Epilogue

Audrey was watching disinterestedly as the clock above the doorframe ticked tonelessly. Each passing second produced a dull tick noise and a jerky movement of the narrow red arm. And each dull tick and jerky twitch was just another second that Nathan hadn't woken up.

The doctor had assured her that he was alive. Apparently he had woken up briefly before she'd arrived at the hospital but then passed out again only minutes later and he had been deeply asleep ever since. It wasn't that Audrey didn't trust the doctor, although she was rather annoyed with him for waylaying her on her way to see Nathan when she'd first arrived. It was only a small bullet hole in her collarbone, but after a lot of rambling about protocols and biological contamination and health concerns, he'd carted her away to have her taken care of. It had been an extra hour and a half and a rather large pain killer later before she'd finally been allowed into the hospital room where Nathan was still sleeping.

Audrey trusted the doctor. She just wanted to see it for herself.

It was hard to believe that Nathan had been through so much in the last couple days, looking at him now. There were the thin gauze bandages around his neck, and the gash in his forehead had been stitched closed, but beyond that he merely looked a bit tired, which wasn't altogether an unusual thing for him. Watching him sleeping peacefully, Audrey couldn't believe how close she'd come to losing him completely.

Duke's words rang in her head. "You two, you've got something different between you, don't you?" She hadn't really had time to think about what that meant before, but now that she did it was filling her mind. Was there something between her and Nathan? Sure they were close, they were best friends, but was there more to it? Were they more? Audrey's head was swimming with all of the implications. All she could be sure of was that whether it was as her best friend or something more, she couldn't imagine going back to a life without Nathan Wournos.

He shifted in his sleep and Audrey smiled, reaching forward to brush aside some of the hair that had fallen across his forehead. Wanting to maintain the reassuring contact just a bit longer, she traced her fingertips lightly over the worry lines permanently engraved into the skin. Nathan grimaced.

"Parker," he grumbled in a hoarse, weak voice. "Don't touch." Audrey recoiled hastily, fighting back an abrupt wave of hurt. He didn't want her touching him. Maybe she had read too much into things. Maybe his feelings were entirely platonic. "I forgot how much stitches hurt, I'd rather keep it that way."

Audrey's minor panic attack froze and comprehension filled its place; her fingers had strayed close to the stitches when she had been toying with his hair. "Sorry," she murmured. The corners of Nathan's lips quirked up. "How are you feeling?"

"Alive, thanks to you," he said and lazily tilted his head in her direction. His eyes were only half open and unfocused, but the light and life had come back to them. "You're getting good at saving me, Parker."

"It's because you're such a great damsel in distress," Audrey replied with a smile. It felt good to be able to return to their wry banter again. "Welcome back."

"Thanks," he said with a small smirk. "I gotta say, it's nice to hear your voice again. I never realized how much you talk until I couldn't hear it."

"So you're all back then?" Audrey asked hopefully.

"It's coming back," he said. "I can hear pretty well, and smell too. I can't see much yet, it's all just dark fuzzy colours. But I don't feel as heavy, like I did before when my body wouldn't move. I think I'm gonna pull out of this one."

"You'd better because I don't think I could handle having Duke as a partner full-time," she chuckled.

"Duke?" Nathan asked, half raising an eyebrow in what she assumed was supposed to come across as a questioning look. "You teamed up with Duke?"

"Someone had to help me out," Audrey said with a shrug. "I couldn't babysit you and solve the case at the same time, you're too high maintenance. He was actually very helpful. And concerned about saving you."

Nathan let out a short laugh. "Now I know you're lying," he said but she could tell it was without much conviction.

"No really," she said. "He went into the final showdown and tackled the bad guy straight to the ground. He'd be rubbing it in your face now but I think he disappeared with the nurse that was stitching up the cuts he got in the mess."

Nathan lazily blinked a few times and then grinned. "Okay, I think you've got a story to tell. So catch me up, what exactly happened today?"

Audrey relaxed back into her chair, shifting her injured arm into a more comfortable position, and then started in on the tale. He listened intently, snorted when she told about her violent encounter with Jimmy Daley, and marvelled at the way she'd finally come to the conclusion about the killer.

"So it was Calvin Demarcio all along?" Nathan asked in awe and then shook his head with a grimace. "Figures. We should always just start with the least likely suspect in these cases, it seems to always work out that way."

"Most likely," Audrey agreed with a small laugh. "But then in Haven, everyone is the most and least likely. This place defies all laws for normalcy." Nathan nodded and then prompted her to continue the story. She relayed the rest of the afternoon to him, from the drive to Mariner Avenue to the shelf of sandglasses to their confrontation with Calvin and his mother. A smile tugged at her lips as she watched Nathan tense with anticipation, sitting up straighter and narrowing his unfocused eyes in concentration. When she told how Calvin had gotten ahold of her sidearm, Nathan let out a startled noise.

"He shot you?"

