-I don't own any characters and I don't own Haven-
Note: Another chapter is coming soon. Just to let anyone know who might wonder.
The whole sky was nearly black. No wonder Duke had seemed rattled. This was far beyond a normal storm.
The air around them was warm and crackled with electricity. Nathan didn't need to have feeling in his skin to feel what was around them. It gave the sense of an adrenaline rush that just wasn't natural. The smell of the dead fish was horrible, but not as horrible as the scene. It looked like-
"Were these fish electrocuted?" Audrey asked after she'd bent down to check out one of the hundreds that layed on the shore. "Only the fish?" She again asked no one in particular.
Some were ripped open, exposing innards which left Duke to gag into the collar of his shirt that he held over his nose. There were already people cleaning up the beach a ways down. One man so large that Nathan immediatly could tell it was Dwight, his father's "cleaner".
"A lightning strike had to have hit the water." All three of them turned to see Chris, with a camera in hand, walking towards them. When Audrey's hands gripped Nathan's shoulders, he didn't understand why. He was simply walking forward to greet their guest. Unfortunetly, Duke beat him to it.
"Don't you dare move," Audrey hissed to Nathan. Over his shoulder she said, "Chris, what are you doing here? I told you I needed my partner and he can't be that with you around."
"His inability to be a cop with me around isn't my fault." He said with a smile in his voice. "Plus," Chris continued. "How was I supposed to know you'd come to this exact spot?"
"He's right, Audrey," Duke said then. "Nice to see you again, Chris."
Chris didn't bother greeting Duke in return as he made his way to Audrey. She looked at him from the corner of her eyes, grabbing Nathan's shoulders to move him around. Chris stopped in place. "Are you seriously using him to block yourself from me?"
"Of course not. I'm keeping him from looking at you. I told you I needed my partner. If he looks at you, he's gonna be no help to me."
"How can he help when he doesn't even know what's going on?"
"That's what I need him for. To find out."
When Nathan thought about the thunder and how dangerous it was to be outside, he knew he'd snapped out of it. Keeping his back to Chris, he pushed Audrey's reluctant hold off of him. A flash in the sky led Chris to say exactly what he was thinking. "We all need to get out of here. If it struck the water, that doesn't mean we're safe standing next to it."
Nathan headed off before all of them. He couldn't stand hanging around while his eyes lingered on the ground. All in avoidence of Chris Brody.
He had been right though. It wasn't Chris' fault that his trouble was passed down to him.
That didn't make it any less of a problem for anyone. Particularly for Nathan, in this moment when he needed his thoughts straight.
Clenching his fists, he made sure to keep up his stride as he walked off toward his car. They all needed to leave and being away from the nuisance that was Brody's "super power" was the best idea for the moment.
"The electricity in the air is...lingering." Audrey's voice was closer behind Nathan now and he wondered if he'd taken slow steps, or if she'd hurried to keep up with him. "I don't think this is, Laurie," Audrey mentioned.
"It can't be," Chris said then. How he knew his father's mistress wouldn't be a suspect wasn't further explained from him. Nathan knew Audrey would have caught onto that, saving it for a later time to question him.
"We should get out of here. Especially, Chris. Haven needs as many scientists as it can get," Duke said then.
"Since when do you believe so much in science?" Audrey scoffed.
"Just so happens, Audrey, that I love science. I just don't have a lot of people to... To talk about it with, ya know?"
"I'm not about to be that person," Chris said flatly.
Nathan couldn't blame him for letting that be known to Duke.
They'd made it to the gravel where Nathan was parked when he realized, he could literally hear a crackling in his ears. He was pulling off his coat, ready to climb into his bronco and get back to the station, but he paused. Something didn't feel right. A teetering that felt on the edge of something bad and something even worse. He kept his gaze off Chris as he looked around, but honestly he didn't think looking at the guy now would have faltered his initial thought to check out what was around them. And what was over them.
The clouds were circling, the wind had begun to pick up. People down the beach were scattering to their cars, away from the water. Lightning flickered in the sky. Absentmindedly, he tossed his coat onto the hood of his car and started making his way to Audrey, who seemed paralyzed in place.
"We need to go!" Nathan called out to her.
Duke made his way to Chris, who was still walking towards his own car. He so worried about putting distance between himself and Duke, that he didn't notice Audrey had stopped walking with them. She stood a good distance away with her sleeve lifted as she inspected the hairs on her arms. Nathan was hastily making his way toward her. A feeling of dread coming over him.
"Parker." He warned loudly to her.
Since the troubles had returned, including Audrey showing up, he'd had no choice but to throw logic into the wind more times than he'd ever wanted. A person could very well have been controlling the storm and he couldn't doubt it. Nathan's logic had developed itself into a hard shell as he'd grown from boy to man, but now with just about every case they came across, he had to fight against it.
"Parker?" He called even louder still. She jumped as a loud snap came from her left.
"Audrey!" He yelled at the top of his lungs and she finally turned to walk towards him, but she didn't look like she could leave where she stood. Nathan instantly went to her.
