Chapter 12 - Natalie's Conundrum

"Wait so how do you all know each other?" Questions Kate, as she hadn't been told of how Natalie was related.

"That's a long story, let's just say I've known Helen since I was little, and when I was old enough to start helping out here I did. I help out whenever Helen needs me to." Natalie explained hoping that this would be enough fo now.

"So, the big guy." Will interrupted trying to help steer the conversation away from the truth.

"Huh…" Kate said confused.

"Shouldn't he be back by now?" He asked Helen and Natalie, they both nodded their heads.

…

"Ok then, how about you? How long till you are free from this place?" Will asked Helen while gesturing to the room they were in.

"Well that is totally up to my doctor." Magnus replied looking towards her daughter, both Will and Kate also looked towards her to get an answer but all they saw was Natalie who had zoned out obviously in deep thought about something.

"Ah Natalie?" Will tried to get her attention without any luck, then all of a sudden Kate yells.

"Hey Blondie, how long till the Doc can get back to it?" This sudden yelling was enough to finally gain Natalie's attention.

"Huh, what?" She asked with everyone looking at her.

"When will you let Magnus get back to work?" Will replied.

"Oh, that. well she's pretty much back to normal so she can leave whenever she feels up to it." She said still slightly zoned out,

"I uh, I have somethings I need to go take care of." Natalie told them, while getting up and leaving the room quickly. This made Helen concerned as she had never she her daughter so out of sorts like she was, Will was also concerned as he could she that she was obviously battling something internally and set his mind that he would try and find her to see if there was anything he could do.

"Well that was weird." Kate said,

"Extremely" Helen agreed, this cementing Will's thought of something being wrong with Natalie. He looked over to Helen who looked back sharing a look that told him she wanted him to see if he could help her, he nodded to her and then left the room trying to catch up to wherever Natalie had gone.

"Ok, now that's even more strange." Said Kate, still not understanding what was going on between the three of them. She looked to Magnus hoping she could explain, but all Magnus did was shrug her shoulders, as she herself was trying to figure out what had happened.

After leaving the infirmary, Natalie headed to the one place that she knew that no one would look for her straight away and that was Will's office. She knew that he could sense that she was trying to work something out, which would impulse him to try and find her and to talk. She also knew that her mother would have also asked him to follow her so she went to the last place they would assume she would go, she needed at least a little time to get her head together. As she had expected Will had followed her but he was just that little bit late to see which way she went, he decide to first try the places he knew Magnus would usually go when needing to clear her head but so far he had no luck. He continued to search all the other places he thought that she could have gone as well, but again he had not been able to find her. He was just about to give up when he thought he could get Henry to track her using the Sanctuary surveillance, so that where he headed off to find Henry. He was able to find Henry quickly with him being back down in his lab working on some new piece of tech, he walks in,

"Hey Henry, can you do me a favour?" Will asked.

"Well that depends, what's the flavour?"replied Henry.

"Can you bring up the security feed and try and find Natalie for me?"

"Natalie? Why are you trying to find Natalie, usually she's wherever the boss is." Henry told him.

"She was, but then all of a sudden she said she had things to do and left the room, she looked a little lost before that and that has Magnus worried. She asked me to see if I could talk to her and find out if everything was ok."

"Really? Ok then, I can bring up the feed but if Natalie doesn't want to be found then you have no hope in finding her. Even Magnus hasn't been able to find her in these sort of situations."

"What do you mean?"

"You do remember being told that she is able to be here without being seen right…" Henry pause looking at Will to see that he agreed.

"Well to do that she must have a good understanding of where cameras are as to not be seen, she would also know of spots that no one would ever look to find her." He went on to add,

"Also how sure are you that she didn't leave the Sanctuary all together, I mean she must have been staying somewhere this past week to be able to keep an eye on Magnus right?"

"I guess your right, I'll try and see if Magnus has any clue otherwise we should hope that whatever she is doing she's alright." With that he said goodbye to Henry and headed back down to see if Magnus was still in the infirmary, which unfortunately she wasn't so he made his way up to where he knew she would be which was her office.

Sure enough when he arrive she was there at her desk getting to work on some paperwork, he entered.

"Uh, Magnus?"

"Yes Will, any luck with Natalie?" Helen asked him hoping he had good news.

