mgowriter's note: Thank you for reading! I love the banter and humor between Nate and Sully in the games and I'm always looking to capture this part of their relationship better. This chapter is the last, and is for LittleSlytherin394.

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The un-oiled squeak of the sliding porch door brought him reluctantly back to reality. He opened one eye, and listened as footsteps drummed towards him on the wooden dock.

"Sully," the familiar voice called as the shadow of its owner blocked the sun.

"You're cutting into my Vitamin D time," Sully replied as he adjusted his sunglasses.

"Are you drinking a strawberry daiquiri?" Nate asked in amusement.

Sully sat up in the lawn chair. He took a sip of the tropical drink. It was a perfectly blended concoction of strawberries, rum, citrus and sugar.

"In all of its delicious glory," he replied. "I thought you were gone for the day."

"I was," said Nate, "but the plan's changed a little. There's this girl…"

Sully laughed. "There's always a girl. Who are you chasing this time?"

"Her name's Rachel."

"Okay, pretty name," said Sully. "Go on."

"Rachel and I met at the bookstore a couple of months ago. She was looking for a math textbook that was accidentally placed in the history section, and we literally sort of…bumped into each other. Anyway, that's what she wants to do—become a math teacher."

Sully raised an eyebrow. "The story's riveting so far."

Nate ignored his comment. "One thing led to another, we went on a couple of dates, and it turns out she's my age, and a senior at Palm Bay High."

Sully sat up straighter in the chair. "What did you tell her about yourself?"
"Relax," Nate replied. "I gave her the usual spiel, that I'm in my last year of high school, home schooled, and going off to college in a place far, far away next year."

"Good," said Sully. He took another sip of his drink.

"So here's the thing," said Nate. "She asked me to go to prom with her."

"You're kidding."

"Not kidding." Nate shook his head.

"You said yes?"

Nate nodded. "She wants to come over and see the house before we go, you know, probably to make sure I'm not a serial killer or something."

Sully laughed at the idea. "So when is this brainiac girlfriend of yours coming over?"

"Today, now," said Nate as he checked his watch. "I told her I needed an hour to get ready."

"I'm guessing you want me to clear the house so you two lovebirds can have some alone time," said Sully.

Nate shook his head. "Not exactly."

"What do you mean?" Sully asked.

There was a moment of silence. "Well, I kind of told her that you're the one that home schools me, because…you're a college math professor that's on sabbatical, and…you're also my stepdad."

"What?" said Sully. He took off his sunglasses. "How did that even—"

"I had to explain to her why we were living together and I couldn't tell her it's because we hunt for rare treasures and sell them to the highest bidder."

Sully shook his head. He reached for a cigar from his pocket. "Nate, this is not gonna work. You want me to be a math professor?"

"It'll be easy. You're great at acting. Just pretend it's a cover."

"Jesus, kid. Small lies. Small details. Didn't I always say to tell them as little as possible?"

"Sully, I need your help here. What do you say?"

Sully lit his cigar and took a couple of puffs.

"Are we going to have to produce a mother for you, too?"

"She died in a plane crash in the Andes a year ago. That's why you're on sabbatical."

Sully turned and stared.

"After this Rachel visits, we need to have a talk about the definition of 'small lies.'"

. . .

Nate completed another tour around the house, checking his watch as he dusted invisible crumbs off the coffee table. Rachel was due any minute.

Footsteps sounded at the top of the stairs. After a few seconds, Sully came into view.

Nate stopped his pacing. "Sully, you look like yourself."

Sully looked down at his white Havana shirt and grey pants. "How the hell is a math professor on sabbatical supposed to look?"

"I don't know, more…bookish."

"Bookish?" Sully asked.

The doorbell rang, and Nate waved his hand. "Never mind, she's here."

Both men put on big smiles as Nate opened the door.

"Rachel, come in," he said.

A petite girl with auburn hair and a pretty smile stepped into the house.

"Hi," she said tentatively, looked at her hosts.

"I'd like you to meet Sully," said Nate. "My stepfather," he added.

"Thank you for having me," Rachel said as she shook Sully's hand. "I hear you're a math professor?"

"That's right," said Sully.

There was a long pause. Rachel looked to Nate, who cleared his throat and stared back at Sully.

"Why don't you kids get settled in the living room?" Sully suggested. "I'm going to get us something to drink."

Nate led Rachel into the adjacent room.

"You call your stepdad 'Sully'?" she asked.

"Yeah, you know, it's um…a term of endearment," said Nate as he looked back to the kitchen. "You know what? I think I'm going to go help him with the drinks. You like lemonade?"

Rachel nodded.

"Okay, I'll be right back," said Nate. He hesitated for a second, before flashing an awkward smile on his way out of the room.

He walked into the kitchen to see Sully knocking back a healthy dose of alcohol.

Sully set the glass down, finally noticing Nate. "What are you doing here?" he asked, pouring himself another drink.

"This is already going horribly wrong," said Nate, as he grabbed the glass from Sully's hand and took a drink himself. He grimaced as the back of his throat burned with the liquor.

"C'mon, we can't both smell like booze," said Sully. "She's going to think we're alcoholics."

Nate shook his head as he searched the nearest drawer for a pack of gum. "She probably already thinks we're con men or thieves, or…"

He caught the look that Sully gave him. "Okay, so we are. She knows. We're screwed."

Sully placed both hands on Nate's shoulders. "We're not screwed. It's not over until it's over. Give me that piece of gum."

Nate handed over the packet, and popped a piece into his own mouth. Both men chewed furiously.

"What we're gonna do," Sully said between mouthfuls, "is go out there and convince her that we are who she thinks we are. We're gonna put on the greatest act that ever—"

Sully stopped chewing at the sight of Rachel. He cleared his throat, getting Nate's attention.

