The Best of Times and the Worst of Times

AN: Due to a ridiculous stuff up on my part a chapter was uploaded as part of "Time to Be Honest" which should have been part of "Crash" – clearly the two stories have a lot in common but Audrey and Nathan are at different places in them. I've removed the incorrect chapter and have a new chapter here for you. It picks up an hour or so after Audrey left Nathan's after their first night together, so this is their first day at work since consummating their relationship. It turned out a bit more serious than I intended but I hope there are still enough sweet moments in there to carry the story along. Next chapter will be lighter I promise!

Nathan walked into the station with a broad grin on his face, whistling a happy tune to himself. "Good morning Stan," Nathan greeted warmly.

"Ah, hi Chief," Stan replied in a perplexed tone, it would probably be rude to point out that Nathan wasn't usually so sunny first thing in the morning. "Good morning isn't it?" he added more agreeably.

"Beautiful," Nathan agreed. Then he realised that he was going to get into some serious trouble if Audrey caught him acting like he'd just gotten lucky for the first time in… well, way too long. "For getting some work done," Nathan added in an unnaturally serious tone. "Is Parker in yet?"

"In her office," Stan replied, totally bewildered by Nathan's inconsistent mood. To be honest, most of the time Stan thought Audrey and Nathan spoke their own language, more often than not they were talking about things the rest of the station barely understood and mostly didn't want to understand.

Nathan nodded and decided it was a good diplomatic move to avoid Audrey and go to his own office. She'd know where to find him. The downside was this left him to brave the coffee machine alone, but he had survived for years before Audrey Parker walked into his life, he'd just be patient and end up drinking it half-cold.

Nathan didn't have much heart for paperwork and returning the endless phone calls the Chief seemed to get but he did it because he had too. He caught himself staring off into space a few times, recollecting the curve of Audrey's hips or the texture of the skin behind her neck, but at least he had his privacy in the Chief's office. Knowing Audrey was just down the hallway heightened his excitement about their date that evening but he forced himself to set aside six different excuses to drop into her office.

When a call finally came in for a suspicious death at the primary school he would have been happy to have had an excuse to escape his office he hadn't known that a child had died. Those cases were always the worst, especially if it meant there was a troubled child at fault.

Nothing put people on edge like a child dying so it was easy to stay professional in the car as Nathan gave Audrey a rundown of the facts of the case, there was no temptation to smile or flirt under the circumstances. "I'll check out the scene, you can start interviewing teachers and students," Nathan suggested as the principal escorted them towards the janitors cupboard where a little girl had been found dead. The crime scene team were already taking photographs.

"It's okay Nathan, I can handle it," Audrey whispered back, shooting him a knowing glance. She wouldn't let him try to protect her, not if it impaired her ability to help the troubled.

"We were all very distressed of course," the principal, Ms Hudson, a middle aged neatly dressed woman with dark hair in a bun explained. "Her mother's in my office, crying, she wanted to stay with Tilly but she collapsed, I called the nurse and we helped her into my office. She had no idea…." The principal stopped herself.

"No idea of what?" Audrey probed.

"It may be nothing, but the other students are saying Tilly did this to herself, that there was something different about her," Ms Hudson whispered in a hush tone. "I admit when I heard the girl had been home-schooled I did wonder, but when started here at the beginning of the term she was a perfectly nice little girl, smart, well spoken, a little shy maybe, I can't believe this has happened, if I thought there was any danger I would have done something."

"Of course, so how do they think she died?" Nathan asked.

"That's the thing, it seems that she drowned, but there was no water anywhere in the janitor's cupboard."

"Does anyone know how Tilly got into the cupboard?" Audrey asked.

"I hate to say this, but for all reports, she was hiding. It seems the other girls were teasing her and instead of coming to a teacher…" Ms Hudson looked awkward.

"Well it's hard to go to a teacher when you're different," Nathan defended. He could imagine all too well how his had happened.

Audrey shot Nathan a sympathetic look and then continued with her questioning. "So has anything else unusual happened recently?"

"No, nothing, I know to call Chief Wuornos if I have any concerns," Ms Hudson.

"Good, here's my card too, if you're ever worried about something like this and you can't get in touch with Nathan, it's sort of my area too."

"Thank you, Miss Parker."

"You all right Parker?" Nathan asked as they climbed back into the Bronco after what seemed like an endless afternoon.

"As much as anyone can be after that, that poor girl," Audrey sighed. As far as they could work out Tilly Summers was a victim of her own trouble. When she started to cry the tears materialised as a flood, it was the reason her mother had home-schooled her until Tilly had begged to go to normal school with the other kids. Unfortunately away from her mother's protection it had only taken one bad day for Tilly's trouble to turn deathly. Mrs Summers was shattered. To Audrey's surprise as she had comforted her it was Nathan who had stepped in and said, "You did the best you could Mrs Summers, raising a special child like Tilly, there's no rule book for that, she wanted to come to school, you gave her a chance to be a normal kid, no one can blame you for that."

Back in the car Nathan remembered they'd made dinner plans. The happy morning when those plans had been made seemed longer than nine hours ago. "I understand if you want to put off tonight, not that that was what I was thinking about when we were in there."

"No, some company would be good after today. If you're still up for it? I got the feeling you took this case pretty personally?" Audrey asked gently.

"I remember wanting to be normal, I remember my mother not knowing how to keep me safe. The Chief always told her she had to let me be, give me the best chance at a normal childhood. There were times when things could have gone badly, if my affliction had been more dangerous…." He shrugged. "I don't know."

"Well we'll write it up as best we can, and I'll go to the funeral, I think that's all we can do for Tilly and her family now," Audrey offered gently.

"I'll go too; it's the least she deserves."

The car ride back to the station was quiet.

Not being able to feel the heat of his hot water was one of the many frustrations of his condition but Nathan still felt comforted by the water pouring over him, knowing that he'd been clean and fresh for his date. If it had been any other date with any other girl he would have cancelled after such a draining day at work but the memory of waking up next to Audrey kept him from sliding into one of his darker moods.

"Hey, come in," Audrey greeted him warmly. She gave Nathan a quick kiss on the lips that reassured him the night before hadn't just been a dream. She smelled of shampoo and her hair looked freshly blow dried. She had changed out of her work clothes into a white silk blouse and a black skirt. She looked radiant.

"You look great," Nathan smiled effortlessly.

"Wine?" Audrey offered, pouring herself a glass of red.

"Yes please," Nathan agreed.

"I think it should be white because of the chicken, but all I had was red," Audrey apologised.

"No, I should have brought some, I'm sorry I just forgot, after everything," Nathan looked slightly spacey and embarrassed.

"It's fine, it's just us, relax," Audrey reassured him.

"This is the best I've felt all day, well except for maybe this morning," Nathan agreed smiling broadly and looking distinctly googly eyed.

"There you go again with that smile, but I have to say you're a better actor than I thought Wuornos, Stan actually thinks we're fighting, we should probably be careful not to over do it," Audrey smiled.

"Oops," Nathan admitted. "Before I know it Duke will be threatening to beat me up if I don't apologise to you."

"For what?"

"For whatever I've done wrong."

"Why would it be you? I could have done something wrong."

"Really?"

"Okay, it would be you," Audrey admitted laughing. "You know this is really nice."

"Yeah it is," Nathan agreed, with a gaze that said a few other adjectives came to mind. It was new to both of them, the idea of being in a real relationship that was there at the beginning of the day and the end of the day, even on a bad day, and they were both surprised to find how good it felt.