, only love was more important than that.

Bertha stared at Shaun for a moment before looking around the harbor. Then she nodded. “All right. I’ve wanted to search for new places for the harbormen anyway,” she said. “Most of us were pushed from our homesteads. If I can find another home for them, maybe the residents will stop treating us like dregs.”

Sunny studied the girl. “Do you know how to use a gun?”

“Yes, ma’am.” She looked up at her. “My father taught me before he disappeared. But all I have anymore is a switch knife.”

“Do you have armor?”

“No, ma’am.” The clothes Bertha wore were light and tattered. She appeared to have been in them for a long time.

A smile tugged at Sunny’s mouth. There was no doubt she approved of her son’s choice. “Come on. Let’s get you outfitted at Allen’s shop.”

“With all due respect, ma’am, I don’t have the caps to pay you back.”

“Well, consider this insurance in our investment,” Sunny said.

Bertha searched her, cautious. “Ma’am?”

“We could use a competent guide and an extra gun. It’s a good idea to make sure our guide survives the trip, yeah?”

“I…“ Bertha gave a humbled nod. “Thank you, ma’am.”

Shaun and Hancock watched Sunny guide Bertha away. As soon as the women were out of earshot, Hancock moved next to his son and passed him a handful of rolled, stacked caps to pay for Bertha’s brother.

“You told her you’re on dad’s payroll, right?” Wasn’t a far stretch, though. Twelve-year-old Shaun had started patrols with the Neighborhood Watch back home, and he’d even helped fend off an attempted raider attack.

Now, it seemed Shaun had a reason to save his caps for larger investments than weapon mods.

Shaun pocketed the cap rolls. “Of course I did.”

Hancock chuckled and clapped his son’s shoulder with a good squeeze. “Not bad, son.”

Small Bertha stopped for a deep sigh that relaxed her whole body. It was like a tension cord had snapped when they could no longer see Far Harbor.

“You okay?” Hancock asked her.

“Yes, sir.” Bertha nodded. “I didn’t realize how much I needed to put the harbor behind me, is all.”

“Are they really that bad there?” Shaun asked.

“It’s not the people. Not really.” She said. “It’s… heavy there. I can’t explain it.”

Sunny and Hancock exchanged a glance of concern. Living as a refugee in Far Harbor with no choice but to mother her brother had depressed Bertha. Hancock and Sunny both struggled with depression their whole lives, pretty much until they fell in love with each other. Shaun had had his own bout of depression when he learned he was a synth and Hancock wasn’t his biological father. Now young Bertha. It was becoming clearer why Shaun was so drawn to her. The boy saw himself in Bertha.

“Did Shaun tell you I was born before the bombs fell?” Sunny asked the girl as they continued hiking.

“Yes, ma’am. Vault One-eleven.”

“Yeah. Between that and the Minutemen wanting me to lead… things felt pretty heavy for me, too.”

Bertha watched Sunny. “What changed? When you became a ghoul?”

“No, that came later.” Sunny thought for a moment. “I met John. That’s what changed. I fell in love with him.” Hancock’s chest swelled at her words. He knew she loved him. But it never hurt to hear her say it. “He was the first person my entire life who wanted me to do what was best for me and not other people.”

“Oh. “ Bertha frowned a little, looking down. “I’m… a little young for that.”

Hancock glanced at his son. Shaun seemed to take her statement well. “You know, there are different types of love,” he told the girl. “I don’t love Shaun like I love his mom.”

Shaun grimaced with a noise of disgust. “Thank god.”   Hancock couldn’t help a grin.

Sunny groaned. “Good lord, boys.” Hancock grinned at her, now. He locked her hand in his and brought it up to his mouth before squeezing it.

Valentine made a noise in thought. “I almost feel fortunate I can’t have relations like that.”

“Relations? Eew.” Shaun’s grimace hardened.

 “You’re all welcome,” Hancock joked, the grin so wide it almost hurt.

“Dad, stop.” Shaun laughed through a grimace, though.

“Yeah, babe. Shaun’s embarrassed you’ll scare Bertha off,” Sunny teased.

“You guys are… actually pretty normal, compared to the harbormen,” Bertha said.

“Did you just say my parents are normal?” Shaun did a double-take. Hancock knew better, though. Shaun was as zany as his parents.

“Anyone who doesn’t spend all day griping about impending doom seems normal to me,” Bertha told them. 

“Oh, right. I guess that’s why you want to find new homes for them?” Shaun asked. The atmosphere of Far Harbor was so different than Goodneighbor’s optimism, though, that Shaun was fascinated despite what Bertha felt.

“Yes. So, who is this woman you’re after?”

“Kasumi,” Shaun answered. He walked a little closer to Bertha. “We found holotapes she’d made where she thought she was a synth.” He paused with an uncomfortable glance at the girl. “Do… you know what a synth is?”

“You mean like… this detective?” Bertha looked at Valentine.

“There are a few types of synths,” Nick told her.

“I know Brooks is one. The general goods merchant? He said they’re still people, just made a different way.”

“Yeah.” Valentine paused a second to light a cigarette. “I’m a prototype Generation Two. That Brooks fella is a Generation Three. He’s not wrong about them, they’re still people. In fact, they’re indistinguishable from regular people.”

“Yeah, what… Mr. Valentine said. Uh…” So Shaun had not told Bertha yet. For his son’s sake, Hancock hoped it made no difference to Bertha how Shaun was made. “So, Kasumi ran away here because she thinks she’s a synth. Captain Avery said she left for Acadia. I think all we have to do is make sure she’s not in danger.”

“Well, we might need to do more, but we’ll find out when we get there. Let’s not jump the gun, sport,” Nick told Shaun.

The young lady stared at Nick. “How are you smoking?” Curiosity had overpowered her desire to be proper.

“I’m not, really,” Nick said, flicking ashes away. “It’s more of a habit than anything. I was programmed with the memories of a real detective from the old world, Nick Valentine. He was a heavy smoker. I may not have lungs, but I have the real Nick’s memories of how the smoke felt in his lungs, and the sensation triggers memories of how they taste.”

“You’re not actually smoking, but you can taste it and feel it?”

“That I can. Memory is a powerful tool,” Valentine said. “In my case, it brings a sense of comfort."

“Hey, Bertha!” Shaun perked up, walking closer to her, trying to pull her attention back to him. “You know how to cook, right?”

“Oh, here we go,” Sunny joked. Shaun and  Hancock grinned.

Sunny was not a cook. In their family, Hancock was the chef. Shaun also had cooking talent, but he preferred to tinker than experiment with food.

“I know some recipes. The issue isn’t with recipes most of the time, though. Ingredients are harder to get out here,” Bertha explained.

“But you eat a lot of mirelurk, right? Do you have any good ways to eat them? All we have in the Commonwealth is mirelurk cakes or sometimes roasted with butter, if the brahmin give enough milk.”

“He’s asking because I hate mirelurk but Shaun loves it,” Sunny said. “I can’t stand the smell in the house. I forbid it.”

Bertha smiled like she didn’t mean to. “Everyone in the harbor hates the smell, too. But we don’t have other meat most days.”

Hancock tried not to notice Shaun’s double-take and sudden fixation on the young woman’s mouth. It wasn’t hard to see Shaun’s crush on Bertha. Hancock began thinking how he could prolong their adventure so his son had time to kiss the girl.

“Hm. Yeah, it was kind of like that before the bombs, too,” Sunny recalled. “Most coastal towns, deer and beef were a luxury. Ironically, seafood was a luxury for people who didn’t live anywhere near water.”

“Some things never change, huh?” Bertha concluded.

“So do you know any good recipes? My mom doesn’t cook, but my dad-”

“No.” Sunny shot Shaun a sharp glare. “You see all this fog? If you cooked mirelurk at home, it would be like this all around Goodneighbor, but instead of gloom and doom it would be rancid crab.” She gave a deep, cringing shudder in raw disgust. “I forbid that smell around our home, young man.” It was one of the funniest ways to tease her.

Shaun turned his head to try to hide his grin, but his shoulders shook with his silent laugh. It made Hancock laugh, interrupting his attempt to light a cigarette. Even Nick’s plastic cheeks stretched in a grin.

“There is a trick for that,” Bertha said. “You need to cook it in milk. But the Island hasn’t seen brahmin in decades.”

“Aha! Now we have to try it!” Shaun declared with a grin that stretched ear-to-ear.

“I am not wasting good milk on mirelurk. Eew, no.” Sunny stared at her son a moment, still stuck in that grimace. Then she shook her head with an accidental chuckle. “Shaun, you’re fired.”

Chapter Text

Except Valentine who didn’t eat or sleep, the party huddled around a hot, blazing fire. Nick kept watch while Sunny and Hancock did their best to create a dry space to sleep in. Aside from a few skittish radstags, the long, winding, uphill road had been uneventful. But the climb had been steep enough on foot that they needed to rest. A couple dim lights flickered in the distance, but it was never wise to approach a new settlement without strength to run. Not even Bertha knew what to expect of Acadia other than its leader, DiMA, gave her the creeps the only time she saw him.

Gamy radstag ribs cooked over the fire. Not as fatty as Hancock family preferred their meat, but it smelled good all the same. Every little drop of grease or blood sizzled onto glowing coals. It seemed like a miracle the fog didn’t touch them there. For the first time since they arrived on that island, they weren’t saturated to the bone.

As much as Sunny had complained the island was unremarkable, Hancock caught his wife admiring the foggy nighttime view. Glowing golden mushrooms lit the rad-soaked trees, and like in the harbor, the fog reflected the glow. It gave the impression candles dotted a smoke-filled room.

It gave the impression they were somewhere safe. In Hancock’s experience, that was when one was most vulnerable to attack. He kept his shotgun loaded and within reach.

“Eerie, isn’t it?” Bertha’s eyes didn’t dare stray from the illuminated fog. “I hate admitting that wolves aren’t the biggest danger we face out here.”

Hancock shared a look with his wife. Here was Sunny looking out as if the fog was a work of art, but the local resident was trying to caution them. To hide his amusement, Hancock pulled his wife close and pressed his lips to her face.

“Worse things come out at night?” Shaun asked. “Worse than those anglers?”

“Oh, right. I forgot you haven’t seen the Fog Crawlers yet,” Bertha said. “Old Longfellow says they come out during the day, but Mariner has only seen them at night. They’re massive,” she emphasized. “Worse than mirelurk queens. And they travel on land. They’re not limited to water.”

Sunny made a face. “They’re mutated mirelurks?” Which were already mutated crabs, lobsters, and crawdads. In fresh water regions, they were mutated crab or fish on two legs. Double-mutations couldn't be anything good. Sunny gave a shiver and pulled her coat tighter.

Like a yawn, Bertha caught the shiver and hugged her knees. “That’s how Mariner described them.”

Hancock stood and pulled wool blankets from his backpack. “Guys gettin’ cold?” He gave a couple blankets to Shaun.

Shaun looked to Hancock for guidance, so when Hancock sat, he made a show of unfolding the blanket and draping it around Sunny. Shaun copied his dad, but with less grace. Hancock hid a smile at Sunny’s temple. Making the first move was never easy, and Hancock remembered all too well the first time he ever pursued a girl. It would take time before Shaun was a confident gentleman, but in the meantime? Hancock would laugh to himself.

Shaun did a double-take past Hancock, then inched his hand till he grabbed his rife. Hancock gripped his shotgun with his hand near the trigger, daring to peek behind him.

“Dad, don’t move,” Shaun said. He crawled behind the tree next to him so he could crouch and aim without startling whatever might be hunting them.

A pair of glowing eyes stared back at Hancock from a distance. “Bertha? What all lives out here in the dark?” Hancock asked their only island expert.

“Uh, wolves,” she answered. “Besides the regular creatures you’ve-”

Shaun’s rifle fired with a spark. A hound whined in pain before a thud echoed through the fog and additional hounds growled. Hancock jumped to his feet and faced the noise.

“Yep, it’s wolves!” Shaun shot again, then hurried to reload. “Dad, it’s headed toward Mom’s other side!” The boy switched to his laser pistol as four sets of eyes advanced quicker than anyone wanted. Valentine ran up firing his pistol before tackling a beast in a bush.

“Jesus Christ, Nick!” Sunny yelped.

A snarling hound crept out of a dense bush toward Hancock. Glowing green seeped through raw patches on it’s body. Even the teeth and gums glowed green. “Damn, that’s actually kinda cool.” Hancock pulled the trigger anyway. Shame he couldn’t tame a glowing wolf to protect Goodneighbor. That would be one badass guard dog.

Four wolves were easy to take down, though. Because the gulpers and anglers had been tough, seeing these hounds fall so fast surprised Hancock.

“Damn shame they had to attack at night,” Hancock said, wiping blood off the barrels of his gun. “Hey, Nick, you okay over there?”

“I’ll be fine after a little adjustment.” Valentine walked back into the campfire light fixing a couple fingers back in their joint sockets.

“Jesus, Nick.” Sunny sighed. “You know what Ellie would say if she were here, right?”

“Yeah, something about laughing at death,” Nick said.

Hancock chuckled. “She might not be wrong, Nicky.”

“Aw, man, Mr. Valentine.” Shaun sighed too. “Come here, I brought some tools.”  

Valentine walked over to Shaun in brighter light. “Appreciate the tune up, kid.” It wasn’t uncommon for Shaun to practice his tinkering on Valentine’s old frame.

