A/N: So not much feedback, so I don't really think many are interested in this fic. I'll keep posting the fic though, because it's completed anyway. That way, whoever is enjoying the fic can see it to its end. Thanks to those who have reviewed--I appreciate it. This fic hits its stride right after this chapter, so ENJOY!
Note: Snapshot--a record or view of a particular point in a sequence of events or a continuing process. And I'm making it official...
Pairing: Pelle
Chapter: Roommates
"Hey, Peter, where have you been all day?" Elle yelled from the laundry room when she heard the door open.
When she didn't hear anything, she called out again. "Peter?" she said walking out of the room, ready to attack if necessary (although she didn't spark up some electricity yet).
She jumped back a bit when she saw that although Peter had arrived, he brought someone with him. "Peter?" she kept her eyes on the strange girl with whom he was holding hands.
"Hey, Elle," he smiled nervously. "Um, this is Caitlin, my girlfriend. And this is Elle, my roommate."
Peter introduced the girls.
"Hello there," Caitlin greeted her politely, an Irish accent evident in her voice.
"So you're the infamous Caitlin?" Elle grinned, winking at Caitlin. Peter was obviously nervous. The last thing he wanted was for Caitlin and Elle to come over blows over Ricky's death/murder. It had taken him some meditating for him to forgive Elle for this man he hardly knew, so he could only imagine Caitlin's wrath. Of course any wrath of any sorts could be averted if Elle didn't make it known that she had been the one who fried Ricky.
"Infamous? Never knew Peter was much of a talker," she laughed.
Elle cocked an eyebrow at Peter.'You didn't tell her,' she thought, her tone in disbelief.'No, but in time, I will,' he thought to her.
She didn't answer back, instead she grabbed Caitlin's hand and dragged her to her room, Peter protesting behind them.
--
"So," Elle smiled at her, as she and Caitlin took a seat on the bed in Elle's bedroom.
"How'd you get here? Last I heard you were stuck in the future?" Elle gave her an inquisitive gaze.
"Well, I never thought I'd utter this line, but…Hiro, a time-traveler apparently, helped Peter travel to the future where I was trapped. They made it so I was there for a month, a long time. Anyway, when they found me, Hiro squeezed his eyes as we all held onto each other, and we landed in this apartment on the other side of New York. From there on, Peter managed to…teleport us to his apartment."
"Oh, that was anti-climactic. I was hoping for the prince saves the damsel of distress in this big battle…" she murmured.
"Nope," Caitlin smiled," an old lady had taken me in, and I simply bid her farewell, and we were on our way."
"How you girls doing?" Peter peered his head in.
Elle rose from the bed and pushed him out.
"We're fine! I'll give you your girlfriend later," she waved him off," geez, be patient."
She slammed the door shut and sat back down.
"So how long you and Pete been living together?" Caitlin asked.
"Oh, just a week, although I haven't seen much of him at all. He was closed off for a few days, but they held the funeral for his brother two days ago, and I didn't see him all day yesterday…"
"His brother's dead?" the brunette gasped, interrupting Elle.
Elle giggled nervously, realizing she had not been told. She nodded with a tight smile.
"He hadn't mentioned that, oh he's so stubborn, acting strong and going off to save me. It's terrible to lose a brother, I only recently lost mine, ya know?"
"No? Really?" Elle did her best to act surprised.
Caitlin nodded grimly, before smiling again. "But let's not talk of grim things--how did you and Peter come to live together. He only mentioned you briefly, something about owing you a favor for saving his friend."
Her brows furrowed, not quite sure what she was referring to.
"Mohinder, I think he mentioned."
"Oh, yes. Mohinder!" Elle giggled. "Yeah, I totally saved his life."
"So you have a power then?"
Elle clapped lightly then, with a wide smile. "Yeah, I have a power! It's so awesome, wanna see?"
Caitlin looked at her wearily, but still she nodded.
Elle giggled again, anxious to show off her power.
Right then, Peter burst in, before Caitlin could witness her power.
"Okay, that's enough time!" he whisked Caitlin up before any damage was caused.
"But I was just going to show her my power!" Elle whined.
He stopped, mouth agape, when he spit out. "She squirts water! And you know, we don't need to flood the place again, Elle," he smiled nervously. "Took a lot of my powers to clean up that mess," he whispered to Caitlin.
Elle opened her mouth to protest, when Peter drove into her mind. 'She can't know your power. She'll put two and two together.'Her door swung shut, and she fell down onto her bed, with a large pout, crossed arms, and angry expression. Oh no, this did not bode well for Elle.
