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Hampton. 17/05/2012. 18:30.

"My baby!" Said his mom when she hugged him.

Nathaniel and his grandmother were talking about the party when they heard the chopper landing. They thought it was Robert coming home, they didn't think that he would come home with his moms.They were supposed to come tomorrow to help with the party so seeing them here now was surprising. Releasing him, he got hugged immediately by his other mom, he then closed the round of hugging when he took his grandfather in his arm, noticing his fake pained wince.

"It was planned that I was to fly back here this evening so I thought we could chopper pool." He said in an unemotional voice which fools no-one in the room.

The relation between him and the lesbian couple was tight to put it mildly and with Karine especially, by doing that he was clearly a sign on the right direction. A gesture like that would have been totally inconceivable 4 years ago. They were clearly all trying to make their family work which made Nathaniel's heart warm. They all decided to not put him on the spot and keep exchanging greetings.

"Ah yes grandma, I met someone while I was running today and I invited her to the party. We need to add her to the entry list." Said Nathaniel which caused every conversation to die down, his family all looking at him.

"Someone?" Ask her grandma.

"Her?" add Karine with a smirk which makes him roll his eyes in amusement. "My baby boy is growing so fast, already bringing a girl home. I'm so proud."

"That's not like that mom, we just talked and she seems nice so I invite her to come." He clarified.

"Dear, I know that you're kind but you can't invite random people to come. All guests are from the elite and are extremely wealthy or from family who wield high authority in the country. That would not be nice of her to drop her in this environnement." Said Diane in a caring voice.

"I don't think that will be a problem, granny, she wore expensive clothes and jewelry on her. Moreover, she told me that she is a singer and she's going on tour in the coming weeks so she must be relatively known."

Mary and his grandfather make eye contact hearing that.

"A female singer? What was her name sweetie?" Ask Mary.

"Taylor Swift. I never heard of her but I didn't have time to get in touch with the trending music so it doesn't mean anything. I was planning to google her when I have the time." Precise Nathaniel in front of his startle family.

"Taylor Swift? Blond hair, blue eyes, 5"10 , extremely pretty?" Questioned Mary rapidly.

"Everything seems right. I take it she's well known?"

"Well known doesn't even cover it, she's like the number one female popstar." Clarified Mary.

"Well done grandson, I could use your friendship to make her sign with us." Said Robert with a gleeful voice.

Nathaniel starts to frown and turn to his grandmother.

"Grandma, can you make grandpa not do that and not bother my guest please?" Ask Nathaniel with a brilliant smile.

"Don't worry dear, I will make sure he doesn't even come near her." She answered in a chilling tone looking at her husband instantly.

"You could have asked me directly, you know." He said in a wrong tone, his voice gloomy.

"No need, I know who wields real power here." Nathaniel said which triggers a round of laughter from all womens in the room.

"Smart ass grandson" They all hear him grumble, triggering a second round of laughter.

"He's our son, what were you expecting dad exactly?" Mary ask proudly.

"I wasn't expecting he would be like that to be honest but I can't say I'm disappointed. By the way, did Nathaniel learn to fight before the accident?" Robert asked in a neutral tone, spying Nathaniel in the corner of his eyes in the hope to catch an expression.

Not expecting the question, Mary and Karine looked at each other before turning back to Robert. Nathaniel just turned his head to the side and knitted his eyebrows.

"No, never. He never asked for it and we never saw the point of offering it, you know how I feel about violence. Why are you asking dad?" Mary asked, puzzled.

"Nathaniel? Were you ever trained to fight by someone and hide it from your mothers? Please be honest with me, I'm not trying to punish you or blame you for anything, I just want to know."

"No grandpa, really, I never been trained by anyone except your two bodyguards. What is this all about?" Nathaniel ask. He was being honest after all, what he knew about combat wasn't taught to him but inherited in a way.

Nathaniel had made some good progress about integrating Marc's memories as his own. That was in fact the main reason he had asked his grandfather for Amal and Jean. Since a not insignificant part of Marc's life was about fighting, he thought he could integrate those memories faster by fighting and the results were beyond his expectations. Not only has Nathaniel received Marc fighting experience, he has also received his instinct which was incredible.

When confronted against Jean and Amal, two experienced fighters using two different fighting styles, Nathaniel could anticipate with incredible accuracy what they were going to do and how to counter it. It wasn't instantaneous either, he got beat up and smack down many more than once at first as he never had to fight himself. It happened gradually in a span of two weeks where he was hitting the ground, getting back up to end up smack on the ground again. He wasn't that surprised that his grandfather learned about it and ended up curious and suspicious.

"Yes, I would like to know that myself." Mary asked, looking at her father.

"Wait, they don't know?" He asked, looking at Nathaniel.

"No, I didn't tell them, it was already hard enough to convince them to let me do it, I wasn't going to tell them the number of times I was knocked down."

"Knocked down!? For god sake Nathaniel, you just came out of a four years coma! You told us you were going to take things easy!" Karine shouted unhappily.

"And that's the reason I didn't say anything." Nathaniel sighed, looking at his grandfather.

"I'm not talking about this, I'm talking about the fact that in the span of a few weeks, you managed to beat them even when they were teaming against you. Amal is sure that you receive military training and I learn to trust his opinion in those matters."

"No, I didn't grandpa." Nathaniel said.

He was skirting the truth here but he was also being honest. Technically, he never went into the military, Marc did. That pained him to hide things from his family but at this time, he wasn't confident about talking about it and to be honest, he wasn't trusting his grandparents as of now. He also chose to be honest because he wasn't confident in his capacity to lie, especially against his grandmother and grandfather.

"That's simply not possible, I'm afraid Amal is wrong. There is no way that Nathaniel could have a training like you describe Robert." Karine shook her head with certainty.

"And why is that?" Robert asked, throwing a level glance at Karine.

"She's right dad, Nathaniel always been with us and never got out of the house much. He would never have the time to get a training like you describe without us taking notice of it."

"Then Nathaniel, how can you explain that in the span of a few weeks you manage to overpowered two experiences special forces and you show fighting technique coming from the SEALS and Delta Force?" Robert questioned.

"Oh, when I was starting to practice, I looked on the internet for different fighting styles to find one that would benefit me and I ended up using a mix of some of them." Nathaniel explains, once again he chooses not to lie.

"That sounds plausible." Diane nodded, Karine and Mary nodding along.

Nathaniel could see that his grandfather wasn't convinced but ultimately, he decided to let it go. They passed the rest of the evening talking about the party the next night.