Thanks again for reading and reviewing, everyone. Reviews make me happy, it's that simple. I'm sorry to report that I will be leaving town for vacation this Friday and will be gone and without access to a computer until Monday of that next week. I will try to write out the next chapter or two by hand if I have any spare time but it may be a while until the next update. Hopefully I will return recharged and give you some exciting chapters to read in the near future.-
It took awhile but Nathan finally managed to detach himself from Audrey before things started to get too serious, the kind of serious that involved nudity anyway. He carefully assembled and then cooked two grilled cheese sandwiches then warmed up a can of chicken noodle soup. Audrey left the kitchen and kept herself busy by setting the small table which took up almost all the space in a small alcove just off of the kitchen. As they passed back and forth of each other between the kitchen and the table, they couldn't help the glances and the wide smiles they traded or the light touches exchanged.
They sat in companionable silence over dinner, catty-corner from each other so that they could brush arms and legs while they ate. Nathan couldn't help the grin that stretched across his face, he felt like he should have felt when he was a teenager and finally snagged his first girlfriend. In actuality, the closest thing he ever had to a girl friend at that time was Hannah which did not turn out well due to her crazy and controlling father. It wasn't until he escaped Haven and went to college that he could be a normal teenager and experience the opposite sex as everyone else did. He was also able to hide his inability to feel pain from almost everyone with the exception of a couple of his room mates and the faculty of the school. Audrey was the first woman who knew about his condition and still treated him normally, still wanted him.
Taking a deep breath, Nathan looked up from the bowl of soup he was absentmindedly twirling his spoon around in and watched as Audrey took a large bite out of her sandwich, making an "Mmm" sound as she chewed.
"I think we should go on a date," he quietly announced, clearing his throat a bit nervously even though he had already spoken.
Audrey's head shot up and she struggled to swallow the bite she had taken as she looked back at him.
"You want to go on a date?" she asked, throat finally cleared of the food that had almost choked her. She carefully lowered her sandwich back onto her plate and wiped the melted butter off her hands and onto a paper napkin.
"Yes," Nathan said as he continued to stir his soup to keep his hand occupied. The other hand was busy drumming fingers on the table top next to his plate.
"Okay," she replied, picking up the sandwich again and taking another bite.
Well, that was easier then expected.
As if reading his mind, Audrey swallowed a much smaller bite and smiled at him, "We just made out on your kitchen counter, Wournos. I think I'm pretty open to the idea of us dating."
Nathan smiled wryly. Any other woman would make a big production out of him asking them out, whether they wanted to go or not. Audrey just said yes with her 'Duh, Nathan' tone of voice, probably thinking that he was being overdramatic about it. He'd always hoped to find someone who didn't give two shits about the CIPA and now, here she was, scarfing down the simple meal he'd just made them like it was going out of style while staring at him like he was the dorkiest human being on earth and she just couldn't help liking him for it. How in the hell did he get so lucky?
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The Freddie was just as deceptive in appearance as many who were treated inside the sprawling structure. If a tourist were to pass by and not get a good look at the nameplate that was discretely tacked onto the side of the house or notice that many who wandered the grounds were clad in robes and pajamas, they would simply see a large, beautiful home with a well-kept lawn. Anyone born and raised in Haven, like Nathan, had always known of its existence and had a healthy respect for and kept a clear distance from the place. Most had a fear that if you got too close to the psychiatric hospital and its residents, you would be tainted by the madness. For many, the Troubles weren't people exhibiting strange abilities making unexplainable things happen. They were of the opinion that people were going crazy thinking they saw things or could do things that defied logic. Until Audrey came, Nathan knew that he was also in severe denial about the all the weirdness that occurred in Haven so he really couldn't blame anyone else for pretending like nothing was wrong.
Audrey, God love her, was of the opinion that the truth was the truth, no matter how weird and how much you didn't want it to be and she had dragged Nathan kicking and screaming to her way of thinking. He was the Scully to her Mulder, she had teased. Nathan hadn't really appreciated the comment at the time she had made it, commenting that he didn't appreciate being compared to a cynical woman, but he knew that it was true in a way.
The atmosphere at the Freddie that morning was calm and quiet. All the patients were complacent and going about their morning routines while ignoring the appearance of the two police officers. Visitors were nothing new to them and most either didn't notice or care that these two visitors were armed. The doctor on-call answered what questions he could in regards to Annabelle Gaynes and one of the nurses took Nathan and Audrey upstairs for a look at her room.
"She's really a rather sweet girl," the nurse who introduced herself as Debbie said. "Every now and then she has an episode but we try to keep her calm and her medication at a steady level."
"What exactly do you mean by episode?" Audrey asked as she climbed the stairs right behind the round yet fit middle aged woman.
Nathan tried not to watch Audrey's ass sway as he took the stairs behind her but gave up on that pretty quickly. Anyway, his hands had grabbed that ass last night and she hadn't minded at the time. It wasn't like he couldn't listen and look at two different things at the same time, he reasoned to himself.
"I'm sure Dr. Burke already told you about Annabelle's condition. Post traumatic stress disorder, while common, affects many people differently," Nurse Debbie lectured as she reached the landing to the second floor and continued down a wide, well lit hallway. "Annabelle lost her parents and younger siblings in a tragic event and was later somewhat disfigured by similar circumstances. She continues to try and repress what happened which is why she's been here for so long."
"What do you mean by event?" Nathan asked, eyes darting around to take in the line of closed doors that surrounded them as well as making numerous backward glances to make sure no one was following him. This wasn't the kind of place you wanted someone to get the drop on you.
"Poor dear lost her family in a fire," Nurse Debbie glanced back at them with a sad expression. "Then later she was burned very badly in another fire but we think that one was on purpose, that she burned herself. Now she has an understandable but very irrational fear of fire."
"So the first fire was an accident? Was that in Haven?" Audrey questioned.
Nathan shook his head at the same time Nurse Debbie did. He remembered that Annabelle hadn't started school with him until junior high and they had already researched every fire that had taken place in the last two decades but found no mention of her or her family.
"No, Portland, I believe," Nurse Debbie said, furrowing her eyebrows in thought as she stopped at one of the last doors down the hall.
"And you believe that the second fire, when she got burned, she set on purpose?" Audrey asked.
"From what she alluded to in therapy, that is what we believe. Some people greatly fear something yet have an unhealthy attraction to it at the same time. The first fire was an accidental electrical fire, we checked to make sure," Nurse Debbie stated, turning the knob of the door and stepping back to let it swing open.
Nathan's eyes widened and he heard Audrey let out a little gasp as she took a step back and ran into him. He settled his hand on her shoulder and she didn't move away as they took in the sight before them. What would have otherwise been a dull and somewhat dreary bedroom with only a bed, a dresser, a desk and a chair was instead a room covered in paintings, drawings and sketches of various depictions of fire as well as half a dozen fire extinguishers mounted or placed on the walls and floor all over the room.
"Fear and attraction," Audrey murmured, giving Nathan that look that clearly read 'Jack Pot! Crazy fire bug lives here'.
Nathan sighed as he followed his partner into the room to get a closer look, dropping his hand from her shoulder but making sure she was still within reach. Not only did he have a feeling that their date would have to wait for some other time, instead of that night like he had planned, he also had a feeling that Audrey's apartment fire was not the last fire they would see in Haven in the near future.
