Another companion to 'A choice to the Left', this is also a sequel to 'A Separate Lie' and heavily relies on 'A father's decision' so read those first. And now without further ado…
A Baby Truth
Janice Mulligan, formerly Janice Parkman approached the door to the apartment with trepidation. She really didn't want to be here, but since you couldn't ship a baby by mail, it was necessary. She steeled herself and adjusted the bundle in her arms, then knocked. There was a double holler of 'I got it' and a few crashes that almost made her smile. The door was triumphantly opened a moment later by a slightly panting little girl that Janice vaguely recognized as the girl that Matt had adopted with another man. The pre teen girl was smiling brightly until she caught sight of who was at the door and then her expression closed down. Janice had never had a child's glare make her feel six inches tall before, but there were a lot of first lately.
"What do you want?" Molly asked, with a challenging glare.
"Molly don't be rude" The dark man who she had seen with Matt a year ago came up behind Molly, "Why don't you go help Matt get untangled from the sofa, I'm sure he's the one she wants to talk to."
"Yes, Appa" without as much as another look Molly ran off into the apartment. At the man's cool gesture she stepped into the slightly dim apartment. From what she could see it was a beautifully decorated space, large and airy. Beyond the decorations she could see three small suitcases packed near the door and two dry cleaning bags hanging from the coat rack in the corner.
"Are you going somewhere?" She asks, attempting to be polite.
"A wedding between some friends" Matt said coming up to them, he looked rumpled but fitter than she had ever seen him, despite herself she couldn't help but admire his new look. At his raised eyebrow she flushed.
"You said you wouldn't read my mind anymore." She snapped, embarrassed. She noticed that the other man had discreetly backed off giving them some privacy and she was slightly grateful.
"Well, when my ex-wife shows up at my apartment out of the blue holding a baby, I think I have some entitlement to find out what's going on. Now what are you doing here, Janice?"
"What no small talk, Matt?" Inwardly she winced at her tone and at her inability to act civil with her ex husband, but seeing him playing house and clearly doing well for himself when she had been struggling, before she had met her Jack, was grating and she could admit to herself that she was stalling.
"No, no small talk, there really isn't time so either say what you want or just leave."
"I lied" she blurted out.
Matt cocked an eyebrow, "In general or about something specific?"
"About the baby, I lied about the baby. He's yours"
She can tell she surprised him, but didn't shock him. "You're telling me now, because…?"
"I don't want him," that was the simplest truth there was; Molly had come up without her noticing and was now glaring at her again. "I met someone and he doesn't want to raise someone else's child, he wants his own. I kept your son long enough to get him used to a bottle but now that he is he's you responsibility, you can keep him or put him in an orphanage; he's no longer my concern. Just so you know his name is Matt" She thrust the baby, and the bag holding the paperwork, into Matt's arms ready to turn and run to her new life. She saw the door opening as she turned toward it only to find another man standing there, not her Jack, an older man who looked a little like Matt.
Molly sprinted past her shouting at the top of her lungs, "Grandpa Maury, you're here"
"That I am sweetie; I just came to hurry you along, our ride leaves soon" He looked from Matt, still looking shell shocked and holding a baby, to Mohinder, who was looking just as shocked and holding a bag of some kind, and finally to Janice. "Am I interrupting something?"
Matt blinked at him for a moment, then shook himself "No, you're not interrupting, Dad," Janice blinked Dad? before her thoughts drifted to the life that she would have with her new husband Jack. "This is Janice, my ex-wife, and this is apparently my son"
"Another grandchild, so soon? Matt you shouldn't have my birthday isn't for another two months. Not that anyone could replace my first Granddaughter" he clapped a hearty hand onto Molly's shoulder, "So how do you like being a big sister?" Janice ignored the girl's answer, her mind drifting back to her Jack. She had found herself thinking more and more about him ever since they were married, she could almost feel herself obsess sometimes over making him happy.
She was so busy thinking about her new life that she missed the look that Maury shot Matt, Is she acting stranger than usual, because I am getting some weird thoughts from her. Maury asked mentally. Matt may have been significantly more powerful, and he had much better control than he used to, but with his massive and recent shock he hadn't even tried to listen in after the first few minutes.
