Saturdays were Duke's least favorite shifts to take, but two people had called in sick so he found himself driving over to the Gull after a restless night. Yawning, he wondered if he would have been any worse off if he'd simply stayed awake and hadn't bothered to try to sleep. A wistful part of him hoped that Audrey was having trouble sleeping too, but he shoved the thought away, not wanting to sour his mood before facing the breakfast crowd.

The first thing he noticed when he pulled into the parking lot was that someone had written on his chalkboard. He forced down indignation over being vandalized once he realized that it was a message, not graffiti. Curious, he walked over to the board, wondering who had had the forethought to bring chalk with them of all things.

Duke read the message a couple of times before nodding and letting himself into the Gull. He came back out a minute later, chalk in hand, and added a message of his own. Heading inside, he felt better than he had in days, but anxious too.

It was finally beginning to get cool out, but Nathan was still a little alarmed when it took a slight effort to get his truck to start later that morning. He did all he could to keep it in good working order, but it was quite old, and he hated the thought of ever replacing it like the chief had been after him to do the last two years of his life.

As he'd gone around and peeled off the orange and red leaves that had plastered themselves to the truck's body, he noticed that he could see Audrey's jacket neatly folded on the rear seat. The Gull was on the way to where he was already going, so he decided to swing by and drop it off for her before heading south.

The Gull's parking lot was more than half full, and Nathan decided that people inexplicably were drawn to the scent of waffles that assaulted him as soon as he got out of the truck. Walking up towards Audrey's staircase, he was a little surprised to notice how little writing was on the board by Duke's door. Lately he'd been very thorough about noting the day's specials, but there wasn't enough writing for that. Curious, he stepped towards it for a closer look.

The board was marked up in two different handwritings, both of them familiar to him.

On top it said "I'm sorry."
The bottom read "Me too. Let's talk."

Sighing, Nathan got back into his truck and dropped Audrey's jacket back where he'd found it; he knew she had more than one, so he'd hang on to it until Monday. Whipping out his phone, he pressed speed dial. "Hey, Jess. It's Nathan. I was thinking about driving down to Kittery soon. Do you have plans? Would you like to join me, then? Great, I'll be right over."

Kittery, Maine

Fluffy lambswool clouds dotted the sky. It had been the kind of day that proved that Mark Twain was right. If you didn't like the weather, wait ten minutes and it will change. It had rained and cleared out three or four times already, but it looked like it was settling down to be a nice day.

Nathan and Jess had been down the strip where all the outlet malls were in Kittery, southern Maine's outlet shopping paradise. Almost anything you wanted could be found there, provided it came as a second. Jess had needed to re-outfit her home. When she had left Haven she had given away most of the housewares and minor appliances, and had planned to ship some of the furniture to Canada, but had never done so. As a result, she had been living in a relatively nicely furnished, yet curiously functionless home. It had been a minor miracle, mostly because Nathan had ensured her house had a regular patrol by it, that the copper pipes hadn't been stolen.

They'd hit up Crate and Barrel first, where Jess had eyed the dishes and plates with some asperity. Nothing in the store seemed to be up to her demanding standards. She had gone through it as a small whirlwind, staring at all of the items before dismissing or adding them to her cart.

Nathan's attention was caught when she quietly laughed as she found some out of season Christmas decorations sitting on a shelf, nearly above her head. He looked at her, curiously, and she just pointed and the blown glass reindeer ornament that had caught her fancy. It took him a moment to identify the source of her amusement, and when he did, he blushed, grateful for the stores darkened interior.

"I would say some buck was very, very lucky, Nathan." Laugher made her slight accent all the sweeter.

Nathan considered the rather large and ill-placed hole in the deer's hindquarters that must have been used to blow the interior of the clear ornament. For a moment he got lost in the thought that no other woman of his current acquaintance would have risked such a risqué observation. It was sort of refreshing. "Either that or she has a severe case of the runs."

Jess giggled, and darted around the tall shelving units, finding oddly shaped vases in the next aisle, Nathan following. She quickly made her way through a forest of furniture, most of which looked like it had come with Dr. Who from sometime in the 1970s. The rest was very darkly paneled wood. Her quick circuit of the store completed, she went to the register and purchased a few items, and then ran them out to the Bronco.

