AN: I got an offer to apply for a freelance job, promptly put all my attention on that, and then got rejected for the job this morning. Yay, my self-esteem…IDEK why I try sometimes.

Chapter 17

"You want me to what?"

"Another settlement needs your help."

Bella stared at Preston in disbelief.

"Why can't you help?"

"They need me in Sanctuary."

As far as Bella could tell all Preston did was patrol a very small area around Sanctuary. He didn't even cross the bridge.

The others gardened, fixed up the area, scavenged, and oh wait were assigned to GUARD THE PLACE. And yet Preston still continued circling the area like he was actually doing something.

And so Bella told him all of this. To his face.

"B-but I'm needed here." Preston stuttered.

"No, actually, there is a settlement that needs your help." Bella said with a flat expression. "I, quite frankly, have my own shit to do. I helped you guys out of the goodness of my heart. And you immediately tried to send me to do your work. You are the Minuteman not me. I'm a lady who just got of a vault. You are the one with experience and I can barely shoot a gun. Just what the hell am I supposed to do about those ghouls huh? I've never even seen a ghoul. "

Preston gaped at Bella.

"Uh, I uh."

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Now, if you excuse me I have things to do. I'll send anyone your way if they are interested in safety or hell even joining the Minutemen. Bye bye."

Bella spun on her heel and walked away.

"You sure showed him, mum! No one takes advantage of you!" Codsworth perked up once they crossed the bridge.

"Thanks Codsworth." Bella grinned. Man that felt so cathartic!

It wasn't until they settled at the Red Rocket for the night that Bella received a notification.

Common Sense for the Common Wealth

Sanctuary Sector 1/4.

Sweet, sweet, progress.

Luckily, the mole rats stayed frozen. Bella had Codsworth cook up some for her and Dogmeat. She had told some of the others in Sanctuary and she was sure one of them would be down for the rest tomorrow.

Heck, maybe Preston would get off of his ass.

The mole rat didn't taste too bad actually kind of like gamey pork. Codsworth had even found some salt too. Bella and Dogmeat settled in the garage for the night.

Bella scratched Dogmeat behind his ears and he leaned into her hand.

"You don't have fleas boy. Does this world not have them?" Dogmeat was a stray right?

Yeah, no of course he was. What was she thinking?

Silly, Bella.

Codsworth patrolled the area while they were sleeping. Two companions for the win!

Bella and Codsworth scoured the area for supplies before moving on. He didn't even comment when things were put into her inventory.

Well, except to bitch about some items he thought were useless. Bella shut that shit down quick though.

"Codsworth, think about it. There is no longer a manufacturer for most of these items. Whatever we can't use we can sell. Some of this can be turned into useful things as well. "

Speaking of, maybe Bella should try to craft something.

With anticipation Bella sat a couple of fans, a lamp, some tools, and a few wires on the desk. No build menu popped up, but she refused to give up hope.

"I would like to build…an automated turret." Suddenly in front of her was a turret.

Bella hugged it with happy tears and it disappeared.

Those happy tears became tears of despair.

"No!"

She panicked for a good minute before checking her inventory.

The turret was there in her inventory. But would it stay?

She pulled it from her inventory like any other item and sobbed in relief.

"MY BABY!"

She placed the turret and watched it spin around looking for a hostile target. Bella may not have a build menu, but she could build. Provided she knew what item she wanted and had the stuff for it. She put away the turret into her inventory. Maybe she could take it out of bounds too. With that goal in mind Bella and her crew set off for Concord. Once she was far away enough she checked her inventory and low and behold the turret was still there and she could place it.

After a little more experimentation Bella found that she could only build items with a workbench, but once they were in her inventory she could put them anywhere she wanted.

"FREE BUILD FOR THE WIN!"

"Um, are you okay, mum?"

Bella turned to Codsworth and laughed awkwardly.

"Uh, yeah. Just ignore me."

Codsworth gave his equivalent of a nod, but resolved to keep an eye out for any more concerning behavior.

"Very well, mum."

Concord was a gold mine of supplies. Building after building was full of food, medicine, guns, ammo, clothes, armor, whatever you name it. It was astounding really how much stuff there was. Her inventory would have been maxed out if she had a limit.

Happy with her haul Bella made her way to Drumlin Diner. There was always something she wanted to do.

Drumlin Diner

"You and your son owe us money Trudy! Pay up and there won't be any trouble." Wolfgang said gruffly.

"You got my son into drugs in the first place! Selling it to him on credit first." Trudy spat.

"Your kid knew what he was getting into."

Bella stepped into the conversation here.

"I think we can resolve this peacefully."

"Gonna talk some sense into the lady?"

"No, actually. I'm gonna talk some sense into both of you." Bella huffed. "What the fuck were you thinking? Selling so much to her son? Moderation is key and if you saw him sliding into addict territory you could have stopped selling at any time. "

Wolfgang stared at her speechless.

Bella then whirled on Trudy.

"And you! Get your kid some fucking addictol. Diamond City is right up the road. Honestly, both of you should be selling addictol."

Trudy turned red in both embarrassment and fury. She opened her mouth to complain more, but quickly shut it when Bella tossed her an addictol.

