reformedowo

[guardian-angle22]

911 lone star fashion -> every grace outfit

↳ 3.03

[gold-and-rubies]

In It For The Long Haul - Chapter 16

Pickman’s Gallery. Mac POV.

MacCready paused as he opened his bedroom door. He heard a low, smooth, feminine voice singing along with Nat King Cole’s. It was separate from the radio, and he had the song enough times to know it was not a duet.

Part of him wondered if he was still dreaming. The only singer he knew who was this good was Magnolia, but it did not sound like her. There would be no reason for her to be there anyway.

He wandered into the main room where Flynn was sitting on the couch, cleaning her shotgun, and singing to herself. He stood there for a moment just listening and watching her. She never looked this peaceful when she was not asleep, and even then he could tell she was plagued by bad dreams.

It did not surprise him that she was a good singer, he had heard the control she had over her voice when she spoke. He just wondered why he had never heard her sing.

She sighed and shook her head as “Uranium Fever” replaced “Orange Colored Sky.” She had never seemed fond over that song.

“Mornin’,” he said.

She looked up from her work, “Hey. I didn’t wake you up, did I?”

He was taken aback slightly. She was acting like he had not seen a completely different side of her.

“Nah, you’re good. I, uh, I didn’t know you could sing.”

She looked away from him to somewhere straight ahead of her. She straightened a bit, and frowned with furrowed brows. She looked like she was lost in thought.

“I guess it’s been awhile since I felt like it…” her voice trailed off.

It was his turn to frown. He had no idea what she was talking about, or what was going through her head. Part of him wondered if he had somehow said something wrong. If he was not supposed to hear her.

She shook her head, “Uh, anyway, Sturges came up with a list of stuff he needs for upgrades, and repairs. Nothing has come in over the radios, so while we could scavenge, we could also just find a vendor.”

He nodded, “Best bets will probably be the major settlements. Diamond City, Goodneighbor, and Bunker Hill. Course it’s up to you where we go.”

“They made a settlement around Bunker Hill? Actually that makes sense. Almost every major pre-war place is.”

“It’s less of a settlement, and more of a caravan hub. A few people live there of course, and they’ve got a bar and inn, but mostly it’s just a place for traveling merchants to sell their stuff directly to you, unlike Diamond City and they’re hell of a lot more accepting of ghouls far as I know,” he explained.

“Let’s head to Diamond City first. It’s easier to get there, and the less fights we get in the better.”

“Sounds good to me. Just let me eat something first.”

“Of course. We’ve got brahmin jerky and bread in one of the cabinets. You could run over to that root cellar if you want something else.”

“Yeah, I’ll probably go get some butter. Don’t feel like having dry bread,” he said walking to the front door, “I’ll be back.”

He grabbed his duster off of the coat rack they had recently acquired, and pulled it on. He stepped into the cold winter air. A layer of snow covered everything. It snowed in the Capital Wasteland, but it was a lot worse in the Commonwealth. It had certainly helped that he spent most of those winters in a cave surrounded by other people.

He walked to the back of the house Garvey and Sturges had claimed. There was a root cellar there. From what he had heard, the person who had lived there before the war had made it in an attempt to survive the bombs. No one knew what had become of them, but it’s use was clear. Shortly after arriving, they had changed it to a place to store perishables.

He wondered if they would dig more root cellars as Sanctuary’s population grew. It made sense to have one communal one at its current size, especially since he, Flynn, and Garvey were not guaranteed to be there, but it would not last forever.

He threw open the doors, and climbed down the ladder inside. As he hopped off he noticed Flynn’s brother, Andrew.

He turned to look at MacCready as his feet hit the ground. He felt uncomfortable as Andrew regarded him, like he was looking right through him.

“Hey, you’re MacCready, right? We didn’t really get to have a proper introduction yesterday,” Andrew said.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t want to intrude on you two,” he stammered. He cursed himself mentally. He did not understand why he was so nervous. Normally he did not care what someone thought about him.