Their next stop was the Pepperidge Farm store. Nathan was amused to find out that you could buy any kind of goldfish cracker you wanted, there. He eventually decided to get a large gallon sized container of plain goldfish. He knew a certain pirate that desperately needed some in his life. Preferably scattered around anywhere that said pirate liked to keep neat. Duke had unusually strong feelings about goldfish crackers, feeling that Cheeze-its were the infinitely superior cracker.

While he had been selecting the appropriate method to annoy Duke, Jess had made her way to the back corner of the store. She had proceeded to laden down her shopping basket with enough Milano cookies to wallpaper her kitchen. He had been faintly stunned at the number of sandwich cookies she had managed to amass in her basket.

"Going to an office party?" he asked, innocently.

The dark-haired woman glared at him. "Milano cookies are proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

"I thought that was beer."

"Only if you are a man, Nathan. Nothing's better than a good wine and cookie binge."

Nathan considered that for a moment. "According to Audrey, all things are better with cupcakes."

"That is only because she hasn't been properly introduced to Milanos."

Nathan declined to point out that Audrey had once told him that Biscotti and Milano cookies were nothing more that deliberately stale cookies. It would probably go better for everyone involved if Jess didn't know that piece of information about her friend.

Once they left the house of goldfish and cookies they continued down the strip. As they approached the local Burger King, Jess wondered "Do you think the hamburgers have been discounted, too?"

"I was wondering if you had to buy them in bulk. Maybe you have to get a dozen burgers," Nathan replied.

"I would be more worried that if the burgers are discounted, they're a half hour from expiring." Jess settled back into the Bronco's passenger seat until Nathan parked.

Feeling daring, they entered Burger King, and were slightly disappointed to learn that the prices there were pretty much the same as they were any other place along route one.

After a dubious lunch, they walked across a small bridge and found their way to another strip mall, one that hosted a kitchen store. Here Jess finally found the dishware she had long sought. She picked out a simple pattern with a single iris off-set on the center of the plate, made by Corning. She was also able to pick up a mixer, some glass baking sheets, and some basic kitchen utensils such as pots and pans. She'd even found what Nathan thought may have been the worlds smallest frying pan. It was deliberately designed to fry a single egg.

Rather than try to cross back over the bridge carrying Jess's bounty, he went back and drove his truck over. With Jess's final purchases, Nathan's truck was stuffed with kitchenware, glassware, a small TV (bought over the border in a NH Best Buy earlier in the day), a few other knick-knacks, and a couple of shelving units. Most of the heavy work had been done. Since Kittery was so far away from Haven, though, rather than go home, they decided to spend the rest of the day in the small town.

They descended into the next outlet mall that had obviously seen better days. A few of the stores were closed, but Jess decided to go into the Reed and Barton store. Nathan's overwhelming impression of the store was that most things were silver or pewter, and were designed to celebrate bringing a kid into the world. He never knew there were that many silver spoons that could be bought. Never mind banks, music boxes, and picture frames that could be monogrammed.

While Jess wandered around, Nathan went to the back of the store which was the clearance closet. It was a small room filled with toys. One toy in particular struck his fancy. It was a small stuffed raccoon. There was a sticker on it that said squeeze me. Curious, he did. Instead of some cute saying, or raccoon chittering noise, the sound that issued forth from the raccoon was a rather loud roar. It repeated three times, and then was silenced. Thinking that the voice box was perhaps malfunctioning, he picked up another one and pressed it. It too roared three times. Jess had drifted over, wondering what Nathan had found to cause that noise.

"I do not think that the person who designed this has ever heard a raccoon," she said.

Nathan nodded. "Either that or they have raccoons confused with Tyrannosaurus Rex. I know it can be very difficult to tell them apart in Maine."

"Yes, I often confuse huge reptiles with small mammals," Jess commented solemnly.

"Said smugly like someone who passed biology," Nathan retorted playfully.

Her eyebrows rose. "You didn't?"

"Oh, I did. But there was this kid, Nick, in my 10th grade biology class who was utterly convinced that snakes don't have bones..."

The pair reached one end of the strip, where there was an enormous candy store called Yummi's. For a lark, he pulled in to the small parking lot. They both got out of the car and wandered into the store, looking at the large red sign that proudly proclaimed CANDY. They entered the store and were amazed by all the processed sugar in front of them.

The front of the store held a small section for tourists. It was filled with lobsters, fishing images, and shirts. Jess held one up for Nathan, a slightly maniacal grin on her face. "Got Lobsterpups?" she asked, echoing the shirt's sentiment.

