A/N: This story follows "Louder Than Words". I thought about adding it into "Louder Than Words", but then I figured that this story could stand on its own with or without the other story as a setup, so "Louder Than Words" is not required reading. Also I really wanted to use the title "Two Birds and a Rust Bucket".

This story is set after "As You Were".

- Chapter 1 -

"Nathan, look out!"

Before he could react, Audrey had grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to the ground.

"What happened?" Nathan asked a few moments later as he pushed himself back up. He looked down at his shirt and casually brushed off a white feather that landed on his shoulder.

"Looks like the seagull tried to escape while we walked in," Audrey said looking back towards the entrance of The Rust Bucket before she waved away a feather that floated in front of her.

"Should I have left the door opened?" Nathan asked knitting his brows together trying to figure out how the seagull got into The Rust Bucket in the first place. Sure the place had a lot of windows, but it didn't look like most of them even opened.

Audrey looked around the restaurant for the rogue seagull, and she found it perched atop a ceiling fan blade looking down at them with its beady eyes challenging the humans to try and get it out of the bar.

"You're finally here," Otis, the bar owner, said standing up from behind the bar counter, which Audrey was sure he was using it as a hiding place from the bird. Audrey didn't know Otis well, but she did know that he skimmed money off his own restaurant and tried to pin it on the Reverend's daughter, so her opinion of Otis wasn't very positive. But she was here on a job, and her job right now was to get that bird out of the bar.

"What happened, Otis?" Nathan asked.

"Someone left the door open and the gull flew in. Now I just want it out of my restaurant! I can't run a business like this," the bar owner said, his face turning red from frustration.

"Since the bird doesn't want to get caught, let's chase it out," Audrey suggested. "First let's open all the windows and doors; and hope another bird doesn't stroll in," she mumbled the last statement to mostly to herself.

Audrey headed for the main entrance, but also kept an eye on the bird, while her partner and Otis went around opening windows that could be opened. When she pushed the main door open, she found that it refused to stay open. She pushed the door a bit harder hoping it would finally lock in place, but it still insisted on closing, specifically, with her still in the way. Just as she was about to look for a rock or piece of paper to use as a doorstop, she turned to find Nathan standing next to her holding a chair.

"Maybe you should try this." He propped the chair he was holding under the door knob, and the door obediently cooperated and remained open.

"I was just about to do that," Audrey said.

"I know. I just thought I'd save you some time," he said with his usual expressionless shrug then he walked over to check the nearest window.

"Thank you," Audrey said not sure if Nathan was secretly mocking her. Mocking her or not, she was sure he was hiding something from her since he had been acting weirder lately, but right now, she had a bird to catch.

In a few moments, they managed to get all the windows and doors opened in The Rust Bucket. During this whole time, the seagull remained on the fan. Then it flew down and landed on the table in front of Audrey, and stared at her with its beady eyes.

"Of course, now that there is a way out, you want to hang out," Audrey muttered at the bird.

As if hearing Audrey's complaint, the seagull continued staring at Audrey then squawked at her very loudly causing her to take a step back.

"Who needs a boss when you can have a seagull squawk at you?" Audrey looked around the room and saw Nathan and Otis witnessing her stand off with the seagull. She rolled her eyes. "I think I've hit a new low," she said to herself.

"Um, Nathan? Since the bird is either enamored with me or wants to poke my eyes out, can you get something to catch it with?"

Nathan nodded and slowly walked towards Otis to ask if there were any crates or boxes in the kitchen they could use to trap the bird. As Nathan and Otis disappeared into the kitchen, Audrey was left alone with the bird, which suddenly spread its wings and flapped it once sending loose feathers into the air.

Afraid of startling the bird into escaping again, instead of using her hands to wave the feathers away again, Audrey just leaned back and blew the feathers away from her face. For this moment, she was very glad that Nathan was not here to witness how ridiculous she probably looked right now. Though him cutting her out of a blanket cocoon was probably worse than this.

The bird remained on the table staring at Audrey and squawked at her again.

"Guys, can we step it up?" she yelled. "Our feathered friend looks like he's ready fly, and he's probably not going to go south anytime soon."

She heard a clatter echo from the kitchen, and then shortly, Nathan appeared with a blue milk crate. Audrey made a face at his choice of a cage, and Nathan only shrugged as if to say that was all he could find before sneaking up behind the bird.

As Nathan made his way towards the table, the bird squawked at Audrey again.

"Hey," she said to the seagull. "That's enough from you. I don't appreciate being squawked at when I'm only trying to help you." Audrey looked up to find that Nathan had reached the table. He had the milk crate held upside down ready to trap the bird. He gave Audrey a look as if to ask her if she was done chatting with her new best friend before quickly dropping the crate around the bird.

"Took you guys long enough," Audrey chided.

"I thought you wanted more quality time with your new best friend," Nathan said.

"Funny."

