To Eternity

Mohinder had always been a part of many people's lives. For some people, the Indian was one of the so many irreplaceable things in their lives. He was known as a mild-mannered geneticist, always put others before himself, and already his presence became vital for others. Peter remembered the way Mohinder often put his warm hands on his shoulder reassuringly whenever he felt alone and helpless. There were also many times when he thought he had bonded himself closer to him than anyone ever imagines. But apparently he couldn't erase the trace of the most important person in Mohinder's life.

He stood in front of the blazing scene before him without even moving a muscle. Never before in his life he pictures himself saw such tragedy. He tried to avert his eyes, to walk away from the heat of flames unimaginable, but he couldn't will himself enough to do so. Mohinder would go, no, he had been gone since a long time ago, and Peter couldn't do a thing to stop it.

*

Seven months ago…

"Mohinder, I need help with this." Molly whined. Mohinder raised his head from his telescope to look at his lovely adopted daughter. Molly tried to reach underneath the bed with her short arms, obviously trying to retrieve something from it. Without even asking, Mohinder knew already what had rolled down.

"Your globe again?"

"Yeah."

The doctor left his work and proceeded to help her. He reached under the bed easily, pulled out a globe and handed it over to Molly. Matt bought it for her quite a while ago after she asked for it. The former policeman was always weak against Molly's puppy-dog eyes. Mohinder dusted off the globe, made a mental note to clean the floor soon and gave it to her daughter. The globe was not entirely new, there were too many traces of pin-stab on it. Molly was obviously excited with her power and she was quite dedicated to seek its potential. But Mohinder noted that she was trying to find unnecessary things lately, such as where her favorite celebrity was or even her friends were.

"Thanks, Mohinder." She smiled.

"Anytime." He smiled back. Mohinder was about to continue his work before realized that he had completely lost his enthusiasm. Molly was deep in trace, trying to find someone and Mohinder decided that he really didn't want to bother her. His stomach growled angrily all of sudden, reminded him that he hadn't feed it satisfactorily in the last twenty-four hours. He rearranged his stuff properly, stored any important specimen accordingly, and somehow managed to make his hurricane-swept desk looked more presentable. A loud knock on his door alerted him and he instinctively reached for his gun in the drawer. It was unloaded, but enough to scare any offending people off.

"Who is it?" he asked cautiously.

"It's me." Answered someone outside, and Mohinder sighed with relief as he heard that soft voice. He put the gun back then. Opening the door, he frowned when he saw Peter carried so many stuffs with him that Mohinder thought it must be hard for him to knock. Peter's hands were full with bags (some of them smelled mouth-watering) and a practically large teddy bear. Mohinder stepped aside to let the shorter man in.

"How did you knock?"

Peter smiled sheepishly as he heard Mohinder's thought of 'knocking with foot'. He set the bags on the table.

"Telekinetic."

Mohinder nodded with recognition, his thought immediately imagining weird things like doors being splintered with that power. Peter tried not to cringe at the next image that followed.

"Are you spying on my thoughts again?" Mohinder asked skeptically, already Peter's curiosity ruined his mood.

"Sorry." He replied as he tried to turn his power off. Snooping on someone's privacy wasn't a good thing, but even tough he knew that he just couldn't automatically turn his mind-reading power off. He just didn't have that good control. After a minute of trying, finally he was confident that he wouldn't accidentally hear any thought from Mohinder nor Molly. Peter observed the young girl finally finished with her trance and she looked warily out the window.

"Something's wrong?" Peter asked her. Molly shook her head but peter still could see worry in her eyes.

"No, did you take that from Claire's house?" Molly asked, her finger pointed at the huge, smiling-faced teddy bear.

"You caught me. Yeah, Claire told me to give this to you." He handed the bear to Molly, who seemed equally big with the stuffed doll. "Lunch?"

Molly's face brightened at the prospect of decent lunch. As Peter helped Mohinder with the plates, he secretly admired the quiet geneticist. He led his seemingly normal life finely, and Peter found himself wanted to be the part of this little world that Mohinder created with Molly.

*

Life was never easy on Bennet's part. The Company had clearly given an instruction of capturing Molly once again. He was not the one who was assigned to the horrible job, thanks God, but he still felt worry about everything. Now that Molly was in Mohinder's custody, the doctor was already being forced to protect her. Not that he was unwilling to do that but he was somewhat worry about Mohinder's safety. If there's anything bad happened to him, well, let's just say that it would disturb the mental stability of the two most powerful men in the world, and Bennet simply didn't want to imagine the consequences.

He had received an anonymous warning about two agents who were being dispatched towards Mohinder's place. They would arrive there in about an hour or so, luckily he had managed to get in contact with the one who was so eager to protect them – Peter Petrelli. The younger Petrelli was quite careful, not letting Mohinder knew anything about the plan so he bought food on his way and deliberately dropped by at Claire's place to plea for one of her biggest doll. So Bennet watched him, cleverly shielded behind a neighbor's apartment wall, waiting for the right moment to clean the mess.

