Allison was the perfect, proper hostess with a surprisingly warm presence. Nate had a hard time creating expectations because he assumed most people in Natalie’s life fell between acquaintances and enemies. Allison was normal, and yes, maybe a bit posh, but she was nice. Natalie had a very nice friend and the two women clicked. Nate was already accepting that Norah brought out a kinder, softer Nat, but it was weird to see actual emotional connections she made with her peers.

Nate might have been having a good time, but the speed at which Nat’s wine vanished was a sign she was ready to leave. Catching up was well and good, but they could still hear Norah having fun in the other room. Nate was enjoying his introduction to Allison and almost forgot how hard it was for Natalie to leave Norah for the night.

They all got to their feet and Allison made a remark that seemed to imply a question. Of course, she would see Natalie the next morning, but would Nate be there? He had the time, but he and Natalie had not yet discussed the return trip. He was not going to confirm or deny without talking to her first, because she was already emotional and he did not want to piss her off. Luckily, Allison did not actually ask the question, so Nate could move on without answering. He offered his hand and smiled. ”It’s been an absolute pleasure meeting you, Allison. Thanks again for hosting Norah tonight.”

Nate was not often one to interrupt a good time, but he wanted to bid his daughter farewell, and he had a feeling seeing Norah one last time could be good for Nat. ”Hey Norah, your mother and I are leaving for the night!”

The giggling slowly subsided, followed by little feet quickly running over carpet. Norah entered the room and Nate knelt down to get to her level. He took his little girl into a tight hug and pressed a kiss onto her forehead. ”Now you be good for Mrs. Torres, okay?”

”I will!”

Nate grinned and ruffled his daughter’s hair. ”Good. And have fun, sweetheart. I love you.”

”I love you, too, daddy!” Nate never got tired of the warm feeling in his heart those words invoked.

Releasing Norah, Nate watched as the girl ran over to give her mother a big hug and goodbye.

With her hand free of a glass, Natalie nodded a thank-you and stood from her seat, flattening out any wrinkles in her skirt. It really was time to go; any longer in that apartment and Hannah and Norah wouldn’t be the only ones having a sleepover that night. It wasn’t exactly a good look to be sobbing on the floor at a friend’s house, so she much preferred to keep that private. 

”See you tomorrow,” Natalie nodded with a quick, sealed-lipped smile. She didn’t add an pronouns, so whether one or both of them would be there was still up in the air. She could talk to Nate about that later. If he wanted to be there, then she wasn’t going to stop him, but she also wasn’t going to make him do it or schedule something that was going to conflict with his day. She understood how troublesome a complicated schedule could get, after all. She would have to work the next day after dropping settling Norah in with the nanny.

Always chivalrous and charming, Nate was the perfect gentleman when saying goodbye to Allison. When they’d first come back into contact with one another, the brunette had automatically assumed that she wouldn’t be able to take him anywhere public, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. In fact, he was so charming that she was sure that he would even make a good impression on her coworkers if she ever took him to a company function… not that she would ever have reason to take him to a company function… that was reserved for significant others and family members. He was neither, obviously.

Natalie hugged Allison tightly and wished her well while Nate called the girls into the livingroom. There was a brief moment when Natalie thought that Norah might be enjoying herself too much to say goodbye to her mother, but when she ran out a moment later, her heart started beating again. She watched as the girl hugged her father goodbye - an image that she never thought she’d get to see - and tried not to let the emotions of it all overtake her. She was usually very good at holding up a poker face and pushing everything down, but it was getting harder by the second.

She was so focused that when Norah ran over and wrapped her hands around her legs, Natalie was almost taken down. The woman let out a surprised ‘oof’ and then crouched so that she was at eye level with her daughter. ”I love you, Norah. Have a good time, okay?”

”I love you too, mommy,” she grinned.

”More.”

”Mostest.”

”More than that.” The final response came as a bit of a whisper as Natalie held her tight one last time. After a second, she stood up and let the little girl run back to where her friend was standing with an expensive looking doll. Quickly, Natalie wiped under her eyes and then turned back toward the door. 

She turned the doorknob and then gave one final nod toward Allison. ”Thanks for this. Call me if anything goes wrong, okay?”

Like always, Allison was quick to catch onto things. She gestured for them to get moving and then crossed her arms as she leaned against the wall. “Get out of here, Nat,” she said lovingly.

