FICTION: Ways & Means (Lucy/Peter) PG
Ways & Means
Fandoms: Gilmore Girls, Heroes
Pairing/Characters: Lucy/Peter
Rating: PG / Word Count: 1,261
Summary: He was her elementary ally, her high school sweetheart, and looking into his eyes at the moment, she knew he was going to be nothing to her by the time she made it to college.
Notes: This fits into canon for both Heroes and Gilmore Girls, with only mild spoilers for both. In my mind, Lucy and Peter grew up together in the Upper East Side and were high school sweethearts. The timeline is explained throughout the fic and is pretty self explanatory but just know that, because I put only a year between Peter and Lucy, season one of Heroes takes place waaaay after the end of Gilmore Girls.
Also, it's been six months since I've finished a fic. Feedback would be crack.
It's raining when she tells him goodbye.
His hand is still damp when it reaches for her own and pulls her out of the bright yellow taxi cab. The water makes her fingers slip right through his grasp as she tries to keep her hold on his wrist tight but he intertwines their fingers together as soon as they’re both out of the car. It’s a loose grip, one that she doesn’t like, and it makes her feel like he’s already slipping away from her.
He doesn’t speak a word the whole way across the covered lot so she's left with just her thoughts as he leads her over big huge rain puddles that she think might swallow her hole if she was a smaller person. And when they walk inside the airport, the air conditioning makes goose bumps prickle all over her skin. He doesn't seem to notice though, as he distractedly looks around for any sign of where he's suppose to be going.
When they finally get to the security bay for his concourse, she doesn't say anything. She just watches him take a deep breath and push his long wet bangs behind his ear. It makes her feel like she's thirteen years old all over again, waiting for her best friend to leave her behind for bigger and better things. It was high school then but now it's college and this time he's more than just the best friend she ever had.
He’s the love of her life and she squeezes his hand at the thought, trying to get him to look at her, but he won't meet her eyes. He glances at the line of people waiting to go through the metal detector, the flight attendants answering questions at the big blue desk, at his own shiny black shoes, anywhere but her. She has to pull on his hand twice more to get him to look at her and when he does, she doesn't like what she sees there. What she sees inside of him.
He was her her elementary ally, her high school sweetheart, and looking into his eyes at the moment, she knew he was going to be nothing to her by the time she made it to college.
- - - - -
She's always believed in balance, in equality, in the perfect amount of everything, and her relationship with him was no different.
They're bookworms, the black sheep of their respective families, and they have enough differences to argue constantly but enough similarities to be perfect for each other. He's serious enough to keep her grounded and she's carefree enough to save him from drowning in his worries. They both love to read, to discuss, but he's more for listening, while she's the one who will talk to anyone about anything. They are each other's balance and without him, she's left off kilter. She doesn’t know who she is without him anymore and the harder she looks for that girl, the further away she seems. Without him, she doesn't know what to do with herself or with the news she finds out a month after leaves.
So she lays on the bathroom floor with the cordless phone pressed to her ear and waits for the right moment to tell him. She's rehearsed the words, she knows what she's going to say, but then he starts telling her about how great his roommates are. How he loves his classes. How he finally feels like he belongs somewhere. Tears gather in her eyes as she listens to the smile in his voice and it's then that she changes her mind.
It's right then that she takes a deep breath and slips into a new role. For the rest of the conversation, she plays the part of a girl who is not pregnant with her ex-boyfriend's child and she plays it well.
She's always wanted to be an actress, after all.
- - - - -
She spent her whole life loving holidays and celebration, counting down until the month of December came with decorations that sparkled and presents that looked hopeful underneath the tree. It was the one time of year that everyone in her family had to put on a nice face and get along for a whole day. She loved Christmas every year that she wasn’t eighteen.
Because that year, Christmas meant winter break. It meant time off of school. It meant Peter would come home for the holidays and, even if by some chance he didn’t seek out an explanation for his unreturned phone calls, he would still be across the hall. There would be weeks of elevator rides, walks down the hallway, and the time it takes her to fiddle with her key and unlock the door. There are plenty of moments, too many opportunities, for him to happen across her very pregnant form.
She freaks out for weeks and spends all of her time trying to come up with a way out of things. She looks up the dates of his school’s winter break online and considers running away for the three weeks he’s out of class but realizes there’s no where to run to. Her family has forbidden contact with any relatives outside of the immediately family because of her ‘condition’ and her friends have all but disappeared since she started showing and they started putting two and two together.
In the end, she hibernates in her room because she doesn’t know what else to do. For three weeks, she stays in her family’s apartment. She doesn’t leave for any reason and her family is all too happy to oblige her wishes because shame is the one thing they do better than anyone.
A few days before Christmas, Dortia tells her that Mr. Peter has stopped by every day that week looking for her and is she sure she doesn’t wish to see him? For a moment, her chest feel lighter and her heart is just a little less broken.
