A Long Trip Home

[chimeramimicry]

The door is two yards away but I can't move from the top of the stairs.  It's been months, four or so, since I've been here, in this spot.  Gone were the days of trudging up the stairs with my satchel on the way home from work because my building's landlords refused to fix the elevators properly.  Gone too was the pleasure I had of returning to this apartment I paid for with my own money and not from my trust fund.  I donated all of that to charity the moment I turned twenty-five and finished paying off my loans to school.  It was two years ago.  It feels like forever.

I'm not the same man I had been.  I'm not a child anymore.  At least, I want to think that.

I'm still clutching the photograph of my brother and I in our tuxedos.  There's a smudge on it from my thumb and full of creases.  I've not let it go since I opened that box containing everything that I am.  Everything I was.  I left Ireland without looking back.  There was, there is only one thing on my mind.  Nathan.

Nathan.

Nathan.

I know he's here.  I've always felt a connection to him.  Mohinder Suresh called it part of my empathy, to feel things like that.  Funny to be so empathically linked to someone I spent my whole life pining for, who has always had a life to live without me.  He's never had time for me.  Never.

"Just walk, Peter," I whisper to myself as I move to a door I have not touched in a long time.  I swallow.  And knock.  I know he's in here without knowing it.  I almost lose the nerve to knock.  Please answer, Nathan.  Please.

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[law-anddisorder.livejournal.com]

"More coffee, Senator?" the busty blonde waitress who always takes care of me during lunch asks, the decanter poised over my empty cup.

"No, I'm quite all right, Deborah. Tracy, more coffee?" I ask my assistant. That's all she is to me now, nothing more, after last week, when temptation almost grew too strong to resist.

Tracy and I had met to discuss a new motion over dinner and drinks, and I took her back to my apartment to finalize the details, nothing but that on my mind.

Clearly she had other designs for the evening. I could see it in her eyes and the way she was undressing me with them that she wanted me, and I almost let my slightly drunk state overtake me. I stopped her just as she was snaking her hand around my cock, and I pushed her off. "No, Tracy, I can't do this anymore. You know I'm a married man."

"That never stopped you before, Nathan," she cooed drunkenly into my ear, and continued trying to get my pants open.

"No. I mean it. I'm not that man anymore. If the only reason you work for me is to try and fuck me, then I suggest you find yourself another job," I said, wiping her lipstick off my cheek. Fucking bitch, I remember thinking to myself. Trying to ruin everything Paige and I have worked so hard to build.

Tracy just smiled disbelievingly and squeezed my flaccid dick roughly, and said coldly, "What's the matter, can't get it up anymore, Senator?"

"Not for you, you fucking whore. Get the fuck out," I answered, throwing her purse out into the hallway.

That was a week ago. She's calmed down a bit since then, and now we're on a work relationship only. Just how it's supposed to be.

"No, no more for me, thanks," she answers, pushing papers back into her briefcase.

I slide my Amex across to the waitress and my cell vibrates in my pocket. It's Peggy, and she's virtually in tears. "Paige's water broke," she moans. She's scared, and clearly she doesn't know what to do. I hear Paige in the background trying to calm her down.

"I have to go, Tracy. It's an emergency. Let them know my wife just went into labor."

"Sure thing, Senator," she huffs, tossing the tip down on the table amongst the dishes and cups.

Paige's voice is right in my ear then. She sounds totally calm, and for that I'm glad. Nathan, come quick.

"I'll be there soon, Peter," I whisper into the phone once no one is around to hear me. Five minutes later I'm taking off into the bright blue sky.

[chimeramimic.livejournal.com]

"I think my friend needs a sedative more than I do," I say, almost serenely as Peggy holds my hand to her cheek. I'm comforting her more than she is comforting me, but that's all right. I am glad to help, really, as it gives me something to do while I wait for Nathan to arrive.

A normal flight from DC to New York would take half an hour and some change, depending on how long it would be until one arrives. Car would take four hours, train two and a half. And then there'd be driving from the airport or station to the hospital. But I can almost hear the sound of a jet passing above us and I close my eyes, wistfully happy. He's arrived. I don't know how, exactly, I know it, but I do know it.

It's been twenty minutes since the phone call. Hopefully, no one will ask what he was doing that he got here so quickly.

I'm mellow, all things considered, when he takes my hand from Peggy's and nervously inquires about my health and the health of our boys. The doctor grins at us and nods happily to my husband. "It's a little earlier than we'd like with a single birth, but for twins, they've very well formed. It won't be long now."

And that's good because when the next contraction hits me, I almost break his hand.

[law-anddisorder.livejournal.com]

"Okay, Paige, honey, you're going to be all right," I console her as she nearly fractures my hand with her super-strength. Even with her healing ability, her body must be experiencing excruciating pain.

I'm a slight bit worried about what the doctors are going to think once she's had the children and her body speedily recovers. I don't know if the healing is a passive thing, if she can possibly hold it off as not to arouse suspicion. If anything I suppose she's always got Parkman's power to fall back on, though it exhausts her to use it.

And from my past experience with Heidi, I know childbearing is a daunting, draining effort. I feel helpless, but I know just my presence is all Paige needs. I'm her husband. And his brother, too.

No time to worry about any of that now. My heart is pounding against my ribs, and I feel a light sweat breaking out on my body as Paige unsuccessfully tries to hold in a desperate scream of pain. It's been ten years since I've been through this; I missed Monty's birth, but was present at Simon's. Heidi was in labor for seven hours, and by the end of it she was cursing me and threatening to kill me.

Paige knows when things are moving to the next stage even before the obstetrician does, and I see her grasp the edges of the bed she's lying in, her legs spread, her chest heaving, and with a heavy rush of air out of her lungs, her entire face flushes bright red and she bears down with all her strength, which is quite a bit. My eyes go wide when I see she's dented the metal she's gripping. I may love my brother, but there's no way I'm giving him my hand again. Instead I run my fingers gently over her sweaty hair, and try to comfort her as best I can.

The doctor ushers Peggy, Slice, and her girlfriend out of the room, and Peggy calls, "I love you, honey, you're gonna be just fine!"

"Looks like they really want out of there," a fresh-faced intern who's there for the learning experience says to the obstetrician. "I can see the head already."