Under a Bad Sign 2
Title: Under a Bad Sign 2
Characters/Pairing: Nadia, Maya.
Rating: PG
Word count: 2,000
Disclaimer: Do not own.
Summery: Rescued from Odessa Maya has to make a hard choice.
Note: KW Verse. Takes place after Let Go. Nadia sees things more clearly.
Parts: 1, 2, 3
For the first time in her young life words have failed her. Once so exuberant and demanding she sits quietly at the sides and watches as the sudden teutonic plate shifting of her life rumbles around her. For the first time she truly wants to feel small and unnoticed.
The helicopters whirr and whoop through the air, lifting up and down and upsetting the dust as she and her mom are herded onto a plane, soldiers all around. Her mother couldn't stay seated, was the most unhinged she had ever seen her and constantly demands to be taken to see her father.
"Daddy?" her question goes unanswered as she's left to stand outside the compartment he was in. It was only then that the blood on her mother's hands had become apparent, saw that it was smeared and drying on her own fingers. Absentmindedly wiping her hands on her gingham dress she watches everything with huge, gimlet eyes, taking in as much as she could but somehow she was hindered. It was an overload, just colours, sounds and smells pressing in on her.
"Is he alive? Is he alive?" Her mama says over and over again, seemingly just on the edge of hysteria as people with masks and rubber gloves move in and out of view. More blood. Nadia moves in closer and peers around to see her father strapped down to a gurney, shirt off and every inch of skin there red and shiny. She can even smell it. Gagging she wants to move back but she can't. She was rooted and breathless.
"He will be now." A doctor says as he inserts a syringe full of blood - no pretending what that is - into a long thin tube that was attached to her father's arm. The blood surges along the tube until all of it was red and seconds later her father inhales a long, deep ragged breath, lurching off the bed.
"Dios, dios, dios! Gabriel?" Crying her mother leans over him, searching his face carefully but his eyes flutter closed as he slumps back down, sweaty and incredibly pale.
"He's been sedated, he won't wake up while on the plane. Not with the norms." Uttering confusingly the doctor moves past Nadia and heads towards the cockpit, stripping off his blooded scrubs before going. Still staying in the same position she watches as her mom stands and cries, cleaning the blood away from his chest with a cloth and then brushing his sweaty hair back. Nadia inhales when she tenderly kisses his face and takes a seat, looking into his face with relief, even expressing these little quivering smiles of happiness.
Feeling even more lost Nadia takes a step forward and touches her mother's shoulder. "Mama?"
She gasps, stands and seeing Nadia there leans her body back, arms spread, trying to hide the upsetting sight on the bed. "Nadia! Don't look baby, just wait over there. Don't look."
"Was he in an accident? Is-is daddy hurt bad? The blood..." she trails off as her mom's face crumples up with an emotion Nadia clearly recognises as guilt and tears well up. Her mom looks down to see the blood on her hands and groans low, turning her back to snatch at a clean cloth and begins scrubbing feverishly.
"He - he was hurt but - but - dios - please wait outside Nadia."
"Is he going to die?" she feels her own tears ready to choke her, the fear that had been slithering in her belly now crawling all over her skin. But when she's suddenly enveloped in the warm and comforting smell of her mother her fears become less intense.
"He's just sleeping, that's all. Just asleep...Come on." Nadia's head against a shoulder and her arms wrapped around her neck her mother asks to be seated somewhere else and she sounds strange to Nadia, almost angry. But when Nadia's seated and buckled up loving eyes peer into her face and her mom wipes away her tears and nods her head at the small aeroplane window. "Look where you are Nadia. Once we fly above the clouds look out the window. It's like heaven."
*
The blood on her fingers washes away between her feet as they tell her to shower in a bright white room, her mother in the next cubical and a few other women she recognises from the Base. She keeps her eyes averted as they change into grey clothes, greatly embarrassed.
"There, all clean! I bet you're hungry, right sweet-pea?"
"Sweet what?" she asks a stranger distracted as her mother pulls her to one side and gets down on a knee. She smiles and kisses her cheeks, toweling her hair and stares with eyes the belie her unease.
"I want you to be a really good girl Nadia. I'm going with these people to find out what is going on and then I'll be right back."
"Will you find out about daddy?" her mom nods after a hesitating moment and looks over Nadia's head, at Jenny's mom and then nods again gratefully. Meredith was nowhere to be found.
"You stick with Linda and Jenny ok? Don't go anywhere without them." rising to her feet she delivers one more kiss to Nadia's forehead before she follows a woman in a suit down the corridor and through a set of doors and is gone.
"Come on honey, I think they're going to feed us at last..."
