Work Text:
~Pour A Little Syrup On It ~
He woke in the middle of the night to find her side of the bed empty. Nathan sat up quickly, a myriad of disasters racing through his brain as his eyes swept over Audrey's studio apartment. Nothing looked disturbed, only vacant, like the remnants of a ghost town. Most quiet nights had that effect in Haven, no matter how calm the weather or bright the stars shone in the sky. Or perhaps that was simply how he perceived the world after seeing all he had.
Slipping out from under the covers, Nathan shivered despite not feeling the cold. It was still strange to him what the body did involuntarily. Barefoot he headed towards the door when he finally caught a glimpse of her through the glass doors.
Audrey sat outside on the weather beaten deck above the Grey Gull huddled in an old faded patchwork quilt. The blues and yellows of the fabric matched the endless stars glittering above the calm waters. She stared out into the night without moving, looking small against the vast scape before her. He had never seen her look so young and vulnerable before and it made his brow furrow in concern. Something was wrong.
Audrey sensed him coming before he spoke. She could feel the warmth of him as he knelt down silently beside her. Nathan was foolish to be out here without a shirt on; he would catch a cold before ever realizing he was freezing. For some reason that stray thought almost made her smile. There were so many bigger things to worry about in Haven - burning rain, killer plants, last Tuesday's bizarre multiplying Legos. Stepping on those things hurt like fuck.
"You stargazing?" Nathan asked gently, like there was nothing odd about her being outside at 4am. He entwined their fingers, but did not push when she refused to meet his gaze.
Audrey bit her lip, closing her eyes to avoid looking at him. She did not want him to see how upset she was. She hated showing weakness, even to Nathan, and he saw more of her than anyone ever had. Or at least anyone ever had with Audrey.
And that was the problem right there. That was the reason she could not sleep anymore. The more she learned about her other selves, the more Audrey wondered if any part of her was real at all.
"How can you love me?" She did not even realize she said the words out loud until Nathan reacted.
He squeezed her fingers before speaking, carefully watching her profile. "Why shouldn't I?"
Nathan had difficulty showing emotion, sometimes she wondered if that was his natural personality or a defense mechanism created to deal with his Trouble. But he was willing to let her glimpse behind those iron clad walls when she needed it, such as right now.
Audrey turned into him, pressing her face into his chest. He startled slightly at the sudden sensation of skin and tears, breathing in sharply as he always did when she touched him. An arm tightened around her waist, anchoring Audrey while her mind spun of control.
"Because I'm not real." She said hollowly, her voice muffled by his skin. "Sarah, Lucy, Lexie, … Audrey, they're not real."
Nathan leaned back so he could see meet her red rimmed eyes. His ice blue gaze was serious and sad. "Do you trust me?"
"Yes, of course." She responded implicitly.
His lips twitched upwards at that. "Then trust me on this: you are solid, and stubborn, and perfect, and flawed, and wonderful, and completely real."
A small, somewhat hysterical laugh, escaped Audrey at Nathan being emotional support guy. He was so much like The Chief sometimes.
"How do you know?"
"Because I love you." He said simply as if the universe needed no other explanation and maybe to him it did not.
Audrey chuckled with genuine fondness at his sentiment and turned back towards the dark ocean. The light house beacon turned in the distance, reflecting off the swells and summoning God's orphans home. She did not know if Nathan was right. She did not know if William was telling the truth and her whole personality was nothing more than some kind of karmic punishment. Audrey knew that she was here though, and it was not much, but it was something.
She closed her eyes with a soft sigh letting the tension ebb from her tired body. Feeling her relax, Nathan kissed her temple - a habit he formed since her return from the Barn.
"How about I make us some breakfast?" He said.
Audrey met his smile with her own. "I think it's kinda early for breakfast."
"It's never too early for pancakes."
"I know how to cook." Audrey announced by way of greeting dropping into the seat across from his desk.
He raised an eyebrow waiting for her to elaborate on what did not seem like much of a stunning revelation. Nathan was in the middle of sorting a stack of completely false police reports on their latest case, a man who could detach and reattach his own body parts at will - which was disturbing even to Nathan.
"It's like the piano thing." Audrey explained giving him The Look at his lack of reaction. "I made crème brulee last night without a recipe. It just sort of happened, I wanted desert then I started pulling things out of the fridge and then - bam French custard!"
He frowned in response, her latent abilities intrigued him. To Nathan it proved beyond a doubt that Audrey was in fact the same person in every incarnation that arrived in Haven. Sarah certainly was…
"I wonder when you had enough down time to become a pastry chef." He deadpanned simply to annoy her.
She scowled, but not like she meant it, before rolling her eyes heavenward. It was cute. Nathan found his gaze traveling to her messy ponytail which dropped against the curve of her neck, to pool at the collar of her red plaid shirt.
Thank goodness Audrey excelled at police work or he might never solve a case for staring at her.
She opened her mouth to say something when one of the junior officers stuck his head in the door. "We just got a call. Apparently a field of red poppies has sprung up on the edge of town."
Nathan looked at his partner. "We have flower Troubles now?"
"Maybe we should talk to the owner of Seabreeze Floral Designs?" She shrugged, while getting to her feet.
It said a lot about their town that, that was not a bad idea. Nathan sometimes wondered what normal small town police work was like; drunk drivers and the occasional speeding ticket? They must get bored a lot. With a grimace he grabbed his useless jacket and followed Audrey out the door.
Audrey saw the black smoke coming only long enough to grab Nathan's hand. The world spun sideways as all oxygen disappeared. She could feel his arms wrap around her and then nothing else.
The prickly sensation of dry grass against her skin pulled Audrey to consciousness. She sat up quickly only wanting to lie back down immediately as dizziness overtook her.
