Disclaimer: I don't Heroes, and the fundamental concept of this story was inspired by rain and leaves' "Four Months Later" and is used with his permission
Feedback: I'd like it, trust me
AN: Since Mohinder, Bob and Elle will be showing up in this chapter, I would like to take this opportunity to confirm that everything that happened to them, Niki, Micah, Monica, Sylar, Maya and Alejandro happened the same way it did in the original show; I don't like to change things in AUs like this until I have to, so anything that wouldn't have been affected by Peter's 'shift' remains unaltered. On that topic, as far as Ricky and that group go, assume that Will's attempt to take the money worked out without anybody getting too badly hurt and they were left fuming and low on cash but otherwise unharmed
AN 2: On a related topic, I would like to apologise for the delay in releasing this chapter; it took a long time to straighten out what I wanted to happen here in relation to what took place in the episode (Which is part of the reason why the Paire-involved revelation that would have taken place here doesn't happen; I relocated it to the next chapter because this one was getting too long and I wanted to upload something for this story soon, but the revelation I promised will be in the next chapter)
A Leap to Safety
As he blinked his eyes open, he registered three things about his surroundings.
Firstly, he was in a room he knew fairly well; it was the main lounge area of his family's house in New York.
Secondly, he was currently lying on a sofa in the lounge while still fully dressed, which at least made a contrast to the last time he'd woken up somewhere and couldn't remember how he'd gotten there…
Thirdly, two curious people were currently standing over him as he blearily blinked his eyes open, both of them people he recognised; another welcome change from his last experience-
As the memory of the last few hours returned to him, Peter couldn't help but swear as he lowered his head back down on to the couch below him.
"Damnit…" he groaned, staring blearily up at the ceiling above him; he'd been hoping at least the last few hours would turn out to be some bizarre coma fantasy rather than the perverted truth. "So much for that…"
"Pete…?" Nathan's voice said, Peter turning his head to see his older brother taking a couple of uncertain steps towards him, evidently uncertain about what to say to him after he'd been missing for so long. "Are… are you OK?"
"OK?" Peter repeated, briefly looking over incredulously at Nathan before he regained control of his emotions and stopped himself from going into a rant; the last thing he needed right now was to have to deal with Nathan wanting to beat him up for having fantasies about having sex with (Making love to, his subconscious mind corrected him automatically, as much as he didn't want to get into that much detail about his feelings) his daughter. "Yeah, just fine, except that I just recovered from Haitian-induced amnesia to learn that the guy who helped me escape that dump the Company stuck me in turned out to be some lunatic who wants to end the world-"
"Hold on; he wants to 'end the world'?" Matt interjected, looking at Peter with sudden renewed intensity. "Would that be… Adam Monroe, by any chance?"
Peter blinked in shock.
Whatever he'd been expecting Matt to say, he hadn't expected that the detective would actually know what he was talking about…
"You know him?" he said, looking in confusion at the detective.
"We've been… tracking his work; he's been killing the other founding members of the Company in revenge for them locking him up," Matt explained, his expression grim as he looked at Peter. "I don't suppose you can tell us anything else about him that we should know?"
"Aside from the fact that he has Claire's ability and is trying to find some kind of virus?" Peter responded, shaking his head grimly as he looked at the two men before him.
Nathan's eyes widened in shock.
"He has Claire's ability?" he repeated, looking at Peter with renewed intensity. "You're sure?"
"Saw him healing with my own eyes; trust me, he can do what Claire can do," Peter confirmed, nodding grimly at his brother even as he tried to force mental images of Claire from his mind; if Matt and Nathan were looking for Adam before this, he must be up to something beyond what Peter was aware of. "He tried to trick me into accompanying him to release this virus, but…"
He paused for a moment, trying to think of a way to say what had happened without leaving Nathan wanting to punch him- he had enough to deal with already without his brother wanting to kill him for having incestuous thoughts about his niece-, before he finally settled on something that contained at least some elements of the truth. "…well, it's all a bit hazy after that; he got away while I was… distracted-"
"'Distracted'?" Nathan repeated, looking sceptically at his brother. "Pete, you didn't even look like you knew we were here when-"
"Look, this isn't the time for this, OK?" Matt said, looking impatiently between the two Petrellis as they briefly glared at each other. "Peter, you just try and focus on seeing if you can remember anything; Nathan, right now we need to focus on finding where this Adam guy's going-"
"Couldn't we ask-?" Nathan began.
