***So...after watching Haven season 5 episode 6 over again and seeing that particular scene where Audrey is seperated from Mara after Duke successfully releases a reincarnation trouble from his body...I had decided to write this prompt in three point of views of what it was like for Audrey, Nathan and Duke to find Audrey alive. Since Nathan was put through Mara's emotional torture the most...his point of view gets to be written first. Mara will be briefly mentioned in this fic.***
**Also both Nathan and Duke's point of views will be starting off with Duke saying "who the hell is that" in regards to hearing the breathing**
*Disclaimer: I donot own or expect to benefit from the show or it's characters as the rights to everything except my imagination belongs to the producers of Haven and Stephen King..so please don't sue me.*
Chapter 1: I Can Hardly Believe It (Nathan Wournos Point of View)
"Who the hell is that?"
I could hear Duke utter out gravely as we turned our attention from Mara, whom was thankfully still chained up, to the sound of someone breathing somewhere near us and I just knew that I had to see for myself who is was that was breathing that hard.
Slowly, I walk away from where Duke and Mara are standing to make my way over to where the sound was originating and turned my head back to look at Duke with a look of confusion and just about fainted when I caught sight of blonde hair. If I could feel it, then my heart would have been racing out of my chest as I looked back behind me to see both Duke and Mara looking past me to the woman laying on the floor with the same look of shock and confusion that I had on both of their faces.
'Oh my god...is this Audrey? Is this my beloved Audrey that I am currently walking towards right now? If this isn't Audrey that is laying here on the ground...then I don't know if I can survive living without her by my side after this...for my sake this needs to be Audrey that I am walking towards.' I thought to myself as I was walking slowly towards the naked form laying on it's side and was taken aback with shock as I watched the figure turn and reveal her face to me. It was then that all of my doubts had suddenly wiped away along with my fears.
'Audrey...' I thought, swallowing the lump that began to form in my throat as I let my knees drop to the ground as our eyes met and I let my arms reach for her and am delighted to find her gripping onto me the minute that my arms are around her trembling form.
'I can hardly believe it...I can hardly believe this is happening...I can't believe that I finally got her back...the love of my life is here back in my arms where she belongs...this is just too surreal to believe...' I can't help but think as she practically clung to my jacket in an effort to regain some sense of control of herself.
"Thank you..." I hear her breathe out near my ear as she turns to hide herself as I was sure that she must have caught sight of Mara and had hid behind me to protect herself.
It was then that I had let out a breath that I wasn't aware that I had been holding as I held her tighter against me in order to protect her from whatever Mara tried to do to her, because to be quite honest I wasn't going to let Mara try to attack Audrey when I just got her back.
"Hmmm...how cute...a lovers embrace...so this is the Audrey you so desperately wanted back in your life...it is all so very cute that I could just barf."
Audrey and I both jump at the sound of Mara sneering at us and hearing her automatically causes me to stand up and look at her with a look of disgust before I glance down briefly to find Audrey gripping onto my arm, as the comment also causes Duke to switch his attention from Audrey and I to the brunette standing with her hands chained together.
"What do we do with her?" I ask Duke, not even bothering to call Mara by her name.
"I don't know yet...I don't even understand what just happened here...I don't understand why Mara is still here after we now finally have Audrey...who is..." Duke replies, as I watch him trail off when he sees the state that she in on the ground by my leg, "...is naked? Nate...why is Audrey not wearing any clothes?"
I look down to find Audrey suddenly embarrassed when she glances down over herself as she tries to cover herself with her hands while looking up at me with a look of nervousness, and I immediately move in front of Audrey in an effort to help her perserve her modesty as I glance a question towards Duke.
"Ummm...you wouldn't mind grabbing some clothes that Audrey could wear from upstairs..." I ask Duke, as I watch his attention quickly switch from Audrey to me in mere minutes.
"Yeah...I will be back in no longer than a minute..." Duke replies, fishing out a set of keys in one hand while grabbing his gun from the other, "...this is for if little miss in chains over there tries to give you guys trouble."
"Thanks Duke..." I reply as take the gun from his hand and pass it over to Audrey for her to hold.
"No problem...I will only be a minute or two..." Duke replied, as he was leaving the Gull to head upstairs with the key to Audrey's apartment in his hand and soon he was gone.
As soon as he was gone, I quickly shed the leather jacket that I had to give it to Audrey all while keeping a close eye on Mara, whom was currently glaring at me and was now sitting back in her chair.