Other than dropping a baby in my arms out of the blue? Matt asked sardonically. Mohinder had shaken himself out of his shock and was looking between the two silently adding his own thoughts to the mix. He couldn't read minds but after spending so much time around the two telepaths, and having one of the telepaths practically live in his head for several days, he almost could and barely had to put any effort at all into projecting toward the two men. I'll keep Molly and the infant up here, while you see if you can find anything out. With that he gracefully plucked the sleeping infant from Matt's arms and distracted Molly by asking her to help him make a list of everything they would need for the baby before they left for the wedding. As Mohinder led Molly away Matt offered that he and Maury would walk her down to her car. Maury followed the offer with a mental command to agree; while Matt was more powerful and quickly becoming better at control, Maury was still miles ahead with his ability to command others. Mohinder theorized that Matt's difficulty came from characteristics inherent in the man along with the underlying trauma that came from his father's earlier actions.
While they descended to the ground, silently, via the elevator Matt and Maury listened deeply to Janice's thoughts; they were both very disturbed to find out that her thoughts were completely centered on some guy named Jack that she had just married three months before. In fact now that baby Matt was not in her sight any longer, it was like he didn't even exist in her mind. Something very strange was going on. Exiting the building Janice led them to a small but elegant looking car parked on the street; waiting beside it was a man, Jack. He was about 5'11 with a wild bush of curly auburn hair, stick thin, but muscled, with grey eyes; attractive enough to Matt's less than heterosexual eye, but not someone he would have gone gaga over even without being completely in love with Mohinder. He frowned briefly when he saw the two men approaching with his wife but quickly covered it with a welcoming smile.
"Hi, sweetheart" he said to Janice after the two shared a brief, but unmistakably passionate, kiss "who are these gentleman?" And what are they doing here? The men heard mentally.
"This is my ex husband, Matt, and this is his father, Maury. They wanted to escort me back to the car."
Before either could so much as speak, Jack interrupted quickly "Well, it was nice to meet you both, but we have to go, don't we, sweetheart" Maury and Matt frowned when her thoughts immediately focused on leaving with her husband, all other thoughts abandoned.
They knew at that moment that they were not equipped to deal with this, but they did know someone who could. Keep them here Matt thought at his father while pulling out his phone. He vaguely heard Maury mentally order the pair into a nearby alcove with a bench, it was out of sight, and moved toward them. When he heard Peter pick up at the other end he nearly breathed a sigh of relief. After he quickly explained to the confused Petrelli that they needed to see him right away and that they were standing in front of Matt's apartment building he hung up, barely remembering to say good-bye. Minutes later Peter was standing there next to him.
After Matt explained why he called, Peter looked at him thoughtfully, "You're afraid that Angela did this. That this is a ploy to disrupt the wedding." Angela Petrelli hadn't been seen in nearly 4 months, not since the last time she had tried to influence her son, and stepson, back onto the tracks she had picked for them; luckily after the first time Maury and Matt made a point of checking up on the pair every few days. It would be just like the petty woman to disrupt the wedding, though this seems a bit of target for her.
"The thought had crossed my mind. Fortunately I can't seem to find any trace of her or the Haitian in their minds."
"I don't know what I can tell you then."
"Come on, I know you absorbed Marie's power. You could use it to find what's going on."
"It doesn't work like that, I don't know how she is different but I can't use the gift like she can. For me its empathy and all I can tell you is that both the parties love each other. I can tell the love is strange, but I couldn't tell you how it's strange. Only Marie can."
Matt hesitated but knew what they had to do, "Is it possible…?"
For a moment Peter looked outraged, "You want me to go disturb Marie, a few days before her wedding, for your ex wife. The one who wanted to drop you like a hot potato until you became a national hero."
"I know, I know; but this doesn't smell right and if it does have something to do with Angela, and she is trying to disrupt the wedding than we need to know."
Peter just looked at him for a second then muttered, "I know I'm going to regret this" before disappearing without a sound. He reappeared about 5 minutes later, Maury still in control of the couple in the alcove, with a perplexed looking Marie. She was dressed in her work clothing, and looked around curiously at where she had ended up.
"Okay, here I am. Now what is so important that you felt the need to steal me from work, and you are lucky that I was on break by the way?"
