The Knight and the Paladin - A series of Oneshots

10 The lost recon team

 A bullet grazed her cheek as she dodged the sledge hammer of a super mutant. The Revere Satellite Array was overrun by the green skins. Knight Kay and Paladin Danse were searching for a lost recon team which came into the Commonwealth 3 years ago. They already found the remains of Knight Varham and Knight Astlin. Kat never saw Danse this sad and angry before. They collected their holotags and Kat even found holotapes which they were listening to. It turned out that they were overrun and had to split.

"GET DOWN!", Danse screamed as a missile flew into their direction. They both jumped out of the way just before the missile hit the ground behind them. The shock wave hit her hard and she slithered quite a few meters on the ground, Righteous Authority flying away. Danse on the other hand was on his knees, safe through his power armor. When he stood up Kat didn't move. He ran over to her to see if she was harmed.

"Knight Kay! Get up, we need to move!", he shouted while running towards her, still no movement. "For Christ's sake, KAT!" He landed on his knees right next to her and saw that she was unconscious. The super mutants came closer from all sites. He needed to defend them somehow. Danse noticed her rifle on the ground. He paced forward and grabbed it and started shooting, his own rifle in his other hand.

Soon the ground was clear and only one or two mutants were around the satellites. Danse discovered a shack up there. The Pip Boy on Kat's arm beeped constantly in this direction. He made his way up the stairs and shot down the last mutants. It was no surprise that he found Scribe Faris in the shack. He was dead, too. Danse collected his holotags and Faris also recorded a holotape. He went down again to look after Kathryn, she still was unconscious. He stepped out of his power armor, took his med kit and sat next down to her.

He looked her over and found several scratches on her cheek, arm and leg. Her brown curls were dirty and the orange jumpsuit was torn. He gently cleaned her with a piece of cloth and antiseptics and then bandaged her. He administered some Med-X and a Stimpak. He could see her flinch but she immediately relaxed when the meds kicked in. Sadness and concern covered his features and he carefully lifted her up. He walked her over to one of the shacks on the ground and laid her on one of the mattresses lying around. Danse then walked back and got his power armor and then covered Kathryn with her sleeping bag. After that he settled down next to her and opened a can of purified water.

When Kat opened her eyes she forgot for a second where she was. She almost jumped up just to see at the last second that Paladin Danse leaned at the wall next to her. His head laid on his chest and he was sleeping. A headache struck her with all it's force and she pinched the bridge of her nose. Next to the sleeping Paladin, Kat discovered a can of water. She grabbed it and gulped it down in seconds. She shivered and snuggled up to him. She closed her eyes and fell back to sleep.

The hours went by and both were sound asleep. Danse woke up first and was startled by the woman snuggled up to him. Somehow she managed to cover him too with her sleeping bag. Curls laid in her face and he gently put them aside. She woke up anyway. "Oh, hi Danse...", she softly said with a shy smile. "How are you feeling?", he asked now bright red in his face. Kat chuckled. "Guess I'll be fine." She really didn't want to get up yet. Danse shifted under her as he wanted to get up. "Please, can we stay like this for a while?", she asked. He sighed but relaxed under her and eventually put an arm around her. Kat came even closer to embrace him, too.

"Kathryn?"
"Yes, Danse?"
"I found a holotape on Scribe Faris, too. We should listen to it."
"Okay."

He slammed his fist on the floor and Kat jumped a little. He explained what had happened and that it wasn't good to split up in a small group like the one they were chasing. Only Paladin Brandis was left and they needed to find him. "Come on, I know where he went." Danse said. To her own surprise she stood up and grabbed Righteous Authority while Danse put on his power armor.
They walked in silence up north west to Recon Bunker Theta.

Danse and Kat walked past a bunker which the Paladin immediately recognized. "This is Listening Post Bravo. It's hidden and only Haylen and myself know about it. We picked it as a fallback point if there ever was reason to evacuate Cambridge.", he explained. Kathryn made a mental note to remember that place for the future. "You need a break?", Danse eventually asked then. Kat shrugged and kept walking. "If I stop moving now we will never arrive at the bunker.", she exclaimed with a wink.

The bunker was closed. A terminal was right next to the door. Kathryn typed in the password to open it. "Paladin Brandis?", she asked into the room. "Stop right where you are! Who are you?!", the frightened man asked. "I am Knight Kathryn Kay of the Brotherhood of Steel and this is-"
"Paladin Danse. Don't you recognize me?", Danse cut her off. "Danse... Danse... That can't be! What are you doing here?" Danse explained Brandis that he got sent to the Commonwealth to a recon mission, just like Reconnaissance Team Artemis three years ago.

