Four Leaf Clover – 23
Summary: Started from Trinity's challenge of J/N engaging in an affair behind the Evangeline's back (she's, thankfully, dead now). John and Natalie have bought a condo together, Natalie has graduated college, she and Rex are going to start an as-yet-unnamed PI business together. James Moretti from Atlantic City shows up in Llanview to start a turf battle within the organized crime world. He has ties to both John and Natalie.
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"No. I can't talk about this. I can't. I won't." Natalie stood up and walked away from him.
John scrambled up and went after her.
"No, John." Natalie was back in control. She turned to face him and shook her head. "No. I won't do this."
"If you don't he'll always have this over your head. I promise you no one is going to arrest you and I promise that nothing will happen to anyone you love."
"You can't make that promise, John. You just can't. You know people like him. You know him. How do you know him, John?"
John put his hands on his hips and considered his words carefully.
"We ran with the same crowd when we were kids. He was younger than most of us, but we knew each other. We played pool, chased girls, partied. Did dumb ass things. The difference was I learned my lesson and he never did."
"You said you knew he hurt girls. How do you know that?"
"He used to hit his girlfriends. Me and my friend Sam cornered him once after he hit Colleen, a girl in the neighborhood."
"Cornered him?"
"Beat the snot out of him." John gave grim smile of satisfaction.
"It's nice that she had you to look out for her."
John's heart sank. Natalie, he knew, never had anyone looking out for her. She always looked out for herself and everyone else.
"What are we going to do here, Natalie?"
"I don't know." Natalie turned around and walked to the coffee table and toyed with the cups.
"You have knowledge of a crime. I can pretend I never heard that. Is that what you want?"
Natalie toyed with the cups.
John waited.
"I can't do that. As you well know." On the last statement she turned and looked at John, a wry smile twisting her lips.
"I kinda figured." John nodded.
"What about the other things?"
She said nothing.
"If you don't hide anything from me, there's nothing he can hold over you. Even if I never tell anyone else. Do you understand what I mean?"
"You'd do that for me?" she asked, her voice husky, touched.
"Anything." John put his hands on her face and brushed back her hair. Then he took her hand and led her to the couch.
"It's not pretty. I used to see J…him around the club when I was a kid, but he didn't have much use for me. When I got older and I still hung around there he would challenge me to a game of pool. I had a really big crush on him. Then when I was fifteen he really started to spend more time with me. Shooting pool, trying to get me to drink, which I wouldn't do because of Roxy. We started hanging out outside the club." Natalie shrugged and looked down.
"He made me feel special, you know?" she looked up John who nodded. "On my sixteenth birthday he took me to a fancy restaurant and we walked on the Boardwalk. He kissed me for the first time. I was so thrilled. I had no idea…I'd heard some things about him, but I didn't believe they could be true. I'd known him for so long and he'd never been anything but sweet to me. Here was this older guy who said he found me beautiful and sexy."
John reached his hand out, hesitated and then took her hand in his, resting it on her thigh. He opened his mouth to say something when a commotion outside Bo's office distracted them. They looked up to see Bo come in, a determined look on his face.
"There's gunfire over at Pier 17." John and Natalie stood up.
John looked over at Natalie who nodded that she understood he had to go. "Be careful." She kissed his cheek. Distracted now, checked his gun and walked out of the office. A second later he was back and he put his arm around Natalie's waist, pulled her to him and planted a heated kiss on her lips, then was gone before she could react.
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"Where do you think you're going Balsom?" Bo said as Rex followed him and John to the parking garage.
"I thought I'd, you know, help."
"You are not a cop, Balsom. Go…do something." Bo and John rushed off leaving Rex standing in the doorway looking disgruntled. Then he shrugged and loped back up the stairs.
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Natalie walked out of Bo's office and turned up the dispatch radio so those few of them left in the squad room could track what was going on at the Pier. She tamped back a frission of fear at the thought of Bo and John walking into a firefight. "Nothing will happen to John, he'll come back to me," she told herself.
She took a deep breath and went back into Bo's office and kneeled down to pick up the file. She frowned as she caught glances of the various crimes this man she used to know was accused of. Her movements slowed as she became engrossed.
In the pages she saw the scared little girl she had been. Despite growing up as she had, for some reason her instincts had failed her with this man until it was too late. Mitch Laurence. The name echoed in Natalie's head and she closed her eyes in sudden horror. How could she have not seen it before? Older, handsome man takes an interest in the lonely girl and seduces her to his will, while she remains willfully blind to his true nature. It didn't sit easy with Natalie that she had been that lonely, foolish girl. Twice.
"You Natalie Balsam?"
Natalie started and looked up to see a man she didn't recognize standing in the doorway. She hadn't even heard him approach. She stood up.
"I used to be…" she started and then broke off when she realized the name he used.
The man nodded and suddenly she was grabbed from behind, a hand wrapping around her mouth and another arm lifting her off the floor. A big man. Strong. Her struggles accomplished nothing. She couldn't scream. There was no one watching. She was pulled out of the office.
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"Hey, Natty!" Rex came running into Bo's office. He was about to turn and leave when something on the floor caught his eye. Something shiny. He walked over and picked up Natalie's sapphire ring. He looked over at the back office door which was open and then back at the ring.