"Nathan?" She twisted around to find him beside her in the tall grass. He was just starting to wake up, blinking at the sunlight pounding on his upturned face. She touched his cheek, automatically scanning for injuries. "Nathan are you alright? Can you hear-?"
What her eyes were seeing caught up to her brain making Audrey freeze mid sentence. Two seconds ago Nathan had be wearing his typical jeans and gray shirt ensemble. Now he was clad in a long navy coat with buttons, a rough muslin shirt, and some kind of trousers that pinched in at the knee.
"Why do you look like an exhibit as the cultural museum?" She said slowly.
"Me? Look at you." He sat up staring at her wide eyed.
Audrey gazed down at her herself and immediately understood why she was dizzy. A pale yellow corset was laced tightly at her ribcage, over a cream shift, constricting her lungs significantly. It also displayed quite a bit more cleavage than she felt entirely comfortable with. The colonial looking outfit was completed with two layers of petticoat in rust and evergreen, which were twisted about her stockinged ankles.
"What the hell?"
Nathan clambered to his feet and helped her up. How did women move in these things? Audrey almost collapsed back into the grass with an undignified squawk as her heeled shoes caught in the volumes of fabric.
"Do you think this is Harvey Chandler's movie Trouble again?" Nathan glanced around seriously, keeping a firm hold on her waist. Normally she would rebuff his over protectiveness, but she was more concerned with breathing at the moment - also on figuring out what the heck just happened.
"It can't be." Audrey said, referring to the man whose Wizard of Oz inspired poppy field nearly put the whole town to sleep two days previously. "This is something else."
"I was afraid of that."
With a shared nod they took off walking in the direction of Haven both hoping their clothing was the only thing affected.
It became apparent pretty quickly that they were no longer in the 21st century. By the looks of the Haven they were currently walking through the 18th century seemed more likely. Of course Nathan was concerned, since he had never heard of a book or movie were time travel went well for those involved. But he had to admit it was fascinating; carts and horses and the smells of hay and fresh baking bread - and a lot of less pleasant things - filled the streets. There were drawings of Haven when it looked like this in the Harold office, above the coffee pot, which Nathan had glanced at once or twice, and that was unfortunately the extent of his knowledge of this era.
Audrey inspected everything and asked questions to the shop keepers and strangers they passed on the street. Nothing could prevent her from investigating, and that was probably why she was getting odd looks. Nathan was too, yet the stares directed at him seemed more distrustful than confused. Perhaps strangers had always been a rarity in their town?
"Maybe we should keep a low profile?"
She turned away from a livery, which in their time had been replaced with a department store, frowning. "How else are we going to find out whose Trouble this is?"
"What if the Troubled person is back in our time?"
"Then Duke and Dwight better get off their asses and save us." Audrey grinned giving him a quick reassuring kiss.
She started to lean away, but he pulled her closer deepening the kiss. She was so soft and warm, her lips still tasted faintly of syrup from the pancakes he cooked her for breakfast. Nathan knew that even if he were unable to feel her touch Audrey would be one of the best things in his life.
They broke apart slowly neither admitting how worried they were.
"Miss Katherine!" Called a young boy in a dirty vest and britches running up to Audrey. "Why are you not at the party?" He skidded to a halt in front of her eyeing her up and down curiously. "And why are you dressed like a servant?"
Audrey exchanged a glance with Nathan, her growing suspicions confirmed. "You know me?"
The boy shot her that incredulous look only children can muster. "Of course Miss Katherine. Come on you're gonna be late."
"Maybe I know what's going on." She muttered, disregarding the confusing use of pronouns.
Nathan hedged. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea."
"What could go wrong?" Audrey took off after the boy.
"I don't know, world ending paradoxes?" He grumbled.
Reverend Driscoll's church still irritated him a couple hundred years before the hateful man's birth. There was nothing actually wrong with the simple wooden structure - which logically could not even be the same church - or with any of the richly dressed party goers milling about it. That did not stop Nathan from wanting to glare at everything.
Except Katherine. Audrey's 1700's counterpart looked like a princess in her heavy dark colored gown with gold trimmings to match her hair. He and Audrey were keeping to the shadows waiting for a chance to speak to her. Nathan could not imagine that going too well, but his partner was determined.
"Fancy meeting you here."
He turned to the voice in disbelief. William stood next to him grinning smugly and openly eyeing Audrey. Automatically he moved in front of her only to get pushed aside as Audrey got in William's face.
"You did this didn't you?"
He shrugged never losing his grin. "No I'm simply here for the show."
And then he was gone.
Three days, and one really old school Trouble investigation, with Katherine and her doctor friend Thomas, later Audrey and Nathan suddenly found themselves standing in the middle of the Gray Gull.
"Ha ha! I told you it would work." Came Duke's voice before he slammed into her in a hug. "I told him it would work."
"Where'd you guys go?" Dwight asked Nathan who was still regaining his balance.
"We're home?" Audrey glanced around the restaurant in confusion, this time shift was as sudden at the first one.
"Yeah and it's been less than four days." Duke reassured them, as if he dealt with time travel all the time. "It's been less than four day for you too right? Cuz, Colossus here was worried it might have been years and you got married and had a kid or something."
Everyone looked at Dwight who shrugged. "Sometimes I read Outlander to stay awake on swing shift."
"It was just three days." Nathan almost smiled. "How did you get us back?"
"Through several thrillingly heroic acts." Duke said, obviously preparing to launch into a semi-plausible explanation.
Audrey raised her hands. "Before we get into story time I require actual food."
Nathan looked at the clock. "The pancake house is still open."
She grinned at him. "Pancakes are not an actual food."
"Sure they are."