Heroes fic: Anagnorisis (1/2)
Title: Anagnorisis (1/2)
Series: Heroes
Characters: Chandra, Mohinder, Gabriel/Sylar, briefly Eden
Pairings Mohinder x Gabriel, inevitably Mylar
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Not yet.
Summary: As he watches the relationship between his son and his Patient Zero move beyond professional boundaries, Chandra Suresh realizes he's in over his head.
Gabriel Gray was a jittery man, always nervous, always testing the waters. He hid himself under layers of clothing, and his thick-framed glasses struck Chandra more as protective goggles. Yet in all these efforts to hide himself, he seemed like he would burst at any moment.
"When I was a kid..." he started, sitting with his shoulders self-consciously hunched, but tense with restrained excitement. "I used to wish some stranger would come and tell me my family wasn't really my family. They weren't bad people, they were just... insignificant. And I wanted to be different. Special. I wanted to change. A new name, a new li--"
The apartment door swung open and Gabriel looked to see who had come in. Chandra's mouth twisted at the interruption, but he nodded at his son shuffling into the apartment. "Ah, Mohinder. Welcome home."
Mohinder, his eyes half-open and his shoulders slumped, grunted in reply. He dropped his keys on the table by the door and slung his shoulder bag beneath it. Only then did he actually look in his father's direction and see they had company. "Oh, hello!" he said, straightening his shirt as he approached the table. Gabriel was already on his feet.
"This is Mr. Gabriel Gray," Chandra said as the two younger men shook hands. "Gabriel, this is my son, Mohinder."
"Nice to meet you," Gabriel said with a quick, shy nod as he sat back down.
"How was your shift?" Chandra asked Mohinder.
Mohinder ran his hands through his curls and smiled insincerely. "Lovely as usual. Such a shame it's your turn tomorrow." He looked back at Gabriel and made an effort at a real smile. "Please excuse me. I'm tired."
Gabriel watched him disappear into the bedroom, the door closing behind him. "Your son-- Mohinder-- he's helping you? You didn't mention him before."
Chandra nodded. "Ah, yes, he insisted on coming with me to America. Just as well. With both of us working for the taxi service it will be easier to make ends meet and progress with my research at the same time."
Gabriel peered at him, the way he looked at the watches in his shop, and Chandra realized how much his tone gave away. "You didn't want him to come?" Gabriel asked. "He's not in genetics?"
"No, he is, but I had planned to work alone," Chandra said quickly. "As you read in my book, the human brain is capable of more than the average person can dream. You are special, Gabriel, and together we can uncover a whole world of people who are leading the world into a new phase of evolution."
It took Gabriel a moment to follow him back to their original topic, but he smiled. "I look forward to it."
~ X ~
The weeks passed steadily enough, for Chandra at least. He was sure they were quite slow for Gabriel, who was perpetually excited about uncovering a special ability. Even as each test Chandra implemented proved negative or inconclusive regarding special abilities, Gabriel's disappointment would give way to an enduring anticipation. He had even adjusted the schedule of his watch repair shop so that, besides evenings and weekends, he could spend the entirety of Wednesday assisting Chandra's research. Chandra was impressed by his dedication; after all, Gabriel had the least to lose if nothing manifested.
Gabriel caught onto the research quickly. He had no educational background in genetics, only high school biology, but he avidly read a wide variety of subjects and insisted he was a quick student. And he did not exaggerate-- after eagerly consuming all the books Chandra loaned or recommended to him, he had only a few clarifying questions before demonstrating an excellent understanding of his reading. Gabriel was a more than efficient assistant in Chandra's work.
Mohinder's weeks were likely agonizingly slow, since he agreed to take the bulk of the taxi schedule so his father could spend more time on his work. Chandra felt little guilt about this-- he hadn't forced Mohinder to come along. In fact, he'd actively discouraged him. Chandra wasn't going to pander to Mohinder's emotional needs; they were here for Chandra's work, not to bond, and Chandra had made that clear.
Mohinder only complained now and then, and even then only about customers and coworkers, but his desire to participate more in Chandra's work was made plain by his questions when he arrived home, by how he'd stay up into the night catching up on Chandra's progress even if he had an early shift the next morning, and-- mostly-- by how he had come to regard Gabriel coldly when he would come home to find the American once again in the apartment.
Chandra tried to ignore Mohinder's attitude. He couldn't help it if Gabriel was able to be around more. Mohinder would have to cope with his petty, irrational jealousy. Chandra wasn't going to validate it by coming to Gabriel's defense or changing the warm way he'd come to regard him.
At least that's how Chandra saw the situation until he noticed that Gabriel wasn't ignoring Mohinder's glowering and short, pointed remarks. Rather, he gleefully reflected them, as if he were winning a competition for Chandra's attention. Chandra knew that Gabriel's father had left his family when he was young, so it wasn't difficult to figure out Gabriel saw him as a father figure. Still, he disliked how their hostility distracted from their research.
"Your apartment must be lonely," Mohinder would say.
"Oh, it can be," Gabriel would reply with a not-so-benign smile. "It's so much nicer being here, making all this progress with Chandra."
And Mohinder would spend the evening heavily handling books and dishes and slamming doors and generally making a passive aggressive racket instead of sitting down to help.
Or Gabriel on occasion would find himself stuck on a technical point: "Chandra, this paragraph in that new enzyme study, about the potential complications of--"
"It's rather simple," Mohinder would interrupt, swooping over with a sigh and explaining with ease.
And Gabriel would spend the evening much quieter than usual, apparently too embarrassed to have failed his personal high standards to give his opinion on anything Chandra asked.
And on and on.
"I'm sorry it'll just be you and Mohinder to meet Mr. Bennet, Chandra, but my mother can't see her doctor alone."
"Oh, don't worry about it, Gabriel. You don't even have anything to show him yet."
Chandra wanted no part in their childishness, but just observing it irritated him. At the same time, Chandra was unsure how to better the situation. He tried suggesting that they work together when he was out with the cab, but Gabriel would remember that he had promised a customer their cuckoo clock the next day, or Mohinder would remember that the apartment lacked groceries, or whatever excuse either could come up with.
