The Lost Night

"Ohh…..Argh…..Hmm…..What?" a bleary eyed Audrey Parker mumbled quietly, more to herself than to anyone else. She recognised her black lacy panties, the ones she didn't normally wear to work, sitting on top of Duke's lampshade. "Oh my God," she whispered to herself. There was an odd feeling of de va ju attached to waking up naked on Duke's boat but this was worse, much worse. The first time it had happened she'd had her underwear on and she'd barely known Duke so there hadn't been any of the awkward, I'm naked in front of a good friend moments. (Just the awkward I was semi naked in front of a complete stranger moments, but she wasn't a nun so that wasn't totally new). Worse yet was the horrible dawning of the realisation that she would have to try and explain this to Nathan, to Duke and probably to half of Haven.

"What have I done?" Audrey slurred to herself.

"Good morning sunshine," Duke greeted her warmly. "Sorry not feeling too great? Half a bottle of jack and these will do that to you," he said holding up the bottle of antibiotics he'd retrieved from her purse.

"Duke?" Audrey asked blearily, holding the sheet against her. Duke had white 500 threat count Egyptian linens but they still felt woefully thin in this context.

"Easy there, you're probably going to have a headache."

"You think that is my biggest problem right now?" Audrey asked wearily.

"Oh this is fun," Duke enthused. "You have no idea what happened last night do you?"

"Look Duke, I'm really sorry, I shouldn't have taken advantage of you like that, I was upset about a case and Nathan was busy with Jess," everything after she'd started drinking had become a blur, she couldn't even remember how she'd ended up on Duke's boat but she could guess. She cursed herself for giving into his dark sparkling eyes, that Cheshire cat grin, the ridiculously shaped arms decorated with tatts which were now on clear display as all he'd bothered to put on in the way of clothes were a pair of tight jeans.

"Wow, that hurts Parker, you wake up naked on my boat and the first thing you mention is the tin man? As far as I can remember he wasn't exactly a part of last night."

"I know, I don't mean to hurt your feelings, I just, I don't want you to take this the wrong way, I'm not really looking to get into anything, I hope we can still be friends."

"Wow the 'it's not you it's me' speech and the 'can we just be friends' speech all In one sentence, before 10am? Boy do I feel hurt," Duke clutched his chest dramatically. "So do you want coffee? You look like you might need it."

"Coffee would be great," Audrey agreed. "Can you give me a minute to find my clothes?"

"You didn't seem to mind if I saw everything last night, not that it was the first time you've been naked on my boat, you seem to be making a bit of a habit of that Audrey, what do you think that means?" Duke teased.

"I think it means I need to be more careful mixing antibiotics and alcohol," Audrey sighed.

"Really? You think?" Duke quipped. "Because the crowd at The Gull thought you were pretty entertaining, I should hire you as an act, you really got the crowd going."

"Oh no, what did I do? Duke? Come on stop making fun and tell me the truth?"

"Nothing I haven't seen before on spring break."

"That doesn't rule much out."

"But it does pretty much sum things up. Look Officer Agent Parker, I could have a lot of fun with this, but I'm basically a good guy, despite what your partner might tell you, so at considerable risk to my hard earned reputation I'm going to level with you, nothing happened last night, at least not between you and me. I don't really make a habit of taking advantage of drunk cops under the influence, at least not beautiful drunk cops under the influence, so when things got a bit unruly and you couldn't seem to remember which hotel you were living at, and you were so keen to see my boat again, I put you to bed here. Sleeping naked – that was your idea," Duke explained raising an eyebrow pointedly.

"Really? Sorry? I guess I owe you an apology and a thank you."

"That you do. Last time you were here I might have saved you from drowning but some of the guys I saved you from last night were worse than drowning. I mean I'm all for a girl relieving a little tension after a hard day at work but I don't like seeing pretty girls taken advantage of, unless I'm the one doing the taking advantage," he teased.

"You're a knight in shining armour Crocker," Audrey teased.

"Don't you ever forget it. You owe me one Parker."

"We'll see about that. Listen how many people know about what happened last night?"

"Do you mean the drunken dancing, the karaoke or ending up here?"

"The last part," Audrey answered, cringing.

"I can't guarantee no one saw us leaving together, but I won't advertise if you don't."

"I won't," Audrey replied quickly.

"You're not worried about telling the wooden boy are you? I thought he had himself a girlfriend, however that works," Duke said with exaggerated scepticism.

"He does, it's just, I mean, this isn't exactly professional behaviour."

"You were off the clock Parker, give yourself a break. Anyway I've got bacon and eggs cooking, I think your clothes are all here someone, I'll give you a minute to find them."

Audrey looked at the dark haired smuggled with a look of genuine unveiled gratitude. At Quantico they'd been very specific – good guys were good, bad guys were bad. She still couldn't quite work out where this man fitted in but all of her instincts told her that despite whatever record he had and whatever activities he undertook he was basically a good guy at heart. She wouldn't trust him with her checking account but she would trust him with her life. She wasn't sure if that was stupid or very smart but it was how things were between them and it wasn't often that Audrey Parker trusted anyone yet here in this strange little town she already had two men in her life she trusted. She sighed and cringed when she thought about what the other one would think about last night but Duke was right, Nathan was so wrapped up in Jess he might not even notice… though she'd already noticed that news tended to travel fast in Haven.

"Argh," Audrey groaned into a pillow and then she went about the excruciating process of finding her clothing while still trying to keep the white sheet covering most of her body, just in case Duke stuck his head back in. She trusted him but she wasn't stupid. The smell of bacon wafting in from his grill did smell good though.