Starring:
Date: October 12, 2009
Summary:
Still in the middle of cleaning up after Gene's abduction, Peter and Elena take a break and have a more amicable conversation than in their explosive reunion.
"Two Default Modes Of Living"
A diner a few blocks from Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City, New York
She was waiting quietly behind the diner as she promised.
The SWIFT parked and quiet, she looks like a living shadow in the dark, lashes lowered over her eyes and the golden flecks within obliterated at the onset of night above their heads. In the middle of New York City, their metropolitan surroundings holds little in way of stars or light, save for artificial sources of illumination lining the streets and billboards. Hands slid in her pockets, Elena's slender figure is propped up against the swift, gloved knuckles jammed in deep. A shaft of light cuts over her features, from the interior lighting of the diner nearby. The smells of pancakes, waffles, sausage, bacon… it was no IHOP, but a small, hole-in-the-wall Mom-and-Pop place that catered to hungry and post-alcoholic-binge college students. It is a place that is egregiously familiar to them both.
It was getting colder. Without a jacket, having given it over for testing, goosebumps have prickled over gold-tinged skin, her breath coming out in quiet puffs. She rolls her head back, closing her eyes momentarily, at present, while alone, succumbing to the granite feel of fatigue settling into her bone marrow. Out of her adrenaline high, a few miles spent running nonstop, hiding, dodging men with guns and driving vans and helicopters, without her abilities she's suddenly exhausted and the need to eat was strong.
Maybe the diner was a bad idea. She did not have time to eat right now.
—
A hop through time and space means it's not too long after she's there that someone else appears in the alleyway. Peter's alone, without R2 by his side, but that doesn't mean anything, really, because almost as soon as he settles down, he's already speaking. "I put R2 with Arnold. They should be safe there for a while." A few steps bring him closer to her, and he notices the fact that she's without a coat, and it's cold enough he can see her breath.
Within moments he sheds his jacket, able to handle more cold than she is, and holds it out to her without a word as he glances down the alley, to check how secure it really is.
The food does smell good…
"Gene's roommate is… interesting. I— had her get a cab and go stay in a hotel for a few nights. Gave her some cash, too." He convienantly leaves out so much of the explaination, but the way he's avoiding eye contact and something about his face… he seems to be flustered. Possibly even embarassed.
—
Firstborn daughter of the Chairman of the Board of one of the biggest technology firms in the entire world and I'm seriously considering mugging someone for a hot dog, is the dry and humorless thought, her eyes closed still when Peter appears in the alley. However, when he starts speaking, lashes fly open, her head angling towards him. The words 'I put R2 in with Arnold' almost causes a grin to curl up on her lips at the idea, the very notion making sense to the both of them, but if anyone else overheard they'd probably think they were all bonkers. Perhaps it was the lightheadedness that was making everything amusing, suddenly.
She blinks when she's handed his jacket, a furrowed-brow glance cast in his direction, but she takes it slowly… he preferred longsleeved clothing, and unlike her, he had the means to warm himself up. She quietly shrugs it on…. still five pounds underweight, she might've shed another or three sitting it out and letting her metabolism eat her body. But while she's not above taking the quiet and considerate gesture despite everything, her present state wasn't something she'll admit to out loud.
"You took him back to his place?" she asks, though when he tells her about Gene's roommates, she purses her lips, listening, taking in the details. "Interesting in what way? I've never met her, did she seem nice? I was surprised when Gene told me he was living with somebody but…." And then, when he steps further into the light, at the dark flush on his cheeks, she gapes at him. "….uh. Do I want to know what happened?"
—
"Yeah, I dropped him off in my other apartment. Not the one that anyone who knows my name can find, though, so it should be safer," Peter explains, watching as she puts the coat on. The wind in the alley is strong enough that it's not going to be a comfortable place to stand for very long, but at least it isn't snowing on them, and now she has a coat— one that's warm cause he'd been inside for a time before this happened.
"She is… let's stick with interesting. Not the type of person I'd see Gene hanging out with, honestly, but… I guess I don't know Gene that well." And in some ways he feels like he knows far more than he'd ever wanted to know about the young man. Even if he's not sure if he heard what she said quite right. A hand raises up to push hair back behind his ear, before he looks back at her finally. No more avoiding eye contact for the moment, at least.
