FIC: Aftermath by Emma DeMarais (Challenge #5 - Save the Heroes)
Title: Aftermath
Pairing/Characters: Peter, Nathan, Noah, Mohinder, Molly, Niki
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Season 1
Summary: Peter and Nathan in the aftermath (Exploding Man Post-Ep)
Notes/Warnings: Read the disclaimer on my LJ
Peter came to flailing - coughing and sputtering as he struggled to breathe, spitting out the liquid choking his lungs.
Water?
The salty taste in his mouth rousted him from unconsciousness and he kicked up to the surface so he could keep his head above the gentle waves.
He looked around, but all he could see was water.
Ocean?
Peter looked down at himself in time to see his skin regenerate, stretch itself across his limbs, knit itself closed over angry red muscles.
It hit him then - all of it rushing back in a flood of memory.
The bomb.
It was him.
But Nathan got him away safely.
"Nathan!"
He thrashed around in a circle, looking frantically for his brother.
As he turned around he saw the Manhattan skyline in the distance.
Safe.
Whole.
But no Nathan.
He'd flown Peter up high above the landscape and over the ocean then let him go. Peter prayed Nathan had flown far enough away afterwards to not have been caught in the blast as he fell.
Even if he had gotten away... The radiation... Their flight had taken mere seconds, but the dose was probably enough to kill him.
Still, Peter had to find him.
He focused on his powers - on Nathan's power - and rose up out of the water, hovering over the sea as he searched the horizon.
Nathan could be there now - drowning, dying - and he had no idea how to find him.
And then he had an idea.
Molly.
To Noah and Mohinder he'd been gone mere seconds, but to Peter it seemed like an eternity had passed since he'd faced down Claire's gun and decided it was his time to die.
But it wasn't.
He lived.
So Nathan had to too.
He had to.
He landed in Kirby Plaza to a set of stares and gaping mouths.
"Peter!" Noah looked excited and certainly confused.
"I need Molly to help find Nathan," he blurted out without preamble. "He could be dying."
To their credit no one questioned him further. Mohinder rushed back into the building to get a map as Noah fetched Molly for the task.
"He's got to be hurt or at least sick from the radiation," he continued as Noah returned with Molly and Niki in tow. "He told me Linderman can heal people..."
"Linderman is dead," Niki interrupted. "He shot DL trying to kill me so DL took him down."
Peter blanched.
"Is there anyone else with the power to heal?" he asked Noah frantically as he led Molly over to him. "Anyone at all?"
"Not that I know of, but if there's anyone who can find a healer on this planet it's Molly." He gave the young girl's shoulder a squeeze. "Do you think you can do it? Find someone without a name just based on their power?"
"I'll try my best," Molly said with a solemn nod.
"Here!" Mohinder raced up with a map book and a push pin.
Molly sat down cross legged on the concrete and fell still, one hand raised above the map book while the other flipped pages.
The group unconsciously held their breath as her hand wavered and then lowered.
"Nova Scotia,"she sounded out after looking at the map. "Natal Point Lighthouse at the end of Promontory Peninsula."
Peter took one glance at the map and then looked intently at Molly. "Find Nathan. I'll be right back."
He leaped up into the air, leaving a sonic boom behind.
Natal Point Lighthouse was easy to find - its searchlight his port in a storm.
As he landed an old woman with long white hair stood at the entrance as if waiting for him, completely composed despite the fact that she'd just witnessed a man flying.
He rushed up to her and before he could speak she thrust a piece of paper at him.
"Bring him. Quickly."
He looked at the paper and found a drawing made by a familiar hand - Isaac's.
The sketch depicted him holding Nathan's limp and ravaged body as the woman laid her hand on his forehead.
Even in the crude sketch, Nathan looked... He looked like he was already dead.
"Wait right here," he told her and took off again.
Kirby Plaza was just as he'd left it seconds earlier.
Molly held out the map book to him.
"I found him. I found your brother."
Peter took one look at the map and took off again.
Nathan might have been disoriented, maybe barely able to fly. He probably just headed for the biggest landmark to show through the clouds as he returned to earth.
Peter hovered in the air in front of the Statue of Liberty, searching, seeking, desperate.
He swooped in lower then sped up as he saw a sight that both elated him and shook him to the core.
Nathan's body was crumpled in a heap at the foot of the statue, his skin blistered and peeled away in parts. The pristine impeccably dressed politician was gone. What remained was a ravaged soul. He wasn't moving and as Peter rushed to him he just knew he wasn't breathing either.
"No, no, no..." he muttered, gathering his brother in his arms, clinging to him as tightly as Nathan had clung to him in the final seconds before the explosion. "You can't die. I'm going to save you."
Clutching Nathan close he took off again and was in Nova Scotia in mere seconds.
He laid his brother down gently, reverently, at the old woman's feet, cradling his head as he looked up at her beseechingly.
"Save him," he begged tearfully, his voice cracking with emotion. "He saved my life. He saved the world. I can't let him die."
Nodding, the woman knelt down and put her hand on Nathan's forehead, her brow knit in intense concentration.
