The Cookie Fairy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alcesverdes) wrote2007-07-03 12:43 am
alcesverdes) wrote2007-07-03 12:43 am
Entry tags:
[Heroes] Finding Peace (1/3)
Title: Finding Peace
Fandom: Heroes
Rating: PG
Lenght: +3600
Characters Nathan, Peter, Heidi, and Angela Petrelli, the Haitian, Mohinder, Molly. Mentions of Claire and Mr. Bennet. Pairings: Nathan/Heidi. Eventual Peter/Mohinder.
Summary: The Petrellis' quest to bonding once more.
Spoilers: For the whole first season.
Notes: It was![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
telrunya's fault. She infected me with the bunny.
-
“I know exactly how to find Peter,” professor Suresh said looking at Nathan right in the eye. There was no hint of doubt in his voice and he looked very resolute, unlike the first time they'd seen each other, when Suresh was all nervous, afraid that he wouldn't believe what his crazy mutation theory. Now, Nathan knew better than to laugh at the Indian genius, and nothing tht could help him find his little brother would be cataloged as crazy.
Peter disappeared the night of the explosion. After Nathan helped him to begin his flight, Peter yelled at him to let go. “I have Claire's powers! You don't!” the fool had said. Before Nathan could tell him he wouldn't let go, Peter had pushed his brother away and kept flying by himself. Then, he exploded. The strong wing sent Nathan out of curse and the incredibly bright light blinded him, so he couldn't see what happened to Peter.
Nathan searched for hours to no avail, until his mother—their mother—found him, way past dawn.
“Nathan, what happened?” she asked while getting down from the car, helped by a tall, bold black man Nathan had never seen before. She sounded worried, sincerely worried. And scared and confused. “Where is your brother?”
Nathan stared at her blankly for a second. He was feeling scared and confused too, but was also tired, angry, and disappointed at her her for having manipulated him, for letting things go that far.
“The future isn't set in stone,” he said, harshly. “That's what happened! Peter—Peter is dead! He died saving us all and it's your fault!”
He regretted it as soon as he said it, though, as he saw the shock settling down in her features. She reached backwards, trying to keep her balance. Her... bodyguard? held her arm, helping her to steady herself.
His mother covered her face with her hand. “It was all for nothing?” she whispered, her voice broken. “But—Peter, oh, Peter...” She began to cry. Her bodyguard placed a warm hand on her shoulder.
Instinctively, Nathan began to move towards her, to comfort her, but he stopped himself even before having given a step forward. He was still too confused. He was feeling betrayed. He'd been used like a puppet by that woman, the very one who was mourning the lost of her youngest child for the second time that week. Her favorite son, Nathan thought bitterly, the one that had ultimately ruined her plans.
Nathan found himself hating all those emotions. He didn't know what to do. He had no idea of what to do. He couldn't go and ask his mother for advice, not now, and most likely not anymore. Still, he needed someone to talk to, someone who could listen to his tale or he was going to begin yelling at random strangers.
Perhaps he should begin doing just that, he thought, rubbing his face with his hand.
Suddenly, a face appeared on his mind. The face of a lovely woman smiling at him tenderly.
Heidi.
He needed to tell everything to Heidi, not only because she deserved to know, but also because he needed to let it out.
So, he flew away. He didn't care at the moment if someone saw him. He went back home, hoping his wife would believe him, if only because he was planning to enter through the window.
Heidi did understand. She was a little shocked at first, but by the time Nathan had finished his story, downright to Claire's existence and his affair with Niki Sanders, she was pretty much willing to believe. “I think very unlikely you invented all of this just to tell me you had an affair—and a daughter before we met.”
“I thought Claire was dead,” Nathan uttered.
“And that affair ended up saving your life,” Heidi said, shaking her head. “Nathan, I'm not going to pretend I'm not hurt. I am. It hurts, but—” She sighed and removed the hair from her face. “You went through all of this by yourself. How many times have I told you I'm not made of glass?”
“I know. I—”
She walked up to him, put a finger on his lips and hugged him. “I love you, Nathan. We'll go through this, somehow. We'll find Peter, and maybe I can even be friends with your daughter.”
He hugged her back and buried his face on her neck, feeling like he was the one made of glass. “I love you too, Heidi,” he mumbled.
“You know,” she said after a while, without letting go. “I'm feeling very tempted to say 'I was right about your mother'.”
Nathan chuckled, unable to help himself, really grateful by the sudden change of mood.
“But that'd be tasteless,” Heidi continued. “And untrue. Angela seemed such a good person all along!”
“She fooled us all,” Nathan said. “I want to know what she's going to do. Perhaps she's going to ruin my career, now that I'm not useful for her and her group anymore. She'll show up in the news tomorrow morning and say the whole election was a scam.”
