Natalie was peacefully sleeping when she was rudely woken up by her phone ringing. One eye cracked open reluctantly so she could see who was cruel enough to wake her at. . . 3 AM.

"Dammit, Cam, this'd better be important," she grumbled as she reached for her phone. "What?" she snapped; she never had been a morning person.

"Nat. Where's John?"

"You woke me up for this?" she whined. "He's got a cellphone, Cam, call it." Natalie was ready to hang up then and there, but she heard Cameron yelling for her to wait. "Caaaam, it's 3 AM. I want to go back to sleep. Why didn't you call John, if you need to talk to him so badly?"

"I did call him. I've been calling him for the past hour, and he's not answering. Do you know if he's home?"

Natalie groaned and sat up. She wasn't going back to bed any time soon. "No, I don't. After the show, he met this woman and they left together. . He made sure I got home and told me not to wait up. So, I didn't." She rubbed at her eye with the heel of her hand. "What's going on, Cam?" He was silent. "Cam? . . Cameron. Say something." Just as he started to speak, she heard the door open downstairs. "Hang on." Natalie grudgingly slipped out from beneath her covers and padded over to her door. She opened it and leaned out into the hallway. "Johnny? You home?"

". . Yeah, Nattie, it's me," Johnathan called back. "Why aren't you in bed?"

"Because our psychotic brother woke me up, calling to ask where you were. Why weren't you answering your phone?"

"I, uh. . I lost it."

"Is that Johnathan?" Cameron demanded.

Natalie was surprised by the unusually harsh tone in his voice. "Yeah, Cam, it's him." She started walking down the hallway and yawned as she went. "Johnathan, can you come talk to Cameron so he can stop freaking out? I don't know what's going on with him. . but. . . he. ." Natalie's voice seemed to die as she caught sight of Johnathan as she made her way downstairs. "Oh God," she whispered. She was wide awake, now.

"Natalie, what's wrong?" Cameron asked quickly.

"Nat, go back to bed," Johnathan said urgently, desperately.

"Johnny. . What happened?"

"It's not what it looks like-" Johnathan tried to explain.

"Nat, what's going on?" Cameron's voice tone was getting more anxious by the minute. Her mouth moved but no sound came out. "Natalie? . . Nataliya!"

"I- H-He-" He was bruised and cut up and had blood on his hands. He looked like Hell. Natalie practically fell down the last few steps. Johnathan quickly moved toward her and held his hands out to catch her, but Natalie held a hand out. Cameron was still talking to her, trying to get her to give him something he could actually make sense of, but her voice wasn't working anymore.

"Let me explain," Johnathan pleaded.

He never got the chance.

The door was kicked in and several uniformed men came bursting in with their guns raised. "NYPD!"

"Johnathan Black, you're under arrest-"

"What? Johnathan, what did you do?"

"Nothing," Johnathan said quickly. "Natalie, I didn't do it, no matter what they say."

The hand holding her phone dropped to her side and all Cameron could hear from her end was indistinct conversation. There was some yelling, the sound of a struggle, and then Natalie started screaming. The only words he could clearly make out were "No" and "Johnathan". Cameron waited in agonized silence for his sister to put the phone back up to her ear again so he could talk to her. His hand was fisted nervously in his hair.

Natalie must have hit the speaker button accidentally, because suddenly he could hear her clearly. "Get the hell off of me! Let go!"

"Natalie," Cameron called.

"Cam?" Her tone of surprise made him think that she had forgotten he was even on the phone in the midst of all the chaos.

"Still here, Nat."

"Cam, they're taking him. They're taking Johnathan away, and they want to take me, too. Something about CPS-"

"Do what they say, Nat. I know you're scared," he spoke quickly so his sister couldn't argue with him. "But it's going to be okay. I already got Dina and the guys up, we'll be on the next plane home. I don't need two siblings arrested in night." It was a weak attempt at a joke, but he got a nervous chuckle out of Natalie, so he took the win. "I'll come get you as soon as I can, okay?"

