[Fan Fiction] And Happiness Is Coming Home Again (Heroes)
Title: And Happiness Is Coming Home Again
Category: Fan Fiction: Heroes (Molly+Matt/Mohinder)
Rating: PG-13, for some cursing
Summary: During a rough patch in her life, an adult Molly Walkmanesh decides to go home to NYC for a visit with the fam. I kind of meant for it to be more plot driven, but it accidentally turned into pure waff.
Warnings/Spoilers/Notes: A brief reference to one way that the current Adam/virus storyline could end, but it’s pure speculation and not in any way influenced by actual spoilers. Also, I am very self-centered and need comments and concrit more than I need air. kthxbai.
Her alarm went off, and as she groaned she rolled over in bed to look at the clock. Seven-thirty in the morning. This was her first indication that something was going on because Molly was relatively certain that when she collapsed into bed about ninety minutes ago, after spending nearly forty-eight hours in the field, she had definitely not set her alarm for seven-thirty. So she hit the “off” button, closed her eyes, and instantaneously fell back asleep. About two instants after that, however, her alarm went off again. This time she unplugged it.
And then it went off again. Goddammit. Can’t a guy take a clue? Obviously not. She grabbed her cell phone off the bedside table and dialed the familiar number.
“Good morning, Molly,” the voice on the other end said cheerily. Too cheerily for her hour-and-a-half’s worth of sleep to handle.
“If I didn’t think that the alarm thing was cute when we were engaged, Micah, why on earth would you think that I would find it endearing now?”
“You’re testy this morning, Molls,” he said. “You know, you could have used your power and saved yourself the phone bill.”
She didn’t have to use her power to imagine exactly what he looked like: his long body, cinnamon skin, that mop of dark unruly curls. Also, the fact that he was probably nowhere the cell phone that he was talking through. He was a show-off even when no one was watching. “It’s been a rough two days,” she said finally. “I’ve been on the job. I didn’t really want to exert any more energy than I had to. You should have just called my phone directly.”
“I did. Twice. You didn’t pick up.”
“That was because I was sleeping.”
“Oh, gee, Molly. I didn’t realize that I woke you up. I’m sorry,” he sounded sincere enough, but then again, actions speak louder than words.
“If you didn’t want to wake me up, then maybe you shouldn’t have turned on my alarm clock even after I unplugged it.”
She could almost see him cock his head and grin that big, goofy smile that she used to think was so cute. “Point,” he said.
“So, fine. I’m awake, but you’ve got about five minutes before my body completely shuts down and I fall into a sleep-deprived coma. So you’d better talk fast. What do you want?”
“Have you talked to Bennet lately?” he asked.
“Why on earth would I talk to Bennet?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Maybe you call every few days to exchange makeup tips or something.”
“Pul-eeze,” Molly said. “If you think that’s the truth, then you don’t know me as well as I thought you did. So what’s really going on here?”
“Okay, so here’s the thing. Bennet just got back from Texas. She thinks that she saw something there that could indicate some a new underground moment from within the Compa-“
Molly cut him off. “That’s what this is about?” she asked. “More of your superhero plots?”
“Yeah, but just hear me out, Molls.”
She sighed. Here he goes again. Isn’t this what caused their breakup in the first place? Micah getting all obsessive about running some sort of next-generation supergroup? Molly had tolerated it at first, letting him use their apartment for meetings. Micah and Molly. Micah’s cousins, Monica and Damon. Claire Bennet. West Rosen. The Petrelli brothers, Simon and Monty. Kim Masahashi. Elle Bishop. Occasionally Hiro Nakamura. Monty used to joke that they should start calling themselves the M-Men (Molly disagreed, but didn’t say anything because she recognized that it was immature to insist that her family had the monopoly on M jokes).
The first couple of times were kind of fun. They cracked jokes about each other’s powers and everyone complimented Molly’s cooking and her engagement ring. Gossiped about the ridiculous things that their parents had done twenty years ago. And occasionally they even talked about saving the world. Pretty early on, Monica, Molly, Elle, and Claire teamed up to stop a terrorist cell planning on blowing up some Boston T stations, going totally balls-to-the-wall in taking the bombers down. It was a little vigilante, but still kind of cool the first few times.
But then it stopped being about a bunch of evolved humans enjoying being able to talk to someone who knew about their abilities and more about saving the world all the time, and frankly, Molly tired of it pretty quickly. It started to impede on her real job, a job that Molly loved, which made her testy. Micah couldn’t understand why she didn’t share his passion, which made him testy.
And really, it was all downhill from there. He had moved out six weeks ago. They tried to see if that would help, but nothing significant changed. She mailed him back the ring last week.
“I don’t want to hear you out. I’m not going to help you this time, Micah.”
“Why not? This is a big one. We might need you. You could save lives.”
“Micah, I don’t need you to do good work. I’ve been helping people too, and right now I’m exhausted. I just want to go to sleep.”
“Fine, Molly. Keep pretending like you’re saving the world in your own way,” Micah said.
“I am,” she replied. “I’m a search-and-rescue paramedic! I save lives every day.”
“How many lives did you save in the last forty-eight hours?” Micah asked.
“One,” she said. “One man who had fallen down a cliff face twelve miles into the National Forest. No one could find him until I got on the scene. I used my powers, saw where he was, let him know that help was on its way, and led my team right to where he was lying, unable to move. And then I stabilized his spinal column and helped trek him out of there in a litter.”
“That’s great,” he said. “One life in forty-eight hours. When Nathan Petrelli flew his brother into the upper atmosphere on the night we met, he saved half of New York in a matter of minutes. When Hiro Nakamura killed Adam Munroe, he saved ninety-seven percent of the world’s population, also in minutes. Less than, actually, since he stopped time. When your father read the mind of-“
“Stop!” Molly shouted. “I know what you’re trying to argue. But for every single one of those instances, there are a million other smaller ones, where one little use of power made one life better. That’s good enough for me. I don’t see why it’s not good enough for you.”
