Boxes in the Attic
Pairing/Characters: Nathan, Audrey, hints of Nathan/Audrey
Rating: T
Words: 1,747
Disclaimer: As far as I know Haven is owned by Jim Dunn, Sam Ernst, and SyFy/Universal. If I did own it...well...I wouldn't be writing fan fiction, would I?
Author's Note: So it was never my intent to abandon this story. I just sort of hit a road block, got interested in other fandoms, and wasn't quite sure how to get back into it. Then I told myself I'd get it finished before season 3 aired.
That seemed like a reasonable goal, and then season 3 started airing.
Then I was determined to get it finished by the time season 3 ended.
Well, season 3 ends on Thursday. I just finished this today. (One more chapter after this, probably to be uploaded on either Tuesday or Wednesday). Mostly because I gave myself a short pep-talk that went along the lines of, "Half of chapter 10 is already written and the epilogue was always going to be stupid short anyway, just get it done!" So while watching one hell of a football game this morning (I suppose that if my Seahawks had to lose, I'd prefer it be to the Atlanta Falcons rather than the insufferable 49ers) I put the finishing touches on this chapter and cranked out the epilogue. Hopefully it doesn't suck too badly, a lot of it is just sort of tying themes together and whatnot.
Audrey stared into the abyss.
The abyss stared back.
Or maybe that was just Nathan, waiting at the bottom of the stairs for her to join him. "There's nothing down there that will get me, right? Large spiders? Insects with more than six legs? Anything with razor sharp teeth?" she asked.
He sighed. "No."
Setting her mouth into a firm line, Audrey descended the stairs and tentatively looked about. The basement was large and open, with only a few areas sectioned off. Peering through one door she saw the washer and dryer along with a rather large pile of as yet to be folded laundry. The other door was closed, causing Audrey to frown. An open storage area was tucked in a corner, wall to ceiling shelves loaded down with boxes lining the walls.
"So, what purpose did the basement serve?" Audrey asked as she took in the wood paneling, brown carpet and ratty furniture. The air smelled of cigarette smoke and stale beer, causing her to wrinkle her nose.
"This is where Mom banished the Chief to watch sports," Nathan explained. "Here he could yell and scream and not bother her."
"Smart woman," Audrey said appreciatively. "So what are we doing with this stuff?"
"The furniture will be tossed. It's been on its last legs for years. The TV still works so I'll just donate that to the thrift store, and I'll have to sort through the boxes," he answered, sticking his hands in his pockets and looking around.
"Yay, more boxes," she deadpanned. "And what's behind door number three?"
"Ah, my mom's craft room," Nathan said, his brow furrowing. "I haven't been in there since she died. I don't know if the Chief ever cleaned it out."
"Well, do we open Pandora's Box now or do we wait until we've gone through the boxes?"
"Let's go through the boxes," Nathan answered almost automatically. Audrey rolled her eyes, but she didn't protest. She knew that her partner would have to face his mother's ghost, figuratively and not literally – at least that was what she hoped – when he was ready.
Following him to the storage nook, as it wasn't much bigger than a large closet, she sighed in relief when she saw that the boxes were all neatly labeled. "Well isn't that handy, everything labeled liked that?"
"Maybe," he answered as he pulled a box down that was marked "Halloween Decorations." Pulling the lid off, he poked around a bit, pulling out plastic spiders, a few plastic skulls and some half melted candles. "This one is labeled correctly."
"Let's see if the streak continues," Audrey said as she reached for a box that was labeled with "Christmas" in large, blocky letters. Prying open the lid, she grinned and pulled out a plastic bag with a Santa beard in it. The beard had been gotten by the Chief years before to use for the Haven PD's Christmas party, but was cancelled due to excessive snow. It had since languished in the box, never worn. "Too good to pass up," Audrey chuckled as she opened the packaging, fluffed the beard and the strapped it on. "How do I look?"
Nathan looked up from a sparkly green bowler hat. "Not bad." He put the hat on and turned from side to side. "What about me?"
"Very nice," she smirked. "Very Irish. Very kissable." He cocked his eyebrow at her as she groaned. "That was terrible, I apologize."
"As well you should," he chastised as he pulled the bowler off and tossed it back in the box marked with "St. Patrick's Day" and a few poorly drawn shamrocks in green crayon. "I think these are just the holiday decorations. It's nothing sentimental, just crepe paper and cardboard wall hangings that should be tossed."
"I think I'm going to keep the beard. Maybe I can find a use for it," Audrey said as she pulled it from her face.
"If you say so," Nathan said as he started to make cursory checks of the remaining boxes. Once they had been checked for anything valuable, Audrey took them and stacked them against the wall next to the bottom of the stairs to be hauled upstairs later. After an hour of going through boxes and weeding out the few things that Nathan wanted to keep (Nathan, those are wax pilgrims. Why do you need to keep them?) from the rest of the trash (Honestly, how many plastic spiders are in this box?!), the storage nook was clear.
