Chapter 14 – The Path Narrows

Audrey was pretty sure that of all the unexpected things that she had seen since coming to Haven, this was the one that had left her the most stunned. Nathan could feel her. He could stick his hand into fire without flinching and didn't even blink at being shot, but here he was, a determined look on his face as he held her hand in his, the fingers of his other hand curiously tracing the lines and curves of her hand and wrist.

"Parker," Nathan said and Audrey's heart clenched when she heard the quaver of fear beneath his casual tone. "It's getting worse. I can't see anything now." His eyes had finally stopped panning around, and now were fixed in the direction of their joined hands. He took an uneasy breath and continued, "I don't even know where I am, there's nothing. Just you."

"Of course." Audrey glanced over her shoulder to see Duke still hovering in the doorframe, and his eyes were widened in some sort of comprehension. "I can't believe I never figured it out. It's you."

"What's me?" Audrey asked, bristling slightly at what sounded like an accusation.

"The one woman in the world he can feel," Duke answered. "He told me, when we were at Va-" He paused for a moment, grimacing, and then swallowed and continued, "at Vanessa's house. I always thought he was talking about Jess, but he wasn't. It was you."

Audrey's head was reeling at this new piece of information. All of a sudden so many things made sense. Nathan's abrupt tendency to touch her; the high-fives, the handshakes, the time he'd brushed ketchup from her chin at the diner. She had thought perhaps he was just trying to learn how to be social again, that maybe their friendship was inspiring him to become less of a socially awkward mess, but it was something so much more.

There was just one discrepancy that Audrey couldn't figure out. "He told you?"

"It was when we were all obsessing about fate," Duke said and she could tell that he knew what she was thinking. Why, of all people on earth, would Nathan tell his big secret to Duke Crocker, whom he tolerated at best, and not his partner and best friend? "He was trying to prove that fate must play something if a man who can't feel anything suddenly has a woman come into his life that he can feel. I thought he was just telling me to try and one-up me on the argument. You know how Nathan loves winning an argument. Especially with me."

Nodding in understanding, Audrey still couldn't help but wonder why he hadn't told her. Then she frowned with a sick feeling in her stomach; who was she to judge Nathan for keeping secrets when she had a beautiful pendant necklace hidden away in her dresser, marked with the initials of Lucy Ripley, which she had yet to tell him about? Still, she stared down at where Nathan's fingertips were circling her wrist, and assured herself that they would most definitely be having a chat about this when he got better.

"We've got to get back to those files," Audrey said determinedly, looking up at Duke again.

"What're you gonna do with Pinocchio there?" Duke asked, raising an eyebrow.

Audrey scowled at the jibe but didn't want to waste time arguing manners with him right now. Instead she carefully extracted her hand from Nathan's and quickly stripped off her jacket and outer shirt. Guilt lit in her at the fear and helplessness that had filled her partner's eyes at the loss of contact.

"Audrey, don't go, I'm sorry I didn't tell you," he said in a quick whisper. "About being able to feel you, I mean. I know I should've, I just – I didn't know how and –" Audrey hastily grabbed his hands again, not wanting him to get the wrong idea. Now wearing just her tank top, she placed his hand on her bicep and then stepped off of the bed, gently trying to get him to follow her. It took a second for him to get the idea, and then he inched cautiously toward the edge of the bed. He reached the end without noticing and she had to place her free hand on his chest to keep him from falling while he got his footing. She didn't fail to notice that he didn't even blink at the hand on his chest. So it was definitely just skin-to-skin contact then, like she thought.

It was slow moving getting Nathan out to the living room. He clung awkwardly to her arm with both hands, his steps shuffling and an agitated frown on his face. "I really don't like this," he muttered when they'd gotten halfway down the hall. Audrey touched his hand reassuringly and he smiled in response, even though it looked more like a grimace. Getting him to understand the message when she tried to make him sit on the couch was just as complicated; she had to push down on his shoulders, trying not to feel embarrassed as she slipped her hands beneath the collar of his shirt so he could feel her, and when he furrowed his brow and asked, "Sit?" she placed his palms on the side of her face and nodded.

Audrey settled herself into the couch beside Nathan, his hand still curled around her arm, and Duke was already in the armchair across from them, spreading out the files he'd retrieved from the floor of Nathan's bedroom. Without speaking, they split the papers between them on the table and Audrey and Duke quickly set to work. The air in the room was tense as they flipped through pages, the quiet only broken by the rustling of paper and their occasional noise on discovering a familiar name, only to fade away when they realized it was read wrong, or someone entirely unrelated.

Nathan never spoke, although he did let out an agitated noise every few minutes that would make Duke look up and glare pointlessly at him. His hand never left her arm, and he had drawn himself flush with her side. Audrey had to wonder if perhaps he could feel her body heat, or if it was something he did subconsciously. She made a note to ask him about it if – when! - when things went back to normal.

