Epilogue
The
piano began at a slow lull in a low chord and the lights brightened
on the stage as she began to sing. Somewhere
Over the Rainbow
– a tune he recognized and adored when she sang it. Though he had
heard it several times by then he never tired of it.
Peter brought his drink to his lips and took a sip, watching her from his seat at his usual table in the corner. He had dressed up this time, wearing a black button down shirt and matching slacks. Sliding back in his chair, he set the glass back on the tabletop when he saw a close movement out of the corner of his eye.
"I thought I'd
find you here." Said a very familiar voice.
Peter's face fell
into a frown, "What are you doing here?" he grumbled as he looked
up at him.
Hiro sat in a chair next to him, "Claire's been
worried about you." He answered simply, taking a closer look at
Peter's drink.
Peter scoffed, "What's her reason this
time?"
Hiro studied him carefully for a moment, his eyes
narrowed and thoughtful when Peter tore his eyes away from the stage
and glared at him, "You are aware that I can hear your thoughts."
He said. It wasn't for Hiro's information, it was a threat – an
empty threat as far as Hiro was concerned.
He smiled slyly, "Good. Then I don't have to say anything else, do I?"
Peter cursed the day Claire started helping Hiro with his English. He had become more articulate than anyone should ever have allowed and therefore, it led to him being a smart ass in two languages.
"How
many times have you come here?" Hiro pressed on, unaffected by
Peter's stony expression.
"A few."
Hiro watched her on the stage as she sang. Her hair was done up away from her face into a curly mass of ebony on the top of her head and her dress was simple, black, fitted, and trailed down to the floor in a light fabric skirt. "She's very pretty." He observed.
Peter
nodded only once and caught her eye. Hiro saw recognition on her face
– she smiled broadly at Peter before she looked away, continuing
her song.
Hiro pursed his lips as he controlled his first
instinctive action which was to smack Peter upside the head. "She
knows you? Here and now?" he said, his voice sounding baffled yet
he wasn't exactly surprised.
"It's not like she ever got the chance to know me later." Peter snapped back.
Hiro sighed and looked helplessly between the two of them. He wanted to scold Peter – to tell him that what he was doing was pointless and would only add to the pain he felt when he saw her die. Hiro's logic was telling him he should say something, but he couldn't. If he did he knew very well it would make him a liar because he already knew exactly how Peter felt. If he said anything like that to Peter Hiro felt he would be dishonoring his memory of Charlie.
"You
cannot save her, Peter." He said quietly.
Peter's eyes snapped
to the face of his friend but he said nothing and looked back to the
stage.
"How many times did you try?" Hiro continued. "Don't
you remember? Even I came with you because you asked me and you are
my friend. But I also had to watch her die."
Peter clenched
his jaw and still said nothing. His mind replayed the dozen scenes of
her death that he witnessed. It killed him as well. Those blank
staring eyes, they haunted him as he slept at night and throughout
the day. They never left him.
Yet nothing he did brought her
back.
"It's dangerous for both of you." Hiro continued.
"Please spare me your Back
to the Future
theories, Hiro." Peter said. "Nothing I do will cause the cosmos
to explode. Besides, she doesn't know anything." he spoke calmly,
his eyes always watching her.
"That won't last very long if you keep this up." Hiro retorted, sounding slightly hurt. "And her future has already changed because she knows you now."
Peter
didn't say any more and applauded with the rest of the clusters of
people sitting at tables throughout the room at the end of her song.
He watched her bow and smile, gesturing to her accompanist until the
applause died down.
She put a microphone close to her mouth and
spoke in a low voice, "Ladies and Gentlemen – jazz selections by
Craig Shelton on the piano." She indicated her accompanist who
nodded to her when the lights died down around her and were brought
up on him. She stepped off the stage onto the main floor as he began
to play.
"Do you think I should tell her?" Peter glanced
sideways at Hiro.
Hiro saw her coming towards their table, her
eyes bright and starry as she saw Peter stand up to meet her. "I
don't know. It'd be hard – " Hiro stopped and thought of
Charlie again, a small nipping in his chest as the image of her came
to mind. Charlie had genuinely accepted him and his story without any
hesitation or judgment whether she believed it or not.
He
came…and looks fantastic.
"Hi,"
she said brightly as Peter embraced her tightly, "You made it!"
she said, kissing him on the cheek as he held her.
Hiro stood
when Peter finally let her go and her eyes fell on him. She looked
between the two of them, her eyebrows raised expectantly until Peter
realized what was going on.
"Oh, sorry. This is my good friend,
Hiro Nakamura. Hiro, this is Ellen Warren."
Hiro gave her a
small bow out of his habit of tradition and took her hand when she
offered it in a greeting. "You have a very pretty voice." He
said.
Ellen blushed a little and mimicked his bow, "Thank you,
Hiro." She said. "Great name." she looked at Peter who did his
best to avoid rolling his eyes.
The notes of the piano tinkled
gently and a few couples left their tables and began to sway to the
music in center of the room, holding their partners close.
Peter
slipped his hand into hers, "Dance?" he said.
Yes,
please.
