JaLL ] [ rumors.
"Trust me, there's more to it than that. I haven't seen them together at a public event in at least six months," Elle stated, rather plainly. The morning had been spent painting her fingernails; a pale shade of pink now shone on the tips as she picked at the fraying hem of her shirt. It was all she could do to keep herself from going stir-crazy, small projects that took hardly anytime at all, but still kept her somewhat busy. Elle still managed to make the local fashion blogs; wearing the newest designer dress or some brand that no one thought she'd have even managed to track down in time. Which was a miracle of insane proportions considering she was seven months pregnant and never left the house.
The plan had started off as idle conversation, a joke that wasn't going to be more than a passing fascination that she had with Gabriel's ability. He'd been Nathan for so long that she almost forgot that he could be anyone he wanted to be. Even her.
Their vacation had been the pushing point, really. The part of their lives where they realized they didn't have to live like this. They didn't have to continue some insane charade for the sake of keeping up appearances. The logistics of it was that the only people that knew Gabriel as Gabriel were so few... so insignificant that it was almost pointless to keep him hiding. Nathan had his uses and it was always fun to bring out the toy and play with him for a bit, but it was tiring. Elle could see it in Gabriel's eyes that he didn't want to live a life in the guise of another man. He wanted to be himself.
So... the joke started. Nathan and Elle would both continue to live their lives, just... a bit more separately. It wasn't even going to be difficult. Once she started to show, they didn't want it to be too public that she was expecting. The idle suggestion that Gabriel just slip in and pretend to be her, well, it became a much more viable option. Elle was pretty sure that Gabriel was too amused by the idea to even argue, plus it meant that she didn't have to worry about the harpy Angela prodding her about a future Petrelli. It was bad enough she had to deal with her at holidays while Gabriel smiled at her with a clenched fist at his side.
The pregnancy would be kept quiet and even a few months after, Elle would have plenty of time to just settle into being a mom. Then... then she'd start the process to "Adopt" a child. It'd be a huge media press frenzy, but she wouldn't even have to do anything. It'd all just be 'handled' for her.
The phone in her hand switched to the other side, pressing between her shoulder and her ear, "No, I can hold. It's alright."
It was the fifth call she'd made that morning and she was having quite a bit of fun. The smartest part of their plan was that they were going to be rid of Petrelli. The name, the man, the image -- the whole thing was going to go up in flames -- possibly literally. The separation would start to hit the rumor mills, then there'd be some trumped up speech from Nathan about how he valued a family. The seeking adoption would be some sort of olive branch, an offering, to the press to show them - look, we're trying to make this work because we want a family. Then Elle would make some show of being involved in her husband's business. Interested in those foreign affairs, which she was, but she also wasn't the one attending the UN Breakfast Luncheon.
The other end of the call picked up and Elle cleared her throat. "Hello? Hi?" There was a pause and Elle waited as the other end tried to assure her that they'd have to do some basic fact-checking before they went with any of the details she'd give them and that they appreciated her information. It was a load of shit. She'd hang up and they'd run with it. Page whatever in their lame newspaper or some tiny scroll along the bottom of the news. "No, I understand completely. I just figured someone should know before the entire state of New York goes into some sort of political disarray." The reporter would laugh and assure her that wasn't going to happen, but Elle would just nod and grin, knowing already - far too well - just what was going to happen.
"He doesn't love her!" She'd spout out in the middle of the reporter's speech on protecting her identity as an informant. They'd be stunned and she'd wait for them to click on their recorder. Elle would wait, patiently, before starting to recant all of the gossip she could muster up. She'd go on about how they couldn't even take a car ride together, that events were split up between the two of them. There would be juicy footnotes about separate bedrooms, which was true if you considered that the real Nathan Petrelli was constantly being kept underground in a small cell. Elle would rattle it all off before giving them their clincher piece of information; she'd tell them which event one of them would be attending next. They'd write it all down, making their own conclusions where they had to. She'd hang up the phone and wait a few hours before repeating the process again.
The story would always be the same, but she'd give them some new location where Elle would drop by, some detail from a personal schedule that would make it next to impossible to ignore where the tip was coming from. One girl was so interested in the story, Elle even faxed her a copy of her date book for the week. It wasn't difficult to do and Elle would just remind Gabriel that night to make sure he stuck to the plans.
Even if he deviated slightly, it wasn't as if they couldn't verify her handwriting. The datebook matched the press invites, which matched half the signatures that she'd put on letters for all the months earlier. They would be stupid not to run the story. Reaching over the arm of the couch, Elle set the handset in the cradle. Her hand pulled against the edge of the couch, leveraging herself up to her feet. The benefit dinner that 'Nathan' was at would be ending soon, and honestly Elle was going to be grateful to have Gabriel back home.
A hand, still with the shine of pink on her nails, reached to the wall, using that for a steady footing as she made her way down the two-step landing into the kitchen. She was dying for something to eat and the fact that the little one inside of her had opted to start kicking her high, just meant she was going to have to deal with feeling a bit nauseous as she ate. It was moving inside of her and she didn't like actually thinking about it too much. If she thought about it, she was sure her ability would just -- slip-up -- and she didn't need that at all.
With a hand resting to the small of her back, she rubbed there for a moment before opening the fridge and staring into the white abyss of things she didn't want to eat. The sound of the door brought her attention out of the vast boring of the fridge. She caught sight of Nathan on one side of the doorway and as she moved around the island in the kitchen, she saw Gabriel coming toward her. It was so effortless now; she barely even noticed the time between when he was neither of them.
Gabriel came into the kitchen, the bag of kiwis sliding onto the counter. His fingers pointed to them and Elle's eyes lit up. "You know, the rumors are all untrue. You do love me." Grinning, she reached for the fuzzy, ugly, green fruit, her perfect pink nails clawing into the skin and peeling it away so she cold pick at the fleshy pale-green part of the fruit. "How'd you know?" Elle asked, putting the little piece of fruit into her mouth.
Gabriel shrugged, leaning on the counter as he pulled a second kiwi out of the bag, "All day yesterday at the breakfast. I couldn't stop thinking about them."
Glancing over to him, she picked at the fruit, raising an eyebrow, "Think it's some weird... paternal vulcan mind-meld thing?"
He smirked over at her, shrugging again, "Maybe? I'm glad I was right."
"You were so right."
His brow furrowed slightly, "More rumors?" He smirked though, taking another bite from the piece of fruit.
"They're just awful. I can't believe that they won't leave us alone."
"Such a shame." He tsked, shaking his head.
"They're gonna end up tearing apart our perfect, story-book life."
Gabriel, glanced up at her, the wicked look clear in his eyes, "I can't wait."