Title: Niki Saves The World
Author: Lara-Van
Rating: PG-13, for violence
Summary: Sylar stood up, turning to face Niki. "And who are you?" he asked. "Peter Petrelli the Hero needs someone else to fight his battles for him, does he?" If Niki had made different choices on Kirby Plaza, could disaster have been averted? AU ending to HTSAEM.
Pairings: Niki/DL
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Kirby Plaza, Midtown...
"Mom!" Micah cried. "Dad needs your help!"
Niki glanced over her shoulder, torn. DL, her husband, the man she loved, was practically bleeding out before her eyes. She should be with him right now. He needed her. But...
She hefted the parking meter clutched in her hands indecisively, looking at the man before her. She recognized him from somewhere... and suddenly it all clicked together in her mind. During that one evening she had spent with Nathan Petrelli, he had told her about his "crazy brother," a nurse who had convinced himself that he could fly. He had even shown her a picture he had in his wallet, alongside those of his two sons.
"Go back to your family," Peter said. "I got this."
She bit her lip. "You're Peter. Your brother mentioned you. You're a nurse. Can you help him? He's been shot."
Peter nodded. "I could try, but... but Sylar..." He gestured at the serial killer who was picking himself up as they spoke.
Niki grinned fiercely, feeling a savage joy that used to belong to the Jessica side of her, before the confrontation in Linderman's office put her back together again. "I can handle this creep. Please. Help my husband." Without another word, Peter ran across the plaza to kneel beside DL, asking questions of a terrified Micah.
Sylar stood up, turning to face Niki. "And who are you?" he asked. "Peter Petrelli the Hero needs someone else to fight his battles for him, does he?"
She shrugged, giving him a second vicious blow with the parking meter she still held. Once again, Sylar was knocked to the ground, and she heard something crack. Niki hoped it was a rib. She wasn't really sure what had happened to lead here, but she knew that this man was evil. Maybe it was her experience with Jessica that had made her sensitive to it, but she could sense the darkness and insanity rolling off him in waves.
He threw a hand out, and suddenly she was slamming against the glass-fronted side of the Kirby Building. Her head rebounded against the concrete as she crashed to the ground, but shaking off the dizziness, she rose and charged him again.
A flick of Sylar's fingers stopped her in her tracks, but she was close enough to him now to deal him a vicious kick to his kidneys before he could freeze her completely. He doubled over, groaning in pain, and the telekinetic bonds on her loosened. Niki followed up her first blow with a second sharp kick, channeling all her strength to a jab right where it hurt. As he sank to the pavement, whimpering, she seized a handful of his spiky hair and dragged him back to his knees. With her free fist, she punched him repeatedly in the face. His nose shattered with her first punch.
He made a feeble attempt to push her off with his telekinesis, but her grip on him was tight enough that his efforts only resulted in both of them scooting backwards several yards. Niki seized the front of his blood-spattered shirt and lifted him over her head. With a tremendous effort, she hurled him across the Plaza, where he landed in a broken heap against the rim of the red ornamental fountain. His head lolled back- he was clearly unconscious.
Niki sagged slightly as the rush of adrenaline and bloodlust drained out of her. She turned around to see a bespectacled Japanese man carrying a sword staring at her. She raised her eyebrow at him, daring him to say anything about her triumph over Sylar. He smiled widely at her and gave her a thumbs-up.
A soft groan from beneath the shadows of the Kirby Building drew her attention, and she saw Peter kneeling over DL. She sprinted across the intervening pavement to drop to her knees next to her husband. His eyes were closed and his breathing was labored. A terrifying amount of blood poured from the deep wound in his chest. "DL? Baby?" Niki whispered. "C'mon. You gotta get through this."
She looked up hopelessly at Peter. "Is he going to be okay?" she asked softly.
Peter pushed his hair out of his eyes, shaking his head as he did so. "I... don't know," he said. "He's lost a lot of blood, and I think the bullet might've hit a major artery, but without the proper tools I can't tell... But I was able to take the bullet out telekinetically." He held up the small lead slug. Refusing to shed the tears she felt pricking at her eyes, Niki clasped DL's hand, feeling subtly for the pulse she knew had to be there...
--
Three minutes later, a pair of ambulances arrived to take the injured Parkman and DL to the hospital. Niki noted worriedly that sometime in the commotion of tending to them, Sylar had disappeared, but she was too distracted to really care.
She rode in the ambulance bearing DL to Saint Mary's Hospital just a few blocks away. Mohinder rode in the other with Parkman.
As she sat in the waiting room, twisting her hands in barely controlled panic, Peter sat down next to her. "Thank you," he said.
"For what?" she asked.
"I-- I think you might've saved the world, back there. Tonight, either Sylar or I was supposed to explode. Like a nuclear bomb," he explained. "It was all supposed to go down on Kirby Plaza tonight. But it didn't happen... and I think it's because of what you did, fighting him like that."
Niki glanced askance at him. "How do you know what was supposed to happen?" she asked.
Peter shrugged. "I met a guy who could paint the future. Now I can do it."
Niki decided it was best to ask, but Micah, huddled in the seat next to her, had no such compunctions. He immediately climbed down from his chair and switched to the one next to Peter so that he could interrogate the nurse about his powers. She smiled distractedly and went back to staring at the door to the emergency care bay where they had rushed DL after unloading him from the ambulance.
Some half an hour later, a doctor emerged from behind the doors, pulling the surgical mask off his face as he entered the room. "Nicole Sanders?" he called. Niki leapt to her feet, her heart pounding as she noted the grim expression on the man's face. He sighed. "Ma'am, your husband is in very serious condition. We've done as much as we can, but the bullet punctured his aortic artery. It's unlikely he'll make it through the night. I'm sorry." He hurried away.
Niki clapped a hand over her mouth, and with the other hand clasped a sobbing Micah to her side. "Oh my god," she moaned against her white-knuckled fingers, sinking to the floor. Micah knelt beside her, leaning his head against her shoulder with tears sliding down her face. She feared that, were it not for her son, she would come flying apart.
Suddenly, another arm circled around her shoulder, buoying her up. Peter had dropped to the ground next to them, trying to keep mother and son from drowning in fear and premature grief. Niki couldn't even manage to smile her thanks at him; all she could do was bury her head in his shoulder and sob, just as Micah was crying into her shoulder.
From somewhere inside her, the part of her that had all too recently been Jessica fed strength into her. Whatever terror and pain lay in the days ahead, she knew that she could be strong for her son. She finally was what Micah had always hoped of her; she had somehow become a hero, in those fear-struck seconds on Kirby Plaza. And because she was what Micah thought her to be- a good person- maybe she really could be strong enough to get them through this... whatever "this" turned out to be.
And so her crying quieted, and she pulled away from Peter's embrace, instead pulling her son into her lap, rocking him gently. Peter met her eyes, and understood what she understood. He nodded at her, and she managed a half-hearted smile. "If you want," he said, "I used to work here. I might be able to get you in to see him tonight."
"Thank you," Niki said softly.
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Okay, so I'm thinking sequel. It probably won't be up for a long time, but I'll get around to it eventually. Reviews, anyone?