"Absolutely.
It was good to meet you Hiro." She said before allowing Peter to
lead her to the dance floor.
Hiro bowed again and watched as
they left him at the table.
Peter took her onto the floor and
pulled her to him, placing his hand on her back and hers on his
shoulder. The touch of her made him tremble down to his feet every
time and this time was no different. Every breath of her made him
high and holding her close as he did made him believe he didn't
have to dream at all anymore.
"So, how was it really?" she
said allowing Peter his tired and exasperated expressions, "Was the
balance alright?"
She was quite serious but Peter couldn't
help but chuckle, "It was lovely Ellen, as it always is." He
brought their clasped hands in and rested them on his chest. "I
could listen to your voice forever."
"Now you're just
sucking up." she smiled.
"Of course." He admitted. "That
is what you do when you try to get someone to like you."
"I
already like you, Peter. But now I do see that I'll have to start
asking someone else about my performances because of how biased
you're becoming."
Ellen looked over Peter's shoulder
and saw Hiro who seemed to be genuinely interested in the light
fixtures hanging from the ceiling.
Peter heard a sort of inward
laugh from her mind.
"Your friend is cute." She teased.
Peter
narrowed his eyes at her and she looked back as innocently as
possible. "Seriously." she said, "I think he's adorable. How
long have you known him?"
Peter let out a small sigh, "It
seems longer than it actually has been."
Ellen laughed, making
him smile.
They were silent for a moment or two, Peter leading
her along the dance floor and spinning her about, making her laugh as
he goofed around with her.
When he pulled her in the thought that
he would have to leave soon entered his mind, "I wish we could stay
like this." He muttered.
"Me too." Ellen said. "Mostly
because I can never tell when I'll see you again."
Peter
frowned.
"It's true, Peter. I see you once or twice a week,
sometimes every two weeks and you're nowhere to be found in between
times." She lifted his bangs away from his eyes. "Where do you
run off to?"
Peter caught Hiro's look and they seemed to
have an entire conversation between the two of them before Peter
spoke to Ellen again.
He leaned in until their faces were next to
each other, "I'll tell you if you promise not to tell anyone."
He whispered in her ear.
Ellen pulled away, smiling as though
he was joking until she saw how serious he was. Her face fell and she
looked curiously at him, "I promise."
He
works for the CIA or something.
She
looked at him and waited patiently as he slowed their dance down
until they stood together on the floor, barely moving.
Just
tell me.
How could he confess that he'd been slipping about through time for her? He could barely believe it himself until a sort of revelation came into his mind in that second and it allowed everything he did to make perfect sense in his mind.
He kissed her forehead,
"Before I say anything you need to know something first -before you
can know anything else."
"Tell me." She said gently.
Peter hesitated, his nerves sparking when he looked at her. It was true but saying it made it even more so, "I believe that I love you, Ellen." He put two fingers to her mouth in order to keep her silent as he spoke. Her thoughts were enough for him.
Red
flag! Red flag! ...is he crazy?
Though
her thoughts seemed to be in a panicked frenzy, her face was calm and
she was focused on him – most importantly, she wasn't screaming
and running out of the room. He wouldn't have blamed her of course.
To her, his confession would be incredibly sudden. She took it
well.
"I understand what you must be thinking, but it is
true. There isn't any other way I can say it." He smiled
hopelessly.
"Now, tell me," he continued, "if you could
travel to any time in the world, any place, where would you
go?"
Ellen blinked at the strange path the conversation was
going and didn't say anything.
"You don't have to answer
right away – " Peter paused as a thought occurred to him – a
plan, a way to keep Ellen alive. Hiro would kill him for even
thinking it.
"But, what would you say if I told you I could take
you there?"
"Anywhere?" Ellen said as she mulled his last
few sentences over in her mind.
"Anywhere."
"From right
here?"
"Absolutely."
"I would have to say you were
crazy. What are you getting at, Peter? What's wrong?"
The song ended. He watched the couple move back to the table across the room from him as Craig started up another number.
The waitress had been avoiding his table for a while now but it didn't care at the moment. He had made certain to keep his thoughts clear and his location in the shadow of the room so as to avoid any contact with Peter, though he believed that Peter would have a difficult time in recognizing him anyway – it had been so long.
He rubbed a hand over his full beard that was dark and closely trimmed to his face. To any onlooker he would have appeared to be a gentleman in his late thirties, perhaps early forties with touches of gray at his temples though his hair was dark and long so it tickled the back of his neck and fell forward over his forehead if he allowed it.
He continued to watch them – Ellen, her hand resting on the table and Peter placing his over it. She was just as he remembered her only lovelier and happier. She spoke kindly to that little man who appeared to have become only more pathetic since their last meeting in this timeline. As he was now, it was so many years ago, but he remembered it well.
His waitress finally braved coming to the
table with the mysteriously shadowed stranger in the long black coat.
"Anything to drink…sir?" she said, doing quite well at
keeping her nerves from affecting her voice.
She relaxed as she was met with dark brown eyes that warmed as he smiled at her, "No, thank you dear." He said kindly.