“Thanks for that, by the way. We had a lot to catch up on, or she had a lot to catch up on.”

“Of course. Figured there would be a lot to talk about.”

Andrew nodded, “Thanks for watching out for her. I know it’s your job to watch her physically, but I don’t think it’s your job to keep her sane. She’s tough, but she needs someone to watch out for her.”

MacCready scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, “Just trying to be a good friend.”

Andrew grabbed a carrot that sat on one of the shelves, “Well, it was nice to meet you.”

“Yeah.”

Once Andrew was up and out of the cellar, MacCready let out a loud exhale. It was good to know that he seemed to like him, but he was a bit irked that he cared so much about his opinion of him.

He shook his head, and grabbed the butter he came for.

***

MacCready heard Flynn let out a sigh of relief as he slammed the door to Goodneighbor behind them. Super Mutants had made their home around the corner again.

They had managed to pick up a few things from Diamond City, but nowhere near all the things on the list.

“Damn mutants…” he muttered.

“Where the hell do they all keep coming from?” she asked.

He had no idea. He doubted they just came up from the Capital Wasteland. Especially since that one lady he had let into Little Lamplight had seemingly cleaned up Vault 87.

“Mutants move back in?” rasped a familiar voice.

MacCready turned to see Hancock leaning against the low stone wall that separated the entrance form the shops and the rest of Goodneighbor.

“Hancock! How’s the coolest ghoul in the Commonwealth?” MacCready explained.

“Doin’ alright, MacCready. General,” he nodded at Flynn.

“Mayor Hancock,” she nodded back.

“You know, you two came by at just the right time. That is, if you don’t mind helping our little community.”

“What needs to be done?” she asked.

“I have reconnaissance needs. There’s a lot of weird talk coming in about a place called the Pickman Gallery. It’s raider territory up there, but they’ve been quiet. Like, uncomfortable post-coitus quiet?”

“It’s near here, right?”

“Yeah, it’s near where the river turns into the harbor.”

Her brows furrowed slightly, “As far as I know it isn’t Minutemen doing. Far as I know, other than Goodneighbor, there aren’t any settlements close enough to warrant a clear out, and I feel like I would know if you called on us.”

“That’s what I figured. I need you to snoop it out, and give me the word. If somethin’s wiping out raiders like that it’s either really good or really bad.”

“We’ll take care of it, don’t worry.”

“Cool. Be thorough, okay? I’m not paying for a look-see. Find out what’s really going on,” He gave them a final nod, and turned to walk towards the Old State House.

“Damn shame he’s not paying us to take out the super mutants too,” MacCready joked.

“No kidding” she sighed as he opened the door.

***

“Wonder what’s going on here for them to be so angry,” Flynn said as she searched a raider they had taken down.

“We’re about to find out. Whatever it is must be pretty bad. This isn’t normal raider behavior,” he replied. The raiders had of course shot them on sight, but there had been a slight hesitation Instead of making a break for it or making sure they died, they had been centered around the door yelling at whoever Pickman was.

“Yeah, but they do seem pretty pissed. They’re probably pretty hopped up on adrenaline along with chems, so let’s try stealth.”

“Sounds good to me.”

He took a step away from the door, so he could follow her in. It was easier for him to aim over her shoulder than it was for her to aim over his. They dropped to a crouch. She grabbed the door handle, and slowly pushed the door open.

The first thing that he noticed was the smell. It smelled like death, and that was no exaggeration. The stench was so bad he was forced to breathe through his mouth. He could taste the air, and tried not to gag.

She turned to look at him, a look of disgust clear on her face. She took a deep breath, which she seemed to immediately regret, and pushed forwards into the house.

They entered a long hallway with stairs on the right hand side. A group of raiders stood at the end of the hall.

“You think we’re going to catch that Pickman psycho?” one asked.

“The slippery bastard got away before,” another answered, “But Slab won’t leave a man breathing after he’s hunted our crew.”

