A/N: So this chapter covers from mid-Chapter 3 to early-Chapter 5 of the AO3 version. Some of those chapters are long, some of them are short, I'm going to try and keep things consistent for this version.

Disclaimer: I do not own Uncharted or any of its characters. I was assisted with the writing of this story by the story's followers on Archive of Our Own through the use of polls and I would like to take this time to thank them for their assistance.

Out and About
Chapter 2

The next morning, Nina arrived at the office to find it locked with the lights off. She had arrived on time—it was just turning ten o'clock. For a moment, she wondered if Sully had forgotten what time he had told her, or that he expected her to be late. She had no way of contacting either Sully or Sam, as she did not have their cellphone numbers—she made a mental note of getting them later on. With nothing else to do she waited until someone showed up. Sure enough, after a few minutes Sully arrived with a tray of three coffees in his hand.

"Hey, I wasn't sure if you were a morning person, so I brought you some coffee," he offered.

"Thanks," Nina said. She already had coffee at home, but she was not about to turn down his kindness-plus she did not think there is such a thing as too much caffeine.

Sully took his keys out of his pocket to unlock the door. "Sam's not much of a morning person so I have a cup of coffee ready for when he comes in, whenever that is."

When the door opened, he placed the tray on his desk. He tossed his jacket off onto a coatrack next to the door and sat in his chair. Nina took her own jacket and placed it on the back of the chair she had sat in during the interview the previous day. Sully reached down and opened a mini-fridge that was hidden from plain view, taking out a carton of creamer to pour in his coffee.

Taking a better look around the office, Nina saw that there was a microwave hidden beneath a pile of books near Sam's desk. Strangely enough, she did not see any type of coffee brewer despite seeing the much more expensive mini-fridge and microwave.

When she asked, Sully replied, "Our last one broke down, we just haven't gotten around to buying a new one."

Maybe you should," she advised as she took her cup. "You'd save money on coffee."

He nodded, "Yeah, the coffee shop around the corner raised their prices a while back."

After adding the appropriate amount of milk and sugar, she began drinking the coffee, and asked about what to do first.

"We could clean up this place for starters," he said. "We could start with my side of the office, Sam gets picky when it comes to his side."

"Let me guess, it's an 'organized mess'," she joked.

"That's right," Sully told her. "I think he's just too goddamn stubborn to let anyone else touch it."

"I'm that way too, kinda," she had to admit. "But it's nothing work related, just my personal stuff."

When the two of them finished their coffee, they got to work on organizing the various papers around Sully's desk. Eventually, Sam trudged in, muttering his "good mornings".

"Good morning," Nina smiled at him, hoping that she would brighten his day. When he groans an incoherent response, she cannot help but feel disappointed.

He grabbed the last cup of coffee and stuck it in the microwave before plopping down at his desk. As she and Sully worked on the desk, Nina repeatedly caught herself stealing glances at the treasure hunter. She internally berates herself, mostly for acting childish about her attraction to the man. This is how is always starts with her: she acts childish, but then when she grows out of this behavior, that is when it would start getting serious—Nina was intent on avoiding that. Besides, he was essentially her boss and she knew that getting romantically involved with her employers will never end well. Still, she knows it will be hard trying to control herself.

After he and Nina made progress on cleaning up the desk, Sully decided that it would be a good time for a smoke break. He invited the younger woman along, but she declined, instead opting to spend some time alone with Sam, as dangerous as that may be. He left her alone with her work and Sam drinking his coffee at his desk.

Despite her best not to, Nina still caught herself looking at Sam; then she saw him take out a flask and pour some of the contents in his coffee. She froze: what was inside had to be alcohol—there was nothing else it could be. She had been watching him practically since he came in; it was possible all of his behavior could not simply have been because he was tired.

"Are you hungover?" Nina asked, deciding to be direct about it.

Sam almost choked on his coffee when he heard this. "No, no, why do you ask?"

She pointed out the fact that she saw him pour something out of a flask and into his coffee.

Embarrassed, he stumbled around the issue until finally, "Fine, I sneak a little alcohol now and again."

She frowned, "That's not good."

"Now, I don't do it all the time," he got defensive. "Just when…"

As he stumbled with his words again, Nina realized he was very uncomfortable with the issue. She did not know him that well, so she figured it was not her place to call him out on it.

"Okay," she stopped him. "You have your reasons."

She returned to work silently but could not get her mind off Sam's problem. No one drinks for no reason—there must have been something that he was hiding. Then, she thought back to Nathan Drake, and how he was related to Sam. For all she knew, Sam and Nathan could be the same person, changing his name for whatever reason. Nathan was said to have been married, so maybe he wanted to get out of his marriage—or perhaps something terrible happened to his wife so Nathan cut all ties to forget and went as far as changing his name.

Nina shook these thoughts from her head and mentally scolded herself for letting her imagination run away with itself. If the situation were that extreme, Sam would not keep the surname "Drake". Still, she wondered if "Nathan Drake" was the reason why Sam began drinking.

After a while, Sully came back, "I hope you two kids behaved yourselves while I was gone."

"No," Nina spoke up. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sam freeze—afraid, perhaps, that she would tell Sully that he was drinking. But that was not her intention at all. "We had a quickie right after you left."

Sam melted in relief as she turned to wink at him, then played along, "Yeah, sorry Victor. But you know what they say—morning sex is the best sex."

Sully chuckled. "It's not morning sex unless you're just getting out of bed."

