Starring:
Guest Starring:
Summary: After a day of training and talking at the bookstore, Peter and Elle have a little bit of an argument and then they make up afterwards.
Date It Happened: April 20, 2007
Arguing and Making Up
1407 - Peter Petrelli's Apartment
With Snowy on the floor nearby, leash holding her close by, Peter opens the door with his key and steps inside, closing it behind him. The puppy immediately goes to the foodbowl, nudging it with her nose and then looking up at him. Locking the door with one hand, he bends down to unhook the leash and looks towards the living room and bedroom, "Elle? Are you here?"
Elle is in, actually. She's sitting on the couch, and soaking her feet, getting rid of the residual pain from the scratches and the like. "Right here!" She's had a busy morning. She's there in a bathrobe, having come out of the shower and into sitting there.
With the puppy off her leash, Peter goes over to one of the cabinets and gets the food back, a measuring cup next to it already to measure out the right about of food. Dropping the food into the bowl, he eyes the water, before leaving the puppy to enjoy her meal as he steps in to see his girlfriend. "Hey. How are the feet doing?" He glances down, looking at them, checking for any abnormal redness or swelling.
Elle seems to be healing quite well. She should be fully healed up in another day or so. She smiles at the puppy, and then looks back to Peter. "Feeling better. Just a few scratches, at this point. How are you doing?"
Laying the leash down on the nearby desk, Peter moves closer and settles down on the couch next to her, reaching over to claim her hand, much as she'd done the first time they met, entwining their fingers together. "I'm doing good. Maybe in a few days, when your feet feel better we can go out and do something. Have that second date we keep missing." For various reasons.
Elle smiles. "They're good enough for that." she says. "I've been out the last couple days, and they've mostly healed up since then. Good as new, really." She happily holds his hand. "I saw Jane this morning, and a friend of mine from the Company yesterday."
"You saw— oh, damn, I was supposed to tell you that Jane wasn't crazy…" Peter says, suddenly remembering something when she brings it up. "You distracted me. I hadn't seen you in so long…" he shakes his head, as if he's feeling bad he'd outright forgotten the lawyer-musician. "I'm glad you saw her. She was really worried you thought she was nuts with the whole… moving music notes thing." Which he still has no idea what happened with that. "What— what did you see your friend about?"
Elle nods. "You did mention it." she reminds. The other night when they talked. "But it's good. And I needed someone to talk to after the thing with the woman who threw a van at me. Just…someone to help me work through it."
"Oh yeah," Peter says, shaking his head. He's not sure what he's said and what he hasn't, half the time. "Have you found her? Did she stay in the city? Do you think she'll come after you? If she's… attacking anyone who tries to talk to her— I don't approve of everything your dad does, but… she seems dangerous… and not really in control of herself. She could have hurt a lot of people throwing cars around."
Elle shakes her head. "I haven't found her. And I agree she's dangerous. Some people from the Company are working on it, Peter. We'll get it handled." she says, looking back to him seriously.
"I think maybe she could be helped, but… I dunno. Did someone go after her already, do you think? Another Agent maybe?" Peter asks, "I just… it doesn't make sense why she'd just attack you if all you did was talk to her." He seems to want to believe people wouldn't just attack someone who'd only shown up to talk. "I dunno, as long as you're safe, and as long as someone stops her and teaches her to control herself so she doesn't hurt anyone…" Snowy finishes eating a few mouthfuls of food and then bounds across the room over to them, looking curiously at the water that she's soaking her feet in.
Elle nods. "Yes, someone's already after her." she says simply, and then looks slightly annoyed. "And what, you think I'm -lying-? I told you, Peter. I went in to talk to her and she -kicked me in the face-." There's that paranoia. She seems miffed, and looks to the puppy by way of giving herself something else to focus on. "Here…" she snaps her fingers. Puppy doesn't need to be drinking water with epsom salt.
"I didn't say you're lying," Peter says, shaking his head at the accusation. "I was asking if maybe someone else had gone after her before you. Like Bennet, or one of the others. It's not like the Company doesn't keep secrets from their own agents too." Seems he's sad that she's annoyed, but decides to watch as the puppy looks towards the fingers and goes over to sniff at them. Loud breathing sounds, closer to a yip than a bark, and she watches the blonde woman.
