A/N: Hey all! Still have yet to find the flash drive, but I hope you enjoy this one! It's a bit angstier than usual, but it gets better. I own nothing, as usual! ;)

He hated liars. He could always tell when someone was lying. Well, except for his girlfriend. Ex girlfriend. Nate Grey's hands tightened into unconscious fists, his fingernails digging into his palms. There! There was pain, wonderful, delicious pain. No, he wasn't masochistic; he simply needed to feel some sort of emotion at the moment. As he sat on the stiff, worn out chair in the casino, Nate realized that he could barely feel anything, and it scared him. He didn't feel like crying, he didn't feel angry, he just felt…empty.

She had single-handedly ruined his life. He had trusted her with everything. His car, his time, and most importantly, his heart. And she had ruined them all. She had sullied them with her adulterous "fling," as she called it, and now he was only too happy to say goodbye to her, and his car. His time could never be returned, and his heart was questionable as well.

These thoughts scared the heck out of him.

How could he sit here, blandly staring at the cartoons on the slot machine in front of him, feeling satisfied that he would no longer have to use his old car? How could he feel so calm and so removed after what had happened? It wasn't natural for him, not natural at all.

He stood from his seat and crossed over to the counter where he handed the woman who was running the register his credit card. "Good evening, sir," she squeaked, obviously recognizing him, yet struggling to keep a hold on her professional façade. "How much would you like on that?"

"One hundred thousand."

The girl didn't even blink. For one split second, fear gripped Nate's spine in a chilling hold that made panic set in and caused his heart to race. The words had just come out of his mouth with the same ease that he was able to write new lyrics for Connect 3's new album. He had just paid out a hundred thousand dollars and was being handed the appropriate chips with the same informality that he paid for milk at the grocery store. "There you are," she said, smiling widely, no doubt mentally rejoicing at how much money she had just made the casino just by batting her fake eyelashes.

"Thanks," he said, just as calmly, as he took the chips from where they sat on the counter. Now, all he needed to do was to figure out what to blow them on.

That blackjack table over in the corner looked good.

With sure, confident steps that showed that the adrenaline in his system had yet to fade, Nate strolled over the plush carpet towards the blackjack table in the corner where a young dealer, dressed in the traditional black slacks and vest, sat watching the horse races on one of the large TV screens scattered around the casino floor. It wasn't until she tilted her head back and pushed some of her curly chestnut hair back from her face that Nate realized how young she was. She was probably about his age, and heaven help him, she was pretty.

He hadn't picked her table to hit on her. He had picked it because it was the only one that didn't have any other players seated on the chairs surrounding the table. He knew the rudimentary rules of the game and knew that it was possible to play against up to six other people, or to play only the dealer. He wanted a one on one game.

She noticed him right before he drew up to her table. A false smile flittered across her face for a moment, and then dropped off as she recognized him. Her lips parted and a small frown morphed her facial features from patronizing to sympathizing. "Hi," she said softly.

He didn't want her pity. He didn't need her pity.

He didn't need anything.

"Hello," he said coldly, already mentally starting to barricade his feelings, to push her as far away as she could go. She was a dealer, nothing else. He slid into the seat directly in the middle of the table and raised his eyebrows expectantly. She looked about ready to say something, but at the last moment, she bit her lip and reached for the deck of cards in front of her. With fingers nimble from plenty of practice, she began shuffling, turning the cards all different directions.

"Wise choice," he thought, and then absently glanced at her nametag, "Caitlyn."

She dealt the cards, placing his in the betting box and laying hers out in front of her. It was her turn to look at him expectantly, and so Nate pushed forward half of his chips, betting fifty thousand on cards he didn't even check first. He gazed back at her calmly, watching as something close to trepidation flickered in her eyes for a moment before the game began.

He glanced for a moment at her upcard, his only clue to begin the game. An eight of diamonds against his three and four. Nate's mind raced on overdrive, trying to remember the rules of this game when he had played against Shane one night out of boredom. Oh wait, he was supposed to hit. He touched one finger to the table and watched with almost gleeful satisfaction as Caitlyn dealt out another card. Another three.

Another touch to the table signaled one more hit.

Caitlyn dealt him his last card and flipped her hole card up at the same time. Both were queens. "Winner," she said softly, looking him dead in the eye.

"I know," he said, even though he hadn't.

"Again?" she asked, reaching out and drawing all of the cards towards her again.

Nate nodded. "Sure."

After all, why not? He had money, and plenty of time to spare.

