Summary: I wanted to write a drabble where most of the companions were together (with the exception of X6 since this takes place before Nora goes to the Institute). Deacon is my favorite so this is told from his POV. Anyway, here's him missing his wife while everyone has a good time around the campfire. Many thanks to @falloutober for the prompts and for running the event!
Ghost
Though Barbara was gone, Deacon saw her everywhere he went: in the people he'd pass at Bunker Hill, in the frightened faces of a newly liberated Synth, and in all the lives he had taken and all the bodies he had buried trying to make up for all the sins of his youth. She was a ghost that haunted him day in and day out, never quite touching him, but always there.
The only reprieve from his guilt were little moments like these, where they were all gathered around a campfire in the middle of the street in Sanctuary, brought together by a one-woman-army on a mission to save the Commonwealth.
As Hancock poked at the fire, he told the tale of how he had gotten so high he had decided that adopting a mole rat was a good idea, and brought it back to the Old State House. For three days, he fed it Fancy Lads Snack Cakes before Fahrenheit—or Fahr, as he called her—made him get rid of it because it kept biting people's asses.
At that, Deacon cracked a smile and scratched Dogmeat's ear. Preston laughed and shook his head, and Curie started rambling about the proper diet for Heterocephalus glaber before Piper cut in and asked if Hancock was willing to be quoted for a column in the paper. Nick lit a cigarette and shook his head in disappointment, and Danse, in his stupid power armor, rolled his eyes. MacCready and Cait made remarks he had not heard, because once his eyes met Nora's, the laughter and the quips faded until all he could hear was silence.
They were Barbara's eyes, with that old-world look that made him believe that he could be a better man, and for the most part Nora had made him one. Traveling with her, helping people both human and Synth alike—he was finally making a difference, finally doing something meaningful for the benefit of all people.
As a tiny smile crept across Nora's lips, he saw Barbara's smile, and for a fleeting moment, Deacon thought that maybe being haunted wasn't so bad after all.
