Title: The Mortal Coil
Authors: Faerax and Neoxphile
Spoilers: seasons 1-3, but AU after "Lockdown"

Summary: In the months since "Untangling the Webs" life in Haven has settled back down into what passes as normalcy. But both personal drama and signs of a serial killer in town are about to change that...

Authors' note: Duke's longer hair in canon season three has forced us to skip ahead several months to explain it. Sorry about that. Oh, and if you don't read "Untangling The Webs" first, you're going to be pretty darn confused by the end of chapter one. This story's realm is AU in several significant ways by this point.

Thursday

A moderate breeze coming off the ocean made it feel a little less sweltering than most days earlier in the week had. People in northern New England might complain bitterly about the cold all seven months of winter, but if you string enough days in the 90s together they complained about the high humidity and heat too. It made locals wonder what people in other parts of the country were like if people who complained constantly about the weather were considered stoic by folks from away.

At that moment Duke stood outside his establishment, enjoying the breeze and relishing that for a moment he was alone with his thoughts so no one was asking him if it with hot enough for him or if he'd seen the giant mosquito that had carried away their dog. Thinking of that, he wondered if the old groaner had given that King guy in Bangor the idea for that story about things coming out of a mist...having suddenly spooked himself, he glanced around, more than a little relieved that the day was still clear.

Chiding himself, he tuned back to the task at hand: trying very hard not to use the chalk in his left hand to draw a too revealing picture to go with the words "closed from 5 to 6:30 PM." He decided against doing anything that would get him screamed at just as a throat being cleared behind him got his attention.

He turned, hoping it was Audrey home from work early, but discovered an elderly woman staring at him instead. Trying not to let his disappointment show, he politely asked, "can I help you?"

The woman frowned at him and pointed at the chalkboard. "You really closed until six-thirty?"

Nope, thought I was getting entirely too much business lately, so I decided to see if I could drive off some customers with misdirection, Duke thought sarcastically. Forcing himself to smile instead, he apologized, "Sorry, I've agreed to let someone take over the place for a function."

This did not mollify his elder. "But I've been craving your tacos all day! How am I supposed to stay awake until seven-thirty or so?"

Lord, let me never get so decrepit that seven-thirty is a late night, Duke thought but didn't actually pray. "A nap?" he suggested aloud.

The woman sighed. "I hope this function is something important."

Duke grinned at her, which left her looking slightly confused. "Ma'am, I daresay this function will change a man's life."

This apparently interested her. "Not yours, I take it."

He thought this over. "No. Any effects on me would merely be tangential." Audrey might feel more connected to the results, but Duke didn't. Not really.

"Well," the woman said, finally softening. "Tell him good luck for me. I'm Lois, by the way."

Looking at her, Duke wondered if she somehow guessed why Duke had agreed to shut down for the earliest part of the evening. With the amount of troubled people in town, he couldn't dismiss the idea out of hand. "Will do."

"I'll be back after a nap," she said over her shoulder as she began to toddle off.

"See ya, Lois," he called after her, making a mental note to bring her a complimentary dessert if she returned before he left.

Duke was semi-proud of himself because of how well he'd handled the situation with the elderly woman. For the first few months after he'd learned about the curse that was attached to his bloodline, he'd been anxious every time he'd seen an elderly person, worried that they'd tried to get him to kill them and end their family's trouble. This had only intensified when Audrey had teased him just before Thanksgiving because until then he'd been able to convince himself that no one else had given the possibility any thought. If she had, maybe the old folks had too...

When the woman was out of sight, he finished his message, pocketed the chalk, and went inside to see how the prep was going. The evening might not be a life-changer for him, but he'd never hear the end of it if things didn't go smoothly.

Inside, Duke's staff was bustling. His first stop was the kitchen to check on how the cooking was going. That seemed well in hand, so he wandered back out to the bar which was even more important this particular night. The bartender gave him a tight smile as soon as he noticed him approaching. "He's called twice."

"And what did you tell him?" Duke didn't need to ask what the calls had been about.

"That everything'll be ready for him when he gets here in-" The bartender looked at the clock. "-in ten minutes."

"Good," Duke told him.

"You must really like this guy," the bartender said in a long-suffering tone that suggested that it was hard to believe that a person could.

Duke raised his eyebrows, remembering that Frank had only moved to Haven that month. Otherwise the question's tone would have been ironic instead. "He's very important to my girlfriend," Duke said by way of explanation.

"Ah, gotcha." Frank nodded. "Then I don't blame you for not rocking the boat."

Unbidden, Duke found himself remembering the first major fight he and Audrey had in their relationship, back when she'd gotten the mistaken idea that he'd run off when he been accused of theft. The boat had been a literal one in that case. Well his was, not the phantom one everyone had gone looking for in the storm. That one had been an idea brought to life by a young boy who no longer lived in Haven.

"Duke?" Frank asked, bringing him back to reality. "Any final instructions?" he prompted.

"Give him whatever he asks for, but get the server to steer the lady towards a white wine."

"Right."