They move along the corridor in a small herd and the smell of warm food makes her belly growl. They are fed soup and bread and Nadia grimaces at the watery and dry taste but too hungry to complain and push away her food she eats. Once fed they are then led along another corridor and into a section of the building that appears to be something of a hospital. Seated in a reception area the peoples of the Base are called in and seen one by one. When it is Nadia's turn to go in she fists her hands and tries not to be afraid. The nurse if very kind and motherly as she places her in a chair next to her desk. Other people - doctors she thinks - stand by the wall and watch as the nurse pulls up her sleeve and wipes a damp cloth on the crook of her arm.
"Am I getting an injection? I'm not sick."
The nurse smiles simperingly. "I'm taking your blood sweetie. It's nothing to be worried about. We take every ones blood. It's procedure."
"Don't you have to ask one of my parents for permission?" she had seen that in a movie once. The nurse's smile freezes as she takes up the needle but then grows more brightly.
"You're smart girl. Like I said, everyone has to have it done, it's the law. Now either look away or stare at me."
Nadia stares at the woman, at the bags under her eyes and tilts her head. "You look sad and tired."
"Do I? I think you'd have to be some lucky person not to feel bad from time to time. Especially now, it's been a long few years...But at least we're out of quarantine now, we're safe and healthy. You are safe here Nadia, free." she mutters under her breath as she lets go of her arm and Nadia looks down at her arm and sees a tiny bead of blood on her skin that's hastily covered by cotton wool. She gets no candy - a shortage - and she slips down from her seat and walks out but then hides beside the door as the nurse cleans up, speaking to the other people there.
"Poor kid, can you imagine having that psycho for a dad? I heard that the room they found in him in was a complete bloodbath. I'll tell you for nothing I would have shanked him long before that, Christ. Her mother's a hero."
"True but she's no saint either, from what I've heard. He's one powerful psycho though, I mean it's Sylar! I'd kill to have multi. You know I heard that he can turn into a wolf." As they all laugh quietly at the man's joke Nadia turns when Linda touches her shoulder and Nadia sits back down, quietly thinking as she tries to make sense of what she just heard.
*
"Nadia? I know I said a week but we might have to leave here unexpectedly. I don't know when but I need you to be prepared. Be a brave girl and do what I say, ok?"
"Ok." she answers and blinks in the dark. It was nighttime and she would usually be fast asleep but she hasn't been able to, not in this place. Her mother rests in the bed opposite, not sleeping either. She had been very on edge since they had been taken to New York, muttering to herself and pacing this small room in deep agitation. Why Nadia wasn't sure but she's given up on her mother telling her much of anything anymore.
"Are you ok baby? You're not yourself. You can come sleep in my bed if you like?"
"I'm alright mama, just thinking..."
"About what?"
"Daddy. When can we see him?"
There is a silence before her mother speaks and it sounds forced. "I talked to the people in charge here, I told them that I wanted to see him and they said they'll think about it. But it's difficult, he's...somewhere hard to get to Nadia."
"Where?"
"I - I don't know. Please try to sleep baby, you're getting dark circles around your eyes."
"Is it a hospital? Is he still bleeding?"
"No, no baby. I - I'm so sorry you had to see that. I never wanted..." she trails off and Nadia stares at the door, biting the flesh on the inside of her mouth, her eyes burning. But then her mother speaks again and her voice shakes badly. "I love you Nadia, you do know that don't you?" Nadia swallows with difficulty, wanting nothing more then to kick the covers off and run to her but her doubts keep her still.
"I know, I love you to...Mama? Why do they lock us in here?" Her mother stays here after they take Nadia out to play in the small garden outside for a few hours. But she's never seen the huge city around her. They always lock the door at night.
"They - they're not locking you in here. It's not a prison, you can go out and play whenever you like..." again that mealy-mouthed stammering. Both her parents have always been this way but now it just seems so much clearer to her why.
But you are not free? She keeps the thoughts to herself and looks at her hands in the dark, feeling her skin where the needle pricked her and not turning her head voices something that's been gnawing at her even before what she had heard earlier, when she had seen her bloody father and red handed mother. She's been witness to the suppressed rage, violence and dark secrets her whole life but always peripherally, always at arms length and behind closed doors. Now she couldn't help but see it.
"You didn't hurt daddy, did you?" She hopes it sounds like a question.
A gasp in sounded from the other bed and she turns her head but sees nothing. She repeats her question and the only response is sudden sobs, a sound muffled immediately and Nadia pictures the blanket stuffed between her mother's teeth. Nadia stares up at the ceiling for a long time before she tugs the blankets over her head and stuffy blackness cloaks her. It's funny, she always thought turning thirteen would be a turning point, would be like a gear clicking into place and making her adult. Not seven and eight months. She doesn't feel any older in her body but something has been left behind and something has replaced it.