"Anything?" Audrey asked Duke after twenty minutes, straightening up and feeling the vertebrae in her spine stretch and pop after being stuck in one position so long.

"No suspicious names that I've seen," he said, turning over another sheet of paper to read down the back. "I've seen James Daley's name at least twice a page, but you've scratched his name out on the suspect list." He glanced across at her and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"I've already interrogated him," she answered simply, unconsciously flexing the bruised knuckles of her right hand. Duke noticed and a smirk crossed his face before he nodded and dutifully went back to his papers.

We're running out of ideas, Audrey thought to herself desperately, dragging her free hand through her dishevelled hair. Looking sideways at Nathan, tense and uncertain and clinging to her arm with both hands, she vainly wished that he could help her. She was good at solving the mysteries of the Troubles, she wasn't so modest that she couldn't admit that, but she rarely did it alone. Nathan was always around for her bounce her theories off of, to keep her grounded when she let her fancies take over. And now that the stakes had gone up so far, she needed him more than ever.

What have I missed? she asked herself, eyes glazing over the papers scattered across nearly every flat surface in Nathan's living room. There had to be one more place they hadn't checked, one more alibi they hadn't prodded or one more register that would pinpoint their killer. They had checked on the sand that had been used on all the victims, but that was turning up nothing. Half of their original list had been weeded out when they'd checked the connections between the victims. Was there another place where Halter and Waters and Nathan were all connected? Think, Audrey, damn it!

Halter had visited all five of their original suspects. They had scratched out the vacationing family after Waters had been killed and Nathan had gotten sick, because they had been out of town and had had no contact with Nathan. She was still uncertain about Marion Yardley, even though she claimed to like Nurse Waters and she had only ever been hostile to Audrey, not Nathan. As much as she hated him, Audrey felt fairly confident that James Daley was innocent. He had seemed too surprised to hear that Nathan was ill. And he didn't claim to have ever met Nurse Waters.

If only they could be sure of who Nurse Waters had seen in the days before her death.

An audible gasp left Audrey as her head snapped up. Duke looked over at her in alarm. "You alright there?" he asked uncertainly.

"I think I've just figured out another way we could find the killer," she said in a rush. After debating for a quick second, she said, "Can you stay here and keep going through these, and call me if you find anything?"

"Uh, sure," Duke said, still watching her in confusion. Audrey grabbed Nathan's arm and pulled him to his feet again, which made him look around wildly. Ignoring the fact that she looked a wreck, and that Nathan was still in his pyjamas, Audrey snatched the truck keys off the end table and walked him to the front door. She contemplated grabbing jackets for them both, but she doubted she could get him to release her arm to put them on. She did manage to get him to manoeuvre his feet into a pair of boots waiting beside the front door, although he'd grumbled irritably the whole time, and then she finally led him outside.

"Parker, where are you taking me?" Nathan asked as they slowly crossed the porch. Audrey couldn't think of a way to answer, although most of her attention was focused on making sure Nathan didn't fall down the steps. It was a lot harder than she had expected.

As they walked the length of the stone path to the truck, she flattened the truck key between their palms. She could feel the sharp contrast of his warm skin around the jagged edges of the cold metal, and she hoped dearly that he could too. Nathan stopped walking almost instantly and he frowned thoughtfully. "There's a spot where I can't feel you," he said slowly. "What is that?"

He squeezed her hand tighter, so tightly that Audrey's fingers were groaning in protest, and flexed his palm against hers. "It's – little and thin and –" he screwed his face up in concentration so much that his nose wrinkled. "Is it a key?"

Surprised at how quickly he'd gotten it, Audrey took his chin in her free hand and made him nod. Nathan almost smiled. "Don't do that, it makes me feel weird and I don't need help with that right now," he said, gently pulling his chin out of her grip. "Just, um, squeeze my hand; once for 'yes' and twice for 'no,' okay?"

Audrey slipped the key out and then squeezed his hand once. He nodded. "Good, so it's a key?" One squeeze. "A key for what? The – the house?" Two squeezes. "No, that doesn't make sense. The truck then?" One squeeze. "We're getting in the truck?" Audrey squeezed his hand one last time and tugged on his arm to get him moving again. "Where are we going? No, you can't answer that. I really don't like this."

Nathan let her lead him around to the passenger side of the truck and when she stopped he asked, "We're at the truck?" One squeeze. "Okay, well, just point me toward it and I'll do my best to climb in." Then Audrey assumed he meant to be muttering, because his voice lowered just slightly when he added, "This'll be a disaster." She decided to let the comment slide on account of the fact that he couldn't hear himself to know that he wasn't even close to whispering.

