Heroes Fic
Title: Songs We Sung Before
Author: Alex Foster
Category: Romance, Surrealism
Characters: Claire, Elle, Matt Parkman, Gretchen
Word Count: 2,478
Rating: PG-13 for cursing.
Summary: Company agent Claire Bennet is assigned to look after two fellow agents from another reality that are hunting escaped specials. It becomes complicated. Post season four AU. Probably qualifies as Alternate Timeline as well because it is never stated if either universe is even ‘ours’. Told in nonlinear fashion.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by NBC. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.
Author’s Notes: This is written somewhat differently than most of my other stories. I played around a lot with time, verb tense, and scene placement to try and create an off center feel. The idea was to write something that would have many layers and meanings depending on how you decided to read them. Not everyone’s cup of tea but I wanted to try something experimental. Thank you for reading.
…
…
I've seen the light
And I've seen the flame
And I've been this way before
And I'm sure to be this way again
For I've been refused
And I've been regained
And I've seen your eyes before
And I'm sure to see your eyes again
--I’ve Been This Way Before by Neil Diamond
…
…
Two women, one dressed in her favorite designer suit and the other in comfortable jeans.
"So…?"
Two women, both blonde and deceptively dangerous.
"Yeah?"
A hotel room, not shared (that never happened in this reality).
"…Any good jokes in this universe?"
Claire Bennet smiled.
…
…
The Company is still buzzing with gossip when Claire arrives at her father’s office. She pauses next to his assistant just long enough to hear it was like no teleporting ability the Company has ever seen before. Blew out every window in the lobby and left a nice sized crater in the floor.
She straightens her suit and calms her racing heart. She is a Company agent, a new and more benevolent Company, and would be presentable for this.
Inside Director Parkman is standing next to the large window looking out across the river at the city. Both he and her father are pensive because of the newly arrived guests-she can feel the tension in the air from the doorway.
Seated in front of the desk, looking like the world’s most oddest date, is a sight that takes Claire a moment to process. It is a toss up which is the most impossible figure in the room. A second Matt Parkman or Elle Bishop sitting next to him. A doppelgänger and a very much alive dead woman.
Company training kicks in and she begins spotting differences (useful in case she has to pick them out in the heat of combat) between the newcomers and her Matt Parkman and the Elle Bishop she knew. Both are wearing black fatigues like the riot gear issued to Company swat officers. Elle is older than Claire remembers, thinner and more gaunt-Parkman too. Both have a shaded look to their eyes that she recognizes from some of the field agents that served in the old Company. Too long in the wild was the term she remembers hearing.
The two stand when she enters and so does her father. It is unnervingly quiet and she hears the door click behind her. Bishop is watching her and Parkman (both of them) is watching Bishop. And then like a spell breaking those shaded blue eyes turn back to her father and it is all business as usual.
"Like I said-" Her voice has the same edge of playing with authority Claire remembers. "-this is a social call and nothing more. We’ll collect our people and be on our way."
Claire stops just short of being able to feel the aura of power that normally crackles around Elle. "What did I miss?"
"They’re from a different reality," her Parkman begins.
"We’re hunting two escaped fugitives," the other Parkman finishes. Both look rather pleased at being on the same wavelength.
"You can scan the brains of the people we capture," Elle says, "to make sure we aren’t taking any of yours." She sounds tired, like she’s given the same speech several times.
"What did these fugitives do?" Noah asks. "What were they convicted of?"
Elle levels a hard stare on him. "They killed a lot of people in a war and then ran away when we stopped them from killing more."
For a moment Claire feels a telepath brush her thoughts and she can’t be sure which Parkman did it.
"Like I said this is a courtesy call. We’ve learned it is best to give one in worlds with a Company or Pinehearst still active. Consider it done."
Elle turns to leave with Parkman in tow.
"And we appreciate that," Noah continues. "Since you’ve done this before you won’t have any objection to a liaison with our Company."
That stops her and makes her look back.
"Claire, why don’t you see to our guests and make sure they are well taken care of."
"This isn’t a cultural exchange, Noah. It’s a tag and bag mission."
Claire steps between them and meets the special’s gaze. "That isn’t a problem for me."
Behind Elle, Parkman seems to want to say something but thinks better of it and Claire can see his focus settle once again on Elle.
"Fine. Show us the way, Cheerleader."
