A/N: I own nothing except the laptop I wrote this story on.

If there was one thing that Piper didn't like about the Castle, it was the fact that it was impossible to get a good night's sleep. The ancient fort sat on the waterfront of the great body of water whose name she had long since forgotten (Either the Atlantic or the Pacific. She knew one of those was the right answer), and when the sun rose in the morning it got bright quickly out there. The Castle didn't have The Wall that Diamond City had, and there weren't any houses in the fort that had good protection against early morning light. So when the sun rose over the great sea, it was time to get up. No exceptions were made.

And especially not for chatty, smartass reporters.

Groaning, she yawned and rolled over onto her other side, turning her back away from the window as the light started to seep in through that blasted crack in the wall and make the stony interior of the fort illuminated in a bright glow. In the middle of the day, it was a cool effect. But right at the beginning? Utter misery.

And if that wasn't torturous enough…

*Good morning, Minutemen! It is six A.M. here in the Commonwealth. Nothing to report at this time. Stay safe out there, everybody.*

And cue the patriotic music gently lilting in through the fort.

Piper had no idea how Jonathan, the radio man for the Minutemen, got up and so chipper at this ungodly hour. Not even Travis "Lonely" Miles was that perky during the early-morning hours. Though his silky sly style of speaking probably made it easier for him to come to work hung over. Piper wondered if his friendship with Vadim hadn't been too good for Travis' attitude: how the guy had gone from a shrinking violet to an easy-breezy fellow was an utter miracle, though.

But if she lay in bed any longer, she was going to go crazy. It was time to get up.

She sat up, and rubbed her eyes. Her bed was in one of the far wings of the upper levels of the Castle. It was a better place to be than the lower catecombs, where some of the lower-ranking grunts were bunked. It was also a lot more cramped down there, as one would expect for what amounted to military barracks. At least Piper only had to share her room space with one person when she bunked in the Castle.

"Ach. Me fuckin' head…who the bloody hell thought it was a good idea ta do Gwinnet shots? I'm gonna fuckin' kill that ghoul."

Of course, that person was Cait.

The red-headed woman's hair was even more tousled than normal, in a truly tremendous achievement in bed-head, and she glanced over at Piper with bleary eyes.

"Fuck this place, am I right?" She asked with a slightly loopy grin. Piper just shrugged.

"Blue seems to handle it just fine."

"Ah, then fuck him too." Cait said. Suddenly, her smile deepened a little bit. "Hmm…now there's a thought…"

"Aaaand I'm getting up." Piper said, hastily getting out of her bed and making her way down to the lower level washrooms. It was a miracle that the place had running water, and water that was comparable to Diamond City as well. She washed up, got dressed in her usual attire, and fitted her cap snugly on her still slightly-wet hair. With that, she took a deep breath and walked out to the staging ground to begin the day.

There was already a good deal of activity outside. The Minutemen radio tower, positioned squarely in the center of the staging ground and surrounded snugly by a quartet of generators, was manned by Jonathan, who gave her a cursory wave as he continued to give morning announcements to the people of the Commonwealth. Off to the side, there were a few Minutemen doing some drilling, led by one of the junior officers. That cagey old colonel, Ronnie Hicks, was barking orders to the small contingent of eager trainees, reminding them that they were no longer a rabble of disorganized farmers and traders, they were Minutemen and they were there to defend the people at a minute's notice. Judging by the starry look in their eyes, it was clear that the trainees were buying the sales pitch.

The garden was thronged with several Minutemen as well as a few civilians hard at work, and Piper smiled when she saw Sheffield amongst them. The poor bastard had been broke and homeless and practically dying of thirst until Blue found him, dusted him off, quenched his thirst with a Nuka Cola, and gave him a job as the lead gardener of the Castle. It was a job that Sheffield took to like a Mirelurk took to mud, and ever since then the Castle stuffed with plenty of fruit and other foodstock. Sheffield stood up from a Mutfruit tree he'd been pruning, his shaggy long hair tied back into a ponytail and his hands already covered in dirt and topsoil, and he made eye contact with Piper and gave her a friendly wave. She smiled and returned the gesture.

After a moment's worth of walking, she found who she was looking for. She let out a yawn, signifying her presence.