Peter watched breathless and anxious then began to feel a warmth infuse his body.
Alarmed, he looked at his hands, panicked in the fear of that tell-tale glow again.
Nothing.
Just warmth and a feeling of peace.
He looked up at her in realization.
"I'm absorbing your power," he told her.
She took hold of his hand and placed it over Nathan's heart.
"Then help me help him."
Peter bent to the task, focusing all his newfound power into his brother's body, feeling the shift within himself as his power to destroy was eclipsed by the power to heal.
Somehow he knew his whole life had led him to this moment: choosing nursing school, deciding to go into hospice care, devoting himself to those who were close to life's end...
He sent up a silent prayer that they would have enough power between them to cheat death.
At first nothing happened, then slowly the blisters began to lessen, heal, disappear.
The skin smoothed and became perfect and unblemished again.
Finally with a gasp Nathan's eyes opened as he jolted awake.
"Peter!" came his automatic cry. He looked bewildered, but locked onto his brother's face immediately.
"Nathan..."
With one movement they embraced each other tightly, clinging to each other as the fear finally disappeared, replaced with relief and gratitude.
Peter glanced up to see the old woman head for the door of the lighthouse. Before she went inside she folded the drawing in her hand and gave him a nod and a smile.
"I couldn't let you go," Nathan murmured into his neck. "No matter what anyone said, I'd rather die than have you go through that alone."
"I was so scared." Peter fought back tears at the memory. "I didn't want to die, but I couldn't control it. I couldn't kill all those people; Nathan. I couldn't do that."
Nathan pulled back and took Peter's face in his hands, looking at him apologetically. "You were right all along, Pete. This was our destiny. All of us were there, we played our parts, we made the difference. I should never have doubted you."
"Why did you? What made you believe that we couldn't stop it?" Peter looked a little sheepish at Nathan's confusion. "I read your mind in the parking garage. It's what you were thinking."
Nathan paused for a moment, reflecting. "Because Ma had me convinced the bomb was inevitable," he said quietly. "She said that everyone was going to die regardless and my role was to lead in the aftermath."
"She was wrong," Peter said vehemently.
"Go easy on her," Nathan soothed, stroking Peter's hair affectionately. "She was right in a way. The explosion was inevitable. It was the loss of life that wasn't."
Peter fell silent a moment, just relaxing into the comfort of his brother's touch and the safety of knowing his nightmare was finally over.
"I really do love you, Nathan."
"I know, Pete." Nathan kissed his forehead and Peter pulled him back into his embrace again, unwilling to let go of what he almost lost forever. "I love you too."
-O-
Pairing/Characters: Peter, Nathan, Noah, Mohinder, Molly, Niki
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Season 1
Summary: Peter and Nathan in the aftermath (Exploding Man Post-Ep)
Notes/Warnings: Read the disclaimer on my LJ
Peter came to flailing - coughing and sputtering as he struggled to breathe, spitting out the liquid choking his lungs.
Water?
The salty taste in his mouth rousted him from unconsciousness and he kicked up to the surface so he could keep his head above the gentle waves.
He looked around, but all he could see was water.
Ocean?
Peter looked down at himself in time to see his skin regenerate, stretch itself across his limbs, knit itself closed over angry red muscles.
It hit him then - all of it rushing back in a flood of memory.
The bomb.
It was him.
But Nathan got him away safely.
"Nathan!"
He thrashed around in a circle, looking frantically for his brother.
As he turned around he saw the Manhattan skyline in the distance.
Safe.
Whole.
But no Nathan.
He'd flown Peter up high above the landscape and over the ocean then let him go. Peter prayed Nathan had flown far enough away afterwards to not have been caught in the blast as he fell.
Even if he had gotten away... The radiation... Their flight had taken mere seconds, but the dose was probably enough to kill him.
Still, Peter had to find him.
He focused on his powers - on Nathan's power - and rose up out of the water, hovering over the sea as he searched the horizon.
Nathan could be there now - drowning, dying - and he had no idea how to find him.
And then he had an idea.
Molly.
To Noah and Mohinder he'd been gone mere seconds, but to Peter it seemed like an eternity had passed since he'd faced down Claire's gun and decided it was his time to die.
But it wasn't.
He lived.
So Nathan had to too.
He had to.
He landed in Kirby Plaza to a set of stares and gaping mouths.
"Peter!" Noah looked excited and certainly confused.
"I need Molly to help find Nathan," he blurted out without preamble. "He could be dying."
To their credit no one questioned him further. Mohinder rushed back into the building to get a map as Noah fetched Molly for the task.
"He's got to be hurt or at least sick from the radiation," he continued as Noah returned with Molly and Niki in tow. "He told me Linderman can heal people..."
"Linderman is dead," Niki interrupted. "He shot DL trying to kill me so DL took him down."
Peter blanched.
"Is there anyone else with the power to heal?" he asked Noah frantically as he led Molly over to him. "Anyone at all?"
"Not that I know of, but if there's anyone who can find a healer on this planet it's Molly." He gave the young girl's shoulder a squeeze. "Do you think you can do it? Find someone without a name just based on their power?"
