The Institute was gone. The ghost stories about how they would come in the night to steal your family members, replace them with synths, were starting to fade, though barely. The Commonwealth had gained some peace, even if it may be short lived. Peace always was. Mae had seen enough war to know the truth of it.

Lighting a cigarette, she thought back on her last moments with Father, with Shaun. Her son.

Or at least the man who was supposed to be her son, so long ago. She didn’t know whom he’d become. Certainly not the child she would have raised. He’d been cold. Calculating. He didn’t care about the Commonwealth. Only about those damned synths and his research.

Blowing the smoke from her nostrils, she realized she couldn’t forgive him. No matter how much she wanted to, even with the ‘gift’ he’d given her, Father wasn’t Shaun. He wasn’t her little boy. He might have never been.

Laughter distracted her from her morose thoughts. Turning stormy blue eyes on the scene in front of her, a smile quirked her lips. The synth Father had sent to her, the son that she had been looking for, threw a baseball at the man waiting with a glove in his hand. MacCready caught it easily before tossing it back. Shaun caught it and excited, turned to Mae.

“I caught it, Mom! Did you see?”

Brent’s brown eyes stared out of her son’s face and she felt her heart ache a little for her lost husband. “I saw, Shaun. Keep it up and you’ll be ready for a real game some day. Maybe you can beat MacCready.”

The statement lit the child’s face with happiness. It was clear that life with the Institute wasn’t right for a family. Shaun had needed to be with her, with RJ, with the friends that had become her family. He returned to the game for a few minutes longer until MacCready glanced at her, a smirk on his face.

“What?” She said, grumpily. She hated it when he looked at her like that.

Who was she kidding? She fucking loved it. She loved him.

“Are you jealous that I’m spending more time with your son than you?” He asked, walking up to Shaun, handing him the glove before ruffling the boy’s blond hair. “Are you feeling neglected, darling?”

Mae snorted before crushing her cigarette under her heel. “I’m just plotting against you.”

“Plotting? Why am I uneasy about this?”

Mae smirked at him this time. “You steal my son, I steal yours. It’s only fair.”

MacCready laughed, rubbing his sunburnt nose, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he did so.

“So, tell me, darling. When does Duncan get in again?” She asked the question sweetly and it made another laugh leave his mouth.

“You’re trouble, knockout, you know that, right?” He reached down and pulled her to her feet. His hands met her waist and he pulled her close.

His skin was flushed from the sun, his skin sticky with sweat, but she leaned forward and rubbed her nose against his, glad that the Commonwealth had something to offer. “You wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“You’ve got that right.” He murmured before kissing her deeply.

Shaun made a disgusted noise. “Yuck, guys!”

“Yeah, the kid’s got a point. Yuck.” Nick Valentine’s voice was easy to distinguish and both Mae and MacCready responded with a certain finger in the synth’s direction, without even breaking the kiss.