When the bird realized it was trapped, it began flapping its wings and squawking so hard that it jostled the milk crate. Nathan put his hand over the crate to keep the crate from toppling, but it was not long until the gull tried to pick at his hand.

"Okay, we need to get this guy out of here before it tries to bite your fingers off, Nathan."

"Let's just carry the table out then," Nathan said.

Audrey nodded and moved all the chairs out of the way making a path towards the door for them.

"Luckily this is a small table," She said before moving to standing on the opposite side of the table. "One, two, three." On the third count, they lifted the table together, and quickly made their way towards the main door.

When they reached the door, Audrey kicked aside the chair propping the door open for them to get through. When they were a few feet outside of the Rust Bucket, Audrey noticed that Otis took no time to beginning closing the windows and doors in his establishment.

"Okay, ready?" Nathan asked. Audrey nodded and he pulled the crate off of the flapping seagull. As soon as the seagull was released it flew away squawking.

"Well… that was interesting. What do you say to bringing the table back inside, Steve Irwin? " Audrey said.

"Yeah." Nathan put the milk crate onto the table, and Audrey noticed that the seagull had bitten him, and he was bleeding.

"Oh god, Nathan, the seagull bit you."

He looked at his hand and saw a several bites and scratches on his fingers where it bled. "It's nothing," he shrugged and walked over to the table to help move it back into The Rust Bucket.

"Of course it's nothing to you, you can't feel it," she said exasperated.

"It's just a bite from a bird, I'm fine," Nathan insisted.

"Do you know how many diseases those birds carry? Didn't you hear about the chef that almost lost his arm because a seagull he was trying to save bit him?"

"I highly doubt that these bites are big enough to make me lose an arm."

She gave him a not amused look. "The bird gave the chef some bacterial infection or something."

"Parker, I'm fine," Nathan said firmly.

"Fine," she held her hands up in surrender. "At least get the wound cleaned up before you start touching things."

Nathan nodded reluctantly and followed Audrey into The Rust Bucket.

"Otis, do you have a first aid kit we can use?"

"Sure it's right behind the bar. Got to keep it handy in case of cutting myself with broken or chipped glass," Otis said still closing the windows around the bar.

"Sit." Audrey pointed at a bar stool for Nathan and went behind the bar to find the first aid kit.

She easily found the kit and popped open the first aid box and took out some antiseptic wipes.

"Give me your hand."

Nathan looked down at his hands then at Audrey's hand. He remembered how her touch felt, and this was an opportunity for him to feel her touch once again. He wondered if he should tell her he could feel her, but the look on her face, told him her main concern right now was the bites on his hand.

"Don't be scared. We've already established that I don't bite," Audrey said misreading Nathan's hesitation of giving his hand to her as fear.

She took Nathan's hand, and felt his hand shiver at her touch. She assumed that the shiver was just a natural reaction since despite his lack of feeling; his hand was still in pain. She carefully wiped the blood off his wounds and put bandages around his three fingers that all had bite marks on them.

When Parker had taken his hand into hers, Nathan could not prevent his hand from shivering from her touch. Every time he touched Parker's hand, it was like a sudden rush of sensation from his nerves to his brain. It never failed to surprise him. As Parker tended to his injuries, he tried to remember how every touch felt and how cool Parker's fingers felt, but since Parker was such an efficient nurse, she managed to patch him up in a couple minutes. He almost wished he had a couple more bites on his hand so she would tend to his hand a bit longer.

"There all done," Audrey said and patted his hand. "That wasn't so bad."

"I guess not." He looked at his hands, and he felt like he was in grade school again where he usually had at least three Band-Aids on his person.

He looked over at the door to see that Otis had brought in the table they took outside, and was straightening up the chairs again. "Since Otis seemed to have the Rust Bucket back to normal, want to grab some pancakes?" he asked hoping the thoughts of pancake would distract Audrey from taking him to the hospital.

"Only if we swing by the hospital first," Audrey said.

Nathan sighed. "I told you I'm fine. You saw the bites they weren't bad."

"No, they aren't bad, but you could get an infection, and I don't know about you, but I like you with both your arms."

Nathan pursed his lips and squinted at Parker trying to think of a way to argue with her, but he knew he couldn't win. "Will you stop harassing me if I agree to go to the hospital for antibiotics?"

"Yes, I will stop harassing you about this." When Nathan squinted at her again, she smiled at least she knew that he understood that her harassing him about his welfare did not end here. "Don't be a Moping Molly. I promise you pancakes afterward."

"Promise?"

"Hey, have I ever backed out on a promise?"

"Didn't you break a dinner date with Duke once?" he reminded her.

"Okay, let me rephrase that. Have I ever backed out pancakes?"

Nathan thought for a moment. "Not yet," he said carefully.

"Okay then, off to the hospital we go." Audrey motioned her hand for Nathan to lead the way, and he reluctantly complied.