A thin lightning bolt came down even closer to her, disrupting the rocks, sending them flicking every which way. Audrey covered her face, a quick scream coming from her throat as she turned away from the small pelts that hit her. They hit him, too, but of course, it didn't matter in the least.
Reaching her finally, he circled his arms around her waist. Nathan managed to yank her away from the spot she was in just as an even louder snap came. It had been so near that both of them jerked, sending them downward. Audrey's body fell on top of his when he hit the ground. Lightning had struck where she'd just been. Where they both had just been. It was obviously directed. With how close to her it had hit, he had no choice but to figure it was definetly a someone, who had done it. Who that someone was, they'd have to spend time in figuring out. But at the moment, he felt a little off.
There was yelling, but it was muffled until it got closer. Everything slowly began clearing in his ears and in his head then. Their names were heard, coming straight from Duke.
Feet rushed through rocks, spitting them around as Duke and Chris came to a hault at their sides. Chris instantly pulled Audrey free from Nathan. Duke took two seconds, seeing Audrey was fine then turned his attention onto Nathan. Duke dropped, grabbing him by the arm and helping him sit up. Nathan's head felt light.
"You hit the ground pretty hard," Duke informed him. He knew that, since he'd been one of two people who had fallen. Audrey dropped in front of him then, both of her hands on his knees as he sat up even more.
"Are you ok? We need to get you to a hospital." She looked upwards to Chris, where Nathan refused to look. "We need to get him to a hospital."
"We need you both at the hospital," Chris hurridly said.
"I'm fine," Nathan muttered. It was a lie. He felt like complete shit. He wasn't able to know how badly his back looked nor how it hurt, but his head and everything else felt like it was in pain. A strange feeling since none of it came from the outer parts of his body.
"Nathan, you're not fine. You hit the ground on your back. Hard." Duke seemed seriously worried. If Nathan's head hadn't began to ache so badly, he might have made a joke about Duke's sudden sense of responsibility towards him.
He was shocked entirely when Chris reached for his other arm, working with Duke to get him to his feet. He didn't think Chris liked him all that much. If at all.
Duke kept an arm under Nathan's helping him to the bronco on his swaying feet. "This is already weird, so just keep your comments to yourself," Nathan gruffed.
"Sure thing, chief," Duke responded with a short laugh.
The swimming in his head felt wonderful. His whole body felt like it was floating. He lifted an arm...nothing.
Nathan was both excited and nervous- an odd combination considering what had gone on. Then there was the calm feeling that had begun to settle in his bones, which was the affect of the morphine given to him. It could have been a mass of contradictions, but he actually found he was enjoying it all. Emotions for him normally blurred and all caused one thing for him: angst. Right now though they had managed to seperate, allowing him to be able to experience each intensity as its own.
"The morphine will wear off in a couple of hours at most. We didn't give you much," the nurse informed him. He didn't bother responding.
He'd reminded them of his curse. The idiopathic neuropathy. They had given him the drugs anyway. His back he guessed, was in far worse shape than he'd thought. Had Elenor Carr still been there, she'd have let him go on his way after bandaging his back. But here he was in a hospital bed. Doped up and floating.
He felt like laughing.
"You've got visitors, honey," she said in a very motherly way. He nodded when she looked to him for an answer. "I'll send them in and be right back with the question for your release."
There was chatter and Nathan stared toward the door with his head against the pillows. His bed had been adjusted for him, the pillows as well. He layed there, but it felt like hovering. The sooner the drugs would wear off, the better.
That thought became stronger when Audrey came in because she looked like she was glowing.
"Nathan?" She dragged a chair from the corner of the room and sat herself in it right at Nathan's bedside. He grinned at her and she made a face.
"Did they give you something?"
"Morphine," he told her. "Ah," she replied as if she'd already figured just by his facial expression. Valid, since he knew he didn't give full smiles very often.
"I told them not to, but they aren't Dr. Carr."
"That's for sure." With a pause, she studied him. He wondered wildly what could have been going through her mind. "How's your back?"
"I'll live."
She raised an eyebrow at him. "Obviously, but what did they say?"
"Nothing to concern yourself with."
"You're not making this easy," she said then.
"I wasn't aware I was supposed to."
Audrey's hand lifted and touched his shoulder. They had cut the rest of his shirt off considering the back of it was already ruined. Audrey's hand to his bare shoulder brought him back to earth. The floating slowly ended, keeping him anchored where her hand rested.
Her left hand became viewable when she raised it to the bed. He noticed the bandage around it. Nathan was already moving before he could stop himself and he picked up her small white hand. It reminded him of a dove. Curled, white, and so small in his large hands.
"What happened?"
She blinked a couple of times before looking down from his face. "Oh, I smacked the back of it against the rocks when we went down."
"I tried to keep you from getting hurt."
"You did, Nathan. You pretty much saved my life."
He grinned, lifting a shoulder in a half shrug. "Nothing you haven't done for me."
He slowly began pulling her fingers open, exposing her palm which hadn't been hurt. He flipped it over, inspecting the back. A bit of blood had seeped through the bandage. "Does it hurt?"
