Natalie Manning

Carol Conte (Mother)
Owen Manning (Son)
 **Portrayed by** | Torrey DeVitto

**Natalie Manning** (née Conte) is an emergency medicine fellow specializing in pediatrics at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center. She is portrayed by Torrey DeVitto.

## Biography

Natalie was born in Seattle. She played the violin and aspired to be a violinist, with becoming a doctor as her fallback plan

She met Jeff Manning, a soldier on active duty, in Chicago, and married him sometime before the start of the series. The couple were close with Jeff's best friend, Jeff Clarke, as well as his wife. However, shortly before Manning deployed again and was killed in action, Clarke told him that he was in love with Natalie. Manning was furious and ended his friendship with Clarke. Natalie did not find out about this incident until she was dating Clarke, and is deeply upset by it, ending her relationship with Clarke after he tells her.

## Relationships

*All seasons and episodes referenced in this section are from* **Chicago Med***.*

### Will Halstead

Natalie works closely alongside Dr. Will Halstead with most of the patients and as a result, they are very close. Will has had feelings for her since season 1 and he told her, and they shared their first kiss but she wasn't ready to be in a relationship, so they left it as just friends.

After CM *Generation Gap*, they began to get close with one another again, and this made Will's girlfriend, Nina, jealous. In *Deliver Us*, a small disagreement between the three led to Will apologizing to Natalie for Nina's behavior towards her. Natalie said that if she was Nina she would be jealous too. Will didn't understand and said that they were just co-workers and good friends. Natalie asked is that it, just good friends and Will said they're just good friends and this made her upset. He tried talking to her but she said he was right about "just friends" indicating that she felt differently about him.

In the Season 3 premiere, *Speak Your Truth*, it was revealed that Natalie had just returned from a three-month sabbatical, as she needed to think things over. Later on, Will told her that his feelings for her hadn't gone away, and she revealed that she took the time off to think about him and then she kissed him.

At the end of *Trust Your Gut*, Natalie and Will fell asleep on the couch of the staff room, after a long shift. Before Natalie drifted off, she said Will's body made a nice pillow.

At the end of *Crisis Of Confidence*, Will asks Jay for their mother's engagement ring, he plans on proposing to Natalie. But by the end of *The Tipping Point*, she learns that the women he kissed was a doctor she knew and Will runs after her and proposes anyway. Her answer is unknown.

At the start of *Be My Better Half*, Will and Natalie are engaged. It took a week for her to answer. And they are already fighting other wedding plans because Natalie has already been married and wants it to be small. But in the end they agree to do the planning together.

After returning from witness-protection, Will started keeping a gun with him in *All the Lonely People*, Natalie asked him to either get rid of it or leave the house. He chose the latter. But being worried about each other, she told him to come again if he left the gun, which he promised to do and even took to CPD, but in the end decided against it and left it in the car without telling Natalie.

In *Ghosts in the Attic*, the gun was stolen from his car and Natalie ended up finding out. Upset with the secrets, she gave him the engagement ring back and broke up with him.

Natalie then started seeing the father of a baby she was treating, Philip. Philip disliked Will and the two often exchanged words when Philip came to the hospital. Philip was planning on proposing to Natalie. At the same time, Will found out that Ingrid Lee, the FBI agent who had worked on the Ray Burke case, had moved in to his neighborhood. She liked him, but then figured out that Will still in love with Natalie. She told Natalie, who went to see Will that night in *With a Brave Heart*, where their car was hit by Tim Burke.

After being taken into surgery, Natalie lost her memory of that night, but Will was sure that she had been coming over to get back together with him. However, Philip comes to see her and tells Natalie that he proposed, showing her a ring on her finger. Doctor Marcel says the ring wasn't there when they operated.

While she recovers, Will is critical of the way that she is treating her patients as she often gets into arguments with them. Natalie blames Will for punishing her for something she does not even remember, and Will tells Marcel that she was probably coming over to tell him it was over and that he needs to move. Doctor Marcel tells Will the same thing he told Philip - that the ring was not there when she came in that night.

Will is sure that Natalie will understand him once he tells her this. He goes to find her but she is already breaking up with Philip outside the hospital, telling him she doesn't feel right about the engagement. Will accuses Philip of using Natalie's memory loss to make her think he engaged. Natalie seems tired of them both, and tells them both to get out of her life.

Will starts dating again in *I Can't Imagine the Future*, where Elsa Curry also tries to ask him out. Natalie then regains her memories when she sees Philip's daughter back in the ER, remembering a similar setting to the night of the accident. She remembers and goes to find Will on the roof to tell him they should get back together and that she was wrong. Will apologizes and tells her he's moved on, to her sadness.

It appears they've at least gotten on civil terms.

### Maggie Lockwood

Maggie is one of Natalie closest friends. they share everything including talking about Will and it was Maggie who has been helping her with Owen.

### Jeff Clark

Jeff and Natalie began dating in Season 2, but things started falling apart after Jeff stood up for her in front of Dr. Stohl. She felt humiliated by it and sometime later, he admitted that he and Jeff Manning had a fight after he said he had feelings for her. She was upset because he didn't tell her this before, and she felt worse that she was with him as her husband had died, so they broke up. She told him they weren't right together but they remained friends

## Trivia

* She reveals in *Fallback* that she plays violin and wanted to be a violinist; becoming a doctor was her fallback plan;
* She and Will Halstead have had 2 kisses while not in a relationship;
* She has a small tattoo on the inside of her left wrist;
* She used to have a nail biting habit.

## Appearances

1. Now I'm God
2. If We Were Normal
3. In A Duffel Bag
4. Sanctuary
5. Emotional Proximity
6. Last Minute Resistance