Chapter Text
Audrey barges into his office while Nathan's eating breakfast. He has an emergency cereal stash for busy mornings. She talks about her theory on the Troubled case and it ends with her continuing to spend time with Duke.
Nathan doesn't like it. This time he's not hiding it. Maybe it's also about what he's doing with Jordan, trying to get into The Guard. Doing whatever it takes. He's not sure what that will entail. It makes him feel... well, annoyed is one word for it.
Audrey calls him out on his attitude. She is right, Duke and her are friends, for some reason, and Duke is targeted by this Trouble. He still doesn't like it and he doesn't bother hiding it.
When Audrey questions him about it, there are a dozen things he could say. Dealing with The Guard, (having to help a father who killed his son), bonding with Jordan, Audrey's possible disappearance, how she doesn't talk to him like she used to.
The silence ends up being too long. In the end he just says "Nothing."
He can barely get out the words "We're okay, Parker," they're barely above a whisper. He doesn't know whether Audrey buys it or not but she accepts it.
She tells him "Okay," and then she's out the door. And Nathan lost his appetite.
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It feels good to have a working theory. Audrey doesn't have much beyond her understanding of the Troubles now and it feels good to see she still has that. It's also the only way she spends any time with Nathan anymore. Anything else is just asking for trouble (pun probably intended).
There's more sarcasm in Nathan's voice than she's heard in a while and it's clear her friendship with Duke bothers him. She still feels guilty over what she made Duke do to Nix but this is a different Trouble, a different situation. She is allowed to help her friend.
She waits patiently for Nathan to say something, to explain his attitude. He claims it's nothing. But when he tells her,
"We're okay, Parker," he barely gets the words out.
"Okay," she tells him.
She knows it's a lie. She's pretty sure he does too. But they don't have the time to actually make things okay, so she just puts on a tiny smile and leaves as quickly as she came.