But Nathan had been wrong. His mother didn't show up anywhere, and when he risked to take a look, he found out that she had closed her house and disappeared without leaving a message. Nathan wasn't really sure if he wanted to see her anytime soon; she was a grown woman able to take care of herself, at the very least, so he focused on looking for Peter.
Two weeks were little time for Nathan and Heidi to lose faith, but they were growing desperate; Peter could be anywhere, in any condition. Maybe even really dead. Or with a memory loss. Or who knows what.
Nathan did think of the possibility that his super-powered brother didn't want to be found, but Nathan would have none of it for a second time. If Peter wanted to be left alone, he would have to say it to his brother's face. And prove he had all of his limbs with him—so Nathan could tear them apart for having him so worried for that long twice in his lifetime.
Now, professor Suresh was on the other side of his desk, looking all confident, offering him a way to find Peter. Restraining himself from strangle him for not going sooner to see him, Nathan leaned forward. “How?” he asked, eagerly.
Suresh raised his hands, like every time he tried to explain something complex to the unenlightened. “There's this person who has the ability to locate anyone in the world, with one exception. Though I truly doubt that one to be Peter,” he added, hurriedly.
“Is this person also 'special'?” Nathan asked, frowning.
“Yes.”
“Would he be willing to help us?”
“She. And yes. But we're going to need your help with a little something first.”
Nathan nodded. Nothing in this life was free, and the good professor looked like he would never do an unreasonable proposal. “What is it? Name it and it's yours.”
Suresh breathed deeply and tapped the desk with his fingers a couple of time before saying, “I want to adopt her.”
Nathan raised and eyebrow.
Suresh cleared his throat. “Molly Walker is ten years old. She's an orphan. Sylar killed both her parents. She has no-one else who truly cares; Matt—officer Parkman is busy rebuilding his marriage, and so are Niki and D.L., so...” He cleared his throat again. “There's only me left.”
Nathan didn't know who this officer Parkman was, nor that D.L. Though if the Niki Suresh was talking about was the one he knew, to find out she was doing better in her marriage brought him some strange peace of mind.
Either way, if all that took to get Peter back was for the man in front of him to adopt a kid, she'd be known as Molly Suresh starting the next morning.
“I would've done it through the proper channels, but—” Suresh made a pause and looked away. “I'm not exactly a legal citizen in this country, you know?”
“You will have that too.”
That startled Suresh. “I didn't ask you for that.”
Nathan shrugged. “But you can have it.”
“Not everyone wants to be an American.” Suresh sounded somewhat hurt.
“Probably not, but it'll help to speed up the adoption paperwork. Besides, it'll be easier for me to make you an American than to make her Indian. And you can have two citizenships, can you not?”
Suresh sighed. “I—I guess...”
“Listen, to make it up for you, I can also make a couple of phone calls to get you a job in any university you want and funds to continue your research.”
It was Suresh's turn to lift an skeptical eyebrow. “You're being too generous.”
Nathan hit the desktop with his index finger. “I want my brother back, and I want it now. I'll go any lengths to get it. Now, if you can go and bring that child here...?”
“I need permission to take her out from the foster home she's in.”
Nathan picked up the phone. “You got it.”
-
Looking at the kid that was sitting across his desk, Nathan understood why Suresh was so set into adopting her. She look so adorable that Nathan discovered himself thinking his sons would benefit from having a sister.
“Listen, honey,” Suresh said in a sweet tone of voice Nathan wouldn't have believed him capable of, “Mr. Petrelli wants you to help him find his brother, Peter. In return, he's going to help us to become a family.”
“Really?” the child said, looking from Suresh to Nathan.
“Yes,” Nathan said. “Yes, I will. As a matter of fact, you can go from here to the professor's place as soon as you tell me where he is.”
The girl smiled lovely—why couldn't boys smile like that? “Very well,” she said. She stood up and faced the city's map spread on Nathan's desk. She closed her eyes for a moment and promptly pointed a spot with her little finger. “Here.”
-
Nathan didn't even say goodbye to neither Suresh nor little Molly. As soon as he took a good look at the address she'd pointed out, he grabbed his jacked and left. It'd been a miracle he'd remembered to tell his assistant to cancel his appointments.
The place Peter was in turned out to be a charity hospital in the middle of a zone that clearly needed it. As soon as he stepped down from his car, Nathan felt like hitting his forehead against the wall. That was pretty much the place his little brother the nurse would be drawn at. Why hadn't he thought of that before? Because if he'd started by looking in the hospitals for Peter, it would've been as a patient, not as part of the staff. And he hadn't because, after witnessing Peter coming back to life and Claire running away five seconds later she'd jumped from his office's window, he had been left with no doubt—or better, with the hope—that, in case of being alive, Peter would've regenerated himself in one hour tops.
