Hey readers! Since it was never officially explained, this is the story of how Nate and Elena broke up in the time between Uncharted 2 and 3. And how Nate dragged Sully along for a vacation in Germany that led to them accidentally unearthing one of Britain's greatest scandals. I'm planning on this being a multi-shot story, and I already have a few other chapters written. Please read and review ;)
CHAPTER 1: DETOUR
"I'm getting deja vu," Nate laughed breathlessly, shooting a glance behind him. Black Kevlar flashed through the trees, the clank of gear- explosives, munitions, whatever- almost disguised in the rustle of leaves. So maybe the locals weren't very friendly to tourists- but Sully never specified that he'd wanted to go to Germany on vacation.
"This is not the vacation I had in mind, Nate."
"How many times do I have to say I'm sor-?" Nate was cut off when he got a mouthful of the tree branch that snapped back in place when Sully released it. Still bitter. 60 years old and such a child.
"Less talking, more running." Sully aimed over Nate's shoulder and he immediately ducked as staccato fire sailed right over his head. A yell, a thud, but the footsteps kept coming, crashing through the underbrush.
"Where the hell are these guys coming from?" They seemed to be scurrying from everywhere, coming out of the woodwork like termites.
"Maybe if you'd bothered to scope the area before barging in you'd know!"
Nate grumbled incoherently, choosing to save his breath rather than get into a potential shouting match. Tree branches and leaves slapped him left and right as he made a mad dash to keep up with Sully.
Sully glanced back, confusion painted on his face when he saw Nate lagging behind. "Hurry the hell up, Nate!"
"I thought you'd be happy to have a human shield," Nate shouted back, laying down blind cover fire. Maybe being between Sully and a bunch of trigger-happy mercenaries wasn't the best idea. Especially when they had RPGs.
He had to admit though, the old man was still in pretty good shape, although after over an hour of running they were both starting to slow down. The stitch in his side from running had long since bloomed into a dull throb.
Nate checked the immediate path to make sure he wasn't at risk of tripping before throwing another glance over his shoulder. Shit. Still at least 6 guys, maybe more, but he couldn't tell with all the foliage. He turned sideways long enough to pop the nearest one full of shotgun shells, only to be yanked roughly to the side by a hand on his gun strap. He flailed, and his forward momentum snapped back like a rubber band. He jabbed an elbow back into what felt like a nose before he recognized the wrinkly old man hand and let it tug him down behind a fallen trunk. He put his head down, finger still on the trigger as he watched pairs of boots file by, completely oblivious to their concealed position.
He waited a few seconds, barely peeking over the trunk to see that the coast was clear. The branches were still shaking, and there was a new hole in the shrubbery where they'd run through. He huffed, plopping back against the tree trunk as he allowed himself a few breaths. Already he could feel the adrenaline starting to ebb, and his muscles began screaming in full force from his extended sprint.
"You good?" Nate glanced over to Sully, who was still watching where the mini militia made their exit, almost like he was expecting a grenade to come sailing through the trees.
"Yeah, you?" When he turned back, Nate could see that his nose was bright red where he'd elbowed it, and he had a few nicks on his arms and temples from their sprint through the forest.
"Sorry."
"What for?"
"Was that sarcasm?" Nate scrunched his eyes closed, letting his head fall back against the tree trunk as he tried to dispel the sudden waves of dizziness washing over him.
Sully ignored his question. He shot another glance at Nate and his eyes widened in alarm before he threw one last glance towards the empty underbrush before deeming it safe to move in front of Nate. He opened his eyes at the sound of movement to see Sully looking towards his stomach, and Nate followed his gaze. Blood was smeared all down his right side, starting at his midsection and stopping mid-thigh. He winced, almost pitying whoever's blood that was before promptly realizing that it was, in fact, his.
"Aw crap," This certainly explained why he felt so shaky.
"How the hell did you not notice this sooner?" Sully's voice was tinted with worry as he lifted up the edge of his shirt to check the damage. It didn't seem to have hit anything important, but there was still a good sized hole a few inches above his hip. Nate sucked in a breath as Sully prodded the skin around it to look for a bullet.
"Damn. One inch to the left, Nate. . . It's clean through," he said. Nate tugged his shirt back down, "There's a first aid kit in the jeep."
