Work Text:
Sterling stared through the window into a junkyard of a car, confirming his lingering suspicion. Someone was living here. And said someone was most likely sitting inside the shabby pub behind him.
Thick smoke hung low inside the taproom, scratching at Sterling's throat in an uncomfortably familiar way. A single man sat at the bar; head hung low, empty eyes staring into a not-so-empty glass.
Sterling sat down next to him, ordering a drink for himself.
"Hello, Nate."
No reaction, just a wall of cold silence.
"I talked to Maggie." The bartender put a glass in front of Sterling. He tasted his drink, the smell of cheap alcohol stinging his nose. "I saw the car."
"What do you want?" Nate sounded as rough as he looked.
"Just trying to pick you up."
Finally, Nate looked up and stared at him with dull eyes. Sterling forced himself to smile.
"I have a sofa. You can stay as long as you want."
Nate didn't answer and kept staring, while Sterling continued with his prepared speech.
"To get back in shape, come back to IYS... I'm sure Blackmoore takes you back when I ask him to. You could start working for me in the worst-case scenario, but we both know you'll have your office back in no time." The dark shadow crossing Nate's face didn't escape him. "Or we ask for your office right away."
Nate took a long sip from his glass. So long it was empty when it hit the table and he ordered another one. "Leave."
"What?"
"You heard me. I'm not that drunk. Leave."
Sterling took a sip himself, too, to bide his time for an answer. He needed a change of course and more emotional leverage.
He sighed. "Nate… I know you're going through tough times. It's hard to lose a child, esp-"
The next thing he remembered was being pressed against a boulder, Nate's face only inches away from his.
"You know nothing. You aren't a father. You don't know how it feels to lose your child." His voice was flat, but his blue eyes pierced through Sterling with such cold anger, it sent shivers down his spine.
At the same time, he fought the urge to scream at Nate. To tell him that he did know how it felt to be a father! That the bare thought of losing his child made his heart stop for a moment! But Nate wouldn't care, would he? Sterling's problems were his own, after all, and not nearly on Nate’s level. And he wasn't here for a pity party.
Instead, he took a deep breath, swallowed his frustration, and put a hand on Nate's that was grabbing his collar.
"You're right. My apologies." Another deep breath. "But bloody hell, Nate... Give me something! What do you want me to do?"
Nate dropped him like a sack of potatoes as if all energy had left him this instant.
"I already told you. The actual question is, why you are still here."
Sterling felt his blood pressure rise as he answered through clenched teeth. "I also already told you. Would be nice of you to listen. I'm trying to take you home."
"Fine."
"Really?"
"Yes. You want to do something for me? Buy me a drink first. And then you can leave."
This time, it was on Sterling to grab Nate by his collar and press him against the bar.
"Don't you dare talk to me like that, you bastard! This is not you! Nathan Ford does not give up like that! You just have- If you- Just let me help you!"
Nate smiled. In that condescending way, you smile at an imbecile. "What are you angry about? You won."
Sterling let go and stared at the man before him, feeling like he just got slapped in the face.
"We're done," he said, his voice strained, his chest too tight to breathe and his eyes burning from the cigarette smoke.
Sterling threw a few bills on the bar and left before he could do anything he would regret later.
Besides coming here in the first place.