Kathryn told him what happened to his team after Brandis was asking for them. She handed him the holotags and sadness overcame the old man. He said his thanks and offered the duo to loot his place. Both Danse and Kathryn tried to convince Brandis to return to the Brotherhood. In the end he agreed, mostly for telling the others the story of his team. "We'll meet at the Prydwen, farewell.", he said. Danse and Kat waved goodbye and went on their own way.

"Can we rest at the nearest settlement? I really need a break now...", Kathryn sighed. Danse nodded and they looked at the Pip Boy for the nearest settlement. The next one was Breakheart Banks. They began to walk again. It soon turned out that this place was inhabited by super mutants and their hounds. A deep howl told them that they were discovered. "Oh dear steel, not again...", Kat muttered as she readied her rifle. "Take cover and let me get the majority of them.", Danse ordered. She nodded and backed off into cover. Some quick shots of his laser rifle followed and the hounds were dead. A grenade flew over his head and exploded near him. "Damn it!", he muttered.

He didn't have the time to look back, he had to dodge another grenade and kicked it as far away as possible. Kathryn sat in her hideout waiting for Danse to kill most of the mutants. She heard grenades explode and felt the ground shaking. She saw how Danse had to fight at least six green skins all at once. She sighed and left her cover to help him. She aimed at the knees of the mutants and one after another fell down limping and screaming.

Danse turned around just to see how Kathryn stood there shooting each of that abominations. Her eyes widened in terror as she spotted another mutant running towards the Paladin wielding a giant sledge hammer in it's hands. "Oh my god...", she whispered, her legs starting to move on their own. "DANSE, GET DOWN!", she screamed but it was too late. Right in the moment as he turned back to this new foe the hammer hit him across his helmet, sending him flying across the field.

Anger flared up in Kathryn, a wild scream erupting from her throat and she emptied a whole fusion cell into the mutant. It fell down with a heavy thud, heavily breathing and grunting. "You. Fucking. Bastard!", Kathryn said with every stride she made towards the dying creature. "Puny... human", it pressed out, blood spilling out of it's mouth. "Fuck you.", Kat snarled. Her scream was heartbreaking when she took the sledge hammer and smashed it down into the mutants face over and over again, leaving a pile of blood and gore. Her chest heaved with every breath she took, letting the hammer fall down beside her.

Kathryn came back to her senses slowly, realizing that Danse still laid in the dirt, not moving. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK! She thought running over to him. He was lying on his side, his power armor to heavy to roll him over. She fell down to her knees and tried it anyway. To her surprise she succeeded. His helmet had a dent and the visor was broken. Kat fiddled with the clips of it and a soft hiss told her that the mechanism was still intact. She tossed the helmet aside to reveal a blood covered face of the unconscious Paladin.

"Fuck, Danse... Wake up..!", she plead crying. Her shaky fingers found a pulse at the side of his throat and she sighed in relief. The shaking grew stronger and Kat needed to do something to stop it. Her heart was still pounding while she rummaged in her bag searching for her med kit and some gauze. Kat needed to clean Danse's face if she wanted to prevent him from getting an infection. She took a deep breath to calm herself down and opened the bottle of antiseptic. She softly patted the blood away. She absently looked down in Danse's face and she had to admit that it never looked this clean and studied it. The scar on his right eye looked old. A thin line from his forehead down to his cheek, she gently lined it with her finger. A frown formed on his features and she dropped her hand.

A wave of sobs flooded her, tears filling the corners of her eyes. Why had he have to turn around? IDIOT! She thought, anger rising in her chest as she slammed a fist onto the ground. Kathryn tore her blood crusted hair, devastation kicking in and another scream of helplessness bubbled from her throat.

A new thin line of blood trickled down Danse's motionless face and Kathryn used another piece of gauze to clean it up. Then a very familiar looking item catched her eyes.
Vertibird Grenades! Why didn't she think about them sooner?!
She stumbled over her own feet while standing up and hurrying over to her bag. She pulled the pin and threw the grenade a few meters away. Red electromagnetic smoke rose into the air. All she needed to do now was going back and sitting down next to the unconscious man in his power armor and wait.

Half an hour later the sound of rotors in the air was audible. Kathryn let out a sigh of relief as she spotted the vertibird. It slowly descended in front of her and she stood up. A knight greeted her but stopped when he saw the distressed look on her face. "What happened here?", he asked but Kathryn only shook her head. "No time to explain. We need to get the Paladin back to the Prydwen, now!" Kat's voice was filled with such a commanding tone that the knight didn't question her and immediately went to get Danse. In the mean time she ordered the lancer to radio the Prydwen to get a med team at stand by. After that she ran over to the knight and helped him carry the Paladin into the vertibird.

