Heroes- Nathan Petrelli- May Response
Title: The Future Isn’t Written In Stone
Prompt Number/Prompt: 018. Future (for dramaticmuses)
Character/Fandom: Nathan Petrelli, Heroes
Word Count: 406
Rating: PG13
Warning(s): Spoilers up to and including episode 1x23
Summary: Nathan weighs his options. Gapfiller for episode 1x23
It was all about the countdown now. Nathan and his family were safe in Nantucket. His two boys were asleep in their room, Heidi lay beside him, completely relaxed and comfortable for the first time in months. Nathan, however, lay awake. Within an hour, New York city would be a wasteland and Peter would be the cause of it all.
Was he a coward? Could there really be a solution to the explosion? Nathan tried to shake the idea from his head. He tried, but he couldn’t. Claire, his own daughter had jumped out a window to get away from him. She was set on staying in the city with Peter. But she was only a child. What could she possibly do to keep Peter from exploding? Especially when he had absorbed the ability to heal from her.
Peter was still a kid himself. He was only twenty-six years old. If he did survive the explosion (which Nathan knew he would), he would have to live with the fact that he had killed thousands of people. The heart that everyone knew Peter for would be broken, his spirits would be crushed and he would probably never be the same again. Could Nathan really allow that to happen.
Ever since Peter was born, Nathan had been his protector. He would never let anything bad happen to his baby brother and now he was signing away Peter’s life.
Nathan slid out of bed, kissing Heidi gently on the forehead. He slowly dressed in a suit and tie, looking at himself in the mirror for a moment, taking a deep breath before walking into his sons’ room. They were peaceful, sleeping. He stood there a moment, not saying a word, only kissing each boy head softly, tucking the blankets around them.
Stepping out of the house and onto the grass, Nathan knew that this was what needed to be done. He couldn’t let his brother be the cause of so many deaths. He didn’t look back at the house, vaulting himself into the air and flying towards Kirby Plaza in New York. It may not have been the way things were written, but Nathan knew that this was the way things needed to end now. He had to help to save the world. He might not have been able to stop an exploding man, but he knew he could stop an exploding city. The future wasn’t written in stone.