Then one night at dinner Gabriel suggested that he and Chandra see a movie. "It'll be my treat," Gabriel said. "You've been so good to me. I really want to do something for you."
Chandra barely glanced up from his notes as he ate. "That's very kind, Gabriel, but I don't think tonight--"
"You really do deserve a break," Gabriel said earnestly.
Chandra suppressed a battered sigh. He had little need for breaks; what he'd like now was a little solitude. "I'm sorry, but I have too much work to do here."
"I did preorder the tickets," Gabriel tried again.
Chandra was about to lose his patience, but Mohinder made a quiet, amused noise in his throat. Chandra smiled at his son. "Why don't you go, Mohinder?"
Mohinder looked up from his plate and, as if Chandra had been speaking an alien language, said, "What?"
"See the film with Gabriel."
"Oh, I..." Mohinder glanced at Gabriel uneasily.
"I insist!" Chandra said. "I feel like I'm keeping you both huddled up with a grousing old man."
Gabriel frowned. "But you've been working so--"
"It honestly would make me feel better to see you take a free night," Chandra said, upbeat but with finality.
"Okay," Gabriel said reluctantly, flashing Mohinder a wary smile. Mohinder returned it.
"Let me know how it is," Chandra said dismissively, his mind already wandering to the research waiting on his desk.
~ X ~
Chandra's night passed quickly, and it had not occurred to him how long Mohinder and Gabriel had been gone until Mohinder opened the door shortly after midnight.
"Was it a long film?" Chandra asked, checking his watch against the clock on his laptop.
"Oh, no," Mohinder replied, yawning. "We wound up going for a walk afterwards. It was such a nice night, and I hardly ever get to see this city outside of that horrid cab."
Chandra smiled. "That was nice of Gabriel. I take it you got along better than you thought."
"It was not as awkward as I'd assumed it would be," Mohinder said. Then he stuttered, "Wh-what do you mean? We get along fine."
Chandra closed the laptop and smiled. "Indeed. Good night, Mohinder."
That was the start of it, although Chandra couldn't possible know until later. It wasn't as if Mohinder and Gabriel started spending an inordinate amount of time together. Mostly it was still the three of them-- making calls, performing tests, researching-- but now if Mohinder went out to the store, Gabriel would go with him. Now if Gabriel spent extra time at his shop, Mohinder would take time to visit him. Now on days Chandra drove the taxi, the younger men would work together on the assignments he'd leave for them.
Chandra felt more at ease without the sibling-like tension, and he did feel happy to see Mohinder making a friend. Mohinder was too emotional to have a scientist's heart of stone; he needed more human exchange than Chandra could give him. Chandra had told Mohinder this point blank when he tried to convince him not to come to America, and it seemed to have worked, until Mohinder's emotions about-faced from dejection to stubbornness and he showed up with his suitcase on the day of Chandra's flight. Chandra had not been looking forward to seeing Mohinder unhappy in the United States.
A bond with Gabriel solved that problem, Chandra thought, not suspecting his own obliviousness until one quiet afternoon a few weeks after the movie. Chandra was implementing a personality questionnaire, and he caught Gabriel staring at the family photo on his desk.
"What is it?" Chandra asked.
"Your wife," Gabriel said. "Mohinder has her smile."
Chandra quirked an eyebrow. "Pardon?"
Gabriel quickly looked away from the photo to his own lap. "Well, I... It was... something I noticed."
~ X ~
On a rainy evening, Mohinder prepared dinner for himself, Chandra, and Gabriel. Gabriel staying for meals had become the norm, and as he helped Chandra lay out the table there was a knock at the door.
"I'll get it," Chandra said. He was expecting a package of files and journals from his wife in India, but when he opened the door he found a petite young woman with a pixie haircut. She held a large bowl of cheese-slathered pasta.
"Hi," she said cautiously, shifting the bowl to one arm so she could shake Chandra's hand. "I'm your new neighbor."
"Ah, uh, yes, I saw the movers the other day," Chandra said awkwardly.
"Yup! My name is Eden, Eden McCain." She peeked around him at Gabriel and Mohinder. "I thought a good way to get to know the neighbors would be to make entirely too much macaroni and use that as an excuse for dinner company."
"Oh, I see." Chandra couldn't help but feel amused by her frankness. He glanced back into the apartment. Mohinder looked curious; Gabriel frowned. Chandra turned back to Eden who smiled hopefully, biting her lip. "Well, I suppose so," he said. "We do have plenty of ericheri."
"You're sure it's no trouble?" she said, looking suddenly unsure that her plan was cute and clever.
He stepped aside. "None at all." He introduced her to Mohinder and Gabriel and asked Gabriel to add an extra plate.
Within a few minutes they were seated, Chandra across from his son and Eden across from Gabriel. As they ate, the rain pattered against the windows. Chandra had never had macaroni and cheese before, and he wasn't sure if it was a proper complement to Mohinder's dish, but it tasted fine all the same. Chandra started small talk with Eden, asking where she had lived before (Utah) and about her occupation (starting as a file clerk the following Monday), but she seemed more eager to ask her own questions and he allowed her to turn the conversation.
"So Mohinder is your son, but how do you know them, Gabe?"
Gabriel smiled tightly. "It's Gabriel."
"Ah, sorry," Eden said with a conciliatory nod. "So how?"
"I help them with their work."
"We're in America indefinitely on research," Mohinder added.
"Oh? Where are you from?" Eden asked.
"India. Chennai."
"That used to be called Madras, right?" Eden said. Mohinder nodded, and while she seemed pleased at being correct, Chandra noticed Gabriel roll his eyes. "That's a long way from home!" she said. "What kind of research brought you here?"
"We work in a specialized area of genetics," Mohinder said.
"Specialized in what?"
"It's very complex," Gabriel spoke up. His voice was curt, and he hadn't touched his macaroni.
