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k-evans-reads · 1 year

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In Living Color

Chapter 1

Summary: When Natalie Marton, lead character designer for Buzz Lightyear, meets the voice of Buzz, Chris Evans, the sparks are undeniable. But when their work pushes them away from each other, both physically and emotionally, will the sheer differences between their worlds be enough to force them apart?

Pairing: Chris Evans x Pixar Animator OFC Natalie Marton

Word Count: 6,098

By: @k-evans-writes and @ourfinest-hour

We do NOT give permission for our works to be reuploaded, translated, or reposted on any other site. Our work is our own.

Warnings: None.

Main Masterlist | In Living Color Masterlist

February 2021

The loud slapping of the white thick soled sneakers echoed against the tile floor as Nat rushed into the Pixar building. There wasn’t one person who was surprised to see the flash of the curly headed woman running by, making them all laugh as she kept running while attempting to keep her brown leather tote bag on her shoulder. Nat could see the elevator doors opening, making her yell from across the lobby of the building, “Hold that door!” as she picked up her pace, throwing out a hurried, “Hi Brenda!” to the receptionist on her way by.

Nat was thankful for someone holding the door open for her as she rushed inside like a tornado, happy to have a moment to catch her breath. But the moment that those doors opened, she was once again on the run down the long hallway to head toward the conference room. Of course out of all the days that she was late, it had to be today. Now that everyone was back after an extended period of working from home thanks to COVID, she had begun to get into a routine yet again, but apparently two weeks hadn’t quite been enough. She could see through the glass doors at the end of the hallway that her co-workers were already seated at the table for their first official daily meeting in person on the Lightyear film they were working on.

She tried to run even faster, getting to the conference room and trying to rush into the open doorway but quickly found out… the glass door wasn’t open. She felt like a bug on a windshield when she crashed right into it, the door rattling loudly to make sure everybody turned to look at her and wildly laugh as they saw her stumble backwards from the force. An unamused look appeared on her comically expressive face as she yanked open the door and came into the room where she flopped her bag down on the table and practically fell into her chair.

“Well now we all are well aware that Nat’s here,” she heard Angus, the director, chuckle from where he sat at the head of the table, near the large TV screen. She rolled her eyes playfully as she dug around in her brown leather tote, reaching for her laptop, water bottle, and notepad.

But next to her, Jamie laughed, leaning back in his seat and responding, “Yeah and so does that door with the imprint of her face on it.”

“Well someone has to be the fun one around here,” she shrugged, a smirk on her face as she moved her tote bag to the ground ungracefully, and Nat found herself thankful that she had the forethought to actually use her laptop case this morning for its intended purpose, instead of just shoving it into her bag like usual.

Mark, from where he was sitting across from her, his broad frame outlined by the bright morning light shining in through the floor to ceiling windows. “I didn’t realize that smashing your face into a glass door was fun,” he pointed out unhelpfully.

“How would you know? Have you tried it?”

Jamie huffed out a laugh, his eyes moving between the two until he finally asked her, “So what’s going to be the convoluted story as to why you’re late?”

“Oh this is a good one, you guys will like this.”

“Wait before you get into this, Nat, I want you to meet Chris Evans who’s going to be voicing Buzz for us,” Angus interrupted, his hand moving in the air between Chris and Nat. She hadn’t even realized there was someone else in the room, certainly not an A-list celebrity, practical Disney legend, and a handsome one at that, which most of America would be able to recognize in two seconds flat. “And Chris, this is Natalie Marton, our lead character designer for Buzz.”

He gave her a kind smile, hands fidgeting in his lap restlessly. “It’s nice to meet you Natalie, your work is incredible,” he greeted, the compliment coming as a surprise to her.

“Thank you, it’s nice to meet you too,” she replied, shooting him a quick smile before she turned back to Mark, James, and Angus – this time also including Chris – with an excited look on her face. “But you might want to buckle up because I’m about to explain why I was late and can’t tell a short story.”

“Are we going to roll our eyes at the end of this story, Nat?” Mark muttered playfully, earning a soft kick to his shin from Nat.