“What if you are the one-in-a-million that we need next time, Molly?”
“I’m not the Walker Tracking System anymore,” she said coldly. “My dads saved me from that when I was eight years old, and I have no inclination to go back to being used for someone else’s plots. Not even yours, Micah.”
“But Molly-“
She didn’t say anything else. Just hung up the phone and turned it off. He could still call it, of course, so she considered dismantling the thing, but then he could just activate one of the million other technological devices in their apartment. No, her apartment. Maybe she should go join the Amish, she thought absently, as she drifted back to sleep. But he didn’t even do so much as pop the toaster, so maybe he was going to leave her alone. For once.
She slept all day. When she woke back up, it was just enough time before her on-call shift started for her to eat a little breakfast and take a shower to scrape off all of the dirt and sweat and dried blood that was caked into the lines of her skin. She made a mental note to wash her sheets when she got home from work. She pulled on a fresh uniform and made her way to work.
When she got there, there was a note taped to her locker. A summons from her boss. Fuck.
***
“I’m just saying, Molly, the rest of the members of your team said that you led them right to Hugh Batha. Like you were some sort of bloodhound,” her boss said. Well, she usually tried to be a little more circumspect about using her ability, but Batha didn’t have much time left by the time that the team got to the canyon. She figured that saving his life was more important than keeping herself from uncomfortable questions. Now that she was being faced with the questions, though, she wasn’t so sure.
“It was just a lucky guess, sir,” she said.
“You have a lot of lucky guesses,” he replied. “You’re very easily better at finding patients than anyone else this organization has ever had.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t see why that’s reason to interrogate me.”
“You’re not being reprimanded, Molly. I’m just trying to figure out why.”
She looked down at the ground and then back up to meet her boss’s eyes. “I could tell you the truth, but it’d sound crazy.”
He leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and raised his eyebrows in a universal “lay it on me” expression.
“I’m a clairvoyant. I can find anyone, anywhere in the world, just by thinking about them,” she said as she folded her arms across her chest, her mouth a thin, firm line.
He scowled. “There’s no reason to be sarcastic, Molly,” he said.
“I don’t know what else you want to hear that’s going to sound any better,” she snapped, and then reddened. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to come out like that. I’m just tired, I guess.”
“When was the last time you had time off?”
“Earlier today.”
“No, I mean a serious amount of time. At least a week.”
She looked at the ceiling as she counted. “Two Christmases ago.” She and Micah had gone to Las Vegas, to visit his parents’ graves. Not particularly relaxing, but they did blow a fair amount of money for a suite at a nice casino-hotel for the rest of the time.
“I’m going to give you ten days off,” he said. “Right now. You need it. You deserve it.”
“How will you make do without your best finder?” she asked.
“I’ll make do. Hopefully a little time off will take the edge off of your sarcasm. That’s something this whole department could use.”
She went home, watered her plants, threw her sheets and dirty uniform in the laundry. That accomplished, Molly draped herself down on her couch and flipped on the television. As she flipped through the channels, she stopped briefly on one of the old Spider-Man movies. Great, more superheroes. But one of the shots caught her eye. It wasn’t important to the movie, but the shot was of a scene in New York City, of a building that she and her dads used to walk past on their way to her favorite Italian restaurant, where they used to take her to celebrate good report cards.
Now, New York City. There was an idea. If Micah decided to contact her again, well, he didn’t have her power, he wouldn’t know that she wasn’t home. Her alarm could ring all it wanted in an empty apartment. Certainly if he got really insistent, he could check into her credit card or flight records or something, but he was annoying, not a stalker.
Besides, it would be good to spend some time with her dads. They always made her feel better, and really, it had been far too long.
She pulled over her computer and pulled up Delta’s website. To New York she would go.
Less than three hours and a quick phone call to a plant-sitter later, she was standing at the counter at the airport, clutching her small suitcase tightly. She started off into space while the ticket agent typed on the keyboard. The woman tore her eyes away from the computer screen. “I’m sorry, ma’am. We don’t seem to have any ticketed passengers named Walkmanesh in our system,” she said, and Molly looked up out of her stupor.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, pulling out her ID. “I wasn’t thinking. Could you look for Walker, please? Molly Walker?” She always forgot to use her actual, legal name in situations like these. Everyone called her Molly Walkmanesh. She thought of herself as Molly Walkmanesh. She had always fully intended on getting her last name legally changed, but then she fell in love with Micah in college and thought that she would hold off until she changed it to Saunders so that she didn’t have to go through all of the paperwork twice. That didn’t really work out as well as planned, obviously.
The flight was long, boring, but generally uneventful. Just white noise in her day. She picked up a thick paperback during her layover in Chicago. She’d picked it out based on the flashy cover and the pun in the title, but when she opened it on the plane, she realized that it was an unwise choice, as it turned out to be a cop thriller. After spending much of her lifetime living with a man who derived great amounts of pleasure in pointing out incorrect details in the portrayal of law enforcement in the media, such novels were generally ruined for her.
So she chewed some gum to keep her ears from popping, idly leafed through the Skymall, drank her Sprite, stared off into space, and did all of the rest of the tiny rituals that people did on planes to keep themselves from dying of boredom. And then the plane landed and she waited for her baggage (chanting ohpleaseGoddon’tletthemlosemyluggage) for several long minutes until her suitcase finally dropped down on the carousel. And then she was out of JFK, into the subway, and, within a relatively short amount of time, standing in front of the apartment building where she had lived for ten years.