Nathan stopped the first person in a white coat he saw and showed him a photo of Peter, a woman who was very well into her forties. “Excuse me, doctor, do you know this man?” he asked. He didn't know if Peter was going by his real name, so he wasn't going to waste any time.
The woman looked at the picture and then at Nathan. “Could be,” she said. “What do you want with him?”
Nathan sighed inwardly. Peter had a way of making strangers want to help him. Most women tended to develop maternal-like feelings towards him. How he did it, Nathan didn't know, but it'd been like that since they were little. “He's my brother,” Nathan said. “I've been looking for him for weeks and I've been tipped he was here.”
The woman studied Nathan's face for a second.
Nathan, on the other hand, was suffering from an increasing need to hit something. He took out his wallet and showed her a photograph from last Christmas, where Peter was passing an arm around Nathan's shoulders and they were smiling at each other. If that didn't show the deepness of their bond, nothing would.
The woman still took a moment before speaking again. “Very well, then. He's in the cafeteria. But don't start any ruckus or I'll have my boys on your case. Are we clear?”
“Yes, ma'am.”
The woman folded her arms. “Peter is very important for us. He's been here for only one week and a half, but he's made a great difference.”
“That's my brother,” Nathan said, unable to hide a hint of pride in his voice.
“We'd do anything to help him if he were in any trouble.”
“As I would.” The speech was moving and the hints were clear, but Nathan was growing anxious. The more he listened about the little wonder he had as a brother, the more he wanted to see him with his own eyes—and make him spit a couple of teeth.
Finally, the doctor let him go to the cafeteria. Nathan walked through the halls feeling grateful for the opportunity to catch Peter in a public place. Not because of his own reaction, but because it'd minimize the chance of Peter going invisible on him.
It turned out that Peter was very easy to spot. He was alone in a table by a window, eating his lunch. The back of his head showed him to be in a great shape for someone who'd been a nuclear bomb a fortnight before.
As soon as he saw him Nathan felt a wave of relief passing through him, so strong it made him falter. Yet, it was mixed by a deep anger didn't know what to do first: to hug his brother or kick his ass. Hard. The doctor's boys be damned.
He walked through the tables while carefully avoiding been seen by his brother, wondering how to hug and kick him at the same time. That moment he would've absolutely traded his ability to flight for being made of rubber without hesitation.
His footsteps were covered by the chattering in the room. Some people raised their heads after seeing a glimpse of his anachronic well-tailored suit and whispered a little, but nothing of that called Peter's attention.
Good.
Nathan managed to get right behind Peter. He bent over a little and said, “Hello, Pete.”
Peter jumped and whatever he was chewing went through the wrong pipe.
Luckily, most people on that room were familiar with the Heimlich maneuver.
-
After Peter assured everyone that Nathan was indeed his brother, that he wasn't from the mob, and that he didn't owe him money—besides those fifty cents he'd borrowed at age eight and never gave back—, Nathan was allowed to be with his brother in a private room.
“Nathan, I know you're angry—”
“Anger doesn't begin to cover it, Pete. Do you have any idea of how many nights have Heidi and I spent awake, waiting for the phone to ring or for a knock in the door?”
“Fourteen?” Peter offered.
Nathan snarled. “Don't try to be funny.”
“Sorry.” Peter sighed and smiled apologetically.
“Why didn't you come back? Or at least why didn't you let us know you were fine?”
“There were two reasons. One, I wasn't ready. I mean, I nearly destroyed the whole city!” He looked away. “I just needed to be alone for a while and come to terms with it.”
Nathan rolled his eyes. He knew it'd be something like that. “Pete, you should've told me that. I would've let you alone.”
Peter's guilt showed through his face. “I'm sorry,” he said.
Nathan's remnants of anger faded away. Really, Peter's eyes had a way to make him melt in a way his own sons had lost past the age of five; being angry with Peter was for Nathan like being angry with a puppy.
He opened his arms and hugged Peter with enough strength to leave a bear out of breath. “Just don't do this to me again for a third time or I'm going to kill you.”
“You swore to doctor Jay you weren't from the mob,” Peter mumbled through the fabric of Nathan's jacket.
“And I'm not, but I could still cover all my tracks. So, what's the other reason?”
“Huh?”
“You said you had two reasons for not having called. We sorted out the first one, what's the second?”
Peter pulled away. “Oh, yeah.” He produced a piece of paper from a pocket and gave it to Nathan, who unfolded it. It was a drawing of both them in that very room. Though instead of hugging, Peter was on the floor while Nathan was shaking his fist. “I knew you were going to come for me anyway, so I was waiting. Though I wasn't expecting it you here this soon. See the snow on the window?”