Another half an hour later the 'bird docked at the vessel and Knight-Captain Cade and three scribes came running with a stretcher. Kathryn looked into Danse's face, he was extremely pale and still not with her. She went after the med crew and followed them inside where she almost ran into the elder. "Follow me.", he said with a quiet voice. Kat just nodded and walked behind him. Fear overmanned her again and she began to shake violently. Elder Maxson turned around after he led them both into his private quarters. She looked terrible he thought. Jumpsuit torn and covered in crusted blood. He asked what had happened, while he poured them both a drink. Kat emptied her glass in one swig and the young man poured her another, one eyebrow cocked.

Then she told him about the search for the missing recon team, how she got her injuries and how they found Paladin Brandis; how they convinced him to return to the Brotherhood. That she wanted to take a break at a settlement called Breakheart Banks and that it was infested with super mutants. How she and Paladin Danse cleared the place, just to miss one of those abominations which hit her sponsor so bad. Tears welled up her eyes and panic flooded her body. She was afraid that Danse, her Danse, could not wake again. That she killed her sponsor, her best friend.

The young elder softly put a hand on her shoulder and lightly squeezed it. His voice was filled with sympathy as he told her to go and see Cade, too. She nodded and gave him a little smile and then left his room with a little thank you for the drink. She closed the door and hugged herself, making her way to the med bay. A lot of shuffling and hushed voices were audible as she came closer. Kat knocked on the open door and paled immediately looking at her commanding officer strapped to IVs and a pre-war looking electroencephalogram and a heart rate monitor.

Cade stepped into her line of view, sorrow in his eyes. "He has internal bleeding. We had to put a shunt into his skull to prevent it from further swelling. It didn't look good but he is stable at the moment and needs a lot of rest." Kathryn almost collapsed on the floor crying but Cade was fast enough to grab her by her arms and one of the scribes rushed to keep her steady. "I am sorry Knight... But please, calm down. I need to examine your wounds."

She didn't care. Nothing mattered more than the life of her friend. She still cried but let Cade look at her and administer something to calm her down. "You should take some rest.", he softly said. "Can I stay here?", she asked him, voice hoarse. First he wanted to say no. But it was better she also stayed here so he could have an eye on her and nodded. "Thank you.", she whispered.

The next days were terrible. Kathryn was at the mess having something to eat when one of the scribes came running almost screaming her name. She dropped everything and ran back to the med bay. The tone of a single long beep let her heart drop, fear and panic creeping up her spine. He's dead she thought. But then the beeping grew back to it's normal constant pace. "He's back.", one of the scribes said exhausted from giving the Paladin CPR.
Cold sweat ran down her forehead and she heard the blood rushing her ears before everything turned dark...

Kat's eyes fluttered open. She was lying on one of the gurneys in the med bay, an IV strapped to her arm. "What happened?", she asked groggily. "You blacked out." the voice saying this was familiar, but also not. When she turned her heard she didn't believe her eyes. "Wha... you're awake?"
She coughed. The black haired man looked at her, tired brown eyes meeting surprised blue ones. "How long?", Kat eventually asked. "Quite a few days now."
Danse looked as terrible as he sounded but had a soft smile on is face.
"How long was I knocked out?"
"Six days."
"What?!" Another fit of coughing hit her. She sat up to get back the control of her breathing.

The Paladin gave her a can of purified water which she took with a thankful nod.
"I'm glad you're awake.", he said, ears and neck tinted in pink. His hands fidgeting with the blanket beneath them. "And I'm glad you're back alive."
"Back?", Danse asked curiously. "They almost lost you. You... were already dead..."
Kathryn began to cry.

A calloused hand reached out for her as he sat up. Kat looked at his hand, eyes brimming and burning but then took it. With a soft jolt of his arm, Danse pulled Kathryn into his chest and into a gentle but firm hug. She could feel him shudder as he buried his head in the crook of her neck, crying, too. His sobs were silent but shook his whole body. His grip grew a little more tight around Kat's frame but she returned it and softly drew small circles on his back.

"Hey...", she soothed him. "...you're fine. And that is all that matters to me right now."
Danse slowly loosened his grip around her looking into her blue pools. She gazed into his brown fright filled eyes. "It's all good.", she whispered. Danse leaned his forehead to hers.

"Thank you...", he softly spoke. He took her head into his hands ans gently pressed a kiss to her forehead. "...for saving my life."