“I heard Pickman skinned Roy alive after he snatched him, let the rats get at him. Gives me the creeps just thinking about it.”

They had figured Pickman had been killing them, but if the raiders’ rumors were right, that would explain why they were so angry.

Flynn reached behind her, and tapped his knee. He looked down at her hand to see her motioning to the doors to their right. He followed her as they sneaked into the room. He wondered how the doors opened so quietly.

That thought died as soon as it had appeared. The room was filled with gore, but it was organized gore. A pile of flesh and furniture sat in the middle of the room. Heads on stakes poked out of the mess. Terrifying paintings hung on the walls. The shades of red were too close to the color of blood for his liking. If these were all raiders he did not blame them for acting out.

“Thanks for the nightmare fuel,” he managed to whisper.

Despite everything his body was screaming at him, he followed Flynn into the room. They circled around the mess in the center to find a clothed and intact body. She felt through his pockets, and pulled out a note. She scanned it, folded it, and pocketed it.

She looked up at him, or at least it looked like she was looking at him. It looked more like she was looking through him. He could see how much the place was messing with her. He had seen some deeply depraved stuff, but even this was out of his league.

“Boss,” he whispered, touching her left arm gently, “let’s let the raiders sort this out.”

She gave no response.

“Boss,” he nudged her this time, “let’s get out of here.”

He felt a pang of relief when she gave a small nod. He was starting to worry she had gone into shock.

He led the way out. Once they were out of the building, and he had closed the doors, she made a beeline to the river. She threw up once she got there. He winced, but did not blame her. He had no idea how he was not joining her.

She stood shaking at the water for a few moments. He wanted to make her feel a bit better, but he had no idea what to say. He had a good feeling the raiders were going to take care of the bastard, but he doubted death was not going to be a comforting idea.

“You doing alright?” was all he could think to say.

She coughed, “Yeah, yeah, I will be. I mean I never saw any of the crime scenes, but serial killers like this existed before the war. Sadly, shit like this isn’t new. Let’s just get out of here.”

“No arguments here, Boss.”

They weaved their way through the buildings back to Goodneighbor. Neither said a word. Neither was in the mood for banter. He was just thankful nothing got in their way.

As she opened the door to Goodneighbor for the second time that day, she said, “I’ll go talk to Hancock. Why don’t you get us a place for tonight? I’ll pay you back later.”

He watched her walk up to the door of the Old State House. Despite what they just dealt with she walked confidently to the door. She was so different from the girl he had met in the Third Rail over two months prior. He felt a little proud of her in all honesty.

He headed over the Hotel Rexford. He paid extra attention to the world around him in an effort to push the hell hole out of his head. The only thing he noticed was a man in sunglasses who was acting like he was not staring at him. MacCready frowned, but that was not anything out of the ordinary. Chems could do weird things to a person.

He rented a room for the two of them, and waited in the dusty lobby. He pulled out one of the issues of Grognack the Barbarian he had read the most, so he could keep himself occupied but still pay attention. Goodneighbor be safer than roaming the wastes, but it still was nothing compared to Diamond City or even Sanctuary.

Teaching himself to read was one of the best ideas he had ever had. He struggled a bit, but it was more than others could do.

He got through a few pages before Flynn showed up. She had taken a bit longer than he had anticipated, but he just assumed she had gotten the shopping done.

He waved her over to him, and led her to the room. It was the one they had stayed in after the ordeal with Kellogg. He hoped she did not notice.

She dropped her bag on the left bed, and dug around until she pulled out a leather bag.

“Here,” she tossed the bag to him, “your cut plus the room fee.”

“Thanks,” he ran his thumb over the bag, “You wanna-”

“Talk about it?” she cut him off while she took her armor off, “No. I’d rather talk about literally anything else.”

“What about the rest of your conversation with Hancock? You were gone longer than I thought it would be?” he took off his own armor.

“What? Did you miss me, Mac?” she teased.

