Dreamwalking
Title: Dreamwalking
Characters/Pairing: Gabriel, Peter.
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 1, 867
Disclaimer: Do not own.
Summery: Gabriel's dream gets a visitor
Note: KW Verse. I guess this hints why they were found and saved.
Their fingers interlace and lock, two hearts beat in rapid unison as they work in simpatico, twins but not.
She throws her head back, neck arched and her mouth opens wide as she tries to draw in air. His hands tug her forward, squeezing and takes from her what she can't handle.
"Don't overdose. Work with me here. Trust me."
The words are unspoken and two sets of opaque black eye meet again but he thinks she knows what he wishes as she calms and the cycle starts again. She does trust him, more then anyone now.
They absorb and destroy together.
*
"Air! Air! Look daddy."
Gabriel looks to where his child is pointing and smiles. It was an eight foot statue of a jackrabbit, the symbol of Odessa. Shifting her warm weight in his arms they cross over the street to it and sit on a bench nearby.
"It's a hare, Nadia."
"Yeah, air. Wope, give to mama." She slides down from his lap and waddles over to it with a grin, squealing when she tentatively touches it and runs away and back. Hand pressed to it's front she looks at Gabriel expectantly and he shakes his head.
"We can't take it home Nad. It's too big."
"Ome! Wope, daddy." He laughs when she reaches up to try and touch it's ears, continually asking for a rope. He had told her about Grace Hendricks, who had roped a jackrabbit in five seconds flat in 1932 at the Odessa Rodeo, beating all the other male competitors to take the prize. He had wanted to show her it, create an illusion but Maya had refused, saying it was animal cruelty. Even if it wasn't real.
"I'll get you a teddy bear Nad, jackrabbit yeah?" Smiling down at her as she reaches up to him, demanding to be lifted but he freezes and stares over her head at the corner of the street.
A man was standing there, hands in his tan coat pockets before he suddenly disappears.
"No...no it can't be." Gabriel straightens and twists and turns around, looking through the trees at the houses across the street but it's deserted. Completely, Nadia has faded and it's just him again. Dejected that the dream or illusion, he can't differ one from the other anymore, has been ruined. It was now the only way he could spend time with his family, relive memories as if real. He doesn't know why that man would suddenly appear. Maybe he is dreaming.
Not wanting to leave he sits back down, the former bright sunlight now dim, the sun sinking. He stares into nothing, eyes vacant but inside he's winding up with a strange kinetic energy, the sense of impending doom so strong it bares heavily down on his neck. Closing his eyes he throws his head back, thinking of her.
"I thought you were dead."
His voice, one he hasn't heard in eight years speaks clear and close to his left and Gabriel opens his eyes slowly, not looking at him. "Well you can continue believing it please...you're not real."
"I am, Sylar."
He jerks and whips his head to him. He's a little older then he remembers, hair short and sensible. Very calm. It's become a role reversal, last time he was the one in control and he was the one about to explode. "That's not my name, Pete."
Peter smiles at his bitchy tone and shakes his head. "Ok, whatever you say. I saw you with the little girl." He jerks his head to the jackrabbit with a smile and Gabriel straightens, eyeing him carefully. This is a dream, the light is all wrong, but Peter is very much not a part of it. He narrows his eyes, wondering if they share the same dream-walking ability.
Gabriel looks at where Nadia was and smiles gently. "She's my daughter."
"You have a family? A real one?" Hazel eyes regard him with a light surprise.
Gabriel hesitates, licking his lips. "Nadia and her mother, yes."
"Maya..." He says this softly, with a far away look and something Gabriel doesn't like one bit settles over the man's features. Peter catches his suspicious expression and he turns away, leaning forward, hands clasped and looks ahead at the darkening garden around them. "We all thought you were dead, you fooled everyone. But I've found her."
Gabriel's mouth goes dry and he grits his teeth, wanting to suddenly lash out at this man who's so rudely intruded on his territory. "Good for you, well done. Now you can leave..." But he stays, so Gabriel tries another approach. "I'm not - I'm not harming anyone, I just want to be left alone with my family." He says it quietly, very earnest and tired and Peter looks at him carefully before speaking in understanding.
"I can't do that, I'm sorry. I need her."
"Need who?" But he knows, can feel it in his gut, making him sick.
"Maya. I can't do this without her."
"No! She's mine!" He stands, not caring how juvenile he sounds. With his fists clenched at his sides he feels the murderous violence that he had pushed into a corner of his mind start to unfurl and where once it gave him a sense of power it just makes him feel lightheaded and sick, out of control.