She took the still precariously rickety elevator up to the apartment. She always wondered why her dads had never moved, gotten a larger place somewhere outside the city. But with Matt still working for the NYPD and Mohinder’s job at Columbia, they said that the commute wasn’t worth it. Besides, if the apartment had been able to handle two grown men and a teenage girl, certainly it was more than enough space for just two. And Molly had to admit, she would be heartbroken if coming home meant going someplace other than right here.
She fumbled with the key on her key ring. She had never taken it off, even if she hadn’t used it in some time. Had it really been three years since she had been to New York? Of course, she’d seen Matt and Mohinder more recently than that when they flew out west to see her, but it had definitely been three years since the last time that she had returned the favor.
She swung open the door, and let that familiar Indian house smell wash over her. Even when she cooked with curry, she could never make her and Micah’s apartment permanently smell like her adolescence, which was definitely a shame. “Dad?” she asked as she opened the door. She liked how utilitarian one word could be. Three letters to equally apply to two men whose impact on her life had been far more polysyllabic. But no one answered. The apartment was empty. Where were they? What if they were on vacation or something? She really should have called ahead.
She set down her bag just outside the kitchen (note to self: pick it up before Mohinder gets home!) and wandered towards the refrigerator. The calendar on the wall had today’s date circled and the note “Molly’s visit!!” Complete with smiley face. She should have known better than to worry. And next to the calendar, two post-it notes in succession. Bright pink, so Mohinder had bought the pad, obviously. But the handwriting was angular and slightly misshapen.
“Honey-
If yuo get here b4 I get off work,
make yourself at home (duh).
I shuld be here by 6. Mohinder
is driving home from a smarty-
pants confrence in VT, but he’ll
be bcak today, too. Welcom home!
I LOVE YOU! -M.”
She didn’t know whether to feel annoyed that Matt kept tabs on her life, or feel loved that he would go to so much effort to read her mind from afar. But it was Matt, so her default feeling was always (minus some tense obligatory-teenager moments during her high school years) love.
She looked at her watch and realized that it was still early afternoon. She didn’t have anything in particular to do, so she picked up her bag and headed in her old room. It had been slightly redecorated, of course. But the bed and sheets and comforter were the same ones that she had picked out for her fourteenth birthday. She put down her bag next to the bed and laid down on it. Just to wait, of course.
The next thing she knew, there was a hand on her shoulder, lightly bring her out of her sleep. “Molly?” a voice asked. It was rich and smooth, with that ever-present exotic overtone. She knew who it was even before she opened her eyes. In an instant, it was like everything that was wrong in her life drained away.
“Mohinder!” she said, and her father caught her up in a hug. She buried her head in his shoulder and he wrapped his arms around her.
“I was so thrilled when Matt called me this morning to say that you decided to come for a visit,” Mohinder said as he squeezed her tight.
“Matt shouldn’t have read my mind,” she said, but there was a lot of affection in her tone.
“And you should have called yourself to tell us you were coming,” he shot back.
“Touché.”
They released each other and Mohinder held her back at arm’s length. He inspected her, even as she did the same. He had, very unfortunately, lost most of his hair several years prior and kept what was remaining shaved pretty short (when Molly mentioned this during a chance meeting with an old high school friend recently, the other woman had actually CRIED), and his skin was, perhaps, a little looser, but he still had that puddle-inducing smile that still made Molly feel all sorts of giddy when it was directed at her because she knew that she had made her father proud.
“You look tired,” Mohinder said sternly as he finished his own inspection of her. “You aren’t overworking yourself, are you?”
She rolled her eyes. “Dad. I look tired because I just spent an entire day on a place and then you woke me up from a nap. Besides, I can’t be overworking myself right now. I’m on vacation.”
He grinned. “Right you are. Would you like some chai?”
“Of course,” she said as she moved off of her bed and followed Mohinder into the kitchen. Mohinder hummed to himself as he prepared the milk and water and tea in the pot. They didn’t have to say anything for Molly to be grateful to be in her father’s presence.
As they waited for it to heat up, they sat down in the chairs at the table and Mohinder grinned at her like an idiot.
“What?” she asked.
“I’m just so happy to have you home,” he replied, and she couldn’t help but grin back.
“I’m happy to be here,” she said.
And then she heard the door open and had to resist the urge to squeal and run to the door like she was eight years old. She just managed to contain herself until she saw Matt, and then she couldn’t help but jump out of her chair and tackle him in a hug. “Daddy!” she exclaimed. Twenty-eight or not, she still felt justified in using the word.
“Hey, Sweetie,” he said gently. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too,” she said back. She stayed in his big bear embrace for several more seconds as she luxuriated for the thousandth time in the feeling of being home. They let go, and Mohinder pushed back his chair and stood up.
“What, you want one, too?” Matt asked. “You were only gone four days.”
“It was a long four days,” Mohinder replied as Matt pulled him in a sideways hug from the waist and Mohinder kissed him quickly on the side of his now entirely gray-haired head. Molly leaned back against the table and slid her hands into the back pocket of her jeans, smiling slightly as she watched them. They broke apart and Mohinder motioned towards the stove. “Chai, Matthew?” Mohinder asked.
“No, thanks,” Matt replied. He took one of the chairs at the table and spun it around, sitting in it backwards. “So, all I got was that you were coming here for a week and that you’d had a bad call with the psycho ex.”
“He’s not psycho,” Molly protested. It felt weird to hear someone else calling Micah her ex, even though they knew about her breaking off the engagement, of course.
“I’m just saying that he has to be not quite right if he isn’t willing to do whatever it takes to make you happy. And his mother was certainly-“
“Matthew,” Mohinder chided evenly as he set the two cups of chai on the table. He sat down in his chair correctly. Molly accepted her cup with a smile.
“Right,” Matt said. “Sorry. Let’s start this whole thing over, without the invasive mind reading. Hi, honey. How are you?”