Nathan looked at the shirt, noticing that while Jess pronounced the "R", it wasn't actually written. The shirt had a picture of a hotdog looking roll with a lobster in it. The front was actually written "Got LobstahPups?" Neither of the two most recent residents of Haven had picked up the pattern that the final "R" of most words was almost always dropped.

"No," he replied succinctly. He tried to maintain a firm, dispassionate look, but judging from the French-Canadian woman's giggling, he failed, miserably.

Jess wandered through the crowded aisles, with Nathan following her. The store wasn't really laid out in any particular order. There would be several kinds of nuts next to taffy. But if you went looking for Boston Baked Bean candy, which were peanuts covered in something red, they weren't found with the nuts, they were at an end cap near something that looked like a gummy worm farm.

She picked up a package of wax bottles with brightly colored liquid inside and another package of candy cigarettes. "I haven't seen these in years. My grandmother used to buy them for me when I stayed with her."

"I think that this may have every candy known to men." Nathan picked up a Sky Bar and a package of Necco wafers. Together they poked through the rest of the store, finding candy lobsters, licorice babies, and all sorts of other candies that had long since disappeared from common grocers' stores.

The two paid for their purchases, and then drove down the opposite side of the road to hit up the malls they hadn't visited yet while going north. The next mall on the southbound side hosted a large number of clothing stores, including Old Navy. Jess wanted to go in, so Nathan reluctantly agreed. He'd never been in an Old Navy store, and could have happily lived the rest of his life without going in one, but for Jess he would.

Together they wandered around the store, Jess picking up some soft outlandishly patterned sleepwear as they roamed. He thought it was ridiculous that several patterns of sleep pants were made of polar fleece but patterned to look like plaid flannel.

When they reached the Men's section Jess started eying him with a critical stare. "You know, you always wear practically the same thing. It's always jeans and a long sleeve shirt. We should try to find you something different."

"Jess, no, that really isn't..." Nathan started. He was too late though. In the course of about five minutes Jess had found an outfit for him.

"I think you would look good in these khaki pants. And you should try layering your shirts. Look, if you take this blue one, and layer it with this gray one…" She said, holding out the two shirts.

"And I'd get Duke's formal wear. No thanks." Nathan made a slashing "no" gesture with his hand.

Jess considered. "I hadn't realized it, but yes, you would. I still think it would be a good look on you."

"It may be a good look on me but I'm not keen on looking like a reprobate," he answered.

Jess let the matter drop, but Nathan could see she was still mulling over something. Before she could suggest he wear something like the classless red flannel plaid print she seemed to be looking at, he told her, "Sorry, I just stocked up. I don't need any more clothes."

"Did you buy shorts?"

Nathan looked at her, perplexed. "What?"

"Did you buy shorts when you stocked up? It's getting on into fall," she commented.

Nathan paused, confused by the non-sequitur. "No, why would I buy shorts when it's getting cold out?"

Jess tossed him an amused glance. "Well, I've noticed it's very common here. For instance, look over there." She motioned to two teenage girls.

Nathan looked and realized what Jess was getting at. The two girls were sporting Ugg boots, and thick parkas to fend of the chill. Through the unzipped fronts he could see them each wearing a fairly thick sweater. However, their defense against hypothermia had one large, glaring hole. They were wearing Daisy Duke shorts.

"Yeah, I have no idea. I would claim it's a girl thing but I've seen a fair number of guys that wear shorts out in the snow. And if they aren't wearing shorts, they wear jeans and a t-shirt. I've never understood it. You'd have to ask Duke. I've seen him wear sweaters and shorts together. Maybe he can explain it." Nathan shrugged. It was the New England way of life. He suspected it had to do with holding on to summer as long as impractically feasible.

The next stop on the Kittery tour brought them to the Lindt chocolate outlet, where both of them bought more chocolate than was wise. Nathan's closet chocoholic tendencies came to the fore the minute they walked in the store. Sadly, there were no discounted seconds for sale that day. When he commented on it, it was Jess' turn to look puzzled. He clarified, "They sometimes don't make the truffles correctly and they will sell them in a big bag. The outer chocolate may not be perfect to look at, but they are still perfect to eat."

Around the corner from the Lindt factory, Jess found an unexpectedly useful store. "Nathan, I should pick up a few things, come with me?"

Nathan shook his head and uncharacteristically declined. "No. I am not going in there."

Jess looked at him, pleadingly.

