Chapter 3

Audrey walked into work, feeling surprisingly refreshed for having only gotten a few scant hours of sleep the night before. And even though she had a slight load on her mind because of what she might have discovered regarding the father of the Colorado Kid, she also felt lightened.

She walked into the precinct to see Nathan holding his coffee in front of him, looking adorable as he blew over the coffee and dipped a finger into it, looking a little like a lost puppy.

She withheld the ridiculous smile that wanted to surface and walked over and swiped the mug from his hands and took a tentative sip.

"It's fine, Nathan," she said, unable to keep a small grin from escaping.

He gave her a relieved smile.

"That's good to know. Hate to have burns I didn't know about." He returned her smile with a full-fledged grin and she was suddenly reminded of the dream, or memory, that she'd had just the night before, and was easily able to understand how she'd fallen for him as Sarah.

Audrey's gaze turned towards the floor slightly, but she brought her eyes back up as they walked the rest of the way to his office. However, they were suddenly stopped by an older woman who placed her hand on Nathan's arm.

"Nathan."

His look was one of surprise.

"Fanchon? What are you doing here?"

The older woman, named Fanchon, was a woman that Audrey could tell had probably been a heartbreaker in her youth. She had aged gracefully, with full dark, brown hair with only the faint coloring of gray along the temples, along with soft hazel eyes, which had laugh lines around them.

She gave Nathan a broad smile and reached up and gave him a hug, which he returned with a look of surprise on his face.

They pulled back, and he asked, "What are you doing down here? Shouldn't you be at the studio?"

At this, Fanchon shrugged and simply grinned.

"Not today." She lifted her hand and both officers saw that they were filled with fliers. "Have to put up the signs around town, of course. The ball's back on this year!"

At this, what seemed to be to Audrey, obtuse announcement, her partner grinned an obviously excited grin and let out a small laugh of incredulity. He leaned down and gave the older woman another hug, almost over enthusiastic in his exuberance.

"That's great! It's been too long."

The brunette woman shrugged.

"Yeah, well, I decided that the town needed some cheering up."

Audrey was slightly disconcerted at the easy camaraderie that she could see between the two of them, as well as confused, and Nathan quickly picked up on her confusion and explained what the two of them were talking about.

"Sorry," he said, giving his blonde-haired partner a look of contrition. "Audrey, this is Fanchon de Lancie, Fanchon, this is my partner, Audrey Parker," he said, introducing the two of them. Audrey reached forward and shook the woman's hand, giving her a cordial smile, and then Nathan continued. "For the past couple of years Fanchon has been gone, up in Canada, but before she was gone we used to have a dance each year called the Haven Winter Ball." He flashed Audrey a quick smile. "She's an expert in ballroom dancing, hence the reason why she hosts it."

At that, Audrey nodded.

"It sounds…nice. Very, uh, well…" Her voice faded and she sent a desperate look towards Nathan, trying to find a good word.

"Small-townish?" he supplied and she shrugged, half-heartedly agreeing with his choice of words.

"Not exactly the phrase I was looking for, but yeah…but in a good way, I promise."

Fanchon just let out a small laugh. "I'm sure it was a compliment, but it's okay, darling, I'm just here to check up on our boy here, to make sure he doesn't try and weasel out of it like he did the last time we had the ball."

She gave Nathan a pointed look, and Nathan gave her a wide-eyed look of innocence.

"I swear, Fanchon, that I did not do that on purpose. It was a big case, and it had to be closed…you know I wouldn't desert you on purpose."

He gave her one of his winning smiles, and the older woman grinned.

"So long as you're there this year…Mr. Reynolds won last year, and he's nowhere near as experienced as you are, and I miss seeing you on the floor, sweetheart. You and your prospective partner, of course," she added, giving a coy wink at Audrey.

Audrey flushed slightly and ducked her head for a moment while Nathan tried to cut off Fanchon's words before she revealed too much.

"I'll see if I can make it," he said, keeping his answer vague so that he had some wiggle room for when it got closer to the ball to change his answer, but then he saw Audrey's eyes light up in curiosity at Fanchon's previous words.

"Wait…Nathan can dance?" She gave her partner a look of doubt and then looked back at Fanchon. "Are you sure we're talking about the same Nathan, here?"

The older woman nodded, her grin stretching wide as she outed her best student.

"Nathan Wournos is only the best ballroom dancer I've taught in these many, many years of being a dance instructor." She continued to grin; obviously thrilled at getting the chance to tell his partner and friend one of his most closely guarded secrets. "He's won the dancing competition every single year that he's been in it."

She reached over and rubbed his shoulder while he slid his hands into his pockets and ducked his head in shame.