“Probably, but it actually makes sense when you think about it,” she nearly snorted, straightening up in her seat, her arms waving in the air as she spoke. “So I went outside this morning to grab a package in front of the door but I got locked out of my apartment when I did. My purse, phone and everything else still was inside and so I was trying to figure out what to do. Then I remembered I left the window on the second floor open but I couldn’t reach it so then I saw my neighbors had their patio furniture–”

“Oh no, I already know this is going to end badly,” Jamie groaned, the rest of the group laughing at his words knowingly.

“You don’t know that!”

Angus chuckled, unable to help himself as he chimed in, “I’m pretty sure we all do but you might as well finish at this point.”

“Okay so anyway I drug the patio furniture over, climbed up on it and hoisted myself up through the window and I was in. Then I changed my clothes, grabbed my keys and got here,” she told them, smirking as she pulled her water bottle, notebook, and computer out of her bag. “All things considered, I think I made pretty good time.”

They all couldn’t help but snicker, not even being phased by another story from Nat to start their day before the group began shifting gears to begin the meeting, each employee pulling up their notes and sketches as Angus prepared to start on their agenda. But Nat was a little surprised when a deep voice spoke up from the corner, Chris’ face a bit hesitant as he asked, “I do have a question about this story.”

But before he could ask, Jamie looked at Chris with a smirk, informing him, “Obviously you’re new here because with Nat, you’ll learn never to ask questions, just go with it and pretend that it’s normal.”

“Well you already started asking so you might as well finish,” Nat encouraged, waving a hand in the air before she reached back, tucking a few stray curls back behind her ear.

“Okay, so why didn’t you just go ask your landlord to unlock your door for you?”

“....Oh… I guess that would have been easier, yeah,” she trailed off, a frown on her face before she let out a short laugh, realizing how much easier her day would have started had she just thought that far before springing into action.

“And that’s why we don’t ask questions because what’s logical in our brains is pretty much the opposite for Nat,” Mark chimed in, earning nods from Jamie and Angus, and a look of understanding – and amusement – from Chris.

“Speaking of Nat’s ideas though, Nat why don’t you show Chris your sketches of the character studies of Buzz? I’d like to get his opinion,” Angus offered, looking at Nat expectantly.

“Yeah, I think I have them with me actually,” she began, pausing as she dug in her tote bag. She could feel everyone’s eyes on her, suddenly aware of the piercing gaze of Chris’ eyes watching her every move as she rifled through empty gum wrappers, various mascaras, too many pairs of sunglasses, and no less than three different wallets before she found the folder containing the sketches. “Oh yeah, here they are.”

She stood up, shuffling over to Angus to hand over the stack of sketches. She turned quickly, heading back to her seat just as he handed a few over to Chris. It didn’t matter that she’d been in this business for eleven years, handing over a piece of her work that she poured her heart and soul into to be critiqued never seemed to get any easier, especially when she was handing it over to someone who wasn’t even trained in illustration. She knew her sketches were good, she’d been in this role for years and had learned everything she knew from the best in the business, but she was still nervous for his critiques. Chris was a huge part of this movie’s production, and had been since day one. He was the only pick they made for the role of Buzz, Angus and the others unable to see anyone else in the role but Chris. It all revolved around him, and she knew that his voice carried weight, knowing that his critiques would be something she’d have to fully absorb.

He stared at each page for a long time, his blue eyes wide with something she couldn’t quite name yet. But when he looked up, meeting her eyes, she recognized the shock – and awe – in them. “Wow, these are… incredible,” he breathed, eyes flitting back down to stare at the sketches again. “Just seeing these makes me so excited for this movie. ”

“Do you think this has enough resemblance to the toy?” She asked curiously, shifting nervously. “We want to make it feel different but still have that same feel.”

He gave a sheepish look, his cheeks pink as he admitted, “Oh uh, I don’t know that I’m qualified for that. You guys are the experts, not me.”

