Title: Taking Down the Wall
Summary: Spoilers for "Shadowboxing" and "Jump, Push, Fall." Written from Peter's POV, a short explanation of why he decides to do what he does at the end of "Shadowboxing."
Notes: I've been wanting to write a first-person POV for Peter, but didn't think I could do it. This was originally begun in third-person narrative, but when I hit the part about Noah's question to Peter, I changed it to first-person to try to avoid pronoun confusion, and voila. And, yeah, there's a metaphor in the title there somewhere.
After returning home from the hospital that night, I stared long and hard at my wall of newspaper clippings. The headlines all spoke in general terms of the people that I had saved, but I remembered each and every one of their names.
Noah had asked me once if any of the people I had saved knew my name. I hadn't been able to answer yes.
But after tonight…
I grabbed a chair from my kitchen and began taking down the clippings one by one, starting near the ceiling. As I worked, eventually climbing off my chair to reach the lower clippings, I thought of my last conversation with Emma back at the hospital.
She had told me that I had saved her and thanked me for it.
I smiled again at the memory, just as I had in the actual moment. Knowing that I had saved someone who I knew by more than just a name or a chance encounter on the job made me feel good. Knowing that I had saved someone who knew not only my name, but also what I could really do, made me feel even better.
I reached the last article on my wall. It was the first one I had put up. Its headline read: "Hero Paramedic Saves Family of Four." I let myself remember the reason I had put it up in the first place, why I had started the wall, then I let the article join the pile of clippings I had created on my chair.
I didn't need the clippings on my wall anymore to remind myself that I was doing good in the world. From now on, every time I see Emma, I will be reminded of that.