Mohinder frowned at him and answered her. "Not to sound lofty, but we're delving into the future of human evolution."
Eden raised her eyebrows. "That does sound lofty."
"Complex," Gabriel repeated.
She smiled not-so-sweetly. "I may not be a genetics professor, but I can try to understand."
Gabriel reflected her smile and returned to ignoring her macaroni.
"I really am interested," Eden said to Mohinder, resting her hand between them on the table. "It sounds revolutionary."
Chandra smiled. "I think it will be."
"It sounds overwhelming too. If you guys need help in any way..."
Gabriel stabbed at his ericheri with needless force.
Mohinder looked to his father at Eden's proposition. "Well, perhaps."
She grinned at Mohinder, in a way that reminded Chandra of his wife when he first met her. "I'm a fast learner," she said.
"Hey," Gabriel interjected with a curiosity that did not sound genuine. "How did you know they're professors?"
Eden's eyes flashed to him. "I'm sorry?"
"Just a second ago you said you weren't a genetics professor like Mohinder and Chandra. How'd you know?"
She laughed. "I guess I just guessed correctly."
"Hm."
She glanced at the wall clock. "Oh, jeez. I'm sorry to cut out like this, but my mother's supposed to call soon."
"Ah." Chandra nodded, and he and Mohinder stood politely as she got up. "Well, thank you for visiting, and for your cooking."
Gabriel remained in his seat. "Nice to meet you," he said dully.
Mohinder tried to give her back the rest of the macaroni, but she stopped him, saying it was a nice-to-meet-you gift from her, and she could pick the bowl up another time. She smiled at him again as Chandra escorted her to the door. They said their good-byes and when Chandra turned back to the table, Mohinder was still on his feet and Gabriel was still seated.
"Wow," Mohinder said tersely, arms folded. "She really rubbed you the wrong way."
"She just shows up and invites herself in," Gabriel retorted around a mouthful of bananas and yams. He swallowed. "You don't find that at all rude? You don't even know her."
"She was perfectly nice."
"How did she know you were professors?"
"It's not exactly a leap of logic."
"Something's not right about her," Gabriel insisted.
As they argued, Chandra regarded Gabriel carefully, thinking about how he'd reacted when Eden started her flirtations. But perhaps he was jumping to conclusions. Mohinder just seemed to think Gabriel was being antisocial. Perhaps that's all it was. Gabriel, who only ever occasionally mentioned his mother, did seem happy with the arrangement they'd developed over the past two months. Adding another person would disrupt that.
"Now, children," Chandra said, trying to dispel the tension. "She was a nice but strange girl." He smiled at Gabriel. "Her offer of assistance was very nice but we already have a perfectly good assistant."
Gabriel blushed. "I wasn't... That's not..."
"Now I need you two to--" Chandra cut himself off at a bright flash of lightning at the window. When the thunder followed, the lights didn't so much as flicker before cutting out. Chandra's laptop glowed brightly in the dark, running off the battery.
"To find some flashlights?" Gabriel finished.
"I think we only have candles," Mohinder said.
In fact they only had two candles (found after an amount of fumbling in the dark), and Chandra put one on his desk so he could read his physical files. "We won't be getting much done tonight," he said as he saved his open computer files and shut the laptop down. "You should head home, Gabriel."
"I don't have an umbrella. I'd rather see if it lets up, if that's okay."
"You can help me add to the map," Mohinder said as he lit the other candle and set it in a dish on the kitchen table. He gestured to the easel-mounted map that had been pushed off into the corner. Chandra had started it almost immediately after they arrived, to track the people on his growing list. "If you don't mind straining your eyes."
"No problem!" Gabriel said eagerly as he helped clean up the dinner table.
Chandra glanced at him casually as he sat at his desk, not sure what he was hearing in Gabriel's tone. But he told himself it was nothing, and searched for a pencil.
~ X ~
Chandra realized he'd fallen asleep when he opened his eyes and found that the candle on his desk had been snuffed out. Mohinder and Gabriel sat crosslegged together on the floor, using their candle to see the open book in Mohinder's lap. Or rather, that was what Mohinder was doing. Gabriel's gaze rested on Mohinder's face as Mohinder turned the pages.
"... sure how it could work that way," Mohinder was saying. He kept his voice low for his sleeping father's benefit, but the rain had stopped and Chandra had little trouble hearing. "I don't see how you could just destroy an entire history in a blink. It makes more sense if an alternate timeline is created."
"Like in Back to the Future," Gabriel said.
Mohinder shrugged. "I've never seen it."
"No way!" Gabriel whispered. "I'll rent it. Or all three, if you have six hours to spare."
"Heh, I doubt we'll find that kind of time between everything."
"If only I could manipulate time and space."
Mohinder laughed and Gabriel looked pleased with himself. "Well, that still remains to be seen," Mohinder said. "I don't know if I'd want that power, though."
"Why not?"
"Well, assuming there are alternate timelines, time travel only benefits you if you travel into the future and then back to the present to change what you saw. Which is all well and good, but you'd never be able to travel to the past. If you changed anything there, it'd create a new timeline and any forward-traveling would be in that new line. You'd never be able to return to the original timeline you came from without some sort of dimension-hopping power, and even if that was bundled into your ability, nothing you'd fixed in the past would have changed anything in the original line anyway."
Gabriel said nothing for a moment, then, "There is the possibility of a time loop. That anything you did in the past while gathering information or an object to change things in your present actually already happened prior to your present." He paused again and laughed. "If that made any sense."
"I understand. But that's unsettling to think about."
"Why?"
"That implies there was no choice in the matter. No free will."
"It sounds like destiny to me."
"That would be a lot simpler than creating countless alternate universes." He paused. "Alternate universes hold so many more possibilities. Somewhere else we could be having a different conversation, or we were never even born."
"Somewhen else," Gabriel said with a smile.
Mohinder laughed. "Somewhen else the butterfly effect has led us to different lives. Maybe you decided not to take on your father's shop and pursued acting instead. Or perhaps I decided not to follow my father here and we never met."