Hancock looked at dead wolves laying like camp borders. “Think the meat will be okay till morning? Or should we skin ‘em now?”

“Morning.” Sunny shook her head as she sat back down with the blanket tight around her again.

Hancock chuckled. “The boss has spoken.” He set his shotgun down near Sunny and pulled rope out of his backpack. “Shaun, help your old man string these things up, bud.”

Morning in the island wilderness was something else. The way sunlight sparkled through the fog and glittered dew on everything looked like a scene straight from a fairytale. It looked more a place where magic and miracles happened than a place where monsters dwelled.

While Sunny boiled ground coffee and fed the fire, Hancock and Shaun skinned the wolves and tossed the guts aside.

But while they had enough meat for the four of them for a week, there was far more than they could cook in the time they had for breakfast. They couldn’t cook or smoke it all and find the Nakano girl, moreso if she needed help.

Bertha hesitated while Hancock stood over the meat of the one wolf he’d butchered. Sunny didn’t know what to do with so much meat, either. It was starting to look like they were about to waste a good stock of food.

“I have an idea,” Bertha said. 

Hancock raised a hairless brow at the girl. “I’m open to suggestions.”

She wasn’t afraid to hold eye-contact. Considering most people avoided looking ghouls in the eye, that alone earned Bertha another point in Hancock’s book. “We can’t stay here to cook all this meat. But the refugees in Far Harbor can. I know they’ll be willing to cook it for you in return for some meat.”

Hancock nodded in approval. He peeked at Sunny to see her reaction, only to find her nodding as well. They both glanced at Shaun. The boy’s first crush had the same morals his parents did. After the chaos they suffered at Nuka World, Hancock wasn’t sure they were still Shaun’s favorite people. He was glad to be wrong.

“I realize it’s another few hours back to town, but…” Bertha trailed off with a shrug. “At least it won’t go to waste. And it will help people in need.”

“That is a damn good idea,” Hancock praised.

“How will we get it back?” Shaun asked.

“Well… the hides are still intact. Right?” Sunny asked.

“For the most part,” Hancock told his wife.

“I could do a quick stitch with some vines,” she said. “Then we can drag them back on the skins. Might take another hour, but while you’re cooking what you already carved, I can start on the hides.”

“I can help with that,” Bertha offered. “With two of us sewing, we can start back sooner.”

Hancock smiled. Girl was already acting like family. He was damn proud of his son’s choice.

Hancock looked around the debris of the abandoned house they climbed through. Blood stains in select patterns on the walls and ground suggested whoever lived there was taken by surprise. That tended to mean supplies were up for grabs.

Hancock kicked an old weathered skull out of his path. “Gulpers maybe? Do they ambush people?”

“Sometimes,” Bertha answered. “But when they ambush, it’s usually from trees. The spawn hang in trees by their tails.”

“Only the babies ambush, huh? Sorry, Shaun, giant pet salamanders are out of the question,” Hancock joked.

Stepping into the basement froze them all in horror and disgust. Skinless, headless human bodies hung by hooks, some missing limbs. The skins hung by their own hooks in a corner like livestock hides. Broken concrete in the other corner opened a hole in the dirt where the garbage meat  rotted with its own mire fog. On every stove boiled human arms and feet in stew pots with carrots and tatos.

A goddamn kitchen straight out of a horror story.

“Cannibal den,” Valentine concluded like the rest.

Bertha fought the urge to vomit like everyone except Valentine. She managed to stammer “Trappers” before a door upstairs slammed.

Valentine, Hancock, and Sunny spun with their guns pointed at the top of the stairs. “Stay behind us,” Hancock told the kids. Shaun aimed his rifle up at the door anyway.

Valentine took silent steps and hid in the shadow on the first step to wait. The instant a shrouded figure stepped into the frame, Sunny’s rifle dropped him with a headshot.

“What the hell?” Heavy footsteps crunched over the debris. “Well, well, dinner delivered itself, boys.”

“Stole my goddamn line,” Hancock growled. He cocked his shotgun. “Come out so we can gut ya!”

Another Trapper stepped through the doorway shooting a pistol, and a fight broke out on the stairs. Valentine rammed his gun on the Trapper’s head and kicked him down the stairs where Hancock splattered the walls red. Two more Trappers barged in, followed by a third who’d caught on to Nick’s position. Shaun’s three-oh-eight ripped a hole through the last’s neck and stuck in the door before the asshole could hurt their detective. The other two went down with Sunny’s knife and Hancock’s shotgun.

From the gore in the basement, they expected the fight to be harder.

The gore in the basement was overwhelming, though. For the first time after a fight, they didn’t stick around to loot. They ran straight for fresh air.

Bertha fell to the ground and ripped a gas mask off her head with a hard gasp. Shaun held in his own need for fresh air to help the girl back to her feet. “Ugh. I knew they ate people,” she said. “But I didn’t know it was that bad.”

“Yeah, that was as bad as a super mutant lair,” Hancock said.

Sunny groaned, bracing a tree while she struggled to keep her stomach down. “They must really hate mirelurk and salamander to take eating ass literally.”

“Do not make me laugh when I’m about to puke,” Hancock joked, bent over with his elbows on his knees. The stench of rotting meat never got any less foul. They were lucky they hadn’t eaten in a while.

Bertha stood straight and took a deep breath, then made a face again with a hand over her stomach. “Oh. Here, Shaun. Thanks.” She held out the gas mask.

“You can hold onto it.” Shaun shrugged. “Might need to if those guys are common out here.” The boy looked around in uncertainty. His nose remained crinkled like the stench was still right beneath him. “I’ll grab one from my dad’s bag if I really need it.”

Hancock hoped there wouldn’t be another situation that required breathing masks. He looked around, too, in case those weren’t the only cannibals who lived there. “Hey, Nicky? I hate to ask you to go back down there, but you’re the only one without a sense of smell…”

“Want this old machine to go looting, huh?” Valentine lit a cigarette and waved his hand to put the match out. “Yeah, I can do that. The usual: weapons, ammo, and chems?” In this case, looting those in particular meant less future offence for the cannibals.

Hancock nodded. “Yeah. Thanks, bud.”

Chapter Text

Hancock woke with a jolt to a gunshot and Shaun yelling.

“You fucking kidding me?” Hancock grabbed his shotgun and scrambled to his feet. He helped Sunny up, both of them ready to bust another head. If those goddamn Trappers had followed them, Hancock would shoot them to slop.

Only Shaun was fine. He ran up holding a dead furry critter by its long ears and a live one in the trap he’d made last night.

“Christ, kid,” Hancock put a hand over his chest as if it would calm his thundering heart. “Don’t give your old man a heart attack this damn early.”

“Shaun, you know better than to wake us up like that,” Sunny scolded.

“But look! Mom, it’s a rabbit! Like from the old world! And I caught a live one!” So damn excited he skipped. “All these animals we thought were extinct are here! That’s why we never see them back home! Look!” He held up his prizes to show his parents, proud as he’d ever been.

“What are we gonna do with a live rabbit?” Hancock shielded the rising sun with his hand, but it didn’t help much. The damn fog reflected it like brand new mirrors.

“I’m gonna keep it!” Shaun said. He did a double-take at Bertha, who’d also woken with a start from his noisy alarm. “Oh, sorry, Bertha. I wasn’t trying to wake anyone up, I swear. Anyway! If we can find it a couple mates, we can have enough meat for everyone in Goodneighbor. Rabbits can have up to eighteen babies every month, and they’re ready to harvest at four months."

Sunny sighed. “Shaun, it’s a good theory, but how are we going to feed a bunch of rabbits, let alone one? I had a rabbit for three weeks when I was eight, and I killed it. I didn’t feed it anything but carrots and cookies, which turned out to be the worst things for a rabbit.”

Shaun shrugged. “We can dig up some wild grass and transplant some wild carrots and wild gourds, right? Some hubflowers? There’s plenty of room in some of the corners  of town, or we can fix the floors above Daisy and KLEO’s place and keep them in some cages with the grass and plants and stuff.”

Sunny looked at Shaun a moment before sighing. She turned to Hancock in question. “And what does Shaun’s Daddy think about rabbits running around his town?”

“What did I tell you about callin’ me Daddy when we’re not alone?” Hancock teased.

“Oh my god, Dad. Don’t“ Shaun glared at him, mortified. “It’s definitely too early for that.”

Hancock chuckled. “Now we’re even, son.”

“So can we keep it?” Shaun held the caged rabbit up higher. Poor critter’s eyes were so wide its whites were prominent. “It’s food for Goodneighbor.”

Hancock watched his boy for a second before nodding. He couldn’t deny Shaun’s logic was sound. “Alright, fine. Maybe we can scrap that old trashcan between Irma’s place and Warehouse Three and set their cages up there. But you’re sexing the damn thing.”

“It’s a boy,“ Shaun said without pause. “I saw when it was kicking. It’s… pretty obvious.”

Hancock huffed in amusement. He lit a cigarette and stretched with a yawn. “If you really want to raise those things for meat, you better start trappin’, kid.”

“Yes! Thanks, dad!” Shaun set down the trap, then strung up the dead rabbit. He wasted no time skinning the rare breakfast he was so proud to kill.

“If we’re gonna start raising small livestock, we might as well get squirrels and ravens, too,” Sunny said.

“Hey, if you think you can catch those little shits, be my guest, love.” He took another drag, then gave her the cigarette and planted his lips. “I guess I better find breakfast for my new pet.”

“What did I tell you about callin’ me that when we’re not alone?” she teased for his ears only. Hancock leaned in for another kiss. She sure knew how to plaster his face with a shit-eating grin.

“A bowling alley, eh?” Valentine read the sign in front of the ferals they dropped.

“Bowling?” Hancock looked over, then followed Nick’s gaze. “Oh hell yeah. Sport of kings.” He hadn’t found enough bowling pins for a whole set since he was a kid. One of his favorite ways to pass the time besides chems. Using empty bottles and a baseball as replacements didn't cut it.

“Might be a good place to stock up. Recreational businesses tend to get overlooked. People nowadays don’t realize these places sold more than games.” Valentine kicked a dead feral’s hand out of his way. “Better let us old folks go first, though, kids. Seems this place was a feral nest.”

“Fair warning,” Hancock said, “if there are full sets of pins in there, this is our new summer house. You might have to drag me out.”

Sunny chuckled at him. “I’m actually down for that,” she agreed.

“Oh yeah? You like bowling, too, huh?” he asked. They’d only ever found one pin and one bowling ball on their adventures, so the topic of a game never came up before.

“No, I meant dragging you around.”

Hancock’s laugh came out deep and throaty. “Hey, lady, there are children present.”

“Oh my god, you guys.” Shaun cringed away from them, trying to hide in his shoulders. He waved a hand as if he could make them vanish. “Seriously stop,” he groaned.

Sunny’s laugh echoed as they stepped through the double doors. Even Bertha smiled at Shaun’s embarrassment.

Despite the amount of ferals they had to kill to clear the bowling alley, Hancock found himself too excited to worry. He was damn elated when he found three lanes fully stocked with ready pins and more bowling balls than he could count. They had to find the Nakano girl first, but damn straight they were coming back to play a few rounds. After they looted chems and food, Sunny rigged up a few tough locks to secure the place for them to come back to later. Hancock was serious about making it their new summer home.

He couldn’t wait to teach Shaun his favorite game.

Trekking up the small mountain was rougher than they anticipated. While the fog thinned, the autumn air was crisper this far north. It hit their lungs with an icy sting that made the steeper inclines harder to breathe through. Colder nights blew in with storms that spewed sea spray over the island, creating smaller, cozier campsites.

One storm was so hard it whipped icy rain on them almost like tiny icicles. Bare skin stung, causing the need to hunker down. Not even Valentine could stay out in such a storm. Tarps tied around trees like a shack, the five of them dried out around a roaring fire. There was almost enough room for the adults to stretch their legs. Sleeping would be a bitch, but they were out of the storm and still together.

Shaun pulled out his deck of homemade cards and taught Bertha to play the games Sunny had taught him. When Valentine showed the kids how to play poker, he also dealt in Sunny and Hancock.

Of course, Nick won every round. Hancock was close behind… until Shaun caught him popping Mentats. If they had to be stuck in their tiny tarp shack, at least they had fun.

Between games of Poker and Black Jack, they got to know Bertha a little more. At fourteen, she was two years older than Shaun; though Shaun was taller. Her family had moved to Far Harbor eight years prior, then when her brother Tony turned one, her mother disappeared to work on a farm. Three years after that, her father disappeared. Bertha had been caring for her brother by herself for two years, doing small odd jobs around the Harbor to earn caps to feed him. But no adults on the harbor trusted a child with jobs that paid enough. Some days she had gone without a single meal to keep Tony fed. That, at least, got easier when he learned to fish for himself last spring. 

They were too polite to ask if she oversimplified her struggles in the Harbor. Bertha had looked more skin-and-bones when they met her. Now, even in the few days she'd been with them, she began to fill out. It was more obvious when they walked and she kept pace with even Nick, and stayed awake longer at night. When they’d first started out, she struggled to keep up and they’d had to let her set the pace so she wouldn’t fall behind. Bertha never said it, but at the rate meat grew on her bones, it was clear she hadn’t had an actual meal  in a long time.

And Shaun was certainly noticing her blossoming curves. His gaze lingered on Bertha’s shape more and more each day.