"Here..." I started, offering up my jacket to help cover Audrey, "...until Duke comes back with some clothes."
"Thanks." Audrey replied, giving me a sweet smile as she takes the jacket and quickly puts it on and hugs the fabric to herself.
"I've missed you." I can't help but utter to her because it was true.
"I missed you more..." Audrey states, reaching out to me with outstretched arms as I quickly gather her into my arms, squeezing her tightly in an effort to keep her to me and never let go.
"I forgot to ask...but how are you feeling?" I ask, rubbing a hand up and down her back in effort to soothe her and myself that she was actually here alive in my arms.
"I am fine...now that I am in your arms again..." Audrey stated, turning her head against me to find Mara staring at her.
"How much havoc did she wreck in Haven while controlling my body?" Audrey asks, still staring at Mara.
"She killed two people." I reply, running my hand through her hair as she lifted her head up to meet my eyes.
"Nathan...I don't want her in my apartment." Audrey states before adding, "...and I don't want her anywhere near you or me...I don't want anything to do with her."
I immediately understood where she was coming from as I completely felt the same as she did and I knew that being around Mara right now would be of no use since I have Audrey now, meaning Mara is of no use to me or Duke for that matter, although I wasn't sure what we were supposed to do now that we had both Audrey and Mara with Dwight out of town.
Before I had time to answer Audrey, I suddenly heard Duke making his way back into the restuarant carrying some pants and shirt that he gave to me on his way back to watch Mara. I quickly gave the articles of clothing to Audrey who immediately put them on and I had to place myself in front of her when she was putting on the shirt.
"Thanks Duke..." Audrey replied, as she smoothed the wrinkles out of her shirt and moved to stand in front of me to give Duke a quick hug.
"Don't mention it...sweetheart...though you have to give your boyfriend some credit...because he never gave up hope that you were still in there." Duke replied, hugging Audrey back.
"Can you talk to your boytoy about his need to threaten people's lives...because he threatened mine earlier...blondie?" Mara sneered, as she placed her attention on her nails.
"Does she still have that stun belt on her..." Audrey asked, watching the both of us nod and Mara roll her eyes in annoyance.
"Let me guess...you want to use the remote on her..." Duke replies, with a smile forming on his face.
"May I..." Audrey starts off as she looks at both Duke and I, "...okay which one of you two has the remote to the stun belt..."
"I do." I reply as I move my hand to my back pocket to pull the remote out to give to her and watch as she takes it from my hand to carefully inspect it before looking up at Duke with a question on her face.
"Duke...how do I...um?" Audrey trails off as Duke makes his way over to her in order to see what she is asking of him.
"It is this button..." Duke explains as he lets a finger hover over the said button in order to guide her finger into position on the button, "...right there...just press it and watch her stumble over in pain."
"Gladly..." Audrey replied, letting a small smile flow onto her face as she looks over to me as if she is trying to get my approval, I quickly nod as she gets ready to press down on the button.
"Oh I doubt that little miss blondie will have the guts to shock me...she is way too nice and too good to press the button...I mean look at her...she is all talk and no action...sad really...that I so much tougher than h-OH SHIT!" Mara flinches as her mighty rant ends on a hiss after she feels a jolt of electricity flow through her kidneys, causing her to stumble over and grip her stomach and wait for the pain to subside.
However when it doesn't, Mara gathers some strength that she could handle to lift her head up to stare up at Audrey who was giving her a look of pure hatred and was currently holding her thumb down on the button. Audrey continues to hold down onto the button until she is stopped by both Duke and I as we both stare at her with a look of concern etched on our faces and she hands the remote back to Duke as she returns to my waiting arms.
"You okay?" I ask with a look of concern in my eyes as I smooth a strand of hair back behind her ear as I held her tightly to my chest, not wanting to ever let her go unless I desperately had to.
"Yeah...I am fine now...just needed to do that to her...have been wanting to do something towards her since I got split from her minutes ago...by the way I was the one who kept her from finishing you off after she shot you that one time. I didn't want this bitch to take away my last hope of getting out of her safely...I am so sorry if any of you had to deal with her relentless emotional torture." Audrey states, as she nods against my shirt and tightens her arms around me and places her ear gently on the place where my heart resides.
"How did William even put up with a bitch like her?" I ask with wonder as hold her tightly to me.