The honesty in his eyes as he looked at her made Nat realize that he wasn’t just another one of the celebrities who would make a guest appearance in a meeting, take a short tour, and then be gone by lunchtime never to be seen again. He was obviously engaged in the project, truly valuing their skill and even seeming to be a little bit in awe of it which warmed Nat’s heart. Part of her had been dreading Chris becoming more involved now that they all were back in-person, but all of that seemed laid to rest as she realized that he would be a true creative partner and only make the film better.

“But just as a consumer, what do you think?” She prodded, tilting her head as she looked at him.

“Honestly? I think they’re incredible,” he admitted with a shrug, the action unintentionally taking a weight off of Nat’s shoulders. “I also just realized that we’ve never seen the hair before.”

Angus, Mark, and Jamie all smiled and chuckled at the words, relieved looks on everyone’s faces. Angus cleared his throat, mentioning, “That was what Nat pointed out when we started this too. Nat, you should tell Chris what you said about the hair.”

“Well I just felt that in this movie we need to see things about Buzz that we didn’t see in Toy Story because this is the real person, not the toy and one of those was his hair. I also felt like it helped to humanize him more,” she recalled, shrugging a bit with a small grin as she watched Chris stare down at the pages, unable to take his eyes off of the sketches – the sketches that she did.

“I love that, it’s such a smart way to help people connect,” Chris praised. “You guys are seriously amazing in what you do. This is all just so incredible to me and I feel so lucky to be part of it.”

She laughed through the rest of the meeting, unable to help herself from making a few quips in between jotting down some notes of things to change or do later. As the meeting came to a close, Angus told her, “Nat, I’m going to be going over a few things with Chris and then he’s going to start reading some test lines in the booth so you can go with him to work on expression.”

“Alright, just let me know when you’re ready,” she told the pair before she gathered her belongings and quickly left the room, heading down the hallway to her office.

It’d been nearly a year since she spent more than a quick few minutes in her office, most of her time since being back in person being spent in meetings or working collectively in the wide spaces throughout the building. But as she looked around her office, she saw the tiny bits and pieces of how life was like prior to the shutdown, from the neatly folded blanket – one she loved – on top of the long couch against the wall, to the now old pictures of her nieces and nephew from years prior, to the picture that surprised her, sitting next to her computer. She’d forgotten entirely about it, and in the midst of the chaos of 2020, had never had the time to switch it out until now. But here she was, a year later, staring as her own face smiled up at her from next to her now ex-fiance, Shane, standing in front of the Seahawks Stadium in Seattle together back in 2018, cheeks red from the winter chill.

She’d have never known then, three years ago, that it’d all come crashing down on them just as the world began to fall apart. That she’d glance down at her hand, sometimes half-expecting to still see the band around her finger, then suddenly remember that he’d decided to throw it all away.

With a shake of her head, she flipped the picture frame over, pulling out the years-old, sun-faded picture of them and shoving it, along with the frame, in a random drawer of her desk. She had just closed the drawer when Angus knocked on her open door. He was smiling at her, and just over his shoulder was Chris, standing with his hands in his pockets looking around curiously before he looked at Nat, a sheepish look on his face as he realized she’d been watching him. Once she looked back at Angus, he asked her, “You ready Nat?”

“Yeah, let me just grab my stuff, hold on,” she told them, spinning around in her chair as she began grabbing various things – a few snacks, her notebook, sketchpad, pencil set, various colored pens, her iPad, water bottle, her work ID, and her wallet, just in case she stopped by the commissary after the session for some lunch.

“Nat, we’re just going to the sound booth, you don’t need to pack for a month in Europe,” Angus muttered playfully as he watched Nat flitter around her desk, piling anything she could in her arms before she tucked the water bottle between her arm and her side.

“But what if I need something that I forgot? I might as well just bring it now!”

Angus shook his head, holding the door open as he waited for her. Chris peered around him, his voice quiet but he generously asked, “Can I help carry anything, Natalie?”

“Are you trying to say it looks like I’m going to drop something?” Nat asked sarcastically as she made her way over to the door, pausing as Chris nodded with a smirk. “Because I definitely am, so if you could grab my water bottle, that’d be great. It’s starting to slip. Oh and that cardigan on the chair right there maybe.”