"Geez, Garvey, can't you guys put in a weekend moratorium on early starts to the day?" Piper asked. "It's hell on my beauty sleep."

Preston Garvey just chuckled.

"Sorry, Piper. We have to be ready to the defend the people-"

"At a moment's notice, I know." Piper finished for him, and the way his eyes twinkled it was clear that he was counting on her doing so. "But what about the night watch?"

"They're turning in for the night. Or day, I suppose." Preston said, gesturing to the small group of men and women wearily making their way to the lower catacombs of the Castle for a good night's sleep. "They're too tired to care about the activity now."

"If you say so." Piper said. As she spoke, she became aware of whom Preston had been talking to.

"Good morning, Miss Piper!" Codsworth said in a chipper tone. The Mr. Handy robot was floating lazily next to the Minuteman. "I was just informing Mr. Garvey of the improvements to the main generator. With any luck, we'll be far less wasteful in using energy by the end of the month!"

"That's great, Codsworth." Piper said, though she really didn't know the difference. Though she found the old robot humorous and a dutiful machine, there were times where he seemed to obsess over the minute details in a way that no human would ever care about. She then turned to Preston. "So, uh, heard anything yet?" She asked. Preston's smile faded slightly.

"So far, nothing." Preston said. "I have to assume that no news is good news. I trust that the General has a plan for it all."

"He has a name, you know." Piper said, teasingly winking at the man next to her. He just smiled back.

"That's awfully rich coming from you, Piper."

They both smiled, but their gaze once again turned out towards the distance, and towards the floating metal monstrocity that was tethered above the Boston airport.

When the Brotherhood of Steel literally flew in from the sky a few months ago, Piper was convinced that it was the beginning of tyranny with an open face. She had run into a few Brotherhood types in her earlier days before she'd come to Diamond City and started the paper, and they were all jerks. But so far the Brotherhood hadn't really made many moves in the Commonwealth. They had their little missions that they carried out here and there, and there were days where the vertibirds would buzz around the Castle (but never directly over it) on their way to who knows where. But when it came to moving a move on the Commonwealth itself, the Brotherhood had been surprisingly dormant. They were confined to the coast, situated in the Prydwen and the Boston airport. And they hadn't made any major moves.

Of course, that might have been due to the Minutemen beating them to the punch.

"That…thing weirds me out." Piper finally said, staring at the marvel of technology that was suspended over the airport in the distance.

"The Prydwen?" Preston asked. "Yeah, it's…impressive. So far they haven't shot at us on sight, so I guess that's a good thing. But this little bit of nothing between the two of us isn't going to last forever."

"You think they're going to attack us?" Piper asked.

"…I don't know." Preston finally said after a moment's thought. "I have no earthly idea, Piper. I just trust that the General has a plan."

"He's always had one." Piper said.

"Yeah! My dad is the best!"

They both turned to look at the source of the voice.

Piper had been sitting on the ramparts of the Castle two weeks ago when an explosion the likes of which she'd never seen before had ripped through the sky, somewhere to the north of Diamond City. It sent up a massive dust cloud, and the sheer force of it and the wind nearly knocked her on her ass. When it had settled, there was a series of warps in the center of the Castle staging ground as the attacking Minutemen made their triumphant return to the Castle. They brought with them the most incredible of news: that they'd descended into the belly of the beast, the Institute itself, and blown it sky-high. Just like that, the nightmare of the Commonwealth was over. The Institute was gone. The Minutemen had gone into hell and brought back with them the hope for the future.

And Blue had brought back this kid.

When asked who the kid was, Blue was always adamant. "This is my son, Shaun." He would say. His voice would firm and resolute. But his eyes betrayed him: they were the look not of a man who is grateful the existence of his son, but rather the look of a man who is thankful that he has maybe been given a second chance at a life that was stolen from him.

It didn't take long for Piper and the others, the ones that were closest to the Sole Survivor of Vault 111, to determine that this child was actually a Synth. Perhaps the last Synth that was ever manufactured. But Shaun did not need to know that. In a world where the ugly truth was thrust right in your face like a charging Deathclaw, perhaps there was something comforting in this paradox of life: Shaun was not human, but he was still Blue's son. And Piper was determined to let the kid grow up believing that.

