a_littlefaith | (no subject)

Beth hears about Nate being in the hospital pretty much first thing when she wakes up and turns on the TV in her living room, flipping to the news as she eats a bowl of cereal. It's a pretty big story, a burning building, a man bursting out of the flames with a woman in his arms like some kind of superhero. A few of the reporters and camera men had gotten close enough to the scene to actually capture the face of the man coming out, coughing and covered in soot, and Beth stares for a moment, her spoon halfway to her mouth, then drops the entire bowl of cereal in the sink and heads for the door.

She's not family. She's not allowed to go in and see him. The nurses seems to take pity on her, though, seeing the worry in her face, and they tell Beth that he's fine. He's being treated for smoke inhalation and minor burns and that she can come back in a few hours. Leaving seems impossible and so instead she finds herself in the waiting room, her legs crossed, one foot bouncing, waiting to be told she's allowed to go in and see him.

Only it doesn't quite work out like that. It's a few hours later and Beth is getting up to go ask the nurse if she's allowed in yet when Nate comes walking into the waiting room himself, looking for all the world like he doesn't even see any of the other people around him. Only then does it occur to Beth that the woman he'd carried out of the building was probably Chloe. At the time she had seen the report on the news, she hadn't been paying attention to anything else, just to Nate, but she can't figure any other explanation. And it's no wonder he looks as distracted and worried as he does. When someone needs to be carried out of a building, that's generally not a good sign.

Pushing out of her chair, Beth goes to him, reaching out to gently touch his arm. She'd been so scared for him, even after having the nurses tell her he would be fine, and before she even says anything, she wraps her arms around his waist and presses herself to him in a tight hug.

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Beth leans her head against his shoulder and Nate tips his head back, slings an arm around her shoulders to pull her in. He doesn't know what he did to deserve a friend like Beth, someone who's been here for him since day one, but he's grateful for her. For all that he teases her about being a kid, he's pretty sure she's smarter and more mature than he'll ever be, than most people he knows.

It's why he doesn't just immediately push her away when she tells him to tell Chloe how he feels. He doesn't respond straight away either, mulling the thought over in his head. He knows that it's a conversation they're going to have to have now, after everything Chloe said on the brink of unconsciousness. They've danced around it for months, but it's finally time for things to come up, he just doesn't know how to do it.

He still doesn't know what to say to her. Nate knows how he feels, knows it had been even more solidified when he'd watched her fall through that floor, been terrified that he was going to lose her. It had taken the same thing to spur him into action with Elena, and Nate doesn't know that he likes the fact that it apparently takes a near death experience for him to get his shit together, but that's where it stands. He's still worried though, about her running away, leaving him alone in another bed when he wakes up, even after all of this.

They've never stopped to consider what they are to each other, and he knows there's always going to be the Elena complication. He's still technically married, though it becomes a thing that seems further away with every day he remains in Darrow. He doesn't know what would happen if Elena turned up here, he honestly doesn't, but he knows Chloe would expect him to go back to her. The interesting thing is that he doesn't know if that's the case, not anymore.

"I think I love her," he says to Beth, and it's the first time he's said the words aloud, but once they're out he can't take them back. He finds he doesn't want to, either. "What are you supposed to do with a thing like that?"

Somehow Beth manages not to laugh, manages not to tell Nate it's been pretty obvious for a little while that he's in love with Chloe, but she does tilt her head up to look at him, her cheek resting against his shoulder. It won't help him much for her to laugh now, even if she does think it's been obvious, because Chloe is still hurt and Nate is still struggling and the only thing Beth wants is for him to be happy.

So she shrugs when he asks what he's supposed to do with something like that and says, "You just feel it. You just love her."

It feels so simple to Beth, but then, she's always been the sort to wear her heart on her sleeve. Nate is more obvious than he likes to think most of the time, but she also knows it isn't easy for him, that he struggles with reconciling the part of him that has all these big feelings with the part that she's willing to bet has every reason to shy away from them.

"You think she feels the same way?" Beth asks. The chances are pretty good Chloe does. Maybe there's nothing for her to be basing this on, it's just a feeling she has, one that says she can see exactly how people like Nate and Chloe would work together.

It doesn't feel like it's that simple to Nate, but then he and Chloe have never been simple. Neither of them were built for this kind of thing, too much has happened in both of their pasts for them to open up this easily. He knows they're trying, that where they are now is leaps and bounds from where they were a few years ago, but it still feels like a lot to come to terms with.

He can count the amount of people he's let this close to him on one hand, and while it's terrifying, he doesn't want to walk away this time. But he's only ever been in this situation once before, and he feels like it had been a whole lot different then. For all that Elena is a hell of a shot and can hold her own like anyone Nate's ever met, she was never built for the kind of life he and Chloe have gotten so used to leading. It was just him who had to adapt then, had to learn to try and settle down, and even then he'd screwed it all up.

With Chloe they both have to learn, and Nate already knows he wasn't very good at it the first time around.

"She said it," he tells Beth, and the reminder makes his stomach flip a little. At the time he'd been too concerned to feel much about it at all, but with some time to think, he can admit that it was nice to hear. All things considered, with everything he knows about Chloe, he knows it would have been a big admission for her, even given the situation. But what if she just said it because she thought that was going to be the end of it? "When I was carrying her out of the building. She thought she was going to die."

"And she wanted you to know," Beth says. That sort of thing makes sense to her. Sometimes it's hard for people to say what they really feel, but she thinks there are times when they realize they might not get another chance and suddenly it's important for them to tell someone. She thinks about Jason, the night when he'd been attacked and how frightened she had been that he would just not be here one day without her having ever said anything to him. That had changed everything for her, even though she knows she should have been thinking that way all along.

Beth never wants to take anything for granted. Not in Darrow. Not when it's all she has.

"Just in case the worst happened, she wanted you to know." She pauses, considering, then continues. "To her, it was worth the risk. If the worst had happened, then you'd just never know, but now that it hasn't, now that she's gonna be fine, you do know and you guys'll have to face that, but... but I'm gonna guess that's probably what she wants." She can't see any other reason why someone would say something like that, not until they really did want to deal with it, want to explore it.