Peter stands calmly but frowns. "Mine? I heard what you did to her but I never knew the poor girl was pregnant until later. My mom, she knew, told me how it could have been different..."
"Different?" Gabriel grounds out, eyes burning and Peter regards him wearily.
"I don't think you wanna know Gabriel. Safe to say if Maya never came here she would have been safe, her and her daughter."
"With you?!" He doesn't get a response but that small flinch tells Gabriel enough. Disgusted and increasingly feeling threatened he stands his ground, breathing heavy but the other man just stares at him calmly. It was infuriating. He has changed from the young, overemotional man he knew. Like Maya. Ssh!
"I'm not here to ruin your life Gabriel. I - I think people deserve second chances," his eyes suddenly sear with guilt and torment and Gabriel latches onto that, using any weapon he can and stores it away. "But I need her help. The virus, I've been clearing the infection as much as I can but I can't do it alone. It was never meant to be an ability for one person to handle." Alejandro flashes before him, dead on the carpet and he banishes the grisly image away. Gabriel shakes his head.
"She can't help you. I took her ability away."
"That can't be true, I've seen her with it." He says mysteriously and Gabriel cocks his head in query. "I can dream the future and I've seen Maya. She has her ability again."
"That's not possible, it's gone." But he feels a flutter of uncertainty. Maybe after all this time it wasn't removed but suppressed, dead but waiting to be sparked alive again. Staring at Peter, at the years he must have had to control and collect abilities, Gabriel thinks maybe he has that advantage. Peter was more powerful and collected, he was curled into a fetal position in a dirty room somewhere. He feels his body being drained of fight, of any tension and replaced with that now accustomed feeling of dread and sadness. "Please, don't take them from me."
Peter shakes his head, expression compassionate but then he hardens. "They're not toys that I'm snatching out of your hands. I think it's up to them if they want to stay or leave you." He looks around at the the complete eerie silence and solitude, a true reflection of the waking world. "This place...it feels like a prison."
"I love her, I love them." Gabriel answers simply but Peter pins him with accusatory eyes.
"You don't do this to someone you care about."
"You don't understand Peter. They're all I've got."
"Then why aren't you with them now?" He replies softly, maybe even with sympathy.
There's no answer to this he can bring himself to voice. Because I'm shameful, because I hurt them, because I want to save them from myself. Because she doesn't love me anymore...Because she doesn't hate me anymore. Gabriel sits back down, staring at nothing as Peter watches from above. A strange and new atmosphere settles, not angry or tense but sombre and oddly still. He's lost, Peter's won. NO, no, no no!
"I know you're coming now, I'll be prepared." The paintings.
Peter shrugs, not threatened by him any longer and looks around again with a strange wistful smirk. "Claire said this place was an apocalyptic wasteland before the damn apocalypse...you even been outside?"
The real world. Gabriel shakes his head, it was just venturing out North in the car but really seeing nothing the few times he left Odessa. Even once with Maya, seeing her in the snow was one of his happiest memories of her. "I know you're all in Washington, in quarantine."
"We were, that's was the first places sans virus. I'm going state to state."
"And then the world? You can't save everyone Peter." He offers gently, not knowing why.
"There's only 400,000 people left, I think I can try. Me and Maya." Again the man opposite mentions her again and he bristles with needles of possessiveness.
"Stop talking about her...what are you going to do?"
"I've told you. Look, I'm not taking your family away, not even Maya. You'll be coming with them." He says it lightly but Gabriel knows when he's being lied to. "Then, well..we'll get to that bridge when we reach it. I'll see you again Gabriel, face to face."
"Don't tell Maya, please. Just let me do it, to explain. She - she doesn't know about Washington, none of them do..." He doesn't look at him but can imagine he's silently judging him. When he looks back up he's alone and even though he would rather stay here in this fantasy then face the inevitable reality he shuts his eyes and then opens them again.
*
They see each other from across the lot, Gabriel with a canvas under his arm, beard growing on his face, Maya's dress flutters against her legs as she stares impassively at his ragged state of appearance and then turns on her heel and walks to her car. Not worth her time anymore, it's been happening for weeks but it still hurts hugely. Swallowing it down he hurries into the garden, checking that Nadia isn't there before darting into his apartment and begins to set up the equipment.
After some time he stares at the white blank canvas with eyes just as white and just as blank and begins to paint. Maya doesn't know about Peter yet but he fears that one of these days his prophetic paintings will show otherwise.
*
His eyes blink open, drawing in a surprised breath and Peter turns to his wife with a smile.