The blonde shakes her head. "No." she says. "No one went after her before us. I had to open a file. Not everyone is as nice as you, Peter. Some are closer to Sylar." She moves to scoop up the puppy.
"I just thought— she thanked me, Elle. She said I said something— did something— that made her calm down." Peter shakes his head, allowing her to have her hand back for better scooping ability, reaching over to scratch the puppy between the ears, as her tail wags and she nuzzles in close to the woman in the bathrobe. "Don't think I did anything, but— she could have kept attacking us, and she didn't. Maybe— maybe I did do something and just don't know it. Wish I would have been there with you. You might not have been hurt as bad… Especially if she's… closer to Sylar."
Elle nods. "I don't know, Peter. All I did was try to talk to her, and I barely got started before she hit me. I'm okay…I mean, it could have been a lot worse." A faint chuckle. "She could have -hit- me with the van she threw at me. As it stands, she killed the backup I brought when she did that."
"I hope no one else gets killed trying to stop her," Peter finally says, looking visibly upset by the fact that she killed her back up, hand resting on the puppy's head as she settles down into her lap and yawns. There's a sigh, and the sad topic tries to move in a different direction, "What else did you go out and do? I noticed you were gone last night for a while."
Elle smiles. "I visited my friend, I stopped for a drink, and this morning I visited Jane." she says. "How about you? I haven't seen enough of you the last couple days." She squeezes his hand.
"Taking care of things for the puppy, mostly," Peter says, looking down at the puppy. He's not completely lying, just omitting things. "I spent a lot of time with the vet yesterday." As she's talked about, the puppy yawns and stretches a bit, eyes closing as she starts to move into a puppy nap. "Also had tell my landlord about her, too. In case she makes noise and anyone complains. And… I haven't added you to the lease or anything, but— I had to let him know I would be having someone staying here… That you had a key and… that…" His voice trails off.
Elle smiles a bit, as she pets the puppy. And then she looks back to him, tilting her head just a bit. "And that I what?" It sounds like there was more to come in all that. She looks back at him curiously.
"That— I might have to add you eventually," Peter says, looking down shyly towards her hands, and the puppy that's under them, shedding fur everywhere. "See, the rent changes— when there's more people in the apartment… But we can deal with that later." There's a quick glance towards her face, a hint of a smile tugging on the corner of his mouth, before he adds on, "Was practicing my abilities today, some of them."
Elle looks back to Peter, and she says "Actually…I was giving some thought to the whole "living arrangements" thing. Something Jane said to me. Separately, we can all be in danger. If Sylar can be invisible, nothing stops him from sneaking in someone's house and then…yeah. I think whatever facility we get for this new satellite company should have housing facilities in it." She looks serious; Elle's gone business-mode all of a sudden.
"Sylar doesn't know where everybody lives, though," Peter says, not actually liking this idea right now, for various reasons. "If we're all in one place, all he'd have to do is find one place. And… I can't…" His voice trails off, but he's visibly stressed by this, which is odd, he probably suggested it as a possibility once. "I guess we could, but… I don't know. If everyone agreed to it…"
Elle points out "That still doesn't mean that he couldn't find out. And if we're all in one place, that has the advantage that we're all in one place. He couldn't fight us one at a time, he'd have to fight us all at once. I really think we should look into it, Peter."
"What's to stop him from using Ted's power and blowing us all up?" Peter asks, looking up at her seriously. "He used it against me. When I fought him in Detective Damaris' loft. Everyone keeps saying that Claire's power saved me— but you saw me afterwards. My clothes weren't even destroyed. He could use that and kill all of you. And I don't think he'd hesitate to do it. If he's got enough control to just toss me across the room and burn my clothes, he could contain it enough to take out a building."
Elle counters "What's to stop him from doing that with -any of us-? He doesn't want us blown up, Peter. He wants our powers, and if he blows us up he doesn't get them. Any argument you can make for what he can do to us as a group, he can do to us as an individual…except that as a group, at least we MIGHT have other people there to help."
"I guess," Peter says, looking down with a hint of quiet defeat. "I was thinking of doing something like… a community center. But if we're going to live there… that won't work the way I wanted. Too many innocent people would be in danger. Just— don't know if I want to do this. Work with your dad."