Mohinder stopped here, turning another page. He put his finger to a passage and was about to comment when Gabriel interrupted. "That's a shame."
Mohinder finally looked up. "Hm?"
Gabriel hesitated. "That our other selves never met each other."
"Oh. Yes." Mohinder looked down at the book again, but only for a moment because now he'd certainly noticed how Gabriel was staring at him.
Gabriel had apparently just realized it as well, because he coughed needlessly and shifted a bit away from Mohinder. "I just... You know, you... You're a good friend, Mohinder. I mean, your dad is great, but he can be a little... cold sometimes."
Mohinder smirked. "I had not noticed."
"Heh." Gabriel rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm just glad you followed him here."
Mohinder hesitated now, but he closed the book and said, "I'm glad I did too."
They sat in quiet for several long moments, and Chandra supposed it was a good time to pretend he had just woken up. But Gabriel impulsively leaned forward, grabbed Mohinder by the shoulder, and pressed his lips to Mohinder's cheek. Mohinder got very still. Gabriel didn't move away yet, still a breath away from Mohinder's face, but when he moved to kiss Mohinder again, almost certainly on the mouth, Mohinder brought up his hands.
"Gabriel," Mohinder said, "I... I mean... I don't..."
Gabriel quickly pulled back, drawing into himself.
Mohinder kept stuttering. "I just... Don't..."
"It's late," Gabriel said, voice too even. He got on his feet and moved past Chandra's desk to the front door before Mohinder even moved his book off his lap. "I should get home." Chandra heard the door open.
"Gabriel, wait!" Mohinder moved hurriedly, and then Chandra couldn't see him either. But he must have stopped Gabriel, because after a long pause he said, "Don't forget we're going for the MRI tomorrow."
"Yeah," Gabriel said, sounding disappointed. "I remember."
But then Mohinder added, "You're staying for dinner again, aren't you?"
"Yes!" was the immediate answer, followed by an embarrassed, low-key, "Yes, of course."
"Okay. I'll come by for you at two."
Chandra heard the door close. Mohinder moved around the apartment for a while, and Chandra still feigned sleep, not sure how to feign waking. But soon Mohinder jostled his shoulder. "Father," he said quietly, "you're not going to feel well in the morning, sleeping like that."
"Ah... yes," Chandra said, slowly sitting up, needlessly rubbing at his eyes. "Did Gabriel leave?"
"Yes, just a few minutes ago. I reminded him about our appointment."
"Hm." Chandra stretched. "I was thinking- earlier- that perhaps you should go in for the day after all. Maybe they could use extra drivers."
Mohinder frowned. "I've worked the past three days. If they need someone, they'll call." He picked up the candle from the floor. "Besides, I told Gabriel I'll be going with you tomorrow."
"And what does it matter if you're there? Only one of us needs to be."
Mohinder fixed him with a glare. "You still... You are so typical." He blew out the candle. "I'm here. I'm part of this. I'm going."
~ X ~
The second MRI revealed nothing, but the power outage had revealed to Chandra the quality of the time his two assistants spent together. He could see past his research now, to the way Gabriel constantly stared at Mohinder, and even the private way Mohinder reveled in the attention. If Mohinder had to run the smallest errand, there was Gabriel offering company. If Gabriel was staying at his watch shop one day, Mohinder would excuse himself for a brief visit and not return for a few hours.
Chandra thought of himself as an open-minded man-- he had to be, in his field of study-- but in practice, watching his son being silently courted by another man unsettled him. Of course there was nothing he could do, nothing he had the right to do. Mohinder and Gabriel were grown adults. He should only be worried if their relationship affected their research efforts.
Then one day something changed. Mohinder was with the cab, leaving Chandra and Gabriel alone in their work. But when it came to investigating Gabriel himself, Chandra was out of ideas, and he felt it was time to tell the young man so. Chandra made both of them tea and sat with Gabriel at the kitchen table.
"I think we have to accept that you may have no ability," Chandra said.
It was certainly not what Gabriel was expecting to hear. "What... what are you talking about?"
"We've gone through every evaluation I can think of, many twice, even three times," Chandra said with a sigh. "We've found nothing out of the ordinary."
Gabriel shook his head. "No, no, we'll keep looking!" he insisted. "Your research in India, it led you all the way here, to me, that has to mean something!"
"I am happy you have so much faith in me, Gabriel, but I have to admit when I may have been wrong."
"You can't do this to me," Gabriel said suddenly, distressed.
Chandra meant to smile reassuringly, ask him to calm down, tell him that his assistance was still very much wanted, but Gabriel bolted to his feet.
"I'm sick of being nothing," he snapped, his face darkening. "My whole life I've sat in that godforsaken shop toiling away at little trinkets, believing that I was doomed to stay there the rest of my life, wishing that it wasn't true, that destiny would knock on my door and show me something more. And then it did: you showed up, and everything you told me offered my life some goddamn meaning for once. And now you're just going to take all that away?!"
Chandra was offended by Gabriel's abrupt change in attitude towards him. "I cannot take away what's not there, Gabriel. And I have other opportunities I need to--"
"You're just going to find someone else? Like this..." Gabriel reached to the desk and snatched up one of the post-it notes in Mohinder's handwriting. "This Brian Davis. You think he can move stuff with his mind, maybe, and when he can't, oh well, you'll just drop him, huh?" Gabriel crushed the post-it into his fist and stalked back to the desk, sweeping everything onto the floor except the laptop, which teetered precariously on the edge.
Chandra knocked over his chair in his rush to grab it before it fell. He clutched it to his chest and backed away from Gabriel. "I think you should leave, Mr. Gray," he snapped sharply, but his voice shook all the same.
And Gabriel didn't leave. He stood there and glared at Chandra, like he was challenging him to make him leave. His eyes seemed darker than Chandra remembered, darker and open to something hostile and desperate.
"Go home, Gabriel!" Chandra erupted.
Gabriel's stare finally flickered away, and he grabbed his jacket and went out the door, slamming it closed. Chandra waited a long time for his heart to settle.
