InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "everyone loves an underdog."

Dy (no_savior) wrote in we_coexist,
@ 2016-01-21 20:20:00

Entry tags:

evey hammond, peter petrelli, zz:status complete

Tumbling down [Evey]
Something was wrong. He knew it before consciousness had settled in on him. A feeling of loss, of emptiness. It ached, the void, and he found himself reaching for Leeloo, reaching out for the comfort of her, the softness of her.

His hand found cold, empty blankets.

Peter sat up, blinking. He reached out with his mind, expecting to find her not far, maybe up to eat something, but she wasn't there.

She wasn't there.

A cry rose in his throat, and his arm reached out again, desperate. He could feel Evey there, in the back of his mind, he could touch on a half dozen others, and knowing that his powers hadn't suddenly vanished, that it was his heart and love and life that was gone...

Logic tried to intervene. She was the Fifth Element, the Supreme Being. She was needed, necessary to the world - many worlds - being this one.

But his heart was breaking, shoulders heaving with sobs.

How much time has passed before he was able to regain control of himself, to close off his mind and retreat into himself, he didn't know. It didn't seem to matter anymore.

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chemical_sheds
2016-01-22 01:40 am UTC (link)

26 minutes.

Across the night-shushed City, there was a stretch of road that Evey found during her arrival here - during the time before John Preston's quiet shelter kept her. Walking it had cleared her mind in the past, and tonight she'd hoped to work the same magic on its now familiar path. Her head was too full of conflict for her to sleep, and Agreeable Apartments felt less like a home and more like a punishment. In short, she needed space and time and quiet.

But as she reached the far end of the road, Peter's distress nearly knocked her off her feet. She didn't try to call to him; she knew he was too deep in his own mind, knew it instinctively. Instead, she turned and ran, her eyes sweeping ahead in hope of a late night cab somewhere. No such luck, no bright yellow hope, and she ran. It still took her 23 minutes to get to Peter's door, and when she found it locked, she didn't let that stop her. She was in his apartment moments later.

Her reserved British upbringing could go to hell. She threw her arms around Peter's shuddering form, and said nothing at all.

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no_savior
2016-01-22 01:50 am UTC (link)

He felt her against him, and for an instant he hated the contact, hated her for not being Leeloo. But the anger was gone faster than it had arrived, and Peter curled more tightly against himself, desperate to drown out the grief.

He couldn't speak, couldn't form words, but at least with Evey, there was no need. His pain was a living thing, with nothing but the void to hold it.

She was gone. His love, his heart, his perfect Leeloo.

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chemical_sheds
2016-01-22 02:15 am UTC (link)

The hesitation, the hatred, it was clear to her. She paused, her touch lightening for just a second, until he grabbed a hold of her and held in a fierce grip. He was allowed this. They were friends - had always ever only been friends, too close for romance - but she loved him as dearly as she could ever love another.

The agony he felt echoed back over her, though she knew he was trying now not to let it touch her. She didn't need a mental link with him to feel the grief. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair at all. He'd been devastated when Leeloo died -- and then, by a strange twist of fate, a different version of her appeared, then the same one again... And now both were gone. And he was still here, left with too many re-opened scars.

There was nothing that she could say to him. She knew that instinctively. Her hands smoothed wherever they could reach. His back, his shoulder, his arm. He was a tactile person, and though she wasn't, she knew enough of what he needed to know how to give it. This would let him know she was here, in a way that no words could.

But she said it anyway.

"I'm here."

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	no_savior 2016-01-22 02:36 am UTC (link)
	He clung to her, the only rock left in his world. Waves of grief and loss crashed over him, and he was struggling to keep it in, hold it tight. Who could stop an empath gone mad? What did it matter? "I want her back," he said, voice raw and wretched with emotion. "I want her back." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

chemical_sheds
2016-01-22 02:45 am UTC (link)

It wasn't the first time he'd felt this. She'd hoped he'd never feel it again. At least he knew she was not dead. At least, now that they understood the nature of The City, he knew that she had been returned to her world, returned to the task that she was created to complete, the need she was meant to meet.

"She's where she is needed," Evey said gently, knowing that it was cold comfort, but finding nothing else that could be said. To date, there'd been only one person pulled back by the City after having been returned to their reality - at least, only one on record. Evey had spent so much time in the library before Preston found her that she knew quite a bit about the City now. And because she knew, so did Peter.

Her knuckles rubbed down his spine gently. He couldn't have her back. They both knew it. But the heart wants what the heart wants, and Peter's heart was very large and wanted very much. She squeezed his shoulders gently and rested her chin on his head.

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no_savior
2016-01-24 10:52 am UTC (link)

He snorted, disgusted by the answer. "I need her. Here." But there was resignation, understanding in his voice. He was being selfish. Of course she was needed. She was the ultimate protector, the weapon against evil. She was necessary.

That didn't make it hurt any less.

"I was happy," he said, the words so soft, so delicate, they seemed to shatter as they fell from the air. "Don't I get to be happy?"

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chemical_sheds
2016-02-02 01:32 am UTC (link)

"I know," Evey said quietly, because she knew he needed her. She knew he'd been happy - after so long with such loneliness and heartbreak. He'd never been very lucky in love, and that was a pity. There were very few men better than Peter Petrelli. She would even put Aidan or John against him any day. They'd only ever been the best of friends - she and Peter - but in another world, they could have been something else. That was how deeply she admired him. And he deserved better even than she. He'd had better. He'd had perfection. And they both knew it. The loss was devastating - and he was devastated - and there was nothing to be done for it but get through it.

She didn't know how anyone could, much less a man who felt as deeply as Peter did. But that was the only path for him... and now he had to walk it. It hurt, the cold realization of it. She hurt for him.

"What can I do for you?" she asked.

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no_savior
2016-02-11 01:24 am UTC (link)

Peter didn't want anything. He wanted nothing. To be not. But that was the crux, wasn't it? He would endure. Always endure.

It had, in some ways, been easier in that... that lost timeline. The one where he'd been hunted, hidden, forgotten. He'd been distant towards the end, distant and cold and closed off.

Was it better? He didn't know. But he didn't hurt so much.

He was too overwhelmed to even try to hide the underlying despair from Evey.

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chemical_sheds
2016-02-19 03:47 am UTC (link)

He wasn't hiding grief from her, and she wasn't withdrawing from it, either. They carried things for each other sometimes, sometimes when it was too heavy to carry alone. She did it quietly, with the simple acceptance of a person who knew what it was to shoulder heavy things. He was not alone, regardless of how empty he felt now. And, she knew that he knew that, under all the black despair.

There weren't words to say. She knew this herself, from too much experience - his and her own. And so she remained silent, arms linked around the friend that was more than a friend or even brother to her. There were no tasks to do. She knew this as well. And so she stayed, because that was the only thing that she could offer him.

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