Chapter Two: Departure


Author's Note: WOW! Thank you ALL for the awesome reviews and incredible follows! I'm SO happy this fic is gaining some traction already because a part of me has been wanting to tell this story for at least a few months (in some way) and now I'm glad I'm finally able to! I will try to respond to reviewers who've signed in via PMs, but I just want you ALL to know that I thank you so much for reading and following. I hope you enjoy this second chapter. On with the story!

"Isn't everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?" Celine, Before Sunrise


Audrey's mouth opens as if she's about to speak, but instead she just stares at the man opposite her incredulously, wishing more than anything that she could wipe the eerily unperturbed expression off his face.

"How… I'm… What?" she stutters, each word coming out more surprised than the last.

"You're pregnant," he repeats. "You cannot return to the Barn until after you have given birth to your daughter. Until then, someone must temporarily take your place."

Her hand reflexively covers her still taut stomach. She can barely process his words.

A daughter.

A daughter she will never see grow up into a beautiful young woman. A daughter she will never see again for twenty-seven years and, even then, will some part of her remember her own flesh and blood?

"Who?" she finally says, voice barely rising above a cautious whisper. "Who has to take my place until then?"

"Someone you love," Agent Howard replies. "Someone who loves you."

She finds herself briefly wondering if Howard's cryptic responses are mutually exclusive, but quickly pushes the thought from her mind.

Turning away from him, she walks slowly to the door of the Barn, the sound of her shoes creaking against the perfect sterile floors, which becomes a welcome distraction from the incessant throbbing in her head.

In her heart, she knows who it has to be. But is she ready to face that? To face his departure?


If there's one thing she swears she never wants to forget in this lifetime, it's the expression on Nathan's face when she exits the Barn.

He's the first to approach her, eyes warm, curious and searching as his hands come to rest on her shoulders.

"What happened?" he asks quietly, his voice only audible between the two of them.

"I… I can't go into the Barn. Not yet. Not until-…"

"What? What do you mean you can't go into the Barn? I thought-…"

Audrey interrupts him, but now her voice is heavy and impending tears collect along the rims of her bright blue eyes nearly ready to fall. "I'm pregnant."

"You're…" he stutters uneasily, taking a step back. "But that doesn't… how?"

Audrey stares at him evenly and she studies him for a beat, the unspoken words at the tip of her tongue. It takes Nathan a moment until realization strikes him, thoughts of the night before – their last night together – suddenly flooding through the crevices of his mind.

"How do you know?"

"Agent Howard," she replies and her breath catches in her throat before she's able to say, "We're having a daughter, Nathan."

"…A daughter?" His voice chokes with palpable emotion.

Audrey nods slowly as the tears start to fall down her cheeks. Nathan steps forward and instantly cups her face in his hands, his thumbs wiping the moisture away.

"You can stay."

The soft whisper of his voice makes Audrey lean forward, wet cheek pressing against the palm of his hand as she nuzzles it gently.

"Only until the baby is born. And then I have to go."

But what if I still don't want to?

She dare not vocalize her innermost thoughts, even though the question lingers precariously in the forefront of her mind.

Nathan meets her teary gaze. "There's a catch, isn't there?"

Her eyes flicker from Nathan's inquisitive expression to the spot where Duke is standing several feet behind them. She catches Duke's dark eyes and moves her head slightly as if to say "come here," beckoning him forward.

He looks inquiringly, eyes flickering back and forth between the two. He knows this moment of soft spoken intimacy between them is not yet over.

"What's going on?"

Duke's question hangs in the air for what seems like a vast stretch of eternity before Nathan's eyes meet his and he responds. "Audrey's pregnant."

The other man's eyes widen before he fully comprehends the enormity of Nathan's words. He glances between them wordlessly, his dark eyes searching silently for answers.

For something.

Audrey breaks the quietude that falls upon them. "Someone has to take my place until after the baby is born. Someone I…"

Love, she wants to say.

"Someone I care about. Someone who cares about me."

"I'll go," Duke murmurs almost immediately.

"No," Nathan intones. "You can't."

"Why not?"

"Because someone I trust needs to stay here and take care of Audrey."

Nathan's response surprises both of them. It's so rare for Nathan to acknowledge that he trusts Duke (even when Duke knows he does) that Nathan's forthright declaration makes both Audrey and Duke exchange curious glances.

"You… you trust me to-…" Duke stumbles over his words.

"Don't make me regret my decision," Nathan replies evenly before his eyes revert back to Audrey's tear-stained face.

As Nathan moves even closer to Audrey, cupping her cheeks in his hands once more, Duke steps away respectfully and moves off to inform Dwight, Vince and Dave of the latest turn of events.

"No, you can't-…"

"Audrey, listen to me. You have the strongest intuition of anyone I've ever met. Deep down, you know I have to go into that damn Barn. It's an unfair predicament for both of us, but you know it has to be me."

Tears glisten on her skin and start to blur her vision, but the feeling of his warm, comforting hands resting against her cheeks is what grounds her and forces her to focus on him.

"Nathan…"

"You still belong in Haven," he cuts in before she has a chance to finish. "I know you'll be well cared for and I need you to promise me you'll stay healthy and strong for our daughter, okay?"

