Set during "The Trial of Audrey Parker," Nathan's POV.
Burnt Bridges
You don't know why he's trying to do this now. Why he's suddenly so intent on connecting with you after thirty years of nothing. And why he has to pick tonight of all nights to play Dr. Phil.
He comes into your office after your seventh (counting the ones before Agent Howard showed up) unanswered call to Audrey with his offer of dinner and conversation. He wants to finally break down that wall between you, to finally listen to what you've been dying to tell him for years.
So you crack, you finally let it all out. All of your frustration over his role in the Troubles; your own fears when your Trouble returned; his inability to just open up and call you on your denial; his lock-jawed stubbornness when it comes to anything like being open with you. And just like you expected, he turns it around on you, makes his own negligence seem like it was your fault.
The argument ends the way all of your arguments - all of your conversations, really - seem to: with one of you storming away from the other in anger.
After a long night of unanswered phone calls your bad mood has only worsened. You arrive at the office bright and early, and the lingering tension between you and the Chief sizzles like an exposed nerve all day. Even while you're working together to try and save Audrey, there's a heady undercurrent that sets you on edge.
By the time he finally gets around to confronting you again, you've had enough. You're tired of his passive aggressive, sarcastic quips. You're tired of his down-talking. And you're sure as hell tired of the way he is shirking all responsibility for your damaged relationship. So you let him have it. You let him hear all of the anger and the frustration and the hurt that's been building up inside of you for the last thirty years.
It's only much later, when you've gotten Audrey back to safety, that you start to wonder if maybe, just maybe, you've damaged that bridge too badly to ever be crossed again.