"Actually that was why I was here, I haven't been able to find her. I don't suppose you have an idea as to where she could have gone?" He asked, this made Helen slightly more worried for her daughter as she didn't usually hid from people unless it was something bad. She went through a list of place she thought that she could be, but as she said different location Will told her that he had checked all of them already. Getting even more worried Helen got her phone and tried calling Natalie, again this was a dead end as she didn't pick up. Even though she was worried for her daughter Helen realised that they weren't going to find her as it seem that she didn't want to be found, she explain this to Will who told her that was what Henry had told him earlier but he didn't believe that she wouldn't be able to find her own daughter hidden in her own home, surely she would know of all the possible hiding places. This made Magnus smile,

"You have a lot to learn about my daughter Will, even though I am her mother and I don't like to agree but she is smarter than me. She has learnt to be very good at hiding things, she has had to hid her own truth her entire life, thing like these would be no match to her." She explained to him.

"So what are we going to do now? Obviously you're still worried about her. And frankly after seeing her in the infirmary so am I."

"It's nice to hear that you care so much about her, especially after all that happened with her last year. But even I know when to just leave her to her own, you should head back to your office to get some work done, I'm sure she'll turn up soon and if she needs someone to talk to I'll send her your way, alright?" Helen told him, Will just agreed has she did know her daughter the best. He left Magnus to get back to her work and headed to his own office.

To say that he was surprised when he entered his office was an understatement, he definitely wasn't expecting to see her there sitting of his couch. She however didn't react at all she knew that it would only be a matter of time before he had to come back here,

"NATALIE!, What are you doing here? How long have you been here I've been looking for you?" Will asked still surprised that she was there.

"I came here straight after leaving you guys in the infirmary. I knew you wouldn't think to look here, and I was right. Took you long enough anyway." She told him.

"You had us so worried, are you ok?"

"Us?" She asked, not thinking that he would possibly have any reason to worry about her.

"Yes us, your mom and I. I know I have never made it seem that I would care about you but I do, I see how important you are to Helen. If she is worried then so am I, speaking of your mother I should call her to tell her your here." Hearing this made Natalie jump and Will noticed this. I seem that whatever Natalie had going through her mind had something to do with Helen.

"No, please don't. I just need some time, I'll go see her when I'm ready she'll understand, I hope." She whispered the last bit hoping Will didn't hear but he did, the made him questioned what could possibly be going on that had her so worried about her mom. He decide to give her some space hoping that she would talk to him when she was ready, he went over to his desk to try and get some work done. It was about ten minutes later when he knew that wouldn't be possible, when he looked back over to her and could see that she was zoned out again, just like she was earlier in the infirmary.

Will decided it was worth the risk to see if he could pull out what she was hiding, he made his way back to the couches and sat in the one in front of her,

"So…" He began to ask bringing her attention back to him and not her thoughts, "Are you alright? You disappeared quite quickly earlier, want to tell me what's going on?" He asked her.

She took a moment, not yet sure if she wanted to tell him what had been going on in her mind for the last few months. After finally coming to the decision that he might be able to help she began,

"I'm trying to figure out a way to get mom to let me move back here, and to be able to live as me. The real me. But I'm worried that she'll get angry and won't agree, especially after the last time I tried this." She told him, Will was now even more shocked. He definitely did not think that this would be what was going on, she had always looked so happy with how her life was, but right now she was looking the opposite so lost with herself. He could understand that it must be difficult for her not being as close to her mother as a daughter should be, having to always hide just to be able to visit her family. Will knew that he would have to try his best to help her come up with a solution as she shouldn't have to keep living like this.

"You've tried this before?" He asked thinking that this would be the best place to start to try and begin to understand what had be going on, she nodded and said,

"Yes I think it was five or so years ago, when I was around 21. At the time I thought that I was now old enough for this to be my decision as to who knew about me, and that if the wrong people did find out I was also old enough to protect myself." She looked to see in he was following along before continuing,

"Turns out I was wrong with that thought, as to when I was visiting mom next I try to bring it up. She got so angry with me and went on and on as to why it wasn't possible how it might never be possible. She told me that the only way I was safe was to keep this secret, if the wrong people found out there was nothing anyone not even her would be able to do to stop what they would do to me."

Even though Will had never known the reason as to why the secret was there, he never would have guess that that was the reason. He knew now was not the time for asking any questions, so he just sat there listening allowing her to continue when she was ready.

