Uncharted Fanfiction:

Aftermath – Chapter One

Description: What happens between when Nathan, Elena and Chloe emerge from Shambhala with Elena unconscious and when they are back in town with Tenzin and everyone is ok and back to normal? Nathan & Elena romance and Chloe & Nathan hurt/comfort. Multiple chapters to follow soon.

*Setting: At the end of Uncharted 2; Chloe and Nate barely escape the crumbling city of Shambhala with an unconscious Elena draped in Nathan's arms*

Nathan looks back at the fallen paradise crumbling around them and mutters to himself "Adios asshole".

He reaches Chloe and his eyes immediately shift to a bruised and bleeding Elena causing his adrenaline to spike higher than ever before.

"Damn it we gotta move faster!" Nathan exclaims as he scoops Elena up off the ground into his arms. She lets out a groan from the pain of being handled so quickly which is oddly comforting to Nate because it helps him know she is still alive. Yet, he can feel the life slowly draining from her with every step he takes.

His legs are burning like fire after nearly falling to his death escaping the crumbling bridge that led into the city, but he wills himself to keep going, he knows he has to keep going.

Nathan surfaces first from the secret entrance to the lost city with Chloe trailing close behind. Elena falls completely limp in his arms. Up until this point Nate could at least feel her breathing, it was the only thing that was keeping him going.

He found a broken column and gently set her down, her now unconscious body heavier than before.

"Oh, no" Chloe says, her eyes filled with deep concern.

Nathan holds Elena's hand and kneels down next to her.

"Elena?" He asks, desperately hoping for a response. "Oh, God no...Elena, hold on, alright? Just hold on...C'mon stay with us! You're going to be okay, alright?" Nathan tries to convince himself. "You're gonna be fine" he says, losing faith in his own words. "You're gonna be just fine." he says once again, this time his emotions triumph over his denial and claim complete control.

"Elena don't do this...Elena!" the gravity of it all comes crashing down on him as reality sets in and the adrenaline rush transforms quickly into panic.

Chloe manages to recover a radio off one of the bodies left behind from a previous gunfight with Lazarevich's men on the way to the entrance.

"It's no good, there's no signal. The wreckage must have caused an interference" considering the earth quaked in all of the surrounding area.

Nate heard an engine approaching. "Get down!" he motioned to Chloe while instinctively reaching for his gun preparing for yet another fight. He had plenty motivation to take out his anger on who ever came his way.

It was a small scouter troop of a few of Lazarevich's men sent to recover the sapphire from Shambhala upon its discovery. Chloe looked over at Nate only to see his eyes filled with blind rage as anger took complete control over him causing him to lunge out of cover.

"I'm going to kill you, you sons of bitches!"

Chloe had seen Nathan kill many men before, but never had she seen him lose his head like this, putting himself directly in the line of fire like he had a death wish of his own. "Nate, look out!"

The gunman points directly at his head but Nate keeps charging full speed, the voice of Harry Flynn ringing in his head. "Pity he took the pin..."

Nathan uses fallen debris to spring board himself into the air with his fist cocked back and fully loaded ready to deliver a deadly blow to the gunman's face. Shooting him would be too easy, he thought. He wanted him to suffer the way they made Elena suffer. He was going to make him pay for what he did, what Flynn did, what Lazarevich did, it all blurred together at this point.

"No!" Chloe yelled.

The sound of the gun shots pulled him out of his thoughts back to reality. Just as he was ready to accept death, Chloe had shot the gunman causing his shot to change its trajectory and pierce Nathan through the side of his stomach, reopening the wound given to him on the train by Harry Flynn.

Nathan cries out in pain falling to the ground hard as his blood begins to paint the snow red. The wound was already raw and had barely begun to heal. Just as Chloe rushes to his aid, a jeep roars in full speed running over the last of Lazarevich's men and Tenzin jumps out. Tenzin had felt the earth quake and came to investigate and search for survivors in need of help. Chloe hands Nate off to Tenzin and Nate's eyes start to blur as he slowly begins to lose consciousness from excruciating pain upon the onset of all of the blood pouring out from his already gaping wound.

Chloe informs Tenzin while motioning to Elena. "Quickly, her time is running out. We have to get them both medical attention."

Her voice sounds faint and he can just barely make out the sight of Chloe moving Elena into the Jeep before everything goes black.

*In a dream state, Nathan can't stop reliving his greatest fear*

"We can still stop him"...*she was so innocent*, he thought.

"Elena, don't" - he tossed and turned in his sleep, dreaming his words out loud, reliving his worst nightmare.

"No, we can help you"...*so gentle and kind of heart, she just wanted to help.* His thoughts tormented him.

"Pity he took the pin"...

"GET BACK!" he yelled, springing awake and aggressively sitting up in his bed causing him to tear his freshly sewn stitches and double over in pain, cradling his wounded side with both arms.

"Woah woah woah sweetheart, take it easy. Are you here with me now?" Chloe reaches out and puts her arm around Nathan's.

Nathan grabs Chloe's arm back with a fierce grip and holds on tightly, staring intently into her eyes with a look of fear she has never seen in him before, his body trembling. "Where is she?"

Chloe slowly looks to a neighboring hut, then back at Nate knowing he is stubborn and will not rest as per the healers orders.

"Is she...?" Nate softly asks, his voice is now pathetic as he is afraid to find out if she is alive. He had no concept of time not knowing how long he was out himself.

"She's alive" Chloe responds, but her head hangs lower than usual.

Nate quickly reacts to her shift in tone "How is she?"

Subtly shaking her head in remorse, hating to have to be the bearer of bad news "Not good".

Nathan pushes himself to get up, grinding his teeth to get through the shooting pain throughout his body as it fights him to stay down.

"Nate you need to rest you've pulled open your stitches in your sleep, you..."

He abruptly cuts her off mid-sentence..."I have to see her".

His body feels boiling hot from the fever fighting off the likely infection from not properly caring for his gunshot wound and allowing it to get filthy. He stumbles over to the tent where they were keeping Elena, leaving a trail of his blood droplets in the snow behind him from his torn open stitches.

He reaches to pull the tent curtain open and hesitates for a moment, afraid of what he will find inside. As he slowly peels open the curtain, his heart drops instantly like a weight he had never felt before. His pain relocates all at once, claiming his entire chest as he sees Elena wrapped almost completely from head to toe in blood soaked bandages, pale as the freshly fallen snow, her face covered in beads of sweat and her body wrapped in a thick woolen blanket. He knew she was fighting for her life.

Chloe concerned for his health and watching him fall down and get back up more than once, followed him in. "They're saying the next few days are very important. They've been closely monitoring her since she arrived here". She helped him over to a chair next to Elena's bedside and sat him down.

"Nate..." He cut her off again. "Chloe, don't" he hissed. After seeing how she handled the whole Jeff situation, he knew what she was going to say next would be too much for him to bear.

Hurt by his tone and the obvious feeling that she was not wanted, Chloe regrettably turned to leave. "I'll give you some time alone".

To be continued…