Elle frowns. "Peter…" she says, a warning tone in her voice. "If you were going to have that in mind, that was something to think of a few weeks ago. I can tell you right now, Daddy's not going to be happy if he finds out. You don't want things to go back to the way they used to, do you?"
"Do you really think it will be any different?" Peter asks, looking up, seeking an answer from her. "When it's all done— you know how the Company works better than I do. Do you really think it will be any different with me? Will your father let it be?"
Elle looks pensive. "I don't know." she admits. "But they've got nothing to gain by locking up the people involved, and a lot to gain by working with them. I think that as long as you play by his rules, he'll be willing to work with you. With us. Peter, what -choice- is there? We all stay apart and get picked off one by one? We fight a two-front war with Sylar and Daddy?"
"If I'm doing this… it's to protect people, Elle," Peter says, looking away towards a puppy that is now very much asleep, breathing steady, ears occasionally twitching when he hand moves. "Not just all the people in New York who might be in danger from— everything. But also those people your father would silence. Or threaten. Or imprison. And that includes you." Now he looks up, expression serious, "They took away so much of your life and… I want you to be able to actually live. Make your own choices… Not just do what your family wants. How will this be any different for you? Is this even what you want?"
Elle's silent for a long moment. "Peter…I don't have my own choices. If it's not here with you, then it's going to be back there with Daddy. They're not going to just let me walk away. The Company might do some bad things. But they do them for the right reasons. Sometimes the greater good is more important."
"This is exactly what I'm afraid of, Elle," Peter says, shaking his head as he looks down at the puppy again. "That this'll all— that everyone I bring in will have no way out. They'll have no choices. You've pretty much made it clear that I don't have a choice any more." Which he doesn't really like, but… "You didn't answer my question, though. Is this what you want? Do you want to be here with me?"
Elle looks back to Peter. "Peter, no one has a choice, really. That's just the way the world is. There's a very small number of people who actually get to make choices in this world. The rest of us are along for the ride." Bitter much? She looks to him. "I want to be with you. I do. But sometimes…" she sighs. "Peter, sometimes I think you look too hard at the way you WANT the world to be, rather than the way it IS. The Company isn't a devil. I'm not an angel. Everything is somewhere in between."
"I can't believe that, Elle," Peter says, shaking his head and standing up, leaving her and the puppy. His hand goes up towards his face, as if tempted to brush hair out of his eyes, hair which he doesn't have. "There are always choices. You can choose to go against it— whatever it is, destiny, fate, nature… 'the ride'— or you can choose to go along with it. And most importantly you can choose /how/ to go along with it. I'm not— saying I want to fight everyone. And I'm /not/ saying the Company is the devil. I just think they could find other ways to do things… But what I really needed to know… is that you wanted to be here. That you wanted me to do this. That you're not just…" He trails off, running the hand over his face again and turning away towards the kitchen.
She looks after him as he turns. "That I'm what? Just here because of some plan of my father's? Peter, I never -expected- you to take me out of that facility. If I'd wanted to "escape", I could have done it any number of times. I'm here because I -want- to be here."
"That was a choice," Peter says softly, as if to argue the point in passing. When he turns to face her again, he's shaking his head at what she said, "That's not exactly what I meant. But it's the answer I needed to hear." Taking in a slow breath, he reaches up to rub at his face again, this time with both hands. When he lowers them again, he looks calmer, "What do you want to do right now?"
Elle looks back at him. "WANT to do? At the moment I WANT to have makeup sex. Because I don't like arguing. But we still -should- figure this out. We haven't worked anything out."
"You think— I'm not really arguing. I can't change how you think, anymore than you can change how I think," Peter explains, shaking his head a bit. "I'm not trying to change how you think. I just needed to know that you wanted to be here with me. Or I can't do this."
Elle stands. She steps out of the little tub she's been soaking in, and walks up to him. "Peter…I want to be here or I wouldn't be. I want to be here or I wouldn't be pushing so hard for answers. I am who I am. But you…all of this…this is something I've never had before. I don't want to lose it. I don't want to lose any of it. But we can't just…stick our head in the sand and pretend everything is okay. It's not okay. There's a psycho out there that wants us all dead. A lot of people are already dead, because they didn't do anything about it. Because they didn't know. We DO know…but that doesn't help us at all if we don't do something about it."
