At The Precipice Of Something New

Something Frightening

Diamond City
February the 3rd, 2289
14:10

"Not surprised the situation with the Nakanos is complicated, Kenji has always been a paranoid parent even when we used to work together, but their daughter being convinced she's a synth? Haven't heard that one before."

Sat across from each other in one of Diamond City's most luxurious establishments, detective Nicholas Julius Valentine and General Preston Jon Garvey only glanced around every so often when the doors to the building would open and let some of the falling snow fly in. The dirty looks from some of the other patrons also, every few minutes, caught their attention. Yet, wanting both a serious conversation and, in Preston's case, a meal without shouting and fist fights, the Colonial Taphouse was, they had decided, the best place to go. Per usual, Darcy Pembroke was already deep into a bottle of wine, chatting with the barkeep, Henry Cooke. Feeling superior and at a table in the booth on the other side of the room from the detective and the General, Ann Codman and her husband, Clarence Codman, looked over towards them every so often, with Ann in particular making her displeasure known about in snide comments to Henry whenever he came by with more drinks and tapas for her and her husband. Every time she said something, Nick stifled back a laugh. Though he was certain nearly everything one could say about a synth – good or bad – had already been said to him (or said when no one thought he would hear of it), there was something about her particular disdain he found amusing, almost wanting to remind her of how she had been fascinated by him when she had been a child.

"Hope you don't mind being up here," Preston said, drawing the aged detective from his thoughts. "Especially with...how some people have been talking about you."

"Don't mind it at all. Hell, if I knew I'd be a hot topic of conversation, I'd have been coming here more often," Nick said with a wry smile. "And I have to agree with your judgement on eating here rather than at the Dugout. You'd think things would be normal there during daylight hours, but far from it."

Preston chuckled. "Leave it to Vadim to cause a ruckus at any time. Or facilitate one."

"With Cait hanging around, hard not to have something of ruckus," Nick agreed, rolling his eyes. "The girl is a talented fighter, and has some real passion and care in her, but she seems to love very little more than a good fight."

"She's gotten warmer, this past year," Preston noted. "I think being around Nora has been good for her. For both of them, actually. I can't imagine the grief she's going through every damn day, but Cait seems to have a way with cheering her up."

"She really does," Nick said. "Think Cait keeping her spirits up – even a little – helped keep her from giving up while we were out searching for Kellogg. Wouldn't have blamed her if she had, given how long it took and how stressful it was, but I'm pretty sure it was Cait who got her through it most."

"I'm honestly just amazed she's kept going," Preston said before shaking his head. "Finding out the Institute are the ones who have your kid? I don't know if I could have found it in me to go so far as to go into the Glowing Sea to try and find a way into the Institute just to find my kid. Think it would have broken me, to be honest."

"A mother's love endures through all," Nick said, his face falling. "But I can't say I'm not worried about her state of mind. I've been worried about it for awhile – since offing Kellogg – but I keep coming back to it. I don't want to judge her. She's been through the kind of hell no human being deserves to go through. At the same time, though, there's something about the way she's been since killing him that doesn't feel quite right."

Preston raised an eyebrow. "How so? She's seemed about the same to me. More...downtrodden, but still the same person."

"It's the anger, the short temper and..." Nick paused, gathering his thoughts. "What has really stuck with me and what I can't shake is the look on her face and the...sharp, cold way she spoke when we took a closer look at Kellogg's body after killing him. She saw the cybernetics in his chest – and there were a lot of them – and said 'you were barely even human,' before telling me she'd kill him again and he deserved it. Kellogg was a monster of a human being; I'm not denying that. But it scared me when she said it, even more so when she told me and Amari she thinks he deserved a worse fate than what he got."