An hour after they had left, Curie and Rusty returned to Sanctuary Hills. AJ, Piper, Cait and Nora were sitting around a camp fire next to a yellow house, across the street from Nora's house, talking, while waiting for their companions to return. Nora spotted them as the walked around the bend in the street.

“You guys are back quick.” Nora said as she gestured for the two girls to join them by the fire.

Rusty sat between AJ and Piper. Curie sat down between Nora and Cait.

AJ was holding Kara in the crook of her left arm. She smiled at Rusty and hugged her around her shoulders with her right. “Did you find anything, Sweets?”

“She did.” Rusty said with a disappointed sigh. “Not as much as she wanted to...”

“What did ya find?” Cait asked gently.

“We found the pipe where Rust-y was attacked.” Curie said. “There was a large man, who called himself Sledge, living in it.” She looked at Rusty. “Rust-y managed to piece together how she was ambushed by... the death claw. Unfortunately, she couldn't find any other clues to how she came to Boston.”

AJ nuzzled Rusty's neck with a sad sigh. “I'm sorry, Sweets. Are... are you okay?”

Rusty shrugged. “She is uncertain how she feels. Out there, somewhere, she knows she has a family. At least a mother who loved her. Possibly still loves her. She wonders if her mother still thinks that she is alive. She wonders... a lot of things. She has so many questions... who is she? She calls herself Rusty, but The Institute called her Amber. She knows her real name is Wind, but, she isn't Wind anymore. Wind died the day she was attacked by the death-claw.”

“Sweets...” AJ said sympathetically.

Nora titled her head. “Do you really feel that Wind is gone?”

Rusty looked at her and nodded confidently. “She does.” She pulled off her gloves and looked at her hands, examining her glossy black fur. “Wind hand brown fur with beige patches on her muzzle and paws. Rusty has black fur. Wind had a metal arm. Rusty has two flesh arms. Wind had a tail and Rusty does not.”

The others stayed silent as they let the cat girl get things off her chest.

“Whoever Wind was, Rusty is no longer her.” Rusty continued as she starred into the fire, watching the flickering flames as if they held all the answers she needed and yet at the same time, no answers at all. She looked up at Nora. “Does Nora know of a Brain surgeon?”

“That's a random question, Rusty.” Nora answered. “What brought that up?”

“Before we escaped the Institute,” AJ answered for her, “I overheard that in order to repair the damage that Rusty has to her memory and speech centres, she would need a skilled brain surgeon.”

“Which the Institute doesn't, or rather, didn't have.” Nora nodded in understanding. “Well, there's always Doctor Amari. She runs the Memory den. Unfortunately, she's in Goodneighbour. It would take a least half a day to get there. In the opposite direction that you guys want to travel.”

Rusty looked excited at the news, and then deflated slightly when she heard where she was. “Why tell Rusty about her if she can't see her?”

“I didn't say that.” Nora said. “What we could do is bring her here.” She looked at Curie. “Curie and I built a med-lab here.” She pointed South. “Thanks to my ties, well, former ties with the Brotherhood, I have a vertibird at the Gas Station down the road. We could go get her.”

AJ and Rusty looked to where Nora was pointing.

AJ whistled as she looked at Nora. “Former ties with the Brotherhood?”

“Yeah. I joined them in hopes they could help me.” Nora explained. “Turns out, they were a bunch of Bigots. They hated everything not human. Synths, non-feral ghouls, ghouls... everyone. Since I have a few companions and settlers that are a mix of all three, I couldn't stay with them.”

“Rusty understands.” Rusty said with a nod. “Could... you go get Dr. Amari? Please? Rusty wants help with her brain.”

Nora smiled warmly. “Cait? Piper? Let's go get her. Curie? Can you get everything in your lab ready?”

“Of course.” The Medic said as she stood up. She looked at AJ. “It is my understanding that you were in Advanced Systems. Could you please assist me?”

AJ handed Kara to Rusty. “Sure thing, Curie.” She placed a comforting hand on Rusty's shoulder. “That is...”

Rusty nodded and smiled. “It is okay, AJ. Go help Curie.”

AJ stood up and followed Curie to her lab. Meanwhile, Nora, Cait, and Piper had stood up as well, and started to walk towards the entrance to Sanctuary Hills.

Rusty stood up and followed them. “Nora, what is Rusty to do while she waits?”

