Work Text:
Duke drew in a sharp breath. He looked up from the birth certificate in his hands and met her eyes. There was something about his eyes, Jennifer thought, even if she didn't know what to call it, or maybe it was in the set of his mouth. Something about the way he looked at her made her feel guilty, even though she couldn't think of a reason why she should.
Whatever it was, it was gone before she had time to figure it out. "So, you're three years older than you thought," Duke said.
"I'm still younger than you."
"Thankfully," he said and grinned at her, handing her back her newly found birth certificate. He leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the lips, barely a step up from a kiss on the cheek. "I really need to get going, there's a shipment due at the Gull."
He was gone before she could put the feeling into words. "See you later," she barely managed, just before he left. The only answer was a wave of his hand.
She stared down at the paper in her hands, with the names of people she'd never known and a birthdate she'd never heard of before. She really thought that it was worth a hug, at least.
Suddenly it seemed like Duke was busy all the time. She dismissed her worries at first; this was Haven and it seemed like there was always something going on here. When Duke stumbled into bed late at night – too tired to do much else than mumble "good night" before falling asleep – well, surely that was just normal for those really busy Haven days.
But when he untangled her arms from behind his neck and carefully, but firmly, pushed her away – with some excuse she couldn't quite buy anymore, no matter how real it sounded – she had to say something. This was still the most touch they'd shared in days.
"What's wrong?" she asked, more worried than anything else. This was Haven, worry was usually the way to go.
"Nothing, I really just…"
"Need to be somewhere else," she cut him off, not able to keep the irritation out of her voice. "Yeah, I know."
There was something not quite like guilt in his eyes. She tried to grab his arm, but he stepped to the side, almost managing to make it look like he wasn't avoiding her touch. "I'm sorry, I…" he hesitated for a moment, ”I really have to go." She could have sworn that wasn't what he'd intended to say.
She had no idea where things had gone wrong.
"How are things with Duke?" Vince asked her, his tone casual enough that it made her suspicious.
"Vince," Dave hissed at him from the other side of the table. "It's none of our business."
"Is it that obvious?" she asked miserably. She didn't really know much of anyone in Haven, at least not well enough that she could talk to them about something like this. Usually she would have talked to Duke, but that didn’t seem to be an option anymore. Right now, Dave and Vince seemed to be as good a choice as anyone, and she really did need to talk to someone, or she felt like she would start screaming.
The brothers looked at each other in that way that made it clear they knew something you didn't. But with those two, it could have meant anything. "You've seemed a bit… distracted lately, dear," Dave said delicately.
"What makes you think Duke is the problem?" she asked, narrowing her eyes slightly. She was pretty sure they knew something, but whether it was in any way related to this… to be honest, she wasn’t sure she had the energy to care.
"Well," Vince hedged. "I know what people look like when they have troubles of the heart." They all cringed at the choice of words. But she could almost believe that was all it was, she probably did look miserable.
"Have you talked to him?" Dave asked, apparently having shed his compunctions about meddling in her private life.
"I haven't seen him long enough to talk."
Vince looked over at Dave, with that ‘see, I told you’ look he got every now and then. He patted her arm. "Maybe he just needs time to work some things out."
That was almost enough to confirm her niggling suspicion that whatever Duke's problem was, Vince and Dave knew about it. It was so typical of this place, secrets behind every corner. She should demand answers, she should… but Duke didn't deserve her going behind his back. Well, not yet anyway.
"Maybe," she said with a sigh. "But I'm getting tired of waiting."
She could hear Duke talking to someone on deck; it took her a moment to recognise the voice as Audrey. She was used to hearing Lexie's inflections, and Audrey speaking was just different enough to throw Jennifer off at first. They must have just come on board, and they probably didn't realise she was there. She was supposed to be at work, but Vince and Dave had thought she was too mopey to be good for anything, and had sent her home 'for some time to herself', which she would have appreciated more if it hadn't offered her way too much time to think.
"You have to talk to her Duke," Audrey's voice said, and Jennifer froze just behind the door. She could walk out and announce her presence. Or she could stay where she was and hope they stayed on deck.
"Like you and Nathan have talked about it?" Duke's voice snapped. Silence followed Duke's words, and Jennifer meant to walk out, she really did. "I'm sorry," Duke said after a moment, and Jennifer felt like she'd lost her moment, "it's none of my business."
