Outstanding

Chapter 4

"It's a shame these people have to live in fear, sheltering in this old stadium when all those perfectly good buildings are still standing outside." Danse said as we walked into Diamond City.

"Do you want to start up a Brotherhood task force to clear out the city of all those nasty baddies and then keep it clear?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

He shot me a look. "The Brotherhood can't possibly spare the men, not when were fighting the Institute." He argued back. "I only meant-"

I put a hand out to stop him. "I know what you meant, I was only teasing. No need to get your knickers in a twist." Once the Minutemen grew some more and we had heavier artillery, I planned on taking back parts of Boston. Maybe some day...

Danse sniffed. "You certainly like your pre-war lingo."

"Call it a force of habit." I sighed out.

I caught him smiling, but then it was smothered by a frown. "Cutler used to love pre-war sayings. He would try to slip it into conversations with people. He was obsessed with anything pre-war related, especially books." He said, his gaze transfixed ahead, unfocused. "He would try to get his hands on any pre-war book he could find. In just our bunker we had a small library, all kept in a 'organized mess,' as he would phrase it. I remember being so frustrated with him when he would separate from the group on missions just to go loot a place he saw for books."

Danse had kept most of Cutler's collection at the Prydwen while adding a few of his own he found on missions. The others he had donated to the younger scribes, to read in their down time. "I couldn't part with a few of the series he gathered. He had been so proud when he found the whole set." He said softly, his gaze still locked firmly ahead. "He would let me read some of them, and well I didn't want to get rid of them..it's just-"

"Danse." I said gently, snapping him from whatever memory he had been caught in. "I understand. Nate, he was a collector. But not a collector of books, more like junk. I remember when I had went to clean out our closet, a box full of his 'collection' had fallen on my head. Oh I was so angry with him I didn't speak to him for a whole week. Pretty ironic if you think about it..."

"How so?"

I tossed him a lopsided grin. "Cause it was a box full of bottle caps."

Danse narrowed his eyes. "Why would he collect those?" He said. "From your stories I didn't gather that he was greedy..."

I instantly paled, shit... "oh...uh...Nate really like the pictures on the back of the caps...so he kept the ones that still had them and would use the ones that didn't..." A very half assed lie if I ever heard one.

"I didn't know they used caps in the vaults."

I don't think they did either...uhh. "Well...we had them, they just weren't used as currency down there." What did vault dwellers use? Trade items? "But anyway... I had ignored him for a whole week when they fell and landed on me, looking back I was being pretty petty about it..." Hopefully he'd buy it.

After what seemed like a long silence Danse said. "No, not at all." He glanced down at his feet then looked back up to me, he opened his mouth to continue when-

"Hey, Blue!"

We both snapped our heads to see a women in a press cap who was jogging up the steps. Once she reached us, she threw her arms around me. The action-and force- startled me so much that we almost tumbled down the stairs. "Piper, hey!" I returned as we both stop tumbling. "Long time no see."