The day the storm died down and allowed them to continue up the foothill, Hancock braced Shaun’s shoulder. “Pardon me, little lady. Hope you don’t mind me borrowin’ this upstanding gentleman for awhile.” He slowed his feet and kept Shaun back with him. “Don’t worry, we won’t be far behind. Just gotta have a little Man-to-Man.”

Shaun sighed like Hancock was unfair. “Now what did I do?” he complained as Hancock set a slow pace.

“Nothin’ bad, son,” Hancock assured. “Bear with me, will ya? This… isn’t gonna be easy for me. There’s just some things I gotta talk to you about, and I don’t want to embarrass you in front of your old lady.”

Shaun made a face of confusion and disgust. “Mom?”

Hancock chuckled. “No. Bertha.”

“Why’d you call her an old lady?”

“Not an old lady, your old lady,” Hancock clarified. “It’s a term of endearment for that special girl in your life. Your mom’s my old lady.”

“I thought you just called her that ‘cause she is old.”

Hancock couldn’t help a laugh. The kid wasn’t wrong. Sunny had been in cryo for two-hundred-ten years. She was exactly two-hundred years older than Hancock. “Hah. No. But that makes it fun to call her my old lady.”

He was stalling the talk. The damn Birds and the Bees. Nothing in his life prepared him for giving that kind of speech. He’d gone over it a little when Shaun started puberty, but there hadn’t been any girls for Shaun to take interest in back then. Had the Institute made Shaun full-grown, Hancock might not have had to have this talk, but the kid was made prepubescent. If he was sterile, Shaun shouldn’t be capable of puberty. His body was making testosterone when it shouldn’t, which meant Shaun - and maybe all synths - weren’t sterile after all. Hancock knew enough science to know puberty for a boy meant he could start seeding the planet.

The previous conversation when Shaun first woke up with wet sheets was awkward enough.

“So, uh…” He winced. He didn’t like smoking so close to the kid, but he needed something for his nerves and to fidget with. Hancock lit a cigarette. Had his old man still lived, he'd laugh his ass off at Hancock's predicament. “You know how the data Mom got from the Institute said synths are sterile?”

Shaun frowned. Clever shit knew Hancock was serious.

“Well… the only synths they made beside you are supposed to be sterile. You remember that from Mom’s holotapes, right?”

“Yeah…” Then Shaun groaned and looked away. “You think I’m not. Is this gonna be another one of those talks?”

“Hey, if I knew you couldn’t knock up that girl, I wouldn’t be doin’ this in the first place.”

“Classy, dad.”

“If you knock her up this young, no, it won’t be classy.” Hancock took a long drag and savored the sting to his tongue and throat. “Look, no matter how awkward this is… I need you to listen, son. Just in case. I don't want you to have any inconceivable surprises... Uh, pun not intended.” 

That evening after they set up camp, Shaun wandered off by himself for a while. Hancock assumed the boy was patrolling with Valentine to clear his head after that awkward Birds and Bees talk.

… Instead, Shaun returned with a small bouquet. Kid leaned in for an awkward kiss on Bertha’s cheek when she took the wildflowers.

Sunny and Hancock failed to not stare. It seemed Hancock’s awkward talk only cemented whatever Shaun felt about the girl. Maybe it even gave the kid clearer direction on how to pursue her.

Bertha fell asleep that night clutching the flowers like a teddy bear.

Hancock waited till the kids fell asleep before talking with Sunny. He lit a couple cigarettes and gave one to his wife with a kiss. “Whatcha think? Yay or nay?” He kept his voice low, looking over at the young couple across the campfire.  

“Yay,” they answered together. Hancock chuckled.

Sunny smiled at the sleeping kids. Stars and a twinge of sadness glimmered in her eyes. “Definitely yay. Part of me hoped it wouldn’t happen for a few years, though. I only just found him. You know?” It didn’t matter they’d had Shaun for over a year. They had already missed Shaun’s entire childhood.

Hancock nodded, holding his cigarette with his forefinger and thumb while he breathed deep. He remembered being Shaun’s age, though. Hancock might have derailed from a stable life after he left home, but his own father had been supportive and a great role model for how to be a good husband and dad. He used those silent lessons every day since he fell for Sunny. “Yeah. Growin’ up too fast, that’s for sure. But considering the first girl he chose?” He nodded at his wife. “I think we’ve done damn good with him.”

The best Hancock could do was keep showing Shaun the right way to treat his lady.  

The top of the foothill took longer to reach than expected. The time was not wasted by far, but if the Nakano girl was in danger, they were running out of time.

They looked around as they walked through the obvious grounds of a settlement. No one in sight, but healthy potted plants grew in rows, and the scrap and junk were in organized piles. A spotlight rotated above the metal door of the bunker. All those things required upkeep from someone.

“Could only be one place,” Valentine said. “Not enough rads to be that Children of Atom base. With luck, the Nakano girl is safe and sound and we can wrap this case up.”

Stepping through the door was more unexpected than the trek uphill in autumn storms. First glance made them all uneasy. Up ahead was the strangest set of equipment they’d ever seen, and it only got stranger as they got a better look. Screen after screen lined a round room, emitting a blue glow with endless scrolling words. Tubes and beeping and audible code, and some strange Gen Two synth hooked up to all of it.

The Gen Two looked over and gasped, and Sunny gasped as it stood. She grabbed Valentine’s arm with a grip so hard he leaned. It wasn’t the tubes and gadgets sticking out of its head that startled them, though that was strange enough. It wasn’t any Gen Two synth.

A face identical to Nick Valentine’s stared straight at the detective in as much awe as they stared back.

“Brother.” Christ, it even sounded like Nick.

What the goddamn hell.

Chapter Text

“Brother? It can’t be you.”

“Don’t call me that, I’ve never seen you before in my life. Just who the hell are you?” Valentine demanded of the modified synth. “The only synth with that face and a mind of his own in the one I see in the mirror.”

“We were prototypes, Nick-”

“Tell me something I don’t know.” Valentine glared at the Old Synth on the Mountain.

The synth with Nick’s face and tubes and wires stuck in his body sighed in clear disappointment. “I am DiMA. We… you and I,” he emphasized, “were created at the same time. We were experiments. The Institute wanted to test how synths with free will would process personality. I was allowed to develop based on experience. But you... they wanted to test free will with an entire personality already intact.”

Valentine made a noise in thought. “Detective Nick Valentine.”

“Yes. It took several attempts before his personality took hold. I… saw you wake up not knowing who or what you were so many times. And you didn’t remember me. We were the only two of our kind. You are my brother. I couldn’t let them continue their experiments. I helped you escape the Institute.”

Valentine scoffed. “This is garbage. I’ve heard enough.”

Sunny held a hand up to stop Valentine from leaving. “If that’s true, how did Nick end up in Boston and you end up all the way up here?” she asked. “You didn’t want to see him hurt, yet you left him on  his own when he didn’t know who he was?”

“This happened over a century ago. We were prototypes, but while we're based on the Generation Two’s you’re familiar with, our memory capacity is larger than theirs. But that’s saying very little. They were never meant to be more than fancy Protectrons.”

“Just because we’re from the same assembly line doesn’t make us family. I have a family, and you’re looking at them,” Valentine told DiMA.

Hancock gave the detective’s plastic and metal shoulder a squeeze. He didn’t know Valentine saw them that way. But he’d sure as hell been their family since they rescued Shaun from the Institute.

“Nick, I don’t need you to believe me,” DiMA said. “I’m just glad to see you again.”

“I don’t buy it or that whole limited memory crap. We’re not here to discuss me, anyway,” Valentine said. “We have a case to solve, so either you answer some questions, or I’ll find Kasumi Nakano without your permission.”

“I see. I… suppose you and I can talk later, then.” DiMA straightened his face. “So you’re here for Kasumi? Yes, she’s here. But tell me, do you think she’s a synth?”

“It doesn’t matter how she was made,” Sunny said. Shaun looked up at his mom. “Her parents are sick with grief over her disappearance. We need to make sure she’s okay.”

“You’re free to see her,” DiMA allowed. “But her origins do matter. I created Acadia to be a safe haven to synths who want to live as themselves and not under the lie of false memories. All who come here do so looking for answers.”

“So instead of giving her information, you made her think she was a synth?” Valentine scowled. “Manipulation never helps anyone but the aggressors.”

“Yeah, I’m with Nicky on this one,” Hancock said. “That’s raider shit right there.”

“You can’t direct her to a doctor who specializes in memory retrieval? We have one back home in Boston. Me and Nick went into the memories of an Institute thug,” Sunny said.

“I’ve done her no harm,” DiMA insisted. “But if she suspects she’s a synth, she deserves to live without the lie. Let me ask you something, what are your earliest memories?”

“Watch it, pal,” Hancock warned. He knew what that sack of plastic and pipes was on about.

Sunny’s frown was colder. “Our memories are our business.”

“But how do you know they’re yours? How do you know your memories weren’t implanted?”

“Are you asking if my mom’s a synth?” Shaun laughed so loud his voice echoed even amongst all those busy machines. “No way. I’ve read their data, synths can’t turn ghoul.” He hesitated with a flick of his eyes. “But I’m a synth. Father - the director of the Institute - made me. I’m… supposed to be Father when he was young. An experiment, I guess.”

Bertha stood silent, watching Shaun. Her eyes burned with curiosity, but like most other times, she was too polite to discuss Shaun’s admission in public.

DiMA looked at the family. “You’ve been inside the Institute? I’m not familiar with this Father. And you’re sure you’re not a synth? It’s not impossible for synths to adapt to the world.” He gave a shrug with a sheepish smile. “Look at me.”

“Yeah.” Sunny was firm. “And I’ve seen how Gen Three synths are made. Those dreams Kasumi talked about in her holotapes? There are no people in white coats standing over new synths.”

“We have chips in our brains,” Shaun said, “attached to our nervous system. It prevents cellular mutation. My mom and dad couldn’t be synths if they wanted to.”

“You’ve seen them build synths?” DiMA asked. “How did you gain such access? I didn’t think they allowed visitors.”

“I went there to find my son. Then I blew the place to ashes.”

As if seeing his brother wasn’t shocking enough to DiMA. “The Institute is no more?”

“Good riddance,” Valentine said. “They clearly terrorized more than just the Commonwealth.”

“Yes, of course. They needed to be stopped.” DiMA looked forlorn, though. “To lose such technology, though…”

“What they had wasn’t worth keeping. No human has the right to play God,” Hancock said.

“We can talk about the Institute later,” Sunny spoke up. “Right now, we need to see Kasumi. Her parents are beside themselves. Regardless of her origins, we need to make sure she’s unharmed.”

“Yes, of course.” DiMA nodded, eyes wandering thought. Knowing Nick Valentine was different enough, but DiMA was fully self-aware. This Gen Two had the mind capacity of a human. Hancock was surprised to find himself sympathizing with the soul trapped inside that machine. “She’s downstairs. You are free to explore Acadia. I… need a moment. But when you’ve spoken with Kasumi, there is much I would like to discuss with you. All of you. Please.”  

They took a moment to pause at the top of the staircase before descending to find Kasumi. Hancock clapped a hand on Valentine’s shoulder and squeezed. “Hey, Nicky. You doin’ okay? You got hit with a bomb back there.”

Valentine wasn’t as self-aware as DiMA seemed, and that was significant because Valentine was self-aware. “Of course I am.” Valentine didn’t know how or wasn’t ready to process meeting DiMA yet.

Hancock nodded. “Yeah, sure thing. Just let me know when you need an ear, ‘kay? Not even your processors can handle all that info at once, though. “

“We’ll get to the bottom of that, Nick,” Sunny promised.

“Right now, we need to find the Nakano girl,” Valentine reminded them.

“Yeah.” Sunny nodded. “Good idea.” It was hard to be a supportive friend when the friend in need was a machine who’d already struggled to remember he wasn’t an old world detective.

Kasumi Nakano was down on the basement level trying to sort out old wires. And she refused to go back to the Commonwealth with them. As if DiMA hadn’t been suspicious enough, Kasumi said that crazy synth was planning something dangerous.

“You think DiMA’s planning something dangerous but you don’t want to leave?” Sunny asked.

“I can't get access to the machine data,” Kasumi said. “But I caught a glimpse of something when I helped Faraday fix the connections. Like… fire. An explosion or something, and dead bodies. If DiMA’s planning on blowing something up, I can’t leave yet. I don’t want to leave until I know the people on the island are safe.”

Hancock didn’t mean to sigh. “Let me guess: since you can’t access his data, you want us to.”

“I would help you, of course,” Kasumi insisted.

“And how will you do that if you won’t leave?”

“I don’t know. I could try to hack Faraday’s computer in the room over there.” She pointed down the hall. “Or I could try to eavesdrop. DiMA, Faraday, and Chase have regular meetings twice a week in the room where Faraday’s computer is. I would need help picking the lock on the door, though.”

“And if we find something that corroborates your theory?” Valentine prompted.

“Then… we have to do something.”

“Wow. Real helpful, kid,” Hancock said.

“Maybe… since you aren’t from around here, you could get information out of him? He might be more willing to talk to you guys if he thinks you’ll just go home soon.”

Valentine hummed. “Maybe we can coax information out. He did say he wants to talk to us again. I can feign intrigue. He might spill the beans for me.”