*
Next part: Maya and Gabriel confront each other.
Characters/Pairing: Nadia, Maya.
Rating: PG
Word count: 2,000
Disclaimer: Do not own.
Summery: Rescued from Odessa Maya has to make a hard choice.
Note: KW Verse. Takes place after Let Go. Nadia sees things more clearly.
Parts: 1, 2, 3
For the first time in her young life words have failed her. Once so exuberant and demanding she sits quietly at the sides and watches as the sudden teutonic plate shifting of her life rumbles around her. For the first time she truly wants to feel small and unnoticed.
The helicopters whirr and whoop through the air, lifting up and down and upsetting the dust as she and her mom are herded onto a plane, soldiers all around. Her mother couldn't stay seated, was the most unhinged she had ever seen her and constantly demands to be taken to see her father.
"Daddy?" her question goes unanswered as she's left to stand outside the compartment he was in. It was only then that the blood on her mother's hands had become apparent, saw that it was smeared and drying on her own fingers. Absentmindedly wiping her hands on her gingham dress she watches everything with huge, gimlet eyes, taking in as much as she could but somehow she was hindered. It was an overload, just colours, sounds and smells pressing in on her.
"Is he alive? Is he alive?" Her mama says over and over again, seemingly just on the edge of hysteria as people with masks and rubber gloves move in and out of view. More blood. Nadia moves in closer and peers around to see her father strapped down to a gurney, shirt off and every inch of skin there red and shiny. She can even smell it. Gagging she wants to move back but she can't. She was rooted and breathless.
"He will be now." A doctor says as he inserts a syringe full of blood - no pretending what that is - into a long thin tube that was attached to her father's arm. The blood surges along the tube until all of it was red and seconds later her father inhales a long, deep ragged breath, lurching off the bed.
"Dios, dios, dios! Gabriel?" Crying her mother leans over him, searching his face carefully but his eyes flutter closed as he slumps back down, sweaty and incredibly pale.
"He's been sedated, he won't wake up while on the plane. Not with the norms." Uttering confusingly the doctor moves past Nadia and heads towards the cockpit, stripping off his blooded scrubs before going. Still staying in the same position she watches as her mom stands and cries, cleaning the blood away from his chest with a cloth and then brushing his sweaty hair back. Nadia inhales when she tenderly kisses his face and takes a seat, looking into his face with relief, even expressing these little quivering smiles of happiness.
Feeling even more lost Nadia takes a step forward and touches her mother's shoulder. "Mama?"
She gasps, stands and seeing Nadia there leans her body back, arms spread, trying to hide the upsetting sight on the bed. "Nadia! Don't look baby, just wait over there. Don't look."
"Was he in an accident? Is-is daddy hurt bad? The blood..." she trails off as her mom's face crumples up with an emotion Nadia clearly recognises as guilt and tears well up. Her mom looks down to see the blood on her hands and groans low, turning her back to snatch at a clean cloth and begins scrubbing feverishly.
"He - he was hurt but - but - dios - please wait outside Nadia."
"Is he going to die?" she feels her own tears ready to choke her, the fear that had been slithering in her belly now crawling all over her skin. But when she's suddenly enveloped in the warm and comforting smell of her mother her fears become less intense.
"He's just sleeping, that's all. Just asleep...Come on." Nadia's head against a shoulder and her arms wrapped around her neck her mother asks to be seated somewhere else and she sounds strange to Nadia, almost angry. But when Nadia's seated and buckled up loving eyes peer into her face and her mom wipes away her tears and nods her head at the small aeroplane window. "Look where you are Nadia. Once we fly above the clouds look out the window. It's like heaven."
*
The blood on her fingers washes away between her feet as they tell her to shower in a bright white room, her mother in the next cubical and a few other women she recognises from the Base. She keeps her eyes averted as they change into grey clothes, greatly embarrassed.
"There, all clean! I bet you're hungry, right sweet-pea?"
"Sweet what?" she asks a stranger distracted as her mother pulls her to one side and gets down on a knee. She smiles and kisses her cheeks, toweling her hair and stares with eyes the belie her unease.
"I want you to be a really good girl Nadia. I'm going with these people to find out what is going on and then I'll be right back."
"Will you find out about daddy?" her mom nods after a hesitating moment and looks over Nadia's head, at Jenny's mom and then nods again gratefully. Meredith was nowhere to be found.
"You stick with Linda and Jenny ok? Don't go anywhere without them." rising to her feet she delivers one more kiss to Nadia's forehead before she follows a woman in a suit down the corridor and through a set of doors and is gone.
"Come on honey, I think they're going to feed us at last..."
