Becoming a Company Man
Title: Becoming a Company Man
Rating: PG13
Characters/Pairing: Noah Bennet/Angela Petrelli
Warnings: Some sexual content
Summary: This starts the moment after the beginning of ep 20 S 3, when Noah Bennet met Angela Petrelli in a car; he warns her about the situation, she gives him his umbrella. As Noah walks away, he becomes absorbed in memories of his youth, and he thinks about things that happened long ago, and about what Angela has meant to him during all these years…
Words: 2393
Author’s note: This is the first time I write fiction in English, and the first time I write fanfic. (Edit: selma08 does now have a fiction journal as amles80 )
Noah folds up Angela’s umbrella as he walks through the crowded street. He knows that he has to focus on the present, but his thoughts are still with her. She said that she was going to leave, but will she be able to do it fast enough? If not, he don’t know how much more he can do for her. Noah don’t doubt that she understands the seriousness of the situation, but maybe she thinks too much of her own powers. He knows that all the Petrellis has one thing in common: the refusal to accept that some things are sometimes beyond control. He had given her a warning. She had given him his umbrella.
Don’t say I never did anything for you.
Noah frowns. What had Angela done for him - everything? Or nothing?
He remembers when he first met the Petrellis, years ago. Then he had thought that Arthur was the important one. Oh, sure he was - Arthur Petrelli, Lindemann, Kaito Nakamura… They had put their trust in him when he was young, and he had dedicated himself to the task, done everything, without questioning.
But it was always Angela.
She was really the one true soul behind it all.
This was not something someone ever told him. No, he figured it out all by himself, just by looking at her. A woman with a devoted husband and two young sons; Nathan about his own age, Peter still a boy. But that was not all, no, she was a woman of power and influence. Elegantly dressed in black, her dark hair strictly dressed, in the background until she had something important to say. With her eyes sternly fixed on him, on her boys, on everyone. Nothing escaped her dark eyes, just as hardly anything escaped her dreams.
It is easy to see where Nathan got his stubbornness and his ambition from, Noah thinks - the problem with Nathan is that he is too eager to bite off more than he can chew.
Angela on the other hand, is cautious.
Walking through the rain, ready to go on pretending that he is on Danko’s team, Noah falls back in time through his memories to where it all really begun as far as he is concerned.
There had been a party. It was some kind of special occasion, he has forgotten the details, he only remembers that Angela looked stunning as always. He found it hard to take his eyes off her, despite his fear that Arthur would notice.
Then Angela said that she wanted to leave, and as Arthur couldn’t go, she asked Noah to give her a ride home.
And of course he did. In his car, he appreciated the fact that Angela Petrelli was not much for small talk. Noah was beginning to feel slightly nervous, and was afraid that he was going to stutter if he had to talk. He was angry with himself because of that, because he was usually skilled in keeping himself together, hiding his true feelings somewhere behind his glasses.
It was just the way she looked at him, silently. It was as if her eyes hit some nerve in him, and saw right through him.
Could she do that?
When they arrived to the Petrelli home, she invited him in for a nightcap, and he saw no reason to refuse. He followed her inside, and she told him that her sons were not home.
It was odd. He had rarely seen Angela drink at all, but now she poured them both a glass of red wine. As she was leaning against the doorpost, with him seated on a not very comfortable chair a few steps away, he felt a bizarre urge to quote a line from a movie, a movie that described a similar scene.
Oh no, he would rather bite his tongue off than say it.
“Mrs Petrelli,” he said, “are you try…”
“Oh Noah,” she chopped off his words, “there’s no need to be so formal, is there? Just call me Angela. You are a Company man now. Come, let’s sit down.”
She went before him and sat down in the soft and luxurious couch in the huge living room. Noah sat down beside her, awkwardly. He seemed to have lost all ability to relax. It was just that he felt that he was too big, his legs were too long; the woman beside him was so small. Noah was confused; he thought he had outgrown that feeling long ago; the feeling that his arms and his legs were too long and he didn't know what do with himself…
Now, focus, he said to himself. Don’t be silly. Obviously, she wants to tell me something. She has got something important to say, otherwise she wouldn’t have brought me here, that’s all.
“Noah”, Angela said with her husky voice; a voice that sent chills down his spine, “do you like the wine?”
“Yes,” he answered quickly, “yes, it is excellent. Exquisite. It is… a very fine wine…”
Angela laughed and took a sip of her glass.
Noah found it best to stop talking, and drank some too. Then he said:
“Can Arthur read my mind? I mean, does he know what I’m thinking?”
“Not exactly, no, he doesn’t…”
Angela smiled gently at him; God, she was so beautiful! When she parted her slender lips like that, to smile, and the perfect line from her neck down to her shoulders…
“Good”, Noah said. “Well, then, can you do that?”
She shook her head, said that that was not what she did.
“Now, about our business, Noah… I think you know it by now. You know what you need to know, for the time being, and you will be very useful, I’m sure. There is really not much more I can tell you. Actually, you should leave now.”
Noah flinched and stared at her. Why? Had he done something wrong? Had he misread the situation - well, he wasn’t sure what he had been reading into the situation exactly.
“Angela”, he said faintly, “I’m so sorry if I… if, that is… I…”
“I said that you should leave”, she said and fixed him with her deep, dark eyes, “not that you must. Not unless you really want to.”
He shook his head, bewildered, almost frightened - and excited.
Angela put down her glass on the table in front of the couch, and came closer to him, as she whispered:
“You are such a handsome young man… You are not afraid of me, are you? Do I make you nervous, Noah?”
“No”, he lied, looking her in the eyes, as he took one more sip of the wine.