"Yeah, your dad is pretty awesome, kiddo." Piper said. Shaun was dressed in drifter's clothing, stuff that he'd seen on a caravaner and begged his dad for a pair. He was currently tinkering with a hot plate, taking it apart and putting it back together again. Unlike his father, who was smart but by no means captivated by science, little Shaun seemed utterly fascinated with figuring out the way things worked and how they were built. He was always in the labs or the workshop at the Castle, and if Curie wasn't as absurdly patient as she was then Piper was convinced that she would have thrown him out days ago. But perhaps Synths naturally gravitate to one another, just as humans do. So there was no issue.

"I get worried every time he leaves, though." Shaun said. He looked over at the Prydwen in the distance. "Those Brotherhood of Steel types scare me. Their armor is cool, but…there's something off about them. They don't seem very nice."

"The Brotherhood…think things through a little bit differently than we do." Preston said, coaching his words carefully. "But they want the same thing that we want in the end: peace in the Commonwealth."

"Bah! They just want peace on their terms. Not peace by the people or for the people."

Before anyone could react, Shaun gave a squeal of shock and delight as he was picked up from behind and hoisted up on a pair of shoulders. A pair of shoulders belonging to one particular ghoul.

"Hancock, I'm surprised you're up this early." Piper said. "I thought you and Cait were…partying quite a bit last night." She coached her words carefully too, not wanting Shaun to get corrupted by the very negative influence that was literally right below him.

Her efforts were ruined by the slightly put-off look on Shaun's face, and he crossed his arms.

"Aunt Piper, I know what Uncle Hancock and Aunt Cait were doing last night. I found all of the bottles out over the other side of the wall."

"Well, kiddo, you can't fault the reporter here for trying to keep you from getting swayed by crazy ol' me." Hancock said. He looked up. "Whatcha tinkerin' with today? Something that might turn me back into a smoothskin?"

"No, but one day I'm going to invent just that!" Shaun said proudly. "Right now I'm just tinkering with this hot plate. I figure it out, and maybe I might start tinkering with more complex machinery in the future."

"Shit, this kid is a tiny fraction of my age and he's already way smarter than I am." Hancock said. He laughed. "C'mon, kiddo! Let's go see what the others are up to. Make like one of them old whatchamacallits…airplanes! Yeah, stick your arms out and fly, kid!"

Shaun was utterly delighted as he spread out his arms and Hancock carried him off, both laughing the whole way. Preston and Piper watched them go. Codsworth broke the silence.

"I have to say, it pleases me right down to my inner circuits to see Master Shaun so happy. I do hope that his time trapped at the Institute did not ruin him."

Codsworth, despite being a very astute Mr. Handy, either hadn't been told or simply wasn't capable of the higher thinking to realize that the Shaun he saw was not really the Shaun he knew. Neither Piper nor Preston was about to tell him otherwise. And, to be honest, what difference did it make? In the end, the robot was happy. And that was all that mattered.

…

As the day carried on, Piper found herself doing what she could to pass the time. She jotted some notes in her notebook for future article ideas for the Publick, and she wondered how Nat was doing. She knew that Nat was safe now that Mayor McDonough was…no longer a problem, and that both Danny Sullivan and even Travis were willing to keep an eye on her (Travis had even made a crack that he was all in favor of helping out the press, because it reflected well on free radio. Where did he find this confidence to make dumb jokes like that?), but she was still her younger sister and Piper worried about her. She made conversation with some of the others friends that Blue had compiled over his journey. She played fetch with Dogmeat. She tried to talk to Strong, but the super mutant was too busy grumbling about the milk of human's whatever to make much sense, so she gave up.

So there she was, as the sun started to set over the Commonwealth, staring out at the Boston skyline. It was kind of pretty in its own roundabout sort of way. She looked at the Mass Fusion building there, Diamond City off over there, and then laughed at the sight of the USS Constitution stuck up on that high rise. Seriously, how did Captain Ironsides maintain the optimism that he did?

She became aware of a presence walking over towards her. She didn't even bother looking up. She knew who it was.

"Hey, Mac."

"How you doing?"

