It was done, it took them another day to finish, but they were done. Sara was sore in places she didn't think possible as Ingram set everything up. All that was left was to find the signal the Institute used and use it to teleport Nate inside. Sara was still silently banging her head against the invisible wall in her mind. Of all the stupid things she could do, she had to pick the worst. They hadn't seen Maxson since she had been allowed to return to the project. But of course he would show up to see Nate off, to give his final orders. Nate gives him a understanding nod as he takes the holotape and stands on the platform. Ingram gets the whole thing started as Sara salutes Nate. "Give then hell soldier!" Danse chuckles as he salutes with her. "Surprisingly, I was about to say thing." She gives him a playful shrug. "I forgot to mention I can read minds..." Danse turns his gaze to her. "I'm...oddly good at reading people." Maxson just salutes Nate and Nate returns the salute as everything powers up. He takes a deep breath and the next thing he sees is a powerful bolt of light, and he was gone. They all jump and cover their eyes. Once the light fades to see Nate was gone now. Sara couldn't hold back a small sigh. "Into the loins den he goes...so to speak..." Danse lowers his arm after a minute. "He'll be fine, if nothing else the Institute won't see him as a threat..." Sara was about to say something, decides against it. She still had to act as if she didn't have any idea what was going to happen. Which for the most part was true. Nate would go in there, get the information, talk to 'Father', and everything else will write itself.
There was nothing left to do, but wait, until then they had more work to do. They all had the feeling Nate wouldn't be coming back at least for awhile. Ingram heads off into the ruins on the airport to get to work on the next project. Before Sara could follow Danse turns to her. "How's your arm Knight?" She blinks as she looks down. "Oh I'm fine, I'm...surprisingly resilient when it comes to these sort of things..." She blinks as she sees something move in the corner of her eye. She turns as she sees someone slip behind a broken wall. She frowns as she pulls out her gun and heads off, Danse and even Maxson running after as she spots someone making a run for it. Without thinking she shoots the running man in the leg and he goes down. Danse runs past her to pick up the runaway. The guy was covered in dirt, but he looked shady. Maxson crosses his arms, wondering who this man was and why he ran. Danse takes charge. "Identify yourself." The poor guy just whimpers softly. "You shot my leg!" Danse shakes him a bit. "Because you ran away, I won't ask you again.." The guy was not going to give in it seems. "Guess we'll just have to take him onto the ship for farther interrogation..." Maxson speaks darkly as the poor man only whimpers more. "No...please, oh God I'm not getting paid enough for this!!" Sara walks up slowly as she places her hand on Danse's arm. "Paladin, if I may?" He lets the man go and she sits him down slowly, blocking his view on the two behind her. "I'm sorry I shot you, but seeing you run is a touch suspicious." He just lets out another sob, poor man.
"But I'm not going to sugarcoat this, you're in a lot of trouble here. So you have two options, tell me what your doing here, and I'll fix your leg, or deal with him." She points to Maxson. The stranger pales at the idea. "Okay okay I'll talk!!" Sara smiles warmly at the poor man. "Good, now why are you here?" He takes a shaky breath as he sits there. "I...oh God, someone paid me to look for...holes, a way in, I don't know why I swear.." Maxson wanted to step in, but oddly enough Danse stops him. "Let her, we might get answers faster....sir." Maxson lets out a deep huff at this as she continues. "Who hired you?" "I-I don't know, I met him in Bunker Hill, he never removed his sunglasses..." Sara rises her brow at this. "I..see, did he say anything else on how to find him?" The guy gives her a shrug. "Something about the old Freedom trail, sounded like a load of crap to me, but he did offer a ton of caps in return...please I'm so sorry!!" Sara didn't like this, it sounded just like the Railroad. She hoped they weren't already planing the 'Rockets' Red Glare' quest. She never got that far, she would never blow up the Prydwen. She takes a step back as she turns to the both of them. "What do you think, does this...trail sound familiar?" Danse gives it some thought before he nods. "I believe I might have an idea. There's an old historic trail in the Boston Common, that's all I really know however.." Maxson steps in as he looks down at the would be 'spy'. "So Knight, it falls to you on what to do with him..."