"I'll try my best," Molly said with a solemn nod.
"Here!" Mohinder raced up with a map book and a push pin.
Molly sat down cross legged on the concrete and fell still, one hand raised above the map book while the other flipped pages.
The group unconsciously held their breath as her hand wavered and then lowered.
"Nova Scotia,"she sounded out after looking at the map. "Natal Point Lighthouse at the end of Promontory Peninsula."
Peter took one glance at the map and then looked intently at Molly. "Find Nathan. I'll be right back."
He leaped up into the air, leaving a sonic boom behind.
Natal Point Lighthouse was easy to find - its searchlight his port in a storm.
As he landed an old woman with long white hair stood at the entrance as if waiting for him, completely composed despite the fact that she'd just witnessed a man flying.
He rushed up to her and before he could speak she thrust a piece of paper at him.
"Bring him. Quickly."
He looked at the paper and found a drawing made by a familiar hand - Isaac's.
The sketch depicted him holding Nathan's limp and ravaged body as the woman laid her hand on his forehead.
Even in the crude sketch, Nathan looked... He looked like he was already dead.
"Wait right here," he told her and took off again.
Kirby Plaza was just as he'd left it seconds earlier.
Molly held out the map book to him.
"I found him. I found your brother."
Peter took one look at the map and took off again.
Nathan might have been disoriented, maybe barely able to fly. He probably just headed for the biggest landmark to show through the clouds as he returned to earth.
Peter hovered in the air in front of the Statue of Liberty, searching, seeking, desperate.
He swooped in lower then sped up as he saw a sight that both elated him and shook him to the core.
Nathan's body was crumpled in a heap at the foot of the statue, his skin blistered and peeled away in parts. The pristine impeccably dressed politician was gone. What remained was a ravaged soul. He wasn't moving and as Peter rushed to him he just knew he wasn't breathing either.
"No, no, no..." he muttered, gathering his brother in his arms, clinging to him as tightly as Nathan had clung to him in the final seconds before the explosion. "You can't die. I'm going to save you."
Clutching Nathan close he took off again and was in Nova Scotia in mere seconds.
He laid his brother down gently, reverently, at the old woman's feet, cradling his head as he looked up at her beseechingly.
"Save him," he begged tearfully, his voice cracking with emotion. "He saved my life. He saved the world. I can't let him die."
Nodding, the woman knelt down and put her hand on Nathan's forehead, her brow knit in intense concentration.
Peter watched breathless and anxious then began to feel a warmth infuse his body.
Alarmed, he looked at his hands, panicked in the fear of that tell-tale glow again.
Nothing.
Just warmth and a feeling of peace.
He looked up at her in realization.
"I'm absorbing your power," he told her.
She took hold of his hand and placed it over Nathan's heart.
"Then help me help him."
Peter bent to the task, focusing all his newfound power into his brother's body, feeling the shift within himself as his power to destroy was eclipsed by the power to heal.
Somehow he knew his whole life had led him to this moment: choosing nursing school, deciding to go into hospice care, devoting himself to those who were close to life's end...
He sent up a silent prayer that they would have enough power between them to cheat death.
At first nothing happened, then slowly the blisters began to lessen, heal, disappear.
The skin smoothed and became perfect and unblemished again.
Finally with a gasp Nathan's eyes opened as he jolted awake.
"Peter!" came his automatic cry. He looked bewildered, but locked onto his brother's face immediately.
"Nathan..."
With one movement they embraced each other tightly, clinging to each other as the fear finally disappeared, replaced with relief and gratitude.
Peter glanced up to see the old woman head for the door of the lighthouse. Before she went inside she folded the drawing in her hand and gave him a nod and a smile.
"I couldn't let you go," Nathan murmured into his neck. "No matter what anyone said, I'd rather die than have you go through that alone."
"I was so scared." Peter fought back tears at the memory. "I didn't want to die, but I couldn't control it. I couldn't kill all those people; Nathan. I couldn't do that."
Nathan pulled back and took Peter's face in his hands, looking at him apologetically. "You were right all along, Pete. This was our destiny. All of us were there, we played our parts, we made the difference. I should never have doubted you."
"Why did you? What made you believe that we couldn't stop it?" Peter looked a little sheepish at Nathan's confusion. "I read your mind in the parking garage. It's what you were thinking."
Nathan paused for a moment, reflecting. "Because Ma had me convinced the bomb was inevitable," he said quietly. "She said that everyone was going to die regardless and my role was to lead in the aftermath."
"She was wrong," Peter said vehemently.
"Go easy on her," Nathan soothed, stroking Peter's hair affectionately. "She was right in a way. The explosion was inevitable. It was the loss of life that wasn't."
Peter fell silent a moment, just relaxing into the comfort of his brother's touch and the safety of knowing his nightmare was finally over.
"I really do love you, Nathan."
"I know, Pete." Nathan kissed his forehead and Peter pulled him back into his embrace again, unwilling to let go of what he almost lost forever. "I love you too."
-O-