She wanted to say fine. But she really couldn’t lie to Matt. “I just-“ she bit her lip. “To tell you the truth, things have been kind of rough lately,” she said finally, shakily taking a sip of her tea. “I mean, I love my job to death but it’s been stressing the hell out of me lately, and now my boss has started to catch on to the fact that I’m really, unnaturally, good at it and is giving me a hard time. And there’s the whole saving-the-world thing, and the whole Micah thing-Micah and I were together for eight years, so I’m still getting over all kinds of issues about that. So things weren’t really fine until I saw the two of you.”
“Well, we’re here now with nothing to do but listen,” Matt said gently. Mohinder didn’t say anything, just made a sympathetic face in agreement.
“Thanks,” Molly said. “I really needed to hear you say that.”
“So talk.”
She sighed. “I just let my only major relationship go down the tank,” she said. It was true about Micah being her only major relationship. She had dated one other guy, during her freshman year in college, but she ended rather explosively it after a month when he told her that all homosexuals, including her dads, were going to Hell. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Sweetie,” Mohinder said as he took her hand, “It wasn’t that you ruined it. You and Micah had something great, but ultimately, you just weren’t right for each other.”
“No, it was that he loved saving the world more than he loved me. And I loved my job more than I loved him. I’m twenty-eight and alone. I think I’m just doomed to be a loveless career woman forever.”
“Oh, honey. You shouldn’t be down on yourself about your age,” Matt said. “That’s not too old to find love at all. Your father and I didn’t meet until we were in our mid-thirties.”
Mohinder leaned over and stage whispered. “I was in my early-thirties. He was in his late-thirties.”
Matt lightly swatted Mohinder with the back of his hand. “That is enough out of you!” Matt said, and Mohinder grinned back innocently. Molly wondered if it was normal to adore how cute her parents were together as much as she did. Decided she didn’t care.
But then they turned back to her, all business. “Molly, we can’t promise you that everything is going to be all right because we can’t tell the future,” Mohinder said.
“We’re not Hiro Nakamura, after all,” Matt said. “But we do think that you made the right decision. If he wasn’t making you happy, then you had every right to break off the engagement. There’s no point in getting yourself trapped in an unhappy marriage. I know. It’s miserable.” It was Molly’s turn to squeeze Matt’s hand. “But that doesn’t mean that you’ll never be happy again,” he continued. “The end of your relationship isn’t the end of your life.”
“But what about the whole saving-the-world argument?” she asked. “He said that they need me. That the world might need me. And he’s right, in some ways, even if I don’t want to admit it. I love my job, but I can only save so many lives at a time that way.”
“Just because you have an ability doesn’t mean that you’re not allowed to have a life that makes you happy,” Matt told her.
“That’s what you’ve always said,” Molly replied. “But when I was younger you both were always tearing off to infiltrate the Company or help Nathan Petrelli or whatever else. And you were the one who took down Soweto Kane for good, Matt.”
“It was rocky for me for a long time,” he admitted. “But then I realized that it’s all about finding the balance, Molly. Sometimes the pieces of the puzzle fell into place and it was obvious to me that in that moment I had to act. But the rest of the time I fought for the life I loved, for you and Mohinder. And maybe there will come a moment for you where you are in the right moment at the right time for you to act and do something monumental. Until then, do what you love and make the choices that make you the happiest.”
“It sounds so easy when you say it.”
“That’s the trick,” Mohinder replied as he cleared away their empty cups of chai. “You don’t know how easy it all is until you live though the hard times and see what doesn’t work. And then you realize what does. And you appreciate the things in your life that make sense.”
“So what about my boss?”
“Well,” Matt said, “you know how pleased we are that you decided to go into emergency services-“
“-and how well you did in on your MCAT,” Mohinder interrupted, looking over his cup of tea.
“And that,” Matt amended. “But we do worry about how stressful your job is.”
“It’s supposed to be stressful, Dad. I cart dying people out of the wilderness. As an NYPD detective who refuses to acknowledge retirement even though he is nearly sixty, you do not have any privileges in making me feel bad about that. But what about my boss? And his suspicions?”
“What did you say when he asked?” Mohinder asked.
“I told him with a completely straight face that I was a clairvoyant and could find anyone with a thought,” she said, and Matt hooted a little.
“Really?” he asked. She nodded.
“Did he believe you?”
“He told me to stop being so sarcastic.”
“Mohinder,” Matt said, “I think that you need to drop whatever fancy project you’re working on to figure out how it’s genetically possible that Molly inherited your dry sense of humor.”
“So you told him the truth,” Mohinder said. “Even if you were greeted with skepticism. There’s not anything more you can say. Even if he does eventually discover that you were right all along, there’s nothing to be ashamed of. You use your powers to make people’s lives better. You should be proud of that. We’re certainly very proud of you.” He smiled, and Molly didn’t think that it was ever possible to feel cold ever again.
“Thanks, guys,” she said. “God, I needed this. Why did I stay away from here for so long?”
“You somehow inherited Matt’s stubborn streak,” Mohinder said. “I’m actually currently researching how that’s possible as we speak.”
They all cracked a smile, and Matt stood up out of his chair. “Are you hungry for dinner, honey?” he asked.
They went out for Italian, and passed the building that she had seen in the movie. They came home and watched cop dramas on the TV. Matt gleefully pointed out all of the incorrect details while Mohinder dozed against him and Molly rolled her eyes.
She stayed for a week. “I love you,” they both whispered into her hair when she hugged them goodbye. When stepped back off the plane into her old life, things weren’t automatically perfect again. There was still the hole in her life that used to be filled by Micah. There was still a boss who shifted between praise and inquisition from moment-to-moment. There were still long hours and nights spent sleeping on bare rock and days spent carrying litters. None of that went away.
But it was a little bit easier to take with a reminder that she always had the best place in the world to call home. And that her dads would love her no matter what happened.