"It's so… stupid." There were layers of frustration in Audrey's voice. "It wasn't my choice; it was Sarah's, or maybe even someone before her. And it doesn't matter if we find a way to end the Troubles, people will still look at me and Nathan and…" her voice trailed off, and Jennifer couldn't tell if Audrey was speaking too quietly for her to hear, or if she just didn't say anything at all.
"I don't think either of you can make people hate Nathan any more, no matter what you do."
Audrey gave a short, dry laugh. "People can think whatever they want, it's still my choice. And Nathan's. It should be Jennifer's too, not just yours."
"I'm not sure I can," Duke said, and Jennifer could hear the guilt again. The almost not there guilt she'd glimpsed in his eyes too many times now. "I care about her, but it's like… like I've slept with my sister."
She must have made some sort of noise at that last sentence, because there was a brief silence before she heard footsteps moving in her direction. She should have tried to look like she'd just gotten to the door, like she hadn't been eavesdropping, but all she could do was stand there and look at Duke with her best deer in the headlights impression.
Jennifer was distantly aware of Audrey holstering her gun somewhere to Duke's left, but all she could really see was Duke standing right in front of her, with a strange mix of guilt and accusation in his expression. And somewhere in the back of her mind, a small, slightly hysterical part pointed out that it made him look a bit constipated.
"Jennifer," he said flatly, and she couldn't tell what he was thinking at all.
"I…" she started. "I didn't mean to, but you were," she made a vague gesture behind him. "And I was… and then…" She gestured helplessly, and had no idea how to continue.
"I should leave," Audrey said and took a few steps backward. "Jennifer, if you need someone to talk to… well, I know how crazy it all seems."
"Audrey…" Duke said, a note of pleading slipping through into his voice.
"I'm not…" Audrey started, making some sort of aborted gesture with her hands. "You need to talk Duke, and I don't think I should be here for that. I can go talk to the Petersons on my own."
Audrey had gone to talk to the Petersons, about half way through the entirely fruitless conversation she'd started to really regret the fact that Duke hadn't been with her. Maybe they would have talked with someone they knew there, which was the whole reason Duke had offered to go in the first place. Then again, maybe they didn't know anything. She could always go back with Duke tomorrow, if she needed to. She wasn't even sure they were dealing with a Trouble.
There was a knock at Audrey's door. She wasn't exactly surprised to find Jennifer standing behind it with red and puffy eyes. They weren't friends; even though Audrey liked Jennifer, there just hadn't been much opportunity to get to know her. If the situation had been any other, Audrey doubted Jennifer would have come to her, but for this Audrey was the only person around who would understand any of what she was going through. Audrey had sorely wished for someone to talk to back when she'd found out.
She invited Jennifer inside, and offered her a drink. It was a whiskey kind of conversation, Audrey felt. Jennifer sat down on the couch and sipped at the drink; she grimaced a bit at the taste, but didn't say anything.
"So… Duke talked to you," Audrey said, sitting down next to Jennifer. There was no good way to start this talk.
"Tell me it isn't real, tell me this is some weird Trouble that's somehow affecting Duke," Jennifer said, her voice rising toward the end. Audrey recognised the edge of hysteria, and couldn't really blame Jennifer for it.
"I wish I could, but this isn't a Trouble," Audrey said with a dry smile even though there wasn't much to smile about.
"So what, because of some Haven only rule, Duke can't sleep with me because I was born to the wrong mother?" Jennifer's voice rose sharply and Audrey winced. "I'm not actually his sister, am I?" Jennifer asked, her shoulders slumping in something that seemed very much like defeat. Jennifer downed her whiskey in one, shuddering slightly as she swallowed. The frustrated bewilderment in her voice was all too familiar; at one point or another Haven would make you doubt almost everything.
Audrey paused for a bit before answering. "I don’t think so, but the way he was raised… it makes no real difference to him." It sounded so callous, and she wished there was a better way of saying it. Just because she was pretty sure that Jennifer could handle the truth, didn't mean she needed to be slapped in the face with it, repeatedly.
Jennifer stood up abruptly and took a few steps before turning back. She threw her arms out to her sides. "That's just insane."
