AN: I know, I promised myself I wouldn't write any more songfics, but this song is just too perfect. I actually wanted to make it a fanvid but I am video illiterate so... If anyone else wants to turn this into a vid - and please do because the perfection is too much - I will pimp your video here!

Also quite proud I made my own cheap, romance novel-esque cover for this one. Go me, being all tech savvy and what.

This is an alternate ending to season three - if Arla hadn't been waiting for her in the flat - set to the song "Daylight" by Maroon 5.

Here I am waiting

I'll have to leave soon

Why am I holding on?

Audrey paced anxiously in the living room of her flat, the baggy jumper she'd pulled on wrapped tightly around her body to keep out a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature. It was dark outside and although she knew she should, she couldn't sleep. Not tonight. Somehow, despite all of their protesting and fighting and all of the hard work, the day had come. Her last night in Haven.

Tomorrow the Barn would come for her, and the last twenty-seven years of her life would disappear. She'd become nothing more than just a distant, hazy memory to all of the people that she'd met in town. Every person she'd saved or helped. To her friends. Dave and Vince. Dwight. Claire. To the people that had become her family. Duke. Nathan.

A shadow passed in front of the door and Audrey stared at the silhouette on the curtain. Tall and thin, with an angular jawline and prominent cheekbones. Her amazing partner, standing guard outside her door to keep her safe from anyone who might try to kidnap and force her into the Barn. The wonderful man who had stood by her side through everything, who had never stopped fighting for her even when she had done everything in her power to push him away. The man who never gave up hope, who still wouldn't surrender.

The man who loved her.

The man she loved.

And if this was her last night, she was going to make sure that he knew that.

We knew this day would come

We knew it all along

How did it come so fast?

A rush of cool air met her as Audrey opened the door to the patio. Nathan glanced over his shoulder at the sound, catching sight of her in his periphery. She didn't fail to notice that he was ramrod straight, his hand hovering near his gun holster. The ever watchful sentinel. "You okay?" he asked, the concern heavy in his voice.

Audrey didn't respond, crossing the patio in lengthy strides to stand in front of him. She watched the flash of confusion and curiosity on her partner's face before she took it in her hands and kissed his surprise away. It only took him a moment to reciprocate, one arm curling across her back to pull her closer and the other hand burying itself deep in her hair. Her hands drifted; one scraped along his scalp, making a moan boil up deep in his throat, and the other wrested with the zip on his jacket.

"Parker," he panted when he realised what she was doing. He put his hand over hers, stopping her from prying his jacket off. "Audrey, we can't - I'm watching - "

"Come inside," she responded against his lips. She could feel the tremors running through his body at the contact.

"Audrey," he countered in what might have sounded exasperated and stern if he wasn't so breathless. She kissed a trail up along his jaw and he shuddered when she pressed her lips to the hollow below his ear.

"Come inside," she whispered into the shell of his ear. "You can watch me as well from there as anywhere." She stepped back - he quickly muffled a groan at the distance - and held out a hand imploringly. When he didn't immediately take it she looked up to meet his gaze. "Please."

And because Nathan had never denied her anything, because he was completely powerless to reject her at even the strongest of points, he threaded his fingers through hers and let her lead him into the flat.

This is our last night but it's late

And I'm trying not to sleep

Cause I know, when I wake, I will have to slip away

The moment the door had shut behind them, Audrey wheeled on Nathan again with renewed vigor. She made hasty work of his jacket and started on the buttons of his shirt. When she shoved the shirt off his shoulders and placed her palms against his chest Nathan gasped, his eyes flicking upward slightly. Audrey smiled and outlined the angles and muscles of his torso, grateful to give this wonderful man something that no one else in the world could. He deserved it, deserved so much more than this life had given him.

Nathan carefully removed her shirts, the actions done with a reverence that was completely at odds with the fever burning through his skin. When her chest was bare he wrapped her in his arms and pulled her close against him, a strange, choked noise catching in his throat. Audrey curled her arms around his back and simply let him enjoy the sensation of his own skin, tracing patterns across the planes of his back with her fingertips.