Audrey couldn't withhold the grin.

"Nathan? Ballroom dancing? Wow…now this I have to see." She gave her partner a teasing look. "This is almost as bad as the decoupage."

He gave her a pointed glare, one that held no weight behind it.

"You will not breathe one word about this to Duke, do you understand? He always leaves for a big trip for the whole month of December and he's never known about…" He waved an absent hand in the air, and finished with, "You will not tell him. I'm not giving him anymore ammunition against me," he finished, the last sentence more to himself than to Audrey.

She gave him an odd look and just shrugged.

"Wasn't planning on telling him…just hoping to get some pictures," she finished, a sly grin on her face, and her grin grew even wider when she heard him groan.

"Well, sweetheart," Fanchon said, placing a hand on Nathan's shoulder once more, "I've got to get over to the Herald to make sure Vince and Dave run an ad for the ball for the next three weeks. See you!"

She gave the both of them a small wave and walked out of the precinct, leaving the two of them to give each other a look, Audrey's one of humorous delight, Nathan's one of deep embarrassment tinged with a faint hint of humor. They turned to head towards his office once more, but were stopped by another voice.

"Audrey, Nathan…"

They both turned to see Claire walking into the building, her typical cup of coffee in her hand.

"Hey, Claire," said Audrey, giving Nathan a look from the corner of her eye, remembering her conversation with the woman only hours before. "What are you doing here?"

She gave them both a look and was slightly surprised to see that neither of them were acting weird around the other, so she decided to be circumspect in her words.

"Just checking up on my two favorite study cases."

She carefully observed their body language and was pleased to see that it was positive. Both of them were slightly facing the other, their shoulders were nearly touching, and she could sense a feeling of…companionship about the two of them. This was good news.

Nathan shrugged Claire's presence off as being non-important and walked to his office, but Audrey lingered, not quite trusting Claire's reason for being there, especially after their conversation earlier that morning.

Audrey gave the psychiatrist a pointed look, to which she responded with a pointed look of her own, causing Audrey to shrug and leave Claire to her own devices.

The brunette watched the two of them and carefully analyzed what she knew so far.

Apparently, when Nathan and Duke had gone back to 1955 they had met Sarah…and Nathan had fallen for her as hard as he'd fallen for Audrey. Honestly, that wasn't the least bit surprising to Claire…but what was surprising was the fact that he'd taken it so far.

She had no doubt in her mind. Audrey had not simply had a dream; she'd remembered what had happened.

Nathan really was the father of the Colorado Kid.

But who was going to give in first and admit that they knew? That was the question that was burning in the young psychiatrist's mind. Who would give in first…

They were both equally stubborn and, she groaned inwardly at the despairing thought, they could both hold out on their information for forever. They would have the same reasoning behind it, as well: Why rock the boat? If it isn't broke, don't fix it; and so on, and so forth. It would be an endless cycle of rationalizations…unless she did something about it.

However, that last thought gave her some pause.

She didn't want to ruin what they had, and she could technically be betraying patient-doctor confidentiality if she mentioned anything to do with her conversation with Audrey.

How far was too far?

Deciding to simply watch them for the time being and come up with a strategy plan later, she popped her head into the office that they shared.

"Mind if I tag along?" she asked, motioning with the coffee cup in her hand. "I don't have any appointments today, and I could always help you guys out. I'm not a slacker, you know…" She let it linger for a moment, watching as they both looked at her with identical expressions and then looked at each other.

It was amusing to watch their silent conversation.

Audrey's eyes went up. Seriously? Does she have to come along? Nathan gave her a shrug. Couldn't hurt. Audrey glared and tapped her finger on the gun at her waist. It's your fault then if I end up shooting her. A faint grin at the corner of his lips. Point taken.

The both of them stood at once.

"Sure, glad to have you," said Nathan, while Audrey then warned, "So long as you keep your distance if anything dangerous starts to happen. Deal?"

Claire nodded, pleased to have gotten under both of their' skins.

"Deal."

She followed them out of the precinct, noting how their strides were practically in unison as they walked down the front steps to Nathan's truck. She smiled to herself and took a sip from the coffee mug in her hand.

Oh, yeah…this was going to be an interesting day.

Part 3/?

A.N. - So...this was only going to be a one-shot, but then someone mentioned doing it from Audrey's perspective, so I did that. And that was going to be the *END* of it. But then I got reviews on that chapter saying I needed to add more...and now this story is most likely going to be around 10 CHAPTERS! Aaaaarrrghhh! But at the same time, THANK YOU! My first Haven fan fiction and people are enjoying, so keep reviewing if you want more!