Aim to Please

13 | Marching On

Aurora woke remembering everything from the day before: the long trek to Vault 95, the hard fights she and MacCready had to go through, and even the pain of the needles and the draining of her body as the blood was taken then put back in. She smiled, feeling like herself again.

She heard a soft snore behind her and turned to find MacCready asleep, his hat pulled over his eyes. Aurora watched him sleep, never catching him before—he'd always take the first watch and say he forgot to switch places when she woke the next morning.

Since her ordeal with the Gunners, she had noticed how drained he looked and the dark circles under his eyes. Even though she couldn't remember her hallucinations, they had been affecting him. He wouldn't go into detail about her deliriums, but she had a feeling they were worse than what he told her. With her now clean, he would get some sleep.

MacCready had done a lot for her—even though she didn't know exactly what he did, he helped her through her hallucinations and got her here and clean. She reached out and touched his scruffy beard—he hadn't been able to keep it neat. Aurora had long dreamed of him being this close; she wondered how many times he had slept with her and she had never known it.

He stirred at her touch. "Everything alright?" he asked sleepily.

"Yeah, everything's fine."

"Good." He grabbed her and tugged her closer. Aurora curled into his chest, savoring his husky scent combined with a faint mixture of cigarettes and gunpowder, enjoying the warmth his body gave off, and loving the security of his arms around her.

She loved him and didn't know what to do about it.

***

When she woke again, MacCready wasn't with her; Aurora frantically felt behind her; still no MacCready. Panic seized her as she jumped out of bed, but the noise in the bathroom, like something metallic clanging against ceramic, followed by MacCready cursing, calmed her.

After a while, a groomed MacCready came out. She thought how homely it looked; he just needed to be naked and have a towel around his waist.

"Found a not-rusted razor and they at least have running water." When she didn't immediately respond, he stopped. "Aurora?"

She snapped out of her daydreaming. "Hmm? Oh, sorry; just being absentminded."

"You sure you're okay?"

She nodded as she stood. "Better than I have been feeling. I hope you didn't use all the hot water."

"There really isn't any hot water."

Aurora groaned.

***

After taking a mostly freezing bath, Aurora and MacCready headed back to Goodneighbor; their return trip negated their attempts to clean up, though. When they made camp for the night, Aurora would take the first watch so he could sleep, also in compensation for her keeping him up. But as she sat keeping watch, she didn't know how things would work out when they got back: she didn't think MacCready would find any reason to sleep beside her anymore. He did it to help her; she was just being selfish, wanting him to stay with her. How could she possibly suggest that he continue to sleep with her? Should she insist that she took the couch so he could have his bed again?

Once they returned, Daisy and Dr. Amari enthusiastically greeted them; they were thrilled to hear that she was now clean. Hancock and Fahrenheit happened by and stopped.

Hancock looked shocked when Aurora told him about getting clean. "Why would you go do that?"

Dr. Amari just scowled at him.

Later that night, MacCready solved her issue by saying there was enough room for them to share. He also joked about it not being a big deal; it was to her.

***

Business carried on as usual: them searching for Clive, picking up odd jobs and requests to get more caps, and destroying Raider and Gunner camps. The leads they got on Clive ended up nowhere, but their collection of caps grew. They were searching a Raider camp they had just cleaned out for things they could sell.

"Hey, Aurora," MacCready began. "Can I talk to you about something?"

She looked up at him; he had seemed distracted by something as they came out here. Even now, he looked uneasy. "Sure. What's on your mind?"

"This has been nagging at me for a while. I've been waiting for the right moment to talk to you, and I suppose this is as good of a time as any. After helping me get Duncan's cure from Med-Tek, I figured I owe you something and I always pay my debts."

"Saving me, helping me through my hallucinations, and taking me to go get clean wasn't enough?"

He shook his head with a smile. "No, you've done much more for me. You not only helped save Duncan, but you saved me from myself." He reached into an inner pocket by his heart and pulled something out—it looked like a doll; he looked down at it. "I know a carved toy soldier is a strange reward for risking your life, but this one's special... it means a lot to me. This probably isn't the best token of appreciation, but I think you should have it. It means a lot to me so, don't lose it."

She took the toy soldier carved out of a block of wood. It had an army helmet, green military fatigues, and a long rifle standing at its side; with the flat bottom, it could stand on its own. A lot of care and love went into making this figurine.

She was touched by the thoughtfulness of it; a normal gift of thanks usually became caps—something that didn't mean anything. She couldn't forget this. "Did you make this?"

"Do I look like the artistic-type to you?"

She cut her eyes at him and he chuckled.

"No; Lucy made it for me after we met."

Aurora stared at him—his dead wife had made it for him, and he gave it to her? What did that mean? And why did she make a soldier?

He read the question in her eyes. "I had told her I was a soldier in the army; I couldn't let her know I was a hired killer. The soldier story was the best thing I could come up with. I didn't want to lose her because of what I was."

"Did she ever find out?" she asked.

"No, she died believing a lie." His mood darkened and his voice dropped as he replayed her death scene. "We made the mistake of holing up in a metro station one night; we didn't know it was infested with Ferals. They ripped her apart before I could fire a single shot. It took everything in me to grab Duncan and get out of there. I've long thought that we should've stayed and died in there with her—life didn't get any better after that."

That was why his intensity grew so much when they fought Feral Ghouls. But just giving up on life by staying there to die? Not giving Duncan a chance to live? No.

"You saved your son, MacCready. A part of Lucy still lives on in him."

MacCready looked down at his feet. "Yeah, I know... it's just... it's been hard going on without her. Damn, I miss Lucy.

"But no matter how bad things got, she was there with a shoulder to lean on. It gave me... well, it gave me the courage I needed to press ahead, to never give up. When she died, I thought that feeling was gone forever..." His eyes lifted to meet hers. "Then I met you. You have the world's problems on your back and here you are helping me with mine... lending me your shoulder like Lucy did."

"You'll always have my shoulder." She gave in to her urge to touch him and wrapped her arms around his neck to hug him. "I'm so sorry, MacCready."

His arms wrapped snugly around her waist. "I know you are. You have a heart of gold."

She didn't want him to let go. "Thank you for this."

"You're welcome."

He didn't for the longest.