"Tell me about it," Audrey muttered, taking a sip of her own whiskey. The Troubles were one thing, not that they made sense by any stretch of the imagination, but somehow the Troubles were still easier to accept than this. "I couldn't find out why they did things like this. If it was some Trouble that made this happen, or maybe it has something to do with how the Troubles are inherited, maybe this was the way to keep them in control?” She made a vague gesture with the hand that wasn't holding her whiskey. "I've tried to think of plausible explanations." She'd spent a week looking into records, pestering Vince and Dave, wracking her brain trying to somehow solve this, like it was something that could be put right.
No one in Haven could tell her why; it was just the way things were. "But the truth is, I don't think the reason really matters, it's not going to change how people here were raised or how they feel." What Audrey didn't say was what if there is a good reason for it.. Look at what had happened when Nathan had gone against the rules.
How many families would she break up, how many relationships would she ruin, if she had found some way to change things the way she thought they should be? Who was she to pass some sort of moral judgement on them because of who they chose to love?
"So, I should just let it go? Forget about the fact that Duke is the first person in a long time that I think I could…" Jennifer waved a hand in the air, indicating nothing at all.
Audrey took another sip of whiskey and wished that, for once, she'd have a good answer to give. "I can't tell you what to do about it. I'm not exactly following the rules, am I?"
Jennifer flopped back down on the couch. Audrey picked up the bottle of whiskey and tipped it toward Jennifer. She grabbed the bottle from Audrey's hand, and took a drink directly from it, her glass lying forgotten on the coffee table.
"So how did you convince Nathan to…" She trailed off into a quickly aborted hand gesture. "Well, ah, you know."
Audrey set her glass down on the table, and gestured for the bottle instead.
Nathan showed up the next morning – or day was more like it – about half an hour after Jennifer had left. She'd assured Audrey that she'd be fine going back to the Rouge, since Duke was bound to be gone anyway. She hadn't mentioned the fact that there was a good chance he'd be downstairs from them, but Audrey had figured it was Jennifer's choice if she wanted to sneak out – Audrey had done that herself a few times, when she wasn't quite up to sharing things with Duke.
She opened the door with hair brush in hand, having had just enough time to change out of her sleep rumpled clothes. She walked back inside without a word, leaving the door open for him. He took a step inside and closed the door behind him, and then just stood there, looking faintly amused.
"I see Jennifer has left already," he said after a moment.
Audrey kept on brushing her hair, not giving him an answer, since that should have been fairly obvious.
"How'd it go?" Nathan asked, and the barely restrained amusement in his voice made her frown. She thought about asking him what he found so funny, but she knew him well enough to tell that he was waiting for her to do just that.
"As good as you'd expect, I guess," she answered, with an aborted shrug as she twisted her hair up on a ponytail. It was as good as it was going to get today. "Maybe you should talk to Duke," she suggested.
His expression turned into one of disbelief. "I don't think Duke wants my advice." He sighed. "I don't think I have any advice to give."
She forgot sometimes how much Nathan still struggled with his decision to be with her. She put a hand on his arm, as she walked past him toward the door, and squeezed slightly. He gave her a small smile in return, and they didn't need to say anything. She opened the door. "So, what was so funny anyway?"
He made a sound that she really wanted to describe as a giggle and handed her his phone. She took it and looked down at the text message it was displaying. Late tomorrow. Sleeping with Jennifer.
She shrugged and handed him the phone. "For being drunk, my spelling is pretty good."
Nathan sat down in his truck, coffee in hand. Usually he'd have given it to Audrey to make sure it wasn't too hot. This time though, he'd been given the paper cup with a smile and an assurance that the temperature was okay, from a woman that up until now had only scowled at him whenever he went in for his order of coffee.
Besides Audrey was off with Duke, trying to talk to the Petersons again, and Nathan found himself grateful for the time alone with his thoughts. The whole while, as they'd went about trying to figure out if some people being uncharacteristically nice actually counted as a Trouble, he’d wanted to say something about Jennifer. More specifically about Audrey and Jennifer. But he knew that saying anything would inevitably lead to talking about Duke and Jennifer, and that was none of his business – he didn't want to get involved. He'd made his own decision, and he didn't see why he should start rehashing that for Duke's benefit.
And of course, he knew that nothing had happened between Audrey and Jennifer, and more to the point that nothing would happen. Neither of them was from Haven after all. Besides, it'd seriously complicate things, he told himself. But if this had been any normal relationship, he'd never have hesitated to bring it up. And, even though it would have seemed a ludicrous idea in the past, he supposed Duke wouldn’t have been that horrible of a choice either.
