Nathan drifted back to consciousness feeling pleasantly warm. He shifted deeper into the covers and kept his eyes tightly closed. Maybe he'd blow off the station and go in late. Dwight was constantly telling him to take some time off and he never listened. He was long overdue a break.

He couldn't remember the last time he felt this comfortable. His blanket was particularly soft today, and he was completely relaxed under it. He savored how the weight of it smothered his body with warmth, cocooning him.

But something was tickling his nose. He had just started to reach up and scratch it when he realized what was wrong with this scenario – or right.

He forced open his eyes and discovered that his blanket was Audrey Parker.

Shock sent him reeling upright, which dislodged his sleeping partner. His body immediately protested. Without her covering him he wasn't cold – he was simply nothing, and that absence was worse than the bitterest frostbite.

She blinked awake, eyes shifting around her surroundings until they locked on his. Her confusion melted into a soft smile and he thought he might hyperventilate, the way his lungs were seizing.

"You're here." This wasn't a dream. He never felt in his dreams.

"Thought we established that last night."

Last night. He blushed at his state of undress even as he searched for a memory. Surely they hadn't … because surely he wouldn't forget that, even for a second.

But no. He'd been asleep and she'd showed up on his doorstep with some story about the barn and all he could care about was that her hair was the same color and she knew his name and he hadn't been expecting her for twenty-five more years. And then he'd been fairly useless as she led him to bed and wrapped herself around him.

"About last night…" He'd never meant for her to see him so shattered. But Haven had been hell since she disappeared. Everything hurt but he couldn't feel a damn thing. Not the bullets lodged in his body or the chair leg he'd taken across the head when he'd got in a bar fight with a member of the Guard who wasn't pleased he'd kept the barn from taking the Troubles away.

She reached for one of his hands that was braced against the mattress. Suddenly he was alive again. "Are you okay?" she asked.

He swallowed. They'd gotten out of the habit of being honest with each other. "I wasn't. Will be now. Long as you stay."

She pushed some of her hair out of her eyes with her free hand. It was a tangled halo and there were dark smudges on her face but he'd never seen anything nearly as beautiful. He couldn't quite fathom that she was actually here. That after two year of absolute misery and two months before that of losing himself trying to keep her here she was – in his bed – not mad about Jordan or James or Duke. Just looking at him like she wanted to take away all his pain. Not realizing that she already had.

"Plan is to try."

"I won't let anyone take you again!" he swore. "I love you. I should have told you that every day, no matter how you pushed me away. I should have kept telling you and we should have worked together to figure out how to stop the barn. It doesn't matter if you feel the same. I love you, and I will not let you sacrifice yourself for this town. We will find another way."

"I do, though," she whispered.

He was so wrapped up in his diatribe he wasn't quite sure what she was responding to. "Do what?"

"Feel the same," she admitted. "Love you." She took a deep, shaky breath, and the hand covering his tightened. "I love you."

The joy he felt at her words was too much to be contained. He pulled her toward him, marveling at the warmth of her skin, the silkiness of her hair when he fisted a hand in it, and the softness of her lips as he instigated a kiss for the first time. She seemed to melt into him, and his brain was overwhelmed by the emotions and the sensations flowing through him simultaneously. Nothing in the world mattered but her. Her and the way she made him feel – which went so far beyond the physical, as outstanding as that was. His emotions hadn't been stolen by his Trouble, but he'd mostly lost them anyway when she wasn't around.

He wasn't entirely sure how it happened, but soon he was hovering above her, pressing her down into the mattress, and he suddenly realized where exactly this was going.

"Audrey," he breathed, the most coherent request for permission he could manage.

She smiled up at him, ran a hand feather light across his check, and said the unthinkable. "Whoa. We need to stop, babe."

"Stop?" he choked out. He was nearly certain that was what he heard her say, but that was not what her body had been implying. "Are you serious?"

"Like a heart attack. Which I might start having right about now, by the way." She pulled her camisole down to cover her stomach and tried to put some distance between them, but she was still trapped between his arms.

"Why?" The gentleman in him knew he needed to respect Audrey in this, but part of him couldn't decide whether to be annoyed or just disappointed.

"Because we have to go see Duke."

It was like she had thrown a bucket of water over him – back in the days that would actually have worked. He rolled away from her with a groan. "Please never mention Duke again when you're in bed with me."

She laughed, the minx, and he couldn't help but return the smile.

"He's waiting for us at the Gull. If we show up too late he'll know exactly what we've been doing. And you know we'll hear all about it. Do you really want to give him that satisfaction?"

He groaned at her choice of words. He didn't, of course, but the teasing would certainly be worth it. "Maybe," he growled, and her smile widened.

"Our son's waiting for us too."

"Our son," he repeated. He'd tried not to dwell too much on that while she was gone. It was another lost opportunity. He didn't know James Cogan enough to miss him, but the thought of having a child with Audrey that he'd never get to know and never get to raise with her rubbed salt into his shredded heart.

"Yep. We're going to have to talk about that, you know."