She bites her lip, it wasn't like she dealt with this sort of thing before. But she gets a weird idea. "You know, you can always work for us." The poor guy goes pale again. "W-what?" "You heard me, start at the lower ranks, you'll have to work hard, but it'll beat the alternative." He gulps as he looks at Maxson. He sighs deeply as he nods, he had little choice in the mater. "Fine, just please don't shot my other leg.." Danse pulls him up as he limps a bit. "See to his leg Paladin, I may know a few spots on the ship that can use a spit shine..." The poor man groans deeply as Danse salutes and drags him off. Sara slowly stands as she turns to Maxson. "Err..sorry, I never had to deal with a spy before. Didn't think anyone was that....idiotic." Maxson looks at her as he places his arms behind his back. "On the contrary, you have my thanks, how did you know he was there?" "I saw something move behind the wall." She points to the spot she saw the guy run to. "So I...just went after it?" She lowers her head a bit, realizing she should had said something, but it happened so fast. "You acted accordingly, and the idea to shot his leg was..a bold move.." "Well you can't question a dead man....right?" He moves to raise his hand, only to realize she just made a point. If they had killed him, they wouldn't have learned anything. "The very idea that someone is trying to find our weak points." His eyes narrow a bit, having a small idea where this was leading. "The Railroad.." Sara turns her head at this. "Pardon sir?" "I don't have a lot of information on them. Only that they seem to be working on...saving released synths into the world.."
She licks her lips slowly. It was so hard to act like she had no idea what he was talking about. "To what gain? Don't they realize how dangerous that is?" His eyes seem to light up, but he turns just slightly to hide it. "Precisely, up to now we never had much of a lead." She lets out a low laugh. "Until now, but...well it's really not much to go on.." Maxson places his hand under his chin as he thinks. The Brotherhood had enough on their plate to deal with. "I'll just post more men on watch, we still have our own projects to deal with. And seeing as you just shot that spy, we just earned ourselves an extra set of hands.." Now she was starting to feel guilty for not just letting the poor guy go. But she got the feeling Maxson would had never allowed it. "Right, of course." She looks out to the open streets before them. She couldn't shake the feeling that someone was still watching them. "Not that I was planing that as you understand.." Maxson just seems to smirk at her as he shakes his head. "I am still debating if allowing you to join was a good move." She gives him a fake pout. "Why sir, and here I thought you were warming up to me. I'm wounded." She blinks as she looks at her arm. "I..well...I didn't mean that literally!" She turns her head as he steps closer. He ever so lightly tucks a stray lock on hair behind her ear. She knew for a fact she was blushing once again. However she couldn't keep her eyes on him for long. There was no mistaking it, someone was watching them. Maxson frowns at this as he watches her. "What is it?" She was about to say something, but just like that the feeling was gone.
"Nothing...I guess.." She frowns a bit, feeling a bit to out in the open now. "Might as well get back to work, there's not much we can do now until Nate...um Knight Thomson returns. Ingram said she needed to get things ready in the store room to locate what she can of the original parts of Liberty Prime. I...get the feeling we won't really get much done unless by some strange miracle we get this Doctor Li to return..." Maxson moves a bit closer as she blushes deeply. "It's...up to you sir...." She wasn't sure what to think, but he takes a small step back. "I suppose it is.." He still needed to go over just what they needed to get Liberty Prime up and running again. The thing took so much damage, he was just lucky they didn't have to start from scratch. He had no doubt there was a lot to replace. "Guess it can hurt to sit and wait, if somehow Knight Thomson fails, and I wouldn't be surprise knowing Li. I have a back up plan we can fall back on.." After all it would give them time to work on other side projects until the Knight returned from his mission. He just hoped it was all going well. He hated not knowing, but he had to hope for the best. Still, he turns to her. He hadn't forgotten the other day it seemed. Still he had no idea how to approach this. So he just holds out his hand. "Your arm, Knight." She wasn't sure what to make of his odd request but she lets him see her arm. The bleeding had stopped, and with the stimpak, it wouldn't take long to heal at all. "Might leave a scar.." She shrugs at this. "Won't be the only one I have so I think I'll survive.."
