Piper, Curie and Cait reacting to F!sole breaking her arm?
Thank you for the ask! I never write for these characters so it was super fun!
CAIT
Sole usually had a pretty accurate forecast for how their excursions would go, and planned accordingly.
Yao Guai were spotted near the tracks south of Diamond City, so they’d pack the landmines and extra shotgun shells just in case. Near the water? Extra Rad-X and plenty of mental preparations for endless mirelurk cakes and bloodbug steak. If they were scavving through Lexington, Cait would be forced into the thick, constricting leathers she hated. Things wouldn’t hardly let her raise her arms over her head, let alone swing her bat and she’d always protest, but Sole wouldn’t entertain the idea of letting her forego the extra protection in the feral infested ruins.
What Sole hadn’t quite foreseen, hadn’t quite prepared contingencies for, was falling off a cliff.
Well, not a cliff. Quite the steep hill, though. Rocky, too. Lots of pointy things to crack her head on on the way down.
Cait just managed to still her limbs as she watched Sole tumble down the embankment. When she came to a stop at the bottom, about 30 yards down from where she’d started, Cait realized that she was holding her breath as she watched. She managed to sip in only a slight bit of air before calling out to her companion.
“Oi,” she rasped. She cleared her throat. Managed another breath. Squinted at the still form at the bottom of the hill, eyes peeled for crimson. “Sole,” she tried again. “Ya alright?”
A second floated on. Another. Energy crawled up Cait’s arms, electrifying her to her core as fractured memories flitted through her mind. Sole clearing out the Combat Zone. She and Sole sharing a beer on the roof of the home they shared in Diamond City. The loaded look she’d cast over her shoulder at her just then, right before she’d lost her footing and gone tumbling down down down.
Cait dropped to her rear at the edge of the embankment. She didn’t really have a plan other than to get down there and see if she was even still alive; find out if she’d ever see that look from her again. She realized about halfway down that she should’ve tied a rope or something at the top to help her with a way back up. They’d have to double back to the path, now, putting them out after dark without shelter.
Not that Sole hadn’t prepared for that. She always had a tarp in her pack, just in case they got caught out. It wasn’t much, just big enough to keep them both dry and warm from the wind.
Pebbles dislodged from the terrain under her as she worked her way down, her breath coming ragged. By the time she’d reached the bottom where Sole lay, the other woman had a smattering of dirt and dust caught within the folds of her jacket. That was the first thing she noticed. The second thing she noticed was that Sole was moving. Her eyelids were fluttering against the hair that was lain over her face, her own shallow breaths fluttering the strands.
Measured relief flooded her as she reached for the other woman’s shoulder, rousing her. “Sole.” When she didn’t answer, Cait pushed her onto her back, the anger that was always close at hand bubbling up to her lips. “Sole, I swear ta God if you don’t open yer eyes and look at me right now I’ll-”
Sole’s eyes struggled open, silencing the redhead mid declaration. She wasn’t even sure what she’d had in mind to say as hazel eyes found green, bringing an odd sense of assuredness to the situation. Sole was awake. She hadn’t seen the cliff coming, but she always knew what to do. She’d known what to do when she’d woken up in the future, and she’d known what to do when she’d taken custody of a rowdy, junkie, cage fighting slave, and she would know what to do now.
Sole groaned, muttering colorful curses to herself, and started to move towards sitting, but a sudden jolt of pain fell over her expression as she attempted to put her weight on her arm. She tried to clutch the thing to her chest, but that yielded a similar look along with hiss of discomfort.
“Hold on hold on.” Cait said, helping her to sit up. “That doesn’t look good, love. Better let me have a look.”
Sole winced as Cait pulled the limb towards her, carefully cradling it in her hands. “Fuck. I’ve never broken a bone before but…”
“Oh it’s broken, alright. And I’ve broken enough to know. Have any stimpacks left?”
Sole shook her head. “Gave ‘em all to the settlers at Tempines. Was hoping they’d have more to trade for up at Zimonja, but…”
The women locked gazes before simultaneously peering up the steep embankment. They couldn’t even see Zimonja’s radio tower anymore. Great. Cait looked back first and took in her lover’s expression. Wasn’t often she saw worry behind those eyes. In the past, it had filled her with a sense of hopelessness, like if Sole was worried they were well and truly fucked.
What she felt now was an odd kind of determination. So Sole was tapped. Why did she have to be the one to fix all their problems all the time, anyways? “Your head alright?” she asked.
Sole’s gaze shot back to her and she hesitated only a moment before reaching her good hand up to probe at her hair, her forehead. “I… think so? Why? Am I bleeding?”