Nate loved seeing Nat and Norah interact, watching the mother and daughter with a content smile. Natalie would do anything for their little girl, and for seven years, that is exactly what she did. He could see the unconditional love they shared and it filled his own heart with love. Specifically, love for Norah; what he felt toward Natalie was a deep-seated appreciation for her as a mother. Watching her let Norah go and noticing the shimmering in her eyes, Nate felt for her as she endured such a new, emotional experience.

With a parting wave, Nate and Nat left the apartment and walked toward the elevator. The ride down to the garage and the drive to the apartment were not long, but they would feel longer without Norah. He felt bad, but Nate knew the night would only get harder for Natalie to handle when she returned to the apartment to find it empty. He wondered if she would be able to sleep at all while her daughter was away, even if she knew full-well Norah was safe and enjoying a night with her friend. Some feelings were illogical and unavoidable.

It was a shot in the dark, but Nate wanted to offer the only lifeline he could think of. ”She’s gonna have a safe, fun night, Nat,” he promised, doing what he could to reassure her. ”And you have the night to yourself; not exactly something you can say often.” It was not going to be a night off if she spent the whole night worrying about Norah.

They stepped off the elevator and toward the car. ”She’ll be a phone call away all night. In the meantime, maybe you want to grab a drink and take your mind off things? I happen to know a certain someone recently came to possess a pretty good bottle of wine.” Nate was not in the business of inviting himself anywhere, but he was never opposed to suggesting a drink to cap off the night with someone. Of course, the motivations with people he met on the town and with Natalie were two different things; Nate just wanted to be supportive of his co-parent. That was all.

The two parents left the apartment with just a wave goodbye. It felt like Natalie hadn’t done enough, like she needed to go back inside and leave a list of items that Norah might need or need doing. Did she have everything she needed? What if they’d forgotten something! A million things ran through her head, and she hardly even noticed that they were standing in the elevator rather than the hallway. Her arms were crossed over her chest and her hand had migrated to her mouth in order to cover it. She hated this.

>>”She’s gonna have a safe, fun night, Nat. And you have the night to yourself; not exactly something you can say often.”

A comment from Nate had pulled her back from the edge and forced her to ground herself. She was really thankful that he was there, actually. She knew that if he hadn’t been, then she likely would have gone back inside, or, worse, never have left. It was easier to make herself seem together when there was someone expecting her to drive them home.

He was right, though. There wasn’t really anything to worry about. She knew that Allison’s house was safe and that the blonde would do a wonderful job watching the girls. The worst that could possibly happen was Norah getting homesick or being unable to sleep. Those were both things that they would be able to overcome. 

Plus, a night off was definitely a rare commodity for Natalie. She couldn’t even remember the last time that she’d had a night off, actually. Whenever she wasn’t working late, she would make as much time as possible for Norah, and that meant that there wasn’t really any personal time left for her until Norah went to bed, at which point she would either clean or do some more work. Breaks were not something that she actively indulged in. The led to unproductive lives.

She nodded quickly. She could work the night away until she was so tired that she fell asleep on her case notes. It would be as simple as that, and she wouldn’t even need to worry about anything going wrong, since her mind would be occupied. Why hadn’t she thought of that before?

>>”She’ll be a phone call away all night. In the meantime, maybe you want to grab a drink and take your mind off things? I happen to know a certain someone recently came to possess a pretty good bottle of wine.”

The elevator dinged, both to let them know that they’d reached the parking garage and to punctuate Natalie’s brief pause while she recalculated. That was a very different plan. Without saying anything, she stepped out into the parking garage and walked forward, her heels clicking against the pavement.

It would be much harder to push her worries out of her mind with Nate around, especially if they were going to be drinking. In fact, she often found that she worried more around Nate, even if it was about different things.

However, she was finding that she actually quite enjoyed spending time with her co-parent, even if they didn’t always see eye to eye. Perhaps it was a better option to spend the night with a bit of platonic company than all alone, working away at her desk. One drink couldn’t hurt, at least. 

”Yes. I’ll drive you back to my place and we can have a drink. One drink.” She made sure to add that last sentence. They didn’t exactly have the greatest track record with drinking alone together. With the decision made, she unlocked her car and slid into the driver’s seat.

Natalie took a moment to consider Nate’s offer. He was not oblivious to why she might have to mull over the decision to invite him into her apartment for a drink. The first time they had drinks together, Nate got Natalie pregnant. The second time, they got into a heated round of bickering that lead, once again, to sex. They were two-for-two, and the second had been memorable thanks to the intense build-up and their total inability to resist one another.

