It was always convenient when Nate could find positive legal uses for the talents he once cultivated as a thief. Being an art teacher was a great way to repurpose his artistic abilities, and working on behalf of Devon and Haven was a great way to put his charm and corporate prowess to work. It was amazing how easily some skills could be used in a legal, morally stable way. It was funny to think about after almost two decades of criminal behavior.

Today he was at a law office, which was another funny thing for him to think about. The business was already aware of his abilities, as well as his past, so someone was tasked with keeping an eye on his shadow at all times. It was rare, but this was one of the moments where his history was a useful part of why he was there.

Haven was reaching out to local, highly esteemed law offices in an effort to establish good, working relationships with them. There were plenty of reasons a mutant might cross paths with the law, and in those times, it could be difficult for them to obtain good legal representation. Haven wanted to be a resource for mutants as they struggled with various aspects of life, and this was one such area. Nate knew the value of quality representation when reaching for a second chance.

He was speaking before the partners in an attempt to state the case for their plan to be the liaison between lawyers and mutants in need. Through the support and donations Haven received, they could afford to be a resource, playing a role financially in the defense of mutants when possible or necessary, and there was positive press and legal benefits to offering services to oppressed peoples. Some careers were built on rights cases, and he did a good job presenting that.

While Nate was before the collective of partners speaking, he was looking out at his audience. Most were older, and the ratio was decidedly more male than female, as was tragically often the case. There was one notable exception: a black-haired beauty whose blue eyes were eyeing him intensely. Of course, Nate was not blind to his own appeal, but there was something more he could not shake. What had her so fixated on him? And why was there an air of familiarity to her?

The firm was entertaining a man from an organization called 'Haven'. That was what Natalie had been told before the meeting. Nothing more, nothing less. That was how she liked it, too. She preferred to remain as impartial as possible.

They had gathered in the smallest meeting room. There were only four partners, so it didn't make sense to use anything larger. They were seated on one side of the table, Natalie in the middle of the three male partners, waiting for their speaker.

She had not been prepared for him to walk in.

For nearly two years she had searched for him with no avail. He was like a ghost in the wind. He'd used a fake alias, told her nothing about himself, and had left before the sun had even risen. He'd left her pregnant and alone, and now here he was, waltzing into her office with not sign of recognition of who she was.

He looked different, for sure. Bulkier. Whatever workout regiment he'd picked up was definitely working. Despite the differences, though, she knew immediately that it was him. Same dirty blonde hair and smug blue-grey eyes. No amount of alcohol could erase that face from her mind.

She analyzed him as he sat down in front of them. She picked up his file and began to read in depth the information she'd previously skimmed. His name was Nate Holloway. No way would he give a fake name to a legitimate law firm when trying to get their business. There wasn't much else about him on there, which only made her more anxious to finish out the meeting and pin him down to talk to him.

Natalie took a breath and composed herself while she listened. She used her best poker face while continuing to eye him. He wouldn't know what hit him when the meeting was finished.

Nate Holloway was a father.

Nate got to the end of his pitch, letting the four partners know that he understood the value of their time and appreciated that the offer Haven was proposing would have to be considered. Any further details not discussed in his presentation would be delivered to their assistants, and any questions beyond that could be handled by himself or Mr. Hadden.

The partnership of the firm was smaller than some others he met with, so he wanted to make it a point to linger for any of the partners who might want to greet him or ask him questions while he was there. He was, of course, most curious about the young woman at the table, but she was not the one to get to him first.

Nate, for his part, was polite as he answered the man’s questions while dodging more personal inquiries, (since “where he went to school” was none of the man’s concern, and “You are so well-spoken for a former felon” was not as much of a compliment as he thought it sounded.) He finally moved away, allowing him to reach her.

He had checked the four last names of the partners, because he figured in a professional setting, their first names would be of little use. Still, there was a feeling Nate could not shake about Miss Ross. Something about her look made him feel… caught? It was like he had been caught in the act without knowing what “the act” was. ”Hello there, Miss… Ross, correct? I hope Haven was enough to earn your attention.”

