[color=Silver][CENTER][h1][b]Natalie Ellis[/b][/h1][/CENTER][/color] [hr][hr] Natalie picked up on Nic's nervous energy immediately. What he was saying didn't quite make sense. He clearly didn't know or recognize her but he'd told her how wonderful it was to see her. She had spent most of her time on this station being similarly as guarded and nervous, and had made these kinds of errors, so she knew that it was just the anxiety-driven desire to speak regardless of what words were being spoken. [color=Silver]"I'm not really sure what happened in the forest either. I've...repressed that memory and don't really want to bring it back right now, if that's okay."[/color] She'd then watch him, and more specifically his face and eyes, over the next minute. Something was going on in his head. He was being bothered by it, and he was putting his finger to his ear. A tic? He was ignoring the both of them now. Whatever was happening in his head was taking up his attention. Nat met Eli's eyes, and looked concerned. The corner of Nat's mouth pulled taut and she wondered if they should really just wait for him to come back to them. But before she could make any moves on this, he snapped out of his stupor and made up an excuse, which Nat made no reply to but it was clear in her face she wasn't buying. The moment he mentioned the loading bay, she saw his eyes dart to her a lot, and even settle on her once or twice. She was now convinced that he did in fact recognize her from the footage. He might even be scared of her, but he was so nervous anyway right now that she couldn't tell. What she could tell was there was a wariness with the way he looked at her, and even though the judgement of strangers no longer bothered Nat, this was somebody Eli knew. He wasn't a stranger. His fear did bother her a little bit. She listened to his story. She vaguely remembered being knocked down by an explosion whilst trying to keep Archie away from Eli. Hearing that he was responsible, that he had tried to kill Archie, made her whole body tense. She understood his reasoning, and she'd have done the same with his lack of knowledge, but the thought that he could have hurt Archie could not escape her mind. She clenched her fists and looked away as she listened to the rest of his recapping of events. At least he was sorry and had regret. She shouldn't be angry at him for making a mistake. She knew this. But the anger wasn't going away. Luckily for all parties involved, Eli mentioning she wasn't doing great, out loud, disarmed Natalie, and she felt her anger leave as it was replaced with concern for Eli. She put her hand on Eli's shoulder and smiled encouragingly at her. [color=Silver]"Well, that's what you have your friends for, and this meeting will probably help with that. Trust me, I know from experience that right now you need your friends the most. I shut you all out and I still regret it."[/color]