It should have been obvious, not so murky and unclear. The fact that he was in love with her, I mean.

Their physical contact had been minimal before Jess left, so he didn't know quite yet how important she was to him. He, of course, already knew that she was unaffected by the troubles, that had been obvious from the start, at least it had been once he had accepted that the troubles were back.

But then she kissed his cheek and the act was so surprising, which was probably why he didn't register it at first. The sudden tingling sensation of the kiss and the shock made him slap his hand to his cheek, wonder clear on his face. He felt her kiss. He felt her kiss.

The next few weeks were about feeling her touch, doing silly things like offering high fives just to feel the unfamiliar sensation of touch course across his skin and stabbing himself with a plastic fork to see if he could feel anything else. (He couldn't, for the record.)

Then the chameleon took her form and it had been obvious right away that it wasn't her, he couldn't feel her as she untied his hands.

He kissed her, just to be sure.

When they broke apart, he locked eyes with her and shot her, except it wasn't really her. She was dead, another of the chameleon's victims. The thought of Audrey being gone -dead- hurtso badly, took his breath away and made him want to curl up and never feel again.

Take away this heart, Wizard. I don't want it anymore.

Then he heard the glorious words, "She should have died." And they found her and everything was alright in his world again.

Time passed and things happened and he finally told her and nothing changed. The were still partners and friends and that tingling feeling in his chest was NOT a crush. Couldn't be, not on his best friend.

Then his trouble was stolen and he could feel again and -though he would never admit it- he missed only feeling her touch.

He took it back to spare a teenager a life of horrors and then it was only her touch again.

Then she started dating.

He was happy for her, really he was! He didn't know what to call that feeling in his chest, but he knew it wasn't jealously. It wasn't!

After a while they broke up and he tried to feel bad -really he did- but it was hard because this feeling in his chest was there and it was getting hard to ignore.

Then he found Lucy Ripley and he told Audrey that he kind of liked her - or at least tried to- and she kissed him and it became so obvious, this thing he had been feeling. It was protective and special and something new.

It was love.

It was scary and intense, but it was so worth it.

It took a year for Nathan Wournos to figure out he was in love with Audrey Parker.

And when he did, he admitted it was kind of obvious.

Unbeta'd. Please review!