Written especially for jinxcat21 who (probably justifiably) felt as though the Abby and Nate emotional bonding wasn't as deep or long as it could have been; so this is in lieu of that. Enjoy.

The day after Nate's investigation into the extent of Abby's talents, he walked up to her as she sat at the kitchen bench, surfing the net and listening to music with headphones in her ear.

"Abby I'm heading down to the hi-fi store if you want to come," he asked; the teenager did not respond and remained engrossed in the screen. "Abby," he tried again. "Abby," he said louder.

Finally the teenager, pulling out one of her headphones, turned around and jumped at how close Nate was to her.

"Geeze," she exclaimed. "You scared me."

"I'm going down to the record store (they're having a sale) if you want to join me?" he asked again. "My treat?"

"Uh sure," Abby accepted, shutting down her computer and grabbing her bag, not entirely sure what Nate's ulterior motive was (and she was sure there was one).

They walked briskly down to the music store, a favourite haunt of Nate's; hidden away in an alley it had the best collection of vinyl, cd and even 8-track in the city but, due to its location, wasn't overrun with questionable youngsters.

As they walked inside Abby's eye's widened in awe. "Look at all of the music. All of the DVD's. It would take you hours to go through it all."

"Well, Ishmael at the front desk there," Nate said, gesturing to an Israeli man stacking CD's. "Knows every single artist, album, series, movie and disc in here and where it is in the store."

"That's impressive," Abby agreed as she walked over to the jazz section.

"So you're a jazz fan?" the mastermind enquired.

"I guess; I like everything really," she replied, flicking through the CD's, stacking the one's which took her interest. "Just how much are you treating me to exactly?"

Nate pondered for a moment. "60 bucks," he finally decided.

"That'll work," she nodded and she began to browse through the music, films and TV shows. "Nate?" she asked after several minutes of perusing. "Why did you really bring me down here."

Nate sighed. "Not a lot gets passed you does it?"

"Except on the computer with my headphones in," she replied.

"Yeah," Nate agreed. "Because I felt like yesterday you wanted to say more."

"Yesterday?"

"When you asked me about Sam," he clarified and the teenager hung her head.

"I just I don't get to talk about my ma much because I know it makes Eliot feel angry at himself, and he already has enough of that. But then you sorta gave me vibes that you didn't want to talk about your son either so, I dunno, it doesn't matter," she said before turning her head back to the discs.

"You don't feel like you can talk to Eliot about it?" Nate clarified.

"He feels really responsible for her death and I don't like making him feel that way. He would if I wanted to, but that's not fair on him."

"What did you want to talk about?" Nate asked, leaning back on a nearby table while the teenager continued to flick through CD's, although she did not pay much attention to them.

"She was really smart too you know," Abby began. "She put herself through Law School and college while I was still a baby. She'd read stories and have tea parties with me but I don't remember her; I don't have any vivid memories."

"You need to talk to Eliot," Nate pressed.

"But…"

"It may make him feel bad to think about your mother but I'm pretty sure it'd make him feel worse if he found out you couldn't remember her and wanted to know more about her," he explained as best as he could. "Anything in particular that brought this on?"

She shook her head. "Just me missing her."

"It's okay to miss her you know; like I said yesterday, I still miss Sam every day," he opened up, even though it pained him to do so.

"Did you love your wife?" Abby asked and the question took Nate by surprise.

"Of course I did," he replied.

"Then why did you divorce?" she questioned further.

"Because we both loved Sam so much that it hurt to be with each other; we weren't happy," he explained.

"Are you happy now?"

Nate thought about his question for a moment. Was he happy? Did he have what he wanted in life.

"For the most part," he decided. "Have you picked what you want to get?" he asked, once again diplomatically changing the subject.

"Yeah," Abby replied as she held up some DVD's and CD's. "We're good."

"Good 'cause I got a client meeting," he replied.

"What about?"

"Something to do with a funeral home."

So I hope you enjoyed.

Next chapter; the aftermath of the Grave Danger Job and possibly the chat with Abby and Eliot about her mother, not sure yet, we'll see where my muse takes me.