"I actually had to use persuasion. Made her forget that I'd been there and go and get a cab and stay in a hotel for a few nights. I— explaining the situation wasn't really working very well." And she totally cried Rape as soon as she saw him… "You sure we can leave that here for the night? Is there somewhere you need me to take you?"
—
She takes a deep breath in quiet relief, Elena closing her eyes at the warmth-suffused jacket. Rolling her shoulders back to test out residual soreness, she glances over at him, listening attentively as he finally meets her eyes - the first since she's arrived back in New York, and tells her about Gene's roommate. Her lips tilt upwards in a half-smile. "Well, you know what they say about opposites attracting. I'm just glad Gene isn't spending his days alone. He has a wide network but… there's really only a handful of people he considers close to. Typical male pathology, or so psych professors would tell me anyway."
She nods. "That's clever," she says, approving on using Persuasion - a far cry from when she'd usually balk at it. It was practical, it was effective, and she was glad that Peter had no qualms using it when he needed to… and that circumstance definitely required it. "It should keep her out of the apartment for a few days while…. they come back for his things." Her jaw sets at that. "But they're not going to find anything sensitive there, not with another person living with him."
She shakes her head, and gestures to the diner. "We're not leaving it here. We need to drive out to stash it in a remote location that we scouted out in advance and lock it until I'm able to call people to get it out of there discreetly. Not to mention Gene has more stuff there that I should retrieve. Before we go though…" She chews on her bottom lip, glancing at the diner. "…I don't suppose I could ask you to wait while I got some food to go. Do you want anything?"
—
"It— seems like she's good for getting him social interaction, at least," Peter says a bit awkwardly as he glances toward the SWIFT. He'd missunderstood what she meant by meeting up here, but he nods, at least leaving it in this alley isn't going to happen. It's too priceless to risk a homeless guy stumbling upon it, after all.
At the very least, she seems to approve of some of the methods he's started to take on. Most of his willingness to manipulate people's minds came from the Company, and having worked with them the last year, but some of it had happened before— usually to help others. This is another time when he did it to help someone else. If she's out of the house when they arrive, it should make things safer for the young woman. Then again, she might scare them off. "I've gotten a lot better with some of my abilities lately— a lot more comfortable with using them when it's necessary," he adds on, before nodding toward the diner.
"I could use something small to eat, sure— I can keep an eye on the bike while we do, too." There's a mild consentration, and then suddenly there's two Peter's standing there. It's an effect she's used to seeing from Jaden, but this Peter looks… displeased.
"Damnit, you could have put your coat back on first," he actually yells at Peter, before grouchily stepping over toward the bike.
"…sorry."
—
So he was going with her, inside. Elena pauses, glancing over at him. "But then who's going to— " She doesn't have to wonder too hard into it, however, when another Peter suddenly pops out. Her jaw slackens, shock clear on the fae-lines of her expression as OtherPeter yells at RealPeter and takes position by the SWIFT. "I— when did you…?" She never really did discover when he had absorbed Jaden's powers, in fact she didn't even realize that Peter had been a clone in the Christmas he spent with her a year ago. Different personalities, to boot.. just like Jaden's.
"Uh…" For the second time today, she's actually somewhat speechless.
But with the clone situating himself where he should be, she sighs. "Come on," she says, her expression half-exasperated, but half-amused. As she turns to head to the diner, he could see her shaking her head, in a some things never change sort of way. Familiar, to be sure, but not necessarily in a bad way.
When they enter the diner, it's familiar, but not. It's been a couple of years since they've been there together, the tile linoleum on the floor is the same, the shape of the counter… but there is new paint, new colors. The owner seems to have renovated since then. Moving to a booth away from the windows, she takes a seat, shrugging out of Peter's jacket while it was warm inside. She slides him a menu, and picks up a copy for herself. In many ways, this was the proverbial one-eighty… just a few days ago they had been walking away from each other, and now they're eating together.
A preferrable change, though even this get-together is brimming with those subtle undercurrents of unspoken tension and worry. The way she shifts restlessly is indicative enough that she's still worrying about Gene, though she says nothing out loud. She sighs, tugging her gloves off. "This is going to be a long night. Don't you have work tomorrow?" she asks, lifting her eyes finally.