"Just in the shoulder," Audrey said dismissively. "It's fine."

"You were shot? How badly?" Nathan pressed.

"I'm fine," Audrey repeated, trying not to laugh at his anxiousness. He'd just been drained of nearly all his life and then had it tossed back into his body, but he was concerned about a little gunshot in the shoulder. "It's already been treated, doctor said I'll be fine."

Nathan still didn't look fully reassured but he nodded and settled himself back into the mattress again. "You probably should've started with that and gotten it out of the way," he grumbled half-heartedly.

Leaning closer, Audrey said, "Speaking of things that should have been talked about..." Reaching forward with her good hand, she closed her hand around his. The lines around Nathan's jaw tightened slightly; he knew what she meant. "You can feel me." His expression remained fixed and he didn't say anything. "Nathan, how long?"

"A while," he answered evasively. Audrey made an annoyed noise and he continued, "Since the day Jess left. You kissed my cheek and it was warm and soft and - I just couldn't believe it."

Audrey sat in silence, chewing over that new piece of information. That had been weeks ago. She hadn't been able to pinpoint it before, but now she realized that all of the changes in Nathan's behaviour were timed with that moment. She had always assumed that he had changed because of Jess, but she was wrong. It was because of her. "So you can feel me when I touch you?"

"Just when I touch your skin," Nathan said quietly. "I can't feel it when I grab your arm through your sleeve, or when you touch me with your gloves on. But when your skin touches mine, I can feel the pressure, and whether it's warm or cold or soft or rough." He looked for a moment like he wanted to say more, but then simply closed his mouth and swallowed.

Her mind was already reeling, but there was one more thing that Audrey still needed an answer to. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Nathan closed his eyes and swallowed hard again, and his hand tightened just slightly around hers. "I didn't know how," he admitted. "It's such an unreal thing, I hardly know how to think about it myself, let alone explain it to someone else. I mean, I can't feel anything but then I touch you and suddenly there's something that I can feel again, and I don't know how or why but it's true. It makes me scared to touch you, because I just don't know how to deal with those new feelings, but then I don't want to ever stop because it feels so good to feel human contact again. But I couldn't tell you, because I didn't want to scare you away." He lets out a heavy breath, and Audrey can tell that he's had all of this building in his chest for weeks and had no outlet for it to escape.

"Scare me away?" she asked curiously. "How would it scare me away?"

"I didn't – I don't want you to feel obligated or anything," he said, looking distinctly uncomfortable now. "I thought it might scare you that I can feel you, that maybe it'd make you anxious about being around me or something. And I don't want you to feel like you owe me anything because I can feel you. Like maybe you'd feel like you needed to touch me more or something. I don't want that, and I didn't want you to think that. You're my best friend, Audrey, and I just didn't want to risk anything that would change that."

Something felt like it was expanding in her chest, warm and comfortable, like her own heart was growing to fill every millimetre of her ribcage. What had she done to deserve such a wonderful partner and friend at her side? One who would put her own peace of mind above something that was so monumental to him? Smiling, Audrey threaded their fingers together and squeezed his hand reassuringly. "I'm not going anywhere, Nathan," she said and she saw the set of his shoulders ease slightly. "But I really wish you had told me sooner."

"I know," Nathan said quietly. "And I really never meant for you to find out that way either. I wanted to be able to just tell you, but I could never find the right time or the right words. I'm not good with words. Or timing, really."

Audrey smiled and bit back a small laugh. "Well I can't argue with that fact," she agreed and Nathan's lips twitched again. "Just – no more secrets?"

"No more secrets," Nathan said solemnly. And then, his expression still entirely stoic, he lifted his other hand and used his pointer finger to draw an X across his heart. Audrey laughed and nudged his arm playfully, and Nathan let a small smile slip out.

"It's good to have you back, Wournos," Audrey said sincerely, squeezing his hand.

"It's good to be back, Parker," Nathan replied and returned the gesture. Taking a deep breath, Audrey stood up and leaned down to press a lingering kiss against her partner's cheek. She didn't miss the grin that curled his lips at the contact or the colour that flooded into his skin, but she decided that was a conversation for another time. She still didn't fully understand what Duke had said about her and Nathan's relationship, or where either of them stood on it. She couldn't make sense of the twisting emotions in her stomach, the decidedly unclean images that sometimes filled her mind, or the pleasant tingling warmth creeping up her arm from the place where Nathan was brushing the back of his thumb across her wrist. There really was only one thing she was sure of.

"Hey Parker," Nathan chimed in suddenly, an almost inquisitive look on his face and a glint in his eye that made Audrey fear that they were in for trouble. "What do you think the odds are that you can sneak me in some pancakes from the diner? I can smell again so I think I could taste too, and I haven't tasted a good pancake in days."

Audrey simply laughed and rolled her eyes. Because the one thing she was sure of was that, no matter what that whirling mass of unexplored emotions lead them to, as long as she still had Nathan Wournos at her side then they would be alright.