You'd grown up on your father's farm hearing horror stories about the ghouls that wandered the wasteland. He'd called them feral beasts, former humans that should be shot on sight. But you were all grown up now, and the farm was all yours. So maybe that's why you'd taken him in. Maybe this was your own twisted way and sticking it to your old man.

You'd heard stories of this ghoul, The Ghoul, best bounty hunter in the wasteland. But when you found him hiding in your barn and halfway feral, you'd seen something different. You'd given him chems and coaxed him into the house. He didn't trust you, not by a long shot.

"Call me Cooper," he'd drawled, half-asleep sitting at the kitchen table with his gun in his lap. He'd refused a bed.

You were probably the only person in the wasteland who knew his name.

Cooper didn't go away for long. He'd stumble back into the farmhouse every month or so, fresh off claiming more bounties. You realized that house chores started getting done behind your back. Brahmin milked, your rad-mutated horse was fed, and there was always fresh supplies left on the kitchen table.

Until one day he was gone for nearly two months. It was the longest you'd gone without seeing him, and you were beginning to worry that he'd gone feral somewhere and forgotten you. You were almost relieved when a loud crash downstairs woke you up.

Cooper was curled up on the floor with his back pressed to the cabinets. He'd knocked over a chair trying to sit down and heal. Whatever wounds he had were slowly closing up as his irradiated body fixed itself.

"Don't just run down the stairs," he said gruffly, eyes barely open. "Coulda been a raider or some shit."

Ignoring him, you knelt down to clean some of the grime from his face. Your sleeve brushed near his missing nose, making him wince. "Where have you been?" you demanded.

Cooper got quiet. Your tone threw him for a loop and drudged up a myriad of uncomfortable feelings. You'd been worried about him, you still were. For the first time in two hundred years someone was waiting for him to come home.