Unidentified Flying Intruders
Title: Unidentified Flying Intruders
Characters: Lyle Bennet, Nathan Petrelli
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Word count: 1,500
Setting: Season 3, missing scene at the end of Shades of Gray
Summary: Lyle confronts an unexpected intruder in his back yard and grapples with the complexities involved in protecting his family.
Notes: Written for amles80, who wanted Lyle together with a Petrelli and made fluffy. I don’t think I succeeded on the fluff, but I might try again. This is my contest entry for heroes_contest "Choose a side", oneshot challenge #34.
There was a faint swooping noise and Lyle looked up for the source of it, nearly peeing his pants when he saw a guy in a fancy suit hanging in the air about fifty feet up. Lyle grabbed for a weapon. He was on the back porch, having just hung up from talking to Rylie in the moderate privacy afforded out here. He mentally cursed his mother’s tidiness as he took up the only thing at hand - a broom.
“Hey!” he shouted in alarm, menacing the flying g-man. The guy looked uncomfortable, surprised, and mortified to have been seen. “Get out of here!” Lyle called out. “Shoo!” He mimicked his mother and made general sweeping motions in the air. It was a ridiculous situation. These idiots were supposed to confine themselves to the van in front of the house and not be snooping around the back yard, flying or not.
Instead of flying away, the guy drifted closer. “Shh!”
Lyle scowled. “What?” he asked in a more normal tone, but still holding the broom en garde. “Are you one of those freaks who wants to break into our house and … do things to Claire?” His grip tightened. He’d never thought he was much of a brother - Claire was always such an overbearing princess - but he’d been realizing lately what sort of danger she was in, at least on a very human level. People were breaking into the house coming after her, cutting on her, blowing the place up, taking her hostage, hiding in her closet, sometimes saying or doing things that were WAY creepy, sexually, like using a bunch of innuendo and acting like he was too young to understand what they really meant. That disregard and treating him like a kid upset him more than if they’d just come out and said they were there to molest his sister. He’d shove this broomstick right up this jerk’s asshole if that was the case.
“No!” the guy denied strongly. “‘Do things to her’?”
Lyle ignored the question. “Then you’re with those monsters out front then, the ones who want to kidnap her?”
“No!” the guy claimed again, coming even closer. Much more and Lyle would be able to hit him.
“Then what are you here for?”
“I came to take Claire somewhere safe.”
“Then you are here to kidnap her! And probably take her somewhere else to do things to her!” he accused.
Flying Suit Man made an exaggerated show of exasperation. “I’m her father!”
“You are not!” Lyle snapped immediately.
“I am, too!”
“Are not!”
The guy opened his mouth as if to continue the surreal argument, then shut it for a moment as he looked off to the side. He looked amused and annoyed at the same time.
For his part, Lyle was studying the fellow. This must be that rich politician guy who was Claire’s biological father. Lyle didn’t like him. It wasn’t jealousy - it was the guy’s presumption. He seemed to think he could just waltz into Claire’s life after fifteen, sixteen, however many years and suddenly be important to her? And to act like everyone else in Claire’s family should just step aside so as not to interfere with his oh-so-precious father-time with her? If he was so rich, then why hadn’t he bought anything for her? If he was so powerful, then why was she getting messed with all the time and was on virtual house arrest? And if he loved her so much, then why did he never spend time with her or the other people that mattered to her, like her real family?
Frustrated, Lyle said, “You need to pick a side. Quit claiming to be her father if you’re not going to act like one. It’s just messing everything up.”
“I’m on Claire’s side,” the man snapped.
“Prove it.”
“That’s what I’m here for!” Now the guy was angry. He stuck out both hands to the side in frustration.
The corners of Lyle’s mouth itched to form a smile, because he actually believed Claire was related to this douche. The dude sounded just like her. Well, if she was male, and like forty or fifty years old. Just in case Lyle had any doubts, the guy rolled his eyes forcefully enough that his whole head moved with it, and then he landed about ten feet away - too far for a casual swat with the broom. Lyle frowned at him. The guy looked pissed. And now that he was on the ground, it was clear he wasn’t small. Not enormous, but bigger than Lyle was. And a lot older. All Lyle was armed with was a plastic broom.
Time to change tactics. The end of the broom hit the ground. A moment later, Lyle put it away.
“Okay,” the guy said. Lyle struggled to remember the guy’s name. Petrelli - he knew that - but honestly, he hadn’t paid much attention to the rest. The guy was meaningless, after all. He was a senator and stuff, and Lyle supposed that meant he had an importance to most people, but for Lyle it just reinforced how removed from the Bennet family reality the dude was. “I need you to go inside and send Claire out here.”
Lyle faded back a couple steps. “Soo … you can kidnap her?”
“I am not here to kidnap her. I-“ The guy pursed his lips and shook his head.
“Why don’t you just call her? You don’t have a suit like that without a phone.”
“The lines are tapped.”
“Why don’t you go inside yourself?”
“The house is probably bugged. Every minute we spend out here arguing is a minute less that she has to get away.”
“Get away from what?”
Mr. Petrelli hesitated, as if shocked to discover that Lyle wasn’t a mind-reader. Or maybe he was shocked that for one of the first times in his life, he was actually going to have to explain himself in order to get compliance. After taking a moment to compose himself in the face of this unusual situation, he said, “Those Homeland Security guys in the van out front?” Lyle nodded. “In a few minutes, they’re going to get an order to break into your house and take Claire. I’m going to take her somewhere safe-“
“Where?”
The older man rolled his eyes again, and this time Lyle did smile because it was bizarre to see a grown man acting like his sister. “If I told you, you’d know, wouldn’t you?”
“Yeeaahh …” Lyle rolled his eyes himself and sighed. He saw the guy’s point - secrecy and all that. “Oh-kay,” Lyle said, drawing it out sulkily. “I’ll go tell her,” he said, like it was a big concession.
“Thank you,” the suit guy ground out. The senator muttered some other things that couldn’t be aired on the nightly news. Lyle was vastly amused.
He went upstairs to Claire’s bedroom, knocking. “What?” came the typical, put-out question from inside.
“Claire? Need to talk to you.” Now Lyle’s voice was matter-of-fact. The sarcasm and act was gone.
There was a long silence before, “Fine. Come in.”
He opened the door and walked in, shutting it behind him. He wasn’t sure if their mother should be involved or not. “There’s a guy outside who-“
He was interrupted by a nervous rapping on Claire’s window. She jerked around towards it. They could both faintly see the pale face of the senator, with an alarmed expression. She hurried to the window, pushing up the lower sash.
“Come on,” Nathan said, opening his arms. “We gotta go. I flew upwards a little to keep watch. They’re getting out of the van and forming up. They’re coming for you. No time.”
Claire looked at Lyle, eyes wide. He nodded and helped her climb out the window and into the questionable safety of Mr. Petrelli’s arms. Nathan met his eyes and said, “Go downstairs. Don’t tell anyone anything. Not even your mother. Do you understand?”
Lyle nodded, terrified now.
“Go!”
He hurried off, struggling to act cool when he got downstairs. He didn’t have to do it for long, though. He nearly jumped out of his skin when their front door was kicked open and people flooded inside.
Lyle wished he knew better what was going on and who to trust. Was Claire safe, or had he just handed her over to someone as bad as the people currently storming up the stairs, heedless of his mother’s yells? He couldn’t even call his father - not if the phones were tapped. He was alone with his secret. He wondered if this was how his father felt in his work. How did he do this? How could you protect your family if you didn’t even know who you were trying to protect them from?