Angels, Lend Me Your Might [Aidan]
[takes place immediately following this]
Peter was waiting when Evey turned the corner. He had tried to stay away, tried to let her have her own autonomy. It was hard, drawing the lines that separated him from the women who shared so much of his mind, but lines had to be drawn, lest they fade completely. If had been long enough, with her shields in place and her long sleep, that Peter's awareness of her had slid into a peripheral gaze.
But when those shields came crashing down, his heart had shattered with the knowledge.
He'd failed her. Somewhere along the line, Peter had found his own happiness, had supported and cheered for Evey's - for the younger, more vibrant shade of Evey Hammond. The woman who had lived on the savage world with him had not been forgotten, not entirely, but she had been... distant. And rather than pushing at that distance, Peter had accepted it and let it stand.
That had been the wrong choice. He hadn't detected the way she was falling apart. She'd tried so hard to keep it from him, and she'd succeeded. But Peter knew that he would have been able to press back and uncover the truth... if he'd bothered to do so.
Leeloo had tried to tell him this was false, that people needed to be able to fly or to fail on their own measure, but the words were dull solace. What was the point of being so in tune with someone else if not to help them?
And then Evey had wanted to break the connection, once she had felt Peter's pain at her agony.
Over his dead body.
So here he was now, having flushed his pain into anger, the anger into remorse, the remose into determination. Evey needed somewhere peaceful to stay, somewhere she could be cared for without being burned by the emotion Peter always carried. Her own shields were broken - he didn't trust his to support her if she were to stay too close to him. So he had searched the City (and her thoughts) and found where she had been staying once she'd given up living off the streets.
She was going back to Preston, and that was the end of it. Her other option was to stay in the apartment Peter owned on the 14th floor. If he decided she got a say in the matter. Sadly, he didn't think she would protest much. There didn't seem to be enough will left in her to argue.
"Evey," he said softly, holding out a hand to her. "I'll take you home."
There was a pause. Evey nodded briefly, after a moment, and walked to him. She didn't take his hand, and that stung him. She had always been sensitive to his need for physical contact, but this time, she couldn't do it. He didn't have to touch her to teleport, but he wanted to touch her, to acknowledge her.
"All right," she said, and her voice was empty. She waited, standing quietly beside him. Dropping his hand back to his side, Peter teleported them both to Preston's flat. When they appeared in the center of the apartment, she nodded again and drifted to the empty chair pulled up by the window in the foyer. For a second, she stood beside it, looking down. And then she sat, folded her arms on the sill, and rested her chin in front of her.
He stood behind her, one hand lifting to stroke her hair, but then it fell back down to his side, the motion incomplete. But he couldn't stop himself from leaning in and pressing a light kiss to the top of her head. "I'm sorry, Evey," he whispered. "I love you."
Then he turned and teleported again, this time ending up just outside Aidan Waite's door. Peter knew what had happened just inside, and Aidan... well, the vampire deserved some answers. No matter how much Peter didn't want to discuss any of it, it was what Aidan deserved. Even if he just stayed to listen, and share their mutual grief over what had happened to Evey Hammond.