He shook his head lightly, and took a sip of the hopefully not too hot coffee. He should stop dwelling on this, he loved Audrey, and that was more than enough. He didn't need a traditional relationship, and she certainly wasn't looking for one.
Nathan swore to himself, as he turned the engine on.
Nathan stared at the Rouge. This was probably a bad idea, and he shouldn't have come. He wasn't completely sure why he had, but if he wasn't willing to talk to Duke about this whole situation – like Audrey had suggested several times now – maybe he could at least talk to Jennifer.
He steeled himself, he'd come this far, right? Maybe, with any luck, Jennifer wouldn't even be there.
He stepped on board the Rouge. "Hello?" he called out less than enthusiastically.
"Ah… detective?" He heard Jennifer's voice say a moment later. "Duke isn't here," she said as he turned toward her.
"I know," he answered. "I wanted to talk to you."
"Me?" The surprise in her voice made Nathan feel vaguely guilty, it wasn't that far out of the realm of possibility that he'd want to talk to her, was it? "I don't think I know anything that could help you. Honestly, I don't even know what's going on this time."
"No, it's not that. Duke and Audrey are working on it."
"Oh," she said quietly. He thought she sounded hurt, but then she really hadn’t had any idea where Duke was, or what he was doing. "Why would you want to see me then?"
He had no answer for that question, not anything he was sure how to put into words at least. "I… thought you might want to talk."
She gave a short, mirthless laugh. "Suddenly everyone wants to talk with me, huh? Except Duke, isn't that strange?" Nathan knew that the anger wasn't directed at him, but he still felt an urge to apologise.
"I'm sorry, I can leave if you want," he said, taking a step backward. What had he been thinking, coming here?
Jennifer sighed. "No, I'm sorry. Stay, I don't feel like being on my own anyway. And Vince and Dave still don't want me at work. Do you want coffee or something?"
"Sure," Nathan agreed, even though he'd just finished his previous coffee, and really didn't need another.
He followed her inside, trying to figure out what to say as she made the coffee. He couldn't just come out and start talking about her personal life.
"It's still hot," Jennifer warned him as she handed him the coffee cup. He nodded as he took the cup from her. "So, was there anything specific you wanted to talk about, or are you just checking up on me?"
His phone rang before he could answer her. He gestured an apology as he fished out the phone. "It's Audrey," he said before answering.
"Nathan, we figured it out," Audrey said without any preamble. "I'll tell you about it later, but first I need to take Duke home. He's… not at his best."
"Okay, I…" Nathan barely had time to start before he was cut off.
"I have to go," Audrey said abruptly, hanging up on him.
He gave Jennifer an apologetic look. "I think Audrey and Duke are coming here."
"Well, I have to see him sooner or later," Jennifer answered. A short laugh burst out of her, which sounded more desperate than anything else. "Maybe it'll be easier with you guys around. That's what's normal here, isn't it?"
"I wouldn't call any of this normal," Nathan said. Jennifer clapped a hand to her mouth to stifle her sudden giggle.
Nathan took a sip from his coffee, and then gave her a wry smile. "It can't exactly have been easy for you in Haven, even before this latest thing." He cringed internally at his own wording, couldn't he have thought of something better than thing?
"No, it hasn't."
What was he supposed to say to that? He took another sip of his coffee. "Duke isn't trying to hurt you, you know?"
"You do know how crazy this is, right? Four people. Four! And some weird arbitrary way of deciding who you get to sleep with," Jennifer burst out. There was a moment of silence, and she started to look slightly horrified. She looked down, and then lifted her coffee cup to her lips, making her best effort to hide behind it.
"It's not crazy for me, or Duke," he managed to say after a while. "Maybe I should just leave before…"
"No, no. Please stay," she said, a tiny note of pleading in her voice, and somehow Nathan found himself unable to say no.
The silence stretched out, quite uncomfortable as they both concentrated on their respective coffees. But at this point, Nathan was pretty sure that any attempt at small talk wouldn't have been welcomed.
It felt like ages until they heard Audrey and Duke on deck, even though it couldn't have been much more than ten minutes. They both listened for a while at what sounded like Audrey trying to talk Duke into going inside.