Audrey opened the door then steered him toward it and patted his shoulders from behind to let him know. She hovered behind while he climbed awkwardly into the cab. It was a bit of trial and error, but eventually Audrey was able to shift his last leg inside so she could shut the door. The moment she'd climbed into the driver's seat, she took the hand that Nathan was tentatively holding in her direction and placed it on her forearm so he'd know where she was while she could still drive.

The trip was tense and quiet. Audrey was mentally trying not to count down how much time had passed, and especially not to speculate as to how much they might have left. Nathan was sitting stiffly in the seat beside her, his grip tight on her arm, his expression stony and his sightless eyes anxious. Every short glance she shot at him made her chest feel like it was collapsing again.

As Audrey stopped the truck in the car park of Haven Regional, she was pretty certain that she'd seen enough of the place in the last week to last her a lifetime. It was hard to get Nathan to let go of her arm so she could get out of the truck, until he asked if they'd gotten wherever they were going and she affirmed. Climbing out of the truck turned out to be a lot easier for Nathan than getting in had been, and in just a few moments they were walking toward the hospital doors.

Once inside, Audrey approached the nurses' station and cleared her throat to get the young nurses' attention. The woman looked up and then her brow knitted in surprise and confusion. Audrey figured they must look a sight, her in her tank top and sidearm, holding hands with a pyjama-clad and very clearly disoriented Nathan while his other hand was curled around her bicep. To her credit, the nurse recovered well.

"Can I help you officers?" she asked curiously.

"We need a file from you," Audrey answered hastily. "I've been told Nurse Angelina Waters was working a rotation when she died. Do you have a copy of what floors she was working on that rotation?"

"That'll help find out who killed her, right?" the nurse asked and her eyes were plaintive and hopeful. Audrey could tell immediately that she must have known Nurse Waters well, and she nodded. "I'll have to check with my supervisor first, but I'm sure we can get that for you. If you'll just wait here, I'll be right back."

Audrey tossed a thank you after the nurse's retreating back and then shifted her weight to the other leg, leaning slightly into the warmth coming from Nathan's body beside her. His eyes were once again looking around hopefully, trying to find something, anything, but he must have felt her move because his head swivelled in her direction and his hand gripped hers tighter.

"Parker?" he asked tentatively and she squeezed his fingers to let him know she was listening. "I really am sorry. About not telling you about this." To signify what he meant, he twisted his hand until his long fingers were threaded in between hers. It surprised Audrey just how much she liked the feel of it, but those were thoughts for other times. "And that you had to find out like this. It wasn't –" He trailed off, looking at a loss for words, and then frowned. "It was – It –"

He clamped his eyes shut and shook his head sharply, and Audrey felt his weight pull at her arm as he staggered slightly to the side. "Nathan?" she asked nervously, grabbing his shoulder with her free hand to steady him. He was leaning hard to one side and his brow was furrowed deeply, and he opened and closed his mouth twice before forming sound.

"Parr-er," he slurred, his eyes still pressed closed. "Somefing's wrong. I can'd… Brain feels weird… I can'd fink…" He stumbled further to the right and Audrey leapt forward to stop him from falling. " 'Dree? I – 'dree?"

"I'm here, Nathan," she said quietly and then shouted, "Help! I need help here." Not a split second later, Nathan's full weight slumped into her and Audrey's knees buckled under her, taking them both to the floor. "Don't you dare, Nathan," she growled out, flattening a palm against his cheek. His eyes had partially opened but they weren't moving, and his breathing was shallow. "Don't you dare die on me, Wournos!"

There were doctors and nurses all around them now, and they hauled Nathan's body up onto a stretcher. Audrey couldn't focus on all of the medical jargon floating around her, all she could pay attention to was the hand still clamped in hers. Nathan's hand. She couldn't lose him now.

"Ma'am, you're gonna need to let go." A doctor was trying to pry Nathan's hand away from hers and Audrey scowled at him. She hadn't even realized she'd been jogging along with the stretcher as it moved down a hall. "We need to get him into the ER. Now. You've got to let go." With a tremendous tug, he jerked her hand from Nathan's and Audrey stopped short, watching the group disappear through a set of double doors with Nathan hidden somewhere in the middle.

Staring at her empty hand, Audrey felt a blind panic fill her in a way she'd never felt before. Not in being sent to a new foster home as a child or in her first dangerous situation after Quantico or even in any of the times she'd come face-to-face with Troubles. Because Nathan had become her constant, the one steady thing in this world of chaos that she had embroiled herself in, and she was losing him.

She slid down the wall to sit on the cold tile floor and wrapped her arms around the legs she'd drawn up to her chest, and for the first time since she was a teenager she just completely let go and cried.