***As I said at the start of the previous chapter, the starting paragraphs of both point of views (Nathan and Duke) will be similar but the only point of view that will be different is Audrey's. So I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.***
**Disclaimer: I do not own or profit from Haven or it's characters...I just merely use them for my amusement and utter muse. So please don't sue me.**
The Simple Separation Between Good and Evil (Duke Crocker Point of View)
"Who the hell is that?" I wondered aloud, as Nathan and I both exchanged looks at the sound of what seemed to be a woman breathing heavily.
Though before I had a chance to say anything more to Nathan regarding the sound we were both now hearing, I watched as Nathan make tentative but confident steps towards the unknown woman as if he had a feeling who this woman was as he made his way to the area from which the heavy breathing was coming from.
But, then I watched in shock as the woman on the ground that Nathan is slightly crouching down beside begins turning slightly over to reveal her face to us and that was when I just about doubled over in shock as the blonde that was staring deeply into Nathan's eyes turned out to be none other than that of Audrey Parker. As if on instinct, I had suddenly remembered that we still had Mara in our custody to deal with and I quickly glanced over to where Mara was standing in complete shock and surprise to which I immediately found myself putting my hand out in an effort to prevent any movement she planned on making.
'Oh my god...did I actually successfully get her back to us? I mean...this is Audrey freaking Parker that my eyes are fucking staring at here. Wait...if Audrey is here...then why the hell is Mara still here? Fucking Haven!' I thought, silently grumping to myself as I stared back towards the brunette across from me who was now in the middle of regarding her blonde counterpart so intently that I was afraid of her trying something on Audrey and Nathan right then and there.
'Oh...I wish this bitch were to try something right now...so I could reshock her ass back into unconsiousness...' I thought, smirking to myself ruthlessly as I remembered doing just that earlier today when Nathan and I were stuck in each other's bodies.
'Sorry Nate...this bitch had to be taken down a peg somehow...' I added, with a hint of remorse towards Nathan.
I am so deep in thought that I barely registered the fact that Audrey is now speaking near Nathan's ear as they both cling to one another as if they were each other's lifelines.
'Looks like I owe Nathan an apology for not believing him the first time he kept on trying to tell me that she was still in there...' I thought, mentally sighing as I looked at them.
I am so deep in my thoughts that I barely register Mara's voice cutting into the delightful silence, as always.
"Hmmm...how cute...so this is the Audrey that you so desperately wanted back in your life...it is all so very cute that I could just barf."
I watch as Audrey and Nathan immediately jump at the sound of Mara's voice to which I switch my attention between Audrey directly to Mara, focusing all of my energy that I could muster onto this evil bitch.
'Oh...how I wish to just punch her in her face right now...while it might not do any good...it would sure feel good...' I thought, with a hint of bitterness.
"What do we do with her?" I hear Nathan asking me, knowing very well who he was refering to even if he was refusing to say the bitch's name.
"I don't know yet...I don't even understand what just happened here...I don't understand why we have Mara still here after we now finally have Audrey...who is..." I replied, trailing off as I quickly become aware of the fact that Audrey was not wearing any clothing as she clung to Nathan's leg like a scared child, "...is naked? Nate...why is Audrey not wearing any clothes?"
'What the hell kind of trouble did I just release!?' I thought, trying to avert my eyes from Audrey's naked skin and drilled onto Nathan's face.
No sooner did I ask that question did I see Audrey trying to cover herself up as Nathan steps in front of her to help perserve her modesty, I watch him spare a askance glance my way and I immediately knew what he was going to ask me.
"Ummm...you wouldn't mind grabbing some clothes that Audrey could wear from upstairs..." Nathan asked me, as my attention quickly switches from Audrey to him in mere minutes.
"Yeah...I'll be back in no longer than a minute..." I reply, trying to assure them both as I quickly fish Audrey's set of keys out of one pocket and a silver gun out of the other, "...this is for if little miss in chains over there tries to give you guys trouble."
"Thanks Duke..." Nathan replies, and I watch as he takes the gun and gives it to Audrey to hold onto.