…
…
The two alternates check into a hotel like it is just a normal business trip for them. Not the best the Company can pay for but Claire has stayed in worse. Elle and Parkman get adjoining rooms and immediately sweep for bugs. Claire watches their coordination silently and admires the obvious years of teamwork. She also smiles at the idea of Director Parkman as a field agent.
She’s a spy and the two alternates pay her the respect of not pretending she’s otherwise. Probably from years of alternate Claires tagging along as well, she figures. Still, Matt is visibly tense and keeps shooting look after look at Elle who in turn refuses to come within an arm’s reach of Claire. Maybe not.
"So," she says as they put the scanning equipment away, "would you like to compare histories? See where our realities diverged?"
"We’re not going to be here long enough for that to matter," Matt answers. "Just to pick up our targets."
Claire wonders how it is possible the alternate can make her Director Parkman seem fun. "Well, all this might not be a big deal for you two but it is for us. Quite big. It can’t hurt to share a little-"
"Washington on the dollar bill?" Elle idly lets her ability crackle over her fingers as she turns to Claire. "Lincoln on the penny?"
"Yes."
"Anyone from the Whig party win a seat in Congress lately?"
"No."
Elle’s expression turns hard. "Then our realities aren’t that different. Not where it counts anyway."
"All right." Claire tries a different approach. "How did you two get started doing this, jumping realities I mean. Are you still with the original Company over there? You mentioned a war...?"
"I’m here because I asked. I made a promise to a girl that I’d bring all the people that escaped back to face justice. That's all."
Matt quickly steps up behind his partner. "I think we need to get settled in now, Agent Bennet. We’ll let you and the Company know before we move on our fugitives."
The director has dismissed her enough times for her to recognize the tone and she obeys just the same.
…
…
"Two women walked into a bar-"
"I like this joke already." Elle moved forward.
"One ordered a drink…"
…
…
Their first prisoner goes down easy. Elle, Parkman, and a Company security squad corner him in a sandwich shop and he surrenders without bloodshed. Both Parkmans later scan him and conclude the otherwise kindly older man does not belong to this reality. The director pales when he gets inside the fugitive’s mind and at Claire’s askance only says: "They fought a war all right; didn’t look like many made it through over there. That was not a good man."
She trusts her director enough to not feel much sympathy when they drug the man and place him in a temporary holding cell.
"Don’t push too hard about their world," Parkman tells her. "I don’t think we would enjoy having to see people we lost again and again without it really being the people we remember-or getting to stay."
It is late when she finds Elle. The alternate is still wearing a tacvest from the raid on the shop and she is staring at the view of the city from the Company building. Knowing better than to surprise her, Claire waits for the other woman to acknowledge her before taking up position beside her at the window. She holds up two styrofoam cups. "I come bearing the olive branch that is coffee."
Elle snorts but takes one anyway.
"It’s funny," Claire says after a sip, "successful missions always get me so amped up I feel like I might jump out of my skin but coffee actually calms me down."
"Drink enough of the stuff and the caffeine buzz comes full circle." Elle moans. "This is good. I haven’t had real coffee in a long time."
"I’m not sure caffeine works on me; I always figured it was the ritual more than anything else." Claire jerks her chin toward the city. "We could go, you know. I’ll take you and Matt around and show you our reality."
"Nah. Matt doesn’t do so hot around big crowds these days."
"Oh." Claire thinks for a moment. "Just the two of us then?"
Elle flashes a smile before a look of sadness washes it away. She takes a long draught of coffee and doesn’t answer immediately. "I don’t think so, Pom Pom. I’m not good with crowds either. It’s been a long day but thanks for the joe." She leaves the styrofoam cup on the window ledge and starts to walk down the hall.
"Elle?" Claire decides then and there to forget Director Parkman’s suggestion. "Are we friends over there?"
Only a telepath could read beyond the blank look Elle gives her. "We were for a little while."
"But not now?"
"Not ever again."
Claire begins to understand and wants to know more.
…
…
It is past midnight but Claire knows to dial the office before the home number. Gretchen picks up on the fifth ring. "Were we doing something tonight?"
"Hello to you, too, and no-I’m just calling." She’s still staring at the city lights; coffee long since cold in her cup. "I wanted to hear a friendly voice."
"Bad night?"