Natalie had been so ready to snatch Nate up after the meeting, but her plan was foiled. Foiled by Brady, one of the senior partners. She let her poker face fall into a slight grimace as she waited nearby at the coffee station. She could overhear what they were saying, and none of it was all that interesting. What was interesting was the fact that she knew he was looking at her. Perhaps he did recall something after all.

As soon as he managed to ditch the ever chatty Brady, Natalie swooped in. She didn't have to move far, though, as it seemed that he had the same idea. Perhaps he was just interested in her. There was no way to really tell until she got him talking.

"Mister Holloway," Nat nodded curtly toward him. Haven seemed fine enough, but she hadn't really been listening all that closely. She had bigger, more important matters at hand.

Her face was impassive as she decided how best to drop the bomb that would undoubtedly change his life. She hoped that it would, anyway. She did not want to have to deal with Norah's dad being as horrible as she'd always made him out to be in her mind.

"You probably don't remember me. Natalie Ross. It was a long time ago that we met. For you, a drunken night for that got you laid. No hassle, no strings. For me, the beginning of a different life," she started. Being well versed in making people wait, Natalie decided that it would be a good time to take a sip of coffee. He deserved to have to wait for a minute, considering he'd made her wait six years for that day.

"You see, Mister Holloway - Nate; we should probably get on a first name basis - you got me pregnant." Another good time for a sip of coffee. The world seemed to be full of them. 

It was comforting to hear Miss Ross had heard his name, at least. He would not have blamed her; not many people would give much thought to a presenter at work.

Natalie, whose name had finally come back to him, had evidently given a great deal of thought to him, but not for his stellar presenting skills. No, she was eyeing him because he was the one who did not give her much thought. They had slept together back in his mid-twenties, before he developed a conscience, when that was not an uncommon thing for him to do. It was a fling, which could leave some people feeling hurt, but most women would move past it and eventually find themselves rarely thinking about that one wild night they had back in college.

Except Natalie was building this up to be something more, and the way she spoke, he could already feel what it was. The pit in his stomach tightened as he waited for her as she took a sip of coffee, watching him sweat before she could give him the news.

Pregnant. He was reckless back then, maybe it should not have been such a surprise, but all his “conquests” were such a part of his past, he was perhaps counting on them to stay there as he moved forward and turned a new leaf.

There was the slimmest chance that something happened, and this was just a guilt trip for a task he left her with, but the feeling in his gut told him there was more purpose behind her short tone.

Nate’s head was swirling; it was too early in the morning for news like this. Still searching for the right words to respond to that bombshell with, he instead chose to wordlessly hold up his index finger, signaling that he needed her to wait a minute. He stepped away silently, walking to the coffee station she had come from. He poured himself a cup, black, taking two white packets of sugar and emptying them into the cup. Grabbing a nearby stirrer, her mixed the drink until all the sugar within dissolved neatly.

He walked back to where Natalie was waiting for him and took a long sip of his coffee, hoping it would clear up the fog in his head so he could deal with the reality he was about to be thrust into. ”Okay,” he finally said, exasperatedly. ”So you’re saying… I got you pregnant. And now I have…” He stopped short. He needed to hear her say it.

She'd tried to make him sweat, and sweat he did. He reacted exactly how she'd expected him to. That was, until she finally dropped the bomb.

Natalie frowned as he held up an index finger and then walked away. He was clearly processing, but it still felt a little anticlimactic. Perhaps it was the fact that she'd been imagining that moment in her mind for years and making it out to be bigger than it really was, but she'd always expected something a little more dramatic. Some screaming, or crying, or something.

But, she could not control his actions. So Natalie stayed where she was, absently tapping her heel on the office floor. She watched him silently as he poured himself a coffee and then bastardized it with sugar. He seemed to be doing a lot of that.

She had to allow him time to process, she told herself. Everything was brand new to him. The emotions, the fact that he had offspring, even her. He was... feeling things, and she had to allow him to do that.

Should she have been feeling things, too? She realized suddenly that she felt rather... stoney inside. Perhaps she was supposed to be feeling as much as he was. Then, she realized that she'd had years to work through things. The emotions that she had felt when she'd first seen that little plus sign were long past, and she'd moved on to different things. She gave herself free rein to feel nothing.