"No problem...I will only be a minute or two..." I reply, as I proceeded to leave them with Haven's troublemaker in order to use Audrey's key to get into her upstairs apartment.
I can't help but let out a heavy sigh the moment that I unlock the door to Audrey's apartment as the enormity of everything that has just occurred suddenly hits me all at once.
'Audrey is finally back...she is really truly back with us...and I truly don't quite know what we are going to do next. This is just so surreal. I can only imagine what Nathan is thinking right now...on second thought...I already know what he is thinking and I can quite say that I don't blame him. Don't blame him at all.' I thought, making my way towards Audrey's bedroom where I scrounge her closet and drawers for some suitable shirt and pants that she could wear.
I knew that obviously, the job of watching and protecting the woman who created the troubles would automatically fall to me, since Nathan is not going to want anything to do with Mara from now on.
'This will be fucking difficult...it is going to be fucking difficult to keep myself from punching my fist to Mara's face whenever she says something that will ultimately annoy the hell out of me.' I thought, dryly.
I rummaged around her drawers until I found some jeans and a T-shirt that I knew had to be Nathan's since I have seen him wear the shirt on more than one occasion and couldn't help but let out a slight chuckle after realizing that Audrey must have done girly thing and kept the shirt for herself.
'Nathan probably let her keep it...' I thought, grabbing the shirt along with the jeans and closing the drawers and closet.
Not wanting to keep them waiting since I did tell them that I would be no more than a minute, I quickly walked out of the apartment and used Audrey's keys to relock it before making my way back downstairs to relieve them of having to deal with Mara.
I silently made my way back into The Gull to find Audrey wearing Nathan's leather jacket as they embraced each other and looked over to find Mara still standing in the same place that I had left her, I quickly handed Audrey's clothes to Nathan who passed it over to Audrey who gave me a look of gratitude. I immediately kept my eyes trained on Mara in order to give Audrey some amount of privacy needed in order to get dressed even though Nathan was doing a nice job in blocking the view.
"Thanks Duke..." Audrey replied, as she smoothed the wrinkles out of her shirt and moved to stand in front of Nathan to give me a proper 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." I replied, returning her hug before allowing her to pull back and look directly into my eyes where I was alarmed to see the tiredness flowing from her eyes. Even though I knew the reason behind why she was extremely tired and knew that Nathan would soon take care of that little problem.
We were then once again rudely interrupted by the sound of Mara voice and I knew that it was now time to haul her off to the bow's of my boat...the sooner the better.
"Can you talk to your boytoy about his need to threaten people's lives...because he was threatening mine earlier when he was pressing a pocket knife to my throat...blondie?" Mara sneered, her comment hurled directly at Audrey while examining her nails.
I watched as the tired facial expression on Audrey's face morph quickly into a look of disgust, hatred and anger which was a look that I had seen before on Audrey's face, because I remember seeing that exact look on her face when she was trying to get a troubled girls sister to activate her resurrection trouble in order to save Nathan from remaining dead. I knew that whatever Audrey was planning on doing to Mara in that moment was NOT going to be pretty and that for the sake of Nathan and I, it would be wise to allow her to let her frustration out on Mara and not get in her way.
"Does she still have that stun belt on her?" Audrey asked, so very causually and I immediately knew what she planned on doing to Mara.
Both Nathan and I immediately nod at Audrey's question while seeing Mara roll her eyes in annoyance at the question.
'Okay...this is going to be fun to see...' I thought, with instant glee as I remembered doing the same thing towards her not that long ago and was now going to see Audrey get her turn at the tazer.
"Let me guess...you want to use the remote on her..." I reply, a smile already forming on my face.
"May I..." Audrey trails off, looking between both Nathan and I as realization swiftly hits her, "...okay which one of you two has the remote to the stun belt..."
I was about to pipe up and say that I had it on me until I remembered that I had used Nathan's body to stun Mara into unconsiousness meaning Nathan was the logical one to have the remote in his possession, I quickly catch Nathan's eye and give him a knowing look that I knew he would immediately understand before seeing him quickly nod and reach into his back pocket for the remote.