“Sure,” Chris answered, grabbing the bottle and gently pulling the cardigan off the chair. “Anything else?”

“I think I’ve got the rest, but thank you,” she told him sincerely, slowly making her way into the hallway as they headed down the hall.

“So Chris we’ll just go over to the sound booth and you can practice some lines and listen to them back and Nat will just sketch while you’re doing that and get down some of your facial expressions,” Angus explained to both of them. “I think- oh sorry, hold on.”

They continued heading towards the elevators as Angus pulled out his ringing phone, glancing at the name and grimacing slightly.

“Is it important?” Nat asked as they paused in front of the elevators.

“Yeah, I do need to take this call,” Angus sighed apologetically. He glanced between the pair, asking, “Why don’t you two head over to the booth and I’ll meet you over there in just a few minutes?”

They both easily agreed, stepping into the waiting elevator together and leaving Angus to his phone call. As the elevator began heading towards the ground floor, she glanced at Chris, asking, “So Chris, I’m interested to know what made you want to do Lightyear?”

“Honestly? Everything,” he chuckled, a wide grin on his face. “I’m a huge Disney and Pixar nerd-”

“Are you really?”

“Oh yeah, my family always went to Walt Disney World growing up and still do to be honest, but I just grew up on Disney. I actually wanted to be an animator when I grew up.”

“Sounds like you might just be trying to brown nose me with that comment,” she laughed, Chris joining in.

“It might be a little more dignified if I was, but no I seriously wanted to be an animator but turns out I’m shit at drawing so that didn’t go well,” he laughed again, the grimace on his face cluing Nat into his skill level. “But yeah, I just love everything Disney and I adore all the Toy Story films. My team was so excited to tell me about this opportunity because they knew I’d just be over the moon.”

“I’m glad you got an opportunity to get to do something like this,” she told him, “Because obviously being Captain America for a decade wasn’t enough.”

“Honestly I was way more excited for this than I ever was for Cap when I started,” he admitted as they stepped out of the elevator, heading outside to walk across the campus. “I feel like a kid in a candy store here.”

She couldn’t help herself once they stepped out the front doors, nodding her head towards the building housing the coffee shop, cafeteria, and other amenities for the employees, informing Chris, “Well lucky for you there is a candy store in the commissary.”

He laughed loudly at her answer, the sound sharp in comparison to the birds chirping around them. “So Natalie, what about you? How long have you been with Pixar?” He finally asked, looking at her curiously.

“This is my eleventh year here,” she supplied, meeting his eyes with a smile. “And you can also call me Nat, everyone does.”

“That’s incredible. How did you ever get started here? I’ve always wondered how people get to this level.”

“I’ve just always loved art and wanted to do something artistic. I’m kind of the black sheep of my family in that way and my dad was always a dreamer who just encouraged me to follow my heart. He put me in art classes and then I went to art school for college,” she rambled with a shrug. “One of my professors there had a connection to Pixar and got me some interviews and sure enough, I ended up here and have been here ever since.”

He nodded, listening along enthusiastically and keeping up with her rambles. “I can’t imagine how amazing it must be to come here every day for work,” he said once she’d finally shut up, Nat smiling wistfully at his simple confession.

“It really is. I feel so lucky to be doing this,” she agreed. Every day of work on these movies felt like a dream, something that could be taken away in a blink of an eye, as if she finally woke up. It’d been over a decade, but that feeling still remained day in and day out. “I basically draw characters for a living and that’s something eight year old Nat wouldn’t believe.”

“I understand that,” he nodded, truly knowing what that was like with his profession. “So what are some of the other Pixar movies you’ve worked on?”

“Before Lightyear I worked a little bit on Soul and then before that I was the lead designer for Disgust on Inside Out-”

“NO!” He interrupted, his voice loud as she led him to the front doors of the recording building. “That’s one of my favorite movies! Disgust is my favorite character, hands down.”

She laughed, swiping her ID and unlocking the doors. “Well all I can say is you’re welcome,” she told him, just before she thanked him as he opened the door for her and followed her inside.