 Hancock stayed with Shaun and Bertha to explore Acadia while Sunny and Valentine questioned DiMA. Valentine’s gut feeling was on par, DiMA was willing to talk to his brother. DiMA admitted the radioactive fog on the island had gotten worse since Tektus of the Children of Atom took position of High Confessor. As a result, tensions between the cult and Far Harbor escalated. Acadia had been a sort of mediator, supplying the Fog Condensers that kept Far Harbor’s citizens safe. But if given no opposition, the Children under Tektus would triumph over even Acadia. DiMA feared the destruction Tektus might cause.

While not dire since it wasn’t the destruction Kasumi suspected, it was worth investigating. The testimony of the fog by Far Harbor’s residents were enough proof that the Children of Atom needed suppression. And since Kasumi wouldn’t even radio back to her parents without discovering DiMA’s secret, their Missing Person case just got harder to solve.

Chapter Text

“So… you’re a synth too?” Bertha asked Shaun as the five of them started off from Acadia. She and Shaun walked behind the adults, but it was quiet enough that they heard everything.

Sunny glanced back at the kids, squeezing Hancock’s hand. She worried Bertha would reject Shaun and break the kid’s little heart. Hancock hoped the girl was more reasonable than that.

Shaun hesitated, eyes on the ground. “Yeah.”

“What’s it like?” she asked.

Shaun shrugged. “I didn’t know until a few weeks ago. So…” He kicked pebbles on the path. “Not any different than when I thought I was human.”

“Are you like… Mr. Valentine inside?”

“Wires and tubes? No.” Shaun shook his head. “I cut my finger kinda bad, like, a year ago.” He held up his hand and his obvious scar. “So I can bleed. And I have a real brain, and organs. I need to eat and drink and sleep like everyone else.”

“But you have a chip in your brain? What does that do?”

“Uh…” Shaun looked to his parents for help. “I don’t really know.”

“It’s mainly for downloading or uploading data,” Valentine told the girl. “But for synths still under Institute control, there was some phrase they used to disable them like any other robot.”

“Disable? Like kill?” The notion alarmed Bertha. That was as good a sign as any.

“I don’t know about that,” Sunny said. “But… like if you disable a Protectron. It just stops moving. The Institute would reset synths or reprogram them while they were disabled. When I first found Shaun in there…” She sighed. “The guy he was made after… the original Shaun… he used the code on this Shaun. It was disturbing to see. Like a remote control, but verbal.”

“Yeah, that sounds pretty disturbing,” Bertha said. “It sounds terrifying, actually. Someone able to just stop you in your tracks and wipe your mind…” She gave a deep shudder with an unnerved frown.

“Yeah. Thankfully they’re all dead, down there.” Shaun peeked at her from the corner of his eye before turning his head to look. “Do… I look different now? Now that… you know what I am?”

“Why would you look different?”

Shaun shrugged and looked away. “People back in the Commonwealth don’t like synths. Even if they were friends before they knew, they... treat synths like they… suddenly look like DiMA. Like, out-of-the-blue.”

“The whole Commonwealth is like that?”

“Most of them,” Sunny said.

“The Institute haunted the Commonwealth for almost a hundred years,” Hancock told the girl. “When they created Gen Threes, like Shaun, they kidnapped people while they slept. Only the synths they replaced them with didn’t act anything like the real people. They had good reason to fear those synths, but the ones like Shaun? You got nothin’ to worry about.”

“I’m not afraid,” Bertha said.

Shaun’s hope radiated almost like breath.

“It’s a shame those other people act like that towards synths. It sounds like those people live in fear. That’s no way to live," Bertha said. "Brooks isn't dangerous, and you and Mr. Valentine seem okay. Even that DiMA guy doesn’t seem bad… even if he is eccentric.”

Valentine huffed. “You can say that again.”

Shaun gave Bertha an awkward smile. “Thanks.” He’d had a hard enough time learning he was synthetic and that  it didn’t stop his mom and dad from loving him.

Hancock was glad his boy’s heart wouldn’t break from such an admission.

“Did we take a wrong turn somewhere?” Sunny studied the map on her PipBoy, but it did little good. PipBoy scanners couldn’t scan farther than line of sight. While it helped avoid hidden caves or crevices, it didn’t help navigate where they’d never explored.  

“Uh…” Bertha looked up and around, shielding her eyes from the bright sun glittering off the wisps of remaining fog. “I don’t think so. Allen Lee thinks the Children of Atom base was almost exactly southwest of Acadia, last time he went hunting. There's a huge radiation swamp or low river that way. He said it glowed at night so it was obvious.”

"That does sound like somewhere the Children would settle down," Valentine speculated.

"Still don't know how those freaks don't look like me for that." Hancock blew his cigarette smoke away from his wife's face.

“Hm.” Sunny zoomed in and out on her map, moving it from their current position back to Acadia. They had taken a winding road south then followed it east, but they didn’t seem to be close to any building yet. The ruins they passed weren’t irradiated enough for a cult like the Children of Atom. “Wait, do you see Vim! Pop factory? DiMA said The Nucleus was north of that.”

“No.” Shaun said. “Pop as in cola?” he asked.

“Yeah. The Commonwealth doesn’t have Vim?” Bertha looked at him.

“No, just Nuka-Cola.”

“Interesting. There are Nuka-Cola machines around the Island, too, but us Islanders tend to look at those as a last resort.” Bertha shook her head. “I couldn’t tell you why, though. There was even a kind that glowed purple in the dark. Really pretty, like bright asters, but-” she shuddered with a disgusted scrunch of her face. “It had, like, lobster in it. Which I guess was ancient mirelurk? Just-” She gave another shudder of disgust.

“Cola and mirelurk?” Even Shaun grimaced, and he loved seafood.

Sunny also shuddered. “Ugh. I remember that stuff. Not tasty.”

“Uh… hey,” Valentine called to them from the edge of a natural cliff overlooking the water. “You might want to see this.”

“Don’t tell me it’s shellfish and cola?” Shaun predicted.

“Heh, no. Sorry, sport.” Valentine pointed down to the rocky beach below. “What do you suppose that is? Fog Crawlers aren’t the largest things on this island after all, huh?”

Hancock stood next to him and peered down. Valentine pointed at the skeleton of a massive fish-like creature, longer than old buses and a skull with tusks as large as Hancock’s arm. “What the hell is that?” Hancock couldn’t wrap his head around a creature so goddamn large. “Looks like a damn dinosaur.”

“A dinosaur?” Sunny echoed.

Shaun perked up. “Or like the Loch Ness monster! But that might actually be a dinosaur too. Like a plesiosaur.”

“Oh, yeah.I forgot about those. Supposed to be a myth, but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t exciting to think about.” Hancock recalled that from his school days. “Loch Ness monster sounds cooler.”

“Yeah, it does.”

Sunny cocked her head to look at the large skeleton. The scrunch of her face said she hoped those massive creatures weren’t still alive. “You mean we finally found something older than me?” she joked.

Hancock chuckled. “Nope. Dead things don't count, love.” he rubbed her back before pulling her with his arm over her shoulder. “Sorry. You still hold the record Oldest Living Specimen.” he leaned down for a kiss. “But don’t worry, you’re still the cutest ancient thing I’ve seen.”

"And don't you forget it," she teased. Hancock grinned and kissed her cheek.

“Bertha, do you know what that is?” Shaun asked as she peered down next to him.

Her small, dark eyes grew wide. “Woah. I’ve never seen anything that big.”

“Could be a whale,” Valentine guessed, lighting a cigarette.

“With tusks?” Sunny looked at him.

“There was enough radiation to affect the sea. I don’t doubt even deep sea creatures mutated. And those were unnerving enough. You ever see a squid eat its prey? I’ll spare you the details, but it wasn’t appetizing.”

“Yeah,” Sunny scoffed. “Anglers, too.”

“Whatcha think, little miss?” Valentine looked at Bertha. “You think those things could still be around today? Any tales of sea monsters from Far Harbor?”

“Not other than Fog Crawlers.” Bertha shook her head. “Oh, and the Red Death.”

Sunny snorted. “Sounds like an old propaganda poster.”

“I don’t know what it is. Mariner is the only one who survived. Every other ship that heads toward it never returns.”

Valentine hummed in intrigue. “Now I’m curious.”

“One case at a time, Nick,” Sunny reminded him.

Valentine chuckled. “Gotta keep my partner on her toes somehow.”

There was no question when they neared the Children of Atom base. The Geiger counters in Sunny’s and Shaun’s Pipboys started clicking like a time bomb.

They had to proceed to get information, but they couldn’t with Shaun and Bertha. As much as they didn’t like the idea, splitting up was the only option. Sunny and Hancock would investigate The Nucleus by themselves, and Valentine would head back to higher ground with the kids. Bertha still wanted to find a place for her fellow harbormen to settle anyway.

It wasn’t an easy decision. The Hancock family’s adventure to Nuka World didn’t turn out too well when they’d split. They weren’t in the same situation here on the Island, but neither Shaun or his parents forgot how they’d all come close to death or worse once they’d separated.

“Don’t worry, guys. You’re in good hands with Nicky,” Hancock assured the youngsters. He didn’t know if he was trying to assure himself or Shaun more.

“Yeah, don’t worry, kid,” Valentine said. “We’ll get up to plenty of trouble even without your dad.”

“Hey, don’t give him all the credit,” Sunny joked. Her way of trying to lighten the mood. Her eyes glistened, though.

“If you exploded less things, I might have,” Valentine teased back. Sunny tried laughing off her apprehension.

Shaun stared at Hancock, worry sculpting his young eyes.

Hancock nodded at his boy. “You’ll be okay, bud. I promise. Just listen to Nick if he senses danger. Okay?”

Shaun nodded. He took a deep breath. “Can I take some berry Mentats? Please? So we aren’t taken by surprise and overwhelmed?”

Hancock stared at his son for a moment before handing over three tins of berry mentats and a few packs of Addictol, and the backpack of extra weapons. “You take care of that girl, son. Ya hear me? I expect to find you both safe and sound when your mom an’ I are done with this cult.”

Shaun stared back for a moment before squeezing him tight. “I will, dad. And… you take care of mom, okay?”

Hancock hugged his son and rubbed his back. “You got it, pal.” He kissed the top of his boy’s head.  “And don’t prank Nicky too much.”

Shaun grinned with a glance back at Valentine, who smirked as he lit a cigarette. “No promises.”

“How else is an old synth supposed to stay on his steel toes?” Nick joked.

Shaun let go of Hancock to find his mom. Sunny had an arm around Bertha, but as soon as she released the girl, Shaun hugged his mom tight. “Don’t die, mom. Okay? I love you.” It didn’t help that the Children of Atom all through the Commonwealth were hostile.

Sunny’s eyes watered and she sniffled. “Aw, dammit.” She let out a full breath and hugged him tighter. “I love you, too, Shaun.” She pulled back to smile for him. “We’ll see you soon. I promise.” She forced a step backward with another sniffle and turned him by the shoulder. “You want a souvenir?” She joked.   

Shaun let out a small laugh. “From the people who worship radiation? No thanks.”

Chapter Text

Hancock and Sunny met eyes with the Child of Atom who oversaw the death of the member before their feet. Husband and wife shared a glance before returning their eyes to the cultist, weapons ready in their hands.

The tattooed man lowered his weapon. “Atom’s blessed comes to us.” His eyes were all over their ghoulified skin. “How can this humble servant help you two?” A soft-spoken man. He might seem gentle if he’d not demanded one of his people kill another a moment ago.

“Atom’s blessed?” Sunny asked.

“Atom has granted you adaptation,” the cultist said, as if relaying their ghoulification was a gift from God. “Most of us only hope for such a day. It is the highest blessing we can receive from Atom apart from Division.”

“What is Division?” Sunny’s eyes narrowed.

“Inside everyone are countless worlds waiting to be born. Ultimately, our deaths pave the way for limitless life. We await the day when Atom calls for our Division,” the man explained.  

“Atom as in…?” Sunny prompted.

“Atom as in the power of the atomic bomb. It is the Creator of the countless worlds in every living thing. We refer to Atom as a sort of great father, but in truth the power of Atom cannot be described as mere men.”

“All right.” Sunny nodded, eyes moving in thought, narrowed. “I’m intrigued.”

Hancock couldn’t tell if she had a genuine curiosity. He had nothing against religion, but the Children of Atom would douse the whole world in radiation if they could. Having those freaks preaching around Goodneighbor wasn’t exactly his idea of fun.

 “I thought you people just… worshiped radiation because it was, like… everywhere. And kinda pretty in the dark.” She shrugged.

The Child of Atom chuckled. “No, but I’m sure you’re not alone in that thought. You seem interested in learning more. We are always willing to share the teachings of Atom’s glow.”

“Hold up.” Hancock had to draw the line somewhere. He stepped ahead of Sunny and gestured to the dead cultist. “Before we do anything inside your little ghoul’s paradise, what the hell was that about?”

“It was a matter of loyalty. Don’t concern yourselves with that quite yet.”

“It didn’t seem like a matter of loyalty. That man was begging for his life and you made them choose one or the other. That’s not a simple matter of loyalty.”

“I understand your concern. But it’s not a matter I can discuss without outsiders. But if you’re willing to learn, I’m happy to share then.”

“I’m willing to learn,” Sunny told him.

Hancock looked at his wife, then sighed without noise and stepped back at her side.

“What about you?” The Child gestured to Hancock.

He gave a nod toward his wife. “I’m her husband. We… don’t really go anywhere apart.”

The cultist gave a nod of respect. “An honorable ideal.”

“So if she wants in, so do I,” Hancock said.

