Fic: Left Behind (the Bennet family, Peter Petrelli, PG)

[squills]

Title: Left Behind
Rating: PG
Words: 2400
Characters: Sandra Bennet, Lyle Bennet, Mr. Muggles, Claire Bennet, Noah Bennet, Peter Petrelli
Warnings: Angst - a whole fuckin' lot of angst. Off-screen character death.
Spoilers: Through the end of S2
Disclaimer: Not my characters, not writing this for profit.
A/N: This came to me absolutely out of

Comments

[aurilly]

Jesus H. Christ. You know it's angst when Mr. Muggles has kidney failure.

It's weird. Lyle fic is the only Mohinder-free fic I ever read, and, although it's hard to come by, it always affects me more than any slash. This was gorgeous, a wonderful look into the two most normal characters on the show and how their quiet lives are disrupted in normal ways by all the madness. Lyle's angst at not being able to have a regular reason for his family situation was heartbreaking. And I'm so glad you made Sandra divorce that douche (he is my least favorite character, which is sad, because he was awesome in season 1).

I love Lyle as an architect, doing something chic and in London. The Heroes never get to do anything particularly smart or wordly or normal, so I liked that you reinforced Lyle as a regular character in that way---a true professional (I guess Nathan, too, but now he's a bearded type).

What I loved the most about this was the moment when Peter gave Noah a dirty look for never having told his wife, or erased the entire Homecoming episode so that she wouldn't even be able to understand the context that got Claire killed.

And what I loved second most was the sadness about Claire's face never changing. I always wanted the show to touch upon that with Adam, the horrible sadness and isolation that just HAS to come along with that very slow realization. In my mind, that more than any other thing has to be what contributes to Adam's madness. Also, Claire in the show doesn't know yet that that's what her fate is, too. Fascinating.

Beautiful job!

[squills]

This was gorgeous, a wonderful look into the two most normal characters on the show and how their quiet lives are disrupted in normal ways by all the madness.

Thank you! What I was really going for was the idea that not everyone wants to be in the middle of the action. But that doesn't mean that these people aren't boring, it just means they wish things could be normal. Oddly, I think this fic has roots in thoughts I've had about Mohinder: he's thrown himself into this out of obligation and a need to help others...but does he like it? Or does a part of him desperately long for the days when he was an anonymous young lecturer at a local university?

In a way, I can respect Sandra loving her husband and wanting to support him. But, man...by the time we got to the whole Mohinder-shooting-him-in-the-eye situation, I felt it was completely deserved. He's selfish and untrustworthy. But even here, I was trying to look at it from Sandra's POV, and she really did initiate the divorce as a last resort, and did kind of hope that his love for her would shock him out of his course...but Bennet is never going to leave that life. That's actually why I had Sylar kill Claire - to lead back to what Bennet did to his family in S1 with the memory erasure and manipulation, and all the justifications he's built his existence on. Jerk. He doesn't deserve Sandra.

Claire not changing is something I've considered writing about from her POV. I mean, if her ability has really been activated, she should look 16 forever, shouldn't she? It wouldn't be as bad as...that little girl who was turned in "Interview with the Vampire" (sorry, I've never read an Anne Rice book and don't remember her name)...who was an adult mentally but trapped in a child's body forever. But still, what would it be like to expand intellectually and grow up, and have decade after decade roll by, but still look underage? Here she was still young enough that it wasn't readily apparent to her yet, but to a mother's eagle eyes, it would hit home.

Thank you so much!