Nora looked back at her. “Just stay here. Relax. Have some food. We won't be long.” She caught up to Cait and Piper as they kept walking towards the vertibird.

The cat girl looked down at Kara. Kara, in turn, looked up at her. She whimpered a little. Rusty shushed her. “It's okay, Kara. Mommy is here. Let's get some food, okay?”

Sometime later, as Rusty sat in the common eating area/bar, trying her best to relax, and keep Kara entertained, she heard the Vertibird land at the Gas Station. She stood up, and being careful, quickly walked down the road to the entrance of Sanctuary Hills.

AJ and Curie came out of the house that was also Curie's lab.

“Whoa. Easy, Sweets.” AJ said as she spotted Rusty power-walking. She caught up with her and her daughter. “Slow down.”

Rusty stopped walking and looked at AJ. “Sorry. She is excited...”

AJ nodded and gently took Kara from her. “Of course you are. They'll get here soon. No sense in going to them.”

“Come with me, Rust-y.” Curie said suddenly. “They will bring Dr. Amari to my lab. Let me prepare you for the procedure.”

AJ nodded. “Go on. I'll see you after.”

Rusty took a deep breath and followed Curie inside the house. She looked around at all the medical equipment. She spotted a large... oval glass ...container/booth with a chair and glass dome.

“What is that?” She asked nervously.

“That, Dear Rust-y, is how we will fix you.” Curie said. “It is called a Memory lounger. It has been adapted for brain surgery as well.” She smiled. “It is hard to believe, but I was once a Ms. Nanny. Similar to a Mr. Handy. Using this memory lounger, my memory files were placed into a synth.”

Rusty blinked. “Oh... wow.”

Nora and another woman suddenly walked into the lab. The other woman was a Caucasian woman with black hair. However, she looked like a... ghoul. Well half her face and her left arm had necrotic skin patches.

“Dr. Amari?” Rusty asked.

“Dr. Zira.” The newcomer greeted. “I'm a skilled surgeon and Neurologist.” She noticed Rusty's gaze was looking at her skin. “You can relax, Rusty. I'm only a half ghoul. Not a full ghoul, and at no risk at becoming feral.” She smiled. “I'm also older then Nora.”

“Were is Dr. Zira from if she's older than Nora?” Rusty asked.

“A City of Ghouls called Necropolis.” Dr. Zira explained as she started looking over Curie's set-up. “We Ghouls and half-ghouls are long lived. I was a Doctor before the war and I'm 250 years old.”

Rusty nodded. “Well, if she can't trust you, who can she trust.”

“Excellent.” Dr. Zira said. “Now, if you will, climb into the lounger, and I'll help you recover your memories and repair your speech.”

Rusty sat in the lounger. “No. Don't recover her memories. Please. She is Rusty now. Wind is gone. She is no longer her.”

Dr. Zira looked at Rusty and stared deeply into her eyes. She could see the pained expression in them and the fear of her recovering her past life.

“Okay, Rusty. We'll do a memory wipe and replacement.” Dr. Zira nodded. “Much like Dr. Armari and I do with synths that escaped the Institute. She opened her shoulder bag and pulled out some equipment, placing it on a surgical tray. “What memories do want removed?”

“Everything to do with Wind.” Rusty said as Curie placed brain monitoring cap on her head. Dr. Zira turned on a monitor and examined the readout. “She wants them gone.”

“Okay. I can do that.” Dr. Zira nodded. “Do you want them replaced? Say... with another life? I can write a program onto a chip. I could make it so that you come from a Vault. Like me. A special vault that... experimented on animals. So, you can be a cat-otter hybrid made more human via experimentation.”

“That could work.” Rusty nodded. “What about her time in the Institute?”

“Well, you met AJ and found Kara in the Institute.” Dr. Zira explained. “So, we'll keep those. I can make it so that your name has always been Rusty.”

Rusty nodded. “And her... speech?”

“That's an easy fix in comparison to a memory replacement.” The Doctor admitted. She looked at Curie. “Curie will give you a sedative. You will go to sleep, and when you wake up, you'll be all fixed.”

Rusty looked at Curie. Curie smiled and swabbed her arm with rubbing alcohol using a cotton ball. She then used a small needle to inject the sedative.

“Good night, Rust-y.” Curie said as she closed the glass dome. “Sweet Dreams.”

The next thing Rusty knew, she was in a comfortable bed. She opened her eyes slowly and saw AJ sitting in an arm chair next to the bed.