"Oh! Do you have it?" Duke asked, suddenly worried. "He gave it to you, right?" He'd been far too busy picking up supplies then packing them away that afternoon to notice if the other man had stopped by like he'd intended to.

Frank patted the counter. "Under here."

Relieved, he just said "okay." Duke realized he shouldn't have worried. Someone that anal wouldn't have overlooked something like bringing that by exactly when he said he would.

Duke checked in the kitchen once more, pleased that the food looked perfect. Everything was going as well as he'd want it to for himself… Not that he thought it would be anytime soon for him. So far that was an argument he wasn't winning.

"He's here!" an excited server told him, coming into the kitchen. "Truck just pulled in."

Duke smiled, wondering if he should really pass along the old woman's well wishing. In the end he decided not to, thinking that he, of all people, trying to get the man of the hour alone for private word it would only arouse suspicion. Instead he just walked in the dining room, trying to look as uninterested as possible, despite wishing he could hear every word that would pass between the couple that evening. If only to give Audrey a full report, he told himself without any real conviction.

When they got the Gull, Nathan tried to hustle Jess inside immediately, but he wasn't as successful as he would've liked because her eyes clearly caught sight of the chalkboard, making her say "Nathan?"

Ignoring her questioning tone, he led the way inside. Duke appeared, and Nathan relaxed when he realized Duke looked annoyed rather than excited enough to give anything away; for once he was glad that the other man was so good at acting. At least he thought that Duke was merely pretending to be put out.

Duke led them to a table inside, making Jess look up at him with questions clearly on her mind but he looked at Nathan instead and sighed. "I still can't believe you won the contest." Duke sounded admirably aggrieved as far as Nathan was concerned.

"My name was drawn," Nathan said smugly, relieved that a contest was the ruse that Duke had decided to frame the night with. He'd been worried that Duke's improv would involve his recent official reinstatement as police chief - and it would have been awkward to explain why Audrey and Dwight, as well as the Teagues, weren't there too at the very least. Sure, Audrey was working, but the guys?

"Yeah, I know, fair and square." Sighing again, Duke looked at Jess. "It's not that I begrudge you the specially prepared meal, it's just that I was hoping it wouldn't be a regular who won. You know, garner some new interest in this place."

Nathan smirked at him. "Tell you what, next ten out-of-towners I ticket, I'll recommend they eat here."

"Ha. Good enough." Duke smirked back before looking at them both. "I do hope you enjoy the meal. Especially you," he told Jess. If Nathan didn't know him so well, he would have worried that Duke was flirting with Jess, but he knew full well that this was Duke being nice to a woman, and not nearly as sickeningly flirtatious as he still was with Nathan's half-sister.

"Thank you," Jess told him.

Duke gave a half bow before going off to do whatever it was that he considered needing doing.

"Why didn't you tell me you won a contest?" Jess asked Nathan as soon as their host was out of sight.

He shrugged. "I wanted to know if he'd honor the win, first. I would have bought us dinner anyway, but not what he's promised tonight's menu for the winner to be."

Nathan had no idea what the meal would've cost on the menu, but he'd been happy enough to disappear three parking tickets as requested in trade. Somehow he knew Duke wouldn't have cheated him, so he could only assume that the meal would've cost another patron a pretty penny indeed.

Jess looked slightly taken aback. "I know you're still not best friends, but-"

Nathan shook his head. "Technically being Audrey's brother should have disqualified me, like the family of employees. It's kind of like nepotism."

"But they're not married," Jess protested.

It was Nathan's turned to raise an eyebrow. "Near enough, much as that pains me to think about." The comment was made more because it was expected of him, rather than one made with any real dismay to it. A year had passed since his knack for terrible timing had him opening Audrey's door at the worst possible moment, and his assumption then that Duke would move on after getting what he'd been after had been thoroughly proven wrong.

Jess gave him a mocking look. "Right, after all this time you still hate them being together."

"I have a reputation to maintain, Jess."

This made her smile at him. Somehow she had decided that Duke was the right man for Audrey a lot longer ago than he had… and he wasn't entirely sure it was just because she'd wanted Audrey's attentions focused elsewhere before they had all discovered the biological connection between himself and Audrey.

The next thirty minutes seemed to pass quickly as they ate their meal. Despite anticipation making him nervous, Nathan had to admit that the food was wonderful. This surprised him a little because he knew that Duke had delegated the cooking duties to someone else. He made a mental note to encourage Duke to give the chef a raise.

When the dishes were cleared away, and their dessert promised to arrive soon, Nathan got so nervous he thought he'd wet himself. Between courses seemed a safe time to hit the head, so he got up and murmured, "be right back" before he left the table.

Over at the bar, Frank got a call from an angry vendor who was apparently stuck outside with several cases of alcohol. Duke had mentioned that the door had been sticking off and on, but it hadn't caused any issues until then. Frank decided to grab a server to bring the drinks over to the table rather than send the kid out back to be a sacrificial lamb for the ticked off delivery person.

"Hey, as soon as you see Nathan returning to the table," Frank said, noting that someone was placing something decadent in front of Jess and across from her. "Poured two glasses of wine and bring them to the table. He gets the merlot, she gets the pinot grigio. Put the engagement ring-" He showed the box to the boy. "-in her glass and don't act overly excited or anything when you put it down, just calmly leave. Get that?"