“Seriously though, my nephews, niece and I watch that together so much. It’s so deep and teaches a lot, but still just has that Disney magic. Disgust is the show stealer though. My niece one day wore a little scarf like Disgust has and called it her sassy scarf.”

Nat huffed out a laugh, waving to the guards sitting at the desk before she led Chris down a hall, her voice dropping to an appropriate level in the quiet building as she said, “Well you can thank my overstuffed closet for that because I just looked through all my clothes and thought, what would Disgust pick and my brain told me it was that.”

“I’m glad it did because Disgust is the best character in that movie,” Chris replied, his head practically on a swivel as he looked around the new building while he tried to keep up with her, both verbally and physically.

“Okay now I know you’re trying to brown nose me,” she chuckled quietly, just before she nudged open a door, smiling as she saw Rob inside, sitting at the desk ready for them.

With an encouraging nod and smile to Chris, Nat headed to sit at the long desk in the middle of the room facing the glass window of the booth. As she began arranging her supplies, thanking Chris as he handed her the water bottle and cardigan, she saw a flash of nervousness cross his face just before he stepped into the booth. He was staring down the microphone, nodding as he listened to Rob’s simple instructions. The man was standing in the doorway to the booth, telling Chris to slip the headphones on before he shut the heavy door.

Rob shot her a slight grimace, the pair knowing the first few run throughs would likely be rough, before he plopped into the chair, waiting as Chris got himself situated and took a sip from the water bottle that was in the booth. Nat pulled out her charcoal pencil, flipping open her sketchbook and started dragging the pencil across the paper, blocking out the shape of his face before the slight squeak of the pencil on the paper echoed as she kept adding in the finer details of his expression and face.

Chris shook his limbs out slightly before he began speaking, his voice stronger than what she’d come to expect after the last hour they’d spent together. She noted the way he moved his eyebrows as he read the lines on the paper in front of him. He read the iconic “To infinity….” line, then paused as he cringed slightly and looked up, finding Nat’s eyes watching him and asking, “Was that as terrible as I think it was?”

Rob turned on their microphone inside, allowing Nat to ask, “....How terrible do you think it was?” while biting her lip to hide an amused smile.

“I think that answers my question.”

Rob laughed, interrupting their shared smirks as he instructed, “Just do it as many times as you want, Chris. I’ll just record it all and then you can come listen to it.”

She tilted her head back down, propping her chin up with her hand while she kept working on sketching from observation, studying his face as she drew and Nat couldn’t help but admire what a beautiful face it was. She’d buried herself in her work ever since the break up with Shane a year ago, distracting herself with the piles of drawings to complete before moving onto the next round of edits, and while it served its purpose, she was all too aware of what she didn’t have. And it was all because of her. The few fleeting chances she’d had with anyone since Shane had fizzled out before they moved beyond texting, the guys all uninterested in putting up with her ways. Shane dealt with her in the same way everyone before him had, by smiling and nodding when she needed it and sympathizing on a surface level when it was required, but never truly understanding her. Nat knew she was a lot to handle, not necessarily being the most low-key girl, and she’s long given up on the notion that someone would appreciate her, but at thirty-three years old she became more and more aware that the notion of someone being in love with her was just as unattainable.

But now she was alone, having fucked up every chance she’d held in the palm of her hand, ruining them one after the other. Her destiny seemed to be set on the loner artist type, despite how much she craved more in life, and who was she to mess with that? She figured it was about time to just make peace with it, instead focusing all her efforts into the wonderful friendships and her family, and Nat knew that she could be okay with that.

Just because she knew a relationship wasn’t in the cards for her though doesn’t mean she didn’t notice what was around her, and it was pretty impossible not to notice the gorgeous man who stood only a few feet away from her in the sound booth… she was thirty-three, not dead. But Nat chose in her mind to leave it at that, knowing that they’d be working together quite a bit more, and instead redirected her brain to the work in front of her as she kept sketching.

She sat in that same chair, diligently working for the rest of the morning as she listened to Chris running over the lines time and time again, Angus giving pointers along the way before he was eventually let out of the padded booth. Nat just kept to herself as they went over notes from the session, just letting her charcoal pencil keep scraping across the fibers of the paper until she heard her voice being called.