It sounded like a risk, but in Nate’s mind, it was a calculated risk. They were going to be in each other’s lives for a long time and they were going to be in positions where they were around alcohol. It would be impossible to tiptoe around those situations forever, so by Nate’s logic, they needed to face the challenge head-on and learn to drink around each other by… well, drinking around each other.

Fortunately, Nate might not have been the only one to reach such a conclusion. As they reached the car, Nat accepted the offer—with one reasonable stipulation. He raised his hands, smiling as he slipped into the passenger’s seat. ”Understood. One drink.”

---

Nate laughed as his hostess poured his second glass of red wine. They were in Natalie’s living room, drinking and trying to keep the conversation away from Norah for Natalie’s sake. They spent time together, but so often, they were occupied with their daughter or work. It was evidently a nice change of pace to just talk to one another as people for once.

Laughter faded but left a smile on Nate’s lips. He took a sip of his wine, before asking one of the many questions about Natalie that had him curious. ”So there are law firms in Chicago, last I checked. Why New York, Nat?” What compelled a freshly minted lawyer and single-mother to uproot herself, traveling from the Windy City to The City that Never Sleeps?

The wine poured with such a satisfying noise. Every part of Nat that had wanted just one drink that night had disappeared as quickly as her first glass, and it didn’t even register that she was going against her own warnings as she poured them both another glass of the dangerous elixir. They were heading down that road again and neither of them seemed to care or suggest that they turn around.

Still, she wasn’t upset that it was Nate in her apartment that evening. She actually quite enjoyed spending time with him, especially when they could just talk as human beings without other distractions. No work, no Haven, and, as bad as it seemed, no worries about Norah. Things were just… okay in that moment. They weren’t okay in the grand scheme of things, but they were as she let herself relax on that couch and even laugh for the first time in a while.

>>”So there are law firms in Chicago, last I checked. Why New York, Nat?”

Natalie paused for a moment, her laughter subsiding. She took a sip of her fresh glass of wine as she considered his question, swirling it before bringing it up to her lips. Moving to New York had been a natural decision for her, but she supposed that to someone without all the details or experience, it could seem like a rash move to make.

”My parents never approved of the whole ‘single mother’ thing. They thought that it looked bad on them,” she admitted with a shrug. Her new glass of wine was already going as quickly as the other one had. Her cravings were insatiable. ”They helped out some, but mostly in cash. Being in the same city as them was never fun. So, when I passed the Bar, I decided that it was time for a fresh start. I got a job and Norah wasn’t even in school yet, so it just made sense.”

It had been a good move. Getting out from under her parents’ thumbs was one of the best things that had ever happened to her, and it had allowed her to grow and develop as both a person and a lawyer. She wouldn’t have become the person that she was without the situations that she had found herself in, even if they had seemed hopeless while she was in them.

A question could not go without a rebuttal, though. That was a fact of life. Her eyes moved slowly over to Nate and settled on him for a moment, studying his clothed form. It took a moment for her sharp words to form in her mouth. ”What made you turn yourself in? It wasn’t like you didn’t have a good thing going.”

Even as a lawyer, she could appreciate true skill. Nate was a skilled thief, but he’d given it up. She was glad that he had, though, since it made it much easier for her to want to introduce him to Norah. But it clearly hadn't been the little girl that made him want to do a 360 turn, so what had it been?

It was good to have a conversation with Natalie without any pressing concerns or tasks to control the narrative. When they met in Chicago, Nate was immediately caught by her beauty, but she kept him with conversation. He knew her superficially, and was becoming familiar with the elements that comprised her, but it was good to talk to Natalie about Natalie. They were going to play big roles in each other’s lives, so it made sense to get to know each other better.

Since Natalie was a Chicago girl, born and bred, Nate had wondered why she would take her law degree and her infant and move her life to New York. Unfortunately, her parents played a role in the decision. She was the daughter of rich, significant members of Chicago society. When their daughter became pregnant with the child of an anonymous guy at a bar, distancing themselves socially became more of a priority than caring for their own daughter in a time of need.

If she had to uproot her life, Nate was glad to hear it was her decision. It made sense; when did Nat do anything she did not want to do? ”I’d say I’m sorry for driving a rift between you and your folks, but honestly, if they didn’t fall immediately in love with that little girl on sight, something’s clearly wrong with them,” he joked, trying to keep the mood of their drinking light. Natalie did not sound like she regretted her choices, both keeping Norah and moving to New York, so it was a case of an unexpected life change turning out to be for the best.

