Title: A Friend Indeed
Author: Karolyn Gray
Fandom: Haven
Summary: "But you—you're the friend I needed. The friend I need."
Main characters: Audrey Parker, Nathan Wuornos
Rating: T
Warnings: N/A
Spoilers: 2.08 Friend or Faux
Beta: Thanks to Sabbath for giving this a quick once over. Any errors that remain are purely my fault.
Disclaimer: Haven, characters, and related indicia is owned and copyrighted by E1 Entertainment, Syfy, NBCUniversal, and Stephen King and all related parties. No copyright infringement is intended. This is a work of fan based fiction and is not endorsed or affiliated in any way, shape, or form to the owners and/or copyright holders.
Author's note: A post-Haven ep. 2.08 'Friend or Faux' piece that some how went from being a drabble in my head to an episode coda on page. Also, I have no idea how tall Lucas Bryant is so I just threw out what I thought was a reasonable height estimate for Nathan.
*~~Haven~~*~~Haven~~*
A Friend Indeed
by Karolyn Gray
After a few more minutes of Nathan's drunken escapades, and watching him down two more shots in the process, Audrey's humor began to fade. She didn't begrudge Nathan letting loose a little. Lord knows he had every right to have some fun with everything he'd been through but she also knew he didn't need another possible regret piled on to the ones he already has. No, she was actually glad to see that he can have fun, even if for all the wrong reason, but they both have work tomorrow and she was not sure how he'd deal with the hangover he is certain to have tomorrow.
'Does Nathan even get hangovers?'
Shaking away the thought she braced herself for what she's about to do. She is his friend, but that doesn't mean he's going to like her interrupting what looks to becoming a decidedly intimate dance between her partner and the dark haired woman. She's three steps away when the woman kisses Nathan deeply. The woman's friends glare at the pair in ill concealed jealousy. Yes, it was definitely time to end this and get her friend home.
"Nathan."
Audrey was actually surprised that Nathan just ignored her and kept kissing the woman. He finally broke away only when Audrey touched his bare arm. Even then he only had eyes for the smiling, flushed woman in his arms. Audrey found herself strangely annoyed at Nathan ignoring her.
"You taste good," he murmured. That earned him a peal of delighted laughter from the woman.
"You taste pretty good too, Chief." She ran her fingers up Nathan's chest and Audrey felt a flare of mixed emotion in her: exasperation, anger, and, surprisingly, a hint of jealousy.
"Nathan, it's time to go," Audrey interrupts with her best no-nonsense cop voice. She tugged once on his arm but he didn't seem to notice. "We've got work tomorrow and you need to sleep this off."
"Oh, I can assure you the Chief will sleep it off," the other woman said saucily. Nathan just grinned at her wolfishly, eyes overly bright from alcohol as he nodded his agreement.
"Soon to be former Chief," Audrey snapped, actually wincing at her own words slipping out before she even saw the hurt look on Nathan's face. His wounded expression just compounded her embarrassment even more.
The woman now looked hesitant, her enthusiasm for dancing with the Police Chief fading. "You're not the Chief anymore?"
"I did the wrong thing," Nathan admitted, "But for the right reasons."
Audrey felt her annoyance spike when his words seemed to re-ignite the woman's interest.
"Well, that's different. A bad-good cop." She mulled over her own words, looking up and down his lean frame speculatively. Audrey's had enough and stepped between the pair, ignoring the woman's protest and that of her friends, and dragged Nathan a few steps away. "Come on, I'll drive you home."
"Parker, you live upstairs. I'm sure…uh…Melinda…Missy?...will drive me home," Nathan pointed out getting an agreeing nod from the nameless woman even as she reached for a napkin on the counter of the bar.
"I'm taking you home," Audrey said flatly. Out of the corner of her eye she was grateful to see Duke coming over with Nathan's green jacket and a concerned expression on his face. She was even more relieved when Nathan didn't resist putting on his jacket while Duke watched the whole thing with a bemused expression.
Just as Audrey was about to lead Nathan out, the dark haired woman came back, pressed in close and tried to stuff a folded napkin into the front pocket of Nathan's jeans. "My number," she purred to Nathan, ignoring Audrey snatching the napkin from her hand before she can complete her task. "Call me sometime."