"Audrey," he breathed and then he captured her lips again. Grinning into his mouth, Audrey grabbed him by the arms and tugged him in the direction of the bed. They collapsed in a heap, laughing low and breathy, and it took them a moment to right themselves on the mattress. Audrey lounged back into the pillows as Nathan hovered half over her, staring down at her with eyes of the darkest blue.

"We shouldn't," he said but there was no conviction in it.

Audrey brushed her hand along his cheek and Nathan's eyes drifted shut as he pressed himself longingly into the contact. She could feel his want, his need, even if he couldn't. This might be their last chance. Didn't they deserve a little happiness after everything else this town had put them through? "We've waited long enough."

And when the daylight comes I'll have to go

But tonight I'm gonna hold you so close

Cause in the daylight we'll be on our own

But tonight I need to hold you so close

Their lips crashed with the frenzy of a wildfire. Clothes were disposed of in a haste, no regard for where they landed. Nathan explored every new inch of exposed skin as if it was a precious text that contained all of the secrets of the universe. He read the past in her arms, the future in the curve of her stomach; the questions in her legs and the answers in her chest.

"Nathan," she moaned as he laboriously documented her flesh to memory, hands and lips and tongue breathing a story into her skin with each ghostly touch. A story of friendship and adoration and wonder and trust and passion and longing and love. Their story.

Taking initiative, Audrey hooked her legs around his hips and flipped them, pinning him beneath her on the mattress. Nathan's eyes rolled up in his head as her hips pressed down against him and his grip on her thighs was tight enough to bruise. She lifted herself - he whined low in his chest - and then set about offering him the one thing she could. With her hands she set out to let him feel every part of his body for the first time in years.

She started at his feet, running her palm along the high arch and over the top. He fidgeted, ticklish, and it was such a funny little thing for the moment that they both laughed. Her fingers glided higher, around his narrow ankles, up his lean calves and thighs. She outlined the prominence of his hip bones, followed the V of his stomach upward to his chest. With one hand pressed down against the left side of his chest he could just faintly feel the thrum of his racing heartbeat pushing back into her hand. Audrey rimmed down his arms, to the fingertips and back, and then her hands reached the muscles of his shoulders and neck.

"Audrey," he murmured as she drew a line from his collar to ear and down his jaw with her lips. "Audrey, please."

With her lips against his, she nodded. Nathan needed no further prompting, wrapping her in his arms and rolling them again. Hesitating above her for only the briefest second, he took her hips in his hands and joined them.

Stars lit behind both pairs of eyes as they finally found home.

Here I am staring at your perfection

In my arms, so beautiful

The sky is getting bright, the stars are burning out

Somebody slow it down

Hours later, as the deepest part of twilight wrapped a cloak of darkness around the world, Audrey lay awake, staring. Nathan had fallen asleep some time ago, sated and exhausted by the relentless passion, but Audrey still couldn't bring herself to sleep. Instead she lay in the loose circle of his arms and took in the profile of the man in front of her.

He looked different in sleep, lighter and freer than he did during the waking hours. The creases and furrows that time and stress and so much pain and sadness had wrought on him were softened in the pale light of the moon streaming through the sheer curtains. His hair was mussed, errant pieces curling up or down as whimsy took them. The tension of his stubbled jaw was gone and his lips, pale dusted rose, were settled in a sweet, drowsy smile.

Audrey committed every individual feature to memory, to give her strength, but the piece she loved most was the one piece she couldn't see. Would never see again. His eyes, blue and gray and as changing as the sea that ate away at the edges of their little town. The eyes that narrowed when he was concentrating on a case, that wrinkled at the corners when he was sceptical about her theories, that were softened with affection whenever they landed on her. The eyes that were always - in even their darkest hours - full of love.

In the dim light of the flat, Audrey lay in the curve of Nathan's side and indulged in the last few hours she had with this perfectly imperfect man.

