Nathan notices that he is human.

He soon learns that he is dead.

He is apparently on the hook according to some judgmental grand-high-mucketymucks for a hell of a lot of murders (well, fair enough) and the sentence for this is twelve hours with someone called Jasmine torturing him (Bella would have a fit, why isn't one of her running this place). But he's a human again, this Jasmine character can't beat out turning with only a human body to work with and twelve hours to do it in. Even with "torching" as an option. Not that he's looking forward to it.

But he still has his timer, and his timer doesn't have to know what the hell's going on to guide him. He consults it constantly. He doesn't think as quick as he used to, and the timer can't narrow things down to fractional seconds as well as it could before, but even measurements down to the half-second are good. He gets it to tell him when to go looking for one of those "contractor" types. Good of them, very kind, he'd tip generously if he had any cash on him.

The best time is tomorrow, so he waits in his dwelling - it's a brightly-painted little shoebox of a place, barely big enough to hold the bed but cheery. Kinda reminds him of the Joker.

...Oh. That's the first time he's thought of the Joker in hours.

Yeah. He's human. Mate bond is toast. He still loves him, but it's not tattooed on his soul anymore.

He still misses him. And Kerron, poor kid. But they'll have each other; the Joker will take care of their son, who'll be all grown up soon enough anyway.

Nathan takes inventory of his apartment, and he sleeps - that's novel, he still can't remember anything substantial about the last time he was human through centuries of bright-sharp vampire memories and it takes him a while to recognize the sensation of needing it - and he goes to the Crescent.