"We are not making her do that!" Matt began, cutting Nathan off mid-sentence with a cold glare. "I made that mistake once and it nearly got her killed; she's been through enough-"
"But she could-" Nathan began.
"I said NO!" Matt yelled, walking up and grabbing Nathan's shirt, hauling the other man to a point where the two men were practically nose-to-nose, Matt's eyes narrowed in cold rage as he glared
After a moment's tense silence, Peter looked uncertainly between the two men standing before him.
"Uh…" he said, clearly uncomfortable about his unintentional role in this argument but nevertheless clearly determined to say his piece now that he was involved, "sorry to have to interrupt this, but who are you two talking about?"
As Noah Bennett stood in the middle of the living-room of his new house, his mind constantly torn between two choices for the first time in his life- he'd always known what to do in the past; even if later circumstances might have proven him wrong, at the time it had always seemed the right thing- as he tried to process what had taken place here the night before.
Claire was gone…
After all he'd done to try and keep her safe, she'd run away from home, leaving no clue about where she'd gone and no way to figure out what had happened to send her off like that; he might think that Peter had something to do with it, but that was only a guess at best.
And worse… no matter what action he'd tried to take to keep her safe… everything seemed to lead back to that picture he'd discovered what now seemed like so long ago but was really barely last week; Claire, embracing a man who looked like Peter, with his own dead body dominating the image.
He didn't believe that Peter or Claire would come all the way back here to kill him for no reason, of course- Peter wasn't that type of man-, but that still left so many other potential ways that things could turn out that way…
Not even the rest of the Series of Eight had turned up any answers; the one of Hiro Nakamura having a sword fight alone was enough to raise serious questions in his mind, but the picture of Mohinder firing a gun was enough to leave him feeling very concerned for his future.
Mohinder was in a difficult place right now; if the Indian scientist could be convinced that it would be best if Claire was returned to the Company…
Normally Noah wouldn't have considered that kind of thing- he'd been almost certain that he could trust Mohinder-, but then Peter had already vanished, and that was before he took the Haitian's cryptic comments into account; with his own life on the line right now, Noah was not in the mood for taking chances.
Noah didn't like to think about it too much; he had enough problems on his plate right now without bringing in theories and supposition to the party on top of everything else…
He just wished he knew where Claire had gone. Calling Mohinder and asking him to find Claire with Molly Walker was an option, of course, but Noah wouldn't have been comfortable with that at the best of times and things were only made worse by Peter and Claire's recent disappearances and the picture he'd found showing Mohinder firing at someone, followed by a shot of him lying dead.
If only he had some way of 'testing' his potentially former ally…
"You ever heard of a 'West Rosen'?" Sandra's voice said from off to the side, prompting Noah to look up curiously at his wife.
"Not off the top of my head," he replied, pushing the nagging feeling that he had heard that name before to the back of his mind. "Why?"
"I just got off the phone from the hospital saying that Claire dropped in there to visit him last night, and then left us as contacts- told them we'd know where to find his parents but she didn't have their number- before leaving again," Sandra said, looking in confusion back at her husband; he could only just see her frustration at the call not having been made earlier. "They just wanted to let us know that it's… still touch and go if he'll make it, but he should be fine if he gets through the next few hours?"
Noah could only stare silently at Sandra as his mind turned over what he had just been told.
Claire was checking up on a young man who had apparently been left in a hospital in poor condition.
She was concerned enough about him that she wanted him and Sandra to keep an eye on the young man in question even when she wasn't there to do it herself.
So, Noah mused to himself, nodding thoughtfully at the implications, what are the odds that he was there when whatever happened to Claire and Peter to make them want to leave happened?