“Thirsty, maybe…”, she said.
Noah swallowed, and let her take the glass from his hand - which was now trembling - without answering.
He realized that he had everything to loose by doing what he was about to be doing, but the way he saw it at that moment, he had more to gain. He grabbed Angela’s shoulders, gently, and she allowed him to pull her closer, and his voice was thick as he said:
“You are so beautiful. Angela, you are too good to be with him, you... “
“Hush”, she interrupted, “don’t say that. Noah, this might be a mistake. On the other hand, my actions are always based on deliberate decisions. So this… this can’t be a mistake.”
And then she kissed him.
Angela Petrelli’s lips were pressed against his, and she took his head between her hands as the kiss grew deeper. It was the most perfect kiss he had ever had, as if she was melting into him, and yet she was undoubtedly separated from him; a soft and mysterious other body; so close to him and yet so unattainable. She would never belong entirely to him; he could never stop wanting her.
They kissed, and it was beyond anything he had ever dared to dream of. It was unbelievable that it was happening, that she wanted him. This powerful, elusive woman, Angela, the wife of Arthur Petrelli and mother of a son almost his age - to dream of such a thing would have been almost a sacrilege, but now it was happening, and Noah’s body ached to get more of her. His blood rushed through him, and he lost consciousness of anything but the scent of her, and the sensations that flooded through him as she slowly started to unbutton his shirt.
Angela pressed her body against his. His hands were around her thin waist and moved upwards, stroke eagerly the black cloth that concealed her skin, and when his fingers reached her breasts, the phone rang.
Almost immediately, Angela twisted and wrenched loose.
Breathlessly, Noah watched her as she walked over to the phone; he couldn’t hold her, she left him there, and her voice seemed to be calm as she answered and stopped the terrible ringing noise.
Noah was too overwhelmed to understand much of what the conversation was about, but it was over soon.
When Angela turned around and faced him, Noah came back to reality.
“That was Peter’s nanny”, Angela explained. “Unfortunately, there has been an incident… they are coming back. Noah, this time, I’m afraid that you really must leave.”
“Yes”, he said, “of course. I understand.”
She is Mrs Petrelli, he reminded himself; a wife, a mother. This has only been a dream - that is surely what she is going to tell me.
“Perhaps this was a mistake after all.”
“No, don’t say that.”
Noah got up from the couch, his nervousness was gone as if he had never felt it, and he knew that he was never going to be afraid of her again, not as before.
“Let’s just say”, he begged, “that it was a dream.”
Angela smiled and agreed that it had been a dream. A dream, and nothing more.
And Angela Petrelli was serious. To her, dreams were as important as the time awake, Noah knew that, but this particular dream was something she never alluded to. Never once did she hint at it during all the years that followed, and neither did he.
But for a long time, he did dream of her. He dreamed that one day they were going to finish what they had started, and he waited for her to give him some kind of sign. But she never did.
And then he met Sandra.
Sandra was such a sweet and innocent young girl. Uncomplicated and easy to be with. Not my type, was his thought when he first met her, but then it started to work in her favour - the fact that she was as far away from resembling Angela Petrelli that any woman could be. She hadn’t had and wouldn’t ever have anything to do with the Company. At first, he was unsure if he was going to handle two so separated lives, but at the same time, the thought was appealing to him.
When he started thinking about marrying her, he talked to Angela, and she said:
“That is excellent, Noah - in fact, marrying this girl is the best thing you could do.”
“Why, what do you mean?”
“You are a Company man”, she said, “you are devoted to the Company, and that is as it should be. But having a family, Noah, is what keeps us safe. Safe from getting lost in the cause, in the quest. There will come days when the weight feels too heavy on your shoulders, days when the purpose of it all seems unclear, far away. Then it is your family that will help you; you will know that your job is to make the world a better place for them.”
Noah gulped, her words made him hot and cold at the same time, trembling. He knew that voice of hers; it wasn’t the voice of ‘you should’ or ‘if you want to, you could…’
No, it was the voice of ‘you must’.
“Did you dream it?”
Angela Petrelli nodded her head.
“I know that when the time comes, you will do what ever it takes to protect your family. Even when it means that you have to distance yourself from them, even hurt them sometimes. Everything to keep them safe. That is what we all do, ultimately.”
“But… but I don’t even have a family yet.”
“No, but you will have.”
That settled it. From there, it was he and Sandra. And then there was Claire. The Company gave him Claire, and not long after, Lyle was born. And not until then did he realize what Angela had been talking about, and why she had gotten up from that couch to answer the phone. Maybe she hadn’t known that it was the nanny, but the mere thought that it could be was enough.
So Noah Bennet was from that day on a family man, as well as a Company man. He thought that Angela Petrelli was the only one who understood how his two separate identities were indissolubly intertwined.
And even now, many years later, when he really has been forced to the extreme in order to protect his loved ones, does he share that special, secret connection with Angela Petrelli. Admittedly, when she had given him that stupid watch, he would have wanted to throw it right back at her. He thought she had lost it, that he had lost her. At least, he had given the damn thing back later.
And now, she has given him his umbrella.
It is nothing, of course. And yet Noah chooses to take it as a sign that just like he, she has not forgotten. She wanted to seduce him once, and by doing that, she created an unbreakable bond. Ever since that day he has trusted her, even when she told him to marry another woman, and everything he ever did was for her, just as much as for Claire.
Noah’s face is dry but his feet are cold and wet.
The rain brings him back from the memories, and he remembers that Danko is waiting for him, waiting to destroy everything and everyone he has ever fought for.
But just you wait, Noah Bennet thinks, just you wait. You don’t know whom you’re up against.