"No. I'll wait for you outside." He was firm and resolute.

Jess snorted. She opened the door in the L'Eggs Playtex Bali Hanes store that Nathan mentally christened the Bra Emporium and wandered into the back. There was just no way he was going to surround himself with that many female undergarments. Especially when the 60-something clerk at the counter had given him a come hither stare when they walked by. She might have had some lingerie clerk ninjas attack him and bind him with breast bands. It was entirely too dangerous. Jess would just have to deal with some things on her own. Friendship could only be expected to take so much.

Eventually Jess emerged from the bowels of hell aka the bra store, and they continued down the strip. They stopped at Ben and Jerry's, and ate Pfish pfood ice cream for desert. The hit up a few more stores in the malls before they pulled into the first, or last, store on the strip mall depending on your point of view.

Jess was hesitant as she got out of the truck when they pulled into the parking lot of the Kittery Trading Post. The large store's wooden facing and giant arrow gave some evidence of its hunting and fishing wares. The bigger clue was the hundreds of colorful kayaks that were caged up in a storage area just outside of the main store.

"You don't have to go in, you know," Nathan said, noticing Jess's reticence and instantly guessing the source of it. "I just need to grab a couple of shirts."

Jess shook her head. "No, it's a stupid thing to be nervous about. I know it won't happen again. Although I still think it's in poor taste."

The detective took her hand and they entered the store. Jess' eyes flicked to the taxidermy moose and lynx mounted around the store. They stayed reassuringly still. They made their way to the Men's Clothing section, where Nathan picked up a few shirts that would stand up to the Maine winters.

"I thought you said you didn't need any more clothes," Jess commented, keeping a wary eye on a stuffed coyote.

Nathan shrugged. "I don't really. But my other shirt like this is nearly worn through so while we where here I figured I'd pick up a couple of new ones. Here, you can see the material's a lot thicker than that stuff at Old Navy." He handed her the shirt. Jess nodded, not really looking at it but conceding the discussion.

While Nathan perused the shirts, Jess slipped away and disappeared into the depths of the store. She had told him she'd meet him at the counter. He was a little worried about her getting lost. The store had three levels, and people had been known to get lot in the place for hours. The running joke was that it started specializing in camping, fishing, and hunting gear after the first few people got lost in it.

He needn't have feared. Jess was just to the left of the cashier's benches. She had something in a bag. She was standing just in front of the wide glass doors. She was beautiful, he thought suddenly. He was staring at her, so focused that the clerk had to ask how he was going to pay twice. Nathan handed over his credit card, and completed the purchase. He joined Jess at the doors.

They walked out and were back at the Bronco when Jess pulled Nathan aside. "I wanted to thank you for helping me out, and lugging all of this stuff around. I thought you might like this." She thrust the bag out at Nathan.

He took it and found a couple of small paper bags inside. They were pancake mixes, one blueberry and one pumpkin. "Thanks," the quiet man said.

"No, thank you," she said. Then she leaned into kiss him on the cheek. Before he could react, she opened the Bronco's door and climbed into the battered cab.

He stood still for a moment before walking to the driver's side door and climbing in. He started the car and pulled it back out of lot before navigating back up to the main highway. Jess was leaning up against the window, quietly humming to the song on the radio. He could still feel the tingle caused by the quick brush of her lips on his cheek.

Jess's kiss had been softer than Audrey's, when she had kissed him the same way so long ago. It was like the difference in the two women's personalities. Audrey was more forceful and direct. Jess was more tactful and subtle. If Audrey was the sun, Jess was the moon. Audrey's tactics had been refreshing, when they first met, but Nathan had the distinct impression that sometimes she leapt before she looked at what was around her. Jess would set about getting a contractor to build a bridge over the gap that Audrey jumped over.

Audrey had been resistant to any advances he'd put forward. Jess had welcomed his kiss, or at least welcomed it until he'd grabbed her at the Gull. She'd even returned the kiss, somewhat enthusiastically. If Nathan was honest with himself, he'd enjoyed it. What really surprised him was that he enjoyed it more than he had his recent kiss with Audrey. With her there had been a physical reaction, but not a psychological one. With Jess, he'd been reminded of their old relationship, about how Jess wanted to help him get beyond his inability to feel, to become whole. Where Audrey had kept him at a distance, Jess had not only pulled him close, she'd invited him in.