"Did Audrey say anything else?"
"Well, she did say Duke wasn't at his best," Nathan said carefully. The voices were getting a bit clearer now.
"Do you think she needs help?"
There was another moment of silence between them as they listened to Audrey manage to convince Duke that he really did want to go inside, by apparently promising that yes, she would go with him,
"Apparently not," Jennifer said as the door opened. "Hi," she added with a small wave towards the newcomers.
Audrey looked at them with consternation. "You're both here," she said.
"Wonderful," Duke said, apparently without a trace of sarcasm, as he stepped inside. "All my favourite people."
Nathan looked at the honest smile on his face, and felt like smiling back. "What happened to him?"
"Jimmy Peterson mind whammied me," Duke said with a grin.
Audrey nodded. "Seems like Jimmy can project feelings on others. And he happens to be a teenager in love, so that's a lot of happy feelings to spread around."
Duke had walked over to where Jennifer was sitting during Audrey's brief explanation. He crouched down in front of her, taking her hands in his. "Look, you know I… I love you. And I do want to be with you." He looked as smitten as Nathan had ever seen him, even around Audrey, and he hadn't forgotten the exchange between himself and Duke that day at the Barn.
"You're not… yourself," Jennifer said reluctantly.
Nathan was starting to feel very much like he really shouldn't be there, and he was about to say as much to Audrey before Duke started talking again. "Maybe I'm not, but it's still the truth. And I kind of do want a traditional relationship, why wouldn't I? And I know it's not what you ever thought about, but you like Audrey and Nathan, right? We could at least try."
Jennifer opened her mouth, and then closed it again, saying nothing. Nathan could guess how she was feeling, because he was pretty sure he was feeling something similar. He looked over at Audrey, hoping for some sort of explanation.
Audrey shrugged. "He's been very much in love since we met Jimmy. It should wear off by tomorrow."
Duke leaned in to kiss Jennifer. Nathan sighed. "We shouldn't leave Jennifer alone with him, should we?"
Duke woke up feeling like he should be hung over. Jennifer was snuggled up to him, and he felt a twinge of regret as he extracted himself from her. She shifted slightly, but didn't wake up. Maybe he was being ridiculous about this, technically Jennifer was an outsider. One birth certificate shouldn't really matter.
He stood looking down at the sleeping Jennifer. He did remember what had happened the day before. It had all suddenly seemed so simple. Too bad reality wasn’t quite that easy.
He didn't bother to change clothes before walking out of the cabin. He wasn't exactly surprised to find warm coffee in the pot. He poured himself a cup, making note of the pile of blankets folded on the couch. He walked out on deck, wondering idly if either Audrey or Nathan would still be around.
Turned out they were both sitting out on deck with their own cups of coffee. They turned quiet when they saw him.
Duke sat down on one of the chairs. "Well, if this wasn't weird enough before," he said, taking a drink of coffee.
"It's not your fault, Duke," Audrey told him. "You couldn't help it, and I shouldn't have let you come close to Jimmy in the first place."
Duke pushed back a strand of hair that had fallen into his face, shaking his head. "It doesn't matter."
Audrey got that look that said she'd just realised something. "How much of yesterday was you?"
"Audrey…" Nathan began, like he was going to disagree, but he didn't say anything more and instead turned his eyes on Duke.
"Do I really need to answer that?" Neither of them was stupid, and they knew at least half of the truth already.
Audrey smiled at him, and Nathan looked mostly like he wished he was somewhere else. "Well, it wouldn't be traditional for any of us," Audrey said, with a contemplative look on her face. Duke could almost feel his jaw drop, that definitely hadn't been what he was expecting.
"At least we'd all be on even ground then," Nathan said, his voice level, like this wasn't something utterly shocking.
"You've been talking about this, haven't you?" Duke asked suspiciously.
Audrey grinned at him. "Maybe," she said with a twinkle in her eyes, which fell away and was replaced by something more serious. "But you and Jennifer…" she looked at him with a question in her eyes, and he wasn't sure what she saw, because she seemed to change her mind mid-sentence. "Do you think Jennifer would be okay with this?"
He thought about how he'd felt the day before, about how simple it had all seemed. About how badly things seemed to be going for Haven. He took another sip from his coffee. "Maybe."
He smiled as he tilted his head back, and let the sun warm his face. For once, maybe seemed good enough.