Author's Note : Hey guys ! Before you start yelling at me, let me explain why I couldn't update this story. First, I got robbed. They took my computer and as a student working in a fast-food, I don't have a lot of time on my hands to rewrite everything and Nina's in her final exams in high-school so neither of us had time to rewrite the twelve chapters this fiction had. But now we do! Yay! Also my boyfriend proposed to me yesterday and I'm kinda ecstatic right now.

Right, enough personal life rambling, let's see how well Nate deals with Eric. (That was mostly sarcasm. Also I needed to tell people my boyfriend –fiancé?- is the best.)

Warning for emotional manipulation (that's not a nice thing to do, Mr. Getz), mentions of a miscarriage and I think it's all for this chapter.

Epilogue

Chapter 2.

For those who still can recall, the desperate colors of fall

The sweet caresses of May, only in poems remain

No one recites them these days for the shame

So what if nothing is safe, so what if no one is saved

No matter how sweet, no matter how brave

What if each to his own lonely grave?

The Sword & the Pen, Regina Spektor

Nate didn't call the number Nell gave him. If we want him back, we have to go get him, he thought. But Nate didn't know what he expected when he knocked on the door. Getting punched in the face, hugged, yelled at. He never was good at predicting his –former- friend's reaction. He still isn't because he would never have guessed what happened next.

The door opened on a small blue-eyed girl. Eric's niece, Dana, Nate thought.

"Who are you?" she asked, curious.

"My name's Nate, I want to speak with your-" he began, kneeling down to be at her height. The last thing he wanted was to frighten her.

"Go play in your room, Dana." The psychologist heard a strangely familiar voice say. He looked up to see Eric leading the girl to her own bedroom before he came back to the door. "I'm not coming back, whatever you have to say, I'm done. Don't waste your time."

"I'm not here to ask you to come back." Nate said. Okay, that was a kind of a lie. They needed Eric back, at least until Kensi was sound and safe back in the States. After, he could do whatever his heart desired, for all they cared. Another lie.

"Then why are you here?" Eric inquired.

"Nell told me you were back in Los Angeles and I hoped we could talk."

"Talk? About what? We have nothing to talk about anymore, Nate." Eric scoffed. He had given up on his old friendships a long time ago. It hurt less this way.

"I understood why you left." Nate replied. This was going to be awful, to actually tell someone about this and all the consequences it had on him. It was even more awful to use it to convince Eric to come back. It made Nate felt sick. But there were no leads on Kensi's whereabouts and everyone was starting to abandon hope. Even Hetty. He had read it in her look when she left for Greece two days before.

"Come in." Eric sighed, giving up. Something was wrong with Nate and no matter what Eric told himself every day since he decided to leave, he still cared about the team. Of course he did.

"Rose and I, we've always been serious about our relationship. So we got married, two years ago. It was perfect. The wonderful kind of marriage. And one day, we began to talk about children. She wanted two, a girl and a boy. I didn't really care if we had a girl or a boy, you know. I just wanted to do this with her, the whole baby thing. And after a few weeks, she actually got pregnant and it was- it was amazing and we were so happy, we were going to have a baby and-"

The psychologist interrupted himself, shaking his head like he wanted to chase those memories away.

And suddenly, Eric knew where this was going. "I'm sorry, Nate." He winced. "I didn't know-"

"Of course you didn't.." Nate said softly. "You had to leave, I understand, you were in pain and it was like nothing mattered anymore. But you can't just dismiss the family you have left just because you're hurting. It's not fair. Not to them, not to yourself. We need you, Eric. Kensi's been kidnapped."

So you lied.

"You're here to make me change my mind, aren't you?"

"I'm doing what's necessary."

"I know. And you're right. I was wrong to leave like I did. I don't regret it and I'm not coming back, not permanently, at least. We get Kensi back and I go back to Thailand."

Nate wasn't in position to argue. They needed Eric to find Kensi and if he wanted to throw everything away when Kensi was back, safe and sound, he had every right to do so.

"But I have to introduce you to someone first." Eric said, with his old cheerful smile back on. "Val!" he called out and a groan was heard a few seconds later before a red-headed woman in her mid-thirties exited the main bedroom.

"What's going on?" She asked, yawning and Nate could hear an heavy Russian accent in her voice.

"Human beings, Valeria. Say hi."

"Hi?" The woman –Valeria- repeated, obviously still half-asleep before she noticed Nate was in the room. "You could have warn me your old friends were coming!"

"He didn't know I was coming." Nate answered. "Hi." He waved at her.

Eric sighed, still smiling. "Nate, meet my wife, Valeria."

Here we are again! Sorry for the short chapter, as we lost all our files, I tried to rewrite this chapter like I remembered it and I don't remember everything, alas. Don't forget to tell us what you think!