Nate was not the only one curious about what he missed in the six years of absence from one another’s lives. Natalie was curious about the decision Nate made to leave his life of crime and turn himself into the police. It was a fair question, though she was missing an important piece. ”Well, funny enough, me quitting my thieving ways and me turning myself in were two different things,” he admitted, recalling his first months in New York as he took a sip of his wine.

”After a big job, I’d usually lay low for a while, living off my payday until the time was right. So I was laying low in New York.” The city had a bizarre magic to it, like it was the epicenter of change in the universe. ”I met a woman in the park. Sweet, fun… and a cop.”

The revelation of Quin’s job really should have been the end of that story, but somehow it continued. ”I thought it’d be something lowkey and casual to bide the time, but I’m an idiot, so I fell for said cop. I actually picked up my teaching job, hoping to see what came of that.” Nate was not actively thieving, but there was something symbolic about truly giving up the “thief” identity he bore for over a decade.

There was another sip of wine and a shrug of his shoulders. ”She eventually found out in an event I’ll chalk up to ‘mutant weirdness,’ and we sputtered trying to make things work, but it never really did. She never turned me in though,” he had to note, defending the woman who he finally had a real friendship with again.

Quin never turned him in, but Nate remembered what compelled him to do it himself, and his expression darkened. ”I turned myself in almost a year later. I…” Nate caught himself. They were having a nice night, and he did not want to drag down the mood of their friendly drinking. He sighed, but there was a distant look in his eye. ”Look, do we really want to spoil such a nice evening with bad memories?”

Natalie clearly remembered the first time that her parents had laid eyes on Norah. They’d declined the invitation to join her at the hospital when she was born, so Natalie had gone through the experience alone. When she’d brought the little girl home the next day, they’d been distant and wary of the little creature that was causing so much chaos in their lives. However, try as they might have to hate her, it wasn’t something that was possible. Norah had wiggled her way into their hearts and stolen a spot, just like she did with most everyone that she met. Before long, they were acting as grandparents when it was convenient for them.

Despite their growing love for the girl, they were still the same people that they’d always been; stubborn and stuck on their own images. Besides, it was Natalie who had truly disappointed them. It was the rift between the woman and her parents that had truly severed the connection. It came to the point where they were only providing financial support, since emotional support would be too much for them and might have caused their social standing to change.

So, when Natalie took the step to move away, she didn’t feel any sort of deep connection keeping her in Chicago. Sure, every once and a while she missed her childhood home or a friend there, but there was no draw strong enough to bring her back. She had built a life in New York for herself and her daughter, and they were happy there.

”They do care about her,” Natalie corrected Nate quietly. That much had always been clear from her parents. ”They’re just… difficult people. They send Christmas and birthday gifts, though.” They did for Norah, at least. Natalie took another sip of wine.

When she’d asked, Nate had started to describe the thought process behind his change of heart. Natalie listened careful, and as she did, her expression soured. It was always a woman with Nate, wasn’t it? An ex-girlfriend had ultimately been the catalyst behind his radical change. And to think Natalie had been naïve enough to imagine that he might have just wanted to change. The thing that had made her able to allow him into their daughter’s life had been because of another woman. Fitting.

By the time that he’d circled around to talking about how he turned himself in, Natalie was hardly listening. Her elbow was perched on the arm of the couch and she was thinking, her brow furrowed in clear irritability. Why was she reacting like that? She had no claim in his life, and they hadn’t even been in contact. There was… just some part of her that wanted that claim over him. The thought of that simply made her even angrier, so she simply took another sip of wine and tried to press the thought down.

She failed. ”So, yet another woman is the reason that you are the person you are now?” She confirmed, her voice cutting and sour. Emotions and anger from the night’s events were being redirected at Nate, and he was about to get the brunt of all of her unease.

Natalie was surprisingly kind toward her parents and their contributions to Norah’s life. Nate had no parents, so hers were the only grandparents Norah would have. It was nice to hear they cared and their gifts surely meant well, (even if it was not much of a burden on them to throw money at the matter,) but that was different than having involved grandparents. The ones Norah could go visit and get doted on and spoiled by. It was disappointing to realize she might not have that, but Nate held his tongue. Natalie’s relationship with her parents was her own matter; it was not his place to get involved. They would just have to be better parents for Norah to make up for semi-absentee grandparents.

