Spoilers - Up to Episode 9 - Homecoming

Usual disclaimer - Not mine, alas - I don't own any of the characters or anything to do with Heroes.

One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.

Shakespeare; Hamlet

Paintings and Politicians

Simone is used to being afraid. She lives in New York, after all. A friend of hers has been mugged, and she's even seen a mugging herself, although she wasn't the target. A pretty frightened girl clutching her handbag, and a guy with a knife. The girl handed over her bag, the guy ran off, nobody got hurt. That's what they tell you to do, right? Hand over what they ask for and you stand a better chance of walking away from it after. And Simone had just stood there and watched it happen because, really, what else could she have done? She'd felt guilty afterwards, feeling she should have done something more heroic than just stand there and hope everything turns out ok.

She'd been afraid when catching a subway train, people pushing and shoving on the platform, and someone bumped in to her just a little bit too hard and she fell. Wouldn't have mattered if there hadn't been a train coming, but there was, and she could do nothing to stop herself falling, barely had time to gasp.

In reality, she'd barely lurched forwards at all before the guy who'd bumped in to her had grabbed her arm and steadied her, flashing her a worried smile as he yelled 'you ok?' over the noise of the crowd, and mouthing 'sorry' as she nodded shakily.

Even last week she'd been in a taxi and someone had run the lights. Sat, staring out of the window and unable to do a thing as the other car hurtled towards them she'd yelled as the taxi driver swore and yanked the wheel, moving their car out of the way. Simone had just sat, shaking, while the taxi driver yelled a stream of abuse at the other car, already vanished in to the distance, and belatedly asked her if she was ok.

Simone was used to fear and it was muggers with knives, and losing your footing on crowded platforms, and cars heading straight for you. Not paintings and politicians.

And Peter. Who she apparently doesn't really know how she feels about (or so she keeps telling herself, and isn't that how they say it's supposed to work, keep telling yourself something often enough and eventually it becomes true? Look in the mirror every morning and recite 'every day in every way I am becoming better and better, or whatever today's mantra was, and eventually you'd come to believe it?)

She'd seen the painting months ago when she'd collected it from Isaac and sold it on. Hadn't realised who it was supposed to be of then, the painting was too stylised, too comic booky for her to recognise who it probably was supposed to be. But she could see now that it was supposed to be Peter, and she wasn't even looking at the painting. She was looking at Nathan. Who was looking at the painting with an expression which she was quickly beginning to realise was a common one when dealing with Peter. She didn't really know how to answer when he demanded to know what it was 'supposed to be' because, really, is there any tactful way to say 'Your brother. And he appears to be dead' ?

Nathan was so very quiet and calm, and Simone wasn't sure why this seemed to be just as real a threat as knives or speeding cars - but she is familiar enough with being afraid to know that it is. And as Nathan threw black paint over the canvas, obscuring everything he didn't want Peter to see, Simone just stood and watched it happen because, really, what else could she have done?

He left and Simone decided to act. She'd been feeling like there was nothing she could do to change what was happening but there was something she could do, wasn't there? Better to check out the words on the banner first, check out Union Wells High School to see if it was really real, and then, well, Peter didn't need to see the original painting, did he? Just needed to see what was in it and a photograph should do just as well as the real thing..

As Simone reached for her phone a quiet little voice in the back of her mind asked her what she would have done if it had been Isaac in the painting, instead of Peter. She told herself firmly that she would have done the same thing and, after all, what you tell yourself has to be true. Doesn't it?