Yes, he saw it, and that explained why Nathan had punched Peter in the drawing. After all, the real one had nearly done it after just two weeks; he would've been absolutely furious after months. Yet, Nathan decided to skip that detail. “First, you draw better than Mr. Mendez...”
“I've been practicing.”
“Second,” Nathan raised and eyebrow, “I'd thought we'd established that future isn't set in stone.”
Peter looked at his brother sheepishly. “I know, but this wasn't an exploding city or anything like that, so...”
Nathan pressed the bridge of his nose. “Careful, you're still under a death threat.”
“Fair enough. So, uh, have you heard anything from Claire?”
“A certain Noah Bennet sent me a polite warning to stay away from his daughter a couple of days ago.” Nathan sighed. That wasn't exactly a pleasant memory. “Though maybe they'd let you go and say hi.”
“I'm sorry, Nathan. Maybe you could talk it over...”
“Maybe, but not this soon. We've all gone through a lot. Which reminds me, I told Heidi everything.”
Peter's eyes widened. “You did?”
“Yes.”
“Claire too?”
“Yes.”
“How did she take it?”
“Quite good.”
“That's terrific! Are you planning on going public?”
“What? Peter, are you crazy?”
“I was just asking.”
“You did an impressive jump of logic I hope won't happen again. I will not go public and neither will you. And I doubt Mr. Bennet would ever let Claire do it, so this family's secret will remain secret.”
Peter laughed. “For not being in the mob, you surely think like a mobster. But yes, I don't think Noah would let Claire expose herself like that; he loves her.”
“He better.” Then, he noticed. “Are you on a first-name basis with that man?”
Peter shrugged. “Joining forces to save the world does that to people. How's mom?”
Nathan recalled the last time he had seen his mother and scratched his nose. It wasn't going to be pretty. “I don't know,” he said. At least that was true.
“You told mom I was dead?”
What are you now, a telepath?
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I am. Sometimes. I met this cop—Wait, that's not important. Nathan, how could you do that to mom?”
“If you can read minds, you should know that already!”
“It doesn't work like—” Peter stopped suddenly, maybe because Nathan began thinking the conversations he had with their mother and with Linderman, those in which they tried to convince him that blowing up the city and killing millions was the best way to go. He remained silent for a long while.
“I couldn't believed it either,” Nathan whispered.
“It's not that, Nathan. You were right. I already knew...”
Nathan put a hand on his brother's shoulder and squished it as hard as he could. Peter leaned against him. They remained like that, in silence, for a long while.
“We need to find her,” Peter said at last. “We must to talk reason into her. I understand why you don't want to right now, but—What d'you mean she'd probably listen to her baby?”
“Can you please turn your telepathy off? It makes me feel exposed.”
“Uh, right. Sorry.”
There was an awkward moment of silence before Nathan spoke again. “We should just go home.”
“I can't go now. They need me here. For another month at least.”
Nathan made a face. “Don't tell me you're playing Robin Hood.”
“No—not exactly. I just take care of them the best I can.”
“Do they know—?”
“No, they don't.”
Nathan nodded. “You better keep it that way.” He sighed. “Flight, fast healing, telepathy... What else can you do?”
Peter blinked innocently. “I could make you a list, but it's going to take a while.”
Nathan had to laugh. He then reached out and touched his brother's cheek. “Just be careful, all right? If you have any problem whatsoever, call me. If you run into someone 'special' and dangerous, call me and I'll carry Suresh all the way down here.”
Peter smiled. “I will. I will call you, I promise.”
“I better get going, then.”
“Oh, Nathan? Let me warn you: if you don't find your car when you get out of the hospital, don't worry; it's normal.”
“That's okay. I can fly back home,” Nathan said, absentmindedly.
Peter snorted. “So, you're finally embracing it.”
“I have to. It won't go away. Pete, come back when you're ready. We'll be waiting for you.”
“Yes. Thank you, Nathan. For everything.”
“No, thank you. You saved us. You saved me in more ways than one.”
As Nathan walked out of the building, he was feeling at peace with the world as he hadn't in a while. To the point that, even when he found out that Peter had been right about his car, he didn't get angry. He wasn't carrying any important documents in that particular car, it was equipped with GPS, and he truly could fly back home, so he flew.
He even allowed himself to mutter, “Up, up, and away!” as he ascended to the sky.
Fandom: Heroes
Rating: PG
Lenght: +3600
Characters Nathan, Peter, Heidi, and Angela Petrelli, the Haitian, Mohinder, Molly. Mentions of Claire and Mr. Bennet. Pairings: Nathan/Heidi. Eventual Peter/Mohinder.
Summary: The Petrellis' quest to bonding once more.