They move along the corridor in a small herd and the smell of warm food makes her belly growl. They are fed soup and bread and Nadia grimaces at the watery and dry taste but too hungry to complain and push away her food she eats. Once fed they are then led along another corridor and into a section of the building that appears to be something of a hospital. Seated in a reception area the peoples of the Base are called in and seen one by one. When it is Nadia's turn to go in she fists her hands and tries not to be afraid. The nurse if very kind and motherly as she places her in a chair next to her desk. Other people - doctors she thinks - stand by the wall and watch as the nurse pulls up her sleeve and wipes a damp cloth on the crook of her arm.
"Am I getting an injection? I'm not sick."
The nurse smiles simperingly. "I'm taking your blood sweetie. It's nothing to be worried about. We take every ones blood. It's procedure."
"Don't you have to ask one of my parents for permission?" she had seen that in a movie once. The nurse's smile freezes as she takes up the needle but then grows more brightly.
"You're smart girl. Like I said, everyone has to have it done, it's the law. Now either look away or stare at me."
Nadia stares at the woman, at the bags under her eyes and tilts her head. "You look sad and tired."
"Do I? I think you'd have to be some lucky person not to feel bad from time to time. Especially now, it's been a long few years...But at least we're out of quarantine now, we're safe and healthy. You are safe here Nadia, free." she mutters under her breath as she lets go of her arm and Nadia looks down at her arm and sees a tiny bead of blood on her skin that's hastily covered by cotton wool. She gets no candy - a shortage - and she slips down from her seat and walks out but then hides beside the door as the nurse cleans up, speaking to the other people there.
"Poor kid, can you imagine having that psycho for a dad? I heard that the room they found in him in was a complete bloodbath. I'll tell you for nothing I would have shanked him long before that, Christ. Her mother's a hero."
"True but she's no saint either, from what I've heard. He's one powerful psycho though, I mean it's Sylar! I'd kill to have multi. You know I heard that he can turn into a wolf." As they all laugh quietly at the man's joke Nadia turns when Linda touches her shoulder and Nadia sits back down, quietly thinking as she tries to make sense of what she just heard.
*
"Nadia? I know I said a week but we might have to leave here unexpectedly. I don't know when but I need you to be prepared. Be a brave girl and do what I say, ok?"
"Ok." she answers and blinks in the dark. It was nighttime and she would usually be fast asleep but she hasn't been able to, not in this place. Her mother rests in the bed opposite, not sleeping either. She had been very on edge since they had been taken to New York, muttering to herself and pacing this small room in deep agitation. Why Nadia wasn't sure but she's given up on her mother telling her much of anything anymore.
"Are you ok baby? You're not yourself. You can come sleep in my bed if you like?"
"I'm alright mama, just thinking..."
"About what?"
"Daddy. When can we see him?"
There is a silence before her mother speaks and it sounds forced. "I talked to the people in charge here, I told them that I wanted to see him and they said they'll think about it. But it's difficult, he's...somewhere hard to get to Nadia."
"Where?"
"I - I don't know. Please try to sleep baby, you're getting dark circles around your eyes."
"Is it a hospital? Is he still bleeding?"
"No, no baby. I - I'm so sorry you had to see that. I never wanted..." she trails off and Nadia stares at the door, biting the flesh on the inside of her mouth, her eyes burning. But then her mother speaks again and her voice shakes badly. "I love you Nadia, you do know that don't you?" Nadia swallows with difficulty, wanting nothing more then to kick the covers off and run to her but her doubts keep her still.
"I know, I love you to...Mama? Why do they lock us in here?" Her mother stays here after they take Nadia out to play in the small garden outside for a few hours. But she's never seen the huge city around her. They always lock the door at night.
"They - they're not locking you in here. It's not a prison, you can go out and play whenever you like..." again that mealy-mouthed stammering. Both her parents have always been this way but now it just seems so much clearer to her why.
But you are not free? She keeps the thoughts to herself and looks at her hands in the dark, feeling her skin where the needle pricked her and not turning her head voices something that's been gnawing at her even before what she had heard earlier, when she had seen her bloody father and red handed mother. She's been witness to the suppressed rage, violence and dark secrets her whole life but always peripherally, always at arms length and behind closed doors. Now she couldn't help but see it.
"You didn't hurt daddy, did you?" She hopes it sounds like a question.
A gasp in sounded from the other bed and she turns her head but sees nothing. She repeats her question and the only response is sudden sobs, a sound muffled immediately and Nadia pictures the blanket stuffed between her mother's teeth. Nadia stares up at the ceiling for a long time before she tugs the blankets over her head and stuffy blackness cloaks her. It's funny, she always thought turning thirteen would be a turning point, would be like a gear clicking into place and making her adult. Not seven and eight months. She doesn't feel any older in her body but something has been left behind and something has replaced it.
*
Next part: Maya and Gabriel confront each other.