The Minutemen: United We Stand

Chapter 39

A hand landed on Nora's shoulder and jolted her awake. She jumped up out of the chair and found Danse and MacCready standing over her, moonlight streaming in through the window beyond them. She pressed a hand to her heart and fell back in the chair, panting as she tried to settle her heart.

"Nora... what happened?" Danse knelt down next to her, his brow cinched together.

"Hancock... he needed his arm amputated yesterday." Nora rubbed her eyes and stood up, Danse rising next to her as MacCready stared at the ghoul in horror. "Physically, he should be all right. But emotionally... he's..." Nora snatched the bottle of vodka off the dresser and walked to the couch and fell down onto the cushion. With a flick of her wrist, she swigged a shot and rested her head in her hand.

"I'm sorry..." Danse muttered as he sat down next to her, resting his hand on her back. "If you want to talk about it-"

"I'm fucking done with talking about all the horrible shit that keeps finding me," Nora snorted, taking another long draw from the bottle. "At this point it's all just normal, right? My fucking lot in life..."

"When's the last time you ate?" MacCready asked as he reached over the back of the couch and took the bottle from Nora, setting it back on the dresser.

Her eyes fell on the forgotten plates on the coffee table and sighed. "I don't remember... I think when I had dinner with... Shaun..." Tears filled her eyes and Nora's anger spiked back to the front of her mind. "Fuck! Get it together, Nora!"

"Hey!" The Paladin sat on the coffee table and took Nora by the shoulders. "You found Shaun?!"

Without warning, sobs wracked Nora's body, doubling her over. The numbness from the pills had faded, leaving her with the raw, angry, broken heart she was stuck with. Through the snot and the tears, Nora managed to eek out a few words, "Shaun - is - sixty... He's - leading - the Institute!"

Danse rubbed Nora's back, then shifted to the seat next to her before pulling her in for a hug. Sunrise's light had trickled into the apartment when Nora felt strong enough to pull away. Her eyes flitted up and found MacCready sitting on the coffee table across from her, his head bowed and his face hidden behind his hat.

"I had a friend, a guy named Cutler," Danse said, drawing MacCready and Nora's eyes to him. "We found each other in Rivet City while I was selling scrap. We got along pretty well, watched each other's backs and kept each other out of trouble. When the Brotherhood came through on a recruiting run, we felt like it was the best way out of our nowhere lives, so we joined up. He's the closest thing I've ever had to a family."

Danse left his hand on Nora's shoulder as she stared out the window. "About a year after we were posted to the Prydwen, Cutler vanished on a scouting op. It took some convincing, but I was able to persuade my CO to let me assemble a squad and search for him. It took almost three weeks, but we tracked his team down to a super mutant hive. Those wretched abominations had slaughtered everyone... but Cutler. He should have been so lucky..." His voice broke, and he shook his head as he cleared it. "The mutant bastards used their FEV to change him into one of their own kind. He wasn't Cutler anymore. I had to... it was my duty to... put him down."

All Nora could do was nod, sniffling.

"Just because I had to kill him, doesn't mean I wanted to..." Danse said, tears twinkling in his eyes. "I still get hit with waves of guilt and regret, years later. However, I know that it was the right thing to do."

A gasp of pain assaulted their ears from behind, and they whirled to find Hancock jolting up, clutching his bandaged shoulder and panting as sweat dripped down his face. "Fuck!"