"I've found them."
Characters/Pairing: Gabriel, Peter.
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 1, 867
Disclaimer: Do not own.
Summery: Gabriel's dream gets a visitor
Note: KW Verse. I guess this hints why they were found and saved.
Their fingers interlace and lock, two hearts beat in rapid unison as they work in simpatico, twins but not.
She throws her head back, neck arched and her mouth opens wide as she tries to draw in air. His hands tug her forward, squeezing and takes from her what she can't handle.
"Don't overdose. Work with me here. Trust me."
The words are unspoken and two sets of opaque black eye meet again but he thinks she knows what he wishes as she calms and the cycle starts again. She does trust him, more then anyone now.
They absorb and destroy together.
*
"Air! Air! Look daddy."
Gabriel looks to where his child is pointing and smiles. It was an eight foot statue of a jackrabbit, the symbol of Odessa. Shifting her warm weight in his arms they cross over the street to it and sit on a bench nearby.
"It's a hare, Nadia."
"Yeah, air. Wope, give to mama." She slides down from his lap and waddles over to it with a grin, squealing when she tentatively touches it and runs away and back. Hand pressed to it's front she looks at Gabriel expectantly and he shakes his head.
"We can't take it home Nad. It's too big."
"Ome! Wope, daddy." He laughs when she reaches up to try and touch it's ears, continually asking for a rope. He had told her about Grace Hendricks, who had roped a jackrabbit in five seconds flat in 1932 at the Odessa Rodeo, beating all the other male competitors to take the prize. He had wanted to show her it, create an illusion but Maya had refused, saying it was animal cruelty. Even if it wasn't real.
"I'll get you a teddy bear Nad, jackrabbit yeah?" Smiling down at her as she reaches up to him, demanding to be lifted but he freezes and stares over her head at the corner of the street.
A man was standing there, hands in his tan coat pockets before he suddenly disappears.
"No...no it can't be." Gabriel straightens and twists and turns around, looking through the trees at the houses across the street but it's deserted. Completely, Nadia has faded and it's just him again. Dejected that the dream or illusion, he can't differ one from the other anymore, has been ruined. It was now the only way he could spend time with his family, relive memories as if real. He doesn't know why that man would suddenly appear. Maybe he is dreaming.
Not wanting to leave he sits back down, the former bright sunlight now dim, the sun sinking. He stares into nothing, eyes vacant but inside he's winding up with a strange kinetic energy, the sense of impending doom so strong it bares heavily down on his neck. Closing his eyes he throws his head back, thinking of her.
"I thought you were dead."
His voice, one he hasn't heard in eight years speaks clear and close to his left and Gabriel opens his eyes slowly, not looking at him. "Well you can continue believing it please...you're not real."
"I am, Sylar."
He jerks and whips his head to him. He's a little older then he remembers, hair short and sensible. Very calm. It's become a role reversal, last time he was the one in control and he was the one about to explode. "That's not my name, Pete."
Peter smiles at his bitchy tone and shakes his head. "Ok, whatever you say. I saw you with the little girl." He jerks his head to the jackrabbit with a smile and Gabriel straightens, eyeing him carefully. This is a dream, the light is all wrong, but Peter is very much not a part of it. He narrows his eyes, wondering if they share the same dream-walking ability.
Gabriel looks at where Nadia was and smiles gently. "She's my daughter."
"You have a family? A real one?" Hazel eyes regard him with a light surprise.
Gabriel hesitates, licking his lips. "Nadia and her mother, yes."
"Maya..." He says this softly, with a far away look and something Gabriel doesn't like one bit settles over the man's features. Peter catches his suspicious expression and he turns away, leaning forward, hands clasped and looks ahead at the darkening garden around them. "We all thought you were dead, you fooled everyone. But I've found her."
Gabriel's mouth goes dry and he grits his teeth, wanting to suddenly lash out at this man who's so rudely intruded on his territory. "Good for you, well done. Now you can leave..." But he stays, so Gabriel tries another approach. "I'm not - I'm not harming anyone, I just want to be left alone with my family." He says it quietly, very earnest and tired and Peter looks at him carefully before speaking in understanding.
"I can't do that, I'm sorry. I need her."
"Need who?" But he knows, can feel it in his gut, making him sick.
"Maya. I can't do this without her."
"No! She's mine!" He stands, not caring how juvenile he sounds. With his fists clenched at his sides he feels the murderous violence that he had pushed into a corner of his mind start to unfurl and where once it gave him a sense of power it just makes him feel lightheaded and sick, out of control.