Finally, he approached her again. He took a sip of his coffee, either trying his best to process things, or paying her back for making him sweat. As if he had any right to do that.

>>”So you’re saying… I got you pregnant. And now I have…”

Natalie raised her eyebrows and leaned her head toward him just a tad, as if willing him to finish the sentence. He, however, remained silent. Perhaps he was slow. 

"A daughter. Norah," Natalie filled in the blanks for him. "Would you like to see pictures?"

A daughter.

Nate had a daughter. Named Norah. There was no manual to prepare him for how this revelation would feel, and no appropriate amount of time to process the news. This did not, however, stop Natalie from throwing him right into the fire.

The tone she took was so matter of fact, like she was shocked he would be taking a moment to understand his sudden paternity. ”Christ, Nat, a daughter isn’t exactly the kind of thing you rip off like a bandaid.” It was typical of her.

In fact, the sudden, jarring shock to his system unearthed hazy memories of the girl he once knew so briefly and so carnally. He may not have remembered the details of the night, but he knew enough: Chicago, after completing a wire transfer from the main office of a major national corporation. It was his biggest success to date as a criminal, and he chose to celebrate with a night out on the town.

She was a party girl; still in school and still wild, but wittier than most of the girls he hooked up with back then. Nat was smart, snarky, and intriguing. The whole night felt like it was leading to the inevitable moment they were tearing off clothes in the elevator on the way to his hotel.

He got a college girl pregnant. Looking around the high end law firm she ended up at, it was comforting to know he did not ruin her life. Rich party girls always landed on their feet one way or another. Not that it gave him any excuse for walking away and leaving her as wreckage as he moved onto his next destination.

A moment had past before he finally responded to her offer. ”Yes. I would like to see pictures.” He wanted to know more; if he truly had a daughter, he wanted to know who she was, and if Natalie even wanted him to play a role in her life at this point.

While he waited for her, he thought out loud, ”Norah, huh?” It was a pretty name. Natalie didn’t stick their daughter with some out-of-date name like Myrtle or some modern name like Lakynn. ”She’s… what, six or seven now?”

His second reaction had been more along the lines of what she'd been expecting. She didn't blame him for being angry. Or confused. Or annoyed that she'd come down so hard. It was difficult to hold yourself back when you'd been waiting nearly seven years and a meeting to tell someone something.

"So sorry, next time I break the news, I'll buffer it with some small talk." She picked up a mocking voice before continuing, "the weather's nice today, oh, and you have a child." She shook her head and scoffed a little as she rolled back her shoulders. "Trust me, I saved you some pain in the long run."

It did prove that he wasn't slow, though. She was glad of that fact. She hardly remembered him being slow, but then, things could happen over the years. She wouldn't have wanted Norah to spend any time with him if he were less than her standards of intelligence, though. No amount of relation would be able to overcome that he might have had a bad influence on her daughter, and it would have been difficult to explain to Norah why her father wasn't good enough for her. Luckily, that didn't seem to be the case.

The most jarring thing about what he'd said was that he'd called her Nat. Very few people were allowed close enough to her to have the privilege of calling her that. Though, she supposed if anyone were to do it, it would be him.

He wanted to see pictures. She could definitely arrange that. Her phone memory was mostly consumed by pictures of the photogenic child. She nodded with the hint of a smile that she always got when talking about her and pulled out her phone. "This is my most recent photo, and you can scroll left for more," she explained as she surrendered the device to him.

"Six, going on seven," she nodded. Quick on his feet, then. Or maybe he was remembering things. Either way, she was slightly impressed. Few people guessed age so quickly and so precisely. "She's in the first grade now. Straight A student, of course."

Natalie took a mocking tone with him, which drew out another memory from that first night. If he recalled correctly, it was the same tone she responded to his initial advances in. In fact, he was pretty sure most of the night consisted of teasing, quipping, and building sexual tension. She might have actually insulted him while undressing.

It was nice to see she had not lost her edge. With the pool of intellect and wit their daughter was drawing from, she was geared for success, possibly at the cost of her peers.

Dear God, Nate had a daughter who might take after him. That thought was enough to consider alerting the local and federal authorities to prepare.

