With as infrequently as Peter slept--or, more accurate, as never as Peter slept--it was a relief to finally see him in a proper state of unconciousness. Sometimes she had the distinct feeling that he did it at all as a courtesy to those who worried, and an excuse to glean extra time in Sarah's company. Heidi thought it, powers or not, absolutely ridiculous; but then again, she remembered finding Peter sleeping on just about every flat surface in the house at one point or another while she was dating Nathan.
As the minutes ticked by, Heidi was begining to think he would be catching enough Z's to take the furrow that had been fixed into his forehead out when, without warning, he stiffened and straightened in her arms.
Without a word, she gently shifted him back against her shoulder, one hand rubbing along his back while the other held him lightly in place. By the reaction, she gauged that there had been new deaths, but that he wasn't halfway back inside was a good indication it hadn't been anyone in the hotel. She shifted her thoughts away from the bodies she'd borne witness to, and decided that while couldn't shield Peter from the world, she'd give him another portion of it to concentrate on for a while.
Her father teaching her the hand jive. Being tackled into a pool by three of her younger sisters. Her first dance recital. Nathan's proposal, and three people stuffed in the back of a cab, scanning the streets for priests and trying to keep their bums from going numb. Holding Simon and Monty for the first time, how she'd laughed and cried and kissed their brand-new faces, reassuring them that they wouldn't look so much like aliens when they grew up.