"Yeah." He wasn't looking forward to that conversation. He didn't regret what happened with Sarah – not the way he regretted Jordan – but he was sorry Audrey had found out through Agent Howard, of all people. And he still wasn't sure he could explain exactly why it had happened. He didn't want her to be mad or jealous. The reason he'd let things get so far with Sarah was because he'd been convinced that under the hair and the accent every iteration of Audrey Parker was exactly the same person.

"But not now, right?" he continued. "Because we need to get to the Gull."

"Right."

When she made no move to get out of bed his mind began replaying the last few minutes, trying to process retroactively. Something caught his attention that he'd originally missed.

"Did you call me babe?"

She blushed the most adorable shade of red. "That was weird, wasn't it? No more babe. Baby?"

He snorted, and she scrunched her nose and shook her head. "Definitely not. Honey? No! Sweetheart?"

She pushed herself into a sitting position and he could almost see the way her mind was racing. Her amusement enthralled him, even if it was at his own expense. "Muffin? No, muffins are overrated. Oh, I've got it. Cupcake!"

He couldn't stop the bark of laughter that tore from his throat. "Please no."

"Spoilsport. Cupcakes are amazing. Hmmm. How about stud?"

Truth be told, he didn't hate it. "Well, that is significantly more manly than any of the other options."

"This conversation isn't over, Wuornos."

He found himself actively hoping that it wasn't. He was certain that any moment she would force them to rise and face the day that was sure to be less blissful than this.

But instead of getting out of bed she scooted back toward him, laying her head on his chest. His arms came around her instinctively.

"Thought we had to go," he teased, both perplexed and relieved by this clinginess.

"We have a few minutes. We just don't have a few hours." Her final word was heavy with implication which buzzed through him like electricity. Parker had always known how to push his buttons. Apparently she was discovering a few new ways to use that talent. He found himself looking forward to it.

If the patterns she was tracing on his arm were supposed to be soothing they were having the opposite effect, but he didn't mind that either.

They spent a few minutes in silence, and Nathan couldn't remember the last time he had felt so absolutely content. He had almost drifted back to sleep when he heard Parker's voice somewhere near his heart.

"I never liked cuddling." He started to move his arm, thinking this was her way of telling him to let go, but she grabbed it and pulled it back in place. "Always used to make me feel trapped. There was never time to just lay around – I didn't like that it was expected of me. But this … makes me feel safe. And wanted. I could stay just like this for the rest of time and I don't think I'd mind."

He'd rarely heard her sound so vulnerable, and something compelled him to respond with an admission of his own. "I woke up this morning feeling warm. Such a little thing – but I haven't felt warm in years." There were no words to convey how much that meant to him. And he didn't want her to think that was the only reason this was happening – because she was the only one who could touch him and make him feel. Because that was just some miraculous gift that he didn't deserve. He'd started to fall for Audrey long before she'd kissed him on the cheek. It had been impossible not to. Her compassion, her spunk, her humor. The little ways she'd watch out for him and never treated him any differently when he obviously wasn't normal. There were times when he was by her side that he'd forget about his Trouble. Before she'd come to town there wasn't a waking moment that he wasn't aware how different he was.

"Audrey…" He wasn't given to long speeches, but he wished that he could write sonnets for her. He just didn't know how to string the words together. But something about the way she was smiling at him made him think that she already knew.

She grabbed one of his hands and placed it over her heart. "Do you feel that?" she asked.

He took a moment to savor it. "Yeah."

"So it doesn't have to be skin to skin?"

"That's stronger. But I can feel the cotton and your heart pounding beneath it."

He tried to sum up everything she made him feel in one single word. "Incredible," he said reverently, wishing she fully understood what that meant. One day he'd find a way to tell her. One day soon. "You're incredible."

He ran his fingers up her arm, starting at her wrist. It wasn't just that she made him feel. He could feel her. The way her soft skin turned to goose pimples under his fingers. The fine hairs and the absolutely intoxicating warmth that she gave off. Once he reached her shoulder he brushed her hair away and pressed a kiss to the juncture of her throat.

"How did you get to be so perfect?" she practically purred, her eyes heavy lidded.

No one had ever thought him worth much at all. Perfection was certainly never before used in the same sentence as Nathan Wuornos. "I'm really not."

"Close enough for me."

He had just decided that he was never going to let her out of his bedroom when she seemed to snap out of her trance. "And on that note …" She moved away before he could stop her and everything inside of him protested the distance, causing him to stand too. She took a few steps backwards, away from him.

"Time to go. But first you need a shower, mister."

"Join me?" The words fell from his mouth without thought. It didn't take him long to realize they weren't appropriate.

He looked down and shuffled his feet. "Sorry."

He was afraid of what the silence meant, but he couldn't bring himself to look at her until he felt her fingers on his chin. "Don't be. It's a great idea. One I really, really wish I could agree to. It just won't get us where we need to go anytime soon."

She brought her forehead to his, and it had the gravity of something monumental. Every time they got close there was always so much else happening. This morning it had felt like just the two of them, and he didn't want the world to intrude.

"Whatever happens today, tomorrow, next week, we'll face it together. We can't hide from what's going to happen – but we don't have to hide from each other either. When I say I don't want to be alone you just need to listen to me – and this time we will finish what we started here. I promise."

And just like so many times since they'd met, Audrey's presence gave him the resolve he needed to face the day.