---
But Elle kept her powers, and her opinions to herself for an entire three weeks. Peter had given her a home, and that kept her from doing anything that might hurt him. When Caitlin was around, she didn't get to jolt Peter, and worse of all, she couldn't flirt with him. Okay, so she slipped once in a while, and the two would throw flirtatious barbs at one another, but Caitlin mostly ignored this. Except for when Elle had jumped into Peter's arms, and had kept the embrace for a little too long. So Elle made the mental note that although flirting was not exactly harmful, any touching did invoke quite a bit of jealousy.
Elle let out her frustrations of not using her powers in the apartment by going out more, now. She hadn't gone out a lot in the week before Caitlin arrived, because they figured it best to keep low for a while so Bob wouldn't come after her. Also, she felt so lonely in the streets of New York while everyone else was snuggling up to a boyfriend/girlfriend, or just a family member or friend. Even though Peter had introduced her to some of his friends, they were all mostly boys, and none of them in particular was cute, or even funny enough to spend some time with. Of course he had tried getting her to be friends with Claire, but the cheerleader had made no incentive to be friends with her yet. That and Elle could barely stand Miss Perky and Optimistic.
But now, with no choice of using her powers indoors, she took to empty parking lots, abandoned buildings, and once or twice she even stopped some muggers. Muggers that certainly would never mug anyone again. Hey, at least she didn't kill them, right?
However, this particular afternoon, Elle was too frustrated to control herself. Caitlin and Peter had been having small arguments here and there the last few weeks. Peter seemed to be getting annoyed by the brunette, and Caitlin couldn't understand what was going on with Peter half of the time.
Elle had expected this--the pair had been together for less than four months. More over, they had gotten together when one half of the couple had no memories of his past, and therefore had no identity. Now he had 26 years of baggage, 26 years of disappointments and fulfillments, 26 years worth of difference from that of a man with four months of experience. Simply put, Peter with memories was not Peter without memories.
Unfortunately, the newly reunited couple had been tiptoeing around this issue the entire time. It began the day after she arrived. Peter had been cooking, Caitlin had been looking over his shoulder, and then he was moving away, looking for absolutely nothing, and then she started posing some questions, and then they started clenching their teeth. Their voices didn't rise, so there was no yelling involved, and their weren't even that many words. But there were many deep breaths, controlled breathing, but ultimately the two just smiled sweetly, apologized, and hugged.
Slowly the fights had escalated, getting more and more tedious, and by the end of the week, instead of hugging and there being sorries, they just walked away in opposite directions.
Today there was something in the air, though. The entire day had been peaceful, which meant talk was limited, silence was abound, and Caitlin and Peter hardly looked at one another.
The three sat at Peter's table, eating dinner, in an uncomfortable silence. A dinner the two had insisted Elle come to, supposedly because neither wanted Elle to be alone that night. Right…it had nothing to do with the tension, or the unresolved issues, or the not wanting be alone with each other. But Elle gleefully obliged.
Hey, Peter was cooking, and tension was always fun to be witness to.
Then Caitlin mentioned something about the chicken being too dry, and Peter muttered something about Caitlin breaking the timer, and then some other things were said, blah, blah, blah…Elle had almost tuned out, because unlike the couple, she was trying to eat. But then she got tired of them not yelling!
"Oh my God, just yell!" she screamed. "Stop frickin' tiptoeing around each other and talk!" she slammed down her fork and knife and looked pointedly between the two.
They looked at her with shock before turning to each other.
"You changed!" Caitlin looked relieved when she burst out that statement.
Peter scoffed. "Well, you don't listen when I try to talk to you about my past!"
"Your past?! How about the now?!"
"Huh, when I talk to you about now, all you wanna do is cuddle, and kiss, and…"
"That's all we did in Ireland! You paid attention to me, and you kept your focus on the lives of the people around you. Not on complete strangers!"
"You should know that I can't just care about my family and friends! I have these great gifts, and I need to use them to save all sorts of people!"
"So what, your family and friends never come first!"
"That is not what I said! Of course they come first, but when lives are at stake, I can't just sit back and have a picnic!"
"The man I fell in love with would never say that?!"
"The man you fell in love with had no recollection of his purpose in life, but I do!"
"So what, you're going to go off on missions, saving people, and then come home, expecting your girl to wait on you hand and foot?!"
"No, that's not--"
"What then, you want me to fight by your side! Wait, I can't do that, because like a normal person, I don't have powers!"
"Normal! You're saying I'm not normal?!"
"STOP!!!" Elle's voice thundered, her chair falling over as she rose from the seat. She slammed her hands on the table, and electricity ran over the wooden surface, breaking the plates and glasses, fizzling after silence took over.
