FIC: Gabriel Gray's Rules of Parenting
Title: Gabriel Gray's Rules of Parenting
Characters: Gabriel/Elle, Noah Gray
Rating: E for Everyone
Word Count: 521
Disclaimer: I don't own any aspect of Heroes or its characters
Spoilers/Warnings: based on the alternate future timeline of episode 3.04.
Summary: Gabriel Gray was learning the rules of parenting as he went along.
The rules of parenting weren't exactly the sort of thing that one could pick up easily, not even when blessed with intuitive aptitude.
Gabriel Gray was learning them as he went along. When his son Noah was an infant, Gabriel soon understood that he couldn't leave the house with at least one spare outfit for him, one spare diaper, one spare bottle. When Noah started crawling, Gabriel learned to keep wires out of reach, to use plastic covers on all the outlets. Then, when he began to stand and walk on his own, Gabriel started clearing all the breakables from the coffee table and making sure there were baby gates blocking the stairs to the basement. He always made sure to watch Noah when he played with Mr. Muggles, too - not that he didn't trust the dog (he had such a pleasant disposition, he'd never bite) but he was afraid Noah might play too rough.
Some rules could be expressed in short, pithy phrases. Keep cabinets closed and locked. Always test the temperature of the bath. Socks, then shoes.
Some were meant more for Noah than for Gabriel. Walk, don't run. Eat all your vegetables. Don't stick things in your nose.
Gabriel Gray liked rules. He always was the kind of kid who colored within the lines, anyway, because everything was neater that way. With rules, things were more simple - easier to keep in control. But there was one rule in particular that even Gabriel had trouble following. It broke his heart every time he needed to enforce it, but to break it could mean destruction, disaster, or worse.
Whenever she was able, he'd arrange for them all to meet in a public place, usually the park or the zoo or the beach, and they'd spend a whole day together like the normal family they could have been. Seeing her made his heart leap with excitement and anxiety, like a teenager on a blind date. He always thought he'd know what to expect, and then the smallest details would disarm him; a new haircut or a different style of dress could throw him off-guard, and instead of simply enjoying their time together he'd be wary the whole time that she'd find a way to insinuate herself back into their lives permanently.
Noah was always overjoyed to see her. Once he brought for her a collection of drawings he'd made in crayon on construction paper; another time he gave her a box full of all his "specialest" items - a shoelace, a pine cone, a few pieces of sea-glass he'd gathered. She always fussed and fawned over her son, smothering him with hugs and kisses, and Gabriel felt guilty that he was depriving his son of the full-time attention of a mother who loved him.
Not that she could offer that, anyway. She hadn't ever managed to change her ways. She had been trained all her life to be nothing more than a weapon, and as such she was always cocked and loaded. And she had a very sensitive trigger.
It was Gabriel Gray's first rule of parenting: Don't keep a gun in the house.
Characters: Gabriel/Elle, Noah Gray
Rating: E for Everyone
Word Count: 521
Disclaimer: I don't own any aspect of Heroes or its characters
Spoilers/Warnings: based on the alternate future timeline of episode 3.04.
Summary: Gabriel Gray was learning the rules of parenting as he went along.
The rules of parenting weren't exactly the sort of thing that one could pick up easily, not even when blessed with intuitive aptitude.
Gabriel Gray was learning them as he went along. When his son Noah was an infant, Gabriel soon understood that he couldn't leave the house with at least one spare outfit for him, one spare diaper, one spare bottle. When Noah started crawling, Gabriel learned to keep wires out of reach, to use plastic covers on all the outlets. Then, when he began to stand and walk on his own, Gabriel started clearing all the breakables from the coffee table and making sure there were baby gates blocking the stairs to the basement. He always made sure to watch Noah when he played with Mr. Muggles, too - not that he didn't trust the dog (he had such a pleasant disposition, he'd never bite) but he was afraid Noah might play too rough.
Some rules could be expressed in short, pithy phrases. Keep cabinets closed and locked. Always test the temperature of the bath. Socks, then shoes.
Some were meant more for Noah than for Gabriel. Walk, don't run. Eat all your vegetables. Don't stick things in your nose.
Gabriel Gray liked rules. He always was the kind of kid who colored within the lines, anyway, because everything was neater that way. With rules, things were more simple - easier to keep in control. But there was one rule in particular that even Gabriel had trouble following. It broke his heart every time he needed to enforce it, but to break it could mean destruction, disaster, or worse.
Whenever she was able, he'd arrange for them all to meet in a public place, usually the park or the zoo or the beach, and they'd spend a whole day together like the normal family they could have been. Seeing her made his heart leap with excitement and anxiety, like a teenager on a blind date. He always thought he'd know what to expect, and then the smallest details would disarm him; a new haircut or a different style of dress could throw him off-guard, and instead of simply enjoying their time together he'd be wary the whole time that she'd find a way to insinuate herself back into their lives permanently.
Noah was always overjoyed to see her. Once he brought for her a collection of drawings he'd made in crayon on construction paper; another time he gave her a box full of all his "specialest" items - a shoelace, a pine cone, a few pieces of sea-glass he'd gathered. She always fussed and fawned over her son, smothering him with hugs and kisses, and Gabriel felt guilty that he was depriving his son of the full-time attention of a mother who loved him.
Not that she could offer that, anyway. She hadn't ever managed to change her ways. She had been trained all her life to be nothing more than a weapon, and as such she was always cocked and loaded. And she had a very sensitive trigger.
It was Gabriel Gray's first rule of parenting: Don't keep a gun in the house.