The evening had been going well, which was a shame when they seemed to take a noticeable turn with Nate’s story. It was clear by the look on her face Nate was sinking out of her good graces. He wondered where exactly his story went wrong, but her response gave him a better idea.

Apparently, Natalie was offended that Quin, or “yet another woman,” served as Nate’s turn to the side of good. It was not the first time she had a negative reaction to the women in his life and it was no less surprising the second time. In the LIE, she framed her frustration as a product of the example he was serving in Norah’s life. There was some validity to being upset if Nate was getting involved with multiple women around Norah, but his relationship with Quin was a monogamous year long relationship from years earlier.

Part of Nate wanted to get offended and start them on the path to yet another argument, but there was a bigger part of him that wanted to avoid that. Nate was enjoying his night with Natalie. He genuinely liked spending time with her when they were not at each other’s throats, (metaphorically speaking.) Rather than pick a fight, he wanted to find the right words to fix things.

Assuming there were right words. Still, he needed to make the effort. ”I mean, that’s where it started, but I had to make the decision for myself in the end. I realized I loved my classes and the kids I was teaching. I was doing art to do art instead of forging old pieces. I missed the thrill of the jobs, but at the same time, New York keeps throwing too much at me to stay bored.” The city was a magnet for weird and occasionally, that gave Nate all the excitement he could handle.

”I honestly don’t care why things changed for me,” Nate admitted truthfully. ”I’m just glad they did and this is the version of me Norah got to meet.” Norah was too good to suffer through a self-centered criminal as a father. If he knew about her earlier, maybe he would have straightened up his act. Maybe he would have been too young and immature to get to that point. Maybe things worked out the way they did for a reason.

Then again, maybe things occasionally happened because an over-excited daughter got careless, Nate thought as his eyes noticed something just barely poking out from under the couch. ”Um, Nat? Norah was planning on bringing her teddy bear to the sleepover, right?” He gestured toward the stuffed animal on the ground, obviously forgotten by Norah in the rush to gather everything up and head out the door.

Natalie was rarely sour or bitter. Sure, she was often frustrated or angry, but there were few people that could push her over into that side. Noel seemed to have a special ability to do so, but Noel was also… special. She didn’t count.

When Natalie had gotten pregnant, she’d pulled up her socks, no questions asked. When she’d gotten a job at the firm and been told that she’d never make partner because she was female, she did what she had to do to ensure that that wasn’t the case. She really believed that it was one’s own duty to ensure that life turned out the way that you wanted it. Everything could be turned to work in your favour if enough work was put into it.

Nate, however, had the innate ability to turn Natalie’s mood sour in minutes. Part of her was convinced that that was his true mutant ability rather than controlling shadows. He had a power over her that not one person, including Noel, had ever possessed over her. It was absurd, and she wanted it to stop, but there was nothing that she could do to stop herself from being affected by his pull. Was this what it was like for all women around him? If so, then she did understand why he seemed to have a string of them. Not that it excused it.

He’d tried to sway the conversation back, thus swaying Natalie away from the edge, but she was still unhappy. Yes, he’d worked hard to get where he was, and he was in great form to be meeting his daughter, but it was still all because of another woman. She might not have had any claim over him (then or now), but that didn’t stop Natalie from giving him an annoyed glance as she sipped her wine again. ”Yes, I’m sure she’ll remember how glad you were for that one woman when you introduce her to your parade of ‘important friends’.”

She’d always been careful about who she introduced Norah to herself, so imagining that she was now going to have to police the both of them, all while keeping her emotions in check, was exhausting.

Thankfully, Natalie was stopped mid-spiral when Nate pointed out the little bear that had been abandoned on the tile floor by the door. Obviously, Norah had forgotten it there when she was busy putting on her shoes. Natalie’s heart stopped momentarily, and she quickly forgot everything that she was angry about. Norah had forgotten her bear. Norah didn’t sleep without her bear. Norah was no doubt panicking without it.

”We have to go back,” she announced suddenly, her voice shaky and slightly too loud. Natalie stood up and strode over to the bear, picking it up and looking it over very slowly.

Nate’s effort to sway Natalie’s mood had done precisely two things: jack and s***. Logically, he realized that she was reacting irrationally. He did nothing that warranted her snappy attitude and if he was smart, he would clean his hands of the matter and cut his losses. There was no reason he should sit and take a verbal tongue lashing he did not deserve. Still, he was sitting on Natalie’s couch, knitting his brow, frustrated that he missed the mark so badly. He had one made a f***ing career of swaying people’s opinions, but he was running into a wall with Natalie and that genuinely bugged him.