MacCready was one of the later additions to Blue's gang, but he made his mark rather quickly. For one thing, he had terrible taste in smooth-talking lines. Piper had actually laughed hysterically that one time he'd tried one out on her and she realized that he wasn't hammered when he'd said it. Cait encouraged him, which only made it worse. And there were times where he could be so sarcastic that it was a wonder his tongue wasn't acidic. And while he had been hired on as a "rifleman consultant" to the Minutemen at the Castle for a healthy salary, he adamantly refused to wear anything official and even talked back to Colonel Hicks on the regular.

But deep under that snarky shell lay a man that who good-hearted, helpful and loyal to his friends, and the best goddamn rifleman in the Commonwealth. Maybe even the eastern coast of the old US, if his stories from the Capital Wasteland were to be believed. Piper wasn't sure, but his accuracy was almost divine.

"I'm hanging in there. A little bit bored, to be honest." Piper admitted. MacCready chuckled, and took a seat next to her. She took a look at the sniper rifle he had lying across his lap, and noted that the wood stock seemed to shine: clearly he'd been polishing the thing.

"Bored, huh?" MacCready asked. He smirked a little bit, and brought his rifle up. Piper smiled and rolled her eyes, knowing where this was going, but it was sometimes worth her while to humor the guy: sometimes you really would see something amazing. "Here, lemme liven things up a bit." He started peering down the sight. "Okay, look out aways, across the water and towards the shore. See that Stingwing floating around on the shore out there, looking for some poor sap to suck dry?"

Piper squinted, but sure enough she could see one of those things that set her blood on ice. There were many things she hated in the Commonwealth, and Stingwings were probably at the top of the list.

"Yeah?" She said. MacCready grinned.

"I'm gonna punch a hole in its wing. Knock it right out of the sky."

"Bullshi-"

The sound of his rifle cut her off. She saw, in the distance, the Stingwing spasm in midair, and she saw a spray of blood coming out of one of the wings. The thing circled in the air and crashed to the ground, whereupon she saw a Mirelurk descend on the creature, intending to rip it to pieces. But the Stingwing was flailing about in its death throes, and by some cruel degree of luck managed to get its venomous tail right under the Mirelurk's protective shell and coursed poison through the water-logged creature's veins. Soon both creatures were flailing in the shore, and eventually they both shuddered and went still. MacCready and Piper both stared in shock, and then MacCready laughed.

"Hah! That's a rare two-fer right there. Never thought I'd be racking up doubles."

"And the legend of the East Coast Rifleman grows…" Piper said in a mocking voice. "Why don't you just take up Blue's offer and stay on full-time with the Minutemen? You'd be making more caps than anyone would know what to do with."

"And be tied down wearing one of those stupid hats?" MacCready snorted, slinging the sniper rifle back over his shoulder. "Nah, I prefer being a free-lancer. It gives me more negotiating space."

"You're bullrushing Blue and the Minutemen." Piper said, putting two and two together and shaking her head in mock horror. "You're holding them up!"

"Hey, I seem to recall him saying that the fact that he pays me doesn't diminish our friendship." He flashed a cheeky grin. "Enhances it, really."

Piper just rolled her eyes.

"That has to be the dumbest line that you've ever come up with, Mac. And trust me, you've really had a few doozies."

MacCready just smirked, and tipped his cap to the reporter. With that, he set off for somewhere else down the ramparts, whistling some little ditty that he'd clearly learned in the Capital Wasteland.

Dinner was some unholy combination of mutfruit and week-old Brahmin steak. Piper had to let the meat soften in her mouth before even trying to bite it, knowing that she'd just break her teeth if she tried chomping right away. On one hand, it was necessity. On the other hand, it was so hard because she was starving and even waiting for that momentary time was an utter pain.

"Are you alright, mademoseille?"

"Yeah…yeah, I'm fine, Curie." Piper said, looking up at the woman who had taken a seat next to her. It was still sort of weird talking to the lady: Curie had once been a Miss Nanny robot scientist, and then uploaded her brain into the brain-dead body of a female Synth. Now she was just "Curie," and as far as anyone knew she had always been the slightly flighty woman with the thick accent. Only a select few in Blue's inner circle knew what she had once been. "Just hungry."