—
"I think I picked it up two years ago… in the future," Peter says, looking back at himself quietly. The mirror of him doesn't look at all happy, and something on the floor of the alley shifts, like he pushed it aside so he didn't have to walk on it. There's a frown from the real Peter for a moment, before he looks back at his ex-girlfriend. "I only found out about it around… I kinda did it by accident one time. They— it's complicated. But I do it occassionally when… when I need to be in two places at once. I can't handle more than two of them, and they don't get all of my abilities. Just one each. The— the ability they get seems to influence their personality, too," he says, keeping his voice down. The conversation would sound quite strange, and he knows it. But luckily she understands.
Once she's sitting in the booth, he joins her, sitting across from her as he shakes his head, "I don't need more than a couple hours sleep anymore. Not quite the same as… before my father got his hands on me, but it's still a lot less than a normal person needs. And if I can't make it, I can send … a replacement." And she's just seen how he could send a replacement. Maybe this is half how he takes on so many extra shifts and still manages to do Company work? "Some of them really enjoy being Paramedics. Others… less so. The one I left outside is a good… guard, though."
—
"That's interesting," Elena replies, and for the most part, it's honest. She might have 'retired' or had effectly 'come out of retirement' with this little episode today, but as Peter details the nuances of this particular gift, she can't help but pay attention. Can take the science from the girl, but not the other way around, it appears. She quiets down when the waitress comes over and asks for their orders, and she requests a cheeseburger with fries… and despite the giant order, he knows her eating habits well enough, if he remembered, to know that won't even take ten minutes for her to devour. A quick bite to eat, for her, is a meal for others. "So which ability is in play with Other-You?" she can't help but ask, sneaking a glance towards the back door where the SWIFT and OtherPeter was. She couldn't tell, and with very good reason.
She's still flexing her fingers, checking her watch as she waits for her food, her brows furrowing. "Close to three hours," she tells him, still marking the passage of the hour. But when he tells her about his clones's occupational choices, she nods, her chin propping on one hand. "I'm not surprised. Different…" There's a quiet glance around. "…. capabilities," she opts to say. "Aside, they're still all you. If you like being a Paramedic I'm assuming most of them would too." She exhales a quiet breath, lifting her fingers to rub into the bridge of her nose. "I should call in tomorrow so I'll have a day to make sure neither of us missed anything." She sinks further into her chair.
—
"Telekinesis," Peter says with a cautious sound to his voice as he glances through the window. It's not that he doesn't trust himself, but that one tends to be… more violent than the others. Then again, it's the part of himself most likely to come out if the government tried to attack him. When he's asked to order, he just asks for a salad for himself, and some bread sticks. It seems like they're eating habits are a bit reversed! But they'd likely expected something of the like anyway.
He nods in understanding. "It's— I think their personalities are based on what emotions are needed to access the ability. Some have more complex differences than others. You should meet the one with Jack's power sometime," he says, giving his head a bit of a shake— then again… "Maybe it'd be better if you didn't. You— you actually met one of them. When I was gone so much around… my birthday and Christmas. I— suddenly showed up and was able to spend the whole day with you…"
He looks down toward the table, frowning as he tries to word this particular confession. "That was when I found out I could do it— once they all disappeared. None of them knew they weren't me, they just… I'd been missing my family and you, and… that power found a way to give me all of that…" Even if it left him unconscious from power overload for the next couple of days.
—
"Telekin— " …..oh crap.
Elena shoots Peter a look from across the table. "You can control this one, right?" Granted she couldn't have asked for a better guard, but the person in which this clone is based off of isn't exactly stable. But considering he hasn't gone slicing people's skulls off yet, she can probably rest easy until their food is brought to the table. She starts with the fries - carbohydrates are better for her in this state. And their eating habits have always been reversed…. between the two of them, she was the carnivore.
She blinks when he confesses that it hadn't been him, but his clone that had come to see her. Fingers curl loosely on the table, dark eyes glancing down to the sapphire-and-ruby band around her finger. "I remember it," she tells him. "That's when you gave… I promised I'd wear it every day." She kept that promise, one of the many she had sworn to keep.
Except the 'not leaving' part.
She picks up a fry, chewing on it. She doesn't seem to be too sore about it. "You didn't know," she tells him, at least attempting to alleviate his worries there. Too much anger had already been expended in his direction upon returning, and now that Gene's life was on the line, she was more reluctant to be counterproductive than anything. "And it was Christmas, you just wanted to get to see everyone. A lot of people understand that desire….it's just that you're one of the few who could actually make that happen. What good are our gifts if we can't use them to make other people happy?"
