Starring:
Summary:
Heidi and Cass talk about recent events and come up with a simple plan of PURE AWESOME.
July 16th, 2007:
A Simple Plan
Enlightenment Books
Heidi glances over her shoulder and chuckles when Cass lofts the bags as if she's one of the boys' video game super heroes having just won some huge unwinnable battle. It's actually pretty adorable.
Picking up a book about something to do with pentagrams and also candles, she flips through the pages so as not to look like she's standing around waiting for someone… Because that's kind of creepy. It'd be all HI CASS STARING AT YOU HURRY UP WITH YOUR COUNTERPEEPS. Anyway. When it seems as if the last customer is about finished, Heidi places the book back on the shelf and starts heading over toward the counter. She still looks /tired,/ no better than when she talked with Elena a couple days ago, but… This isn't quite as obvious outwardly, because /that's what makeup is for./
"Thought I'd stop by and see how everything's going," she says once the store's clear. "Only time we ever seem to run into each other is when there's some mortal peril." Like, oh, being shot, or hearing that there's a killer who WANTS YOUR KIDS. et cetera.
When she's in a good mood at the store, Cass' actions can be quite cartoonish and exaggerated. Her time with the customer doesn't last very long, as the other woman who definitely looks like a part of the New Age crowd is only buying a few small items and keeps the small talk to a minimum. "Happy Birthday," she murmurs to the bookstore owner in the typical dreamy way. "Your astrological chart is one of those pleasures to read. You have a very interesting planet positioning." Even if it /is/ her birthday, Cass isn't one of those people to broadcast it everywhere. She likes to keep it within her close knit friends and family. That's who she expects presents and grand gestures from. "Thank you," she beams as the other woman collects her purchases and makes for the door.
That just leaves Heidi and Cass. The tiredness doesn't go unnoticed, but she doesn't bring it up right away. Telling a woman she looks tired is just as bad as telling her she looks fat in something. "It's a nice change of pace, I'll definitely admit. How are you doing? And Peter and Nathan?" Nathan is last because the last time all three of them were in the same space, he kissed her. "I'm really sorry about everything that happened that night."
Ah-ha! Heidi catches that happy birthday, but this observation is not yet revealed! In due time, in due time. Because it's 9:00, and the least Heidi can do is treat the bookstore owner to dinner at a 24-hour Coney Island when they get out of here. They have good cupcakes, too.
"Yeah, tell me about it." Heidi leans on the counter. "Everyone's doing well. Busy, though, with Nathan and the…" She waves her hand. Politics. She really doesn't have to explain /that one,/ because it's pretty much all over the news. And Peter… Well, that's a little more complicated, but she can still honestly say, "Peter's doing pretty good. He's still at the house, but I imagine he'll be back in his own place now that… things have settled down." AKA, 'now that Carter's dead.'
THAT NIGHT. WHAT. That was supposed to be a /dream,/ which she's /not supposed to remember./ Cue the blue-eyed Petrelli looking distinctly uncomfortable at the mention. "It wasn't your fault. It wasn't anyone's. I… ah, well. Nathan told me, and I… Well, I'd kind of be a hypocrite if I was even remotely upset."
If Cass knows that Heidi knows about her birthday, she doesn't reveal. Because where would the fun in that be? Also, it's possible she didn't know that the other woman caught the aside from her customer. Nodding along, the book seller listens to the list of everyone's moods and various stages of well-being. "The Petrellis seem to be a very resilient bunch of folks. I guess the better to have your genes passed along. Helping the evolutionary ladder and all." How else will the children of the future fly and absorb things of Peter and Nathan aren't able to survive and reproduce? At least Nathan's got that part cover. Peter has less excuses.
Oh, if only that night /had/ been a dream that no one would remember. "I wish Lachlan had had /that/ distinct take on it." Since /he/ had also been known in the past to stray. "We don't have to talk about it at all. I just wanted to apologize. I like being both your and Nathan's friend and I didn't want a strange night of accidentally applied hormones to ruin it."
Birthday dinner will be had. Certainly Cass would have already mentioned it if there were plans and she had to leave quickly, right? That's Heidi's opinion, at any rate. "Evolutionary ladder?" she asks, with a smile and an arch of her eyebrows. Kind of interesting for that to be brought up /now,/ considering the conclusion Heidi's come to regarding her own children. The smile fades a little, and she mutters under her breath, "Sometimes I actually worry." Because Simon might, say, develop gills or something weird one day, and that's going to be really hard to explain to his teachers.
"I should have told Elena earlier," Heidi says. She won't reveal just /how/ she knew about that ability, because that's kinda embarrassing, too, but… she /did/ know. Speaking of all this, though, kind of makes her wonder how the 'movie night' is going with her brother-in-law and close friend. Heidi's final take on the matter is simply, "Don't worry about it!" and they will never speak of this again.
Until they do.
