WHO: Nathan Petrelli, Claire Bennet (ABC) WHERE: the Hyperion WHEN: Wednesday, April 5, 2006; after this and this [backdated] WHAT: Breaking bad news. RATING: TBD STATUS: thread; in-progress
While Nathan Petrelli would never be called Noah Bennet's fan, he would never have wished him to be one of the people who had vanished over the months Nathan had lived in Los Angeles, because of what it would do to Nathan's – all right, their – daughters. Nathan had long since given up attempting to rationalize why some people remained, some disappeared, some came back and some did not, as there was never a single consistent element. Even those who were needed by multiple people, those with a life that touched many other lives, could often disappear.
Like now.
For a man with the words for every occasion, Nathan wasn't certain he had the right thing to say this time. It wasn't just about Bennet being sent back, it was about what he was being sent back to, which wasn't that hellish world after the explosion. It was death. He'd seen how the knowledge of Bennet's death had nearly led his older daughter to making a deal with someone to save him, then how not being able to sacrifice another person for that deal had left her despondent. He wasn't ready to hurt his children like that again, even if it wasn't his fault that Bennet was gone.
Rubbing his jaw, then the bridge of his nose, Nathan leaned back against the wall by his daughter's room and waited for Claire to come back home.