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>>”Oh, I can drive. If I’m going to be visiting this world, I should learn to navigate it. Shall we?”

Kristoph made a fair point; if he was to be spending time in her world for the indefinite future, then it would be best for him to get to know the area that he was to be living in. Having a local direct him would likely be the best thing for him, too. It was like living in a new city, but ramped up by a thousand. He needed someone with good taste to show him the ins and outs.

There was no way in hell that that would be Natalie. Sure, they were going to be business associates, and she was going to lunch with him, but anything long-term with him sounded like a joke. One restaurant meal to take her mind off of things would be more than enough for her to expand from her usual circle.

He gestured for her to walk toward the parking garage, and Natalie obliged. She strode through the hallway and led him forward. She used her usual walk, one that conveyed her confidence and general ownership of the area. Anyone who worked with Natalie knew not to bother her when she looked like that.

”I hope you brought a wallet, Mr. Karlson,” she said pointedly, ”this isn’t exactly Chipotle.” With that, she pressed the down arrow on the control panel in front of the elevator to lead them down the stairs. ”Unless Chipotle is something else in your world, that is.”

The elevator dinged to let them know that it had arrived, and Natalie stepped inside, automatically pressing the button to the basement garage once she had. ”What exactly is different about your universe, anyway?”

With each turn of the zucchini, more spirals of noodles came out of the little device. Natalie had already blown through several of the long vegetables, but she had only just decided that they had enough. They were much smaller than they looked, especially when she wanted to have leftovers for the next night, when she had to work late and leave Norah with a meal.

The brunette dropped the zoodles into a frying pan on the stove with the smallest bit of sunflower oil and turned the heat up. As she watched Norah and her father bread the chicken, she worked on giving the noodles a crispy texture. Once they were a little more cooked, she sprinkled a little parmesan cheese on top, giving the healthy meal the tiniest bit of unhealthy kick.

”Can we do this every night?” Norah asked gleefully as she dropped a piece of chicken into the egg wash, spraying the counter in her excitement.

Natalie paused and remembered that she hadn’t quite let her daughter know that she would be spending the next night with the nanny. She hated having to do that, but she had chosen a busy career. If she took an early night to do things like they were doing there, she had to make up for it somehow. Plus, Natalie and Nate might have been fooling themselves, thinking that they could go on like that forever, but deep down, she knew that they wouldn’t be able to keep it up forever. Eventually, one of them would realize how unfulfilling it was, and then things would get strange.

Instead of actually explaining anything or getting into her feelings, Natalie merely shook her head. ”If we did it every night, then it would get old, right?” she tried to suggest, as if they didn’t all love the family time that they were getting. ”We want you to look forward to this when it does happen.”

She averted her eyes slightly as she turned the noodles onto a low heat to simmer for a while. They would sit like that with an occasional stir until the chicken was done. ”How’s the chicken going?” she asked. While her hands were free and available, she began to take cutlery and dishes from cabinets and set them out on the table for them to sit at when the food was done. ”Would you mind giving the zoodles a stir, Nate?”

As a family, Natalie, Norah, and Nate had fallen into a good rhythm. Every once and awhile, they would make a big deal of having a family dinner - very different from the one that they’d first had - and make a show of having Norah involved in the prep. They would make dinner together and then eat together formally. Best of all, Nate and Natalie would be able to ignore any awkward feelings between them for a little while.

Things were so convoluted. Nate had stayed the night after Norah went to her sleepover, but there was nothing sexual involved for those eight hours. Instead, they’d fallen asleep in an affection position and woken up together. To her surprise, Natalie’s first reaction wasn’t to cut out the danger in her life. Instead, she wanted more of Nate. She always wanted more. It scared her, but each time she tried to just cut her losses, she remembered why he was even in her life in the first place.

They couldn’t possibly be anything more than co-parents. It would make things too complicated, and clearly Nate had other people in his life that were of higher priority than the high-maintenance mother of his child. She understood it all; she had no claim over him. And yet, each time he stayed the night with her, some sort of strange hope grew within, and it was getting harder to push it down all the time. She was fooling herself and she couldn’t stop.

For that evening, though, she didn’t have to think of all that. She only had to think of the zoodles that she was making for the chicken parmigiana that would be in the oven soon enough. A healthy yet tasty meal option that all three could enjoy. Especially Norah. Natalie smiled and shook her head when she called out her affectionate term for the zucchini noodles.

”Do you want to take a turn with this?” Natalie asked her, kicking the little stool that Norah used to stand on so she could reach the counter. With an enthusiastic nod, the little girl agreed to using the device for a while. She took over for a few turns of the vegetable under her mother’s watchful eye before stepping back down.

”I’m going to help daddy now!”

Natalie smiled and watched her scoot over to the other side of the kitchen with her stool in tow. She was very excited to be able to help out. The novelty was still fresh enough for it to work.

>>”I still can’t believe you’re making me do this with gluten-free breadcrumbs,”

”Believe it,” the brunette told him quickly. ”One day, you and your gut will thank me.” She was just doing what she thought was best for her daughter and her health. Eating right would take her far.

Natalie was genuinely curious about why SUPER had sent Kristoph over an executive. Sure, they would likely look over the terms and conditions of the agreement as a board of directors, but she would have assumed that they would want someone technical there right off the bat. It certainly wouldn’t have been Natalie’s first decision to send a field agent to a meeting of wits.