“Nat, are you ready to go?”

“Hmm?” She hummed, looking up to find Angus and Chris staring at her expectantly. “Oh yeah, let me just grab my stuff,” she hurriedly replied, a slight blush warming her cheeks as she shoved her things together, hastily standing up.

Once Nat had begun gathering her things, Angus turned to Chris and asked, “So Chris, you’re planning on coming to the dailies right?”

“Yeah, I have a few weeks before I have to do anything for The Gray Man, that Russo Brothers movie I was telling you about, so I’m planning on coming until then,” she heard Chris’ booming voice answer, a smile evidently on his face as he paused and chuckled. “I’m pretty sure this is going to be my favorite project ever.”

“Well we’ll be glad to have you anytime that you can come.”

“I’ll plan on seeing you tomorrow,” Chris told him, and he turned to look at Nat with a small smirk once she was finished collecting her things, his expression amused as she came to a stop in front of the men. “And Nat, it was very nice to meet you. You certainly know how to make a first impression.”

“Oh crashing into the door? Honestly you’re not even the only person I’ve met that way,” she laughed back, rolling her eyes playfully as she shifted the heavy load in her arms.

His shoulders slouched and a small frown settled on his lips, Chris’ eyes bright as he sighed, “Damn, I thought I was a little bit special.”

“Just wait until she spills something on you or breaks something of yours, then you’ll be in the special circle,” Angus laughed as he squeezed Chris’ shoulder gently and began leading the pair towards the door.

They parted ways at the front door of the recording building, Chris heading towards the parking structures to leave, Angus leaving to go to a meeting elsewhere on campus, while Nat headed back to her office. Her walk back was much lonelier than the walk to the studio with Chris had been, but soon she was thrown into a flurry of work, keeping her mind distracted for the rest of the day.

She’d just left work, merging onto the 405 to head back to her apartment in San Fernando, just as a call from her older sister, Alex, came through on her Bluetooth. With a sigh as she rolled to a stop as she hit the sea of bumper-to-bumper traffic, Nat answered the call.

Alex didn’t even let Nat get in a greeting before she asked her younger sister, “Hey, do you have a minute?”

“Yeah I’m just leaving work and traffic fucking sucks so I’ve got nothing to do,” she laughed, only slightly bitterly. But she straightened up, remembering that today had been momentous for Alex and her family back home in Kirkland and belatedly asked, “How was Carson’s first day of preschool?”

“Oh he loved it, I swear he didn’t want to come home, I’ll send you some pictures later,” her sister chuckled, the sound comforting to Nat as she slowly rolled the car forwards before coming to a complete stop again. “I actually had another reason for calling though.”

She smirked, leaning back in her seat comfortably as she got settled for a long drive home. “Because you love me?” Nat asked her sister sarcastically.

“Obviously that’s not the reason,” Alex laughed back. “Okay seriously though, I had to call you because Zach just showed me on his instagram that Shane posted that he got engaged.”

“Engaged?” Nat asked, her brows furrowed as she paused, her brain practically short-circuiting. “Wait, Shane got engaged? Like, today?”

“Apparently,” Alex answered, and Nat’s heart dropped at the confirmation. It didn't hurt any less that she was – essentially – the one who’d broken up with him, but regardless, she’d lost a relationship she valued, and the man she’d thought was it for her. “I guess it’s some European girl he met over there.”

“Well he certainly didn’t waste any time moving on,” Nat muttered. As much as it hurt, she almost wasn’t surprised. She knew that Shane would move on, easily finding someone else he’d commit to in a way he never would with her, but it only reinforced in her mind that she was the problem in relationships.

“I know, I couldn’t believe it. I wish I hadn’t already blocked him so that I could block him again.” She could hear the annoyance in her sister’s voice.

“Yeah.”

“Nattie, are you okay?” Nat sighed, her lip jutting out as she moved the car forwards a bit. She hated how Alex could always read her feelings so easily. “I didn’t mean to upset you by telling you this, but I felt like you needed to know.”