“AJ?” She asked curiously.

AJ smiled at her. “Hey, Sweets. How are you feeling?”

“I...” She gasped and sat up in the bed. “I can speak... in the first person now.” She smiled happily. “Wow. This is... so weird.”

“I noticed.” AJ smiled happily. “What about you, though? Any pain?”

“A little throbbing...” Rusty admitted. “But, considering that I had my brain fixed... it's not really surprising.”

“What can you remember?” The blonde asked. “Do you remember how we met?”

The catter blinked. “Uh, yeah? We met in the Institute. I was, um, helped with Asset retrieval for three years.”

AJ nodded and let out a breath of relief. “And before that?”

“What are you asking me all these questions?” Rusty asked. “Is something wrong?”

“No.” AJ shook her head. “Dr. Zira asked me to make sure there were no side effects after your surgery. That's all.”

“Oh. Okay.” Rusty said in understanding. “Well, I came from a small Vault, um, 99. In Vermont. Made my way South... and when I came to Boston, I was ambushed by a Death-claw.”

“You remember then. That's good.” AJ smiled. “No worries.”

Kara whimpered suddenly from her place in a small blue crib next to AJ. Rusty looked at her and smiled.

“Wait... where are we?” She said suddenly as she looked around the room.

“In a small house that Nora gave us to stay in while we wait for the Caravan to come later today.” AJ answered her. “It should be here in a few hours.”

“Wait... today?” Rusty blinked. “Nora said it wouldn't be here until tomorrow.”

“Right. Which is today.” AJ said as she stood up. “Your surgery took a little over 10 hours. And you've been asleep for another 5 hours. Dr. Zira said that the death-claw did a lot of damage to your brain. She had to clean up a lot of scar tissue and cultivate a lot of stem cells to repair it.”

“Oh.” Rusty blinked.

“I'll get you some food.” AJ smiled as she made her way to the door of the bedroom. “Oh. And Dr. Zira is here.”

AJ left the room as Dr. Zira entered it. “How is my patient? She asked as she sat down on the bed next to Rusty. She took out a pen light as she did.

“Not too bad.” Rusty said as Zira shone the light into her eyes briefly. “A little throbbing.”

“Your papillary response is good. You know for a cat-otter hybrid.” Zira said. “As good as it was before your surgery.”

Rusty nodded. “Well, considering that I am a humanoid hybrid... that would make sense.”

“Exactly.” Zira nodded. “As for the throbbing, that will go away.” She gently turned Rusty's head to the right and examined a spot behind her left ear. “I did have to make a small incision, and suppress your advanced healing factor in order to keep it open. You'll feel better in a few hours.”

Rusty smiled and hugged Zira. “Thank you, Doctor. I... wow... I'll have to get used to speaking normally again... I feel so much better.”

Zira returned the hug and then let her go. “It was my pleasure.” She looked at Rusty's eyes. “Huh. I just noticed that Your eyes a really pretty amber colour.”

“Heh. Yeah. Thanks. I always thought they were more of a golden, though.” Rusty admitted.

“Oh. Right. Gold is more accurate.” Zira agreed. She stood up and smiled. “I have to get back to Goodneighbour. Take care of yourself, Rusty.”

“Thanks, Doctor. You take care of yourself, as well.” Rusty waved goodbye as Zira left the room.

AJ came in with a bowl of steaming food. “Here's a bowl of Brahmin stew, Sweets.” She handed her the bowl and a spoon.

Rusty nodded and took the bowl. “Thanks. I'm starving.”

AJ picked Kara up out of her crib and sat down in her chair again. She pulled a baby bottle, full of milk, out of her pouch and started feeding the kitten. Rusty blinked at the scene.

“Where did you get the bottle from? And the milk?” Rusty asked.

“Nora has a lot of supplies. And brahmin.” AJ answered. “Since you were asleep, I had to feed Kara. She loves brahmin milk.”

“Well, that's good.” Rusty nodded as she quickly ate. “Means that I don't have to feed her all the time.”

AJ blushed. “That's a shame...”

Rusty nearly dropped her spoon. “You, uh, liked watching me feed her?”

“More of what you used to feed her.” AJ blushed more.

Rusty looked down at her... self. “O-oh... um, well... once you're done feeding Kara... and have her settled, perhaps... you can come get a better look?”

AJ bit her her lower lip. “You fiend...”

Rusty giggled.