"Something like that."
"Anything you can tell me?"
"’fraid not."
"Okay then." Silence connects their phones for a moment. "Want to come up this weekend? I got this thing but I can get out of it."
"I’d like that but I might have to work."
"Want me to come down?"
"No, that’s okay. I may take you up on that offer once my case wraps up."
"That works for me too."
Claire hesitates. "Do you ever think about if things had gone differently for us?"
Gretchen doesn’t seem surprised by the sudden question; by this point in her life she’s used to non-sequiturs. "It’s normal to think back on choices made and wonder if they were right."
"What if you had a job that let you see the different outcomes of those choices?"
Now Gretchen takes a moment to consider her answer. Finally she says, "I’d get a new job."
…
…
"Second woman doubled over in pain and fell through the floor. She cried out and fell through the basement floor too.
"Bartender leaned over and asked, ‘What’s her problem?’"
…
…
Elle answers the door on Claire’s fourth knock. Behind her, case files lay open across the floor. "What?"
"I know you probably don’t want to see me, but I’d like to talk."
…
…
Their last fugitive does not go quietly. His ability won’t work on himself but he is able to provoke a young officer on the Company’s backup squad into firing first. It quickly spirals out of control and the fugitive goes down in a hail of gunfire. Suicide by Company agent.
"No, no, no," Elle screams forcing her way to the front of the standoff. "You son of a bitch!" She storms past the barricades while Claire and Matt are still trying to regain control of the scene.
It doesn’t seem to occur to her that the men might accidentally shoot her too. "You think that was brave?" The toe of her boot connects with the dead special’s face. "Was that the best way out? Only way to face justice? Are you a hero now? A goddamn martyr to the cause?"
Each spit of venom is punctuated by a kick and finally a lash of electricity across features quickly becoming unrecognizable. The entire swat team, Noah, and Claire watch in shocked silence at the display, no one quite understanding the intensity of it.
It’s Matt, her partner, that finally crosses the distance to where the fugitive fell and stops her. He flinches when he touches her shoulder and some of her built up charge crackles into him, but doesn’t pull away. Whatever he says to her it is through his ability and not for the ears of the people of this reality.
Elle’s shoulders slump and she nods in agreement. She’s still mumbling as he leads her away from the staging area and Claire catches this: "They never think about the people that get left behind. Goddamn martyrs."
She doesn’t know why, but Claire feels that aimed at her.
…
…
"First woman glanced into the hole and listened to the echoing screams of the second woman as she continued to fall.
"‘I don’t know,’ she told the bartender. ‘We’re not that close.’"
…
…
Elle and Matt prepare to leave with their living prisoner in cuffs and dead prisoner in a bag at their feet. It is late and the Company has mostly cleared out for the day; there is no fanfare for their departure. Noah is there, of course, Director Parkman, and Claire. The alternate Matt stands in the center of the three inch deep crater they made the day they arrived, focusing inward.
"How is he going to…?" Director Parkman wonders.
"Borrowed power," Elle says. "Nothing you’ll have to worry about."
Their good-byes are simple to the point of barely existent. During their stay the two Parkmans were the closest, Elle had pointedly avoided Bennet, and only talked to Claire a handful of times. They hadn't come looking for friends.
"You may want to step back, Cheerleader." Elle points to the lip of the crater and the tips of Claire’s feet just over the edge. "I know they’ll grow back and all but why leave a mess on my world’s floor?"
Claire, still wearing the suit she wore the night before, her favorite, doesn’t back up right away. "I’m not her, you know," she hears herself say.
"I know. I’m not yours either."
Red lightning begins crackling around them. At first she thinks it is coming from Elle but realizes it is arcing toward the alternates instead of away from them. It increases within the boundary of the crater until Elle, Matt, and their prisoners are nearly lost in the fingers of power.
Claire squints and tries to see if they are in pain. Only Matt appears uncomfortable as he focuses on controlling the ability; Elle looks resigned and tired.
"Wait," Claire calls out and steps over the boundary…
…
…
Two women, one dressed in her favorite designer suit and the other in comfortable jeans.
Two women, both blonde and deceptively dangerous.
A hotel room, not shared (that never happened in this reality, not yet).
"That was a pretty bad joke. Pretty old joke."
"Well, I thought it’d break the ice."
Elle Bishop laughed.
End