"I do." Nathan replies, reaching into his back pocket to grab the remote and hand it over to Audrey, whom carefully takes it and examines it before glancing a question at me.
"Duke...how do I...um?" Audrey stammers, as I quickly make my way over to her and gestured with my finger as it guided hers over to the button I had mine hovered over.
"It's this button..." I explain, as I carefully pull Audrey's finger into position over the said button, "...right there...just press it and watch her stumble over in pain."
"Gladly..." Audrey replied, in one of the most darkest tones that I had ever heard from her as she let a small smile flow onto her face as she looked over to me as if she wanted my approval. Upon watching me nod my head in approval, she quickly gets ready to press the button.
"Oh I highly doubt that little miss blondie will have the guts to shock me...she is way too nice and way too good to press the button...I mean look at her...she is all talk and no action...sad really...that I am 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 on the button until she is stopped by both Nathan and I. We both stare at her with a look of concern etched onto our faces and she quickly hands the remote back to me before returning back to Nathan's waiting arms.
"You okay?" Nathan asks her, looking at her with what I can bet is a look of concern in his eyes as he smoothed a strand of hair back behind her ear as he held her tightly to him, not wanting to ever let her go unless he was forced to let her go. Which I doubt was going to be anytime soon by the looks of them holding one another like their lives depended on it.
"Yeah...I am fine now...just needed to do that to her...have been wanting to do something to 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 from taking away my last hope of getting out of her safely...I am so sorry if you two had to deal with her relentless emotional torture." Audrey states, as she nods against Nathan's chest and tightens her arms around him while placing her ear directly on the spot where his heart is located.
"How did William ever put up with a bitch like her?" Nathan asked, the same question I had originally asked Mara pretending to be Audrey earlier.
'Seriously. How did he put with her all time? She had to be really good in bed in order for William to keep her around.' I thought, not hearing what Audrey was saying towards Nathan in response to his question.
I mean if it were me, I would not have put up with Mara's temperment and would have dumped her immediately as in my line of work, I simply don't have time to deal with crazy bitches. No matter how insanely great in bed they are.
I was so deep in thought that I hadn't realised that they were now aiming a question at me.
"...what do we do now Duke?" Nathan asked, patiently waiting for my answer.
I thought about it for a moment as I played around with the possible options of what we could do in my head as I glanced over back and forth between them and Mara, the thought of going home to my boat crossing my mind and slowly forming into an idea that was too impossible not to work out. I waited a full beat before I slowly began to speak with them.
"Meet us in 10 minutes at The Rouge...and wait there while I chain miss troublemaker to a chair below deck..." I instructed, my words directed at Audrey and Nathan while my eyes remained rooted in place upon 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?" I retort sarcastically, waving the remote in her sightline as I gesture my finger over the button as I watch her facial expression change drastically as she settles back down into the chair that she had since vacated.
"Go to hell..." Mara quietly utters back at me 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 nice. Starting now...if you get into the trunk without fighting me...I won't taze you." I replied, chuckling darkly as I made my way over to grab firmly onto Mara's arm in order to pull her back up into a standing position.
"Somehow I highly doubt that..." Mara smirks darkly, as she allowed herself to be dragged out of The Gull.
"Nice Jeep." Mara remarked, a snarky grin across her face as we made our way passed the driver's side all the way to the trunk where I quickly popped the trunk open and gestured for her to get in with my hand and a suggestive arch of my eyebrow.
"Get in." I reply, in a tone that brooked zero argument and watched as her face morphed from amusement to you have to be kidding me in mere seconds as she looked around at the space provided for her inside the trunk.
"You want me to get inside here..." Mara replied, gesturing the area with her chained hands as I tried to push her inside the trunk.
"Just get in." I repeated my earlier request, this time a little more forceful as my hand reaches for the stun belt remote hidden in my pocket.
"Seriously, look at the size of this trunk space and not to mention the fact that you have things blocking the area that you are gesturing towards where I am supposed to lay." Mara explained, giving me an incredulous look.