It seemed like Nate was going to have to defend his right to introduce Norah to the important people in his life, but their terse discussion was derailed by the teddy bear Nate pointed out under the couch. He could have sworn the color flushed straight from Natalie’s face when she realized what happened.

Natalie liked control and she had a need to keep everything in Norah’s life perfect. She had a million and one apprehensions about Norah’s sleepover, so the moment one thing went wrong, she was compelled to fix it. Nate loved how much Nat cared about their daughter, but she needed someone to save her from herself and he was the only other person available in the apartment.

Nate got to his feet and approached Natalie, watching her examine the teddy bear. He stepped up to face her and placed a hand on each of her shoulders. ”Nat. Let’s take a second,” he said calmly, hoping to grab her attention from the bear.

He did not want to invalidate her concerns, so he had to be careful. ”I get where you’re coming from. You want to do the best things for Norah. It’s one of my favorite things about you. I admire it honestly.” If anything, Nate had taken to following Natalie’s lead because he thought she was a great example of a good parent.

”So follow me for a minute,” Nate said, doing his best to keep her eyes on his rather than the teddy bear in her hands. ”Allison has your number and she would call us if there were any problems over there. How long have we been away now? An hour or two?” Admittedly, amidst the (mostly) enjoyable conversation, Nate had not checked a clock.

”If Norah needed her teddy, we would get a call, but she’s with her friend. They’re having fun with a wealth of toys.” He placed one of his hands on the teddy bear, hoping Natalie could slowly stop preoccupying herself with it. ”She’ll be alright, Nat. She’ll have one night away from her teddy, and when she comes home and she’ll get to be excited to see it again.” The teddy bear was not the only thing feeling abandoned in the apartment, but one night away was not going to change the relationship between Norah and her stuffed animal.

Natalie did not intend to “take a second”. She did not intend to take a breath, or a pause, or even a moment to think about what she was considering doing. Norah was missing her teddy bear, and that was a code red, as she liked to think about it. Her daughter hadn’t gone a night without her bear in far too long, and she wasn’t about to let her have a terrible night in a new place without her object of comfort. Absolutely not.

She glanced at Nate cooly as he placed hands on her shoulders, having decided to ignore any and all of his protests. He didn’t- he couldn’t understand what it was like. He’d missed too much. He hadn’t seen when Norah had first gotten that teddy, and he hadn’t heard the crying at three am when it had fallen out of her crib. There was history that came along with that bear; history he just couldn’t know.

Still, he was stealing her attention to a certain degree. Her face was stony and impassive, her eyes flickering between the bear in her hands and the man in front of her. She was set on what she had decided, but she was still listening to his reasoning. Even if she knew full well that there was nothing that he could say to sway her.

Except…

He was right; they’d been gone for over an hour, and they had not received one phone call. If Allison was living up to expectation and being a reasonable parent to both girls, then they would already be in bed, meaning that Norah would have gotten to sleep without her bear. She didn’t need her bear anymore. And she didn’t need to be at home, either. How much did she need anymore? Would it ever go back to the way that it was?

It was all too much. There was another second where Natalie let the realizations hit her, her face still as inexpressive as before, and then the crash. Her face fell, and tears streamed freely (slowly, in an oddly patterned manner, in a very Natalie fashion). She fell forward, uncaring that she was falling into the arms of the man that she had made a promise to herself not to let herself get to close to, and leaned into his shoulder. She needed him to anchor her in that moment, and she needed his shoulder to cry on. His specifically.

It was never easy to talk to someone who was dealing with emotions running high. Natalie had been scolding Nate for his dating habits minutes prior, but suddenly he found himself trying to calm down a frantic mother. It was not an enviable position, but he had suddenly gone from not knowing how to appease Natalie to thinking he might have an answer.

Natalie was a logical person, so Nate appealed to her with logic. He could tell from her expression she was not initially receptive to his remarks, but things slowly seemed to sink in. Allison was someone she trusted, so if there was a problem, they would have known about it. The girls were likely in bed already, so Norah made it through the night without a problem.

Without a logical reason to be worried, Natalie instead became more emotional. Watching her stony expression crack and tears flow made Nate’s heart ache for her. She was understanding Norah could survive for a night without her, and Nate realized she was not as ready for that experience as her daughter was.

