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It had started out as any old mission. Go to settlement. Clear out raiders. Return to Preston. But what Cheryl hadn’t taken into account was just how well-equipped this group of raiders were. Nick and her had been doing fairly well picking them off one by one, when suddenly she leaned out of cover slightly and saw a missile making its way straight towards her face.
Faster than she could react, something dove in front of her and the horrifying sound of metal crunching could be heard as Nick was launched back into the concrete wall behind them.
“NICK!” she shrieked with an intensity that made her throat feel raw with agony.
Cheryl turned her rage on the remaining raiders, a bloodthirsty spark glinting in her eye as she tore through them, each one turning to a bloody pulp in her wake of destruction. Her mind was blank except for one blindingly clear thought resounding.
“Save him, SAVE NICK”
With the raiders neutralized, she quickly hacked the Protectron terminal at the far end of the room in a panic, assuring that they would not be disturbed by any more unwelcome guests. Turning around wildly, her eyes turned on the sight before her. Nick was crumpled in an awkward heap on the floor, limb bending at unhappy angles and one of his optics blinking worryingly under half-lidded eyes. The wall behind him was smeared in coolant and had an alarming dent in the concrete with cracks reaching out in spidery patterns from the impact of the missile.
Falling to her knees with tears near blinding her, her fingers slid gently up his neck, moving to cup his head so that he was looking into her eyes.
“Nick? Nick? Stay with me okay? Don’t you dare leave me” she spoke frantically, barely paying attention to the words sputtering out of her mouth.
“D-d-doll?” he stammered, voice much too weak for Cheryl’s liking.
Cradling his head against her arm she cooed “Hey, Nicky, you’re going to be alright, I’m going to take care of you, okay?” She kept repeating the mantra you’re going to be alright, although it was more for herself than Nick at this point.
Laying him gently on the floor as slowly as she could manage, she took to tending him, not bothering to think about his decency as she all but tore the white cotton shirt from his body. Shirts could be always be replaced, but him? Cheryl didn’t even want to think of that possibility.
Whipping out her screwdriver, she focused on his optic nerves, reattaching where she could, not stopping until his eyes glowed brightly, becoming more focused at the seconds passed. Nick eyes focused on her tear-stained face and a shock of sadness went through him at the thought of her being unhappy, wanting nothing more than to reach up and wipe away her tears, her grief, replace it with the smiles he loved so dearly.
Wait.
Oh dear.
His fans started whirring harder at the thought, and if he could blush, he had no doubt that he would be redder than a tato.
Cheryl seemed to startle a bit at the sound of his internal fans starting up, happy that some of his core processes remained intact. However, she couldn’t stop to talk, because there was still a very disturbingly large hole in the synthetic flesh of his chest, grabbing the discarded metal plate from one of the dead raiders, she picked a few bolts out of her pocket and started the task of sealing up his internals to protect him from any further danger. Luckily, it didn’t seem as though there was too much internal damage, his outer shell taking the brunt of the impact.
In the middle of tightening the last bolt, however, she felt spindly metal fingers gently comb through her scalp. She closed her eyes and sighed happily and leaned into his touch as his hand carefully caressed her hair as though she was a newborn kitten. Finally opening her eyes gazing back at him, Nick could swear he felt his neural processes come to a halt. Every sunrise he’d ever seen could go to hell for the warmth and adoration he saw beaming back at him.
Cheryl couldn’t think of anything else in that moment, it was as though they were the only two people in the whole god-forsaken world. She held his eyes for only a moment longer, a soft smile gracing her inviting lips before lightly laying her head against his chest, snuggling her head into the crevasse of what passed for his collarbone.
“Nick…..I..I’m just so glad you’re alive” she breathed, her worry betraying her calm façade.
“Heh, me too doll, me too” Nick agreed, his low voice purring against her head.
Just then, she felt the semblance of lips lightly brushing against her forehead.
Glancing upwards, she saw Nick’s optics dance across her face, looking more vulnerable than she had ever seen him. Watching as his eyes came to rest on her full, plump lips, Cheryl got the idea and leaned up the rest of the way, hesitantly sweeping her lips across his in a whisper of a kiss. Becoming braver, Nick put a bit more force into the kiss, bringing his intact hand up to cup the back of her neck, gently tilting her head to mold his lips to hers.
Cheryl broke the kiss gradually, knowing full well that he shouldn’t strain himself too much.
Not yet at least, she thought with an internal smirk.
Helping him to his feet, she put one of his arms over her shoulder, goddamn was he always this heavy? and bit by bit they hobbled out of the now-cleared raiders den.
Back at Sanctuary Preston ran up to the pair with urgency.
“General, I heard word of what you did, did you find anything there?”
Nick and Cheryl both gazed ardently up at each other as they both collectively thought the same thing.
Each other.
We found each other.