In The Shadow of Steel (Paladin Danse)

Part Eleven

My night's sleep in the bunks had been awful. The unease of hovering so high in the sky had stared me in the face every time I found myself drifting into a state of sleep, jolting me awake in the fear that we were going to fall. Shaun's room was at the far end of the hall, too far away to calm my nerves. I'd wanted to stay with him, but the rules of the ship was that adults and children slept in different sections, even if he was my son.
"If you are going to be one of us then you need to realise what that means."
Paladin Danse's strict words rang through my mind repeatedly when I debated going to stay with my son. I didn't want to lose my position here, and I couldn't lose my son, not again.

Due to there not being any windows on this level of the ship, it was impossible to know what the time was, but considering the amount of people in the beds around me beginning to fidget and get up, I assumed the day had broken. With an over dramatic sigh, I pulled the thin woollen blanket from off of my body and stood to stretch. My bones cracked beneath the pressure as a yawn slipped from my mouth. My eyes stung with the increased level of tiredness that crept through me the longer I yawned. A cold shower should wake me up, after all, I needed to be on top form for the mission that had been assigned to me.
My thoughts again travelled to Danse, I wonder if he is up yet.

"Hey, Knight Winters, right?"
I turned to meet the curious gaze of a fellow Brotherhood soldier, a young looking female with ginger hair that hung scruffily below her shoulders. Her eyes were tired, but her face alert.
"Yeah, that's me."
"Ah, it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Katie, or Knight Lawson. I'm the gal who found your son."
"Oh, hi." I wasn't sure what else to say, the intrusion had caught my sleeping brain off guard. "Uh, thank you. F-for what you did for him, bringing him back here? At first I was angry, at the Brotherhood, for holding him hostage. But know, I know you were looking out for his safety. I'd have done the same, if I found a kid out there." I shook my head, raised a hand to hold it. "Sorry, I'm rambling, didn't have the best night sleep."
"You get used to it, life up here. May not seem like the most homely place, but its a lot safer than bein' out there. Anyway," the female stopped, handed me some folded clothes, a clean orange uniform. "Showers are just down those stairs there, door on the right. Good luck on your mission today, give those mutant scum my regards when you tear their heads off, will ya?" She smirked and headed in a direction of her own.
"Hey Katie?"
She poked a head over her shoulder, the smirk transformed into the remnants of a smile, "yeah?"
"Thanks again,  I mean it." The smile on her face grew wide and she offered a subtle nod before she disappeared around a corner.

The cold jet sprays shocked my body into a state of alert as I embraced myself beneath them. The fingers of ice ran down my skin, jolting every nerve awake as they went by, caressing, soothing. Once I was out and dressed, I brushed my brown hair and allowed it to dry naturally before grabbing my things and heading towards the mess hall. Before long my hair had returned to its wavy ash brown, my belly was filled with sugar bombs and I stood beside the vertibird, leaning slightly with my back against the railings.
"Good morning, Knight."
The Paladin appeared at the end of the runway, adorning his T-60 power armour with laser rifle in hand, the same old platonic expression etched upon his face.
"Morning," I replied, stifling a yawn.
"I do believe Elder Maxson ordered us both to get some rest prior to this mission, but it would appear you failed to take his advice."
"I'm sorry I haven't climatized to sleeping in the sky yet, I'll make sure to try harder tonight." My sarcastic tone carried me up into the vertibird as I climbed, hearing a sigh of annoyance echo from behind me.
"I hope you aren't always like this," he whispered the sentence so quietly it almost went unheard beneath the roar from the airship's propellers. I shot him a look to imply that I heard him, but bit back the witty retort I wanted to respond with.

"Welcome aboard Paladin, Knight. Instruments are green, and we're cleared for release." The ship whirred to life and almost knocked me overboard as my stomach lurched. "You might wanna hold on back there, it's a long way down with no power armour on." I heard a chuckle from the cockpit and noticed Danse had a smile plastered upon his face. I glared at him, ready to moan when a sudden gust threw me to the side, my hands white with the intense grip I had on the metal bar. My stomach was twisting in and out of loops, my face pale beneath a sickly sweat of unease. I found myself longing to be beneath the ice cold showers again.