Then again, perhaps there was some strategy that she just wasn’t thinking of. Perhaps there was an Einstein-esque mind hidden under that red mass of hair. For all she knew, he could have been a licensed lawyer or businessman. She knew that looks could be deceiving.

So, she asked him. Straight up. She’d never been one to use much flowery prose when she didn’t need to. His first response, though, was a joke that made her lips roll in indignantly. She knew full well the image she projected was one that made most men (and some women) turn their heads, but it wasn’t appropriate to point that out in a business meeting. Especially not after she had proven herself time and time again to be more than a set of curves squeezed into a pair of heels. She believed herself to be just as, if not more, capable as any man in her field.

Still, she let his comment slide as he moved onto a different, more serious reply. That answer made quite a bit more sense. There was no indication of any sort of other power, but she knew that not everyone revealed all their cards right away. She couldn’t let her guard down yet.

It did make sense to her that they would want to send a field agent into a meeting about what SUPER could provide. Sure, he likely wouldn’t have the same understanding of the legal jargon, but he had a far better grasp of what the world was really like out there, and he knew what it was like to be out in the field. He had captured and tagged mutants. She most certainly could not let her guard down.

”Alright, then, Mr. Karlson,” she continued, ”humour me for a minute. What is it like in the field? In your world, anyway. What keeps you going each day?”

To Natalie’s surprise, it seemed like Noel had come some ways since their last meeting. She was at least self aware enough to apologize for biting her all those months ago. Natalie blinked once, doing her best to maintain her poker face and not let onto her surprise. Maybe she had misjudged her a little.

Still, there were things that she didn’t like about the woman. A simple apology would not cover everything, and she needed to remember that. With her head held high, Natalie said, ”of course. I suppose I was a tad out of line bringing that up.” There was nothing to suggest that she intended to let her off like that, but perhaps she didn’t need to bring that up at every turn. Noel could make new poor impressions over the course of the mission.

Stealth and deception seemed like the way to go. If they were going to walk into the call center and for information, then they didn’t want to go in with guns ablaze and powers on full display. The more they could go unnoticed, the better. That would allow them to gather information without getting into something dangerous right off the bat.

”I can do images, but I can’t do voices,” Natalie explained, ”so either we’ll need to take a woman, or you’ll need to do all the talking.” She did not like the idea of leaving the talking and negotiating to someone who had proven that talking was not her strong suit, but it was turning out to be one of the only options that made sense. She just hoped that they would be able to take a woman so that she could show her true abilities of negotiation.

She did like the idea of them both going in, though. That would allow her to keep an eye on Noel and make sure that she was staying on task, not biting anyone. Okay, so maybe she hadn’t quite gotten over it yet.

The RIP had caused astronomical changes in both universes. That much was clear. It was hard to ignore changes when they consisted of an entirely separate universe colliding with your own and the separate people that it brought in. Some people were the same on either side, and some were not. In some respects, Natalie was glad that she hadn’t met her shadow self, since she figured that the results may have been disappointing. She couldn’t imagine living in a world where Norah didn’t exist.

Still, there had been other complications that had arisen from the two universes touching. There organizations that didn’t exist on one side or the other, and no one knew quite how to interact with one another. There were rumours of a mob-like agency spreading members from the other universe into Natalie’s world, but she wasn’t sure if she entirely believed them. False until proven true.

A different agency really did happen to exist, though. A Government branch that was built around the idea that mutants needed to be rounded up, tracked and contained. Natalie didn’t care for that idea one bit. For some reason, though, rather than hostility, SUPER was met with curiosity from the other universe. The two governments were in contact, and the other agency was beginning to test the waters. Of course, that meant that they would need representation on the other side in the case that something went amiss.

Since Natalie’s firm was one of the formidable in the New York area, they had naturally chosen to go with them. Natalie had been assigned to the case, and she had felt like she had to take it. She definitely didn’t agree with what the organization stood for, but she couldn’t say much to get out of the case. The only ethical reason that she possessed was that she was a mutant and didn’t believe in her kind being treated like cattle, but admitting that would mean admitting that she was, in fact, a mutant. She would likely be disbarred for that.

So, she was there at the meeting, two minutes before the set time. Her two appointments beforehand had each run a little bit late, and she had to rush to get to this one. Still, in regular Natalie fashion, she arrived with a confident stride in a blush ensemble. The fact that she’d had to rush into the elevator wasn’t even detectable by the time she walked in.

”Afternoon,” Natalie greeted back as she nodded to the man at the table. Despite his appropriate dress, he didn’t seem to be the type of person that dealt with things in rooms such as the one they were in. The huge red beard and general build of him suggested that he was better suited to be a field agent rather than a desk jockey. She gave him a curious look as she sat down across from him.

Once seated, she displayed the papers that she brought with her in front of him. ”My name is Natalie Ross, here to represent Jameson and Finch. This is the agreement that I’ve drawn up; you’re welcome to read through it, and we can discuss details of it. The gist is that we’re willing to represent SUPER under circumstances at our discretion. You will always have a team at your disposal, but we retain the right to turn a case down.”

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.”