<3
Category: Fan Fiction: Heroes (Molly+Matt/Mohinder)
Rating: PG-13, for some cursing
Summary: During a rough patch in her life, an adult Molly Walkmanesh decides to go home to NYC for a visit with the fam. I kind of meant for it to be more plot driven, but it accidentally turned into pure waff.
Warnings/Spoilers/Notes: A brief reference to one way that the current Adam/virus storyline could end, but it’s pure speculation and not in any way influenced by actual spoilers. Also, I am very self-centered and need comments and concrit more than I need air. kthxbai.
Her alarm went off, and as she groaned she rolled over in bed to look at the clock. Seven-thirty in the morning. This was her first indication that something was going on because Molly was relatively certain that when she collapsed into bed about ninety minutes ago, after spending nearly forty-eight hours in the field, she had definitely not set her alarm for seven-thirty. So she hit the “off” button, closed her eyes, and instantaneously fell back asleep. About two instants after that, however, her alarm went off again. This time she unplugged it.
And then it went off again. Goddammit. Can’t a guy take a clue? Obviously not. She grabbed her cell phone off the bedside table and dialed the familiar number.
“Good morning, Molly,” the voice on the other end said cheerily. Too cheerily for her hour-and-a-half’s worth of sleep to handle.
“If I didn’t think that the alarm thing was cute when we were engaged, Micah, why on earth would you think that I would find it endearing now?”
“You’re testy this morning, Molls,” he said. “You know, you could have used your power and saved yourself the phone bill.”
She didn’t have to use her power to imagine exactly what he looked like: his long body, cinnamon skin, that mop of dark unruly curls. Also, the fact that he was probably nowhere the cell phone that he was talking through. He was a show-off even when no one was watching. “It’s been a rough two days,” she said finally. “I’ve been on the job. I didn’t really want to exert any more energy than I had to. You should have just called my phone directly.”
“I did. Twice. You didn’t pick up.”
“That was because I was sleeping.”
“Oh, gee, Molly. I didn’t realize that I woke you up. I’m sorry,” he sounded sincere enough, but then again, actions speak louder than words.
“If you didn’t want to wake me up, then maybe you shouldn’t have turned on my alarm clock even after I unplugged it.”
She could almost see him cock his head and grin that big, goofy smile that she used to think was so cute. “Point,” he said.
“So, fine. I’m awake, but you’ve got about five minutes before my body completely shuts down and I fall into a sleep-deprived coma. So you’d better talk fast. What do you want?”
“Have you talked to Bennet lately?” he asked.
“Why on earth would I talk to Bennet?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Maybe you call every few days to exchange makeup tips or something.”
“Pul-eeze,” Molly said. “If you think that’s the truth, then you don’t know me as well as I thought you did. So what’s really going on here?”
“Okay, so here’s the thing. Bennet just got back from Texas. She thinks that she saw something there that could indicate some a new underground moment from within the Compa-“
Molly cut him off. “That’s what this is about?” she asked. “More of your superhero plots?”
“Yeah, but just hear me out, Molls.”
She sighed. Here he goes again. Isn’t this what caused their breakup in the first place? Micah getting all obsessive about running some sort of next-generation supergroup? Molly had tolerated it at first, letting him use their apartment for meetings. Micah and Molly. Micah’s cousins, Monica and Damon. Claire Bennet. West Rosen. The Petrelli brothers, Simon and Monty. Kim Masahashi. Elle Bishop. Occasionally Hiro Nakamura. Monty used to joke that they should start calling themselves the M-Men (Molly disagreed, but didn’t say anything because she recognized that it was immature to insist that her family had the monopoly on M jokes).
The first couple of times were kind of fun. They cracked jokes about each other’s powers and everyone complimented Molly’s cooking and her engagement ring. Gossiped about the ridiculous things that their parents had done twenty years ago. And occasionally they even talked about saving the world. Pretty early on, Monica, Molly, Elle, and Claire teamed up to stop a terrorist cell planning on blowing up some Boston T stations, going totally balls-to-the-wall in taking the bombers down. It was a little vigilante, but still kind of cool the first few times.
But then it stopped being about a bunch of evolved humans enjoying being able to talk to someone who knew about their abilities and more about saving the world all the time, and frankly, Molly tired of it pretty quickly. It started to impede on her real job, a job that Molly loved, which made her testy. Micah couldn’t understand why she didn’t share his passion, which made him testy.
And really, it was all downhill from there. He had moved out six weeks ago. They tried to see if that would help, but nothing significant changed. She mailed him back the ring last week.
“I don’t want to hear you out. I’m not going to help you this time, Micah.”
“Why not? This is a big one. We might need you. You could save lives.”
“Micah, I don’t need you to do good work. I’ve been helping people too, and right now I’m exhausted. I just want to go to sleep.”
“Fine, Molly. Keep pretending like you’re saving the world in your own way,” Micah said.
“I am,” she replied. “I’m a search-and-rescue paramedic! I save lives every day.”
“How many lives did you save in the last forty-eight hours?” Micah asked.
“One,” she said. “One man who had fallen down a cliff face twelve miles into the National Forest. No one could find him until I got on the scene. I used my powers, saw where he was, let him know that help was on its way, and led my team right to where he was lying, unable to move. And then I stabilized his spinal column and helped trek him out of there in a litter.”
“That’s great,” he said. “One life in forty-eight hours. When Nathan Petrelli flew his brother into the upper atmosphere on the night we met, he saved half of New York in a matter of minutes. When Hiro Nakamura killed Adam Munroe, he saved ninety-seven percent of the world’s population, also in minutes. Less than, actually, since he stopped time. When your father read the mind of-“
“Stop!” Molly shouted. “I know what you’re trying to argue. But for every single one of those instances, there are a million other smaller ones, where one little use of power made one life better. That’s good enough for me. I don’t see why it’s not good enough for you.”