"Sure," the server agreed.

"Good." Frank left, leaving the boy with the bottles of wine and the ring. Eventually, he realized that getting the door unstuck was going to be a two-man job, and found Duke to help him, not that the boss didn't grumble about being away from the action the whole time.

Danny, the server, looked at the bottles, wishing like hell that either name Frank had given him was on the labels. He glanced over at the woman waiting for her boyfriend to come back from the can and then at two glasses he just poured. She was wearing red and he decided that was a clue. He slipped the ring into the matching glass and got up when he noticed the man returning to the table.

The man sat and the young server put the glasses down in front of them, then wandered off as sedately as he could manage. Hopefully he'd see her reaction clearly from the bar.

Even more nervous now, Nathan didn't really grasp the fact that Jess's wine was too dark in color for her to notice that the ring was sitting in the bottom of it until she brought the glass to her mouth, obviously intending to wash down a bite her dessert.

"Jess!" he started to say, a moment too late.

Duke was across the room when he realized that the server had given Jess Nathan's wine and vice versa. He was only halfway to their table, trying to figure out how to repair the drink issue, when Nathan exclaimed "Jess!" in an alarmed tone.

Jess, startled by his outburst, gulped down the wine in her mouth…

And immediately began to choke. Duke realized it was more serious than swallowing liquid the wrong way when she put her hands to her throat in a classic "I'm choking" gesture.

Fortunately, Nathan sprang to action and grabbed her from behind, quickly performing a textbook Heimlich maneuver. After a couple of fist thrusts into her abdomen, the ring popped out of her mouth and landed on the table.

Jess hardly seemed to notice and gasped noisily now that she could finally breathe at all.

At first Duke was relieved that the crisis had been averted. But only until he saw Nathan's face. If looks could kill…

Dammit, Duke thought cursing the stuck door, how did this become my fault?

Over the course of the next couple of minutes two things became clear: Jess's throat was extremely sore, and Nathan was extremely pissed, at him as he suspected. All offers of help were waved off beyond Nathan shoving the ring in his pocket after it was washed off and given to him, and in the end it was decided that a visit to the ER was in order to make sure that there was no significant damage to Jess's throat.

To make things worse, Duke had seen Audrey return to her apartment just before disaster had struck. She'd want an immediate report about how the proposal had gone... He hung around the restaurant after Jess and Nathan left long enough to make sure the assistant manager was ready to open for the dinner crowd, and then glumly climbed the stairs to his girlfriend's apartment.

ER

"Looks okay, Jessy," nurse Beth Hunt declared with a reassuring smile after helping Jess with a spray to soothe her injured throat. "I'm sure it feels raw but I don't see any real damage. As long as there's no swelling that makes it hard to breathe, I don't think you'll need to spend any more time here." Eying Nathan, she added, "You'll keep an eye on her tonight, right?"

"As long as she still wants to spend the night with me," he muttered.

"Why wouldn't I?" Jess asked hoarsely. "What happened wasn't your fault."

"Oh, I heard about that," Beth announced. "You want me to put the ring in the autoclave for couple of minutes? That'd sterilize it."

"Um, I'm not sure that'd be good for the ring," Nathan stammered.

"Well, I can also offer you some alcohol pads," the nurse suggested before shrugging and leaving them alone when Nathan didn't jump on that offer either.

Nathan looked out the window and felt mildly surprised that it wasn't dark yet. Having lived through Maine summers his whole life, he knew very well when it got dark, but it felt like hours and hours had passed since they had gotten to the Gull. He frowned, wondering if he'd get an earful for reflexively blaming Duke - both the irritable bartender and the abashed server had tried to explain what happened just before they left to go to the ER.

Disappointment that the night hadn't gone as planned forced a sigh out of him.

"Nathan?" Jess asked, sounding worried despite her scratchy voice. "What are you-"

Right then and there he decided that he could continue to mope or make the best of things. Turning to her, he got down on one knee. "I suppose this doesn't make the same impression as having the ring in a clean and wearable state would but…" He dared to look up at her, pleased to see that she looked thrilled. "Jess, will you marry me?"

"Yes," she said, and it came out clearer than anything else she'd said the past fifteen minutes.

Nathan was tempted to ask her if she understood that accepting his proposal meant that she was saying yes to Haven too, with all its quirks and foibles, not just him. But deep in his heart he was sure that she knew that. The night before he'd been shot he'd asked her if she would stay, and nothing she'd done or said implied that she would ever again try to run away when things got too difficult. Somehow, he thought that if they ever did leave Haven it would be because he wanted to, not because she suggested or demanded it.

"I love you," he said instead, knowing that his old worries didn't have any place in that moment.

"I know," she rasped, and then grinned when he shot her a look. "I love you too."

Nathan beamed at her. "I guess this means we're stuck with each other."

Jess shook her head, obviously trying not to laugh like she was afraid it would hurt to. "You always say the most romantic things, Nathan."

To his own surprise, this had him blushing. "Well, I try."