Sveta nursed a large to-go cup of coffee, as an alternative to vodka, as she made her way to Nate's apartment. She had cleaned up, although it took some time to wash all the blood out of her hair, and changed into clothes that made her feel halfway human. Not that either coffee or clean clothes made her feel any less awful. Normally, she would have shut herself up in her apartment and drank and ate fast food until she was in a coma. As things stood now, she had to admit, it was a step in the right direction: She was going to talk to someone. A friend. She felt a little guilty about bringing her problems to Nate - but only a little. She was part of the Inner Echelon now; she could not afford to withdraw and fall apart. Besides, rogue agents or not, the IE needed to know what SUPER was up to. She really was ready to take all of those f*** down.

Sveta took a deep breath, balancing the coffee in one hand, and knocked on Nate's door.

Working at Haven came with some much needed flexibility, even if the drawback was how busy it left Nate in general. He was doing a lot of work from his apartment for the week since Norah had the week off from school, but that did not mean he had any less work to handle. Thankfully, Norah was an independent girl for her age and could occupy herself with coloring and toys and Parker when he had to focus on work. She loved the giant spider, and with Natalie not around to give Nate her judgy look, he could let her play with the pet with impunity.

Thankfully, it was the end of the workday, even for him. Norah was finishing up her dinner of homemade spaghetti and meatballs, and they had a movie night to share together lined up before bedtime. Nate was already rinsing off his plate when he heard a knock on the door.

He made his way to the entryway and opened the door to find a familiar blonde looking back at him.

”Svetlana! I wasn’t expecting you.” Right? It had been a fog of a day; hopefully he had not let some get together with his friend slip his mind.

”You look…” He was going to say ‘great’ since Svetlana always looked great, but looking her over closer, something about her expression was off. ”You alright, sugar?”

Sveta wondered if she was visiting Nate at a wrong time, if she was interrupting something important. Normally, she would have called ahead or something, but right now she was too rattled to care about those things. It took her most of the day to convince herself to talk to him at all.

>>”Svetlana! I wasn’t expecting you.”

"I know, I'm sorry. Is this a bad time?"

>>”You look… You alright, sugar?”

"No, not really" Sveta admitted. But at least she was holding coffee in her hand, not booze. "SUPER came after me again last night."

That was really all she needed to say, she hoped. It sounded very simple when said out loud, but damn it had been a very long night, and an even longer day...

In theory, Sveltana’s timing was not ideal, since Nate was in father mode for the evening. Months ago, it would have been a bigger deal, but father mode was just Nate’s constant state of being now that Natalie was in Chicago. He could not put aside his duties just because Norah was around, and he was not going to turn away his friend when she seemed so clearly… off.

”It’s never a bad time. Just one second.” Nate turned back toward the living room and called out, ”Norah, go to your room and find three stuffed animal friends to watch the movie with us!”

He was met with an almost immediate, ”Okay, daddy!” and the sounds of a child running from one room to another.

”That should keep her occupied for a few minutes,” he said, keeping his tone light. He was fine with doing business at night or helping out a friend, but it might be best if Norah was not eavesdropping from one room over. ”Come in, please.”

As expected, Svetlana was not alright, but it was worse than Nate was predicting. SUPER was always around, but they had started to assume that they would not be going after Svetlana, who at this point must have been seen as a high-risk asset. And yet there they were. ”Oh hell. How are you holding up? Did they hurt you? Do you feel like you can tell me what happened?” He wanted to handle her gently, but he also knew how serious a run-in with SUPER was.

Nate was being a dad at the moment. Sveta felt even worse now for barging in, but she probably looked like a stray cat caught in the rain, because her friend did not hesitate one moment taking care of the situation.

>>”It’s never a bad time. Just one second. Norah, go to your room and find three stuffed animal friends to watch the movie with us!”

The girl obediently ran away to do so. She sounded adorable, and despite her current mood, Sveta smiled a little. Nate as a dad was totally different from the Nate she knew as a Haven member...

>>”That should keep her occupied for a few minutes. Come in, please.”

She walked in, and found herself a seat in the kitchen; she did not want to intrude on father-daughter movie time enough to go to the living room. She told the gist of what happened to Nate, and from the look on his face, he clearly understood the weight of her words.

>>”Oh hell. How are you holding up? Did they hurt you? Do you feel like you can tell me what happened?”

"Yeah" Sveta sighed. Really, she needed to talk about it, otherwise she would not have been here. But she made a mental note to keep it short. This was not a good time for a full breakdown.

"They tracked me to a... friend's apartment. It was a full ambush, with a whole lot of agents, but... well. They made a lot of rookie mistakes. My friend, he's ex-military, so we put up a fight... I don't think the whole thing was sanctioned by SUPER... it had more of a feel of a bunch of rookie agents wanting to go for a big promotion. My friend got shot, so we got out before the cops showed up. I took him to the Sanctuary for treatment. Hadden already knows, so the worst of it is taken care of." she sighed "I think SUPER also got their sh*t handled. For now."

Nate was a far cry from the man he used to be. He was being a good father to a little girl by spending time with her and protecting her from the horrors of the world. He caught the little smile from Sveta as she listened to him speak to Norah. Meanwhile, he was making the time for a friend in need, when years ago, he scarcely had friends at all.

While Norah was weighing the merits of watching a movie with her stuffed lion or her stuffed kangaroo, Nate made his way to the coffee maker. He chose decaf since it was late and Svetlana’s aura was already giving him a simulated “caffeine rush.” It would give them something to drink while they had their chat, and it felt like the right move for a host with a frazzled guest.

Nate was not Devon; he did not have the schooling to help people through traumatic events, but he was still glad Svetlana could come to him. He listened quietly as she explained the ambush at her friend’s apartment, (and he was not about to miss the way she hesitated before explaining him.) Nate’s mind was already running over their potential motivations and the measures they would have to immediately take to prevent a future incident.