“What if you are the one-in-a-million that we need next time, Molly?”
“I’m not the Walker Tracking System anymore,” she said coldly. “My dads saved me from that when I was eight years old, and I have no inclination to go back to being used for someone else’s plots. Not even yours, Micah.”
“But Molly-“
She didn’t say anything else. Just hung up the phone and turned it off. He could still call it, of course, so she considered dismantling the thing, but then he could just activate one of the million other technological devices in their apartment. No, her apartment. Maybe she should go join the Amish, she thought absently, as she drifted back to sleep. But he didn’t even do so much as pop the toaster, so maybe he was going to leave her alone. For once.
She slept all day. When she woke back up, it was just enough time before her on-call shift started for her to eat a little breakfast and take a shower to scrape off all of the dirt and sweat and dried blood that was caked into the lines of her skin. She made a mental note to wash her sheets when she got home from work. She pulled on a fresh uniform and made her way to work.
When she got there, there was a note taped to her locker. A summons from her boss. Fuck.
***
“I’m just saying, Molly, the rest of the members of your team said that you led them right to Hugh Batha. Like you were some sort of bloodhound,” her boss said. Well, she usually tried to be a little more circumspect about using her ability, but Batha didn’t have much time left by the time that the team got to the canyon. She figured that saving his life was more important than keeping herself from uncomfortable questions. Now that she was being faced with the questions, though, she wasn’t so sure.
“It was just a lucky guess, sir,” she said.
“You have a lot of lucky guesses,” he replied. “You’re very easily better at finding patients than anyone else this organization has ever had.”
She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t see why that’s reason to interrogate me.”
“You’re not being reprimanded, Molly. I’m just trying to figure out why.”
She looked down at the ground and then back up to meet her boss’s eyes. “I could tell you the truth, but it’d sound crazy.”
He leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms, and raised his eyebrows in a universal “lay it on me” expression.
“I’m a clairvoyant. I can find anyone, anywhere in the world, just by thinking about them,” she said as she folded her arms across her chest, her mouth a thin, firm line.
He scowled. “There’s no reason to be sarcastic, Molly,” he said.
“I don’t know what else you want to hear that’s going to sound any better,” she snapped, and then reddened. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to come out like that. I’m just tired, I guess.”
“When was the last time you had time off?”
“Earlier today.”
“No, I mean a serious amount of time. At least a week.”
She looked at the ceiling as she counted. “Two Christmases ago.” She and Micah had gone to Las Vegas, to visit his parents’ graves. Not particularly relaxing, but they did blow a fair amount of money for a suite at a nice casino-hotel for the rest of the time.
“I’m going to give you ten days off,” he said. “Right now. You need it. You deserve it.”
“How will you make do without your best finder?” she asked.
“I’ll make do. Hopefully a little time off will take the edge off of your sarcasm. That’s something this whole department could use.”
She went home, watered her plants, threw her sheets and dirty uniform in the laundry. That accomplished, Molly draped herself down on her couch and flipped on the television. As she flipped through the channels, she stopped briefly on one of the old Spider-Man movies. Great, more superheroes. But one of the shots caught her eye. It wasn’t important to the movie, but the shot was of a scene in New York City, of a building that she and her dads used to walk past on their way to her favorite Italian restaurant, where they used to take her to celebrate good report cards.
Now, New York City. There was an idea. If Micah decided to contact her again, well, he didn’t have her power, he wouldn’t know that she wasn’t home. Her alarm could ring all it wanted in an empty apartment. Certainly if he got really insistent, he could check into her credit card or flight records or something, but he was annoying, not a stalker.
Besides, it would be good to spend some time with her dads. They always made her feel better, and really, it had been far too long.
She pulled over her computer and pulled up Delta’s website. To New York she would go.
Less than three hours and a quick phone call to a plant-sitter later, she was standing at the counter at the airport, clutching her small suitcase tightly. She started off into space while the ticket agent typed on the keyboard. The woman tore her eyes away from the computer screen. “I’m sorry, ma’am. We don’t seem to have any ticketed passengers named Walkmanesh in our system,” she said, and Molly looked up out of her stupor.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, pulling out her ID. “I wasn’t thinking. Could you look for Walker, please? Molly Walker?” She always forgot to use her actual, legal name in situations like these. Everyone called her Molly Walkmanesh. She thought of herself as Molly Walkmanesh. She had always fully intended on getting her last name legally changed, but then she fell in love with Micah in college and thought that she would hold off until she changed it to Saunders so that she didn’t have to go through all of the paperwork twice. That didn’t really work out as well as planned, obviously.
The flight was long, boring, but generally uneventful. Just white noise in her day. She picked up a thick paperback during her layover in Chicago. She’d picked it out based on the flashy cover and the pun in the title, but when she opened it on the plane, she realized that it was an unwise choice, as it turned out to be a cop thriller. After spending much of her lifetime living with a man who derived great amounts of pleasure in pointing out incorrect details in the portrayal of law enforcement in the media, such novels were generally ruined for her.
So she chewed some gum to keep her ears from popping, idly leafed through the Skymall, drank her Sprite, stared off into space, and did all of the rest of the tiny rituals that people did on planes to keep themselves from dying of boredom. And then the plane landed and she waited for her baggage (chanting ohpleaseGoddon’tletthemlosemyluggage) for several long minutes until her suitcase finally dropped down on the carousel. And then she was out of JFK, into the subway, and, within a relatively short amount of time, standing in front of the apartment building where she had lived for ten years.