"I don't know...and to be completely honest...I don't even want to know. I just want to be as far away from here as soon as I possibly can...just being around her gives me a sick feeling." She murmurs as she hides her face into my chest as if she didn't want to look at Mara anymore, I can't say that I could absolutely blame her as seeing Mara brought out the same feeling in the pit of my stomach everytime I was forced to converse with her in order to draw Audrey out of her.
"I understand completely..." I reply as I place a soft kiss on top of her head before turning my head to bring my attention towards Duke whom was paying careful attention to Mara, who was still on the ground from the previous tazing, "...what do we do now Duke?"
I watch as Duke turns his attention over from Mara for a minute to me before glancing right back to keep an eye on Mara, and I watch paitently as he thinks over his options carefully as to what we could possibly do next.
"Meet us in 10 minutes at The Rouge...and wait there while I chain little miss troublemaker to a chair below deck." Duke instructed, his words directed at both Audrey and I while his eyes stayed rooted in place at Mara, "...we'll talk more about what to do with her..."
"Excuse me...but her is sitting right here!" Mara sneers at us as she moves into a standing position.
"Hey trouble bitch...would you like to get tazed again?" Duke retorts sarcastically, waving the remote in her sightline as he gestures his finger over the button as he watches her facial expression change drastically as she settles down back into the chair that she had since vacated.
"Go to hell..." Mara quietly utters at Duke as she crosses her legs.
"Funny...because that is the exact same thing that I and Haven's beloved crime fighting couple want you to do...but except we apparently still need your expertise...so you might as well start getting comfortable and acting polite. Starting now...if you get into the trunk without fighting me...I won't taze you." Duke replies with a dark chuckle as he makes his way over to grab onto Mara's arm to pull her to a standing position.
"Somehow I highly doubt that..." Mara smirks darkly, allowing herself to be led out of the resturant and to his jeep.
"Do you think Duke can be able to handle Mara?" Audrey asked, holding onto me as we both watched as Duke's jeep pulled out of the Gull's driveway.
"Well...I was with Mara the longest...and despite having to deal with her trying to proposition me...she thought if she seduced me into having sex with her that it might make the night at the cabin go by quicker...didn't work as I turned her down and made her sleep by herself that night. She called me a prude because I was turning down sex with her because I wanted to remain faithful to my girlfriend whom she was possessing." I explained, clutching her tightly against me.
"So...Duke should have no problems dealing with her..." Audrey deduced, pulling away from me slightly as she looked out to the Bronco.
"Yeah..." I agreed, turning my attention to outside where my Bronco was sitting, "...you ready to go meet Duke?"
"Yeah..." Audrey replied, making her way to the door with slow sets of movement as she grabbed onto my arm as if to steady herself.
"You okay...Parker?" I ask, concern etched into my voice as I look at her.
"Yeah...just please don't ever let go of me Nathan..." Audrey pleads, her hand gripping onto my arm.
Audrey doesn't protest when I picked her up and gathered her into my arms and carried her all the way to the passenger side of the Bronco, where I quickly opened the door and settled her into her rightful place in the passenger seat of the truck. I quickly made sure that the seatbelt was on her before I carefully shut the door and made my way over to the drivers' side.
"I missed being in the Bronco...Nathan." Audrey replied, leaning her head onto my shoulder "...but I missed you more..."
"I missed you too...I missed you so much...dealing with Mara was torture...and everyone didn't believe me when I kept on saying that you were still in there...Dwight especially." I replied, pressing a light kiss to her head as I started the truck's ignition as I put the truck into drive.
"Well...I'm here now and I am not going anywhere anytime soon." Audrey promised, giving one last look before she turned her attention back to the road where I had already pulled onto the main road into town and was making my way over to Duke's boat.
As I drove along the usual road to Duke's boat, I could hear a soft snore on my right side where I briefly glance down at Audrey to find that she has fallen asleep on my shoulder and I couldn't help but think about the one thing that had been pesturing me since the moment we split her from Mara.
I couldn't feel my Audrey anymore and I didn't have a clue as to how I was going to break the news to her that she no longer had her immunity to the troubles...which meant Mara had her immunity and god knows that I did not want the touch of Mara's evilness on me.
But even if I couldn't feel Audrey anymore...it didn't matter to me that much because I was in love with her before I knew that I could feel her touch.
