As Gabriel made his way back to his room he found Nathalie lying on the floor whilst uncontrollably sobbing. She must've tried to get up and run after Martin but since she still didn't have enough strength she collapsed.
"Oh Nathalie, why do you always push yourself to your limits." He carefully picked up the crying woman who couldn't even respond. "It hurts me to see you like this." Gabriel mumbled as he walked back to his room and slowly laid her down in bed but once Nathalie's back touched the pillow she exclaimed in pain.
"I-I think I fell on my back."
She looked up to Gabriel who seemed so heartbroken and as he pulled her shirt up to see a very blue bruise tears began forming in his eyes.
"Sir? Are you-"
"Nathalie why do you do this?! Why do you always hurt yourself for others who don't even deserve the slightest bit of affection from you."
"I-...what do you mean?"
"You know exactly what I mean!! Martin left you sobbing on the floor, and yet you care so much about him, it pains me!"
Gabriel was almost shouting but as he glanced over to Nathalie who was already shaking in fear he stopped speaking for a second and as he got real close to her he wiped away that single lonely tear that rested just below her eye.
Nathalie's breathing became uneasy as she could feel his warm breath near her which for some reason made her want to lean closer and taste those lips but she had to resist.
"Let me take care of you." Gabriel looked back down at her bruises.
"There's no need to-sir!!"
"Nathalie please, you're covered in them."
He throughly examined her back which was all blue and bruised up to the point where it just hurt to look at it.
"I'm fine, trust me." She pulled her shirt down and tried to lay back onto the pillow but as much as she tried it didn't work.
Eventually the assistant fell into tears as all she could feel was burning pain in her back as soon as it touched the cushions.
"I know you're not fine. Just please let me help you. I promise I don't have a weird fetish of looking at bruised backs."
"I-...I didn't think you'd have a fetish-...I just-"
"Do you not trust me?"
Now a long awkward silence filled the room which made Nathalie break the eye contact causing Gabriel to realize that she did indeed have no trust in him.
"What is it? What did I do wrong? Please tell me Nathalie, I want to know why you don't trust me."
Gabriel got closer which only made the assistant shift further away from him until she found herself on the edge of the bed, and now there was no escape.
"Sir-I'm-trying-to-forget-you-...please don't get any closer."
She quickly mumbled all in one which made Gabriel look at her with a surprise expression.
"Forget me?"
"I-...I used to have a...a 'crush', they call it? Well yeah...you were my 'crush'...but I knew you had no interest in such a wreck like me, so I had to find someone who would love me instead of you..."
"Nathalie..." Gabriel completely forgot about her request for him to stay away and before poor Nathalie could move he held her face in his palm, slowly caressing her blushing cheeks. "Do you still have this...'crush' on me?"
"No sir." She immediately replied causing Gabriel's heart to shatter into a million pieces within seconds.
Her expression remained so honest and pure it pained him.
"I understand." The designer sighed as he pulled his hand away and before Nathalie had the chance to apologize he turned off the lamp causing instant darkness to fill the room, and as Nathalie saw him go sleep she did the same.
But once again when the assistant laid back she could feel a sharp pain evolve from her back.
She immediately placed her hand over her mouth to quiet her silent sobbing, and as the day couldn't already get worse she closed her eyes wishing for all of this to be over.

*the next day*

As Nathalie slowly opened her eyes she saw that Gabriel had already left but once the dripping sound of water was heard she realized that he was probably just showering.
Not knowing what to do the assistant pretended to go back to sleep but little did she know this was not going to work out well for her.
As the bathroom door opened Gabriel walked out in a robe and opened his closet to take a close look at all of the different clothing options.
As he pulled out his usual work attire he laid it down onto the bed and when he looked to see Nathalie he saw her eyes were closed, but what surprised him was when she began to speak.
"Sir I'm awake! Please don't get changed here."
"Oh-...I didn't know-...apologies."
"It's alright I just wanted to warn you before-"
"Thank you Nathalie." Gabriel walked back to the bathroom with the outfit in hand and this way Nathalie was left relieved.

After some time though Gabriel came out fully dressed and as he spotted Nathalie he could see her struggling to get out of bed.
"Nathalie please, you shouldn't overwork yourself."
"I'm fine, I just want to go to the kitchen. And please don't carry me, not only does it make me feel stupid it also would hurt a lot since my back-."
"I can bring you food."
"I want to do things myself. Please."
"Okay, how about you hold onto my arm and we walk together?"
Nathalie approvingly nodded as she leaned her whole body weight onto him and slowly began stumbling downstairs.