Before he realized what was happening, Natalie was leaning forward, falling into him. He threw his arms around her so she did not crumble to the ground. He rubbed her back, giving her some time to cry out her tears. He waited until the crying seemed to slow down before he even considered speaking.

”She’s still you’re little girl, Nat,” he assured her in a soft voice. ”She still needs you. But she is growing, and you taught her how to be independent.” Norah could not have had a better female figure in her life to learn lessons of independence than Natalie.

”When we go to pick her up, she’ll be the same baby girl we dropped off. Promise.” Nate had the time the next day, so unless she planned on stopping him, he was going to go with her to collect their daughter when the sleepover was finally over. Some family time could do them all some good.

Natalie sucked in a deep breath and pulled away from the shoulder that she had just been crying into. To call the woman a crier would be a colossal exaggeration. In fact, she couldn’t actually remember the last time that she’d cried, especially in front of people. It was an occasion that came about perhaps once every few years, and it was usually for an extremely valid reason. This didn’t feel like a valid reason to her. Every other mother seemed to have a handle on their children growing up and needing them less and less, so why didn’t she?

It was just that it had always been her and Norah. Things were changing so fast, and Natalie’s head was beginning to reel. Perhaps it was the fact that everything seemed to be coming all together at once, or maybe it was the wine, or the fact that Nate seemed to do weird things to her emotions, but she just couldn’t hold it in anymore.

So, for some reason, she was not only crying in front of someone, but she was actually crying on him. Natalie wiped under her eyes, trying to wipe away the traces of mascara that had run in all the wrong places. Then, she turned to the side, avoiding Nate’s eyes as she tried her best to compose herself. How was he supposed to look at her the same way after seeing that? There was a reason she didn’t cry in front of people; she had an image to uphold. She had nothing left to hide from Nate.

For some reason, that idea was somewhat comforting.

A choked laugh came from her mouth as she thought about them picking up their daughter the next day. It didn’t seem strange to her that he was suggesting that he would be there too, at that point. In fact, the idea didn’t even really register with her. Of course he would be there. He had earned that right in her mind.

Still, he was right. Norah would be the same girl the next day, even if she had a new experience under her belt. She was only six, and she would still need her mother. There would be other moments like this - other milestones - later on, and she would need to learn how to deal with those, but she was past the hump of this one. Norah was alright without her. Things would be okay.

The woman took a deep breath and strode over to the couch, still not looking back at Nate. How had she let herself do that in front of him? If he was anyone else, she would have never lived it down. For some reason, though, she was glad that it was him. She knew that they would be able to work past her little indiscretion, even if it was weird for the moment.

Natalie took a sip of wine before she finally looked back at him for just a second. Her eyes did not linger long, instead flickering back over to the door. ”Sorry for that,” she said, her voice detached. ”You’re welcome to go if you’d like. I’ll be fine. You can meet me back here tomorrow to pick Norah up.”

Nate was looking for signs that he might be making some sense to Natalie, and her attempt to force out a laugh was either a good sign or a very bad one. The last thing Nate wanted them to deal with after such an emotional evening was an argument about whether he should accompany Natalie to pick their daughter up. He counted himself lucky that Natalie seemed fine with leaving that battle unfought.

After everything was said and done, Natalie seemed to regain her composure with such speed, it was like watching an actress break out of character at the end of the scene. The sad monologue was over so it was time for Natalie to wipe off her tears and disappear stage right.

In their case, “stage right” meant leaving Nate’s arms and returning to her glass of wine. Nate was suffering from such emotional whiplash at her hands, it would have made plenty of sense for him to cut his losses and return home for the night to recuperate.

Except… that was not what he wanted to do. He saw the logic of the plan, sure, but it did not change the part of him that wanted to stay with Natalie. She was not having an easy night, and a small part of that was Nate’s fault, even if he had yet to figure out exactly why it was his fault. Nate understood all too well how negative thoughts and insecurities could return when someone was left to their own thoughts.

Nate found his own glass of wine and looked into it before taking a sip. ”So I’m welcome to go ‘if I like,’ then?” He stepped closer to Natalie and realized his hand was pressed against her cheek. He was not sure of his own intentions in making a connection like that, but his hand found the resting place regardless. Nat had a way of drawing him to her that he still did not quite understand. ”Does that mean I’m also welcome to stay?”