Chapter 3

Nathan Interrupted


Elena Fisher took a deep calming breath. She lifted her hands in the air and lowered them as she exhaled, a technique she was taught by her father to calm herself down.

It wasn't working.

Elena was generally unflappable. She had held poisonous snakes on her show, interviewed notorious tribal leaders with a distaste for Americans, even eaten black widow spiders as they were considered a delicacy in the Humjai tribe.

But this.. she bit her lip nervously. Elena was in the elevator at the Jackson Memorial Hospital going to visit Nate.

In the psychiatric ward.

She had heard from Sully that he was in the hospital for reasons unknown. Sully was halfway across the world doing God knows what, and was unable to reach Drake. Elena had assured Sully she would figure out what the problem was and contact him as soon as she found out. That was until she actually arrived at the hospital and asked Nathan's room number.

And they had told her it was on the psych ward.

The elevator door jerked open with a ping and Elena stepped cautiously out into the ward. It seemed as though she was in the cafeteria. Her eyes scanned the room fast, the crowded room loud with the cries of the mentally ill. All were dressed in white; all were looking at her, staring straight at her but their eyes, not quite all there. Her breath was rapid and shallow. She was a bundle of nerves. This was a mistake, she decided, he's not really here. In one quick motion, she spun on her heel and walked back towards the elevator.

"Elena?!"

Nate's heart leapt forward as he saw the blur of blonde walking quickly towards the elevator. She whirled around at the mention of her name. Her lips tight and pressed together, her eyes scanning the source. Their eyes met, and she self consciously pushed a strand of blonde wispy hair behind her hair and adjusted the straps of her short black dress. Nathan looked across at her wearily at her and smiled. Elena looked stunning, as usual, he thought smiling.

Today in particular, she was dressed to impress. She looked professional in a knee length black short dress with a grey blazer. On her feet, were the highest pair of black shoes Nate had ever seen her in and was impressed to see she walked with complete ease. They embraced for a moment. He almost got lost in her waves of angel hair, until reality snapped him back together.

"You look well Nate" she said.

This was far from true, and she was thankful they were still embraced so he could not see her face.

He scowled and hissed softly. She stiffened in his arms at his reaction. He pulled away from her.

"Don't say that" he said to her. He couldn't keep the edge out of his voice no matter how hard he tried.

Elena looked taken aback, slightly hurt. "What do you mean?"

Nate pulled a chair up to the table and gestured for her to sit down. "Everybody says that. You look well Nate. You're looking healthy" he ran his hair through his hands. "Please, just not you too. I just wanna feel normal"

There was a moment of silence between them before Elena took a deep breath and touched his arm lightly. "Can you tell me what happened?"

He shook his head. "Not really. What have you heard?"

She sighed. "Not much" she admitted. "The doctor told me that you were having hallucinations at a speech you were giving at the university. Freaked out a lot of people"

He nodded, leaning back in his chair. "Yep. That's what they say happened.."

"Then what did happen Nate?" she pressed on.

"I saw the Spaniards" he said quietly, not looking directly at her. " I saw the creatures"

Elena's eyes filled with tears. "No Nate, that's impossible"

"I saw them and they attacked me"

Elena shook her head hard. "No.. No Nate.. you didn't"

At that precise moment a flicker caught Nathan eye. It was but for a moment, a blur just behind Elena's shoulder. Something moving...

"I'm sorry" Elena continued. "It's just.. I'm worried about you"

But Nathan wasn't listening. The movement had caught his eye again. He was tracking it, he was certain he was looking right at it. But It was as though he were trying to focus on one spot when sitting in a fast moving car. His eyes kept involuntarily flickering away.

"How they were treating you here? You know my dad works at the facility in Madeline, just 30 minutes from here. He's a psycholo..."

"Elena.." Nathan looked at her horrified. " don't move"

The hairs on Elena's neck suddenly stood on end. Memories of El Dorado flooded into her mind in the space of a milli second. Her trigger finger tensed subconsciously.

"What is it?" she asked breathlessly.

For a moment Nathan didn't answer. He simply stared at her shoulder, his face completely blank.

"It's... not really here" he hesitated, almost whispering the words.

Elena sat forward to grab his hand when suddenly Nathan flew back in his chair landing on the linoleum.

"Nathan! Oh my God what it is?"

His fall had caught the attention of the guards who were patrolling the area. They dashed immediately to his side and gave him a hand up and back into his seat.

Nathan gave the guards a weary smile, "It's ok, I just leaned back a bit far on my chair" he gave them a sheepish grin.

Nate knew Elena didn't believe this for a second, but that was ok. As long as the guards did. As long as they didn't make a big deal out of this, tell the doctors, make him take more medication he didn't need.

Or did he? What had he seen? He scanned the room quickly.

It was gone. He breathed a sigh of relief.

Elena waited until the guards left again before continuing.

"Did you see them again?" she whispered, leaning in close so her sweet perfume was wafting in Nate's face.

He was about to reply when he suddenly felt a sharp stinging sensation on his chest. He rubbed it, grimacing a little.

"What's wrong?" Elena asked curiously.

"I don't know" he said wincing. "It hurts.."

The sensation was now beginning to feel more like a burn. Nate pulled open the top buttons of his shirt and leaned forward in pain, punching the table. At that moment a smell filled the air. Can I smell burning flesh? He wondered as the putrid stench overpowered the flowery scent of Elena.

Elena's eyes suddenly widened. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish and she pointed a shaky finger towards Nate's chest. "Nate.. What the hell is that?!!"

He followed her fingers and looked down in horror at his exposed chest. There was no denying it.

Freshly burnt into his chest was unmistakably, the shape of the chain and ring of Sir Francis Drake.