"Sometime," Nathan echoed in agreement as he watched her walk back to her giggling friends, hips swaying enticingly. Audrey just rolled her eyes at Duke as she refolded the napkin and placed it in Nathan's jacket pocket.
"Hey, I want word with you two!"
Audrey was startled at the booming angry voice. For a moment, Audrey could have sworn Garland Wuornos was back from the dead the way the room froze at the demanding, authoritive voice. Evi nearly dropped the tray of drinks she was carrying if not for Duke quickly steadying her. It took Audrey a moment to realize that shout had been from Nathan, who charged towards the entrance of the Gull with a scowl on his face.
Audrey was after him in a shot, grabbing his arm and trying to pull him up short with little effect. She was grateful when Duke caught his other arm and brought him to halt mere steps from the Teagues brothers. The pair looked wide eyed and more than a little worried. Despite Vince being of near equal height to Nathan, the cop seemed to tower over both of them in his obvious anger.
Dave visibly gulped and smiled weakly. "Nathan, I'm sorry about…."
"Sorry! It's your fault! You're the ones who put my name up before the Selectmen," Nathan ground out.
"Nathan, stop," Audrey pleaded.
Vince looked pained as he tried to speak, Audrey fearing anything the older man said would just anger her partner even more. "Na…"
"You know what? I don't care!" The irate man drunkenly poked Vince in the chest before Duke grabbed his arm again and with Audrey's help started dragging him out the door. "You tell them that—I don't care!—tell that to those ungrateful sons of bi…."
"Nathan!" Audrey shouted him down and shoved him out the door. She turned back to the Teagues with an apologetic look. "Sorry."
"It's all right, my dear," Vince quickly assured her, concerned eyes flicking to what Audrey was certain was a small wrestling match ensuing between the boys outside, smiling nervously as he did so. "We'll talk later."
"I'll be back as soon as I get Nathan settled," she said and with that was out the door into the cool, evening air.
She was surprised to find the pair not wresting as she imagined. Instead, Duke had one of Nathan's arms slung over his shoulder as he guided the cop over towards his Bronco. She quickly decided the prospect of wrestling six foot two inches of drunken Nathan Wuornos in or out of his truck was not something she wanted to deal with.
"Duke, I'll take my car," she called out as she hurried to catch up. The smuggler seemed more than willing to go along with her suggestion, especially as her car was closer.
"You need a hired gun?" Nathan asked as Duke leaned him up against the passenger side of Audrey's car. Audrey couldn't help the smirk that came to her face at Duke's shocked expression.
"Uh, no," Duke replied slowly.
"I'd be a good hired gun. Yeah," Nathan continued on, drunkenly waving his hands expansively. "You and me, we'd own this town. We'd own the entire freakin' northeast! We'd –we could be like—I don't know…the pirate twins again!"
"Did he just quote Thomas Dolby?" Audrey asked as she unlocked and opened the passenger side door.
"Shut up," Duke muttered, though to whom the rejoinder was intended Audrey wasn't sure. He just manhandled Nathan into the car without further comment as the cop started coming up with some elaborate plan on how he and Duke could take over all water-borne smuggling operations in New England. To Audrey the plan actually sounded frighteningly feasible.
Once the drunken man was seated, belt buckle fastened, and the door closed, Duke sighed. "You sure you won't need any help with him?"
"We'll be fine," Audrey assured him. "Thanks for the help."
"Yeah," Duke muttered, looking decidedly guilty and uncomfortable. "I kind of owe him."
"If you say so," Audrey retorted rounding the car to the driver's side. They both could clearly hear Nathan talking about smuggling when she opened her door and Audrey suddenly found herself giggling. "Pirate twins?"
"What? We were like six years old!" Duke protested, trying to sound offended even as he smiled fondly.
"Uh-huh," Audrey dubiously agreed. "Thanks again, Duke."
Audrey was surprised how quickly Nathan settled down after she started the drive back to his place. After several minutes of silence she was certain he had fallen asleep, which made her even more grateful she'd decided to use her car.
"Why do I lose everything I want?"