"I suppose it could have been worse," Audrey noted as she hefted the last box on the top of the stack by the stairs.
"At least most of it is being thrown away," Nathan said as he headed towards the laundry room.
"Laundry? Seriously?"
"Most of it can just be tossed into sacks," he shrugged. "Shirts, pants, and so on."
"Fine, fine, but you're handling anything that didn't see the light of day," she informed him as she accepted a sack and began folding shirts. They worked in silence, but Audrey was sure that a few times Nathan was going to speak. However he'd always clamp his mouth shut and keep working, until the stack of clothing was bundled into sacks to be hauled to the thrift store later.
That left the inevitable craft room. Nathan stood at the door for ten minutes before finally pushing it open, and then stood in the doorway for another fifteen. Impatient, Audrey nearly shoved him through the open door, but realized at the last second that doing so would only irritate her partner. Nathan was a lot easier to get along with when he was in a good mood.
When he finally walked into the room, Audrey trailed behind, her eyes scanning the faded wallpaper. Along one wall was a desk with a sewing machine set it up on it. Above the sewing machine there was a strip of cork, a paper pinned to it. There was fabric folded and stacked next to the sewing machine. Elizabeth had been in the middle of something when she died.
"It was nearly Halloween," Nathan murmured. "She always made my costumes."
"I'm sorry," Audrey said, putting her hand on his shoulder and squeezing. After she let go, she continued to look around the room. There was a large dresser, no doubt containing extra fabric and the patterns and various notions. A full length mirror was hung on the wall next to the dresser, and the remaining free wall had a small gallery of pictures. Wandering over to take a closer look, she realized that it was all photos of Nathan in various Halloween costumes. One year he was a bear, another hockey playing zombie, and perhaps Audrey's favorite was Nathan dressed as a young police officer, wearing what she assumed to be the Chief's Haven PD coat.
"I have no idea what's in here," Nathan sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. "I suppose we should just box it up and sort through it later. I don't think I'd know what to do with half the stuff in here."
"Well, at least anything that could lend itself to decoupage will have a good home," she teased.
"I am never going to live that down, am I?" he grunted as he opened one of the dresser drawers. It was filled with fabric scraps.
"So what do you plan to do with all that fabric?" Audrey asked.
"No clue. I should just throw it away," Nathan muttered as he rifled through it.
"Is there's a quilting group or something that would take a donation of fabric?" Audrey asked.
Rubbing his jaw, Nathan considered Audrey's question. It was entirely possible that the local quilting circle would accept the scraps of fabric, using what they needed and discarding the rest. They often sewed quilts for local families that suffered some sort of trauma, like house fires or terrible accidents in the winter. "There is a local quilting circle. They might be interested."
"Good. I'd hate to waste these Superman print scraps," Audrey grinned, holding up said piece of fabric.
"Yeah, that would be a real shame," Nathan said, his lips twitching up in a ghost of a smile.
Audrey tackled the area near the sewing machine, carefully tucking the pieces of fabric away in a box. She didn't know if she could sew, Audrey Parker didn't know how to sew, anyway, but it was possible that Lucy Ripley, or maybe one of her previous identities, knew how. This was the last costume that Nathan's mother was making for him, she couldn't just get rid of it. It wouldn't be right.
They worked in silence, occasionally making a comment on some odd or end that they found, laughing over silly shaped buttons and gaudy trims. Finally all that was left was the gallery of Nathan's Halloween costumes.
"So, are these going home with you?" Audrey asked.
Nathan stared at the photos. He was smiling in every single one, painful memories of happier days looking back at him. "I don't know yet."
"You've claimed every other family photo in the house," Audrey pointed out, "I don't see why you can't take these, too."
"I'm just not sure that I want them," he replied with a frown.
"Well if you don't want them, I'll take them," Audrey shrugged as she started taking them from the wall and placing them in the box with what would have been Nathan's Halloween costume. "You're adorable in these."
Nathan snorted and waited as Audrey finished packing her box. "All that's left is the furniture. It can wait until later."
"What about the sewing machine?"
"I have no idea, I have no use for it. You?"
"I don't know if I know how to use it."
"It can go to the quilting circle, too. Maybe they know of someone who needs it," Nathan shrugged. "How does that sound?"
"Sounds like a plan," Audrey grinned.
They started hauling the boxes that were stacked by the stairs up to the living room, working in silence once again. Audrey was contemplating why Nathan wouldn't want his childhood photos; Nathan was wondering why Audrey did want them.
"I didn't realize it was so late," Audrey mused as she set a box on the floor. Looking out the window, she noticed the sun was starting to set.
"Well, time flies when you're having fun," Nathan replied with a sardonic twist of his lips.
Audrey merely shook her head.