“No, and don’t call me that. I was just curious,” he replied. He sat on the edge of the bed. He grabbed his rifle cleaning kit, and laid his gun across his lap.

“When are you going to stop calling me ‘boss’? I feel like it’s safe to say that we’re friends at this point.”

“Yeah.”

“So stop calling me boss.”

He looked up at her. She was smiling at him, her eyebrows raised a bit. He could see a bit of pain in her eyes, but it was genuine.

He sighed in defeat, “Fine. Flynn.”

She rolled her eyes, but she was not annoyed, “Not what I meant, but it’s a step in the right direction. What am I going to call you now?”

“Uh, MacCready?”

“I called you Mac not just because it annoyed you, but because it was shorter. MacCready is too long.”

“Too long?”

“Mhm.”

She was not wrong. There had been a few times when shouting his actual name would have wasted precious seconds.

“Fine. You can call me R.J.” he said. It had been a long time since someone had called him that, but if he was going to let anyone call him that it would be her.

“R.J.?”

He looked up at her again. This time she looked confused. Then it hit him. He had never told her his full name. It made sense there were several people who only had one name.

“Stands for Robert Joseph. My, uh, full name is Robert Joseph MacCready.”

She nodded thoughtfully, “Nice to know you don’t have a weird name.”

“Thanks for not thinking it’s weird.”

She made a “tch” noise, and her smile deepened. He turned his head back to his rifle to keep from staring at her. There was something great about her when she smiled.

They went about their nightly routines in a comfortable silence. It was hard to tell they had witnessed something horrible. MacCready was a bit proud of himself for it.

[ecotone99]

[SP] The Summer Tree House.

The sky was a cool crystal blue with gentle whispers of clouds. A warm summer breeze caressed the bushes and trees as it ideally passed by. The trees and greenery stretched forever in nearly all directions. In the middle of this seemingly endless forest was a clearing with a single lone tree in the centre. At the top of this particular tree was a tree house.

The most magnificent tree house young Kevin had ever seen.

It had a gap for a front door, two empty windows, a roof and a balcony, but best of all, he somehow knew it was his very own tree house. No one else could come in unless he let them. He had always hoped for one just like it, his father had said he would build him one but always seemed too busy to do so and got angry when he asked. That wasn't important now though. He was just happy to have this one, and that's all that mattered.

There was a rope ladder leading to the balcony. Kevin grabbed the ladder and pulled himself up, climbing one step at a time. Once at the top he darted in and looked around. There were childlike drawings all across the wooden walls. He looked at them more closely, there were pictures of dinosaurs, astronauts, pirates, horses and cowboys. In the corner was a make-shift table with some paper and coloured crayons on it. He sat and thought for a bit before he decided what the walls were missing. He got a brown crayon and drew a dog playing before putting it on the wall with the rest. He had always wanted a dog.

There were toys, books and games on shelves, in drawers, even laying on the floor . He played, read and had fun. Time passed by but It didn't seem to matter how long he spent. The sun did not want to disturb this boy's fun and hung firmly in the sky, unmoving.

Some time later he poked his head out the window to take in the world below. He could hear the birds singing, the rustle of the wind through the land. Rows of trees that seem to go on for miles, expect for one spot where there was a another small clearing. He could see a small building in the middle of the area, there was a path coming from it which lead right to the tree house itself. Kevin looked round his wooden fort for something to help him see better. Against one wall was a chest full of all sorts of things that a young lad might find a use for. Rummaging through it he found a small telescope. He took it out, went back to window, unfolded it and looked out at the building again. With the aid of the telescope he went to see what it was. Was...was it a house?

He looked again, it was indeed a house. It looked cosy and safe. A red bricked cottage with white window frames, vines curved around the front door and up the side of the building. A large chimney stack on the side blew small puffs of white clouds into the air. A thought entered Kevin's mind that he didn't think himself, it told him that this was his house, that it was his home.