"What's the Company doing about him?" Peter asks, glancing towards the puppy stretching out on the couch and finding a new place to sleep among the cushions now that everyone's moved. "We had a chance to stop him before he could kill anyone else… and we didn't. What were they doing to stop him?"
Elle frowns. "I don't know." she admits. "I know they're working on it, but that doesn't mean I know what every agent in the entire Company is doing. What are -we- doing about him?" she counters.
"Your father has so many more resources than I do. If he can't find and stop him, how can I?" Peter asks, shaking his head. "All I know is that I did stop him. Once. I know she got away. I'm trying to… make myself stronger for the next time, but that's all I can do right now."
Elle shakes her head. "And he's offered to share those resources with us. We just have to get organized. As far as finding him…" She pauses a moment, then looks back to Peter. "Molly. You pick up her trick. And we find him. And then -we- hit him instead of waiting for -him- to hit us."
"That's what I wanted to do," Peter explains, looking up towards the ceiling, which happens to have very nice light fixtures. "But I can't find her. Every time I go to Suresh's apartment, no one's there."
The blonde looks back. "I'll talk to my father and see what we can find about where she is right now and what's going on. Okay?" she says. "I'll also talk to him about getting some starting capital to get a facility for us."
"Thanks. We also… need to get ahold of the contract," Peter says, moving a little closer finally. "Want Jane and Nathan to look over it, since they're both lawyers." He'd already said as much before. "And— I still don't know what I'm going to have the facility cover. I don't really know how to do anything except be a nurse. That's… why I wanted to do a community center. Just about anything could be done there."
Elle nods. "So we make it a community center. Peter, whether we live there or not, we're going to BE THERE so much that if it's at risk from one, it's at risk from the other. Nothing stops us from having some rooms on a separate floor."
"Or a separate wing," Peter says, trying to think. "We'd need alarm systems, of course… Heat or motion sensors. His invisibility seemed very similar to mine, so— he'd probably set off alarms still."
Elle smiles. "Actually, we were discussing that too. Jane has some good ideas on security. I like her. We talked some this morning." Which for Elle is a major stride.
Peter grins, moving close enough so he can put his hands on her shoulders, if she doesn't move away. "Then I guess I'll just have to put you in charge of security," he says with a hint of a grin tugging on his imperfect mouth. "Imagine you'd be pretty good at that. And I'm really glad you're making friends."
Elle smiles a little wryly. "And I'll even try to make it nonlethal." she teases just a bit. "I'm trying. It's still really hard." She frowns. "I'm not a nice person, Peter. We both know that."
"Don't have to be nice to have friends," Peter says offhandedly, keeping his hands on her shoulders and even running them up and down her arms. "Look at my brother. He can be an asshole. You're trying. That's the important part." And as if to emphasize that, he leans in to try and kiss her.
The blonde steps up on tiptoe, and kisses him. "All right. Then starting tomorrow, I'll try to get the ball rolling on things." She smiles, and then runs a fingertip down his chest, letting it crackle slightly as she drags it down. "So. Now that we had the argument, do we get to move on to the fun makeup part?"
Looking down at her body, Peter takes a note of just how… close to undressed she already is, and even puts his hand on the belt of her bathrobe. There's a teasing level to his smile, as he starts to tug at her belt. "I think that can be arranged…"
LATER
Leaving the puppy to have free reign of the front of the apartment, Peter closed the double glass doors before they really got to start making up. And after a while, they're laying in bed and he's trailing his fingers up along her arm, watching sparks dance. Much as she called up sparks when she touched him, he calls them up occassionally when he touches her. Just a slight static charge, nothing painful, much the same as she does for him, now. "Could really get used to this. Having someone to come home to. To argue and make up with."
Elle smiles. "I'm not complaining." she says. "Though I like the making up a lot better than the arguing." She props herself up on an elbow, the sheet conveniently concealing everything except a bare back. "I had someone trying to hit on me in a bar yesterday." she says with amusement.
The fingers move up towards her shoulders, still idly playing along her skin, before they stop. "Someone hit on you?" Peter asks, sounding surprised for a reason other than… "Not that— I think no one would. Just— You've probably been hit on a lot, huh? Somehow I hadn't really thought about that… You're the one that kept hitting on me…"
She smiles. "Two someones, actually. One of them gave me his phone number." She seems amused. "But I told him I was seeing someone." She looks very cat-who-got-the-canary as she says that.