“No. I just wanna be sure before we get going.”
Sole shook her head for as long as it took for Cait’s fingers to find themselves in her hair. Then she stilled abruptly as fingertips probed for lumps, bumps, or blood along her scalp. Long lashes fluttered over the hazel eyes watching Cait, making her feel self conscious. No matter what kinds of depraved things they did together, Sole always got bashful at the most tender things.
“We won’t make it before dark, Cait. We should probably try our luck doubling back.”
“Those mooches have used up all yer supplies by now,” Cait explained. “We’re headin’ on to Zimonja.”
“Cait,” Sole began to scold, but Cait silenced her with a hush as she reached into her pack.
“We’ll make it before dark.”
Sole shook her head. “No, honey, there’s no way…” Cait pulled the spare rope from her back and stood to tie it to a nearby tree. “Cait what are you-”
She secured a slipknot in the rope and said “You’ve gotten us out of more than enough sticky situations. It’s about time I earned my keep.” She tied the other end to her belt loop. “I’ll climb up as high as the rope’ll let me, then I’ll need you to tie it ta yerself so I can pull you up. Once you’re up that far we’ll tie off the rope again and I’ll make it another ways up, and then-”
“Holy shit, honey, that’s way too far.”
“It isn’t.”
“It is. You’re gonna get yourself hurt too, and then we’ll really be boned.”
Cait stooped in front of her partner. “Stop it right now, Sole. I wouldn’t be doing this if it couldn’t be done. You know I’m not the kind to be naive. Now, we’re gettin’ you up that hill, and we’re gettin’ you to Zimonja, and we’re getting you that stimpack tonight.”
Sole started to argue but Cait caught her chin, clicking her teeth shut. The women shared a soft kiss, full of promise, before the redhead stood and adjusted her waistband.
“Be careful,” Sole said, eyes wary.
Cait took a running start at the embankment, managing to grab hold of the trunk of a small but sturdy tree about 6 feet up. “O’ course I’ll be careful, love. Precious cargo.”
CURIE
“Mon dieu!” Curie’s exclamation met the sound of shattering glass as the test tube she’d been measuring into hit the floor. She stepped over the mess without a thought as she crossed to the door. “What has happened?”
“I’m alright, ma cherie,” Sole insisted, but the very obviously broken arm clutched to the woman’s chest mingled with the bruising over her cheekbone to tell a different story.
Curie guided the woman to her exam table and helped her to sit. “I did not ask if you were alright, I asked what happened.” She produced a stimpack from the top drawer of her exam table with one hand as the other steadied the broken limb between them. The thing was uncapped quickly, but Sole’s silence had the woman hesitating to move on. “Sole, I have asked you a question.”
“I’m fine,” Sole insisted again. “I just got into a little scuffle, that’s all…” she dipped her head to catch the Doctor’s eye, receiving a disapproving look in return. “You should see the other guy.”
“I am sure I will... Small. Pinch.”
Sole winced, despite the warning. The low gauge needle always offered more than a ‘small’ pinch, but she supposed Curie didn’t necessarily know from experience. Sole had made damn sure she’d never needed one.
The Doctor crossed the room to the supply cabinet, tossing the spent stimpack into the bin to be reoutfitted later. For only having had a body for a couple months, the graceful, delicate way the synth moved was always something to behold. It was hard to look away.
“Well?” Curie asked, rifling in the cabinet.
Sole stiffened; swallowed. “Uh…”
“What was so enraging for you that you had to go and pick a fight, hmm? Isn’t it enough that you come to me in tatters after your missions? You must find a way to destroy yourself in the safety of the Castle as well?”
Enraging. That was… definitely the right word for it. The independent trader that had arrived at the Castle that afternoon needing a wound dressed was definitely that. She’d happened to find herself seated at a table near his at the bar that evening, just close enough to hear as he went on and on about the stronghold’s gullible, innocent new doctor and all the things he thought about making her “check out” for him.
“Just some idiot,” she said. “He… grabbed my ass. Didn’t think I should let it stand, you know?”
Curie glanced over her shoulder at the woman, those big brown concerned eyes doing the work they always did picking away at the walls Sole had erected around herself. One of these days, she knew it was all going to come crashing down. “Oh,” the doctor said. “My… then I’m sorry you were pushed to such lengths.”
Sole nodded. “Thank you, Curie, but I’ll be fine.”
Curie crossed to Sole again, positioning herself perfectly, primly, directly in front of her patient. Her patient couldn’t help but sit up a little straighter in the presence of such propriety. The Doctor scrutinized the swab in her hand as she prepared it with a bottle of alcohol. “What state is the man in? Or shall I expect a cadaver to appear in my clinic instead of a viable patient?”