Because I would love her regardless of whether or not I could feel her touch...and that was the thought I kept in mind as I pulled up to the dock where Duke kept The Cape Rouge and gently woke Audrey up as I put the truck into park.
"Audrey...it is time to wake up...we are here." I spoke, gently shaking her shoulder in an effort to rouse her.
"Whaaa?" Audrey groaned, stifling a yawn as she stretched in her seat on her side of the Bronco before giving me a sweet smile as she unbuckled her seatbelt.
"Why don't I draw you a bath tonight after we get home from meeting with Duke?" I suggest, unclipping my own seatbelt as I was talking to her.
"I would absolutely love that..." Audrey replied, as she leaned over to give me a brief but sweet kiss before pulling back to open the door to the truck in order to get out, just as I was getting out of the truck myself.
Audrey and I quickly link hands together as we walked onto the steps of Duke's boat just in time to see Duke meet us at the door.
"Is she secured?" I asked, not seeing Mara anywhere nearby the deck of the boat.
"Don't worry Nate, I have her chained up to a chair in a room below deck...so she shouldn't be a problem for now...though she is bitchy as hell. The urge to smack has become hard to resist these days...you know?" Duke replied, opening the door and stepping aside to let us inside as he quickly produced a glass of water for Audrey to drink, for which Audrey accepts and thanks him for before taking a seat in one of the empty booths.
"So...what do we do now?" Duke asked, crossing his arms as he leaned back against the kitchen sink as he looked between Audrey and I for any options.
"Well...the guard is going to want to have custody of Mara...but we really can't cart her off to them with Dwight still out of town." I replied, crossing my own arms as I looked back at Duke and Audrey.
"Where is Dwight anyway?" Duke asked, shrugging himself off the kitchen sink as he walked his way over between the both of us.
"Dwight didn't really say where he was going to be...he just said that he would be gone for a while and that to keep an eye on Mara...make sure that she doesn't try anything stupid on us while he was gone. But, I doubt that the majority of the guard members are just going to follow Dwight's order to back off of Mara until he returned from whereever he went off to, and keeping both Audrey and Mara alive will be tricky until then." I replied, running my hand uselessly into my hair as I tried to think of something better that we could do.
"Well...obviously...Mara will be remaining in my custody until then..." Duke started off before finishing sarcastically with a scoff, "...it isn't like that will hard to do."
"Well...whatever you do Duke...just keep that bitch as far away from Nathan and I as much as you possibly can." Audrey replied, giving Duke a look that brooked no argument and it caused Duke to sigh.
"Well...sweetheart...I will do my very best to keep her away from you two...speaking of which...how are you feeling?" Duke replied as he looked at her carefully.
"Fine...tired...just feeling like I had been fighting for control of my own body with my own original self...and it was NOT fun at all...I am just relieved that I am alive now and that she can't harm anymore." Audrey replied, with a heavy sigh as she took a sip of her water and hugged herself in a effort to calm down.
"Well...we are all glad to finally have you back because honestly dealing with the creator of everyone's troubles has not been fun at all...so sorry if you had to deal with the pain of being chained to furniture 24/7 or the shocks of the stun belt to your kidneys...we had to think of something to keep Mara from getting the upper hand on us." Duke replied, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"It's okay Duke...I understand...you guys were doing what you needing to do in order to keep her contained." Audrey replied, trying to bite back a yawn.
"I guess one other reason why it would be better to keep Mara alive is the fact that we don't know whether or not you two are linked together like you were with William." I replied, silently praying that this wasn't the case as I simply wasn't prepared to lose Audrey so soon after I just rescued her from the grips of Mara.
To be quite honest, whenever we all discovered that William wasn't spouting off crap when he told us that he and Audrey were physically linked after I impulsively made the decision to shoot him only to end up helping Audrey fight for her life. I know that Audrey never placed blame on me for doing that without thinking as she simply said that I couldn't have known that William was telling us the truth of his connection with Audrey, and the encounters after that incident made it hard for me to keep my hands to myself in order to keep from punching William in the face. Mainly because I knew that if I laid a hand on William then the same exact injury would happen on Audrey and I knew that I couldn't bare causing physical or mental pain on the woman I loved dearly, but I knew that if I ever came across him again and if they weren't connected anymore, I would beat the living daylights out of him and I wouldn't feel bad about doing it.
"Well...I hate to say it but until we can be sure on whether or not they are actually connected...we are going to have to keep Mara alive in the meantime." Duke uttered, with a tone of regret in his voice.
