WAR: Talkin' After Midnight
by Perri Smith and Cath Boone

Aug 4, 12:46 a.m.
Nick's Loft

The Knighties had finally calmed down and gone to sleep, passing out so
quickly that Nick was glad he'd come -- they were obviously worn out. A
couple of them had tried to stay awake -- on guard duty, they said -- but
he'd persuaded them that he could keep an eyes on things. Still, he
thought he felt eyes on his back, but only Cath and Perri were openly
awake. 

He eyed them nervously as they sat close to the CD player, which was
turned down so low only they -- and he, of course -- could hear it. They
were talking softly, which made him even more nervous. 

He finally gave up and walked across the room, avoiding Knighties, and
dropped to the floor beside them. "All right, get it over with now." 

They looked at each other, then at him. "Get what over with?" Perri asked,
blinking; she bore a startling resemblence to Vachon. 

Nick sighed and nailed them with a Look. "It's past midnight, everyone
else is asleep, you two are awake and it's the middle of a war. You're
going to yell at me and I want to get it over with." 

They exchanged looks again; Nick felt his stomach sink. "We're not going
to yell at you, Nick," Cath said calmly. "Why would we? After all, you're
alive, you're here and everything's cool, right?" 

Nick shifted uneasily. "Right." 

Cath and Perri smiled innocently at him, apparently content to simply sit
and listen to the music. He tried to relax and enjoy it as well -- it was
actually pretty good, piano and vocal -- but all the reasons why they
*should* be yelling at him kept creeping through his brain, until he
couldn't stand it anymore. 

"All right, I *should* have let all of you know when I left Toronto,
especially after the newspapers and the rumor mill started going crazy." 

"Yeah," Perri agreed, nodding slowly. "That would have been nice." 

"And I shouldn't have left Natalie alone that night." 

"Well, you were trying to get LaCroix away from her, so he couldn't bring
her across," Cath objected, still softly. "That wasn't exactly a bad
thing." 

"Hell, I shouldn't even have let her talk me into that whole...." He broke
off abruptly, remembering his audience. Both women smothered smiles. 

"We know what happened, Nick," Perri told him. "Word gets around, you
know.  And it wasn't all your fault -- well, you were being majorly
depresso, and it did stink that you were ready to take off without Natalie
-- but I think there's more than enough blame to go around for that one." 

"But I left her -- and then I dragged all of you up here to do my dirty
work!" he protested. 

Cath sighed and turned the music down still further, settling in. 
"Actually, you only dragged the two of us up here -- everyone else is our
fault. And we're all volunteers, as usual. So you don't get to take the
blame for that." 

"Also as usual," Perri finished Cath's sentence. "And if Natalie left the
way we think she did, she was in very good hands. You tried to keep her
safe from LaCroix -- it was the best you could do at the time." 

Nick was still focused on the first part. "What do you mean, very good
hands? Do you know where Natalie is?" 

This time, they very carefully didn't look at each other -- or him, for
that matter. "We have a theory," Cath said carefully. 

"A theory?" 

"Uh-huh," Perri nodded, playing with the controls on the Diskman. "We
think... um, we think she's with the NatPack. And probably has been since
that night." 

Nick stared at them in open mouthed shock. "The NatPack? But they..." 

"Are in hiding, as near as we can tell," Cath said. "A couple of them
showed up at the exhibition, we got bombed by the NatMares Tuesday morning
and there was talk of a messy incident at Merc Headquarters -- and that's
it. Only the Mercs know where they are, and they're not telling, and
Jennie refuses to get in touch with us." 

"Generally, they're right in the middle of the action in a war -- like
last time," Perri continued. "It doesn't make sense for them to be this
quiet unless they're up to something, and I guess they don't want us to
find out what it is.  Actually, I don't think they want *you* to find out
what it is, which implies that it has something to do with Natalie." 

Taking one look at the anxious look on Nick's face, Cath inserted, "And
before you say it: yes, we're already working on trying to find out what's
going on and specifically, where Natalie is now." 

"So don't go tearing up half of Toronto looking for her," Perri finished,
catching Cath's worried thought.  "Even if you did manage to find her,
you'd undoubtedly run into Natpackers as well, and I don't think you
should tangle with them right now.  They're... upset." 

"Upset." 

"Yeah."  Neither one would look at him. 

"More than you?" 

"Nick..."  Cath began, looking two shades of miserable.  She stopped
uncertainly, but Perri saved her. 

"We were worried about you," she whispered.  She then smiled weakly at the
fire, still not looking at him.  "Believe it or not, we really weren't
going to yell at you for this. For any of it." 

Nick leaned back against the side of the couch, letting his eyes close. 
"Well, I suppose you didn't have to, did you?  You let me do it to
myself." He snorted softly. "Very clever." 

That made Cath perk up slightly, with a smile. "Well, you needed to get it
off your chest. And besides, you're better at it than we are. Lots more
experience, dontcha know." 

He rolled his eyes, fighting not to smile. 

"And contrary to popular belief," Perri firmly informed him, "We don't
*enjoy* yelling at you. You just drive us crazy and force us to. It..." 

"I know," he finished for her, with a poke in her side. "It hurts you more
than it hurts me, right?" 

Perri laughed. "No, actually, it generally hurts you lots more than us. 
That's kinda the point." 

"Ouch," he winced, grinning. "I keep forgetting how vicious you two are."

They looked offended. "Vicious?" Cath asked with a wounded look.

"Us?" Perri chimed in. "Never."

Cath re-considered. "Well... almost never. Rarely."

"Very rarely."

"Practically never."

"Almost..."

"All right!" Nick cut the litany off, chuckling. "I get the point."

They grinned smugly. "Of course, if you really want to see us vicious," 
Perri said, the first hint of anger creeping into her voice, "You can take
off without no warning and without telling us where you're going again. 
Then, we'll be forced to become truly violent. After we hunt you down." 

He held up his hands in surrender. "I promise, I will never run out on you
all again." 

Cath looked at him sideways, mischieviously. "Cross your heart?" 

He glared at her half-heartedly. "No." 

"Awww..." They both pouted momentarily, then started laughing again, as
quietly as they could. He watched them roll on the floor, letting a smile
tug at his lips.  It really was good to be home.