Heroes Fic: A Personal Kind of Worship
Title: A Personal Kind of Worship
Author: caffeinified
Fandom: Heroes
Characters/Pairing: Nathan and family
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I don't own them. It's just for fun.
Summary: A very short little scene. Set around the beginning of Season One.
Nathan wheeled the chair up the ramp that had been put in shortly after the tragic car accident that had crippled his wife. The Petrelli family had been faithful, respected members of St. Patrick’s Cathedral for decades. It wouldn’t do for them not to have access because of a unforeseen horrific accident. The church had readily helped to make the structure more accessible for them.
His lips curled into a tight smile that he mentally dubbed his ‘campaign smile’. Patrons greeted both him and Heidi who wore the same fixed smile. They met with his mother at the top of the ramp and made their way into the dark church. He always wondered why churches were so dim. Easier to hide in, he supposed… unless you were a Petrelli. There were a few rows that the Petrelli family and their social contacts always occupied. None of the normal crowd would dare to infiltrate the chosen pews.
He ushered his mother and two sons into the pew before himself on the edge next to Heidi as propriety demanded. If he had been taught anything, it had been to be concerned about such things as social etiquette and image. Almost unconsciously, he reached up to make sure his tie was perfectly straight before he began shaking hands with people in the surrounding pews.
Words that were meant as kindness and niceties fell onto his shoulders with a weight so heavy that were he not an expert at performing in this particularly crowded show, he would be certain the weight were visibly pushing him down.
’Good luck with the election in two weeks.’ ‘You’re up in the polls.’ ‘How is Heidi’s rehab?’ ‘Why isn’t Peter here?’ ‘You look more and more like your father everyday.’
He sat down as the service began and bowed his head, glad for the small respite from the perfectly fine-tuned performance. Church should be more. He knew that. But for someone who made a life of not feeling things on a regular basis, church was simply a man spouting words that meant nothing to him. It was a place to make nice with contacts. It was a show with himself and his family center stage.
He watched amusedly as his sons, Simon and Monty passed a paper back and forth with a tic tac toe board on it. He remembered a time when he and Peter had done the same thing and the simple act moved him more than any priests’ words could have. The boys giggled quietly at the end of one game earning a stern look from his mother and a curious look from Heidi. A few of the attendees around them glanced back to check where the noise came from
Nathan’s eyes narrowed when his mother took the pencil and paper from the boys. After only a moment’s hesitation, he pulled an offering envelope out of the back of the pew in front of him and a pen from inside his suit coat. He drew the four lines that would make the tic tac toe board and put an ‘x’ in the top left square before passing it to the boys who both looked wide-eyed up to him around large toothy smiles. He winked at them and nodded his encouragement before putting one index finger to his lips, a sign to them that it was okay as long as they were quiet.
Here in the middle of church his mother couldn’t scold him or ask him what his father would think, although he knew that he would hear about it later. She never let him miss any of his so-called mistakes. None of his family did.
As he passed the paper back and forth with his son’s, purposefully letting them win as he had with Peter so many times when he’d been little, a contented feeling washed over him. The crowded room seemed to narrow to just himself, Simon, and Monty. He feigned a silent, mock surprise each time they won a game and then sternly drew another board. This… he decided, was his church and his own personal kind of worship.
Author: caffeinified
Fandom: Heroes
Characters/Pairing: Nathan and family
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I don't own them. It's just for fun.
Summary: A very short little scene. Set around the beginning of Season One.
Nathan wheeled the chair up the ramp that had been put in shortly after the tragic car accident that had crippled his wife. The Petrelli family had been faithful, respected members of St. Patrick’s Cathedral for decades. It wouldn’t do for them not to have access because of a unforeseen horrific accident. The church had readily helped to make the structure more accessible for them.
His lips curled into a tight smile that he mentally dubbed his ‘campaign smile’. Patrons greeted both him and Heidi who wore the same fixed smile. They met with his mother at the top of the ramp and made their way into the dark church. He always wondered why churches were so dim. Easier to hide in, he supposed… unless you were a Petrelli. There were a few rows that the Petrelli family and their social contacts always occupied. None of the normal crowd would dare to infiltrate the chosen pews.
He ushered his mother and two sons into the pew before himself on the edge next to Heidi as propriety demanded. If he had been taught anything, it had been to be concerned about such things as social etiquette and image. Almost unconsciously, he reached up to make sure his tie was perfectly straight before he began shaking hands with people in the surrounding pews.
Words that were meant as kindness and niceties fell onto his shoulders with a weight so heavy that were he not an expert at performing in this particularly crowded show, he would be certain the weight were visibly pushing him down.
’Good luck with the election in two weeks.’ ‘You’re up in the polls.’ ‘How is Heidi’s rehab?’ ‘Why isn’t Peter here?’ ‘You look more and more like your father everyday.’
He sat down as the service began and bowed his head, glad for the small respite from the perfectly fine-tuned performance. Church should be more. He knew that. But for someone who made a life of not feeling things on a regular basis, church was simply a man spouting words that meant nothing to him. It was a place to make nice with contacts. It was a show with himself and his family center stage.
He watched amusedly as his sons, Simon and Monty passed a paper back and forth with a tic tac toe board on it. He remembered a time when he and Peter had done the same thing and the simple act moved him more than any priests’ words could have. The boys giggled quietly at the end of one game earning a stern look from his mother and a curious look from Heidi. A few of the attendees around them glanced back to check where the noise came from
Nathan’s eyes narrowed when his mother took the pencil and paper from the boys. After only a moment’s hesitation, he pulled an offering envelope out of the back of the pew in front of him and a pen from inside his suit coat. He drew the four lines that would make the tic tac toe board and put an ‘x’ in the top left square before passing it to the boys who both looked wide-eyed up to him around large toothy smiles. He winked at them and nodded his encouragement before putting one index finger to his lips, a sign to them that it was okay as long as they were quiet.
Here in the middle of church his mother couldn’t scold him or ask him what his father would think, although he knew that he would hear about it later. She never let him miss any of his so-called mistakes. None of his family did.
As he passed the paper back and forth with his son’s, purposefully letting them win as he had with Peter so many times when he’d been little, a contented feeling washed over him. The crowded room seemed to narrow to just himself, Simon, and Monty. He feigned a silent, mock surprise each time they won a game and then sternly drew another board. This… he decided, was his church and his own personal kind of worship.