Just a little background, one of the signs or symptoms of depression is getting angrily at people easily, so if it seems like Natara is overreacting, she can't really help it.

Sorry for Mal's incredibly lame jokes. I'm really sorry about that. lmfao

Sorry for the sappy story Mal tells. Yeah, it was supposed to relate to him and Natara subtly. But it just wasn't so subtle. Okay, yeah, anyway.. READDD(:

The smell of bacon aroused her from her sleep. Mal had been right: she was having trouble sleeping lately. The nightmares haunted her constantly after she finally managed to fall asleep. She estimated she had drifted off somewhere around sunrise. The clock blinked 11:47. Oops. She slipped out of the bedroom, mentally slapping herself for missing breakfast, but to her delight, Mal was sitting casually in a chair with eggs and bacon in front of him.

"Hey," Natara said, and he jumped, turning around. "Thought you'd be done eating by eight?"

"Me too," he smiled and gestured towards a chair. "And yet four hours later, and here we are. Eggs?"

"Sure, thanks. Hey, I have a question… You brought me here and you're being so sweet…why? I mean, I know we're friends and all, but…"

"Wanna hear an egg joke?" Mal cut in, mouth full.

"What? No…?"

"Aww but it's got an egg-cellant punch line!"

"Mal…!"

"I'm baconing you to laugh here!"

"One, that doesn't even sound like 'begging,' and two…"

"Aw, c'mon, Nat. I'm just yoking around…"

"Mal stop!"

"I thought that one would crack you up!"

Natara stood up, irritated, and stormed out, slamming the screen door behind her. When Mal got outside, he saw her striding towards the bard.

"Natara! Natara, stop. Come back here." He broke into a run. "Natara Williams, come here!"

When he finally caught up to her, she was already in the barn, her hands resting on a wooden gate, behind which a horse was standing. She was either ignoring him or hadn't heard him come in yet. He stood in the doorway, eyes on the horse as well. It looked frightened, scared, and tired. It looked depressed.

Natara still hadn't turned around, so he crept up behind her and slid his arms around her waist. She jumped and turned around, but he didn't let go yet.

"Mal, stop. Let me go. Leave me alone." She tried to work her way out of his grasp.

"Not until you talk to me," he smiled and pulled her closer, causing her to gasp slightly and her heart to beat just barely noticeably quicker. "Something's wrong."

"No."

"I know you're still upset."

"So?"

"So something more is wrong. Do you need help?"

"No."

"You need to see a professional."

"No."

"You just need to talk about it?"

"No."

"Will you talk to me?"

"No."

Mal smiled slightly, "You're talking to me right now."

Natara put her head down and tried to pull away again. It wasn't easy to hide your tears when you were inches away from someone that made it really hard to lie to them.

"C'mon Nat. Are you depressed?"

She broke out of his grasp finally and collapsed back onto a bale of hay.

"No," she said, a bit too forcefully.

"Is that a yes?" Mal asked.

"No."

"So that's a yes then?"

"No."

"So you're depressed?"

"MAL SHUT UP!"

"Yeah, that's a yes."

Natara scowled and looked down as he sat down on the hay next to her, putting his arm around her.

"It's okay to be depressed."

"I'm not depressed."

"No, you're also in denial."

"No."

"The first step is accepting you have a problem."

"Look who's being profound today."

"I'm always profound!"

"Fine, then," she smiled slightly. "Look who's being smart today."

"Thank you… Hey!"

Natara laughed and hugged him. "Fine. Fine, I guess I'm depressed."

"How come?"

"Mal, my best friend died right before my eyes and I could have died too!"

"But you could die any day, why that day?"

Natara looked up at him and frowned. "That was the day my best friend died. It made it more real.."

Mal thought a minute and then responded, "You know, when I was little, my sister was depressed too."

"Yeah?" Natara sniffled.

"Yeah. She cut too. It was bad. She even attempted suicide once. When my dad found out, he went crazy. He took her to a therapist and requested all kinds of medication, but it turned out she just needed to talk to the therapist about our mom. Then she was pretty much back to being herself. There were times she was still upset and everything, but she helped out me too. She told me things her therapist had told her which helped me out a lot too. When my sister was going through that, she lost a lot of her friends. Her boyfriend broke up with her. No one wanted to talk to the depressed girl that self-harmed and didn't want to be alive. No one wanted to understand what she was going through or try to help in any way. They all just abandoned her."

"What'd she do?"

"It wasn't what she did; it was what Phil Bronco did. He was this nerdy boy that only had a few friends. He saw how upset she was. Nobody talked to her anymore, which was a big change from being so popular. None of her friends had stuck around and she ate lunch alone. One day, he went up and sat with her at lunch. He really gave her hope and even though he was a nerdy boy that she would've have usually paid any attention to, they became best friends."

Natara smiled, "That's so sweet."

"Now my niece is so happy, living with her mom and her dad, Phil Bronco."

"Aww!" Natara sighed. "That's such a sweet story. I wish my life was that normal. What'd he say to give her hope?"

"Well, first he annoyed her a lot. He told corny jokes and she got mad and almost walked away. But then, he started asking her questions which also irritated her, but eventually, she admitted that she had mild depression. Then he told her a story about his mom, who was dead, who had depression her whole life. It caused his mom and dad to actually meet and become closer. Even something as horrible as depression could bring people together into happiness."

"I think that horse over there is depressed," Natara said thoughtfully, discreetly changing the subject. "It looks upset."

"You should help it out."

"Yeah I…" she trailed off into thought. "No, I can't."

"Why not?"

"Talia and I used to love riding horses together. She loved to ride the white horses because they gave her the impression that she was riding on a cloud." Natara and Mal both gazed over at the white horse, eying the intruders skeptically.

"That's okay if you aren't ready yet, Nat," Mal told her. "We'll be here for a while."

"Mal?"

"Yeah?"

"That story you just told…"

"Mhmm?"

"Nevermind."