"Okay. Firstly, you will fit in that space as I will move stuff around my trunk to make sure that you'll fit. Secondly, when I released a trouble to try and rescue Audrey from the likes of you, I hadn't planned on stashing a wanted prisoner in the trunk of my Jeep to be transported onto my boat where you'll stay for the time being. Lastly, you have about five seconds to get your ass into the trunk before I press the button that stuns you as I do remember telling you back inside the Gull..." I reply, an eyebrow raised as a challenge while holding the remote for the stun belt in my hand in front of her face.
"That doesn't scare me." Mara stated, her facial expression formed into a sneer as she tried to square me up.
"Get your ass in the trunk of the car." I reply, my patience for this troublemaker barely kept in check.
For a few moments, Mara continues to challenge my threat of stunning her into unconsiousness before theatrically sighing and proceeding to put a foot into the inside of the trunk. She moves to get comfortable as I start moving things around the trunk in order to keep her from destroying anything fragile.
"Last thing...on the ride over to my boat...I request complete and utter silence from you. I will not talk to you and you will not talk to me...got it?" I state, as I had zero interest in conversing with the woman who may as well have had a thing to do with Jennifer's death.
"Aye, captain doofus..." Mara replies, in a sarcastic tone of voice that I wisely choose to ignore.
Hearing nothing else from her, I quickly push the lid of the trunk down before inserting the key and locking it as I made my way over to the driver's side and turned the ignition on.
'This went harder than I thought it was going to be...I wonder how long we'll be dealing with her?' I mentally groaned, pulling out of The Gull's parking lot and starting the drive home to my boat.
Getting Mara inside the Cape Rouge and down into the bow of my boat proved a lot easier to do than getting her into the trunk of my Jeep back at the parking lot of The Grey Gull, she didn't say a word towards me throughout the whole process of chaining her to the chair as she just gave me a glare as I was doing it. She didn't scare me.
After I finished chaining her to the chair, I quickly left the room with a promise to return with something for her to eat but that I had some business to do in the meantime.
I considered taking a drink of whiskey before having my chat with Audrey and Nathan but decided against it as I wanted to be completely sober while making decisions regarding what to do with Mara. Just as I was in the process of putting away the unopened bottle of whiskey, I heard the tell tale signs of footsteps making their way onto the deck of my boat and decided to go the entrance to greet them both at the door.
'Audrey looks exhausted...more exhausted than Nathan and I combined' I thought to myself as I mentally noted the condition of the bags underneath her eyes.
"Is she secured?" Nathan asked, making no time for pleasantries as he breaks through my mental conversation with myself.
"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?" I replied, assuring him as I opened the door more to allow them inside while simultneously producing a glass of water for Audrey to drink. Audrey quickly accepts the drink and takes a seat in one of the booths as she takes a sip of the cool liquid and stares back at us.
"So...what do we do now?" I ask, crossing my arms and leaning back against my sink as I looked between Audrey and Nathan for any possible 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." Nathan replied, crossing his own arms as he looked back at Audrey and I.
"Where is Dwight anyway?" I asked, shrugging myself off of the kitchen sink and walking my way over to the both of them.
"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 she doesn't try anything stupid on us while he was gone. But, I doubt the majority of the guard members are just going to follow Dwight's order to back off of Mara until he returned from wherever he went off to, which means keeping Audrey and Mara alive will be tricky until he gets back." Nathan replied, running his hand uselessly through his hair as it seemed like he tried to think of something better that we could do.
"Well...obviously...that means that Mara will be remaining in my custody until then..." I started off before ending off on a sarcastic scoff, "...and it isn't like that is going to be 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 me a look that brooked no argument and it caused me to sigh softly.
"Well...sweetheart...I will do my very best to keep her away from you two...speaking of which...how are you feeling?" I replied, my eyes studying her carefully.
"Fine...tired...just feeling like I have 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 people anymore." Audrey replied, after a deep heavy sigh as she took a healthy sip of the glass of water in front of her and hugged herself in an effort to calm down.
"Well...we are all glad to have you back with us because honestly...dealing with the creator of the 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." I replied, apologetically as I shoved my hands into the front pockets of my pants.
"It's okay Duke...I understand...you guys were doing what you needed to do in order to keep her contained." Audrey replied, biting back a yawn that was starting to creep up on her.