"So… You're good friends with Peter and Elena, right?" Random question, but /while she's thinking about it…/
"Well, maybe it's not actually like a ladder. It's just a saying." A ladder would kind of assume that they, without powers, would be on a lower rung. And Cass certainly doesn't believe anything like that. "Or, well, Evolutionary pool. That sounds better. More like something involved with floaties and inner tubes." More relaxing, at any rate, than climbing a ladder. "Well, it's just another thing to worry about, you know? Cuts, bruises, broken bones, sickness, and possibly the ability to regenerate limbs. I don't have kids, so I don't know. It might be a little higher on the worry scale than that." Maybe a /little/.
"I certainly had no idea she could do that," the other woman agrees. Taking the whole Heidi may have known in advance thing in stride, she doesn't comment. Perhaps she just doesn't pick up on it for the moment. "Okay. Just as long as it's okay." A warm smile shows that she's certainly ready to put it behind her.
The change of subjects doesn't exactly throw Cass, but it's taken with a pause. "I would call them good friends, definitely." Annnnd?
"Nah, it's— I understand," she says, waving a hand again to indicate that she got it, and also chuckling a little at the whole 'regenerating limbs' worry. "I don't think Monty's got the knack of healing himself yet, even if he swears he can." Explanation? "Peter. Well… Monty had a broken arm, and Pete fixed it, so since then, he's— And, well, Simon thinks he can fly." Appropriately enough. KIDS. Maybe that's why Heidi's so tired.
With everything okay between the two women - that might have been the easiest apology /ever/ - it's time to move onto more important matters. Like meddling. "You notice anything— I mean." There's a pause, then… "Nevermind. Maybe I'm overthinking." There's this whole thing about Peter inviting Elena over for a date - that's not a date - and - Well, Heidi can't say too much about the previous night's not-date, but she can certainly see if she's the only one who's noticed anything. "Sometimes I wonder if they're both just stubborn, or if I'm just a hopeless romantic."
"Oh dear. I thought my father was a mad scientist for a couple of years as a kid," Cass tells Heidi with good humor. "I planned out all these experiments that I was sure he was doing, making Frankensteins and the like. Then I found out that he was just like every other doctor. And then I found out that he /wasn't/ like every other doctor. And, well, my family's complicated. Which I'm sure you can relate to. But with the added bonus of possibly flying Petrelli kids."
Moving on to the more meddling side of topics, Cass grins just a bit as Heidi starts and stops her observations about Peter and Elena. "You mean do you think Peter and Elena should be getting together?" Let's just cut to the chase, shall we? "No no, believe me, you're not alone in thinking it. I think the entire world should just stop, turn to the two of them and go, just /make out/ already an get it over with. Or maybe that's just me."
"Really? I just thought the world was the plainest thing ever." She pauses. "Though I guess when I was really young I went looking for, you know, unicorns and dinosaurs in the forest." See, that's why her kids love dinosaurs so much. It's genetic. At least they get /something/ from their mom. It's funny how the world's changed for everyone around her, though. As she's used the description before, it was like she was looking through block windows at a distorted version of life, and now she's got a regular window where she can see the details.
"Yeah. Yeah." One hand runs through dark hair. And while she wouldn't tell them to 'make out,' she certainly would try to push them together if at all possible. While she won't betray the things each of them told her in confidence - which Heidi's already broken once just telling Peter - she /will/ say, "I know they want to. They're acting like teenagers." Pause. Amend. "Young. Teenagers." Since Elena still is one, technically. All she can do is shake her head, though… "I've already tried. It's like it's flying right over their heads."
"I've never thought the world was plain," Cass smiles. "The closest thing I came was when I was in med school. And then I just thought it was a cynical place full of liabilities." Probably why she left. "Who knows, maybe there are unicorns and dinosaurs still out there. I've got a book that theorizes that there's actually dinosaurs at the center of the earth, not molten lava." Of course she does. This store is the be all and end all of strange, even nutty, information.
"Well, Elena /is/. And I guess Peter is just being his sensitive, 'I Don't Want To Endanger Our Friendship' thing. I can understand it, but man am I glad that I'm dating Lachlan. We never even had a friendship part of our relationship. It was kind of all or nothing." Which is refreshing considering the drama that all these other problems seem to present. "I know. Talking to them does nothing. It's times like these that I wish it were possible to just lock them in a closet and not let them out until they admit their feelings for each other."
Heidi was raised plain. She was a good kid, she did her homework, she went to college and got the most boring degree ever, she joined a sorority, she married, and she has the ideal family with a wonderful mutant husband and two potentially mutant children, all of whom she loves very much. Also two dogs and a cat. "You know, I don't even know what I believe anymore. There would have been a time when I'd laughed, but… To be honest, now I'm almost willing to believe it. I kind of /want/ to believe it. My oldest son would be in heaven if there really were velociraptors."
However, speaking against the whole 'up in the clouds' theories that Cass sells in her store, they have two extremely down-to-earth people, neither of whom want to take that chance, it seems. "Yeah. I met Nathan, and I kinda knew right away." And the friendship grew /after/ they started dating. Cass' last comment makes her roll her eyes a little. If only it were that easy. /IF ONLY./ "Yeah, kind of like a game of spin the bottle."