"Which is somewhere thataway." Of course. The exact opposite direction that they'd been chased.
"Can you stand?"
Nate nodded, pursing his lips in concentration as he tried to remember how his legs were supposed to work.
"C'mon," Sully stood, offering Nate his hand to pull him up, "we've got a lot of ground to cover."
The dead guy's shirt sleeve that was being buried into the hole in Nate's side was surprisingly not as bothersome as it should have been. Sully's endless nagging to keep pressure, on the other hand-
"Let me know when you need a break," Sully muttered. He adjusted the arm that Nate had slung over his shoulders.
"Oh sure. Lemme just take a quick snooze right here." Nate's feet faltered when he said it, almost like the words were tempting. He could've used a break yesterday, but he wasn't about to let Sully one-up him. He tightened his grip, forcing himself to keep moving.
"I'd punch you if you weren't shot right now."
A breath. Face scrunched in concentration as he focused on putting one foot in front of the other, "No, you- wouldn't."
Nate's retorts were fewer and farther between, which was more of a cause for concern than the blood still leaking through the makeshift wound pack. He almost lost his balance when Sully veered to the left to a cluster of boulders.
"What are you doing?"
"Kid, you're about to keel over. Unless you wanna do this bridal style-?"
"Fine," Nate gently pushed Sully's hand off his shoulder, feeling rather than seeing his way to sit on the rock Sully had been guiding him towards. His vision was still swimming enough to make him nauseous. His eyes shot back up when Sully stood, taking a step back.
"Wh-where are you going?"
"I'll get there faster if I go alone. You gonna be good here by yourself?"
"Ditching your date, Sully? That's not very gentlemanly."
Sully rolled his eyes, throwing his hands up in a helpless gesture. Nate smirked.
"Go," Nate waved him off, "I'll be fine."
_EARLIER_
"I don't like it. It seems fishy."
"Nate, we steal things for a living."
"Yeah, but normally we have an idea what we're stealing. You're telling me you're not curious?"
"No-" Sully turned in his seat to shoot Nate a look.
"What?" Nate gave him a split-second glance before realizing that that was a terrible idea with this terrain.
"We're not doing this," Sully insisted, waving a finger in Nate's face.
"Doing what?"
"The thing where we end up getting shot at."
"I didn't even say anything!"
"But you want to go where that map leads us and get the treasure the client wants. He hired us to find the map, Nate. That's it."
Nate paused, mouth agape as he tried to find the words to defend himself. "First of all, me. He hired me to get the map. And you can't say that you haven't considered it-"
Sully rolled his eyes as he turned back in his seat. "I can, actually." He already knew it was hopeless to argue. Nate finally turned into a bare patch in the trees that opened up into a clearing. The Jeep bounced and jostled along the forest floor until Nate finally brought it to a stop nestled in a cluster of bushes.
"We're gonna have to walk the rest of the way." The car door echoed as it slammed shut. They began traipsing through the underbrush.
"Quite the detour."
"You still wanna go to Eurosat?"
"I think this is all the excitement I'll need for the day," he said.
"Let's just hope we can find the Jeep when we're done," Nate said as brushed past Sully.
"Hey- hey, wait," Sully put a hand on Nate's shoulder to stop him.
"What?"
"You're sure Elena's cool with all of this?"
Nate fidgeted, eyes darting to the nonexistent path in front of them. His voice went a pitch higher. "Yeah! Of course," he shrugged Sully off and continued walking.
Sully rolled his eyes, going after him before he could get too far. He hoped Nate never took up gambling. For a thief, the kid had a terrible poker face.
The castle looked empty when it finally appeared through the trees. Granted, it had been abandoned for well over a century, but it still looked to be in great shape. The only sign of disuse was the vines slowly crawling up the tower on the east end, like the roots were trying to drag the stones back into the earth. Huge oak doors gaped at them like a yawning mouth.
"You're gonna scope it out first, right?"
"What, are you my chaperone?" Sully arched an eyebrow at him.
"I'm on it," he called over his shoulder, already halfway up the nearest tower.