Nate quickly stepped in front of the bottle of whiskey.

"Rachel!" his voice came out higher than he anticipated. "I was just getting the lemonade."

"Do you need any help?" she asked, looking between her hosts.

Both Nate and Sully shook their heads. Sully slid towards Nate until his own body hid the liquor bottle behind them. Nate moved towards the fridge and retrieved a glass pitcher.

"You have a lovely kitchen," Rachel commented, noting the open floor plan that allowed plenty of sunlight in.

"Thank you," said Sully. "But it's much more comfortable in the living room. Should we head there?"

He turned to Nate, who nodded and offered Rachel her beverage. He led her away from the kitchen as Sully carefully hid the whiskey on his way out.

. . .

Rachel's eyes brightened at the sight of fireplace in the living room. She walked over to the mantle to examine the picture frames.

"You guys are quite the adventurers," she commented, perusing the pictures that displayed various exotic locations.

Rachel stopped at the last frame. Nate and Sully were dressed in wetsuits on the deck of a boat. Her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to make out the item between them.

"Is that a…treasure chest? With gold coins?"

Nate's eyes widened as he realized the mistake in leaving the picture up.

"What were you guys doing?" Rachel asked.

Nate laughed uneasily. "That's a…it's a funny story, actually. We were on a cruise. They had this um…photoshoot station. You know, pirates and sea creature costumes. Pretty cheesy stuff. We dressed up as treasure hunters. It made a great Christmas card."

"A big hit that year," Sully confirmed.

Rachel looked up at him. "These are all pretty recent. Do you have any baby pictures of Nate? I'd love to see them."

Sully almost choked on his lemonade. "Baby pictures?"

Rachel nodded.

He looked to Nate, who appeared to be near panicked.

"I'm afraid not," said Sully, lowering his head.

"Oh?" Rachel asked.

"You see, Nate had a…serious medical condition when he was a kid. I won't go into the details, but it wasn't pretty. We don't have many pictures of him at that age."

"Oh," said Rachel as her cheeks flushed. Nate stopped his death glare at Sully just as she turned to face him. "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"It's okay," he said, smiling. "I'm just going to talk to Sully for a second, if you don't mind."

"Not at all," said Rachel. "I think I'll go refill my lemonade."

. . .

"What the hell was that?" Nate whispered loudly as soon as Rachel was out of earshot.

"What?" Sully replied. "I didn't have a choice. How else am I going to explain we don't have any baby pictures of you?"

"Great. Now she's going to think I'm some kind of leper."

"Obviously it's cleared up. You look fine."

"Sully," Nate said with exasperation, "that's not the point. She's—"

A scream came from the kitchen before he could finish.

Nate and Sully rushed into the kitchen to find Rachel holding a revolver with trembling hands.

. . .

Seeing the approaching figures, Rachel threw the gun onto the center island of the kitchen.

Sully quickly secured the revolver as Nate placed his arm around the shaking girl.

"I…I was looking for a hand towel. I spilled some lemonade." She gestured wildly at the small spill on the table. What…is that a real gun?"

"No no no, nothing like that," Sully replied quickly. He opened the cylinder to show her the empty spaces from which he had deftly retrieved the bullets just seconds ago. "It's a replica."

Rachel stared at him, unsure of how to react.

"I'm somewhat of a movie buff. In fact, this revolver is an exact replica of Clint Eastwood's gun in the Dirty Harry movies. Did you ever see them?"

She shook her head.

"So…it's not a real gun?"

Sully laughed. "I don't know about other people, but we don't leave loaded guns in kitchen drawers around here."

Rachel visibly sighed in relief. She jumped a second later, when her cellphone rang from her handbag. She excused herself out of the kitchen to answer the call.

Nate and Sully stood rooted to their spots. Sully placed the gun back into the drawer. They waited anxiously for the call to end.

"I'm so sorry, but I have to go," said Rachel when she returned. "That was my mom. I forgot I promised to help her out at the school bake sale this afternoon." She looked down at her watch. "I'm already late."

Nate silently thanked a higher power. "It's not a problem."

"Thanks," Rachel replied. She looked around hesitantly, before settling back on Nate. "I'll see you on Saturday?"

Nate nodded.

"It was great to meet you, Mr. Sullivan," Rachel added.

"The pleasure's mine," Sully replied with a smile.

At the sound of her car door closing outside, both men exhaled sighs of relief.

"That was close," said Nate.

Sully retrieved the whiskey bottle and poured himself another drink. "Yeah, too close."

. . .

Sully looked up from his magazine at the sound of Nate's steps descending the staircase. The younger man was dressed in a black tuxedo, complete with carefully shined shoes and a grey bowtie.

"What do you think?" said Nate as he posed at the end of the stairs.

"Not bad," said Sully with approval. He tilted his head to look up at Nate behind his reading glasses. "Who knew you could clean up so nice. Showered and everything?"

"Funny," said Nate. He adjusted the bowtie. "Do these things always feel like they're choking you?"

"Pretty much," said Sully, returning to his reading. "So the car's washed?"

"Yep," Nate replied.

"Tank filled?"

"Uh huh."

"Do you need a lecture on the birds and the bees?"

Nate shook his head in embarrassment. "I think I'll pass."

"Don't drive if you've had too much to drink."

"I won't," he replied. "You know me better than that."

"And don't stay out too late."

"Got it, Sully."

"Or the girl's parents are going to think you kidnapped her."

Nate rolled his eyes. "Okay, Dad," he replied.

Sully removed his glasses and looked up again, this time with a smile.

"Okay, kid. Have fun tonight."