It helped that Svetlana thought the event was unsanctioned. If that was the case, it could be considered a one-off event. SUPER was not run by morons; they had to understand that Haven was an opponent they had to take seriously, and their past attempts to capture Svetlana did not improve their position. Unfortunately, motivations aside, Svetlana’s ‘friend” was still shot in the process.

Nate finally nodded, pouring the coffee when it was complete. ”I’m sorry to hear this friend of yours got caught up in the crossfire, Svetlana, though I’m glad to know you’re both still breathing.” If Devon was aware, Nate was confident the man would be getting top-notch care. ”We’re going to have to take some precautions, and I’m sure Devon’ll want to have a talk with your friend.” All those things were true, and Svetlana would have noticed if he talked around them.

”Still… that’s not something we’re going to solve tonight. Both of you will be alright, and I’m sure your nerves are shot to hell.” Nate could still vividly remember how stressed out Svetlana was the first time they left Haven after her escape. ”We can try to keep your mind off things if you’d prefer. Talk about something else.” Nate handed Sveta a mug of coffee and smirked. ”Like this ‘friend’ of yours.” His tone clearly suggested he had assumptions about the nature of that friendship, and if he was right, he was curious to know more.

Nate took the news in stride. He began to make coffee, which would have been amusing, given Sveta's powers, had he not made decaf. A hot drink that tasted like coffee, even if it was technically useless with the buzz, was still comforting enough. And a nice gesture, too. Sveta took a seat, and watched Nate work.

>>”I’m sorry to hear this friend of yours got caught up in the crossfire, Svetlana, though I’m glad to know you’re both still breathing. We’re going to have to take some precautions, and I’m sure Devon’ll want to have a talk with your friend.”

"Yeah" Sveta sighed. Devon would like to talk, and she would do her best answering his questions. Maybe she could have gleaned more information had she not been fighting for her life. She needed to get better. She needed to help Haven take SUPER down for good.

>>”Still… that’s not something we’re going to solve tonight. Both of you will be alright, and I’m sure your nerves are shot to hell. We can try to keep your mind off things if you’d prefer. Talk about something else... Like this ‘friend’ of yours.”

Sveta was grateful that Nate did not want to go straight to analyzing the situation. She had been turning it around in her head all day, slowly driving herself crazy. Nate was nice enough to know that she did not really come to him for that right now. So she was glad that he suggested a change of topic... that is until he brought up Matt. Sveta sighed again, longer this time, and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"He's an adapted. That's why the rookie agents probably thought they could take two birds with one stone. Adapteds are valuable to dem."

Svetlana had gone through a lot in her life and it toughened her up. Her past and her journey to America were not easy, and since she came to the land of the free, she had mostly dealt with more complications and adversity. Her capture at the hands of SUPER rattled her, but Nate would still defend to his dying breath that she held up better than just about anyone could in her circumstances. She was still shaken up from the endeavor, but she was recovering, and at her best, Svetlana could handle uncertainty and nerves with the best of them.

That was, of course, until Nate asked more about her new friend. It had been a while, to his knowledge, that she had a guy in her life, and she answered him like he was trying to get more information for Haven. Nate shook his head, though he did note that they had an Adapted stowed away in Sanctuary of all places. "Okay, so he's an adapted. That's interesting-- and it makes sense." They had talked about how much easier it was for her to get close to an adapted after all. "But tell me a little more about this friend... how long have you known him, for instance?"

He smirked and took a sip of his coffee. "Not to pry, but you don't make a habit of visiting many men's apartments." Okay, so he was definitely prying, but he was trying to get Sveta's mind off the attack, after all.

>> "Okay, so he's an adapted. That's interesting-- and it makes sense. But tell me a little more about this friend... how long have you known him, for instance?... Not to pry, but you don't make a habit of visiting many men's apartments."

Sveta smirked, glancing in the direction of the little girl's room. This really was not the place or the time to discuss the details of a relationship... that really wasn't even one. She shrugged the question off.

"I'm not a nun, Nate" she chuckled, sipping some of her coffee "And adapteds are a rare luxury. But... it's really not what you think. Too bad it isn't, but..." she shrugged again. That was really all. Two people too hurt to make a whole. She was not going to try to fight that. She was damn tired already anyway.
Time for a topic change. There was some excited babbling in the other room, and Sveta chuckled again.

"Cute kid you got there, Daddy Nate."

Nate picked up on the hint and knew it was time to pull back. He was trying to be hopeful and assume the best for his friend, but by her own admission, they were not looking to progress much further than they already were. It was disappointing; he still believed no one deserved a chance at true connection like Sveta. ”Fair enough. Sorry, sugar.” One day some human, adapted, or mutant with a non-city-leveling power would make that girl as happy as she deserved. Sadly, today was not that day.

The sounds of an excited seven-year-old in the other room provided a helpful segue to a new topic. ”I know, right? I’m lucky. The best thing Nat ever did for me was let me back into Norah’s life.” Their relationship sadly never came to be in earnest, but Nate was happy to still have a co-parent who trusted him and had his back, even if she was in Chicago.

Norah returned to the room with a stuffed lion, a stuffed dragon, and Parker the cat-sized spider nipping at her heels. ”Daddy, can Parker watch the movie with us instead of one of my animals?”

Nate chuckled, imagining Nat hearing that question and going pale. ”Fine with me, sweetheart.”

That earned an excited squeel from the young girl and some friendly warbling from Parker. With the animal guests squared away, she turned to Sveta and realized she was someone new. ”Hello! I’m Norah.” The introduction came with a polite little bow. ”Are you a friend of daddy’s?”