Caitlin stared in shock, blinking to make sure she had seen properly. All the glass was broken, and Caitlin knew that there had in fact been electric sparks.
"You said her power had to do with water, Peter," she said softly, directing the statement to Peter.
"Caitlin..." he reached out for her hand, but she flicked it away.
"That--that's the same power you used back in Ireland, the sparks," then her eyes raised to meet Elle's guilty-ridden ones.
"And when they found Ricky, they--they said it looked as though he had been electrocuted. Fried," a bitter tone took over her. Tears sprung from her, and she spewed," You…you did it. You bitch!"
She began running towards Elle, when Peter's arms enveloped her. "Caitlin! Caitlin! Look at me!" he turned her towards him. "It's in the past! She's changing, she's sorry for what she did!"
"I am, I really am," Elle squeaked out. Caitlin tried kicking, tried turning around to look at her, but she couldn't escape Peter.
"You lied to me!" she cried. "You knew it was her, but you kept her in your house! We talked, and were becoming companions! How could you?!"
"Caitlin, I meant to tell you, but it's not her fault. The person she is now--she wouldn't do that again, and if she could take it back, she would!"
"She's changed?! Peter, you've known her for a bit over a month--how do you know she's changed! Why the hell are you defending her?! And if she could take it back, then take it back! You have the power!"
"Caitlin, it doesn't work like that!"
She finally stopped squirming, and tears ceased from streaming.
"Of course they don't. When I saw what you could do Peter, I thought they were gifts. Gifts God gave you to be the good in mankind. But five months later, look what it's done. That woman killed my brother with her so-called gifts, you nearly destroyed an entire city with yours, and that Sylar has killed countless of innocents just to have those powers. These aren't gifts. They are curses, things that God would never approve of."
Peter dropped her, unable to touch her without resentment anymore. What she had been saying, were things he had thought of before. The old-age debate of curse vs. gift, and apparently the woman he had loved thought it was the former.
"That's not true, and for you to make Peter doubt that…these powers, they can be dangerous, but what Peter has done more than redeems all the wrongs done," Elle spoke, and Caitlin and Peter peered at her curiously.
"I've done a lot of things that no one should be proud of, but with Peter it's the complete opposite.He's shown me that we can do a lot of good with these powers. He has saved those with powers, and those that you call normal. If there is a God, I have no doubt he chose Peter of all people to be empathetic for a reason, and if you can't understand that, then you're no different than the company I--I used to work for."
Silence enveloped them again, as each properly contemplated the sides this time.
"You're right. I can't really understand. I don't have powers, and that makes me thankful. Peter on the other hand, has extraordinary abilities, and that's something an ordinary woman like myself cannot comprehend nor grasp. We all deserve someone who can comprehend us as individuals, so Peter, it's best you take me home, and we each go on our separate paths," she met his eyes.
His eyes were solemn at the realization of all the things that separated the extraordinary from the ordinary.
"Caitlin, I don't--"
"Peter, if we had to try this hard to be civil for one week, imagine the difficulty at being civil for an even longer period of time."
He nodded in acceptance, and teleported her back home.
Elle picked her chair up and took a seat, staring at the mess she made. She stood back up and went for the broom, picking up all the shards, waiting impatiently and nervously for Peter's return.
--
"Ten minutes! Since when does--" she stopped when she saw the bags in his hand.
"What is that?"
"Chinese food," he smirked at her
"Oh, well, why?" she set the broom aside and took the bags from his hand.
"We kinda ruined your dinner, so I figured…"
"Peter, about that, I really didn't mean to intrude. With my powers, I mean, because I did mean it the first time I intruded," she gave him a sad pout.
"It's alright Elle. It's not your fault--for the most part," he shrugged.
"But Peter, after everything you've done for me, I go off and screw your relationship up after one month-"
"It doesn't matter if it was a month or a year, Elle. Either way, our issues would have driven us apart. I was lonely, amnesiac, and confused when I fell for her. Not a good foundation for a relationship," his playful grin was sad, and he couldn't even meet her eyes.
"Peter, I am sorry you had to go through that," she touched his hand softly.
"Yeah," he breathed in," me too. Now, enjoy the chow mein, I'm heading to bed." He turned on his heel and headed to his bedroom.
"You're not going to eat with me?"
"Not hungry," he simply said.
"Oh," she whispered to herself. She turned back around, readying to finish cleaning up, and then heading to sleep as well, her appetite having left. But the mess began picking itself up, landing perfectly in the trashcan.'Thanks,' came along with a widespread smile.
And he answered her. 'No problem.'