Heroes fic--Childhood Memories 2
Title: Childhood Memories
Chapter: 2
Summary: A special turns Peter into a child, and for now he's Mohinder's responsibility.
Pairing: Non, gen-fic
Author's notes: I feel like the chapters are too short. I shall endeavor to make them longer in the future.
3rd Person POV
In the dark inconspicuous things can become sinister and terrifying. A bowl of candies becomes a swarm of bugs, a table turns into a crawling monster, and every little noise is the deafening sound of creatures roaming. Peter currently found himself staring down the monsters of the night in an unfamiliar home, miles away from his mother and brother. Everything was out to get him. Everything. The occassional car droning by on the nearby street did nothing to calm his nerves. The headlights streaked into the barely opened blinds and threw the monsters into life for a few seconds before the shadows swallowed them up again. Peter imagined that it made them angier.
He squeezed his eyes shut and clutched the fleece blanket tighter to his chest. He wanted so badly to suck on his thumb and wish it all away, but he wanted his hands free in case of emergency. So he listened intently to every little thing going bump in the night. He tried to tell himself that it was just the ice maker and the air conditioning, but his imagination ran away despite himself. The ice maker became the angry rattling of a creature stuck in a tight place, ready to strike out. The whirl of the air conditioner became the heavy breathing of something big and hairy, possibly hiding under the very couch he sat on.
Small tears leaked from the corners of his eyes and soaked into the heavy blanket. He tried to stifle all of his sobs, worried that Mr. Suresh would be angry with him for disturbing his rest. Then he felt a quick brush of scales against his curled toes, and he screamed. That one loud scream turned into a pitiful sobbing rittled with wet chokes. He was scared and he wanted his mother, his brother, he would even settle for his father.
He curled into himself and covered his eyes with his hands, too terrified to look for his scaley assailant. Over the sound of his own crying he heard frantic footsteps and his sobs took on a greater desperation. He feared that Mr. Suresh would be angry with him and was almost shocked into silence when he felt two strong, warm, arms wrap around him and pick him up. He dug his nose into Mr. Suresh's orange shirt and cried freely, happy that someone had come to save him from the scary scaley monster of the dark.
"Shhh, shhh, hush, it's alright. It's alright. I've got you. What's the matter Peter?"
"I-I'm s-scaaaaared." Mohinder listened sadly as Peter stopped explaining to cry and gasp into his shirt. "Want Mommy a-and Nathan!" Peter sobbed some more and dug his fingers further into Mohinder's shirt. "A-and a mon-monster touched my foot!"
Mohinder's brow furrowed as he tried to think about what could have touched Peter. He began rocking gently back and forth, rubbing Peter's back and singing softly in Tamil. Mohinder dropped his cheek down to the crown on Peter's head and frowned around his song, feeling horrible for Peter. Crocodile tears soaked the front of his shirt and a small dribble of snot was sliding across his neck and down the neck of his shirt. He finished his song and stood, taking Peter with him to his bedroom. Just before he set Peter down he saw Mohinder the lizard scurry down the hallway.
He opened his mouth in understanding and hugged Peter tighter to his chest. His sheets were in disarray, thrown aside when he heard Peter's scream. Mohinder tried to lay him down, but the small empath would have none of it. Peter dug his fingers and heels deep into Mohinder's flesh and let out a pitiful sob when Mohinder tried to let him go.
"N-nooooo!"
The geneticist sighed and eased himself on the bed with Peter's quivering form wrapped tightly around his front. Next he worked the blankets up around them and pressed a kiss to the crown of Peter's head.
"I've got you Peter. You're safe, I promise. No one can hurt you."
His only response was the sound of Peter sucking contentedly on his thumb.
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Okay, so here's some key points to the fic that you might want to know in regaurds to abilities. You guys remember how Claire survived Meredith's fire as a baby because of the regeneration? Well we're led to believe that her ability stopped because she, ya know, grew up. So the way I see it, abilities are a genetic condition, and those can go into remission. Kind of like how cancer can go into remission for years and then suddenly come back. So in my mind, Peter manifested early as an empath and he was really emotionally sensitive and his ability may have quited down or gone into remission. Then he got it again at 26.
And to Peter's acting like a baby: he's 5. He woke up naked in a strange place, with a stranger. A stranger who then told him his mom, dad, and brother were all far away. And then he was taken to another stranger in the dead of night and he has no idea when he'll get to go home or what's going on. So...yeah...
The next chapter will show exactly what went down when Peter regressed and all the lies Noah had to tell him to get him in the car.