She took the still precariously rickety elevator up to the apartment. She always wondered why her dads had never moved, gotten a larger place somewhere outside the city. But with Matt still working for the NYPD and Mohinder’s job at Columbia, they said that the commute wasn’t worth it. Besides, if the apartment had been able to handle two grown men and a teenage girl, certainly it was more than enough space for just two. And Molly had to admit, she would be heartbroken if coming home meant going someplace other than right here.
She fumbled with the key on her key ring. She had never taken it off, even if she hadn’t used it in some time. Had it really been three years since she had been to New York? Of course, she’d seen Matt and Mohinder more recently than that when they flew out west to see her, but it had definitely been three years since the last time that she had returned the favor.
She swung open the door, and let that familiar Indian house smell wash over her. Even when she cooked with curry, she could never make her and Micah’s apartment permanently smell like her adolescence, which was definitely a shame. “Dad?” she asked as she opened the door. She liked how utilitarian one word could be. Three letters to equally apply to two men whose impact on her life had been far more polysyllabic. But no one answered. The apartment was empty. Where were they? What if they were on vacation or something? She really should have called ahead.
She set down her bag just outside the kitchen (note to self: pick it up before Mohinder gets home!) and wandered towards the refrigerator. The calendar on the wall had today’s date circled and the note “Molly’s visit!!” Complete with smiley face. She should have known better than to worry. And next to the calendar, two post-it notes in succession. Bright pink, so Mohinder had bought the pad, obviously. But the handwriting was angular and slightly misshapen.
“Honey-
If yuo get here b4 I get off work,
make yourself at home (duh).
I shuld be here by 6. Mohinder
is driving home from a smarty-
pants confrence in VT, but he’ll
be bcak today, too. Welcom home!
I LOVE YOU! -M.”
She didn’t know whether to feel annoyed that Matt kept tabs on her life, or feel loved that he would go to so much effort to read her mind from afar. But it was Matt, so her default feeling was always (minus some tense obligatory-teenager moments during her high school years) love.
She looked at her watch and realized that it was still early afternoon. She didn’t have anything in particular to do, so she picked up her bag and headed in her old room. It had been slightly redecorated, of course. But the bed and sheets and comforter were the same ones that she had picked out for her fourteenth birthday. She put down her bag next to the bed and laid down on it. Just to wait, of course.
The next thing she knew, there was a hand on her shoulder, lightly bring her out of her sleep. “Molly?” a voice asked. It was rich and smooth, with that ever-present exotic overtone. She knew who it was even before she opened her eyes. In an instant, it was like everything that was wrong in her life drained away.
“Mohinder!” she said, and her father caught her up in a hug. She buried her head in his shoulder and he wrapped his arms around her.
“I was so thrilled when Matt called me this morning to say that you decided to come for a visit,” Mohinder said as he squeezed her tight.
“Matt shouldn’t have read my mind,” she said, but there was a lot of affection in her tone.
“And you should have called yourself to tell us you were coming,” he shot back.
“Touché.”
They released each other and Mohinder held her back at arm’s length. He inspected her, even as she did the same. He had, very unfortunately, lost most of his hair several years prior and kept what was remaining shaved pretty short (when Molly mentioned this during a chance meeting with an old high school friend recently, the other woman had actually CRIED), and his skin was, perhaps, a little looser, but he still had that puddle-inducing smile that still made Molly feel all sorts of giddy when it was directed at her because she knew that she had made her father proud.
“You look tired,” Mohinder said sternly as he finished his own inspection of her. “You aren’t overworking yourself, are you?”
She rolled her eyes. “Dad. I look tired because I just spent an entire day on a place and then you woke me up from a nap. Besides, I can’t be overworking myself right now. I’m on vacation.”
He grinned. “Right you are. Would you like some chai?”
“Of course,” she said as she moved off of her bed and followed Mohinder into the kitchen. Mohinder hummed to himself as he prepared the milk and water and tea in the pot. They didn’t have to say anything for Molly to be grateful to be in her father’s presence.
As they waited for it to heat up, they sat down in the chairs at the table and Mohinder grinned at her like an idiot.
“What?” she asked.
“I’m just so happy to have you home,” he replied, and she couldn’t help but grin back.
“I’m happy to be here,” she said.
And then she heard the door open and had to resist the urge to squeal and run to the door like she was eight years old. She just managed to contain herself until she saw Matt, and then she couldn’t help but jump out of her chair and tackle him in a hug. “Daddy!” she exclaimed. Twenty-eight or not, she still felt justified in using the word.
“Hey, Sweetie,” he said gently. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too,” she said back. She stayed in his big bear embrace for several more seconds as she luxuriated for the thousandth time in the feeling of being home. They let go, and Mohinder pushed back his chair and stood up.
“What, you want one, too?” Matt asked. “You were only gone four days.”
“It was a long four days,” Mohinder replied as Matt pulled him in a sideways hug from the waist and Mohinder kissed him quickly on the side of his now entirely gray-haired head. Molly leaned back against the table and slid her hands into the back pocket of her jeans, smiling slightly as she watched them. They broke apart and Mohinder motioned towards the stove. “Chai, Matthew?” Mohinder asked.
“No, thanks,” Matt replied. He took one of the chairs at the table and spun it around, sitting in it backwards. “So, all I got was that you were coming here for a week and that you’d had a bad call with the psycho ex.”
“He’s not psycho,” Molly protested. It felt weird to hear someone else calling Micah her ex, even though they knew about her breaking off the engagement, of course.
“I’m just saying that he has to be not quite right if he isn’t willing to do whatever it takes to make you happy. And his mother was certainly-“
“Matthew,” Mohinder chided evenly as he set the two cups of chai on the table. He sat down in his chair correctly. Molly accepted her cup with a smile.
“Right,” Matt said. “Sorry. Let’s start this whole thing over, without the invasive mind reading. Hi, honey. How are you?”