"But now, now I don't think I can keep living this way." She pause for another few moments before continuing,

"Especially after knowing for a fact the the main reason she began this secret is no longer an issue, knowing that the person she was keeping me hidden from is gone. I was thinking about bringing this issue up with her at the start of the year, but all the things happened with Ash, and now I think that has given her a new reason to keep me hidden." Natalie stooped and looked to see if Will was still following and understanding what she was saying.

"I don't know what to do, I thought by now I would have come up with a plan. But I've got nothing, I even quit my job because I wanted to be back here so badly. Now that I'm here I don't know what to do." Will could see how this was weighing so heavily on her shoulders, how emotional this was.

"Can I help at all?" He braved asking her.

"I don't know, can you?" She looked at him with hope in her eyes, hoping that he would be able to find a solution she had not been able to.

"Look I'm not sure if I can, I want to try though. I don't want to pry, but how do you know that the main reason is no longer a threat. Who is it?" He asked half expecting not to get an answer,

"Ok so telling you might make mom mad, but I need your help and I trust you. But please I can't go into to much detail I'll tell you what I think you need to know, alright?" Will nodded, making sure not to show how eager her was to be finally learning more of the truth.

"I can be sure the treat is gone is because I killed him." She said, looking at Will to see his reaction.

"You what? Killed him, whose him?" He asked not able to stop the questions coming out. He smiled sheepishly to tell her he was sorry for his sudden outburst to the information.

"Well, it all has to do with what happened back in August." Natalie looked to him to ask if he remembered what she was talking about.

"When Magnus disappeared?"

"Yes that. To put it short is that the person mom has been hiding me from my whole life is my father. Now that I can't elaborate on as that is the absolute one thing I can't tell you, I myself was only just lucky enough to find who he was. Mom has her reasons for this and I respect her choice, I do hope you will as well."

Natalie continued on to tell him that it was her father who had contacted Helen back in August and had requested her to meet him, he had somehow found out about her and wanted to punish Helen for allowing her to live. He had planned on capturing Natalie like he did, but hadn't planned on Natalie knowing so much about him and having known he had her mother when she was taken allowed he rot get the upper hand on him. Natalie explained that when Ashley has arrived to tell her their mother was gone she had know who had her, so before she left the hospital that night she quickly went to the storeroom and to a syringe full of medicine and hid it on herself where no one could find. Going on with explaining she told him that she knew of the medical condition that her father had so while at the warehouse where they were held, she had managed to escape long enough to cause a fight with her father which allowed her the chance to inject him with the needle she had. The needle contain medicine that would aggravate his condition without showing signs of any wrong doing, she then pulled up her top to show him the barely visible scar she had from that night where he had stabbed her, and that she had barely survived that night, he on the other hand did not survive.

"So that is how I know for a fact that that reason for my hidden identity id no longer there." She told Will. Hearing this sort of scared Will, knowing that she was so capable of killing someone without leaving any trace of doing anything.

"And with all that happened with the Cabal and Ashley, you know believe that Magnus will use that as a reason to continue hiding you?" Will asked, in which Natalie responded by nodding.

"I can see now how, you must be finding it hard to ask her fo this. But I think you have enough evidence to back up your claim that she wouldn't be able to say no." He told her.

"You think?" She asked not seeing what he could be referring to.

"Yes after all of what you have had to do in your life to stay hidden, I believe you could tell her that it would benefit you if you ever needed to get away from someone and not get into the same situation that Ashley did. Also hearing how easily you explained that you were able to kill someone who she herself had told you no one could means a lot. Last but not least is that you will have everyone here to have your back and help to protect you, it will be a lot easier if you weren't a secret." After hearing Will say all this, it made her think he was right she had all the things she needed that would make it very hard for her mom not to accept her request.

"And if you want I can be there when you talk to her? Be there to back you up and to help her see you don't need to be hidden." Will said.

"You would do that for me? Why?" She asked.

"I believe you have lost a lot in your life with not being able to life as your true self, I think that needs to change. I will help you in any way that I can, if that's what you would like."

"Thanks Will, it means a lot. But I think I need to do this alone." She was now feeling a lot better with asking her mom for her freedom. With that she thanked Will for listening to her and made her way out, she had to go speak to her mom before she chickened out again. Will watch her go hoping that she would get what she deserved. He would follow in a bit to make sure things didn't go wrong and he could step in if needed.

….