"Luckily, for you I found one not too long ago." Actually she found six, but they didn't need to know that. She had plans for them actually.

"Keep an eye on your dumb son. Give him the talking to of his life." Bella turned back to Wolfgang, "And you, get a supply of the stuff so this crap doesn't happen again. Any maybe, oh I don't know, don't sell chems to traders' kids again. You almost cut off a valuable supply line, you idiot."

Bella gave one final huff of pure exasperation.

"Now, I have a lot of stuff to trade. Hope you guys have the caps and some interesting goods."

And what do you know, they did.

Wolfgang and Trudy watched Bella walk off after participating in one of the most ruthless, but lucrative trades in their lives.

Wolfgang turned to Trudy.

"Sorry, I won't sell a thing to your kid again. Also, who the fuck was that?"

Trudy shrugged in helpless disbelief.

"No idea, but I'm going to give this addictol to my kid and knock some sense into him. But hey, if you do come across some addictol I'll give you a good discount on my goods for some."

"Trudy, you got yourself a deal."

Common Sense for the Common Wealth

Sanctuary Sector 3/4 (that means you're over halfway done).

Feeling pretty good after another verbal smack down, Bella continued on to her next destination. She considered swinging by Abernathy farm, but there wouldn't be any point really. As far she as she remembered they would want her to take out some raiders and retrieve a necklace from them. Sure, it was a family heirloom, and okay so maybe she had invulnerability, and maybe the raiders were a problem, but Bella had goals.

…Dammit. She would go, but she needed to make a few more stops first.

Bella continued down to Sunshine Tidings Co-op. She had ghouls to exterminate and a robot to reprogram.

Sunshine Tidings Co-op

"Groovy."

"Looking good, Professor Goodfeels." Bella waves at the robot. It continues moving around ignoring all of the ghouls swarming the area. Bella placed her turret and watched in pride as it immediately started targeting ghouls.

"Far out!"

Bella, Dogmeat, and Codsworth got to work clearing the area. Bella was really glad they arrived in the middle of the day because this would be absolutely terrifying at night. Ghoul after ghoul swarmed her and her friends. She kept an eye on Dogmeat, but he seemed to be holding his own.

Bella watches at Dogmeat tackles a ghoul, latches on to it, and breaks its neck with a rough shake.

Yeah, he seemed to be fine.

Afterward, they located the terminal and Bella began reprogramming Professor Goodfeels. Or she tried to anyways.

Her options were to send him to the factory for repairs (no thanks), put him on guard mode (maybe) or just let him continue wandering around saying hippie sayings. She tried to tinker a bit, but Bella honestly did not have the know-how to add new programs.

Bella watched Codsworth pile up the ghouls for burning.

"Hey Codsworth come here for a sec!"

"Coming, mum!"

Bella had Codsworth take a look at Professor Goodfeels programming. Codsworth had an astounding amount of autonomy so maybe he could do something?

"I could repair some of his base functions, but I will need to build off of one of the other installed programs. Would you like me to base him off the guard programming or the 'Let it be' programming?"

Bella thought for a bit worrying her lip.

"Base it off the of the 'Let it be' programming."

"Whoa, man."

Bella had an idea.

"Hey Codsworth can you add something else to his program for me? Set a new owner and a location."

Hancock would be getting the surprise of his life.

Bella begins to make her way back up toward Abernathy Farm next. She had one more stop first, but it was on her way. Shouldn't take too long either.

Thicket Excavations.

"Hey, you, I could use some help here. I'll pay you for it."

Bella helped him with a shock baton to the fucking head. After smashing it to little bits Bella collected a few more supplies and continued on her way to Abernathy farm.

"Um, mum?"

"Yes, Codsworth?" Bella turned to him with a bright and slightly manic grin.

"N-never mind, mum."

Bella continued to Abernathy Farm in a surprisingly good mood. That piece of shit surprise raider boss had gotten her before, but not this time.

That was almost as satisfying as destroying Flowey.

Abernathy Farm

Arriving in Abernathy was kind of anticlimactic after the exciting day Bella had. It was getting dark when she had finally arrived, they did not mind her staying the night once she agreed to retrieve their daughter's locket in the morning. Bella could tell the family was still devastated by the loss of Mary.

The girl truly did not deserve to be gunned down by raiders.

Bella did have some good news for them though. She told them about the settlement at Sanctuary and about trading and supply line opportunities. She couldn't give them their daughter back, but she could give them a bit of hope for the future. She even put in a good word for the Minutemen, and they promised to tell others.

Exhausted, Bella curled up with Dogmeat and went to sleep.

Alternate File Saved

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Bella woke up, yawned, and rolled off of the mattress and promptly onto the floor.

"You okay, Bella?" Charlie called.

Bella was back in her bedroom in Forks.

"Woof."

And it looked like she had brought a furry friend back as well. Dogmeat looked around curiously, wagging his tail.

"Bella?" Her dad knocked on her door.

Now, how was she going to explain Dogmeat to her dad?

AN: This was really fun writing. I feel a lot better. There are more surprises in store for Bella. Her game just had a major update after all.