Comfort is a Warm Jacket
Title: Comfort is a Warm Jacket
Rating: PG
Summary: Elle just needed to feel Noah there, to imagine he would be there when she needed him no matter the hour.
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: Heroes is not owned by me, but by Tim Kring. I’m simply borrowing these characters for non-profit entertainment.
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Elle hated these nights. At The Company, alone, trying to busy herself however she could. What she wouldn’t give for some paperwork to file at this rate. But no. Bennet had been helping Thompson and his team earlier so she had finished the filing that afternoon.
Now it was almost midnight. Bennet would be getting in his four hours of sleep now, she thought. Sitting in their office it wasn’t easy for her to tear her thoughts from him. The fact she could still smell his aftershave hanging in the air didn’t help.
Still it was for that reason she wouldn’t leave yet. And why she was wide awake. Of course she had a home of sorts. Her own cell, really, as she thought of it. The door locked from the inside, sure. But still it was within the Company walls and she wasn’t exactly granted the most privacy despite her father’s best efforts.
Most of the time Elle didn’t care. She wasn’t there much anyway. Only if she needed to shower, change clothes or get her own four hour naps. Of course hers never began until three A.M. however.
The only light in the office was that from the computer. Elle stood wavering somewhere between turning it on and sifting through the files just to feel a little closer to Bennet in that moment and considering heading on to her room early.
She smiled slightly at this being a somewhat easy night. At least she wasn’t reaching for Noah’s spare suit jacket and inhaling his scent as deeply as she could. No, those nights only came around when she was in desperate need of someone to talk to, someone who could understand her and someone who wouldn’t be afraid to hold her if she started to cry.
Being shut away from the rest of the world for the majority of her days, particularly when she was younger, had resulted in leaving her feeling more alone than your typical only child with an overprotective, overbearing father. Especially when said overprotective, overbearing father just cared about how he could use her for his own professional advancement.
Elle never knew why Noah put up with her, why he always seemed so willing to help her. Maybe he knew what she had been through. Maybe he knew what it was like to be so isolated.
But the more she thought about it the more she wanted him there then. Not even really to talk to him, but if that kept him there then she knew she could think of something. Their next target, their latest capture, how he was better suited for her father’s job. She shook her head and glanced back to his chair, with his spare suit jacket resting so casually on the back of it, as she neared the open doorway.
This had been such a normal day, such a decent day. How did it end up like this? Why did she have to let her mind wander this far?
Some little girls sleep with teddy bears for comfort and security. Around high school and college age their turn to their boyfriend’s favorite sweatshirt. For Elle it was her partner’s suit jackets and tonight she was curling herself around it as she held tight once she had finally laid down for bed.
She just needed to feel him there, to imagine he would be there for her when she needed him no matter the hour. She never knew that Noah left his jackets behind on purpose. Just for her.
The End