“If that’s so, you’ll first need to drink of Atom’s Spring.”

“Drink from a spring?” That was far less kooky than Hancock expected from those weirdos. “Listen, we’re new to this island. We could use directions.”

“I understand. Finding it is part of the test. All I can tell you is to follow the bridge west. You’ll know when you reach it.”

Hancock took a deep breath and looked to his wife in question. Her whole face smiled without her pretty lips actually smiling. Of all the things Sunny could take interest in… “All right,” he told the guy. “I guess we’ll see you later.”

“Good luck.”

Hancock and Sunny stood before the glowing pond in hesitation. A stream trickled down over the rocky ledge. More of those blight mushrooms grew there than they’d seen yet.

“You think they make all the recruits drink that?” Hancock grimaced at the water. The Geiger counter in Sunny’s PipBoy clicked so fast it was almost a single solid noise than a series. Radiation didn’t hurt them, but it wasn’t palatable. Stagnant rad ponds smelled almost worse than they tasted. Worse than normal stagnant ponds. “Or just us?” That Child of Atom guy had praised their ghoulism, after all. What had he said? Blessed by Atom or some shit.

“Probably all. I’m betting if they survive, that’s a sign.” She didn’t sound as enthusiastic as she had talking to that cultist.

Hancock watched his wife. “You havin’ second thoughts? You seemed pretty interested back there.”

Sunny shrugged. “The idea is interesting.” She met his eyes. “Death being not loss, but the creation of countless lives? It’s not a bad idea to cling to.”

Hancock made a noise in thought. “Hm. When you put it that way, I guess not.” He shook his head, though. “But that doesn’t mean they get to set up a church in Goodneighbor.”

Sunny gave a quiet laugh, her pretty mouth stretching wide. “Don’t worry. Besides, the only ones back home who don’t want to kill us won’t leave the Glowing Sea.”

He grimaced at the glowing water again. “Ugh.” He gestured to the foul spring. “After you.”

It hit him like a damn brick. Hancock thought he was immune to radiation, but this was crazy. His head felt foggy in an instant, and not the fun kind of foggy. Noise flooded his ears like countless whispers and wind rushing through dry leaves, sounds that weren’t there before he drank from the spring. The world blurred around him and it was hard to keep balance. It was like he’d stepped into a dimension where sunlight struggled to break through an endless radstorm. Looking around to find Sunny made him dizzy.

He felt around his pockets to find Mentats in hopes it would help clarify his perception. The body next to him lit up in a bright pink glow. He’d grabbed berry Mentats instead.

“What the hell?” Sunny sounded like a whisper in a tunnel.

“You feelin’ this too?” It didn’t sound like his voice even came from him. Shit had to be tainted. He’d never even had a chem like this.

Before he had time to try to enjoy whatever drug was in that pond, Sunny’s blurry pink fog moved. Hancock tripped over something trying to follow.

“Shit. Where you goin’?”

“You didn’t hear? She said to follow.”

“What? Who the hell are you talkin’ about?”

“Come on, keep up!” Sunny’s blur stumbled, leaving an arch of pink fog before it bounced back up and hurried.

“Hey, slow down. Oof!” Hancock thudded against something hard and rough. Damn trees. This was why it wasn’t smart to get high and run. “Sunny, hold up.” He blinked with wide eyes to try to see better. No such luck.

Something warm grabbed his hand. Sunny pulled him from the tree so fast he felt his damn brain slush to one side of  his skull and he stumbled again. “Come on, she’s leaving!”

“Who the hell are you talkin’ about?” he repeated.

“You don’t see her?”

“See who?”

Hancock’s feet slowed as massive shadows yielded around them. He recognized antlers and slender limbs of radstags, the large round heads of gulpers, and some massive shape he couldn't place. Nothing but solid shadows outlined in wisps, not even the pink fog of body heat. Whatever took the shapes of the wildlife wasn’t alive.

“Are you seein’ this?”

Sunny’s bright pink fog dragged him along. “Yeah, she wants us to follow her.”

“No, the... dead shadow animals.” He even sounded like he was going crazy.

“Just come on!” She tugged him along.

Another jerk to move him further, and his head spun like a top. That damn spring had to be drugged. Radiation usually felt like a warm blanket when he was cold. But right now, it blazed through Hancock like an overdose of Stimpacks. That was to say: the worst hangover in his life. He wasn’t sure how much more he could take before he lost his stomach.

Then as quick as she dragged him, she stopped. Hancock tumbled into her as the ground met his knees. “Goddammit!” He gritted through his teeth.

Sunny didn’t seem to notice as he held onto her to pull himself up. “Oh man. Ferals? They aren’t even a threat to us.” She looked at someone Hancock couldn’t see and sighed. “All right. Fine.”

“Who are you talking to?” He regained his equilibrium hunched over bracing his knees. It did no good to shake this high away, it only made his head spin more. “And what the hell was in that water?” He coughed to try to get the taste out of his mouth, but that, too, did no good.

“What do you mean? The lady?”  

“What lady?” When he looked up at his wife, the world wasn’t quite so blurry anymore.

Sunny stared at something in front of Hancock, then looked at him. “You can’t see her?”

“I saw a bunch of shadow things. Like, animals. But they weren’t alive. The Mentats didn’t pick ‘em up.”

“Yeah, she’s like a shadow, too. You really can’t see her? She’s right in front of you.”

“Okay, forget the shadow monsters.” Hancock winced as he stood, looking around. “What’d you say about ferals?”

Sunny pointed with her rifle and a nod of her head. Some swamp or flooded yard, as bright and irradiated as that damn spring they drank from. “She wants us to end their suffering.”

Hancock winced again. Feral ghouls lay or crouched, doing whatever ferals thought was fascinating. They were people once, just like Sunny and himself. Once, he’d even found ones of small stature, implying children had become ferals. He didn’t know if feral ghouls felt pain or discomfort, but they always seemed content. As long as they weren’t attacking his son, he was fine letting them live. The worst part about them was knowing he’d end up that way one day. “Had to be ferals,” he muttered.

“Yeah.” Sunny readied her rifle anyway. “Probably better anyway. Mercy killing, an’ all.”

“Yeah,” he agreed.

He felt like a jackass putting down those ferals. They didn’t even try to fight back. It reminded Hancock of the day he decided to start standing up for innocent people. Saying it was a mercy killing never made him feel better about killing them.

“So why did that shadow lady bring us here?” he asked when the ferals lay dead.

“I don’t know.” Sunny looked around the ground as they walked to the building. “But I know our boots are going to stink.” The rad swamp slushed beneath their steps.

“We probably stink. Shaun’s gonna give us hell for it.”

She made a noise of regret. “We’ll need to wash off before we find them. I don’t want to scare Bertha away. Even if Shaun didn’t have the hots for her, he’s the only kid in Goodneighbor. It’d be nice to take her and her brother back with us.”

“Yeah, she’s a good kid. I'm glad he found her, too.”

They stared at the scene as they stepped into the small stronghold. Clusters of old light bulbs hung from every corner like dried wild onions. The light they gave off looked like irradiated water. Skulls with the crowns removed sat as candle holders between jars of rad water. Behind a small, gated, locked room rested something the cult deemed important.

If Hancock was honest, it looked kind of cool. But the fact it belonged to the Children of Atom made it far less appealing.

“A shrine?” Hancock shook his head. “Why am I surprised?”

Sunny’s lip crinkled on one side. “The cult up here is definitely more zealous than back home.”

“Yeah, this crap makes the ones back home seem like cavemen.” Hancock went to the computer while Sunny looked around. He made a noise when he couldn’t access anything. “Locked,” he said. “Says it needs an administrator password. Not giving me an option to hack it.”

“An admin password? I think this proves the ones back home are cavemen.” She touched an old poster of the Periodic Table, then cocked her head and looked closer at the side of a locker. “Molybdenum, Thorium, Erbium,”she read. “Mother as an element?” She glanced at Hancock, then turned with a nod. “Hey, try Mother.”   

As soon as Hancock hit enter, the security clicked open. His hairless brows reached. “Open sesame.” He turned his head as Sunny moved behind him, only to see a glowing green hand claw at her. “Oh shit!” He raised his shotgun.

“Ow! Jesus fucking-!” Sunny staggered as the bloated glowing ghoul lunged at her again.

Hancock kicked it into the wall and fired both shots into its ugly head. “Ugh. Christ, it’s like you’re not a ghoul anymore.” He looked his wife up and down. “You okay?” Damn jump-scares.

“Yeah.” She made a face as she wiped glowing green gunk from her face, revealing a scratch with broken skin. “Yuck. I’ll be fine.”

“Want to clean that?” He reached into his bag for vodka.

She shook her head. “I’d rather get out of here first.”

“Yeah, same.” He stepped over around the dead feral, following Sunny into the tiny gated room. “Was it guarding this place? What the hell is goin’ on here?”

Sunny picked up a small wooden figurine that resembled a cloaked woman. “I don’t know if I wanna know,” she shook her head. “Everything that’s happened since we drank that stuff is making me wonder just how real this God stuff is.”

“You mean, is God really the same Atom that cult worships?” Hancock didn’t think he wanted to know that answer either.

She made a face. “Yeah, let’s not think about that. The world’s weird enough.” She stuffed the figurine and a scribbled note in her backpack, then shooed him out so they could leave.

“You think that statue is worth somethin?”

“I dunno.” They started back on the path that led them there. “I don’t know what the hell that shadow lady was, but she led us here, and we had to find some cryptic password to open that door. Nothin’ else was in there.” Sunny shook her hands with a wince. “That spring water make you feel tingly? Like when your foot’s falling asleep, but your whole body?”

Hancock did a double-glance at his wife and looked her over. “You feel numb? I’m fine, since it wore off.”

“Not numb yet, but I’m kinda expecting it.” She frowned in frustration at her hands as she shook them hard. “I mean, if we were just relaxing and trying a new chem…?”

Hancock cocked his head and nodded. He’d had spent so much time stumbling after Sunny that he hadn’t gotten to enjoy the high. “I wouldn’t mind tryin’ it again,” he said. When they didn’t need to chase after shadow people, it might be nice to let that rad high take him for a ride.

Chapter Text

Shaun:

Shaun looked back toward Mom and Dad. Mom waved with a small smile while Dad rubbed her arm.

He didn’t want to admit out loud, but he was anxious about being away from his parents. Especially Dad. Dad never let enemies get close enough to hurt him. Even when Shaun ran away to join the raiders at Nuka World, Mom and Dad came to save him. Dad had cut Gage to literal pieces to protect Shaun.

But now Mom and Dad were way back there. It wasn’t like Shaun couldn’t use weapons, and it wasn’t like he didn’t trust Mr. Valentine. But now Shaun had to be brave for himself and for Bertha. It... was kind of scary. He didn’t know how Dad was so fearless for himself and Mom and Shaun and everyone in Goodneighbor.

“Your parents are nice folk,” Bertha said.

Shaun looked at her, then away almost as quick. He felt his cheeks flush a little. He was glad his skin was dark and it didn’t show when he blushed. He didn’t mean for her to see that he missed Mom already. “Yeah, they’re pretty cool sometimes.”

“Kind of weird and funny, but nice.”

Shaun huffed. “My dad’s funnier than my mom. He’s kinda crazy.”

“Hey, you two,” Mr. Valentine said over his shoulder from ahead of them. “How about we head to higher ground? We should get a better view of the land. Higher land makes for better guard posts when we find a spot for your people, Bertha.”

Shaun nodded. “Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

Bertha glanced back. “Do you think they’ll be okay there by themselves? The Children of Atom have a reputation.”

“Eh.” Shaun shrugged. “I mean, they worship radiation, right? My mom and dad are pretty much the embodiment of radiation.”

“Don’t you youngsters worry about that,” Mr. Valentine said. “I’ve known Sunshine for years, and Hancock a lot longer. It’s a death sentence to cross either of them.”

“Who’s Sunshine?” Bertha asked.

“Oh, that’s my mom. That’s her name. Dad just calls her Sunny,” Shaun explained.

“Oh. Right, that makes sense.”

“Her name used to be Nora,” Shaun said. “But I guess when they met, Dad kept forgetting her name and called her Sunshine. He said it was satirical at first because she was grumpy when they met.” He shrugged. “But my mom liked it, so she changed her name.” Shaun looked at her.

He was lucky. He had to be. Shaun knew all the girls around his age in the Commonwealth. Not one of those girls were as pretty as Bertha. He’d noticed her eyes first, with her long eyelashes. She’d looked serious and intimidating, but Shaun had seen through that: her dark eyes almost sparkled with curiosity. She had that same kind glint in her eyes that Mom had. And she was way more clever than any of the girls in Diamond City, even when they went to school every day.

Every time she met his eyes, his stomach fluttered. And when she first said his name, he swore the tiny hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Bertha wasn’t just cute, she was perfect.

Is this what Dad felt about Mom?

Shaun wondered if he looked at Bertha like Dad looked at Mom.

“What were your parents like?” he asked her.

From Shaun’s peripheral, he saw Mr. Valentine up ahead glance back at them. He hoped Mr. Valentine wouldn’t try to give him The Talk like Dad had the other day.

Bertha shrugged. “They were serious most of the time. The island is dangerous, so out on our old homestead, it was dangerous to be silly like your parents are.”

“That makes sense,” Shaun said. Rustling leaves to his left whipped his head over. Mr. Valentine looked over too.