The rest of the day was uneventful as Nina and Sully continued to their work. The three of them ordered take-out for lunch, making small talk as they ate. Nina managed to show off her newfound archeological knowledge without coming off as bragging, even Sam seemed to be impressed.

The organization work is finished not long after lunch, at least on Sully's side. When considering starting work on Sam's side, part of Nina wanted to put if off until the next day, since it looked like it would take far longer. Although, he did not really "wake up" until around lunch time that day; starting on it right away would be beneficial—or at least when Sam returned from his most recent smoke break.

"Why don't we just call it a day?" Sully decided, "You can get started on Sam's side of the room tomorrow."

Nina gazed over her shoulder at Sam's empty seat. "Wouldn't we just start the same time tomorrow?"

"Nah," he shrugged it off. "I'll just tell Sam to come in early, so he'll be ready to work by ten or eleven tomorrow."

She nodded. "Okay, if you're sure it'll work."

As she grabbed her jacket to leave, Sully stopped her. "You know, I notice how you're looking at Sam."

Nina could feel herself blushing in embarrassment. "I guess I didn't do a good job of hiding it."

He shook his head and leaned on his desk. "Just a word of advice—Sam isn't a very…accessible person. I don't remember him ever having a stable relationship in his life—romance-wise anyway." Nina tried to speak up, but he stopped her, "I don't care what you see in him or anything, it's none of my business. Just be careful, okay?"

"Sully, I'm not going to pursue a relationship with him," she assured him. "I'm attracted to him—that's pretty obvious-but I've been in the business long enough to know not to make it personal with your employers."

He sighed, "You know how many people I've heard that from? And how many people made it personal?"

She crossed her arms confidently, "Well I have a proven track record. I even turned down one of the biggest playboys in the business."

Sully raised one eyebrow, "Let me guess—Marcel Lister." Nina frowned slightly at the correct guess. "The most attractive feature on him, I've heard, was his money. There wasn't much else to go for unless you're into stuck-up rich brats."

She was inclined to agree, there was not anything she found attractive about Marcel. The only reason why Marcel had a "playboy" reputation was because he tended to sleep with his female partners. Of course, she suspected that the partners he did sleep with did it so they could get better pay or a better cut of the profits.

"I'll tell you what," Nina said. "If I do get into a failed relationship with Sam, you're more than welcome to say, 'I told you so.'"

He shrugged. "Alright, I'll see you in the morning."

She bid Sully goodbye and headed downstairs. When she exited the building, Nina saw Sam finishing his cigarette.

"Hey," he greeted her before she could say anything to him. "Thanks for not telling Victor about…you know."

"Of course," she said. "You don't become successful in this business by being a tattle-tale."

He laughed, "Right, right. By the way, Victor told me about what happened to you—"

"Forget it," she tried to brush it off.

"I mean it sucks—"

"Yeah, but it's not like talking about it's going to change anything," she told him.

"Alright," he backed off and stamped out his cigarette. "So, you're finished for the day?"

"That's right, tomorrow we'll start on your side of the office."

He smirked, "So we'll be working together, that's what you're saying."

To her slight dismay, Nina could not help but smile. "Well, yeah."

"I'm looking forward to it," his words made her heart flutter. "You want me to walk you to the end of the block?"

She took him up on his offer, finding no harm in a short walk. There were many things she could talk about with him: his career, her own career, Sully, but there was something that was still bothering her, something that she was afraid of being too personal. There was a high chance that he would get offended by it, but she felt like she had to know.

"So, I heard that Sully's partner was someone named 'Nathan Drake,'" she said, "Any relation?"

He sighed and told her, with slight annoyance, "That would be my little brother."

After seeing his reaction, she began to regret asking. "I'm sorry, do you two not get along or…"

"No, no, I'm sorry," he apologized. "I've been in prison for thirteen years and he's gotten a head start on me with his own treasure hunting career."

She understood immediately, "It must be hard hearing about your younger brother's accomplishments."

"You have no idea," he muttered.

Then, it occurred to her, "Wait, is that why you 'sneak alcohol'?"

At first, it seemed that he was uneasy about the subject matter. Nina was about to drop it when he responded, "It's a little bit of that."

This made her wonder if he actually wanted to talk about it, but when she asked, he politely declined.

"You're a personal assistant Nina, not a shrink," he insisted. Nina was about to respond, but he continued, "Listen, I appreciate you wanting to help me, but this is something I have to deal with on my own, okay?"

As much as she wanted to tell him that this was not something he could handle by himself, Nina realized that she did not know him well enough to tell him so. Instead, she opted to drop the subject entirely. She bid him goodbye and went home.

Upon returning home, Nina made herself dinner and continued doing archeological research. She had to admit, archeology was just as interesting—if not even more so—as the history behind the paintings she had stolen in the past. Even if pursuing Sam did not work out—which was honestly extremely likely to her—she was glad to have met him to get into that sort of thing. She only wished that she got into it sooner.

In the midst of doing her research, Nina thought back on another lover—one whom Sam reminded her of: Ken. He was a smooth-talking con-artist who could talk his way into and out of any situation. The two of them were together for two years, and he was terrible throughout them. He used her, cheated on her, yet she still stayed with him, up until he abandoned her.

She shook these thoughts from her head. She would not be seeing Ken again, and even if she did, she would have nothing to do with him.

A/N: Thanks for reading! And remember: if you want more right now, I have up to Chapter 35 published on Archive of Our Own. It's under the same title and pen name as this fic.