She traces absent fingertips on the table, before starting on her food in earnest.
—
"I just hope no one tries to steal the bike from him," Peter says quietly, as he starts to eat his salad. It's slow going, because he's overly distracted by his own confessions as well as the woman sitting across the table from him. The woman and the ring she wears, given to her by the clone when he couldn't give it himself. He'd have held onto it for a while until she was able to have it, and he'd bought it for her on his own, but it was a fraction of himself… one based almost entirely on his love for her… that had given it to her.
She'd kept it. Even after she left.
There's a visible wince for a moment, and he keeps his eyes down on the table, suddenly far more interested in his salad. Not much of a distraction, really, but it's something. "I'm not able to make people very happy," he finally says after a few moments, and then casually glances around. Or not so casually avoids looking at her again. He couldn't make her happy. She left.
But… "Why did you keep it?"
—
"Well, if anyone tries, we'll just have to get it back. Besides, it takes a while to hotwire a bike, and I've got the keys." She pats her jeans pockets at that, and by the time he glances up, she's already finished her cheeseburger and she's polishing off the rest of her fries, slender fingers coming up to wipe the grease and ketchup off them. She had always been a creature of errant grace, it came with years spent so much time dancing. He'd find that her own eyes are elsewhere, though it's hard to determine whether it's because she finds it difficult to look at him, or because she's quietly keeping an eye out in case people in tac gear were coming for her and him yet again.
"That's not true," she tells him, not out of any desire to spare his feelings but simply because it was the truth. "Nobody can keep the people in their lives happy all the time, no matter how much love is expended. Human beings are inherently self-building or self-destructive creatures, our two default modes of living. It's in that love that we're bound to hurt one another, on occasion. Family, friends…" Lovers. She rolls a sore shoulder back, her tone of voice somewhat more absent as she continues: " 'The ultimate choice for a man, inasmuch as he is driven to transcend himself, is to create or to destroy, to love or to hate.' We can really only do the best we can. The rest is up to God."
Very little has changed on an intellectual level. Still remarkably well-read. Still able to quote profound passages from the authors that capture her attention.
She absently flicks her thumb against the band. "It looked expensive," she quips. After a pause, she sighs, pushing her nearly-empty plate away. "I kept everything that everyone's ever given me out of affection," she tells Peter. "I might not….be like you, in that way, but gifts, memories, pictures…. just because I left didn't mean I didn't carry parts of the people I loved most with me. Books, from Cass's store, the dog collar Lachlan sent me as a joke, pictures from Spain… your music boxes. Even Nathan's chicken suit that he sent me at the Evosoft building, I kept. You're all part of me. I wouldn't be who I am without you. Any of you."
She digs into her back pocket, producing her wallet once their quick bite appears to be coming to a close, diggging out a handful of bills.
—
Was it expensive? Yes. More than Peter will likely admit to, but he keeps his eyes downcast for a time. There's pain in his eyes, perhaps even the beginnings of tears, but he has to nod slowly. What she says makes a lot of sense, and they aren't any different, really. There's so many things in his apartment that he kept as a personal connection to someone, even his abilities are a collection of memories and emotions. They make him who he is— and that's why using her ability had been difficult for a while. It still is, but he's hoping that will change now that she's…
Not back, really.
"I wish… I wish you hadn't left. You— you obviously understand the value of the Company's… knowledge and resources. I don't know why you didn't… Trust me." There's that pain in his voice, but he still can't quite look at her, and he's not talking loud at all.
—
She sets the wad of cash on the table. No credit cards, not right now. Elena lifts her head up as she watches his head lower, his gaze cast on the greens left on his bowl. She slides her glass of orange juice across the table towards him, in a silent urge for him to drink it - she was full, she didn't need it. And chances are she probably won't leave the diner until he does. A determined cast sets on her features, sensing the pain…this kind of pain anyway, despite the fact that her abilities were at the most part ineffectual and nonexistent.
When he says what he does, she looks away from him then, finally.
"It was Nakamura-san, at first. I understood that… you had no control over that. And then your exposure to…" Sylar. "And then later on, you joined them, when you had been content to just use them from the outside before. It wasn't as if I didn't trust you. I loved you. Putting my heart in your hands was… " She pauses, at that. "It was just…"
She falls quiet at that.