It wasn't a perfect lead, he knew, but right now it was the best he had to offer without letting anyone else know what he was trying to figure out; Sandra had enough to deal with what with Claire having run away and Peter vanishing, he wasn't sure how she'd react to finding out that he was apparently 'destined' to die.
Plus, he reflected, a slight smile on his face as another plan occurred to him, it gives me the perfect opportunity to see what Mohinder's been doing lately…
If he could just set everything up right, he might be able to determine what side Mohinder was really on…
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his phone and dialled a number that he had come to use fairly regularly in the last few months, but still felt as though he was dialling for the first time.
For the first time, he couldn't be certain that the faith he had in the man on the other end of this line was justified…
"Hello?" Mohinder Suresh's said at the other end, forcing Noah to push his doubts to the side; right now he had to focus if he was going to establish what he was trying to find out.
"Is Molly well enough to use her ability?" he asked, his statement brief and direct.
"Why?" Mohinder replied uncertainly.
"I need to track down a boy and I don't have time to run all over Costa Verde," Noah replied, taking care to make his voice sound rushed; the more genuine he sounded, the better the chance that Mohinder wouldn't suspect his true intentions. "His name is West Rosen-"
"Are you OK?" Mohinder asked. "You sound-"
"Can you do it or not?!" Noah interjected, taking care to sound frustrated (It actually wasn't that hard; without any information regarding Peter or Claire's current location there was no way to know how long he had until he was shot).
"Yes, of course," Mohinder replied after a moment's silence.
"And Mohinder?" Noah began, only to pause mid-sentence before he could finish it, realising that he didn't actually know what he could say at this point.
"Yeah?" Mohinder asked, prompting him out of his brief internal dilemma.
"Just… Thank you," he said at last, deciding to stick to the simple facts before he hung up the phone and stood up, his next course of action already decided.
If this was going to tell him anything about where Mohinder's loyalties lay now, he needed to confirm West's location…
"You're telling me this girl can… find people?" Peter said, looking curiously between Nathan and Matt. "And… there's no limit to who she can find?"
"Well, she told me once she can't find anyone who's dead, but that aside… yeah, pretty much," Matt confirmed, before he narrowed his eyes slightly as he glared at Peter. "But I already told you; we're not using Molly-"
"I'm not going to ask her to use her ability," Peter countered, a slight smile on his face as he looked at Matt. "I'm going to ask her to teach me how to use it."
Nathan blinked.
"You're going to use it?" he said, looking uncertainly at Peter. "You sure about that? I mean, last time I saw you-"
"I wasn't exactly the poster-boy for controlling my abilities, I know," Peter said, nodding briefly at Nathan before he smiled slightly, recalling those few brief days he'd spent with Claire teaching him how to regain control of his old abilities at a gradual pace, mastering each of his old abilities once again…
He shook his head slightly, forcing his thoughts back on track as he looked back at Nathan. "But that was then; I've been… getting in some practise since we last saw each other, and I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing. Just give me a chance to talk to Molly and get a handle on her ability, and I can do it; I'm sure of it."
For a moment Matt and Nathan could only look silently at each other, clearly uncertain whether to go through with Peter's suggestion or how to feel about it, before Matt nodded once and looked back at Peter.
"OK," he said, looking pointedly at Peter as he spoke. "Just to make sure we're clear about this; you do not let her use her power herself, OK?"
"Sure," Peter replied, acknowledging and accepting Matt's statement. "So, how long until she gets back from… wherever she is now?"
As Mohinder stood at the corner of Verbena and Palm, he couldn't help but wish he had more of an idea about what kind of situation he was letting himself in for; so far nothing they'd tried had gone according to plan. Bob had gone to the school in an attempt to find any sign of Claire there- if they could talk to her on her own they might be able to convince her to help them without getting Noah involved in this whole situation-, but when that had failed to turn up any sign of Claire, under any kind of alias, Mohinder had been forced to go through with his original plan and actually try and talk to Noah himself.