“Just a bird, sport,” Mr. Valentine told him.

“Still.” Shaun pulled the berry Mentats from his backpack and popped one in his mouth. “Woah.” His eyes blew wide with the rush to his brain. He had to stop and throw an arm out to keep his balance.

“Easy on the chems, Shaun,” Mr. Valentine warned.

“Yeah, I know.” He exhaled hard and blinked over and over. “I asked my dad. I just don’t want to get ambushed by those cannibals again, or that giant fog monster.”

“The fog crawler?” Bertha asked. Shaun did a double-take at her. She was covered in hot pink fog, Mr. Valentine also. Shaun had never used berry Mentats before. When Dad had said he could see body heat, he never expected this. “That’s the last thing we want to ambush us. Good they’re gigantic. We should be able to see them before they see us. Unless the fog is worse than usual.”

“Those Mentats should do the trick,” Mr. Valentine assured.

“They better.” Shaun took a deep breath and kept his eyes peeled anyway.

“I bet you’re getting homesick,” Bertha said. Her own eyes remained on their surroundings.

Shaun looked at her. “Me?” He shrugged. “Not really. We usually leave every few weeks.”

“You don’t stay and protect your home?”

“We live in a town. There are a lot of people there.”

“Oh, right. Your dad’s the Captain.”

“Something like that. We have a town guard, and an assaultron right by the gates. It’s pretty safe there,” Shaun told her.

“That must be nice.”

“Oh.” Shaun looked away, his cheeks hot again. He hadn’t meant to make her feel bad. “Uh…” He shrugged. “You could come visit sometime. I think you would like it. We have a singer in the bar. Magnolia, she’s really nice. Whitechapel Charlie, the bartender, he saves most of the Nuka Cola for me so I have something to drink when I go listen to Magnolia.”

Bertha was silent for a moment. “What else is there to do in your town?”

“Well, there’s the hotel. I help Rex fix Whitechapel Charlie sometimes. Charlie’s a robot. And we brought an ice cream bot back from Nuka World a few weeks ago, that thing is pretty fun. I spend a lot of time at the Memory Den with Doctor Amari, she’s a good teacher. Kent’s pretty fun, too, he has all this Silver Shroud stuff and he knows all the stories by heart. I try to play chess with KLEO sometimes, but she always wins. You can’t ever win against a robot.”

Mr. Valentine up ahead chuckled.

“And I patrol with the Neighborhood Watch sometimes, of course,” Shaun added.

Bertha’s dainty brows furrowed a little. “Are you the only kid there?”

“Yeah. Uh, the guy who was mayor before my dad was an asshole. Dad said the guy would let his gang… hurt the residents. Dad never told me what happened exactly, but I know that they killed someone in the streets to make a statement. The guy scared most the people out of town, including all the families. Dad and the guys who are the Neighborhood Watch, now, had enough one day and killed them. My dad… likes to save everyone.” He shrugged again. “But the town got a bad reputation from the old mayor. That’s why there aren’t any kids there.”

“You don’t have any friends?”

Shaun shrugged again, glancing at Bertha. “You’re my friend.” It took a lot more guts to say that than he imagined.

Bertha’s eyes flew to his, then her head whipped away with pink cheeks.

Shaun’s heart beat faster and his lungs seemed a little smaller. Now he knew why Dad teased Mom all the time. Bertha’s cheeks turning pink made her even prettier. Her eyes and eyelashes stood out more. Her lips even looked a little pinker.

It made him want to kiss her blush. His lips almost tingled from the thought.

“I… meant back where you live…”

Shaun didn’t realize he was smiling until she glanced over and looked at his mouth. “Oh. Uh… well, not any my age. All my friends back home are, like, fifteen years older than me. Or two-hundred-years older, like Kent and Daisy.” A crooked smile hung at his mouth and Shaun could not wipe it away for the life of him. It felt pretty good to see her look at him like that.

All those times he was grossed out by his parents flirting, only to understand at last why Dad, the most fearless guy in the Commonwealth, acted so mushy with Mom.

The rabbit in the trap moved to the other end, upsetting the balance. “Hey, Nick, hold on.” Shaun set the trap down and adjusted his grip before picking it back up. “Okay, we’re good.”

Bertha leaned her head to look at the rabbit. “Did you have those where you came from?”

“In the Commonwealth? No. Just molerats and radstags and wild dogs. Actually, on our way to Nuka-World, we met someone who raised cats for meat. Dad likes cats too much for that, though.”

“No, I mean in the Institute. Didn’t you say your parents rescued you from there?”

“Oh, yeah. I tend to forget I used to live there. It’s been a while. Uh, no, there were no pets there. They were too busy making slaves to bother with pets.”

“They didn’t raise livestock? What did they eat for meat?”

Shaun made a face as he remembered the food pastes. “There wasn’t. They made these nutrition pastes from raw materials. Like, they just threw protein and carbs and vitamins and some flavor in a machine until it didn’t make anyone puke.” Bertha’s nose crinkled in disgust, and Shaun laughed. “Yeah, it wasn’t the best. I don’t know why they did it that way, they grew plants just fine. I didn’t realize how strange it was down there until my folks brought me up top.”

“Up top?” she echoed.

“Yeah. The Institute was underground. Kind of like the Vaults.”

“And you like it better up here than in there?”

“Heck yeah,” Shaun insisted. “Down there, it’s all robotic, even the regular people. Tight schedules and strict rules, an’ all. You could pretty much predict what would happen every day. Out in the actual world, you can’t predict anything. Even gardening is fun up here.” He shook his head. “No one ever got dirty down there. Maybe this sounds corny, but being able to interact with everything is what makes life alive.”

Bertha watched him so hard that Shaun did a double-take in caution.

“Did I say something weird?” he guessed. What the heck was she thinking so hard that she couldn’t talk? Was it normal to feel a little afraid of that? Is that why Dad tiptoed around Mom for certain things?

“No.” Bertha shook her head. “Not many people see the world like that.”

“Oh.” Shaun gave a silent sigh, looking ahead of them again. “Well, I guess I take after my parents.”

“It’s a nice way to look at life,” she said with a nod. When Shaun looked at her again, her pretty mouth stretched in a small smile.

Shaun couldn’t help but smile back. His heart beat faster again. She was gorgeous when she smiled. He was definitely lucky he met her.

“Huh. Hey, kids, there’s an old airplane up there.” Mr. Valentine stopped and stared uphill.

Shaun and Bertha caught up to Nick just past a boulder and followed his gaze.

“Could be a good place for that settlement of yours, Bertha,” Nick suggested. “You want to take a look?”

Bertha looked to Shaun, who shrugged. “Yeah, might as well.”

“Worst case, there might be some luggage,” Shaun said. “Something for you to sell when we get you back to town.”

“You don’t need to give it all to me. I’m sure you guys need the caps too.”

“My dad’s a mayor, remember? Plus, he sells his own chem stash back home. He and Mom are loaded with caps.” Money wasn’t that important to Shaun. Not that it wasn’t useful, but he almost never wanted anything they didn’t already have at home.

“Oh. Right.” Bertha was uncomfortable talking about caps.

Dang. He didn’t mean to make her feel bad again. “What I mean is, I don’t need more caps. I didn’t mean to brag,” he rushed. “Ugh. I’m sorry. Let’s forget I sounded super entitled for a second.”

“It’s okay.” Bertha gave a shy smile. “I knew what you meant. And you haven’t acted entitled so far.”

“Good. That’s what my Dad wants to hear, anyway,” he joked. It wasn’t untrue, though. Dad didn’t let anyone act entitled.

A sparkle in her eyes made her smile that much sweeter.

Jesus, he felt so lucky. He was starting to understand why Dad worshiped Mom, now. It seemed like it would be hard to not worship something so pretty.

The hike up to the plane was steep. Even Mr. Valentine had to hold onto the rocks jutting out of the ground to keep balance.

“Well,” Bertha huffed, pushing up past another rock, “good news is, it’ll be hard for Trappers to get up there. At least from this way.”

Shaun huffed a laugh. “No kidding.”

“A couple snipers for guards, and your harbormen will be well protected,” Nick said. He was lucky he didn’t have lungs that felt the strain of the steep.

The top of the hill was a relief for sure. “I’m pretty sure we took the hard way up,” Shaun panted. He’d been on hunting hikes with Dad and Danse before, but nothing this strenuous.

“Good news is, getting down will be easy,” Mr. Valentine joked.

Shaun’s laugh was broken and winded. “Yeah, that’ll be fun.”

“At least the plane’s intact,” Bertha said. Shaun stepped up next to her and looked around. Her head teetered. “I mean, considering it’s in thirds.”

A violent bark rang out and heavy feet thudded against metal. “Hey! Who’s there!” A deep voice boomed. Something large and green came into view in a cloud of pink body heat.

Shaun’s skin prickled in alarm. “Oh shit.” They’d walked into a super mutant lair.

Chapter Text

“Nick’s gonna have to watch the kids while we test this out properly.” Hancock knelt and filled an empty bottle with the irradiated water from Atom’s Spring. “I had a helluva time keepin’ my balance.”

“It’s got a good kick, huh? It felt pretty damn good,” Sunny said.

Hancock made a noise. “I didn’t really have time to appreciate it. Hopefully next time, I won’t have to chase you after some Shadow Lady again.”

“Yeah, that was weird as hell.”

“Especially since I didn’t see her.”

She lifted her head in pause. Her own bottle filled with the glowing water. “You think there’s something to their spiritual stuff after all?”

Hancock met her eyes in question. “You think those shadows were ghosts or somethin’?”

“I dunno. Awfully strange that nothing attacked us. Kinda otherworldly.”

“That might be as disturbing as the Institute,” Hancock said. “The Children are a crazy cult, and considering the psychos in the wasteland, that’s sayin’ somethin’. But if they’re the right ones…?”

Sunny’s nose crinkled and she looked back at her filling bottle. “You’re right. That’s an unnerving thought.”

The cultist they first met greeted them upon their return to the Nucleus. “You’re back. Any luck?” he asked.

“I’m not sure I would call what we experience luck.” Hancock said.

“Oh?” The man looked from Hancock to Sunny. “What happened?”

“Uh…” Sunny hesitated. She looked at Hancock for help, but he shrugged. They saw shadows when they were high. They’d look like junkies. “We… saw… shadows.”

“Shadows?” The guy echoed.

“Animals and stuff. Gulpers. And… a woman.”

This perked up the guy. “You saw a woman?”

Hancock stared at him, trying to hide his discomfort. The guy sounded surprised and looked far too interested. If there was a God, Hancock hoped it was not Atom.

Sunny looked as if she was kicking her own ass in her mind. She winced, then pulled out the wooden figurine. “It… led me to this.” As soon as the man took the statue, she held up her hands. “I have no idea what happened to us. But… is that significant?”

“Atom’s glow… you really did see her.” The cultist stared in awe at the figurine. He looked back up and found their gazes.

“So… she was real?” Hancock asked. Sunny saw something corporeal but he couldn’t see it? Radiation wasn’t supposed to be able to mess him up, least of all like that.

“She is The Mother,” the cultist explained. “No one knows what she is. Some say a spirit. But she was the one who led us here to this place. She guides lost souls back to Atom.” He looked down at the statue for a second longer, then gave it back to Sunny. “The High Confessor would want to speak to you. Let him know you found that.”

“But what does the statue mean?” Hancock asked.

“It means you are Chosen.”

Hancock met Sunny’s eyes. She’d been chosen for a lot of things; most people chose her because she was the Vault Dweller from the Past. But this by far had to be the strangest.

“It’s literally a submarine.” Hancock stared at the ancient ship stuck in dry dock.

If he had to admit, it had its own creepy charm. Homemade lamps made of bottles of glowing water hung everywhere, lighting the makeshift homes above the submarine where the irradiated mud below could not. Crownless skulls sat as candle holders on every table or sill, each surrounded by thick, dripping candles. In a way, it was romantic. On the other hand, the constant hissing echo of the whispers and the skulls and green-yellow glow of irradiated water made it creepy as hell.

“You thought DiMA was lying about the submarine?” Sunny asked. They kept their voices low, hoping to not stand out among all the echoing whispers.

“I thought maybe it was metaphorical,” he insisted.

Sunny grinned with a quiet chuckle. “You were hoping to go deep down in the dark where?” she teased.

It was Hancock’s turn to chuckle. “In my defense, the only submarines we’ve seen,” he gestured from himself to her, “have been flooded.”

“Oh, so wet, too.” Her eyes sparkled at him.

A Child of Atom passed right behind them, interrupting the mood.

Sunny did a double-take and followed the person with her eyes. “That guy look kinda young to you? Like, Shaun’s age.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if they hunted for orphans to raise,” he said.

Her eyes traveled around again. “That doesn’t quite seem fair.”

“No, it doesn’t.” Talking about Shaun got him thinking, though. He knew Shaun could hold his own, but it was a little strange. Shaun had been close enough to talk to for almost two years. As much as Shaun was his son, Hancock enjoyed hanging around him. “What do you think our boy’s doin’ right now?” Hancock wondered. It was a shame places this cool were so irradiated. It was the kind of place he’d like to explore with Shaun.

“Flirting with an older woman,” Sunny joked with a straight face.

Hancock chuckled. “Does two years really count?” he asked. Bertha might as well be Shaun’s age.

“It counts,” Sunny assured.

