Title: Redirect to Mohinder
Summary: Molly's questions are Hiro's headache.
Rating: T
Category: General/Humor
Setting: Mohinder's apartment.
Redirect to Mohinder
"We're out of milk".
Mohinder closed the refrigator door and looked over to Molly at the kitchen table, whom slurped up the last drop with a straw. As the proud foster father and scientist he was, Mohinder had counted out this morning that it probably was about sixty percent due to his influence that she simultaneously was reading Science…
But he couldn't stand here and bask in the parental glory. Milk had to be bought as soon as possible. And cheese, tomatoes and tooth paste-
"Molly, I have to go to the store. Do you want to follow along?"
"No thanks, I think I'll stay here". She looked up at him and smiled, " if it's okay with you, of course".
Mohinder forced himself to fight back any doubts about arranging it this way; This job had learned him to regard Sylar bursting in through the door on a normal working day more as a realistic possibility than an eerie experiment of thought. But if Boogey Man were anywhere nearby, Molly would have told him, and the store was only around the corner. The last thing he wanted to become was an overcontrolling chicken father for her.
"There are sandwiches in the refrigerator if you get hungry" he said into the hug they shared. "I'll be back soon. Bye!"
"Bye!"
In the hallway he nonetheless bumped into Hiro Nakamura, whom had just materialized on their doorstep.
"Dr Suresh! You get emergency call from Niki Sanders in the future - send me to baby-sit Molly in the meantime!"
"Wha… " Mohinder rubbed his shoulder after the collision with the Japanese man. "Oh, okay. Remind me later that I owe you a favor!"
"Are you're the Clockpuncher, Mr Nakamura?"
Hiro wasn't sure about where Molly had gotten that nickname from, but it sounded very striking indeed.
"Yes, I - travel through time and stop bad guys. Like Sylar".
"Wow", his audience sounded impressed. "Would I notice if you stopped time?"
"While you speak I already done it once".
"You're joking!" The girl in front of him exclaimed. Hiro took her small hand in his and repeated the trick, so she could see for herself this time. Amazed, Molly walked around in the apartment and looked at water drops that hung in mid-air and curtains of dust that didn't move until she pushed them aside.
"This is awesome", she announced when she returned to the kitchen. "But Mr Nakamura, why is everything silent?"
It took Hiro a moment to gather the right words for an explanation. "Sound waves need time to travel. No time - no move."
"But how come that we can talk and move then?" Molly looked up at him, eager to get an answer from her new, literal, hero.
"Time is bent so we stand outside it now". He tried to clarify this to the puzzled girl by imitating a car that came driving through the room and precisely gave way for her.
"Aha!" Molly's face brightened up, "so you can decide whom to freeze?"
"Yes, except Peter Petrelli -"
"But what would happen if you went back and prevented the Lincoln assassination, would it be in the history books before, exactly or right after you did it?"
Hiro had never really thought any further about this, how soon a known future would change after he had changed the past. He was beginning to feel pretty giddy-headed from attempting to figure out answers for the tricky questions and explain it in English he replied: "I not know. Maybe ask-"
"It's okay, I don't know either". His audience beamed at him, before immediately continuing: "Mr Nakamura, if time was only something humans had invented, could you still bend it?" Having recently heard this philosophic theory on TV, Molly asked out of pure curiosity.
"We ask dr Suresh when he comes home-"
"Mr Nakamura, when you stop time, does it stop in the entire universe then?"
The thought was mind boggling, and too much for Hiro. With an unhappy sound, he stumbled over to a chair and slumped down on it, rubbing his temples.
When Mohinder eventually returned from his emergency meeting with Niki, he was greeted by a silent home. Wondering where Molly and Hiro had gone he quickly packed up the food and, somewhat uneasy, stepped into the rest of the apartment. He was surprised to find Hiro lying on the couch with an ice bag on his forehead.
"Hello again", he raised his hand to salute the man, "what's happened here?"
Hiro waved weakly to him, smiling.
"Molly asks very good questions, I just not have answers. Said we ask you instead".
Mohinder was just about to call out for Molly too, when he felt a tug at his jacket sleeve.
"Mohinder, if I travelled to the Middle Ages and left a camera there…"
A short story written after the author had mused on time paradoxes (grin).
Any comments or constructive critique would be much welcome, otherwise than that I only have left to give credit to my sis Meowen for coming up with the title of this fanfic.
Minor edits done 03.05.2010
-Morgane