Natalie obliged Nate’s request, handing over her phone so he could scroll through photos of his daughter. It was a surreal moment where Nate felt a swell of pride for a child he never knew. There had still been the doubt in his mind, and surely with who Nat seemed to be, a paternity test was likely still on the table. It did not matter; he was looking into his own eyes in every picture. Those slate eyes of his were now Norah’s eyes, too.

She was a first grader getting straight A’s. A cynic might talk about school being easy at that age, but Nate was a teacher, and a student still had to put in the effort to earn their grades. Also, if someone came to him at that moment and told him his daughter was not as impressive as he thought, it was likely he would punch them in the jaw.

Now that he saw her face and new her name, Nate just wanted to know more about this piece of himself he left behind. ”Any behavioral problems? I mean, I’m a crim—former criminal,” he corrected, ”and you, if I remember correctly, were kind of a bitch.” The modifier was unnecessary and added mainly as a courtesy.

Norah’s schooling was a small concern compared to the next thought on Nate’s mind. ”Or any… other problems? I mean, it was in the speech you zoned out through, but I’m a mutant. Any… signs yet?” It was not a guarantee that a mutant parent meant a mutant child, but most studies seemed to agree that it heightened the odds. Six was young to start manifesting a mutation, but certainly not unheard of, and she did not want Nat surprised by the possibility of her daughter being a mutant.

Natalie watched him closely as he examined the pictures of her - of their daughter. Her heartbeat sped up ever so slightly as she watched him, which was a strange feeling for her. Unconsciously, she brought her finger up to her mouth and let it rest on the edge of her lip while her other arm rested across her midsection.

She could have sworn that there was a hint of pride that swept across his face. That eased her mind a little. Some part of her was worried that he’d want nothing to do with her, or wouldn’t find her as amazing as Natalie did. The latter was impossible, of course, but it was a still a secret fear of hers.

The blue eyes in the pictures of her daughter were strikingly similar to the ones looking at them, and she had no doubt in her mind as to where she inherited them. Of course, if he had doubts, then she would arrange for a paternity test. In her mind, though, things were settled.

“Well at least I wasn’t incarcerated for being a bitch,” Natalie pointed out with a raised eyebrow. There was no venom in her voice. She knew that she was a bitch, but she didn’t particularly care. It had gotten her places; served as an asset, and she wasn’t about to part with that trait. “And I don’t remember you complaining when we first met. Far from it, actually.”

Natalie let out a scoff as she was asked if Norah had any behavioural problems. “Norah? Never. She’s respectful, quiet, and probably the sweetest damn kid I’ve ever met. I’m actually kind of amazed that I was the one who raised her, sometimes.” She made sure to punctuate the fact that she had been the one to raise their daughter. Alone. Sure, she was glad to have found him then, but that didn’t really excuse the fact that he’d been gone for her entire life so far.

"She'll be a mutant, though. I'm sure of it," Nat told him. She always knew that when puberty came around for Norah (god forbid), that they would also be facing the emergence of her mutation. "With two mutant parents, it'd be difficult for her not to be one."

Nate could have just stopped; he knew deep down the star of all these photos was his daughter, but he kept swiping. He may not have needed proof, but each picture felt like it was doing its part to fill an empty space he had suddenly aware of. It was damn kismet; if Nat had found him years earlier, he might have been the kind of man who would have run. Now… how could he run when he was filled with the immediate remorse of missing out on six years of his daughter’s life without knowing it.

Nat countered his comment, which was not truly an insult as much as a statement of fact. Being a bitch was not always a flaw, and it probably helped her take what she felt she deserved, whether that was a Law Partnership or a young, wild conman. He held his tongue, conceding the point to her. It was a rare moment, but Nate had a higher priority than argument and witty banter.

Norah was a good kid. A real sweetheart, if Nat was to be believed. She joked about their daughter’s attitude being great in spite of her parentage, and Nate did not miss the verbiage. She made it a point to clarify that she was the one who raised Norah. There was no clever quip to reply to that; she hit him at his newest exposed wound.