Though spoken softly, Audrey actually flinched a little at the sound of her friend's voice. She briefly glanced over to find him staring straight ahead, eyes distant, and expression closed off. Audrey wasn't sure what he meant by his question but had the feeling Nathan had just become the morose drunk friend rather than the adorably cute drunk or blissfully sleeping drunk she'd have preferred to deal with at this point.
"What do you mean?" She asked cautiously in return.
"Why do I lose everything that I want? It feels like everyone's always trying to take away the things I want most even when I didn't know I wanted them," Nathan said forlornly. "Feeling. Jess. Dad. Being…the chief."
"Why can't I be like everyone else?"
He sounded so lost, so broken, and she felt inexplicably guilty. Even if the liquor had loosened his tongue she knew if it was anyone but her he wouldn't be saying these things. She was grateful to pull up to his home and turn the car off. She didn't know what to say to him and felt she was failing somehow at being his friend.
"I don't know, Nathan," she finally said. "But I'm here if you need me."
She rested a hand on his, watching him as his eyes finally settled on where she touched him. After a moment, he entwined his fingers with hers and his face lost the terrible blankness there, replaced by a content look. Not happy, really, but satisfied. After several minutes of comfortable silence she saw a small smile come to his face.
"You know something."
Audrey couldn't tell by his voice whether he was asking a question or about to reveal more alcohol inspired wisdom of a questionable nature. She was not sure she really wants to know but either way she's his friend and that was reason enough to prompt him when he's silent too long.
"What?"
"I never wanted a friend," he said haltingly. "After Du…after everything started again, I didn't want to be close to anyone. But you—you're the friend I needed. The friend I need."
He finally looked over at her, looking uncertain and far too sober for as much alcohol she knew he had consumed. "Does that make any sense?"
"Yeah, it does." Audrey smiled and squeezed his hand gently. "Me, too."
She felt inordinately pleased by the gentle squeeze of her fingers she felt in return.
"Come on; time to get you to bed."
*~~Haven~~*~~Haven~~*~~Haven~~*
When Audrey picked Nathan up at his place the next morning she was surprised to see he looked normal enough, even if he seemed to be squinting a little more than usual as he took a seat in her car. She was a bit envious that he had few apparent symptoms of a hangover: the squinting and a slight wince when she turned on the radio. He'd obviously read the note she left for him just in case he forgot their final conversation before he passed out as he had been waiting for her on the sidewalk when drove up. She had honestly expected to have had to bang on his door to get him awake.
"How're you feeling today?"
"Fine," he replied softly as she pulled away from the curb and turned around headed back to the Gull. "Sorry about last night."
"Don't worry about it," she replied easily. She was unable to help the smile that came to her face as she remembered that Duke finally sent her the picture from last night.
"What're you smiling about?"
"Nothing," she said as she gestured to her glove box. "Oh, there is something in there that belongs to you."
Nathan looked at her quizzically but opened up the glove box and pulled out a little over a half dozen napkins, all from the Grey Gull and all with names and numbers written on them.
"Seems you have some new fans," Audrey teased. She kept her mouth shut at knowing at least one of the names was from a male admirer who'd pestered her for half an hour in the hope she would introduce him to Nathan before she'd simply told the guy to add his name and number to the pile. "They were waiting for me when I got back to the Gull last night. Duke can't decide whether to charge you a dating service fee or pay you to come back on ladies night."
"His words, not mine," Audrey assured her partner with a grin. "Apparently some of Duke's clientele have a thing for bad boy cops."
"Uh, okay. I think." Nathan sounded embarrassed so she let it go as she glanced over to see him curiously look through the stack before shoving them into his jacket pocket. "Did I do anything else I'm going to regret?"
"You might want to talk to Vince and Dave. You had some choice words about the Selectmen you wanted them to pass on," she replied. Nathan simply groaned in response and rubbed his face in obvious embarrassment.
She pulled in alongside his Bronco at the Gull, leaving the engine idling as he climbed out of her car. "They understood you were upset and drunk last night. They asked you to drop by the Herald when you had time today to talk. They wouldn't tell me what they wanted to talk to you about."
"I'll go see them later," Nathan assured her. He leaned down back into the car, looking serious. "If I didn't say it before I just want to say thanks for everything."
"It's what friends are for."
Fin.