Natalie was silent for a moment. "Okay." Then the call ended.

Whoever was in charge of the situation, whether it was the police or CPS, wouldn't allow Cameron to see her for two days. Different adults in suits kept asking her questions about Johnathan. They asked things like "Has your brother always been violent?" or "Did he ever threaten you?" or "Has Johnathan ever hurt you?" They made it sound like she was some sort of abused kid, protecting her abuser because she was scared. That wasn't the case at all. Johnathan had never once even threatened to lay a hand on her, and the very idea of it was laughable; only Natalie didn't feel much like laughing.

She would try to answer a question, then they'd twist her words around, and then she was having to argue with them because they were getting it all wrong. After a while, she refused to talk to them without a lawyer- or her brother, her legal guardian, who she was pretty sure was required to be present by law because she was still a minor.

Oh, they tried to smooth things over. They tried to tell her she wasn't in trouble and that they just wanted to get the facts. Natalie told them if they were interested in facts, they wouldn't be trying so hard to trick her into saying something damning about her brother, then proceeded to say something very rude in Russian. Luckily for Natalie, none of them spoke Russian.

When Cameron was finally able to get her back, she was exhausted and edgy and didn't know if she wanted to cry or take a nap or eat her weight in pancakes (she was starving). Natalie hugged him tightly around the waist and shifted to his side so they could walk without her having to let go. In fact the only thing that got her to release her rib-bruising hold was necessity, so she could get in the car. The team was waiting for her at home and as soon as she was through the front door she racing toward them calling, "Uncle Gunter," before throwing her arms around him. The normally grumpy man returned her hug tightly.

"Why is British Oscar the Grouch her favorite?" Jordan complained jokingly.

"Because she's got excellent taste," Gunter answered over her head. "Isn't that right, love?"

Natalie nodded as she let Gunter go and looked over at Jordan. "It's okay, Jordan, I love you too. Gunter's just prettier than you." Her joking tone fell flat, but her smile was real when Gunter started laughing.

Jordan rolled his eyes. "Whatever. C'mere, kid." He hugged her loosely and ruffled her hair before letting her go.

Dina immediately stepped in and pulled Natalie into her arms. "Natalie, darling, you look absolutely exhausted. Let's get you in bed, yeah? And after you've had some real sleep in your own bed we'll get some food in you. We can get takeout from wherever you like. How's that sound?"

"That sounds. . ." Natalie yawned widely. "Amazing. Especially the part about getting into bed." She really was exhausted. Dina led her up the stairs to her room, talking softly all the while.

The three men waited for them to get upstairs before speaking. "She gonna be alright, boss?" Jordan asked quietly.

"I. . I don't know, Jordan," Cameron sighed.

"Don't be silly," Gunter said, waving his hand to dismiss the idea that Natalie would be anything but fine. "'Course she will be. Our girl's tough."

"She saw the brother she idolizes get arrested and spent the last two days being told he's a murderer, Gunter," Cameron reminded the older man. He knew Johnathan was Natalie's favorite, so he knew how hard this all was for her. "And apparently they tried to get her to incriminate him."

Gunter shrugged this information off. "Alright. So she's not alright now. She'll be fine, Cam. Just you wait and see."

"I hope you're right, Gunter. . I really do."

"Where you goin', Cam?" Jordan called after the magician's retreating back.

Cam held up his cellphone. "To call Johnny. I promised him I'd let him know when I got Natalie home."

I had originally written out the whole arrest, but it got really long, and I didn't want that to be the main focus of the chapter, especially since we don't actually know when/how Johnathan got arrested (I'm trying to stick as close to canon events of the show as possible while adding in this character).

SO. I'm going to start rewatching Deception and posting stories based on the episodes; some will be fitting Natalie directly into the episodes, some may just reference past events.