“Maybe I should just pop home for a moment, I bet mum would love to hear about my new tree house!” Said Kevin aloud to himself. He folded the telescope up and placed it on the floor. He climbed down the ladder, landing on the grass below, that was when he spotted something new. It was a small dog. It was brown with white patches, it looked just like the one he wanted when he was younger but his father wouldn't allow him to have. It was entertaining itself with a stick it had found when he it's eyes met Kevin's. It dropped the stick and panted playfully at the boy. Kevin burst into a smile, crouched down and said “Hello there boy!” as he reached out the pat the dog. The dog almost seemed to smile as it closed it's eyes while it enjoyed the head rubs.

“What's your name?” He asked the dog as he continued scratching behind it's ear. His only response was a happy panting. What was that name he decided he was going to give that dog years ago, if he had got it?

“I know, I'll call you Buddy! How does that sound?” Buddy happily barked in agreement.

“I've got a home over there buddy. You'll like it. My mum lives there. She'll get you a big ol' bowl of food, what ya say?” Another happy bark was the response along with a rapidly wagging tail.

The two set off along the path. Buddy joyfully walking beside Kevin, looking up to him every so often with his tongue hanging out his mouth. The walk seemed to take longer than Kevin had expected, he knew he was getting closer, yet at the same time he felt like it was still so far.

He had walked for a good while when he started to wonder if they had got any closer to the house than when they had started. He decided to try calling out to the house instead.

“Mum! Mum, you there?”

There was a brief silence, a rustling of grass, then a response from the house. “...Kevin...?” Another pause. “...Kevin are you there sweetheart? Come home. Please sweety, please come home to mummy...”

The house suddenly felt a lot closer now. He could almost reach it if he wanted. Kevin took a step further towards the house and stopped, before looking over his shoulder to the tree house. He did enjoy that tree house. He had more fun in it in the past few moments that he had, had for a good few years now. In fact there had been very little fun at all for Kevin for a number of years before this point. His face sank a little as he looked down at buddy who had stopped panting and cocked his head at him.

“What do you think Buddy, should I play for a bit longer before I go home, hmm? I don't get to do this much.” Buddy gave an approving noise, though that may have just been from getting more fusses off his new friend. They turned and ran back towards the tree house, leaving the house behind.

The voice from the house grew again. “...Kevin...please...stay with me...Kevin....”

“Don't worry mummy I'm just going to play some more, I'll come home soon!”

And play he did. He didn't know or care how long him and Buddy played for. They chased one and other, played fetch, hid and laughed when one found the other. There were even costumes in that tree house, cowboys hats and toy guns, astronaut helmets, comical masks, a fake wooden leg for a pirate and a hook hand. Kevin thought of no end of games for them to play, sometimes buddy would play along, sometimes he would just try chase his tail. The end result was always more smiles and laughter. Occasionally there was a whisper of his mum's voice in the wind, calling to him, but he wasn't ready for the fun to end. Not yet. There were still new games yet to play. For instance he found that if he folded the sheets of paper on the table in the tree house, into planes and threw them then buddy would joyfully chase them down. Though if he caught one of the planes he would carefully place it down, so gentle was his nature.

Even more time passed and Kevin started to look to the house in the distance once more. He listened to the whispers more seriously this time. Buddy had been tossing a stick in the air and catching it over and over when he noticed his friend standing still. He carefully placed the stick down, walked over to him and nuzzled his hand.

The hand stroked his head but the boy didn't look away. Kevin stroked him without thought a little while longer before speaking. “I think I should go home now. I've been playing for a while now. My mum might be starting to miss me.” With that he began moving towards the house. Buddy quickly followed by his side. They walked in silence for a while, until the silence was broken the voice of his mum calling him. She grew louder the closer they got. He started to shout back to her and got the impression she could hear him too. They were almost at the garden gate when a different voice spoke up.

“So...how's he doin'?” The new voice was cold.

“...What are you doing here...?”

“...What, I came to see the damn kid! You been goin' about him every god-damn day, so I thought you'd be happy if I came to see him! God forbid I do something to make YOU happy...!”