"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 Audrey and Mara linked together physically like she was with William." Nathan stated, and I practically heard the acid dripping from when he mentioned the name William.
A sick pit in my stomach formed as I registered that name into my head as I considered Nathan's statement and I remembered the same sick feeling I had when I practically had to pry Nathan off of Audrey's body in order to allow the EMT's to tend to her after William's gunshot wound mimicked itself onto the same area on Audrey's abdomen, and boy was it hard to do because Nathan was rooted onto her like he was gonna die if he let go.
Even though Audrey never placed the blame on Nathan for what happened that day at the abandoned warehouse, it made it harder for any of us to lay a hand on William without bringing harm to Audrey. Though, I knew that if Nathan was given the chance to beat the living daylights out of William and not harm Audrey by doing so, I automatically knew that he would take that chance to do so.
"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." I concluded, with a tone of regret and misery in my voice.
"You know...honestly...I just want to go home and wash myself of her presence...and maybe burn anything she might have touched." Audrey stated, hugging herself as she moved to get up and make her way out the door, "...bye Duke...see you later..."
"Bye...take care and forget about you-know-who below deck tonight...and let Nathan take care of you as I am not quite sure of whether or not he has let you know that this whole ordeal has been brutal on him." I replied, giving her a quick hug as she is steps away from the door.
"Will do. I am just going to go wait in the Bronco...Nathan?" Audrey yawns, looking expectantly at Nathan.
"Here..." Nathan replied, his hand digging into the pocket of his leather jacket to grab the keys to his truck and place it in Audrey's open hand, "...go ahead and start the truck and I'll be there momentarily...okay?"
"Okay." Audrey replies quietly, exhaustion evident in her voice as she gripped the keys to the Bronco in her hand and made her way carefully out of the room and out onto the deck until we couldn't hear the sound of her footsteps anymore.
Once I didn't hear the sound of her footsteps anymore, I quickly wheeled my attention on Nathan and reached into my pocket for Audrey's set of the apartment keys that I had confiscated from Mara the moment I had realized that Audrey was stuck inside Mara. The second moment when I realized that Nathan was actually serious about her being in danger as the first moment being when we rescued her from that steam trunk the night of her birthday party.
"Is she going to be okay?" I asked, as soon as we both heard Audrey's footsteps step off of the deck.
"You mean other than surviving the torment of Mara...I think it's going to take some time before she will feel like herself again...but at least she has us again...right?" Nathan replied, with a shrug of his shoulders.
"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 over losing Jennifer that I had a hard time facing reality and I was trying to make you face an equal harsher reality...and that wasn't fair to you." I replied, with a heavy sigh as I offered the ring of keys in my hand for Nathan to grab, "...here...you and her are going to be needing this..."
"Are those Audrey's keys?" Nathan asked, acknowledging my apology with a nod before taking the keys from my outstretched hand.
"When you finally convinced me that Audrey was still in there and had currently been needing our help to fight against Mara...I sort of swiped Audrey's keys off of Mara...as a way of keeping Audrey's apartment safe from Mara's grips." I explained, watching Nathan curl his fingers underneath the thin metal ring that held the keys.
"Thank you, Duke." Nathan stated, in amazement.
"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." I replied, before making a move to go below deck to check up on Mara, "...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..." Nathan replied, making his way to follow where Audrey had gone as I didn't move until I heard his foot step off of the pier.
'Time to go check up on my happy prisoner...' I thought, sighing deeply as I moved to go speak to her below deck.
***So...this chapter took longer than necessary to type up...though writing this in Duke's point of view was interesting because of his early interactions with Mara. In my opinion, Duke was more of a "Bad Cop" to Nathan's "Good Cop" and that was a little interesting to see as they worked together to save Audrey.***
**I have also been in the process of typing up a smutty story by the title of I Love You, Audrey Parker so that is pretty going to be a while until I am finished writing that story so in the meantime, I will be posting/updating various stories in order to keep you guys entertained.**
*Next up is Audrey's point of view...this will also wrap the story up...so please read and review and make my day. Until next time.*