Pairing: Written with Nathan/Audrey in mind, but not really.
Rating: G (K)
Disclaimer: There'd be plenty of things that would be different if I owned Haven, despite its near perfection.
Spoilers: None.
Summary: Brown suede and peach light. Drabble. Part of a nine-part series of one-shots for a scifiland challenge. They're unrelated drabbles, but written and published as a group. Prompt: APART
At 4:47 AM, Nathan Wournos was the only one on the road. The pines of the Maine countryside slipped by peacefully, glowing with the early morning fairy light of blues and violets. He was on his way to Bangor, taking some low-priority evidence out to settle a zoning dispute involving felled trees and fences. Pretty boring case and pretty boring work, but it had to get there somehow. Usually he got Lyle Grant to drive them out, since he had a sister in the city, but the man was sick and Connie Lucchese was on maternity leave for the next three months. It was probably work beneath a police chief, but he was grateful for the quiet time in the early hours just to decompress. When you were responsible for an entire town, it was difficult to get any rest anywhere but outside it. Even then, you were always worried about what was happening when you weren't there. He'd figured this out in the past half hour and change, as this was the first time he'd gone outside Haven in probably months, but most definitely since he'd taken his position. As much as it had pained him, that was why he'd left Audrey behind. He couldn't very well have asked her to do this menial chore (well, he could have, but that wasn't his style), and it by no means required two officers. So he'd left his trusted deputy (he snickered a bit at the idea of Parker in a Stetson) behind to man the fort. He had the utmost confidence in her, but was still reluctant to go. He figured this is what it must feel like to leave your child home with a babysitter for the first time, no matter how highly recommended they'd come.
Truly, his car felt empty without the quick blonde. He even spared a glance at the passenger seat and felt a knock in his chest when his eyes confirmed what his brain already knew. Just light brown suede cut by swaths of peach light. It was the first time he'd left Haven since becoming chief, but it was also the first time since Audrey had blown into his life. The first time they'd really spent any sort of serious time apart, actually. Not that they had any sort of claim on each other, but aside from being partners, they were friends. And when you only had one, you were pretty much best friends by default. Last night, before parting ways, he'd told her of his plans to leave early in the morning. He wanted to be back ASAP to deal with any more bullheadedness from the two parties involved in the property quarrel (he didn't see what the big deal was if it was just a copse of trees, but he supposed it made a difference when you paid taxes on those trees). She'd scoffed at his concern as being unnecessary, telling him she could handle a couple of hot-heads, but that still hadn't changed the fact that he needed to go. Alarm set for four, he'd woken up to gray light filtering in through his blinds and his phone buzzing off the night-table. He flipped it open to see a text from Parker "i'll handle the alamo, you just find the hand that fits the glove". And even in this early morning respite, all he could think about was driving south again.