"That is why you are eating, no?" Curie asked. "It is difficult sometimes for me to remember to eat. I get so excited working that monsieur Shaun has to bring me food!" She smiled, and took a bite of a mutfruit she'd been holding. She then looked up towards the front of the Castle. "Are we having visitors?"

"Visitors?" Piper looked up and over in the direction that the Synth had been pointing. There was a veritable caravan of Brahmin making their way to the Castle. Some of the people walking alongside the Brahmin were the traders responsible for their well-being. But then she spotted some of the distinctive hats.

"Hey everyone! They're back!" Piper shouted, drawing the attention of most of the people in the staging ground. Almost immediately, Jonathan at the radio tower started broadcasting the safe return of the Minutemen excursion that had featured the presence of the General himself. Soon, a small crowd of people thronged the staging ground of the Castle, both in greeting friends and family that had returned safely from a trip into the dangerous wastes of the Commonwealth as well as helping to unload the caravans with the necessary supplies from Diamond City.

And right there in the center of it all was Blue.

"Dad!" Shaun raced forward, and Blue noticed his son was running to meet him. He was dressed in the attire of the Minutemen General, and he looked like a soldier returning home from a long tour of duty the way he hoisted Shaun up into his arms in a bear hug, spinning the little kid around. Blue was a pretty big guy: there was a running joke amongst the Minutemen rank and file that the General couldn't fit into Power Armor, but that that wasn't a problem because he was so big his skin was as hard as diamond. Thus, it was easy for him to spin around a ten-year old boy. He chuckled, and planted a little kiss on Shaun's forehead.

But then Piper saw his eyes.

Blue might have been smiling, but his eyes were worn and tired. Clearly he was holding onto some sort of information or news that was weighing on him. It must have been the kind of information that, at the end of the day, simply keeps you from properly enjoying festivities. He set Shaun down, and Piper saw Preston and Ronnie Hicks walk up to him. Piper's ears were sharp, and she heard Blue's words as clear as day.

"Meet me in the briefing room as soon as you can. Now would be preferable."

So they did.

About an hour later, as the moon shined in the night sky, Blue emerged from the briefing room of the Castle. He walked up the ramparts of the aging fort, and stared off into the distance, across the expanse of the great sea in front of him. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a cigar. He'd picked up an affinity for the things since he'd come into this new world, and now the sight of him smoking a stogie was as fitting as the sight of him in Minutemen regalia.

Piper made her way cautiously up the ramparts towards the tired Vault Dweller, who made no notice of her presence. It wasn't until she got within a few feet of him that he spoke.

"You were never able to sneak up on me, you know." He said. He smiled slightly, but he didn't make eye contact. Piper shrugged.

"Well, not everyone has the ears and smelling of a Deathclaw." She said. "So if I can't sneak up on you, I'm pretty sure that I can sneak up on everyone else."

"You couldn't run the Publick otherwise." Blue said. "Unless you planned on running and screaming at a nearby raider camp 'Excuse me, do you have a minute for an interview?'"

Piper laughed despite herself. She let the silence sit for a moment, and then spoke.

"Blue, I've been with you the longest of everyone here. So I like to think that I know you the best."

"That's a fair assumption."

Piper bit her lower lip, and then came out with it.

"Blue, I've known you long enough to know when something is wrong. So what's bothering you?"

Blue starting puffing furiously on his cigar, soon covering his face in a cloud of smoke. He blew out a stream of it out his mouth, and then sighed.

"The Publick is going to get a lot of business in the coming days."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He turned and looked at her.

"We were stopped on the way home by a Brotherhood patrol. Maxson's tired of waiting around. He demanded to meet with the General of the Minutemen to discuss the future of the Commonwealth."

A/N: While I sit and wait for inspiration for my other two ongoing stories, here's a little brief story (can't imagine it cracks ten chapter) from the Fallout4 Universe! Hope you enjoy. And, for clarity's sake, we're going with an endgame canon where the Institute was destroyed, Shaun 2 was rescued in the end, and the Sole Survivor is the General of the Minutemen. As for other things (the fate of Synths, romance, etc.)? Just wait and see.