It was only halfway between her elaborate shuffling that Caitlyn paused and then sighed, shifting her weight to one side. He knew that something unprofessional, and probably very close to home was coming his way even before she opened her mouth, but it was even worse than he had expected when she actually spoke. "Insufficient means," she said crisply, her eyes flashing as she dared him to challenge her.

He was feeling daring tonight.

"Excuse me?" His tone dared her right back.

"I said insufficient means," Caitlyn replied, slipping her cards back from wherever they came from.

For a moment, Nate blinked. "What do you mean?" he asked. "I just doubled my winnings. How is that insufficient? I can bet whatever I want."

Caitlyn shook her head. "I didn't say you lacked money," she told him, speaking in a low voice so that they wouldn't be overheard in the casino. A waitress started to approach the table, ready to take any drink order that Nate might have requested, but Caitlyn waved her away with an impatient flick of her wrist. "I said means."

Nate glared and crossed his arms, sitting back in his seat. "And what exactly does that mean, or do you even know?" Was she trying to mess with his head? Lots of people seemed to be doing that lately.

"It means that this isn't what you should be doing with your time and money," she returned easily, glaring slightly from his intelligence slight.

"Isn't that for me to decide?" he asked her, smirking. "Watch what you say," his mind taunted her. "I hold all the cards here. Literally." It would be nothing for him to have her fired if she said the wrong thing to him, and by the look on her face, she knew it.

Caitlyn gazed around the casino for a moment, collecting her thoughts before she locked her gaze with his once more with an intensity that surprised Nate and shook him for a moment. "I've been to your concerts," she admitted, plowing ahead before she could stop herself and think about her job. "I've seen the passion and the heart that you put into your shows to make sure that they are the absolute best that they can be. Your music has inspired so many people. It's helped them move on from things they didn't think they could move on from." Her mouth quirked into a humorless smile. "Believe me, I know."

"And you're wasting my time with this sob story, why?" He could have smacked himself for that hurtful comment, and Caitlyn looked like she wouldn't mind doing just that if there weren't cameras watching their every move.

"I'm 'wasting your time,' as you call it," she bit back, "because the Nate Grey that sings with such passion and emotion should not be sitting in a casino in Vegas blowing his money right after his girlfriend killed herself in an accident."

Her words hit him like the proverbial ton of bricks. Flashes of the news reports flooded his mind. The wreck. The secret boyfriend. Both of them drunk. Both of them dead. He shut his eyes against the images, but they kept coming, assaulting his senses even as he tried to shut them down. He had been forced to identify her body, and he had known that he had to get away when he had-

"I laughed," he said darkly, gazing up into Caitlyn's eyes.

"Laughed?" she asked, confused. He might not have played a lot of cards, or gambled enough to recognize all of the traditional poker faces, but he could tell that this girl in front of him was not lying, or playing dumb. She was truly worried about him.

He hadn't expected someone at a card table in Vegas to care.

He couldn't stop himself from nodding, and soon, the whole story poured from his lips without his bidding. "The police asked me to identify her body," he whispered. "There was so-so much blood. They hadn't even closed her eyes yet, and I laughed." He ran a hand harshly over his face, sickened with himself. "I couldn't help it. After all that she did to me…and she's dead…and all I could do was laugh." He was mumbling, his thoughts running faster than his mouth could process them, but Caitlyn didn't seem to care. He could tell by the look on her face that she could put the pieces together.

And she surprised him once again.

He had expected disgust, at the very least. He had expected the look of sympathy that she had worn since he had walked up to vanish, replaced by repulsion at what he had become over the last seven hours, but there was none of that. Instead, there was a look of understanding that graced her face. "Did you know that she was cheating on you?"

Nate shrugged, but then nodded honestly, "Yeah. Well, I thought so, at least."

"Then it's natural," she said, making his eyes widen and his mouth drop.

"What?" he gasped out.

Caitlyn gazed at him calmly as she explained, "You weren't laughing at the fact that she's dead, though I can see how you'd think that way. Nate, you were laughing because your mind told you that it was all over. There's no more worry, no more tension to have to deal with. She's gone, and once this rash adrenaline runs off, you'll feel something more than just emptiness. You'll feel grief, but after that, you'll feel whole again." She gazed down at the felt material on the table. "She ruined you by exposing you to all of this," she said after a moment, "but she ruined herself as well, whether she realized it or not." Her eyes never wavered as she whispered, "She lost a wonderful guy when she decided to be an idiot."

