Disclaimer – I don't own Eureka... but Nate's mine... sort of...

Author - Emcey

A/N – I've had a few people ask me (at least one reviewer, Kit, and a few friends of mine who read my stories cause they like me) what Nathan Stark's reaction would be to Nate Columbus (the organic computer version of Nathan that I used as a Kim 2.0 replacement) and Nate's relationship with Jack, assuming Nathan and Allie got remarried without the I Do, Over complications.

So here's a possible reaction...

Teaser – Nathan had never been one to worry about the path not taken... (AU for my Nate Universe)

Pairings – Jack/Nate, Nathan/Allison

What If

The day after the Columbus landed, the ship opened up and released Nate, a human/organic computer hybrid that looked just like Nathan. Nathan had been shocked, to say the least, but he also felt inexplicably defensive of Nate when people treated him like he was just a machine.

After a few days, Nathan had to admit to himself that Nate reminded him somewhat of Callister. It was like Nate was his second chance to do what he couldn't in the past: help an artificially created intelligence prove that it (or he, in this case) deserved the same rights as any other sentient being. And, once the data from Nate was collected, Nate was officially put into the records as Nate Columbus, son of Henry Deacon and Kim Yamazaki, a citizen of the United States of America with all the rights that come with citizenship.

Nathan was excited for Nate's achievement, though he'd been too busy with Allison and their newborn to have all that much to do with Nate. It was Jack and Henry who'd gone to bat for Nate, really, and he seemed to get along with them the best. Henry was the one Nate went to for advice. Jack was the one Nate went to to have fun or get help. Nathan was... kind of irrelevant.

That didn't bother Nathan much. He was content with his life just the way it was. There was no reason he could possibly conceive of to want anything else. Sure, there had been times before he and Allie got back together that he'd considered pursuing a relationship with Jack Carter, but Allie was a safer choice and they were happy together. Nathan was glad to be with her; he wouldn't have had his beautiful baby daughter if he'd never gotten back with Allison.

Yet, having turned the corner to find Jack and Nate liplocked in a lab, Nathan couldn't help but stare.

Nathan had never been one to worry about the path not taken... he was perfectly content with his life. It was just... was there more to life than being merely content?

As Nathan finally passed by the lab, he wondered if, in another life, his daughter Jenna might have had a step-sister named Zoe...

A/N – Honestly, I always thought that Nathan getting back together with Allison was a mistake. They never really sat down and tried to work out the problems that ended their marriage the first time. It was only the circumstances surrounding Kevin's 'illness' that brought them back together and I felt that, eventually, they'd wind up divorced again. There's a big difference between being content and being happy; I guess that's where I was going with this. Nathan is content to be back with Allison and to be a father to Kevin and Jenna, but Allison's not necessarily the person who makes him truly happy and Nathan's starting to realize that he may have missed out on something by playing it safe.