Peter stands calmly but frowns. "Mine? I heard what you did to her but I never knew the poor girl was pregnant until later. My mom, she knew, told me how it could have been different..."
"Different?" Gabriel grounds out, eyes burning and Peter regards him wearily.
"I don't think you wanna know Gabriel. Safe to say if Maya never came here she would have been safe, her and her daughter."
"With you?!" He doesn't get a response but that small flinch tells Gabriel enough. Disgusted and increasingly feeling threatened he stands his ground, breathing heavy but the other man just stares at him calmly. It was infuriating. He has changed from the young, overemotional man he knew. Like Maya. Ssh!
"I'm not here to ruin your life Gabriel. I - I think people deserve second chances," his eyes suddenly sear with guilt and torment and Gabriel latches onto that, using any weapon he can and stores it away. "But I need her help. The virus, I've been clearing the infection as much as I can but I can't do it alone. It was never meant to be an ability for one person to handle." Alejandro flashes before him, dead on the carpet and he banishes the grisly image away. Gabriel shakes his head.
"She can't help you. I took her ability away."
"That can't be true, I've seen her with it." He says mysteriously and Gabriel cocks his head in query. "I can dream the future and I've seen Maya. She has her ability again."
"That's not possible, it's gone." But he feels a flutter of uncertainty. Maybe after all this time it wasn't removed but suppressed, dead but waiting to be sparked alive again. Staring at Peter, at the years he must have had to control and collect abilities, Gabriel thinks maybe he has that advantage. Peter was more powerful and collected, he was curled into a fetal position in a dirty room somewhere. He feels his body being drained of fight, of any tension and replaced with that now accustomed feeling of dread and sadness. "Please, don't take them from me."
Peter shakes his head, expression compassionate but then he hardens. "They're not toys that I'm snatching out of your hands. I think it's up to them if they want to stay or leave you." He looks around at the the complete eerie silence and solitude, a true reflection of the waking world. "This place...it feels like a prison."
"I love her, I love them." Gabriel answers simply but Peter pins him with accusatory eyes.
"You don't do this to someone you care about."
"You don't understand Peter. They're all I've got."
"Then why aren't you with them now?" He replies softly, maybe even with sympathy.
There's no answer to this he can bring himself to voice. Because I'm shameful, because I hurt them, because I want to save them from myself. Because she doesn't love me anymore...Because she doesn't hate me anymore. Gabriel sits back down, staring at nothing as Peter watches from above. A strange and new atmosphere settles, not angry or tense but sombre and oddly still. He's lost, Peter's won. NO, no, no no!
"I know you're coming now, I'll be prepared." The paintings.
Peter shrugs, not threatened by him any longer and looks around again with a strange wistful smirk. "Claire said this place was an apocalyptic wasteland before the damn apocalypse...you even been outside?"
The real world. Gabriel shakes his head, it was just venturing out North in the car but really seeing nothing the few times he left Odessa. Even once with Maya, seeing her in the snow was one of his happiest memories of her. "I know you're all in Washington, in quarantine."
"We were, that's was the first places sans virus. I'm going state to state."
"And then the world? You can't save everyone Peter." He offers gently, not knowing why.
"There's only 400,000 people left, I think I can try. Me and Maya." Again the man opposite mentions her again and he bristles with needles of possessiveness.
"Stop talking about her...what are you going to do?"
"I've told you. Look, I'm not taking your family away, not even Maya. You'll be coming with them." He says it lightly but Gabriel knows when he's being lied to. "Then, well..we'll get to that bridge when we reach it. I'll see you again Gabriel, face to face."
"Don't tell Maya, please. Just let me do it, to explain. She - she doesn't know about Washington, none of them do..." He doesn't look at him but can imagine he's silently judging him. When he looks back up he's alone and even though he would rather stay here in this fantasy then face the inevitable reality he shuts his eyes and then opens them again.
*
They see each other from across the lot, Gabriel with a canvas under his arm, beard growing on his face, Maya's dress flutters against her legs as she stares impassively at his ragged state of appearance and then turns on her heel and walks to her car. Not worth her time anymore, it's been happening for weeks but it still hurts hugely. Swallowing it down he hurries into the garden, checking that Nadia isn't there before darting into his apartment and begins to set up the equipment.
After some time he stares at the white blank canvas with eyes just as white and just as blank and begins to paint. Maya doesn't know about Peter yet but he fears that one of these days his prophetic paintings will show otherwise.
*
His eyes blink open, drawing in a surprised breath and Peter turns to his wife with a smile.
"I've found them."