He grinned. “I guess he takes after his dad.” Sunny was exactly two-hundred years older than Hancock. Two years, two-hundred years, same difference according to Sunny. “Kinda wish we coulda brought him. This is the sorta place he’d love.”

Sunny gave a quiet sigh. “Yeah, he would. For now, I’m happy keeping him far away from this much radiation.” She looked down, then brought out a small flask of the glowing spring water.

Hancock watched his wife put the tiny bottle to her mouth and toss back. “So tasty you can’t wait, huh?”

Sunny recapped the flask. She looked sheepish. “Actually, yeah.”

He made a noise in amusement, but followed her lead. This time, a sip didn’t hit him as hard as that handful straight from the spring. “Come on. Let’s go walk these catwalks high.”

The Children of the Atom were far more normal than expected. Hancock anticipated constant preaching, or a bombardment of zealots eager to convert them. Instead, what they found were people who’d led terrible, misguided lives before the cult of Atom gave them sanctuary. People who’d been down on their luck and starving, scrambling for safety and crumbs. People not unlike the drifters of Goodneighbor. People who’d needed help. As Hancock helped drifters, the Children of Atom helped these people. There was even an orphan that the cult had saved from raiders. To boot, the ones in the Nucleus were amicable, unlike the branch in the Commonwealth.

It made Hancock look at the cult in a different light.

He still wasn’t a fan of their god, but these guys made the cult far less painful to deal with.

Right as Hancock wondered how the people of Far Harbor loathed these cultists, the leader exposed why. The High Confessor admitted to sabotaging the Islanders by releasing more radiation into the fog. While courteous to their faces, High Confessor Tektus’ words proved the man had a mind of evil. When they said they needed to find DiMA’s memories, Tektus wanted them to retrieve the memories for him. He believed DiMA had locked away a code to kill the wind farm power supply, which would shut down the condensers that kept the fog out of Far Harbor.

Decent cultists led by a goddamn madman. It didn’t surprise them that the previous High Confessor was the compassionate one that wanted to co-exist with the Island.

And that information expanded their Nakano case. They now had to find a way to neutralize the Children of Atom to save Far Harbor, so Kasumi would agree to go home.

Hancock and Sunny had met enough lunatics in the Commonwealth to know trying to bargain with an empty hand was useless. They had no choice but to help the cult. With luck, aiding the cult would prove their good intentions to Tektus, who kept a strict watch on the adjoining facility that housed DiMA’s memories.

And if they proved their good intentions, they would have a better chance at swaying Tektus to leave Far Harbor alone.

Hancock and Sunny went back around looking for ways to help, then sat in a more secluded corner to talk. They had to be careful what they said, though. Even whispers echoed in that massive chamber.

Sunny’s head followed a passing cultist, and Hancock did a double-take at his wife. “Woah, hold up,” he said as she looked away again. He held her chin to turn her back to him. Hancock leaned over to get a better look at the scratch on her face. Maybe it was just a trick of the light.

“What’s wrong?” Sunny’s eyes moved all around, trying to see what he saw.

“Uh… how do you feel?”   he asked.

“You’re stalling. What are you stalling for?” Her eyes searched him, curiosity on the verge of alarm.

Hancock shook his head and looked closer. He brought a finger up and touched the scratch, then looked at his finger. The tinge of green did not come off with his finger. “Sunny?” He met her eyes.

The light had to be playing tricks. Was it? Had they been there so long that he was starting to see radiation-green everywhere?

A hard look at her eyes revealed more of it. The green in her hazel orbs was without a doubt brighter than usual.

Hancock checked her other scratches, her burn scars, and her track marks, then met her eyes again. It wasn’t just him.

“John?” she prompted.

“You’re glowing.”

Chapter Text

Bertha leaned her head toward Shaun. “Why does your mom loot handcuffs?” It wasn’t a strange question. The pair Sunny stuffed in her backpack was the third in an hour, and she’d hummed to the radio the whole time as if she was simply passing time.

It wasn’t a quiet question, though. Hancock met Shaun’s eyes to see how his boy would answer.  “Uh, it’s a tradition back home. In our town, anyway,” Shaun said. “Every few months, everyone pools all the handcuffs they’ve collected and melts them down in the center of town into bullets. It’s… symbolic.”

“Of what?” Bertha looked from Shaun to Hancock to Sunny.

“Of breaking the chains and living free,” Hancock told the girl. “A lot of people in the Commonwealth lived under the oppression of tyrants, especially in Goodneighbor. Sunny started it after she collected a whole trunk full.”

“Oh. Well.. that doesn’t sound too bad. I thought maybe they were for… you know, prisoners…” Bertha shrugged.

Sunny chucked. “No. There are no prisoners in the wasteland unless you’re in something like the Brotherhood of Steel. We don’t take prisoners. Not too different from your island.” Sunny scratched at her glowing wound on her face with a wince. “Ugh. Goddamn thing is itchy.”

Valentine hummed. “Careful scratching that thing. Ghoul or not, you can still get infections.”

“Oh god,” she groaned. She made an obvious effort to keep her hand away from her face. “I hope not.”

“Uh, maybe we need to go back for an antifungal, too,” Bertha suggested. “Just in case. Fog ghouls sometimes grow glowing mushrooms on them.”

“Oh.” Hancock frowned at the notion. “Yeah, we don’t want that. That’s really normal here?” He glanced at Bertha, digging through his bag. He didn’t know what the hell an antifungal was, but he had vodka and stimpacks.

“Yeah. Some people with high rad poisoning start growing it, too. The fog carries the spores around,” Bertha said. “That’s why there are so many mushrooms here.”

Hancock watched the kids for a moment. That was the first time either of them mentioned Sunny’s glowing scar since they met up. They’d only been separated a few hours, not enough time had passed to forget what she looked like. Shaun had stared for a while at first, but his new pet mutant hound was a good distraction from his mom’s condition. Valentine wasn’t bothered by Sunny’s glow, either, but synths were neither threat or food even to feral ghouls.

The tame, playful mutant hound that Shaun called Gracie was a whole other story.

Hancock paused to light a cigarette. “So where do we find that… antee-fun gal?”

“Uh… “Bertha hesitated. “Teddy would know. I never left the dock before you guys, and no one in town takes me seriously when I want to learn.” She shrugged. “I only know what they talk about.”

“It’s okay.” Sunny winced again with another scratch. “I’ll be fine. It’s probably part of turning into a Glowing One.”

“Uhh…” Air intake through his teeth made Shaun sound like he hissed. “You guys are really okay with… you turning into a glowing ghoul?”

“I’m not feral, Shaun, goodness.” Sunny sighed at him.

“I’m pretty sure Mom’s got some time left before that happens, pal,” Hancock assured. “We’d know if she was about to turn.”

“Hey, why don’t we take our minds off Sunny’s glow with our case, okay, sport?” Valentine suggested. The underside of the brim of his hat illuminated in the flame as he lit a cigarette. “What’s next on our list, partner? You already found that defect, right?”

Sunny glanced at him. “The Children of Atom girl? Yeah, we found her. I didn’t say that already? We already got those things out of the way.”

“That quick, huh?” their detective asked.

Sunny shrugged. “They weren’t that far from The Nucleus. We were only apart for, what, two hours?” She fiddled with her PipBoy till a station came in clear. “Oh! I remember this song! Where she will stay-ee-ay, my little runaway, run run run run runaway,” she sang along. It was a nice break from the repetitive Diamond City Radio songs. “Wow, I can’t believe I still remember the words.” Her words came quicker than normal, but this wasn’t nervousness. Hancock hadn't heard her act so hyper before. His only guess was the glowing spring water caused it. She pushed a few buttons on her PipBoy. “What do you guys think? Travis needs more songs to play, right?”

“Yes he does,” Hancock agreed a little too quick. Sunny chuckled.

“Yeah, he kinda does,” Shaun admitted.  

“Runaway, huh?” Valentine mused. “Fitting song for our case.”

Sunny gave him a double-take before gasping. “Oh, shit. The Nakano case! How long have we been on this island?” she rushed.

Hancock grinned, careful not to light the rest of his hair on fire as he lit a cigarette. “Don’t mind Mom. She found a new favorite chem.”

Shaun’s nose crinkled. “That glowing spring water? Yuck.”

“I’m not that bad. Am I?” Sunny looked at her boys.Yet she’d been sneaking sips since they’d bottled it up.

“You’re talkin’ faster than a spooked radstag, love.” Cigarette in his lips, Hancock blew out the smoke with a smirk. He winked at his wife, securing his tricorn hat back on his rad-balding head.

“Ooh, here’s another good one!” Sunny cranked the radio dial. “’Cause I want… a girl... to caaaall… my owwwwn, I want a dreeeam lover so I don’t have to dream alone, ” she sang. Ghoulism was turning her voice raspy, but Hancock found it sexy. He couldn't remember her ever singing, either. 

Shaun stared at his mom in uncertainty. “Dad? Are you sure Mom’s not going feral?”

Hancock laughed.

“Hey!” Sunny scolded with a chuckle.

“He’s got a point, Sun.” Hancock shrugged and smiled at his hopeless wife. “You never sing.”

“Or talk so fast. Except that one day last winter when you got really drunk, ” Shaun reminded. Hancock snorted.

“Do you guys realize how many songs were on the radio before the bombs fell? Now I’m stuck with the same hour-long list that Travis plays and Magnolia’s four total songs.”

Hancock sighed. “All right, point made. Record your songs. Actually, Bertha?” He glanced over. “There a radio station on this island?”

“Not that I know of. This station comes from Bangor. It usually doesn’t reach the harbor.” The girl wore a small, crooked smile. Where her voice never laughed, her eyes did so in slivers. She took their playfulness well considering the dour harbor she’d never left.

“Aw, dang.” Sunny pouted for only a second. “It would’ve been nice to find a set of pre-recorded stuff.” Her head whipped to Hancock as she sipped glowing spring water again. Hancock could only shake his head and smile. As fun as it was to tease her, he was glad she found some happiness in this island she’d dreaded.“Bangor’s still around?” she asked. “With the same name, even? How ‘bout that.” 

“Yeah. It’s crazy, though, from the stories traders used to tell,” Bertha said. “A lot of cheap weapons and ammo and diluted stims. People ripping each other off.” 

“How do they survive with faulty ammo?” Shaun asked. 

Bertha shrugged. “They must never leave their walls, I guess.” 

“Sounds like Diamond City,” Hancock mused. 

“Speaking of, we need to get back on the case. We still need DiMA’s memories,” Valentine reminded them. “Anything else we gotta wrap up that ghoul’s paradise?”

Oh, right. They still had to deal with the Children of Atom.

Chapter Text

Talking to the Children of Atom wasn’t high on Hancock’s list of priorities. But the list was small on that island, and they’d already crossed everything off but those damn memories and the Nakano girl. Dealing with any cult was a chore, atomic or synth.

Between the new radio songs and Sunny’s rad-intoxication, the return trip to The Nucleus went by faster than they all wanted. They said their goodbyes again, and husband and wife watched their boy leave for the plane on the hill with his rabbit, his girlfriend, his new dog, and his detective. Then Sunny sipped her glowing spring water and led the way back into the beached submarine.

DiMA’s memories were a piece of work. After maddening, moving trip lasers and relentless defensive machines, they had to navigate DiMA’s ridiculous program lock. That tormenting virtual puzzle took well over an hour before Sunny unlocked the last memory. When at last it ended, she and Hancock were frustrated and needed a good high. And now were equipped with a confession that DiMA killed Far Harbor’s captain, Avery.

It was a notion that didn’t sit well with Bertha when they all met up again. The girl wanted to bring the proof back to Allen Lee, but all they had was an audio confession. That meant exploring the Vim! Pop factory for DiMA’s secret lab, eradicating the super mutants there and trying not to vomit amongst all the gore bags.

There in the little secret lab far down in the basement lay the remains of what appeared to be Captain Avery. The locket she used to always wear lay among her bones. Bertha, who’d known Avery longest, was horrified. She wondered who else DiMA had killed and replaced.

They needed answers first before they showed Allen Lee the truth about Avery. Allen was ready to storm Acadia, and in the moment of retribution he would not discern Kasumi Nakano from the synths. So they hiked back up the mountain to Acadia to confront Valentine’s brother.

Sunny played the confession holotape at DiMA's chair, and his face fell in disbelief. He loathed murder and couldn’t believe himself capable. But the proof was in the holotape and the grave at the secret lab.

Sunny called him a fraud. She demanded a reason why she shouldn’t tell Far Harbor when the people deserved to know the truth. Even Bertha spoke up, Avery led the town so the harbormen needed to be able to trust her. They couldn’t trust a fake, and Bertha wasn’t sure how long she could keep such a dire secret.

DiMA pulled himself together and pleaded with them. Far Harbor would want revenge and destroy Acadia. But without Acadia, Far Harbor would no longer be safe from the Children of Atom. In order to keep the peace, DiMA proposed killing High Confessor Tektus and replacing him with a synth.

It was a horrible idea… and the most humane in the long run. They couldn’t let the people of Far Harbor bring about their own destruction. They couldn’t ignore the Children of Atom because Tektus planned to douse the whole island in high radiation, which would kill Far Harbor.

Valentine was so conflicted he almost couldn’t talk. He still hadn’t even come to terms with the fact that DiMA was the equivalent of a brother. He was dumbfounded his brother partook in dark rituals instead of finding other ways. Valentine would never sacrifice innocent lives to ensure peace. He would have investigated other methods. There was always another way. He accused DiMA of giving up and taking an easy escape.