Something seems to flicker in his eyes. "It's really not such a bad thing. Just reminds you what you went through." She nods to his own as he looks away for a second. "I was only thirteen..." He spoke rather deeply as he recalls the memory. "I don't remember where I was going, or even why I was alone, I just remember, seeing this Deathclaw in front of me.." He pauses as he speaks, still holding her arm. "I don't even remember what weapon I had, but it saw me, and I knew I was dead..." She tilts her head back as she looks at him. "So how did you?" Maxson doesn't say anything for a moment. "I..don't know, one minute this...thing had me down, it's claw dug into my face. I aim my gun, and it let go. I think I hit it's eye, the bullet going right into his brain." He takes another minute. "I couldn't move, I was bleeding badly, but someone found me...I got damn lucky that day.." She lets out a low whistle. "Damn, I can't imagine how frightening that was, especially for being so young." He lets out an angry sound. "I just got..tired of everyone fusing over me, like I couldn't take care of myself. Guess I proved them right after..this, but I survived.." She gives him a small smile. "Trust me, I think it only adds to the appeal." He gives her an odd look as she hangs her head. "Sorry...I know it sounds stupid. But hell place like this, we all hold are scars one way or the other."
He seems to think on this. Why was it he always seemed to get himself into these topics? He normally didn't dive into his life with other people. Mostly because most of everyone he worked with already knew just about everything about him. Which he had to be honest, got old fast. Like he couldn't hide anything, or worse keeping an eye on him. Waiting for him to make once false move. He's gotten lucky so far, but this latest spy told him their presents here hadn't gone unnoticed. If they acted against the Brotherhood again, he would retaliate, with full force. He moves a tiny bit closer to her, only an inch apart as she keeps her eyes on him. He still hadn't really let her go. He still wasn't sure what to do here, with her. He hated the fact he had no clue how to touch ground here. Because there normally wasn't anything he couldn't deal with. He had gone quiet for several minutes. She had no idea what he was even looking at anymore. She takes a quick look around, they were still alone. "Arthur?" That seems to snap him out of his thoughts. He looked rather confused as she lets out a small giggle. "Hello there, welcome back, care to tell me where you ran off to?" For the first time ever he actually looked embarrassed. "I..." Now he was just becoming flustered and she does her best to not laugh, that look was far to priceless. Eyes wide, almost panicked as he tries to figure out, something to say. She gives him a sly look, she just had to dig deeper. "Do you always get so flustered around a lady or is it just me?"
His whole face goes red for a small second. Flirting, was never her strong suit. It was only easy in the game because it out right gave you that option. Still seeing someone like Maxson get all out and bothered was by far the most entertaining thing she's been able to accomplish since waking up in this place. "I'll take your stunned silence as an answer." She moves to the side a bit as she places her hand over his, since he had yet to let her go. He glances down, before turning his gaze back to her. He finally seems to remember where he is, and what he was doing. "This is highly inappropriate." She rises her brow at him. "And yet your the one still holding my arm." He finally seems to let her go, but he hadn't really moved that far from her. He takes a moment to collect himself as he takes a deep breath. "You're..." He wasn't sure how to finish that. Either she was trying to get into his head, which was doubtful. Or, the thought stopped there, not many he crossed paths with ever really showed that much interest in him. Or to much to the point where he had to dismiss them. She didn't seem like the latter. She wasn't after him for his name sake, or hell to try and butter him up to rise in rank. Someone tried that, and failed horribly. He got the feeling that poor idiot was still cleaning toilets somewhere. "Yes?" "You're enjoying this aren't you?" The question almost took her off guard, until she remembered she had asked him that when he was teaching her how to use a laser riffle. "Perhaps." It was the same answer he had given her after all.
She leans forward, just a bit. "Look, I get it, believe it or not I know how hard it is to trust people." She lets out a low sigh as she leans her head back. "I won't lie, it took me...a very long time to talk myself into...well anything remotely close to a relationship. Self doubt is a bit*h to deal with..." Maxson says nothing as she speaks. "Hell it's still hard...and trust me it never gets any easier. But I'm not going anywhere, as you can see." She gives him a hopeful smile. "You have your duties and I won't keep you from them. Just know I'm never far, because..well.." She holds out her hand a bit. "I can see you need...well something...even if your not completely aware of what that is. And that's fine, no rush, I'm happy to pick up another game of cards and share a drink when you feel overwhelmed." Maxson lets out a low grunt. "Is it that obvious?" "To everyone else, I don't think so. For me, like I said I have an odd way of reading people. I'm not always right, but, I'm rarely wrong as well. Working yourself into the ground isn't...the best path to follow. So, as someone you trust, I'll be there to make sure you stay on even ground...deal?" She keeps her hand out to him. He seems to consider this, not many people really went out of their way for him. He takes her hand slowly. "Deal, and Knight.." She holds up her free hand to him. "Not a word to anyone else." "I know. Whatever you say boss." He grumbles as he slowly lets her go. He turns away and says nothing else as he heads for the Vertibird.