( Part 2)
Series: Heroes
Characters: Chandra, Mohinder, Gabriel/Sylar, briefly Eden
Pairings Mohinder x Gabriel, inevitably Mylar
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Not yet.
Summary: As he watches the relationship between his son and his Patient Zero move beyond professional boundaries, Chandra Suresh realizes he's in over his head.
Gabriel Gray was a jittery man, always nervous, always testing the waters. He hid himself under layers of clothing, and his thick-framed glasses struck Chandra more as protective goggles. Yet in all these efforts to hide himself, he seemed like he would burst at any moment.
"When I was a kid..." he started, sitting with his shoulders self-consciously hunched, but tense with restrained excitement. "I used to wish some stranger would come and tell me my family wasn't really my family. They weren't bad people, they were just... insignificant. And I wanted to be different. Special. I wanted to change. A new name, a new li--"
The apartment door swung open and Gabriel looked to see who had come in. Chandra's mouth twisted at the interruption, but he nodded at his son shuffling into the apartment. "Ah, Mohinder. Welcome home."
Mohinder, his eyes half-open and his shoulders slumped, grunted in reply. He dropped his keys on the table by the door and slung his shoulder bag beneath it. Only then did he actually look in his father's direction and see they had company. "Oh, hello!" he said, straightening his shirt as he approached the table. Gabriel was already on his feet.
"This is Mr. Gabriel Gray," Chandra said as the two younger men shook hands. "Gabriel, this is my son, Mohinder."
"Nice to meet you," Gabriel said with a quick, shy nod as he sat back down.
"How was your shift?" Chandra asked Mohinder.
Mohinder ran his hands through his curls and smiled insincerely. "Lovely as usual. Such a shame it's your turn tomorrow." He looked back at Gabriel and made an effort at a real smile. "Please excuse me. I'm tired."
Gabriel watched him disappear into the bedroom, the door closing behind him. "Your son-- Mohinder-- he's helping you? You didn't mention him before."
Chandra nodded. "Ah, yes, he insisted on coming with me to America. Just as well. With both of us working for the taxi service it will be easier to make ends meet and progress with my research at the same time."
Gabriel peered at him, the way he looked at the watches in his shop, and Chandra realized how much his tone gave away. "You didn't want him to come?" Gabriel asked. "He's not in genetics?"
"No, he is, but I had planned to work alone," Chandra said quickly. "As you read in my book, the human brain is capable of more than the average person can dream. You are special, Gabriel, and together we can uncover a whole world of people who are leading the world into a new phase of evolution."
It took Gabriel a moment to follow him back to their original topic, but he smiled. "I look forward to it."
~ X ~
The weeks passed steadily enough, for Chandra at least. He was sure they were quite slow for Gabriel, who was perpetually excited about uncovering a special ability. Even as each test Chandra implemented proved negative or inconclusive regarding special abilities, Gabriel's disappointment would give way to an enduring anticipation. He had even adjusted the schedule of his watch repair shop so that, besides evenings and weekends, he could spend the entirety of Wednesday assisting Chandra's research. Chandra was impressed by his dedication; after all, Gabriel had the least to lose if nothing manifested.
Gabriel caught onto the research quickly. He had no educational background in genetics, only high school biology, but he avidly read a wide variety of subjects and insisted he was a quick student. And he did not exaggerate-- after eagerly consuming all the books Chandra loaned or recommended to him, he had only a few clarifying questions before demonstrating an excellent understanding of his reading. Gabriel was a more than efficient assistant in Chandra's work.
Mohinder's weeks were likely agonizingly slow, since he agreed to take the bulk of the taxi schedule so his father could spend more time on his work. Chandra felt little guilt about this-- he hadn't forced Mohinder to come along. In fact, he'd actively discouraged him. Chandra wasn't going to pander to Mohinder's emotional needs; they were here for Chandra's work, not to bond, and Chandra had made that clear.
Mohinder only complained now and then, and even then only about customers and coworkers, but his desire to participate more in Chandra's work was made plain by his questions when he arrived home, by how he'd stay up into the night catching up on Chandra's progress even if he had an early shift the next morning, and-- mostly-- by how he had come to regard Gabriel coldly when he would come home to find the American once again in the apartment.
Chandra tried to ignore Mohinder's attitude. He couldn't help it if Gabriel was able to be around more. Mohinder would have to cope with his petty, irrational jealousy. Chandra wasn't going to validate it by coming to Gabriel's defense or changing the warm way he'd come to regard him.
At least that's how Chandra saw the situation until he noticed that Gabriel wasn't ignoring Mohinder's glowering and short, pointed remarks. Rather, he gleefully reflected them, as if he were winning a competition for Chandra's attention. Chandra knew that Gabriel's father had left his family when he was young, so it wasn't difficult to figure out Gabriel saw him as a father figure. Still, he disliked how their hostility distracted from their research.
"Your apartment must be lonely," Mohinder would say.
"Oh, it can be," Gabriel would reply with a not-so-benign smile. "It's so much nicer being here, making all this progress with Chandra."
And Mohinder would spend the evening heavily handling books and dishes and slamming doors and generally making a passive aggressive racket instead of sitting down to help.
Or Gabriel on occasion would find himself stuck on a technical point: "Chandra, this paragraph in that new enzyme study, about the potential complications of--"
"It's rather simple," Mohinder would interrupt, swooping over with a sigh and explaining with ease.
And Gabriel would spend the evening much quieter than usual, apparently too embarrassed to have failed his personal high standards to give his opinion on anything Chandra asked.
And on and on.
"I'm sorry it'll just be you and Mohinder to meet Mr. Bennet, Chandra, but my mother can't see her doctor alone."
"Oh, don't worry about it, Gabriel. You don't even have anything to show him yet."
Chandra wanted no part in their childishness, but just observing it irritated him. At the same time, Chandra was unsure how to better the situation. He tried suggesting that they work together when he was out with the cab, but Gabriel would remember that he had promised a customer their cuckoo clock the next day, or Mohinder would remember that the apartment lacked groceries, or whatever excuse either could come up with.