Something was happening to the house. Kevin's eye widened as he watched the vines which hugged the building so gently, turn brown and fall away.

“...Oh no! You don't get to guilt trip me, not here ,not now! You don't get to do that...!”The chimney began to brake apart, it coughed a black tar into the air before crumbling.

“...Yeah, yeah I know! I'm the baddy here aren't I?! I'm the reason he's like this, I'm the reason your life is, oh so, terrible! It's aaaalllll MY fault....!!!!”

The white frames of the windows greyed and cracked. Lines started to appear on the red brickwork of the house.

“...YOUR GOD DAMN RIGHT IT IS!!! He wouldn't be in this condition if you didn't think you were the big man who 'drives better with a few beers in him'! Your the reason he's like this...!”

“...Oh this is so like you...Do you remember the reason why I had him in the car in the first place, eh? That phone call I got from the neighbours? They had seen his mother 'taking something' that made her behave in a dangerous manner! Maybe we should talk about that...?!”

“...Oh screw you!! I only take that stuff because of you...!!!”

“...OH SCREW YOU TOO....!!!!”

The voices faded, and as they did the house fell. Kevin covered his face as the dust rose and then slowly settled. Once it had came to a rest there was another building in it's place. It wasn't red bricked, there were no green leafed vines. The dull walls had graffiti on them, one window was cracked and another was boarded up. He knew now that this was his house. His real home.

He began to remember. He remembered everything. He slowly sat down on the ground in front of the, now rusted, garden gate, with his knees pressed into his chest. Buddy sat patiently next to him.

He sat there thinking about what was waiting at home for him. Time passed as he did and, for the first time in a long, long time since Kevin had arrived in this place, the sun began to set. Clearly it had been having so much fun this long day that it decided to throw up some of the most beautiful colours as it set. Hues of orange, yellow, blue, red and purple painted the sky as the sun began to slowly lay down it's weary head.

Kevin had not moved. He had stayed in the same spot with his legs pressed into him. Buddy knew this called for more drastic action. He walked up to him and plopped his head on his knees so he could see him eye to puppy dog eyes.

Kevin moved away. He looked at trees for a while before speaking. His voice seemed heavy in his mouth “I don't know if I want to go home anymore.”

Buddy sat up and straightened up. “Well it's up to you if chose to go back.” He said.

He turned to Buddy without surprise or concern. Only worry on his face and tears forming in his eyes.. “But they want me back. If I don't go back, would...would that make me a bad son...? Would I be doing something wrong.”

"There are no right or wrong choices in this place Kevin. Only one choice that would give you the most happiness. And one that wouldn't.”

He sniffled and wiped his nose on his arm. “Ca...can I chose to stay here and play...?”

“Not here. But there is somewhere else where you can go. There are children there, just like you, they play there, forever. It's just over there, where the sun is setting.”

Tears fell, faster than he could wipe them away. “..W...would you come with me, wherever I went, would you stay beside me...”

Buddy shock his head. “Wherever you chose to go, I can't follow. I have to stay here, in this place. But that doesn't mean I can't walk beside you as you go.” He walked closer to Kevin and nudged him gently with his nose. Kevin hugged him before letting him go. He sat, deep in thought.

The leaves on the trees slowly turned from green to reds and yellows as the sun grew tired, ready to rest it's head.

“Have you made a choice?” Buddy asked softly some time later.

“I...I think...I think I just want to play. I don't want to go back home. I just want to play with other kids.”

A small, bittersweet, smile briefly appeared on Buddy's face. “I think that sounds like a wonderful idea."

Kevin got up off the ground. He looked to his canine friend without saying a word, his eyes full of tears and uncertainty.

"Please don't be scared, there is nothing to fear. Just think of all the games you'll get to play, all the fun you'll have with those other boys and girls...” Buddy paused. "...Shall we take a walk?" Kevin followed him as they walked away from the house, and as the first leave of Autumn began to fall, they made their way towards the sunset.

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