*

Peter sipped his tea quietly, mimicking Mohinder's graceful movement. He was glad to be there this afternoon, talking with Molly mostly and Mohinder occasionally. However, he should remain alert. He was there for a reason, to protect two important people in his life. He shifted as Mohinder carried the plates to the sink and offered to help, which Mohinder refused wholeheartedly by telling Peter that he was his guest. Peter sighed, flopped himself on the sofa next to Molly.

"Hey, Peter…" she offered him her globe.

"Mmmm?"

"Wanna play?" she asked him. Peter smiled. He knew already what Molly suggested, since both of them shared the same power, Molly liked to challenge him to find certain people. It became a real challenge when each of them measured their time. He loved that game. Mohinder always reminded them not to play that too often, or hey might accidentally find someone who was least unexpected, and thus put them both in danger. Peter realized that Mohinder perhaps still traumatized by the moment when Molly was trapped inside Maurice's illusion. He could understand his worry.

"Not this time."

Molly pouted and took a big book from the lower counterpart of the coffee table.

"Read me a story then."

Peter accepted the book with a frown. Molly laid her head on Peter's lap, waiting for Peter's voice and gentle hand lulled her for a nap.

"Aren't you a bit too old for this?" Peter asked her playfully. Molly looked up at him.

"I don't care. I like to hear your voice Peter."

"Alright then, so which one…aha, let's hear this: 'The Hungry Mouse'."

"Okay." Molly smiled as she felt Peter's right hand started to touch her head tenderly, and she closed her eyes.

"There was once a happy little mouse who lived in a hedgerow. In the spring there were…"

Mohinder smiled as he saw the lovely scene before him. From the sink, he could only see the back of his old sofa and a small portion of Peter's messy hair. He couldn't see for sure what they were doing, but he knew by heart that Peter was letting Molly slept on his lap, tenderly stroking her hair until she fell asleep. He knew Peter's intention, of course, he was using the gentle approach by trying to win Molly's heart. So far, it was a great success. For Mohinder, Peter was a nice addition to his two-people family but he wasn't sure whether he was the perfect one. But the scene before him never failed to make his heart flutter.

*

The two agents who were sent by the Company looked at the apartment building confidently. It was an easy task, knocking down a calm Indian man and kidnap his daughter. The Company files had provided them with necessary information about both Mohinder and Molly. This time, they were unprotected. Sure, Mohinder was labeled as an armed man but not dangerous. The young girl's power was only to locate someone precisely, not threatening at all. They prepared their gun, setting the electric device into 'stun' and moved to the emergency stairs.

They turned around as they sensed a presence behind them, just before they could get into the building. Two sets of eyes widened impossibly as they realized who their new guest was. One of them fumbled with his weapon, but the said weapon was telekinetically flung away out of his reach. The other tried to run, but found himself halted in place by unnatural force. A scream for help was out of option when both of them felt their windpipe being crushed, fearfully they scratched at their own neck in attempt to get some fresh air in. It was useless. A few moments later the struggling bodies became completely still, dropped onto the cold ground. A manhole cover near them was opened automatically and the fallen bodies seemed to move by itself, hovering above the hole as the newcomer touched them with elegant, long fingers. A ripple was formed before suddenly the dead flesh was liquefied, nothing more but messy fluid of what formerly known as skin, bones, flesh, and other materials flowed into the waiting hole. The work was flawless, there was no blood remained on the ground and even the horrible stench was naturally flushed by the flowing water deep under the sewer.

*

Bennet waited for a good three hours before eventually concluded that the agents were going to come anyway. Perhaps they were afraid of Peter, or maybe they just waited for the right time to strike. But agents were never late, and if they decided to delay the confrontation surely the Company would've heard from them. If they contacted the Company, then Bennet would know as well. The most important fact was that, no, there wasn't anyone tried to reach the Company about the plan. Curiously he went down to an alley next to Mohinder's apartment. Everything seemed normal, but when he saw a Company-issued weapon on the ground he knew that those agents were dead already.

*

Mohinder emerged from his working area to check on Peter and Molly. It had been quite a while since he left Peter reading the story by himself and went back on his work. He was quite surprised to see both of them had fallen asleep. Molly slept soundly with her head cushioned on Peter's lap, while the young man was sleeping with his mouth slightly open, his head pillowed on the upper part of the sofa. Mohinder unconsciously buried his hand in Peter's hair, marveling at the soft silk-like velvet. His eyes danced over the familiar color of Peter's hair and the color of his alabaster-like skin. Peter didn't have much stubble and even if he did tried to have some, he would still have this air of youngsters on him.

A sharp sound of window being hit by something startled him and he leap out of the sofa at once. Peter was awakened from his sleep at once, blinked at Mohinder and then searched frantically for any intruders.

"Wha…"

"Calm down." The geneticist looked at his cracked window. "It's just some neighbor's kids playing. They like to throw something from below."

Peter watched the window carefully.

"I see."

Mohinder tried to calm down when he saw Peter relaxed as Molly started to awake. Neighbor's kids, they could be really troublesome sometimes. Right below them, Bennet was equally surprised as Mohinder's window was being hit hard by, so far as he could see, nothing.