"Of the people, for the people..." Hancock sighed as he wiped his boot against a rock in a vain attempt to remove the build up blood and mud.

"They weren't going to budge." You and he shared a joint look back at the overpass which now sat littered with pools of blood and the raiders that the blood came from. "We couldn't even try and negotiate."

"What would the fine people of Goodneighbor think of me? Marching around the Commonwealth leaving trails of bodies behind me?" He spun his hat around his shriveled hands, praying that he wouldn't find any more bullet holes.

"You're making the world a better place, you of all people should know that can't always happen peacefully." He sat his hat onto his otherwise naked head and strolled along with you against the backdrop of abandoned houses and rusted cars. "How do you think they're getting on without you anyway?"

"It'll be fine. The place is probably already ashes by now, but there's some damn fine men and women there, they know what they're doing."

"I know you've got a rough history, but you're a good person Hancock, you put a lot of good into this world."

"Wow." He stopped in his tracks. "Nobodies called me that in a long time." A smile crept ever so gently across his scarred lips; it may have been the first smile that you had seen from him that wasn't drug induced since leaving Goodneighbor in the first place.

"What? A good person?" He slung his gun over his shoulders, stretching out his back whilst he shook his head.

"Just a person." He must have noticed your confusion. "I know you haven't been out of the ice long."

"I know that ghouls aren't exactly praised most of the time." You found a spot to camp down for the night, it only took a few minutes before the place was secured and you felt safe for the night.

"It's way deeper than that kid. In Ninety-nine percent of this land, me and my kind are scum. Getting kicked out of Diamond City people were more worried around scuffing up their boots when they booted us out." A small bundle of sticks slowly set alight in the centre of the empty bookstore.

"If you're different, somebody will be scared of you."

"You got it." Hancock leant back from the flame and kicked away some rubble.

"Yeah well, hundreds of years down the line and I can tell you first hand, people aren't going to change."

~*~

Written by Aaron.