“No, I’m glad you told me,” she said, her voice even in an attempt to display faux-casualness. “I guess it just hurts that we were together for five years and he wouldn’t even talk about getting married, but then he meets some girl and in less than a year he’s engaged. I always thought he just didn’t want to get married, but I guess he just didn’t want to get married to me,” she shrugged, her voice quiet. And it was just another case of proof that, no matter how much time she spent with someone, it’d all be for nothing. Someone else would eventually come along, someone they’d realize was far better and easier to put up with than herself, and she’d be left alone, just like how she’d been left every time.

“Oh Nattie, no. Don’t go down that road. Shane and you just didn’t work out and that’s fine. You can officially wash your hands of him and be done with that,” she heard Alex’s firm voice, trying to prevent her little sister from spiraling down an emotional hole.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Nat was glad that nobody could see the way she was rubbing her hands over her face before staring mindlessly at the miles of traffic in front of her.

She was hoping that Alex would change the subject, just letting the subject that was full of sadness drop, but Nat wasn’t in the mood for her next question, “Have you been able to meet anyone lately?”

“Honestly Alex, I don’t know if I will,” she surprised herself by the even tone in her voice, knowing that this was a sore subject for her but something she was beginning to make peace with. “I’m not trying to be dramatic or whatever, I just don’t think that’s really in the cards for me and I’m okay with that.”

“You never know what might happen, Nat. Something may pop up when you least expect it,” Alex tried to encourage her, but it fell on deaf ears.

“We’ll see,” Nat muttered, before changing the subject, not wanting to linger on the subject any further and instead asking, “So how is everyone? How’s dad?”

“Dad’s been obsessed with those two chickens he got last week. You know how many pictures he’s sent in the group text? Well at least you only get that, he printed us out pictures and gave them to us,” Alex muttered with a laugh in her voice, Nat being able to picture the way she was rolling her eyes right about now. For their entire life, Nat had a special bond, the two of them being more of a creative and dreamer personality which had provided some interesting decisions in the eyes of the other two Marton daughters, the most recent being their dad’s obsession with his new chickens.

“Well Matilda and Erwin are part of the family now, you can’t exclude them!” The joyful tone that was normally found in Nat’s voice appeared once again as she argued.

“I should have known you’d be on dad’s side,” her sister muttered playfully but then told Nat that, “He’s really excited to come see you soon. He printed out his plane ticket and keeps it on the fridge so he can see it everyday.”

“I can’t wait to see him,” a wistfulness was in her voice, wanting nothing more than a hug from her family right now. “I really miss you guys.”

“We miss you too Nattie, but we’ll see you when you facetime in for our monopoly game tomorrow,” she tried to cheer her up before telling Nat that, “I need to go pick up Carson from preschool but I’ll talk to you later. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

Once the call had ended, Nat adjusted her body in the seat of her car, inching along the road through the traffic feeling a heavy weight on her. She knew that her and Shane were long over, but hearing how quickly he had moved on told her that it wasn’t that he didn’t want to commit, he just didn’t want to commit to her. The pain of that reinforced the realization she’d recently had that she just wasn’t the type of girl to be in a relationship.

Before she could think any farther, a ding interrupted her thoughts, making her reach over and grab her phone off of the passenger seat. Once she came to a stop in the traffic again, she looked at the screen to see a text from Angus reading, ‘Chris texted me and wanted to pass along another thank you for all your help today, and for making him feel so welcome. He really appreciated it.’ She blushed at the text, straightening up as she realized how much not only Chris, but Mark, Jamie, Angus, and every other person working on this project valued her. And she realized that as long as her coworkers were in her corner, supporting her through each and every day, she’d have a place she belonged, a safe place to come back to. She may not have her person, but she had her people.

A/N: WE could not WAIT to share Nat with you guys! We've been working on her for a little over two months now and have really enjoyed getting to take our time and make sure the chapters are great.... and you guys, they're so good. We really could not be happier with how things have shaken out and cannot wait for the NEXT chapter on 12/1!

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