Oh, her family tried. A housewife and a doctor raise a middle class daughter who goes to school and tries to follow in her father's footsteps. However, Cass has always been too in the clouds to be plain. Maybe that's why she trips a lot. "Yeah. The sky's the limit now, right? Kind of literally." More than kind of. "Well, when we find a way to get to the center of the earth, we'll see how happy he'll be." Another frontier for them all to cross.
While the chase is really part of the fun, so is the actual just getting there. "Yeah, it was sort of like that with Lachlan, however more reserved. It's not exactly I know he's the one or anything, but I knew that there was something there." Even despite their opposite temperaments and lives. "Ha, oh if only it were as simple as getting everyone together and rigging a bottle to make it land only on Peter or Elena. That would make things so much easier."
As long as they don't invent an element, make a drill out of it, and DRILL TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH a la 'The Core,' in which they get out of their drillmobile in the earth's mantle and take a little stroll, they'll be fine. Simon would be the first one to sign up for that expedition, all in the name of AWESOME— or, well, he would at this age. By the time he's old enough to go expeditioning, he'll probably be running for Congress like his daddy. They grow up so fast. Snfl.
"You'll figure it out eventually," Heidi says. Even if it's not Lachlan - or even if it is - there'll be some feeling there, and… That's when you know. It's actually pretty random, and the first time she felt that way was with Nathan. It's impossible to describe.
"Yeah. Oh, well," she mutters. But.
"Why /can't/ it be that simple?" Meeting Cass' eyes, Heidi narrows hers. "Think of the people we know, Cass. If— I mean, there has to be a way." Yeah, but she can't exactly invite everyone over to the mansion for a quick game of spin-the-bottle. She's /almost forty/, for Pete's sake! AND THEN. Then! "…My birthday. We're renting a beach house. I'm going to be forty." Why can't they do it /there?/
All talk about centers of the earth and drilling and kids becoming Congressman falls away as Cass thinks over this plan. It's so simple, it's amazing they didn't think of it before. "Yeah, but we'd have to figure out how to make it land on them the whole time." It's science and who knows what else that they'll have to employ. Now, her grin gets mischievous. "Oh, that'll be perfect. We can do a couple of old school games. Spin the Bottle, Pin the Tail on the Donkey, the whole shebang. And then we'll make them kiss! It's perfect. Knowing everyone there, we can make it happen. I know we can."
SEE? SEE?! This is why you should never get two people together who are PERCEPTIVE LIEK WHOA. Or, in Heidi's case, they've each told her separaely how they feel, now they just need them to express that to each other. "There has to be a way. Like, a… Remote… controlled… double-sided bottle." And they'll just have to ensure they also sit across from each other, or something." She should be above this. /They/ should be above this. They're both adult women here, though one must not forget one key thing Heidi brought up before. She was in a sorority. This? Is second nature for her. Her skills are a little rusty, but with POWERS ON THEIR SIDE, they will triumph! "…Or a Twister board." With the names of the people written on the board, and two arrows, or something. She hasn't thought that far ahead yet.
"Spin the Twister Board doesn't exactly have the same ring to it that Spin the Bottle does," Cass points out. "However, we should definitely play Twister, too. I love that game." Heidi may think of herself as an adult, but Cass still has her childish and teenage moments. A fair number of them. And you're only as old as you think you are. "Hmmm. Maybe Gene could whip something up. Though I feel like of bad asking him to work on something like /that/ when he's so busy with work. Plus, he might let the beans slip before or plan has sprung into action." It's true, they should be above planning such things. However, Yentes and Meddlers never are fully cured. They always have to meddle and matchmake.
"Okay, so… We should talk about this." And here's where she springs her /secret knowledge./ "How 'bout late night birthday dinner? We'll go to Coney Island or something, we can work out the details." Ask Gene to help, figure out how they'll get him to do so without letting on what their plan is /for./ He's made a tracking device! He should be able to make a bottle that will land on two specific people, right? Mechanics and technology aren't Heidi's strongpoints by a longshot, but surely if she and Cass doodle something in proverbial crayon, someone will be able to make sense of their plans.
…They'll just have to make sure to ask for one of those kids' menus when they get to the restaurant, so they can actually draw on the back of it.
In crayon.
Drawing in crayon sounds like a lovely way to celebrate a birthday. Getting older and still using the same childish tools. And having fun while doing it. Yes, it's a plan. The secret knowledge is taken with a laugh. "I like that idea. I'm sure we can figure something out. I don't imagine it can be that hard. I'd say we put it on wheels and then have someone hide behind a couch to operate it but I /think/ they might suspect that." Only maybe. Mechanics and technology isn't /Cass'/ suit, either. So between the two of them, the plan they come up with should be woefully and hilariously inadequate for what would actually be needed to build what they need.