_NOW_
Darkness came faster in the forest. He knew it'd been less than an hour since Sully left, but the temperature already seemed to have dropped by a few degrees- enough that Nate was now shivering uncontrollably. Whatever light that came filtering through the canopy was quenched by the shadows of trees, giving the illusion that the sun was just setting. Nate flinched when he heard a sudden snap of branches, hand reflexively tightening on the fabric tucked into his side. He winced when it squelched- he was losing more blood than he thought, but he didn't have time to dwell on it. Sully came crashing through the branches, toting a scratched up first aid kit. Probably old enough to have seen World War II.
"You look like an abandoned puppy," Sully raised an eyebrow, shining his flashlight in Nate's face. He also looked like a ghost. Nate squinted, shooting out a hand to push the flashlight away, but Sully swerved it out of his reach and angled it on the ground so they both had light to see by. Nate took a measured breath, suddenly regretting having moved at all.
"Well I feel like shit," he said breathlessly, "What, you stop for dinner?"
"Something better," Sully dropped a small white bottle into Nate's lap. He only contemplated it for a minute before he took it gratefully, popping three painkillers as Sully set to work laying out the supplies.
"The Jeep's only a few more miles," Sully said. Nate nodded, trying not to show his relief. Sully paused, seeming to be debating on whether he should say what was so obviously on his mind.
"What?"
"I called Elena," he said, not even bothering to look up to see Nate's reaction as he began rinsing a piece of cloth off with saline.
"You did not," Nate groaned.
"What?" Sully capped the bottle. "We could use an extra set of hands. You're the one who said the lady can handle herself," he paused, peeling away Nate's shirt. The blood had already slightly congealed, making it stick to his skin. Sully sucked in a breath through his teeth as he made a sympathetic face.
"What'd you say?" He said nonchalantly in an attempt to disguise his interest.
Sully raised an eyebrow. "You didn't tell her." It was more of a question than an accusation, but Nate couldn't help but get defensive. He'd barely lasted three months in domesticity before he was itching to get back out to his real job. It didn't take much convincing when a job found him.
"Of course I didn't tell her. She'd kill me herself. And what was I supposed to say? She thinks we're vacationing in Berlin."
"I told her that we were on a job and you got shot. Not much else to say. I hardly even know what we're doing here."
Nate barked out a laugh, then immediately winced. Sully took the gauze out and began wrapping.
He sounded exhausted when he next spoke. "What'm I gonna tell her, Sully?" he said, dropping his head into his hand. He really thought this would be an easy job, get in get out- he'd be home before she even realized he was gone. He was even given the exact location of the map. How could it get screwed up so quickly?
Sully took a levelling breath. "You better figure it out. She's flying in tomorrow morning. Hold it," Sully moved Nate's hand to hold down the gauze as he continued to wrap around his torso.
"But you can't deny it, kid-" Sully said, noticing the slight shake in Nate's hand from blood loss, "we could use her help." Nate wouldn't be aiming a gun anytime soon. Successfully, anyway.
"Yeah, I'll fill her in," Nate said reluctantly, "But this doesn't need to involve her. She doesn't need to get dragged into this." Especially considering the fact that the last time Elena tagged along on one of their little adventures, she almost died.
Sully continued wrapping, but he moved in front of Nate so he could give him a look. "She's capable of making her own choices, you know. You don't give her enough credit." Nate rolled his eyes.
Sully's joints creaked as he stood. "Yeah, keep rolling them. Maybe you'll find a brain back there." He took a step back to view his handiwork.
"There. How does that feel?"
Nate glanced down at the bandages covering half of his torso, which were startlingly white against the blood and grime. He tugged his shirt back down, twisting carefully to test for mobility- his muscles still pulled, and he knew he wouldn't be climbing for another few days, but he would count himself lucky that he'd be able to soon enough.
"You've gotten pretty good at playing nurse," Nate smirked. It was probably best to lay low for a while anyway, even though Nate was itching to get back into action.
"Yeah, well, you're still not in tip-top shape."
"I can look the part for a few hours. . .When?" He grabbed Sully's arm for support as he stood shakily, wrapping his other arm around his side.
"Tomorrow afternoon. She's meeting us at the hotel."
"Great."
"And you-" Sully jabbed a finger in his face, "are going to get some sleep."
"Yes sir."
A/N: Uh-oh. Wonder what Elena's gonna think. This is my first Uncharted fic, so I hope the characters are all, well, in character. I tried my best, but the interactions get better later in this fic. Please r&r.
