title: The Telling
author: medie
rating: PG
word count: 670 words
pairings: Nathan/Heidi
note: for dragonsinger's birthday.
summary: Heidi would cry if her tears weren't held in trust for other, more important, matters.
The Telling
Heidi remembers the accident. When she shuts her eyes she can still see Nathan soaring upward, propelled by nothing save instinct. In her dreams, she can still hear the horror in his voice as he screamed her name into the night.
Funny that it took facing death to believe he still loved her. Heidi would cry if her tears weren't held in trust for other, more important, matters.
Simon was four when he came running to her, flush with excitement. "Look, Mommy! Look!"
Heidi's heart still clenches in her chest when she remembers the moment her little boy touched a finger to his juice and turned it to ice.
Monty was next. More reserved than his brother, Heidi had to wait until she noticed a change.
She caught them whispering together one afternoon and watching, unnoticed, as Simon repeated the juice demonstration for his brother. Monty responded by reaching out and taking the cup in his hand.
Heidi watched the juice melt again and knew.
With her legs beneath her again, her body strong and whole, Heidi pulls Nathan aside. With her husband's hands in her own, she looks at him in the shadows of their bedroom and says simply, "I remember."
They have no time for melodramatic reactions, they have the boys to think of and she tells him so.
Nathan dreams about the accident more often than not. He spends night after night with the sound of Heidi's terrified cry echoing in his ears while he watches, frozen in the air, as the accident repeat itself again and again.
Waking is no escape from his failure, not with the daily battle Heidi's routine has become. The accident made him realize how much she still matters, the aftermath made him realize just how much he's failed.
He thinks she should have cut her losses years ago, but she won't. She wouldn't do it to the boys.
Nathan never thought he would have to thank his children for saving him.
"I remember," Heidi tells him and Nathan's world whites out. His ears roar with noise and, for a long time, he can't think of anything but that fact. She remembers. She saw him -
He swallows and tries to speak, but she squeezes his hands and cuts him off, "There's something you need to know."
The tone in her voice shakes him back to his senses and the look in her eye tells him this isn't a conversation anyone should overhear. He reacts on instinct and Heidi gives him a look when he wraps his arms around her.
"Trust me?" he asks with a hint of a grin.
Still watching him, though now with some amusement, Heidi nods.
"Good," he says and does what he wishes he could have that night. Holding his wife close, he pushes away from the ground and races into the night. They're out of sight of the house within seconds.
When they're high enough to slow down, he looks at Heidi and she looks back, eyes wide with exhilaration.
"I have something to tell you too," he says, hoping she can forgive him, "About Linderman."
When he tells her, she slaps him. All things considered, it's an under reaction.
"I don't know how to stop it," he sighs. "I've tried. Linderman -" he stops and shakes his head. He can't make excuses for this, not with her watching him. "I've tried."
She presses her lips together and looks at the city. He doesn't need to read her mind to know she's thinking of the lives at stake. His mother had a lot to do with the fact he married Heidi, declaring her a 'good match' for him.
It's one of the few things she's ever done right.
He reaches out, brushing a dark hair away from her face, and she looks at him. There's steel in her eyes when she says, "We'll try harder."
Heidi tells him about the boys, her voice shaking, and Nathan understands.