But it was too late for other ways. DiMA had already murdered and replaced, and influenced, the Captain of Far Harbor. The alternative now was letting the sane inhabitants of the island eradicate themselves in careless, bloody war. And who knew how the synths of Acadia would react if Sunny and Hancock punished DiMA for his deeds.

Hancock and Sunny looked to Bertha for approval. It was her people at risk if they enacted justice. It wasn’t hard to guess the girl thought of her brother when agreeing to DiMA’s dark plan.

Bertha’s dark eyes flew all afore her, though, auburn brows deep and troubled. “It’s going to be hard talking to Avery from now on.”

“If it’s any consolation,” DiMA began.  “You have my condolences. And my sincerest apology.”

The glint in Bertha’s eyes when she looked up was loathing a murderer and concern for her brother. “Yet you’re willing to do it again.”

DiMA’s head fell with long countenance. The only thing that made his dark plan less evil was the guilt on his face.

It was an evil plan. But Hancock and Sunny had been in similar situations before. Greater-good decisions often required a sacrifice.

Little was said as the party trekked back to The Nucleus, or as Sunny and Hancock lured Tektus into the secluded military bunker, killed him, and buried the body. They didn’t need to tell Valentine or the kids that the deed was done, the look on their faces revealed enough. More disturbing was returning to Acadia to find a convincing copy of the man they’d just killed.

The fake Tektus thanked Valentine; quite different than the soft-spoken yet conniving High Confessor of Atom they killed at the Nucleus. They hoped DiMA knew Tektus well enough to have programmed convincing zealousy. They weren’t sure the other Children of Atom would accept the fake vision from Atom demanding peace with Far Harbor. But it was too late to turn back. And knowing what they knew, the party was all accomplice to DiMA’s infiltration.

But their case was almost closed. Kasumi Nakano agreed to accompany them to Far Harbor and take her boat back home. They had to check on fake Avery anyway.

With luck, the trip home would be uneventful and free of all cultists.

Chapter Text

They returned to Far Harbor not only with the Nakano girl, but even after claiming the lumber mill for the harbormen and collecting mirelurk carapaces for the town barricades. Captain Avery announced that the Children of Atom had called for Peace. If synth Tektus was as convincing as synth Avery, peace would remain between three settlements.

It seemed they were departing on good terms with everyone, even the island itself.

Shaun didn’t want to say goodbye to Bertha. The girl’s brother was safe, warm, dry, and fed while they were gone. And while the people of Far Harbor now regarded Bertha with respect for her actions, she didn’t look happy either. It wasn’t just friendship they’d lose by parting ways. She’d become family.

Shaun delayed their trip back home to talk with the girl who stole his young heart. Hancock and Sunny gave him time to say goodbye by double-checking their bags and rations. They’d already secured two caged rabbits and the mutant hound in the boat. And they bought a couple harpoon guns and plenty of harpoons in case they met another mutant flying shark on the nauseating boat ride home.

Valentine, Hancock, and Sunny turned abrupt when Shaun leaned in to kiss Bertha goodbye. Square on the mouth in front of the whole Harbor, the two young adults stood locked in affection.

“I guess he learned about public affection from his dad,” Valentine teased. Hancock and Sunny shared a glance with a chuckle and a kiss.

When Shaun turned away at last, Sunny hesitated, eyes on Bertha. She nodded toward the boat with her head. “You comin’, or what?”

Bertha looked from her to Shaun and back. “I… can’t. My brother…”

“Goodneighbor’s big enough for two more,” Hancock encouraged.

Shaun lit up almost like a firework. “Yeah! They can have the house next to the courtyard! Right next to Warehouse Two.” A narrow place, but they’d opened it up into three stories to build the catwalks up to the new rooftop deck of the Old State House.

Hancock nodded at his boy, then Bertha. “See? We got plenty of room for you and your brother.”

“We can always come visit,” Sunny promised.

Even Kasumi encouraged the move. “My dad would be more than glad to rent out his boat whenever you guys want to come back here.” She shrugged. “After everything you’ve done for us.”  

“Yeah, and it’s not foggy and damp all the time,” Shaun added. “My dad’s guard patrols all the time, too. Goodneighbor’s safe. And dry,” he emphasized.

Bertha looked around at the Harbor before nodding at them. “Okay.” A brave leap toward a new world.

Shaun all but exploded. He rushed back to Bertha and hugged her tight with another kiss.

Hancock couldn’t help but chuckle. “Little dude is way more smooth with girls than I was at his age,” he said, lighting a cigarette.

“Kid’s got a fine example,” Valentine said. “Can’t do much better than a Mayor dad who married the Savior of the Commonwealth.”

“Nick, staahp,” Sunny teased, “I’m already starting to glow. These people don’t need to see me blush too.”

Hancock grinned. “I dunno. Pink and neon green look pretty good together.” The sparkle in her eyes when she smiled at him never got old.

He looked back around to see Shaun carrying a couple small bags for Bertha and her little brother Tony. Goodneighbor could do with a few more kids again. And in ten years, as long as Hancock guided his boy well, the sound of babies might fill the destitute air in the refuge for the lost and renew hope all over again.

Chapter Text

Four years later:

It had been harder than usual lately to get stiff enough for his wife. Hancock didn’t like to think about it, but he felt his days of making love were nearing an end. It was a soul-crushing notion. He never felt more right than when he was inside her. Heaven for him was lying naked with his wife, her bare skin against his, her hot thighs around him while he rocked his way to ecstasy. Her hot breath steaming his skin while he made her climax. They took the moments when they could, using any chems that prolonged the those intimate nights.

It wasn’t something he thought would bother him when he chose to become a ghoul. But back when he took that drug, he was a lost man who hadn’t yet met the love of his life.

It made Hancock appreciate his family that much more. Including the family he had with the town residents.

Goodneighbor was improving, at least. Bertha’s brother Tony had taken up learning from Dr. Amari every chance he got, securing the town’s future health. Three new families had even moved into the empty warehouses, and two of them had children. The husband of one family was turning ghoul, and the other family’s eldest daughter had ghoulified. Both families had moved from Diamond City, who still harbored disgust for ghouls.

Goodneighbor was officially a family town.

Shaun moved in with Bertha in the narrow three-story apartment, but that didn’t stop their little family from eating together each night. Sometimes when hunting trips fruited well, Hancock even cooked for his whole damn town. Goodneigborhood barbecues were pretty much the new town holidays.

Hancock had at last turned that town into something he could hang his fancy tricorner hat on.

And Bertha was pregnant. Hancock squeezed Shaun’s shoulder as the young man stared at the ultrasound screen. The first baby in Goodneighbor would be born in six months. Shaun, now towering over Hancock at sixteen, teared up at the tiny human jerking around inside of Bertha’s womb. Dr. Amari explained the noise irritated the unborn, that’s what made the baby squirm, but it wasn’t dangerous. It made for a beautiful preview of the life and joy they’d have in the future.

There was Shaun, an anomaly in a world where infertility was common because of rads and because synths should be sterile. Shaun was proof that no matter what mankind threw at the world, Nature won in the end.  

And as soon as Hancock announced to Goodneighbor he’d be a granddad, the entire town exploded in celebration. The residents started cleaning the town like they were all high on Overdrive. Garbage piles were burned in brick corners and the ashes cleared away. Some of the drifters even foraged for bouquets of hubflowers to hang for potpourri. Tiny blankets and clothes were knitted and crocheted, a few people worked together to weave a bassinet. The entire damn town was getting ready to raise the grandbaby of the Savior of the Commonwealth.

A few days later during dinner, Shaun pointed at Sunny in concern, eyes fixated on her chest. Hancock looked over to see pale yet glowing green staining her shirt over her breast.

“What the hell,” Hancock muttered. “Babe?” She’d been rubbing her breasts in discomfort the past few days, but it hadn’t harbored concern. Amari had said when ghoulification made Sunny sterile, symptoms might mimic menopause. Hancock had taken the doctor at her word without a care.

But this? This was new. And very concerning. In Hancock’s experience, no ghoul leaked anything that resembled irradiated blood unless they were injured.

Another trip to Amari. Hancock fidgeted in nervousness, unable to stop pacing while Amari did a full examination of Sunny.

“I wonder… it doesn’t seem possible, but still…”  Amari took her stethoscope from around her neck and fixed the buds in her ears, then put the dish to Sunny’s bare belly.

“Care to elaborate?” Hancock asked her.

Amari held up a finger to silence him. Her eyes darted and narrowed as she listened. She listened harder with a deeper frown, then stared at Sunny’s lower belly as if a mutant limb was growing before her eyes.

Then she wheeled the ultrasound machine over as fast as she could.

Hancock’s breath caught. Christ, don’t let it be cancer. Anything but something Amari couldn’t fix.

Her fingers typed like lighting to wake and connect the machine to her computer.  “It’s not possible. Can’t be possible,” she muttered to herself. She squeezed lube on Sunny abdomen and pressed the sensor around, desperate to find what she suspected.

Time froze for Hancock. He saw nothing but the screen and heard nothing but his own heartbeat. A tiny body was inside his wife. A hand squeezing his revealed his feet had carried him to Sunny’s side.

“John…”

Breath returned to Hancock so hard his damn lungs hurt. He blinked over and over, even rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.

Sunny was pregnant.

Amari monitored Sunny every day. She took blood samples from her and Shaun and wasted no time running tests. Amari had so many ideas in her head that it was impossible to get answers.

Weeks of hard study revealed Shaun’s DNA was perfect. Not a single flaw, and he’d inherited it from Sunny. A prewar synthetic compound with nanotech that corrected genetic accidents and mutations.

Amari recalled research on something similar long ago. Experiments originating from the creation of power armor and plasma weapons led to creating the FEV virus: the goal of making the Perfect Soldier. That research was the whole reason Amari pursued a medical career and worked on synths; she thought synths might have nanotech. Hospitalized children became test subjects without parents or hospital staff knowing. The nanotech was so well developed that it even went undetected when the serum killed a child. But whereas the FEV created monsters, the nanotech gene correction created pure - truly pure, in spite of Sunny’s prewar chem abuse - humans.

As horrific as those experiments and nanotech gene correction sounded, it was an answer they’d given up finding: Why the Institute stole the original Shaun from the Cryo Vault in the first place - and left Sunny alive as The Backup. Why Sunny’s family had even been chosen for the Cryo Vault. And Sunny sipping the irradiated water of Atom’s Spring as a way to get high every night? It pumped rads into her body faster than the nanotech in her blood could heal from it, so instead it adapted her to the radiation, changing her very genes so she’d thrive instead of deteriorate. And unlike other glowing ghouls whose complexion grayed and decayed, the parts of Sunny’s skin that didn’t glow never lost its deep tan. That nanotech in her blood kept her an even blend of human and ghoul.

Like the drug that turned Hancock ghoul, only magnified at least tenfold.

It was only a theory based on Amari’s research… until Sunny said she’d been in and out of the hospital as a child for leukemia before she mysteriously didn’t have it anymore. Said her parents had thought it a miracle from God. The theory, it seemed, was fact.

And it was such a solid part of the original Shaun’s genes that it shaped the synth Shaun. Manipulated by mankind or not, they were so goddamn anomalous it was like God Himself had chosen the Mother and Son to save the broken, irradiated world.

Six months later, Goodneighbor waited with baited breath the whole day Bertha was in labor. The second the baby wailed, the entire town exploded in noise. The first child in over thirty years was born in the Refuge for the Lost. Another explosion shook the air as Shaun held up his daughter and announced her as Eve to his big family of ghouls and outcasts.

A bigger blessing? Shaun’s daughter was immune to radiation. Completely immune. Hancock and Sunny didn’t have to worry about accidentally irradiating their granddaughter.

Dr. Amari had only ever heard of one other case from a decade ago. An anomalous baby born in The Pitt near D.C. was also born immune to radiation. A contact of MacCready’s, a scientist known as 101 who still protected D.C., regularly sent couriers out with holotapes to doctors across the continent with updates on the baby’s blood and the cures she and the Pitt baby’s parents were developing. In addition on those holotapes was info on a tree fused with human blood that allowed green plants to thrive and spread.

Nature was fighting back against the radiation hard. And Shaun’s daughter was now part of that legacy.

As if that wasn’t ominous enough, a month later, Sunny lay on the gurney while Amari stitched her up after the c-section. Bags of glowing blood and the water from Atom’s Spring dripped into Sunny’s veins via IV bags. High on Atom’s water and Med-X, but healthy and alive.

Hancock sat holding his own newborn. Another daughter. So small, so fragile as he cradled her tiny head. Thick, dark hair on her little head was softer than anything Hancock had ever felt.

Hancock was a papa. He’d already felt like dad to Shaun, but this solidified it.  

He named her Dawn, after Sunshine.

The anomalies in Sunny’s mutated blood passed on to Dawn, like they had Shaun. An initial, small draw of blood showed baby Dawn absorbed radiation like the lungs converted oxygen. In layman’s terms, Amari said, the baby’s DNA made her a rad-cleansing factory. She had already broken down the radiation in Sunny’s colostrum.

When she grew up, Hancock’s daughter and her future babies would free the land of radiation.

Shaun’s daughter would repopulate the world with healthy children, and Hancock’s daughter would make the world clean for all the new kids.

His kids were saving the whole goddamn world. Just by existing.

Hancock couldn’t stop the tears in his eyes.