Then she remembers everything that’s happened, everything she can’t bear to do to him, and she reminds Dortia to tell all guests that she is out of the house indefinitely.
The older woman frowns but nods and she doesn’t mention it again.
- - - - -
She spent her whole life wanting to go to Yale but not as an actress. She doesn’t decide that until she’s a high school senior under house arrest, who spends her day slipping into roles she’s invented in her head. Playing the part of someone else is the only way she keeps herself sane. Being anyone but herself is what keeps her going during six months of parental disapproval and overwhelming loneliness.
So she applies to her dream school and spends the next couple of months waiting on the edge of her seat for an answer. She gets it the third week of March and the minute she sees the big envelope, she thinks that maybe things will work out after all.
- - - - -
She hates days warm days where the sun is shining and there's a light breeze and it's not too hot, but it's not to cold. She hates them because those are the kinds of days that people walk outside, take a deep breath of perfect air, and can't help but feel like every thing's going to work out, like life's maybe not bad as they thought it was. She hates them because it's just another trick to leave her feeling stupid and foolish when the sun goes down and things turn shitty again.
She prefers cloudy days where the air is damp with soon-to-be-falling rain and fog that puts everybody in a foul mood, but she loves the days where the rain pours. She loves thunderstorms that flood the gutters and the lightning that brings down hundred year old oaks. When she gets caught in a storm and the rain has soaked through all her clothing in seconds, she knows where she stands and she likes that better than waiting for the other shoe to drop.
It was pouring down when she took Peter to the airport and there was a flash flood watch when she gave birth to their baby boy.
The sun was shining when she put her son into the arms of his new parents. It was the hottest day in seventeen years and, even though she was supposed to be resting, she spent the rest of the day in air conditioning, packing up all of her belongings because she was moving to New Haven in less than two weeks.
- - - - -
The adoption of her son is technically a closed one but the adoption agency still sends her the one letter a year after he's born. She's checking her mail after dinner in the cafeteria and unlocks her mailbox to find the manila envelope with the familiar logo in the left corner. She quickly slips it into her bag before Olivia can notice and ask any questions.
Later, when she's alone in her dorm room, she slips the envelope from her bag and stares at the outside for a good half-hour before she has the courage to open it. The second her eyes find the picture of her son she's struck by the fact that he doesn't look as much like his father as she remembers - somehow he's ended up with his grandfather's blonde hair - but he does have his father's dark eyes and her own smile.
She almost doesn't read the letter but decides to in the end because she just can't help it.
He looks happy. Normal. That's all she ever wanted.
Fandoms: Gilmore Girls, Heroes
Pairing/Characters: Lucy/Peter
Rating: PG / Word Count: 1,261
Summary: He was her elementary ally, her high school sweetheart, and looking into his eyes at the moment, she knew he was going to be nothing to her by the time she made it to college.
Notes: This fits into canon for both Heroes and Gilmore Girls, with only mild spoilers for both. In my mind, Lucy and Peter grew up together in the Upper East Side and were high school sweethearts. The timeline is explained throughout the fic and is pretty self explanatory but just know that, because I put only a year between Peter and Lucy, season one of Heroes takes place waaaay after the end of Gilmore Girls.
Also, it's been six months since I've finished a fic. Feedback would be crack.
It's raining when she tells him goodbye.
His hand is still damp when it reaches for her own and pulls her out of the bright yellow taxi cab. The water makes her fingers slip right through his grasp as she tries to keep her hold on his wrist tight but he intertwines their fingers together as soon as they’re both out of the car. It’s a loose grip, one that she doesn’t like, and it makes her feel like he’s already slipping away from her.
He doesn’t speak a word the whole way across the covered lot so she's left with just her thoughts as he leads her over big huge rain puddles that she think might swallow her hole if she was a smaller person. And when they walk inside the airport, the air conditioning makes goose bumps prickle all over her skin. He doesn't seem to notice though, as he distractedly looks around for any sign of where he's suppose to be going.
When they finally get to the security bay for his concourse, she doesn't say anything. She just watches him take a deep breath and push his long wet bangs behind his ear. It makes her feel like she's thirteen years old all over again, waiting for her best friend to leave her behind for bigger and better things. It was high school then but now it's college and this time he's more than just the best friend she ever had.
He’s the love of her life and she squeezes his hand at the thought, trying to get him to look at her, but he won't meet her eyes. He glances at the line of people waiting to go through the metal detector, the flight attendants answering questions at the big blue desk, at his own shiny black shoes, anywhere but her. She has to pull on his hand twice more to get him to look at her and when he does, she doesn't like what she sees there. What she sees inside of him.
He was her her elementary ally, her high school sweetheart, and looking into his eyes at the moment, she knew he was going to be nothing to her by the time she made it to college.
- - - - -
She's always believed in balance, in equality, in the perfect amount of everything, and her relationship with him was no different.