"I thought you were slipping away, doing things I thought you would normally never do. I was just a kid, smarting over crap no young person should ever experience if they could help it. I was so… idealistic and… back then I was still learning just how— " Gray the world really was. "I didn't think I could bear it."
She glances over at the clock hanging by the diner wall, and then she pushes out from the chair. "We should get going."
—
Loved. Peter's eyes slide shut for a moment, and then he reaches up and rubs at his face. "I get it," he says as he moves to stand up, taking the orange juice that was slid over and gulping a few drinks down. He does get it, because he knew he moved too fast on their relationship. It was like the world was ending every moment and it felt wonderful— but at the same time like everything would fall apart— and then it did.
Of course it would be too much for someone who wasn't even twenty. He never did get to see her on her birthday. He was gone so much that… it shouldn't surprise him that once he was able to be with her again, it was her turn to go away. And even now that she's back… It wasn't for him.
"We should get going, yeah," he repeats, reaching into his pocket and pulling out extra cash to lay down, to help cover his half of the bill, and a good amount of a tip as well, before he moves past toward the door, to reabsorb himself and follow along while she tries to out run him on her fancy bike.
—
She watches him close his eyes, as if she knew why he would be doing so. Perhaps it was still a deep seated ache, but considering his proclivity to give his heart over so quickly that he would've found (and truthfully she had been bracing herself internally if he had)… in a way it had been to spare him, though seeing him now she wasn't quite certain as to whether using the past tense had been for his sake or for her own. Elena's lips press together softly, for the first time since returning looking indecisive, uncertain.
"It wasn't all your fault. The way I…." The way she left things. "It wasn't exactly adult of me to storm off in a huff like that. Before you go beating yourself up over what you did wrong… you weren't the only one making mistakes. I made them too. You might blame yourself for the reasons I left, but I can really only blame myself for the way things are now. We could've ended things amicably or…" Talked like adults and stayed together, and they probably would still be together now. "Instead I…"
She falls silent, at that, and then she lets it hang, turning to head for the door so they can prep to go.
—
He was right— she still knows him. But Peter doesn't stop moving away until he hears the admission that she was at fault as well. That makes him look back at her, and stop moving away, allowing them to catch up and explain the rest. Likely he'll want to still take most of the blame, but that's just who he happens to be. At least he doesn't say it outloud. Not that she doesn't know he's thinking it…
"Instead you left," he says simply, opening the door and holding it open for her, watching her for a moment. It's only when they're back outside in the cold that he says, "I haven't been with anyone since you left. I haven't really had time for it. There— there is someone I— like… but I don't know if anything will come of that, she…" Ran away the last time he saw her. Said it wasn't anything but business. And maybe it shouldn't be. Not right now. "And with how things are going— I have more important things to worry about." More important than himself.
When he makes eye contact with the SylarDitto, he looks back, practically glaring, and then disappears in a poof. "I'll follow behind you on foot. I can run faster than the bike now." A lot faster.
—
She doesn't look at him at that, unhooking the helmet from the handlebars and cradling it against the slender swell of her hip. Not that she wasn't paying attention, she is, turning to face him and sliding something out of her pocket to hand it to him. "Map," she tells him, sideskipping everything else for the moment. "I mapped it out, to get to where we need to. And then we'll grab Gene's stuff and we can call it a night….well. You can call it a night, I can find my way wherever we part ways." They've had a year apart, after two years of being together… in many ways it was par the course through their entire relationship, brief moments spent together only for something to happen that pulled them away all over again.
Maybe it had been a dream.
"I think you should do what you need to in order to be happy," she says simply, turning away from him so she could work the helmet over her head, obscuring her features from view and slipping the key in the ignition. "We all need something for ourselves, Peter. How are we going to relate to other people otherwise when we don't know what it's like to be with somebody? Be happy being with that somebody? If there's someone…"
It wouldn't be right to get in the way, she was Ramon Gomez's daughter, a man whose concept of honor might be considered archaic this day and age - but a reflection of a time when honor actually mattered, actually worth something. She would never, despite the pang, that same dull, deep-seated ache that stretched into the fiber of her marrow.
He deserves to be happy.
She swings a leg over, kicking down the clutch. Nodding towards him, she'll take off with the SWIFT, blasting out of the alley and with him following. For now, the conversation ends there.