Spoilers: For the whole first season.
Notes: It was
telrunya's fault. She infected me with the bunny.-
“I know exactly how to find Peter,” professor Suresh said looking at Nathan right in the eye. There was no hint of doubt in his voice and he looked very resolute, unlike the first time they'd seen each other, when Suresh was all nervous, afraid that he wouldn't believe what his crazy mutation theory. Now, Nathan knew better than to laugh at the Indian genius, and nothing tht could help him find his little brother would be cataloged as crazy.
Peter disappeared the night of the explosion. After Nathan helped him to begin his flight, Peter yelled at him to let go. “I have Claire's powers! You don't!” the fool had said. Before Nathan could tell him he wouldn't let go, Peter had pushed his brother away and kept flying by himself. Then, he exploded. The strong wing sent Nathan out of curse and the incredibly bright light blinded him, so he couldn't see what happened to Peter.
Nathan searched for hours to no avail, until his mother—their mother—found him, way past dawn.
“Nathan, what happened?” she asked while getting down from the car, helped by a tall, bold black man Nathan had never seen before. She sounded worried, sincerely worried. And scared and confused. “Where is your brother?”
Nathan stared at her blankly for a second. He was feeling scared and confused too, but was also tired, angry, and disappointed at her her for having manipulated him, for letting things go that far.
“The future isn't set in stone,” he said, harshly. “That's what happened! Peter—Peter is dead! He died saving us all and it's your fault!”
He regretted it as soon as he said it, though, as he saw the shock settling down in her features. She reached backwards, trying to keep her balance. Her... bodyguard? held her arm, helping her to steady herself.
His mother covered her face with her hand. “It was all for nothing?” she whispered, her voice broken. “But—Peter, oh, Peter...” She began to cry. Her bodyguard placed a warm hand on her shoulder.
Instinctively, Nathan began to move towards her, to comfort her, but he stopped himself even before having given a step forward. He was still too confused. He was feeling betrayed. He'd been used like a puppet by that woman, the very one who was mourning the lost of her youngest child for the second time that week. Her favorite son, Nathan thought bitterly, the one that had ultimately ruined her plans.
Nathan found himself hating all those emotions. He didn't know what to do. He had no idea of what to do. He couldn't go and ask his mother for advice, not now, and most likely not anymore. Still, he needed someone to talk to, someone who could listen to his tale or he was going to begin yelling at random strangers.
Perhaps he should begin doing just that, he thought, rubbing his face with his hand.
Suddenly, a face appeared on his mind. The face of a lovely woman smiling at him tenderly.
Heidi.
He needed to tell everything to Heidi, not only because she deserved to know, but also because he needed to let it out.
So, he flew away. He didn't care at the moment if someone saw him. He went back home, hoping his wife would believe him, if only because he was planning to enter through the window.
Heidi did understand. She was a little shocked at first, but by the time Nathan had finished his story, downright to Claire's existence and his affair with Niki Sanders, she was pretty much willing to believe. “I think very unlikely you invented all of this just to tell me you had an affair—and a daughter before we met.”
“I thought Claire was dead,” Nathan uttered.
“And that affair ended up saving your life,” Heidi said, shaking her head. “Nathan, I'm not going to pretend I'm not hurt. I am. It hurts, but—” She sighed and removed the hair from her face. “You went through all of this by yourself. How many times have I told you I'm not made of glass?”
“I know. I—”
She walked up to him, put a finger on his lips and hugged him. “I love you, Nathan. We'll go through this, somehow. We'll find Peter, and maybe I can even be friends with your daughter.”
He hugged her back and buried his face on her neck, feeling like he was the one made of glass. “I love you too, Heidi,” he mumbled.
“You know,” she said after a while, without letting go. “I'm feeling very tempted to say 'I was right about your mother'.”
Nathan chuckled, unable to help himself, really grateful by the sudden change of mood.
“But that'd be tasteless,” Heidi continued. “And untrue. Angela seemed such a good person all along!”
“She fooled us all,” Nathan said. “I want to know what she's going to do. Perhaps she's going to ruin my career, now that I'm not useful for her and her group anymore. She'll show up in the news tomorrow morning and say the whole election was a scam.”
But Nathan had been wrong. His mother didn't show up anywhere, and when he risked to take a look, he found out that she had closed her house and disappeared without leaving a message. Nathan wasn't really sure if he wanted to see her anytime soon; she was a grown woman able to take care of herself, at the very least, so he focused on looking for Peter.
Two weeks were little time for Nathan and Heidi to lose faith, but they were growing desperate; Peter could be anywhere, in any condition. Maybe even really dead. Or with a memory loss. Or who knows what.