Both women were undeniably important to him. However as he thought about it, Jess was the one he wanted. He needed Audrey to keep him sane, to help the troubled, and to keep Duke out of trouble - with the exception of the scrimshaw misunderstanding Duke hadn't been suspected of doing anything illegal while he'd been with Audrey, so at least he should be grateful for that. However, Jess was the one he wanted more. She was the one that had invested the time to help him overcome himself. She was the one that had given him the courage to try to love someone else, and maybe even himself.

That Evening

When the knock sounded on her door, Audrey became nervous. So he wanted to talk. That didn't disallow for the possibility that he was going to yell at her and swear to never have anything more to do with her. Did it?

Opening the door she gave him a small and tentative smile. "Thanks for suggesting that we talk."

"You're welcome," Duke said stepping in. He sat down at her table and folded his hands on it before looking up at her. "I take it that you think we've punished each other enough too?"

The pinched feeling in her chest let go, and she felt like she could breathe again. "Yes."

"Good."

For a moment they just stared at each other, and it slowly dawned on her that he'd been just as nervous as she was. "I'm sorry, Duke. I'm sorry that killing the Rev kept you from knowing everything you should have learned."

"Me too," he surprised her by saying, which only made her worry flare again. "But I've done a lot of thinking, and I realize that you did what you felt you had to. It all happened so fast you probably didn't even have time to think about the consequences, right?"

"I wish that were the whole truth, but I do think I quickly weighed odds before I pulled the trigger," Audrey admitted.

"The odds of what?" he asked, voice carefully neutral.

She shrugged. "The odds of whether or not the Rev would really kill off the troubled beginning with that girl, versus the odds of you hating me forever if I stopped him before he hurt anyone. Because Duke, I saw the look in his eyes. That girl was going to be the beginning. He wasn't going to stop killing the troubled..." she trailed off. "All of them. I could stand you hating me more than I could stomach the idea that a day was going to come when Nathan's throat was going to be the one under his blade, and I can't lose him. I'm not in love with him, obviously, but I do love him. So if you hated me but he lived, it would be hard but better than the alternative."

Duke looked up at her, eyes wide with shock. "Hate...? Audrey, come on. I could never hate you."

"No?"

"No. Was I pissed off? Yes. But hate you? You have to know me better than that," he gently chided her.

Audrey finally looked at him. "I was banking on the hope that I did," she said softly, "when I fired. But Duke, at that last second, it didn't matter if I thought you'd hate me or not. I was willing to lose you to keep people safe. To keep Nathan alive."

"I know."

"You don't sound mad about that."

"I'm not," he said, spreading his hands. "I want to be with the sort of girl who risks everything to do the right thing."

"Even if it includes risking losing you?"

"Even if." He smiled at her. "But when you say that you love Nathan, you're sure you mean in a platonic, fraternal sense, right?"

"Yes, Duke. The only person in Haven I'm in love with is you."

At first he looked pleased but then gave her a strangely concerned look. "What about outside of Haven?"

"Funny," she complained.

"I'm told that my sense of humor is one of my better qualities," he replied solemnly.

Laughing, she came around the table and kissed him. There were the sparks she'd been missing.

That night, a werewolf movie, a dinner, and an hour in bed later, Duke spooned up against Audrey's back and felt truly content for the first time in days. Clearing the air between them gave him the same vast sense of relief that having his mother wake him up from a nightmare did when he was a little boy. A calm settled in once the monsters faded back into clothes hung over a chair, once he realized that not only did he forgive Audrey, she forgave him too.

It was moments like that, with Audrey sleeping peacefully against him, that made him believe that things were really going to be okay. His experience growing up had taught him that adults in a relationship vacillated between indifference and anger, so he mentally packed his bags every time a woman in his life had gotten mad at him. And they had all let him go, leaving him feeling justified for fleeing at the first sign of conflict. It had gotten even worse after he'd really tried to stay for Evi and in the end she'd let him go too.

But Audrey hadn't. They'd fought, made up, and it was now all right. He wasn't sure how to deal with a relationship that could endure upsets like that, but he wanted to learn more than anything. Leaning down he kissed the back of Audrey's neck and thought, I'll learn how for you, for us both.

a/n: Writers both in grips of winter-induced apathy. Must have lots of inspiring feedback to carry on...seriously, we've been stuck on the same spot for weeks, and in a few more we'll run out of stuff to post...I think we've given you a fair amount to comment upon this chapter, so break out those pom-poms =)