Then one night at dinner Gabriel suggested that he and Chandra see a movie. "It'll be my treat," Gabriel said. "You've been so good to me. I really want to do something for you."
Chandra barely glanced up from his notes as he ate. "That's very kind, Gabriel, but I don't think tonight--"
"You really do deserve a break," Gabriel said earnestly.
Chandra suppressed a battered sigh. He had little need for breaks; what he'd like now was a little solitude. "I'm sorry, but I have too much work to do here."
"I did preorder the tickets," Gabriel tried again.
Chandra was about to lose his patience, but Mohinder made a quiet, amused noise in his throat. Chandra smiled at his son. "Why don't you go, Mohinder?"
Mohinder looked up from his plate and, as if Chandra had been speaking an alien language, said, "What?"
"See the film with Gabriel."
"Oh, I..." Mohinder glanced at Gabriel uneasily.
"I insist!" Chandra said. "I feel like I'm keeping you both huddled up with a grousing old man."
Gabriel frowned. "But you've been working so--"
"It honestly would make me feel better to see you take a free night," Chandra said, upbeat but with finality.
"Okay," Gabriel said reluctantly, flashing Mohinder a wary smile. Mohinder returned it.
"Let me know how it is," Chandra said dismissively, his mind already wandering to the research waiting on his desk.
~ X ~
Chandra's night passed quickly, and it had not occurred to him how long Mohinder and Gabriel had been gone until Mohinder opened the door shortly after midnight.
"Was it a long film?" Chandra asked, checking his watch against the clock on his laptop.
"Oh, no," Mohinder replied, yawning. "We wound up going for a walk afterwards. It was such a nice night, and I hardly ever get to see this city outside of that horrid cab."
Chandra smiled. "That was nice of Gabriel. I take it you got along better than you thought."
"It was not as awkward as I'd assumed it would be," Mohinder said. Then he stuttered, "Wh-what do you mean? We get along fine."
Chandra closed the laptop and smiled. "Indeed. Good night, Mohinder."
That was the start of it, although Chandra couldn't possible know until later. It wasn't as if Mohinder and Gabriel started spending an inordinate amount of time together. Mostly it was still the three of them-- making calls, performing tests, researching-- but now if Mohinder went out to the store, Gabriel would go with him. Now if Gabriel spent extra time at his shop, Mohinder would take time to visit him. Now on days Chandra drove the taxi, the younger men would work together on the assignments he'd leave for them.
Chandra felt more at ease without the sibling-like tension, and he did feel happy to see Mohinder making a friend. Mohinder was too emotional to have a scientist's heart of stone; he needed more human exchange than Chandra could give him. Chandra had told Mohinder this point blank when he tried to convince him not to come to America, and it seemed to have worked, until Mohinder's emotions about-faced from dejection to stubbornness and he showed up with his suitcase on the day of Chandra's flight. Chandra had not been looking forward to seeing Mohinder unhappy in the United States.
A bond with Gabriel solved that problem, Chandra thought, not suspecting his own obliviousness until one quiet afternoon a few weeks after the movie. Chandra was implementing a personality questionnaire, and he caught Gabriel staring at the family photo on his desk.
"What is it?" Chandra asked.
"Your wife," Gabriel said. "Mohinder has her smile."
Chandra quirked an eyebrow. "Pardon?"
Gabriel quickly looked away from the photo to his own lap. "Well, I... It was... something I noticed."
~ X ~
On a rainy evening, Mohinder prepared dinner for himself, Chandra, and Gabriel. Gabriel staying for meals had become the norm, and as he helped Chandra lay out the table there was a knock at the door.
"I'll get it," Chandra said. He was expecting a package of files and journals from his wife in India, but when he opened the door he found a petite young woman with a pixie haircut. She held a large bowl of cheese-slathered pasta.
"Hi," she said cautiously, shifting the bowl to one arm so she could shake Chandra's hand. "I'm your new neighbor."
"Ah, uh, yes, I saw the movers the other day," Chandra said awkwardly.
"Yup! My name is Eden, Eden McCain." She peeked around him at Gabriel and Mohinder. "I thought a good way to get to know the neighbors would be to make entirely too much macaroni and use that as an excuse for dinner company."
"Oh, I see." Chandra couldn't help but feel amused by her frankness. He glanced back into the apartment. Mohinder looked curious; Gabriel frowned. Chandra turned back to Eden who smiled hopefully, biting her lip. "Well, I suppose so," he said. "We do have plenty of ericheri."
"You're sure it's no trouble?" she said, looking suddenly unsure that her plan was cute and clever.
He stepped aside. "None at all." He introduced her to Mohinder and Gabriel and asked Gabriel to add an extra plate.
Within a few minutes they were seated, Chandra across from his son and Eden across from Gabriel. As they ate, the rain pattered against the windows. Chandra had never had macaroni and cheese before, and he wasn't sure if it was a proper complement to Mohinder's dish, but it tasted fine all the same. Chandra started small talk with Eden, asking where she had lived before (Utah) and about her occupation (starting as a file clerk the following Monday), but she seemed more eager to ask her own questions and he allowed her to turn the conversation.
"So Mohinder is your son, but how do you know them, Gabe?"
Gabriel smiled tightly. "It's Gabriel."
"Ah, sorry," Eden said with a conciliatory nod. "So how?"
"I help them with their work."
"We're in America indefinitely on research," Mohinder added.
"Oh? Where are you from?" Eden asked.
"India. Chennai."
"That used to be called Madras, right?" Eden said. Mohinder nodded, and while she seemed pleased at being correct, Chandra noticed Gabriel roll his eyes. "That's a long way from home!" she said. "What kind of research brought you here?"
"We work in a specialized area of genetics," Mohinder said.
"Specialized in what?"
"It's very complex," Gabriel spoke up. His voice was curt, and he hadn't touched his macaroni.
Mohinder frowned at him and answered her. "Not to sound lofty, but we're delving into the future of human evolution."
