Nate doesn't remember exactly why it happened. He doesn't remember how, but he does remember the whole team was there. He does remember that he was talking to Eliot after a long job, and everyone was worn but in a good way. Sprits were running high and for that moment things in the world were good. He remembers the soft lighting of whatever bar they were in and the snow falling softly outside the window. Eliot said something and Nate laughed. It wasn't the hard, bitter thing he had done since Sam died. It wasn't filled with self-loathing, or regret, or anything negative, it was a real laugh, full of warmth, his first in a long time. He was not Nathan Ford, ex insurance investigator, the man who was always grieving for the son he would never get to hold again, because in that moment he was just Nate, and he was out with people he cared for and who cared for him, and they had done something good that day. It was in that moment, as his team laughed with him, that he felt he might be able to live again, that he might just have found something worth living for. Because in the moment, things were going to be ok.
A/N so this morning i had a dream where nate and eliot were talking and nate laughed and stopped looking surprised that he had let himself laugh and be ok, and this just kinda evolved from that. I hope you guys enjoyed this as mush as i did :) -wolfgirl