thisavrou | text; + action options; (cw character death)

[locked to people who know Elena Fisher]

elena's dead

[....yeah that's all. Odds are good that Nate will not want to reply to questions, condolences or comments regarding the recent tragedy, though Chloe Frazer might. However, he can be found...]

wandering; Once the shock has passed—if it ever does—Nate wanders for hours. Fuck, maybe days, he doesn't know. He just doesn't want to go back to the house in Region 1 where she isn't.

Eventually he finds himself in a well-wooded park. For lack of anything else to do, he climbs a tree.

at home; When he finally does make it back, Nate parks his ass on the couch, where he'll be sleeping until—well, he can't count on there being an "until." Maybe he'll just live on the couch forever. Sorry, Pepper, Varric, etc.

at the ingress complex; Nate comes by the facility a couple of times, to ask for news or if they can guarantee that they'll be able to bring her back, because he knows that people have returned, and he knows that they don't always.

He walks away both times, unable to stand it if the answer is no.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[It's joking-but-not-joking for both of them. Sam's humoring him, but it's not funny, and dealing with the tough stuff by talking around it only works for the two of t hem the vast majority of the time.

This is just one of those exceptional circumstances, Nate guesses.]

I'll take the branch pain over sleeping on cushions and waking up to see she's not there.

[Sam doesn't say anything in response. There isn't much he can say to something like that, and he supposes it was just a matter of time before they got to the crux of the issue here.

The Drake brothers are no stranger to loss, but Sam can count the number of people who actually mattered on one hand. Although he wasn't as close, he knows Elena is one of them.

Sam looks at Nathan, then scoots closer, resting his hand on the back of his neck and giving it a tight squeeze. It's not entirely comforting, he knows, but hopefully it's enough to let him know that he's there for him.]

[The closer presence, the hand on his neck, it's welcome but he doesn't give any sign of feeling comforted by any of it. Can't, really.]

Kinda feels like I had it coming. [He lets out a long, shaky breath.] You know, I left her once? Walked out on our marriage. We were having problems—I was having problems because I was trying so damn hard to live up to Drake and didn't know how to stop. Lodged my head right up my ass, but she took me back.

I know that's not how it works, I know it's not about me, but I didn't see what I had and now I don't have it anymore.

[It's strange, but the news that Nate had walked out on Elena takes him by surprise. It's not like they haven't walked out on people before: girls in bars who were hoping for a little more than just a one night stand, clients who were proving too difficult or untrustworthy to work with, rich assholes who didn't deserve Avery's treasure. It runs in the family, so to speak, and yet for some reason he would have never thought that Nathan would do it to his wife. Maybe because of the way he's seen them interact with one another while they've all been here, or the way he had acted when Rafe told him the truth about Alcazar. They seemed to really get along, and he knows his brother enough to understand that if he did marry someone, decide to stick around with them, then they must be worth it.

It doesn't matter now, some morbid part of him thinks. What does matter is the state his brother is in. As soon as Nathan finishes, Sam closes what little distance there is between them, hand sliding from the back of his neck across to his far shoulder in a grip that's even tighter than before.]

Hey, hey, you listen to me. Don't you start thinking like that. You didn't cause any of this to happen, and you sure as hell didn't have it coming or deserve it. If anyone's to blame it's those bastards who brought us here in the first place. Sure, you guys may have had problems, but who doesn't? Listen--[He leans forward a little so he can get a better view of Nathan's face and make sure he understands.]--this is not on you, Nathan.

[He can't even look at Sam to see his reaction. It's something he'd never wanted his brother to know—the thing he's most ashamed of, hurting the person he loved most and abandoning his responsibilities to her in order to chase an identity that was never his. Not that Sam could glean any of that from the brief confession; all he knows is that Nate had been selfish jackass. Ultimately, that's all that had mattered. No excuses.

Of course it doesn't matter to Sam in the end. He never really expected anything but support from his big brother, who's always been there for him when he could be.]

I know. I know, it's just... [He sighs.] Hell, I don't know. I'm thinking myself in circles.

[What else is there to do, with Elena gone?]

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