"Katherine?"
Katherine Calvin lifted her head from the palms of her hands and forced her eyes to look up at Nick, her boss, who was carefully watching her at her desk. He looked just as tired as she probably did, yesterday's events keeping them both late up at night.
They lay awake for different reasons, though.
"Yes, Nick?" Katherine went back to whatever work she was currently supposed to be occupied with – reading the news to see the latest public opinions on artificial robots.
There was a moment, just before Nick dared to get straight to the point, "Katherine, I need to talk to you – about yesterday."
Katherine leaned back in her chair, shutting her eyelids. She could feel Nick's unwavering gaze from the doorway.
She knew what he was going to say. He would probably give her a nice, long lecture criticising her for her involvement with the secret experiments that were being performed on his ex-wife. And of course he would disapprove of how she planned to use his son's nanobots for her own 'selfish gains'. She'd heard this before and was sick of being told by everyone that she was nothing but a dangerous, immoral and irresponsible person who wouldn't bash an eyelid if she saw 5 people getting murdered.
That obviously wasn't true.
She heard Nick's footsteps approaching her and embraced herself.
He stood beside her now, his breaths loud and hoarse in the empty lab.
"I'm sorry."
Wait, what?
Katherine's eyelids flew open and she had to re-assert herself to see if she heard correctly. She looked up at Nick, who had a worrying expression on his face.
She frowned at him. "What?"
"I'm sorry for making you feel like you couldn't trust me."
Katherine stared up at him with wide eyes, unblinking.
Nick was looking at the ground now – for some reason he couldn't quite meet her eyes.
He sighed, and quietly admitted, "I wish you had told me about the nanobots."
"What?" Katherine repeated, unable to keep the shock out of her voice.
Nick didn't respond and his eyes were still decidedly glaring at the innocent floor.
Katherine couldn't remember a time when Nick was this nervous with her. She didn't know what to say.
They stayed in that same position for a few minutes; Katherine sitting on her chair, looking at Nick with glassy eyes as if she couldn't even see him because she was still lost in thought at his pronouncement, and Nick, standing next to her, still staring at the floor as if it would swallow him up, his hands at his side fidgety.
Katherine coughed awkwardly – she was never good with these situations.
"Nick, I –"
He interrupted her, "Katherine, I just want you to be okay. And I want you to trust me."
"I'm fine Nick, honestly," Katherine turned away; she'd had enough of this very one-sided conversation.
After his disbelieving laugh, Nick's voice took a serious tone, "Katherine, do you trust me?"
Katherine didn't have an answer. And she didn't want to have to answer. She obviously didn't trust him enough to tell him about her use of nanotechnology, but when he did found out, and responded with a non-judgmental facade, honestly in that moment, she genuinely felt like she could open up to him.
She wasn't about to tell him that, though.
Putting on a cold, blank look on her face, she turned to him and said, "No, Nick, I don't." And after a pause, she added harshly, "I don't trust anyone, you should know that. And it's not like you trust me either." She gritted her teeth, sourly, referencing the time when Nick refused her offer to help when Will was ill.
He was the one staring now, at Katherine's pale, emotionless (yet obviously fake) face was turned away from him, and Nick gathering confidence from her evident anger replied, "I'm sorry to hear that, Katherine."
But with a smile, he mentioned, "Hopefully, soon you will find inside you the willpower to trust me, because I really do care about you, Katherine Calvin."
He moved closer and kissed her hand. Then he left the room, leaving the poor, shocked woman to wonder what she did to deserve someone like Nick Clarke.
A/N: This is first fanfiction thing, so I would really appreciate it if you could comment your opinions! Thanks for reading :)