She wanted to say fine. But she really couldn’t lie to Matt. “I just-“ she bit her lip. “To tell you the truth, things have been kind of rough lately,” she said finally, shakily taking a sip of her tea. “I mean, I love my job to death but it’s been stressing the hell out of me lately, and now my boss has started to catch on to the fact that I’m really, unnaturally, good at it and is giving me a hard time. And there’s the whole saving-the-world thing, and the whole Micah thing-Micah and I were together for eight years, so I’m still getting over all kinds of issues about that. So things weren’t really fine until I saw the two of you.”
“Well, we’re here now with nothing to do but listen,” Matt said gently. Mohinder didn’t say anything, just made a sympathetic face in agreement.
“Thanks,” Molly said. “I really needed to hear you say that.”
“So talk.”
She sighed. “I just let my only major relationship go down the tank,” she said. It was true about Micah being her only major relationship. She had dated one other guy, during her freshman year in college, but she ended rather explosively it after a month when he told her that all homosexuals, including her dads, were going to Hell. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Sweetie,” Mohinder said as he took her hand, “It wasn’t that you ruined it. You and Micah had something great, but ultimately, you just weren’t right for each other.”
“No, it was that he loved saving the world more than he loved me. And I loved my job more than I loved him. I’m twenty-eight and alone. I think I’m just doomed to be a loveless career woman forever.”
“Oh, honey. You shouldn’t be down on yourself about your age,” Matt said. “That’s not too old to find love at all. Your father and I didn’t meet until we were in our mid-thirties.”
Mohinder leaned over and stage whispered. “I was in my early-thirties. He was in his late-thirties.”
Matt lightly swatted Mohinder with the back of his hand. “That is enough out of you!” Matt said, and Mohinder grinned back innocently. Molly wondered if it was normal to adore how cute her parents were together as much as she did. Decided she didn’t care.
But then they turned back to her, all business. “Molly, we can’t promise you that everything is going to be all right because we can’t tell the future,” Mohinder said.
“We’re not Hiro Nakamura, after all,” Matt said. “But we do think that you made the right decision. If he wasn’t making you happy, then you had every right to break off the engagement. There’s no point in getting yourself trapped in an unhappy marriage. I know. It’s miserable.” It was Molly’s turn to squeeze Matt’s hand. “But that doesn’t mean that you’ll never be happy again,” he continued. “The end of your relationship isn’t the end of your life.”
“But what about the whole saving-the-world argument?” she asked. “He said that they need me. That the world might need me. And he’s right, in some ways, even if I don’t want to admit it. I love my job, but I can only save so many lives at a time that way.”
“Just because you have an ability doesn’t mean that you’re not allowed to have a life that makes you happy,” Matt told her.
“That’s what you’ve always said,” Molly replied. “But when I was younger you both were always tearing off to infiltrate the Company or help Nathan Petrelli or whatever else. And you were the one who took down Soweto Kane for good, Matt.”
“It was rocky for me for a long time,” he admitted. “But then I realized that it’s all about finding the balance, Molly. Sometimes the pieces of the puzzle fell into place and it was obvious to me that in that moment I had to act. But the rest of the time I fought for the life I loved, for you and Mohinder. And maybe there will come a moment for you where you are in the right moment at the right time for you to act and do something monumental. Until then, do what you love and make the choices that make you the happiest.”
“It sounds so easy when you say it.”
“That’s the trick,” Mohinder replied as he cleared away their empty cups of chai. “You don’t know how easy it all is until you live though the hard times and see what doesn’t work. And then you realize what does. And you appreciate the things in your life that make sense.”
“So what about my boss?”
“Well,” Matt said, “you know how pleased we are that you decided to go into emergency services-“
“-and how well you did in on your MCAT,” Mohinder interrupted, looking over his cup of tea.
“And that,” Matt amended. “But we do worry about how stressful your job is.”
“It’s supposed to be stressful, Dad. I cart dying people out of the wilderness. As an NYPD detective who refuses to acknowledge retirement even though he is nearly sixty, you do not have any privileges in making me feel bad about that. But what about my boss? And his suspicions?”
“What did you say when he asked?” Mohinder asked.
“I told him with a completely straight face that I was a clairvoyant and could find anyone with a thought,” she said, and Matt hooted a little.
“Really?” he asked. She nodded.
“Did he believe you?”
“He told me to stop being so sarcastic.”
“Mohinder,” Matt said, “I think that you need to drop whatever fancy project you’re working on to figure out how it’s genetically possible that Molly inherited your dry sense of humor.”
“So you told him the truth,” Mohinder said. “Even if you were greeted with skepticism. There’s not anything more you can say. Even if he does eventually discover that you were right all along, there’s nothing to be ashamed of. You use your powers to make people’s lives better. You should be proud of that. We’re certainly very proud of you.” He smiled, and Molly didn’t think that it was ever possible to feel cold ever again.
“Thanks, guys,” she said. “God, I needed this. Why did I stay away from here for so long?”
“You somehow inherited Matt’s stubborn streak,” Mohinder said. “I’m actually currently researching how that’s possible as we speak.”
They all cracked a smile, and Matt stood up out of his chair. “Are you hungry for dinner, honey?” he asked.
They went out for Italian, and passed the building that she had seen in the movie. They came home and watched cop dramas on the TV. Matt gleefully pointed out all of the incorrect details while Mohinder dozed against him and Molly rolled her eyes.
She stayed for a week. “I love you,” they both whispered into her hair when she hugged them goodbye. When stepped back off the plane into her old life, things weren’t automatically perfect again. There was still the hole in her life that used to be filled by Micah. There was still a boss who shifted between praise and inquisition from moment-to-moment. There were still long hours and nights spent sleeping on bare rock and days spent carrying litters. None of that went away.
But it was a little bit easier to take with a reminder that she always had the best place in the world to call home. And that her dads would love her no matter what happened.
<3