Eden raised her eyebrows. "That does sound lofty."
"Complex," Gabriel repeated.
She smiled not-so-sweetly. "I may not be a genetics professor, but I can try to understand."
Gabriel reflected her smile and returned to ignoring her macaroni.
"I really am interested," Eden said to Mohinder, resting her hand between them on the table. "It sounds revolutionary."
Chandra smiled. "I think it will be."
"It sounds overwhelming too. If you guys need help in any way..."
Gabriel stabbed at his ericheri with needless force.
Mohinder looked to his father at Eden's proposition. "Well, perhaps."
She grinned at Mohinder, in a way that reminded Chandra of his wife when he first met her. "I'm a fast learner," she said.
"Hey," Gabriel interjected with a curiosity that did not sound genuine. "How did you know they're professors?"
Eden's eyes flashed to him. "I'm sorry?"
"Just a second ago you said you weren't a genetics professor like Mohinder and Chandra. How'd you know?"
She laughed. "I guess I just guessed correctly."
"Hm."
She glanced at the wall clock. "Oh, jeez. I'm sorry to cut out like this, but my mother's supposed to call soon."
"Ah." Chandra nodded, and he and Mohinder stood politely as she got up. "Well, thank you for visiting, and for your cooking."
Gabriel remained in his seat. "Nice to meet you," he said dully.
Mohinder tried to give her back the rest of the macaroni, but she stopped him, saying it was a nice-to-meet-you gift from her, and she could pick the bowl up another time. She smiled at him again as Chandra escorted her to the door. They said their good-byes and when Chandra turned back to the table, Mohinder was still on his feet and Gabriel was still seated.
"Wow," Mohinder said tersely, arms folded. "She really rubbed you the wrong way."
"She just shows up and invites herself in," Gabriel retorted around a mouthful of bananas and yams. He swallowed. "You don't find that at all rude? You don't even know her."
"She was perfectly nice."
"How did she know you were professors?"
"It's not exactly a leap of logic."
"Something's not right about her," Gabriel insisted.
As they argued, Chandra regarded Gabriel carefully, thinking about how he'd reacted when Eden started her flirtations. But perhaps he was jumping to conclusions. Mohinder just seemed to think Gabriel was being antisocial. Perhaps that's all it was. Gabriel, who only ever occasionally mentioned his mother, did seem happy with the arrangement they'd developed over the past two months. Adding another person would disrupt that.
"Now, children," Chandra said, trying to dispel the tension. "She was a nice but strange girl." He smiled at Gabriel. "Her offer of assistance was very nice but we already have a perfectly good assistant."
Gabriel blushed. "I wasn't... That's not..."
"Now I need you two to--" Chandra cut himself off at a bright flash of lightning at the window. When the thunder followed, the lights didn't so much as flicker before cutting out. Chandra's laptop glowed brightly in the dark, running off the battery.
"To find some flashlights?" Gabriel finished.
"I think we only have candles," Mohinder said.
In fact they only had two candles (found after an amount of fumbling in the dark), and Chandra put one on his desk so he could read his physical files. "We won't be getting much done tonight," he said as he saved his open computer files and shut the laptop down. "You should head home, Gabriel."
"I don't have an umbrella. I'd rather see if it lets up, if that's okay."
"You can help me add to the map," Mohinder said as he lit the other candle and set it in a dish on the kitchen table. He gestured to the easel-mounted map that had been pushed off into the corner. Chandra had started it almost immediately after they arrived, to track the people on his growing list. "If you don't mind straining your eyes."
"No problem!" Gabriel said eagerly as he helped clean up the dinner table.
Chandra glanced at him casually as he sat at his desk, not sure what he was hearing in Gabriel's tone. But he told himself it was nothing, and searched for a pencil.
~ X ~
Chandra realized he'd fallen asleep when he opened his eyes and found that the candle on his desk had been snuffed out. Mohinder and Gabriel sat crosslegged together on the floor, using their candle to see the open book in Mohinder's lap. Or rather, that was what Mohinder was doing. Gabriel's gaze rested on Mohinder's face as Mohinder turned the pages.
"... sure how it could work that way," Mohinder was saying. He kept his voice low for his sleeping father's benefit, but the rain had stopped and Chandra had little trouble hearing. "I don't see how you could just destroy an entire history in a blink. It makes more sense if an alternate timeline is created."
"Like in Back to the Future," Gabriel said.
Mohinder shrugged. "I've never seen it."
"No way!" Gabriel whispered. "I'll rent it. Or all three, if you have six hours to spare."
"Heh, I doubt we'll find that kind of time between everything."
"If only I could manipulate time and space."
Mohinder laughed and Gabriel looked pleased with himself. "Well, that still remains to be seen," Mohinder said. "I don't know if I'd want that power, though."
"Why not?"
"Well, assuming there are alternate timelines, time travel only benefits you if you travel into the future and then back to the present to change what you saw. Which is all well and good, but you'd never be able to travel to the past. If you changed anything there, it'd create a new timeline and any forward-traveling would be in that new line. You'd never be able to return to the original timeline you came from without some sort of dimension-hopping power, and even if that was bundled into your ability, nothing you'd fixed in the past would have changed anything in the original line anyway."
Gabriel said nothing for a moment, then, "There is the possibility of a time loop. That anything you did in the past while gathering information or an object to change things in your present actually already happened prior to your present." He paused again and laughed. "If that made any sense."
"I understand. But that's unsettling to think about."
"Why?"
"That implies there was no choice in the matter. No free will."
"It sounds like destiny to me."
"That would be a lot simpler than creating countless alternate universes." He paused. "Alternate universes hold so many more possibilities. Somewhere else we could be having a different conversation, or we were never even born."
"Somewhen else," Gabriel said with a smile.
Mohinder laughed. "Somewhen else the butterfly effect has led us to different lives. Maybe you decided not to take on your father's shop and pursued acting instead. Or perhaps I decided not to follow my father here and we never met."