With everything else he was discovering, it was probably the easiest process. Mutants seemed to have some innate ability to be drawn to one another; it felt like, since arriving at New York, most of the people Nate met ended up being mutants. It was an anomaly at this point that he was—

Dating a human. Sarah. They were still in the early stages of dating, but they were definitely at the point where he could not justify withholding news like, “I have a kid.” Another issue for another time; there were so many ways Norah might change his life, and some would be complications, but everything else just held such low priority in Nate’s mind at the moment.

Nate had no issues with their daughter being a mutant, and his well of questions had dried up to the most important one. ”So… what do you want next, Nat? Will I get to… do you want me to meet her?” The answer could go either way. Natalie might have wanted to give her daughter the chance to meet her father and have a relationship with the man who helped bring her into existence. It was also possible Natalie just wanted to get her frustration off her chest for being abandoned with their child for so long. It would have been hard to blame her if she held that bitterness toward him, but he quietly hoped for the former.

Nate silently scrolled through her phone, offering no sort of joke or quip in response to hers. She had only known him for a short time many years ago, sure, but she still knew that what she was seeing was out of character for him. Even through the course of the conversation, he'd had something to say back. She'd really done a number on him.

What was the next step? Well, Natalie had had six years to think through that answer. She'd hoped that it wouldn't have to come that late, but alas, there they were. 

When it came down to it, she wanted Norah to have two parents. Two biological parents, if possible. No matter how messed up they were. She wanted her daughter to have two people that she could lean on. Two people that she could go running to when she was scared or confused. Most of all, she didn't want her to feel like one half of her genetic code was from someone who couldn't care less whether she was alive or not. 

"No, I want you to continue being the deadbeat, nonexistent dad and screw her up even more," Natalie said dryly. Sure, she was eager to set up some sort of a relationship between the two, but she wasn't about to let him off the hook that easily. It wasn't all going to be sunshine and daisies and automatic connections. She had to make sure he was ready for something like that.

"I want you to meet her. She should have two parents. That said, you have to be ready to put in the work. You haven't been there for any part of her life, so it's going to be strange at first. Are you sure that you want to meet her?" Her face wouldn't betray any of her feelings, but she desperately needed him to say yes.

Before he could answer, though, she added something else. "The very first step will be a paternity test, of course. For your sanity, if nothing else."

Nate was already looking forward to a time when the “absentee parent” ace in the hole Nat was leaning on might carry a little less weight, because it was hard to verbally spar with someone when they were constantly pulling the conversational equivalent of a gun out every few seconds to shoot him in the gut with a reminder that he was a hundred percent in the wrong.

What mattered most was the confirmation that Natalie did want their daughter to meet her father. It did not sound like this would be a situation where he would be meeting her as a “friend of mommy’s” or “Uncle Nate.” For better or worse, she wanted to give Norah the opportunity to really know her father. The thought hit home for Nate; he had few memories of his mother to cling to, but there were no memories of his father since the man had vanished before he was born. The pain that came with realizing he had done the same thing as his father was emotionally debilitating, but knowing he could make an effort to right that wrong gave him hope. He remembered what it was like to constantly wonder why his father chose to be selfish and never thought his son could be worth knowing. If Nate could take those questions away from Norah… that was all he could see himself wanting now.

What finally broke the trance the phone had him in was Natalie’s question, asking whether he wanted to meet Norah. Before she could even finish the sentence, Nate was replying, ”Yes.” Realizing his response might have seemed abrupt, he backtracked. ”I mean, yes, Nat. If you’re sure you want me to, I… would really love the chance to get to know Norah. To be there for her.” It was possibly the most genuine, earnest thing to cross the lips of the former thief in over two decades.

Natalie assured him there would be a paternity test so there would be no questions to the legitimacy of her claim. It only made sense that a lawyer would prepare any precaution to provide total certainty and eliminate doubt. ”Agreed. Better to get that formality taken care of,” he replied, before the following pause allowed his past thought to return to him. ”Those eyes though… I’d be stunned if she got those anywhere else.” Nate was not shy, nor did he see the appeal in humility. His eyes were always going to be one of his best, if not his best feature.