"You know...honestly...I just want to go home and wash myself of her presence...and maybe burn anything she might of touched." Audrey stated, hugging herself and as she started to get up and make her way out the door, "...bye Duke...see you later."
"Bye...take care and try to forget about you-know-who below deck tonight...and let Nathan take care of you as I am not sure whether or not he has let you know of this fact but this was brutal on him." Duke replied, giving her a quick hug as she is steps away from the door.
"Will do. I am just gonna go wait in the Bronco...Nathan." Audrey replied, looking at me expectantly.
"Here..." I replied, handing her the keys to the truck as I looked at her, "...go ahead and start the car and I'll be there momentarily...okay?"
"Okay." Audrey replies quietly, exhaustion evident in her voice as took the keys from my hand and made her way carefully out of the room and out onto the deck until they couldn't hear her foot steps anymore.
"Is she going to be okay?" Duke asked, as soon as we both heard Audrey step off the pier.
"You mean other than surviving the torment of Mara...I think it is going to take some time before she will feel like herself again...but at least she has us again...right?" I replied, shrugging.
"Yeah...at least she has the both of us again...listen...I am sorry for not believing you the first time that you said she was still in there...I was clouded by grief of losing Jennifer that I had a hard time facing reality and I was trying to make you face the harsh reality...and that wasn't fair either." Duke replied, with a heavy sigh as he dug out something from a nearby drawer, "...here...you and her are going to need this..."
"What is that?" I asked, confusion surely etched on my face as I acknowledged his apology with a nod as I made my way towards him.
"When you finally convinced me that Audrey was still in there and had currently been needing help to fight against Mara...I sort of swiped Audrey's set of keys to Audrey's apartment...as a way of keeping Audrey's apartment safe from her grips." Duke replied, gently setting the ring of keys in my hand as he placed my fingers to grip onto the slim metal.
"Thank you, Duke." I replied, with a look of amazement on my face.
"No problem...I was merely doing my job as her loyal and caring friend as well as her landlord who doesn't trust Mara around Audrey's personal and private possessions." Duke replied, before making a move to go below deck, "...speaking of which...if you'll excuse me...I am going to go check up on my prisoner and make sure that she hasn't escaped...later Nate."
"Later Duke..." I reply, as I clutch onto the set of keys in my hand while making my way out onto the deck where I quickly make my way off the pier and to my waiting truck where Audrey wakes up upon me opening the door to get into the driver's side.
"Hey..." Audrey replied, giving me a sleepy smile as she turned fully to face me.
"Hey...we could just go straight to bed when we get home...if you want." I suggest, as I see the tiredness etched onto her face.
"While sleeping in my own bed with the man that I love does sound enticing...I do believe that you promised me a soothing bath when we got home." Audrey replied, taking the ring of keys from my outstretched hand.
"I am worried about you drowning due to how tired you are..." I trail off, giving her a worried expression.
"I won't drown if you are there with me?" Audrey stated, giving me a smile as I quickly turned the ignition on and pulled out of the lot.
As we headed our way back to the Grey Gull, I was deep in thought in what had occurred today and I couldn't help but feel somewhat relieved at finally having the love of my life back in my life.
Duke and I were going to have to help protect Audrey and Mara as soon as people in town figure out what happened...and that wasn't going to be easy...especially while Dwight was away.
And especially since Audrey was no longer immune to the troubles.
***There is a perfectly good reason why I decided to make two changes to this story when I was planning it out...which was making it into first person point of view perspectives in three chapters and not incorporating smut into this story. Don't get me wrong...I had orginally planned on doing smut for this story but given that I am not heartless...I didn't want have to have Nathan pretend to feel things that he can't feel due to the fact that Audrey had temporarily lost her immunity to the troubles...courtesy of Mara. But believe me...I am planning on writing a smutty oneshot that deals with Audrey and Nathan taking advantage of getting some much needed alone time after a day of dealing the aftermath of Duke's trouble bomb exploded...again courtesy of Mara. Anyway...please look forward to reading "Reuited At Last"***
**As stated before...this story will have first person point of view perspectives going on with a total of three chapters...the first one that you just read was Nathan's point of view and next up is Duke's point of view.**
*Also...before I sign off here...I ask of everyone to please please please read and review...because reviews from you all out there keeps a writer like me stay focused on routinely posting stories...just please review.*