Mohinder stopped here, turning another page. He put his finger to a passage and was about to comment when Gabriel interrupted. "That's a shame."
Mohinder finally looked up. "Hm?"
Gabriel hesitated. "That our other selves never met each other."
"Oh. Yes." Mohinder looked down at the book again, but only for a moment because now he'd certainly noticed how Gabriel was staring at him.
Gabriel had apparently just realized it as well, because he coughed needlessly and shifted a bit away from Mohinder. "I just... You know, you... You're a good friend, Mohinder. I mean, your dad is great, but he can be a little... cold sometimes."
Mohinder smirked. "I had not noticed."
"Heh." Gabriel rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm just glad you followed him here."
Mohinder hesitated now, but he closed the book and said, "I'm glad I did too."
They sat in quiet for several long moments, and Chandra supposed it was a good time to pretend he had just woken up. But Gabriel impulsively leaned forward, grabbed Mohinder by the shoulder, and pressed his lips to Mohinder's cheek. Mohinder got very still. Gabriel didn't move away yet, still a breath away from Mohinder's face, but when he moved to kiss Mohinder again, almost certainly on the mouth, Mohinder brought up his hands.
"Gabriel," Mohinder said, "I... I mean... I don't..."
Gabriel quickly pulled back, drawing into himself.
Mohinder kept stuttering. "I just... Don't..."
"It's late," Gabriel said, voice too even. He got on his feet and moved past Chandra's desk to the front door before Mohinder even moved his book off his lap. "I should get home." Chandra heard the door open.
"Gabriel, wait!" Mohinder moved hurriedly, and then Chandra couldn't see him either. But he must have stopped Gabriel, because after a long pause he said, "Don't forget we're going for the MRI tomorrow."
"Yeah," Gabriel said, sounding disappointed. "I remember."
But then Mohinder added, "You're staying for dinner again, aren't you?"
"Yes!" was the immediate answer, followed by an embarrassed, low-key, "Yes, of course."
"Okay. I'll come by for you at two."
Chandra heard the door close. Mohinder moved around the apartment for a while, and Chandra still feigned sleep, not sure how to feign waking. But soon Mohinder jostled his shoulder. "Father," he said quietly, "you're not going to feel well in the morning, sleeping like that."
"Ah... yes," Chandra said, slowly sitting up, needlessly rubbing at his eyes. "Did Gabriel leave?"
"Yes, just a few minutes ago. I reminded him about our appointment."
"Hm." Chandra stretched. "I was thinking- earlier- that perhaps you should go in for the day after all. Maybe they could use extra drivers."
Mohinder frowned. "I've worked the past three days. If they need someone, they'll call." He picked up the candle from the floor. "Besides, I told Gabriel I'll be going with you tomorrow."
"And what does it matter if you're there? Only one of us needs to be."
Mohinder fixed him with a glare. "You still... You are so typical." He blew out the candle. "I'm here. I'm part of this. I'm going."
~ X ~
The second MRI revealed nothing, but the power outage had revealed to Chandra the quality of the time his two assistants spent together. He could see past his research now, to the way Gabriel constantly stared at Mohinder, and even the private way Mohinder reveled in the attention. If Mohinder had to run the smallest errand, there was Gabriel offering company. If Gabriel was staying at his watch shop one day, Mohinder would excuse himself for a brief visit and not return for a few hours.
Chandra thought of himself as an open-minded man-- he had to be, in his field of study-- but in practice, watching his son being silently courted by another man unsettled him. Of course there was nothing he could do, nothing he had the right to do. Mohinder and Gabriel were grown adults. He should only be worried if their relationship affected their research efforts.
Then one day something changed. Mohinder was with the cab, leaving Chandra and Gabriel alone in their work. But when it came to investigating Gabriel himself, Chandra was out of ideas, and he felt it was time to tell the young man so. Chandra made both of them tea and sat with Gabriel at the kitchen table.
"I think we have to accept that you may have no ability," Chandra said.
It was certainly not what Gabriel was expecting to hear. "What... what are you talking about?"
"We've gone through every evaluation I can think of, many twice, even three times," Chandra said with a sigh. "We've found nothing out of the ordinary."
Gabriel shook his head. "No, no, we'll keep looking!" he insisted. "Your research in India, it led you all the way here, to me, that has to mean something!"
"I am happy you have so much faith in me, Gabriel, but I have to admit when I may have been wrong."
"You can't do this to me," Gabriel said suddenly, distressed.
Chandra meant to smile reassuringly, ask him to calm down, tell him that his assistance was still very much wanted, but Gabriel bolted to his feet.
"I'm sick of being nothing," he snapped, his face darkening. "My whole life I've sat in that godforsaken shop toiling away at little trinkets, believing that I was doomed to stay there the rest of my life, wishing that it wasn't true, that destiny would knock on my door and show me something more. And then it did: you showed up, and everything you told me offered my life some goddamn meaning for once. And now you're just going to take all that away?!"
Chandra was offended by Gabriel's abrupt change in attitude towards him. "I cannot take away what's not there, Gabriel. And I have other opportunities I need to--"
"You're just going to find someone else? Like this..." Gabriel reached to the desk and snatched up one of the post-it notes in Mohinder's handwriting. "This Brian Davis. You think he can move stuff with his mind, maybe, and when he can't, oh well, you'll just drop him, huh?" Gabriel crushed the post-it into his fist and stalked back to the desk, sweeping everything onto the floor except the laptop, which teetered precariously on the edge.
Chandra knocked over his chair in his rush to grab it before it fell. He clutched it to his chest and backed away from Gabriel. "I think you should leave, Mr. Gray," he snapped sharply, but his voice shook all the same.
And Gabriel didn't leave. He stood there and glared at Chandra, like he was challenging him to make him leave. His eyes seemed darker than Chandra remembered, darker and open to something hostile and desperate.
"Go home, Gabriel!" Chandra erupted.
Gabriel's stare finally flickered away, and he grabbed his jacket and went out the door, slamming it closed. Chandra waited a long time for his heart to settle.
( Part 2)