As he saw Noah's silver car round a corner a short distance up the street and subsequently begin to approach him, he just hoped that he could make his point in a manner that his old partner would accept…
As the car stopped at the corner, evidently looking for West, Mohinder walked forward, opened the car door, and stepped into the back, settling down on the seat as Noah looked at him in the mirror.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, only a slight trace of surprise on his face.
"I'm sorry I lied to you," Mohinder said; he'd never been great at deception on short notice so it was best he get down to the point as soon as possible. "I only have a second. You have to listen to me."
"Are they forcing you to do this?" Noah replied, his tone an even one that could have meant he was feeling any one of a dozen possible emotions about this latest turn of events. "Do they have Molly?"
"Nobody is forcing me to do anything!" Mohinder countered, quickly bringing himself back under control as he looked earnestly at Noah. "I'm here to ask you to give us Claire."
As Noah turned to stare incredulously at him, Mohinder couldn't help but cross his fingers in hopes that he could make his point clear. "We need her blood."
"You've gone native…" Noah said, his voice low as he stared pointedly at the man sitting behind him. "Are you kidding me?"
"She'll be returned to you safe, unharmed," Mohinder replied, wishing briefly that he had a better idea of what made Bennet tick; how could he be sure that he was saying the right thing to win him over? "You have my word."
"No offence, Mohinder, but your word isn't what it used to be," Noah said simply; once again he gave no clear impression how he felt about Mohinder's actions.
"Claire is very important to the work we're doing," Mohinder protested; he couldn't believe how little faith Noah seemed to have in him. "She can save lives!"
"'Work we're doing'; you sound like me ten years ago!" Noah said, his voice raising slightly as he spoke. "This is what they do; they indoctrinate you! I couldn't have been more clear about this when you agreed to go in!"
"They're not who you think they are-" Mohinder began, only to be interrupted as Noah slammed the palm of one hand against his window.
"They're not getting Claire!" he said coldly, his tone making it clear that there was no opportunity for argument.
After a pregnant pause
"I have to do what I think is right," he said, swiftly pulling out a gun and aiming it at Noah; he wasn't entirely certain how to feel about the fact that Noah only slightly flinched at this latest turn of events, even as he raised a thumb to turn off the weapon's safety. "Start driv-"
Before he could finish the sentence, the left-rear door suddenly opened, prompting Mohinder to turn his head to look in the direction of the sound just long enough to see Sandra Bennett standing there before he suddenly found the gun yanked out of his hands by Noah, the weapon in question almost instantly aiming at his face before he could even blink.
"Now," Noah said, his eyes narrowed behind his glasses as he glared at Mohinder, "I'll make this simple; who's your partner?"
"… Excuse me?" Mohinder replied, trying to figure out what had gone wrong; he could just about guess that Sandra had known to enter at that point based on a signal- probably that bit where Noah slammed his hand against the window; he'd always struck Mohinder as a man who generally stayed in control in that kind of situation-, but how he'd known he'd need help was something Mohinder just couldn't figure out…
"Company policy," Noah replied briefly. "One of them, one of us. Where's yours?"
Staring at the gun now held before him, Mohinder swallowed slightly.
This had not gone according to plan…
"Her name's Elle-" he began.
"Elle Bishop?" Noah interjected, stopping Mohinder before he could finish was he was about to say.
"You know her?" Sandra asked, looking over at her husband in surprise.
"Oh yeah…" Noah said, nodding slightly as a slight smile crossed his face. "Which means I also know how we can stop her."
For a moment, as he looked at Noah Bennett standing before him, Mohinder wasn't sure if he should be more afraid of the consequences of having failed Mr Bishop or the consequences of having angered Noah.
AN 3: Just to clarify, between his phone call with Mohinder and their 'meeting' at Verbena and Palm Noah went to the hospital to confirm West's location and then received the call from Mohinder with the false 'address' for West; I just didn't bother writing it because it didn't really add anything to the plot and the part with Peter, Matt and Nathan is more relevant to what's happening next chapter.