Her words, spoken with the utmost sincerity, broke something within Nate and he launched himself out of his chair, racing through the casino without thinking of where he was really going. He dashed up the stairs of the hotel, blindly flinging his hand out for the handle when he reached his floor. His hands shook as he jammed his key card into the slot before throwing open the door and collapsing onto his bed. The dam burst and his chest heaved with sob after sob as he cried for the girl he had lost, cried for the pain this whole ordeal had caused, and cried for the pressure that was threatening to crush him.

How long he laid there, he wasn't sure. Time crept by without his consent, and still his tear ducts supplied more tears. His head pounded as he was reduced to hiccupping gasps, but still, the tears fell. Maybe it was hours, maybe it was days, but when Nate became conscious of the world around him, he realized that he had finally cried himself to sleep. He turned over, feeling another round of shattering crying coming on, but as he thought back to what had happened last night, the tears never came. He stared at the ceiling, waiting, almost willing for the emotions he had experienced last night to come back in all of their gruesome horror, but they never did. They were still there, and his heart ached, but Caitlyn had been right when she had said that his grief would pass. He hadn't expected it to be so soon, though. He had expected to mourn for the woman that he thought he had loved, but it seemed that her adultery had affected his ability to openly grieve for her.

He felt better. Not perfect, and he certainly felt sick from all of that crying, but he felt emotions again. He felt like the world was no longer swirling around him, sweeping past him while he stood still. He was back in the flow of time, and he was ready to go back home and deal with his life.

But first, he needed to eat something. He was absolutely starving.

As he moved towards the door, not even bothering to change out of his rumpled clothes, a slip of paper pushed under the door caught his eye. He bent down and retrieved it, his eyebrows rising up almost to his hairline when he realized that it was a claim ticket for his winnings last night. A small sticky note at the bottom was the next object to catch his attention. Please be alright was written in tiny, carefully penned script, and Nate knew exactly who it belonged to.

Caitlyn nervously fiddled with the zipper on her jacket as she walked towards the Bellagio. The sidewalk was full of tourists, shoppers, and people on their cell phones, but none of those people mattered to her tonight. All that mattered was the man currently standing dead center in front of the water that framed the Bellagio's hotel, his arms casually resting on the sturdy faux balcony on the sidewalk.

Had she been too bold last night? Had she said too much? When her employer had handed her the note, he hadn't fired her on the spot, so she took that as a good sign, unless Nate Grey was asking her to meet him so that he could tell her in person that he had requested her resignation…!

He turned at that moment, catching sight of her before she had the chance to turn and run away. With a smile, he beckoned for her to come closer. "I'm glad you came," he told her honestly as she leaned against the balcony nervously.

"I almost didn't," she admitted.

Nate's mouth quirked into another smile as he nodded. "Yeah, I can see why." He put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Thank you for dropping off that claim ticket, by the way. I-I especially enjoyed the personalized note."

Caitlyn's cheeks bloomed pink. "I hoped you would," she said boldly.

Nate gazed out at the water for a moment before saying, "You helped me a lot last night, much more than anything else has helped. I think…I think that you made it okay for me to cry." He teased, "You broke down all of my carefully-constructed defenses."

Caitlyn smiled and gazed up at him. "Sometimes, it's better to break them down than hold those feelings in."

Nate nodded solemnly. "I'm guessing from the talk last night and just right now, that you know this from experience?"

Caitlyn nodded. "It was a few years ago, but believe me, I felt exactly the same way you do. That's why I tried to lost myself in the rush of Vegas life."

"Perhaps we could talk about it over dinner?" Nate suggested. "It's not a date. I'm not ready to even think about dating again, yet, but you're different, Caitlyn, and I think that when the time is right, I'd like to try." It was his turn to blush and turn away awkwardly. "That is, if you want to even become friends first."

Caitlyn resisted the urge to smirk, knowing that she now held all of the cards. He was leaving their "status" completely up to her, letting her know that they would be whatever she wanted to make them. Seeing him standing there, watching her with an expression of half hope and half trepidation, Caitlyn knew exactly what her answer would be. "I'd like that," she said honestly. "I'd like that a lot."

The relief on his face was instantaneous, and he drew her close for a hug as the music for the evening water show began to ring throughout the street. As she stood in his embrace, watching the water spew into the air in a dazzling display of beauty and power, Caitlyn knew that this was the start of something good. They would begin as friends, work through the difficulties that they both shared, and then when they were ready, they would see where they would go from there.

And she couldn't wait.

No longer did anyone hold all of the cards in their relationship. They would play off of each other, and with any luck and lots of hard work, they would both come out victorious.

It was, as they say in blackjack, a push.

A/N: Okay, this is the first time that I've written anything quite like this, and I hope you liked it! PLEASE, please review and let me know!