Once they arrived Nathalie knew she couldn't possibly sit down onto the chair since it would be way to painful for her back so she had to stand the whole time which exhausted her.
"Sir?...This might be a weird request but could you pick me up? I can't sit because my back hurts and standing is-"
"Jump."
"Pardon?"
"Jump so I can hold you"
"I-" Nathalie sighed as she looked up at Gabriel even more embarrassed.
"Sir I can't jump. My back is in excruciating pain."
"I'm sorry, I should've thought. Well then can you stand on a chair whilst I pick you up?"
Nathalie silently nodded as she walked over to the nearest chair and stood on top of it.
Now as she looked down at Gabriel she fell into his arms and just as he'd promised Gabriel protectively held onto her.
"Nathalie are you okay?"
"Yes...you're just holding my back-"
"Oh Gosh I'm so sorry. Is this better?"
"Y-yes thank you." She smiled as she hid her face in the crook of his neck and listened to the sound of the coffee machine turn on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gabriel tried his best to focus on preparing the food but as Nathalie was breathing right next to his ear he couldn't help but get distracted as his mind imagined these sounds in very a different situation.
He has been so close to her all night long and yet he didn't even try to hug her not even once.
And the whole 'crush' thing got him so flustered that Gabriel's face slowly heated up to the point where it turned scarlet red, and the fact that Nathalie was right in his arms didn't help either. He could feel each one of her heartbeats as her chest rested on his, and her closeness almost pained him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After Gabriel was finished with making breakfast he took the food tray into the living room and with Nathalie in his arms he sat down onto the couch.
He slowly placed her down onto his lap and turned her face in his direction so he could feed her breakfast.
"Sir this is really unnecessary, I can eat by myself!"
"I'm just trying to help."
"This is making me look dumb! I feel like a goddamn toddler who can't do anything."
"I'm sorry,...all I want is to earn your trust."
"Well you're not going to get it like this!"
Nathalie yelled as she used all of her power to stand up, but when she tried to stomp away Gabriel held her back.
"Nathalie please!"
"Let go of me Gabriel!"
And for the first time as she used his name Gabriel immediately let go of his assistant causing the poor woman to fall once again on her back.
With a loud thud she landed on the floor and without hesitation he rushed to kneel down to Nathalie who was uncontrollably crying as she felt the pain only getting worse.
"Sir please pick me up!" She sobbed whilst she looked up at her boss and as Gabriel made eye contact with his assistant he instantly knew that he would do anything to help her.
"Of course Nathalie, of course."
Gabriel pulled her into his lap and carefully patted her hair, hoping that this would make her quiet down.

*later*

Nathalie took some time off to rest and when she heard Gabriel come in she knew that she has slept through most of the day.
"Oh I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you up." The designer said as he noticed Nathalie was trying to sit up.
She still looked rather tired which bothered Gabriel a lot because all he wanted was for her to recover, so he wouldn't need to feel guilty every-time he looked at his injured assistant.
"What time is it?"
"7pm...why? Got any plans??"
Gabriel laughed as a joke but as Nathalie didn't laugh with him he soon realized that she wasn't joking.
"Yes."
"What?!? You're not going anywhere!! You're badly injured!!"
"You're not the boss of me-"
"Yes I am Sancoeur!!!!"
"Well you don't tell me what to do!!"
Nathalie stood up which absolutely shocked Gabriel, and before he knew it she had walked past him and out the door.
"Where do you think you're going?!??"
"To Martin's house! So I can apologize!"
"No you're not!!" Gabriel grabbed onto Nathalie's wrist which got her pulled back close to him.
For a second she fiercely stared into his eye giving Gabriel a death stare which intimidated him a bit.
"You won't tell me what to do!!"
"But Nathalie you're hurt-...I only want what's good for you."
"AND I KNOW WHATS GOOD FOR ME!"
She pulled her hand out of his grip and stormed out of the house leaving Gabriel more than just heartbroken, he was guilty, sad, and crushed, it was simply all collapsing on him. He was the reason Nathalie was in this state and she could barely move, he was even holding her back from finding love and living a happy life. He didn't want to let her go but he knew he needed to in order to see her happy.
Gabriel didn't have what she deserved and he had done enough damage to her already, last thing poor woman needed was to be forced to love her boss.
So as Gabriel watched Nathalie drive away he couldn't help but shed a few tears after her.

Meanwhile Nathalie was on the road to apologize for how she treated Martin in the past.
Suddenly all of the memories came back to her and as she stood in front of his door she could barely see his face whilst Martin slowly opened the door but as soon as he did she fell into his arms.
"Martin!! I apologize...yesterday was a crazy day." Nathalie said as she hugged him tight like she hasn't seen him for years.
"It's fine don't worry. But are you alright?"
"I'm...alive, but you-...you look beaten up, what happened!?!" Nathalie got worried as she laid a hand on his cheek only to see Martin melt into her delicate touch.
"I got mad at myself for leaving you at his house so I wanted to go back, but you probably enjoyed your time."
"Martin...we didn't do anything. I want you to know that me and Gabriel are only work partners, we don't have any sort of romantic relationship. He is married and I'm-...I'm with you."
Immediately Martin gasped as he heard Nathalie say "I'm with you." .
"Y-you're what?!"
"With you...or do you not what to-"
"NATHALIE!! THIS IS ALL IVE EVER WANTED!!! May I kiss you?"
"Of course!"
Without wasting a second Martin immediately passionately kissed her and before they knew it the little kiss turned into a whole make out session.

To be continued-

I really hate the way I wrote this chapter, so take my sincerest apologies.