Ad Victoriam *Being re-written and edited*

Chapter 9

Commonwealth - 9Pm

"Maxson, don't eat that."

Alyssa sighed, walking over and grabbing a branch of berries from Arthur's hand, tossing them into the fire. "How'd you know?" He questioned, watching her return to Hancock's side.

"Trust me, I made that mistake my first month out of the vault. I was bed-ridden for nearly a week." She responded, taking a stick from her friend and stabbing a piece of meat on it.

To him, it was fascinating to see one of his Knights knowing how everything works outside of the Brotherhood. She was different from all the others that he's mentored over the years, especially Danse. Danse was to by the book and not to mention, Danse always had someone under his wing.

Maxson glanced at the bush he grabbed the berries from before returning to the fireside. The radstag was now cooking over the fire, sticks stabbed into the ground to hold the meat up. Alyssa had pulled up some old tires that were on the sides, making chairs out of them.

He sighed a little bit, staring into the flames of the fire. It had been a day since they'd left the Prydwen and too mention they weren't that much closer to their destination. However, they took a detour to avoid the city, which made sense. From what she had told him, the city was horrible.

It was also strange to him that he was beginning to not mind the ghoul they were travelling with. He had a certain charm about him, but he still knew to keep on an alert in case anything happened. He cared so much for Alyssa and if anything happened to her? He'd lose it.

"Maxson...?"

Alyssa voice cut into his thoughts, causing him to shake his head. "Huh? Yeah, what's up?"

She shook the stick with the cooked meat in front of his face. "Food?"

"Oh, yeah. Thanks."

The Elder took the stick from her hand before looking it over. It was strange to see food like this, as the Prydwen food was usually worse. He took a bite from it, eyes lighting up for a moment.

"You like it?" Alyssa questioned, taking another bite from her food.

"It's... interesting." He responded.

"I'm sure the great Elder of the Brotherhood is used to his esquisite meals on that big metal blimp." Hancock spoke up, shaking his head with a chuckle.

Alyssa leaned over and gently punched her friends arm, giving him a glare. "C'mon, must you? Besides, the meals on the Prydwen aren't exactly that great either. Trust me, I've eaten them."

"She's right, for some reason our cook can't get up the courage to find things outside of that pre-war canned junk." Arthur chuckled a bit before rolling his eyes.

"Hey, that junk used to taste good." She laughed. "Me and my husband used to just have our pantry filled with that shit. Lasts forever." Her eyes glanced down to the dirty wedding band on her finger, small tears dripping from her eyes.

"Kid, you don't need to talk about-"

"No, no, it's fine. Really. Sometimes it feels good to talk about him." She responded, giving Hancock a reassuring smile.

The ghoul chuckled a little bit before tossing his stick into the fire. "You want to talk about anything else? You know, to get it off your chest."

Alyssa glared at her friend for a moment before laughing a little. "There is a number of stories I can spill, but... I don't much feel like crying my eyes out right now."