Nathan did think of the possibility that his super-powered brother didn't want to be found, but Nathan would have none of it for a second time. If Peter wanted to be left alone, he would have to say it to his brother's face. And prove he had all of his limbs with him—so Nathan could tear them apart for having him so worried for that long twice in his lifetime.
Now, professor Suresh was on the other side of his desk, looking all confident, offering him a way to find Peter. Restraining himself from strangle him for not going sooner to see him, Nathan leaned forward. “How?” he asked, eagerly.
Suresh raised his hands, like every time he tried to explain something complex to the unenlightened. “There's this person who has the ability to locate anyone in the world, with one exception. Though I truly doubt that one to be Peter,” he added, hurriedly.
“Is this person also 'special'?” Nathan asked, frowning.
“Yes.”
“Would he be willing to help us?”
“She. And yes. But we're going to need your help with a little something first.”
Nathan nodded. Nothing in this life was free, and the good professor looked like he would never do an unreasonable proposal. “What is it? Name it and it's yours.”
Suresh breathed deeply and tapped the desk with his fingers a couple of time before saying, “I want to adopt her.”
Nathan raised and eyebrow.
Suresh cleared his throat. “Molly Walker is ten years old. She's an orphan. Sylar killed both her parents. She has no-one else who truly cares; Matt—officer Parkman is busy rebuilding his marriage, and so are Niki and D.L., so...” He cleared his throat again. “There's only me left.”
Nathan didn't know who this officer Parkman was, nor that D.L. Though if the Niki Suresh was talking about was the one he knew, to find out she was doing better in her marriage brought him some strange peace of mind.
Either way, if all that took to get Peter back was for the man in front of him to adopt a kid, she'd be known as Molly Suresh starting the next morning.
“I would've done it through the proper channels, but—” Suresh made a pause and looked away. “I'm not exactly a legal citizen in this country, you know?”
“You will have that too.”
That startled Suresh. “I didn't ask you for that.”
Nathan shrugged. “But you can have it.”
“Not everyone wants to be an American.” Suresh sounded somewhat hurt.
“Probably not, but it'll help to speed up the adoption paperwork. Besides, it'll be easier for me to make you an American than to make her Indian. And you can have two citizenships, can you not?”
Suresh sighed. “I—I guess...”
“Listen, to make it up for you, I can also make a couple of phone calls to get you a job in any university you want and funds to continue your research.”
It was Suresh's turn to lift an skeptical eyebrow. “You're being too generous.”
Nathan hit the desktop with his index finger. “I want my brother back, and I want it now. I'll go any lengths to get it. Now, if you can go and bring that child here...?”
“I need permission to take her out from the foster home she's in.”
Nathan picked up the phone. “You got it.”
-
Looking at the kid that was sitting across his desk, Nathan understood why Suresh was so set into adopting her. She look so adorable that Nathan discovered himself thinking his sons would benefit from having a sister.
“Listen, honey,” Suresh said in a sweet tone of voice Nathan wouldn't have believed him capable of, “Mr. Petrelli wants you to help him find his brother, Peter. In return, he's going to help us to become a family.”
“Really?” the child said, looking from Suresh to Nathan.
“Yes,” Nathan said. “Yes, I will. As a matter of fact, you can go from here to the professor's place as soon as you tell me where he is.”
The girl smiled lovely—why couldn't boys smile like that? “Very well,” she said. She stood up and faced the city's map spread on Nathan's desk. She closed her eyes for a moment and promptly pointed a spot with her little finger. “Here.”
-
Nathan didn't even say goodbye to neither Suresh nor little Molly. As soon as he took a good look at the address she'd pointed out, he grabbed his jacked and left. It'd been a miracle he'd remembered to tell his assistant to cancel his appointments.
The place Peter was in turned out to be a charity hospital in the middle of a zone that clearly needed it. As soon as he stepped down from his car, Nathan felt like hitting his forehead against the wall. That was pretty much the place his little brother the nurse would be drawn at. Why hadn't he thought of that before? Because if he'd started by looking in the hospitals for Peter, it would've been as a patient, not as part of the staff. And he hadn't because, after witnessing Peter coming back to life and Claire running away five seconds later she'd jumped from his office's window, he had been left with no doubt—or better, with the hope—that, in case of being alive, Peter would've regenerated himself in one hour tops.
Nathan stopped the first person in a white coat he saw and showed him a photo of Peter, a woman who was very well into her forties. “Excuse me, doctor, do you know this man?” he asked. He didn't know if Peter was going by his real name, so he wasn't going to waste any time.
The woman looked at the picture and then at Nathan. “Could be,” she said. “What do you want with him?”
Nathan sighed inwardly. Peter had a way of making strangers want to help him. Most women tended to develop maternal-like feelings towards him. How he did it, Nathan didn't know, but it'd been like that since they were little. “He's my brother,” Nathan said. “I've been looking for him for weeks and I've been tipped he was here.”