"Good, because you are," Peter says, leaning closer to press his lips against her forehead. Sure, maybe he could be a little insecure, but she pretty much blew away his insecurities by telling him. "I didn't know you liked to go out drinking. I can take you sometime."
Which, of course, is why she told him. "I didn't know I liked it either. I'd never really done it before." Which is the case for a lot of things. "But I was upset over the Pamela thing, and that seems to be a thing people do when they're upset."
"It's not very healthy, but— yeah. Can't say I've never gone drinking when I got upset," Peter says, nodding a bit in understanding. "So what'd they do? Just try to buy you drinks and offer you phone numbers?"
Elle nods. "Well, one just bought me drinks. And wanted to dance. And gave me his phone number." she says. "The other one was drunk and tried to grab me." And that went poorly.
"I'm not going to hear a mysterious report of a guy struck my lightning in the middle of a bar, am I?" Peter asks, not even really joking. He knows that part went poorly. And in a different tone, he also finds himself asking, "Did you dance with him?"
Elle looks a little admonished. "I gave him one dance." she says. "I figured it was fair since he bought me drinks." And she didn't really know the "rules" of such things. "The other one…well, no one saw anything. I didn't have to shoot; he was already touching me."
There's really no way he can /blame/ her for electricuting a drunk bastard, and besides, Peter's stuck on the dancing thing for some reason. "Was he any good at dancing?" Very curious, isn't he?
Elle looks uncertain. "I'm honestly not too sure. I'd never been dancing before, so I'm not sure -I- was any good at it. He seemed okay, but I'm hardly a qualified judge on it."
There's a hint of disappointment that twitches his eyebrow, and Peter lays back against the bed, looking up at his ceiling, letting his hands fall away from her. "Since I missed out on your first dance, I'll just have to make sure you're first really good dance is with me." Even if he's not /jealous/… he does sound disappointed.
Elle smiles, and rolls over closer to him. "See, this is just all the more reason why you have to keep me with you all the time. That way you never miss anything." she teases, then leans in and kisses him once.
There's a laugh, as the kiss is returned and Peter says with a quirk on his eyebrow, "If I spent all the time with you, I couldn't surprise you with anything. And I wouldn't appreciate the time I do spend with you as much. We still need to have that second date… Are you sure you don't have any preference?"
Elle smiles. "Honestly…there's so many things I haven't done that I don't know where to even start, Peter. I'll be happy whatever we do. Tell you what…I'm going to go get a quick shower, and then we can have some breakfast and maybe SEE about that next date."
"All right," Peter says with a hint of a sigh. "Why am I getting the feeling it's going to get held off until the world is free of a certain serial killer that wants everyone's abilities?"
Elle shakes her head. "No, no. It's going to wait as long as it takes me to get a shower." Elle leans over, kisses him on the cheek, and slides out of bed, hurrying off to the bathroom. A moment later, the sound of running water fills the air.
"That's good." While she showers, Peter shifts out of bed, sorting through some clothes and getting dressed. Then… he cautiously opens the double glass doors, to find that his puppy has been moderately good. The cushions aren't ripped apart, and the only mess he needs to clean up is thankfully not on his rug or the couch.
Elle is in there only about 10 minutes. She seems to have meant it when she said 10 minutes. So she comes out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel. "Your turn!" She heads over to get dressed.
Peter's barely had a chance to clean up the mess in the kitchen when she jumps out of the shower. Tossing the paper towels away, he refills the puppy's water bowl and then heads back into the bedroom. "If she starts causing any trouble, just close the doors," he adds, before he vanishes into the bathroom. At least shorter showers mean more warm water left over.
Elle dresses. Since she's not sure where Peter's taking her, she goes middle of the road. Jeans (though nearly skin-tight, like everything else Elle wears), an emerald green v-neck top with slightly flowing sleeves, and 3" wedge-heeled sandals. She gets dressed, starts on some subtle makeup, and MIGHT be done by the time Peter's done, depending on speed.
Thanks to the scissors she brought before he left the facility, Peter doesn't require as much time in the shower as he might have otherwise. Not much hair to wash, though it's been growing out lately. Within the same ten minutes, he steps out, wearing the same pants he went in wearing, and going over to find a shirt to wear. "I never asked before— but do you like playing any games?"