"It's sore, but not really. They're just scratches. You know, nothing to concern yourself with."
He looked up at her, seeing that small smile she often saved for him when she gave a witty come-back. She wasn't pulling her hand away, so he wasn't going to release it.
Instead, he trailed his fingers along hers. Watching how they moved when he touched a ticklish spot then commiting it to memory.
"Where did the other two go?"
"Chris wanted to check out the area again. Duke's waiting for a ride."
"Why doesn't he use the same way he got to the station?" She made a face like she'd been wondering the same thing.
After a long pause, she finally drew her hand back, pushing hair from her face.
"I already called the station. We're free for the rest of the day."
"What's left of it, you mean."
The nurse stepped in then. She smiled to Audrey then to Nathan, her eyes wrinkling in the corners. "I guess you get to go home. No more observation for you."
He scrambled his way off of the bed, reaching for his coat from the edge of the bed. After pulling it on, he zipped it all the way up since he was bare chested. It wouldn't look normal if he'd gone out with it open. With the series of storms happening, not to mention him walking around half naked.
Nathan signed himself out as Audrey made a call. He only guessed it could have been Brody. Duke stood next to him, his dark gaze focused on the profile of his face.
Nathan snapped as he pushed the clipboard towards the waiting female at the counter. "What?"
"I can't believe you thought to push her out of the way."
"I didn't think about anything", Nathan replied quickly.
Duke eyed him closely as if he didn't believe what he'd said. "But your first reaction was to get her out of the way..."
Nathan looked over his shoulder where Audrey seemed to be in the heat of conversation. She glanced at him and Duke then turned away. "Just like you said. It was reaction. There was no time to think about it." Audrey was the single most important thing to him. It just so happened that both his body and conscience knew that as well.
"You love her that much, but you're watching Chris Brody move in on her?"
He looked at him, seeing Duke's dark eyes filled with a dare to Nathan. Daring him to doubt it or to argue it. Nathan wouldn't have bothered. It didn't surprise him that someone knew.
It did surprise him however, that it was Duke who'd been receptive enough to notice. "I'm not watching. I'm waiting."
"You might wait too long."
Both men turned their eyes on Audrey. She was just getting off the phone, her chest rising in a deep breath as she tucked the phone back into her jacket pocket.
It was fine that Duke didn't understand. No one needed to. If they were meant to be, then it would work itself out. He was at least making ripples in the water. It wasn't his place to step in between her life that she was finally getting together. Especially not when he had no idea what Audrey's feelings towards him were.
For years he'd been non-feeling and it wasn't by choice. He'd managed to build some sort of an impenetrable wall to protect himself. It wasn't easy growing up around kids who knew about your trouble and made it a sort of pass-time. To them it was funny. A light-hearted game that gave them something to do. It had been Nathan's trouble that had been the source for entertainment for them. For years he'd kept himself closed off from people. Better to be seen as a walking robot than a human-being who was easily hurt emotionally, rather than physically, and could be an easy target.
Then there was Jess, who'd seen right through him to the actual man he was. He'd been lucky that way. To find her and find a part of himself he'd kept dormant. But in the end, he'd proven not to be enough.
Until Audrey Parker stepped in and bulldozed her way into his personal world. Sure, at first he'd thought it was neat that she didn't think of him any less, but she hadn't thought of him as any more either. That's what had kept his mind from teetering between partners and friends. And then she'd become a friend. More than that, she'd become his only friend and she hadn't kept it secret that it was likewise to her as well.
He found a kindered soul in Audrey. Someone orphaned, finding her own home through her work. Someone who hadn't had a lot of close contact with friends because of her inability to really grasp the whole relationship part of it. He happened to be in the same boat. Though he'd grown up with a father, it wasn't his own. All of his family was gone now, and there was no clue to if Audrey's even existed anymore.
He found a fascination with Audrey Parker. As much as she was a mystery, she was also plainly readable to him. He didn't need to know every detail of her life to know who she was. It had been frusterating to him, the way she'd sort of fit herself into the town, into everyone's lives. But he'd also found her to be increadibly charming. What was even more charming was the fact that she had no idea sometimes, just how she seemed to people.
In so many ways he was a better and fuller person with her around. He'd gone so long without someone, without anyone really, that a little more time in trying to figure out what he was to her, wouldn't be such a horrible thing. And as he'd already thought, he wanted her happy above all. He'd almost lost her once, now twice. The idea of keeping her from her own personal happiness made him sick. He wanted her happy. Even if it wasn't with him.
He had waited for, what felt like, all his life to have her find Haven.
Audrey started back towards them. He thought of suggesting the Gull, since they were obviously dropping Duke off there anyway. Nathan was hungry and if he was hungry, she surely was. He felt a lot more patient at the moment, with the drugs still lightly lingering in his system. Another hour of Duke Crocker would pose no threat to his sanity.
To Duke, he finally said his reply before she reached them. "I've waited this long for her..."
Something in the very pit of him was whispering he wouldn't have to, but Nathan knew if he'd waited that long already...
He could wait a little longer.