The woman studied Nathan's face for a second.
Nathan, on the other hand, was suffering from an increasing need to hit something. He took out his wallet and showed her a photograph from last Christmas, where Peter was passing an arm around Nathan's shoulders and they were smiling at each other. If that didn't show the deepness of their bond, nothing would.
The woman still took a moment before speaking again. “Very well, then. He's in the cafeteria. But don't start any ruckus or I'll have my boys on your case. Are we clear?”
“Yes, ma'am.”
The woman folded her arms. “Peter is very important for us. He's been here for only one week and a half, but he's made a great difference.”
“That's my brother,” Nathan said, unable to hide a hint of pride in his voice.
“We'd do anything to help him if he were in any trouble.”
“As I would.” The speech was moving and the hints were clear, but Nathan was growing anxious. The more he listened about the little wonder he had as a brother, the more he wanted to see him with his own eyes—and make him spit a couple of teeth.
Finally, the doctor let him go to the cafeteria. Nathan walked through the halls feeling grateful for the opportunity to catch Peter in a public place. Not because of his own reaction, but because it'd minimize the chance of Peter going invisible on him.
It turned out that Peter was very easy to spot. He was alone in a table by a window, eating his lunch. The back of his head showed him to be in a great shape for someone who'd been a nuclear bomb a fortnight before.
As soon as he saw him Nathan felt a wave of relief passing through him, so strong it made him falter. Yet, it was mixed by a deep anger didn't know what to do first: to hug his brother or kick his ass. Hard. The doctor's boys be damned.
He walked through the tables while carefully avoiding been seen by his brother, wondering how to hug and kick him at the same time. That moment he would've absolutely traded his ability to flight for being made of rubber without hesitation.
His footsteps were covered by the chattering in the room. Some people raised their heads after seeing a glimpse of his anachronic well-tailored suit and whispered a little, but nothing of that called Peter's attention.
Good.
Nathan managed to get right behind Peter. He bent over a little and said, “Hello, Pete.”
Peter jumped and whatever he was chewing went through the wrong pipe.
Luckily, most people on that room were familiar with the Heimlich maneuver.
-
After Peter assured everyone that Nathan was indeed his brother, that he wasn't from the mob, and that he didn't owe him money—besides those fifty cents he'd borrowed at age eight and never gave back—, Nathan was allowed to be with his brother in a private room.
“Nathan, I know you're angry—”
“Anger doesn't begin to cover it, Pete. Do you have any idea of how many nights have Heidi and I spent awake, waiting for the phone to ring or for a knock in the door?”
“Fourteen?” Peter offered.
Nathan snarled. “Don't try to be funny.”
“Sorry.” Peter sighed and smiled apologetically.
“Why didn't you come back? Or at least why didn't you let us know you were fine?”
“There were two reasons. One, I wasn't ready. I mean, I nearly destroyed the whole city!” He looked away. “I just needed to be alone for a while and come to terms with it.”
Nathan rolled his eyes. He knew it'd be something like that. “Pete, you should've told me that. I would've let you alone.”
Peter's guilt showed through his face. “I'm sorry,” he said.
Nathan's remnants of anger faded away. Really, Peter's eyes had a way to make him melt in a way his own sons had lost past the age of five; being angry with Peter was for Nathan like being angry with a puppy.
He opened his arms and hugged Peter with enough strength to leave a bear out of breath. “Just don't do this to me again for a third time or I'm going to kill you.”
“You swore to doctor Jay you weren't from the mob,” Peter mumbled through the fabric of Nathan's jacket.
“And I'm not, but I could still cover all my tracks. So, what's the other reason?”
“Huh?”
“You said you had two reasons for not having called. We sorted out the first one, what's the second?”
Peter pulled away. “Oh, yeah.” He produced a piece of paper from a pocket and gave it to Nathan, who unfolded it. It was a drawing of both them in that very room. Though instead of hugging, Peter was on the floor while Nathan was shaking his fist. “I knew you were going to come for me anyway, so I was waiting. Though I wasn't expecting it you here this soon. See the snow on the window?”
Yes, he saw it, and that explained why Nathan had punched Peter in the drawing. After all, the real one had nearly done it after just two weeks; he would've been absolutely furious after months. Yet, Nathan decided to skip that detail. “First, you draw better than Mr. Mendez...”
“I've been practicing.”
“Second,” Nathan raised and eyebrow, “I'd thought we'd established that future isn't set in stone.”
Peter looked at his brother sheepishly. “I know, but this wasn't an exploding city or anything like that, so...”
Nathan pressed the bridge of his nose. “Careful, you're still under a death threat.”
