A/N: Alright, so this is the end of my Nick-Nat story. I'm going to leave the big goodbye and thank you when I finally finish Good Intentions (but firstI needsome inspiration—and with Jolie, that's hard to come by). Glad you liked the person I picked out for Natalie—and I apologize for the slight redemption I gave John in this story—he needed to get his backbone back a little bit. LOL. Thanks for all the reviews! PCGirl.
"Try to keep her til six thirty or three games? I'll try and call you later when she leaves," said John to the person on the other end of the phone and went walking into the student center at LU. "Natalie—hey."
"Hey John. What brings you here?" she smiled at seeing him here—the summer internship had been over for two months and she was seeing less of him now with a full and hectic school schedule.
"I had to interview someone but that's done now. How about yourself?"
"I was thinking of studying but don't really feel like it," she shook her head and paused for a moment before speaking. "You want to shoot some pool? We haven't done that in awhile."
"Thought you'd never ask," he grinned as he realized this was going to be a lot easier than planned.
"Everything with Nick and you going good?" asked John as he took a shot and then looked at his watch—he'd told John three games of pool or six thirty—whichever came first—they were on their second game and it wasn't even a quarter to six yet.
"Yeah—it's great. What about you and Evangeline?"
"It's—ok," he shrugged—trying to come up with something to say. "I'm going to get a beer—you want anything?"
"I'm fine," she said as she took her next shot and looked up to see Evangeline standing in front of her. "Evangeline—hi."
"What are you doing here Natalie? Don't you have a boyfriend to hang out with now?"
"I do—but John and I decided to play a game of pool after a long day. Do you have a problem with that?" she asked as her voice got defensive.
"Why do you need to play a game of pool with him? He's my boyfriend—not yours. Unless things are shaky with you and Nick now and you're trying to stake claim on my man—again."
"Things are just fine with me and Nick," she yelled as she slammed the cue down on the table and grabbed her purse off the nearby table she'd set it at. "Tell John I'm sorry I didn't stay around for the rest of the game."
John had seen her storm out and looked at Evangeline but didn't say anything—instead he grabbed his phone, "Hey—something happened and she's gone."
"What happened?"
"I think Evangeline got jealous and made her storm out. Are things set up enough there or do I need to go after her?"
"I—I think I can manage," he said as he looked around the apartment. "I'll catch her at the car. Thanks for helping though."
"Wish I could have been more help," he sighed as he hung up and went to Evangeline. "What did you say to her?"
"I asked her what she was doing hanging around you. I mean she has a boyfriend and they've played pool before so why wasn't he here? Why was it you she had to play a game with?"
"Because Nick's at their apartment right now setting it for proposing to her tonight. He didn't want to make her suspicious by using Jessica as a decoy so he had me meet her at the college and then play a few games before she went home. And you—you just pissed her off enough to either go straight to the apartment before everything is set up or off somewhere else to take out her frustrations. Hope you're happy with yourself, Evangeline," he yelled and began walking to the door.
"I'm sorry John—I didn't know."
"Well, if you had asked me quietly what was going on I would have told you, but you didn't. These past six months since they've started dating have been good with us, but now—I see the same thing I saw before Nick was around. You are jealous of Natalie and –I can't take it anymore."
"I have a right to be jealous John—whenever I asked you about Natalie before you were prevaricating."
"Prevari-what?"
"Prevaricate—it means to deviate from the truth. Haven't you used it before?"
John rubbed the back of his head as he tried to figure out of that was a real word, "Can't say that I have counselor. And that just proves another thing—we're too different and this whole time—this relationship, whatever it is it's a crazy sham that's gone too far. I think it's time we ended it."
"You can't have Natalie though—I mean you just said you wanted her to be happy with Nick."
"Nick and Natalie's happiness isn't the thing in question—they are happy and I've made sure I've never intruded on them," he said as he left to go find a dark corner and a bottle of whiskey.
Nick stood at the back of his car tapping his fingers on the trunk waiting for her to probably pull into the complex burning rubber. He looked up at their apartment and wished he'd been given another half hour to make sure everything was set.
He heard her car before he saw it and tried to hold back the grin—John had said she was pissed and he was right. "Hey—what's wrong?" he asked as he opened her car door.
"Evangeline—she had the nerve to say I was trying to kiss up to John," she said, rolling her eyes and slamming the door.
"The nerve of her," he laughed as he tried to give her a kiss. "I was wondering where you were—I was thinking maybe we'd try to go to that restaurant tonight. They aren't calling for rain for a couple days so I think we're safe," he grinned.
Natalie smiled at him, "I would have wanted to before, but right now—I think I just want to get into an old t-shirt and sweats and watch a movie. Is that ok?"
"It's fine," he said as they made their way to the door and he opened it for her.
"I knew you'd understand," said Natalie as she walked into the apartment and froze at the sight before her—there were candles lit on all the tables and when she looked down she saw there was a walkway of rose petals leading towards the bedroom. "Nick—what is this?"
"Follow and find out," he said as he kissed her neck and made her follow the path. When she got to the bedroom she saw there were vases of roses and peonies everywhere. The sound of the cd player turning on made her turn to see he was behind her on one knee. "Nick."
"Hush. Give me a second. I love you Natalie—and I know this is all probably more than you'd want in a proposal. I felt like I had to give you all this because you've given me a lot already—though I know you'd argue with me about that.
"You make my life easy—knowing I get to come back here everyday and spend the rest of my day and night with you. So what do you say—will you let me spend every night and day with you for the rest of our lives?"
"Yes—I want that too," she smiled as she kneeled down on the floor and kissed him.
Natalie stopped messing with her wedding dress when she heard the knock on the door and turned, "Who is it?"
"It's me—John. Is it safe to come in?"
"Yeah," she said as she took a deep breath to see him walk in with his tux on. "My—aren't you the dashing one?" she laughed as she came up and straightened his tie. "So what can I do for you, McBain?"
"Nick wanted me to make sure you didn't have cold feet—and to give you this," he said as he handed her a small box and envelope. "And there's something I wanted to say—if I'm allowed to say it on your wedding day."
"Say whatever you want," she smiled.
"There are two women I've ever truly loved. The first was Caitlyn—and we were so close to the day you and Nick are about to have—the life you are about to have.
"The second woman was you—but I know now it wasn't ever supposed to work out with the two of us. When I see you and Nick together—I see what I had with Caitlyn, and what you had with Cristian from before but better this time," he said with a laugh and grin.
"I—I just wanted to say I'm glad to see you happy and in love again, Vega—it looks good on you," spoke John as he gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I need to go—I have some more Groomsman duties to perform."
"Thanks—and tell Nick I love him," she said as she wiped away a stray tear and opened the letter Nick had written her.
Natalie,
Hi. I guess John said what he wanted to say already and if you are reading this then I'll see you walk down the aisle shortly. I just wanted to say I love you and thank you for loving me the way you do.
Nick
She opened the small box to see a pair of diamond earrings and took the others out and putting the ones from Nick in her place. She was almost done when the door opened and Clint came in.
"It's time, sweetheart,"
"Good," she smiled as she came over and took his arm. It was time—time for her to move on from an old life and old lovers and to the one man now who held her heart and always would—Nick.