Peter looked pointedly at Matt, who had winced slightly. Everyone knew how Marie felt about not working when she was supposed to be. She said it hurt her integrity. Matt sighed knowing that Peter wanted him to do the explaining. When Marie looked at him he filled her in on what was going on.
She frowned and turned to Peter, "Just so you know, if this is related to Angela and she is trying to disrupt the wedding I am going to kill her and you are going to have to explain it to Nathan" before walking to the alcove and looking searchingly at couple sitting there. Maury had let his control drop as soon as she walked in and Jack immediately began asking what was going on.
"What's going on is your gift with women who love you has dragged me away from my work." Marie sighed, "This is not related to Angela, thankfully, and is a complete coincidence." She turned and spoke to the other's her voice grim "The love they feel for each other is real, it's the only way for his power to work. When he falls in love and the woman loves him back; his power kicks in and the feelings become permanent, on her end; she becomes dependant on him for love, almost obsessed. On his end he tends to leave them as soon as the bud of passionate love fades."
"What happens to the women?" Peter asked, fearing the answer.
"There have been three before Janice; one is in a mental hospital, being treated for depression. One is in prison for attacking her friend after she said the woman was better off without this Jack. The third is dead; I can't get how or why. Unfortunately this is permanent; no matter what we do it won't fade." She turned and looked at the man, who was pale after hearing what had happened to his former flames. "I will be completely honest and say I wish I had never met you. As someone who spent a significant amount mourning the love of my life, I don't want to see that inflicted on anyone; even this woman. As human, I don't like forcing feelings on others, and as a woman I am intrinsically angry at the thought of how much control you have over her. Killing would likely send every woman who has ever loved you into deep depression, so I am going to give you two choices. The first choice is you will be watched, you will meet with a doctor I know to try and find out how to undo your power. The second is that I can mirror her feelings for you and tie them back to her." At his look of confusion she snorted, "Simply put, I will make you love her like she loves you, for as long as she loves you."
He looked surprised, "you can do that", she nodded resigned "I'll take the second option" Janice looked equally excited.
"There will be consequences." Marie tried to warn.
"Screw the consequences, right sweetheart?" Janice nodded enthusiastically to Jacks question.
Marie sighed and then concentrated. In short order Jack and Janice, both acting like teenagers in love for the first time, rode away without so much as a glance back. Marie watched them with a sad look on her face, "Any children they have should be watched for signs of neglect" she said quietly. She turned back to the group. "Now that I have destroyed any chance of them actually finding happiness can I go back to my job now?"
"They looked pretty happy to me." Maury said.
Marie gave them all a grim look, "They likely will, to friends and family they will have an ideal relationship. They'll never argue, always be that loving with each other. Neither will ever cheat, they'll never have to worry about the passion going out of their relationship. They'll always feel like they're in the bloom of a new relationship."
"Sounds perfect to me." Maury chuckled, Peter and Matt both frowned; they couldn't put their finger on it but somehow that sounded less than ideal.
Marie rounded on Maury, "Really," she said sharply, "perfect; They'll never argue, because the veneer I just added to Jack will make it impossible for them to notice each other's flaws. If they never notice the flaws how can they accept them? They'll always be that loving because their feelings will never change. It sounds perfect but not only is it stagnant, it's false. Puppy love made permanent. A love that can't change will become stale and wither away; only it can't because so long as Janice loves Jack he will love her, on the surface. Below the false emotions little hurts will add up, fester, and they won't be able to address it; won't be able to even acknowledge it to themselves. There are only two ways this can go. Either he figures out how to control his gift enough to free them both, or more likely they will live out the rest of their lives in love but unhappy without being able to figure out why. Now can I go back to work?" Peter looked sheepish as he moved towards her, just before they disappeared she said, "I'll see you all in a couple of hours" reminding them of the wedding that they had been leaving for only a half an hour before. Maury left to try and get their tickets bumped to a later flight, and Matt gathered his courage to go back to his apartment where his lover, his daughter, and now his son waited for him. He had to admit this may not have been where he would have seen himself two years ago but he is happy to be here.
Well another one down, and another 16 to go before the sequel. There is something wrong with this picture. Halfway through this I had to put together a timeline of important events so I could keep everything straight. I may put that up on my profile once I finish at least another 2 stories.