Sole smiled. She’d had mercy on the man and left him alive, but even so… “I don’t think you’ll need to worry about him,” she said.
Curie lifted the swab to the gash on her companion’s cheekbone. “Slight sting,” she warned.
Sole breathed through the not so slight sting. “Thank you, Curie.”
PIPER
“Alright alright hold on! Sheesh!” Piper pulled open the door to her home with one hand while readying her pipe pistol with the other. She kept a foot just behind the door as she did, only allowing a few inches of space to peer out into the night. “What the hell is so freakin - oh hey Blue.” She opened the door wider, defenses officially down. “What’re you doing ou-OH MY GOD what did you do to your arm?” She ushered the other woman inside quickly, taking in the way Sole had tied her arm into a sling over her shoulder.
Sole huffed as she shuffled in Piper’s door. “I took a fall out in the ruins today. Nothing serious but, uh, I think I broke my arm.”
Piper closed the door and locked it behind her, casually re-stringing the tin can alarm that she kept up while she and Nat were sleeping. “Uh. That sounds serious. Why don’t you use a stimpack?”
Sole sighed, doing an absent little turn around the front room. “I’m out. Percy’s out. Dr Sun is sleeping and won’t answer his fucking door.”
Piper rolled her eyes as she crossed to the kitchen. “What a jerk. Isn’t he supposed to take some sort of oath? If someone needs help he’s gotta do it or he goes to hell… or something?”
“Yeah,” Sole laughed, watching as Piper opened and shut drawer after drawer in her kitchen. “Or something.”
“Aha!” the reporter said, holding the prize - a coveted stimpack - in her hand. She bumped the drawer she’d found it in closed with her hip before crossing the few steps to her friend and planting it in her hand. “Just what the doctor ordered. Or he would have it he had dragged his happy ass out of bed.”
“Are you sure, Pipes?” She gestured around the overstuffed house. “I’m not taking your last one, am I?”
Piper followed Sole’s eye, giving the room a slightly less scrutinizing look. “Nope. I know there are more… somewhere. And anyways you should probably get the bone set and healing before going to sleep. Heard you can get some real funky shapes going on if you go too long.”
Sole laughed. “I should probably get on it, then. Uhm… could you…?” She gestured as best she could for Piper to help her with the stimpack, making the other woman jump to attention.
“Oh! Uh, yeah! Sure.” She took the stimpack back from Sole’s hand then turned to regard the slung limb. Sole smiled at the perplexed expression she wore, doing her best to work the jacket off her shoulders with only one good arm. It was proving to be almost as difficult as getting it on there. Piper, again, realized suddenly and a beat too late that she could help and sprung into action just in time to catch the jacket off her friend and drape it over the back of her writing chair. Sole had moved on to untying the sling but Piper batted her hand away, working at the knot with her short, chewed off nails instead. She caught the injured arm just before the weight of it dropped painfully, for which Sole was thankful.
Together, the women fumbled through administering the stimpack in… probably? The right place? Giggling awkwardly and hissing in pain and hushing apologies. Once the medicine was in, though, Sole could feel it working almost immediately. She pulled the arm to her chest again, cradling it in a good position to heal.
“Thanks, Pipes,” she said.
Piper recapped the needle and tossed the spent stimpack onto the desk. “Hey, what are friends for, huh?”
Sole was quiet. It wasn’t totally unlike Sole to be quiet but this was a weird kind of quiet. Piper looked back to the other woman and what she found looking back at her rendered her speechless. That was totally unlike Piper, but what was she supposed to say? With those big, dark eyes watching her in the dim light of her office, the pouted lips she spent probably too much time thinking about parted and slightly moist, her… her friend’s hair falling artfully, beautifully over her face as it so often did.
Piper looked to her desk and picked up the latest issue of Publick Occurences. “Well, as long as you’re here, do you want a sneak peak?” she waggled her eyebrows at the woman.
Sole pulled her bottom lip into her teeth and Piper had to look away. The other woman cleared her throat. “Uhm. No. I think I’ll just head home…”
Disappointment flooded her, sort of unexpectedly. Sure the woman had woken her up in the middle of the night when she had to get up early with Nat the next day and that was definitely annoying… but now she sort of didn’t want her to leave.
Why, though? She should just let the girl get back to her own night. She had healing to do, after all. “Yeah, go get some rest Blue. I’ll uh…”
Sole caught her eye.
“I’ll stop in in the morning to check on you, alright?”
Sole smiled. “Alright... I, uhm... I'd like that."
Piper turned from her friend as a blush rose in her cheeks. "Yeah, blue. I would too."