“Fair enough. So, uh, have you heard anything from Claire?”
“A certain Noah Bennet sent me a polite warning to stay away from his daughter a couple of days ago.” Nathan sighed. That wasn't exactly a pleasant memory. “Though maybe they'd let you go and say hi.”
“I'm sorry, Nathan. Maybe you could talk it over...”
“Maybe, but not this soon. We've all gone through a lot. Which reminds me, I told Heidi everything.”
Peter's eyes widened. “You did?”
“Yes.”
“Claire too?”
“Yes.”
“How did she take it?”
“Quite good.”
“That's terrific! Are you planning on going public?”
“What? Peter, are you crazy?”
“I was just asking.”
“You did an impressive jump of logic I hope won't happen again. I will not go public and neither will you. And I doubt Mr. Bennet would ever let Claire do it, so this family's secret will remain secret.”
Peter laughed. “For not being in the mob, you surely think like a mobster. But yes, I don't think Noah would let Claire expose herself like that; he loves her.”
“He better.” Then, he noticed. “Are you on a first-name basis with that man?”
Peter shrugged. “Joining forces to save the world does that to people. How's mom?”
Nathan recalled the last time he had seen his mother and scratched his nose. It wasn't going to be pretty. “I don't know,” he said. At least that was true.
“You told mom I was dead?”
What are you now, a telepath?
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I am. Sometimes. I met this cop—Wait, that's not important. Nathan, how could you do that to mom?”
“If you can read minds, you should know that already!”
“It doesn't work like—” Peter stopped suddenly, maybe because Nathan began thinking the conversations he had with their mother and with Linderman, those in which they tried to convince him that blowing up the city and killing millions was the best way to go. He remained silent for a long while.
“I couldn't believed it either,” Nathan whispered.
“It's not that, Nathan. You were right. I already knew...”
Nathan put a hand on his brother's shoulder and squished it as hard as he could. Peter leaned against him. They remained like that, in silence, for a long while.
“We need to find her,” Peter said at last. “We must to talk reason into her. I understand why you don't want to right now, but—What d'you mean she'd probably listen to her baby?”
“Can you please turn your telepathy off? It makes me feel exposed.”
“Uh, right. Sorry.”
There was an awkward moment of silence before Nathan spoke again. “We should just go home.”
“I can't go now. They need me here. For another month at least.”
Nathan made a face. “Don't tell me you're playing Robin Hood.”
“No—not exactly. I just take care of them the best I can.”
“Do they know—?”
“No, they don't.”
Nathan nodded. “You better keep it that way.” He sighed. “Flight, fast healing, telepathy... What else can you do?”
Peter blinked innocently. “I could make you a list, but it's going to take a while.”
Nathan had to laugh. He then reached out and touched his brother's cheek. “Just be careful, all right? If you have any problem whatsoever, call me. If you run into someone 'special' and dangerous, call me and I'll carry Suresh all the way down here.”
Peter smiled. “I will. I will call you, I promise.”
“I better get going, then.”
“Oh, Nathan? Let me warn you: if you don't find your car when you get out of the hospital, don't worry; it's normal.”
“That's okay. I can fly back home,” Nathan said, absentmindedly.
Peter snorted. “So, you're finally embracing it.”
“I have to. It won't go away. Pete, come back when you're ready. We'll be waiting for you.”
“Yes. Thank you, Nathan. For everything.”
“No, thank you. You saved us. You saved me in more ways than one.”
As Nathan walked out of the building, he was feeling at peace with the world as he hadn't in a while. To the point that, even when he found out that Peter had been right about his car, he didn't get angry. He wasn't carrying any important documents in that particular car, it was equipped with GPS, and he truly could fly back home, so he flew.
He even allowed himself to mutter, “Up, up, and away!” as he ascended to the sky.
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Y DEJO COMENTARIO EN ESPAÑOL PORQUE TENGO EL CEREBRO FRITO, MUAHAHAHA.
Feliz de ser la culpable. Acepto la culpa. 8D
Me gusta mucho cómo va. Tienes unos detalles geniales en varias partes y diría que esto está lleno de vibras incestuosas pero vamos, eso ya es parte del canon así que ni digo nada.
Y HEIDI. LA ADORO. ♥
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Por algo es su niisan. XD
está lleno de vibras incestuosas¿Leíste el summary? The Petrellis are "bonding"! XDDD
Wiii~ Gracias! XD
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LOL, totalmente. x'D
¿Leíste el summary? The Petrellis are "bonding"! XDDD
Claro que lo leí. Pero eso no le cambia lo incestuoso al asunto. 8DD Lo mejor es que ni necesita advertencia, porque te digo, eso es parte del canon.
Y Heidi/Nathan/Peter OT3. *RUNS*