This is way too hard, cause I know

When the sun comes up, I will leave

This is my last glance that will soon be memory

As hard as she tried not to, Audrey couldn't help but let a few tears escape. It was so unfair. Unfair that just when she found something with this wonderful man it should be taken away from her. It wasn't fair that her life was on so short a timeline, that she should have to experience so small a piece of it before it was snatched away from her.

That she should find love just in time for it all to end.

The Barn took her memories from her and that scared her more than anything. It wasn't so much that her life was about to end - or stall for twenty-seven years - that frightened her. It was the fact that everything she had said and done and felt in this brief span would be wiped away. All of her memories would be cleaned away like a slate and she would emerge someone new. Someone who had never known these people, who had never loved the way she had with Nathan.

Everything that made her her would be gone, and that was more terrifying than anything.

I never want it to stop

Because I don't wanna start all over

Start all over

Still, she reasoned as she looked at the man sleeping in her embrace, perhaps forgetting was the lesser of two evils. She got a fresh start, whether she wanted it or not. She got to come back without the memories and the pain. She would never have to know the ache of separation, of all of those years spent without him.

Nathan would get no such luxury. He would feel it every day because, despite his condition, no one in the world felt things so strongly or deeply as Nathan Wuornos. He would have those memories of her, of the love that they shared, and they would haunt him like a ghost. She knew that he would never stop looking for her. He would spend every day until she came back trying to find a way to bring her back.

And one day, twenty-seven years from now, she would walk back into town with another name and he would still remember. He would still know her and what they shared. Would he say anything? Would he try to make her remember? Or would he be like the Chief - tired and resigned, willing to let her work it out on her own?

Or, most heartbreaking of all, maybe he wouldn't be there at all.

A tremulous sob slipped out of her as she huddled against his side in the still darkness. Perhaps it had been selfish of her to do this to him. To give him this perfect night before taking everything away. She had done it so she'd have something to remember him by, but she wouldn't get that chance. She wouldn't remember.

He would. And it would kill him.

I was afraid of the dark

But now it's all that I want

All that I want, all that I want

Outside, the earliest morning birds were waking up and chittering to each other. Audrey's heart plummeted into her stomach at the sound, the first heralds of oncoming morning. Her last few hours were slipping away faster than she could grip at them. Through the gap in the curtains, the strip of sky she could see was starting to lighten, to lose the violet and navy tint of deep twilight.

Audrey rolled back into Nathan's side and pressed her eyes shut. She knew it wouldn't make the night last any longer, that it wasn't going to slow down time, but she wanted to hold onto the darkness just a little longer. To stop the morning from coming and taking everything away.

Nathan hummed in his sleep, a sweet, contented noise, and tilted his head her way so his nose was buried in the tangle of her hair. She curled closer into his side, careful not to wake him, and buried herself in the sensation. Allowed herself to pretend that the sun wasn't inching closer and closer to the horizon with every single breath she took. With each steady throb of his heart beneath her palm.

The birdsong was getting louder and more feverish, like a warning bell. Audrey sighed against Nathan's collarbone and opened her eyes. The morning clouds had turned the colour of slate. The night was over.

And when the daylight comes I'll have to go

But tonight I'm gonna hold you so close

Cause in the daylight we'll be on our own

But tonight I need to hold you so close

After cautiously extracting herself from his grip and dressing silently, Audrey hovered near the edge of the bed in the cold, gray light of early morning. Nathan was still sleeping peacefully, no idea what was coming. What she was about to do. For him. He wouldn't see it that way, wouldn't see it as her giving him a chance for a real, whole life, but that's what she was doing.

It was the best thing she could do for him, really.

Audrey leaned down and pressed a feather-light kiss to his brow. "I love you, Nathan Wuornos," she breathed against his skin, hoping that somewhere in his dreams he would hear her and know. "I have always loved you, and I always will."

Then she stood and walked to the door of the flat. She hovered in the frame, taking in one last memory of the man she loved.

And then she turned and stepped out into the daylight.