And now he was already wondering what it would be like to see those beautiful eyes looking back up at him as he met his perfectly precious child for the first time. Nate had a lot of practiced words in his repertoire—they were, for all intents and purposes, his weapons. For this, though? He was in rare, uncharted territory. Nate had no idea what words he would have to share with Norah, because he could not picture what his life was going to be like on the other side of the most important meeting of his life.

Natalie found herself able to breathe easier after hearing Nate’s response. He wanted to know his daughter. She didn’t have to worry about him being the horrible person she’d made him out to be in her mind for so many years. In that respect, anyway. There were thousands of other ways that he could be a terrible person. None that she would concern herself with, though.

She nodded at his comment about Norah’s eyes. Natalie’s eyes were bright blue. Almost too bright, really, so she’d been surprised when she’d seen hers come out so… well, grey. However, looking at her probable father, she knew exactly where she’d inherited them. It seemed impossible that her progenitor could be anyone else, and finally it was for a reason other than the fact that she’d eliminated every other possibility.

“We’ll order the tests as soon as possible, but I think it’s alright if we go ahead and set some things up. We both know what the results will say,” Nat decided. If she hadn’t been so entirely sure that he was the one, she’d have been worried about Norah getting attached to him when he wasn’t the one. But why wait any longer when they were sure?

Natalie stepped forward, gesturing for Nate to hand her phone back as she did. They were still standing in the middle of the office, and while no one seemed to be paying any mind to their conversation, she did want a bit more privacy as they got into some of the nitty gritty details. ”There’s a coffee place in the lobby of this building. Why don’t we talk there instead.”

It was clear that she wasn’t asking as she moved through the office, expecting him to follow after her. ”First, let’s get some ground rules in place. You won’t start as dad. That’s too big of a step. We’ll start with Nate, or something along those lines, and then slowly introduce her to the idea when she becomes comfortable. Oh, and you will not bring up your romp in prison. If she’s going to look up to you, I do not want her getting any ideas.”

The last thing she wanted was for the whole thing to backfire on her and cause her precious only child to stray from the path that she’d worked so hard to lay out for her.

Now that they at least knew where they stood going forward. Nate wanted a relationship with his daughter, and Nat wanted Norah’s father to be part of her life. It was a relief that she would give him a chance, because he could not claim to deserve it after everything that happened.

Which was why he could not be surprised when the terms and conditions associated with him meeting his daughter were not going to be as simple as “show up and introduce yourself as dad.” Nate fell in line with Natalie as she led them out of the office so they could grab a coffee where it did not look like she was commandeering the workspace for her personal life.

The first rule was clear: he was not going to be letting Norah know exactly who he was to her, at least not yet. He was not a fan of the rule, but he had to admit it made sense; he was an unknown quantity. Nate wanted to be with his daughter, but for all Natalie knew, letting him into her life would make everything worse. She had spent six years taking care of her daughter, and letting Nate see her at all was a risk.

”That’s… fair,” he begrudgingly admitted. ”I’m learning to adjust to life on probation, so yes, no dad talk. For now. I do eventually want to get to that point, but I appreciate your caution.” Nate was glad Natalie, for her cold exterior, took great pride in being a caring mother to Natalie. Not being there for her would have been more difficult to accept had she not been able to grow up loved and happy.

Speaking of his probation, the topic of Nate going to jail was clearly off the table. This was even more understandable than her first condition; it would be hard enough to eventually introduce himself as the father she never knew without her realizing he was gone because he was a criminal. It was something he may have to explain to her down the road, but there was no reason to have that argument with Natalie now.

They made it into the elevator heading to the lobby while Nate tried to come up with any conditions of his own before reminding himself he had no right to conditions. What he could ask was the plan, since Nat was clearly a step ahead of him as the one who had six years to think about this moment. ”So I’m just going to be, what? Mom’s friend from work? I can do that.” There was some truth to that idea.

So he knew where he stood with Nat and where he would stand with Norah, but that led to him wondering if there was any other presence in Norah’s life he should expect to work around. ”So is there… I mean, does Norah have a male figure in her life right now who won’t be keen to see me in the picture?” He should be happy with the thought of another man being there for his daughter since he could not be, but truthfully, it was an envious thought that left a pit in his stomach.