"But…"

"Promise me, Audrey."

It's an ultimatum. She knows he's not backing down, knows there's no way out. Nathan might be a stoic man of few words, but in the short time she's known him, he always looks out for her, protects her. Even when she doesn't want him to. In his own way, he still does. He still seeks out the answers to her past as Lucy and Sarah and becomes a steady, faithful constant in her ever-changing present.

"Promise me," he repeats as her tear-filled eyes meet his again.

"I promise." Her whisper is soft, almost feather-light, as it seems to linger in the chilled air around them.

Suddenly, his lips are on hers and he's kissing her with undeniable passion and tenderness as his fingers move down to graze the crease of her neck and rest there. Audrey instantly responds as she fights through her tears and wraps her arms around him, hands splayed out against the back of his neck.

She never wants this moment to end. But it ends abruptly when Nathan decides to pull away, hands back on her shoulders.

"No," she mumbles, leaning forward as her forehead rests against his chest.

"Audrey. Audrey, look at me."

She obliges reluctantly.

"Everything's gonna be alright. You'll be with our daughter. I'll… I'll be with our son."

Her bottom lip quivers, body visibly shaking, as her tears fall faster and faster. In a quick movement, he propels her towards Duke who steps forward again and swiftly closes the gap between them.

"Make sure she doesn't follow me in," Nathan instructs and Duke nods as he pulls a sobbing Audrey to him. She looks back when Nathan starts moving away from them and in the direction of the enormous Barn, still cloaked in evolving mystery and conspicuous intrigue.

The Barn that holds his son. Their son.

"Goodbye, Audrey," he tells her. Without looking back, he pulls open the heavy door and steps inside, slamming it behind him. His departure is final.

I love you.

It's his last thought before his world becomes shrouded in abysmal darkness.

Outside the Barn, as the last of the meteors make their final descent on Haven, Duke holds onto a trembling Audrey who falls to the ground in austere despondency.

He doesn't let her go, continuing to hold her as her tears stain his shirt and he purposely averts his eyes as the Barn disappears behind a wall of scorching orange flames.


Her eyes quickly scan the buildings – the coffee shop, Rosemary's Bakery, the Haven police station – and she quietly muses how little has changed since she's been gone. Then again, it's only been about five months, but still.

She lets out an audible sigh when she passes the now vacant building that used to be the Haven Herald. She remembers the rumors that spread around her like wildfire before she'd gone to college at Haven University.

Some townspeople wanted to replace the Herald office with a comic book shop. She had been vehemently against the idea and attended every city council meeting she could, making sure her voice was heard. Eventually, the idea was dismissed and the building remained empty.

She thinks back to her childhood growing up in a raucous, dimly lit bar, a bustling police station, a sun and water drenched boat and a cozy newspaper office. She thinks about the people in her life and how much they've sacrificed for her, how much they've given her and a smile tugs at her lips.

"We're here," a voice cuts through her reverie as the passenger side door opens.

The young woman swings her legs around, her feet meeting the rocky ground beneath as the burly man standing in front of her gives her a pair of bright pink forearm crutches. She slides her arms into them and slowly gets up, trying to find her sense of balance.

"You good?" the man asks.

"Great," the young woman says, smiling.

"Do you want me to put your suitcase upstairs or take it into the Grey Gull?"

"Upstairs is fine," she replies. "Thanks, Uncle Dwight."

"No problem."

As Dwight walks off, she heads toward the Grey Gull.

The monotonous rhythm of "step, crutch, step, crutch" illuminates in the forefront of her memory as she recalls how Dwight and Duke used to drive her to a facility one hour outside of Haven for her physical therapy sessions. Duke insisted that the physical therapy facility a few towns away was far superior compared to the paltry offerings that Haven supplied.

The door to the Gull is open and she makes out the thin silhouette of an aging Duke as she approaches. She moves to the bar and sits herself down on a bar stool before Duke looks up to greet his newest arrival.

His eyes go wide in shock when he sees her, the warm, inviting brown eyes and the long blonde hair cascading down to her waist all too familiar.

"I leave to go to graduate school in California for five months and you completely redecorate the Gull? Typical," she laughs, not missing Duke's stunned expression.

"Cady?!"

"Hi, Uncle Duke. Surprise."

"What are you doing back? Shouldn't you be out basking in the California sunshine?"

"I was. I mean, California is great. Berkeley's journalism school is amazing. It's just…"

Cady takes a moment to fuss with her crutches, finally deciding to lean them against the empty bar stool beside her. Her eyes then refocus on Duke as her hands clasp together and rest against the bar's clean tabletop.

"I… I've been having this feeling and it's getting stronger. And then I've… I've had these dreams..."

She pauses, noticing Duke's confused yet attentive gaze and takes a deep breath.

"Mom's coming back soon, isn't she?"

To be continued…

Author's Note: Thanks SO much for reading! Updates might be a little more infrequent now since I just started my second (and probably busiest) semester of graduate school, but keep on a lookout for more! Nathan/Audrey sweet romantic angst and Duke/Audrey friendship moments coming! Reviews are still like delectable bowls of cherries! For me anyway. So please review! ;)