Title: Boys Don't Cry
Fan dom: Heroes
Rating: T
Couples: None
Characters: Angela, Nathan, and Peter Petrelli
Notes and Spoilers: Spoilers through Chapter 19: .07 percent. Plus the Graphic Novel Chapters 24 to 29 "War Buddies"
Part 2
"I don't know when he is going to call Peter," Angela said. "Are you sure you don't want to go to the park with Letitia?"
Peter shook his head. "Are you sure nothing is wrong?" Peter asked, before he reached for a cookie on the coffee table.
Angela nodded her head and smiled.
Nathan better have not forgotten. Nathan did sound a bit distracted on the phone, but it was two in the morning and he is a teenager. It was about twelve hours later and she knew Nathan was perhaps tired, drained with what happened.
Peter nodded. "He didn't forget. I know he didn't. Perhaps he is still in class."
Angela nodded, "Yes perhaps."
Peter shook his head. "I know he didn't."
Nathan opened the door to his dorm room. He was so tired, and his head was throbbing. It still amazed him that he was able to get through Professor Trent's lecture without falling asleep, especially on days the man talked about his golf meetings. Nathan wasn't sure what was more annoying, the dull ache he had left over from the party last night, or Mr. Trent's dull discussion about competing putting scores.
He was so tired, that he just fell onto his bed and slept.
When Nathan looked at the clock, he was shocked to see that it said 2:17pm, not only did he sleep through his lunch break in which he promised to call his brother, but his afternoon class too. He threw his head back and hit it against the head board.
"Oh that was intelligent Nate," he muttered to himself.
He picked up the phone and dial his home number.
The phone rang and Peter jumped to it. Angela positioned herself though between Peter and the phone however, and grabbed it first. What if it was her husband in a testy mood, or even perhaps Linderman. She already spent half the day keeping Nathan's underage drinking incident under wraps. Her older son might have thought he was stealthy, but he was mistaken.
It was just one, of several things, Nathan didn't know she knew about.
She thought back to fifteen years earlier...
The day her son Nathan gave her a shock.. He used always play with a toy air plane and a toy angel. Two things that could fly. Angela didn't realize the significance of that at first.
But that all changed, one heart pounding night, when she saw her son Nathan at the top of the stairs, standing on the rail. Sure he could fly.
"Ma!" Nathan called; he was standing at the top of the stairs, his arms extended.
"What are you doing Nathan?" she asked her three year-old.
"I'm going to fly like an angel," the child stated.
Angela felt her heart stop in her chest.
"But Angels have wings," she stated.
Young Nathan stopped for a moment then. And looked at his mother.
"Airplanes?"
"People fly them. Please be reasonable Nathan!"
Nathan looked at Angela confused.
"I will fly."
Angela sighed, Nathan was just three years old, how was she going to get him to understand. She found herself run up the stairs just as Nathan jumped. Her right foot in front of the other, on the step above her she reached and grabbed Nathan, who actually did, to her amazement, hover for a few seconds, and held him close to her.
Nathan placed his little hand on his mother's chest and felt it beat very quickly.
"Scared?"
"Yes. Don't scare your Ma again. Don't ever do that again!" she said sternly.
She was sure her tone would scare Nathan, but frankly she did not care. Perhaps that would stop him from ever doing that again.
"You will hurt yourself," she explained.
"But I want to fly."
"No!"
Nathan looked up at his mother, with the beginning of tears in his eyes.
"Don't cry," she whispered. She kissed a few of her finger tips and caressed Nathan's flush cheeks.
"I love you," she whispered.
"Ma?" Nathan called from the phone, which pulled Angela back to1985. "Are you there?"
Angela nodded. "Yes, I am sorry. Hello Nathan. You're late. Your brother has been waiting all afternoon.
Nathan sighed. "I am sorry. I overslept. May I talk to him please."
"Overslept?" Angela muttered.
"Ma, please?"
Angela rolled her eyes, "Very well. Peter? Your brother is on the phone."
"Yay!" Peter shouted and he grabbed the phone from their mother.
"Hello?" Peter said eagerly into the phone. "You are late. How are you? Feeling better?"
Nathan laughed, Peter was asking a question a second.
"Yes, I'm fine. Sorry that I made you wait. Are you going to tell me what your nightmare was about?" Nathan replied.
Peter turned away and bit his lip.
Nathan on the other side of the phone held his breath. Uh oh.
"Peter?"
"You are going to say, I am lying."
Uh oh.
"Why? What's wrong?"
"I dreamed that you were scared and sick."
Nathan turned away and bit his lip.
"You just missed me. Don't worry about me. I am fine."
Peter nodded. "Okay. Please keep calling me."
Nathan smiled, he decided he could indulge his five-year-old brother.
"Okay. I will. Of course I will call, you. I love you."
"I love you too."
"Put our mother on the phone."
Peter nodded, "Okay, bye Nathan."
"Goodbye Pete."
Peter handed the phone to Angela.
"Hello?"
"You know; don't, you?"
Angela nodded. "What do you think?"
"Did you tell dad?"
"Of course not. Don't you think he has enough things to think about?" She didn't give Nathan time to respond when she added. "Don't break your promise to your brother."
"I won't."
Angela nodded.
"Be the man I know you can be my son. See you in two weeks."
Nathan nodded, "Yeah."
Angela closed her eyes tightly as she turned the corner, and returned to November 2006. Her two sons fighting the war she never wanted them to fight.
She wanted to focus, on the simple days, so many years ago.
"What is a Vali-tor-ion?" five year-old Peter asked.
"Hmm...?" Angela asked.
"That man called Nathan the val–?"
"Valedictorian."
"What's a Valedictorian?"
"It's the title given to a very special student. One that gets the best grades."
"And he is going to be president one day?" Peter asked.
"Peter could you be quiet and just stop asking questions. And just sit still and pay attention?" his father snapped at him before during his attention to the stage.
Peter turned away and could feel a touch of tears before he looked up and saw Nathan on the stage smiling at him.
Peter straighten up and decided to listen. "I want to grow up just like Nathan Mom," he whispered.
Angela remembered her husband turning to give the two of them a look and she send him a dirty look back. She grabbed a hold of Peter's hand and whispered.
"You will start school next year. Now let's listen to Nathan's speech, okay?"
Peter nodded and he returned his attention to the stage.
Nathan walked down the stairs and found his mother sitting. Sitting at the same piece of furniture. The same piece of furniture where Peter laid dead, just moments before.
He sat next to her and placed his arm around her.
"Tell my dau–tell Claire. That I want to see her."
Angela nodded and stood up. "What do you think about Paris?" she asked.
In a tone just above a whispered, he uttered, his eyes closed, as if he didn't know what he could do instead, "It's a good idea."
Angela stood up and kissed Nathan on the forehead and then nodded before she left the room.
Nathan started to walk up the stairs. He took the picture of him and Peter on the shelf and studied it again.
"I don't know what I would do. I don't know who I would be."
"Of course. You would be Nathan Petrelli. Valedictorian. Voted most likely to be–you would be with me or without me."
"No Peter," he whispered. "I would be lost."
The End of Part 2