They're bookworms, the black sheep of their respective families, and they have enough differences to argue constantly but enough similarities to be perfect for each other. He's serious enough to keep her grounded and she's carefree enough to save him from drowning in his worries. They both love to read, to discuss, but he's more for listening, while she's the one who will talk to anyone about anything. They are each other's balance and without him, she's left off kilter. She doesn’t know who she is without him anymore and the harder she looks for that girl, the further away she seems. Without him, she doesn't know what to do with herself or with the news she finds out a month after leaves.
So she lays on the bathroom floor with the cordless phone pressed to her ear and waits for the right moment to tell him. She's rehearsed the words, she knows what she's going to say, but then he starts telling her about how great his roommates are. How he loves his classes. How he finally feels like he belongs somewhere. Tears gather in her eyes as she listens to the smile in his voice and it's then that she changes her mind.
It's right then that she takes a deep breath and slips into a new role. For the rest of the conversation, she plays the part of a girl who is not pregnant with her ex-boyfriend's child and she plays it well.
She's always wanted to be an actress, after all.
- - - - -
She spent her whole life loving holidays and celebration, counting down until the month of December came with decorations that sparkled and presents that looked hopeful underneath the tree. It was the one time of year that everyone in her family had to put on a nice face and get along for a whole day. She loved Christmas every year that she wasn’t eighteen.
Because that year, Christmas meant winter break. It meant time off of school. It meant Peter would come home for the holidays and, even if by some chance he didn’t seek out an explanation for his unreturned phone calls, he would still be across the hall. There would be weeks of elevator rides, walks down the hallway, and the time it takes her to fiddle with her key and unlock the door. There are plenty of moments, too many opportunities, for him to happen across her very pregnant form.
She freaks out for weeks and spends all of her time trying to come up with a way out of things. She looks up the dates of his school’s winter break online and considers running away for the three weeks he’s out of class but realizes there’s no where to run to. Her family has forbidden contact with any relatives outside of the immediately family because of her ‘condition’ and her friends have all but disappeared since she started showing and they started putting two and two together.
In the end, she hibernates in her room because she doesn’t know what else to do. For three weeks, she stays in her family’s apartment. She doesn’t leave for any reason and her family is all too happy to oblige her wishes because shame is the one thing they do better than anyone.
A few days before Christmas, Dortia tells her that Mr. Peter has stopped by every day that week looking for her and is she sure she doesn’t wish to see him? For a moment, her chest feel lighter and her heart is just a little less broken.
Then she remembers everything that’s happened, everything she can’t bear to do to him, and she reminds Dortia to tell all guests that she is out of the house indefinitely.
The older woman frowns but nods and she doesn’t mention it again.
- - - - -
She spent her whole life wanting to go to Yale but not as an actress. She doesn’t decide that until she’s a high school senior under house arrest, who spends her day slipping into roles she’s invented in her head. Playing the part of someone else is the only way she keeps herself sane. Being anyone but herself is what keeps her going during six months of parental disapproval and overwhelming loneliness.
So she applies to her dream school and spends the next couple of months waiting on the edge of her seat for an answer. She gets it the third week of March and the minute she sees the big envelope, she thinks that maybe things will work out after all.
- - - - -
She hates days warm days where the sun is shining and there's a light breeze and it's not too hot, but it's not to cold. She hates them because those are the kinds of days that people walk outside, take a deep breath of perfect air, and can't help but feel like every thing's going to work out, like life's maybe not bad as they thought it was. She hates them because it's just another trick to leave her feeling stupid and foolish when the sun goes down and things turn shitty again.
She prefers cloudy days where the air is damp with soon-to-be-falling rain and fog that puts everybody in a foul mood, but she loves the days where the rain pours. She loves thunderstorms that flood the gutters and the lightning that brings down hundred year old oaks. When she gets caught in a storm and the rain has soaked through all her clothing in seconds, she knows where she stands and she likes that better than waiting for the other shoe to drop.
It was pouring down when she took Peter to the airport and there was a flash flood watch when she gave birth to their baby boy.
The sun was shining when she put her son into the arms of his new parents. It was the hottest day in seventeen years and, even though she was supposed to be resting, she spent the rest of the day in air conditioning, packing up all of her belongings because she was moving to New Haven in less than two weeks.
- - - - -
The adoption of her son is technically a closed one but the adoption agency still sends her the one letter a year after he's born. She's checking her mail after dinner in the cafeteria and unlocks her mailbox to find the manila envelope with the familiar logo in the left corner. She quickly slips it into her bag before Olivia can notice and ask any questions.
Later, when she's alone in her dorm room, she slips the envelope from her bag and stares at the outside for a good half-hour before she has the courage to open it. The second her eyes find the picture of her son she's struck by the fact that he doesn't look as much like his father as she remembers - somehow he's ended up with his grandfather's blonde hair - but he does have his father's dark eyes and her own smile.
She almost doesn't read the letter but decides to in the end because she just can't help it.
He looks happy. Normal. That's all she ever wanted.